Project Runway!

September whaaaa?

I can't believe it's already the middle of September. I was opened our blog for the first time in obviously a long time. I don't even know if anyone out there is reading this!!! Hey, I don't want to stop just yet though; so where do I start?!

I'll keep it simple. I'm not done with Isaac's 2nd year pictures yet, so I'll do that later. I really enjoy fashion. One of my favorite shows is Project Runway. I know I know, Lifetime TV right? I've been watching it for a few seasons now, maybe 4 years or so, and I love it. My favorite designer this year is Anya. I like a lot of what Kim has done too, but I love Anya's design style.

I thought this dress was pretty cool. I love the reference to the orient and the print. Her work is always so different but really interesting and I think beautiful.

This is from the HP challenge where they get to design prints themselves. I would wear this dress! I loved it and was really glad the judges chose her as the winner. One of my favorite things about Anya is she is a new sewer. She had only been sewing a few months before coming on the show and the judges weren't sure if she could do it but they let her on and I know they are glad they did. She gives me hope! Maybe there's hope for me as a seamstress still.

Joshua won this week, I think he did a great job, but it wasn't at all his style, which I usually don't like. The dress was gorgeous though and he deserved it. I also really loved Victor's. I don't always agree with the judges but I have to say, this week I agreed with them 100% on the top and bottom scorers. I have to admit, they seem to love Oliver, I really don't care for his work at all.

This is Joshua's dress that won. It was really cute. I like sparkly things, but he really overdoes it sometimes so I was happy to see something so simple and beautiful. I love love the skirt of this one.

And here is Victor's. I have to say, I might have chosen him as a winner. Maybe I did like it even more than Joshua's. Not sure, they were both great though. I love the cool vintage style this has.

una Fiesta en la boca!

I don't think I blog about food too much, I should do it more. I love food. What can I say? A long time ago, Jason got a coupon when he was working in Idaho to get me my ring (ha ha) from one of his customers for Johnny Carino's. We were in the Salt Lake area once and stopped by to use it. We both had amazing meals. Jason had a red/white sauce pasta, I can't remember the name off hand, but it was very good. I had an Italian Wedge Salad. Best Salad Ever. I had never eaten gorgonzala cheese, now I love it. Who doesn't love candied pecans, apples, and bacon... okay, maybe some people, but they are crazies. :) Years after having it, maybe two or so, I had thought about it often and looked on the internet to find a recipe. The closest I got was a girl who just blogged the ingredients, no real specifics. I've made it quite a few times since then and every time, no matter the perportions, I've loved it. I just eyeball it, see what looks good to me and pile it on some lettuce. I've used different kinds of lettuce. A crisp iceberg is tasty, but sometimes I go for the spinach for some extra nutrition.
I also like to use granny smith apples because I love the way the sweet pecans, the sour apples, and the... whatever it is in the gorgonzala, and salty bacon, blend sooooo well together. It's a fiesta in your mouth, but I like fiestas!

Italian Wedge Salad

A hearty wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce topped with our roasted garlic ranch dressing, applewood smoked bacon, candied pecans, gorgonzola cheese, fresh apple slices and roma tomatoes

River to River Relay

Last Saturday I ran the River to River Relay with some friends from the YMCA.

It was a loooong day and a lot of fun. As someone put it, "who would have thought spending all day in a van with 8 sweaty people and running 80 miles together could be so much fun!" I have been running, biking, swimming, playing racquetball, and lifting weights, for a long time, but I haven't participated in an official race for about three or four years, so I was a litter nervous even though physically I was prepared. The race was in Southern Illinois which I've really only driven through on my way to Tennessee. I had no idea how beautiful it is down there! There are very big rolling hills and it is pretty forested.

Where it isn't forested and there are farms and fields it is beautiful. It was a cloudy cool day and reminded me of something you might see in Scotland or something. It was really green.

Jason and Isaac met me down there during my second leg. It was sooo nice of them to drive all that way to come and support me. It also gave us the opportunity to see Shannon and Matt before they move :( which we are VERY sad about. I'm excited for my races this summer that I'm doing and am working on convincing my teammates from the RRR to come join me in Davenport for the Bix in July... yeah! More hills!!! :)

Future River to Riverer?

Isaac speaking Spanish and monkey

Isaac is learning! He still says: bye, shoe, hi, ball in English... but he understands the Spanish, so it's a start.

Winter Summary

We went to the Field Museum on a free day back in January. It was huge, we weren't able to see everything and we were there for 4 or 5 hours. It was fun though. Isaac loved all the animals. I really liked the rocks and stones, brilliant. It was fun to see Sue, that head there in the picture isn't real, the real one is on display on the second floor because it's too heavy to actually be mounted there on her body.

 In the rock and stone exhibit there was an original Tiffany window. I thought it was beautiful!

 It was a very snowy day, even though it was free, the museum wasn't crowded at all thank goodness. Chicago looks beautiful in the snow.

 Isaac and I have been drawing a lot lately. We started out using the washable markers we got him for Christmas.... but as you can see, that didn't work out. We are using crayons now.

 He loves playing peek-a-boo.

Winter wouldn't be complete without a little college basketball. This is last Saturday when we finally got to see the Cougs play! We don't have cable so when we found out the game was on CBS, we were aaaaalllll over that. It was increadible to see Jimmer play live. Wow. wow.

hmmmm like father like son.

It's been a snowy winter and as much as I like it... around Christmas time :) I'm excited for Spring to get here. I'm trying not to be too anxious though.

Some scenes from the Blizzard of 2011.. Don't worry, we weren't one of the cars out on Lakeshore Dr. that you saw on the news. We were in our nice warm cozy apartment!