Random Survey

This is for Kira and whoever wishes to do the same or learn a little about us.

Mandy's response
1. Do you like blue cheese? Nope

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? I think this is a dumb question, but no

3. Do you own a gun? No

4. Wax or Shave your body parts? Shave yes, wax-are you kidding me? No way!

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends, but generally no.

6. Real or Fake nails? Real, but super tiny because I bite mine, and fake ones only last for so long before I get tired and bite those off too.

7. Favorite Christmas song? Just about any, though I really like the Manheim Steamroller classics.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange Juice

9. Can you do push ups? Haven't tried recently though I doubt I could. Or maybe I could do one or two, but that's about it.

10. What is your favorite piece of jewelry? I always wear two-my wedding ring and a ring my mom gave me.

11. Favorite hobby? GARDENING!

12. Do you have A.D.D? I don't think so.

13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? Uh, I don't know...I'm pretty happy with the way I am.

14. Middle name? Lynn

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I'm hungry. Sweet my hubby just brought me breakfast. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

16.Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, Orange Juice, Raspberry lemonade and occasionally Italian Sodas.

17. Current worry right now? Uh. Don't know

18. Current hate right now? Writing conference reports...ugh!

19. Favorite place to be? In my garden...or with my hubby

20. How did you bring in the New Year? At Greg and Ellen's

21. Like to go? To gardens, or garden centers like Armstrong and Andersons.

22. Name three people who will complete this? honestly? Whoever wants to

23. Do you own slippers? Yes, they're pink and fuzzy.

24. What color shirt are you wearing? White

25. Do you like sleeping on Satin sheets? I don't have satin sheets, so I don't know

26. Can you whistle? Yup

27. Favorite color? Purple or blue

28. Would you be a pirate? Nope

29. What songs to you sing in the shower? Whatever is in my head.

30. Favorite girls name? Emily

31. Favorite Boys name? Peter, but for a baby I don't know

32. whats in your pocket right now? I don't have pockets in my pj's

33. Last thing that made you laugh? Probably Peter

34. Worst injury you've ever had? Uh I did something to my achillies tendon when I did high jump in high school.

35. Do you love where you live? Yeah, we have a bunch of friends that live so close

36. How many TV's do you have in your house? Two

37. Who is your loudest friend? I'm not sure

38. How many pets do you have? A bunch of fish

39. Does someone have a crush on you? Peter loves me, that's so much better than a crush.

40. What is your favorite book? Probably the Harry Potter Series

41. What is your favorite lollie? Just about any.

42. Favorite sports team? I guess Chargers or Padres, though I don't watch them much.

43. What were you doing 12am last night? Sleeping

44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Ahhh I got to sleep in a little bit, sweet!

45. Worst habit? biting nails

46. Do you play an instrument? If you count two years of piano when I was seven or so, sure.

47. How long does it take you to get to work? 10-15 minutes.

48. Plans for the weekend? Well yesterday I went to my work's Halloween carnival and went shopping with Peter. Today I got to sleep in a little, until Peter woke me up.

49.If you could eat anything in the world right this second? Exactly what I'm eating right now, though its hard to type and eat at the same time-Apple pancakes.

50. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Nobody sent it to me, but Kira told me to do it on her blog, so yes I like Kira!

Peter's response

1. Do you like blue cheese? Nope

2. Have you ever smoked heroin? I think this is a dumb question, but no

3. Do you own a gun? Yes my grandpa gave me a shot gun

4. Wax or Shave your body parts? Shave yes

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on what they're doing

6. Real or Fake nails? Real

7. Favorite Christmas song? I like them all

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange juice

9. Can you do push ups? Yes

10. What is your favorite piece of jewelry? I only have one-My wedding ring

11. Favorite hobby? Playing video games

12. Do you have A.D.D? No, though some beg to differ

13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? I'm losing my hair

14. Middle name? Janos

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? How am I going to kill these flying things? How do I get enough money to kill these flying things? Oh crap they got through. (Yes I'm playing a video game)

16.Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, Orange juice, Italian sodas

17. Current worry right now? My hair-I'm losing it

18. Current hate right now? Flying things (video game)

19. Favorite place to be? At home

20. How did you bring in the New Year? At Greg and Ellen's

21. Like to go? Vacations

22. Name three people who will complete this? I don't know

23. Do you own slippers? Yes, they are giant bear claws

24. What color shirt are you wearing? White

25. Do you like sleeping on Satin sheets? Haven't tried it before

26. Can you whistle? Yes

27. Favorite color? Blue or green

28. Would you be a pirate? Maybe, depends on if the parrot is included

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Everything I know and some made up ones too.

30. Favorite girls name? Mandy

31. Favorite Boys name? I have no idea

32. whats in your pocket right now? Yarn :)

33. Last thing that made you laugh? The last question

34. Worst injury you've ever had? I don't know, I've broken a finger and I've stepped on a nail.

35. Do you love where you live? Yes I do, it's home

36. How many TV's do you have in your house? Two, but only one is HUGE!

37. Who is your loudest friend? I don't know

38. How many pets do you have? We have fish

39. Does someone have a crush on you? Mandy loves me

40. What is your favorite book? I don't know, I like lots of books

41. What is your favorite lollie? Probably a blow pop

42. Favorite sports team? Padres when they're doing okay

43. What were you doing 12am last night? Sleeping

44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I need juice

45. Worst habit? Buying video games

46. Do you play an instrument? French Horn and a little bit of piano

47. How long does it take you to get to work? 5 minutes driving, 20 minutes walking.

48. Plans for the weekend? Went shopping with Mandy, set up curtains in bedroom and enjoying video games.

49.If you could eat anything in the world right this second? More apple pancake

50. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Mandy got it from her friend and then had me fill it out, so yes I like Mandy...a lot!

My Slimy Friend

On Saturday I enjoyed spending time at Armstrong Gardens and Home Depot in the garden department of course. I picked up a ton of my favorite plants and some pest control stuff. We had to redo all of our flower boxes because we got infested with white flies that decided to move in and kill all of my beautiful flowers. I am prepared now, white flies won't be eating my plants anymore. So as we were taking out all the old potting soil Peter sees something move. He pokes at the dirt again and sees a slimy worm in the soil. At which point he grosses out. He backs off of the flower box and decides its time to take the trash out. I continued working on the box and tried finding the worm. I picked up a bulb and handed it to Peter to put into a pot, he jumped back thinking that I was handing him the worm. I had the box nearly empty and we hadn't found the worm. I put my hand in, felt around and found my slimy friend. I picked it up and Peter wasn't thrilled. I was then a naughty girl and put it in his face, knowing full well that he wouldn't like it. He didn't like it. Then I had a hubby and a worm squirming. He forgave me though. :)

The Air Show

This weekend was the famous Miramar Air Show. Peter tried getting a hold of friends to go see the show on Saturday, but everyone he called saw it on Friday. He was definitely down in the dumps, he wanted to go but not alone. Now I have never had any interest in the air show, so of course I was of no help to the situation. At 11:30 on Saturday my mom called and asked what we were doing for the weekend. I told her that Peter was looking for someone to go with to the air show. She suggested that my dad would probably go (he goes every year). As I asked Peter if he would like to go with my dad, he jumped off the couch and said he would go shower and be over there immediately. I told him not to get too excited my mom still needed to ask my dad if he wanted to go. Peter was already in the shower as my dad said yes. Shortly thereafter we were on our way out the door. On the car ride to my parents house Peter asked me to put the Top Gun CD on. He sang the whole way there. His words, "I've seen six year old children less excited about Disneyland than I am to go to the air show." He was one happy boy.

After the show Peter gave my mom and I a detailed account of what they saw. Including hand movements and swishing noises to help tell everything he saw. They showed up right when a F-16 was flying around. There were mock bomb runs and other war demos. They walked up next to a F-22 right as it was about to take off. This was the first year the F-22 has been there. (It's so brand new, they're still producing them. Peter had never seen one before.) It was as he says, uber cool. He says there were a flock of other airplane enthusiasts all staring intently at it as it took off. It was definitely the star of the show, except maybe the Blue Angels that were back this year. The Blue Angels are really hard to compete against. As the Blue Angels took off they played the Top Gun anthem and everyone clapped. Peter might make me watch Top Gun this week. They also had a MV-22 that sat there, several C-130's a C-5/17 he's not sure which one it was. Lots of helicopters and a few vintage aircraft. He touched the tail of a F-18, tax dollars well at work. They also saw an A-10 as they were leaving.

While the boys were off watching airplanes, my mom and I went and saw the movie The Nights of Rodanthe. It was a good love story, but very sad at the end. There wasn't a dry eye in the theater as we left. Afterwards we ran a couple of quick errands and then went home and played in the garden. I loved being able to dig in the dirt, I miss my garden.

A couple weeks old

If you look in the top right side of the baby tank you can spot five baby platies. We had a hard time getting a good picture as the glass kept reflecting back at us. The top of the tank is reflecting a couple of the baby fish back too but it was the best picture we took. We definitely have 6 platies and 1 guppy.

Operation save the babies

Operation save the babies was a success. Sunday Peter decided he would try to save the baby fish. This was quite an ordeal because in order to save the babies we had to take the big fish out, then we had to take out the plants and rocks so basically all that was left was the gravel. The babies were pretty easy to spot once the tank was bare, except one which really liked to hide. We found six and then while I was vacuuming the gravel I told Peter I saw another one. He looked and was convinced I had been dreaming. I kept vacuuming and he screams, "There it is, don't suck it up." So in the end we found seven baby fish that stayed safe in a beta tank Sunday.

Monday I bought a baby tank that floats in the big tank. We then had the fun of getting the babies out of the beta tank. Mind you there was gravel in the tank which made the process a little difficult. To our surprise by Monday evening we could only find five fish in the beta tank. Convinced that we started with seven, though Peter tried to tell me that I was seeing things and that possibly we didn't put seven fish into the bowl...I finally found the two hiding fish. The beta tank had a special slotted bottom that was designed to collect fish droppings. It just worked so well that the babies fit through. We finally rescued all the babies and they are all now back in the big tank inside a safe haven.

Today I bought some ghost shrimp and two other fish. We had two ghost shrimp already. Peter goes and looks in the tank and exclaims, "I see a shrimp....oooh I see two shrimp, they're both out today. Wow!!!! (added exclamation here and a sense of bewilderment in his voice) I see three shrimp.....uh Mandy how do we have three shrimp when we only found two when we were cleaning?" Me not being able to keep a straight face (though I would've loved to tell him he was losing his mind and that we always had more) started busting up laughing. Yes I bought ten today (they were $0.26 each).

Our new addition

We've had a baby! Actually we've had several babies. Today while switching some of the water in the fish tank Peter discovered a baby fish. He was convinced that it was orange (one of our mollies). Upon further searching we found two baby fish that looked like guppies. We checked out the fish that were fat that we were assuming were pregnant, and they definitely aren't as fat anymore. We are guessing that the other babies have been eaten already. We don't think the babies will last much longer as the bigger fish have found their hiding places and the babies have been getting much more brave and facing the open water. We snatched a picture of one being brave. It's another Where's Waldo picture, this one much more difficult than the last. However if you can blow up this picture a bit you can see right in front of the rock is a tiny thing with an eye. It is almost dead center of the dark rock right above the gravel.



Now it's a matter of survival as we don't think they will last. Peter is excited, we will be heading to the pet store to buy more male guppies as the only ones we currently have are female. He also is going to buy a recording of "Love is in the Air" and play it for the fishies :) We will also buy a breeding tank so we can save the baby fish. So there's our news today!

Camping Fun

The best thing about having the smallest tent in our campsite:
1-It was the fastest to assemble and take down and fit back into it's bag.
2-No instructions were needed, badda bing badda boom all done!
3-It was free-we borrowed it from my dad.
4-Makes for fun jokes by people passing by...Our primary president "That's the tent where you're supposed to keep the dog." :)
5-It's cozy and we stayed warm.

Our campsite was the talk of the area. We had two campsites right across from each other. One we parked the cars in and the other we put up six tents. It was a lot of fun!
On Friday night we went camping with five other couples to San Elijo State Beach. We went last year for the first time and had a great time except for the trains that would wake us up at night. This year was similar. It was way more fun with a bunch of people. We all cooked our own food (the Nefs and us cooked together...we had delicious kabobs made by Ellen and cooked by Greg-We hadn't used the grill before and didn't realize it didn't come fully assembled. Thanks Greg for putting it together and then doing the cooking.) and then Peter made apple crisp in a dutch oven to share and it was yummy. Saturday morning at 3am a freight train went across the tracks honking its horn for the longest possible amount of time. Everyone woke up! Peter and I wandered around the campsite at 7am and found some families we knew. Shortly thereafter our campsite was awake and we were busy making breakfasts. After breakfast we headed to the beach.
The couples sitting around right after breakfast. Greg and Ellen, Patrick and Carly, Peter and Me, Matt and Carla, Kadee and Jim, Karina and Adam.

So after breakfast we headed down to the beach. These are the crazy people that actually got in the freezing cold water. Peter and I chickened out. We touched the water and said, "No way!" Mind you it was also totally overcast and really cold out.

This is what Peter thought of the cold water. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Notice how we are all bundled up. I didn't take my jacket off until the sun came out around noon. And even then it was still pretty cool out though I managed to get sun burnt on my legs. The three crazies in the front went swimming in the frigid water and came back numb.

Birthday Fun!

This was my birthday cake and one of my presents from Peter. He ordered it using my computer and then left the website open, so the next time I opened my computer I saw it. It was a great present! I also got a really cool shower head that is higher than the old one. It is so wonderful to not have to contort my body to wash my hair.

Fun in the Kitchen Parts 3, 4 and Beyond

This morning we made another successful batch of plum jam. It was much less messy than the first batch, I think we're getting good at this. This evening we finished a double batch of regular peach jam. These were great peaches. We bought them on Saturday and left them on the counter to ripen until this evening. Most were easy to peel and all were easy to pit. This morning we left our plum jams upside down too long and now they all have the air bubble on the bottom. It looks kind of funny. This evening as we wait we are hearing a chorus of lids popping. It's quite fun. Some pop immediately when we turn them upside down and others wait a few minutes and then pop. We are totally having fun with the jam. Peter was worried this morning that we wouldn't be able to get rid of the jam. I told him not to worry our previous adventures had left us with only 5 jars left over. Now we have about 30 jars of jam and a lot of friends. :)

Our next adventure involves figuring out how to get rid of 20 pounds of apples. We're giving a bunch to both sets of families and plan on using a bunch as we attempt to make apple butter. Anybody have any great recipes? We've thought of apple sauce, apple crisp and apple pie so far. Anybody close by want some cooking apples? They came from Julian.

The Wave

Yesterday we went to The Wave water park in Vista. It was military appreciation day, so Peter's brother Chris, got in for free and the rest of us got in for half price. We had quite a group. There were Peter's parents, his sister Laurel, Chris and Mary and their three girls-5, 2 1/2 and 10mos, Debbie-she's a lifeguard and friend of his parents, and Peter and I. The Wave is a small water park with four slides, a lazy river, a big pool and a children's play place. In the middle of the lazy river is a place to boogie board on waves.
Now Peter comes from a family that has really really white skin. Peter once got sun burned at work during a fire drill. So his brother Chris faces the sun and gets a little pink. Peter wore a shirt the whole time and he's okay but we forgot to sunscreen his head, so that's a little pink. His dad on the other hand wore sweat pants, a long sleeved shirt and a hat-he survived, he's still whiter than white.
We spent most of our time in the lazy river and on the slides. There were three inner tube slides and those were pretty fun. By the time we wanted to go down the body slide, it had closed, but Mary said it wasn't that fun, she somehow flipped over and came out face first, she really didn't like that. Anyway the lazy river was pretty lazy. Little Claire-10mos. fell asleep and spent a few hours napping on the lazy river. She somehow managed to stay asleep as we passed her around from inner tube to inner tube. She was in a life jacket and had a floppy hat on. We all wished we had a camera with us.