1. One of my favorite things about Fall—pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie flavored items. If you haven’t already, you really need to try the pumpkin pie flavored shake at Jack In The Box. Also, Jamba Juice usually has a pumpkin pie flavored smoothie! Yum!
2. I don’t know if I believe in Karma or not, but I realized today that the next season of the Bachelor will begin on Monday nights just as football season (and Monday Night Football) ends. So the guys get something to keep them busy on Monday nights for now and then it will be the ladies’ turn. Seems fair to me…
The Bachelorette Contestants for Sean Lowe's Upcoming Season
3. It’s officially Fall now (I think). There’s a lot to like living here in Southern California, but the change of seasons is not one of them. Rather than getting the beautiful yellow, orange, and burnt red colors as the leaves change, we are basically stuck with brown. Oh, if we’re really unlucky, we might get burnt leaves—but by “burnt” I don’t mean beautiful colorful leaves—I mean literally burnt, as in burned by one of California’s infamous Fall wild fires.
4. For the first time, I walked outside my office today and felt a cool, briskness to the late afternoon breeze. Our summer here has gone from hot to scorching hot. I’m definitely looking forward to cooler temps (hopefully) soon.
I just read that Caveman Bachelor (Ben Flajnik) is officially "Splitsville" with model Courtney Robertson. Man, I wish I could have seen that one coming!
Apparently, Pinterest is the new big thing these days. I really don't know what it is or why I'd ever use it. I guess the way it works is that if you like something you "pin" it. Don't ask me how you pin things or what you do with them once you've pinned them.
I don't think I'm necessarily alone, however, at least amongst those of my gender. I doubt that very many guys use it. In fact, I only know of one guy that does. And I don't actually know him--he's more of a friend of a friend type thing. But I think that I saw some of his pins once and they were pretty cool.
I have another friend that uses Pinterest avidly. She is an amazing designer. She has a Pinterest album called "Blue." I wish I knew how to link to it, because it has some really cool pictures in it. Of course, I'm a little biased because blue is my favorite color. I didn't like The White Album as much. (haha--for all you music fans out there...)
Anyway, if I were a Pinterest user, here's a few of the things that I would pin...Enjoy!
Flowers:
California Golden Poppy
This is the California state flower. It grows wild out here (like a weed) and it always makes me happy to see it growing. When night comes, the petals will curl up and wait for the sun to come out the next morning to unfurl and bloom once again. It's said that when the Spanish explorers first came to California these flowers were covering the hillsides like a golden blanket.
Swimming:
The Vista Hermosa Aquatic Center
This facility is gorgeous. And it has this awesome playset in the middle of it where the kids can play. This picture makes me want to dive in and swim!
World's Most Annoying Toy:
I'd be happy to give this away!
This toy always seems to find me at night as I wander through the house in the dark. I always seem to bump into it which sets off the most annoying tune you've ever heard. Plus, it's so loud, it seems like it could wake the dead. We moved a while back and we put some of our stuff in these storage pods. Since there's no way to apparently turn this toy off, I could hear that annoying ditty mocking me from deep inside the bowels of the storage crates.
Unfortunately, E. seems to love this toy. I can't wait until she grows out of it!
Sports:
I love these brand new ball fields
I thought that there was a recession going on, but somehow our city came up with the money to build this awesome new sports park. They put in these two great new artificial turf fields in the park. It makes me want to take up soccer again just so I can play on these awesome fields.
Minivans:
My kids watching the "in-car" entertainment system...
...they're enraptured!
To all those parents who claim that they're above ever driving a minivan (ahem...The Mostess!), you may change your mind when you realize how easy it makes driving your kids around.
Home Improvement Projects:
When we moved into our house, it had a hideous door knocker on the front door. It was a hideous shiny gold color, but looked much like the door knocker above. And by "much like," I really mean exactly like it.
At first, I tried to just buy a new door knocker, but I realized that I couldn't find one that I liked that matched the holes that had been drilled through the door. I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I took the door knocker down, disassembled it, and then took some primer paint and sprayed it with several light coats. Then, I got a can of antique bronze spray paint (to match the new lockset and door handle I put on after we moved in) and did several light coats until it was finished. Then I put it back on the door. I'm really pleased with how the project turned out.
My Hometown:
The View from the parking lot of our Stake Center today...
I refer to this view as the "Million Dollar View." This is why people move to Southern California. We have actually had people ask if they can have their wedding ceremony in the parking lot of our church so that they have this view as a back drop to their nuptials.
If you look closely, you can see Dana Point Harbor to the right. I'm sorry, because this picture really doesn't even do justice to the view. But it's the best I have at the moment.
Sunset...
My Kids:
E. is really into her stuffed animal pets lately...
Maybe John Denver said it best. After what seems like an eternity, we are leaving The Big Island to head home. By the time anyone reads this, we will be there.
This has been an amazing ten days. Best.Dyer.Family.Vacation.Ever! Okay, maybe that's not saying so much since it's practically the only Dyer Family Vacation ever, but it's one that I hope we remember for a long time.
Kilauea's Road to Nowhere
We have snorkeled with Sea Turtles, ran and cycled through lava fields, frolicked on white sand beaches, made sand castles on black sand beaches, walked through lava tubes, seen lava flows/eruptions/craters, feasted at luaus, and literally pushed our rental car to its limits (don't tell Budget) as we have climbed mountains. It has been amazing!
I hate to go and I don't know when we'll be back again. But I have a feeling that we will be back. One day. =o)
I'll try and do a few posts in the coming days to recap some of our adventures.
But for now...this is the end of the road! Aloha, Hawaii!
Every blog worth its salt needs a post about cooking and recipes. Here's my entry:
I don't have a lot of time to cook. But the challenge is to eat something that is nutritious, tasty, filling, and cheap. I feel pretty good about this dish that I recently came up with called (for lack of a better title) Chicken and Rice Concoction.
Here are your basic ingredients:
Salsa -- I like to use Pico de Gallo Salsa. It is mild but with a little zing.
White Chicken Breast
Organic Brown Rice
Not only is this easy to make, it's also easy to get the ingredients. Salsa is available at any grocery store. The chicken and the rice are both available from Costco.
If I were a little less lazy, I would just do one cup of rice in the rice cooker.
I like to do brown rice because I think it's healthier. When I cook in the rice cooker, I use three cups of water for every cup of rice because I like my rice stickier and not so dry. It takes a little longer to cook in the rice cooker, but it's worth it.
Also, be sure to add a little salt to the rice cooker as well. :) It really helps with the flavor.
Directions:
1. Pop the top on the organic rice bowl and pop it in the microwave for 90 seconds. Use two of these bowls.
2. Empty half of the salsa container into a mixing bowl while the rice is cooking.
3. Empty the can of chicken into the mixing bowl while the rice is cooking.
4. Stir well.
5. When the rice is done, dump both packages into the mixing bowl and keep stirring.
6. Enjoy!
My kids love this stuff. The picture doesn't do it justice because my kitchen lighting is terrible (but oh-so-"eco friendly" thanks to California's "green" building standards)!
Health Factor:
You are eating the following:
Chicken (good source of protein)
Organic Brown Rice (that gets your grains covered with some good complex carbohydrates)
Pico de Gallo Salsa -- basically tomato, cilantro, onion, and lime juice (fruits and veggies--check!)
A very balanced and nutritious meal.
Budget:
I'm a big eater and this comfortably served for two meals for me.
Here's the breakdown:
Rice - 2 packages at $1.17 per bowl = $2.34
Chicken - 1 can at $1.67 per can = $1.67
Salsa - 0.5 packages at $1.50 per package = $0.75
Total = $4.76 for two servings or $2.38 per meal
Time Factor:
Honestly, less time that it took to do this post. Approximately 5-10 minutes.
Even though I'm new to the world of blogging, I've noticed that one of the classic blog posts is a "these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things" post (to quote The Sound of Music).
"When the dog bites, when the bee stings...I simply remember my favorite things...."
A "Favorite Things" post gives a blogger a chance to share his or her favorite things with the blogosphere. I thought about doing a "Best of Summer" post, but we're a little past that (not to mention its been done before), so you'll have to just bear with me. This effort would probably be best defined as a post about some of my favorite things so far this year.
McDonald's McRib Sandwich is Back!
NOT!
Psike! The McRib is NOT one of my favorite things. I loved McDonalds as a kid. When I was about 10 years old, I realized that I had tried everything on the menu (does anyone remember the fish sandwich?) except for the McRib. We were on a trip and we stopped at the Golden Arches. I begged my dad to order the McRib sandwich so that I could complete my quest. He insisted I wouldn't like it. I was determined. He ordered it. I don't think I was even able to gag down a single bite (but not for lack of trying!!).
To this day, I can barely look at one of those things. Are there people out there who really like this??? I thought about leading the post with this picture, but then I realized that even I wouldn't want to read it if I did.
My dad has never let me forget this experience and it's been a running joke in our family. In fact, he mentioned it and was giving me a hard time about it just yesterday! Good times!
My daughter
I love this little girl more and more every day...(even though she says the funniest things to me!)
This first pic is from earlier this summer. Pay no attention to the fact that she was still in her pajamas at this baseball game! (Dad was in charge that day because mom was on a trip!)
Also, sometime in the past week or so, E. has picked up the adorable habit of adding the suffix "ee" to R.'s name. It is so cute to hear her talk to him. I love that they get along so well!
This weekend at S.'s soccer game...she loves to play catch!
I love this picture of E.
Costco
I would be loving it if I had this from Costco! I must be getting old. I actually caught myself thinking how nice it would be to have something like this to watch S.'s soccer game this weekend.
FYI...this is not our family!
Instead, I made do with this "old person" chair. Only old people carry or use these chairs at soccer games, and yet, I proudly take it with me and cart it all over the place:
Southern California
These balloons take off from a field behind my parent's house...
As kids we used to love hearing the whoosh as these were filled up and took off. What a beautiful Fall day for a balloon ride!
And not just because she's British. I'd love to see her in concert...
Yes, this song is all over the radio. Yes, it's probably overplayed and overexposed. Yes, I admit to having it on my iPod playlist (twice). But I love the plaintive nature of her voice in this song. And she sings it like she means it.
Here are a couple of her other good efforts that I've enjoyed this year (and yes, I'm aware that there are probably a billion people around the planet that love these three songs. I don't care--this is my blog!):
I'd share one or two of my other favorites too, but frankly, it'd be too embarrassing! (I apparently still do have a few shreds of dignity...)
Modern Technology and Communication
It's bringing the world closer!
Scout Camp and Swimming
In July/August, I got to go with our Young Men to Scout Camp. Everyone had a great time, even the leaders. This was after I finished the Mile Swim in Huntington Lake. The water temp was about 59 degrees and I didn't have a wet suit. Brrr!
Thanks Spils for being my spotter and making sure I didn't drown!
I was still pretty cold at this point...
Halloween 2011 and Triathlons in General
Percy Jackson and Princess Peach
Super Mario
Pumpkinman 2011 -- sometimes two great things are even better together!
Keepin' It Classy
"You stay classy, San Diego!"
Bottom Line: 2011 has been a pretty good year so far! :)
5. I read an article recently about how people are faking the need to use a wheelchair so they can skip the long airport security lines. Then when it’s time to board the plane (or they clear security), they are miraculously cured. I actually laughed out loud as a flight attendant was quoted at how her job permits her to ensure the safety of the passengers as well as feed the hungry (with yummy airline food and beverages) and heal the sick! She may have a career in televangelism ahead of her!
