American Idol Top 10 & 9

So going from my last American Idol post, my predictions were right. HeeJun is still around but I can tell the judges would rather he wasn't. He did pick a slow song for Top 10, but shocked everyone by switching it up in the Top 9! Shannon was next to go and certainly picked a love song that she should not have sung.

We also saw Erika go this past week. She was the judges' wild card pick to go into the Top 13. Looks like America still didn't want her around, even after she DRASTICALLY changed her looks.

This week they'll be singing songs from their idols which I think is a much better theme. Everyone should be in their comfort zone and hopefully do well. I'm a little afraid for Hollie and Skylar because they're great singers but they need to switch it up this week if they want to stick around. Deandre and HeeJun are on their last leg and I'm afraid that there's nothing they can do which is sad because I actually like Deandre. Josh and Elise are hovering near the bottom, Phillip, Hollie, and Skylar are all hanging out in the middle of the pack while (as of right now) Colton and Jessica are the front runners.


This week my predictions are...

• Elise or Josh, Heejun, and Deandre for the bottoms three.
• If any of them are in there, the judges will not use a save.
• I have no idea who HeeJun's idol could be, but I think he'll go back to not making such a joke of the song (I hope).
• I think Elise will go back to the piano and do really well this week.

Going Green... many pics

Gabe and I have decided that we wanted to grow our own produce by having a garden. It's something that we've always wanted to do and this year, we were finally able to.

We ordered a variety pack of seeds from online (52 different types of veggies) but because it is only our first year, we are only planting about half of them. We are doing Square Foot Gardening because we live in the city so land is scarce. It has and will be a LOT of trial and error the first year or two. I know that each year we do it, we'll get better and better and our goal is to eventually be able to get all of our produce from our own back yard.

Last October, we had 2 apple trees, a pomegranate tree, an apricot tree, 2 blackberry bushes, and 2 grape bushes planted throughout our property. We also have 2 plum trees that were planted in 2009 and 4 strawberry bushes and 2 blueberry bushes that we bought this year.

Our apricot tree starting to bloom.

One of the grape bushes sprouting green leaves.

The smaller plum tree.

The larger plum tree. Really hope to get some of them before the birds this year!

Gabe spent many hours building garden boxes and setting them up. He did such a good job!

There are three more other boxes on the other side of the house.

 We also had some left over drawers from our kitchen remodel that we re-purposed as more garden boxes. In the smaller one, we planted parsley, cilantro, and basil. In the other, we have a variety of flowers.

We started by planting green onions, sweet onions, celery, broccoli, cabbage, a lettuce mix, butter lettuce, and spinach indoors at the end of February and I'm ecstatic that they ALL sprouted! We were even able to transplant the lettuces and spinach yesterday!

A week later, we planted sweet peas, snap peas, carrots, red radish, corn, yellow squash, zucchini, and bush beans outdoors and tomatoes indoors.

The following week, honey dew melon, watermelon, cucumbers, and butter lettuce outdoors and more broccoli, celery, green/red peppers, and jalapeno peppers indoors.

Yesterday, we planted more corn, carrots, red radish, spinach, and lettuce mix outdoors and another cabbage plant indoors. And as I said above, we were able to transplant the previous plantings of lettuce and spinach.

You still reading...?

Whew! So much work but I know it'll be worth it. I love seeing the green popping up everywhere! here's a few more pics of the boxes and what's growing.

Red Radish and Corn

Carrots

Snap Peas

Even got a compost!

The 2 blueberry bushes.

Strawberries. YUM!

So there you have it. I know it'll be a year or two before we have much or any fruit but we are so excited to be growing our own produce and the savings will be nice too!

Beautiful Just Doesn't do it Justice

Remember how a few days ago, Arizona was hit with snow? Maybe not because I know most of you were enjoying 70-80 weather.

Well, we got snow, but it didn't stay around by our house. The mountains, on the other hand, were COVERED. And not the usual peaks. We're talking the entire mountain and it was BEAUTIFUL! But beautiful just doesn't do it justice. I went out to try and capture the beauty but it is definitely something you just have to see in person.

The very little amount that started to stick but melted as soon as the sun came out.

Christian watching it come down hoping to get enough to play in.

Taken from Veteran's Memorial Cemetery

Panoramic. I really wish you can see just how pretty it is.

Taken from the very end of Cherokee near Ramsey Canyon Rd.

Shredded

Oh children...sometimes you can't get enough of them, and sometimes... they do something that just makes you want to scream "Whyyyy?!" (think of me down on my knees and arms to they sky as I scream it).

Today as I was catching up on my emails and deleting them, Christian gets up from his nap and comes to join me at the desk. And before I knew it he had my credit card in his hand (I had it out from a recent online purchase. I know, bad me for not putting it away.). In one quick motion, he had reached over and slipped it into the shredder. It was completely shredded before I realized what was happening and could do anything about it.

The sad remains of my card.

Sigh, I have to keep reminding myself that this can be replaced.

I know I'm not the only one who's kids have done something like this. (Right?!)

Anyone have a similar story to share?

Holy SNOW!

We live in southern Arizona and rarely does it snow. Maybe once or twice a year we wake up to 1/2 - 1 inch of snow, go out and play, and have it melted by noon. Well, today we are having somewhat of a blizzard!

Crazy, right?!

I did get some great shots of the birds enjoying some lunch at the bird feeder while it's snowing.

I really like this one.

The kids were also loving the snow. Alena asked several times if it was Christmas. They think snow means Christmas. (I got some cute shots of them but it's on my phone and when I put it on the blog, they come out really bad.)

And as I'm finishing this post, the snow has virtually stopped and nothing stuck. So that means I will have no pics of snow on the ground (unless it snows tonight but I don't want that).

I Know You All Want to Know

If you've been keeping up with the blog at all, you know we've been trying to get pregnant. And you probably know that we've been having fertility problems and I've been seeing a specialist about it.

This was our first month of trying to get pregnant using fertility meds. We had to go through this with trying to get pregnant with Alena and it worked on the first try. There is only a 25% chance of getting pregnant each month, even with the help of meds, but we were still optimistic that it would happen for us.

Many of you know that I have large cysts on my ovaries. They have been causing me pain and I finally had to go to the dr because of it. What most of you don't know is that I went last Friday and they did an ultrasound and then a blood test to see if I was pregnant. I got a call back (after literally waiting ALL day for the results!) and the dr informed me that it looked slightly positive (!!!) but not to get overly excited because it is still extremely early (I'm not even late for my period yet). Well, of course I was happy to hear that and I tried not to get excited about it over the weekend.

(little tmi here)
Well, come Saturday, as I was getting ready for bed, I noticed my boobs had grown in size (see, tmi). Well, there's very few reasons why that happens for me and pregnancy is one of them. I had it in my mind then and there that I was pregnant.

So come Monday morning and I'm back on my way to the dr. I was much calmer than I should have been and barely nervous. They did another ultrasound and another blood test (those are really getting old). Waited AGAIN all day for the results...

Negative. 

The one word we dreaded hearing. This 2 1/2 year nightmare of trying just continues. I'm rather calm and collected considering the heartbreaking news. Maybe I'm still in denial, hoping and praying that it isn't true and the test was wrong. I won't believe until my period comes to break my heart.


PS - I wrote this blog post on Monday night and now on Tuesday afternoon, I'm editing it. I got my period. :( And I cried about it. I can't be in denial anymore and any hope I had that it could still be positive is gone. Now we continue to try and I start another round of Chlomid.

American Idol

Ok so we've seen two weeks of the top 24 and top 13 perform. Remember the predictions I made two weeks ago?

I completely forgot how AI whittles down the top 24 and there would be a massive cut but I was still spot on with guessing who would go home first. If the judges would not have saved him, Jeremy Rosado would've gone home the first night. Even with the save, America still voted him bottom two this past week and he was sent home. Elise was also in the bottom two and could have gone home this week, but the judges kept her.

And what is this whole new "judges choosing who goes home" all about?! Isn't the point of American Idol that AMERICA chooses their idol? Whatever... we'll see how the rest of the season plays out, I guess. They should also bring Mary J Blige back to mentor because I thought she was great. She gave good advice and it payed off to those who listened.

I was wrong on who the surprise male save was. Jermaine? What?! Kind of surprised me, but he's a good guy so I'm ok with it.

I may also have to take back what I said about it being another guy's season. There are three girls who I think have a real shot at winning. Jessica Sanchez (she's pretty much the front runner right now.), Hollie Cavanagh, and Skylar Laine.

I like Colton from last season and into the start of this season. Now, not so much. I don't know why, he just rubs me the wrong way and he's starting to get old, fast. Phillip Phillips though.... He just seems like an all around cool guy. And DeAndre Brackensick, whew! His falsetto singing was starting to get annoying. But this week he sang without it and he sounded great!


My NEW predictions are...

Still think HeeJun Han will be around longer than he should.
Shannon or Elise will be the next to go.
Shannon will pick a cheesy love song next week and try to redeem herself.
HeeJun's going to sing another slow song even though he needs to switch it up.

Contestants will be singing songs from their birth year this coming week. Who do you think will slay it (as Randy says) and who will go home? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions?

A Couple More Tasty Meals

So I posted here quite some time ago about some meals I was planning on doing. Well, I made most of them and told you what I thought of them.

We did make the Egg Brunch Casserole and the Brown Sugar and Balsamic Pork Loin and they were both SO good!

The casserole was made in the crockpot and took a little more prep than just throwing everything in together. I LOVED the taste! Gabe said it was good but wasn't as enthused about it as I was (maybe because he said it needed more bacon?). Christian wasn't feeling good this day so he didn't eat it. Alena did but didn't have much to say about it. I would grade it an A-.

Now the Pork loin. HOLY COW this was AMAZING! I finally found some tenderloin on sale so I could make it. yay! I didn't tweak the recipe at all and I don't think it needed it. This was also made in the crockpot and it came out so juicy and tender that it literally was falling apart as I was taking it out of the crockpot. Everyone ate some and we all loved it! Even Gabe who said he wasn't a fan of pork tenderloin (well now he is!). He did comment that maybe next time I make it, add a little more brown sugar for extra sweetness. This one definitely gets an A+ and will be made again.