Fishing Buddies

A couple weeks back Brennan got to go fishing for the very first time!

First things first, though. Papaw had to give Brennan some lessons on how to cast. Brennan was very dedicated, he practiced almost every day after his first lesson.




DAY ONE
Ready to fish!




This was one of the very few 3 minute spurts that Brennan was still and fishing.


The rest of the time, I got to fish and he more interested in treasure hunting, throwing rocks, playing in the water, or just being goofy.


DAY TWO
No fish yesterday, so we're all ready to try again today.




Back to exploring.


We moved to the other side of the lake.

Brennan was oblivious to the steep bank. I think Nana and I both have a few more gray hairs. Next time I think we might tie him to a chair. Ha ha.


This face: "Mom, this is taking forever. The fish are all on vacation! Can we go now? This is taking forever! I want to go back to the truck."


Checking out Papaw's tackle box.


Finally, a bite!


The catch of the day!


I think the wait was worth it. :)

Where Did April Go?

So it appears they won't be handing me any Frequent Blogger Miles for the month of April.

Though you wouldn't be able to tell from my lack of blog posts, we have had some fun times and the month did seem to move by pretty quickly.  I really did mean to blog about Easter, but I haven't even downloaded those pictures from my camera. Now it just seems like really old news.

Remember I mentioned my computer is just about to give out on me? Yeah, I've been going with the avoidance method of dealing with that. Other than me doing a couple things in Photoshop and Brennan playing on PBSkids.org, it has just sat. Thank goodness for smartphones with unlimited internet access. :)

In non-computer related news, the we have had some nice weather days to go to the playground and take some walks. And last week, on a really nice day, we got to go on a school field trip to the Dinosaur Park. I do have lots of pictures of all the prehistoric fun, but, yep, they are still held hostage on my camera, too. Thank goodness for 16GB memory cards. :)

My parents should be here sometime in the next day or so. Yay! They have had a couple issues on the road so far, so I hope the rest of their trip is uneventful.  Keep them in your thoughts.

And finally, I designed this print last week and thought I would share it with you.  I really should do that more often, shouldn't I? I make stuff all the time, I just never think about passing it on. So, here you go. Click here to download your printable.

Home Is... 8x10 Print

Have a great week!

Adventures in Gluten-Free Baking

Since we've cut back on gluten, I've made cake and brownies, and even the little cheese breads I blogged about a couple posts back.  But cookies...nope, there have been no cookies. I've been avoiding them. Wait, let me take that back, I found one of those make-it-in-a-cup-in-the-microwave recipes on Pinterest for chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, that was a big mistake and a bad way to break in my new GF (Gluten-Free) Flour.

It was an awful, nasty tasting mess.

So today, while I was perusing my March copy of Everyday Food, I found a recipe for Maple-Oatmeal Cookies. They looked pretty yummy, and since the recipe called for mostly oats, I decided it was time to try my skills at converting a cookie recipe to GF.



It was a not completely awful, pretty good tasting mess.





The "cookies" ended up spreading all over the pan.  Since they were so thin, I had to hurry and scrape them off the pan right away or they were stuck like cement. That's why it looks like I was making granola in the picture above. I'm thinking the recipe might have turned out and actually taken the form of cookies if I would have made a whole batch (5 dozen). But since there are only two of us, and I was short on oats, I halved the recipe. I will have to try again, and maybe use different flour and leavening next time.



Of course, my trusty assistant was there to oversee the operation.



It wasn't a complete loss. I was able to make cookie balls with the mess I salvaged off the cookie sheets.



Brennan thought they were pretty tasty, (I did, too.) so I will definitely try to make these again. I'll keep you posted if I come up with a successful batch. :)

88 Days...

That's how long Jason has been gone.



The last few weeks have gone by in Groundhog Day fashion, another day, same as yesterday.

The weather has been dreary, cold and windy, with sporadic bursts of sunshine; typical of Utah this time of year.  Even with the crappy weather, we need to spend more time outside. I think I will make that a priority starting today.



I am behind on my photo project. I do have reasons, besides lack of motivation. First, our 6-year-old computer started acting up. In a really bad way. (Please keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't crash on me. It just needs to last a few more months. Thankfully, I have everything backed up on hard drive if it does, but it would still be a big pain). Then I had one of those moments, and stuck my memory card into my camera backwards. It shouldn't have even went in, but it did. I had to use pliers to get it out. Ugh. Between the two of those events, I've lost about a weeks worth of pictures. Thankfully, nothing monumental happened during that time, and I think I can patch my photo project together with other pictures that are on my computer and my phone. Remember...the Groundhog Day effect, or SSDD for those so inclined.

On the bright side, we are almost halfway done with this deployment! And in less than a month, my parents (aka: Nana & Papaw) will be out here and staying for several months.

It will be so great to be with family again.



Until then,
Just keep swimming...

Cheese Bread {Gluten-Free}

On my quest to cut down our gluten consumption, I came across this great recipe from a blog called Dinners and Dreams.  I finally made the recipe yesterday, and oh my, it was sooo good! I wish I had made a double batch! It's hard to explain them exactly, the recipe says bread, but they're like puffy muffins.  Yum! Brennan loved them too, so it is definitely a keeper recipe for us.  And so easy to make!



Here's the recipe:

Cheese Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups tapioca starch (I used this one.)
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup cheese (The original recipe called for mozzarella, I used marbled jack.)
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a nonstick muffin tin.
Blend all the ingredients in a blender until the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter into the muffin tin, filling each section about halfway.
Bake 20 minutes until golden and puffed. Let cool slightly. Enjoy the cheesy goodness!

Reheat leftover breads before eating.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is a big deal around here. Jason has Irish roots, so St. Patty's is one of his favorite holidays.  Brennan is getting into it this year, too.  (Don't call it St. Patty's around him, he will quickly correct you that it is St. Patrick's!)  We're  wearing our green today, our shamrock decorations have been up for awhile, and we have plenty of green food on the menu for today.  If Jason were home we'd have something a little more traditional, but since it's just me and Brennan, we're going easy. :)

Does anyone else listen to Celtic Thunder?  We all love them.  For your listening pleasure, here is one of our favorite songs.



May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

 

The Deployment Project {Week 9}

So has everyone "sprung foward" today? I switched our clocks as soon as I got up this morning, though it wasn't without some grumbling. Daylight Savings Time...yeah, I'm not a fan.  It messes with my internal clock something fierce. It takes me weeks to adjust. I guess that stems from growing up in the part of Indiana that didn't observe Daylight Savings Time.  Well, they didn't way back then...they do now...they gave into peer pressure, darn it!

Source: lh4.googleusercontent.com via Heather on Pinterest

Yep, I have to agree.

Jason and I have also realized that the time change will give us less time to IM each other everyday. It will be a bummer, but I'm not going to complain (too much) since we do get to communicate at least a little each day.  This deployment is so much better than past ones because of that. Thank goodness.

Well now that I got that rant out of my system, I can proceed with this week's pictures.

 
Remember in my last post I told you about Brennan's Parent Day at school? I found this Sunday evening.  He put all these guys in his chairs so they could listen to him practice his songs.  He had their undivided attention. :)


*Sigh* Some form of this happens every day around here.


While helping me purge my craft stuff, Brennan found a "magic hat," and a wand. He spent the afternoon turning himself and me into frogs, robots, balloons, and foxes.  "Presto, presto..."


Being in the desert, Jason is missing the snow.  Here ya go, my love.


We've been working on learning Turkish.  Yep, I said "we." Brennan has been right there with me listening to the CDs. He calls them "Turkish Letters." I don't know how much he's learning; as for myself, trying to learn a new language with a squirmy 4-year-old in tow is proving interesting.  You aren't supposed to move from one lesson to the next until you feel you've gotten 80% of the previous one. We are still on Lesson 2 and most of Lesson 1 was an Intro. I'm glad we have a lot of time before we have to move.


Brennan has been wanting to see a train all week.  Of course, I came upon this one...right after I dropped him off at school.


On Saturday we tried a jicama.  Brennan didn't like it at all. I found it to be like a cross between an apple, a potato and a water chestnut. Not terrible, but not something I will buy often.

Pictures From Parent's Day

It was Parent's Day today at school.  Brennan has been looking forward to it for weeks.  In the past these days haven't been my favorite events since for some reason Brennan tends to turn into a turkey when faced with an audience.  Other kids won't leave their parent's laps the whole time, mine becomes the life of the party.

He did good today though, I was proud of him. We did miss out on the beginning of the Parent/Kid craft time because as soon as I walked in the door Brennan announced to everyone that he had to go to the bathroom and he needed help, right now!...and then he took off running.  Ha, I'm glad I was there to help, he was in there for awhile. Ahem. :)


Even with the delay, Brennan had plenty of time to show me his cutting and gluing skills. We made a Cat in the Hat hat.  Brennan still hasn't decided if he left or right handed.  He switches back and forth constantly.  He seems to use both at the same skill level, so maybe he'll be ambidextrous?  We shall see in time. I don't ever push him, of course, but in my head I am "Go Team Lefty!" :)


Showing off his finished hat.


The hats all had an obvious design flaw; not one of them fit on the kids' heads!  Oops!


This time around the kids sat on the floor and sang songs about the days of the week, and about how much coins are worth.  They also did some sign language and reviewed their music symbols for us.


Brennan finding the Dog note (D).


Taking a bow.


After everyone found their music note, Brennan wanted to show me all the things on the wall.  As you can see, he had to keep track of what everybody else was doing, too. :)


And that's that. I can't believe it's already March, and the second Parent's Day this year.  This school year is flying by!

A Little Story, Some Big News

How about a story?

Once upon a time, way back in 2009, in an office in Sunny Florida, there was a girl (me) whose job at the time revolved around the internet.  She also loved anything photography related, so when she heard there was a new search engine being launched (bing.com) AND that it was having a photography contest, it was only natural that she go check it out.  The picture of the day at bing.com was similar to this one:

Source: publicdomainpictures.net via Heather on Pinterest

Too amazing not to share, right?  So after some ohhs and ahhs by her and her office friends, things went back to normal, with everyone in agreement that the pretty pools in the picture were beautiful and would be a wonderful place to visit someday.

Three years pass...

In all that time, I haven't thought about those pretty pools (or bing.com for that matter, ha)...

Until now...

It turns out the next big adventure the Air Force will be sending us on is about a 10 hour drive from those pools.  Any guesses where that will be?

How about some more pictures to help?

Source: Uploaded by user via Heather on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Heather on Pinterest

I already foresee us spending a lot of time checking out places like these.

Source: Uploaded by user via Heather on Pinterest

And seeing these guys. (And maybe even going for a ride!)

Source: 123rf.com via Heather on Pinterest

I can't wait to be able to buy some of these.

Source: foodista.com via Heather on Pinterest

And eat some yumminess like this.

Source: piccsy.com via Heather on Pinterest

Come for a visit and we'll all take a weekend trip here!

Source: Uploaded by user via Heather on Pinterest

Or if you'd rather, we'll go climb around in here.


Any guesses yet?


Here's one more.

Source: globecities.net via Heather on Pinterest

We'll be living near this, the Sabancı Merkez Camii; the largest mosque in the country.


How about now, have you figured it out?

OK, OK, for those of you who haven't got it yet, our next assignment will be...
.
.
.
.
Incirlik, Turkey!

Wow, huh?!

We've had a few days since finding out to research and learn about Turkey, and I have to say it's a little unreal.  It is amazing how much there will be for us to do and see!  The list is huge, and we're already thinking the 2 years we'll be there won't be enough time to take it all in.

On the flip side, it is going to be a HUGE change from what we are used to now. No Chick-fil-a or Super Target down the street, that's for sure! (From what I've read, there are McDonald's and Burger Kings and even a Krispy Kreme in some areas, though.) I've already got some cultural and travel books on order from Amazon, and I plan on learning as much Turkish as I can before we get there.

Thankfully, we won't be moving until closer to the end of the year. We've found it's pretty hard even in the early stages of planning a move when you are 7754 miles apart. Jason can't really do anything or find out too much information until he gets back here.  So in the meantime, we are just trying to learn as much as we can.

So how about you?  Anybody traveled to Turkey or been stationed at Incirlik?  I'd love to hear from you.