Recipe Swap Thursday

Therese, at The Musings of a Mom hosts a Recipe Swap every Thursday, I thought I would share this great and easy salad Stan and I enjoyed at
Anthony's Home Port in Everett on our Anniversary.

1 bag of prewashed baby spinach

6-8 large strawberries sliced

Toasted Almonds or Hazelnuts.

The restaurant served it with Hazelnuts, we fixed it at home with Almonds

Girards Raspberry dressing

Poppy Seeds

For Stan and I, I place a serving of spinach on a plate. One bag makes 4-6 salads, depending on how much spinach you like.

I add two sliced strawberries each serving

toasted nuts, sprinkled with poppy seeds and dressing to taste.

We enjoyed this as a meal with some French bread, buttered and topped with Herbs de Provence and toasted under the broiler.

Stan asks me why I

always take my camera with me wherever I go. Well, it is for moments just like this!! Four bucks in a field just down the road from our house. I took the pictures from my car window because I was afraid I would spook them if I got out.

There was one spike and three prong horns. Olivia was so excited to watch them. It was the first thing she told Great Grandma when we got to her house.

July 10, 1965

Young, in love, idealistic

July 10, 2010,

Older, in love, smarter.

45 years. We have experienced the highest of highs together. We have reached the peaks together, and we have fallen into the deepest of valleys together. Always, our love of God, and one another has sustained us.

Our love has matured, it is no longer a young love based on feelings, physical and emotional. It is now a love based on maturity and respect. I love you as much today, Stan, as I did when I was 18.

Here is to at least 25 more years.

I do not know what happened to the second picture. It was visible on my blog all day yesterday, although I was told others could not see it. Today it is not on my blog and I cannot seem to fix it. Oh well, wasn't ment to be:)

Summer Reading List

If you have not visited the fun blog listed on my side bar, it is time. It is called BlogTrotting.

They are having a great time connecting other bloggers and allowing each a moment to shine and showcase their little corner of the world.

Currently, they are asking us to share our summer reading list with them. I do very little leisure reading, but I will share with you what I hope to finish this summer.

1. The Overton Window. A novel by Glenn Beck.

I bought it two weeks ago, but Jesse took it home to read it so I have to get it back from him. I do want to read it before I go to Washington DC in August.

2. Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin. I first became aware of Michelle when she lived and worked in Seattle for the Seattle Times. Michelle is the founder of two of the Internet's top conservative blogs, michellemalkin.com and hotair.com. Michelle tells it like it is with absolutely no pandering.

3. Courage and Consequence by Carl Rove. I am about 1/4 of the way into this book. It has been put aside though because of the painting and because it seems that if I sit down with empty hands, my knitting needles seem to find their way into them. Really, I need to finish this one.

4. Finally, Conservative Victory by Sean Hannity. I think this man is a true American Patriot.

For years, he has been sponsoring concerts every summer. All of the proceeds from these concerts go into an account to pay for education of the children of our fallen warriors. Some day, God willing,I will be able to attend one of his concerts.

I know, probably to many this is a boring list, but it is my list and I am sticking to it:)

Paint

We are making some paint progress.

Thursday's are one of Stan's days off, so yesterday, in spite of the 90+ weather, we did a little painting.

The first three pictures are of our living/dining room and the last two are still in the kitchen. The red is the same red we used in the kitchen.

Since this is mainly a large open space with just a short division wall between the kitchen and living/dining room, I want to use the same paint throughout.

The wall behind both of the tables are the same color. It is called Sand.

The ceiling and all other walls are painted a lighter shade of sand. We have a little of it on the wall and ceiling in the living/dining room.

I have to say, I absolutely love the colors and am very anxious to finish the job. The ceiling is a huge job, but maybe we can get it finished this weekend. After we finish the paint, we will be replacing all of the trim. So far, we are planning to paint it the light sand color.

Maybe I will be able to post "finished" paint pictures by Monday.

Stan"s Day off

Our walls on Wednesday night.

Thursday Morning Stan started priming. It was actually a pretty shade of gray.

By afternoon he was painting. I started helping at this point, doing some of the cutting for him

Before we took the tape and paper off. We were actually still painting the other wall.

Two walls finished and I love it!!

We still have not found the perfect color for the other walls and this weekend, I am sure we wil prime and paint the living room side of the wall with the door way in it.

We brought home a taupe, but it just was not right so went back for more color swatches tonight. We will definitely know when we have found it though:)

Stan cracked a good one while he was up on the ladder. With the straightest of straight faces he said to me, "Our taxes went up on the house." As I was blustering about how can they in this economy, he said, "Yeah, they said something about reading about all of the improvements on Face Book."

He does have a good one at times:)

Kitchen

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Stan worked super hard to get these cupboards sanded, primed and painted. I did help him with some of the paint and primer, but the dust from the sanding just chokes me up. I did have a headache all day Sunday which I attributed to the fumes. I guess that is just the cost of change:)
The pictures really do not do them any justice. Last night we went to Home Depot and bought the paint for the walls behind the cupboards.
It is the red I mentioned in the last post. We are thinking we will paint both sides of this wall red. We also bought another color (tester size) for the walls. I painted a portion of one wall, but we are thinking we do not like it. Glad we bought the tester. It was more a gold tone and we really think we want to go with a khaki. I also looked a stoves and microwaves while we were at Home Depot. This white just does not cut it next to the cream and our other black appliances:)

After the paint, which I think we will do this weekend, it is on to the trim (and a new stove) and the kitchen will be done. On the wish list is still tile for the upstairs bathrooms, paint the entire interior, all of the trim outside, and new doors. The interior doors are so thin and cheap. Upgrades are a never ending project......there is always something else to think you absolutely have to do to make it perfect. Like a brand new wooden door for the front entrance, but I do not want to push my luck too far. Might let that one sit on the back burner for a while. Actually my son in law and I have plans for that area so I will just have to save up some money before I broach the subject.