Family

So we're here! Really, I am happy that I'm here but I WAS NOT looking forward to travelling. It's not that I get sick or anything. I just hate waiting. And all you do when you travel is wait First, you wait for the day of travel to get here. Then, you wait till it's time to go to the airport. Then, when you're there, you wait and wait and wait FINALLY get on the plane. But once you get on the plane you sit down and wait till you finally get to your destination. Then, just to top it all off, you wait to get your luggage. AAARRGHHH! Anyway, we're here... I'm good now. At least until we start driving back.... for 24 HOURS!! 

We all travelled out to Winnipeg to visit with family. Nicholas is getting married on Saturday so that is the technical reason that we're out here but really, any excuse is good to come and visit. We don't really have any plans to go out and do anything for the next day but I like just hanging around and visiting. There's lots of baby time for everyone because if Jaela is unavailable, Gavin's here too... and vice versa. It's really neat to see Gavin in person. What a character. He's got sooo much personality. I'll have to post some pictures. There's definately tons of them since he's very photogenic. 

Fun in the Kitchen!!

How's that for a cheese picture!!!

Even though I've been camping for the majority of the last week, I've been having some pretty fun, inspiring times in the kitchen.
Last week Wed. I went shopping with Caleb (with a pre-warning that I would be spending lots of time browsing) and came home with lots inspiring ingredients. Some were to snack on while I was cooking, others were to add to some great meal ideas. I bought a triple cream soft cheese with a rind... kinda like a Brie but I don't think it was brie. Really, all I was looking at was the triple cream. I also bought a small roll of goats cheese for some future recipe. My plan for the evening was to make calzones... "Jamie at Home" style. That means with his "best pizza dough ever" recipe and his "quick and easy tomato sauce" recipe and then there's still the inside. After putting together the dough to rise, I made the tomato sauce. It definately was an easy recipe but since I used my own canned tomatoes from last year (!! impressive, eh?) they were really juicy and needed to cook down for a long time. The guts of the calzone was a cooked down, mash of mushrooms (a pound of torn up mixed up mushrooms!!), spinach, 3 cloves (!!) of garlic and the final outcome of my tomato sauce. Oh, and top it all off with fresh (not homemade :( ) mozzerella, torn to pieces on top. OH YUM! Now this sounds like a lot of work but it really was so much fun for me. Having one pot of sauce bubbling away in one corner and a bowl rising of dough in the other plus a glass of wine and some cheese... well, i don't know who wouldn't like that.
Saturday night I got hit wth the urge again and found a recipe for vidalia onions. I read somewhere that they are super super good onions and are only good at this time of year so I had to try them out. Once again it was a pizza recipe. I really have to get away from these pizza recipes. Another dough recipe, topped off with my leftover tomato sauce. Slice some tomatoes on top, sprinkle with mozzerella cheese and then top it all off with sauteed (lightly) vidallia onions. Yum again. Not really my favorite but it did show off the onions nicely. James couldn't understand where the meat was, Larissa thought it gave her the shits but everyone else thought it was great. Really, I don't think mom and dad would complain about anything I'm making them since mom is getting a bit of a break in the kitchen and I am actually having fun at it.
Tonight, there was NO urge to play in the kitchen so I cracked open a few cans of pork and beans to go along with mom's iceburg lettuce salad. Oh well, I'm still in camping mood, right?
Next I want to try something with chick peas. Dad says he doesn't like them but I think he hasn't tried them fried up with lots of garlic and curry powder and salt. oh yum.

Gardening!

Today, about a month to late, I finally got my garden started. After tilling it about 3 weeks ago I finally bought some manure, herbs and vegetables. Opa gave me about 8 tomato plants that he had extra and had repotted into nice large containers. At least my tomatoes are a seasonal size right now. I picked up 6 different herbs (at crazy high prices), 4 red peppers and 4 brocolli plants. I knew that I wouldn't be able to fit much into that garden but I was surprised how it filled up. It looks so empty still but hopefully those plants all fill out and take up their "36-48 inches" that the tags insist upon. I'm worried about the quality of the soil. After the first tilling I expected to have to do it a few more times just to keep the weeds down. I only had to till it this morning once to till in the manure. There wasn't a single weed up. I only got 3 bags of manure (Dan had a hard time spending money on shit, ha ha ha) and so I really don't think there's many nutrients around the roots. I'm going to have to get a few more bags of compost and hill a bit up around each plant. Oma said that the herbs like poor soil so maybe they will at least do well. I got parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme. I've never grown or cooked with sage before but my Jamie Oliver cookbook uses it a lot so I thought I'd give it a try. Oma and Opa also have some sage at their place and I was really impressed by the smell. When I've got more of a permanant place I'd love to grow some bay leaf and "whatever-that-leafy-soup-herb" plant is that Oma and Opa have growing by their door. I LOVE the smell of it. I've even picked a bunch and put it in my car before. I know that mom and dad have a big plant of it too.
I've tied up a bunch of strings above each of my tomato plants instead of staking them. I'll ask dad W. tonight what the proper way of tying a tomato is. Until then, the poor plants are just bent down from the wind. It is so windy here. I don't know if it's always like this or if this is just the summer for it. Luckily the small plants are shielded a bit by the sandbox walls. Once the plants are all properly tied up I'll take some pictures. It looks pretty desolate right now though.
I've been addicted to this once salad lately. Brocolli, raisins, red onions, bacon, all tossed in a mayo/sugar/red wine vinegar dressing. mmmmMMMM! You're supposed to throw in seseme seeds with it but I wouldn't want to ruin it with seeds or nut so I'm just keeping it at that. Mom and I made it a few weeks ago and since then I've been craving it almost everyday. I picked up a head of brocolli just to make a whole salad for myself. Crazy, eh? And for lunch today I made quesadillas. The recipe is a mix b/w my mom's recipe and what we had on hand. Chicken, half a pepper, red onions, a clove of garlic, 1/2 tsp chili powder and a few good shakes of cuury powder (it was supposed to be cumin). I topped the quesadilla off with cheese and parsley. mmm. It was supposed to be for mom too but she didn't come home for lunch. Dan didn't get the option to eat it so I just enjoyed it on my own. And there's leftovers for whoever wants it.
I guess I'm in an agrarian mood so I'm going to do some cheap book shopping online and see what I find. I have my eye on a few already.

Jaela and I

I had the day off today. That's twice in one week! I love it... the bank account doesn't but who needs a bank account. :) I had lots of ambitious feeling good type plans. I wanted to give the car a deep clean (that's a scrubing inside and out), go see Oma and Opa W, rototill and plant the garden and also clean our rooms. Yah right. Instead, I hung out with Larissa and Jaela all day. Larissa had to do some dress fitting so I went along for the heck of it. By the time she was done, which wasn't really that long, I didn't feel like doing anything anymore. We went to the mall, bought some essentials (cute baby outfits are essential right?) and then headed back to her place. She's got to get some more dress fitting done so I'm probably going to hang out here with Jaela while she goes with her mom and sister-in-law. That means that I get to babysit!!! Woo hooo! Larissa will come back and I'll have her dressed up in a million different outfits and probably have her diaper on the wrong way. There was a camera sitting here so here's a good one for the picture frames:

Icecream!!!

Last night mom and dad took us all out for ice cream. YUM.

War Wounds!!

This weekend I worked for the second time at my new camp job. I really don't remember what I've told you all about the camp. It is set up to run 1 weekend a month (or so) as a getaway for kids who are just having a tough life. I don't know if it is more to give the parents a break or to give the kids a good time once in a while. Either way, there's a big variety of the type of kids there. Some of them have behavioural problems, some are quite mentally handicapped and others are just kids who've had a tough life. This past weekend I worked both a Sat. and a Sun 8-4 shift. What a weekend to go to camp. It was soooo stinkin hot! I couldn't believe how hot it was. Even the shade was unbearable. But nooooo... the activities planners decided it was still nice enough weather to go rock climbing and hiking and play capture the flag. YUCK! Sat. actually was a pretty good day. We had a 3 hour water fight and everyone got completely drenched. Sun. was a different story. By this time everyone is so hot and tired that tempers flare up. Mean kids got meaner and snobby kids got snobbier. The laid back kids got more laid back though. Either way, I had a bit of an incident. They all swear that "this never happens" but still, i think I need some training. Even though I've been hired I'm not signed up for the company training, including PMAB (Prevention and Managemenet of Aggresive Behaviour), until September. One of the much more handicapped kids flipped out. We were walking to another building that was just a bit too far for him and he just got angry. I was with another support worker so I wasn't alone. He started screaming and turned on me. He grabbed the first limb he could reach, my arm, and just dug in his fingers as hard as he could. I had NO idea what to do. I'm a big wimp and it hurt like heck (I was sunburned, of course) but I was afraid to hurt him. He was also reaching in with his head to bite me, which scared the heck out of me. We ended up tackling him to the ground and sitting on him till he calmed down but he flared up a few more times and got my arm and my leg, again. Really, the war wounds aren't that spectacular, but if you ask Dan he'll tell you how much I like to show off my scrapes and bruises. So.... here they are:

Just passed my wrist there's a pretty good bruise but closer to the elbow is where he took some good chunks of skin out. Behind my knee there are some bruises and a few scratches too. I know it doesn't look like much but I'll blame that on the "bad lighting". :)

hey all...
another week over.... almost. Dan's coming home tonight finally. Last week when he came back he was saying that he can't wait to get to work and now he's saying he's glad he's got a bit of a break just to let everything settle in. Everytime I talk to him he's either coming or going to some sort of study thing... he's a new man!
Larissa had her baby this week which was soo much fun for me. Actually, I don't know if fun is the word but I love being able to be totally comfortable around and baby and not worried about getting the stink eye from the mother for not holding the kid just "right". James had to go back to work on Thursday so I was even asked to go pick Larissa and Jaela up from the hospital. What a priveledge, eh? We weren't really sure we got the car seat in right but everyone made it home okay so it all worked out. Now I look at pictures of Grace and I can't wait till Jaela gets that old. I looooovvveed those pics of Grace with mom and dad. She looks like she's got such a personality. It makes me want to come over and hang out with her more.
Cass, James said he would do your brakes for you some Saturday if you want but I think they'll be a little forgetful about it and busy for the next little while. James' uncle found gramma Smith on the floor of her home yesterday.... she had a stroke. I don't know how she's doing at all but I'm guessing that life is going to be a bit difficult with Jaela and gramma now.
I'm going to have a super busy weekend now and it looks like it's going to be stinkin hot too. I woke up super late this morning (10:00.... 11 hours sleep.. mmmm) and slowly walked upstairs and could hardly make it. It's nice and cool here in the basement but upstairs it was 26! Freaking hot! and this weekend is only going to get worse. And I don't have a thing planted. All that rain and heat isn't doing anything for my garden.
So I bought a ticket to Winnipeg. $79! not bad eh? I was going to drive there with Opa, James, and Caleb and then drive back with John, Tena and Caleb but you can't beat $79. At least I know for sure now that I'm going. I leave the last thurs. of June and come back the beginning of next week. Then..... SARAH AND PETER COME!! I'm so excited about that. I have to make sure that I ask off the weekend right away.
Anyway, I hope you all have a good weekend. I doubt I'll get any phone calls in but I miss you girls! We'll talk soon.
Love nicole
.... wierd.... I just about put an "h" in nicole

Jaela Jacqueline Tena

YAAAAAYYYY!!!!