Welcome to Fargo

We made it! We're here now in Fargo, and slowly getting unpacked. It's been a whirlwind two weeks, and we're headed out of town again this weekend to go to Steve's brother's wedding. I've had a lot of people wanting to see pictures of the house, so here it is. I'll post a longer post of our adventures leading up to this point (including Steve's encounter with a brown recluse) and more about our neighbourhood and Fargo when we get back.


The Inside of the House:

All The Pretty Flowers (I have no idea what some of them are):

Fired Up, Ready to Go!

Steve and I have been busy packing--except now he's in a conference in Kansas City for 3 days, and won't be back until Saturday night. We move Monday. I'm starting to get a little bit tired, a little bit frustrated, and all of us are getting cramped from living in our apartment where, for the past month, boxes have been slowly creeping into our living space. We are getting so claustophobic--to the point when I pack a box, I don't know where to put it. It's like the third trimester of pregnancy. You're so uncomfortable, so cramped, you just want to get it over with. When we bought the house in Fargo, I was really fired up. Now, I'm just burned out and ready to go. So I'm signing off from the blogging world. My next post will be from Fargo. I don't know when it will be, but I hope it will be soon. Good-bye to all my Lawrence friends. You've been great and I'll miss you so much!

Watermelon Blasters

(photo courtesy of www.marthastewart.com)

I've really been wanting to find some good, cold, delicious AND HEALTHY popsicles for my kids. I've decided I can't find ANY at the grocery store. They all have high fructose corn syrup and artificial food colours. Now, for my readers out there, I am a sort of a food snob. I try not to buy things with high fructose corn syrup, artificial colour, enriched flour, etc for the most part and only buy items with these things for stuff I can't live without. I'm not a health Nazi, but I really don't want to fill up my kids with "filler nutrients" and chemical colouring if I can help it. I really don't want my kids consuming one hundred Mr. Freezes a day.

So, I wanted to make my own Popsicles--problem is I've packed all my non-essential cooking items. I found this GREAT recipe on marthastewart.com for Watermelon Blasters. The kids LOVE them--they're addicted. The best part--absolutely no sugar. Give it a try and see if you like them too:

Watermelon Blasters

Ingredients
3 cups cubed, seeded watermelon
1 1/2 cups strawberries
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I use one whole lime)
1 cup ice cubes
Sugar, to taste (we've never had to add sugar, the watermelon is sweet enough)
Directions:
Put watermelon, strawberries, lime juice, ice, and sugar if desired into the pitcher of a blender, and blend for 15 seconds on high speed. (Always put the top on the container before processing.) Stop machine, and stir ingredients with a long wooden spoon. Blend for 15 seconds more on high speed.

Fourth of July

Here are some pictures of our fourth of July. We started celebrating with our church's breakfast celebration, then we drove out to Kansas City to visit Steve's family.
The Jensens at breakfast (one super cute family):


The Legerski's were there too (another super cute family):



The party at the Becks:

Bon Anniversaire/Happy Birthday Canada!

Today is the day back in 1867 when the Dominion of Canada and Great Britain signed the British North America Act in Charlottetown, New Brunswick, and voila! we had confederation and officially "Canada." Happy Birthday Canada! Usually we throw a big party for you, but with all of our packing and preperations for Fargo, I just didn't get a chance to make my maple leaf cookies, BBQ pizza, and Nanaimo Bars. We'll have to do it next year. This morning on my way to Dog Days, I was listening to NPR and they had a feature on a music group called, "Le Vent Du Nord," (English=the wind of the north) a traditional Quebec singing group. It made me flash back to elementary school at Brander Gardens when they would have the "courier du bois" music groups from Quebec come by, complete with their saws, wooden spoons, and wooden puppets dancing on boards. So, if you want to celebrate Canada with me, sing a little "O Canada," and follow this link to hear some good old French Canadian music.