I finally put up the fire pit today! Can't wait for smores on a cool fall night :-)

I've decided teaching (and driving 50 min each way) isn't for me, so I'm going to quit and open my own bakery... if only it were that easy. :-)

*Sigh*

We went fishing again today. The weather was perfect and I caught 3.5 fish (the 4th one didn't quite make it into the boat). Did I mention I love fall>?!?

All I really need is a cheap riesling...

The September 2010 Daring Cooks' challenge was hosted by John of Eat4fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John's source for food preservation information was from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.


I chose to make apple butter for my preservation challenge. It came out amazing and was hard to preserve any of it because I wanted to eat it all! I had a lot of fun making it and ended up freezing about half of it. My camera started having a 'lens malfunction' about halfway through the process, so I don't have any pictures of the frozen product.

Here are the apples. To get the full fall experience, I made the husband take me to an orchard to get the apples (see previous post). Not sure why this next pic is sideways... but here they are cooking...

... and here's the almost done apple butter.
So, it turned out delicious. This was my first 'assignment' being a daring cook and had tons of fun making it. Hopefully, I'll have a working camera by next month.

oops.

Yeah, got into another accident... on my way to work yesterday I ran off the road and into a ditch. It could've been a lot worse- I easily could've rolled it- which is what I was trying NOT to do by not swerving back onto the road- I had the cruise on and it just happened so fast. I'm fine, just super sore (and feeling stupid) and I got a big gash on my neck from the seatbelt, but I'm sure glad I was wearing it. I figure I've used up my quota of accidents- sooooooo, enough of that.

Got Bill to take me to the apple orchard. He loved it as much as I did :-)

Here are some pics from the Jack Rabbit Run to benefit SMA.

Ryan, Diana, Zander and Lexie
Diana and me

Silly Zander :-)

The original Hausz fam with some additions

The Werner clan

true colors

Troyer's is a store near the entrance to Apple Valley and is my new obsession. It has all sorts of spices and bulk food- today, I got vanilla coffee creamer, cinnamon, ground cloves, and creamy caramel cappuccino mix. It's so much cheaper to get spices here than at a grocery store and is such a cute, clean little store!

I made a tutu for Annika's 3rd birthday and someone had to model it...

Yeah, I know I look like a fool, but look at my little Lexie's sweet little face :-)

This was at the Jack Rabbit Run-more pictures to come!

First week of school- SURVIVED!

Yeay me! So, there are many, many differences I'm experiencing settling into my new position at Lincoln and South Lawn. So far, I'm still trying to get a schedule, which I can't set until I get mass amounts of data and analyze it to make sure I'm helping the "right" kids... weird, right? That's the most frustrating part of my job. Hopefully, this will get done EARLY this coming week... If I hear one more acronym (DIBLES, KRAWL, ED, SWD...) my head just might explode.
Reading what I just wrote, this move could be much worse. After all, I'm learning all sorts of new stuff :-) The staff at both schools have been insanely nice, and of course, the kids are awesome. I was talking to a first grader (who was being ornery). Well, here's how it went:
Me: I bet trouble is your middle name!
Student: Yeah, I get that a lot...
Hmmm, I had more quotes that I was going to post, but I think my brain is at capacity after this week.
Another similarity- I had a 'runner' my first week at Central make me look like an incompetent slacker too...

Having said all this and how grateful I am to still have a job, leaving South Lawn the other day, a bus drove by with a load of my former students, all smiling, waving and screaming "MRS. BENTZ!!!!!" I seriously wanted to cry. I do miss students and my Central friends, but overall, I'm pleased with how the school year is going.

On another note (I know, longest blog post ever) the Jack Rabbit Run is the day after tomorrow. For those of you that don't know, both my nephew and niece have been diagnosed with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy). I've never had the privilege to run for something I'm so passionate about. My team raised about $1,700 (my brother-in-laws team raised something like $7,000...). Diana came down last weekend and we tie-dyed about 60 shirts (through some serious trial and error...) and her and Sharon are screening "Team A to Z" on them- I'm sure I'll have pics to post of the race (although my camera is on the fritz- boooooo). Wish me luck- my back has been killing me (I know, excuses...) so we'll see.

Loving the cold nights! Tomorrow, I'll set up the fire pit, clean my mess of a house, and pick up the hubby that I haven't seen for two weeks! He's been in Florida for business (or so he says:-) and while I've been sleeping in the middle of the bed (with 2 dogs), eating all the weird foods that he hates for dinner, and having marathon sessions of watching shows like "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Cake Boss", I've missed him like crazy!

My nephew, Zander and Brin Brin (or NuNu as he calls her) are best friends.

I kind of like him too :-)

Brin modeling Lexie's tutu.

anyone need a good, used car? Pontiac G6, 46,xxx miles and just asking what we owe on it

We went fishing the other night. Bill and Chuck both caught good sized fish- me, nothing... still a good time though!

HIDE YOUR HUSBANDS!
The brother in law sent me this...

Watch this one first
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520

Then, watch this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

We got to go to Vegas for Katie and Isaiah's wedding! It was at Ceasar's Palace (no, I asked- It's not where Ceasar used to live :-). It was a beautiful ceremony and so much fun! There was a rehersal dinner the night before at the Lux Cafe at the Palazzo (so delicious) and we had lunch the next day at California Pizza Kitchen and then went to get our hair done. All the girls went up to Katie's room and got ready (with the box of wine). I didn't take many pictures, but Katie was one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen!

These pictures from the reception pretty much speak for themselves...

We went down to Fremont street which was super fun. I loved the light shows!