Another Delicious Smoothie

My new favorite!

2 Bananas
Water
Vanilla Almond Milk
Protein Powder (I use vanilla)
Omega 3 liquid
Tbls or so of Almond Butter

Independence Day

Portland Fireworks

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Thanks to Serena for sharing such an awesome recipe!


2 cups of almonds ( I soak mine for 24 hours and rinse them once or twice during that time and give um a good rinse before use)
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter ( I use coconut oil)
1 tbs vanilla or almond 
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa pwd

~oven 350
~glass baking dish greased with coconut oil ( or whatever you normally use)
~make sure almonds are drained well, add to food processor and grind till fine but not almond butter...may need to stir a few times
~mix boiling water and cocoa pwd till dissolved (I found I didn't need the water boiling just really hot and it works good to use a whisk)
~add above cocoa pwd/water mix, brown sugar, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla, salt to almond meal in food processor. ...mix
~(optional) add 1/2 cup chocolate chips and turn the food processor on again for a minute or two
~pour into pan
~bake 40-50ish minutes 

Weekend at the Coast

Getting Dirty

Talk about experiencing a day in the garden!  I spent 9 hours digging, moving plants, and building a patio. Which, I must say, made me lose every bit of desire that I had to learn how to lay tile.  Laying brick is NOT easy.   Getting all the dirt even and flat was nearly impossible!   To have a perfect patio I would have had to spend three long days making the dirt even.  My goal was to have a nice patio in the garden area for a fire-pit.  I accomplished that goal!  You can definitely tell it wasn't done by a professional, rather, most may guess it was done by a 15 year old.  It was a good learning experience.

Bring on the summer parties with friends around the fire!

Paint Job

Ugly paint can make a room look terrible!  Aaron and I decided our first project was to repaint the spare room.  The trim was orange and the walls were a smokey white - not attractive!

Painting always sounds fun, but when you are doing the trim, walls and ceiling, it isn't so much fun.  Four days into the project we are almost done.  We still need to get some hardware, hang a few pictures, a new light and hang the curtains, but the spare room is pretty much ready for it's first guest!  We have family coming in June, so they will have a nice comfy room where they can feel at home.


                                                                             Before

After

Our New Home

Buying a home is never easy, but for whatever reason I expected it to be.  I was determined to find a house on the third weekend shopping.  We looked at everything from brand new homes, to homes that needed so much work that we would have spent years house poor.

After feeling discouraged our last Saturday of looking, Aaron suggested we drive by a home a realtor had sent us weeks before while I was in NY.  He had driven by it and liked it, but didn't push it on me because I was hoping for a dining room and an eat-in kitchen.  The kitchen in this house was tiny!

We pulled up and I fell in love!  It was perfect!  It was the exact style we had been looking for and had everything else (minus the eat-in kitchen) that we had wanted.

Our realtor met us with the keys.  As soon as we walked in I knew it was "the house."  I started crying and got so excited!  Aaron was excited in his own way too.  By the end of the weekend we had made an offer.   I won't go into all the details of the drama we experienced trying to get everything to go through, but I will happily say WE MOVE IN THIS WEEKEND!  6 days before my 30th birthday.  Happy Birthday to me!

Here she is: