Weekend Highlights

Jake and I had a wonderful weekend of being "parents" to my three nephews while their parents were in Las Vegas for a convention.  We got to play games, ask them for three hours to pick up their toys, and we even got to see the Oscar Meyer wiener in real life on the freeway!

 This little angel also got blessed today. This picture is really small because I stole it from my sister's facebook page.  Cute kids.

Jake and I had fun with the boys for the weekend.  They are adorable.   Anytime I think about having kids though, I'll just go babysit for the weekend.  Good birth control :)

I have to brag about my husband for a minute.  He produced this amazing video for his work.  The Huffington Post wrote a great article on it within just a few hours of being posted.  You can read about it here I watch it over and over and get so mesmerized by the music and the creativity every time I watch it.  Jake is so talented in what he does.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


iPad 2 gets Destroyed in Slow Motion from Jake Larsen on Vimeo.


I hope you all had a great weekend.  My blogging gets a bit skimpy when I go back on track for school, as I am focused on work and don't have as much spare time.  So I apologize for that!  I'll be better!

March came in like a lamb and is leaving like a lion.  I hope April is pure bliss because I am ready for warmth.  The tulips in my yard are starting to bloom.  I love it because I haven't lived here in the spring yet so every day is a surprise to see what pops up.  Every day I come home to a new patch of mini tulips and it's fun to see what colors they are!  I can't wait to see what the big ones bring!

Happy Spring!

Soup to Warm Your Soul...

Last week I made the yummiest soup ever!  I am posting this because I think everyone should make it, and I thought it was pretty easy; not to mention I finally got to use my lovely green pot to cook it in!

You can find the recipe here.  Cut zucchini in bite-size chunks, chop up an onion, and chop up some fresh parsley.  I actually used my scissors to cut up the parsley.  I think it worked better than a knife. :)

Add a little butter and melt it in the bottom of the pot.  Add the zucchini, onions, fresh parsley and basil. (I used dried basil because that's what I had) Saute the veggies...and continue following the recipe.  I also used organic chicken broth because it has about half the sodium than regular and I used a can of fat free milk.  I love this soup because it is broth-based.  Creamy soups are always so yummy, but very fattening.

And here is the finished product!  It was de-lish!!! I ate the left overs for about 3 days after that.  

I also made this very easy "Peasant Bread" from the Ivory "Favorites" cookbook.  You can get the books here.  If you don't have these cookbooks, I HIGHLY recommend them! They are my fav! 

The bread isn't perfect looking (yes, I am a rookie) but it was so yummy right out of the oven.  

I can't wait to make this delicious, hearty soup again!  It was just what the Dr. ordered for these cold, dreary days.  Mels Kitchen Cafe is the best website for cooking.  I have another one of her recipes in the crockpot right now-pineapple salsa chicken.  Can't wait to try it out!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Yesterday, our house was magically transformed into a movie set.  I'm sure you're all wondering how this came about.  I have a good family friend who directs commercials.  He does a lot of work for Coca~Cola (mainly the Lagoon commercials).  He called my dad up looking for a specific house to do a commercial for a mortgage company.  My dad described our house, they came and took a look, and it was just what they were looking for.  They told us there was a location fee, so I thought sure! Sign us up! We got paid to have people film at our house.  It was pretty cool.  The night before I didn't really know what to expect.  I didn't know how many people there would be.  I thought maybe around 7-10.  Well, 7:00 a.m. rolls around, and the masses started to show up.  They had a wardrobe girl who had a giant rack of clothes in my room, then a make-up artist for the actors, the producer, directer, lighting guy, set designer, electrician, project manager, assistant director, assistant camera man, assistant to the producer, two actors...and a couple of neighbors wandering in to see what was going on.  My whole house was being used.  Even the garage where there was a little snack station set up.  I always knew a lot went in to film making and commercials, but yesterday I got a big dose of what goes on to make just a short commercial!  It took the entire day.  7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. last night.  Jake and I had to be somewhere at 6:30 so we left them there.  I was a bit worried at what we'd come home to at the end of the night.  As we pulled in to our driveway, I thought, gosh I hope our house isn't a disaster.  I opened the door, looked around and our house was EXACTLY the way it was before they got there.  Everything perfectly back in its place.  (They had to move all the furniture).  They took pictures of everything before they moved it so that when they were done, they could move it all back to the same place. They even sent cleaning ladies to clean my house today!  They are cleaning as we speak.  I had such a fun time being in on all the action yesterday.  It made me appreciate all the hard work that goes into film-making.  I can't even imagine what a big movie would be like.  Here are a few pics from the day.

The pictures aren't very big.  I took them with my phone, but you get the idea.