A new member

Our "family" grew this week!!  We adopted a little kitten.

Meet Tuck!

The girls are beside themselves wanting to hold, play, pet, love this little guy. 

It's driving this Momma a little crazy refereeing, but it's pretty cute.  We are tempted to get a second kitten to have one for each girl and so little Tuck isn't quite so lonely.  We'll see!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday - 64 years ago today, she and her twin sister came into the world... and I am SOOOOO lucky that she did! :)

She left yesterday, but had spent the previous week and a half with me.  Our original intent was to work on potty-training with Karen.  That didn't happen... but she did help me get my house put back together.  We tackled a different project each day she was here and had a great time while doing it.  I miss her already!

Grandma and her grandkids!

Tina and Lauren sleeping - Tina helped all week by rocking Lauren to sleep like this!

We love you!!!

Summer catchup - Tuesday Top Ten

I have been absent from my blog this summer... Lots of reasons for that - so I thought I'd use my second installment of Top 10 Tuesday to catch you up!!

1. I tackled potty-training two of my girls this summer - Karen at 4.5 and Megan at 2.5 ... Crazy times
2. Megan is now potty trained and Karen is not.  I lost momentum and ideas with Karen
3. My Mom is here this week to help me try again with Karen and take some of the pressure off of being mostly home alone since harvest kicked off this week (see #5 & 6)
4. Carl and I were crazy enough to try going to Priest Lake to his Grandma's one room cabin when both girls were potty-training... That was an "adventure" to say the least. I didn't take a single picture on that trip
5. I finally came to realization a few weeks ago that I was feeling unsettled emotionally, in my parenting, etc. in a way that didn't feel healthy.  I talked with my doctor and he helped me recognize that I am going through post-partum depression.
6. I shared with my family and their response was one of relief because apparently they had all realized this much sooner than I did but knew I needed to get there on my own.
7. While I have the irrational feelings of feeling weak because of this, it is also like a huge weight is gone because I know why things have felt so out of control for me for the past several months.
8. I still have not gotten back into exercising since my Achilles tendon issues... I think that dropping my running is what led my PPD to have a more dominant presence - the endorphins from running had been keeping it mostly at bay up to that point.
9. My treadmill is FINALLY out of the closet and where I can use it again, so I'm hoping to remedy #8 by getting back on the wagon, err, treadmill.
10. Our house project of completing the basement is nearing completion.  We have the flooring in and some of the wiring done.  We've moved our bedrooms down there (yippee!).  My house has been in a perpetual state of DISASTER due to the various stages of work (and the fact that we chose to re-carpet our main floor too) for most of the summer.  I'm finally getting it back and putting things in place (and finding new places with my extra space!).

So... that's been my summer!  We just kicked off harvest yesterday, so I'll be posting some pictures of that in days to come.

Happy Tuesday.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Linking up with Kelly's Korner - SUYL - Desserts!

If you like chocolate and peanut butter - this is The. Best. Sheet. Cake. Ever.

I've already made it three times this summer.  Because it is a sheet cake, it is thinner than a typical cake.  My nieces and nephews all call them brownies, but they are nothing like a fudgey, chewey brownie.

The recipe is a cross between the Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake and The Girl Who Ate Everything's Peanut Butter Sheet Cake and my husband's Grandma's Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe.

Picture Courtesy - The Pioneer Woman

Enjoy! (I keep forgetting to take pictures when I make this, so pictures are courtesy of two of my sources for the recipe - The Pioneer Woman and The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Picture Courtesy - The Girl Who Ate Everything

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup Cocoa

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter
6 Tbsp milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium pot add the peanut butter, water, cocoa, and butter and bring to a boil.  Allow mixture to boil for 30sec to 1 min.  Remove from heat.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, and flour. Add to the chocolate-peanut butter mixture. (I use my KitchenAide, so I add the chocolate-peanut butter mixture to my sugar/flour combination)
4. Add the salt, baking soda, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla to the bowl and mix well.
5. Stir well and pour into greased or parchment lined cookie sheet pan (jellyroll pan). Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the Frosting:
1. In a small pot bring the butter, milk, cocoa, and peanut butter to a boil.  Allow mixture to boil for 30sec to 1 min.
2. Remove pan from the heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla.
3. Pour frosting over the warm cake.

8 years

Eight years ago today I married my best friend.

We met on a blind date on January 28, 2003.  Our older sisters knew each other and conspired to set us up(actually, my sister thought Carl should meet my little sister, not me...).  We met in Tacoma of all places.  I was working in Seattle and he was over there trying to figure out if he needed to leave the farm for a few years.

I didn't know from the first date that I had met my future husband, but I did know that for the first time in a REALLY long time I had met someone that I really, really wanted to get to know better.  By the fourth date we had both met each other's families... not because it got serious really fast but because our families are a big part of our lives.  We spent nearly every weekend together (since I was still working in Seattle and he was living in Eastern Washington).  I saw Carl around his nieces and nephews and with my nieces and began to fall in love. 

The anniversary of our first date found me in Dallas working.  I was pretty bummed because I was excited to celebrate with someone, who by this point I KNEW I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  We had talked that morning and Carl told me that he planned a surprise dinner for me.  Even though we wouldn't be together, he had ordered dinner to be delivered to me at my hotel at 7 and he would be at home eating at the same time.  Sounds kind of corny maybe, but I thought it was a very sweet gesture.

At 7pm there was a knock on my door, but when I opened it I found Carl standing there.  I don't really clearly remember the next few minutes because my ears started buzzing... but he went down on one knee and told me that he wanted to spend every day for the rest of our lives together.

Five and a half months later, we said "I do"!!

Our priest made us memorize our vows.  At first we thought he was CRAZY... who wants the pressure of reciting memorized vows!!  But as we worked on memorizing them, it made us really think about what we were about to say to each other.  At our wedding, it was amazing at how much more intimate and strong it felt to speak our vows to each other without the voice of our priest in the middle of it. I remember my vows to this day and probably always will...

"I, Renee, take you Carl to be my husband.

I promise to be true to you

in good times and in bad,

in sickness and in health.

I will love you and honor you

all the days of my life"

Happy Anniversary Carl!