An Ad for Honda Fit

How many dogs can you fit in the back of your small car? In the back of my Honda Fit yesterday was: Toby, Tyler, Ryan and Abby! Poor Abby, not one but three bad boys to have to keep in line! I should send this photo to Honda :) That car is amazing - I have packed so much stuff in it and there is always room left over.

Toby is *not* impressed

Can we go for our hike yet?!?

Baby in a Backpack

We have been doing a lot of hiking in Golden Ears Provincial Park, which is just lovely. Yesterday Jody and I took the four dogs down to the nicest swimming spot and all had a great time. Tyler's brain fell out after we finished swimming (as usual) but other than that we had a great hike. Hiking with your baby in a backpack is a great workout! We saw a wildlife tree that had been marked recently by a bear, much to Jody's horror, so we might have to start hiking with some bear spray. Although, having four crazy dogs with us should be enough of a bear deterrent! I wouldn't usually worry but that hike is out of cell range and I have a baby strapped to my back now; wouldn't want to have to defend myself, the baby and my wimpy dogs all at the same time...

Erin, will post more Lolo pics this week!

E

Regionals - to go or not to go

For the past two years, I have taken the dogs to Regionals - the AAC BC/Yukon qualifying event for Nationals. This year, it happens to fall on the weekend that we need to be out of our MR house. I am thinking that me taking the dogs and baby out of the house for the weekend will be a bigger help to Rob than if we all stayed here and "helped". Thoughts? Jody this means that you will have to help me Loic-sit at Regionals!! I am undecided about running Toby - we haven't really practiced a lot since last year and I have been really focusing my energy on Tyler. Will have to think about it.

E

Drumroll please...

We found our house! Our offer was accepted, and baring a catastrophic home inspection, we are moving in July 1st!

Those of you who know the dates, this means that we are going to be living my Mom and Dad for a few weeks (thanks guys!). Since our house has a lovely two bedroom suite, we are going to move down there for July while we fix a few small things in our part of the house. Our goal is to be moved upstairs by August 1st and to have the basement suite rented out then too. I should clarify, we will have the whole upstairs and a part of the downstairs too! We are going to be doubling the size of our house, which will be great.

Will post more after home inspection!

E

Portrait with Goat

Cute baby & Cute Goat

I love how "into everything" Loic is getting! He loved the goats and bunnies at the farm. Today we went to Bunzen Lake for a dog walk and while Tyler was a bad dog, Loic had a blast in his backback. Duncan and Toby had a great time too! Three dogs and a baby means I can't take a camera, you will have to take my word for it that it was a nice lake.

E

Maplewood Farm visit

Yesterday Rob, Loic and I met my friend Michelle (I worked with her at Enkon) and her family at Maplewood farm for a visit. We had a great visit! Loic really enjoyed the bunnies and the goats this visit.

Checking out the cows with his Dad

Happy boy petting a bunny

Nice goat!

His hood is a bit big but he figured out how to hold it up so that he could still see in the rain, smart baby that he is

In house news, we didn't get the house we put in an offer on yesterday so it is back the ol' drawing board. Everything happens for a reason, so I guess it just wasn't our home. We are off to check out two open houses this afternoon - wish us luck (again!).

In sad family news, my Grandma passed away yesterday at the age of 102. We are off to her memorial in Powell River at the end of this week. I am going to cook a big Ukrainian dinner next week in memory of her and of her fabulous wood stove. I will dedicate a post to her life next week.

E

SOLD!

Subjects were lifted off of our house in MR yesterday and it is now officially sold! We didn't even have to have an open house! :)

We put in an offer on a house in NV yesterday and today we are playing the "counter offer" game. Wish us luck!

E (and R and L and the dogs)

A salad variation

So, after gorging myself on a huge Tuna salad for dinner last week, I decided to show a little restraint in making the same salad yesterday for lunch. I made it exactly the same way but I only have so much Tuna, so I made it using half a can of Tuna and half a can of chick peas. The result: delicious. Now I can eat twice as many Tuna salads! Auntie Christine, is this salad good using the canned salmon too? Will try that next.

We put in an offer on a "handyman's special" house and will find out tonight (hopefully) whether or not we got it. It is a daunting task to say the least, but in the end Rob will fix it up beautifully. There are a lot of pros to this house: it is two blocks away from my office, it has a sunny back yard with a quiet lane, it is big and we are going to put in a nice one bedroom suite which we hope to have done and rented out for September. The cons: the basement. Oh the basement. It hasn't been lived in in years and comes complete with red shag carpet and fake log cabin walls....I am not doing it justice, you really have to see it to believe it! But, it will be a great house to fix up and sell down the road, when we need no longer want/need to rent out the suite. Oh and the deck is something to be seen too. A new deck is in the cards for next spring, if we buy this house.

Wish us luck!!

In baby news, Loic is "commando crawling" like a pro. Man can he move! In the blink of an eye he is across the office and grabbing books off of the shelf!! He is still teething, poor bug.

E

Recipe # 2

I made this dish for Easter at Erin's parents house and she asked that I post it. It is a really quick and tasty side dish that goes with anything - it goes well with the marinated beef recipe below!

Quick Sauteed Veggies

I made this with asparagus and snap peas, but any firm veggies would work. I happen to love asparagus (Ryan and/or Jess, could you please tell me how to grow it? I know it takes two years before it produces. Thanks)

This will serve 2-4 people, depending on how much you love veggies. Tonight I will make it for us for dinner, along with a pasta dish.

You need:

- one bunch of asparagus, cut into pieces

- a small zucchini (I couldn't find peas today, peas are the best for this dish) cut up into pieces

- a few teaspoons veggie oil

- salt and pepper

In a large saute pan, heat up the oil and add in the cut up asparagus. Add salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes, stirring as it cooks. Once the asparagus is slightly cooked, add in the zucchini and/or peas and cook for a few more minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Make sure that the veggies are only just cooked, you want them to still be crispy yet tender.

Enjoy!

E

Long overdue recipes!

Hi all

It has been a while since I posted some dinner ideas, so here are two for you to try! Both are very easy and very tasty.

Oriental Marinated Beef (recipe stolen from my mom)

You will need:

- marinating steak (cheap cut of meat, don't worry, we will make it tasty!) Buy enough for two or so people

- Soy sauce

- Ginger

- Garlic

- Brown Sugar

To start with, grab a large ziplock bag. Into the bag put: three or four cloves of garlic (roughly chopped), a large piece of ginger (roughly chopped), a few tablespoons of brown sugar and a enough soy sauce to cover the meat. I sometimes put a splash of water in with the soy to cut back on the salt content, but you don't have to.

Now that your marinade is in the bag, add your meat and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. I put the bag into a container to contain any leakage that might occur.

To cook, you can either sear it on both sides in a hot pan and then put it into the oven to finish cooking, or you can BBQ it. It is pretty darn tasty on the BBQ. Take the meat out of the marinade - you are done with it - and cook away. Make sure there is no ginger or garlic on the meat, it will just burn and has already done its job. Don't reuse the marinade either, just toss it.

To serve, slice thinly across the grain of the meat and enjoy! I serve this with rice and some sort of veggie dish. I will post an easy veggie dish next.

E

We saw the nicest house today, but...

...it is $50K too much. And while we have seen a lot that are going for less than asking, this one probably won't because it is nice; very, very nice. Oh well, back to the old drawing board. We need to have a house to move into by June 13th or we will all be moving into my parents' basement. While I love my parents very much, here is hoping that we have a house by then! I think that 4 dogs, 4 adults and a baby might be a bit much. But, we are grateful that if we need a place for a few weeks between moving out of this house and into the new one, we have it. Ah the stress of it all!

Erin, new recipes coming soon! They have been delayed by a baby who has decided that teething and afternoon naps do not mix. Today, instead of napping, he chatted to himself for two hours. Yes, two hours. And while I wouldn't let him cry for that long, he didn't cry, he just chatted away. I tried again to get him to nap but no go. He has three teeth coming in at the same time, and while he isn't really crabby, he isn't himself either. Poor guy.

Anyone know why my friend Erin can't post a comment on blogger anymore? She keeps trying but it won't let her (?) Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Thanks,

E

Aquarium Visit

In between denying and then accepting an offer on our house this weekend, we took time out to visit Jody at the Aquarium! Jody works with the sea lions and fur seals and it is always really neat to see her at work. I still find the sea lions a bit scary, but love seeing them up close. Loic seemed to realize that there were some big animals there and laughed at them a few times! He hasn't really noticed the belugas yet, but I am sure he will soon enough. My little boy sure has an animal filled life. Here are some pics!

Mom and Baby having a laugh

She sure has big teeth!!

Pass the baby with Jody!

Jody and a fur seal

Loic, Rob and a fur seal!

House News

Hi all

We have accepted an offer on our house! We are just waiting for the subjects to be removed, which should be fine, and it will be a done deal on the 19th. Now comes the big challenge, finding a house in N.Van to buy, asap. We need to be out of our Maple Ridge home by noon on June 13th...Wish us luck!

Here are some photos of the back deck that Rob built, along with the outdoor kitchen which is lovely. We sure love that deck.

Hopefully Rob isn't tired of building decks, we will probably need a new deck at the new house!!

E

World's Nicest Dog

Tyler is the world's nicest dog. The baby loves dogs, and Tyler loves the baby right back!

A good face washing, baby was giggling like mad here!

Why does my child like to try to eat the ears of animals?!

Nice petting Loic!

Can you believe the cuteness?!

The other two dogs are also really good with the baby but they are small, so we don't really let them all "play" together. And yes, baby was well supervised while we were taking these photos. Off to the aquarium to see Jody and the Sea Lions!

E

House Viewings

We had our first house viewing today and they are coming back to check it out again tomorrow! Jean, you are right, showing a house with three dogs and a baby is not exactly an easy task. Tomorrow I am at a course for work all day so I had to frantically find someone to take the dogs out while the house was shown. Not sure if a freaked out black lab and his small terrier sidekick are a good selling feature... Thank god for Carol, our dog walker; she is going to take the boys back to her house after their walk. The house is SPOTLESS right now.

Wish the house luck tomorrow!!

E

Dinner for One - amazing Tuna salad

Rob had a work meeting tonight, so I made dinner for myself. I made the Best Salad, courtesy of my mom's recipe (mostly). This salad was divine and so very filling - nutritious too! There are no photos because I was starving and ate it all. Right away. While sitting on the couch. Oh, and I ate it right out of the giant salad bowl that I made it in. I blame my dad for that, that is how he ate salad every night when I was growing up!

Tasty, tasty Tuna

Easy Tuna Salad (adapted from my mom's recipe)

You will need:

-a large salad bowl

-one can of my aunt Christine and Jim's tuna (which I realize might be hard to come by)

-homemade vinaigrette (sorry Erin, can't post the exact directions to this one, it is a bit of an art form that involves salt, pepper, a dash of dijon mustard, white vinegar and oil)

-one stalk of celery

-a handful of cherry tomatoes

-a lot of cucumber (I used the small japanese ones which are really tasty)

-one small red pepper

-lettuce (I used romaine and a bit of spring mix)

1. Make your vinaigrette in the bottom of your salad bowl. If my mom were making this, she would add some mayo (which I hate, so I don't add it) and she would leave out the dijon. I add a bit of dijon because it helps to emulsify the salad dressing and adds a nice subtle kick.

2. Slice or dice up your veggies into bite sized pieces and add them into the bowl. Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand. Carrots would have been good.

3. Open a can of tuna and remark to yourself about how good it looks. I mean, this is really nice canned fish. Thank you to Aunt Christine and Jim!! Roughly chop up the fish and throw it onto your veggies. It looks really nice at this point.

4. Add lettuce, toss and eat.

I ate this with a pita and stuffed half the salad into the pita and ate the rest with a fork. I feel very sorry for Rob because he is allergic to fish and can't ever eat this salad.

Enjoy! This dinner takes minutes to prepare and is filling and healthy. And TASTY; really, really tasty.

E

Out my front window I see...

...a For Sale sign!

Check out a Virtual Tour of our house here: www.bestpropertysource.com

It will be on MLS later today.

Now we just need to sell it and then, here is the tough part, find a house in N.Van that we can afford.

Wish us luck!

E

Dog Training

I just finished teaching a 6 week Novice Rally Obedience class. I taught quite a few sessions before baby came along and this was the first one that I have taught since having Loic.

I really like teaching Rally for a few reasons. One, every dog can do it! We had a lovely senior blind Malamute in this past session and she was a star! I have taught people aggressive dogs, dog aggressive dogs, shy dogs, excited dogs (and Tyler ;)) and they have all done very, very well with the sport. Two, after a 6 week class most people and dogs are ready to go to a trial and compete! That in itself is pretty great. Also, this class teaches basic dog skills that come in handy even if you never set foot in a dog trial ring.

I am taking one week off and will then be back at it for two classes a well.

E (and Tyler, my sometimes naughty but always funny teaching side kick)

Cutest Baby

I made this tonight for Easter dinner:

Cheesy, tasty asparagus puff pastry - so, so good

We also gelled the baby's hair up tonight!

Quite the faux-hawk going on there

And a parting cute, cute cute shot in the tub; he is going to be quite the charmer!