Today

Today I pulled of our first squash! Isn't she a beauty.

Also, this week we had our first real full garden meal. We have a ton of garden beans as well as broccoli, so I added teriyaki sauce and chicken for a great meal. Oh...I got this garlic Parmesan bread from Wal-Mart for a dollar and really love it!

It doesn't look like much in this picture, but Luke and I each had a good portion.

On another note I've been entering almost every day once again for the HGTV green home. I'm not nearly as excited about this home simply because of it's far away location, but...I will always take a free home, $100,000 in cash, and a new car :). The last day to enter is tomorrow, so go enter if you haven't.

Lastly, I wanted to fill you in on the good and bad of my getting in shape quest. The good is I have stuck to working out with Jillian rather well. I take about a day a week off. I still really die through level one, so I'm still working my way up to level two. Maybe I'll do 30 days on each level instead. The bad is I haven't lost a darn pound (go figure), and that i have a new sandwich obsession. My all time favorite cheese is Havarti! Recently I've taken that garlic Parmesan bread from Wal-Mart(any sourdough works well too) and added the sub sauce(basically it's oil and vinegar) and some pepperoni, Havarti dill, and tomatoes. Oh My Goodness it's so yummy! I have a panini maker, so I put it in the press for a complete expensive deli feel. You have to try it!! So...that sandwich is not exactly good for you! These next two weeks I'm really going to focus on eating well. That's my true weakness when it comes to weight loss. So...wish me luck and hopefully I'll report in a few pounds down.

Memorial Weekend Trip

Finally I am back writing about New Mexico and another great adventure for the Dorman family. This weekend Luke and I toured the south western side of New Mexico. We started our Saturday with the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival in Las Cruces. We had a wonderful time sampling New Mexico's wine which are quite nice. We found our favorite to be D.H. Lescombes bottle of Syrah. So...of course we came home with a couple of bottles to enjoy later in life :) Another pleasant surprise was the yummy New Mexican salsas and jellies to sample. Interesting flavors like strawberry jalapeno (which sounds yuck to me) were delicious. So overall, I think the wine festival was a plus!

Below Luke is enjoying a break from wine with a mimosa.

While in Las Cruces we stayed at Hotel Encanto. From the outside the hotel looks rather plain and ordinary, but the inside is beautifully decorated with a great Spanish feel. The rate is wonderful too! We enjoyed relaxing at the pool after our day of wine tasting.

Here is a picture of the fountain in the lovely hotel lobby

Sunday we made our way to the town of Truth or Consequences. The town was originally called Hot Springs, but took over the name of Truth or Consequences after a radio show in the 1950s. The host of the show basically dared a town to change it name to T o C (that's the short hand easy version) and Hot Springs took that challenge. The town is pretty run down now, but Luke and I were able to find the perfect place to stay and really enjoy the spa town. We stayed at the Blackstone Hot Springs an old 1930s courtyard apartment building that has been renovated and transformed into an oasis. Each suite is themed after a classic TV series or star. We stayed in the Twilight Room (My dad watched the show when I was younger, so I was familiar and excited, but Luke had no clue). It was very retro and tons of fun. Each room has a private hot springs bath. Our room however, had a hot springs waterfall. The water comes from a natural hot spring the town sits upon. Right out of the shoot the water temperate is 102 to 106, but felt even hotter to me! The minerals found in the water are suppose to be great for your body and health, so we enjoyed ourselves.

Here is a picture of Luke soaking up the hot springs waterfall in our room. They had a bench for you to sit on as well (which is how I enjoyed the waterfall).

Another great side visit we made while at T o C was Elephant Butte, NM. The lake here is breath-taking. The water is so blue and you can see forever. It is so different than lakes back home.

A great view from a top the dam

Finally Monday we made our way to a Veteran's park (must not forget the reason for our break) and then headed to White Sands National Monument. White Sands is truly mind boggling. Here in the middle of nowhere you run across these huge dunes of gypsum that go as far as the eyes can see. Climbing the dunes was rather hard in 100 degree temperature, but well worth the views and awe of the place. I can see why the U.S. does missile testing at this location. There really is nothing but white sand dunes as far as the eye can see.

Luke and I climbed up some dunes and were able to get this shot. Amazing!

Ok...so thank goodness for my friend Courtney who let me know that you can keep posting pics on here. I guess I am still figuring out the whole blogging thing. I have an album on FB too.

Stunning blue skies and incredible mountain views cover New Mexico

Garden Check Up

I took a break from the garden posting for a bit, but I really wanted everyone to see the squash that is about to take over our life.

This first picture is a picture of our zucchini that we planted from seeds a couple of weeks ago. They grew really fast. They always look a little sad unless water is hitting them.

Here is a picture of our cherry tomato plant. We eat cherry tomatoes now all the time. I tried to capture a spot where you could see the crazy amount of tomatoes this plant produces. One cherry tomato plant can feed a large family for sure. Look on the left to spot 4 green ones.

Here is a picture of our corn that we also planted from seeds a few weeks ago. Currently the yellow squash is trying to take over everything, but the corn is standing strong and growing taller every day.

Our beans have probably grown the most in the past week. We planted seeds a couple of weeks ago and they sprouted up almost immediately. They got stuck at one stage and height until the past week, but have now taken off. We've pulled off three beans so far, but we are ready for a full meals worth.

Lastly, I wanted to show you our squash! Our plants are HUGE, with mini squash sprouting everywhere. Give them about 4 to 5 more inches and they'll be ready for picking. I think we are going to have so many vegetables coming in the next month that we plan to join the local farmer's market in the square a couple of blocks from our home. The market starts in a couple of weeks and should be a lot of fun. This picture is just one of our billion squash plants--as you can see--a lot of squash is being produced by this one plant.

Luke gets off this Friday and Monday so we are very excited about our upcoming trip! We head for Las Cruces, NM this weekend for the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival, then to Truth or Consequences for some mineral bath soaking and massages, and finally to White Sands Memorial to see the largest gypsum deposit in the world. I'll post pictures and blog all about it when we return. I feel like it's been forever since our last trip, so as you can see...I'm ready to hit the road again.

Day 3

Today is day 3 of my new workout routine! I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD this weekend in hopes of motivating myself to get back in shape. I completed the level 1 workout Saturday and just about died. So...Sunday I recruited my laughing husband to join in my pain. We both painfully made it through level one and decided that we would stick together and complete the 30 Day Shred as a team. We weighed in last night at numbers that need no mention (however, Luke only weighs 3 more pounds and is WAY taller--sad I know). Wish us luck and hopefully 30 days from now we'll be back in shape!

Love It

Happy Friday to all! Today is a sport's holiday for the Carlsbad schools. I've never heard of sports day, but this school finds more reasons to take off. Apparently a lot of sports have their playoffs today, so they just let everyone out.

On another note--Luke and I spotted little bits of rain coming from the sky this morning. It's been so long that I'm hoping for rain. No real down pour as of yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Today I wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite authors. His writing name is James Rollins. He writes various types of books and has a different alias for each genre. He writes under different names simply because they told him his original last name was too difficult to say. No matter what his name is--I love his books.

I am a very picky book reader. I love to read books that challenge me into my own research on a topic. Rollins books fall under scientific, historical, thrillers.

I love and read all of Dan Brown's books, and Rollins books are very similar. Most of the time they interlace true historical events, with a controversial topic, and high action that leaves you begging for more. Rollins loves to incorporate technology into his books as well. A lot of times I wouldn't even know we had some of the military capabilities we have until he lays them out as part of the facts from his books. Two examples of real technology I didn't know about until reading his books-- just to get you intrigued: Super Black is a real compound developed at the National Physical Laboratory in Britain, and Liquid Body Armor is real and developed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

I have finished all Sigma Series books and highly recommend them. Currently I am working to finish all his thrillers to date. So far I haven't stumbled upon a bad one yet. So...if you are looking for a new summer author--Check out JAMES ROLLINS!

His website: http://www.jamesrollins.com/

A Few Things

The other week I made cupcakes. I had a regular muffin tin with 12 spots. The batter called for 24 cupcakes. I knew this, but wanted to be lazy and try to fit all of the batter in just the 12 slots. As you can guess...that didn't really work out. They spilled out all over my oven (thank goodness for those oven mats that make for easy cleaning) and worst yet, the cupcakes all collapsed down and tasted awful. So...as you can guess Luke got quite a laugh out of this and offered to bake the perfect batch. Last night Luke took the cupcake challenge and made(as sad as it is for me to report) them perfect. I look at this as a win for both of us (I now have yummy cupcakes).

I put jumbo sprinkles on mine!

We've had our debates over icing recently. I tried to be healthy (yes I see how silly this is) and buy the reduced sugar icing. Luke hated it and specifically ask for cream cheese. I do not like cream cheese icing for some reason though, so...we just live with two icing cans in the house. No winner here! Just two happy people to have their own icing:)
On a completely other note*** I think I have the most beautiful nieces in the world! They are just precious. I am taking a trip back east in June and can't wait to see them. One of the hardest parts about living so far away is not getting to see them very often. At this age they are growing so fast.

This is the baby of the two and we call her The Bear!
Here they are having a tea party in a field of buttercups. Not sure you could find anything more precious.

Sweet Spring almost Summer

It's 95 degrees out, so it feels like summer, but schools still in session, so spring it is. I just wanted to take a post to show the beautiful flowers out and about my house.

Yes I am that dork that planted flowers to match her house!

Funny story is that Luke and I looked specifically for flowers that are more bushy (or so we thought) turns out these shoot straight up instead. Oh well! Still beautiful.

This was already here when we arrived, but I love it! It's on the side of the house towards the front. Not really sure what it is, but it matches well.