The Storm I Didn't Chase

Every now and then during the Monsoon, I don't work. Surprise, surprise. And on occasion, there is weather going on close by on those days I don't have to work. What are the odds? Balancing home life, being a mommy and all that comes with that, going out to chase storms leaves a pretty small window of opportunity. Luckily for me, sometimes storms come near by and I'm able to witness some pretty cool stuff.

Still learning how to take the right photos of storms and clouds, it's amazing the beauty that can be seen from a distant severe thunderstorm producing strong winds and heavy rain. And paired with a sunset. That's epic!

I did a little post editing, but I'll show the originals too. This storm was south of Avondale, north of Gila Bend, August 27, 2013.

Original

Edited

 

Original

Edited

Original, black and white

Edited

Original

All photos are mine and were taken by me on a Sony DSLR camera. 

Breakfast Anytime {Monkey Bread

Breakfast happens to be my most favorite meal of the day. Scratch that, it's nearly my favorite meal ever. Of course, spaghetti and Italian is a close second. The point is, I could eat breakfast anytime of the day or night. So, having it for dinner is a pretty good way to end the day!

Sundays, or Saturdays, usually are a big family breakfast day (if I'm not at work, then the boys are fending for themselves. I try to make a pretty special breakfast, even if its just scrambled eggs. Waffles, pancakes and omelets are regular cast members. Monkey bread also makes an appearance from time to time. I didn't have a recipe off hand, so went straight from memory.

Monkey-See-Monkey-Do Bread

2 cans refrigerated biscuits

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

About 1 1/2 cups mixed sugar and cinnamon

A bunt pan, greased

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Cut each biscuit into 6 or 8 pieces (the smaller, the more bite size pieces you'll have). Place sugar and cinnamon mix in a bowl. Coat by rolling each biscuit piece in sugar cinnamon mix and place in bunt pan. Mix butter and brown sugar in microwave bowl and melt butter. Drizzle over cinnamon sugar biscuits. Bake for 30-35 min. Will be crispy on top, but make sure it's not too gooey underneath. Yum! Eat warm.

Easy peasy.

There may not be many leftovers if you live with boys, FYI.

                                 

                      

Hey Soul Sister, Meet Virginia

Summer concert series! 

Source

This summer I've been lucky enough to attend a good handful of concerts, and mostly accompanied by the lovely Jessica from work :)

Imagine Dragons, Gavin DeGraw, The Script, Train (saw these guys last fall, too!).

Great concerts here in Phoenix. Too bad they have to come when it's so dang hot.  105F in June for an outdoor concert. 107F in August for an outdoor concert. Luckily, we missed the 119F record heat day. That would have been brutal! The only good thing about that kind of heat, is baking cookies.

This was back on June 29, 2013. The official temperature recorded that day at Sky Harbor was 119F, setting a daily record. This is a capture from my phone. It felt that hot! Yowza!

Imagine Dragons concert at Comerica Theater in June 

Gavin DeGraw as an opener at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

The Script was next in line at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

Train as a finale at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

All of these bands were so great to hear live. Imagine Dragons is a new fav group of mine and they have some really great, catchy songs that just make me want to sing as loud as I can. But I won't.  You're welcome.

Gavin DeGraw I'd never seen in concert, but now I want to see as much of him as I can. He's got a great voice! The Script I didn't know much about, but some of their songs I'd heard before. They surprised me and were really good. Train, of course, was no disappointment. This was the second time I've seen them in a year and I'm so excited I was able to see them. I'll admit, I'm one of the people singing as loud as I can (who cares?!) to every single song. They are all great!

I'm thankful to have a friend to attend these shows with. Thanks Jessica :)

Baking cookies in 116F degrees, in a car in Phoenix

Normally when it is hot outside, the last thing anyone wants to do is...anything outside. Forecasting temperatures can be tricky. Trying to figure out just how hot it will get. A degree or two can mean a record is at stake, a Heat Warning could be issued, and the general public don't like to see temperature values go up, up, up. Especially when you approach that 120F degree mark. That's just insane!

So, deciding to bake cookies in a car to see if it could be done, why not? Not something that you hear about people doing everyday. So this was done for a few reasons. One, why not? Try it out, see if it will work. Two, a reminder as to just how hot it can get in a vehicle in the summer. So many PSA's out there about vehicle heat and safety with children and animals, this could have been seen as one of those as well. If it's hot enough to bake food  then it is obviously too hot to leave animals or children in a car. Three, just how hot does it get in Phoenix? Well, it was mostly for fun. 

This was done back on June 29, 2013. Phoenix Sky Harbor (official observation location) reached 116F degrees. The next day, we reached a record high of 119F degrees.

The LA Times did a great article on this event, and you can read it here. 

Our Facebook post went viral, and nearly 100,000 people saw this. That was exciting and hard to believe! 

P.S. Have you 'Liked' The National Weather Service Phoenix Arizona page yet? Check it out!

A couple different news agencies caught on and wrote up some stories. Read about them here: 

Skye-AOL Weather

LA Times

The Today Show (by the way, it wasn't 2 guys!)

Cookies baking away

Cookies after they were baked. And yes, I did eat them!

Look closely and you can see my reflection!

Did ya miss me?

Gosh, it's been nearly 2 months since I've posted on here. You'd think life was busy or something. Well, it has been. And this blog has been the lowest on the priority list. Sorry blog. In other news, we've all been doing well. Some quick updates for now, and with pictures of course, and then we'll start paying more attention to you, blog. 

Have a great weekend!

Jackson

{Our outing to a splash pad while running errands}

At 21 months old, he amazes us every single day. He's so smart. New words almost every day. He understands so much and can communicate fairly well. We've also hit the tantrums and whiney stages too. Ah, toddler hood. Not every day is like that though. Lots of playing outside in the water, digging in the sand, trying to chase and catch Lucy the Cat and feeding himself with a spoon and fork. Newest words that are funny sounding: "kuck" is stuck, most things are "owie" because we said it once, he says "hi" at very random times, when he says "peeease" = please he usually whispers it or is on repeat until we acknowledge that we heard him. He's such a budding little guy. He loves pouring water from cup to cup and helping Daddy do anything outside, from planting to watering to fixing stuff. Hard to believe he'll be 2 years old in a few months.

Josh

Working so much and Mr. Fix-it around the house. He's our favorite person in the world! We had a beautiful garden this spring in self-watering containers built by Josh. We had some huge zucchini squash produce as well as some cucumber and even some small bell peppers. Not many tomatoes or strawberries, but again the heat came in and I don't think the veggies or fruits are too fond of 102°F and hotter. Looking forward to the fall when we can grow some more. A new grill for Father's Day has inspired some outdoors grilling action going on. Enjoyed our first cedar plank grilled salmon along with grilled corn on the cob a few nights ago. Yum!

Char

Watching the weather. Running races. Cooking up new and exciting (ok, maybe not super exciting) meals. And juggling both of these busy boys. Speaking of racing, since January, I've done a race each month, or close enough. February didn't have any, but March had one in the beginning and one in the end, so I count it as Februarch. I think I'm hooked on running major races. I used to run in middle and high school and am getting back into it. Love it! Weather is getting more exciting to watch here in Arizona as our Monsoon has started, though no Monsoon moisture yet. Patiently waiting for the clouds to arrive. I need to get better about posting more cooking recipes and photos. Some things we've been enjoying a lot of are fresh fruits, avocados, strawberries, bananas and apples daily, steamed rice with steamed veggies, grilled chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes. Trying to mix it up and not use so much pasta (gosh, I love me some pasta) and incorporate more veggies (as if I need to incorporate more!). Meal time prep is pretty tough when you have two very demanding boys in your life and a schedule that doesn't have much time for myself, but I try to make use of prep time to prepare things I need. And anything that helps is great!

Lucy the Cat

Gotta have a section for her, right? She's doing well. No changes. She eats, sleeps and repeats. Yes, I may be that crazy cat lady. I'm OK with that.

And, if you couldn't tell, I document a lot on Instagram. Follow me there for more craziness. 

Crescent Roll Pan Pizza {recipe}

What to do when you want pizza but just can't find time to wait around for a yeast crust to rise? Use refrigerated Crescent rolls!

A last minute decision to make pizza meant I had to use what I had on hand. This worked perfectly! In the can of 8 rolls, I used 6 here as the crust forming as solid a crust as possible with very few 'holes'. The other 2 rolls of dough? I put strawberry jelly in and rolled and baked. Desert!

What's it take?

1 can crescent rolls, only 6 needed here 
1 round cake pan
pizza/spaghetti sauce
shredded mozzarella cheese
chopped bell peppers
chopped zucchini
sliced, grilled chicken
cooked Italian sausage

I used some left over grilled chicken and left over Italian sausage. Great way to use left overs! I had some chopped peppers and zucchini and threw those on. Preheat the oven to 350. Spray pan with non-stick spray. Cover bottom as best as you can with crescent rolls. Layer pizza sauce, cheese, sausage, chicken, veggies, more cheese. Bake for 15-17 min (or what the crescent roll package says). Perfect crust!

What an easy dinner!

Legos, Trains and Trucks

Life changes fast. The day you were born, your daddy and I's life changed so much. So much we didn't even realize. You've gone from eating every few hours to a few times a day. Napping the day away (not as often as we'd thought you would) to only napping once or twice a day (some days, none at all!). You used to just lay there and wiggle your arms, trying to find your face or something to hold on to. Now you walk from room to room throughout the house and are gone in 2 seconds, usually chasing the cat around. Making only a coo or squeak before, to now speaking nearly 10-15 words and even some sign language too. 

How did you get so smart so quick? Keep learning everyday, Jackson. But your daddy and I have one request. Don't grow up.

We love you! 18 months have flown by.