I made a balanced dinner!

Ever since I got married, cooking has been an interesting challenge. Growing up my mom tried to teach me to cook, even instilling a "Jenna has to cook once a month" rule. Somehow, with as strict as my parents were I got out of it. I don't know how I managed that. Now that I'm married, cooking has been a learning experience. I have to say that I think deep down I could like it. If I really tried...I do get joy out of making a great meal--mostly watching Blake eat it, he loves food. But, since I've had such a learning curve, I'd focus hard on one thing and just make that. And completely forget to make it a whole meal! Seriously, for 3 years now, I've repeatedly focused on the main course or just the MEAT and not make anything else with it, but be so proud that I made something. This of course incurred much teasing from my family. So I am posting this picture to prove that last night I made a balanced meal:


This meal is thanks to a new program I started...last night. Hence the nice meal. I signed up for this site that posts a meal plan each week and it comes with the ingredients on a shopping list! Already made for you. Here's the site: http://www.e-mealz.com/index.shtml
What's cool is that you can pick the meal plan that best fits you, like I picked Meals for 2, Lowfat, shopping at Walmart. But you can pick from lots of plans. If I don't like a meal that is scheduled for a certain day, I can just substitute it with a crockpot recipe of my own or something. This sounds basic, but the way this site has the plans posted and laid out...it just really meshes with my lifestyle. So we'll see how long I keep up with it! They try to incorporate at least a crockpot meal and two "easy" meals a week. Beef stew is cooking in the crockpot for us tonight!

Videos

This is Blake singing "I Will Sing of My Redeemer"


These are unaltered, unedited, and un-beefed up :)


This is the background vocals for the Medley:

Done with Vocals

Blake finished the vocals for his new CD this week! He was in Nashville all last week and I got to join him for the last half. It went really well and Blake's voice sounded great. We had a scary week just in the fact that on the first day of recording Blake pulled a muscle (or a few) in his neck while singing and they swelled up so big they were squeezing his vocal chords and he had a hard time with a few registers. His neck was rock hard because it was so swollen Wednesday night we were considering going to a doctor to get a steroid shot so he could finish the vocals on Thursday, but we prayed and God healed Blake enough to get through the last day and finish up without any dangerous shots. I have to say this CD is going to be SO good. It's beautiful and fun and uplifting. Blake's best one yet. Oh, and Blake's neck is still a little swollen and he's on vocal rest this week so he can sing for his upcoming concerts, but his voice sounds good and not like it was damaged at all.

Here are some photos. I have more to upload but they are still on the camera. Perhaps I even have a video clip somewhere... ;) Oh, and as for that house we put an offer on...the bank still hasn't responded to it yet. It's been over a week, grrr.

Here is Blake singing with the $25,000 microphone.
Actually, to get a good shot I had to go into the room but not while he was "for real" singing. Blake posed for me :) (for some reason you have to click the picture to see the whole picture...weird)

Blake asking a question or something

Blake's view from his recording room.
It's soundproof so all he had was a small window to see us
and we had to push a button to be able to talk to him.

Listening back

Recording and Premature House Update

So this post may be premature. But I have a hunch. Not a good hunch. About that house we put an offer on. We put an offer on that beautiful Ashford house and we're so excited, but we are still wary of that 15 year old roof. I am antsy to find out what the roof inspector from our insurance guy found (if he's even gone yet. I need to make a phone call on that). If he finds the roof is not damaged in any way, then that still leaves us with a 15 year old roof in Oklahoma where roofs only last here about 10 years or so...so I'm told. If he finds the roof is damaged, then it's uninsurable. So we'd not be able to even get a loan for the house because they won't give you a loan for a house without insurance. So, I guess our next step would be to see if the bank's insurance would replace the roof. This would be the ideal situation where we still could buy the house. But, most people are telling me banks don't ever pay to fix anything. So I don't know what happens then...retract our offer? Revise it $20,000 lower so we could pay to get a roof? Who knows. So I'm kinda preoccupied and disappointed already. But, if this is the house God picked for us, then I know it will work out! If not, then good riddance I guess.


This week Blake records the vocals for his new CD! Then the studio mixes it, then masters it and then we print it! So all is on schedule to have the CD in hand by the second week of September. So far so good, Blake texted me that this morning has been going well on his first day there. Apparently I scored bigtime with our $50 Priceline hotel we got...The Hilton Suites at Brentwood! I can't wait to see it, Blake says it's amazing. I'll post videos and pictures when I get there. :)

Ashford House

We found a house we love! We are putting an offer on it. I'm not going to get too attached though because it's roof is 15 years old. We can't buy a new roof, and insurance is telling us they probably won't insure it. So in our offer we have to stipulate the bank pays for a new roof (it's a foreclosure). So, if they do it's a go! If not, then we'll move on. :) I posted pics and a dark youtube video (the electricity had been turned off). It's located in North Yukon, in the Surrey Hills area, so still 15 min from my work, but about 30 min from our church and friends.

Click the photo to see the photo album:

Mediterranean Chicken

Discovered another great recipe!!! It's way healthy too. Blake and I both really loved it and deemed it "company worthy".

Mediterranean Chicken

Frozen Chicken (3-4 big pieces)
1 can diced tomatoes (add with juice)
half a jar of green olives (no juice)
bag of frozen artichoke hearts, or 1 can of artichoke hearts, drained

-Dump all together in a crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
-serve over rice or noodles
-you can also cook this in the oven at 375 for 30-45 minutes

House Hunting

It's official. Blake and I are house-hunting! I can't believe it's even a possibility let alone us actually looking and being ready to make an offer on a house. We got pre-approved this week and things have just been rolling. Every night this week we've been driving up and down streets in Yukon, OK looking for "For Sale" signs. It's a little scary and we can't buy a big expensive house or anything, but it's looking like we'll probably end up with a 1,400-1,700 SF home in the Yukon, OK area. Our current neighborhood has just gotten too dangerous. I didn't realize until I actually counted that we've had 3 break in incidents on our car and home in just a year and a half at our current rent house. Our neighbor has had 2 breakins in just the past 2 months. So, it's time to leave.

So far we don't have any really viable options. We found this one house that was built in 1983 that is 1922 SF! The really cool thing is that it has an outdoor atrium/courtyard in the middle of the house. I've never seen that before! It's probably a 10x10 space that is completely open to the outside (like a doughnut). Blake and I have discovered we get depressed in a house without light pretty easily. In our current house it has SO many big windows and that has been a big blessing. So, having an outdoor atrium in the middle of the house would be wonderful. I love everything about the house except for that it's on a 1/3 acre of land (who's gonna mow that?), the master bath is open to the masterbedroom (like the sinks are on the side of the bedroom and you enter a little door for the toilet and shower), and that it's a smoker's house. Do you think a new coat of paint and new carpet would take care of that?

Then we got all excited about a house in our favorite neighborhood, but then found out it was under contract. So, it's very up and down emotions-wise. So we'll just wait and hope and pray the right house comes along :)