So some updates are in order I suppose

We are still alive and kicking. The weather has been beautiful and we are loving it down here so much. As promised here are some before, during and after photos of the house.

the living room from the front door

The living room from the kitchen

The front of the house

The living room during

Master bedroom during

Jina's room

Living room during from upstairs

Master bed completed

Scrap closet

Living room complete from kitchen

Living room complete from upstairs

Jina's room

Front of house with trees in bloom

We took a break from the box madness after a week of being here and took the kiddos to the beach. It was the first time for the twins but not for Jina. Mason took to the water like a fish but Mitchell really needed some serious coaxing.

The next entries that I'll do will be updates to my separate 38 challenges. I'm not doing to bad with the food and reading but the project one I may end up failing miserably at.

Finally moved

Sorry it's been a while. We are, after two weeks, pretty much moved in. We have about 20 boxes left to go to be unpacked. I'll update later with a few before, during and after pics. We are really loving it here. The weather has been fantastic and we are only 45 minutes from the ocean. Can't go wrong with that. The daughter has finally gotten settled into her new school and she seems to really like it.

As for projects...as you can well imagine everything was pretty much put on hold except for reading. I've finished two books since the move started. The first was The Race by Clive Cussler. As much as I love Clive I'm really just not a huge fan of his Issac Bell series. I find them to be rather dull and lack luster compared to his other series.

The second was Water for Elephants. I'm not really sure how I felt about this book. It was good but not one I'd rush out to talk about. I finished it but I can't really say that I loved it. I think I really just wanted to see how it ended.

More posts later as I get settled back into a routine.

Update

I haven't had much going on in the way of cooking or crafting. So just a quick hello to say I'm still here. We are in full out packing mode to get ready for our upcoming move. Can't wait. I am making a new recipe tonight so maybe I'll get that posted by tomorrow.

More stuff from my project 38

So I haven't updated my progress on my 38 books to be read. I'm a little behind in my reading as well as my non-scrappy projects. But the latest book I've read was Clockwork Angel. It was a great read but I'm not real happy with the ending. Now I'll have to wait who knows how long for the next one to come out. However the author is releasing the next book in her other series soon. Can't wait for that.

I haven't posted any scrappy projects in a long time so here is some of the stuff I've been working on for the challenge over at Scrapbook Heaven Ga.

The first one is of my hubby and I celebrating our 6 year anniversary. The next is of the twins on our daughter's birthday playing in the leaves in the yard. The last is of our beautiful daughter.

New recipe number 13

This is the last of my Simple and Delicious new recipes. This was really really good surprisingly. It's Chicken and Bacon Tart. It was very simple to make and with the red pepper jelly it had just a smidge of a zing to it. The recipe says it serves 4 so I doubled it and for the three grown up eaters and two little ones there were only 2 pieces left. So if you have heafty eaters you may want to double or even triple it. And guess what? I actually took a pic of it. so here ya go.

New recipe 11 and 12

Almost caught up. No pictures for these though. But here are the two new recipes and my thoughts on them. Both came from the newest Simple and Delicious. I wore that issue out.

Best Ever Pizza - It was good. I thought the crust was a little rubbery. Don't know why. Everyone thought it was really good. I'll make it again. It's inexpensive. I'm going to try some different toppings next time.

Chili Hash - My main problem with this is one of the ingredients is Chili Starter. Can't find it. But according to what I found online it's basically beans and sauce. So that's what I used. I won't make it again. It was kinda dry and very bland. I'm used to seasonings but the first time I make a recipe I try to follow it. It needed.....a lot of things. I would drop the peas and add corn. My dad sat and picked all the peas out of his. He had a plateful of peas left over.

I'll have one more to talk about tomorrow and maybe a layout. It's been awhile since I've posted anything scrappy.

New recipe number 9 & 10

Oops fell behind a bit. I've also gotten very bad about taking pictures. But anyway. Both of these recipes were from the newest Simple and Delicious magazine.

Number 9

Parsley Crusted Cod-I try really hard to make fish for the family but it always seems to fail miserably. We can't find any that we like. And this was no exception. It was blah at best. I really can't say much else. I can't think of anything that could possibly have made it better. The twins hated it and would not eat it at all which is odd for my "Mikey-ish" son. My daughter said it was ok, and the hubby said he'd rather I didn't fix it again. Oh well, back to the fish board.

Number 10

Chicken Pamesean Couscous-This is supposed to be made using leftover chicken from the number 8 recipe that I posted. I did use some leftovers from it but had to make and extra chicken breast to go with it. So.......all we have to say is "Oh my God please don't ever in a million years make this again". It was awful. Almost to the point of dumping it off in the woods to the wild life and run to McDonalds awful. I'm serious. It was so dry you could barely choke it down.

So that's the recipe rundown there. I actually think I may have a Couscous pic but I'll have to check.

There are a few more recipes that I've made that I'll update later with.

Here is the pic of the couscous.