A new fish tank

I blogged a few months ago about the new fish tank we bought. Chad sold the first tank and stand he had. He built the stand so it was hard to sell but we really didn't want to have 2 fishtanks to take care of. So we sold that one and bought a new fish tank. Chad has been itching to start building the stand for the new tank so I gave him the ok to go and buy some wood.

This was after he finished the sides.

Oliver also wanted to help build the tank but it ends up he is a little small to help. Also he only has paws which don't prove very effective in building a fishtank stand. So instead he chewed on the scraps of wood and played tug of war with Chad.

Then he dragged the wood way and continued to chew more. The piece of wood was actually a little too big for him to carry in his mouth.

Then he got tired of chewing and layed down by the chop saw. Adorable.

Sorry to Chad. This post turned into another about Oliver. Can't help myself.

Cafe Rio in California?

Since leaving Utah we (okay me mostly) have really missed Cafe Rio! It's sad how much I crave it so I decided I must have it. No, we did not drive to Utah. Instead we brought Cafe Rio to us. I found similar cafe rio recipes online and set to work to make a knock off cafe rio salad. I think they turned our pretty dang close!

It did take a lot of stuff, but I have mostly everything now I will need for next time:



Here are the recipes I used:

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

5-6 lb. pork roast

21 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6-ish oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Place roast in crock-pot, cover half-way with water and cook on low for 12 hours. After 12 hours, drain pork (retain liquid if you want sauce for burritos, simply mix with a can of verde enchilada sauce and away you go).

Mix remaining ingredients until sugar dissolves. I didn’t keep the actual chilies, I dumped the can into a bowl and added enough Dr. Pepper to get all the sauce off of the chilies, then I tossed them. I also rinsed out the can with Dr. Pepper for more adobo goodness. My version had a fairly good kick to it, but if you LOVE hotness, then blend everything + 2 or 3 chilies in the blender. (Also, the adobo sauce tends to stain plastic, using a glass or metal mixing bowl will make your clean-up of adobo sauce considerably less frustrating).

Add Dr. Pepper mixture to the roast and cook on low an additional 4 hours.

Take out roast and shred, add back into sauce and cook for 2 more hours. At this point the meat was so tender it practically shredded itself.

Cafe Rio Tomatillo Dressing

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
3 tomatillos (remove papery skin), rough chop
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup (or more) cilantro, rough chop
3 cloves garlic
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp green Tabasco sauce
juice from 1 lime

Dump everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in air-tight container (or your entire fridge will smell like garlic and cilantro).


Easy Pico-de-Gallo

3 tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, minced
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 section of green pepper, minced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
about 1/3-1/2 cup vinegar (use your best judgement)
salt and pepper

Dump everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in air-tight container (or your entire fridge will smell like garlic and cilantro).

Black beans:

2 cans of black beans (could probably even use 3)
1 1/3 cup tomato juice
2 cloves of garlic
teaspoon ground cumin
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over meduik heat until you can smell it. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro.


Cilantro lime rice:

2 cups of uncooked rice (I used minute rice)
4 cups water mixed with 2-4 tsp chicken bouillion (I used 2 cups water and 2 bouillion cubes)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp butter

saute butter and garlic until soft, don't let burn! Add rice and cook for a minute or two on medium heat. Add water and boullion mixture and remaining ingredients to a boil. After it begins to boil rapidly, reduce heat to low and cover with lid. Stir occasionally and let simmer for about 20 minutes. (I just followed minute rice instructions and then addes garlic, butter, cilantro and lime juice after rice is done.)


Tortilla Strips – slice a corn tortilla into strips, brush with olive oil and salt and pepper and bake on a foil-covered sheet for 15-20 minutes at 350-ish.


And walla! The finished product looked like a Cafe Rio salad to me and Chad said they were amazing. So I give myself a pat on the back for giving us some spectacular Cafe Rio this weekend.


Disclaimer: Nothing really compares to the real Cafe Rio so stop by there on your next visit to Utah!

Unlikely friends

My friend Kelly from high school and her husband Alex came up to the cabin with chad and I this weekend.

Kelly and Alex brought their dog Maddy. She is the most even tempered Rottweiler. When her and Oliver first met at Kelly's house, Oliver was the agressive one and Maddy was the one backing up from Oliver. Oliver just kept narking and freaking and out and Maddy was going
"what's with this guy?"

We decided to just bring both of them with us and figured they would warm up to each other once we got to the cabin. And oh did they... they became best friends!

They would play for hours and they both go flop on the ground somewhere because they were so tired from playing. And the weight difference didn't make a difference. Maddy was so gentle and often looked like she was going to bite Oliver but never did. Oliver didn't get hurt once. They just had a blast.

They would even sit by the door together and wait for us to come in and out.

They also went on walks together...
Kelly and I at the cabin.

We also did a little offroading... This is Kelly and I in the back of the prowler.

And Chad and I on a neighbors ATV.

We found a beautiful place to take some pictures.


It was such a fun weekend and so nice to see a friend I haven't seen in over two years and get to know her new husband.

Learning to sew

My mother is a master seamstress...and I'm not just saying that because she is my mom. She really is awesome. Here are some dresses she has done...

My wedding dress

My sister's wedding dress

My sister-in-law's wedding dress

So in light of my mom's amazing sewing abilities and the fact that I can't even sew a button back on a shirt...I decided it was time to get some sewing lessons from my mom. I picked out a few dresses I wanted to make and we went to a fabric store in Turlock and got some fabric that would work well.

And then we started sewing... this is the top and bottom part of a dress we're making. It is turning out really good and I am excited to be able to wear something that I sewed myself.

Sewing the pleats in the top in the above picture.

Ironing is a big part of sewing.

I probably won't ever be the seamstress my mother is but at least I will know how to sew on a button now!

Nothing could ruin my dad...

Really...this is how I feel. Like 10 people jumping continuously up and down and then campturing their jumps on photos. That's how happy I am. Look at those faces...don't they just look...happy. Well if you could see mine right now that's how it would look. Why are you so happy you ask? Well Chad just secured a temporary job with his dad. When we first moved here Chad was working for my Uncle at the same company I am working at but for many reasons too numerous to list it just didn't work out. So he has been without a job for a week. This morning his dad called him and told him he has finally convinced his boss to let Chad work for a couple weeks. Tony (Chad's dad) works for J Garcia construction. They do a lot of work on military bases, etc. so his employees are all paid prevailing wage. What does that mean? It means that Chad will be making $30 something dollare an hour for the next week and we can pay off all our debt! (ok maybe not all but most) It's basically the answer to our prayers. It also means we get to move on our own sooner than planned!!! We are just so so happy.

Chad and I are always looked out for. Not only do we have awesome families who constantly helo us in any way they can, but we also have a loving Heavenly Father who we attribute all the miracles in our lives to. Life is so difficult sometimes but we just never know when a miracle will happen and will change everything for the better. If you often sruggle financially (like we do) or spiritually or physically, don't give up. Heavenly Father will always be there for you to help you in any struggle.

I know for sure that because we pay our tithing we have been very blessed. We may not be millionaires and we may not always have all the money we want but we never go without. I feel so blessed to live in America in this day and age and have all the freedoms and opportunities I have. I also feel blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love life!

Temple Night

On Friday Chad and I went to the temple with our families. My mom and stepdad came and so did Chad's parents and his sister and her husband Bobby. It was a really nice trip. Chad and I are still getting used to having to actually travel to the temple. It is now and hour and a half drive instead of a 10 minute drive like it was in Utah. But it actually makes it more fun. It also helps us to plan ahead and set a date so that we don't keep rescheduling our temple night like we have done in the past. The Oakland temple is just beautiful and it is always a wonderful experience to go back to the place we were married. It was a long night because we went out to dinner afterwards but it was well worth it. Here are a few picture from the night...

And these are just two picture I took of Ariana and Oliver playing in my mom's back yard on Sunday while my mom gave me a sewing lesson.

Giants game adventure?

So we did in fact got to a Giants game last night. Let me just tell you a little about our night. {Oh and it really was fun...just putting that out there before I get slightly negative.} {Oh and of course I left my camera in my purse in the car like I always do...so of course no pictures.} So I drove home from work and everybody was waiting for me. So I changed and jumped in the van where everyone was waiting. We left at around 5:30. So we get on the 99 and just start coming to the Pleasanton/Dublin area. We have almost made it over the hill and into the next valley. Side note: Chad's cousin sam, his two friends, Chad's brother Jake and his friend are all in another car behind us. His cousin and friends are all from Idaho and are just visiting.

So...we were just relaxing, excited to go to the Giants game and were getting anxious to be there already. Michelle, who is driving is on her blue tooth and all of sudden says, "they almost just got in an accident" (referring to the car behind us filled with the other half of our family.) Just after that a hispanic man in a green Toyato drives on the right side of us. He is in a big hurry and is smiling from ear to ear like he just won an award. Someone says, "thats the guy that almost caused the accident!" We were all mad and saying mean things to him like he could hear us. Then he slows down and gets on the left side of us and speeds off into the sunset. No one thought to get his license plate number because after all he only almost caused an accident. Well literally 1 minute later, Sam calls from the other car and says we're tryin to catch up to that guy becuase he made us hit another car.

So yeah, he actually did cause an accident. It was minor luckily and the two cars only barely touched but it was enough. Well the guy was long gone so both cars in our party pulled over along with the other car that got hit on the side of the 99. The other car wanted to call the police and get a report becuase it was a company car. So we were already running late for the game and were all starving, but we had to wait an hour for a policeman to finally arrive. Then the guy actually didn't even end up filing a report becuase if he did we (the other car) would actually be at fault. Yeah...that's California for you. So we finally leave and head to San Fran about the time the game is starting. We finally get there an hour and a half late which really didn't turn out to bad. Sometimes baseball games can drag on (sorry like this post).

Ok so skip past all the intense baseball playing. We leave for back home around midnight and don't get back to our house untul after 1:30 AM. So I really didn't think this whole getting no sleep thing through when we said we wanted to go to the baseball game. I an now on about 5 1/2 hours of sleep which is no good for me. Oh and wait, it gets better. About 6 Am this morning our smoke detector in our room starting beeping. Loud and annoying. So Chad gets out of bed and changes batteries and unhooks and no luck. Finally it stops with maybe about 1/2 an hour to spare until I have to get up. That was my night.

Okay so I had fun at the game...once I ate. This post is funny and annoying but mostly saying sorry to my husband for my bad mood last night. I thought if the experience was written down my bad mood might be exused a little. Maybe? Maybe not. At least it is an advenute to share with you. Hope you think its funny...because I didn't last night.