Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful and quiet Christmas this year. the Holiday began with a nice ham dinner with Nova and Dan. After dinner all five of us played a little Wii bowling (Rob must be practicing when no one is home!)

We got up at 5:00 am on Christmas morning, Jake was too excited to sleep any longer. We opened our gifts and basically had a relaxing, lounging day. We layed around, Jake played his new games and I watched the Suns lose a tough one to the hated Spurs.

I hope everyone had a joyful Christmas and their Christmas wishes came true; I know mine did.

Baked Squash and Apples

This is one of my favorite dishes. I never get to make it because no one in my family besides me likes squash. It would be a great Thanksgiving side dish. Yummy!

1 butternut squash
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar
2-3 baking apples, peeled cored & cut into 12 slices each
1/4 c. melted butter
1tbsp. flour
1tsp. salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut squash in half. Remove seeds and fibers; pare squash, cut into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange squash in ungreased 11x7 baking dish; top with apples. Combine dry ingredients and sprinkle over apples. Drizzle melted butter over all. Bake 50-60 min. or until squash is tender. (Serves 6)

I AM by Jacob Bowser (age 10)

I am a boy who laughs while
riding bikes and finds fun in football

I wonder if I will ever get a X-Box 360
I hear people chanting my name
I see me making the big hit in football
I want an IPod touch

I am a boy who laughs while
riding bikes and finds fun in football

I pretend I'm famous
I feel a million dollars
I touch the sky whne I jump
I worry about rain forests
I cry when football's over

I am a boy who laughs while
riding bikes and finds fun in football

I understand how to play football
I say don't cut down trees
I dream about when I grow up
I try to get good grades
I hope to be rich

I am a boy who laughs while
riding bikes and finds fun in football

Hail Storm 11/9/08

We had quite the hail storm this afternoon. It was awesome! We are weird here in Arizona; we get excited when it rains. We had some neighbors over and none of us could remember the last time it rained.

Anyway, the hail was cool. It's about 75-80 degrees these days so it seems so weird to have these marble sized ice-balls fall from the sky. It lasted about 45 minutes. At the end of the storm my mentally challanged dog Lucky got out the front door and went for a run around the neighborhood. She came back when she got tired, and took a nap.

Halloween 2008

For halloween this year Jake decided to be the Joker and his friend Josh was the very scary Devil. Once again they systematically conquered the neighborhood with Josh's dad Donnie, while Cindy (Josh's mom) and I sat in the driveway with GMom and family friend Vern and handed out candy. It was a beautiful night but we ran out of candy early this year (around 7:30).
I'm not really a fan of Halloween. Now christmas, that's my favorite holiday!

Football is my life!

2008 Pee Wee Rattlers
Jake is playing football again this year. He has worked very hard and this past week he worked his way into the starting line-up and played the entire game! This is a huge improvement from the begining of the season when he didn't even get into the regular game. What a great life lesson Jake has learned. He can achieve anything if he doesn't give up, with hard work, determination and a positive attitude.

So, anyway there is only two more games; then we can have our life back! Jake will be dissappointed when football is over but I can't say that I will miss it.

I had no idea this was even possible!!!!

So I'm scanning the news on azcentral.com as I often do and I see the Diamondbacks have put catcher Chris Snyder on the 15 day DL for a left testicular fracture! Wow! Who knew? I hope he's okay.

"After initially believing that Snyder would need surgery for
the left testicular fracture that landed him on the disabled list Tuesday,
manager Bob Melvin said Snyder will not undergo a procedure."
Read the entire article here

Yummy Ham & Potato Soup

I try a lot of recipes from a website called Allrecipes.com I like this site because they have a rating system where people who have tried the recipe can rate how it came out, how it tasted, and leave comments.

Here's a tasty and easy recipe for leftover ham. I usually like to make scalloped potatoes and ham with the leftover ham, but thought I would try something different this time. It turned out great! I added a can of drained corn also.

Ham & Potato Soup

INGREDIENTS:
3 1/2 cups peeled and diced
potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water or chicken broth
salt to taste
ground white or black pepper to taste
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

DIRECTIONS:
1.
Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
2.
In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
3.
Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

Arizona Grand Resort Weekend

This probably should have been posted eariler but better late than never, as they say.

The first weekend in June our family spent a weekend at the local Arizona Grand Resort (formerly The Pointe South Mountain) in Phoenix. This is a four-diamond family orientated resort that has it's own water park. It was tons of fun. They also have a cool western-themed restaurant called Rustler's Rooste on the property where we ate dinner and tried rattle snake. It tastes like chicken. Jake liked it though.

Summer Camp 2008

Jacob and his friend Conner left for Camp Sky-Y in Prescott on Sunday 6/29. He has been away from home before and gone on trips without us in the past. However, I didn't realize how hard it would be for us not to hear from him, and not to be able to call. Whew! It's tough!
We had a chance to walk around camp when we dropped the boys off and it looks awesome! I know they're having a great time. Check out the website to see details of the camp http://www.azycamps.org/sky_desc.html . They also have a website that allows you to email (one-way) and check out photos for each day (this is for a fee of course). This feature has been nice because we have been able to see some of the activities they have been participating in through daily posted photos. Jake will be back on Saturday. Yippee! I really miss him.

Thoughts for the day.....

I've just been glancing through this blog and I am shocked to realize that I haven't read a book since October (Eat, Pray, Love)! I usually only read during the school breaks but apparently I have been busy. I guess I'll have to get to it!
My parents left to go back to Rochester, NY today. I am really going to miss them. It was nice to have them here after such a long time. They haven't come for a visit in like 4 years and we haven't been back since summer 2005! We speak often but its not the same. They promise to be back next spring. I really hope so.

FYI:
Rob is participating in the Ironman Arizona Triathlon again on Sunday 4/13/08. His race starts with a 2.4 mile swim at 7:00 am, then a 112 mile bike ride and lastly a 26.2 mile run. Lat year he finished the race in 14 hours 49 minutes (9:49 pm). If you would like to track him live throughout the day go to http://www.ironman.com/ and click the IronmanLive tab in the upper right corner. We will be staying at a downtown Tempe hotel during the race. So while Rob is out racing we can go back to the room for a nap or a movie. :)

Go Suns!

Spring Break

We had a great spring break this year. My nephew Alex plays baseball for SUNY Cortland and played in a 8-game tournament here. We went to every game but one, of course he went 3 for 4 wth 5 RBI's in that game.

My parents also came to stay with us for about a month. We had a great time! The weather was great and my Dad got out to play golf several times. We made a trip up to Strawberry, AZ to friends of my parents who have a goat and llama ranch. We even tried goat-milk fudge (pretty good!)

Our pool temperature is already at about 78 degrees so Jake had fun swimming and catching a sun burn for a few days. The adults are holding out for warmer water.

Mom and Dad are leaving tomorrow and we will really miss them . They promise to come back next year so we have that to look forward to.

Waterfront Property

I thought these pictures were kinda cool. We live on a wash, which in Queen Creek, AZ rarely has water in it. Since we have lived here, a little over 3 years, the wash has filled up twice after a wet winter. It's kind of weird. I guess they open some dams up and let the water flow through the wash system.