Cooking: Strawberry Syrup and Crepes

I love breakfast. As in the food that one typically eats at such a meal. Pancakes: check. French toast: check. Waffles: check. Did I mention I love carbs, too? If breakfast and carbs are one and the same, then I am totally there.

We start with some good yummy strawberries. I took the recipe from here. They have such lovely food photos that makes EVERYTHING look good. There are also a lot of helpful hints to help you make really good food.

After a short while cooking on the stove top and then a whirl in a blender (or food processor), we have...

....strawberry sauce that looks a lot better in person. Promise. (Look! My ramekins I got on clearance at JoAnns!!)

Then we take some more strawberries.

And make some of these yummy tasties from here. Trust me. Using butter every single time is the best way to make crepes. I forgot the butter one time tested it today. Although that could just be the recipe and my pan and my stove. Making crepes their way was a lot shorter than whatever I was doing before.

Jared thought the syrup tasted "just like it looks". A fruit roll up. Not certain if that's good or not.

A picturescape of my life

I promise you I've been doing things. Let me introduce you to my house.

This was when the snow was pretty mild back in December. By the time I saw it, there was more snow. By the time we were doing inspections (one of them anyway), the snow was more than halfway to our knees.

Jared's first official act as home owner.

Our first meal in our home (less than an hour after signing).

Our living space for 2 or 3 or however many weeks it was before the moving company got all our stuff here.

Master closets sans doors. Hers and His. The green is pretty, don't get me wrong. But not for my bedroom.

There was no closet shelving anywhere. This was the first time I've used a power drill in my adult life. I did it all myself!

The prep for Kaelyn's room.

Pretty, pretty colors.

I can't wait to use these colors again.

A crappy dresser that we were given when we were married. I'm still working on it, but I promise you it looks better than this.

The fabric I got for Kaelyn's cloth wipes (which I LOVE to all you mothers with babes in dipes out there).

A sign I got and made better for Jared's anniversary present.

And of course, my baby at six months. She is full of smiles and love for everyone.

I promise more posts in the future. Promise.

A Letter to Genevieve

Dear Niece Vivi,

Thank you for teaching Kaelyn how to be a loud mouth. Our ears appreciate it very much. Especially since it's higher pitched than your own darling loud sounds.

Love and hugs,
Uncle Jared and Aunt Suki

P.S.
We still love you.

Tax Time

Are your taxes completed? Mine aren't! Relax... we got time. We're waiting on one little bitty paperwork that lists our charitable contributions from last year. Hopefully we get that soon.

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I got this email from Dave Ramsey (well, his newsletter anyway) last week and we all like laughing at tax jokes kinda like how we like laughing at Bill Cosby cause you know he's right.

The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. — Mark Twain

Worried about an IRS audit? Avoid what's called a red flag. That's something the IRS always looks for. For example, say you have some money left in your bank account after paying taxes. That's a red flag. — Jay Leno

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. — Dr. Laurence J. Peter

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. — Will Rogers

There's nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won't cure. — Dan Bennett

Isn't it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool's Day and ends with cries of "May Day!" — Rob Knauerhase

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. — Ronald Reagan

[The Internal Revenue Code is] about 10 times the size of the Bible and, unlike the Bible, contains no good news. — Don Nickles

I just filled out my income tax forms. Who says you can't get killed by a blank? — Milton Berle

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Complete with some fun trivia facts (there was a graph which I didn't care to deal with putting that in here):

Highest rate – 94% (1944 and 1945)
Biggest one-year jump – 52% (from 15% in 1916 to 67% in 1917)
Worst rate-per-income year – 1944–1945 (the tax rate on a $200,000 income was 94%)
Worst stretch – from 1951 to 1963 (91% in 1951, 92% from 1952 to 1953, 91% from 1954 to 1963)
Biggest income-year drop (what you were taxed on; it makes a huge difference!) – 1942 ($5 million to $200,000)

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Till next time!

We are OFFICIAL!

We finally closed on our house on Monday. I'll spare you the details, but we were still providing the lender with information as we were walking out the door to go to the title company to close. And that was AFTER closing was delayed an hour.

The seller's agent (they were unavailable) handed over the keys despite the fact that the lender was slow in wiring the loan and we wasted no time in getting over to our home. Jared's first official act of home ownership was to raise the thermostat. Our first meal in our house was Wendy's.

We also wasted no time in living in our home. We're pretty much in the one carpeted room in the house. We moved our cats over here last night. Between Jared (who kept talking about kilobytes in his sleep), Kaelyn (who woke up frequently), and the cats (who thought they needed to be up every time Kaelyn was up), I didn't sleep very well. Kara is still skulking around.

Yesterday we purchased a washer and dryer which will be delivered tomorrow afternoon. Today we are purchasing a color paint wheel thing and a measuring tape. I am EXCITED. :D