Apparently it's been a long time since I was in High School

Sadly my clothes and I were unable to get much quality time together this weekend. I thought I would have a good chunk of time Friday afternoon but it somehow got lost to errands, the book store and making a pie. I don't know how these things happen. Then Saturday morning I left for a little weekend adventure. My friend Sara from church, my sister and I took the high school girls from youth group up to my parents cabin for the weekend. Here's what I have learned from spending the weekend with a bunch of High School girls:

1. High School girls can eat A TON! I thought my husband and his friends were bad but that was nothing to the amount of food that was consumed, particularly of the snack and candy varieties.

2. Don't take a variety of candy equaling 5lbs thinking that the girls will select what they like and you can just use the rest for the Halloween party. No. They will eat practically all of it!

3. College has become much more difficult to apply to and get accepted to

4. Monopoly can take 3-4 hours to play and crunches can become currency as well as nutty buddies. (I haven't l earned yet what a nutty buddy is)

5. You always need more s'mores ingredients then you imagined. High school girls eat more than two s'mores a piece.

6. High school students today are expected to have jobs, play sports, get perfect grades and excel in extra curricular activities

7. Star bursts are considered breakfast food by some.

All in all it was a very fun time. I really enjoy all the girls and they were all great. But I am very tired. As for my wardrobe it will have to wait until after labor day for it's much needed attention because we are going to Wallowa with Lauren and Nick for Labor Day!!! Thanks to the good advice comments.

This weekend I am spending some quality time with my clothes

With school starting and fall approaching it’s catch up time for me. Now is the time before fall hits to clean and organize my house, start thinking through my busy holiday schedule and sort through my clothes. I don’t know about all of you buy tab out twice a year my clothes become a jumbled mess, nothing fits in my dresser or closet, and yet I hate all of my clothes and have nothing to wear.

Instincts tell me to toss half of it and go on a fall shopping spree. Mr. P and my budget tell me otherwise. Yet I have nothing to wear….!!!! So what is a girl to do? Well, I find in times like these that what is needed is some quality time with my wardrobe. Some time to get the creativity flowing back into my outfits. It seems that after awhile my clothes and I get lazy. We fall into a drone of the same things. Every morning we just want to appear in jeans and tees or the same black slacks and a striped blouse or the same denium skirt and cardigan. We forget about the variety of cute scarves in the scarf box, the shoe rack full of shoes in the closet and the jewelry box…hasn’t been touched in weeks. I just get bored of coming up with outfits, plus I somehow lose, stain, shrink or wear out all my basics that I need in order to wear the floral skirt, the cropped trousers, the pink flats and the multi-color beaded necklace. The combination of these factors results in blah blah blah when it comes to getting dressed.

That’s the problem. I hope I’m not alone is this problem, that everybody experiences fashion hum drum and it isn’t that I’m just hopelessly clueless in the fashion department. Anyway, to fix the problem…I have a plan. I received a much needed $100 gift card to the gap for my birthday a few weeks ago. This year rather than go on a free for all I am first going to spend some quality time with my wardrobe. I’m going to haul it all out and actually try things on…with other things….it will be crazy and unheard of in my house. I will plan outfits, I will see what else might go with that green pleated skirt. I will use my accessories and be creative. It will be an amazing experiment in my house (usually getting dressed is a bit of a haphazard affair for me). As I do this I will make a list of things I really need like a new white oxford blouse or perhaps a black cardigan or maybe tank tops for layering. I will identify what objects are preventing me from wearing the 75% of my closet I do not wear and those are the items I will purchase. Brilliant right? Then for the items that have no fix I will get rid of. This is my plan. Helpful hints, advise, fashion genious, inspiration please send my way. I will need it.

Back to School

Mr. P started is third and final year of law school today. It seems like just yesterday that we were graduating and he was getting ready for his first year and now he’s almost done and I am so EXCITED! Being married to a law student is a bit crazy and I am hoping this year will be a little less crazy. With two years under our belt I’m hoping Mr. P and are getting the hand of this law school thing.

I was getting him ready for school this weekend and I couldn't help miss the back to school feeling. Going to buy school supplies and more importantly new fall clothes. Lunch boxes with friends rather then lunch meetings with politicians. Getting to wear jeans everyday! Breaks between classes when everyone congregates on the lawn and instead of studying. Rushing through the pouring rain to Roma for cheap hot coffee and piles of philosophy books to read.

But then again…while I may work some pretty late nights, I never have to take work home. I never have to wake up at 5am on a Saturday to go work in a coffee shop. I haven’t pulled an all-nighter in over two years. And I don’t have to eat poor college student food day after day.

Maybe I’m aching for the change in the seasons, fall leaves and colors, warm sweaters, watching old movies on rainy Saturday afternoons and pumpkin pie and many steaming hot bowls of soup.

What are you looking forward to as fall inches closer?

Weekend Eats at Potter Place

This week I’m loving these cook books:



I haven’t posted a menu in a few weeks because we’ve been out of town so much and things have been so crazy. Now that school is starting back up things will fall back into routine. This week I am adding breakfast to my menu (only on weekends). I am always looking at the breakfast sections of my cook books and thinking “that looks so good, I am going to make that” and then never making it. This week I am starting with some easy yet delicious Ellie Krieger breakfast dishes which look perfect for a weekend at home.

Menu
Friday: Hungarian Goulash (Betty Crocker Cookbook, 1979), brown rice, wilted spinach with garlic, and pickled beets (The New Southern Basics by Martha Stamps)
Saturday: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes (The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger), New Orleans Red Beans and Rice (New Orleans Food by Tom Fitzmorris)
Sunday: Apple-Pecan Muffins (The Food You Crave) and yogurt with fresh berries, Chicken with Poblano Cream Sauce (Food Everyday by Martha Stewart) and steamed red potatoes with fresh green beans
Monday: Sweet and Spicy Peanut Soup (The Food You Crave) with Chicken Salad Sandwiches (Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten) and leftover pickled beets
Tuesday: Pork Chops with apples and shallots, spinach with nutmeg (Food Everyday) and Buttermilk Mashed potatoes (Barefoot Contessa at Home)
Wednesday: Spice Rubbed Lamb Pops (The Food You Crave) with Herbed basmati rice and orange glazed carrots (Barefoot Contessa at Home)
Thursday: Dinner at Friends

What are you planning to cook this weekend?

Almost Friday

It's Thursday, which means it's almost Friday, and that means: jeans to work, lunch out with a friend and off at 3pm!

I am looking forward to this weekend for a number of reasons:

1. I have no major plans--I'm not going out of town. I'm just cleaning house, tackling loads of laundry, finally seeing The Time Traveler's Wife with my sister, baking up a storm with my new Kitchenaid Mixer, and getting together with friends from church, and of course cooking delicious new recipes. I will post my menu tomorrow and it's a good one. I worked on it over a couple of days and I am pretty excited about it.

2. Mr. P and I are spending a lot of quality time together because this is the last weekend before law school starts back up and the madness begins again.

3. Saturday morning I am going to a local dairy to pick up my first order of raw milk, this is unprocessed, unpasteurized fresh milk. I am very excited about this and I hope it is as delicious as I have imagined!

4. I finally get my camera back which I left in San Francisco. I borrowed my Mom's camera for the camping trip. Which means come Monday pictures of my weekend baking extravaganza!

Well those are my weekend plans. I feel them beckoning me...What are your plans for the weekend?

Climbing Scary Mountains

During our camping trip last weekend my Dad and I climbed Mt. Thielsen. This is something we planned on doing a year ago and something I had been training for. Mt. Thielsen is an extinct volcano in the Oregon High Cascades.

This is the view of Mt. Thielsen from Diamond Lake

When my Dad had talked to me about climbing the mountain with him he had stressed the physical difficulty of it. He has climbed the mountain to the top twice, first when he was 16 and again about 6 years ago. It's 5 miles to the top and in those 5 miles you go up 4000ft in elevation. The trail head starts at 5000 ft elevation and ends just over 9000 ft. Once you get past 8000 ft the oxygen in the air decreases and it can make it more difficult to climb. So I was prepared for a difficult hike. However, I wasn't prepared to be terrified which is exactly what happened. What my Dad didn't explain is that the last 1.5 miles of the hike you are climbing up rocks. There are places where you are going up lava rock where you have hand holds and foot holds. Other places you go up loose shale where you fall back two feet for every one foot you move forward. For most if it you have to use your hands as well as your feet. Many of the places it's hard to distinguish rocks to grab onto because some are loose. You have to test every place you put your hands and feet or you may fall 30 feet down the mountain side. Here are some pictures from the hike.

This is the mountain from just before the tree line (about 2 miles from the top)

Here is the view of diamond lake from the trail.

This is what we're climbing up

Which soon turns into this

And then this. This is where I stopped.

This is the view from where I stopped.

This is the remaining trail up the horn which I decided not to do. So I didn't quite go to the top but I was really close. And I have to say I am really glad I went as far as I did. When the trail first started to get hairy I wanted to stop but I decided to try. I don't know if I will ever go up this mountain again but I think it was a good experience. And for now this ends Mrs. P rock climbing adventures.

My New Look!

I am back from my birthday festivities and camping and I have a new look! I am so excited about my blog design done by Casey from Blue Star Blogs did an amazing job.

My birthday was wonderful. My mom surprised me with a turquoise Kitchenaid Mixer and I was ecstatic. When Mr. P and I registered I really wanted to register for it but I had my Mom's old Kitchenaid from when she had upgraded. Hers worked perfectly well, despite being 25 years old, and I felt it would be silly to get another one when I had a perfectly fine one at home. My Mom knew how much I wanted the turquoise one and surprised me. Now the old one can go to my sister. I was SOOOO surprised. I haven't been that surprised by a present since I was 8 and my mom got me an American Girl Doll. It is so beautiful sitting on my kitchen counter I can't wait to use it.

Camping was wonderful. Here are some pics of the weekend.

Diamond Lake where we go camping every year

Me Hiking Mt. Thielsen

Mr. P and I at Crater Lake (it's 20 miles from our camp ground so we took an afternoon trip)

Lauren and I at Crater Lake

Crater Lake in all it's glory