Staycation 2009 has begun!

Well my vacation technically began on Friday, but I've been a little busy since then.

Friday morning bright and early I left with two friends to drive up to Sauble Beach to meet up with two more of our friends that had been vacationing there all week with their babies. The 7 of us spend Friday and Saturday together sunning and relaxing. We even managed to miss a huge thunderstorm (I know another one!) before we arrived back home on Saturday night.

Here are some pictures from our trip to Sauble:

Someone was nice enough to take our picture:

The view of the beach from the cottage:

The beautiful sunset:

Andre was a little bummed that I was leaving him for a couple of days and let me know how much he missed me by leaving this to greet me when I got home:

He's such a sweetie when he wants to be!

Now we're starting the second part of my vacation. The first day of Andre's vacation. We had many plans (well mostly me) of how much we were going to get done around the house, but I think the only thing we will manage to get done will be the bathroom since it's been slowly driving me crazy since we moved into the house in January.

It was grey. The ceiling was grey, the walls were grey, the trim door and cabinet was painted a darker grey. It was depressing, and if that colour scheme doesn't make you want to cry, there was a horrible grey and pink border to make the look complete. Sadly (or not so sadly) I don't have any true before pictures of this room. Within the first week of moving in my grandfather had come over to install our new light fixture, and (white) cabinet above the toilet. Then the wallpaper stripping began, and stopped.

It's the border from hell. We have soaked it, we have scored it, we have steamed it and then scraped it. This border does not want to come off. So we decided that we would get off as much as we could then use the electric sander to get the last of it as smooth as possible. We think this will work out (fingers crossed!).

I know you're dying for a picture, but you will all have to wait. I am off to my parents house to use their shower before making dinner.

Father's Day BBQ

It was kind of a last minute celebration around here. Andre was at work (as usual) and I invited my parents, and sister Carrie and her boyfriend Darren over for a BBQ. It was a great chance for all of us to spend some family time together, and I got to host our very first BBQ outside.

Andre joined us later on when he was done work, and Carrie and Darren stayed later and the four of us just gabbed and enjoyed the great weather. It was a lot of work, but worth it.

What a difference a year makes

I was making some organizational changes to my blog and reading through some old posts when I made it to July 2008, and came across this post about some problems we had while we were in the apartment.

It made me think about the frustration that we had been feeling, and how we wished for nothing more than to be homeowners, and not have to deal with the pain of renting anymore. Never in a million years did I think that just one year later I would be blogging from my very own home, never mind that we would've been living there for almost 7 months! It's crazy. Being homeowners hasn't been easy. There have been bumps, but it's been great, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we're here.

Strawberry Banana Overnight French toast

There is a group of us that try and get together about once a month. The last couple times we have ended up getting together on a Saturday or Sunday morning for brunch. This has been great because it has forced me to research and try some new recipes, and really, who doesn't love gabbing with your friends over some mimosa's and delicious food on a weekend morning?
So after some searching on the web, I found a great recipe for overnight french toast with strawberries and banana's. It was so yummy. One of my friends who doesn't even like French Toast loved it. If that doesn't convince you maybe this picture will:


Make Ahead French Toast:

Ingredients:

5 eggs, beaten

3⁄4 cup milk

1 tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder

1 loaf Italian bread, cut into 8 (1-inch-thick)slices

(I couldn't find a loaf of Italian bread when I was shopping, so I just bought a loaf of thicker bread and just used entire slices instead.)

1 package (16 ounces) frozen whole strawberries, thawed

(I used a bag 0f President's Choice frozen strawberries.)

4 ripe bananas, sliced

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar

Mix eggs, milk, Pure Vanilla Extract and baking powder. Pour over bread to soak; turn to coat well. Cover. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

The next morning:
Mix strawberries, bananas and granulated sugar in 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with soaked bread slices. Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar.

Bake in preheated 450°F oven 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

(Recipe taken from McCormick Cooking with Flavor, 2007 McCormick Inc.)

Rainbow after the Storm

Anyone who has been living in Southwestern Ontario lately can tell you all about the spectacular thunderstorms that our area has been having. It's unbelieveable!! Last week I'm pretty sure that we had at least three thunderstorms. That was after the thunderstorm from hell that we had the Thursday before.



Well a few nights ago after one of those storms Andre said mentioned something about the possiblility of a rainbow outside. Sure enough when I stepped out into the backyard this is what I saw:

It almost makes the storm worth it....almost.