I have an obsession...

This year I have started reading again, that is free reading.  After reading textbook after textbook for the last 4 years, I have lost all time to read a book I actually WANTED to read.  So, I splurged one day and bought all of the Harry Potter book series off of Half.com.  This may seem a little crazy, but in the store you would pay a BOATLOAD for one single book.  I payed maybe forty five dollars for all 7 books, and I just looked at the book I am currently reading and a store wanted $34.95!  What the heck?!  No thank you! 

So...I am currently on my last Harry Potter book, and had an itch to continue my series quest, so I broke down and just bought all of the Twilight Saga Series.  Yes, I am going to read them...but only because they are a series...and they only cost me $30.84 all hardcover. 

Can't beat that!  Bring on the vanpires!!

I also bought all of the Harry Potter movies...they weren't very expensive either!  Pretty cool stuff if I do say so myself....hmmm maybe Twilight movies next?? 

Hobbies make me have something to look forward to, and reading is one of my most favorite things to do when I have time...so I try to make as much time as I can to read.

Check out Half.com if you are looking for cheap books and movies, I think you will be suprised at what they have to offer!!

A post of no pictures...

Helloooo! 

Jason and I have had a very busy week and weekend.  On Friday, I walked in a kind of mini relay for life at the park in Nashua, with my mom.  It was Water Over the Dam Days in Nashua, so the park was buzzing with people and music.  Then I walked back to the house and enjoyed a yummy sub from one of my favorite restaurants, Jimmy Johns!  Jason had been down to Menards and stopped to grab some food, and brought one back to me.  It was delish....I really like Jimmy Johns because of their bread and the bean sprouts :)  We did end up in the basement for a short time due to a tornado spotting north of Nashua, which luckily broke apart before it touched down...whew!

On Saturday, I headed over to the high school to meet up with the cheerleaders and Kristi, so they could ride on a fire truck in the WODD parade.  Kristi and I then high tailed it up to the park to set up the food stand for the girls to run.  They served pop, popcorn, and pizza.  It was sweltering for most of the time, so we were lucky to be under the shade of a shelter house. 

Later that day we headed up north to Jericho to my cousin's wedding.  Jim and Lindsay got married in a little church out in the country...it was a really nice ceremony, and then we moved on to the reception which was at the Starlite ballroom.  It was a lot of fun to see all of my cousins and aunts and uncles.  We left a little early and caught the tail end of the fireworks in Nashua, they were bright and beautiful! 

Today, we headed out to church and then went to Jason's parents' house to eat some dinner and then Jason helped his dad put in a new patio door.  Holly and I took Titus for a walk around the block in a red wagon, and watched Dick, Jason, and Andy work hard. 

My brother, Andy, is participating in a Wartburg wrestling camp, so I went down with by brother and Dad to watch him wrestle, and he won both of his matches.  My uncle Gerard and aunt Angela were also their, and their little girl Sophie was so cute running around the track!  :)  Jason stayed home and cleaned up his fish tank...ewwww :)

It was a great weekend!  I love having summer days like these!  BTW, sorry their were no pictures in this post!

Japanese and Thai...together!

I read another blog called Iowa Girl Eats and she had the best and easiest recipes to make!  One of these have become a favorite of ours...Gyoza!  Or otherwise known as Pot Stickers.  This is a traditional Japanese dish that is easy to make and tastes oh so good!  So I thought I would share how they are made!  Click on the link above if you want the exact recipe how Kristin does it atleast.

Here are the ingredients..

1 c. cabbage

1 egg

1 T of soy sauce

2 green onions, sliced

2/3 to 1 pound of ground pork (or turkey or chicken)

30 wonton wrappers

Put the cabbage in a bowl, and if strands are longer than 1/2 inch long, cut them up a little bit.  I use a pizza cutter like Iowa Girl Eats to zip through them to break them up...this also works well when you are making a salad and want smaller pieces of lettuce.

Add the soy sauce, egg, and green onions.  Blend.

Add pork, but just mix enough to blend ingredients, over mixing will make the pork tough.

Lay out 4 wonton wrappers on a clean dry surface....this was my first time using wonton wrappers and they were suprisingly easy to work with.

Put a Tablespoon of pork mixture onto each wonton.

Bad pic here, but what you have to do now is wet your finger and put a line of water on two sides adjacent to each other. 

Next, fold over and seal well, making sure to squeeze out as much air as possible.

Place your gyoza on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Heat 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan on the stove over medium heat.

Place gyoza in the oil, but make sure they have enough room.

Let those babies FRY!  This is what they should look like after a few minutes of browning.

Pour 1/3 cup of water into pan and immediatly place lid over pan to let the gyoza steam until the filling is done.

These are the BOMB!  You have got to try them!

We also had sticky rice, which is considered a Thai food, and it is delicious!

Jason got this kit for rice making from his brother Andy, they make it quite a bit and we are so glad they go this for Jason!  Thanks Andy and Holly!  I'm not sure where they picked this up at, but when I do find out I will let you know :)

Place 2 inches of water on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil.

Place rice which has been soaking in water all day into basket, and place into pan of water.  Poke holes into the rice.

Allow rice to steam for several minutes, when it becomes clear in appearace, flip over the rice and let steam a few minutes longer on the other side.

We eat this with Sweet Chili Sauce...this can be bought at HyVee, but I have found it to be quite spicy, and I liked the first bottle we received from Andy, it had a more authentic taste.

Aww...look at our little table!  It was a delicious meal from two totally different cultures! 

Delish!

Bonnaroo 2010!!!

On June 10th, I left Molly for the weekend to make the trek down to Manchester, Tennessee for an event they call BONNAROO.

Bonnaroo is a 4 day music and arts festival that is held on a 700 acre field outside of Manchester, Tennessee. I went solo this year because a friend wasn't able to make it, but being surrounded by 85,000 "hippies" you are bound to make some friends.

I left on Thursday at 6 am for the 13 hour drive. I drove straight through with minimal stops, hoping that i would make it there by 8 pm. Just enough time to get my tent up in the daylight.

Boy was I wrong! I should have known from my previous years experience. I made it to the Manchester exit by 8, but then had to drive 30 more miles south to get in line for the stop and crawl traffic. There were people everywhere, grilling on the side of the road, people playing guitar and frisbee. Deffinitely a sight to see. It was midnight, 4 hours of waiting in line when I saw the festival lights.

This is an arial view of the 700 acre farm and the sea of tents and cars. It literally turns into its own city. minus the showers and flushable toilets. But taking water trough showers and using the porta johns is all part of the bonnaroo experience. Suprisingly they keep them very clean.

When you enter the grounds, you are in to stay, or at least until the 84,999 people leave allowing you a path to get your vehicle out.

The Bonnaroo arch is the gateway to the stages area that they named Centeroo. This is where you can hear mind-blowing music 24 hours a day. They have artist come every year and change the designs of the festival structures every year.

The Magic Mushroom Fountain. This fountain was a life saver. The weather in tennesee in june is HOT and humid. It was 90 degrees at 7:00 am. The heat index during the day reached 105. this was one of the only ways to keep cool. they also had mist tents, but definitely not as cool. It also served as eye candy at night.

The Flaming Lips

There were 160 acts on 5 stages in 4 days. They included music and comedy. The stages have very interesting and confusing names. What stage, Which stage, This tent, That tent, and The Other tent. You can only image the conversations when figuring out what bands play at what stages.

Their are obviously too many bands to list, here are just a few:

Jack Black of Tenacious D

Zac Brown Band

Umphrey's McGee w/ Disco Biscuits

Stevie Wonder

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

I also watched; Kings of leon, Micheal Franti, Les Claypool, Nora Jones, Jay-z, weezer, Dropkick Murphys, John Fogerty and Conan O'Brien.

One of the many bobble head statues!

That Tent, no The Other Tent.

I had some really cool neighbors that I made friends with, from all over the country and from all different backgrounds. We meshed really well and felt like a family after having just met each other. We were together for only 4 days, and yet we were still emotional when we all parted ways. It seems funny, but that's bonnaroo.

Father's Day Weekend...Happy Dad's Day!

Today was Father's Day, and Jason and I spent the day...with our fathers!  We went to church at 8am in Charles City, and then headed over to Dick and Kathy's for breakfast...and was it ever a good one! 

We had cinnamon rolls with icing...classic!

And cherries! 

Then we hung out and watch American Pickers...if you haven't seen this show you should check it out!  The two guys are from Iowa!  Jason started grilling around 12 and we had a delicious dinner!  Check out those hamburgers with onion on top!  I think they look funny :) 

Here is the master griller for the day...my lovely husband Jason!

Mmmmm....brats, pasta salad, beans and a strong mustard potato salad...safe to say Dick loved the potato salad!

Here is Dick opening up his present from Jason and I, we got him a Phiten titanium bracelet...it's supposed to make your mucles and joints feel better.  Jason wears one around his neck.

Here is Dick opening his present from his son Adam...a hummingbird feeder, oriole feeder, and food for them both!

We then headed over to my grandpa and grandma Glaser's house where my family was hanging out.  Here is my dad's present from us...3 new shirts! 

Here is everyone at the gradparents house!

And yes...my brothers Jacob and Andy are normal most of the time...but sometimes they get a weird twitch :)  Haha!!  You guys sure know how to make some crazy faces!

Happy Father's Day!

Bamboo home and Nashua City Wide Garage Sales!

So...I had an excellenet idea to use my giant vase that I bought yesterday!  I made it a home for my leftover bamboo from the wedding!  And it worked out great!

I had them in a tupperware container for a while, but now they look great! 

Hopefully my cats don't think it's catnip!  They destroyed our last ones!

Nashua City Wide Garage Sales!

In other news...my mom and sister Greta came to Nashua this morning and we hit up the garage sales!  It took me a little while to find stuff, but here is what I came home with!  Above are three VHS tapes...What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Forrest Gump, and The Wizard of Oz.   I have always been kinda freaked out by the Wizard of Oz...the flying monkeys just scare the daylights out of me!  Ha!

Here is a Lucky Brand sweatshirt that I thought was cute....

Here is a neat picture frame I found for $1!! What a deal! 

And this is all of Jason's stuff...he graduated from Charles City High School so he doesn't have any Nashua-Plainfield shirts, so I stocked up when I saw these were for a quarter! 

All in all it was a good day for bargins!