Baby Boston!

A LOT TO COVER!

So I have definitely been out of the blogging world for a while because life has been crazy...but then again, whose isn't? Today, however, I realized that I had news that couldn't wait. As of yesterday around 8pm EST I became an aunt to a beautiful nephew. My sister is my new hero as she did this in a state far from home, with a doctor she barely new, without her parents right by, an apparently with very little help from the coveted meds. His name is Boston Daniel McIntyre and I adore him already. He was born 6 lbs. 14 oz and 20 long. Emylee is doing great and the grandparents are ecstatic. So this news has inspired me to catch up with other very important things that have been going on as well. Dustin graduated on May 9th with a degree in Bio Chemistry and Taylor graduated high school the end of May. We were recently certified to be able to adopt but I have yet to finish our profile (quite frankly it scares me to death to have to sum up me and Dustin and make us look amazing yet real in three pictures and a few paragraphs). Penny, our puppy, is the current love of our life and we almost had to give her a $1,000 surgery. Luckily she is okay without it but it gave us a scare (for money reasons as well as emotional). She is quirky and hyper and loves the fake bacon treats. She has learned to sit, lay down, and go through a card board tunnel. We love to snuggle with her and play with her.
So that is us in a nut shell and here are some pics! I will follow up better through the summer.

Dust and his mom Julie

Dust and his dad Tim

The crew: uncle Brian, Grandma and Grandpa Durham, Will (my daddy-o), Tim (Dustin's pop),
Jennie-Lou (Dustin's Grandma), Danielle (Dustin's sister and pregnant belly),
Julie, Dustin, me and Kathy (my mamma).

I'm so pretty, oh so pretty.

Letters hand designed by Lyndzee

T-Bone's graduation!

T-Bone and Sis in Law Jamie

Emylee's Baby Shower

My sister Emylee is having her first boy this June so we had her baby shower a few weeks ago. it was a lot of fun. Most of my mom's family was there and I love seeing cousins. We played this great game called Tinkle in a Jar? It was hilarious watching everyone carry quarters between their knees and then dropping them into jars. One team ran out of quarters and used a grape. I am attaching a video because you don't get the full effect without the sound...oh yeah, they had to have pillows in their shirts also.
The beautifully pregnant Emylee (with her arm that looks like a chicken leg :) tasty!

Emy with some of her BYU buddies.

The girls before they did the tinkle game.


Chelsea, Bonnie, Danielle and Holly before they sucked down apple juice for a prize...Chelsea won.

The wonderful sister-in-law who made the whole party possible. She is the ultimate party planner. This pose was one of her many interesting poses she can do on the spot.

We are the Vanna Whites to Emylee's belly

I don't really remember what we were doing here.

Ta-Da!

The girls: Jamie, Emylee, Lyndzee and Kathy.

Our new love...most of the time!

We recently adopted the cutest little Jack Russel puppy. We love her to death but we had no idea what we were getting into. she is so full of energy and even though we take her running twice a day, she doesn't slow down. She also used to be a lot cuddlier, but now she wants to play all of the time and she likes to bite our hands when we play. We are taking her in to get trained but we are really not doing very well trying to be the alpha dogs. Anyway, thought you would enjoy some pics.

More!!!

Lime Cilantro Rice

1 c. white rice 2 cups Chicken Broth
1 Tbsp. Lime Juice ½ Tbsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp. Minced Dry Onion Pinch of Salt

Cook the listed ingredients to the rice directions (substituting broth for water)

When rice is done add: ¼ - ½ c. fresh Cilantro, 1 Tbsp. Lime Juice,

½ can Green Enchilada Sauce Serving suggestion: Put the pork, rice, and some

black beans together in the 'cook at home' tortillas from Costco, and pour

enchilada sauce on top, sprinkled with a little cheese. Bake it in the oven until

the cheese is melted.

Lime Salad Dressing

1 pkg. Hidden Valley dry dressing mix
1 Tbsp. green salsa verde 1/8 tsp. Tabasco
1/3 bunch cilantro 2 minced cloves garlic
3/4 c. Mayonnaise 3/4 c. buttermilk
1 lime juiced and zested

Combine in a Blender

Creamy Tomatillo Salad Dressing:

3 fresh tomatillos, cut into quarters juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 cup buttermilk (or make w/dry buttermilk mix)
1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream
1 pkg. dry Ranch Buttermilk Dressing Mix
1 cup fresh cilantro (about one bunch)
6 stalks (1/2 bunch) green onions, w/ends
2 cloves crushed garlic 4 tsp. sugar
5 (cross section slices) jalapeno pepper

Combine well in blender and refrigerate one hour.

Café Rio’s Pork Barbacoa

My awesome aunt sent me this, Enjoy!

2 ½ - 3 ½ lbs Pork Loin Roast ½ cup Dark Brown Sugar
½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
½ tsp Dried Oregano ½ tsp Powdered Ginger
1 tsp Salt 1 tsp Dry Chile Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder 2 Tb Dried Minced Oni

Cook all of the ingredients in a Crock Pot approx. 4 hours on high.

Shred Combine 1 can of Red Enchilada Sauce and ½ cup Dark Brown Sugar.

Pour over the top.

Lonesome

SO tonight is Dustin's first all night shift at the hospital, 7pm-7am, and I am not liking this too much. I have gotten used to not having him around on Saturday because he had to work, I am used to not a lot of date nights because of late shifts and homework, I am used to staying up late with him when he studies for tests...but this is a whole new bag of chips. I attended a Stake primary training meeting at 7 and came home to an empty apartment, not that that in and of itself is all that unusual, but it is stranger when I know it is going to remain just little (figuratively) old me.
Now I know I could be working on my talk for Sunday (how to teach children to learn how to recognize the spirit...any ideas would be helpful), I could be trying to implement all of the new secretary ideas I received at the meeting, I could do laundry or pack for my trip to Utah tomorrow, I could organize my photos, put away the last box from moving that has gone untouched for the last 3 weeks or actually do my ironing (which never gets done unless I wear the item that needs ironing usually causing me to run late to work or church). But no, I sit here and blog, or should I say whine, when really I should be thinking about Dust. The poor guy was up at 7 this morning and only got an hour nap in this afternoon before going to work. Then tomorrow he has to go to class after his shift. Of course I am not worrying that he will be home alone for the next two nights while I am off galavanting around Utah while visiting my sister and attending her baby shower.
OK, so I am lonesome, lazy and a bit of a self-centered wife. Don't worry, I taped The Office and that will cheer me right up!

Check It Out!

We have added music to our blog! Scroll to the bottom of the page and check it out. It is on random so you could hear anything while you are checking out the blog, but there are a lot of songs on there so play around and let us know what you think. We are always up for recommendations and perhaps we will influence you with some of our favorites. Oh yeah, just like with politics, our music tastes are not always alike, so there is quite a variety.

Just to clarify...

I just read Dustin's post and I just had to verify that we do not necessarily share political views...in fact I think his personal views change from day to day so please take it with a grain of salt. His studying of the Vietnam War has definitely put a fire in his belly about war. So I guess you will start seeing more than just my mushy posts. Have fun!

Crazy days

Lyndzee has finally allowed me the right to post on our family blog, and for some strange reason I am a little excited. This new interest in blogging might stem from my apathetic mood toward school, as things begin to wrap up with my time at ASU, but oh well, at least ya'll get a different voice to listen to. I was just reading the last entry Lyndz made, and it might seem like our life is really depressing, but we are holding up. We still have not had any huge victories (Biochem still is a struggle, Teach for America outright rejected me, and we still have no children to speak of) Nevertheless good things are on the horizon. I was walking out of the temple this evening, and noticed several stop lights illuminated green all the way up 1st Avenue, with the exception of one red light, the one closest to me (naturally). I feel like that is our life together so far, we have been sitting at a red light for a little while, but soon the whole road is simply going to be wide open. Like Lyndz said we are trying to enjoy the journey, and recognizing all the while that these trials are some essential lessons that we need to learn.
The business is going along well, if anyone needs a pool guy in Scottsdale give me a call (I am OCD so you are guaranteed the cleanest pool on the block). I was up until three in the morning draining a pool last Thursday (no one was home thankfully, hope I start work at Scottsdale Healthcare in the NICU, I am doing my first night shift (7PM-7AM), which I am dreading I am not a night owl, so steer clear for the next few months if I happened to have pulled a night shift the previous night. I am excited though, we get to work real close with the premature babies, and the ones coming off drug addictions. I am accustomed to cleaning up really old people that are at the end of the line, so this will be a nice change, go from the end to the beginning. Despite all my endeavors, Lyndz is still the big time breadwinner, in fact I dont bring home much bread at all. She is an amazing worker bee, loyal and committed to the core of everything that she is, I am lucky to have her as my own.
On a final note I have been learning all about the Vietnam/Cold war this semester in my history classes so if anyone wants to discuss how we keep electing mentally handicapped, warmongering Presidents I would be happy to ramble.
Peace--