Festivities

So - I have slacked lately with posting. So this will be the last couple of months tied into one. A lot has happened! Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, and now today is New Years Eve. I can't beleive it'll be 2009 already. We are so thankful and blessed for our life, family, friends, jobs, and a nice place to live. Here are some pics of what we've done lately!

Jen, Melinda, Jess, Cara, me and Karin out for Christmas Dinner with the girls :-)

Jen (and Simon!) being cute in her Santa Hat

Me & Melinda!

Me and Jess :-)

Jen, Karin, Jess and Melinda

Caleb & I: very excited after seeing our Phantom of the Opera tickets. Thanks mom & dad!

Me, my mom and my cousin Amanda at the top of Bishops Peak. 12/27/2008

Ok, so Caleb & My dad were REALLY at the top.

Aunt Susan, Amanda, Mom, Dad, me and Caleb at the top of Bishop's Peak. Fun day!!

Me & Melinda being cute at a party. It took us about 10 pictures to get this one. :-)

The Tale of the Roast Chicken

I love to watch the Food Network and I love to cook. The longer I'm married the more adventerous I feel. So, last week the Food Network had quite a few shows on how to roast a whole chicken! I thought "I can do that!" So I set off to tackle the whole chicken. Once I got it home, I realized that chickens are different from Turkeys. When you buy a Turkey for thanksgiving, usually the neck and giblets are in a bag inside the bird. Well apparently it's different with chickens! I was not prepared for that. So, home alone, at 6pm, I am staring at this chicken and peering inside of it. How do I know what's a giblet or not? I have to tear the neck bone off? Yuck! So 30 minutes later I am fairly confident I have taken care of all that stuff.

Once I got past that, the rest was easy. Season & stuff with lemon, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. About 45 minutes into cooking I added chopped turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, onion, garlic and carrots. I also layered bacon on the top of the chicken to keep it moist (Per Tyler Florence on the Food Network! Good tip!)....it smelled so good!

So, it was done almost 2 hrs later. Poor Caleb, dinner after 8pm! We take it out, let it rest for 10 minutes then realize we have to carve it up.

Well.....it's kind of easier said than done for us! Caleb was so happy he got out his carving utensils and set out to carve away. It was taking a while so I checked in (with my camera of course).......this is what I saw.

STEP 1: Good intentions of properly carving the bird


STEP 2: Forget it and tear into it

STEP 3: Still kind of hard and messy but easier than cutting! Poor chicken it didn't know it had it coming!

The pic looks funky but it's all my yummy roasted vegitables! =)

Our chicken ended up to be shredded chicken that we mixed in with the veggies and it turned into a chicken/veggie hash. Don't get me wrong it had awesome flavor! But.....didnt look to pretty. Next on our list is to learn how to properly carve a chicken =) Good thing we aren't cookin' the Turkey this year or we'd be in trouble!

You live and you learn........just another day in the life of Caleb & Becky. =)

**I'd like to thank my husband Caleb for allowing me to be a camera hound and letting me capture this fun frustration on film** =)

Apple Pie!

Yes!
I made one! (Kara Johnson Miller I know this is an every day occurance for you....so humor me...LoL)
I am NOT a baker. I am a cook. I love to cook. I cook dinner just about every night for Caleb and I am not afraid to experiment with recipes. However every time I bake I mess it up. Plus with baking you have to be so much more exact (which I have no patience for) so I stay away from it. I think the fact that I dont like sweets as much (and I especially dont care for pie or cake) has something to do with why I don't bake.
But, we got apples from Gopher Glen last week with my parents and my mom made an apple pie so of course my husband was begging for one. I love him, so I gave it a shot.
This picture is fresh out of the oven, and you'll have to excuse the bubbly bits on the edge of the pan. As I type this, it's still "resting" so Caleb hasn't tried it yet.
I'm so proud of myself!

The tale of the horrible, no good, H.O.A.!!!!

Okay, so that stands for "Home Owners Association" for those of you who might not know that. =)

Last Wednesday, Caleb & I were sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden our door bell rings! 2:30 am!!! Thankfully, it was our wonderful neighbor Jenna, who was about to save us lots of money and time! She told Caleb that a tow truck was about to tow my car away.

So, let me back up here. I park in Jenna's 2nd parking spot. We are all assigned 2 spots per unit, and she lives alone and happens to have her parking spot right at the bottom of the stairs to our unit. She is so sweet to let me park there.

Also -you should know - I had just received a few weeks ago my tags for my car registration however I hadn't put them on my car yet. I had them in my glove compartment. (in hind-sight, yes, I know they should have bee on!)

So here is where it all comes together. The H.O.A. guy decided to make a surprise attack on my "un-registered" car. When he got there, he saw the space I was parked in, assumed it was Jenna's car since I park in her spaces. They knocked on her door to warn her that my car was going to be towed. When she realized it was my car they were talking about, not hers, she was so nice to call me (and when we didn't answer), and ring our doorbell to wake us up so we would have the chance to stop them!

The H.O.A. representative was a total jerk to Jenna and to my husband. They didn't even put a note on my car or send a letter to warn us. Which they SHOULD HAVE. We just showed them our registration sticker that I had in my car and then he got all huffy about having a tow truck out for nothing. Well, sir, if you had simply gave us a warning, we would have put our sticker on and you wouldn't have had to pay for a tow truck!!!

We are peeved and plan on going to the next H.O.A. meeting and complaining. Pulling that crap at 2:30 in the morning is ridiculous!!!!!!!

Visit with Caleb's Family!

We had so much fun last weekend visiting all of Caleb's brothers and friends. And of course our MAIN reason was to see baby Gianna in person! She is so tiny and precious.
Here are some pics of our trip:

Headache

Next time you think YOU have a headache...........

OUCH!

The 15 year old boy in this x-ray was stabbed at a bus stop in London. He LIVED!

Element Softball

Well last night was our 4th game of the season! Well, I say "our" game like I'm on the team. I didnt have the guts to join =) I do, however, go support the team each week! (unless its at 9pm) =) So anyways, I took some pics this time. Unfortunately, we got creamed! After winning 3 games in a row as "undefeated", we lost 12-2. Yikes! It was still fun to be there with everyone.

Jen, Jess, Mikey, Me, John and Dad watching the game, it was cold! Caleb was there but I made him take the picture =)


Elmer, our mastcott!


Aaron, up to bat


Aaron and some of the team hangin' out in the dug out


Jen and Jess!

This is a photo from another game night a couple of weeks ago...
Cara, Karin, Mikey, Me, my dad, John.....

Gianna Marie - The Newest Addition

Baby Gianna Marie is Caleb's Brother Jeremy's brand new baby girl! She was born 10 days early last Wednesday Sept. 24th. She is the first baby out of all the Tammar kids! Caleb is a proud uncle =) She is beautiful and has her mom and dad's red hair for sure! We are so excited, after thinking we'd have to wait until Christmas to see her, we get to drive up with Caleb's step dad Jim next weekend for a quick visit. Thanks to Jim for offering to drive us up with him!! We can't wait to see everyone and especially to meet cutie Gianna. =)

Another Bonfire!

This past weekend we had another bonfire with friends (though we missed the ones who couldn't make it! Kaleb & Whitney, Melinda & Ryan and a few others). It was such a nice evening! We started earlier this time, around 4 to give more daylight time. I got there around 3 to reserve the pit and thankfully I was able to get one right away. While I was driving through Pismo on my way there I got nervous because it was 80's in Santa Maria....but then lot 60's and extremely foggy in Pismo (typical) and then at Avila it was thankfully nice and warm in the upper 70's and clear. I spent some time by the water while I was waiting for everyone to show up (there's a pic of me with my feet by the water below). Everyone came between 4:30 and 5 and we started up the grill and the bonfire and just had a lot of fun with eachother! I put some pictures below =)

Enjoy!



Jen roasting her marshmallow


Jess being cute while Ollie is begging for Tom's food!


Roasting Marshmallows!


Cool Fire =)


John made a bridge out of the leftover wood - typical engineer!


Cara with Luke's Camera


Some of our burgers, thanks Shawn and Cara!


Right before this photo was taken, Mason threw one of the balls and it hit me right in the chest! He seems to be proud of this....


Catch!


Hi Matt!


So pretty!


I love living near the beach and don't take advantage of it near enough!


Dan and Luke juggled..........


Carrie with her adorable son Mason


Shawn cooking our food on the tiny oak pit. Thanks Shawn!