This little piggy went wee wee wee all to the ER

On Sunday, our little neighbor, Oliver, came over and asked when we were playing soccer. So, we got outside and played a game of soccer. Tyler and I were on a team and we were winning 2 - 0. Nate passed the ball off to Oliver, who passed it back to Nate. I went in to try and stop Nate from scoring and instead of kicking the ball, kicked Nate squarely in the ankle. As I kicked him, I heard that terrible sound of little bones breaking. I flew over Nate and landed on the ground. Grabbed my toes and knew my afternoon soccer game was over!! Nate gave me a piggy-back ride to the house and I put ice on my foot. My foot instantly started swelling and my two little toes on my right foot were headed in a rather funky direction. About 5 years ago, I had a stress fracture in my foot and was on crutches FOREVER so we had a post-op shoe and crutches in the house. I grabbed those suckers and decided I was following doctors orders. I went to work on Monday and my boss insisted that I go to the hospital to get an x-ray. I did... I fractured the little bones at the base of my two toes. 21 days of "resting"... UGH!!!! As I was on crutches FOREVER with the stress fracture, I have learned my lesson that if I let it rest a little, I won't be on crutches as long so... No biking or surfing for me until those little nuggets are facing the correct direction and swelling is down. BOO!!!

The best route between point A & point B is defintely not a straight line

On Saturday, our friend Anna joined us on a mountain bike ride at FOMBA... If you ever get a chance, you should check the trails out. They have lots of smaller trails off of the main fire roads. There are a few 0.8 mile trails, a 1.1 mile trail, 1.2 mile trail and then a 2.1 and a 3.2 mile trails. We didn't do the longer trails but we 6 of the shorter trails!

Dinner adventures... Gotta stay with the theme!

Nate and I typically are rush, rush, rush when it comes to dinner time. We have a few recipes that we use over and over ... and over... and over... again! I have been trying to find some new recipes that are easy to make, come together quickly, and are relatively cheap. I found two so far that are EXCELLENT!!

We made chicken enchiladas last night! They were fantastic!!! The thing that took the longest was shredding the cheese because we already had a block of pepper jack cheese and I didn't think we should buy shredded cheese if we already had it. I'm not a huge fan of chicken, but this was really good. My only suggestion would be to add the sauce while the enchiladas are still baking to soften up the tortillas a bit more.

Last week, we made Chicken-orzo salad with Goat Cheese. Another super easy meal that was super yummy. While the orzo was cooking, I cooked up the chicken a little (as stated before, I'm not a huge fan of chicken and cold chicken, not a chance!!), and cut everything up. It was all together within 30 minutes!!! Good stuff!!!

If there is something out there that you have liked, let me know. I'm always up for new suggestions to add to our regular meals.

I might actually have a little bit of a green thumb

Last year I planted Strawberry plants at the end of the summer. We got our first little red strawberry last week! It's not perfect, but it's all mine!!! :D

Life in the Country

As some of you are aware, Nate & I live in the country. We live in a very small town, population about 2,000. There is a large dairy farm on the road that we live on. They have about 100 milk cows, 20 beef cows, over 600 chicken, and probably 20 pigs. Normally, we see or hear the cows or chickens but for the most part, nothing exciting ever happens. We get cute/fun pictures like these:

On Wednesday, May 26, something exciting happened! From the story on the street, a random person came to the farm over a month ago and asked if they could drop off a rooster. The rooster had become too aggressive for their little pen of chickens. The farmers said that they did not need another rooster and said, 'no'. The next day, they woke up to a new rooster in the pen. Well, from what we heard later, that said rooster didn't like his new home. He didn't want to be in that pen anymore so the farm hands let the rooster go free. More background, to this story, the farm is about 500+ acres. 100 or so is directly across the street from our house.

I took the dogs out to play in the yard because we had obedience school that evening, and they needed to be a little tired prior to school. Scout had got his leash all nasty from being in the yard so I was cleaning off his leash. I saw Oakley sneak away but didn't think too much of it (at this time, I did not know the rooster was free). I then saw some commotion behind me and heard the worst squaking noise I have heard in a long, long time. Then, Oakley comes flying out of the bushes chasing the rooster. If you don't know much about chickens, they have two sets of feathers. One set is a loose set of feathers that they can lose easily. Then they have another set that keeps them warm. So, Oakley gets the rooster's bum and a whole load of featers go flying into the air. Nate was home, so I started screaming for Nate. I have Scout's leash, but I am worried about getting too close to Oakley b/c I don't want Scout to get into the fun too. My neighbor comes flying up into our yard. Nate comes flying out of the front door. Just as I was about to grab Oakley's leash, she had bit down on the rooster pretty hard. I somehow grabbed Oakley's leash and the rooster got away.

I gave Nate one of the dog's and we walked around the yard trying to find the rooster. The rooster ended up in another big bush in the side yard over the well. Nate told me to put Scout away. We would like to try and keep him from chasing chickens. So, we let Oakley hunt out the rooster. I think she was psyched. Oakley scared the rooster out and the rooster took off to the field across the street.

Sadly, we haven't heard from that rooster anymore. Hopefully, he has ran across the field and is hanging out in the woods safely by himself! Doubtful, but one can hope...