Artichoke omelet

I was going to write down the recipe for this, but doesn't everyone know how to make an omelet? And if not, you can get better instructions from someone else. I will tell you the ingredients I used, though. Choose your own amounts:

Eggs

Salt and pepper

Greek yogurt

Chives

Artichoke hearts

Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses

I mixed up the egg stuff last night and refrigerated it until this morning. I wasn't sure about that, but it seemed fine. I was trying to save a little time and effort, and it seems like something I can do more often.

The only problem was that last night I was all excited about breakfast, but by the time I woke up and was ready to make it, nothing sounded good. Typical Morning Jessica. So I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I could have, but it's good and I'll make it again. There are probably some other good things you can add to it, though.. I didn't look up an actual recipe (who does that for omelets?). I bet some chicken would be good in it! Maybe some additional spices. I'm a moron when it comes to spices--I don't even know how to pronounce many of them, let alone what dishes they work best in.

I feel like making some other type of omelet tomorrow morning. Or maybe just eggs, because I think I prefer scrambled up eggs to an omelet. (What about you?)

I'd like to post more recipes, but lately I've been such a laze about cooking. Soon, though, children. Soon. I know there's no where else online to get recipes, so I'll try to be speedy lest you starve.

New dishes

Yesterday I went to the happy place: Target. I had to get a baby shower gift and birthday gift, but I decided to get a Jessica gift, too. I saw these cute hummingbird dishes and obviously couldn't resist. I was on the lookout for cute salad bowls, anyway, so it was a very wise and practical purchase.

The bowl has another side to it:


I'm not really sure why it strays from the hummingbird theme, but I'm all about accurate dish representations, so I wanted to show you.

Other important aspects of my weekend:

• I'm pretty sure I refrained from texting while driving.
• I did poorly at both games at the baby shower I attended.
• I skim-watched the series finale of Who's the Boss? on YouTube, because I couldn't remember how it ended.
• I reached for what I thought was some candy in a dish (had to balance the salad somehow, right?), but instead reached into my cup of ice water.
• I laughed when my pastor accidentally said "choising" instead of "choice" or "choosing" during his sermon.
• I finished Wii Mario Bros! Or.. actually, Luigi finished it, but I did watch it attentively! And I completed at least 10% of the levels without Luigi's help, thank you. The victory is mine, when you think about it.

Currently I can hear what sounds like kids using a pogo stick outside. The end.

New birds

I've seen a couple of new birds over the past week. One was in Tahoe and the other was here over the pond. The photos aren't the greatest, but you'll survive.

White-headed Woodpecker

This is cool because I looked it up and found they are only in a very small area of the US. How fun that I was in the right area! And thanks to my sister who pointed this one out so I could get photos.

Green Heron

Tonight I looked out and saw what looked like a small [blue] heron landing near the water, and I thought maybe it was a baby. It took a while to figure this one out, and I've never heard of a green heron before! Pretty, huh? (I mean on the What Bird page, not my photo of it.) Too bad I didn't get better photos. I guess they aren't uncommon, but are just hard to see. They are in this part of Oregon only during the summer.

In completely unrelated news, this article was linked to my Google start page tonight, so I have to mention it:

How to Kiss Somebody Who Is a Different Height

Really? Is this something people don't understand and need directions for? It seems like an April Fool's article. "For the shorter person: lean back a bit and reach up." Haha...okay, will do. I never thought of that!!

Tahoe Trip - pictures that contain people

I am back for my second and final installment of Tahoe Trip photos. How excited are you?! If you haven't seen the first set, please go to that post first, since it might make a bit more sense that way.

First, I have to say that one of the many awesome things in life is being able to eat exactly what you crave. Tonight it was chicken salad, and it was soooooo satisfying, especially on a hot day like today.

Okay, here are pictures that have my family members in them. The only people missing are my parents!


As I mentioned, our first full day was spent at the beach. This is my youngest niece who played happily on the shore most of the time. She was in such an excellent mood this day (and most of the trip, really) and could've stayed there a few more hours if we had let her. She is SO CUTE, by the way. Just thinking about her and all the adorable things she said makes me want to hang out with her right this instant!


On the train in Virginia City they did a little skit and handed out a few bullets to the kids. Here's one of my nephews modeling his, and then playing outside the cabin later that day. The kids loved playing outside and built an elaborate "clubhouse" with scraps of wood and bark laying around.


In Virginia City there are lots of little stores and my sister bought these earrings at one of them. I was just taking a quick snapshot of her modeling them, but I really loved how it turned out. Lucky shot! Then the one on the right is from a little photo shoot we did later.


Another niece working on the clubhouse. One sister and I are especially into photography and so the nieces and nephews are used to us constantly taking photos, and they're pretty cooperative, considering.


Another nephew and my "buddy" in Virginia City (which means I walked with him and kept an eye on him..it's easier to pair up adults with some of the kids). He kept referring to me as Buddy for the rest of the trip and that makes an aunt happy! He's kind of hard to photograph because you know how young boys rarely sit still, and then getting them to smile naturally when they do is another challenge.


I took some family portraits on the 4th. The littlest just had her hair fixed (which is a very upsetting ordeal for her each day) so she was refusing to smile. This was probably the best of the bunch--at least she's looking up!


My other sister's family was actually a bit easier, despite more kids being involved. The older they get, the easier it is! It used to be impossible to have them all smiling at once.


One of my nieces helped me do a few practice shots before the family photos. This one is particularly natural in front of the camera (though I'd say her sisters are also much more natural than I ever was!).


I tried to do some individual portraits with the kids, but didn't get as many as I had hoped. This nephew is particularly difficult to photograph because he is constantly moving and will often look away the instant you click the shutter.


Exploring after picture time. These two cousins spent a lot of time together.


I got a lot of smiling photos of her, but most of them are blurry because she was moving. So you get a non-smily one.


Another sister portrait that we both agree came out well. And girls, if you're wondering (a friend of mine was, so I took note), she uses Curly Sexy Curl Cream on her thick, naturally curly hair. :) It smells SO GOOD.

Thanks for looking, and thanks to those of you who commented on the previous entry! I really, really appreciate it. :)

Tahoe Trip - pictures that do not contain people

Ooooookay, I'm back. I took way too many photos, but you're only going to see a small sampling. I try to save my good photos for this blog (and subject my family and close friends to the bad ones), so that narrows it down a lot. Considering "good" is relative to the entire set of photos in question, you can imagine that the rest from this trip are not so hot. It seemed that during most of the trip, we were either in overly-low light indoors or harsh afternoon sun outside.

I'm going to split these up into two posts--one for non-people and one for people. Get ready for some non-people!


Friday we went to the beach. Most of my photos from that contain people, so this is all you get. :) If you've ever been to Lake Tahoe, you know the water is icy cold, but I still swam in it a little. It's sort of tradition, plus I know my nieces and nephews liked having an adult join them in the water.


Saturday we went to Virginia City. I hadn't been since I was a kid, and my only memory was the cemetery and some sort of candy my dad must've bought for us. There are wild horses in this part of Nevada, though I only saw one from a long distance on our drive home.




After spending time in the old town area and riding the train, we headed to the cemetery on our way out.


My dad used to be more into photography and we had a few of his photos from this cemetery hanging on our walls growing up, so it was fun to go back and see the same scenes. The sky was super blue pretty much during my whole trip.


I saw a couple of lizards and followed them around to get photos.


I don't know if it's obvious that the photo on the right is of a lizard.


That grave"stone" is made of wood, so it's splitting.






Looking back from the cemetery to town.


If you haven't noticed yet, I like taking pictures of shapy/patterny things, like fences, iron work, and of course the garden spikes!


I guess I'm ending this post on a photo of food! I tried to take pictures of various meals since people seem to enjoy food pictures, but not many of them turned out very well. This was a pork and crab quesadilla my brother-in-law made for me, though. We were making use of leftover meats in the fridge.

Okay, stay tuned for the peoply set tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who answered my question about your Fourth. :P It's a crazy party here at my blog! The crickets and I get a lot of quality time together.