Onsie grandpa & grandma gross bought Heidi.

She's starting to kick and hit the seasame street gang.

Heidi and daddy having fun together.

During our outing this weekend we walked along the falls.

We had a wicked storm roll through quickly with hail and flooding. My roses on ice.

Brian checking out the side street flooded. It's two houses down from us.

Pineapple Strawberry Punch:

2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed

1 can (46 ounce) pineapple juice, chilled

4 cups lemon-lime soda, chilled

*In a food processor or blender, puree the strawberries. Pour into a large punch bowl. Stir in the pineapple juice and soda. Serve Immediately. (I had so much of this left over so I stored it in the fridge. It still was really good after sitting in the fridge for awhile. I used a 2gallon container from walmart ($4.00) that had a pour spout. It worked out great to get some from the fridge quickly.)

Banana Cream Cheesecake:

1 3/4 Cup Graham Cracker crumbs

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup butter,melted

FILLING:
1 package (8ounces) Cream Cheese,softened

1/2 sugar

1 carton (8 ounces)frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

3 to 4 medium firm bananas, sliced

1 3/4 cups cold milk

1 package (3.4 ounces) instant banana cream pudding mix

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar: stir in butter. Set aside 1/2 cup for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9 inch springform pan. Or a 9 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 9-7 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in 2 cups of whipped topping. Arrange half of the banana slices in crust; top with half of the cream cheese mixture. Repeat layers. (I just mixed the banana slices into the cream cheese mixture to make it easier. Who needs layers?)

(For this next part, I accidentally bought the "Cook & Serve" pudding mix instead of the instant. I still was able to use it. I just let the pudding cool for a little bit so I could pour it on top but didn't let it cool too much so it set in the pan. Then I topped it off with the remaining whipped topping. Still turned out great if you mistakenly buy the wrong pudding mix also.) In a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand 2 minutes or until soft-set; fold in remaining whipped topping. Pour over the cream cheese layer. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until set.

Here's two recipes I tried for a BBQ with friends. They are so easy to make and taste so refreshing on those hot days. A Good summer dessert and drink. The Punch tastes like a melted strawberry margarita but of course no liquor. I got both of these recipes from Taste of Home Magazine.

Brian and I haven't been up to much lately. I finally organized everything in the house to get some things ready for a garage sale. I can't wait to get rid of some things. I found some clothes from my first year of high school! Yikes.

Heidi is doing great. We went for a nice walk the other day along the falls and there were some bands playing and a bunch of people out feeding the ducks and geese. It was a perfect afternoon and Heidi got some fresh air. By the time we came home from our outing, Heidi was ready for a bottle and then a bath. What a evening for her. She was so tired by time she was done with her bath at 10pm. I think I will have to go for a walk with her every night and keep that routine going so she sleeps. She didn't wake up until 6:30am the next morning. :) She's doing really well with her nights now. She knows when it's late and when it's time to sleep.

In between Heidi's naps this weekend, Brian and I have been planning our trip to Europe. I guess it's going to really happen this time. We have our hotel booked in Germany right now for the first week of November. We will be staying in Schliersee Germany, it's right in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. We are still looking into hotels for the U.K because everything is so expensive there. We are going to ask our friend of where he would recomend to stay near thier wedding location. I can't wait to go. I'm excited but not sure if it quite has sunk-in yet.

Thrift store shopping

Today mom and I went thrift store shopping. I found so many good treasures. The best one being the bench in the picture. It is in the back entryway. I then found the picnic basket which will be used as a storage bin under the bench. This gave me some much needed motivation to finally clean up the back entryway. Things just get dumped back there, but now it's looking good. I also found some other neat stuff including an old bathroom scale, homecoming pins, souvenir glasses, and some other odds and ends. It was so much fun and a much needed break.

Light and fresh potato salad

Fred didn't like this, but I didn't expect him to. I loved it! It is a really good salad for summer. I had some red potatoes I had to use up and this was perfect with our grilled sandwiches tonight. I just left out the orange bell pepper because they're too stinkin expensive. I'm taking leftovers to work tomorrow and probably the next day. Real good alternative to traditional potato salad. Once again from Cooking Light.
Ingredients
Dressing:
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
5 cups cubed red potato (about 2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped peeled cucumber
3/4 cup sliced grape or cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped orange bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 (2 1/4-ounce) can sliced ripe olives, drained
Preparation
1. To prepare dressing, combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; stir with a whisk.
2. To prepare salad, place potato and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan. Cover with water to 2 inches above potato; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until tender; drain.
3. Add potato to dressing in bowl, tossing gently to coat; let stand 15 minutes. Stir in cucumber and remaining ingredients; toss well. Cover and chill.

Bats! Why'd it have to be bats?

So summer is in full swing. The weather is getting nice, but I still haven't made it to the beach yet :( I have been working a fair amount of hours at Bombay and I've been making good money. I got a sixty dollar tip one night for a large table. It was a nice feeling to make that amount in less than an hour! :D WGVU is going well. I work there once a week and then whatever other hours I can pick up. In July, I plan on working the Field of Flight Festival again, which is the one where I got to go up in the hot air balloon. It's usually a lot of fun. OH!... I almost forgot... the show last year won an Emmy! So now I can put "Emmy award winning" on my resume! Yay! Speaking of resume stuff, some of my footage for my internship might be used in a full-length PBS special. That would be cool! I've been having difficulties with organizing all my crap though and getting a crew together. Some of my film/video friends are interested in the production and one has already committed, so that is good. The communications professor that I'm working with and has the PBS connection offered to help me with the interviews and art direction so it's more "PBS material" and I said that would be awesome, but I had already asked some of my friends (and colleagues). I just hope we can do a good enough job. We've all graduated, and I know they do great work, so I guess I'm putting the people I know ahead of people I don't and have never worked with. I hope that's a good move? I'd just feel like I'd betray my friends if I told them that I was going to work with "professionals" instead of them. So yeah... wow. That consumes my life right now. Wow.
I have also ate a lot of Indian food lately. Go figure haha. Sooo good though. I wish I could mail everyone some haha. Looks like you'll just have to come to Michigan! :D I've also been doing yoga every morning for about 15 minutes. It's awesome! I don't really drink coffee anymore because of it, which is really great. Plus it's helped me feel really good lately both mentally and physically. It's great and I recommend it to anyone! Awesome way to start the day!
Craziness in the house lately. A couple of weeks ago we found a bat flying around in our attic one night. Nothing ever really came of it until two nights ago. We thought the bat left. Nope. So I went to go to sleep one night and felt something moving around under my sheets. Something furry and web-like. Startled, I jumped out of bed. I listened and heard a faint chipping. Holy s@*#! There's a bat in my f*@$&%^ bed!!! Craziness bestowed the house as I let my roommates kill it. We finally got it to stop moving, but bats never die apparently, so we set it outside in a bucket. It was gone in the morning. So either it's going to come back in vengeance or another animal took it. Needless to say, the attic door stays shut for now on!
Eric and I are doing good. In a couple weeks, he starts a job at a Parks and Rec program. I think he's excited because he can leave his current job. We'll also be able to spend more time together since we work opposite shifts right now. So yay!
My friends and I are planing a camping trip for sometime at the end of July, so that should be fun. I do need to make it to the beach soon though! I need a nonstressful day! I also need to get my tan on. Eric works outside and so I look so incredibly pale next to him :( hahah. oh well I guess. Oh and I have a couple current pictures to share. My friend Kristen snapped them the other day (I should be smiling though) Anyways, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!!! OH! and GO WINGS!