A Nikole Requirement

A big sister does as shes told... for me that means go bowling!

Mobile post sent by walkerszivak using Utterz.  Replies.

Excited Much?

So remember me mentioning the big DNR open house that we had here at the beginning of May? They just posted the pictures on our intranet and Maia and I were cracking up at this one. We are apparently REALLY excited to be handing out hot dogs and hamburgers!

Life's Better Indoors

What does one do when they are underpaid, overworked, unappreciated, and over-tired? Why not have some fun with the extremely sweet DNR hats?


Who said life at the office was boring?

What a Day

Last weekend Sandor and I headed to Brandy and John's house to help Brandy with Special Olympics. This is the second year she is in charge of the games for her county. Last year, with no training for what she was supposed to do, having things dropped in her lap last minute, and people not at all helpful, we had a few moments that she was ready to call the whole thing off. I counseled her that no one except her and I REALLY knew how bad it was and so she just needed to keep going with the flow and it would turn out ok in the end. Which it did, but she learned a lot and used all that to her advantage this year. Things went beautifully. God hooked us up with the weather (it was supposed to rain all day Friday..then drizzle until 9...then rain only Thursday night), her planning was incredible, the volunteers were awesome, and the kids as cute as could be. Since Sandor took pictures on her camera I don't have any to offer up from this year, but I have a few from last year that I took before the bottom fell out and I needed to do CPR to the running events region (it was in shambles and so far behind it was slowing everything else down, so Brandy sent me over to do some organizing magic). This year we had a separate camera person because we realized there was no way she or I would be able to wander around taking pictures. With all her exceptional planning (those Walker genes are good stuff) she did this year get to actual walk around, see kids and talk to people, so it was a success!

lighting the flame

Brandy helping kids say the oath

some cuties on the field

Holy Hailstorm

At 5am I was woken up by the very loud sound of hail hitting the windows. It was by far the worse hailstorm I've ever seen - it probably lasted for 10-15 minutes and was accompanied by literal sheets of rain. When I woke up this morning, my poor flowers and herbs were beaten up. The basil, though, I think go the worse of it. Thankfully I could just keep the leaves that were knocked off him and I think he's got enough to rally back to life. They were calling for worse storms this afternoon so I decided in the best interest of all plants to bring them inside for the day - I don't think they can take another beating like that!



Mobile post sent by walkerszivak using Utterz. Replies.

Finders keepers

This is what happens when you get distracted while doing laundry...



Mobile post sent by walkerszivak using Utterz. Replies.

Strawberry Fields Forever

So finally, the story of the strawberry jam! It was a great little Sunday afternoon. We headed to the farm and picked ourselves 6 baskets of strawberries - we figured, hey if we are already there we should just go ahead and get all we can, right? While we were there we also got some broccoli (of the pick your own variety as well), and some delicious local honey. Then headed home to rinse them off.
Then onto the real fun! The first thing we learned was that jam takes A LOT of sugar! One of the 3 trips to the grocery store during the jam making process was for more of it. The other trips were for more jars seeing as how we underestimated how much jam we could make with an hour worth of strawberry picking.

The amazing thing is once you chop the strawberries, mix it with some sugar and 'Sure-Jell' (which provides the jelly-ness of the whole deal), all you've got to do is put it in some jars and seal them up. The actual sealing process involves a whole lot o' steam - we both felt like we had facials after the whole deal.

Between Nicole's food processor and the jars and canning materials my mom brought me, we were actually quite well prepared for the whole deal. The one thing we were missing was the tong things you use to pull up jars with. So it was necessary to improvise...pliers were the only thing that we came up with so pliers it was.

It was not pretty, or efficient...or extremely safe...but it worked.

Other than a whole lot of jars of jam, we were left with a sweet mess! With two people, it was a bit better though...
...and once it was done we had a nice little celebration of strawberry-ness! Delicious!

2 years and counting

Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary! We went out to eat at a fondue restaurant last week because the coupon we wanted to use expired this weekend (this is how you celebrate anniversaries on a budget). So for our actual anniversary Maia and I went grocery shopping during lunch yesterday to find all the makings for a dinner. It just so happened that with our plethora of onions and squash in our weekly vegetables all I needed was a nice orange pepper to round out a delicious veggie side (with the help of some olive oil and thyme from our little garden on the porch). We walked back to the meat section to decide on something delicious and they had fresh cordon blues that you just needed to throw in the oven for 25 minute to cook! It just so happens that Sandor is obsessed with cordon blues and has been asking me to get the frozen ones for him for some time. I not being a fan of the frozen ones keep forgetting, so I figured I would see how he liked fresh ones...and he was not disappointed! Throw a little couscous on the side, some dill Havarti cheese with crackers as an appetizer, and a delicious fruit tart with a chocolate mousse as dessert, and you have yourself a delicious meal! And then to top it all off Maia and I found a bottle of wine on sale (again, living in budget land) and while we were eating I realized that is was vintage 2006 (i.e. the year we were married) and Sandor saw that the winery was established in 1978 (i.e. the year we were both born). How weird is that?

quite impressive for 40 bucks! and it looks very nice next to the flowers Sandor got for me (calla lillies, gerber daisies, and roses - 3 of my favorite flowers!)

the animals were kinda upset that dinner was so good there were no leftovers. they fell asleep beside the table waiting for us to finish up.

It was an excellent meal - and only took me 30 minutes to prepare! Watch out Rachel Ray! Afterwards however, is when you could tell it was our second, not our first anniversary - we hung out and watched TV with the animals - normalcy is nice sometimes :)

It's a Beautiful Morning

When my mom and dad were in town they bought me some plants to spruce up the porch area. So every morning I've been faithfully going out, picking off the old buds on the flowers, and watering the flowers and herbs. I've found it is actually extremely calming, breaking me out of the 'I need to do this, and then that, and then this, oh and don't forget that' mindset I generally get in during the morning. The animals are also very excited by this new morning experience and they all pile out the door as soon as it's opened. The cats have been more and more reluctant to come back in each day. But really, how can you blame them?

the pup sitting with me while I read morning devotions

the wandering felines

No More Furry Paws

The pup dog has been having a terrible time with flea this year. We aren't sure why - we do the monthly flea drops, give her flea baths, and I even went out and got flea spray. All to no avail. So we finally broke down and took her to a groomer yesterday for industrial size flea bathing. While she was there they did some grooming, specifically of the furry paws, which now look very streamlined - all the quicker to fetch the ball with, my dear.

she also got a cute little bandanna to go with the new do

Weekend Injuries

Apparently I have become more injury prone in my old age of 30. While the tendinitis is feeling better it is still not gone. Thankfully one of the women at my office happened to have a right hand wrist brace which she brought to me on Saturday for the all day DNR open house. That ladies and gents was a life saver. I can actually move my fingers now without my arm hurting! Yes, I am easily contented. Anyway, during said open house I somehow managed to give myself a paper cut underneath my fingernail while separating paper plates at the food tent (handing otu food was my assigned job for the day - really quite fun since it keeps you busy and this year the food tent was on the point overlooking the harbor with a wonderful breeze). I also smashed my finger in a chair while setting up. Then yesterday, my friend Nicole, Sandor and I went strawberry picking where I was bit on the finger three times by my nemesis, the fire ant. And THEN, when Nicole and I were making strawberry jam last night (more excellent pictures of that to come) and I burned my finger quite intensely while pouring steaming hot jam into a jar. Problem being you can't really get you burned finger out of the hot steam region when canning, because the only other job is screwing the tops on the jars which I was unable to do because of previously aforementioned wrist issues. The delicious strawberry jam, however, was well worth the pain!

My Poor Arm

So, little did I know that a) tendinitis is really not cool and b) you can get it from painting ceilings. I know, I'm pathetic, but seriously I have tendinitis in my right forearm and since it started hurting Saturday night after the build I blame it on the ceilings. I figured I just made my muscle work more than normal and so didn't pay attention to it really until Tuesday when instead of going away it started hurting more! On Wednesday when I was setting up for my meeting I realized that I couldn't carry water pitchers full of water with my right hand, and today being the first day in the office all week I've found that typing is rather difficult. As prescribed by my mom I am on ibuprofen and a strict ice/heat combination method. It's working when I don't have to use my right hand, but when you are right handed and 80% of your job involves typing it's making life rather difficult!