It's almost July! Really?!?!

So once again life has gone crazy! Literally this is the first weekend since April that we're doing absolutely nothing! Well I say absolutely nothing but that's not quite right we are celebrating our anniversary! This past weekend June 20th was the official date, but we decided with all the craziness it was best to celebrate it this weekend. So on Saturday we're going to see Toy Story 3 and eat at St. Clair Winery and Bistro. Pictures to come! :-)

So here's a few of the happenings for this past month:

June 3-6: Mom/Grandmother visit

- My Mom and Grandmother decided to come in town to visit for a few days and they just so happened to pick one of the hottest weekends of the month! We hit 100 degrees plus every day so it was difficult to do anything outside but we still had a blast though. We went up to the Sandia Mountain twice once at sunset which was really pretty. The second time we took the tram because my Grandmother wanted to eat at a restaurant at the top called High Finance. Wonderful food all around and a great view. And of course we couldn't pass up going shopping! ;-)

June 11-13: Young adult retreat

- Our young adult group through St. Thomas Aquinas Parish had a retreat up at the Glorieta Conference Center in Glorieta, NM. It was great to get away from life for a few days and just focus on becoming better followers of Christ. The weekend was about rejuvenation, forgiving others, forgiving ourselves, and making a better examination of conscious. The conference area was lovely. They have houses that people live in year around and I kept telling Paul it would be wonderful to live there. Then I remembered they're in the mountains that means they'd have really cold winters (with lots of snow!) and you have to drive one hour to get to Santa Fe, which is smaller than Abilene! So no we will not be moving to Glorietta it is off our list of places to live! lol

June 17-20: July's wedding shower/Mary's visit

- Mary, Paul's mother, came into town for July's wedding shower on June 19th and we had a lot of fun. We spent several evenings just sitting out in the backyard talking. I do enjoy having a backyard to enjoy summer nights in. That Saturday was July's shower and as usual her family knows how to throw a nice party. Plenty of fun meeting new people. Sunday was our anniversary so we decided to dig into our one year old wedding cake. Whoever packaged it at the reception must have thought the flowers were fake because they didn't remove them from the cake. So we opened up the box to discover a half frozen molded flower topper. Needless to say we only took two small bites each before determining it was more fun to slam cake into each other's faces. The cake tasted like frosting, amaretto, and dead flowers. Not a good combination so we went out afterwards for ice cream at McDonald's with Jeff and Skye. We were going to drink some champange we received a year ago but it was chilled in the freezer a little too long and became a popsicle!

Other events of significances:

- We bought a new car! Zoom Zoom 1.0 (my 2000 Ford Contour which had its transmission replaced 2 years ago) needed its transmission replaced AGAIN so we decided it wasn't worth fixing. For Zoom Zoom 2.0 we decided upon a 2010 Honda Fit 1) Because of the gas milage rocked, 2) Because of the cargo room and easy, one-handed fold down seats, 3) Because of the consumer report ratings, and 4) Because the sales associate didn't try to hassle us like all the others (a sales tactic I know). Paul says I could be their spokesperson but it's true we love our new car! Just this weekend I was able to fit all of July's wedding gifts into the car with no problems!

Note: Hair will not be this long after Saturday because I finally decided to get a hair cut!

- We went to a Isotopes Baseball game with Jeff, July, and her family. I got a mega big margarita after being Paul's foot model for a good portion of the game. It was yummy!!!

So that was June in a very big nutshell! Hopefully July will calm down a bit...but I'm doubting it!

Adventures with hair!

So this last weekend was semi-productive. I say semi because although we did clean our kitchen to where it looks A LOT better, we still have a lot of cleaning to do. I didn't do laundry and we didn't go grocery shopping until Tuesday when we realized the only meal we had left was egg burritos. We did do taxes finally Sunday night and we're getting screwed. I have to pay income tax on income I earned in Texas!!! We read the booklet over and over to find a way out with no success. I know we're paying a relative small amount of taxes compared to some people, but it still bites none the less.

Friday night we went to a wonderful restuarant called St. Clair with my co-workers for our belated Christmas party. The restuarant is actually a branch of the St. Clair Winery in New Mexico so as you can imagine they have a lot of good wines. Paul and I had a lovely Merlot that wasn't too tangy for my taste. It's All around it was good food and good company. Defintely some place we want to visit again.
Saturday night July and Jeff came over to eat with us. July made the wonderful Samon below and the brown rice mixed with garlic, onion, celery, and carrot. My veggies, well, were frozen! :-P

Then July and I proceeded to watch Twilight and New Moon together. July came up with the great idea to do rag curlers. We tore up two old t-shirts I was planning on donating to Goodwill anyways and began on the quest. July has so much patience because with my hair it took 2 HOURS to put in the rag curlers and all of the strips from both t-shirts. After yummy smoothies and watching New Moon I went off to bed with rag curls still in my head.

The next morning we woke up around 8:00 for mass and discovered the curls had done this:

So we decided with 45 minutes till Mass maybe if we try combing the curls out it would make them less like Shirley Temple. Yeah...that didn't work.

Finally after decide like my hair looked like a perm gone wrong we decided we weren't making it to 9:00 AM Mass. So I took a shower and sweet Pepe decided to help me use a curling iron to my hair.

The curls surprisingly stayed in my hair until Tuesday! Yay for no humidity!

So to sum it all up: 1) July is super patient for putting rag curls in my hair for 2 HOURS, 2) Paul is obsessed with his camera, and 3) We're lazy for not having done our taxes until this weekend! :-P

Food glorious food!

So yeah blogging more often hasn't happened....so here is my "Let's catch up on 2 months of fun" blog!

Chef Pepe at work! :-)

Paul and I (well mainly Paul, I just supervise and think of ideas of what to cook! lol) have been busy cooking up a storm of new food creations. Our young adult group with Deacon Dave may think it's strange I don't cook, but since Paul loves to cook why get in the way of a good thing? He cooks, I clean, and everyone goes home happy at the end of the day. We have a crock pot, but (shhh don't tell Becca lol jk) we haven't used it yet. I think apart of me is afraid of coming home to some charred, black piece of meat because it wasn't supervised enough.

Since getting our blender we've made homemade marinara sauce which is fabulous and not too complicated either. Others may snuff at it saying it's not authentic or needs more ingredients, but I enjoy the sauce just the same. It makes about four servings which is perfect for us cause you can only eat leftovers for a few days before going nuts!

Here's the ingredients for a successful Marinara sauce:

- 1 can stewed tomatoes (16 oz.)
- ½ to 1 can tomato paste (8 oz)
- 2 – 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 2 tablespoons oregano
- ½ cup riesling or white wine
- Salt and pepper to taste
Empty the stewed tomatoes and tomato paste into a food processor or a blender and blend until combined. Add the garlic, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper and blend again. This does not need to be exact and is really up to personal preference. Keep in mind that once it cooks the ingredients with the wine will taste different. Transfer the mixture into a pot and add the white wine. This should cook on low for at least 30 minutes minimum if not longer.

By the way, if you're like us and don't like Riesling very much as a drinking wine you may be wondering what to do with the rest of the wine. We found freezing it in an ice cube tray works nicely. After freezing overnight they store easily in a plastic bag. Then if you every want to make the sauce again (or any other recipe that calls for wine) you don't have to buy another bottle but instead just plop 2 cubes into the pot!

We've also made our own rendition of Baked Ziti with chicken and zucchini in the mix. I've never really cared for zucchini but recently I've grown a liking for it. Fried zucchini with marinara sauce is yummy (haven't made it from scratch yet but we will someday). Zucchini by itself dipped in ranch is awesome too. Who knew this unassuming member of the squash family could be delicious in so many different ways? As a kid I never ate squash. I think I may have even hated it. Now I kind of want to try eggplant...crazy I know!

But by far from all of these dishes my new favorite meal is Cuban Steaks. I don't know if they're authentically Cuban, but it sparks me to want to try more Cuban dishes. On the side of this creation we have Calabacita, a New Mexico creation marrying zucchini, corn, onion, garlic, Queso Fresco (a yummy Mexican cheese that reminds me of Mozzarella only it can crumble), and of course Green Chile.

I mean really what dish doesn't need Green Chile? I even had Green Chile on Cheese Fries on Friday...amazing! I would have eaten the huge plate of them all by myself if Paul hadn't stopped me! LOL It's strange eating Green Chile though. You can start eating a dish very unaware of the Green Chiles and without the gradual warning that jalapenos typically give, a once innocent dish can into a heat packed, mouth burning creation with the snap of your fingers. At the same time it can be a very neutral taste. So beware of Green Chile it can be a very deceptive ingredient. The longer they are cooked in a dish the more heat they bring. So add them at the very last minute just enough to get them warm if you don't want to burn your tougue.

But back to the Calabacita. It's a very yummy side dish that isn't too bad for you. Plus it's super easy. Here's our recipe:

- 1 Zucchini in cubes
- 1/2 Onion chopped
- 1 Cup Frozen Corn (adjust portion to your taste)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Green Chile (adjust to your taste, but be warned...it can get spicy!!!)
- 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
- Queso Fresco to taste

First put a skillet on medium heat and add the olive oil to the pan. Use more Olive Oil if it is not coating the bottom efficiently. Cook the onions till they are close to golden brown and add the garlic to let it cook for about 30 seconds before adding the zucchini Continue stirring the mixture for about 2 minutes or until the zucchini is tender before adding the corn. Once the corn has been introduced add the Green Chile. Keep in mind the longer the Green Chile cooks with the mixture the spicier it gets so this needs to be the last step (or the first if you want to burn your mouth while you're eating it). Sprinkle Queso Fresco crumbles on top to your desire and serve!


Here's the marinade for the Cuban Steaks in case you're curious. You can use pretty much any type of steak with this. Paul and I prefer Flank Steak because it holds the flavor well.

- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil (we use olive oil)
- 1 ½ teaspoons oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons Cumin
- 1 ½ pounds steak
Combine all the ingredient above in bowl or zip-lock bag. Put steak in the marinade for at least 30 minutes turning it over after 15 minutes to expose the other side to the seasonings. Grill to your heart's desire for however long makes you happy.

Bon appetit! Hope these recipes give y'all some ideas. ;-)

Top 5 things learned in January

So I've been slacking off lately on blogging not because I'm lazy (okay partially because I'm lazy), but mainly because there hasn't been much to report. So to keep everyone up to speed here's a few events of January.


1) Paul makes a really really yummy teriyaki sauce. He uses soy sauce, pinapple juice, brown sugar, and a little garlic to make his creation. It's really yummy as a steak maranaide. I know technically you're supposed to use ginger in it, but I still like it regarldess.

2) Bridesmaid dress shopping is so much more fun than wedding dress shopping. I love being a bridesmaid much more than I enjoyed being a bride because there's so much less drama! The wedding industry in general scares me a little. July (Jeff's fiancee) and I went browsing at David's Bridal on Saturday to get dress ideas for her sister Carolyn and me. We found some very promising ideas, but I'm so glad we didn't have to go wedding dress shopping too. She has a beautiful dress that has been in the family through six marriages and counting. It's beautiful in person!

3) I've finally started scrapbooking wedding pictures. I'm making very slow progress because I can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the pages, but it's coming together. So far I have wedding party pictures from the church, a picture of Paul and I near the lake a the country club, and pictures of Daniel and David doing the YMCA in the scrapbook. There's A LOT more to do. The cards everyone gave us have come in really handy. I've cut up a few of them to put on the pages for decorations. I'll post pictures when I have more to show of the scrapbook! ;-)

4) Word for the wise: always walk on paths where you can see the ice! I made the mistake Monday of walking on a curb at CVS because the sidewalk had ice on it. I thought "Surely I'll be better off!". Wrong, of course. Monday and Tuesday I was sore from the fall, but thankfully it doesn't hurt anymore. Now I have a lovely bruise on the right side of my back where I hit it on the curb.

5) Twilight is in the top ten of my favorite books! I started reading them two weeks ago because I had to get my oil changed and figured I should see what all the hype is about. In the first week alone I read the first two books and started on the 3rd book if that gives you any indication as to how obsessed I was. I finally finished the 4th book Friday night and I think it was a very fitting end to the series. I like how she tied up all loose ends. There's nothing worse than a series that ends badly. I absolutely hated Bella in books 2 & 3 because she was being an emo, let's-lead-the-guy-on girl! Edward I like through the entire book, but I really started liking Jacob during the 3rd and 4th books. I convinced (or drug) Paul to rent the 1st movie last weekend only to be disappointed. I've heard the 2nd movie is much better, but I'm going to wait till March when it comes out on DVD.

So that's the month in a nutshell. Till we meet again (hopefully I'll have more to say)!

Top ten things I've learned in the first 6 months of living in New Mexico (in no particular order)

1.) Balloon Fiesta is the coolest thing ever! We watched both from our house and at the fairgrounds this year. It was really cold, but a lot of fun to go through looking at the different balloons and how they set them up.

2.) Green Chile is AMAZING. New Mexican Food has a different kind of taste entirely because of it. The salsa is traditionally made with red chilies. The best Green Chile Stew is at Golden Pride and for only $4.50 you get more of it than you can handle. Jalapeños are a commodity you must request at most restaurants even with nachos. On the flip side you get a free sopapilla at the end of your meal in any New Mexican Restaurant! Yummy goodness with honey!

3.) I need to know Spanish here even more than I did in Texas! I am horrible at pronouncing Spanish names and butcher them daily at work. People laugh at my attempts or get mad when I can't understand their accent. I never knew Roybal, Cerillo, and Trujillo were such common last names.

4.) Thunderstorms aren't as big and scary as they are in Texas. I have yet to see a really really bad storm yet whereas in Dallas we'd see one every three weeks in the summer. Lightning storms are more common here. Because you can see so far into the distance we can see lightning storms that may be 50 or 60 miles away. This freaked me out at first because I thought it strange that they weren't coming our way.

5.) It's crazy cold here!!! Lows are normally in the 20s during the winter and highs are in the 30s. My windshield does not like the cold and frosts over like crazy so we've been trying every remedy. We've finally found a chemical spray in the auto isle that works well...only problem is it fogs up the windshield. Good old fashioned scraping is still a necessity. On the flip side at least my car doesn't stall out when it's cold anymore!

6.) There are only 4 roads that lead across the Rio Grande River. This really screws things up at 5 PM when you're headed home from work. And if an accident shuts just one route down be prepared for your 30 min. commute to turn into 1 hour or more.

7.) Lovelace is a hospital you should never ever ever go to unless the other hospitals have burned down or the roads are impassible. Upon my “lovely” ER visit to them (I say “lovely” because it was really 101 of what not to do to a patient!) I heard so many horror stories I'm never going back ever. Presbyterian downtown is a bigger hospital that has much better care.

8.) Roadrunners are the cutest bird ever!!! I wish I could keep one as a pet, but Paul for some reason doesn't think it would be a good idea. They are really fast and somewhat friendly if they suspect you have food.

9.) Hiking is fun! Living in Dallas I never got the opportunity to go hiking, but it's very rewarding to climb up 11,000 feet. This summer we're going to try camping when we go to Colorado Springs.

10.) People expect you to know exactly where they're from! I have people all day long at work who just spout off zip codes with no city attached. I'm getting pretty good at knowing which are Rio Rancho, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe, but the other zip codes I think to myself “I'm not psychic tell me what city you live in!!” It also threw me off at first that the state only has the area code 505 (with a few people being in the new area code 575).

"We're going to Lovelace baby!"

That was what Paul said to me after nearly falling off the chair he was standing on while taking the above picture. The combination of the fall and the tiles could have made for an exciting trip to the ER again! Lovelace hosptial was the first ER I ended up in at the end of October in which we had "wonderful" experience. We weren't having enough fun with the $17,000 in medical bills we already have right? LOL

So Paul and I finally put up the Christmas stuff. It took a little bit of nudging by Jeff (thank you for taking out the stuff for me!!), but we finally got the tree and my nativity set up. Looks kind of retro cause, well, it is from the 1970s I believe. Paul and I enjoyed going through different ornaments and hearing the stories.

Isn't it cute? Guess whose ornament this is? :-)

I found a few decorations that may interest some members of the Sadowski family namely Cindy, Jeff, and Paul. LOL I'm not mean I promise!! :-)

 Cute pictures right? Gotta love the memories!

The thing I was looking forward to most this year was my nativity set. Mom got this for me last year and I decided the subwoolfer is the best spot in the house for it!

This week also began the Christmas party season. I went to our church small group's Christmas party on Friday night without Paul because he had a choir rehearsal. I got home from work with an hour till the party and had planned on making green bean casserole only I couldn't get the can opener to open any cans!! I literally tried everything. I even looked on youtube as to how to use a Oxo manual can opener. Nothing worked. So finally with only 15 min. till the party I gave up and bought brownies. Turns out 90% of the people had the same idea cause we had a lot of desert and no sides. But it was a fun party overall just a lot of sweets! Today we went and bought me a can opener I can use! lol

Then Saturday was filled with putting up Christmas decorations and torturing Paul with Christmas music! We ate pizza with Jeff, July, and Skye while watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is still incredibly stupid. July and I decided you need to be stoned to get the humor! lol

Sunday Paul had a performance at a Methodist Church near downtown for a Christmas choir concert he's been rehearsing for the past few weeks. It was a great performance even if Paul lost his place during the solo (I love you!!!) lol. Afterwards we went to Pappadeaux and ate yummy stuffed crab and crawfish etouffee for a pre-6 month aniversary celebration. The real date is Dec. 20th but we are going to be super busy this week and weekend!

Welcome to Holland

God has a funny way of working on you sometimes. I had a shouting match with God on Friday on my way home from work. Somedays I'm fine, other days I'm a mess. Sometimes random moments set me off and Friday was one of those days. I pretty much told God as I've done several times since October that I was mad that we had to say good-bye to our child, I didn't understand why we had been given this child only to have Sam taken away 9 weeks later, and that I wanted our child back. As shouting matches with God usually go it only made me more angry and upset about it all and didn't resolve anything.

Like I said God has a funny way of working in the areas you don't want him to touch sometimes. I want to be bitter and blame myself for what I did or didn't do because somehow losing Sam was my fault even though we'll never know the reasons why. Despite the fact that I know our child is with God in heaven and I should be happy about that I still am bitter about the memories we will never have with Sam. Every Monday I think about what stage Sam should have been at (16 weeks this Monday) and every Friday I think about how long it has been since we lost Sam (7 weeks this Friday). So many parents get these memories but we don't even have a sonogram. I want to be mad at God and I can't find reasons to rejoice in this. So you can imagine hearing about rejoicing in God always, a very simple message I've heard time and time again, was not what I wanted to hear today. Monseigneur Ron's message today at Mass was exactly that about one of the readings Philippians 4:4-7:

Brothers and sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

I've read Philippians a thousand times and every time I get something new out of it. The interesting thing I got from these verses today was that no where in Paul's writings does he say "If you pray hard enough God will grant your every wish" as if God is some magical deity only set upon making us happy. Instead he reminds us that "...the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." God promises us peace to guard our hearts which is better than what we were originally wanting in the first place. As Paul (my hubby not Paul the apostle lol) pointed out after Mass rejoicing doesn't mean we put on a false sense of happiness rather it means we are giving thanks for the blessings that come from any event. I don't expect to suddenly be done with being sad about saying good-bye to Sam. Rather I firmly believe any event good or bad has blessings God gives us through the experience. We just haven't found God's blessing in being without Sam yet.

The article he referred to in his homily was a Dear Abbey Column about a mother who likened have a child with Down-Syndrome to having planned this wonderful vacation in Italy only to be told you're stuck in Holland. This mother has gone on to do some incredible things to create tolerance and love for mentally and physically handicapped adults and children including working with Sesame Street to portray abilities they do have. Her point, in case you don't want to read the article, is that Holland has its beauty too. Although we may not want what God has given us we are still blessed.

I feel like since October I've been vacationing in Holland instead of Italy and I haven't liked it at all. We had been so excited about Italy and to suddenly be visiting Holland, well, sucks at times. I've been bitter, angry, sad, and everything in between. I see everyone else going to Italy, and while I know some of them have unfortunately been to Holland several times before arriving in Italy, it doesn't lessen the pain. I know Italy is possible someday maybe, but there are no guarantees. Apart of me will always be stuck in Holland with Sam. Children are not just something you up and replace. I want something positive to come out of this though I don't know what yet. I know to find the positive blessing in all of this I need to let God work in my heart about letting go of the bitterness and anger, something I'm not always good at doing.

So here is the article I hope it does as much for you as it did for me. I think we have all be in Holland at one point with events in our lives. God calls us to rejoice in all things including vacationing in a place you did not pay to go to. There are still blessings to be found and if we open ourselves up to letting go of the bitterness and anger God will show them to us. Easier said than done right?


Welcome To Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.


So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.