We started off with this little number while our car is getting repaired:

...the last car on the planet that we would have willingly chosen. (No offense to those who own one.)

Let's just say that the PT Cruiser comes with a little "label" that automatically is stapled to the forehead of the male driver. We found out that Juan was no exception. While he was driving by himself, another man on the road caught his attention and winked at him! Eww! I don't want other women looking at him, let alone men!

Luckily, we were going to exchange it anyway because it was giving us headaches from the intense smell of cigarette smoke. We searched near and far for another Enterprise that had available cars, and eventually we found one. When we got there they told us they only had 2 cars left--PT Cruisers (Groan....) However, they tried a little harder and were able to find a Dodge Avenger. GONE are the days of the PT! Now Juan can drive around with his head held high.

This year, I decided to throw Juan a
surprise birthday party
- something I had never done before. The whole week was spent lying to him, trying to cover up what was really going to happen. But it was all worth it.

First, the invitations. I printed some as 4x6 photos for the people in the Spanish Branch and handing them out last Sunday was NOT a piece of cake. It seemed like he was always there when I gave them out. I have NO idea how they all got to the safety of purses and coat pockets without him finding out. That was my first lucky break.

Oh, it gets better.

Since we only have one car, and since he drives it to work (even though it's ONLY 4 blocks away,) I walked to the store to get all of the supplies for the party. This was the hard part. I needed the car to take all the bags home, and lucky for me, his work is near the store. So I walked with bags and baby in tow to our car, sneaked them into the trunk (not baby, of course,) and walked in to Sears to see him. I told him I was going over to Ross to look for a couple of things (web of lies!) Lucky break #2: his shift was over and he offered to walk Siena back home in the stroller while I browsed in Ross, then I could drive the car home. Wow! That worked out well. Anyway, long story short-- he was locked out AGAIN (or so he thought,) and had to come back for the keys. Meanwhile, I was in Sears, trying to find this drill that he wanted. I had stolen his wallet so I could use his employee discount card and finally had Sears to myself, "no Juan" to see me buy his gift. ;^) Unfortunately, they were out of those drills, so I had to give him a raincheck... a little anticlimactic.

I had to have pretty much everything ready by Friday night because we were going to be in NYC all of Saturday and at church on Sunday. While he was working Friday night, I was rapidly beating cake batter, decorating cupcakes, preparing a cheese tray (which I forgot to serve,) and getting the rest of the decorations ready. When he got home, I had to come up with an explanation for the foil-covered platters. I told a little lie and told him they were cupcakes for a "cupcake cake" I had seen on Martha Stewart, or something like that. I told him that it was a cake in lieu of the birthday cake I hadn't made yet. Lucky Break numero tres: he believed me.

Lastly, and most importantly, I had not yet figured out how to get him out of the house so everyone could come without him knowing. Wow! He happened to have a mandatory meeting at work exactly one hour before people were supposed to show up. Could I have been more lucky? I think not.

Thanks to two wonderful women from the branch, everything was ready to go in time, and it all went over well. Thanks to all 43 people who came! Now, I know you want pictures, and although I didn't take a lot, here are the pics I do have:

(The street fair was on Bleecker Street, not in the Bronx.)

(And no, I was not the one who made us go to the Botanical Gardens; we had never been, so we both decided to go for his birthday. ;^)

I've been "bitten" with the Twilight books. I finally yielded after many, many months of protesting and opened to page one. I sporadically read for the next two weeks and frankly, I didn't get very far... oh, say... only to page 48! Despite my half-hearted efforts and the encouragement from friends, I wasn't really that into it. I had my reservations planted long before I took that bold step forward, and it didn't look like I was about to change my mind about this so-called "faddish book". However, since I did agree to read to at least Chapter 8, I felt compelled to remain loyal to that promise and I forged on through the pages. I started page 49 last night at around 7:30.

Can you guess what happened?

Yep, I found myself drawn in like you would not believe. I read until 11:15 and, after a large exertion of self-control, dragged my heels to bed. I could barely sleep I was so anxious.

So this afternoon I took Siena to a park and read for about an hour while she played around on the blanket arrayed with toys. Later, while she was napping, I read to my heart's content, ignoring my household responsibilities. Juan let me indulge myself this afternoon and watched Siena while I read for another hour. After I finally put Siena down for bed tonight, I raced back to finish the book. YES! I finally finished it!

It was so good, I had to start the next... and so far, I am not disappointed.

So far this weekend:

• Juan went to take his $400 citizenship test after months and months of waiting for his July 18th appointment.
  
• Juan got denied to take his citizenship test within only 5 minutes of being there from an immigration officer who didn't know what he was doing. (New man on the job.)
• Once back home, Juan called the office and talked to someone else who told him to travel back into the city to have an talk with her about the situation.
• Juan drove back and finally was able to take the test given by the same officer, who was now hurt after having a hit to his ego.
• He passed the test! Now he just has to relinquish his Resident Card and be sworn-in as a United States citizen.
  
• Friday night, we drove out to West Chester to go swimming with our friend, Kurt.
• We tried to get Siena to go to sleep for the night for about an hour and a half.
• Saturday morning (today,) we drove around the area looking for yard sales with chairs.
• On our way around town, we were involved in a car accident. The woman making a left-hand turn drove straight into our lane. Luckily Juan swerved as hard as he could and we avoided a head-on collision. Unfortunately, both cars still suffered damage to the front driver's-sides. The woman was smoking something when we saw her coming toward us and after Juan talked to her, we were pretty sure she was high. This was made more evident after she left the scene to "get her insurance card" from her nearby home, never to return. Luckily, her mother came back to handle the situation and she admitted full fault on behalf of her daughter to the police officer. We're so grateful everyone was safe and unharmed, especially Siena.
• After making a few stops before heading home (thanks Kim!,) we finally got the car insurance situation squared away. (Remind me to never intentionally get in another car accident, not that I ever would, because dealing with insurance companies is such an annoyance.)
  
• Now I'm heading off for West Chester again to take Siena swimming, this time with Amber. Hopefully the weather is as good as it was yesterday....
  

This is one of the best foods I have ever learned to make: quick rise breadsticks. The reason I love it so much is because it is so versatile and works when I am in a hurry. You can make it with the purpose of baking almost any kind of yeast dough. I have been using a lot for grilled pizza and it has never let me down.

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar

--mix together until yeast and sugar dissolve--

then add:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
2-3 cups bread flour (if using all-purpose, add more until it isn't sticky.)

Knead and let sit for 10 minutes. Punch down and form into breadsticks (or whatever you are making it into,) and let rise for another 10 minutes. (If you are making grilled pizza dough, don't let rise the second time, just stick it straight onto the grill.) Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

*If you are making breadsticks, brush with a mixture of melted butter, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp. dried parsley, and 2 tsp. garlic powder before letting them rise the second time.

For a really good grilled pizza recipe, go here. Also, if you want to adapt this calzone recipe to a pizza recipe, it's easy and soooooo yummy.

Thanks to our generous friends, we have been viewing the BBC Series, Planet Earth over the past week and Siena just loves it! She loves watching the animals so much that today I decided to take her to see some, up close and personal. Since we don't have a zoo pass, we did the next best thing--visited our local pet store. The second we walked in, she was mesmerized by the guinea pigs and miniature dogs. We walked around and saw some big fish and little fish, loud birds and quiet birds, fluffy gerbils and leathery reptiles. She liked the bird cages the most, and even tried squawking to them. (Actually, the noises she made are quite normal for her. If there were tigers there, she would growl at them.) She loved the whole trip; however, I realized the second we walked in that we would not be getting an indoor pet--ever! They stink.


Take a look at the amazing-ness we've been watching.

Well, there is very little to write about right now, so I thought I'd just post random pics of Siena playing on our dirty floors today... yeah, that's about as exciting as it gets. (*yawn*)

The only other thing I have to say is that Siena got her first haircut last night. I finished up cutting Juan's hair and as I was sweeping up the mess, I decided that her mullet had to go. Her hair was trimmed in less that 2 minutes, but the clean-up took much longer! Baby hair is like kitten fur--too fine to just sweep up. It's not that different-looking, so I'm not going to take pictures, but HALLELUJAH that the "party in the back" is GONE!

Siena's newest "thing": growling for her food like a ravenous hyena. I don't understand this. She certainly didn't learn it from Juan or me, but I highly doubt that it is part of human nature to growl.

The Hardiness Zone is different here in comparison with Utah, so I'll have to do some studying on which plants I want to use. I'll probably start with some flats of Foxglove, Curly Tansy, and some grasses, and see how they do before I go full speed ahead. Somewhere in there I want some Clematis or Wisteria and some Silvermound... and so many other plants. Man, I'm going to have to get a full-time job to support this fantasy garden. Anyway, the goal is that it is finished by the end of next summer so we can enjoy it for at least a couple of years.

Juan was channel surfing the other day and stopped at a show called "Frijolito". We've never heard of it before but because of the funny name, we watched it for a few minutes. (For those who are wondering, frijolito means "little bean".) It didn't take us long to see that the show is pretty much a soap opera of a child in search of his father (at least that episode was.) I think the idea behind the show is to bring a kid-friendly soap to bored mothers. I wonder how many kids really pay attention to it while their mommies are stuffing their faces with bon bons and Diet Cokes, glossy eyes glued to the tube.

Next topic.
Siena is getting another tooth. All the signs point toward it-- runny nose, irritability, inability to sleep, irritability, excessive drooling, irritability, constant gnawing, oh and did I mention irritability? I'm actually really happy it's happening now; I would hate for the poor girl to have it drawn out over a longer period of time.

To finish up:
I found some random pictures and videos, so while Juan was out with the missionaries, I experimented with iMovie. Hopefully it uploads with our super slow internet connection.

Hmmmmm, nope. I'll try my luck later.

Siena is out with Juan right now and I get to blog... hooray for me! She cut her first tooth the other day (bottom left incisor... dental quiz: what # is is associated with that tooth?) I don't know if it's related to that recent event or not, but since then Siena has been practically yelling (or groaning happily) at the top of her 13-year old-sounding lungs. Weird, I know.

Hmmmm, what else can I write while I am waiting for pictures to upload.......

We found out that we live right next to part of Fairmount Park instead of a golf course, which we had previously thought. The trail entrance is about 100 ft. from where we live. That was a fun discovery.

Wow, I just realized that maybe the reason I haven't been able to think of anything to write is because I haven't checked everyone else's blogs yet. That must be where I get inspired to blog.

....now if only those darn pictures would upload.

Now that we've been unpacked for a few days in the new home, I've been really antsy to get back to blogging. There's only been one problem--no Internet hook-up yet. It has been a good thing, I guess, because I've done things I probably would not have gotten to otherwise (such as going grocery shopping for food storage... not an easy task, I might add.) However, today it really got to me so I charged Juan's laptop battery (which is on its last leg, so I've got 30 minutes online and not a second more) and drove over to our old apartment where we still have a wireless connection. I feel like a spy or an investigator sitting out in my car with a laptop. I wonder what the neighbors think.

Anyway, so here's a re-cap of our recent "to-ings and go-ings":

• We moved. We're so happy with our new home. Refer to this post to find out why.
• Juan has been working at his new job and it's working out really well for him.
• The 4th of July started for us at 6:30 am when we drove out to Lancaster to meet some friends for a Smörgåsbord breakfast. (For those curious about how I did it with the diet: I didn't count calories that day-- big holidays are exempt ;^)
• We went to a barbecue with some friends from the Branch that evening and watched the kids play with fireworks.
• I caught Siena "talking" in her sleep today. It was so cute!
• ...and last but not least, we have become a little obsessed with The Next Food Network Star. Yeah, the reality is that I like this reality show. I hope the winner is either Kelsey (the Utah girl--gotta represent!), Lisa (Miss Tres Chic), or Aaron (Homie with Good Food.)

Well, we probably will not get to post until the 8th when we get our Internet hooked up, so sorry in advance to you, Mom, for not giving you your daily fix. Pictures to come....