The Lopez Life

The Weekend

This weekend started out great! Did some shopping at Home Goods.

Also some dorm room shopping at target.

Saturday Robert had a meeting at work and was told he was employee of the month for May. He was also promoted to a Trainer last month.

Then I started to feel like crap and was on the couch for the rest of the weekend.

Robert had a good friend come into town from Iowa so he got to meet up with him yesterday.

Glad it's a four day work week. Hoping to get lots of rest this week. We have a fun weekend coming up and I don't want to be sick.

 

Arizona Sunsets

 Last night as I was leaving the grocery store I walked out to see this beautiful sunset. The sky looked like it was on fire. Snapped this photo with my iPhone so it's not professional at all!

Looking forward to a fun weekend. Hoping to start a little  DIY make over on an entry table with a new color. I've never painted furniture before so wish me luck!  

{Six Weeks}

 Robert has six weeks from this past Sunday until he moves into his dorms at ASU West. He's doing the Early Start Program and is moving in two weeks before actual classes start. Here's what his dorm looks like.

 

It's a pretty nice layout and the dorms aren't that old. He'll have his own full size closet and sleeping area, his own sink and medicine cabinet.  The room comes with a fridge and microwave too. Also the dorms have a free laundry facility for their use and a full size kitchen that they can cook in.

I've started to shop for all his bedding. As long as it's black or grey he's happy. Girl stuff is so much more fun. I'm sure there will be things he will need that I can't even think of so I'm happy he won't be far from home to get stuff as needed.

I'm getting sad just thinking about him leaving. :(

 

 

A Little Bit of Fall in the Summer

It's HOT here in Arizona and we have stayed inside all weekend. Decided to make a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins yesterday morning with a patriotic display. Pumpkin is good anytime of the year in my book!

The recipe can be found here.

 

 

Father's Day

Wanted to share these pics of my dad with his grandkids. That's all he wanted for Father's Day was a new picture with his grandkids.

 I need to get some current pictures of Robert and Dave together too. Have a great weekend!

{Date Night}

Nothing fancy for date night for us. We both happen to be home with no plans so date night it was! We planned to go to "Lobby Hobby" as Dave calls it (aka Hobby Lobby)! My Unlce John calls it Holly Hobby. We needed a few new picture frames and Dave likes to always pick out something for his bar area. This is what he found this time. Seriously....this is so Dave....

We were going to go eat at Red Lobster, but were both kind of tired from work and had a bunch of TV recorded of our favorite shows so we decided to do a fish fry bake at home. I remembered I had a bunch of these baskets with cute paper liners I had picked up at World Market and never used them. So we stopped at the store and bought all the food we wanted and headed home. We have the most exciting date nights!

 

I'm keeping these out so we can use them all summer for burgers and non-messy dinners. They are cute!

{Decorating}

 I love decorating for holidays (any holiday)! Here's a sneak peek of my 4th of July decor. I need to pull out my big camera and take pics when I'm done decorating.

 

 

{The Weekend}

This past weekend was just what we needed. Lot's of relaxation and family time. I did take a bunch of photos with my good camera, but need to upload them to my computer. That's on my to do list tonight. However, here are some from my phone.

My good, long time friend's husband is running for city counsil. His signs went up this past week.

Saturday night we stayed home and enjoyed frozen cocktails.

Dave had to work on Father's Day so we had breakfast with him and spoiled him with some fun gifts. Then we headed to Chandler to my sister's for the day. We BBQ'd and played games. I won at Pokeno.

We also played Tapple. Fun game!

{Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino}

I booked us a night stay at this Resort/Casino for our anniversary next month. That's the nice thing about my husband being off during the week. We can go during the week and it won't be "as" crowded. Plus, we really didn't want to make any far away trips since Robert will be moving into his dorms that following week.

 

Twice Baked Potatoes

I found this recipe from this site. I made them last night and they were a hit! I did modify the recipe a bit. Living in Arizona the last thing we want to do it turn on our oven in the summer (it was 110 degrees today). So I cooked my potatoes in the microwave (which is so much faster) and didn't heat the whole house while making them.  I also cooked them in my convection toaster oven for the last step for 25 minutes.  

• 4 russet potatoes
• 3 tablespoons whipped cream  cheese (I used sour cream)
• 3/4 cup of shredded cheese
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon season salt
• salt and pepper

Bake potatoes at 400 degrees for one hour.  I used the microwave. I cleaned and poked the potatoes and cooked for 10 minutes on high. Sliced them in half and cooked for an additional 3-5 minutes. Remove potatoes from the oven/microwave and carefully slice them in half lengthwise. Scoop each potato into a bowl. Combine hot potatoes with all the ingredients, reserving half of the the shredded cheese.

After smashing the potatoes together with the ingredients salt and pepper as desired, scoop mixture into a buttered casserole dish, and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Return to the oven for 10-20 minutes until the cheesy crust is puffed slightly and golden brown. In my case I cooked them for 25 minutes in my convection toaster oven.

Speaking of countertop convection ovens. We have this one and we love it! It sits on our counter all summer long and we do not use our oven unless we have to during the summer.

 

You can buy it here.