Waldo Canyon Fire

It's about 10 pm here in CO and I'm watching the local news coverage of the Waldo Canyon Fire. It is heartbreaking. 6,200 acres have been burned and 32,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. The camera is literally filming houses burning to the ground. Heartbreaking.

Craig is on base right now. Fort Carson is expecting 600-1,000 civilians tonight and he will  be setting up shelters and getting supplies.

Currently, the fire is only 5% contained. A fire of this magnitude has not been seen in this area in 40-50 years. We live about 15-20 miles away from the main fire area and Highway 25 sits between us and the fire. We're safe, but the fire is extremely volatile and the winds out here can make anything happen.

Please pray for Colorado Springs and for all the families that have been evacuated from their homes.

Driving home from Fox Run earlier today around 4:45 PM

The sky on the drive home- dark and hazy due to smoke at 5:23 PM.

Please pray for Colorado Springs.

For more information click here.

Swimming Lessons

Once the weather started to warm up here in Colorado Springs, Craig decided that he wanted to take Laney swimming. I always thought that dogs naturally knew how to swim and once we put Laney in the water she would know exactly what to do. That is not the case. Teaching Laney how to swim was a step-by-step process and from talking to other dog owners we learned that it was not uncommon.

We started out by taking her to Bear Creek Dog Park where they have a small creek that dogs can run around in, but it's not deep enough to swim in. During the first visit she was very apprehensive and would just paw at the water. The next visit she was a little braver and would walk around the shallow-end. The splashing from her own paws would scare her. The next few visits she became brave enough to run around and stick her whole face in the water. She looked like a little Pac-Man chomping on the water!

The next step was to take her to deeper water. We discovered Fox Run Regional Park which has two ponds that dogs are allowed to swim in. Laney loved playing in the shallow-end, but she had no desire to go into deeper water. Every visit she ventured out a further and further and would sometimes let her back legs float, but no swimming. After 4-5 visits the concept finally clicked on the sixth visit and she was good to go! We are so proud of her!

Getting ready to jump in the water

Testing out the temperature

Such a good girl!

Tug-of-war 

Tired after a long day of swimming

Beautiful day at Fox Run Regional Park

She is a swimming machine! She also loves to steal toys from other dogs while swimming....Oh Laney!

Crock-Pot Teriyaki Pulled Pork

I really enjoy reading food blogs and looking for new recipes to try and I especially like finding easy Crock-Pot recipes. While perusing my usual bookmarked food blogs the other week, I came across this great recipe for pulled pork sandwiches on the Six Sister's Stuff blog. If you've never visited their website, I highly recommend it because they always have great recipes and DIY ideas.
Friday morning I decided to give the recipe a try and here's how it turned out:

The Ingredients:
2-3 lbs pork shoulder butt roast
1 medium onion, diced
1 bottle teriyaki sauce
1 (20 oz) can pineapple slices, undrained
Buns

The recipe originally called for 2-3 lbs pork shoulder butt roast, but I'm not sure that's a real thing because we couldn't find it at the grocery store. Instead we used 2 lbs of pork shoulder and it worked out fine. First, I sprayed the inside of the Crock-Pot with non-stick spray (PAM) and placed the pork shoulder along the bottom. Next, I drained the pineapple juice into the Crock-Pot, added half the bottle of teriyaki glaze and scattered the chopped onions on top.

The recipe highly recommends using Kikkomen Teriyaki Baste/Glaze and I definitely agree with them. The flavor and consistency is perfect. I set the Crock-Pot on Low and let it cook for nine hours. Since we live in  high elevation (14,000 ft above sea level), I've learned that it takes longer for things to cook up here. 

After nine hours I pulled the meat out and shredded with two forks.

I put the shredded meat in a separate bowl and poured some of the left over sauce and mixed it together to moisten the meat, but you don't need a lot. Then I arranged the pineapple rings on a plate, so they would be ready to grab once everything was done.

Since you only use half the bottle of Teriyaki glaze to cook the pork, use the other half of the bottle on your sandwich for extra flavor.

The sandwich was delicious!

Craig and I definitely plan on making them again. They were super easy to make and great for the summer! The next day I used the pulled pork in an omelet with mozzarella cheese and it was delicious!

Click on link for recipe:

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Pulled Pork
Once you click on the link you'll need to scroll down to find the recipe

Fun with Furniture

When Craig and I got married, I had a pretty good idea what he could or could not do in terms of DIY projects in the home. Craig can hang a picture like nobody's business and is highly skilled with a cordless drill (and a multitude of other tools). I, on the other hand, would prefer to throw out whatever was broken and buy a new one or hire someone. It's a good thing we got married.

When we moved into our two-bedroom apartment we found ourselves with a whole other room to decorate and furnish. The original plan was to buy furniture for the bedroom. If I had my way the whole room would look like a Pottery Barn catalog with the Pottery Barn price tag. Unfortunately or fortunately, Craig had a different idea.

Craig had the crazy idea that he would just build the furniture himself. He recently discovered a wood shop on the Air Force base and now had access to everything he would need to build furniture. Now don't get me wrong, I have great faith in my husband and his ability to accomplish whatever he sets out to do, but I was slightly apprehensive. He found plans on the internet for a furniture set that was inspired by Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. I knew I picked a good one! Even though he wouldn't let me buy the ridiculously expensive furniture, he had my best interests in mind. In the beginning of May he started his furniture building project. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures of the building process (only 1), but you'll be able to see the finished products.

Here's how it turned out:

Project One: The bed frame and head board

Staining the bed frame on top of my old Ikea comforter from college

The finished product! The head board is actually hanging on the wall instead of being attached to the bed.

Source: Headboard, Bed Frame

Project Two: Full-length mirror

I specifically asked Craig to make a mirror because the cheap mirror we bought at Target was all wonky and made my already short torso/legs look even shorter.

Source: Mirror

Project Three: Nightstand

All the pieces turned out great, but I was especially impressed with the nightstand. 

Source: Nightstand

I absolutely love every single piece he made and I feel so blessed to have such a handy husband! Right now Craig is working on a book shelf that will go in the guest bedroom, so I'll post pictures when it's done. 

All in all for the bed frame, head board, mirror and nightstand we spent a grand total of $330! What a bargain! The nightstand by itself probably would've cost that much or more if we had bought it from Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.I think Craig was relieved he was able to build the furniture, so now our bank account won't disappear every time we move into a bigger home.

So what do you think of the furniture?

Jade

Another blog?

So it's another blog...about newlyweds...that have a dog....that live in Colorado...love to travel...eat food (from restaurants and our own kitchen)...and have a grand old time together. Basically, it's just a way for Craig and I (Jade) to document our life together. I imagine there will be posts about furniture building, recipes that worked for us, pictures of our dog, our weekend adventures and adventures all over the world!

Here's a little synopsis of our lives up until this point:

1. Got married on December 18th, 2011 in Bethlehem, PA

2. Went on an amazing 10 day honeymoon in Bora Bora

3. Returned from amazing honeymoon, jumped in the car with our 4 month old puppy and drove 1,700 miles from PA to Colorado Springs, CO. We spent our first New Year's Eve as a married couple in a Marriott hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was quite romantic...I think we even went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Got to love middle America.

 Our dog Laney....she was older than 4 months in this picture, but she's sitting in car, ready to roll!

4. Settled into Craig's one bedroom apartment. Our first "home" together will always hold a special place in our hearts.

5. Five months after our amazing honeymoon we got the itch to travel again and went on a 10-day Mediterranean cruise!

 

6. As soon as we returned from the cruise, we moved into a two-bedroom apartment in the same complex! We really like to pack things in when we plan to do stuff.

So now we are settling into our two-bedroom apartment...our first official home together (new to both of us)! The first six months of married life have been absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see what the next six months and forever have in store for us. Just you wait and see!

Jade