Football Fever!!!

And by football, I mean soccer. I haven't figured out what is the appropriate term for the sport in the US! I prefer soccer I think. Anyway, Kevin and I are super excited for the start of the Seattle Sounders FC season on March 19th. We decided to get a 7 game package for the first season of the team with Adam and Erin, and I think it is fair to say we are all pumped!!!

Last week, Kevin and I went to the George and Dragon in Fremont for a fundraiser for Seattle Scores hosted by the Sounders, and got to see the GM, the coach, and the goalie, who happens to be Kasey Keller, who has been on 4 World Cup teams, and some Olympic teams. He also was the first American to play in Europe on an American passport. And he's funny as hell! It was really cool to hear them talk about the upcoming season, but I didn't have my camera, so no pics with Sigi or Kasey :(

Then this afternoon, Kevin and I headed to Tukwila to see a scrimmage game of the Seattle Sounders Super Search team versus the Seattle Wolves FC. The Sounders FC will be picking one person from the Super Search team tomorrow to get a spot on the roster. I was really excited to see the talent, and was a little disappointed with the caliber of playing that went on, but it was a fun game anyhow! The Wolves looked pretty awesome, but the Search team never really got it together. There were a couple players who stood out to me, so I'll be rooting for Oliveira in the final tomorrow!

My totally rockin' Pumas that match the Sounders colors!

The Super Search team

Seattle Wolves FC

We're considering going to the live announcement tomorrow night after the Super Bowl, but it depends on how exciting the game is! Go Cardinals!!!!!

I also made a really excellent soup a couple of nights ago that my dad gave me the recipe for. It is Farro with white beans and chard soup, and it turned out really yummy! We replaced the farro with wheatberries because we couldn't find farro, and it seemed like a good substitute for size and texture. One note, wheatberries really should be soaked overnight, which I didn't realize until after I'd nearly finished making the soup! Other than that, I have no complaints! I'm not sure where he got the recipe from, but here it is:

Farro Soup with White Beans and Swiss Chard
Serves 6

1 cup farro
2 (15oz.) cans white beans (any variety)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 medium carrot chopped
1 rib celery coarsely chopped
1 sprig rosemary
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups swiss chard chopped
1/2 tsp. ea. salt & pepper

Rinse farro. Puree 1 can of the beans with the liquid in food processor or blender. Drain remaining can of beans. Pour oil into a heavy, 6qt. pot. Heat over medium-high heat and saute onion for 4 minutes ort until softened. Add garlic, carrot celery and rosemary sprig. Saute for 8 minutes. Stir in farro, tomatoes, bean puree, whole beans and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until farro is almost done, about 30 minutes. Add chard, salt and pepper. Continue simmering until farro is tender. Remove rosemary sprig and serve.


Yum yum! Tonight we are having some sort of lamb roast that Kevin is making and it smells sooooooooo good! Making me hungry!

Just have to show off the toothy wonder!

Corbin has sprouted teeth! Three of them, with a fourth just itching to get out, much to the little man's chagrin! Kevin and I got a great little visit in with Corbin, Adam, and Erin the other day, and I got a few shots of the new teeth! (Plus some gratuitous cutie pie shots!)

Teeth, count 'em! 1,2,3!
He likes to fit the lower one in between the upper two and grind them together, which is the most awful sound EVER! Nails on a chalkboardesque.

Rubbing wood over his gums seems to help with the pain!

Okay, I'll admit, not his best pic ever, but look at those teeth!

Hanging out with his Uncle Kevin!

This is what happens when babies learn to crawl! He loves going for the camera!

Biting off more than he can chew?

Reading Hug, which we got Corbin for Christmas!

Lounging on Uncle Kevin, I speak from experience that he makes a great pillow!

A whole new kind of smile from our little man! Looking good, Corbchops!

A Day at the Arboretum

Tilt shift photography

I've found a new obsession, in the form of tilt shift photography.

A birthday visit

We celebrated my brother Matthew's 31st birthday at my parents' house yesterday, and got in a great visit with everyone. Poor little Jackson was fighting a nasty cold he picked up on his cross-country flight to meet Terri's family in Baltimore, but he was still a trooper and perked up in the evening a bit. He has basically figured out crawling, which is so exciting! We didn't have him do it too much since he was feeling so crummy, but I got one video of him working those chubby little legs! Sadly I can't figure out how to load it, so it will have to wait until another day. But he is crawling! Yay! He's also still working on getting any teeth to bust through, but boy is he hurting and drooling a lot! He's chattering away, and mimics people really well. If I say "NAH" he says it, and so on. Here's some pics of the little cutie:

He LOVES his grandma!

We got matching Bay Hay and Feed shirts for Christmas!

Goofiest picture of Jackson ever! But look at those curls coming in!

Okay, this is pretty goofy, too, but Grandma and Grandpa got him this adorable little chair for Christmas!

A little more Grandma lovin'!

He and I took a decadently long nap together for several hours, and now I think I have his cold, but it is totally worth it. Baby naps are the best thing ever! Can't wait to see the little man again!

A lesson in pizza making

For Christmas Kevin and I received an awesome pizza stone and peel from my lovely sister Lauren. We have been itching to try it out ever since, and saw fit to invite a bunch of friends over last night to give it a whirl! We made two kinds of dough, a whole wheat one that Adam gave us the recipe for, and one white dough that we made from our bread machine cookbook. We made both doughs in the bread machine, though the whole wheat one needed a little help in the mkixing process. We've found that the whole wheat dough seems to be too heavy for the machine to mix properly when we make big batches. But nevertheless, the dough rose, and we went to work piling the ingredients on!

Chef Kevin rolls out the dough

Our first success! We were thrilled by the delicious results of the first three pies we pulled out of the oven. And then, disaster struck:

Kevin accidently made the final (and largest, and cheesiest) pizza on the cutting board instead of directly on the peel. When we try to transfer the pie onto the peel, it got stretched out pretty bad, and then when we slid it into the oven, we think it might have split, allowing some of the ingredients to end up directly on the stone where it immediatly burned on. Removal of the pizza was difficult, and ended up in our most "rustic" pizza. It was yummy, but clean up has been less than fun.

All in all though, we feel we had great success and can't wait to give it another try in the near future! We think everyone liked the pizza, as of four pies there is nothing left! :)

In other news, I FINALLY finished the other sock for Susan's Christmas present.

The carpet does not go well with the socks, but they seem to suit Susan well!

I actually finished it as she was walking in our door last night for a quick visit, and she immediately put them on, which was the greatest thing ever for me! I am very pleased with how they turned out, and hope that they keep her feet warm in THE SNOW THAT IS FALLING AGAIN! Sheesh! I must be getting old, because I am so over the snow...unless it bars me from going to work, in which case, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! :)