Hope this helps you vote:

this is not a political video. it's a story of a baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0

I heart Organic!

Tonight, I did one of my favorite things EVER! Go to Trader Joes and buy organic!!! Something about buying Organic, and I know some of it is mental, but I JUST adore it, I feel better about myself. Michael doesn't understand why in the world I adore organic... I try and explain to him, like I know what I'm talking about in order to encourage him to buy the food I put in the cart...
I tell him things like " They aren't grown with the pesticides that cause cancer" " It makes you feel better!"

I really try.
but I did make it out of there with $33 with mostly organic products with I am very pleased with!


Enjoy your Wednesday night and buy organic!

Saturday Morning harvest festival breakfast with my pa!

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions :
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and oil.

Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture all at once and stir just until smooth (don’t overmix).

Let batter sit for a full 15 mins. to allow the flour time to absorb moisture from the liquid.

Pour batter onto hot griddle.

The batter is VERY thick and will need to be spread out into a circle quickly using the back of a spoon.

Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes and cook until second side is golden brown. Makes about 6 pancakes.


*Note: These really come out thick and fluffy! If you want the batter to spread a little easier, you can increase the buttermilk to 1 C. and they will still come out good. Recipe is easily doubled or tripled (I haven't tried it more times than that).*



AND!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte


INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
3 cups hot whole milk
4 teaspoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
6 ounces double-strength brewed coffee
3 tablespoons sweetened whipped cream
3 pinches pumpkin pie spice




DIRECTIONS
Combine the hot milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice in a blender; blend until frothy. Pour the mixture into 3 coffee mugs to about 2/3 full. Pour 2 ounces coffee into each mug. Garnish each mug with whipped topping and pumpkin pie spice.

Great!

http://listen.grooveshark.com/
wonderful new way to hear nice tunes
i suggest The Weepies
I'm currently digging them
-R

I ask for your prayers...

Yesterday after my Pastor preached, he let us know that His father in law had passed away that morning at 3:30am, his wife and her father are VERY close, and this came at a time, when his wife couldn't be there for her Father, so not only is my Pastor's wife grieved she is feeling guilt. If you can remember her in your prayers, I know she'd apperciate it.
Thank you friedns!
-Rachel

A wonderful day!

Let me recap my beautiful saturday!
-This morning I woke up at the lovely hour of 7:10am
- Got the dogs up and out for potty
- Woke my sleeping prince
- put on my walking shoes and compfy clothes
-took pot roast out of the freezer for dinner tonight
-convinced said prince to go with me and the pups on a walk around the neighbohood
- walked with hubs and dogs till 8:00am
-prepared pot roast for crock pot
-made coffee
-went with lovely hub to farmers market, my most favorite place to be saturday mornings!
- drank coffee, ate muffins, bought g. beans and grapes
- came home, changed, and met Amy Beth at 9:40am to carpoole to our calligraphy class!
-Sat in class for 3 hours, listening to wonderful history on writing, practicing till I was sick of writing, and admiring my teachers wonderful calligraphy penmanship.
-Left with Amy, and headed home to grab my wallet
-Took Amy to lunch at Fig Garden (chipotle= YUM)
- putzed around P.B. admiring things i'd NEVER most likely buy.
- was then dropped off at home and began thinking about how much i needed to get somethings at the store for our dinner guests tonight and a new game to play after dinner!
-Target and Food Maxx for supplies
-run home ASAP to CLEAN CLEAN and COOK COOK COOK!
-Guests arrive, we eat, play, laugh, joke, discuss, drink, and be merry!
- all this boiliing down to me, sitting on the couch next to sleeping dogs: writing!

I wanted to tell you, for desert Amy and I made this amazing hot fudge, along w/ Vanilla sauce and carmel, to dip apples, strawberries, cookies, and brownies in, that was AMAZING. So I'm going to share with you the recipe!

Hot Fudge Sauce

To reheat this rich sauce in your microwave oven, allow 15-30 seconds on high

FAST
Start to finish: 15 minutes
Makes: 1 1/2 cups
(perfect for 6 people and you'll even have left overs!)

*3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
*1/4 cup butter
*2/3 cup sugar
1 5-ounce can (2/3 cup) evaporated milk

1.) In a small sauce pan melt chocolate and butter. Add the sugar: gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Bring mixture to boiling: reduce heat. Boil gently over low heat for 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove pan from heat. Cool slightly, Serve warm! I recommed dipping truffle brownies and strawberries!

Enjoy!

Love:
Rach

Recreating my blog.

I'm not going to try to transfer anymore blogs over! It's just not that easy!
so i'm offically moved over here! I'm going to leave a note on my old blog.
Enjoy the new "As I know it!"
I'm totally over wordpress and yes, i'm totally a sucker for what everyone else is doing, ie: blog spot! I find it much easier so far and it seems more personal!
So i'll try and transfer my blogs from my "As I know it" worpress blog, but I'll keep that one up for awhile.
God bless!
-Rachel
ps. Welcome Amy to the blog world!

Lovely Fall Evening!

Tonight was a lovely night! My husband Michael got home around 8:30pm and we jetted off to Traget, putzed around, I pick out this lovely new color, I am always drawn to reds, I told myself tonight when I was thinking of getting new nail polish that I would pick something else but red…

but alas:

so after target I really got the hankerin for some frozen yougurt, so I whipped out my handy dandy cellular telephone and text ” Frozen Yougurt Fresno CA” to google. It showed a few results, so I called the first one. A nice girl answered the phone and told me where to come to find the goods. So we ventured into N. Fresno and found this wonderful hidden treausre called Yodigity. No joke. So as we’re approaching this lovely new place, we see that there really isn’t a counter, and the frozen yougurt is againts the wall, in the middle of the <>

store! and JUST parelle to that is ALL SORTS of toppings in despensers! OH WHAT JOY! The nice yougurt girl, seeing the stunned looks on our faces and the drool dripping from the courners of our mouths, proceeded to explain the process. You just grab a cup, two sizes, both HUGE, fill up with yougurt, and toppins! WOW!

It’s 44′ cents an ounce, and me being me. I got a $6.50 cup of yougurt. Oh yea, and i’m PROUD of it!

I put my toppins on the bottoms, and then put yougurt and hot fudge on it! OH YEAH BABY!!!

Bottoms’s:

Reese’s

cookie dough

brownie chunks!

and I can tell you, after eating ALL of it, I feel like making some of my own chunks.

And it was so fun.. Michael and I were like little school children, I had the hardest time deciding what to put on. We left there with a $10 bill and only two cups of yougurt, but come on! For that much fun and delicious proceced sugar! It was SO WORTH IT!

I am warm, in my new sweat pants with shiny flowers on them, in the comfort my own home, with only the sound of the birds chirping and my lap top keys a clicking!

Sleep well fellow sugar lovers

-Rachel

Truth

Life isn’t about how to survive the storm;

But how to dance in the rain

‘The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.

The need to remember

As the time draws neat to celebrate my husband and i’s 2nd year of marriage! (Novmber 11th) I feel the need to remember* my first two years of marriage and all the lovely and not so lovely things those two years had:

*this is very much spurred on by chrismas cards my mom recieves every year from this sweet family in Los Gatos that she used to nanny for, 5 or 6 kids… and the mom would write a list of things that happened to their family over the last year, new nick names, bruises from sports events, new animals, new crushes, pumkpins and christmas trees, trips, trials, blessings and everything else under the sun that happened to their family. I cherished reading this card yearly, i felt so close to this family, with only reading a few words per incident. I would like to write a card this year and maybe the rest of our years together on this earth, like theirs.

I think i’m going to buy a big journal and write all these things in it

I don’t ever want to forget what our first year was like:

*newness

*first thanksgiving: dancing with my dad in the living room becuase he had to go to the hospital and we missed our father daughter dance together m & i’s wedding, so we danced together in the living room at thanksgiving, i’ll never forget it…

*Moving into our first home together, LOTS of furniture, 4 dressers, 3 beds, 2 pairs of washers and dyers, lots of organizing and getting rid of.

* finding out things about each other we never knew: Michael sings a lot! Rachel hates hair on the sink

* our first pregnancy scare and the many more to come, yet no babies!

* prayers at bed time

* enjoying our kitters

*cold toes at winter time

* our first christmas together, opening stockings

* putting lights up on the house

* buying a G35 for michael

* selling his old car without even putting an ad out or hanging a sign on the window

* making up silly songs about our cat, and everyday life

* many farmers markets on saturdays

* attempting to hike our way up to the top of half dome and only making it to the top of navada falls, go Amy and Scott! they made it all the way up! And got engaged a week later

* Weddings:

-Donna and Lutz

-Danny and Monica

-Ashley and Caleb

-Ben and Christy

*Engagements:

-Scott and Amy

-Jen and Nate

- Karra and Brian

- Rachel and Aleks

*Births:

-Trace May 5th 2007

- Grace Temple

-

*serving together in youth ministry

* buying our couches

* both celebrating our one year anniversary’s at our companies

* Rachel making a big job change

* Lymbyc Systym Concert with Brian and Lindsay at The Cellar Door in Visalia

*our first annual trip to Yosemite for valentines day! Snow on sunday morning of that trip

* The Ruelas’ first annual Super bowl party!

*Murder Mystery party at Pat and Brandons

*Casey turning 20, marco 19, jessica 13, james 24,michael 23, me 22, karie 25, brian 22

* I received my first sewing machine from the Stricklands!

*the wonderful wedding gifts from Rachel’s parents: bed and antique mirror

*Rachel’s beta died

*

to be continued

ABC

A - Age: Twenty three

B - Band listening to right now: currently STUCK on coldplay, on my compy and i pod

C - Career future: wife and mom

D - Dad’s name: Barron

E - Easiest person to talk to: My hubbie michael

F - Favorite type of shoe: flats

G – Grapes or Grapefruit: Grapes

H – Hometown: Los Gatos CA

I – Instrumental talent: I got a voilin for my birthday, hopefully I learn to play it Thanks Mom!

J – Juice of choice: APPLE!

K – Koala Bear or Panda Bear: both!

L - Longest car ride ever: to washington 17 hours non stop, except for potty, coffee and gas… esentials!

M – Middle name: Elise

N - Number of jobs you’ve had: gosh like 10

O- OCD traits: cleaning

P - Phobia[s]: people i love dying

Q - Quote: this one i’ve been saying quite often lately, ” She looketh well to the ways of her household and eats not the bread of idleness.”

R - Reason to smile: God is faithful, and clean kitchen, chubbie puppies, sunshine, and candles

S - Song you sang last: don’t remember

T - Time you wake up: sadly, differs everyday

U - Unknown fact about me: My parents were going to name me Devon Charles if I was a boy

V - Vegetable you hate: mushrooms.

W - Worst habit: waiting till the last minute!

X - X-rays you’ve had: teeth

Y - Yummiest food my belly likes:

Z - Zany Nick Name: Rae Rue

Now it’s YOUR turn! Answer one of these questions in the comments or share your ABCs on your blog!

Instead of posting each photo from my phone to certain post’s i written before, i’ll just post all of my phone photos here. My husband just helped me get them all off my phone, so here’s a few months worth of photos!