The Pentons

Craig is looking for seashells, look at all that lovely seaweed! This beach was right outside Tacoma, so if you look real close on that hill in the distance, you can see the thriving metropolis that is Tacoma.

Craig, isn't he cute!

Craig again, I love the smile!

I've posted a lot about our favorites lately, and last night we watched this movie and decided that it was our new favorite movie. It made us laugh and made us cry, it was beautiful!! Its a romantic comedy, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, I recommend renting it!

Click here if you want to watch the trailer.

The other day I was in the grocery store and I had a craving for something sweet. While I was waiting in line I browsed the candy bar selection they had on display and I decided to try something different. I tried a "Take 5" bar. The experience I had when I took my first bite was indescribeable. It was a chocolate pretzal mixed with carmally goodness topped off with a few peanuts. So next time you have a craving for chocolate, go to your local grocery store and try one, you won't regret it!

I decided to share what we usually eat here at the Penton house, we like to eat things that are fast and good!! So here's a couple of our favorite recipes:

Lemon Teriyaki Chicken:

1/2 cup Lemon juice
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup of sugar
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons water
Cloves of garlic (however much you like)
3/4 teaspoons ginger
5-8 chicken pieces

Combine everything (except chicken) together in a skillet. Cook until it starts to bubble, add chicken and simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender. We usually serve this on top of rice and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.


Chicken Roll-ups (variation of chicken cour d'bleu-- sp??)

Chicken (however much you want to use)
Deli ham
Swiss cheese
bread crumbs

Flatten chicken, place a piece of ham and cheese on top and whatever spices you want. Fold chicken in half and roll in bread crumbs until covered. Place on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Sauce:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream

Combine ingredients for the sauce and heat up in microwave. Put sauce on top of chicken.

I like to serve this dish with steamed broccoli and rice ( we really like rice in our family).


Spanish Rice: I just made this last night with tacos, this is one of Craig's fav's

2 Tablespoons oil
2 Cups rice
1 can stewed tomatoes
3 cups water
Minced garlic to taste
1 bouillon cube ( you can use chicken stock instead of bouillon and water, whatever you prefer)
1/2 onion

Heat oil in a large skillet or saucepan. When hot, put the dry rice in and brown the rice (you need to watch it constantly or order for it not to burn) Put in everything else and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for about 15 min. or until the rice is tender. Enjoy!

So this morning I woke up, walked into my kitchen and my counter tops were covered with ants! I opened my cupboards and there were ants all over our food! Needless to say I was shocked and I started killing them left and right with my trusty bottle of fabulosa. They kept coming back and so I went out and bought lots of ant traps. My cupboards are now empty, all our food is on top of our fridge and I have about 8 ant traps lying around our kitchen. I stil have that itchy feeling all over my body like I have ants crawling in and out of my skin!! YUCK!

We started our 12 and 1/2 hour trip to Washington at 6 in the morning. We got up really early becuase we were determined to make it here in one day. We made it!! We even made a few stops along the way. We stopped in Twin Falls and saw the new temple that they are building, we stopped for food a couple of times, and overall it was a mostly pleasant trip. Neither Craig nor I have taken this trip before and we were amazed at the change in landscape as soon as we passed over the Cascade mountains. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the geographical features of the west, the Cascade mountains are what divides eastern Washington and western Washington. As soon as we were over the mountains it felt like a whole different world. It looks alot like the east coast with lots of green foliage. I apologize for not posting pictures, we actually took quite a few videos of our trip and our video camera is having issues at the moment, so if I can figure it out I will post pictures of what we saw later. A big shock of our trip was the gas prices! In this area you can't buy gas for under $3.70 a gallon and I think we even paid $3.95 one time. It's crazy! The good thing is that we are here, we are in our apartment and we are happy that long drive is over!

Here are some pictures that we didn't take, but it is basically what we saw (and yes there was still snow on the mountains!)

This summer Craig has accepted a job as a summer salesman. He is going to be selling Dish, Directv and Qwest door to door here in Washington. Amanda is going to be the office secretary and will be responsible for scheduling installations and completing order forms/credit checks. Craig is also going to be the manager of the office. He is going to manage about 8 other guys that will be coming out to sell. What this means is that he will train/motivate/be in charge of these guys and it will eventually result in us getting a bigger chunk of money at the end of the summer. We're excited for this experience. Craig has had some selling experience for this same company when we lived in Idaho and he expects to do really well this summer. I'm excited becuase my job is easy and doesn't require a whole lot and I will have plenty of time to see the sights of Seattle and swim in the pool (thats located in our apartment complex)!!

Many of you may know but after five years of enduring tests, homework, and some really lame teachers I have finaly moved on in life, away from college and into the real world. To help with my transition into "the real world" I have been searching for a job for the past month. I initially signed a contract with the Granite school district in Salt Lake mainly becuase its close to home, offers good insurance and there are a lot of schools in which I could apply at to get a job. I interviewed at several schools and have finally accepted a job as a first grade teacher at Bennion Elementary. There are a couple of reasons why I'm really excited about this job and a couple of reasons why its kinda lame. The good things first: 1. I love first graders they are so funny sometimes, I feel like I really connect with them 2. The school is really nice, it is ranked as one of the top ten schools in the granite school district for test scores, the principal really works with his teachers and pretty much gives them anything they need. There is some diversity but not so much that it makes my job overly difficult. 3. The first grade teachers I'll be working with team teach-- that means that we ability group the kids for reading and math. One teacher will take the kids in the high reading group, one teacher will take the kids in the middle reading group and another teacher will take the kids in the low reading group. This makes my job really nice becuase I don't have to cater my instruction to many different levels. Now for the bad things about this job 1. Bennion Elementary is in Taylorsville that makes my commute an estimated 25 minutes right through the middle of a construction project. 2. I'm a little nervous on how to handle 27 first graders at the beginning of the year when they are used to 1/2 day kindergarten--I'm imagining my classroom will be a mad house for the first couple of months.

Obviously the good outweighs the bad, and that's why I chose this position. I start mid-August so stay tuned for updates!