Husband & Wife

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

2011-08-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've been in the kitchen recently. I found this recipe for No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars a little while ago when Husband and i were on a diet. I wanted to cry when i saw it because i knew there was no loophole in our diet for me to be able to make this. Husband got upset at me for even looking at it let alone the fact that i showed it to him. But i'm in the process of trying to diagnose some health problems i have, doing blood work and doctor visits and all that not fun stuff, so we decided to have me on this specific diet right now with the medication involved wasn't the right choice. Since I wasn't going to be on the diet, Husband had no desire to diet either. We're still watching how we eat -- we're not eating out any more at all, and our weakness of ice cream is not allowed in the house. Earlier this year we cut out a lot of sugars and starches from our diets already (replacing starches like potatoes and pastas with vegetables), so we're sticking with that.....
Except for this splurge. I couldn't help it! I kept thinking about it and i just couldn't stop myself. I don't even remember the last time i was in the kitchen baking -- though there is no baking involved in this recipe. But we've been really good about everything, and i was about to die without chocolate -- a little TMI but it was my girl week so you may be able to understand -- so I made an exception. It was delicious. SO worth it. If you like chocolate and peanut butter and oatmeal, you'll love it too. I hope you will anyway.

Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Press half of mixture in to the bottom of a buttered 8 x 8 dish.

In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and blended.

Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the crust, reserving a couple of spoonfuls to drizzle over the top.

Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate and peanut butter, pressing gently to form a crust. Drizzle the remaining chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the bars.

Refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting and serving.

It really was as good as it looks.

{click to print}
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1. Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Press half of mixture in to the bottom of a buttered 8 x 8 dish.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and blended. Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the crust, reserving a couple of spoonfuls to drizzle over the top.

3. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate and peanut butter, pressing gently to form a crust. Drizzle the remaining chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the bars.

4. Refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting and serving.

And last off, i want to let you all know that i'm planning a move for our blog. I think. I feel like being a little more anonymous when it comes to things i'm making and sharing -- like this delicious post -- and i get enough traffic from my projects that i feel like making a move would be the best thing for us. I have no intention of being a professional blogger -- i'm not cool enough for that -- i just want to separate the friends and family stuff from the public stuff. I'll probably keep this one for the family and friends and go private but I haven't got the new one all set up and moved over yet, so i'll let you know when i'm all done.

It's a {Sock} made into a {Monkey}

2011-08-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you right now, this isn't a tutorial, its just me bragging about something cute i made. Sorry if you're disappointed :)

So, I love sock monkeys. I think they're adorable. I never had one growing up, but i always wanted one. The other week *ahem*, ok it was a few months ago and i'm just now getting to posting about it...my friend Ashley had a beautiful baby girl in April. BEAUTIFUL. While she was pregnant, back in December or so while i was spending a lot of time making aprons for all my sisters-in-law and spending a lot of time looking at all the stuff i had in my craft room, i made the decision that i was going to make her, my friend Ashley, a sock monkey as a shower gift. And i'll tell you something, sock monkeys are one of those things i had been planning to make for a long time. I knew i was going to make one one day, and this was the time to do it. I got all the supplies for it a long time ago too, when i picked up this book.

I know there are tutorials all over the place on how to make these, but every now and then i like to pick up a fun craft book when it's inexpensive. I got this book Sock and Glove a while back and i was so excited that right away i went out searching for cute socks to start making some cute sock animals. And then i never did anything. Everything sat in a big bag in my craft room closet for over a year. I'm sure it had something to do with not having anyone to make one for, so there was no real motivation for me, but still. I should have made at least one since i was so excited about it in the first place.
And it was my loss too because this sock monkey was fun to make. I found some cute gray and pink socks at Target, turned a movie on, started cutting out all the parts, did the stuffing, and hand sewing, and that was it. I was done, just that fast. I forget which movie i picked for this particular evening of crafting, but i finished the monkey before it was over so it took less then 2 hours to make. And it turned out adorable!

He's pretty friendly

And there're are more then just monkey instructions in the book too. I found some zebra print socks and there are instructions on how to make a horse in the book. I'm looking forward to putting that one together next!

{Just a Dream}

2011-07-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Why don't more stairs have this built in? I mean, yes, i do have a closet and storage that go all the way under my stairs, and it's great. But to have this type of storage would be heaven. If i ever have a house built, this is on my list of *must have*s
I love it.

This week i've been sewing. At the moment i'm taking a break from making the ruffles and flowers i'll be sewing onto my throw pillows.

And on a happy note, Husband is home as of 6 something today. I wasn't really paying attention to the time. I just know he's home now and I had my homemade dinner ready within 5 minutes of him walking through the door like a good wife that's missed her husband would ;) The last 2 weeks {minus the 2 days he was home last week} have gone by way too slow. I asked him what he wanted to do tonight and he said he wanted to take me to see Captain America at midnight. Go figure. I guess he had fun at the Harry Potter showing last week if he wants to go to another midnight showing. He's awesome though. I'm just glad to have him home safe and sound.

My Padded Headboard!!

2011-07-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

What??!? Is this a new blog post from me you're reading?

Why Yes! It is.

Amazing right?? I know. And i'm sure, all 3 of you readers have been glued to your seats waiting on me to get to it.

I'm so proud of him every time i look at this picture.

Husband is gone on his 2nd Deployment of the month. He got home earlier this last week from the first one, was home for 2 days and took me to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, and then was off again for this next deployment at 5 the next morning. He's working like crazy this summer and yet he still manages to take me out and help fulfill my dreams. Yes, seeing the last Harry Potter movie was one of my dreams (: He'll be gone at least a week again, and my house is clean for the most part, so it was a choice between either laying on the couch watching a movie i've seen at least 80 times -- Pride and Prejudice, the Keira Knightley version. I admit it -- or make that post i've been promising to make for months and listen to the movie in the background. I figured since I know all the words to the movie... the choice was pretty obvious.

So here we go.

I've been coveting a new headboard for my bed for years. My whole life growing up i never had a headboard, just my mattress set on the metal bed frame. Depriving right? Ok, not really depriving, but at the time i felt like that was the case. There's nothing wrong with not having a headboard on your bed. But i'll be honest, i was jealous of my friends that had nice pretty ones. It wasn't until college when i got a queen size bed that i went to Kmart and found one for $7 (i couldn't believe i hadn't done it sooner when i payed that at the checkout).

So i've had this metal headboard that looked perfectly acceptable, but.....i hated it. Looks wise, its fine, and any bedding i put on my bed worked great with it. But trying to sit up in bed was a pain. Literally. I would pile up all my pillows against it, but that would only work for a short time. I had to position my spine exactly between the bars and i would be all slumped over and i would only be able to last about 10 minutes before either laying down or leaving the room all together. So, my answer was a padded headboard.

If you've ever looked, to buy one is expensive for those of us with a budget. But i'm crafty, i'm not afraid to try making things, so i made the decision to make it myself. I've been wanting to do it for years now, especially since we got married. And i'm so honest when i say this; it is soo comfortable. Compared to what i had before, its like night and day. I shouldn't have put it off for so long.
I had planned to make this post into a tutorial on how to make you're very own, but silly me, i didn't take pictures throughout the process so that's not really going to work too well for a step-by-step thing. But I drew you some pictures in paint and I'll do my best to break it down for you.

Basically, i found my instructions to make this headboard here on Beck's Chic Life while looking for different ways other people have made their own. I read through it and i got to work. Once I knew the technique it was simple.

What I used:

Particle Board (i had it cut to size for me at Home Depot)
Carpet Padding (or Foam if you would like)
Box Cutter
Quilt Batting
Upholstery Fabric
Staple Gun w/ Staples
Husband (this is optional - to help hold things while using the Staple Gun)

Beck said that while purchasing and getting the particle board cut at Home Depot, she was recommended to use Carpet Padding in replacement of the Foam most of the other sites recommend. I did my price checking, and it ended up being about the same price, and since i had gift cards for both Home Depot and Jo-Ann's (thanks Mom!), and i knew i would want more things later from Jo-Ann's, i went with the carpet padding and used up the HD card. I'm pretty sure using foam padding would have been just as comfortable, it was just a decision of what i could do with what i had at the time. If you don't know what carpet padding looks like, this is what you're looking for:

They have pre-cut selections all rolled up for you, or you can have them cut it for you to the size you want. I decided to go with 2 layers of carpet pad for my headboard like Beck did in her instructions, so i went ahead and purchased the pre-cut. It worked out great and i didn't have very much left over as scraps i wouldn't know what to do with later.

The first thing you need to do when making your own headboard is to figure out the shape and measurements of how large you want it to be. I went with the basic rectangle, and since i liked how tall my original metal headboard was, i just measured it and went with those numbers. I thought about splitting it up into 3 tall sections, covering them individually and then bracing them together across the back, but i wasn't sure if i trusted my skills at something like that yet so i kept it simple.

It was an adventure buying all my supplies because Husband came along for the shopping -- men usually agree to go to Home Depot without too much complaint when you say you need help (: But be prepared, if you are taking a man along, they have opinions about what works best and that's not always going to coincide with what you want or need. Sometimes they're right, and sometimes you're going to have to argue your point. I didn't want a super heavy headboard, but Husband wanted me to get the thicker, heavier, particle board because he didn't think thinner would last as long. I think he said something about "warping" and "chipping" and stuff along that line. Honestly i don't remember, i just went with it because he was so adamant about it, and he worked for a cabinet builder in college so i figured he knew a little bit more about wood then i do. But when i said i wanted to get brace plates to make it taller, he fought me on it for 30 minutes until i could demonstrated what i was talking about and show him i was right. Taking him along really wasn't bad though. He was more help then hindrance for sure. I was even able to get him into Jo-Ann's to get the fabric in the same trip. But i had already picked out what material i was going to get ahead of time so we were only in the store long enough to get it cut. If it had been for more then that he probably would have gone home and made me come back on my own.

Anyway, particle board is in sheets of 46" x 96", and then has different thicknesses. The height of the particle board on its side is a convenient size (46"), so you may only need to make one cut off the length. Because I was using the measurements of my original headboard, i wanted it taller then that convenient size by about 6 inches i think, so i used what was cut off -- i had to cut it down to 6" -- and used brace plates to attach it to the bottom to make it higher.

You'll need a drill if you want to go taller like i did. I used 4 brace plates, 2 on the front, 2 on the back. The brace plates are staggered on either side to keep it from getting bent. I centered the extension board along the bottom and butted it up flush with the main board, then i got Husband and we drilled the screws in to hold the boards together. They're extremely secure and i'm happy i won the argument to use them (: Husband even admits that i was right to use them.

I decided i wasn't going to pad and cover the entire board, just the part you'll see. The rest of it is below and behind the mattress line so there wasn't really much point in padding the whole thing. So, you're going to need to know those measurements as well if you decided to do the same thing.
Now, when picking out your fabric, make sure to pick out an upholstery weight fabric. Thinner fabrics can rip easily when trying to get it pulled tight across the board. Beck also recommends that if you use a light colored fabric that you may want something like quilt batting or a white piece of fabric between the upholstery fabric and carpet pad because otherwise it will show through. I chose a dark fabric, but i decided to go ahead and use the quilt batting in between because i could feel the texture of the carpet pad under the fabric. I know when i was little i was the type of kid to ruin my parents things. If i had felt the texture of the carpet pad underneath that fabric when i was little, i would have dug my fingers into it and tried to pull it apart through the material. I know i will have kids exactly like i was one day as punishment for what i did to my parents, so i decided to head that off and try to avoid it. The quilt batting softens it up even more so i think it was a good call no matter which color fabric i had used.

Now, on to the assembly. If making all the decisions on what materials to use, figuring out all the measurements and actually getting all of it weren't hard enough, now you have to put it together.

Make sure you have a large area to do all your work. Mark the board with a line across the front of the wood of where you want to start/stop covering with the materials. After that you will line up the padding with that line. You will want to have AT LEAST 3 inches of overhang, if not more, around the board on the sides and top so you have enough to pull around and staple down. You can start by laying the pad flat on the ground and laying the board on top of it. And then it's time to staple!! Staple to your hearts content. The first layer of padding doesn't really require talent....except when it comes to the corners. What I did was cut the corners off like you would if you were sewing a corner on a sewing machine to make it look sharp when you turn it inside out. And that makes absolutely no sense at all when i try to explain.... So i drew you another picture which is probably even more confusing (:

It all makes sense in my head, but I can only imagine how confusing i'm making this. Beck had a different method of doing the corners you may be more comfortable with, but this was my method and it seemed to work for me. To do it you cut off the corner (like the arrow says to do in the picture) and then fold the top of the padding over the top of the board (like the next 2 arrows show to do) and then staple it down across the back. This is where it's handy to have a Husband or friend around, especially when you get to the second layer. One of you can hold it down in place while the other of you can staple with all your weight behind the stapler. Make sure it is smooth -- if its laying flat on the floor you shouldn't have a problem -- and start stapling at the top in the middle and work your way out to the sides. Once the top is done, you'll do the same thing to the sides.

Then, you're going to repeat the whole process over again for the second layer of carpet padding.
And after that, again for the quilt batting. Line it up, fold and staple.
And then the upholstery fabric.

The upholstery fabric step is the one you need to make sure you pay attention to while you're doing it. Make sure it's SMOOTH and tight. You can lay it all flat and do this on the floor. I turned the board over and laid it on its back for this step first. This was the only time i used the staple gun on the front of the board. I lined the fabric up along the bottom, pulled it down below the line a couple inches and then stapled it. Make sure the staples go all the way into the board, even if you have to go over them with a hammer. You don't want your mattress or anything getting snagged on the staples later. After that I flipped the board over again onto its front (making sure it was smooth) and stapled along the top starting from the center and working my way out. I didn't do any cutting of the fabric when i got to the corners though. I folded the corners and used the fabric to cover the padding to keep it all tucked in and hide the messiness of it all.

AND THEN I WAS DONE!

I took a few pictures and then I got Husband to help me get it upstairs to take some more pictures of it all finished.

I even made my bed.
This headboard doesn't need mounting at all since i measured from the floor, it just leans against the wall. Because it's padded around the top and edges, there's no scratching on the wall. You could screw the bed frame onto the headboard if you would like, but i didn't feel the need because it was sturdy against the wall with the bed holding it up. It doesn't feel like it's going to fall over onto the bed at all.

I had a great debate with myself to decide which color upholstery fabric to use, and if i should use a patterned one or not. When it came down to it I ended up using a solid chocolate brown fabric. I had planned to use Taupe, which is a grayish tan/brown color, so it would go with more colors if i changed my bedding, but the samples looked different in the store light compared to when i brought them home to see which i liked best. They had a green tint in my room that i didn't like. I was against Chocolate Brown because i wasn't sure it would go with all my future linen choices, and also because i had the fear that i wouldn't notice if there was a spider on it. But, thankfully i haven't had the spider problem (yet). And when i changed my bedding from my winter bedding -- which is a blueish gray duvet and solid gray/blue sheets -- to my light summer bedding that's yellow and gray with matching solid colored sheets, it still looks good with the brown (:

Some time this summer -- probably while Husband is on deployment and i have free time -- i'll be making some big ruffled throw pillow to go with my pretty bedding.

Good luck in all your adventures making your own headboards. If you do make one, i would LOVE to see some pictures please!

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.

2011-06-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

.....

Don't you hate when someone makes all these promises of wonderful things to come and say they're going to blog, and then MONTHS later, they still haven't? Lame right? And guess what: I'm terrible about calling people back too.

I'm sorry though. I've been procrastinating the picture editing part of my blogging.... no excuses though. Yes, i've been busy, a lot more busy then usual, but i did have time to do the picture editing.... I just didn't want to.

And now i have Girls Camp coming up, and its non-stop preparation getting ready for it. At the moment i'm procrastinating that by blogging :) And cleaning my house.

I want you all to know though, I will be keeping my promise to blog about great and wonderful things. Soon. THIS MONTH. I know there aren't many of you sitting in anticipation, but to the few of you that are waiting patiently, thanks.

So Many Things

2011-04-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, i haven't been on here telling you all about life in over a month. I had time while i was in Idaho with my parents, but i wasn't really sure what to say. But I'm back now, and i've been non stop busy and i have all kinds of things to say. If only i can remember everything. This is everything you can look forward to hearing about SOON:

1. I finished my padded headboard! (pictures to come)

2. I went to Idaho to help my dad with him amnesia (as previously stated)

3. H a great date with husband when we both finally got home (6 weeks apart is too long!)

4. We deep cleaned the house top to bottom and i got to do some decorating (i have pictures for this too)

5. Husbands parents and sister came for their spring break (more pictures)

6. I made my own place mats (pictures again)

7. I'm making my own curtains. finally (there will be pictures when i finish)

8. I broke my kindle getting into bed

9. We started dieting (for real. not just "watching what we eat")

10. I've started teaching in Young Women at church and i'm getting ready for Girls Camp

How can you contain your excitement to hear all my stories?!
SOON!!

Vacation Time Again

2011-02-04T22:08:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month Husband is leaving for sunny Florida to do 6 weeks of schooling for work. February in Florida, compliments of the US Coast Guard. Everything is paid for -- the plane ticket, hotel, car, food. Honestly, who wouldn't want to skip the winter cold and head off to 70-80° sunny weather? I know i would love it. And that has been the plan, for me to go with him :) We knew this training was coming up for him so we've been waiting for his official orders before we purchased the tickets for me to fly out with him -- we were waiting just in case they pushed back his schedule like they usually do. I've been dreaming about it for months to be honest. Palm trees and beaches, reading by the pool, maybe hit up Disney World one weekend and basically just enjoying a month long cheaper then normal vacation. I couldn't wait for February to get here. I've never been to Florida before either.
But our plans have changed. Instead of going to the warmer sun and tropics -- cuz lets face it, yes Sacramento doesn't worry about snow too much in the winter, just the mass amounts of rain -- I'm off to Idaho. Where they have snow. My goal this winter was to not have to see a single flake of snow. That would have been heaven to me if i could have pulled it off. But no. I get to go see this stuff instead. This snow. Snow has its pretty moments...in pictures. But to me it's all pretty much yucky. I like to dress up warm, sweatshirts and long sleeves and jeans and coats and scarves. I don't mind bundling up for some cold. My problem comes from the fact that I'm not a winter driver at all any more. I don't even like to be in the car when other people are driving in the snow. If we end up settling in a climate that has regular snow fall in the winter, i'm planning to become a shut-in during the winter. And i've looked at the weather forecast for next week.... there's snow and the lows will be in the teens. But I'm going to suck it up. We talked it over and we feel like the best thing right now for me to do is to go home to Idaho and see my dad. I haven't decided when i'll be coming back to California, but i know i'll be back by the time Husband gets home from Florida because about 2 days after he gets home, his parents and sister are coming to visit for their spring break (yea!).
If you haven't been following, my dad fell in his garage the other week and hit his head which has caused his having Amnesia now. I've been calling and talking to my step-mom Cindy a lot over the last two weeks to get updates on my Dad. She's doing everything she possible can to make sure he's taken care of and comfortable, but i think in the past ten years that she's been part of our family that this was the first time i've ever heard her cry. I know she has cried, but never to me. This is just one of those trials where getting all the family support that we can is so important. She's doing everything she can on her own and its hard. I would spend every day crying if i were in her shoes.
The Doctors are saying he should regain his memory, its just going to take some time. He seems to be the most comfortable when he's in Salt Lake -- where he grew up -- and when he was there last he was able to enjoy lunch with one of his uncles and aunt, and my step-mom said for that hour he was just like his normal self. The doctors are saying not to expect improvements each day, but we should be seeing progress trends on a weekly basis. He definitely still has his same sense of humor, which is really endearing to me, and he's still the same person despite the fact that he can't remember what and who all made him the person he is. My step-mom says he's kind of weak on his left side right now also, and it makes him unsteady on his feet. Thinking about my dad being weak is almost blasphemous to me. He has always been the Big Strong Man to me. But, he should get back his strength in time with his memory, so that's good too.
I'm just glad i'm able to go home right now. It'll give me a little peace of mind to see him. I'll be putting pictures into his book that he was working on so that he has references to go with his writing. Spending time talking with him will be good for him too. At least it has been on the phone, so i can only imagine it would be better face to face for him. And for me, seeing my mom, step-mom and little brother will be great too.
I want to tell everyone thank you for all the well wishes for my Dad and our family. All the offers for help have not fallen on deaf ears. We are so grateful for everyone in our families and from church. Its nice to have so much help and support :)

Low Carb Pizza Crust....w/ Cauliflower?

2011-02-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

So, a while back i was watching TV in the afternoon at a time of day i don't ever watch tv. I couldn't find anything on -- which is probably why i don't watch tv in the afternoon -- and ended up watching Dr. Oz. Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against Dr. Oz, but there's just something about him that weirds me out so i don't watch him that often. But the episode was on weight loss secrets, and since that's a topic you can't go wrong learning more about, i decided to watch it. He had these 3 women sharing 3 of the things that helped them all lose a tone of weight, and one of the women said she cut out carbs (like we've never been told that one before!) and replaced

them with veggies. If you're like me, cutting carbs is H-A-R-D. I love white rice, pasta, sugars,

and any carb you can think of way too much. Yes, when we got married i switched us from

White to Wheat for our breads and pastas, and last year i mastered making a brown/white rice hybrid in my rice maker (the brown needs 2 cycles through the cooker so i do that on its own first then throw in the white with its water and mix it all up and turn it on again). But what about Pizza? I don't make my own bread dough like my step-mom Cindy. All the yummy pizza places use white dough. I've got nothing against thin crust pizza, but i never think to order it.

I make personal pizzas for myself with those wonderful sandwich thins.

I'll put some pesto on them, sprinkle on some fetta cheese, slice up a tomato to top it off and throw it all under the broiler. L-O-V-E it! I usually make it for myself on the nights when Husband has to stay overnight at work. It's one of those quick meals i didn't feel too guilty eating. But, this women on the show was saying one of the recipes she cut carbs with was with a Cauliflower Pizza Crust. What?? Who would have thought up such a thing? After hearing of it, i knew i had to try it. And guess what, its actually good. I kept telling Husband that i was going to make this pizza crust, and he would get this scared look in his eyes and i could see that he was hoping i would forget that i wanted to make it. But i didn't, and he ate it. I made 2 pizzas and got 2 slices of it before he ate the whole other pizza plus the other half of the one i had started eating. So, this is the recipe i found that turned out really good for us, and i figured i would share it with everyone on here.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust (<--linked)

1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower*
1 egg
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp fennel
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp parsley

pizza or alfredo sauce (Any jar of pizza or marinara sauce works great, or Alfredo if you want to do a "white" pizza)

toppings (make sure meats are cooked)
mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Farenheit.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray (i line all my pans with aluminum foil and then spray it so i can avoid scrubbing when i have to wash up).

In a medium bowl, combine cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Press evenly on the pan. Sprinkle evenly with fennel, oregano and parsley.

Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes (15-20 minutes if you double the recipe).

Remove the pan from the oven. To the crust, add sauce, then toppings and cheese.

Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted **.

Notes:

*I use frozen cauliflower prepared according to package directions in the microwave without water. After cooked and slightly cooled, shred cauliflower with a cheese grater (i used my chopper, but if you have a food processor that would work too), and then measure for the recipe. (Don't pack down the cup with cauliflower. Just fill it with a spoon or the cup itself.)

** You can try re-baking the pizza at 450 once you add toppings if desired, but the crust is not quite as crusty. There is a minimal difference, so see what works best for you.

This is really good if you're going Gluten Free. It's delicious and you get vegetables and pizza for dinner. I mentioned this in home making (or what ever it is they call it now) and they've asked me to make it for them in March.
Enjoy!

Amnesia

2011-01-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

Retrograde Amnesia -- a person's pre-existing memories are lost to conscious recollection, beyond an ordinary degree of forgetfulness. The person may be able to memorize new things that occurs after the onset of amnesia, but is unable to recall some or all of their life or identity prior to the onset.
I've been struggling with weather or not i should blog about this, but this is something that right now is really most definitely affecting me. Chances are i won't publish this post because more then anything i'm venting, but i kind of need to throw this out into the void so maybe not, so humor me today.

This handsome man is my father.

I'm absolutely a daddy's girl. I love my dad. Not that i'm putting him on a pedestal, but my dad is one of my favorite people i know. He's a good man, and a great example. He has his faults, some more then others, but he admits them, and one of the good things about him is that he's humble enough to make the efforts to right his wrongs. And that great example part about him, the part where he loves his family and appreciates everything that he has and everyone around him, and would give the shirt off his back if you asked... that's the part that i love about him. He can seem like a bear sometimes, but he's really a gentle giant. All the good things about him are the good things i was looking for when i found Husband.

This past week, while my dad was rotating the tires on my step-mom's car, he fell in the garage and hit his head. My step-mom heard him cry out and found him on the ground with a huge welt on the side of his head which she thinks he got from hitting his head on a propane tank. He was taken to the hospital, scanned, tested and monitored while he was in and out of consciousness, and initially was diagnosed with a concussion. There was nothing bleeding or broken and his scans were all normal. But after he woke up, when anyone tried to talk to him, he kept pointing to his ears saying he couldn't hear anything. The kicker was when he got to focus on his wife Cindy and asked who she was. It was the same thing through the afternoon whenever he woke up: "I can't hear you. My head hurts. Who are you?", so amnesia was added on to his diagnoses. Once he started getting his hearing back a little he said he was hungry. He was sent home and told to do nothing but rest for the next 3 days and was scheduled to see a neurologist in Salt Lake on day 4.
When he got home, he didn't recognize it. He asked his wife to show him where he could lay down. Nothing is familiar to him right now. He doesn't know his home or his family, and doesn't recognize anyone that stops by to see him. So far, its embarrassing, confusing and frustrating for him when he knows he can't remember something. He's still has his basic living skills though; walking and talking and reading and all that. But he's not able to express himself as articulately as he usually does. He takes his time thinking for the right words. For him, usually when he's frustrated and tired, he's a grouch, but i've been talking with my step-mom and she says he's actually being very pleasant and patient. He just excuses himself and asks for a little space. I got to talk to him today for his birthday, and he sounds like himself for the most part, he still thinks the same way. He was saying me a lot of the little jokes he says when we talk about his weight or something, and he was proud to hear all the good things that are going on for everyone, so he's still the same person. When my step-mom gave him a driving tour of their town the other day, he knew he loved Arctic Circle and wanted to stop there for lunch, which is something very typical for him to want to do. When they went to Salt Lake for his neurology appointment, Salt Lake being where he grew up, he recognized parts of it. The house where his mother lived, and those kids of places. He kind of knew his way around, and while he was talking to a Air Force vet at the VA hospital that served in Korea, he remembered, on his own, his favorite uncle who also served in Korea. Also on his own he has been able to remember that he has 3 sisters and a brother, and Cindy fills him in when he asks for it. But usually he only wants little doses of information before its too much to comprehend. He's been shown pictures, and he recognizes himself in them, and he thought he knew who his uncle was in the same picture, but my brother and i were new to him. People and places are still knew to him, and its going to take some time. He's very positive about all of it though, so i think that's really good. When i was telling him tonight about places we've lived, he was very excited to hear of all the things he's done (like living on Guam, and Scuba diving), and he thinks its very interesting that he has so many guns ans SO much stuff for reloading bullets. I think he was kind of laughing at himself the way he was talking about it. He's positive about everything, and that's the part that matters.
When i found out what had happened, I cried. I admit it. There wasn't anything else i could do. The last few days, just thinking about him makes me tear up. I cry for him, and the thought of how hard it is for him through all of this. And, selfish person that i am, i cry for me knowing my father, the man i deeply love and am constantly turning to for advice and comfort, the man that helped raise me with my mother...that mad doesn't know or remember me at all. So this moment --

the one where we dance at my wedding, is lost to him right now. All my special memories with him are lost to him. He doesn't know me, his first born. And there isn't anything i can do to help him right now. Nothing is going to help him but time and faith right now.
About 2 years ago he started writing his personal history down, made a whole book about his life and things he could remember. This December he got all the way up to the part where he started dating my step-mom Cindy, which is something she remembers very well and can definitely fill him in on, so he has that to go to if this takes a while to get over. And if i can't be there for him, the person i trust more then anyone to help him through all this is Cindy. She's a blessing to our family, and most absolutely to him, and she has been for 10 years now. I know how hard it is for me, all the way in California, so i can only imagine what this is doing to her, having the man she loves not know who she is or how much they really love each other. But she's being strong, and positive, and he is too, and she's there for him all the time to help him. He wants to remember, he just knows its going to take some time. He's looking through pictures, and he's reading the books he keeps by his bed (about his guns and reloading), and he's retaining everything about all of it really easily, which is very typical for his type of amnesia. He was spouting out all kinds of information he read today like its second nature to him, which it is to him really, so these are all good things. More then anything its hard knowing he doesn't know us right now, but after talking to him today finally, i have a lot of hope that things will come back to him in time.
So family and friends, i'm asking for everyone to remember my dad Mario in your prayers for the next little while. We all feel like things are going to be ok in the end, that this is just a temporary trial and that he'll get his memories back. But until that happens, we're asking for some Divine comfort and help from Heavenly Father, and a little extra happy positive loving thoughts sent our way.
And thanks, for letting me vent today ;]

English Toffee

2011-01-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

So I've been reading A LOT since i got my Kindle for Christmas. I've always enjoyed reading, and when i find a good book, i will re-read it more times then i can count. I used to got books from the Library and borrow from friends, but since we moved here to CA i've been seriously lacking in new books because i found our local library seriously lacking in any books, and anything that they do have that's any good has a waiting list a year long....So i started buying books online to get in the mail. I found used and new books cheap on Half.com and Amazon (you can find books for a penny + S&H) and the books i already did have were read multiple times.
But since getting the Kindle, i've discovered all kinds of new authors because of the free reads and books under $3. An author i found was Joanne Fluke, she writes murder mystery books (that are clean!), and in all of her books she includes tons of delicious recipes.
Tonight, i decided to give one of the recipes a try. Since i love to share good stuff, i figured this was worth telling you about. Husband didn't think he would like it because he thinks crackers sound weird to be in candy, but he did like it. He wants to take it with him to work tonight. And sorry about the picture being so crap, my camera needed to be charged so i used my phone.

IBBY'S METAPHYSICAL ENGLISH TOFFEE

(from Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, rack in the middle position.

16-ounce box Club Crackers* (Mine were Keebler. You'll use only one packet)

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
2 cups milk chocolate chips (12-ounce bag)
2 cups chopped pecans (salted or unsalted, it really doesn't matter)

Line a 10-inch by 15-inch cookie sheet with foil. If you have a jellyroll pan, that's perfect. If you don't, turn up the edges of the foil to form sides.

Spray the foil with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray. (You want to be able to peel it off later, after the candy hardens.)

Line the pan completely with Club Crackers, salt side up. Cover the whole bottom. (You can break the crackers in pieces to make them fit if you have to.) Set the cracker-lined jellyroll pan or cookie sheet aside while you cook the toffee mixture.

You don't need a candy thermometer to make this candy :]]

Combine the butter with the brown sugar in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat on the stovetop, stirring constantly. Boil it for exactly five minutes, stirring it constantly. If it sputters too much, you can reduce the heat and if it starts to lose the boil, you can increase the heat. Just don't stop stirring.

Pour the mixture over the crackers as evenly as you can.

*I started by pouring the mixture in lines from top to bottom over the length of the pan. Then I turn it and pour more lines over the width of the pan. Once the whole pan is crosshatched

with the hot toffee mixture, pour any that's left where it's needed. If it doesn't cover the crackers completely, don't worry - it'll spread out a bit in the oven.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake the toffee at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the milk chocolate chips over the top. Give the chips a minute or two to melt and then spread them out as evenly as you can with a heat-resistant spatula, a wooden paddle, or a frosting knife.
*when i pulled it out of the oven i didn't think it looked done because it was still bubbly and looked about the same consistency as it did when i put it in, but it really was fine. It hardens while the chocolate is melting on top of it.

Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top of the chocolate and refrigerate the pan.

When the toffee has thoroughly chilled, peel it from the foil and break it into random-sized pieces.

Enjoy!!
i can't stop eating it even though i have to because my stomach is rebelling against me.

A Little Late Is Better Then Nothing At All

2011-01-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! ....ten days after the fact. Sorry.
I'm hanging my head in shame right now. I know it's been a while since i've really done a whole update (over a month), and since Husband and i are a bad married couple and didn't send out a cute Christmas card of us to all of our family and friends -- even though i wanted to but Husband shoot down that idea cuz he thought it was silly until we got a bunch from all his siblings proving my point -- i get to fill you in here. But i wanted to give an update on how life is going.
....It's going :) Nothing too great, and nothing terrible.
This past year included a bit of traveling, cooking, lots of cleaning, crafts, and lots of happy days together and with our friends and family. Husband got certified in September so he's flying with the crews on the C1-30's now. He keeps the planes running right, does safety checks, and currently he's working on getting qualified to work on the radio in flight. He'll say things like "Niner" and "Charlie" and radio talk stuff like that :) This is just in time for him to attend C school this coming February in sunny Florida for the month. He also started going back to college this fall semester. It was only 3 credits in English, but he's gearing up to get ready to go back to college full time when his time is up with the Coast Guard so we're getting ready for that when the time comes. He's still working with the 11 year old scouts at church. There aren't many of them in his group, but he's still having fun with it every week.
And me? Well, you've been reading about my life on here for the most part. i don't think i've left a lot out. I'm still working in Nursery at church, which really is a highlight of my week, and things are going good. I tell Husband every week how i wish i could kidnap some of my little nursery kids and take them home with me, but he says that i'm not allowed to and he's pretty firm on that. I've decided i may be going back to school myself this spring. I've talked with a counselor, and if i can get the schedule worked out, then i think i'm going to do it. I'm having a little trouble with the idea of having to get up before 7 a.m. -- yes, i've been spoiled as a house wife by sleeping in till 8:30 at least, and i admit it -- but as much as i hate to give that up, school isn't for forever. If i get into the program, 18 months will fly by. I could take evening classes, but then i would never see Husband. He's working nights now, so he's sleeping when he gets home in the mornings and i won't be missing much by being at school during that time.
So to fill you in on the last few months since i haven't been blogging.... for Thanksgiving we did not have a big thing at our house again. Last year we had a party less then a week after moving into our house with a bunch of new friends from church, but we didn't want to go to all that hassle again this year. Maybe next year though ;) We were debating weather to make a small version at home for just the two of us or to go out to dinner, but then we got a call from our friends from Utah, the Vallens, that were coming to see their Grandma in Napa Valley for Thanksgiving and they invited us to join them. Since the Vallens are like Husband's extra family, if we had had plans before, we would have had to cancel cuz there's no way we could have missed it. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, Sister Vallen is a fantastic cook and i especially loved it because they wouldn't let me bring anything. I don't remember the last time i was fed that well with such delicious food. The day after Thanksgiving we didn't get up at any crazy hour for Black Friday shopping, not that i ever have. Instead we went with the Vallen's to San Francisco. We took the ferry and spent the day walking around Pier 41 and Ghirardelli Square being tourists. It was great, especially since that was one of the things on my list to do in SF that we didn't do for my birthday.

The beginning of Dec was Husbands work Christmas party. I've been asked to post a picture of how my dress turned out for that, but silly me, i didn't take any. Lame right? When the thought struck me that i should take one it was the end of the night when we got home, and since it had been raining my hair had lost all its curl/body and looked terrible so i decided it wasn't a great idea. Sorry girls :( But at least i have a cute dress and hot husband left over from the night, right? I'll admit it right now though, if he wants to go again next year i'm re-wearing the dress cuz shopping for that was not fun.
We had to do it a day early because of Husband's work schedule, but we had our first Christmas at home together without going to see either of our families. Our first year being married we went to see my family, and last year was with Husband's family. But this season I got to decorate my house and get a tree and everything. I got all the Christmas present shopping done 2 weeks before the big day even :) I'm a terrible wife though. Over a month before Christmas Husband's xbox had the dreaded Red Ring of Death. There are some guys out there that know how to fix that, but Husband isn't one of those. As soon as it appeared Husband declared it dead and asked if he could go buy a new one as he was disconnecting his old one and putting on his shoes to go out. Seriously. That red light started flashing and it went from zero to $300 in under 10 seconds. We had just taken the first trip to SF for my birthday, and Christmas was only a month away, so i was surprised that he was so willing to spend that kind of money. It made me feel like i was kicking a puppy when i first told him no, that he had to wait. But i gave in the next day.... I just couldn't tell him no. The new xbox came with the Kinect though, so it has given us some fun evenings playing together...except for the night Husband slapped my arm so hard while we were playing Ping Pong and i balled like a baby. I had a bruise for a few days from that one and now he's afraid to play with me. He'll be standing on the wall side of the room when we play for now though. But after that, he was impossible to shop for for gifts since i let him get it. He says he's a simple guy and he just doesn't want anything, so it makes me feel selfish that i do want things...until i remember that we spent $300 on the new xbox for him. I'm sorry for being a girl, but i want chair covers and curtains. I've done the pricing for both of them, and they didn't add up to $300. And a KitchenAid! I've been dreaming about getting one for years. But who's the one that has to wait for what they want? I'm ok with this though, only because i would have had to be the one to entertain him all the time if he didn't have it.
For my gift giving i decided to make gifts for all of my sisters-in-law. I'm in love with all the cute aprons you can find online, and i found so many on Etsy it was impossible to pick one for myself, but if i wanted to give them as gifts, at about $30 an apron, i wouldn't even get one for myself. But then i found a pattern on Etsy to make my own and decided to take on the project :) I went to JoAnn's Fabric and picked out enough cute fabric for all 5 of my sisters-in-law and hunkered down in my craft room with the sewing machine and ironing board, and the laptop with Netflix so i would have something to listen to/watch while i was in there. Four days later, and just in time to get them all in the mail, i was done.
Husband didn't want me to post these pictures, but after days of just showering but not doing my hair or putting on makeup or even getting dressed in more then pj's because i was holed up in the craft room, I wasn't going to be the one to pose for the pictures. Of course he doesn't fill out the aprons like a girl so they don't look as cute as they would if i had sucked it up and did it myself, but you get the idea.

For Coty

Sarah

Natalie

Hanna

Leah

He didn't want to smile for the camera even though i told him that the only people that actually read our blog are family or close friends, but i think he has some left over traumatic memories of some certain pictures that were taken when we were younger. One where he's dressed up in a dress.....

He's such a good sport for me :]

The aprons all turned out great though. I slowly got better and better with my sewing skills on each one and i'm happy with what i accomplished. From what i heard from everyone, they loved them :] I originally purchased the pattern to make one for me, but it quickly morphed into a much bigger project once i got the idea into my head and i still haven't made one for myself. I haven't decided which colors i want to use for mine and i'm not looking forward to standing in JoAnn's for hours on end again to decide what i like the most for me.

Since Christmas, i've been spending my time reading. A lot. Husband got me a Kindle for Christmas and i can't seem to put it down. It's so easy to just press a button and have a new book to read. It can only lead to trouble... I've read about 15 books already, and there are about that many more that i've wanting to read. But i've put myself on a budget and right now i'm reading on the free books that i can find that seem interesting.

I've taken breaks from reading to do a little crafting though. I've drawn up my plans and dimensions for the padded headboard i'm going to make for our bed, and this week is going to be the week i start making it. I have the money for the materials, i've borrowed a drill from a friend, and i'm ready to get it done. I'm excited to be getting this done finally cuz i've been talking about doing it for forever.

We're looking forward to this next year and seeing how it unfolds. This last year was great, but I'm thinking this year is going to be even better for us.

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Husband Says...

2010-12-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since i've done one of these, but its been a while since Husband has really cracked me up and i remembered exactly what he said.
So short back story time. Husband decided he wants to go to this years Coast Guard Holiday Party. I'm not so thrilled about this because every time i get dragged to one of these Coast Guard functions i never know anyone. But he kept bringing up this party, so i agreed to go.

Christmas Party = New Dress for Me

There's a dress code for this party: Business Casual at a minimum. So basically they're saying this is not a jeans type of party. Business casual looks a lot like this, with the skirts and accessories and the cuteness.

But since getting married and not having to work, my wardrobe of business casual has gone down. And i've been to my own work Christmas parties, so i have an idea of how women dress for these things -- especially when the venue is at a swanky boat/hotel on the river. Husband said i could just wear my church clothes for this. Ha!! I told Husband that i'm going to need a new dress, something a little dressier then what i wear to church because those clothes are more for comfort while playing on the floor with the kids in nursery.
i was trying to explain to Husband the different degrees of dressing up for girls -- casual, date casual, business casual, professional, cocktail, then the full out formal. He just shook his head and said "Girls are like the Navy. They have a different outfit for everything."
He would turn girl stuff into something about the military.
But as far as the dress goes, i have found one. Have you ever noticed that when you're shopping for something specific, its the one thing you can't find? I shopped online first then i drove around to 4 different places when i realized i didn't have enough time to get something shipped. I can't count how many different dresses i tried on. But yesterday i went to Ross and found the perfect Little Black Dress that was actually modest. It was the only one of its kind that i found on the rack in any of the sizes, and amazingly it was my size exactly :) Now i need to find a little purse and some jewelry, but that's the easy part compared to the dress shopping. I also need to figure out what to do with my hair....

Someone Had A Good Birthday

2010-11-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

My birthday was over a week ago, but my lack of blogging about it before now has nothing to do with how great it was. i just haven't been wanting to do the sifting through and editing of the pictures. Husband took about 200 pictures, and vain person that i am, i can't just post anypicture of me. I have to find the ones that make me look cute...or at least not scary and fat. But i finally got around to it because i really do want to tell you all how my big day/trip went.
My wonderful husband for some crazy reason loves and adores me. i haven't figured out why, but he does, so i take what i can get. One of his goals in life seems to be making my every wish come true, and on my list was to go to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. Who wouldn'twant to visit it?

It is a maze of rooms and craziness, but i love the whole story of it, and the idea that it's haunted is just a plus for me. So birthday morning we threw the suitcase in the car, hit the gas station and Jamba Juice, and then we were on our way. We did the tour of the Winchester house, with the VIP behind the scenes tour that goes into the extra areas not on the regular tour, including the basement. My #1 hope was that i would see/hear a ghost on the tour, but i was disappointed on that one. But its ok, we can't have everything we wish for.
After checking into our hotel, he took me out for some of my favorite food: Greek. I'm happy to say i've been able to expose Husband to Greek food this last year so i can have it without him making a face at the idea now. He'll only order a Gyro, there's no adventure in trying anything new, but he'll never say no to baklava so i'll take it.

Tuesday we went to San Francisco. We walked around through the park and down to Ocean Beach, and i let Husband take his time taking pictures along the way.

We went over to the Golden Gate bridge and took more pictures.

We wanted to go over to Alcatraz Island to do the prison tour, but we decided we're going to need to take another trip to San Francisco so we needed to leave some things to do for next time. Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, and riding the trolley will be left for next time too.

We did go to the Exploratorium Museum though.

We promised each other we would only stay for 2 hours so we could go do some of the other things on our list for the day, but some how 2 hours stretched out into 6 and they were kicking us out the door for closing. There were so many things to do and see, and we still weren't done when it was time to go.

So after getting some dinner and checking into our hotel, we called it a night. We were so tired from the day, we were asleep by 10 i think.

Wednesday morning we slept in, got ready for the day and decided we were ready to head home. We drove down Lombard St. and then headed over real quick to stop to see the "Painted Ladies" aka the Victorian Houses you may recognize from the opening credits of Full House.

And then we got out of there. But since Fairfield was on the drive home, we had to stop at the Jelly Belly factory and take the tour.

We may or may not have left with several bags of Belly Flops... Our plan for those was to send some bags as gifts to people, but we both have a sweet tooth i don't think either of us have the the ability to give them away any more.

So yes, i can definitely say i had a good birthday. Probably the best birthday i've ever had. I've never taken such a great trip for a birthday before, and just the fact that i got to spend it all with Husband, my best friend ever, made it all the better. I'm going to have to do something really great for him soon i think.

Busy Girl This Fall

2010-10-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, i admit i haven't been busy doing a lot of anything the last few weeks. Lame right? Husband and I were both sick with an annoying cold/flu one week, and we're in the midst of a major push to pay off debt (we paid off my car!!!), so we haven't been out doing things like we would normally. No going out for movies or fun adventures, and except for Husbands desperate need of McDonald's to win the Monopoly million dollar prize, there hasn't been a lot of going out for food on my end. After 2 days in a row of Husband coming home with McNuggets and large fries for me, and stomach aches to follow that evening, i requested he just buy fast food for his lunches and not bring it home ever again. I think i can live without McDonald's for the rest of my life. The pain isn't worth it to me.

But in my down time i found a new addiction. I'm having a little bit of a hard time admitting it, but i think i should share. On top of my admitting this, i'm admitting that i'm hoping to get all of you addicted too.... :] So here it is, my addiction :

Veronica Mars. It was a tv show they had on the CW a little while back that lasted 3 seasons (sadly). Who would have guessed this was actually a good show? Well, my mom of all people did. She kept telling me about this show, and I didn't believe her until the other week when i was looking through the Netflix instant watch library, i added it to my list and gave it a try. And then I couldn't stop watching it once i started. I took over Husbands Xbox and watched all 3 seasons in just a few days. I woke up every morning at 8 (sometimes 7) and parked myself on Husbands favorite chair over the weekend. Yes, i got up at 7 on a Saturday, though i can hardly do that on a week day, and stayed up until 1 at night watching episode after episode. I neglected poor Husband during my marathon too. i don't think i cooked a single meal. It was all PB&J or cereal. But thankfully he's not the type to complain about food. His biggest complaint was that i had taken over the Xbox so he didn't have anything or anyone to entertain him. He survived though.
So yeah, i was addicted and in the end felt very unsatisfied when i got to the last season and it wasn't completed with the continuing story into season 4 to finish the series. But i have a whole new respect for Kristen Bell as an actress which i thought would never happen. Any way, i think you should all watch it and take part in my addiction when you have some time.
I'm happy to say that Fall is finally here in CA. Its beautiful, again. This time last year, almost to the day, i was able to go up to Apple Hill, without Husband because he had to work, and i was hoping to go again this year with him. We just haven't had the chance. We had planned to go with some friends the other week, but Husband managed to get some tickets from work to a football game the same night so we all went to that instead. But chances are good that we'll still be able to go this year. There's still time. Unlike Utah, with its ridiculous snow the last week of October (who would want to jump seasons from summer straight to winter?!). Utah, you have my sympathy....
Halloween is a day away now. Who can wait?? Our ward had our Trunk or Treat 2 weeks ago. We helped with one of the booths, fishing for prizes, and i was actually able to talk Husband into dressing up with me to go. I dressed up like a dental hygienist, and i was able to drag out of husband that the last time he dressed up for Halloween he was Napoleon Dynamite. Since he still had the Vote for Pedro t-shirt, i just had to pop the frames out of some crap sunglasses for him, and he was set. For candy this year we're skipping chocolate and going with suckers.

These loverlys are heaven. I decided, since i usually eat through all the chocolate every year when i purchase candy before the big day and have to buy 3 times as much as i would have if i could just hide it from myself like a normal person, suckers were the way to go. They're impossible to eat through a whole bag in one sitting. I wanted the Caramel Apple Pops, but amazingly i couldn't find them anywhere in the stores here. i have no idea why though. So i resorted to buying 2 boxes of them online, thats how determined to not buy chocolate this year i am. The first box we handed out for trunk or treat, the 2nd box will go for Halloween.

Halloween...

Even as i'm writing this, my enjoyment from this holiday is going down. Why do people have to be dumb? Earlier this week, Wednesday night, just as it was getting dark out, i heard a hard thwack on the front window. It wasn't a new sound because i've heard birds fly into the top windows over the main windows a few times this summer, so i didn't think too much about it other then the fact that it was kind of late for the birds to not realize the windows have glass in them. But Thursday morning when i left for the day, while i was locking the door behind me i looked over and saw this:

Someone decided to throw an egg at out house :[ Why are people that rude? We haven't had the chance to clean it off yet, 2 days later. But its ok though, because tonight as i started my blogging, we were hit again, by the front door this time. Angry Face! Husband didn't hear it, but i did and told him, and he got out the front door just in time to hear a car take off down the street. We'll have to clean it off tomorrow morning for sure now. We don't know anyone in the neighborhood, and we don't have enemies, so who knows why we're being singled out here. Punks.
So that's our month. Nothing too exciting going on, like usual. Really looking forward to November, for my birthday....and for Harry Potter :]

Frame Jewelry Display

2010-09-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am not the type of girl to wear a lot of jewelry or accessories. I'm sure that makes me weird for a girl but oh well. You'll usually find me in just my wedding ring and a simple necklace when it comes to accessories. Nothing frilly or chunky or large for me. But don't get me wrong, i love the frilly/chunky/large stuff that everyone is wearing. I just don't know how to wear it myself. I'm terrible with accessories. Trust me, i wish i could be good at it because i really do love it. And oh how i wish i could wear headbands, but i'm pretty sure i have the biggest sized head you can get for a girl and the headband just digs in behind my ears causing major headache...but headbands aren't jewelry, which is what we're talking about today. So anyway, as far as earrings go....i almost never wear them. I have a bunch, but my ears are just too sensitive to metals most of the time that i hardly ever try to wear them. But when i stumbled onto this Earring Display over at Kevinandamanda.com, i fell in love.

That's adorable right? I couldn't pass up this idea, so i went and made it myself :]

It was SO easy to make too. PLUS i already had everything i needed, i didn't spend a single dollar. But even then, if you don't have some of the supplies, it's still a very inexpensive project. I had a bunch of frames i didn't know what to do with from decorations for our wedding, but i got all of the frames in the first place from DI and Goodwill for a $1 each, some of them for less. So like i said, very cheap.

What you'll need:

Picture Frames

Picture Hanging Wire

Craft Paint

(i used Vintage White & Calypso Sky, but your colors are up to you)

Paint Brushes

(the foam ones worked great to give the paint the streaks so it wasn't so polished with the white)

Thumb Tacks

Ribbon

Staple Gun & Staples

I started out, for this frame, painting it first entirely with the Calypso Sky and letting it dry. It doesn't take more then a few minutes. I wanted this to be the color to show through when i painted the white over it with the 2nd coat.

When i painted the white over the 1st color, i just brushed it over, i didn't try to get the white into the detail and corners. That's the look i was going for, the shabby chic look, and i got what i wanted :]

Next was the hanging wire. I used 2 pieces of hanging wire and twisted them together so post earrings can be hung from the display as well.

So, you can slide the post earrings in between the wires and put the backs on, or hang the hooks over the double wires.

When stapling the wires to the back of the frame, you have a choice. You can staple the wire directly to the back of the frame. But if you do this, i realized after the fact, the wire will be directly against the wall if you decide to hang the display.

So the other option is to staple the wires to the side of the inside of the frame where the glass and backing slides into.

I spaced the hanging wire about 3/4 of an inch from the top of the inside of the frame, and 3 inches apart for each additional wire below that. It depends on the size of the frame you use for how you space it though.

This is what the ribbon and thumb tacks were used for. Because the backs are taken out of the frames, there is nothing to use if it's going to be hung up on the wall. So this is what i came up with.

Amanda, the one to inspire this whole project, was inspired in the first place by Ruffles And Stuff with this:

She had used an old frame with the original hanging wire to string up her necklaces.
I didn't want to have to unclasp my necklaces to get it off the wire, so i decided the hooks were the way to go. I realize a necklace has to be unclasped to put it on your neck....but i just thought it was easier to slip a necklace over the hook when it comes to taking it on and off the frame.

The only thing you need extra for this is the Hooks instead of the hanging wire. You can find them in the hardware aisle. I used 7, and equally spaced them across the top on the inside of the frame.
If that isn't enough hooks for you though, you can use 2 hooks on either end of the frame and slip a dowel inside the hooks to hang the necklaces from and -- i would think -- that would be easily removed to take a necklace off the dowel. Or you can just use the picture hanging wire if you like that idea :]

So there you go. A simple, inexpensive DIY project you can do to display your jewelry.
I actually didn't keep this project for myself.... Husband thought i was silly to spend so much time for something that wasn't for me, but when i told him i was sending it to his sister, he said i was really sweet :]

My sister-in-law Leah makes earrings, which she has given me several pairs of, and has lots of pretty jewelry, so i figured she would put these to better use then i would.
So Leah, these Frame Jewelry Displays are all for you.

I hope you like them!

Hey There!

2010-09-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

You've missed me right? I'm warning you right now, there are LOTS of words in this post, but not a whole lot of interesting ones. If you read all of it, you're a good friend. If you don't, you're still a good friend because i won't blame you for not reading. So yeah, there's my warning.
I know some of you are wondering what happened to me. i used to be so much better at keeping this up to date. I know i should be doing this better. Its like free therapy some days, cheep entertainment other days, and like having friends around the rest of the days. I like sharing things with everyone so i don't know what my deal is..... i'm sorry. Life just gets busy and distracting some times.
I recently spent 2 weeks in Idaho visiting my family. It was much needed for me, but the hard thing about it was that i did it without Husband. Gasp! I don't know how either of us survived 2 weeks apart.... i especially don't know how Husband survived living alone for that long. He's never done that before. He grew up the middle child. After high school he served a mission for our church for 2 years and always had a companion with him then. When he was going to school he had roommates. Basic training, he lived in barracks. When he was on the boat, its was like living in barracks. No privacy. There's always someone around. Then, we got married and he's been sharing a room with me since. He's never lived alone. But while i was gone he had to feed himself, entertain himself, and keep the house clean...He survived though, and i came home to a clean house. But he called every night to tell me to come home because he was so bored and he missed me. I felt bad doing it to him :(
But I stayed the whole 2 weeks in Idaho with my family, and i'm glad i did if only because i love my family so much. When Husband and i visit there together, Husband wants to go visit Utah right away and see all his friends from school and from growing up, so time seeing my family is cut short. He feels bad doing that, so it was actually his idea for me to go alone in the first place. I probably wouldn't have stayed so long except my younger brother was visiting the first weekend i was there, and i hadn't seen him in over a year. And then my other little brother turned 7 on Sept. 1st and he wanted to have me there for his party.

So i conquered my fear -- or at least survived it -- and drove the 12 hours by myself to make the trip. Yes. I have a fear of driving. I used to make drives like that, no problem, back in the days when i was single. But after i developed a vertigo issue a few years ago, conveniently around the time we got married, driving turned into a stressful scary thing. i only say conveniently because i have Husband to do the bulk of the driving when we travel. I won't go into how hard it is for me, but i got past it -- i did it! -- all by myself. I was going to meet my family up at Yellowstone National Part, but Husband and i decided making that part of the trip was pushing it for me. So i missed out on that with my fam, but oh well.
Getting to spend so much time with my little brother Jared was fun. He started 1st grade while i was there, and it was exciting to send him off for that. His poor mom though. Cindy, my step-mom, was at a loss of what to do with her days that first week. She spent every hour wondering what he was doing, missing him, and trying to think up excuses to go see him at school. And then when he came home, he didn't go running into his mom's arms like she imagined and hoped he would. He would walk in and ask where i was instead. She said it was like getting stabbed in the heart with a knife and having it twisted it in a little deeper every day. I felt bad about that, but thankfully she knew it wasn't intentional on my part. He just loved having me there. When i'm not, he usually calls at least once a week to tell me how he plans to build a guest house onto theirs so i can come live with them. He says bringing Husband is an option left up to me if i really want him to come, thank goodness. He just loves his sister.
His birthday party turned out to be a lot of fun. I spent a few hours filling up water balloons for him and his friends to have a war out in the front yard that only lasted a few minutes. But i got to throw a few of them myself, so it was all worth it in the end. His birthday present from mom and dad was his very own kitten. Cute right?

I was so jealous. Well, at least i was until she pooped on my bed in the middle of the night right next to my head. *Seriously???* I about puked all over her. After that she thought we were best friends though. She followed me everywhere, i couldn't sit down without her in my lap. blah. i started locking her in the garage every night so she would always know where the litter box was at night.
While i was there, i got to run into Logan UT a few times to go to Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby is one of those places i can spend hours wondering around and getting ideas for crafts and art projects and decorating. If we had a Hobby Lobby here in Cali, i would probably spend all our extra money there. Something i picked up while i was there, something i've wanted to do for a while but didn't have everything to make it, was supplies to make this:

Antiqued Candle Holders. Its glass vases sprayed with mirror spray paint and water to make it look antiqued. I like candle warmers, but I'm not a huge fan of candles in my home. I don't care for the fire part. But it really is SO pretty, i couldn't resist wanting to make it. But i couldn't make it because i wasn't able to find the mirror spray paint. I have tons of glass vases that sit in my kitchen windows because i don't know what else to do with them, but now i'll be fixing them up nice and pretty :)
But really, the things that really made the whole trip worth it was spending time with all of my parents. My step-mom Cindy is one of my favorite people in the world. She's always so easy to talk to when something is bothering me, and she's the last person to judge. She's such great example. I love her. With my dad....i'm probably considered a daddy's girl. We're complete opposites though. We have different ways of looking at the world as well as how we do things, but we both want those around us to be happy. I love my daddy though. I got to spend hours just sitting around talking with him. And then my mom :) i love her too. I was able to go over to see my mom when she wasn't busy. I actually got to attend church with her, which is something i haven't done in a very long time. I can't even remember the last time... But it was nice. I enjoyed her ward, and i loved going to her Sunday school class she teaches for the 12-13 year old youth. It was fun seeing all her work she's done in her garden too, and cooking with fresh picked vegetables from the garden was so yummy.
So, that's about it. It was a great visit, but i'm glad to be home. I've been cooking, and cleaning, working on some crafts, and enjoying Husband. I'll be posting a craft i made in the next day or two that i'm pretty excited about, so that's something you can look forward to from me soon.

Oh, and P.S. Happy 1st Day of Fall :) I love this time of year!

Best Taco Salad Ever

2010-09-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

While we were on family vacation to the Outer Banks this year, everyone in the family took turns making dinner over the week. We were warned ahead of time by several months so we could make plans. Since Husband is such a fan of my Taco Salad (its one of his top 3 favorites to request when i ask him what he wants for dinner for the week), and it feeds so many with just one recipe, i figured it would be my best choice to go with. It turned out i was right too, everyone was happy :] ...at least they said so anyway. After getting back from vacation i promised i would post the recipe, but procrastinator that i am, i still haven't. I'm sorry.

Taco Salad
1 lbs. hamburger (i use ground turkey though)
1 taco seasoning mix
1/2 bag Doritos
1 bag salad mix
1 can Black beans (drained)
1 can Kidney beans (drained)
1/2 bottle Catalina dressing (i use the fat free kind)
Shredded cheese

Brown the hamburger meat and cook with the taco seasoning according to directions. Poor the Doritos into a big salad bow and crunch them a bit, but not into crumbs though. Poor in the bag of salad and the beans and cheese, and then mix in the Catalina together with everything. Yummy!
This does make a lot for 2 people. The chips will get soggy though, so it doesn't do well for leftovers. When i make it for just us, i don't include the chips and salad in the big bowl, i put them in our individual bowls and mix it all together then. So for leftovers, i send husband to work with sandwich bags of chips and salad so he can heat the mixings and not have soggy stuff.
Let me know if you ever give it a try. It really is amazing stuff :)

I Clicked There

2010-08-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is just something i found funny today. I admit it, i'm a sucker for commercials and adds some times. There are sooo many times i crave and covet things i see on tv. Its terrible. And if there's something i find half interesting that has a web site, i'll check it out. We've all seen the Zappos.com commercials right? The *puppet* ala Muppets style workers taking call center orders for the site. They were funny, so i had to look at the site. Their ploy to use humor with puppets worked on me. I'm not in buying mode right now, that comes and goes every few months or so, i was just waisting time this afternoon online so i checked it out. Honestly, I don't like to buy shoes online too often because i want to know how they fit before i buy them.
Then i stumbled on the this towards the bottom of the page:

You may have to click on the picture to see what i have circled in red here. Something you don't usually see, it says Don't Ever Click Here. What would you do if you saw that? Duh. You can't NOT click there. So i did it. And i got Rick Roll'd. It sent me to the funniest thing i had seen all day. So, now you can go to Zappos and check it out for yourself. But if you don't want to, you can just click where i said *don't ever click here* and it'll take you to where Zappos sent me.
I'll be blogging again this next week. We had our anniversary this last Sunday, and today we went through the Star Trek exhibit at the Aerospace Museum. We weren't supposed to take pictures of that, but i'm a rule breaker :) So those posts will come soon.

Chicken Pasta Salad

2010-07-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Husband and i made a trip over to Idaho/Utah for a week. We spent a few days visiting my family in Preston ID, then we went south to visit friends and some of Husbands family in Utah. While we were visiting his aunt's house, they were having a birthday dinner for his cousin Marie. The dinner was great. Fresh homemade rolls out of the over, a fruit salad, and the most yummy Chicken Pasta Salad i have had in a very long time. It was one of Marie's favorites, which is why she had it for her dinner, and a few days before the 4th of July i was able to get the recipe. *i hope she doesn't mind i'm sharing this with everyone, its just so good i had to share... :]
I've made it twice since getting the recipe because Husband likes it so much. Which is weird, because it has mayonnaise in it and he knows it. He hates mayo.

Chicken Pasta Salad

12oz. bow-tie pasta
12 oz. spiral pasta
2 c. grapes
3 chicken breasts cooked and cubes (or you can use canned chicken...it makes it a lot easier)
3 green onions
1 pkg. crasins
1 small can cashews
1 c. mayo
1 bottle Kraft cole slaw dressing (it has to be Kraft)

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Just before serving add the crasins and cashews. Mix the mayo and dressing together then stir all together.

This is a large recipe. When i make this, i have to cute the recipe in half because this makes A LOT for 2 people, and even then, we have leftovers. The next day we just add a little more of the cole slaw dressing to get it back to consistency.

Enjoy!

My small Dilemma

2010-07-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yea for Husband and I, our 2nd anniversary is coming up in less then 2 weeks :) Its amazing how fast its gone by. Last year Husband actually had to work (duty on base for 24 hours), and i'm looking forward to spending the actual day with him this year. It was about this time last year that he returned home from a 6 month stay in NC for school with the Coast Guard, so we've finally got a whole year together. He's the love of my life that will go into forever and by far my best friend, and i know i love him more every day. He's more then i could ever ask for. Blah blah, cheesy stuff you probably don't want to read right now. You get the picture though. We are cheesy like that when we're together, arguments about who loves who most and all that. It spills over into the blog sometimes, so i'm sorry. I'm pretty positive i'll get more into all that declarations of love stuff on our actual anniversary, so i'll spare you all until then.

But yes, its coming up fast and we've been talking about *gifts* :) He likes to buy me gifts for some reason. Sweet as heck, and i know i've said this before on here, but i'm pretty sure we would be broke if i let him buy me everything i want. He's slowly getting it into his head that when i say i like/want something, that he's not expected to get it. Usually. But birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays are great for presents still.

I've been dying to get a KitchenAid stand mixer for forever, and every time one of the gifting holidays come around Husband offers to get it for me.... But i've told him no every time. Crazy right? I want it, but i can't justify getting it yet. There are other things for around the house we can get can get for a lot less money.

So, no KitchenAid. For now.

One of the rooms i would like to fix up in our house is our bedroom though. Our room is a mess. Basically a mix-match of furniture and clothes all over the place. Its a little depressing and embarrassing to tell the truth. I try to keep the door closed when people come over so people don't see, but inevitable Husband goes in there for some reason and leaves the door wide open. Ghaaa! Seriously? I hang my head in shame every time and have to run up the stairs to close it without drawing attention to myself so people don't notice and try to peak in before i get to the door. We don't have a dresser, just the closets. There's the little tv in there, my 1st TV/VCR combo i got my junior year of HS that i use when husband has to stay the night at work. The queen sized bed. Nothing fancy there: a new mattress set, and the usual basic metal frame. I have the metal headboard i bought when i was in college for $7 at Kmart (on clearance) set up with the bed too, but i really want to make my padded headboard for it in a dark taupe micro-suede. SOON. I have artwork, lamps, and the duvet i want for the room already. And then there's the bedside tables.... yuck. I had 1 when i was single that was ok....but leaves a lot to be desired. i think i found it for $10 at Wal-mart originally to go beside my futon in my 1st apartment. The other one is this weird unfinished tiny little shelf table i've always used to improvise with so we both have something. I want new matching bedside tables though. Since moving in last November, i've gotten Husband to hang up his clothes 2 times. When i do laundry, i'll separate and lay all his clothes out ready for hangers. Hangers are torture to me, and to him apparently because he usually picks up his piles of clothes, including his underwear, and throws them on the floor so he can climb into bed. He says he wants drawers though. So, i've decided i want this:
Its nightstand sized, and there are drawers he can shove his clothes in, at least a few of them, and i like how they look. They would go great with everything i already have and plan to do with the room. And bonus, they're $70 each right now. If you've ever shopped for nightstands, you'll know thats a great price. So, this is on my list of potential gifts. I know, nightstands as an anniversary gift....not really romantic. I'm kind of practical, or something. But i don't care.

My other choice for a gift is this:

The Come Unto Me statue of Christ. I'm in love with it. It's beautiful. I've always wanted the Christus statue for my home, but i think i would love this one more. And right now, its on sale (like 70% off).

So that's it. Those are the 2 things i want for our anniversary. Stuff to decorate my house with. But i can't pick. Which would you pick?? I'm sure i'll get some See's candy as well, or flowers, because that's what anniversary's are for :) Husband has no idea what he wants so i'll have to think of something super special for him. He never wants anything, so he's pretty easy to make happy....if i can think of something. That's the hard part.

Blog Traffic

2010-07-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

Do you guys remember this post? It was the one i posted with the invite for all of Husband's family that were going to North Carolina to come Parasailing with us while we were there over Memorial Day weekend. Just a short little invite, family specific, with a picture of some random people parasailing at the top. It was the one post i've made on here that wasn't really meant for drawing the general public of random readers to worry about reading....But for some strange reason, it's the one post that's drawing the most traffic to the blog.

Its been going on for weeks. I've been watching the Live traffic feed, and i think its safe to say that over 95% (if not more) of the random readers land on that page first. WHY? I changed the Title of the post from "Parasailing" to "Come Parasailing" hoping that might change the draw for people to land on it, like maybe they would get the clue that its not a post about the parasailing experience itself.... No go. So, i decided to just add the disclaimer in red at the top to redirect everyone.

But that still leaves the *WHY?*. Why is everyone landing on the blog for that post? I've Googled, Yahoo'ed, and Binged "Parasailing", and the blog doesn't pop up on any of the searches, so that leaves me with no idea what the draw is. There's nothing interesting about this particular entry. I've considered just deleting it, but i haven't obviously. I don't have a reason to dissuade anyone from reading about us (unless i start getting some crazies leaving weird comments, but that hasn't happened so i'm not too worried yet). So i guess, to any of you readers that may have stumbled onto the blog because of my "Parasailing" invite post, i would more then appreciate a hint for why you stopped by because i really want to know :)

By Aircraft?

2010-07-05T16:14:00.001-07:00

Have you ever seen one of these signs? They have them here in California, but i can't remember if i've seen them anywhere else.
My real question is:

How does this work??

We drive down the highways enough, and i've never once seen any type of "Aircraft" flying overhead keeping tabs on our speed. Trust me, every time i see the sign i do search the skies. Are they lying to us to scare us into driving the speed limit? Or are they really hiding in their patrol cars off in the bushes in wait for us to not take them seriously? i'm sure if i Googled it, i would find out how it really works, but to be honest i think i find it more interesting to speculate what's really going on....but then again, i do want to know. What do you think?

Garage Sale Finds of the Summer

2010-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Last week on Saturday was a great day, and we were both home (amazingly husband didn't have to work) so i suggested we hit the garage sales for something fun to do. And, shock of all shocks, he agreed without me having to twist his arm. He wanted to go get a paper and see where any were, but i figured all we had to do would be to drive around and we'd find a few. He didn't believe me so i looked up a few online to make him feel better, but in the end we only got to one of the places on the list because there were tons of signs all up and down the neighborhood. I ended up finding a bed frame for cheep, and we had fun going through strangers crazy stuff. Our find of the day, besides the bed frame?

Yes, Titanic The Board Game. We didn't know if we should be disturbed or if we should think it was funny. The object of the game:

"Gossip with other passengers, receive telegrams and collect all five pieces of your personal property to advance from the Second Class to the First Class section of the ship. But watch out, you might get put back in steerage or, worse yet, never make it to your lifeboat in time..."

Who knew there was such a thing? It really was so outrageous, we had to buy it. It was $1 we still don't regret spending. Its missing a few pieces, but i've found a site online to buy them, so i'm not too worried about it.

Other then that, things are going. I've been putting off doing the decorating of our house for after the beach vacation so we could save money, but now that its over i can start doing the things i've been planning. Things like curtains, artwork on the walls, table runners and candle holders, accessories and decorations, that padded headboard i've been wanting to do for forever, and the extra bedroom.

I've been on the hunt for a bed frame for our extra queen size bed, and i'm so glad i've finally found one. When we got our new mattress set for our bed to replace the one i had before we got married, we were short on bed frames. So we had an extra bedroom with a mattress sitting on the floor, and it might be just me, but I'm not a fan of offering guests we have over to sleep on a mattress on the floor. i just feel guilty doing it. We have 2 different sets of guest coming to stay this week, so that's my immediate stress for the week, getting that room put together (for the most part) so everyone is comfortable.

But that leaves the one full size mattress, minus its box-spring, sitting on the floor in the other extra bedroom...i don't have any idea what to do with that one. I want to make it usable and presentable without spending hundreds of dollars, so i'm going to put this out there: any suggestions??? i'm open to suggestions. I know i won't be able to do it this week, but eventually.

And then for my room, i plan on finally doing the padded headboard. Yea! I've picked out the material, and Husband has approved, so its going to happen soon. I'm just going through tutorials and pictures online to figure out which way i'm going to do it.
Other then that, Husband and i have been going to movies when we can. I love summer movie season, there are more movies to see then we have time for. I took Husband out for his first taste of Greek food last week. He said it was better then he thought it would be. Seriously. I'm a huge fan of Greek food (i blame the White House Grill if Post Falls for getting me hooked, and great mom's like my friend Rachel's for making such great food all the time), so if he likes it i can have it more often here. Victory for me for that one.
So yeah, basically staying happy still, staying busy, having fun with husband when i can, and trying to stay cool in the Cali heat. Not too much to complain about really :)

Outer Banks

2010-06-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Vacation in Outer Banks, NC was everything i hoped it would be. WONDERFUL. Playing in the ocean, sand castles, parasailing, a new kite, family, little kids and babies, sun burns, great food...even just the initial act of getting out of the car the first time when we got there and smelling the ocean air...wow. My eyes roll back in joy just thinking about it.
We've been planning this vacation for over a year. Husbands mom, Liz, loves the Outer Banks and i think she's genius. It turned out great, and was worth all the months of stress talking husband into it (he was convinced we wouldn't be able to afford it).
The huge house we stayed in was on Hatteras Island. I don't think i realized that the "Outer Banks" was a string of islands (sandbars) before a few weeks before we left. I don't know what i thought it was before then, but it was a big realization. Now i know why Nicholas Sparks writes so many books that take place there. Our friend Jeremy dropped us off at the airport in Sacramento and we flew into Norfolk VA on Saturday night and drove down from there. We hung out at the airport for a few hours trying to figure out flights and the rental car situation for husbands brother Jacob and his wife because their flight was delayed, so we got to the house around 3:30 am Sunday morning. But since we were still on west coast time mentally we weren't completely dead tired.
Sunday i finally got to meet husbands entire family. It was the first time the whole family had been together in 7 years, so it was a big deal for us all to be there together. I knew i married into a great family, but this trip reminded me how wonderful they really are. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. And the extended family (a few aunts & uncles and cousins) that rented another house down the street, were just as fun getting to know too.
We spent Sunday, not at church because it was so far away, but enjoying the beauty of the beautiful beach and playing in the ocean. Getting sunburned. Our house was right on the beach so we got to see an amazing view. Husband was able to take some great pictures up on the deck one night.
Everyone took turns making dinner every night. I can't think of a night where there wasn't great food. Husband and i made taco salad on our night. I will be posting the recipe for that soon because it seemed to go over fairly well.
There was an awesome Frozen Custard place that everyone stopped at. There were over 30 of us that walked in, and amazingly we didn't scare them into closing early.
The Parasailing turned out to be as great as i hoped it would be. We ended up with 12 of us all together that went, and we got a great deal on it. With so many of us they were going to take us up to 800 ft of rope at the 400 ft price, but the tuesday we set it all up for, they didn't show up. They had double booked, and they felt so bad for making us take the ferry to Ocracoke so early in the morning that they set us up for Thursday for 1/2 the price. It turned out to be a prettier day i thought, and it really was tons of fun. It wasn't half as scary as husband thought it would be, and we've decided the best way to describe is was that we now know how it feels to be a kite.
We took the chance to take tons of family picture. Husband had fun spending time with his brothers and all the guys playing games, and i enjoyed getting to know the sisters-in-law. The kids were so fun too. One of husbands nephews found me so many great shells on the beach, it was soo cute.
Overall, the vacation was a success. I can't wait until we can go back to the beach again!

.........

i KnOw!

2010-06-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

yes yes yes, i know. i need to blog. i see you all, coming to check out the page to see if i have something new....and there's nothing. i'm sorry. i keep starting and never finish. We're back from vacation, and i have stories and pictures to share with you too.

SOON. Promise.

Come Parasailing!!

2010-05-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

***I've been watching the blog tracker we have on the page and can't help but notice how many people are landing here to read this particular entry. Sorry to disappoint you if you're here to read about how it was. This was just an invite to our family to come parasailing with us. The Outer Banks post above this one has all the pictures from the actual parasailing and vacation if you're really that interested. Thanks for stopping by though!***

ATTENTION family going to the beach with us:
husband and i are going PARASAILING :]] we wanted to invite anyone else who wants to go too so we can set up the reservation for the boat for all of us. If you don't want to go, we totally understand. Husband says he's afraid of heights, but he's going anyway (under his own free will, though he'll tell you i'm forcing him). This is just an option to do while we're there, no pressure. Prices start at $60 a person and go up from there depending on how high up you want to go in the air. its possible to go up tandem and even triple, but there's a weight limit....i'll have to find out what it is though. Let me know by Wed this week so we can put it all together in time. I'll get all the information to you if you want to go (leave me your email, i'll delete it off our page once i get it). We can't wait to see you all! (even if you don't go parasailing) :]] This is going to be a great trip!

Our Idaho/Utah Trip

2010-05-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

i've been wanting to blog for about 3 1/2 weeks now, and i'm now finally able to give you all some attention. Things have been busy :]
Three weeks ago we took a mini vacation (yes i realize how long ago that was, but i've been busy). It was great. We left on Sunday and drove all day to southern idaho. We had to go to Idaho to register husbands' car. We don't want to be official "California" residents since we're allowed to keep our residency where ever we want pretty much, and since my parents are there we have an address to send everything to. That process took about 2 hours (and less then $100) to get done, and after that it was all fun doing whatever we felt like.
it was great seeing my family. I hadn't seen them in about an year and a half, so it was a trip i was looking forward to (needed!). I got to take my mom out for lunch for her birthday Tuesday, but that was the only time i got to see her because she had to work. But seeing my dad and step-mom was fun. Spending time with my little brother was great too. He's 6 (and 1/2) and going on 20 some times. He is SO sure about everything he says, very determined, and smart. i love his guts. It was so cute to have him read his books he got from school to me. He also shared his cap gun with me. He was so excited when i showed him how to pop the strip of "caps" with a rock on the ground. His favorite part was how it would burn through the paper. But what little boy doesn't like to see what fire does right? We didn't get to fly our kites together though. Sadly it wasn't windy so it was very disappointing for both of us.
We spent 4 days with them, and then started making our way south to see some other friends and family. We got to see two of Husbands aunts in Logan and Ogden. At aunt kathy's we had a birthday party for husbands cousin Marie and got to visit and have fun. There was great food, puking kids, and then some amazing desert. It was great.
After that we went to see aunt Sarrah and uncle Rand. This was the first time i got to meet her and her husband, and i had a great time. They're great :] She had me throw 2 pots on the pottery wheel, and i think its safe to say that i may get into pottery in the future now. i think i did pretty darn well considering it was the first time i've ever spent any real time at a wheel in my life. There was ONE time i tried it in high school for about 30 minutes with minimal instruction from some kids from the college that were visiting. i didn't finish a piece on the wheel then though, i just ended up doing a slab pot the next day. My goal with aunt sarrah was to make a salad bowl (because i'm in need of a nice one), but i didn't get the chance to make anything that big. i need a little more practice building up my walls on the bottom first. One day. But aunt Sarrah and uncle Rand were tons of fun, i'm so glad we got to see them.
Then next we went south to American Fork. We saw Melissa for a little while, one of my best roommates i ever had before we got married. She had a baby in December with her husband, and it was fun (for me at least) to see them. I think we talked about things husband didn't want to hear about (the birthing process). Since this is something i've never done, but plan to do one day, i was interested. She did it naturally on her hands and knees, so of course i was curious to know all about it....
We stayed our nights with husbands cousin Chelsey and her husband Calvin while we were in AF. Once again, another fun time for our trip. i had fun getting to know them a little better, and it was a great place to be so the rest of our friends and family there in the area could come to visit us. We saw our West Virginia friends (from when we all lived in WV), husbands college friends (from when he went to UVSC, aka UVU), and husbands sister Hanna and her husband Chris too. One of the highlights for me was meeting our friend Jed's wife Ali, finally. They got married they day before we did, going on 2 years in August. We've been facebook and blog stalkers of each other ever since and we've never got to meet. She was every bit as great as i thought she would be.
We drove home on a tuesday. Amazingly we never pulled out the camera the whole trip until the drive home....i plan to do 100x's better for the beach trip though. Our friends Jeremy and Tammy came over and BBQ'd for us that night so they could use our tv to watch the Jazz/Lakers game. After driving all day, getting to stay home and have someone else do all the cooking is great.
i got to do a little shopping while we were in Utah. I got part of my bathing suit for our beach trip coming up. I'm proud of myself for only doing that much. But i've spent way too much for clothes for this trip. Online shopping is hard sometimes though. When you get something in the mail it isn't always what you expected, or doesn't fit right or whatever... I got husband one or two things too though :]
So yeah. The trip was great. I got to see my family and we got to see so many other people, it was worth it. We'll have to make the trip again sometime soon :)
Our next trip is in a few weeks, coming up fast!

Yea!

2010-05-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

its official, today i fit into a size smaller pants :) and they fit perfect, not too tight like i was trying to squeeze into them to claim i can get into them. I'm proud of myself.

My New Favorite

2010-04-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite candy at the moment. I still loves me my Reeses PB cups, but i now have something new to add to my list of favorites.

THIS:

I don't go out of my way to buy candy at the checkout counter, so its not like i love Almond Joy's any more then the next person. But i'm a sucker for commercials and if something looks interesting enough i give it a try. These were worth it. I LOVE them. If candy can be interesting, these were fascinating to eat. The insides, they have little tiny chunks of almonds and coconut and chocolate, all the things you'll find in the full size candy bars, but just the fact that it all fits into pieces....wow. YUM is the right word. And perfect.

I love Reese's PB Cups (i know i already mentioned this, just go with it for a sec), but oddly enough i don't care for Reese's Pieces. I think it's because of its lack of Chocolate. That's the key to the cup, so don't you think it should be there for the pieces too? ....ok, there's my little rant on those. sorry.

Back to my new favorite. I love this candy, though i've cut candy off my shopping lists for the next while (and replaced it with chocolate rice cakes).....but i can't deny that they may end up in our travel snacks when we take our road trip to go see my family in Idaho soon.

Hate and Love. Love and Hate.

2010-04-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate when you buy a new pair of jeans, and 2 weeks later they don't fit any more?? The only way there is an up side to this is if they're too big......and that's exactly what happened to me! YEA!! I wore out an old pair of jeans a few weeks ago so i had to do the dreaded chore of going jeans shopping. I hated it. Every second of it. That's when i started Weight Watchers. 6 lbs down (in a week), and my new jeans are too big. I've been trying to shrink them when i wash them, but i think they're pre-shrunk already. Oh well. i won't buy another pair until i can't keep them on my hips though. i want to get back to pre-marriage weight at least because i still have those jeans, and if i have to buy smaller after that....i don't think i'll hate jeans shopping as much :)

Lets Go Fly A Kite

2010-04-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

I constantly have to remind my husband how easily i can be entertained. There's nothing wrong with that. But still, he doesn't understand why i have mass amounts of colored pencils and coloring books, why i do crafts, how i can read the same book dozens of times and still love it, why i watch Pride and Prejudice every other week, and why walking through the stores for hours to just look and not buy is a fun thing for me. It's not like he doesn't still plays with Lego's, so i don't see what the big deal is. But one of the things i love is kites. I love kites. I don't know why. i'm sad to say i don't have very many. Not as many as i would like anyway. I'm just selective and i'm on the hunt for that perfect one. I was the first to take my little brother out to fly though. He's 6 now and lives in Idaho and called to tell me the other week that his mom had bought him his first very own "Transformers" kite and insisted that i come see him right away so we could fly our kites together. We're going to see him soon, so i promised to bring mine with me then. My step-mom told me i was the first person he wanted to tell about it as soon as he even saw it. He has the kite bug now too. He's so cute.

Back in my dating days i shared my love for kites with a boyfriend. Sadly this resulted in the loss of my favorite kite of all time. It was a double box kite and it always flew, i never had problems getting it in the air. tons of colors, 2 tails...It was the perfect kite. This "guy" (yes i do say this with hate in my voice) borrowed it one afternoon to play with it with a friend while i was at work. They decided to tie it to fishing line and see how far it would go up. Just thinking about this makes me want to re-enact that scene in Psycho...

From what i was told, it was so high up they had trouble trying to bring it back in so one of them dared the other to let it go for a few seconds. Being guys....they did it. To this day I'm not sure which one did it. I got a few apologies for this, and it was replaced with an inferior kite to "make good" for this, but i'm pretty sure they had too much fun to really be sorry. I stopped sharing my kites with people besides family after that.

This has been a contributing factor to me having not taken Husband out with me before this month though. Well, that and we've never spent a Spring together. He's seen my small collection, and he knows i always have to check the toy store/aisle to see if i can find my perfect kite again. He even brought me a Spider Man Parachute kite home from Central America, so he has more then earned the privilege to fly kites with me. But Spring is the prime season for kite flying, and i've been anxious to take husband out. We keep missing out though. Dang it. The days that have been perfect for flying have all been days when Husband was working. We've tried on the less perfect days but they were all no go's.... My goal for this Spring is to take Husband out on a great kite flying experience, just so he can share my simple joy of kite flying. That's not my only goal of this spring, but its on my top 5.
Soon.
With Pictures.
Then maybe he'll let me buy more kites :)

You're Speaking English

2010-04-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today i spent the afternoon watching a friends 3 year old little girl Olivia (Livy). This girl is stinkin cute and tons of fun. I'm not sure who has more fun when she comes over though, her or husband. She likes to make him chase her in circles around the house growling the whole time till he catches her or until she can get to me and roll up in my lap to hide when she inevitable gets caught and tickled.
Today we decided to take her to the park that is a few blocks from our house. I've been wanting an excuse to check out this park, but since we don't have any kids of our own it would seem kind of weird to go there without a reason. But it turned out to be a great park. There was a regular size playground, and then a smaller scale playground for the under 5 age group that's shorter and you're not in fear of the kids falling off the sides or between the railings, and the slides are smaller so their not picking up so much momentum and flying out at the other end. There were a lot of other kids at the regular playground, but not really any at the smaller one for a while. We had fun sliding down all the slides, her telling husband to follow her up and down from one slide to the next. But eventually a little boy showed up to play with us too. I would say he was about 4, and at first he played on his own, but pretty soon he was inviting Livy to play with him. He was trying to show her how to ride the little horse on a spring thing when i realized i didn't understand anything he was saying. He was speaking a different language, but because we live in America i assumed he would be bilingual and know English as well, so i told him thank you for sharing and asked him if he would show us how to go through the tunnels too. That's when he looked at me a little funny and said:

"Usted está hablando Inglés".

Translation: "You're speaking English".
He said something else after that, and then went to play some more. That's when husband stepped in and started speaking in Spanish to him for me (one of those skills he learned on his mission he served in Chili). I'm not sure what was all said still, but husband told him he speaks Spanish, translated what i said and asked him what his name was. We never got an answer to that, but i think that's forgivable because aren't you not supposed to tell strangers what your name is when you're that age? We'll just overlook the parts where he was playing with and talking to strangers in this case though. He continued to play with us for a while though until some other boys showed up for him to play with. We had our fun and one of the new additions to the playground decided him and i were best friends and was constantly looking for excuses to play by me while smiling and blushing when i smiled back at him. I've always had that effect on boys though, no matter what age ;)
We wore Livy out enough that when we were ready to go home, she didn't put up a fight about it other then she was done with husband completely and didn't want him to hold her hand while we walked back. I ended up having to carry her the whole way back. My arms still feel like they're about to fall off, but it gave me that hope that i'll get that benefit of great arm muscles when i have kids of my own one day.
On the walk home husband filled me in on what the little boy at the park had said though. He said it was "Spanglish", but way more Spanish then anything and was laughing about it, but i felt kind of silly about it for a little while. Now i'm seeing the humor of it though. Sadly i never had to take a different language in school, so i don't know whats being said to me in any other language. When husband is teasing me and tells me things in Spanish i just say "Si", or "No", or "ok mi amor", and occasionally i'll throw in "taco" just to throw him off a little. He says he'll teach me one day, but i've yet to learn anything from him on that one.
I'm not going to go off on that tangent about how "this is America, and if someone wants to live here they should speak English" because if you ask me, that seems a bit ignorant to say something like that. Besides, i'm sure his parents speak English just not very much while at home. But yes, I'm speaking English, because that's what i know :) It was a fun day at the park though, in English and in Spanish.

p.s. Happy April Fools. husband and i didn't do any pranks, but its all fun at our house anyway.

What's Going Down

2010-03-21T22:21:00.001-07:00

The last month or so we've been having fun together. I think that spring fever is set in, we're getting out of the house doing more as often as possible.

Last month we went to the Kings vs. Jazz game here in Sacramento with some friends. See up in the very top right corner of this next picture? That's where our seats that we paid $10 for were. But right after 1/2 time, a guy was wondering around up there and stopped to ask us and our friends if we were all together and if we would like better seats. At first i thought he was trying to sell us better tickets so i told him we were fine, but husband found out more and the guy gave us his extra tickets for a Suite because he had landed some court side seats for the game. It was just in time for us to get a better view of the Jazz losing, but it was still fun. Not bad for our first NBA game.

The weather has been great, so we've been playing tennis with some friends and taking more walks. Pretty soon we'll be flying our kites too. I'm excited about that :)
We have a real lawn that we have to take care of and everything now. Its not a huge yard, but its a lot better then none at all. We got our first lawn mower though. Its old school, but i think husband enjoys it. Every time he pulls it out he tells me the horror story of having to mow the huge hill in his old back yard in West Virginia when he was younger. I've heard the story more times then i can count, but the way he tells it, with relief in his voice that our yard is nothing like that, i think it makes him feel ok with the chore so i'll let him tell me as many times as he wishes.

And then today..... we found this:

That's right.
You guessed it.
Our lost camera bag with camera inside.
WHAT??
How did that get there? Husband says it wasn't him that put it there, and i say it wasn't me that did it......but there really is no reason to point fingers since its found now! Husband was putting away something in the hall closet, moved a coat over, and there it was :) After weeks of searching everywhere through the house over and over again, it was right there in the closet we always keep it in.

Husband is still losing things though. All of his shoes are gone. He can't find them anywhere. They're gone. 3 different pairs. So knowing that, who would YOU blame for where the camera was?
I've been saving my money to buy him a new one, but now that i don't have to i can buy new clothes for the beach trip in a few months :) Yea!!!
On a more personal note, i think i'm going to start Weight Watchers. My aunt and uncle started a week ago. In the one week, my uncle lost 12 lbs. and my aunt lost 6 lbs. My mother-in-law has only good things to say about it as well, so i figure its worth a try.
So, thats whats going on with us. St. Patrick's we tried to build Lepricon houses out of playing cards.....but they fell over any time we got very far on them. I wish i had taken pictures because i was having fun for a while with that.
And this week....i have no idea what we're doing. A little organizing in the bedrooms, laundry, spring cleaning, and having fun for sure :) Maybe nature walks to take the camera out.

Husband Says...

2010-03-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since i've done a "Husband Says". i don't know if its because he hasn't said anything funny enough to blog about in a while or if we haven't been hanging out enough or if i haven't been paying attention enough to remember to blog about it. But whatever the reason, we're due for one.

And i have one :)

Husband was walking around the house all afternoon without a shirt or socks on after work and had been complaining about "how cold" he was. After his shivers and teeth chattering (fake by the way), i pointed out how helpful wearing clothes can be in staying warm and ordered him upstairs to put more clothes on, and then i let him turn the heat up a few degrees. We've turned the heat off over the last few weeks because we really don't need it in California this time of year. He doesn't know it, but the switch on the thermostat is set to off so it doesn't matter what temp you turn it up to, its not going to come on. But as it is, i'm sweating half the night having him sleeping next to me as my own personal space heater. The waves of heat he puts off, i have no idea how he can ever say he's cold. I usually end up with one of my legs hanging out of the covers at night in an attempt to regulate my body temperature. So last night when we were in bed talking, i was teasing him and i said i was "too hot and needed him to go turn the temperature down". He got upset about this, that i was asking him to get out of bed to go downstairs, but he started to get out of bed anyway. i really was kidding, so i had to stop him and pull him back into bed before he got too far.
He looked at me with an angry face and said:

Your kids are not kids.

....i didn't know how to respond to this. What? I had to think for a few seconds about what he was saying. We don't have kids. Why would he say something like that? And then i figured it out: "kids" = "kidding". At least in this case. This cracked me up, and we were both laughing then. But i couldn't resist making fun of him a little more after that.

what are my "kids"? "Adults"? Or should i just call them "children"?

Poor husband. I know i pick on him, but we have so much fun. I love him. We are calling them "children" this week. Or "i'm just childing you".

Fun times.

Aww. Its love.

2010-03-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

This is my life. Husband always trying to kiss me any time i'm trying to do anything....even just taking a picture. I love him.

Some Of Those Pictures I've Been Talking About

2010-03-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

I'm keeping my promise, there are pictures for you to see now!
I'll start with valentines day :)

This is the Candy Gram i made for husband:

Cute right? He loved it. I loved that i could get him to peak around the corner of it all cute like he is. If you click it you can see it bigger. I used 15 different candies, but i'm pretty sure it only survived about 2 days.
This is the wonderfully amazing Shrimp Scampi i made for our dinner. Its was d-lish!

This is not what my cake was supposed to end up looking like :( I planned to have a chocolate fondant on it, and i've made the regular white fondant without any problem, but the chocolate didn't work out, i couldn't get it un-sticky enough after i would roll it out to get it off the parchment paper. The flowers turned out great at least, but they would have looked a lot better if they were on the chocolate. It was amazing tasting cake, all made from scratch despite my fail.

The wonderful Oreo Truffles i made to give to friends :) These were the 2 boxes that didn't get given out because we didn't see the friends before husband started eating them. I thought it was really cute in the little boxes.

So yeah, there are a few pictures :) Soon i'll post the pictures from our Basketball Game Adventure.

Yea!

2010-03-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

Pictures Coming Soon!

i got my USB memory card converter today, so i'll be posting pictures soon! I'm shooting for tonight, but it may be tomorrow (i think i need to feed my husband before i get to the blogging). And more great news, i checked our external hard drive and realized husband was smart and had pulled the wedding pictures off the missing camera before it *poofed*. So, high five for husband. I still get sick at the thought of knowing its gone, but at least we have that. We can replace a camera, but not the memories on it....there were things on it from the trip, but there isn't much we can do about it now.
Pictures soon to follow though

For Pig Latin....

2010-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

My awesome friend Rachel blogged about this on her blog, and it was so funny i had to share it with all of my friends that don't know her.

Turns out the Nestle hotline is a pretty funny number to call.

1-800-295-0051

If you get a busy signal, just keep trying!
When you're asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish
DON'T DO ANYTHING!

and wait quietly for about 10-30 seconds. It will make you smile.
Keep going and press 4.
Then press 7.
Try the different options, its pretty random but its a fun menu.

Cracked me up anyway, gave me a whole new respect for Nestle.
Thanks Rachel!

No Pictures :(

2010-02-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

Valentines turned out to be great though.
Saturday evening i spent making Oreo Truffles for some of our friends to give to them at church. I had been planning to make everyone cupcakes, but I had had these lovely magical goodies at Christmas in new mexico (husbands sister leah brought them over) and i saw the recipe on a friends blog so i knew i had to make them. And they turned out great! That night i also made husband hang out downstairs while i was upstairs putting his candy gram together. He didn't like knowing i had a secret that i was putting together at all, as well as having to hang out by himself watching tv. I hid his gift under the bed and he was none the wiser. We actually had to get up at a decent hour for church the next morning because it was Stake Conference, so we ended up exchanging gifts while we were getting ready.
This is where i would insert the picture of cute husband holding his awesome candy gram if i had the missing camera.....*sigh*
i took pictures, with my little camera, of the whole day but like i said, there's no way to get it onto the computer without the missing camera that has the USB cable. sad.
Husbands favorite thing to get me for gifts is movies. It probably is safe that way because if i let him get me the things i really want........lets just say we would be in A LOT of debt. i love him for always wanting to get me everything i want, but movies are a good safe less expensive thing to ask for. He got me The Time Travelers Wife, flowers, and once again a card with completely wonderful things written in it. He's great at that part... *sigh*
i handed out the Oreo Truffles in clear valentine themed Chinese food takeout boxes i had found at Michaels *picture would be inserted here*. I couldn't find 2 of the couples i made the boxes up for, but husband didn't mind eating them for them. He calls them "goobers" and tells me i should open a sweets shop to sell them in. Our friends Tammy & Jeremy loved them so much they had us over to their house to teach them how to make them. i don't see a sweets shop in my near future though.
Now,
*right here*
i would have posted a picture of how our dinner turned out. It was great! I don't think i've ever made shrimp for anyone, or used shallots in anything either, but we both loved it, and i had fun making it.
Then there was desert. Husbands favorite cake on earth is red velvet, so that's what i made for him. It was wonderful.
*insert picture here*
I made it all from scratch too. The cake, the frosting, the fondant. Sadly my chocolate fondant didn't turn out the way i wanted it to. i had made it before in regular white, but the adding the chocolate didn't turn out right. Oh well. But it tasted great, and i had fun making all the gum paste flowers to decorate it with, so i call it a success. Especially since husband LOVED it :]
It was a good Valentines that i would have posted about sooner if i hadn't been searching the house for the camera every day. In all my searching i thought i would have stumbled onto other things i've been looking for or forgot about, but strangely enough i came up with absolutely nothing. And i think my house is a little messier then when i started :[
Now that its warming up outside more, raining less and less and the days are getting longer, we've started walking in the evenings. It would be more fun if we had a dog for this, but we're enjoying the time together. All the neighborhoods around our house, it turns into 5 miles round trip, and its nice. This week looks like a bunch of rainy days though so we'll take a break i guess. But soon i'm hoping to bump up the walking into jogging. Husband hates jogging he says, but i think he'll come around to.
So, there isn't a lot going on this week for us. Husband has duty tonight so i'm having a quiet night alone. I may put in a chick flick and make some popcorn. Later this week, Friday to be exact, we're going on our date for the month (we usually go out more often, but we're trying to save money). Any guesses what we're doing?? I'm so proud of myself for coming up with this idea: we're going to the Kings/Jazz game here in Sac with 4 of our friends :] Our seats are absolutely nose bleeders, but i don't think any of us care. We're all excited. I'll take more pictures, but we'll see when we actually get to post them. Sorry.
So there you go. I'm sorry for the disappointing lack of pictures, but things are the way they are. I'll still keep looking and keep you all updated though.

Oh no

2010-02-19T17:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, i know i promised pictures of our amazing Valentines, and i did take those pictures i promised. Lots of them. I took those pictures with my camera assuming i would be able to upload them onto my computer with the USB connection cord that we have for my husbands super nice camera. I was going to post them yesterday, but we realized that we haven't seen husbands camera since our Christmas trip to New Mexico.....Husband and i have gone through every room of the house looking for this camera, not because i want to blog, but really because its such a nice camera and to lose it is a terrible thing. Its one of Husbands few possessions he has pride in owning, one of those things he loves. So we're searched the whole house several times and we can't find it. More then anything, i feel sad for husband. We'll keep looking, but until we find it i don't know if i'll have personal pictures of us for a while :(
i'll catch you up on the week soon though.
Wish us luck that we find it!

Planning Ahead

2010-02-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

Is it terrible that i've been planning 2 weeks already what i'm going to do for Husband for Valentines Day and there is still a week before the big day? it's not like Valentines is anything significantly special to us as a couple other then the fact that it's Feb 14th, the Valentines Day holiday just like it is for everyone else. But for some reason i'm so excited its the only thing i can think of. At first i think it had a little to do with the fact that we had this impending "separation" in March when Husband would be deployed for a month with the Coast Guard. i haven't been looking forward to this idea at all, so i wanted to have special things to do with him this month before he left. His birthday is in March, so we were going to have to miss having that together again. We haven't spent any of his birthdays together ever. When we were engaged he was deployed at the end of Feb for 5 months, so we missed that birthday, and then again last year after we got married he was sent to school for 5 months at the end of Feb to North Carolina. Wow....no wonder i'm trying to make a bigger deal out of this month then i normally would. Its classic conditioning, the military is training me to be separated from husband every year at the end of February! Those guys are tricky.... ;)

But, it now looks like husband will actually NOT be getting deployed next month. What's this?? Its because they lost his military passport. He can't go to Central America without it. Apparently this losing of passports for these guys isn't unheard of though.....but how that happens is beyond me. So, while someone travels around on husbands "lost" military passport doing who knows what (hopefully not getting husband into trouble), i'll be enjoying my husband through the month of March, for his birthday, and even for a few more months then i usually get to this year. Yea! We just found out this on Monday. There's a small possibility that the missing passports will be found (it would have to show up by Monday though) and he could end up going in the end, but chances are they won't turn up in the next 2 days.

But, since i've started my Valentines Day planning already, there's no reason i shouldn't follow through. I still love my husband! This year we're watching what we spend and saving as much money as possible so we can go to the beach in a few short months, so i've been trying to come up with ideas to make it fun but still inexpensive. First off, I'm planning a pretty cake (yes, its because i've been looking for an excuse to use all my cake decorating stuff i got last year). Its the first thing i need to start on if i'm going to make everything for it. I'm thinking i'm going to make something similar to this:

I'll be making the flowers out of Gum Paste, i just need to get a small foam mate to make the petals on, and a flower cookie cutter. I'm pretty sure i know where i can find it at. I'm not going to do the chocolate frosting though. I'm making a red velvet cake because that's husbands favorite, so i'm going with a white cream cheese/marshmallow frosting, then i'll cover it with marshmallow fondant which i'll have to make (it tastes better then regular fondant).
So there's that. Next, i'll be making this for dinner:

Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

I found it on the Food Network site when i was looking for ideas and i think it'll be perfect with asparagus and spinach salad. i may even have husband cook in all up with me. Thats romantic right? I think it is. He's been helping out a lot more in the kitchen this week and i'm thinking its super great and sweet as heck.
Then for my gift for him i've decided to go with a combo: The Candy Gram! If you don't know what that is, in my case its going to be a message for my special someone with some of the words replaced by candy bar titles (with the candy in it). Its a gift/card/candy all in one! The other week i saw someone eating a Big Hunk! candy bar, and suddenly it was all i could think of. I wanted one soooo bad, but they didn't have them at our grocery store a few blocks away so i never got my fix of it :( But it got me thinking about the times i have had them and i remembered how perfect they are for candy grams. So thats where i got the idea for this gift for him this year. i know where i can get a Big Hunk! in the next town over i think so it'll be in the message for him for sure. He's my Big Hunk. Its a pretty inexpensive gift, and homemade by me. Isn't that what makes for a great special gift? Something made with love :]
i can honestly say i haven't asked for any gifts from husband for Valentines this year. All i'm hoping for is that he'll share some of his candy to be honest. Last year he got me flowers, a movie, and one of the best cards i've ever gotten in my entire life that was so sweet it still makes we tear up just thinking about it. He always manages to say the best things to me :] i love him. This year....i think he wants me to pick out my gift for him. its my own fault for helping so much with Christmas though. But i really mean it when i say i don't care if he gets me anything, so its up to him what he does.

I don't know what we'll do after dinner yet, but if i don't come up with something it'll be something like watching The Princess Bride or some other romantic movie he's willing to sit through. But i'm open to suggestions so if anyone has any good ideas please let me know!
Husband doesn't read what i write on this blog if i don't tell him i've written and my goal is to keep this all secret from him until next weekend, so if you know husband do me a favor and not tell him of my plans ;] I'll take pictures of how the whole thing really does turn out, so keep a lookout for that after the big day. Until then, i hope every one has a great Valentines Day this year!

Ode To My Dear Tissues

2010-01-31T18:29:00.000-08:00

So apparently its Doppelgänger week on facebook...post a picture of your celebrity look-a-like and all that stuff. Whatever. i don't always play along with the trends, but after seeing everyone else do it i couldn't help but try to remember who people have told me i look like. The last time i was told i look like anyone famous it was this girl:

Drew Barrymore.
I'm not exactly sure i see it. Husband says he sees it, so i'll go with it though.
Do you see it?

So that's that. On to the next, the reason for my post today.

Ode to My Dear Tissue

Oh dear tissue,
how I find comfort in your fluffy white goodness.
You always stand true and firm against everything that blows your way.
You never seem to rub me the wrong way either.
You save my clothes from the unsightly mascara that runs with my tears
and, dear tissue, you care for my nose and keep it as soft as a babies bottom when i lose all control of it.
Oh! how can I not help but love you.
Thank you dear tissue.
Thank you!

Ahhh-Chew!
Yes friends, i am sick. It started with a few sneezes the other day, then progressed to a sore throat the next morning that got better as the day went on. Then the next day was full on congestion, sore throat, swollen glands, and exhaustion. I was asleep in my bed before 10 last night, which is almost unheard of for me because Husband was staying overnight on base and i never get to sleep before 2am when he's gone. But today was the worst. I woke up before 5am, and never got back to sleep after that. All of it, the sneezing, coughing, congestion, sore everything from head to toe. I can't get my nose to stop running. The tissues i've gone through lay around me crumpled up in piles... I'm exhausted.

But, i have come to appreciate the greatness of the Puffs Plus Tissues because of this. Back in the day when i had roommates, they would go through my tissues like candy, but i don't remember any of them ever being sick so i stopped buying the tissues for them. But after getting married and stocking up the house with the essentials the tissues managed to get back into the shopping cart again and i've had this box since we moved. I don't know why or how though because tissues are one of those items you don't realize you don't have until you need them. Tissue, because i don't use it often, is not something i invest much money in either. But i remember buying this particular box that i carry around the house with me like a security blanket right now. I almost didn't buy it, i almost got the store brand because it was just tissue. Gasp! But i saw this particular box and i just knew i wanted it:

(its a scan of the box because i wanted to figure out the new scanner. sorry)
Isn't it pretty?? i thought it was anyways. And what's another $.50 for the good stuff when its something you don't buy often?
So, dear tissues, thank you for taking care of me. I'll never go back to store brand again.

So today i'm sick. On a Sunday. I love church, and i missed it. Our ward is great, the people are great, i love hearing the talks in Sacrament, and i'm in nursery with the little kids so its that much greater. But people get sick sometimes and we have no control of the day of the week it happens. But this Sunday, of all the Sundays i could have been sick was a bad one. I was supposed to give a talk in Sacrament meeting today..... i hang my head in shame every time i think about it. I was asked to give this talk 3 weeks ago, and amazingly i was completely done writing it last Saturday....i thought i was supposed to give it last Sunday so i showed up at church with it ready and willing to share, but came to find out when we picked up the program that i had got my dates wrong. My bad. I was prepared for today though, and that's what's supposed to matter. BUT, as i'm the walking dead today and didn't go....shame is what i feel.... Husband had to go to church and give his talk without me. I have never heard him speak in church before, though i've spoke 4 times since we started dating, so missing that was a downer for me too. But I feel like they could think i was trying to skip out on speaking. There are people that do it, i had friends like that, and i know i thought about doing it a few times when i was younger, so i would understand if they thought i was skipping out on it. Not this time though, i swear. if you came to my house right now you would see the misery. I'm saving the talk though, and if they want me to speak again, i'm ready any time....

So i've given my thanks to my tissues, i owe one to my husband too. He's been taking care of me as much as the tissues, if not more. The glass after glass of water, the blanket and pillow so i can camp out on the couch, the being the great husband that he is....i love him more for it.

but my tissues are running a nice 2nd today :)

Happy Anniversary!

2010-01-23T20:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary to husband and i!
Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day we got engaged, the day husband asked me to be his wife.
We didn't do anything to celebrate the special day because i just realized it about 5 minutes ago...but its still a special day that deserves a little acknowledgement because I still feel special that he picked me out of all the world to love forever :]

I Have A Confession

2010-01-19T22:10:00.000-08:00

i should be on the Worst Cooks in America show...
Have any of you watched this show? (please tell me if you do so i don't feel like a dork.) I didn't start watching the show from the beginning of the series, i just kind of happened onto it a few weeks ago and i've been hooked since. These contestants, they're terrible cooks that were sent to this show to learn from chefs every week and compete to find out who the best of the worst is.

Until i started watching this show i thought i was a decent enough cook. Nothing top quality like my friend Nathan Child (who wins National cooking comps and is a-m-a-z-i-n-g), but good enough that i wouldn't be ashamed to feed strangers occasionally, and i could feed my family without too much complaint ( i don't remember the last time husband complained about my cooking). It wasn't until i started watching this show, Worst Cooks, that i realized how little i really know! I think the only thing i am good at is making a casserole and salad. i can follow a recipe fairly well most of the time, the easy ones any way. But the things these "worst cooks" are learning is beyond my level. My comprehension. I'm terrible at spices and picking out flavors and "wilting salads", and all the different type of cooking, and they go and just throw things together without a recipe... i would fail on the show!

This is just something i've been thinking about the last few day. My solution for this is one of two options. 1) get on the show, or 2) start taking cooking classes. The second option is more realistic, but the first one would be more fun. So, i'm just going to put this out there: Nominate me for the show! tell them i'm terrible. After i learn to cook, for everyone that nominated me i will come to your home and cook for you ;) Until then, i'm just going to get by on my measly cooking talents and hope for the best.
:)
vote for me!

2010-01-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about this time of year is these:

Yes, the Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts.
They are my favorite candy in the whole world i think. I used to get bags and bags of these every year and stock up on them so i could still have some after Valentines day. I'm not going to do it this year though... i got one bag and that's going to last me. And when they're gone, they're gone....

I'm Neglecting You All

2010-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

i'm extremely overdue for a new post, so i apologize. i don't realize how far behind i get sometimes. When we're out doing things, husband will make fun of me for how i now have something to blog about, and i'm like "oh! why didn't i think of that!", and i realize after the fact that i have my camera and i should have taken pictures.... who really wants to read a blog without new pictures?
Sadly, i don't have pictures today, so if you don't read this through all the way, i understand.
Things are kind of slow around the house. We had the exterminator come and check out the house last week about our rat problem. We did have some he said (didn't i know it!). Roof Rats. I knew they were in the attic because i could hear them when i would lay in bed in the morning while i planned my day, but i don't think husband believed me when i would tell him about it. But i was right, they were up there. The exterminator said there was cat food in there that they had drug up from the previous family that lived here before us. Husband said we won't be getting a pet if their food attracts rats...i may have to wait until next year before i can push that issue again because i love having pets. But the exterminator came, told us what to do around the house so they can't come in, and as soon as the traps do their job, we'll be closing all the holes.
Last weekend we had one of husbands friends from work move in. He'll be renting one of the bedrooms for a month or so because he's waiting to go to A-school in NC (the same one husband went to last summer). He (the guy that moved in w/ us) had an apartment, but staying with us he doesn't have to sign a lease and he's saving a little money. We know what that waiting feels like, and its nice to be able to help someone out, so its not really a big deal. I hardly ever see him really. He comes home and goes straight to his room. He'll occasionally come down and talk with husband while they play xbox for 10 minutes, but that's about it. He eats breakfast, but he never makes himself dinner in the evening, so i'm starting to wonder if he knows he's allowed to use the kitchen... He did do laundry last night though, so i know he's comfortable enough to do that. He's a really nice guy, just really quiet. Its interesting to have someone living with us to say the least, but its been positive so i would possibly consider it again if the situation ever came up again. Maybe.
But besides all that, its just little things going on. i've finally hung up pictures in the house (YEA!) and i'm now starting on some crafts. We started our "healthy living" again after getting back from Christmas. I've been cooking a lot to do that too and we're not eating out any more. That's been good because we're saving as much money as possible so we can afford to go to the beach this summer with husband's family. Husband keeps saying we may not go, but we are. i keep having to remind him about how we can do it, and that it'll be fine, but he's been stressing about it so much i think he's a little skeptical. He stresses about things more then people realize i think. But it really will be fine.
So, i'm going to try to remember to take more pictures while we're out and about doing things. We found even going to the grocery store turns into a small adventure, so i'll try to get better with the pictures... :)

Angry Face

2010-01-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

I almost had my first real car accident today. I was on my way to the bank, i had my Jamba Juice in the cup holder, and i was thinking about how i was about ready for another sip of it when i got to the red light 2 intersections up. The car in front of me turned right so i had to slow down for it and i was speeding up through the intersection when all of a sudden a car pulls out into the intersection right in front of me out of nowhere. It hadn't even stuck its nose out to see if anyone was coming so i'm not sure it had even stopped for their red light. I didn't have time to hit my horn, i had to swerve to miss her so fast and luckily there wasn't a car in the lane next to me otherwise it would have been a mess... She sped off to the far left lane and got into the turning lane to get as many cars between us as possible, but i saw her passenger look over a me with a look on his face like he knew what happened was their fault and to see if i was peeved. I was upset for about 20 seconds while i sat at the red light as i thought about my choices: be a jerk back and give them the stare down while i mouth curse words at them through the closed window... OR let it go and chalk it up to a close call. As much as i didn't want to i let it go, i did. I let it go. I'm not telling this story to say i'm a better person then those people that do use choice words or hand gestures (because that was my first thought to do after i knew i had avoided the accident), but i'm really proud of myself for taking that second to think about how i was going to react. That woman is probably my least favorite person of my week still, but....i let it go. I actually hadn't thought about it again until husband called to ask about my day.

I've been driving almost 10 years now, and that's the closest i've come to having a car accident amazingly. Not that i'm trying to jinx myself!
i just realized this is my first post of the new year. Happy New Years everyone! i hope you all had a great, safe holiday. Husband and i did :] We drove for 18 hours straight to New Mexico to stay with his family for the holiday. It was really great seeing everyone, and we had a ton of fun. We're really looking forward to seeing them all again for family vacation this summer. I'll have to post pictures of all our fun real soon.

Do Not View If You Have A Weak Stomach....

2009-12-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

Remember this picture?

and this one

The guy that's watching our house for us while we're here in New Mexico for the holiday sent us this picture last night with the disclaimer that we need to get a cat....

.....we're officially getting a cat when we get home next month.

Either I'm Spoiled Or Guys Are Jerks

2009-12-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

Last night i magically talked husband into going Christmas shopping with me. I couldn't believe it when he said yes. I had put the food in the slow cooker so i knew we wouldn't have to go out for dinner, and it wouldn't be a late meal we would have to wait for when we got home, and we were on our way. We had to get gifts for each other, which is hard when your shopping together, but i was able to hide things at the stores in the mall from him without any problem, but husband can't keep a secret for anything so i know pretty much everything he's getting for me for Christmas. Does that take the fun out of it for me? .....a little, but not really. I made a list for him so it wouldn't be so hard (i'm a hard person to shop for, i admit it), and he followed it fairly well. Basically he spoils me, and i try to do my very best to NOT exploit that. It doesn't matter what part of the year it is, when we're out shopping and looking at things i say i want (one day. in my dreams. if it wasn't so expensive), he'll roll his eyes some times and ask which one i want then pick it up to go pay for it. I have to pry it out of his hands and make sure he knows that i know its too expensive for now and i'm totally willing to wait on it (I would rather get more out of debt first). But on the occasion, i do let him spoil me, and i love him for it. I've never had a guy so willing to spoil me like he does.
So yeah, we had the few gifts we wanted to pick up from the various stores, and there were various bags for all of this. I automatically grabbed the bags and didn't think anything of it. They needed to be carried, i had one hand holding husbands and the other hand was free, so why shouldn't i carry them? When husband offered continually to carry them for me....i said No.
*Gasp*
i know. i feel like a bad person now.
it wasn't until we were walking out to the car and i had opened the mall doors for myself and husband scolded me for not letting him be a good husband by opening them for me that i realized why he had offered so many times to carry the bags. In movies the husband is always following the wife around to the different stores while she shops and he carries all the bags for her. That's what he was trying to do for me. Isn't that sweet?? And i deprived him of that! He then promptly took the bags from me, had me put my arm in his, led me to the car, and even managed to open my door for me after putting everything in the trunk.
I did some thinking about this on our drive home. Why didn't i think to let him carry the bags until the end? Yes, i've always been independent and it didn't cross my mind or bother me to carry them, but isn't that one of the perks of having a man around? Then i figured it out. I've never had a guy offer to carry my bags, let alone really go shopping with me. All the guys i dated before husband were Jerks with a capital J. I always ignored it when i was dating them, but after breaking up i would look back and realize how selfish they were. There were a few ok ones in there, but i'm so happy i held out and waited for husband. He's the best i could ever ask for. I'll be the first to admit it.
So, Husband, I love you. Thank you for being such a great husband and reminding me how great it is to have a real man.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

How Do They Do This To People??

2009-12-11T23:13:00.001-08:00

i don't even know where to begin. i'm so bugged right now.

ok, so i'm a fan of Old Navy clothes. They're affordable and really have those great basic essentials that are wonderful and they go with everything. At least for me anyway. I buy the same things in different colors even. I don't shop very often, but when i want or need something the first place i look is Old Navy. I go to the store and i shop online as well (cuz they have the "long" option and because if you can't find it in the store its usually online or vice versa ). i don't buy things very often, but i'm always looking when i'm board, kind of like "window shopping" but online.
So yeah, its Christmas and thats a great time to buy things. Everything is on sale left and right. Last week i did some personal shopping. We're going to New Mexico to see husbands family for Christmas, so i wanted new shirts to take with me. I was looking and found this:

its a "Women's Lightweight Boat-Neck Tee". I actually already have one in black that i've had for a while and i love it, so i decided i wanted to get a few more in different colors. I love it so much i was even willing to pay the $14.50 for each. I should have known better though. Nine times out of ten i find every top i want from Old Navy for under $10 eventually. I was looking at my order tonight and discovered that this particular top went on sale for $6!! S-I-X DOLLARS. I haven't even received the original order i made in the mail yet and already they're on sale for less then half the original price. PLUS! They sent me a 20% discount for online orders this week to my email so i can get them for $4.50 each. I had ordered 3 different colors, so at that price all together i could have gotten the 3 for $13.50. A dollar less the the full price for just one. Does that bug anyone else???
SO, i told husband about this and he told me to reorder it all at the discount price and when i receive them then return it with the original full price receipt. Does that make sense? What would you do in this situation? I'd be saving over $30.... I'm torn. What would you do if this happened to you?

New House Pictures

2009-12-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

I've been promising pictures to you all of the new house. After I finally decided how to lay out the living room, found the cord for the camera and uploaded them....i just realized i don't have an outside picture of the house. Dang it. Sorry. So that will have to come later i guess.The house and all the new furniture are great though. I love it! Everything is where i want it, there are only a few things that i still need, but they're things i can live without for a while until we have more money in savings again. That will be after Christmas for sure, but I'm good with that.

So, here are pictures. Just an FYI, i have not hung up any pictures in the house. I haven't figured that part out yet. But there is tons of wall space, and i'm thinking not enough pictures to take up all that space, so i'm looking into investing in some nice art and pictures (or maybe even make my own...).

Our Front Entry

There's a closet and cupboard that goes under the stairs that's very Harry Potter-esk. Upstairs is a long hall that goes to all the bedrooms (not decorated and not set up yet).
i love the cathedral ceilings that go through this front half of the house.

Our Living Room

Our new couch is SO comfortable, and that's husbands new TV that i won't let him hook his xbox up to. Poor husband... :(
I think it needs a nice big potted plant or some kind of something for that corner with the lamp. I also need to get some sort of small coffee table or ottoman. One day :)

The Dining Room

Ignore all the pictures littering the place. My beautiful new dining table is great. Love that as much as the couch.

The Family Room
This is usually where you can find husband playing his xbox.

Don't you love the plaid couches? I can't seem to get rid of them. But with the family room they work fine.

Off behind the love seat is the kitchen

It's very white. White walls, white cupboard and counters, white appliances... I'm planning to paint. I love all the space though.
Don't you love how husband sneaks into the pictures? He's so cute.

This is my pot holder. See that stuff all torn up and hanging out of the side of it? Any guesses what happened?

Did that guess involve a rodent of some sort, cuz if it did then you're right. We had a mouse!
I didn't realize we had this mouse until i found this on our counter Thanksgiving morning.

When i saw it i couldn't grasp what happened. I thought it was so weird that husband would eat a banana that way. But then i figured it out. Our little friend ate a potato i had in a big bag next to the fridge, and he ate through my dish rag to get to the rolls left over from dinner in a bowl on the kitchen table.
We set out traps, that didn't work, and then poison and we haven't heard from him for a while now, so i'm thinking he's gone....i hope.

This is our beautiful new Christmas Countdown decoration we received from husbands brother Jacob and his amazing new wife Natalie. Its adorable, and it came with candy stuffed in it. Score! Its the only Christmas decorations i have up sadly. We're going to be gone for the holidays and husband doesn't want to buy me a tree. Oh well.

So there you are. Pictures of our house. I'll post upstairs pictures one day maybe, after i make the headboard for our bed and get the bedside tables we're living without for right now. The downstairs was my priority because closing the door can be done upstairs when people are over. I'm loving living in a real house though. Its twice the size of the apartment, and 50 times better. We don't have to go up and down a flight of stairs to bring groceries in, the garage isn't a mile away, and we don't have noise neighbors. Our neighbors actually asked if we wouldn't mind if they mowed our lawn for us so its all even. What?? i've never heard of someone wanting to do that before.
Its all great.

Caramel Apple Crunch Pie

2009-12-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

I made this pie for thanksgiving and it was a big hit. I couldn't even get a picture of it before we started eating it. I was in charge of the Apple Pie, and when i was in the store getting all the ingredients i found the Kraft Caramel Bits in the chocolate chips aisle. Caramel and Apples, you can't get any better then that! So i decided to try it out. AMAZING! Love it, i'll never go back to making regular apple crunch pie again.

CARAMEL APPLE CRUNCH PIE

Ingredients

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

5 cups Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup Kraft Caramel Bits (found in the chocolate chip aisle)

3 tablespoons butter

TOPPING

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup Kraft Caramel Bits

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, Mix together 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Stir in sliced apples until coated with sugar mixture. Stir in 1 cup Kraft Caramel Bits. Pour filling into pie crust, and dot with 3 tablespoons butter. Sprinkle with streusel topping.

To make streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix together 3/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup brown sugar. Cut in 6 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in remaining 2/3 cup Caramel Bits.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 35 to 40 minutes, or until filling is bubbling and streusel is golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 1 hour.
ENJOY!

Holiday Decorating...

2009-12-04T01:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, i may as well say hi since i've already stayed up past 1 a.m. decorating the blog for Christmas and looking for new music for the playlist.
F-U-N!
I think only my husband, a book, anything Christmas related, and insomnia are the 4 things that could keep me up this late. I'm WAY behind on my blogging, so i apologize for that, but i was doing a little unpacking when i found my Christmas cd's, so i was inspired that this needed to be done.
Please enjoy the holiday music. I know i plan to have this playlist playing as much as possible for the next while. I wish it was acceptable to play it year round...
I promise, i will catch up on the happenings going on for us this weekend. I've taken pictures of it, i just thought the cord for the camera was lost in husbands car (along with half my Tupperware), but he informed me tonight that its in the closet so i'll be jumping on that very soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T10:47:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!
I know i've been neglecting the blog, but busy busy people we have been! I'll be taking pictures today and update tomorrow, but i just wanted to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. There are so many things to be thankful for! I know today i will be counting my blessings. I'm most thankful for Family, Friends, Health, Home, and Love. And Stuffing.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I Think Our Apartment is Haunted

2009-11-18T17:10:00.000-08:00

Or not...

You decide.

i was in bed last night sleeping with husband, and i was in a pretty deep sleep, but i was suddenly woke up to a mans voice yelling "Nooooooooo", and then it drifted off. It sounded like it was in the same room as us but it was distant at the same time. It didn't wake husband up though. I tried to wake him up to make him listen too, but he's such a deep sleeper i don't think anything short of a gun going off can wake him. I can never wake him when he's pushing me off by taking up the whole bed. i have to climb over him to take his side until he tries to take that side back. haha, ok i'm just kidding about that part, but i've thought about it more then once.
Anyway, I told him about it this morning. I'm not sure he believes me though. Usually, if he didn't hear it or see it then in his opinion it didn't happen.
I've thought about it today, and i know i was awake before it faded away. What do you think? Any opinions? Thoughts? Similar stories?
Just wondering :]

So Many Things

2009-11-16T22:42:00.000-08:00

So this last week was pretty good i think, besides just having my birthday.

We helped a family friend with his Eagle Scout Project, and in turn we were sent home with a huge foil baking dish of left over pulled pork. We each ate at least one meal of it, if not 2, every day, and husband took a 1/3 of it to work to share with the guys there. Finally we took what was left with us to a friends for dinner and left the leftovers with them. I wish i had thought to take a picture of how much of this pulled pork there really was.

Monday i got presents from my mommy :]]

she sent me some really great picture frames that i've been wanting. Now i can frame The Proclamation to the World, The Living Christ, and one of our wedding pictures all in matching frames. Plus, she got us a beautiful picture of the Idaho Falls LDS Temple (where we got married) that i've been in love with. That one is custom so we're still waiting for that one. Its not the one linked, though i do like that picture. Plus, remember in this post (#2), where i said i want to do some real cake decorating? She sent me all the stuff i've been wanting to get so i can get started.
Then i got my gift from husband that also goes back to that post (#3). A soldering iron. i'm going to set up a small radio and work bench in the garage and start working on some art after the move and Thanksgiving is over. I'm really looking forward to that. I'm not sure how cold it gets here in the winter, but i think it'll work fine....i hope.
Then after cleaning the church Saturday morning, i'm not sure if this was a gift or love or for fun because i don't know how it all happened, but Husband took me furniture shopping... :]] WOW. That was a highlight. After all the extra money we've spent this month we had money to buy furniture. I know how to go without things that i want, or making do with what i have so it wasn't that bad, but husband and i had made a deal that when we got a new bed he could get a new tv. Our bed is fine for a little while, but month after month after month.....not so great. I was getting so desperate i was starting to look on Craigs List for one. But, i'm finding out if i let something sit in husbands mind long enough without pushing it he'll run with it and its all good some how. We got a mailer for a furniture store that had a couch on it that we, amazingly, both liked. There was also an incentive for $500 worth of groceries. So we agreed to go to the store to check it out. When we got there we found the couch, and it turned out to be perfect. We even went around the store to make sure there wasn't a better one, but we already found our winner. We found the mattress set, and then we were walking past the dining sets and started talking about them.....we hadn't planned on getting it at all yet, i was more then willing to wait till next year....but we picked one out. They're delivering it all on Friday and i don't think i can be more excited :) I kept my end of the deal after that, and we went and got a new flat panel tv. He hasn't set it up yet since we're moving this week there isn't really much point unpacking it and repacking so soon, though i think he disagrees.
So, this week we're getting ready to move. It won't be too bad because i've looked around and we really didn't unpack much when we moved into the apartment, so its that much easier on us. I'm moving all our services and changing address on everything, on Friday we get the keys and furniture delivered, and Saturday morning we move it all over to the house just a few blocks away. Then next week i'll finally be able to unpack all our stuff since leaving Port Angeles 4 months ago, and i'm hoping to have it mostly set up by Thanksgiving.
Then i will be posting pictures.
Wish us luck!

Birthday Girl

2009-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was my birthday :]] I've hit a new stage in my life i think...or at least it sounds like i should be in a new one.
26
Wow. i'm on the down side of my 20's now, and that seems strange to me. I remember turning 15 and thinking how i was half way to 30.
....that feels like it wasn't very long ago....and 30 doesn't sound that old anymore.
My grandpa passed away in his 40's. When i was a little girl that sounded so old to me. i shake my head at that now.
At what age do we stop wanting to grow up and start wishing we were younger?

My birthday didn't seem like a big deal to me (it hasn't for several years really), it kind of felt like every other day. But i was good with that. Saturday the 7th we went out for dinner at Marie Callender's, and lucky us, it turned out to be Karaoke night! It was in their bar area (i didn't even know they had a bar area), and it was mostly little old couples and people that shouldn't even be trying to sing. You're jealous right? You wish you could have been there with us, i know. I can honestly say i would have felt left out if we hadn't sat close enough by to see the show. We didn't sing, but husband spent most of the meal trying to come up with songs he could get up and sing for me.
On the actual "big day" Husband was supposed to work all day, but they sent him home early (at 3:30!) because they had an extra crew in from Hawaii after the plane crash still running the base, so i only had to go to church alone. My little nursery kids sang happy birthday for me and it was SOOO cute. When husband got home we went and had dinner at a friends house. They got me a birthday pie, banana cream, not knowing i don't like bananas, but i ate some anyway because she tried so hard to do something for me and i really was grateful.
And then this week i got some present. Over all, it was a good birthday. I took complete advantage of getting everything i wanted for a few days (a glass of water once and a while, going out for ice cream after dinner one night, ect.) by saying it was for "the birthday girl" :) Husband is such a push over it worked. I love him. i'm just grateful i got to spend so much time with my best friend (husband if you hadn't guessed who i was talking about).
Now on to the next year of life. As long as i have husband, i can't wait to see what's next.

Craft/Cooking Blog...?

2009-11-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

Ok readers, i've been playing with the idea of starting a craft/cooking blog, but i don't know if it will well followed or if its even worthy of its own blog...

I love to cook and i love to make things, and i plan to be doing a lot more of that. And that's what i seem to be posting on this blog or wanting to do more of at least, so i'm thinking i'll move everything craft/cooking related over from this blog to the craft/cooking blog and keep this one about husband and i. There are holidays coming up now, so i'll be cooking more, and as soon as we get into our house later this month i'll be making some new things; a bed frame, a padded headboard, some paintings, decorating, sewing...to name a few. So i have things i will be posting along those lines. And then, the two of us will be doing a few things coming up soon.....i'm just figuring we keep this a family blog for updates on us. So...let me know what you think. Would it be easier that way?

Christmas in November

2009-11-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

A friend posted this on her Facebook page today and it was really touching to me:

Five 5 year old Noah is in his last stage of a 2 1/2 yr battle with Neuroblastoma cancer. The family is celebrating Christmas next week and Noah's wish is to get LOTS of Christmas cards.

The simplicity of this request, the whole story really, it breaks my heart and I know i'll be making a card tonight. I have this brave selfless young mans address, so i'm asking anyone that would like to make this wish come true for him PLEASE leave a comment on my page with your email address and i would be more then willing to send it to you.

Happy

2009-11-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Our news for the week:

We're moving into a real house!

We're excited and look forward to being able to unpack our things finally, and the whole living in a real house with a garage and a yard and lots of space....wow. And the decorating! ...i'm a girl, yes i like decorating :) I'm just ready for this all.

Exciting.

funny part, husband hasn't even been in the house....so glad he trusts me. haha :]

Fall Is Here

2009-11-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

By now some of you may have heard about the air collision of the Navy helicopter and the Coast Guard C-130 here of the coast of California. The plane was stationed out of Sacramento here where husband is stationed and its the same type of plane that John works with. I am thankful to say that husband was not on the downed plane, that he was home when the incident happened. He had helped the plane get ready earlier that day, and he knew some of the crew, though not very well, and he took the news kind of hard, but we are counting our blessing and our prayers are with the crew and their families.

I'm only bringing it up because i'm still receiving phone calls, texts, and emails concerning it, so i just wanted to let you all know, and we appreciate all the concern.

We've made some friends from church that live really close by that we have been spending time with. This last Saturday for Halloween we all (minus husband because he had to work [sad face]) went to Apple Hill to do some sight seeing and scenery viewing and apple farm enjoying. It was fun :) It would have been better for me if husband had come, but it didn't happen so now i know which farms to take him to next year, and i made the best of it with the friends.
I stole husband's good camera and took it up with us. It was a beautiful day and i think i got some great fun pictures, so...
ENJOY!

i PROMISE we didn't do this to the scarecrow. He was like this when we found him.

i felt so bad for this little Lamb, he was just sitting by himself looking so sad...

the tractor was tipped a little on the hill, so i felt like i was falling over the whole time, but it was too fun to resist this photo opp. terrible picture of me though...dang it.

Bread Freshness

2009-10-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

Something i learned today that i thought i would share with you all...

Want to know how fresh your bread is when you go shopping?
Each day has a different color twist tie. It goes alphabetically by color. They are…

Monday: Blue

Tuesday: Green

Thursday: Red

Friday: White

Saturday; Yellow

Based on this, if you went shopping on Friday, you would want look for a twisty- tie color that is green or red as they are the freshest. If you grab one that is yellow, that bread would be a week old since it was produced on Saturday.

You may want to write this down on a sticky note and put in with your coupons or wallet or something. I just thought this was interesting so i had to share.

A Ring of Chicken

2009-10-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to a game night/small party and made friends. I know, making friends isn't a huge deal to most of you, but being the new people in a new town and at church is hard. It takes a while to make friends for us. But slowly its happening, and last night was one of those nights that we added people to our friends list :) You make one friend and they introduce you to more friends, and then you have more and more. Yea! So we were invited to this game night and we were asked to bring a little something food wise. A snack to munch on or appetizer of some kind. I decided to bring an appetizer. The 1st two things that came into my mind were the spinach balls (click the link, i blogged about in a previous blog a while back) and a Chicken Ring. I plan on making the spinach balls for a relief society thing, so i decided the Chicken Ring would be the best choice. I have NO idea why i thought of the chicken ring because there are tons of other appetizers to make, it just jumped out of my memory.
So, you ask: what is a chicken ring?
Its magic, that's what it is.
And lucky for you, i'm going to give you the recipe at the end of this blog.
I had forgotten about this thing for years i think. I got the recipe from an old roommate that was a great cook when she took the time, and i was in love with it for a few months. Yes, i took it to everything i went to. Then i stopped making it for some reason and didn't make it again until yesterday. I can't believe i did that! I took it for the party tonight and it was a big hit.
So, use it wisely...or not. But enjoy it, and love it as much as i do and share. It is an appetizer, but husband loves it and wishes i would make it for dinner. We'll see ;)

I want to say this was a Pampered Chef recipe a while back, but i can't remember for sure. I just know that when my roommate would make it she would use the pizza baking stone to bake it, and their food chopper to chop it all up. I don't have a pizza baking stone (and my pizza pan is in a box still packed away), so i used a stone pie plate i had gotten and it turned out fine. But i'm pretty sure any type of pan you feel like using will work fine for this.
I sprinkled a little Parmesan Cheese on top of it before i cooked it. It's not a must do, i just thought it would look nice.

Chicken Ring

* 2 - Cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls - 8 count each, keep refrigerated until ready to use

* 1 - 10 or 12 oz can Chunk White Chicken, drain and shred

* 1 1/2 c red bell pepper, chopped small

* 1 - 10 oz frozen Broccoli (or Spinach - chopped thawed and drained, then squeeze out excess water) [i use broccoli though]

* 1 c mild Cheddar Cheese - grated

* 1/3 c Mayonnaise

* 1/2 t salt

* 1 - lemon - use the zest from whole lemon only

* 1 t nutmeg

- Place all of the ingredients except the Crescent Rolls in a large bowl and blend well with a spoon.

- Place the mouth of a glass in the center of the stone or pan you are baking this on.

- In an over-lapping circle place the crescent dough to fit around your glass (the shortest of the dough should be toward the center and the longest points out to the edge of the stone or pan). it will resemble a sun pattern.

- Place the meat mixture on the wide end of the circle with a large spoon. Shape and smooth the meat mixture in a continuous circle. Remove the glass.

- Pull each point over the filling and tuck under the center circle.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

- Let the ring cool. Slice for 16 servings.

ENJOY

Husband Says...

2009-10-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

...that i am not allowed to post this picture....
These are not my feet :]
I was teasing when i said i wanted to paint his toenails, but then he said i could if i had nail polish remover. I was honest and told him i don't know where it is so i won't be able to take it off, so he said no.....but then he kept saying:
"are you going to paint my toes?"
He kept bringing it up! So i did it and he let me. He held still for me the whole time. No complaints.
He won't be wearing his sandals any time soon i think ;]
i love you husband!

The Good Wife's Guide

2009-10-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

*before you get hostile with me, i was not the one to make this up! This is an article from Housekeeping Monthly.

The Good Wife's Guide

*Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favorite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

*Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

*Be a little gay (the happy kind) and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

*Clear away the clutter. make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

* Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper etc and then run a dust cloth over the tables.

*Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

*Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimise all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

*Be happy to see him.

*Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

*Listen to him. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

*Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

*Don't greet him with complaints and problems.

*Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

*Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

*Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low soothing and pleasant voice.

*Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

*A good wife knows her place.

A few years ago i had a boss show me "The Good Wife's Guide" article from a 1955 Housekeeping Monthly. I had been cleaning out all the files he had in his filing cabinets and it was stuffed in a "Funny Stuff" folder. It's a real article for the 50's housewives on how to be a good wife. It kind of cracked me up at first because the extremity of it just seemed like a joke. It's not completely out in left field, some of it is a little endearing in ways, and i'm sure the older you are the more you may agree with the article. But some of it.....wow. It's gives a whole new insight. They were expected to be like that!

Here is my rule ladies: Whatever works for you family situation is great. As long as you and your husband and family are happy, stay positive and make your home life the best you can.

*here is the real article

Amazing Meatloaf

2009-10-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Like every new wife, when husband and i got married i wanted to prove he got a good wife that knew how to do things. Keep the house clean, not screw up the laundry by not turning white things blue, and most importantly cook for him. The thing with cooking for a guy: he wants everything to taste like how his mom makes it!.... I'm not fighting that as much as i was a year ago though, thank goodness. Not that i don't love his mom, or her cooking (i love them!), but "mom's home cooking" is almost impossible to compete with for anyone.
I know how to cook. I'm not a pro by any means, but i don't back down from a challenge. Of all people, oddly i thank my dad for my cooking skills. I learned basic cooking from my my mom, but when i started high school and my parents divorced my brother and i stayed living with my dad. My dad did all the cooking then.....if that's what you want to call it. We had mass amounts of spaghetti, mac & cheese, tacos and frozen pizza. There were some frozen veggies thrown in there occasionally, but i think the only time i remember having real cooking was when my dad started dating my future step-mom. Then he was making steak and potatoes....for every meal she had with us! But they got engaged, and then married, and my step-mom (already a mom of 5) made the quality of food go up significantly. She's the perfect example of a Suzi Homemaker/Molly Mormon, and i love her for it. A health conscious cook, always makes real homemade food (and as proof of that, she didn't even know how to make ramen noodles because she never made packaged food). But, one day my dad decided that i needed to learn to cook and help out around the house a little more that way, so i was given the chore to cook for everyone at least twice a week. I wasn't allowed to make anything that was a package meal (i.e. no kraft mac & cheese or hamburger helper). It had to be homemade. So i did it, i learned how to cook food, and i thought i had learned pretty well.
But how do you compete with Moms home cooking?? When we got married, I would make things, and i always made the mistake of asking if it was ok...he always told me there was something wrong with it! "Too salty." "It doesn't need the spinach." "My mom does it a different way, you should get recipes from her", too much this not enough that a little dry blah blah blah. i don't want a food critic, i want a husband grateful that someone can cook for him. I had to stop asking how it tasted because i'm too sensitive to take all the nitpicking. It made me crazy. But i kept continuing to try to make new things every week so we could find something i made that he did like....
Then it dawned on me: my MEATLOAF!
Of all things, yes i thought of meatloaf. i make the best meatloaf in the world. i had first learned how to make it when i was living at home on one of my cooking nights. I was out of ideas of what to make, and my step-mom mentioned this Meatloaf that a friend of hers had mentioned to her, so she and i decided to give it a try. It was an instant hit in our home, so why shouldn't i try feeding it to husband?
So, I asked him if he liked meatloaf. "Sure" he said, "its nothing special to me, but i'll eat it". Ok fine, i though, but he's never had MY meatloaf. So i told him about it: Cream cheese and Spinach stuffed Meatloaf.
"Eww" he said "No, i don't like cream cheese or spinach".

I've had little kids tell me the exact same thing, but they tried it and loved it. i was frustrated with him at the time from having such a hard time finding things he would like, so the least he could do would be to try it.....so i made it anyway.
And guess what?
He LOVED it.
After that, every time i asked him what he wanted for dinner he would ask for my meatloaf :]] He didn't care if he had already ate it that week or not. He stopped nitpicking my food i made and stopped suggesting i get him moms recipes too. Yes, i will get some from her the next time i see her because i love recipes and i'm sure being a mom of 6 that she has some really great ones, but the pressure was off.
Praise the Meatloaf!

I made my amazing meatloaf the other night, so i figured i would share it with all of our readers :]

You can make this with any recipe you may already have for meatloaf, its just the cream cheese and spinach that are extra really.

Easy Meatloaf Recipe Ingredients
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
(i used lean ground turkey cuz i like to avoid red meat & it tastes the same to me)
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 8 oz. (1 pkg) cream cheese
• bag of spinach
9 x 13" glass pan
wax paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients except ketchup, cream cheese, and spinach in a large bowl, and mix well.

pull a large piece of wax paper a few inches longer then the 9x13 baking dish and flatten the meat mixture onto it to about the same size as the baking dish. Having it that size makes it easier to get a good thickness so it doesn't rip when you roll it up or bake it.
melt the cream cheese in the microwave for 20-30 sec. so that it is spreadable
spread the cream cheese over the top of the rolled out meat mixture
Place as much or as little of the baby spinach leafs on top of the cream cheese. i used to lay each leaf individually to completely cover the cheese, but then i realized it doesn't really matter. Dumping it on top and distributing it is easier and i'm pretty sure you get more spinach stuffed in there.
Roll it up! Fold one end in and keep pulling it over by the edge of the wax paper as you separating the meat mixer and paper to form a rolled up "log"
Place into middle of the pan, seam side end on the under side so it doesn't unroll while its cooking.i like to throw in baby carrots into the sides of the pan when i bake it
Bake for 1 Hour.
The last 10 or 15 minutes of baking, put ketchup on the top.

Stuffed Meatloaf! Cut it up to the portion sizes you like and serve with anything you like to eat meatloaf with. It's wonderful! It makes great meatloaf sandwiches with the leftovers too. AND Husband now actually likes spinach, so that's another plus.

ENJOY!

A Letter From The Editor

2009-10-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dear 4 readers,

I feel i should apologize to all of you. I had a goal in my head to blog at least once a week to make this blog a worthwhile read, but in all the business of my life of doing nothing, there really isn't much to talk about. Husband works, i search for houses and jobs.

At the moment I'm burned out of that though. Every time we find a house to put an offer on, we come to find out there are already 18 other offers that are going to be presented along with ours. What kind of market is this??I can't tell you how many issues i'm having with this. BLAH! Nothing worth living in stays on the market for more then a week, and everything in our price range is actually way our of our range because people are paying up the yingyang over the asking price to get their offer accepted. i'm frustrated. But, BUT, butbutbut, but, i know things are going to work out in the end. i don't know how things are supposed to work out for us, but i know i have to accept things for how they go, and what ever is best for us will work out. I'm being positive. There is something out there waiting for us. Somewhere. I think the only reason i say this with confidence is because i've been praying about this for weeks (months!) and haven't felt the impression that i should quit....so i'm counting my blessings and trying to do my best.
As far as job searching goes....i'll find something when i actually focus on that part. I'm contemplating selling Mary Kay, but i haven't decided if that's the best way to go right now...

You may or may not have noticed that i have added husband as an editor to the blog. I try to mention him at least once in every entry, but i think he's feeling a little picked on. i pick on him out of LOVE! He is my best friend in the whole world, and he makes me more happy than anyone i've ever met. It's just how we are. And i tell him before i even post a "husband says" entry, so its not like i'm making fun of him behind his back. He has all veto power in this. But, now he has the ability to say what he wants. Weather that is to tell a story, defending himself, or make fun of me too....that's up to him. I'm not sure how often he'll do this, but keep an eye out for him. He may need a little encouragement from you all (all 4 of you) before it happens though ;)

So yeah, thanks for reading. We love hearing from the few of you that do follow. I'll do my best to come up with more idea to blog about, and you should be hearing from one of us again soon.

p.s. one of us (no names mentioned) didn't like having our picture on the "followers" boxes of friends pages for some reason, so if we're missing from your box please don't take it personal, we're still following you though!

I Scare My Husband

2009-10-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

Husband has a job where he has to stay over night on duty on base every 4th night.
Dang it.
We had to do the same thing when we were in Port Angeles, we have to do it here. That's just how it is. Eventually it turned into every 8th night after he got qualified there, so that's something we have to look forward to when he gets qualified here (except that he would then have to go on deployments for a few nights....or weeks with the planes). Its a lot better now then it was when he was at school for 5 months though so i take what i can really.
It gets to be disruptive. There are usually fun things we have to miss going out to do together, but its just something we live with and work around. One of the big things it messes up for us is sleeping. Sleeping in the same bed with someone is different then sleeping alone. I prefer the 1st option, not sleeping alone. It's much better. More comfortable. Safer.
I've been having a hard time falling asleep the nights when he's not home, and a few days ago i had a particularly hard time. I couldn't do anything to fall asleep. I read my book, i read my scriptures, watched a movie and tried to just lay there with my eyes closed. i ended up not falling asleep until after 7am. It was a long night, and i still haven't figured out what it was that caused all the trouble. Husband usually gets off from work at 7:30am on weekends when he has duty, so i knew before i fell asleep that he would be home soon, i even thought about texting him to ask him to bring home breakfast, but i finally fell asleep just then.
Then i woke up screaming.
I didn't have time to think anything, i was just screaming. When i opened my eyes i looked over to see husband standing next to my side of the bed with a shocked look on his face.
"i just brought you some breakfast" he said.

".............."
"are you ok? you don't need to scream"
".....i'm sorry..... i wasn't screaming that loud"
He scoffed at me and told me i screamed at the top of my lungs, then he sort of backed out of the room slowly as i fell back to sleep.
I slept for a few hours and woke to find he had snuck into bed with me and that my breakfast was cold on the table next to me, so i warmed it up, ate it, and realized i couldn't keep my eyes open so i went back to sleep. I think we slept until after 2 that day, and got absolutely nothing done that day, but sometimes you can't beat a day of doing nothing every now and then.
He's been afraid to wake me up in the mornings since then, but i told him to do it anyway because i love that he kisses me goodbye every morning.
i don't think it will happen again, but you never know...
Poor husband. I can see how that could be a little traumatic.

SUMMER

2009-09-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

We're in that limbo part of the seasons, summer is on its way out and fall is on the way in. Its not as hot out but not cool enough to really need the fall clothes yet...at least for us California living peoples anyway. i don't know what's going on with the rest of you.
As glad as i am that it is cooling off, i've been procrastinating this particular blog entry....but i need to do it because i promised i would. This is the blog with the pictures of the end of our summer :) This is the Forks/Twilight trip, Oregon, and some from our first week or so of being in Sacramento.
So, drum roll please, here are pictures!
I know you've all read Twilight, weather you admit it or not. Its a craze, and some people are nuts about it, so before we left Washington we made a point to see the sights so we can at least say we didn't miss the opportunity.
We started in Port Angeles

Then started driving through the mountains and around the lakes

i can never get s straight face from him. he's always making funny faces when i take his picture

not the best picture of me, but he likes to tell me that he's taking the picture at the last second

FORKS! not a lot of people live there
p.s. notice the weather....overcast and rainy. perfect vampire weather.

There were groups of people taking pictures here

Bella's truck. Sweet right??
they put some lame pictures in the windows, i think it would have been better if they hadn't

This is husbands "i'm only here because my wife made me" face...

This picture speaks for itself... Where was that in the books??
i wonder if it works....

Bella's house.
I think it was the only house in town that fit the description with the windows, but there were no woods close by

They reserved a parking spot for "Dr. Cullen" in the hospital parking lot

You can read the sign.

The parking lot where Edward exposed his powers to save Bella...

The door to the Police Department....they had "Chief Swan's" uniform hanging in a display case, but i couldn't get a good picture of it.

This is supposed to be the Cullin's home....but its right in the middle of town right next to the Police Station. I think it was the only large house in town because its really a B&B.
(sorry its so blurry. i didn't realize it when i took the pic.)

There was a message on the porch for all the Twilight fans from "Esme"

After all the Twilight sight seeing we looked at a few other sights...

you can see through the middle of it. That's Husband :]

I made a new friend

We're really good friends

He had to run back to the car to get his sunglasses for this picture...

This is what the forests look like when the vampires are running at super speed

When we were driving down to California, we decided to stop for a few days in Florance Oregon where we had originally planed to go for our honeymoon. But when we moved the wedding date up there weren't any beach houses available for the dates any more. We still wanted to check it out and maybe do some of the things we had planned.

Awww. What a sweet guy.
John ♥'s Cassie

We went to the beach in the rain

The water was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G.
This is me anticipating the water about to wash over my feet...

This is when the ice water got to me....
probably one of the worst pictures of me in the world.

He likes being a photographer :]

We were supposed to go Sandboarding while we were there, but the rain had followed us down the coast and ruined the sand for us that day. We'll go again one day though

The next week after we got to Sacramento, before we even started unpacking, we went to do a little sight seeing with some of john's friends from school. We didn't have any other ideas, so we checked out the capitol building

Husband had to have a picture with Governor Schwarzenegger's bear outside his office

Husband
aka John
aka Governor Schwarzenegger's Plain Clothes Secret Body Guard...
i think the sunglasses give him away ;]

After that we got some lunch. We love Mr's Pickle's

Mr. Pickle!!

We made a new friend

One of the down sides to having the movers pack all your stuff up for you, they wrap absolutely EVERYTHING in paper.

We didn't even unpack that much either. We left most of our things in the boxes and just pulled out a few things for until we find a house.

I hope you enjoyed :]]
We're enjoying California so far. Lots of things going on, and yet nothing really note worthy. We'll keep you updated

25 Things About Me (in pictures!)

2009-09-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

i know this was going around on Facebook like a computer virus on steroids, but i decided i wanted to do it on here with pictures.

So, here are 25 random things you may or may not know about me :]

1) I hate spiders. i couldn't even look for a picture of a real spider because i hate them so much

2) my right calf is bigger then my left, so i don't wear super skinny straight leg pants because they're usually hard to get off my right leg

3) i can't wear cowboy boots because i can't get my feet in them. My mom says its because my ankles don't bend that way

4) i've moved 28 times in my 25 years of life.

5) i believe in ghosts. Yes. It's true. I've had too many experiences to deny it, and they scare me. (And all you non-believers; just because you don't believe in ghosts doesn't mean they don't believe in you...;)

6) I love old movies. Black and Whites, Disney Classics, and just about anything between the 30's to the 60's. Can we say Doris Day? Musicals? LOVE THEM.

7) I seriously wanted to be Punky Bruster when i was younger....

8) i've lived through more earthquakes then i've kept track of ranging from little tremors to an 8.6 on the scale.

9) i want a haircut again. i'm thinking something medium with *gasp* bangs....but i'm afraid

10) i hate things in my armpits. i won't wear cap sleeve t's because of this, and my G's at times seem to be on borderline of driving me insane.

11) My favorite candy is reese's PB cups in the holiday shapes. They have more peanut butter and they're amazing

12) I love cooking. I love having people come over or going to parties that i can bring things to so i have an excuse to cook.

13) i buy strawberry jam with the intent to eat it with my egg rolls, not for pb&j or toast. I use it for those too, but I keep it around for the egg rolls.

14) i have a goal to collect all the movies and cartoons i grew up on for our future kids to enjoy like i did. And i think i'm going to have them watch the Star Wars movies in the order they came out in (IV, V, VI, I, II, III)

15) i have all the baby names picked out, but i won't tell anyone what they are so they can't tell me they don't like them or steal any of them because they're so great.

16) i'm vain enough that i can't go into public without mascara...i know that's kind of vain. i'm sorry

17) i hate hanging up my clothes, but i don't have a dresser so i have to hang them or else make a pile on the floor, but if i do that then i can't get mad at john for leaving his clothes in a pile too

18) i love reading, i go through books like candy when i have time. BUT, i can't spell to save my life.

19) i aspire to be an artist among other things. I'm not as crafty as some people, or as talented as others, but i want to make things and i think i have some ideas.

20) when i think of something funny in my head, my literal thought process to myself sometimes leads to my saying "Laugh Out Loud" in my head....lame

21) i write notes to myself so i don't forget things, but i never use the notes so i forget anyway

22) i like caramel more then chocolate for my ice cream toppings. Nothing against chocolate, cuz i love it too, but if i have a choice caramel is the way to go for me

23) i could watch HGTV for hours on end, if not days, watching design shows if i were given the option.....and some times i do :] i still don't know that i could design a room on my own though...

24) i cry over the smallest things including Disney movies and OnStar commercials. Everything makes me cry. Its annoying.

25) i get vertigo from playing Guitar Hero and driving long distances where i have to pay attention to the road. Everything rushing towards me and after a while makes me feel like i'm sliding out of control.

The End

*Husband & Wife*

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

It's a {Sock} made into a {Monkey}

{Just a Dream}

My Padded Headboard!!

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.

So Many Things

Vacation Time Again

Low Carb Pizza Crust....w/ Cauliflower?

Amnesia

English Toffee

A Little Late Is Better Then Nothing At All

Husband Says...

Someone Had A Good Birthday

Busy Girl This Fall

Frame Jewelry Display

Hey There!

Best Taco Salad Ever

I Clicked There

Chicken Pasta Salad

My small Dilemma

Blog Traffic

By Aircraft?

Garage Sale Finds of the Summer

Outer Banks

i KnOw!

Come Parasailing!!

Our Idaho/Utah Trip

Yea!

My New Favorite

Hate and Love. Love and Hate.

*Lets Go Fly A Kite*

You're Speaking English

What's Going Down

Husband Says...

Aww. Its love.

Some Of Those Pictures I've Been Talking About

Yea!

For Pig Latin....

No Pictures :(

Oh no

Planning Ahead

Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

Ode To My Dear Tissues

Happy Anniversary!

I Have A Confession

I'm Neglecting You All

Angry Face

Do Not View If You Have A Weak Stomach....

Either I'm Spoiled Or Guys Are Jerks

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

How Do They Do This To People??

New House Pictures

Caramel Apple Crunch Pie

Holiday Decorating...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I Think Our Apartment is Haunted

So Many Things

Birthday Girl

Craft/Cooking Blog...?

Christmas in November

Happy

Fall Is Here

Bread Freshness

A Ring of Chicken

Husband Says...

The Good Wife's Guide

Amazing Meatloaf

A Letter From The Editor

I Scare My Husband

SUMMER

25 Things About Me (in pictures!)

Husband & Wife

Lets Go Fly A Kite