Outer Banks

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!

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!!

***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

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!

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

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.

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*

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

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

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...

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.

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

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!

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....

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 :(

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.