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11 things. Also, I steal.

2012-02-23T08:13:00.001-08:00

So I was reading Britt's Knewlywifed blog this morning and she had participated in a fun "11 things" blogger dealio. And because I have nothing else to write about today, I decided I'd steal the idea from her even though I wasn't technically invited.

Here's to crashing bloggy parties!

11 things about myself:
1. My favorite movie is The Mummy Returns. I really don't know why. It just is.
2. I love nothing more than staying home on a Saturday night with my husband, a pizza, and a movie.
3. I have tons of clothes and shoes in my closet that haven't been worn in years yet I won't give them away because "someday I might need them".
4. I'm afraid of the ocean floor when I can't see it. I think I've watched too many Shark Weeks on Discovery.
5. I will drop any and everything in an instant for a chance to go to Disneyland. Have I mentioned on this blog that I love Disneyland?
6. I wear clothes twice sometimes before washing them which explains the pile of "clean-ish clothes" that litter the floor of our bedroom.
7. I sleep on my left side.
8. I still drive with my hand on the shifter thing-y because for years I drove a stick shift and just got in the habit of doing it, even though I drive an automatic now.
9. I love Disneyland. Did I mention that? The rides, the people watching, the ridiculously expensive junk food, the general happiness of it all. Love it.
10. I can recite movies right after I've seen them for the first time. It's a weird gift I have.
11. I can type 103 wpm if I'm not too concerned about typos but really 95 wpm if I'm writing an email at work.

And now I'm going to answer the 11 questions I stole from Britt...
1. Who is your favorite person in the world? My husband.
2. If you could take an all expenses paid vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be? Europe. Is it greedy to want an all expenses paid vacation to several countries? England, France, Germany, Italy, Greece... all of it.
3. If you could have a leading role in any major movie, which movie would it be? The Devil Wears Prada. Only because I would steal Meryl Streep's, Anne Hathaway's and Emily Blunt's entire wardrobe before we wrapped.
4. What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment so far in your life? Making a baby. Still in progress obvs.
5. What show/movie are you most embarassed to admit you love? Well I already admitted that The Mummy Returns is my favorite movie but I will always stop and watch an episode of the Golden Girls.
6. What is one goal that you have for 2012? Seriously? Grow stronger in my walk with the Lord. Not seriously? Try not to gain half my body weight during this pregnancy.
7. If you were a superhero, which one would you be? Ohhh... this is tough. I would be Jean Grey from X-men. Before she goes all crazy and turns into Phoenix.
8. Name one thing that you cannot live without. FOOOOOD!!!!!
9. You're going to the beach for a day but only have room in your bag for three things. What three items do you take? Water, a towel and a book. Great, now I'm sad and miss the beach.
10. What is your best tip for living on a budget or living thrifty? See what you can go without. You'd be surprised what you have in your life that isn't a "necessity". Simplify!
11. If you could spend endless amounts of money on one thing, what would it be? CLOTHES. Shoes, accessories, purses, skirts, shirts, pants, dresses, oh wonderful clothes!

A Pinterest President's Day Weekend

2012-02-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

Things I will be doing this lovely 3-day weekend. Maybe.

Making plov. Our church is like 97% Russian/Ukrainian so when we have church events, we usually have some Russian food thrown in there. Both my husband and I have tried and LOVED plov (or is it palov?) Either way, I've been meaning to finally try making it on my own and with a little help from the ladies at church, I think I'm going to attempt it this weekend. Between this video and this recipe and a little google translator, I think I'll be in business. The only thing I'm concerned about is I distinctly remember chickpeas in the plov I've tried before and I'm wondering if it's a big deal to add them in... The guy in the vid seems to throw them in and nothing explodes so hopefully it'll be that easy for me.

Source: lola-elise.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Crocheting. I've currently got 3 different projects going on and my husband has officially cut me off from purchasing any more yarn until I start finishing the skeins I've purchased so far. I can't help it though!!! Yarn is so pretty...
Baby shower #1 for one of the 12 women in our church who is pregnant. I'm #10 or 11 in line I think... Crazy, right??
Making some homemade ice cream. This one might not happen but I really really REALLY want to try out the ice cream maker we got for Christmas and a lazy 3-day weekend seems like the perfect time to do that.

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Scouring the internet and Joann's for some material to make this skirt and this dress... they look so simple right? But first I must find material and then make friends with my sewing machine. I might have to convince one of my sisters to take a trip to the garment district in downtown L.A. where stuff is SUPER cheap. Maybe if I promise them a maxi skirt in return they'll do it for me....

Source: elleapparel.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Well those are my plans but as always, these are subject to change. Subject to whether or not I have enough energy to attempt any of these things... Have a lovely weekend and Happy President's Day!!!

Claim Jumper {Inspired} Chocolate Chip Calzone

2012-02-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day but I am a fan of February 14th because it is the anniversary of my first date with my husband. So in honor of our first date anniversary, I decided last night was a good night to make a special dessert.

Once upon a time when I was in college, I went to Claim Jumper with my roommate for a dessert night. We had the Chocolate Chip Calzone and let me tell you, it was AMAAAAAAAZING.

Picture from Google of the Chocolate Chip Calzone served at Claim Jumper

So last night I decided to recreate it for my husband. It was seriously so easy, my culinary challenged sisters could easily handle it. :)

Here's my guesstimate of what I used:

1 cup of pre-made pizza dough
1 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of marshmallows
Whipped cream
Vanilla bean ice cream

The dessert from CJ has white chocolate chips in it as well except that for some reason the only white chocolate chips I could find were like $5 for a bag so I just stuck to normal semi-sweet chocolate chips. Also you can see they drizzle chocolate syrup and powdered sugar on top but again, I'm on a budget here and we don't have time for those frivolities. But feel free to add it if you have it!

I rolled out the pizza dough to a circle, filled half with chocolate chips and marshmallows and then folded it over (just like a calzone) and pinched the edges. Baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (or until the top was golden-brown). Cut into slices and serve with whipped cream, ice cream and a few more chocolate chips sprinkled on top.

I don't have to tell you how delicious it was but I will anyway: it was DELICIOUS.

Sorry. But also not.

2012-02-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend turned out to be more fun than I expected. I got most of the things done on my list (except the exercise) and still managed to sneak in a nap (or three).

I know I said I'd try to not turn this into a pregnancy blog but it's already creeping towards "baby blog" and when you're having a baby, you'll understand. So I'm sorry. If you're not a mom, stop reading and I promise I'll have something more fun for you in 25 years or so when my child is grown up and will no longer dominate this blog.

Almost all of my conversations with my husband lately have started like this "So I was reading reviews on this stroller" or "I saw this carseat and I think after researching it's the one I want" so on a trip to Target to get some essentials, I decided to steer him past the stroller and car seat display to just check and see what they had.

Turns out my husband is pretty excited about getting a good stroller. We saw one that included a car seat that I had put in my list of top 5 so he pulled it down off of the display and then "tested" it. This involved him running up and down the aisle and turning quickly and sharply around the corners. I imagine he thinks I'll be doing some kind of army base camp training with our baby in tow but whatevs, I let him have his fun because it meant that he was showing interest in something I've been obsessing over for like a month now.

The hard thing with reviews is that there is always someone who's had a bad experience. It's very difficult to weed through the whiny people and see if there's a pattern of something breaking or being difficult or whatever. But being there with the strollers in the Target aisle really helped me get the feel of the weight and whether it really was easy to break down with one-hand (and yes, my husband required me to pretend I was holding a baby while I folded a stroller).

Oh and it took both of us pulling handles and pushing buttons and banging it on the floor to figure out how to release a car seat from it's base. We eventually figured it out though. Good thing we did it now instead of just getting frustrated and toting our child around with the base still attached to the carseat.

We might as well be wearing signs that say "THIS IS OUR FIRST CHILD. OBVIOUSLY."

At any rate, this is my list of top 5 strollers. I know you're all going to LOVE it. Especially you single ladies.

1. Baby Jogger 2011 City Mini $200: This is the one I've had my eye on from the very beginning and as strollers go, it seems to be in a good price range. I LOVE the color but it's sold out everywhere so hopefully in the next 6 months they start making it again. The cons? All the accessories are sold separately (and not cheaply) and I have yet to test one out in the store. Plus it's not a jogging stroller. HAHAHAHAHAHA.... Sorry I just imagined myself actually jogging. That's it.

2. The BOB 2011 Revolution SE $500: This one is a bit more pricey but after seeing it demonstrated in person (before I even knew I was pregnant) we were convinced that we wanted this stroller. (It helped that the dad demonstrating it was REALLY excited about it.) Even if we didn't have a baby. Conveniently within a week, I found out I was pregnant!

3. Origami Power Folding Stoller $900: This one is outrageously expensive (coming in at a whopping $900) BUT it folds by itself at the push of a button, charges your phone and itself while you are pushing it and has pathway lights on the front. Totally uneccessary (as my husband pointed out: we could just tie flashlights to the stroller) but I can still pretend like this one might be an option.

4. Signature Series by Graco Trekko 3-Wheel Travel System Stroller $300: I hadn't given this one much thought because it had so many bad reviews, but after surviving my husband's rigorous testing, I decided to throw it on the list. Plus it saves us a little bit of money by buying both stroller and carseat together.

5. Bugaboo Cameleon +$1,500: This one is also outrageously expensive but I've seen several moms strolling this around church and it seems to be pretty popular. But yeah we're not going to pay $1,500 (after you buy all the accessories) for a stroller especially since my husband says if we buy a $1,500 stroller for baby then he's going to buy his $5,000 camera that he's been wanting. (I don't know where we're getting all this money from but it's another one to pretend about)

So there you have it. Decisions, decisions. Oh wait, I forgot the one my husband wanted to buy.

Especially for Kids Umbrella Stroller: Coming in at a steep price of $20. I think I cringed a little bit when he suggested this "money saver". Partly because I knew he was joking and partly because I hoped he was joking.

Happy Friday!

2012-02-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments! We are really excited for this new little life to totally flip ours upside down! I'll do my best not to turn this into a pregnancy blog but if it happens, well, it'll only go on for another 6-7 months and then it will turn into a baby blog.

That said... I have nothing new to blog about today. In the excitement to tell my family about the baby, I forgot to take pictures of the scarves I made (insert you rolling your eyes here). Shocker? Nah not really...

Well... life is hectic. Last weekend was spent spring cleaning our apartment because it had gotten that bad. We have had something to do almost every night this week except for last night (so my husband took me on an impromptu date - which I always love). The busy-ness will continue through this weekend and let me just tell you, it's not really fun stuff. Sorting through tax papers, looking for a house/job, and trying to squeeze in cleaning and exercise.

Is it a surprise that I've gone to bed at 9 pm almost every night?

Seriously.

Wait, actually last night I went to bed at 8:20. Literally fell asleep trying to read/prepare for our High School Group discussions.

Oh, and it's not like I'm waking up at 4 in the morning or anything. I've been full on getting 9+ hours of sleep every night.

They say in your first trimester you're super tired all the time (on top of all the nausea and morning sickness that you're also supposed to experience) but I think I just assumed that no morning sickness = no pregnancy symptoms at all! Which isn't really the case.

I'm terribly sorry for the missing fun posts but to be honest, I don't consider doing 6 loads of laundry something that needs to be posted about. Unless you think it's "fun" to wash dishes, do laundry and calculate federal taxes paid in the year 2011, in which case, let me know and I'll bore you to death with my escapades in cleaning bathtubs and vaccuuming floors. (I never really know how to spell vaccuum.)

But you know what I'm thankful for? My husband. He really is the very best husband in the whole wide world and he really does make it more fun for me to have to do all these non-fun things. Like promising me a dinner date for all the *ahem* hard work I'm doing growing this baby. He really is the best.

Even when I force him to go to Disneyland with me.

Smaller versions of adults

2012-02-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Can I just tell you guys how awkward it is to say that you're pregnant? The words just don't seem to flow out of my mouth very well. And all of the alternatives seem way too cheesy. "We're expecting a little bundle of joy!" or "I've got a bun in the oven if ya know what I mean!" just seems like something a terrible actress on a terrible movie with a terrible script might say.

Let me rewind a bit... we've known since New Year's Eve but because we had already planned to see my family at the end of January, we decided to wait and tell them in person which meant waiting to tell everyone since we wanted our families to know first.

Keeping a secret that big for a month is REALLY difficult. I almost blew it a few times. But we managed to keep it (mostly) a secret and the night before we flew to LA to tell my fam, we told Brian's family.
My mom screamed and totally disregarded the scarf that I had made and wrapped up with the ultrasound pic. I think she was a little more excited about the grandkid than the scarf. My older sister didn't get it even though the pic was on my parent's refrigerator and then even after looking at it for a few minutes FINALLY went "Ohhhhh..." and then hugged me and cried. My little sister screamed and then demanded to know why I didn't tell her right after I found out. (I told you she's been asking and asking and asking and asking me if I'm pregnant yet...) Oh and my dad started planning the treehouse he's going to build for his not-so-imaginary grandkid who probably won't even be able to use it for awhile.

Telling them was so much fun and SUCH a relief. So NOW I finally get to tell you guys... it's harder than you think when you write a blog that's just your thoughts and all your thoughts happen to be about a little baby growing in your belly and you're not allowed to share those thoughts. Suddenly it's much more difficult to write blog posts so forgive me.

So far (all moms: prepare to hate me):

no morning sickness, vomiting or nausea. I know! I've heard horror stories and even my NP says it's very rare to not have any of those with a first pregnancy but here I am enjoying every bit of this pregnancy so far!
I haven't gained any weight but none of my pants fit (evidently your uterus doubles in size so it turns out it wasn't all that junk I ate over Christmas) so I bet you can guess what I did...
I bought a bunch of maternity clothes from Old Navy! And... I'm sending 3/4 of it back. Those pictures are very deceiving and I was extremely disappointed with how everything fit (seems way too huge now but it looks like in a few months it wouldn't even fit over a bulging belly).
I'm 11.5 weeks. I thought when we went to our doctor's appointment 2 weeks ago that she was going to say 6-7 weeks but turns out I'm farther along than I thought.
We saw the baby move. It was weird.
We heard it's heartbeat. It was fast.
We are REALLY trusting the Lord for a lot of things including this baby's health and salvation, a job for my husband and hopefully even a house. But God knows exactly what we need and He's taken very good care of us this far so no reason to doubt Him now!
I have yet to take any belly pics or Week ## pics but maybe I'll get around to that in a few months when I actually start to show. We all know how good I am at remembering to take pictures... :) Right now it just looks like I ate too much food. Cute, right?
My parents are already spoiling this grandchild by offering to buy it any and everything it needs (which will come in handy when we are needing a $500 stroller).
I've fainted nearly several times looking at the prices for baby stuff. Seriously. They are making a KILLING off of baby gear.
I've registered for this diaper bag that I thought was a purse that turned out to be a diaper bag and now I have an excuse to own it.
Source: amazon.com via Stephanie on Pinterest
I'm finally starting to pin baby things on Pinterest. (Or repin the things that I had to disguise under other things but were really baby things...)
I still can't really believe that someone is growing inside me. Weird.

Surprise!

2012-01-31T19:57:00.000-08:00

So the word is finally out...

I'm pregnant. More on that tomorrow... :)

On our way

2012-01-28T10:05:00.001-08:00

So I did manage to make it to work yesterday in case you were all on the edge of your seats waiting to know. However, last night my body kept thinking it was Tuesday?!?! Weird.

Anyway we're off to LA today and I'm so excited to see family and Mickey and sunny weather!!! Have a great weekend!!!

A cruel inner clock

2012-01-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

"Yaayyyy!!! It's finally Friday!!! I've been waiting for this day forEVER.

Wait.

Hold on.

Why does my phone say Thursday?

My brain says Friday.

So it must be Friday, right?

No?

WAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

This was the sad conversation I had with myself on my way to work today. (Yes, I even did a fake sob out loud.)

I have been so off this week. My inner clock told me it was Thursday yesterday but obvs it wasn't so this morning I woke up thinking/feeling like it was Friday. Why, brain? Why would you do that to me?

Hopefully tomorrow I don't think it's Saturday and decide to not show up for work.

By the way, this popped up on the Google searches that led to my blog. I bet they were sadly disappointed.

"Bears attacking a gladiator"

EPIC FAIL

2012-01-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

So, as promised, here is the "Pioneer Woman let me down in the worst way" post.

The setting: 2 nights before Christmas in our apartment (which at this point had reached a level of stuff strewn everywhere that makes me cringe to think about - presents, wrapping, bags, suitcases waiting to be packed, baking supplies, etc.)

The characters: a very sick me (when you're coughing and sneezing everywhere, that's usually the perfect time to make some homemade goodies that you're going to give away) and my faithful sidekick hubby

The plan: make some caramel apples (via PW), sugar cookies (via PW) and chocolate covered pretzel sticks

The promised results:

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Because we were planning on giving these away, I followed both of her recipes to a T. Even the lemon peel in the sugar cookies.

The result: Let me just begin with the apples. Everything seemed to be going fine until about an hour after we had made them when my husband decided to try one of the extra apples.

It was rock hard. As in pounding it on the table sounded like an anvil was going to splinter our poor little Ikea table. He tried biting into it, barely left teeth marks. He tried microwaving it - nothing. Those apples looked exactly like the ones in the picture; however, she failed to mention that you have to eat them immediately because they will soon become nothing more than paperweights.

We were informed later that a few were edible but for the most part: EPIC FAIL.

The sugar cookies. To be fair, I hate sugar cookies. They're boring and bland to me and they're just not something I love. But after The Sugar Cookie Disaster of 2010, I had to try them again just to prove I could actually make sugar cookies.

They were flavorless and her cook time was way too long (unless they're supposed to be crispy and hard). My husband said they tasted like lemon cookies. I KNEW the lemon peel was a weird ingredient but I trusted PW and added it and the result was disastrous.

I've decided sugar cookies aren't my thing and I'm just going to stick to Chocolate Chip Cookies because I know and love those.

Lastly, the pretzel sticks. I didn't have a recipe for these - I just planned on winging it. And guess what? These turned out perfectly. They were ridiculously easy to make and it was so fun that each one could be decorated differently. I learned from my brother-in-law's mother to use a fork when drizzling chocolate and they actually looked like professional! Of course at this point we had rock-hard, caramel apples and tasteless, crispy sugar cookies AND it was 11 at night, so of course we were much too exhausted to take pictures. But nevertheless, they were a success and I was told that they were very much enjoyed by the recipients.

So there you have it... I am wary of trusting PW and next time I will follow my gut which says "don't put lemon peel in cookies".

Imaginary World of DIY

2012-01-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

In my head, I have tons of time to do things. In real life? Well, life gets in the way. I've pinned about a bazillion things that someday I want to do. I'll just have to wait until I'm like a stay at home mom and all I do is sit around and eat bon-bons all day.

Right?

I mean, babies and kids take care of themselves, don't they? I figure they're like dogs. Just set out some food and water in a bowl once in awhile and hose them down every few weeks and you're good to go.

I kid, I kid.

I'd hose them down at least every few days.

At any rate, maybe someday in the not-so-near future I will get around to doing at least one of these projects... (And please know that I'm kidding about the kids. Although if taking care of my garden is any indication of the kind of mother I'll be... then yes, you should be worried. Send help and bon-bon's immediately.)

This purse just seems so easy. Buy some leather. Sew it into a giant pocket with a zipper and stick some studs in there to defend yourself in case someone tries to take it. So simple, right?

Source: thefreckledhusky.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

These might take me a little longer to make but I'm fairly certain I could reproduce something similar in a few hours... Plus the studs. Adorb.

Source: etsy.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

I just realized I may or may not be obsessed with studs these days. But how cool does this look???

Source: etsy.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

The other day I thought about doing these because they're just so simple. I asked my husband if he had some washers. He said yes, what did I need them for? I said "I'm going to make bracelets". He said "Then no, I don't have any."

He can be such a kill-joy sometimes.

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

This is the most complicated, most intimidating pin I've ever pinned and I can see hours of tears and frustration just waiting for me but someday... someday I might attempt it...

Source: wkdesigner.wordpress.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Well there you have it. All the things that are on my bucket list to complete before I hit the old age of 30. That's only 2.5 years away... can I accomplish that? Maybe I should extend my deadline to 40. Although that's like ancient... Hahaha... I joke Mom! (She's going to be 60 this year and she looks fabulous!!!)

Can you tell me how to get.... to Sesame Street?

2012-01-23T19:27:00.000-08:00

Today is brought to you by the number 1 and the letter S.

1 is the number of times I've been to the gym in the past 2 weeks.

1 is also the number of Oreo milkshakes my husband brought to me on Sunday afternoon (which incidentally is a nice way to wake up from a nap).

1 is the number of crocheting projects I've actually finished.

1 is also the number of crocheting projects I've thrown across the room in frustration. (Curse those patterns!)

1 is the number of packages I'm awaiting in the mail. And guess what? It's clothes. Ssshhhhh... don't tell anyone.

S stands for Stephanie. (That's me.)

S is for Silly times I have with my husband that make me so thankful for him.

S is for Steaks of which I've had several in the past week.

S is for Scale which I've avoided until this morning and then it hurt my feelings so now I'm mad at it.

S is for Somebody tell me it's Friday already.

Did I ever tell you guys I learned how to tie my shoes from watching Sesame Street? True story. That Ernie really knows what he's doing when it comes to laces.

Happy Rainy Friday

2012-01-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

Today I got to pull out my rainboots for the first time this year. Every skier or snowboarder in Nor Cal will tell you that this is some much needed weather. Apparently Tahoe hasn't been without snow this late in the season for like a hundred years or something exaggerated like that.

Not that I care because I've had my bout with snowboarding and let's just say, it's not worth it. The cold butt, the chapped face, the sore muscles... I'll be the one curled up next to the fire with a good book and some hot chocolate, thanks.

Which reminds me... does anyone want to buy a Burton snowboard? Lovingly used for 1 year and then gathered dust for 4 years. I'd include the bindings but I broke those (from all my mad boarding skiillllzzzz).

Today is finally Friday and one more week is going to drag by before we get to make a very highly anticipated trip to LA. This weekend we will be doing absolutely nothing, which is what we've been doing the past few weekends and it's been glorious.

Wait.

I take that back.

I will be crocheting for LIFE (and picking up some more yarn for a few more scarf projects from Joann's). However, crocheting is fun and it's best to do it when you're snuggled on the couch under a blanket watching a movie. Having a bowl of cookie dough nearby helps too.

It's going to be a wonderful weekend. :)

Living Room Inspirations

2012-01-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned that we're looking for a house. I'm already having visions of how I want to decorate and things I plan on doing so I started with the easiest room - the living room.

We already have a gray microfiber couch that we got for free on Craigslist. (Yes, you read that right and I'll have to tell you that story another time.) We also have the white/burlap lamps that I made here and white baskets that I made here and it should be no problem to whip up a few cushion covers in some neutral colors. I want the room to be very neutral and relaxed. I'd love to tell you where I got all these images except that I can't remember. Except for the paint one, I stole that from House*Tweaking's Paint Post.

So what do you guys think?

Sweet Potato Casserole

2012-01-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

This is kind of part of the Thanksgiving Turkey post from yesterday but also not. I have a sweet potato casserole recipe that is really more like a dessert but it is OH so yummy.

Sweet Potato Mixture
3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter

Crust Mixture
1 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of flour
1 cup of chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
1/3 stick of butter, melted

Directions:
Combine the crust mixture in a bowl and set aside. Combine sweet potato mixture in a bowl in the order listed. Pour sweet potato mixture into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the surface evenly with the crust mixture and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy.

This is how it looks BEFORE it's baked. After it's baked, it disappears too quickly for my
camera to capture. I think my husband may be the culprit since this is his favorite dish ever.

Thanksgiving in January

2012-01-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

Ahh... so here we are halfway through January and I'm finally going to write my turkey post. That's totally normal right? Well I had already mentioned I was going to follow PW's Turkey Brining and Turkey Roasting recipes. I had found a decent FRESH (this was really stressed by PW) 13 lb turkey during our Thanksgiving food shopping trip which incidently didn't cost me a dime thanks to my job and some coupons.

So on Thanksgiving Day (since we were actually having our Thanksgiving dinner on the day after Thanksgiving) I started on the turkey brine. It took about an hour to mix up and it ended up looking just like hers so we were off to a good start.

Then her next step was to cool the brine. Just like that. So simple, right? Nope. It took FOUR HOURS for the brine to get down to room temperature. First I stuck it in the freezer and all the steam promptly began to melt everything that was in there. Clearly we don't have an industrial grade freezer but apparently Ree does. So I decided to put it outside on the porch since it was a chilly 42 degrees outside. I kept the lid on so nothing would get in like a bug or a leaf. Those were not in the recipe. Well leaves were but probably not the kind that might fall in there. After TWO HOURS of sitting outside, the pot was still hot to the touch. So I transferred it to a different pot and 2 hours later, the brine was finally cool enough.

At this point, I was beginning to have my reservations about Ree.

Luckily, I had started everything a bit early so there was still plenty of time for the turkey to brine for 16 hours. I didn't use a brining bag because we had regular roasting bags leftover from last year and guess what? It's the exact same thing. It's like buying a Ziploc sandwich baggy versus buying the cheaper ones that just fold over on the top.

So the turkey was in the fridge and the brine was working it's magic.

Friday morning rolled around and I began the roasting process. The thing that worried me was that Ree didn't have a total time on there of how long it would take. She just said "baste every 30 minutes until it reaches this temperature". I'm paraphrasing there. I guesstimated that it would take 4 hours for the 13 lb turkey and it ended up taking almost 5. Once again, helpful time limits would've been good but I suppose I can't slight Ree for forgetting that little detail...

Freshly stuffed and ready for the oven

I was nervous about removing the foil and letting the turkey just roast all bare and naked in the oven because I've heard that can really dry out the top layer of meat, but I trusted PW and her brine and her instructions so I did as the recipe said and removed the foil.

Oh, I also stuffed the turkey and I think that's why the time was so funky also but to me stuffing HAS to go in the turkey and soak up all the good juices and it's just so yummy that way. In fact, now I want some. How much longer until Thanksgiving?

About halfway through the cooking time

Basting the turkey with butter. LOTS of butter.

Well, I won't bore you with what I did in those 5 hours but it did include my infamous cheesy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry and biscuits, all the while pulling the huge turkey out of the oven and basting it with melted butter every 30 minutes.

Side note: I bought 2 boxes of butter and ran out after I had finished all my Turkey Day cooking. Ree must buy it by the bucket loads if she cooks like that all the time.

I had already made my {also} infamous Cherry Oreo Cheesecake the day before and I was so very glad that dessert was one less thing to cook. Plus cheesecake is ALWAYS better if you let it refrigerate overnight.

She says to roast the turkey until the internal temperature reads 170 degrees. We actually pulled it out after 5 hours when it still read 155 and I think that was perfect. It was thoroughly cooked with no pink spots and the breast of the turkey would've gotten too dry, in my opinion, if we had let it get to 170.

When the turkey finally did come out of the oven, it was lovely. It was in fact very juicy and I could definitely taste the difference between a plain turkey and a brined one. It was a hit with everyone and we all lived happily ever after.

Side note: I also did tackle the gravy but I did not follow her recipe because at this point I was hungry and ready to eat food and didn't want to spend 45 minutes following her steps. I just started with the juices in the bottom of the pan and added flour and the leftover water from boiling the insides of the turkey alternately until it was a good thickish watery gravy and that turned out to be a hit too! With avid gravy lovers, I might add.

Well there you have it. I will probably brine again next year and I might even do PW's recipe again but I'll probably prepare the brine much earlier so it has time to cool and I'll probably start the turkey earlier knowing now that it takes a long time to cook. But all in all it was a success and this time, Ree did not let me down.

Next, Christmas post! I must warn you that this does not have a happy ending. Or pictures. Oops. Also, I warn you that I use the word "next" very loosely here. I mean it took 3 months to get a Thanksgiving post up... Let's not have exceedingly high expectations, mm'kay?

My So-Called Life

2012-01-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

Things I forgot at home today:

my current crocheting project (another scarf - I'll share deets on the one I already made later this week).
paperwork for the guy who's going to help us get pre-approved for a house loan.
my brain.
my heart. Actually my husband took that with him to work this morning. *Insert "awww..." or "ewww" depending on your relationship status.* Sorry for having the best husband EVER!!!

Things we are currently up to on this end of the world:

finding a closer-to-home job (this one is for my husband and it's proving to be tough but we're just praying and trusting the Lord!)
finding a house to live in. Preferably a dumpy one where I won't feel bad ripping everything out and starting with a fresh clean slate. Also, preferably one where the nearest neighbor isn't literally an arms reach from any window. Also, preferably one where there is original wood flooring but ok I realize this one is a bit much to ask for. I'll settle for wood laminate (a.k.a. the fake stuff).
planning another trip to LA to see family (we just can't get enough of those guys). Also, my little sister has threatened to disown me if I don't bring her the scarf I made for her. As a Christmas gift. Okay, she hasn't threatened, but she has definitely been persistent in asking me how it's coming along. The good news is that I finally finished it yesterday and I decided to wear it to church and I got many compliments and even 2 requests to have their own handmade scarf by yours truly! I told them I'd have the scarves ready by July. So let's add "crocheting for life" to this list. And yes, I'm allowed to wear this scarf before giving it to my sister because she's my sis and she's not gonna be using it for 2 weeks. Plus it's my arthritic hands that crocheted it! (I'd be the worst Etsy Shop Owner ever...)
High School Ministry. Lots of planning. Does anyone have fun games for High School kids? I seem to remember having lots of fun playing games in High School group but I can't seem to remember what the games were. I suppose that's not too bad considering it was a decade ago.
no internet. Much like the man who's dream we are celebrating today, I too have a dream. That one day we will have unencumbered internet service and that Pinterest would be unblocked from work. Sadly, I don't think my dream is as noble as MLK Jr.'s but I hope it's not unattainable.
laundry. Seriously. Never. Ending. Laundry.
the gym. Today will be my first day back after a month off. After 2 weeks of being sick, I had no excuse to not go so I've really got to kick my butt back into gear because we all know summer (and shorts) are just around the corner.

Joey: Geez Ross, how much do you weigh!?!?!
Ross: I'd prefer not to answer that right now, I'm still carrying a little holiday weight.

football. I have to admit I was pouting yesterday because the Packers lost. (My husband even refused to watch the last five minutes of the game.) To be honest, the only reason I like Aaron Rogers and Clay Matthews is because they're funny and they make funny commercials. Which is also why I like Allstate. Mayhem is my favorite commercial guy.
blogging. Finally. It's good to be back. :)

Thankful.

2012-01-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

Well I had plans to get back into blogging but then this week happened. Just after my last post, I was informed that my boss had passed away. She was 44 years old so it was by no means expected and it's been a rough week trying to pick up the pieces and keep working.

Everyone kept asking if I was okay, and I really was for the first few days. I was kind of on auto-pilot and just making sure things got done at work (especially after being gone for so long) that I don't think I really let it sink in. It just felt like she was on vacation and she'd be back.

Yesterday morning, my cold came back with a vengeance so I left work early and on my way home, the reality of it finally hit me and I just lost it. I think I scared Brian because I called him and all he could hear was me sobbing before I managed to choke out an "I'm okay".

Just so you guys know, crying for 30 minutes when you have a cold does not help anything except maybe the snot-producing factory in your sinuses.

In addition to that, our apartment was a bigger mess than I thought and it took longer to crawl out from under the laundry pile than I had imagined. Plus our modem gave out again and I'm just so exasperated with Motorola, I'm not even going to try to deal with it. (Fortunately, my husband is all over that problem.)

All that to say that today I am going to steal a note from Mrs. Britt and just be thankful. I'm thankful for my salvation and that God chose me to be His. I'm thankful that He gives me grace daily and in abundance. I'm thankful that He has given me His Word to comfort, guide and strengthen my heart. I'm thankful that He blessed me with such a wonderful man to be my husband who gets to hold and comfort me when I'm crying, and my nose is running out of control and my face looks like a punching bag. (He's a lucky guy, that one.)

And I'm thankful for you guys! :)

Have a great weekend!

Guess who's back

2012-01-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

Oh my weeeeerrrrrrddd you guys I'm finally back!!!

It's so weird to be blogging again. Can you believe its been like a month since my last real post that wasn't like "internet is stupid and my life is over"?

In that time, we've seen the holidays come and go and now tomorrow I'll go back to work after having 11 days off.

It's been crazy. To say the least...

Let me just start with the fact that this was probably one of the worst Christmas's I've ever had physically and bloggically. After the whole internet debacle, I decided the week before Christmas that I would tackle all the homemade gifts I needed to make.

I have to say with extreme sadness that Pioneer Woman let me down in the worst way this holiday season. But I'll save all that for another post.

Oh and then 2 days before I was supposed to have 11 blissful work-free days, I got a sore throat. Which was followed by body aches and stuffiness and coughing and sneezing.

In other words I was hit in the face with a virus known as nasopharyngitis. You might know it by it's other name: the common cold.

Monica: Phoebe! You gave me your cold!
Phoebe: You mean you STOLE it!!!

So for the first week of my vacation, I spent it lying on the couch, breathing through my mouth and talking weird and feeling dizzy and sick and blah blah blah. It was awful.

We still managed to trek down to LA which was probably a bad idea considering how sick I was and I spent almost every day doing nothing because I felt like poo but it was good to see my family and hang out for a bit.

And then when we came back, guess what? My husband caught whatever I had and I managed to contract a stomach flu so we spent the next few days trying to keep our dying bodies alive. Not that I'm like being dramatic or anything...

So that's what's been happening in my life. I'll try to catch up on gifts and food and Christmas happenings over the next few days but first I need to clean our apartment because it looks like a bunch of homeless people have been using it as a refuge for the End Days.

Be back when I climb out from under the mountain of dirty clothes!

Desperation

2011-12-14T10:34:00.000-08:00

So Motorola said they would send us a new modem "within 5-7 business days of receiving the defective modem".

Well, today is Day 5.

Now Motorola just sent an email that it will be here on Friday. Day 7.

So really they should just say 7 business days and not give us hope that we might have a connection with the real world as soon as today. Because really, the real world will still be disconnected until Friday.

In the meantime, I'm procrastinating wrapping Christmas presents, procrastinating making Christmas presents and procrastinating baking and decorating. Yes, Christmas is in 10 days and I have yet to put up a single snowflake or bake a single cookie and all of the presents are sitting in an unwrapped pile on our living room floor.

To be fair, we're not going to be here for Christmas so it's hard to get motivated to decorate.

Oh and in case you're wondering, I got so desperate to blog that I typed up this post in an email and sent it to myself from work, opened it on my phone, copied and pasted the whole thing into my Blogger app and voila! A post was born.

I will not be doing that again.

So now I'm anxious for Friday. I mean I'm anxious for Friday but even more so because I'll have real life blogging capabilities again!

Hopefully you're surviving by eating lots of Christmas candy. That's how I'm coping.

A not so uppity update

2011-12-05T08:01:00.001-08:00

I am amazed that for so long I managed without internet and now when we don't have it at home it seems almost impossible to get it anywhere. Thanks to the bitter IT guy at work, all interesting sites are blocked for some reason or another and according to Motorola, our modem has taken its' last breath and we now need to send it to the modem burial ground in Ohio.

I'd love to say I will blog on my phone but it's like writing a really, really long text message and after like 22 seconds, my thumbs start cramping and my hands ache like I've got arthritis (which, let's face it, after working in an office for 90 years, I probably do have arthritis). So unless I decide to swing by a Starbucks, this blog will be back up and running in 5-7 business days.

Please don't leave me.

Technical Difficulties

2011-11-30T07:40:00.001-08:00

Just thought I'd pop in to tell you our internet is still not working... Hopefully it'll be back soon and I'll have some stories and pictures for you but in the meantime, just read this post over and over.

A giveaway

2011-11-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

So I think that only friends and family commented out of pity but the lucky winner of the wreath of her choice is #3 Marie Tromburg!

Sorry it took so long to post. We're having technical difficulties with our Internet and the best we get from Comcast is "restart your modem", which my husband has tried 38 times. That means I'm blogging from my phone and it's... interesting.

To top it off, I discovered these google searches that led people to my blog. A little disheartening, I must say.

me in rubber gloves spider
blog I squashed the spider with my flip flop
the mummy mouth open
mexican flour

I'm guessing the spider ones were from this post but I really have no idea how google decided that my blog would be a good answer to "mexican flour".

Most people would quit after an unsuccessful giveaway attempt and google searches like that but not me! I'm going to keep on writing even if it's just for you, my 20 faithful followers! :)

"I love you guys with all my butt. I would say heart, but my butt is bigger." - Pinterest

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

A giveaway reminder

2011-11-23T07:13:00.001-08:00

So far there have been 5 comments on the giveaway... Sure it's not the 140,000 comments that PW usually has on her giveaways but then again, I'm not giving away a $2,000 gift so that might be why.

But look at the bright side! That means that every one of you who entered has a 20% chance of winning! That's a lot better than 1/140,000 chance of winning which is like so small of a number that my calculator shows a little "e" at the end which means something but I can't remember.

So go ahead and visit my Etsy shop and pick any wreath that you like and it could be yours! I would say one comment per person but at this point, I don't think it really matters... So leave as many comments as you want telling me which one you like and increase your chances of winning. Also, that would feed my ego so double points for you!

Thanks for fashion inspiration

2011-11-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

Since I'll be cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal on Friday, that means I will be running around in sweatpants and an old dirty shirt with my hair in a bun on top of my head because I tend to use my clothes as towels when I cook. Usually I'd wear my apron but after several washes a week (from me using it as a towel) it's starting to look rather forlorn.

In any case, after the turkey is roasting and the potatoes are mashed and the biscuits are baked, I will have to put together a semi decent looking outfit to play my part as hostess of the night.

Lately, I've been obsessed with sweater dresses but here's the problem: I can't wear it without sweating like I'm in the middle of running a marathon so I'm just going to live vicariously through any one else who does that and stick to my jeans with layers. Oh my gosh. I just realized that's probably why they call it a SWEATer. Huh. Never thought about that...

And okay, I know furry boots can seem kind of ridiculous but paired with the fair isle print, it just screams ski lodge and makes me get all excited for this winter-y weather we'll soon be experiencing.

Last resort. I mean, a giveaway!

2011-11-21T07:12:00.001-08:00

I never do giveaways on my blog. Well, never before. Mostly because I'm broke and this blog is merely a way to put my thoughts out there in the cyber world and I don't make any money off of it whatsoever. (Unless you count the $0.03 that Ad Sense tells me I've made. I've yet to see the check.) That means that giveaways would have to come out of my pocket and I can tell you there is nothing in there but pieces of lint.

After 4 months of having my wreaths on Etsy and not selling a single-single one (said like the guy on 101 Dalmations when he's telling Cruella she can't have any... "not a single-single one!"), I decided to lower the price from what the rest of the wreaths were selling at to a half decent price.

And still no one wants them.

So I'm literally going to try to give them away.

That's where you guys come in!

I'm having my first ever giveaway! I'll be giving away one wreath because it's Thanksgiving, because I've reached 20 followers and because I can't sell them so my options are to let them continue to collect dust in my apartment or to give one away to my lovely readers. This is sounding like you guys are a last resort. Truth is, I didn't think anyone would want these and I got the idea from a friend at church yesterday.

All you have to do is visit my Etsy shop and leave a comment on this post telling me which wreath you like best and just for kicks and giggles, tell me what your plans are for Thanksgiving.

I'll find some random number generator and pick the lucky winner on Wednesday. Or I'll close my eyes and eeny-meeny-miney-moe it.

If by Wednesday at noon PST I have no comments on this post then... I will be sad and depressed and probably throw them in the dumpster or start chucking them at people as I drive down the street. Or maybe I'll give them to all my family members and get the "Awww... You really shouldn't have. Really."

Fashion Inspirations

2011-11-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

I added a new page at the top where you can scroll through all of my Polyvore sets! Enjoy...

Styling a family photo shoot

2011-11-16T21:46:00.001-08:00

What a week... I can't believe it's already Thursday! This time next week it will be Thanksgiving! Are you kidding me??? This is flying by way too quickly...

A few days ago my very pregnant ex-roommate emailed me for a favor. She's planning a newborn/family photo shoot in January and asked if I could come up with some outfit options for her. I really really REALLY wish that I had a closet full of stuff and could be their personal photo shoot stylist but time, money and distance will not permit so she will have to make do with my Polyvore creations.

Since they're taking pictures in January (and probably outside) I thought I'd go for several wintery looks with chunky scarves. And then in the last set I changed my mind when I saw the chunky necklace, but we'll get there.

And of course, I gave several options of scarves - Sarah, I do not intend for you to wear 2-3 scarves at once.

It will be Sarah, her husband and her precious baby boy so I decided to get a little carried away and styled all three. I had so much fun putting these outfits together that I really wish I could do this for like a living. Not for crazy fashion magazines but for like real people. I'd have to charge like $500 a set though to make any real money so that probably won't happen... *Sigh... Enjoy!

Insight 51 long sleeve shirt, $50H m cardigan Old Navy skinny jeans, $30Old Navy lace trim camisole, $8Forever21 rubber boots, $35BCBG Max Azria square earrings, $13Abercrombie Fitch genuine leather belt, $48Floral scarve, $32Brixton knitted shawl, $31Old Navy fringed shawl, $13Old Navy Mens New Dark Authentic Straight-Fit Jeans, $30Gap Knitwaist Straight Jeans (Dark Wash), $35Gap Shearling Trapper Hat, $20Gap Cozy Knit Booties, $17Gap Thermal Bodysuit, $15Gap Baby White Triple Roll Socks, $3

Banana republic sweater, $60Old Navy top Old navy skinny jeans, $30Forever21 flat boots, $35H M metal necklace, £7.99H&M earrings, £3.99H M bracelet, £3.99Forever21 metal earrings, $3.80H M bracelet, £1.49H M braided jewelry, £1.99Cheap Monday scarve, £30Wet Seal knitted shawl, $11Old Navy Mens New Dark Authentic Straight-Fit Jeans, $30Gap Knitwaist Straight Jeans (Dark Wash), $35Gap Shearling Buckle Booties, $23Old Navy Fair Isle Trapper Hat & Mitten Sets For Baby, $17Gap Thermal Bodysuit, $15Gap Baby White Triple Roll Socks, $3

Old Navy printed top, $23Old Navy zipper jeans, $30Forever21 knee high platform boots, $35Old Navy knotted bead necklace, $6.99Forever21 lacquer jewelry, $9.80Forever21 hoop earrings, $1.50Acrylic scarve, €34Old Navy fringe scarve, $15Old Navy Men's Western Shirts, $35Old Navy Mens New Dark Authentic Straight-Fit Jeans, $30Gap Knitwaist Straight Jeans (Dark Wash), $35Gap Cozy Knit Booties, $17Gap Fleece Hat & Mittens, $17Gap Thermal Bodysuit, $15Gap Baby White Triple Roll Socks, $3

Thanksgiving

2011-11-14T07:21:00.001-08:00

Now that my birthday week is over, I'm thinking about the next holiday on the list: Thanksgiving! I'm definitely one of those people who thinks we should take it one holiday at a time, although that does not mean that I have not played Christmas music at my desk since August. Please ignore the double negatives. I type as I think.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is already upon us... only 10 days! 10 days until the one day a year that we can look at everything that God has blessed us with and devote a whole day to giving thanks. It's easy to get lost in the food and the fun but it's cool to think that this whole thing started because the Pilgrims wanted to recognize that God had blessed them with so much and then there were Indians there too. Okay, so I don't remember the whole story but the last time I heard it was like 2nd grade and all I can think about is The Addams Family Values when Wednesday sets fire to the pilgrims for taking the Indians' land. Not quite historically accurate.

We will be doing 2 turkey dinners this year: one with Brian's family on Thursday and then one with both mine and Brian's family on Friday. Don't ask why we're doing double days. It's a long and complicated story. The Friday dinner will be made completely by yours truly and I have already tasked my husband with the job of photographer so I don't have to worry about washing my hands after every step to take a picture and then have you guys hate me when I post my recipes with pictures of a pile of dirty dishes because that's all I remembered to take.

Here's the thing - this whole "cooking the entire meal" is not new for me. Growing up, my dad always did the turkey. Everyone else brought a little of whatever they were supposed to but he always did the turkey. A few years back, I started helping him. Then about 4 years ago, he just retired. He let me take over the whole thing. He still does the gravy because I dislike gravy and ~~have~~ had no intentions of ever learning how to make it (keep reading, I'll eat my words in a few minutes).

Fast forward to last year, my family drove up to Nor Cal to visit for Thankgiving and I decided to do the turkey dinner just like old times. Except there was no one else bringing all the other sides so I added the mashed potatoes, stuffing (which is part of doing the turkey), cranberry, biscuits, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole and 2 cheesecake desserts to my task of making the turkey.

Phew.

This year... will be different. *dun dun DUUUUNNNN (that's supposed to be like the scary music sound)

I've turned to trusty PW and I will be BRINING the turkey for the first time ever in my life this year. Scary, right? I'm trusting her with the MAIN COURSE. I mean if the turkey is ruined, then Thanksgiving without turkey is like.... well, something bad.

That is why I will only be trusting her with the bird this year. I'm still doing all the other sides that I mentioned, the same way I did them last year. I'm not brave enough to do a whole PW inspired Thanksgiving meal. Mostly because I like the stuffing out of the box since we all know that's the yummiest way.

Turkey Brining from Pioneer Woman

Roasted Turkey from Pioneer Woman

Also this year... I will be attempting her gravy recipe. Insert words into mouth.

Turkey Gravy from Pioneer Woman

It's just that everyone likes gravy (except me) and I will have all the ingredients and it would really just be sheer stubborness and laziness if I don't make it so I'm going to bite the bullet and do it.

Plus that means I get to buy myself a cool flat whisk since I'll "need" it for the gravy.

Sidenote: I enter giveaways every once in awhile and I've never won. Never ever. This past weekend PW had a giveaway for some really cool turkey tools and I will be honest with you, I totally pouted this morning when I didn't win. Sooo.... does anyone want to send me an All Clad turkey roasting pan? Or some Wusthof carving knives?

No?

Anyone there?

Hello?

Random things

2011-11-11T07:37:00.001-08:00

This week has been crazy busy!!!

I decided to take a few random pictures yesterday of what's going on in my life and I stumbled across some pictures my husband took in Tahoe...

That's where he gets to work. No big deal. Sheesh.

Birthday presents! I am now the owner of not one, but two pairs of TOMS. And I LOVE them already...

Another birthday present to me - a new Bible! The pages are all stuck together and I'm used to my old one where I knew exactly where everything was but I just have to break this one in. And hopefully it lasts awhile...

The growing pile of wood, pallets and plywood. (Please note the dead garden in the background.
Evidently our plants did NOT like our week long trip to Maui.)

In a fit of wanting to do something creative that wouldn't take long, I added twine to the bottles that I had painted here.

I took these with my phone so sorry they're kinda small and weird looking but whatev.

Birthday flowers. Not from my husband because he knows better than to
spend $20 on flowers when he can buy me $20 worth of clothes.

The fire that happened right behind our apartment complex. I took this with my phone to show my husband how close I was to death and then headed off to the gym without a worry about our place burning down. Call it blissful ignorance.

And this is how I look at 7 in the morning when I'm blogging. I figured you guys
don't get to see my lovely face very often and this was the best way to do that.

Happy Friday!!!

.

2011-11-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday.

The weekend

2011-11-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

Well I don't really have to tell you guys that my weekend was tons and tons of fun but I will anyway. Disneyland was cold and rainy and in other words: perfect. I was all bundled up and cozy in my nice new warm sweater and due to the cold and rainy-ness, the lines were short and there were opportunities for hot tea and yummy sweets around every corner. We had oh so much fun and I can hardly wait to go back. Yeah. I'm that obsessed people. I managed to control my excitement and I didn't hug and kiss the person who let us in at the gate but I did fall down and kiss the ground and wept for joy when we walked in.

Okay, I didn't. But I thought about it. I did do a fake sob of joy.

I had to wait to steal pictures from my sister's Facebook because she's the only one who remembered a camera...

On the tram... My husband can hardly contain his excitement

Birthday girls

Sisters

Christmas card picture

Just because we're weird

OH. AND I found a $20 bill outside the park when we re-entered after dinner in Downtown Disney. No one was around so I did what any self-respecting 26 year old who is at the Happiest Place on Earth would do.

I kept it.

And spent it.

It was a short weekend together of course but it was still so much fun! I had my fill of all the wonderful greasy foods I could handle. Saturday, I stuffed my face with more sushi than I should've. The weather was cold and rainy but I kinda sorta love that weather because it means warm hats and cute scarves and thick cozy boots and basically all things fall fashionable.

The great thing is that even though it was such a short time to hang out with my family, I'll be seeing them in a few weeks because they're coming up to Nor Cal for Thanksgiving! I'm planning on making a whole big Thanksgiving meal on Friday after Thanksgiving using several recipes from PW of course so we'll see how that goes... I'm a little nervous to try her turkey brine because I've never brined a turkey before but I trust her with my life and evidently also with a major holiday meal.

Husbands and fashion... DO mix. Sorta.

2011-11-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

First I have to point out that my older sister did not just hang up on our family conference call. She hung on for a few minutes and then said goodbye so she could get some rest before going off to work... I realized after I posted that maybe she sounded like a meanie but she's sick and she CANNOT be sick for our Disneyland trip tomorrow so we needed her to be in tip-top shape.

Anyway, a few days ago, I bought that grey sweater from Old Navy that I featured on Monday.

It did end up being on sale and you bet your bottom dollar that I'll be heading back in a few weeks to get some more money back from Old Navy. (Did you know that if you purchase something and then the price goes even further down, you can go back to the store with your receipt and they'll refund you the difference? Yes. Old Navy will be paying me to wear that sweater. Basically.)

Last night I was modeling several outfits, trying to decide what I would wear to Disneyland. I put on the sweater that I already love so much and this is what my husband said when I walked out of the bedroom to twirl around in it and get his approval:

"You look like Clint Eastwood from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

After seeing that, I must say Clint looks quite ravishing. In fact, his poncho is definitely in style these days. So I took it as a compliment.

Then my husband decided that he wanted to know what makes things fashionable. I said he wouldn't understand. He said "try me". I said "I wouldn't even be able to explain 5 different fashion rules without you getting bored and deciding you don't care that much."

He said "Tell me 3 then."

So he sat there while I explained the rule of not letting things stop at your waist if you have big hips (like me) {meaning it must be lower than your waist or high waisted}, the rule of mixing chunky with thin (like not wearing chunky sweaters with sweatpants and calling it a day - not that I ever do that...) and the rule of colors for my skin tone (which is really just a rule for myself).

This morning when I got dressed, he said "Oh I see how you wear a long tank top so that you don't cut off your waist and accentuate your hips. But I like your hips."

He actually learned something about fashion, you guys. I mean he remembered exactly what I was talking about and applied it. And in a round-about way, showed me his love in his own way. And he likes my Big Bertha hips. Success!

He's really just the best husband ever.

Just thought I'd brag for a bit.

By the way I'M GOING TO L.A. TODAY!!!! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I'll probably cry when I see my sisters. I'll also probably cry when I get on the tram to get to Disneyland. I'll also probably kiss and hug the person working the turnstyle at Disneyland. And then I'll full-body tackle Mickey, when I see him. And then I'll overeat too much sushi on Saturday night and get sick. Sounds like a fun weekend, right??

Birthdays and baby sisters

2011-11-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She had an older sister and she was the baby of the family. Life was good. Her parents loved her and spoiled her and she was the favorite.

Then one day... one dark and stormy day in November... all of that was ripped away from her. There was a new baby in the house. And not only did she steal the title of "baby of the family", she did it a week before the little girl's birthday.

The little girl was furious (I think - I can't remember). Well as furious as a 3-year-old can get. But as this new baby got older, it turned out she was a pretty good playmate so the little girl's anger subsided. And as the new baby got even older, the little girl decided that having 2 sisters was probably the best thing she ever could've asked for so she decided to accept her roll as "the middle child" and live out her days happily ever after.

I love my sisters so very much. It's really like having built-in best friends.

You can fight and scream and kick at each other one minute, and then be BFF's the next.

At Disneyland of course.

My baby sister really is the baby of the family. She's spoiled, for sure.

We pretended to snowboard one day. We were the cutest ones out there.
But yeah, probably the only ones riding our butts the whole way down.

She was allowed to wear make-up years before we were allowed to. She had a later curfew in high school. She's always good for honest fashion advice. Brutally honest even...

At Disneyland again.

She's one of the godliest people I know who has a commitment to the truth and living like Christ. She is super lovable and used to force hugs on me all the time and now I kind of miss them.

My wedding day

She will dance ANYTIME she hears music. She is probably a little deaf and a true blonde even if these pictures say differently. She has an infectious laugh and a really good singing voice.

At Disneyland again.

She LOVES her family and anything Disney. She also loves to "borrow" things from me and then keep/lose them but she'll replace it. Eventually.

Disneyland. Again. Are you seeing a trend here?

She calls me so that we have hour long conversations about nothing. She keeps pestering me to have babies. She loves her Starbucks and her Tommy's. If you don't know Tommy's, that's because you don't live in the Greater LA area. Oh Tommy's and your greasy chili, how I miss you so...

At Disneyland. I wasn't trying to get a picture of the guy behind my sister,
but turns out this is the best picture I've ever taken.

I was on the phone with my mom this morning and we decided to conference call "the baby" in. Then we conferenced in my dad. And my older sister (who was still asleep). Hilarity ensued. We tried singing "Happy Birthday" twice but somehow were never quite altogether on the timing. My mom talked about "redneck indians" and my dad corrected her that it was "redskins" and then she insisted that if their skin was red then their necks would be red too. My older sister hung up on us because we woke her up and she was sick, so we'll excuse that. My dad talked about how excited he is to go to Disneyland in the rain (yes, it's supposed to rain) on Friday. My mom suggested he buy a hat with an umbrella attached. And my sister and I listened and laughed along.

Happy Birthday to the best baby sister anyone could ask for! I love you lots and can't wait to celebrate our birthday's together at.... DISNEYLAND!!!

Oh Blogger

2011-10-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

This has officially weirded me out. I decided to check my stats page to see what links are being followed to my page. I found myself on Pinterest which was kind of cool but then I saw this under the Google search:

black puma attacking aggresive

What?

And yes they spelled aggressive wrong.

The worst Monday ever?

2011-10-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got several things going against me today.

I have a birthday gift card to Old Navy that is literally (ok, not literally) burning a whole in my pocket. It must be spent. IMMEDIATELY. Unfortunately I have to wait until tonight after I get off work. (It was given to me yesterday. My husband had to physically restrain me from immediately sprinting to Old Navy to spend it.)

Secondly, guess what!!! Guess what guess what guess what!!!!!!

My husband and I are going to LA this weekend. AUUUUGGGHHHHHH!!!! {Insert super excited kind of crazy scary smiley face here}

I'm so so so SO SO SO excited to see my family. See, my precious baby sister was born exactly one week before me (3 years after me) and from that day on, I've never had a birthday to myself. (My older sister shares a birthday celebration with Jesus so it's like a family thing.) I don't think I ever really cared because we usually got our own presents and it was easier to have the family do one celebration. As we get older, we still celebrate together the weekend that falls between our birthdays.

By going to Disneyland.

I'm not kidding guys, ever since like age 20, I've gone to Disneyland for my birthday every year. I have the "It's my birthday!" buttons to prove it.

And this year will be no different.

YAAAYYYYY!!!!

So NOW can you see why this week will be the most dreadfully long week of my life?

True to form, I am already planning an outfit. It's supposed to be cold so I think sweater, boots and a scarf will be the way to go.

I really do own boots that look kind of like those ones shown below. Once upon a time I was at Ross looking for black boots and I found a pair of Nine West black boots for $29 which was like the best day ever.

Well, the best shopping day.

Okay, not the best shopping day because I think the best shopping day was when I went shopping with Jen last year and blew my $150 savings in one shot but came away with 3 beloved cardigans that I still wear to this day. In fact, I'm wearing one today.

I also came away with cognac knee high boots for $9 from Old Navy. That is not a typo people. $9. There was no price on the boots so I asked the cashier how much they were and her response was "Does $9 sound good to you?" Honey, not only does that sound good but I think my heart just stopped.

That was the best shopping day ever.

I know those jeans look like mom-jeans but they are not. They're skinnies from Old Navy. Or maybe they are mom-jeans and I'm in denial.

I felt like going really monochramatic mostly because I love that sweater. Please note it's from Old Navy so if all goes according to plan, I will be the owner of that sweater by 6pm tonight. I'm hoping that it's not really $54 because if it is, my plan will be foiled. Seriously Old Navy? You're killing me here.

I threw that wristlet in there because taking a huge purse to Disneyland is a drag and I know deep down in the world of fashion being completely monochramatic is also a drag.

I'm also into stud earrings these days. Not sure why but those just called out to me. "The gold calls to us..." Name that movie!

As if that wasn't enough to make this week forever long, we're also having sushi for dinner on Saturday.

Let's just recap:

LA trip to see my family
Shopping at Old Navy (for free since gift cards are like free money)
Disneyland
Sushi

These are all ingredients for a very, very good recipe.

Random things of course

2011-10-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

It is Friday and once again I'm looking forward to the weekend with a full 8 hour day ahead of me which = incredibly slow time just barely creeping by. Why is that? Why does the weekend seem to fly by but the work day is so incredibly mind-numbingly slow? It's a cruel joke on those of us who work Monday through Friday. "It is cruel! Truly cruel!" I won't even bother asking you to name that movie because you haven't seen it nearly as many times as I have so I'll just tell you it's Emma.

What a funky week it's been. I was trying desperately to be creative with the frame collage and I was unhappy with the results. I missed the gym 3 times because of other things that I had to do and now my butt is just really sore from the one time I did go and the instructor made us do squats and lunges until I toppled over taking the barbell with me.

Okay I didn't really topple. But walking out to my car was scary because I thought for sure my legs would just give out and I'd have to drag my body to the car by doing an army crawl. By the grace of God, not only did my legs carry me to my car but they managed to work the gas and brake pedals all the way home too. Success!

Now my butt hurts so good every time I sit down. And I mean good because I have hopes of fitting into my jeans once more without this grotesque muffin top I've been dealing with for oh... 10 years.

Seriously. Senior year of high school body - where are you? Why have you left me? Was it all the late night runs to Starbucks and Panda Express during college that drove you away? I'm sorry. I've given up both in hopes that you'll come back to me, but you appear to be holding a grudge. Jerk.

This weekend I will be:

having bowling night with our High School group. Humiliate myself in front of pre-pubescent teenagers? Yes please!
sleeping.

The end.

I kid. But seriously I feel like the past 2 days have been rough with just a few hours of restless sleep and I'm way in debt in my sleep account.

Ohhhhhhhh yeah. I almost forgot to tell you guys. There is one more thing we will be doing this weekend. One perk of my husband building a house: he brings home leftovers.

Yep. Our apartment is overflowing with pallets, chunks of wood, particle board and windows. Yes, windows. I'm not sure what he's planning on doing with those but he's artsy fartsy and I'll let him have his cake and eat it too. After all, our bedroom is overflowing with my clothing so I guess I owe him.

I don't actually know if we'll get around to making these chunks of wood into something since he has a men's meeting for church and I plan on being comatose the whole weekend, but we'll see what happens.

Have a lovely weekend!

Creepy Crawly Things

2011-10-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Since the cold weather has been slowly creeping into Nor Cal, the spiders around our apartment have descended and are moving right in. Now as you might remember from this post, I don't enjoy critters as roommates and even less when they are creepy crawly ones. So now I will share with you my cringe-worthy spider stories.

WARNING: SCARY IMAGES AND FEELINGS OF THINGS CRAWLING ON YOU MAY OCCUR.

Story #1
{Setting: my husband has brought his big bag of tools in from his truck to make room for something else and this bag of tools is sitting in the middle of our living room/dining room. Also, he is out of town for work so I'm home alone. Convenient.}
I was walking past the big bag of tools (which is too heavy for me to move onto the porch) when I see a BLACK WIDOW crawl over one of the tools and drop into the bag. I froze. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN YOU SEE A SPIDER DISAPPEARS SOMEWHERE?!?!?!? I panicked because there's no way I'd be able to fall asleep without wondering if that spider stayed there or if it decided to come out and terrorize me. So I did what any sane girl who's home alone with a spider would do. Put on my rubber cleaning gloves, grabbed a hammer and proceeded to hook the hammer into the tools, one by one to remove them from the bag. When I had finally dumped out the whole bag, the spider was nowhere to be found. So I turned the bag upside down and banged it with the hammer which apparently confused the spider because it came scurrying out and then I smashed it with the hammer.

Then I took a video of it and sent it to my husband. He was so proud.

Also, in case you're wondering, I vacuumed up the remains because I wasn't about to touch the dead spider even with rubber gloves and a napkin.

Story #2
{Setting: enjoying a lazy Saturday night watching a movie with my hubs after a full dinner}
Me: "AUUUGHHHHH A SPIDER!!! A SPIDER!!!" (It's crawling on the floor making a mad dash for our couch)
B: So kill it.
Me: NO!!! THAT'S WHY I HAVE YOU!!! YOU KILL IT!!!!
B: You're holding a napkin in your hand. Come on, you're a big girl.
Me: (Screaming over and over as I put my hand down with the napkin to squash the spider and then screaming some more, I left the napkin on the floor covering it.)
B: Well. Confirm the kill.
Me: (Pouting now that my husband has traumatized me) No. I don't want to.
B: Come on...
Me: No. You do it.
B: (Husband lifts the napkin to find THE SPIDER IS MISSING.)
Me: *Starts whimpering
B: See. That's why you have to confirm the kill right away.
Me: (Spends the rest of the night pouting with my feet up on the couch and later tries to convince her husband to move the whole sofa and pull out cushions to find the spider but to no avail.)

Story #2
{Setting: immediately after story #1, we have now gone to bed and I'm lying there wide awake when...}
Me: (Sits up spastically swatting my arm and runs to turn the light on.)
B: What?!? What's wrong?!?!
Me: I felt something crawling on my arm. It was that spider from earlier. It's coming back to have vengeance on me for squashing it. I can't fall asleep.
(We proceed to pull back the comforter and sheets to find nothing.)
B: Okay I don't think the spider is after you with a personal vengeance.
Me: YOU DON'T KNOW THAT. (Proceeds to lie awake for several hours in mortal fear and then have dreams that spiders were crawling all over me and I couldn't move because they had paralyzed me. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I HAVE TO KILL A SPIDER AND IT DOESN'T DIE.)

Story #3
{Setting: Leaving the house this morning at 6:30 a.m}
I walked out and as I turn to lock the door, a spider that appears to have made a web on the door frame is dangling inches from my face. I scream and instinctively swat at the web with my purse so the spider drops to the floor where I smash it with my shoe and cringed a little bit because I was wearing flip flops and it could've stuck to the bottom of my shoe and managed to stay alive and then crawl on my foot while I was driving and don't think for one second that all this didn't flash through my brain as I watched it crawl away. But the strong desire to never see that spider alive again came over me and I smashed it with my flip-flopped foot. Like really good. I confirmed the kill just in time to see a bigger blacker spider crawl under the door step. Yay.

All that to say, I'm moving to Alaska. I hear they don't have spiders there.

P.S. Have you noticed that spiders are never small? They're always huge and ugly and probably venemous.

Collage Project

2011-10-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm revealing this project because it's been months but I'm not sure I'm done with it yet... I'm gonna mull it over a few more days. I think it needs a bit more... oomph. Don't you think?

Also, sorry about some of the bad pics. I took some late at night in our ~~cave~~ apartment and some were taken during the day outside. Natural light is way better than artificial always.

Also, I've taken pictures of these on the floor because I'm not hanging them in our apartment, this was a project for a friend.

*Sigh... I'm just not entirely happy with it yet but we'll see what happens...

Cost of frames from Goodwill: $9
Spray paint: $3
Total project cost: $12 and some time

Jobs and Work and Stuff

2011-10-24T20:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting at home tonight wondering what it would be like to work from home. I secretly want to be a personal shopper for people but no one wants to pay hundreds of dollars for someone else to do their shopping. But let's think about this. I love to shop. I happen to love dressing people. My resume would say that I have about 12 years experience of doing this with my Barbies. I love to put outfits together and accessorize. And I don't just love doing this for myself (although that is lots and lots of fun of course). I have actually done this for my sister and my old roommate. It was fun! I loved it! And I've always wondered how I could do that for a living. (I think I charged them a meal from Tommy's... which is like $7. If I lived off of Tommy's I'd weigh 3,000 lbs and be homeless.)

Here's what spurred me on: my husband has been thinking about doing something that he loves. I am totally supportive and excited and scared but we've been praying and we're going to trust the Lord to take care of us no matter what (since He's been doing that for oh... 26 years and He's never failed me once).

But then I got jealous. I want to have the job that I love. I want to look forward to going to work everyday. I want to get paid to do something fun and interesting.

Does that sound like a complaint to you? Because it is. So here's the question: where's the line with being happy and content with how abundantly the Lord has blessed you and not settling for second best with your life choices?

I'm not sure I know... in the meantime, I will gladly do my work that God has blessed me with because I know He has me there for a reason and a season but I'll still wistfully dream about dressing people up. Like the closet scene in Clueless. Except I'm the computer and the world is my closet. Or something like that.

"Lucy, you know I don't speak Mexican!"
"I not a Mexican!"
"What was that about?"
"Lucy's from El Salvador. It's like a whole other country. You get mad if someone thinks you live below Sunset."

And here's a little sneak peek/teaser of the frame project in it's final stages...

A very merry un-birthday but almost birthday

2011-10-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year. No, not Christmas because we still have 3 holidays before then.

Halloween, my birthday and Thanksgiving. Duh.

My birthday is usally celebrated by the nation, in case you didn't know. It happens to fall on November 9th which is right around Veterans Day and the world takes a day off of work for me. And the Veterans. But minor details.

I decided to make a birthday list of things I would buy myself if my husband said "Here's $1,000 and you HAVE to spend it on yourself for your birthday right before I take you to Disneyland for a few days." (Please note that I would never willingly spend $1,000 on myself or these things because that's an insane amount of money to spend on something that isn't a car but a girl can drool and dream, right?) {Also note that I am probably not going to Disneyland for a few days but a little teeny tiny part of me hopes...}

Toms. This is probably the most affordable thing on my list and I'm fairly certain I'll actually get these from a certain family member who has a few pairs herself. Plus you help a kid in need so like she said "it would be like a crime not to buy a pair".

Source: toms.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Here's where we get expensive. A few years ago my parents bought me a silver watch from Guess that I LOVED. Well... truth be told, they bought me a watch that I thought I would love except it turned out to be too small so I returned it for a giant chunky watch that I loved. A few months ago, the battery died and it's not like replacing batteries in a toy car so it's sitting in my jewelry box waiting to be fixed and loved again. So either a) fix my old watch or b) buy me this one:

Source: michaelkors.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

An iPad. I realize this is like a giant iPhone (which I already have) but Steve Jobs died so I have to buy one. (By the way, someone explain to Pinterest that the pictures need to be bigger and not blurrier when you enlarge them. Just saying.)

Source: apple.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

I love a big bag. I love being able to carry everything I need and maybe it's something like a security blanket to me. I can take on the world with a big bag. I feel comfortable and prepared for anything like a zombie attack.

Source: amazon.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

So what if this is actually a diaper bag. Maybe I want a little pocket to carry my own bottle (for water of course) and some little zippy bags for stuff like tampons and bobby pins. No one has to know it's a diaper bag. Except you guys of course... don't tell anyone.

These socks. The yellow and black ones haunt me. I still can't bring myself to pay $24 for a pair of socks but maybe someone in this world wants me to own them and will send them to me because they love me so.

Source: sahalie.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Endorphins are crack

2011-10-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

There are some things that inevitably happen on my way home from the gym all hopped up on endorphins. A certain song like Gloria Estefan's "Conga" or the Bee Gees "Staying Alive" comes on and I find myself, more than once, bouncing along in my seat and dancing as much as I can while working the steering wheel and gas pedal. Sometimes that just means rocking back and forth while spastically shaking my shoulders. It's fun. Then I start to think crazy things like "Does anyone know what the guy is saying before the chorus before he says 'Staying alive, staying alive'?" I usually just mumble and say things like "Na na na na na na na na na na na staying alive, staying alive... I don't think anyone really knows. Except Mr. Bee. Or Mr. Gee.

Sickness

2011-10-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

I have a sickness. These are the symptoms:

I can't leave a Target or Old Navy without some article of clothing when it's less than $5.
I can't buy things that are not earth tone colors or stripes.
I can't resist a 75% off sale.
I can't let my savings grow past $25 before spending it.
I can't get rid of things in my closet that I never wear to make room for things I actually wear.
I keep buying striped tops thinking that I have no striped tops.

What is that sickness? Anyone? Is there a cure?

Well, if there is, I'm not so sure I want it.

I walked away from Old Navy last night (after surviving the gym - yay!) with 5 things that cost me just $30 total. A few sweaters, a few striped tops and I was back to $0 balance in my personal savings. But 75% off!!!!!! How could anyone resist a shirt that was previously $17 marked down to $4??? I'd like to see you try to resist that. My husband mentioned that he wouldn't have to get me a birthday present since I've bought all the things I need and then some.

I said he could still take me to Disneyland.

I'll let you know what the verdict is on that one.

Tragedy strikes.

2011-10-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

I had the most tragic, horrific, awful, no good, very bad day on Friday that actually turned out to not be so bad.

The internet and the phones weren't working at work. That means I could hardly do work and I couldn't do any of my procrastination!!!

It was a most tragic day.

This tragic day resulted in me having to leave work early though. So that was a nice little perk. Early start to a weekend is always a total plus in my book.

Also, we had some meeting so I also got sushi for lunch on Friday. So it was like the most horrific tragic day and also the best day at the same time. I don't really know how that works so don't ask me to explain.

But the most tragic part is that I had such a hilarious story for you guys and I couldn't tell it right away. Well, hilarious to me.

I decided when I got home on Thursday that I would try this little workout I found on Pinterest:

20 squats
30 lunges
40 toe-touches
50 second wall sit
100 jumping jacks
50 second wall sit
40 toe-touches
30 lunges
20 squats

Seems simple enough, right?

Wrong, people.

Well, wrong for me.

I got to the 100 jumping jacks part (that's right, halfway) and I was dying. I mean dying. Like seeing spots and feeling dizzy kind of dying.

And then guess what? I was extremely, excrutiatingly sore the rest of the weekend. To the point that getting in and out of the car was difficult.

The rest of the weekend we got the normal errands stuff done like going to the bank and buying groceries and boring lame stuff like that. BUT we also got to celebrate a friend's birthday on Saturday night with a big Russian family and that was TONS of fun. They're basically like a big Mexican family except they call their grandma "babushka" and they serve things like beef and potatoes.

We Mexicans ALWAYS have frijoles and carne asada. That's how we roll.

Anyway, Sunday was a blur of church, football, church and it was mostly blurry because as soon as we got home from morning church I basically slept until night church even though I had things to do.

Evidently I was tired. Or lazy... Or still suffering from ripped and torn muscles.

After catching up on ALL of my work, I am back on the internet but no longer procrastinating - merely taking up time until I get off work.

And then....

I'm going to the gym.

I cringe just thinking about it.

Words and things

2011-10-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is just a glimpse into some daily, weird, strange and funny conversations that I find myself in.

{Setting: my husband is texting me about installing a roof in the pouring rain}
B: Yeah the rain is fun. I'm scampering around on the roof with a nail gun nailing wood near the edge. I wouldn't mind dying of carpooltunnel in a cubicle right now. Yes, I said carpooltunnel.
Me: Oh be careful... And you can die of carpal tunnel silly.
B: I know that's what I said...?
Me: Hahaha... you're so dilly.
Me: Which is like silly.
Me: With a dill whole.
B: Maybe you meant "can't" die?
Me: Oh. Hahaha I didn't even notice...

{Setting: my baby sister has just cancelled her cable to save money}
V: It's 8:40 and I'm almost ready for bed. Is this how Amish people live?
Me: Ayy V* you exaggerate...
V: I feel like I should save electricity too and walk around with candles...
Me: And take a horse and buggy to work to save gas?
V: No. At least then I could use my bike.
V: Although a horse and buggy would be less work for me.
Me: Yeah but then you'd have to feed the horse...
V: In that case I'll just ride my bike... and rope a wagon to it in case I need to transfer stuff.
Me: HAHAHAHAHA.... and don't forget your helmet and you'll need a horn to let people know they have to get out of the way.
V: I already have a loud bell. I don't have a helmet. I'll just rubber band a plastic bowl to my head.

{Setting: I've called my mom while she's walking the dogs (Rocky and Zoey) in the morning}
Me: So yeah... we were talking about Thanksgi-
M: ROCKY!!! Let her poop!!!
M: Sorry mija... what?
Me: You guys maybe driving up for Thanksgiving?
{Insert our conversation about Thanksgiving}
M: Hi Coco! Did you miss us?!?! (That's my mom saying hi to the neighbor dogs...)

{Setting: Friend is texting me from her job of watching 1st graders during their lunch time}
B: So this little first grader that has a crush on me saved me his dessert from his lunch. I'm such a fatty! I took it.
Me: B* you took a 1st graders dessert snack???
B: He saved it for me. But yeah. I'm that pathetic.
Me: Well still. Why are you seducing 1st graders into giving you their desserts??
B: Yeah. I'm a fatty. I felt that I had to admit that to someone.
Me: Join the club. I'm like the president of the fatties.
B: It was SO good though.
Me: Yeah you definitely are a fatty.
(You can read her account of the story here)

{Setting: a chat with my older sister}
S: funny story:
Me: do tell.
S: so c* and I applied for life ins. and they came to take a small medical exam to make sure we qualify
S: only he had to try to get blood twice, second time he lost the vein and was digging around and he took half of what he needed and I started to get dizzy
we went outside and he gave me a cup of water to drink, I hadn't eaten any food for 11 hours and I lost the function of my motor skills
I missed my mouth with the cup of water
I could barely see, I was breathing like I was in labor. its a horrible feeling. we have to re-schedule, he needs more blood
Me: that's not funny at all!!!! are you ok???
S: well its funny now
Me: well ok... then haha

File under "Things I loathe"

2011-10-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Can I just vent here for a minute? (Like there's really any other purpose to this blog sometimes but whatev.)

I really, really dislike going to the dentist. I mean I would fake my own death just to avoid it. In fact, I did avoid it. For 6 years. Then 2 years ago I finally decided I should use that health insurance I was paying for every month and go.

Well 6 years avoiding the dentist gets you 5 cavities, weak gums and a visit every 3 months for the next 2 years.

At least that's what it got me.

It's like the dentist knows that I hate going so they're making me go as much as they possibly can. To be fair, it's not the cleanings I hate - although the high pitched screeching metal banging around in my mouth and scraping my teeth is really uncomfortable. It's the cavity filling I despise. And no matter how adamantly I floss, I still manage to have at least 1 or 2 cavities because of my stupid weak gums.

Well all that to say that I was REALLY REALLY dreading having to go to the dentist yesterday. I finally dragged my feet there and 25 minutes later, I was done with the cleaning and NO CAVITIES TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE AT ALL!!!!

Of course they did still worry and fret over my super weak gums that are probably going to give out on me in like a year and then all my teeth will fall out and then I will die because I can't eat steak or pizza again.

Not that I'm like thinking worst case scenario or anything.

And okay, that's not what they said. They recommended a deep cleaning with laser treatment next summer that will literally cost me my arm so I'm deciding which one I want to sell. I think I'll go with the left since I'm right-handed but then I wouldn't be able to type. Maybe I can get one of those microphone dictating programs.

Rainy days

2011-10-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was pouring rain all day. Today it's going to be 80 degrees and sunny. Saying California weather is moody is an understatement but that's why I love it here.

Because of the rain, I came to work with a total lack of desire to do any actual work. Well, let's be honest. The rain can't be blamed because I come to work with that desire almost every day and it's a fight in my soul to not be a lazy bum with a horrible work ethic. Anyway, my day was spent doing the least amount of work possible, browsing Pinterest, reading blogs, browsing Pinterest and browsing Pinterest.

I had aspirations of being productive last night but after plopping on the sofa and doing some reading and studying for a few hours, I decided to watch Tangled and totally got sucked in. I thought it would be a good background movie since I've never seen it and I'd have to pull the "don't you love me??" card to get my husband to watch it with me. I decided to spare him the torture and watch it on the night that he's gone. I totally cried at the end. I won't spoil it for you guys but it's a tear jerker. Anyway, I was totally engrossed with the movie and there is nothing crafty that got done except for the evil hag's craftiness to get Rapunzel back. Ok, ok I won't spoil it for you guys.

I also cried watching this video on Saturday. Twice. My husband was so confused why she was crying and then looked at me and was completely dumbfounded to find me crying also. Please don't ask me to explain. All I can say is Disneyland is the best and I'm quitting work and moving to live there with Mickey. Now to just get my husband to jump on this bandwagon...

Browsing Pinterest has several effects on me:

I want to forget savings and blow every single paycheck on an entire new wardrobe.
I want to exercise.
Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? I will never WANT to exercise. I WANT to have the fit, in shape, can run several miles if her life depended on it body without the work.
I want to quit my job and do something fun like browse Pinterest for a living.
I want to cook things and make crafty holiday stuff for Christmas that will have no good effect on my body weight or budget.
I want to forget savings and blow every single paycheck on an entire new wardrobe.

I'm fairly certain that none of these are particularly good things to be effected with so I think I might have to quit the Pinterest.

Starting Monday.

No.

Starting January 1st.

No.

Umm... never mind. I'm not strong enough.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2011-10-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Once the chilly weather hits, I have a sudden strong urge to a) not work b) build a fireplace in our apartment and c) make soups.

One of those urges was satisfied this week.

I turned to my trusty PW Cooks website and found a recipe for chicken tortilla soup which is basically "chicken chili" according to my husband. Here's what I did/did not do (since we've established that I'm not an excellent recipe follower):

I quadrupled the amount of chicken she puts in because we love meats in our house and 2 chicken breasts did not seem like a sufficient ratio of chicken:soup.
I did not use cumin but a combination of garlic powder, chili powder and taco seasoning (which had cumin in it).
I used water instead of chicken broth because water is free.
I forgot about the corn meal step because I was hungry.
I did not add onions or cilantro as garnish because we ain't that fancy.
I did splurge and get a $0.89 avocado to garnish with because I love avocadoes.

It was ABSOLUTELY yummy and perfect for a cold winter-y night a.k.a. 60 degrees. Just wait until it gets down into the 40's. I'm a So Cal girl born and bred so that's like freezing to me. Anyway, the hubs totally approved because he loves chicken and chili so it was like a meal come true for him.

Click here to see Pioneer Woman's recipe and try it for yourself!

I love me some soup with my sour cream.

It's that time of year

2011-10-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Not Christmas. Although I am already playing my Charlie Brown Christmas sountrack. Time to love on Old Navy. Just so you guys know, Old Navy doesn't pay me to love them (maybe they should). I just love them because they work with my budget and they have simple classic pieces that can be dressed up or bedazzled with jewelry.

Since we've been hit with instant winter weather, which for Nor Cal means cold with rain, I'm obsessed with all things sweater and coats. One thing I dislike? Having to wait until a) my savings is built up enough to buy more things and b) all the "new arrivals" go on sale. But I can drool on my keyboard just the same...

These socks aren't from Old Navy but I saw them on Pinterest and I just love. $24 for a pair though. That part I don't love. Not one little bit.

A little glimpse of life

2011-10-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's what I came home to yesterday:

How pretty are my kitchen towels? See how my eyes move right past the mess onto the prettiness?

Crusted stack of dishes and flour on our sink. By the way, that's one of those wide serving forks... not some trick of the eye.

A still dripping crusty mixer from the 50's with a bag of flour behind it
that I've yet to put into the glass container we have for it.

The dried bowl of banana bread batter because I was too lazy to rinse it out.

Now do you see what I'm dealing with on a daily basis? I decided last night to not be the lazy, awful, procrastinating wife that I normally am and cleaned this kitchen, studied for my women's bible study on Saturday and did laundry!

Somebody give me a sticker. Or at least a pat on the back.

.....for doing what I'm supposed to be doing...?

Cases in point

2011-10-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

My baby sister text'd me that after reading my post on feeling stupid, she finally got what our sister's husband twin brother meant. Point proven. We had a good laugh. Naturally.
I burned the top of my mouth yesterday because I bit into my slice of pizza before it had sufficiently cooled off. This is what my friend Jen likes to call "a fat girl moment". You know, where you're so hungry and ready to eat food that you just warmed up that you either get impatient and don't let it heat up long enough and have cold food or you get impatient waiting for it to cool down and burn your mouth.
My husband is gone again tonight. I have aspirations of getting things done but let's be honest here. I'll probably plop on the sofa, pop in a depressing romantic movie and eat random junk like pickles and cookie dough.
I did actually nearly finish the collage I've been working on. Here's what's hindering me at the moment: laziness. Shocker? Well to be fair, laziness and procrastination. I'd fire me if I were me.
Having a craving of any kind will prompt people to wonder if you're pregnant.
Also, wearing a shirt dress with a belt around your natural waist will prompt people to ask if you're pregnant. It will also prompt you to burn that shirt dress.
We have cold weather. Instead of wearing the cute boots and scarves and outfits that I had planned, I'm wearing jeans, a t-shirt and hoodie and moccasins. And by cold I mean cool breezes in 70 degree weather with overcast skies.
I have a strong urge to play Christmas music.
I also have a strong urge to go to Disneyland again. Mickey, I miss you so.
Christmas is the best. It's just such a wonderful time of coziness and fun. I don't think we're getting a tree this year since we hardly used our tree last year and it took up half the space in our teeny apartment but I might get a burst of energy and like hang some lights or something.
I had to watch a training on "Code of Conduct" today. The narrator explained that we can't discriminate against our co-workers and then proceeded to have a "real life example" where a man said something like "No... we can't use Kim. She's too ethnic."
I know it's officially winter because it's still dark when I get to work. Doesn't that make you sad?
Guess what! We finally got internet. I got home the other day and excitedly logged on and then realized that I have nothing to look at since I spend all day at work looking at stuff online. I'm hoping this will make me add pictures to my blog more regularly. Clearly it has already helped in that area.
Until tomorrow...

Picky eater

2011-09-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

I was discussing with my friend earlier today about not liking German chocolate and she made the observation that I'm very picky. So I decided to make a list of things I like to eat and things I do not like to eat for your reference in case you ever have me over for dinner.

Things I enjoy:

Steak (medium rare, please) with sauteed mushrooms on top
Pizza (half pepperoni and half Hawaiian with ranch and parmesan)
Cheesecake (pure, plain, unadultered cheesecake with some fresh strawberries)
Cranberry lemonade
Chocolate chip cookie dough
Stouffer's Frozen Lasagna
Ground beef, salted
Grilled salmon
BJ's Pazookie
Black Angus' bread
Ruffles or Fritos with sour cream
Pickles (the plain dill whole pickles - and yes, my husband and I laugh everytime when I say "Dill whole?" in the grocery aisle)
Cheddar Cheese and a flour tortilla. NOT a quesadilla because I like the cheese cold.
Sushi (except eel)
Crepes with sour cream and steak sauce. Trust me on this.

Things I do not enjoy:

coconuts
any drink that I have to chew
lima beans
anything with curry seasoning
sweet pickles
plain yogurt
blueberries
cereal
any kind of muffin except chocolate
pancakes
cayenne shrimp
pork

Okay so it might look like I'm a little bit picky but I just know the exact way that I like to eat things and how they will taste good to me. Yes, if I have pizza, I prefer to have ranch globbed all over it but it's not like I'm going to refuse pizza if there's no ranch (although I will be extremely sad). And if someone forced a gun in my face and said "Eat this plain yogurt!" I'd say "No!" and then I'd be in heaven so basically you can't ever get me to eat food I don't like.

Also, in retrospect, I realize that my list of things I enjoy is strange but think about the things you truly enjoy eating and I bet it's not like "creme brulee" and "fancy schmancy stuff". (Creme brulee was the only fancy food I could think of...)

True life stories

2011-09-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

I promise I'm smart.

Really.

I took Calculus in High School. And I was like nerdy. With straight A's and stuff.

But sometimes...

sometimes...

I feel stupid. Because I do stupid things.

Sometimes when I do stupid things, my husband gives me this look like he's desperately hoping that the woman he married did not just say/do whatever she did.

It's a look of shock mixed with incredulity and despair.

I blame my mother.

Don't get me wrong, my mom is a genius. She's an eye doctor for Pete's sake. But sometimes, those moments just happen and I think it infected me and my sisters. The plus side of it is that it's always good for some laughs...

Speaking of laughs, I'll share a few of those with you now.

1) Once upon a time a few months ago, my husband got heat stroke at work. He decided to tell me as he was driving home (2 hours away) and ended with "Okay, well hopefully I make it!" Now that whole episode was one big drama after another but all you need to know was that I told my sister who told her husband who told his twin brother who is friends with my husband. The twin brother wrote on my husbands FB wall "So, heard you tried to take on the big yellow one all by yourself?" I smirked initially when I read it because my sister's husbands twin brother is funny but then I thought about it... "Big yellow one? Is he talking about a bus? Does he know that Brian had heat stroke? What is he talking about?" After weeks of mulling over this, one day, walking through Target it struck me. He was talking about the sun. Seriously, guys. It took me weeks.

2) Once upon a time, my baby sis and I were driving with my mom and my baby sister was complaining about not having enough pencils for school. "What happened to the pencils and pack of lead I gave you?" I asked. Except when you say it really fast... you get my mom's response which was "Who's Aunt Packaletta?"

3) Once upon a time my older sis tried cooking pizza in a microwave. I wasn't there to witness the event but amidst constant laughter and wimpering, I finally got the story out of my baby sis. Evidently my older sis thought 5 minutes to cook a slice of pizza was a good amount of time and 3 minutes later, the microwave exploded. Smoke was billowing out of it and the plate had even cracked. In her attempt to rid the kitchen of smoke, my baby sis thought she'd wave a frying pan back and forth as a fan and subsequently smacked my older sis in the head or arm, I can't remember which. Let's go with head, because it's funnier.

4) Once upon a time I bit into a boiled egg that I had heated up in the microwave. NEVER bite into a boiled egg that you've heated up in a microwave.

5) Almost every single time you tell a joke in front of my baby sister, there will be a guaranteed 30 seconds of time it takes for her to a) hear the joke b) comprehend the joke and then c) laugh. Which is nearly just as funny (if not funnier) as the joke itself.

You know what the great thing is though? I love my family. Whenever we all get together, it's always lots of laughter and happiness. Because we're all a bit ditzy (except my dad, who is surprisingly, the only true blonde of our family) and it's just good comedy. I mean, the last time we were together, we almost got thrown out of a sushi restaurant for laughing so loudly. And almost every day I provide some good, solid laughs for my husband.

I really am smart, guys. I mean, I know big words like "incredulity" so yeah....

Blogs and stuff

2011-09-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Like I've said before, it annoys me when people don't post everyday on their blogs. I know, I know... I'm about to condemn myself. The funny thing is when PW doesn't post, it's not like I can call her and be like "What the heck? Why haven't you posted yet?" But in my case it's different. See some of my followers are avid followers and those followers also might happen to have my email/phone number/chat name so when my sister prodded me about having nothing to read since Friday, I decided I'd better post sooner than later.

The truth is, I've been shamefully hiding. Why? Because I'm a failed blogger. Or failger if you will. Or something like that. I love doing projects. I love shopping online and cooking. But as I was making an Cherry Oreo Cheesecake this weekend, I thought to myself, I refuse to take pictures of this (and thereby failed all of you).

Now, the cheesecake is good and I believe I have truly perfected the recipe to my own liking. But I'm not going to share it with you because first of all, I didn't take pictures because I was in a rush to get it done and I'm also extremely lazy. Secondly, it's the recipe you can find on the inside of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese box. Yeah, big surprise that I'm no recipe creating whiz. Thirdly, I don't care if it has cracks or isn't perfectly even - it's about the moistness of the cake. All I want is a moist cheesecake. There's nothing worse - NOTHING - than dried out cheesecake. So 350 degrees for an hour and then leave it in the oven (after you've turned it off of course) for 20 minutes. That's what I call perfecting the recipe. Lastly, a really good cheesecake has to be made the day before you want to eat it. The extra time in the fridge really helps the flavor set in and increases the moistness.

So there you have it. I'm lazy. I make a very good cheesecake following a recipe on a box. I sometimes despise taking pictures of food and having to stop in between to get all the steps. I also will not have any fall decorations pictures for you because I'm not a "fall decorate-y" kind of girl. (Umm... see the 2nd sentence of this paragraph)

BUT here is what fall means to me: boots and sweaters. And I will eat my own keyboard if I don't have tons of fall inspiration outfits for you. Should I be a fashion blogger? Maybe. But for now let's just say I'm a "do-whatever-I-feel-like" blogger. And if at the end of this you don't want to run out and snuggle by a fire with a good book then you're hopeless and I've done all I can.

Source: lifeonatightrope.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: thedaybookblog.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: lookbook.nu via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: vi.sualize.us via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: witanddelight.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: sundaycrossbow.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Gotta get down on Friday

2011-09-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

Whooo... it is finally Friday and I couldn't be more ready for the weekend. Let's do a "what I'm doing this weekend list" since it's been awhile...

Tonight we have our Jr./Sr. High School group! My husband and I help another couple lead our high schoolers youth group and it's been such a blast and a blessing! I'm so encouraged to see the Lord at work in these kids and I'm super excited for this upcoming year to see what He's going to do next!
I have a billion and one projects that I'm working on but the most important is my photo collage (remember, the one for a friend?) I'm stuck on finding some chicken wire but I'm going to work up a few little embellishments for some of the frames and hopefully I will have something to show her since it's already been over a month!
Hanging out with my hubs. I am SOOOOO excited that he gets home tonight. It's pretty lonely being at home all alone by my lonesome alone alone alone a lone wolf and I end up sitting by the door like a little puppy who pounces as soon as I hear the keys in the door.
Church on Sunday (plus some football in between - yep, it's that season). And here we go... One of the things I do love about fall is making some hot chili on a Sunday afternoon with some yummy biscuits or corn bread and then snuggling with my hubs to watch a football game. At first, I would fall asleep because let's face it, I know as much about football as I do about cars and that's not saying much. But then he would explain the game to me and I started to understand it. Now it's like watching a movie where you don't know what will happen and who will win! I always cheer for whoever is losing because I feel like they're the underdog. Last week it was the Dallas Cowboys who came back in the second half and scored in overtime. Wow. I actually sound like I know what I'm talking about! One thing I don't understand - why they would ever run the ball. To me, it just looks like they're trying to get through a wall of defenders and they almost always seem to get only a few yards when they do this but whatev. Maybe they enjoy running into each other. Maybe it's a guy thing. Maybe I'll stop talking about football because this is a girl blog and well, we're not really known for being football fanatics.
By the way, do you guys sign up for emails from your favorite stores? Joann's is having a major "coupon commotion" this week so I think I might snag a few more balls of yarn and dye which brings me to my next project...
Dying a pair of jeans black. I have like 21 pairs of jeans. Seriously. They're all blue (except for one gray and one mustard yellow pair) and I've been wanting black jeans for awhile now. I actually went so far as to buy some from H&M but I ended up returning them because they made my butt look even more ginormous than it is. So my new project is going to be attempting to dye a pair of jeans I already own. Is this doable? Will it blow up in my face? Will I do it wrong and end up rubbing black on everything I sit on? I don't know. We'll have to wait and see...
GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT?!?!?!?!!? We're getting internet at home! Yaaayyyyyyy... I'm hoping this will make blogging so much easier but we shall see...
Have a lovely weekend!!! (Exclamation points intended to express my excitement for the weekend)

Office spaces

2011-09-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

This isn't so much an office annoyance as it is a "things too true about office workers":

In an 8-hour day, most people get roughly 5 hours of work done.
Human Resources assumes that 0.94 hours are being wasted a day but suspect that 1.6 hours are being wasted meaning they are only half aware of all the time being wasted.
The older you are, the less time you waste at work. On average, the highest time wasters are 18-24 years old.
39% of 18-24 year olds said they would quit their jobs if Facebook was banned.
Cited distractions at work: 44% spent web surfing (I'm sure Pinterest is 43% of that), 23.4% socializing with co-workers, 3.9% spacing out, 1.3% applying for other jobs.
65% of YouTube viewers watch between the hours of 9 -5 Monday through Friday.
77% of workers who have a Facebook account use it at work.
An estimated $759 billion is the total salary cost for the time that employees waste at work.

Well on that note I guess I better get back to work.... or Pinning. Such a dilemma...

Source: crushculdesac.tumblr.com via Deborah on Pinterest

Source: None via Deborah on Pinterest

And we're back!

2011-09-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. I have emerged from the pile of paperwork on my desk and the pile of laundry in our apartment. The last beach towel has been washed and our apartment looks like normal (clean but cluttered).

I know I've been missing for a few days but there were no new things going on in my life to blog about (not since I boasted about Maui for a week) and I really really needed to get some work done if I want to stay employed (although unemployment sounds terribly good now that I'm sitting at my desk).

The weather has finally shifted here in Nor Cal and we're experiencing cooler nights and mornings with blazing hot day times. I find that these are the hardest times to dress for. I wake up and it's cold so my brain thinks "jeans and sweater". I also sit in a frigid office all day so my brain thinks "jeans and sweater". However, the instant I walk outside after work and attempt to drive home in the blistering heat, my brain is screaming "WHY WOULD YOU WEAR JEANS AND A SWEATER IN 98 DEGREE WEATHER????"

Then I shout back at my brain about my line of reasoning and we have a little argument for a minute and I decide that shorts will have to do in this weather limbo and my mini desk heater will be working overtime from now on.

Haven't you guys missed me? Or have you not noticed that I've been gone? If it's the second one, that's ok. I probably wouldn't notice me either.

But ooh ooh ooh guess what? My husband (who's building houses in a far away land today) brought home presents for me the other day - leftover lumber from the house building!!! Our patio is now overflowing with random pieces of wood and I'm doing some serious thinking about what to do with it. Visions of homemade bookshelves are dancing in my head.

Also, look what he found in a dumpster! I'm not sure what the hook thingy's are for but I stuck it on a shelf and that seems to work to hold our mail now. Aren't we cool? We're dumpster divers. Well, the hubs is but I support him so there's no shame.

"Back to you in the studio!" Name that movie! (That's a hard one but here's a hint: it's followed by the main character reviewing a video of the interview she just finished taping)

But seriously. Back to you. How have you guys been?

Oh and some favorites I forgot to include in the last post...

So this is love...

Beach days

2011-09-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

I saved all of our beach pictures for last because this is what we spent 80% of our time doing in Maui (the other 20% we spent watching Storage Wars which we got hooked on. Unfortunately, we don't have cable at home so we can't really be hooked on it anymore...).

The beach.

Laying on chairs, playing in the water, snorkeling, swimming, taking long walks along the shore, watching the sunset - it was all wonderful and beautiful and relaxing.

Took this with my phone

And a few sunset pictures with the handy dandy helpful use of a tripod...

iDance.

My husband is silly. But I love him. :)

He got carried away taking some artsy photos and risking the life of our camera so near the water...

On our last day there, we built a monument to the foolish man who builds his house on the sand. Yes, we're grownups and we built what some might classify as a "sand castle" but whatev. We had fun and people were impressed and all taking pictures of it and oohing and aahing which we thought was kind of weird.

So that's it... Maui was fun and relaxing and everything we hoped and dreamed it would be... Now that I've rubbed it in your faces for a week, we'll get back to the usual stuff.

The (partial) Road to Hana

2011-09-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday was snorkel day but I'll have to hold off on that recap until I get some pictures developed in 4-6 months. Friday we decided to drive the Road to Hana. We brought along snacks and waters and prepared ourselves for a full day of driving and hiking.

After about an hour, before the road to Hana starts, you pass through the airport and a bunch of stores and restaurants. We reached this point at about 10 a.m. and decided we were both hungry so we got a Little Caesar's pizza because we're classy like that and we only have the finest dining while on vacation.

Munching on pizza, we passed through Paia, the hippie town and a beach where a bunch of surfers were showing off their skills. Finally the official Road to Hana started. We had seen the Twin Falls and Garden of Eden spots on the map and decided those would be our 2 major stops.

We passed Mile Marker 1.

At Mile Marker 2, we saw the signs for Twin Falls and pulled over. Brian was excited because parking on the muddy roadside was the extent of our offroading for the week. I could bore you with tons of pictures of all the cool things we saw but I decided to pick a few favorites.

I told Brian to just keep walking and I'd take a pic. This is what I got.

The first "small" waterfall

Sometimes our "trail" was walking across logs or tiny brick walls, as demonstrated below

The second waterfall and a guy who had just done a backflip off the top

It took us about an hour and a half to hike to both waterfalls and come back. We had both worn flip flops which actually worked out because the trail wasn't too difficult and to get to the second waterfall, we had to wade through a rocky creek.

After trudging back to our car it was about 1 o'clock. We looked at each other. Thought about the drive back. Decided that 2 miles into the Road to Hana, we'd seen the lot and felt thoroughly satisfied.

We had a good laugh about it in the car, imagining telling people that out of the 34 miles to the little town of Hana, we made it 2. But hey, that's just who we are. We enjoyed the scenery. We did a little exercise. We hiked. And we have ridiculously low tourist standards so we were pretty happy with what we got to see.

On the way back, we pulled over at a lookout point to watch the surfers do some cool tricks and just relax from our really intense drive to Hana.

"You all look like tiny ants from up here!" Name that movie!

One more day of this Maui recap and then back to our normal scheduled program!

Haleakala

2011-09-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

On our second day, we bit the bullet and decided to see the sunrise at Haleakala. We woke up at 3:40 a.m. Maui time and quickly got on the road.

It's a 2 hour drive up to the top where the Visitor's Center is (the first one, anyway) and you have to pay $10 to get into Haleakala National Park. If we'd ever do it again, we'd probably try to show up an hour before sunrise because it gets crowded quickly. But like I said, we're lazy. So we showed up about 15 minutes before sunrise...

Before the sunrise

It's cold and I'm sunburned.

Sun starting to peek through...

It was beautiful and gave me chills (not because it was 40 degrees). We were completely amazed by this display of God's glory. Every day He gives us another sunrise, another day to live and He doesn't have to. Just in awe of His grace to us...

And then we decided to have a fun little photo shoot.

We got in our fill of silly face shots and then proceeded to drive the 2 hour road back to our hotel. As we were leaving, we noticed that there was a road that led to a higher mountain that didn't look crowded at all so my hubs was bummed that he didn't notice that before. I told him that's the beauty of photoshop. It's like those people were never there...

About 10 minutes into our drive back, we noticed another little Visitor's Lookout Center and decided to pull over and check it out. After all, we had driven 2 hours to this place so to hang out for 30 minutes and then leave just seemed like a waste...

It was incredible how high up we are. See the ground level stuff? We came from there but on the other side of the island to the left (which you can't see). Crazy, huh?

More artsy pictures by my amaz-az-ing husband

Okay, look to the left and see that inlet of water? Well our road back went past that inlet and around the mountain to the other side. It's only like 60 miles or something but with all the windy roads and low speed limits, it kind of takes a really long time to get anywhere on Maui.

And then of course... another little photo session. That's how we roll. First I sat on a cliff. It was about a foot drop to the ground. Scary, huh? (You can actually see the ground in this picture.)

Then I snapped some pics while my husband scrambled around on the rocks to find his own cliff.

His was about a million foot drop and my hands are sweating now just thinking about how nervous I was for him. I was safely on some ground at this point but not my hubs. Not only did he find his cliff, he then proceeded to stand on the edge like this.

It's a wonder that I'm not a widow by now.

It took some coaxing by my husband to get me this close to the edge to take this shot. I was clinging to my rock shouting "I won't do it! You can't make me!!!" And then he did.

And I'm kind of glad he did.

Side note: If you ever go to Haleakala, do NOT ride down on a bike tour. I think like 12 tourists almost lost their lives when we were coming down this curvy, windy road. We'd come around a bend and there'd be like 5 bicyclists in the road and my hubs would have to slam on the brakes. The whole trip down, we were marveling at what a horrible idea it was to put inexperienced bikers (including young kids!!!) on a road with drivers going 40 mph around sharp curves and corners. This is where I'd have to agree that there is some kind of Survival of the Fittest (or Smartest) in this world and those bikers were pushing their luck.

Tomorrow I'll tell about our Road to Hana trip. Or at least the part we made it to...

Maui - Episode 1

2011-09-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: We are not tourists. We don't like being tourist-y and we don't really want people to get the hint that we're tourists. So... we don't take pictures of our hotel sign. We don't take pictures at every. single. location we visit. We don't take pictures of our food. In fact, sometimes we forget we even brought a camera. We don't wear fanny packs. We rarely look serious in our poses and sometimes, when we go to Maui, we're lazy.

First impression of Maui: the 6 hour plane flight with babies crying, cramped seats, nausea and no food or entertainment. We flew Alaska Airlines which means: they charge you $14 to watch a movie, they cram the planes full, and they don't seat you together even though your tickets say you're supposed to be together. If I ever go to Maui again... well, Alaska is hardly the route I'd take. Geographically and umm... plane-company-ily.

After that dreadfully long flight, we were starved, tired and ready to not be on a plane ever again. On the shuttle ride from the airport to our rental car, we asked our driver "Fred" if he knew of a place nearby that had good Hawai'ian BBQ. "Fred" told us of a place called "da kitchen". I thought he just had a thick Hawai'ian accent and was telling the "dumb tourists" that you get food in a kitchen but it turns out there really is a place near the airport that is called Da Kitchen. Filled with locals and hardly any tourists, it's a little hole in the wall place that serves the real stuff. Super yummy.

The first pleasant surprise of the trip was that Enterprise Rent-a-car didn't have any economy sized vehicles available so instead of this car:

...we got this car:

... and visions of off-roading trips danced in my husband's head.

So with our cool off-roading SUV, our full tummies and our luggage, we headed to our hotel. Our first stay was at the Royal Lahaina Resort.

We spent a few hours on the beach with no cell phones, iPods or cameras, then headed back to shower and get ready for dinner. After about 10 minutes, my husband was already done getting ready so he took some shots from our balcony...

My favorite. You really can't take a bad picture of Hawai'i landscape...

And yes... this is what our room looked like within mere hours of checking in. I am not ashamed. Mom, don't look.

On Tuesday, our first full day there, we had aspirations of going to Haleakala to see the sunrise. Those aspirations fizzled and died because we decided to sleep in and spend the day relaxing and snorkeling. No pictures yet because I haven't developed the water camera film. Which I will get to in approximately 4-6 months. Stay tuned.

That night, we went to the luau that was held nightly at our resort. I know, I know... we totally weren't planning on spending money on a luau but with a lovely anniversary gift from my parentals, we decided that we had come all the way to Maui so whatever. I'm a woman. I'm allowed to change my mind multiple times a day without any prior notice.

The pig oven thingy

The cooked pig which I don't think is the one that we actually ate unless they shredded it up like super fast.

Fire dancer who LICKED THE FIRE STICK WITH HIS TONGUE. Ouch.

With a tripod and the shutter open a long time, my hubs captured this. So smart, that guy. My husband. Not that guy in the picture. He plays with fire for a living so his smarts are questionable.

As you can see, no pictures of the half naked girls. This is a G-rated (ish) blog after all.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Maui Honeymoon Anniversary Vacation Thing...

A preface

2011-09-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Aloha my little bloggy darlings!

Did you miss me?

I must confess. I didn't miss blogging. I missed having emails with your comments to my posts but it was absolutely wonderful to be without the blogging world this past week. I enjoyed myself immensely.

Sometimes, we even forgot to take our phones with us. That's how disconnected we were and we LOVED it.

One thing about Maui is that since it's 3 hours behind us, my eating/sleeping schedule was way off. I was hungry at 4 in the morning and then again at 10 and then strangely again at like 9 at night. Because normally my body is asleep so it ignores my hungry habits but now my body was awake and feeding constantly. Weirdness.

That makes me sound like a baby... with eating/sleeping/pooping schedules. Ha.... Just kidding, I don't poop on schedule. Eww. Why are we talking about that?

Anyway, it kind of made the first few days feel like Saturday's where you sleep in and get too much sleep and then feel kinda groggy and weird the rest of the day. Which is perfect if you decide to lay on a beach all day long.

Which we did.

So since this is a preface, I'll tell you this: I really had a great, fantastic, wonderful, amazing time. I loved it but I can honestly say I'm happy to be back to normal life. The reality displacement was fun for awhile but now that my skin is bronzified and I'm more relaxed than the older sister on Sixteen Candles on her wedding day, I'm happy to be back home with my hubby to our normal life.

My husband on the other hand... well, living on a beach has been his dream for like, ever. I had to pry him away from a palm tree that he was desparately clinging to and we almost missed our flight because we just had to soak up every last minute of Maui time.

Since I'm back to work today, that means back to blogging. Hahaha... I should seriously be fired by now. But back to work also means that I have to try to get my bearings from being gone for a whole week and having someone else do my job.

And this someone else left me little surprises that have doubled my work just trying to figure out what she did and how to fix it. Yay.....

Don't disappear... I'll be back tomorrow with some day by day "Dear Diary" moments of our whole trip...

Aloha!

Real vacation

2011-09-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have some tragic news.

I will not be blogging at all in Maui.

I'm sorry! I just really want to relax and enjoy our honeymoon/vacation and I didn't have time to write posts ahead of time. Plus my brain was blocked so that didn't help...

I know, I know... it will be hard for you. Some of you might not survive. So I thought I'd give you some ideas for wasting time... these usually help me pass the hours and never fear, I shall be back blogging in just a week and I'll be tanned. Not like that has any effect on you but I just wanted to brag.

Pinterest - Need I say more? If you can ignore the ones with swear words, typing "autocorrect" in the search will give you several very good laughs which you might have to conceal by hiding behind your computer screen. While you're at it... follow me.

Blogs - I don't know how many blogs you read but here are a few favorites that are always good for a laugh or at least several hours of entertainment.

Better Off Wed - Kendi's fashion blog is usually sarcastic and good for a laugh but her blog about marriage is downright hilarious.
The Pioneer Woman - If you decide to read her Black Heels to Tractor Wheels story, that should give you plenty of reading material for the week I'm gone. Oh and I'm sorry... who hasn't heard of PW?
Young House Love - These 2 kids are decorating fiends and always good for a few inspirational ideas.
The Glamourai and Cupcakes & Cashmere - If you care at all about fashion...
Green Wedding Shoes - You don't have to be getting married to enjoy these ideas. And if you are getting married, you're welcome.

Shop online - There's always shopping and you don't even have to buy - just gather some ideas from the outfits you see and find out how you can recreate from your own closet.

Read online - All of Jane Austen's books are available to read online and there is truly nothing better than a sappy romance story set in Old English Times... *Sigh...

Now I know it will be tough. I'm not gonna lie - it's going to be a long week for you. But you'll manage and if you ever despair, just think how happy I am lying on a beach and you'll feel better. If you don't, well that's not my fault. I've tried everything I can!

Office Spaces

2011-09-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Most of you that work in an office have probably been at it for several years. I'm SURE that you have seen your fair share of typos and possibly even committed a few in that time.

I'm starting to see this as a real problem though. It takes 30 seconds to proofread your emails before you click "Send". I really believe that it is extremely unprofessional to send a document or email that has spelling and grammatical errors. But most of the time, if I read an email that has errors, I lose a little respect for that person and gain about 3 minutes of a good laugh. So if this happens ALL THE TIME, you can imagine the amount of respect I have for several people that I've worked with (and the amount of laughter that happens at my desk).

I do think this only applies to the workplace. I don't think anything personal should have to be immaculate. I just think in a professional setting, you should write professionally.

Of course, "their", "they're" and "there" or "your" and "you're"are always problematic, but I blame laziness. It seems like people have gotten to the point where whichever one they think of first gets thrown out there. They don't bother to think if it's the right one to use. But explain these to me...

"...we know what's at steak here." Mm. Steak. What are we talking about?

"Appon reviewing your purchase order..." It's so simple. Up. On. Upon. Where does that "a" come from and why?

"I apologies for the error..." And I apologize that you are probably the reason there was an error in the first place.

"Thank you for your kind PO." I was unaware that paperwork had the potential to be kind. Did it say "thank you" after you read it?

"In the Sothern California branch..." I had a manager at an old job - that's right a MANAGER who refused to put a "u" in Southern California. Every. Single. Email/PowerPoint/Report. Seriously?

My favorite is asking questions with a period at the end.

"Can we discuss." I'm sorry. I didn't realize the question mark was so far away from the period that you couldn't bother with it.

Or sentences that make you read them twice and go "huh?"

"If you would please review and make sure I have any info correct, or I have not left anything you may know to be different."

Now I KNOW I am not perfect and I have definitely made a few errors in my day but consider this: we go to school for 13 years (if we make it through High School) and EVERY SINGLE YEAR we have to take English. Do you think our society is trying to hammer something into our brains???

Now that I've gotten off my high horse, let me just say that I know this blog probably has some typos and I cringe internally when I read something that I've posted that has an error. Feel free to rub those in my face, just don't make any errors in that email/comment where you point them out. Otherwise, I'll laugh in yours.

Danger zone.

2011-08-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Alright guys.

I've figured it out.

This is why my brain is blocked:

My husband is intermittently gone all week and I dislike it. I turn into Super Lazy Wife when he's not around and let me tell you, Monday night I sat on my butt and watched movies and ate cookie dough. No crafts. No projects. Nothing. Laziness in full effect. I'm fairly certain I gained several pounds in just a few hours. Clearly I'm concerned how I'll look in a swimsuit in Maui. *Rolls eyes.
Did I ever tell you guys that I picked a flowing wedding dress just so I wouldn't have to be concerned with losing weight and looking skinny? I'm that lazy. My husband is one lucky guy.
We're going to a wedding on Saturday, South Lake Tahoe for a partial retreat with church couples on Sunday and leaving for Maui on Monday. But here's the real dilemma....
We are only taking ONE checked bag to Maui. ONE, PEOPLE. Do you understand what that means??? I have to share a suitcase with my husband for A WHOLE WEEK. Okay, nobody panic. I know, it's terrifying. Turns out Alaska Airlines (like every other airline) charges $20 per bag each way. That means $40 to just take a suitcase to Maui. I've been spoiled flying Southwest all the time to LA. Now I know why they make that such a huge selling point... that their bags fly free. So we are planning on checking one bag (to avoid having to downsize all our toiletries to TSA standards) and having one carry on each. I had a moment of panic when I thought about trying to fit a week's worth of outfits (14 outfits at least, to be exact) into a tiny carry-on but now I've come to grips with it and I will just have to stuff clothing in every crevice of that carry-on possible. There's no weight limit on a carry-on so as long as it fits in that tiny thing, we are good to go!!! Or I'll just pull a Joey and wear everything I want to take on the plane ride on that day. Just layer every. Single. Outfit. That'll show those airlines!!! "Whew it's hot in here.... I better not do any lunges..."
Thank you JESUS for using our government to make this trip possible. Can you believe that? Our government is paying for this. Indirectly. Because I'm bad at tax calculations and being married = pay less taxes. But still. God is good, right???
I'm training someone to do my job while I'm gone. To put it nicely, I'm glad I won't be here next week to watch her handle it on her own. And that's all I'll say about that.
This has nothing to do with the brain blockage (well, like nothing on this list really has to do with that - it's just my random thoughts) but I think I've finally reached the obsessive point on Pinterest.
On that note... I've also finally given in to pinning fashionable things. DANGEROUS. Please oogle with me and wipe that drool off your keyboard when you're done.

Source: atlantic-pacific.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: peruvianconnection.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: tripoverjoy.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: gallery.me.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: thedaybookblog.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: krentu.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: elisecam.blogspot.com via Alexis on Pinterest

Source: blissfulb.blogspot.com via Brittany on Pinterest

Unblocking the blockage

2011-08-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Leave it to my sister to give me a little push/inspiration for some blogging. I suppose if all else fails, I could at least tell you what I spent my weekend doing...

On Saturday, we went to our first ever Russian wedding. You can see a sneak peek of the bridal shoot here. Natalie was one of the first girls I befriended when we went to our church and she is a dear, sweet individual. She's the kind of friend that will make you laugh hysterically one minute and then feel convicted and encouraged in the next minute. I love her to little tiny pieces and the only reason I'm a teeny tiny bit unhappy that she got married is because she now goes to a different church (with her husband of course). I'm just a teeny tiny bit (okay actually lots) unhappy about that. I'm actually a little bitter. Okay not really... but I miss her already!!!

BUT - it's not like she's moved to a different country. And she's even closer than all the friends I left 300 miles away so I'm not terribly unhappy about it...

Anyway, back to the Russians. The wedding seemed similar to our traditional weddings except for the prayers by the parents in Russian. I picked up a few words here and there but for the most part I just guessed at what they could be praying for. Also entirely awesome was the wedding was done by their pastor who had a Scottish accent. It was incredibly delightful and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was like listening to Merry from Lord of the Rings. "Dee-airly bee-loh-ved, we ah gatherrrred heeerrre in the sayt of Gohd...". That was my best attempt at typing out a Scottish accent.

The only part that we were umm.... slightly unprepared for was the food at the reception. I think it was the whole fish on the table as an appetizer that threw my husband off. We've tried borscht and plov and we LOVE both of those. We're even getting used to the fact that everyone (even the grade school kids) has tea and caviar as a snack. But I suppose we haven't really been fully exposed to an entire Russian palate and we are just having to get used to that...

Yesterday we had church and then time at the park last night with our church people. Lots of fun. Lots of SERIOUS volleyball playing. I had a few shining moments that I can't brag about too much on here because it'll come back to bite me in the butt. I will say this: it makes me happy that when we pick teams, we have a "rule" that all the girls have to be picked first. Such gentlemen at our church...

Well there's an update and a blogpost. Oh by the way...

...this time next week? I'll be in a metal tube 50,000 feet above the ground hurtling toward a teeny tiny island and a week of blissful tropical happiness.

Don't be jelly.

Nothing!

2011-08-29T08:32:00.001-07:00

by Steph

I have nothing to write about!!! I mean I've tried. Several times. Nothing. Blocked blocked blocked.

I tried last Friday and eventually gave up. I have no new projects, nothing exciting and fun to talk about...yet. I have nothing, people.

Hopefully I snap out of it soon.

Office Spaces

2011-08-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I decided that every Thursday I'll tell you something funny that happens right here in my office. It's gonna be like a series! Kind of. If I can remember to keep it up. And if you guys want, you can email me stories {stephmreiner@gmail.com} and I'll feature those!

Now listen... I know this seems like a lame series but sometimes things happen in my office and I just think to myself "more people need to enjoy the irony/sadness/humor/despair of this occurrence."

So here's my story:

I'm training someone to cover my job while we're in Maui. I've been training her for 2 months. This is when I knew it was going to be a long 2 months: the first day I was training, I told her to hit the "escape" key to exit a report. After staring at my keyboard for a minute she said "Why doesn't your keyboard have an escape key...?"

I cried a little inside.

More on that to come...

So what about you guys? Any funny office stories? Any that made your skin crawl or made you want to curl up under your desk and die? Spill the paperclips people - we could all use a good laugh.

By the way:

I'm almost done painting all the frames for the collage (just need one more coat of paint).
My husband requested the Rosemary Potatoes from PW's cookbook last night. Evidently they were that good.
I have eaten about 3 large spoonfuls of cookie dough every night this week.
I discovered that if you keep your home clean every day, you won't have to do big clean-up's all the time. However, this interferes with my "lying on the couch" time so we'll see how long I keep it up.

Back to.... work?

2011-08-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Everyone is doing back to school posts and everywhere I look stores have giant displays of pencils, notebooks and school supplies.

So just for funsies, I planned a back-to-school outfit. Except I don't go to school. I have no children so obviously those imaginaries don't go to school. I go to work. And it's not back to work because I've been here for 98 years. Ok not really but it feels like it sometimes.

But this is my blog so I can post a back-to-school/work outfit if I want to!

And true to form, when choosing an outfit for one day, it's best to have options. (This is the part where I pull everything out of my closet and try it all on and then go with the first thing I tried on.)

Note: I know those crop skinnies look like a size 0. Which would be perfect for me if you just put a "1" in front of that "0".

And how adorable is that lime-y yellow shirt with the turquoise? I feel as if that would be my final answer.

A definite must will be those nerdy glasses. Because I was kind of a nerd. I didn't wear glasses but these make me think of those nerd-to-beauty movies and I think they're adorable...

Untitled by reinersm54 featuring leather handbags

Oversized t shirt, $30
Old navy t shirt, $25
H M butterfly top, £9.99
H M top, £9.99
H M cotton tee, £2.49
American Eagle Outfitters capri jeans, $20
H&M suede wedge heels, £25
H&m shoes, £7.99
H&m shoes, £7.99
H M canvas weekend bag, £30
Woven handbag, $30
H M leather handbag, £25
Club Manhattan spike jewelry, €18
Feather jewelry, $14
Zara feather jewelry, $9.90
Old Navy clear jewelry, $5.94
Feather jewelry, $6.50
H&m sunglasses, £5.99

Enchila-la's

2011-08-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Today I have a recipe for you.

It is NOT from Pioneer Woman (although she has a similar one of course).

This is a recipe for enchiladas.

"My grandmother whispered this recipe into my ear on her death bed." Name that movie!!! (That's a tougher one...)

Anyway, my grandma isn't on her deathbed, but she did teach my mother to make enchiladas and ipso facto, my mom taught me. However, somewhere along the way I modified it a bit...

This is Lazy Mexican Enchilada Lasagna.

Meaning, I do NOT roll each individual enchilada because a) I've burned my hands way too many times on hot tortillas, b) it triples the amount of dishes you will dirty and c) THEY TASTE EXACTLY THE SAME BOTH WAYS.

Now let's just take a minute to talk about the most important ingredient: the sauce. When you are buying sauce in a can (because that's how the real Mexicans do it) look for the one that has a label entirely in Spanish and all you can understand is the "enchilada" on it. Trust me. This is the real stuff. None of this Las Palmas or whatever business... we're not making Taco Bell enchiladas. We want the stuff that was made in Mexico.

Here it is (for you Kelley!):

1 can of enchilada sauce (it doesn't have to be a huge can - just depends on how "saucy" you want your enchiladas to be
chicken breasts (bone-in preferrably)
cheese
tortillas
oil
2 skillets
1 casserole dish
tongs
grater
cutting board
fork

Look at that! That should be everything you should be using. If you have like 12 pans - you're doing it wrong.

First, boil the chicken and when it's done, shred it with a fork and tongs. (Ignore that this is boneless chicken - that's all I had)

Grate your cheese (about 2 cups makes really cheesy enchiladas so you can do more or less depending on what you want)

Grab your tortillas. Again, the ones that have Spanish all over the package would probably be the best tasting.

Heat some oil in a small skillet and the enchilada sauce in another skillet. Once the oil is nice and sizzly, throw in a tortilla. (But don't throw it because the oil will be all sizzly and you might get burned. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH HOT OIL PEOPLE!!!)

You want the tortilla to be a little stiff because the next step will soften it up. Maybe 10-15 seconds on each side? Just eyeball it. You'll be fine.

Once the tortilla is done, drop it into the enchilada sauce and let it sit for a few minutes. Do NOT forget about it and walk away because the longer it sits, the softer the tortilla gets which means when you try to pull it out, its going to crumple and shred.

Put your tortilla into the casserole dish. (Hint: Hold the enchilada sauce skillet very close to the casserole dish so you don't drip enchilada sauce all over the place.)

And repeat with more tortillas. How many you want is up to you. This recipe is very freeing... you can do whatever you want! Kinda.

Once you have your layer of tortillas, add a layer of chicken, a layer of cheese and repeat the whole thing until the dish is full.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and bake it for 20 minutes.

Optional Refried Beans recipe: While that's baking, use some of the leftover oil from the tortillas and heat it in a bigger skillet and once its sizzly again, add a can of pinto beans. When they start bubbling, mash them with a potato masher and then simmer until the enchiladas are done. You can add some salt if the beans don't already have salt in them.

Ta-da!!!

Ooh la la... look how pretty. And yummy.

Originally unoriginal.

2011-08-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Guess what?

It's Monday.

Monday means... I woke up late because I stayed up too late because I was desperately trying to make my weekend (read: time with my husband before he leaves) last longer.

Monday means... work overload because people all around the world apparently work on Saturday and Sunday which makes me very sad for them.

Monday means... I'll be home alone tonight. Just me, the cookie dough and the crafts. And the darkness. And the golf clubs.

Monday means... I'm sore from playing volleyball yesterday. BUT the upside is that I didn't get hit in the face and the embarassment for the day was kept to a minimum.

Monday means... I'm catching up on blog reading from the weekend instead of doing work. Procrastinators of the world unite! Tomorrow.

Monday means... TWO MORE WEEKS UNTIL MAUI!!!!!!! Seriously, I need to start packing. Too bad I'm a procrastinator. Who has 2 thumbs and will be packing the night before her flight leaves? This girl! "Who has 2 thumbs and hates Todd Packer? This guy!" Name that ummm... tv show quote!

I like to point out obvious things.

Hey! Did you guys know it's Monday?

A few Friday thoughts and a recipe

2011-08-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I had big plans for my solo night yesterday. After work, I'd "stop by" Target, head to the gym for a weight lifting class and after that craft while watching a movie and eating cookie dough.

Only 2 of those things happened. I'll let you figure out which ones.

In my defense, I had to drive home in my husband's Bronco. I'm terrified of touching anything in that car besides the steering wheel, ignition, pedals and stick thingy that moves it from "P" to "R" or "D". (Someone please mock my lack of knowledge of car parts)

So that means I was scared to turn on the A/C for fear that the car would explode on me. After about 30 seconds in traffic in 95 degree sweltering heat, my mind was made up - I was most certainly not going to go anywhere besides Target (because we needed toilet paper) and then home.

40 minutes later when I arrived at Target, my sweat-soaked body confirmed that I had lost about 3 pounds of water weight so I could most definitely justify not going to the gym.

After all that, when I finally did get home (after spending an hour in Target trying to avoid the heat) I warmed up some leftovers, plopped myself on the couch and crocheted while watching Star Wars.

"Keep your distance but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance. I don't know!! Fly casual!!"

Sometimes I watch girly movies.

Sometimes I watch nerdy movies.

You never know what mood I'll be in.

Well back to the post that was supposed to happen yesterday that didn't. I made Pioneer Woman's Rosemary Potatoes, kinda. This recipe is not on her website, but only in her cookbook. I fear there may be legal repercussions if I post something in a book on the internet. So I guess you'll just have to guess what the ingredients are based on the pictures or sneak into a Barnes & Noble and snap a picture of the recipe with your phone.

Not that I've ever done something like that.

I didn't use real parmesan cheese, I used milk instead of heavy cream and I added sour cream because I didn't have enough cream cheese. I'm the worst recipe follower.

But in the end, my husband cleaned the potatoes off his plate before even touching the chicken and veggies and then promptly served himself another heaping serving.

*This recipe has been approved by the blogger's husband.

Real life story.

2011-08-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

by Steph

So I was going to have a new recipe post for you today with MY VERY OWN PICTURES. Too bad I forgot the camera at home. I'm not kidding, I packed it up this morning before I left and as I walked out the door, I walked right past it without even a second glance.

Let me rewind. This morning my husband left for 2 days working far, far away. Last night I made sure he had a big, tasty meal since he'll probably be eating Taco Bell for dinner tonight. And I took pictures of part of that meal to blog about.

This is my real life blog. And in real life, I forget things.

All.

The.

Time.

Like I forgot that since he took my truck to the far, far away land, he also took my security badge for work, which I keep tucked away and hidden in the center console.

Which I discovered when I pulled up to the gate and couldn't get in.

Also, I forgot that driving his Bronco gives me anxiety.

Probably because the first time that I ever drove it, it died on me (mostly because I left my iPod plugged in and it drained the battery).

So this is me. Forgetful. Scatter brained. Forgetful. Did I already say that?

There are people who blog about organization and tips for having their life all planned out and they have pictures to prove it.

I am NOT one of those people.

And if you think I am, you're reading the wrong blog.

Trust me, there are waaaayyyyy better blogs out there and those people are super inspiring and they've got it down!

But if you want someone who scatterbrained-edly blogs about food, crafts, clothes and life in general, then chin up, I'll be back tomorrow with something good. :)

Bedroom Ideas

2011-08-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Remember that space above our bed in this picture?

Obvs right now it's blank. Here are the qualifications:

simple
easy to remove
won't fall on our heads in an earthquake and kill us
minimal nail holes

A photo collage is out (I thought I'd kill 2 project birds with that stone but the other bird got away). Here are the ideas I have so far.....

....none.

The only thing that keeps popping into my head is that Friends episode where Chandler wants to hang a sign above their bed that says "MERGE". "MERGE!" Over and over that's all I can hear in my brain.

I know you can't tell from the pic, but our bedroom walls are that normal off-white apartment color. The bed is a grayish stained wood and we have all black furniture. Idk if maybe a wall decal would work - I don't want to spend a ton of money so I might try to DIY something cheaper in that area. Other thoughts are just big pieces of artwork but it has to be something that I'd want to look at every night.

In other news, I finally got around to washing the shirt I made here and guess what... the burlap frayed anyway. I should've known. The fabric flowers survived so I guess I'll just have to get more creative for those leaves.

In other other news, my husband got home kind of late last night and instead of wasting our precious time together cooking, we decided to have Mexican fast food. We pulled up to Adalberto's (the BEST ever) and I happened to see a wood pallet leaning against their dumpster.

Side note: You know it's good Mexican fast food when a giant burrito costs $4 and they have "lengua" as a meat option. YUM.

Lightbulbs went on in my head. All those blogs I've seen with recycled pallet DIY projects flashed through my brain. Dollar signs appeared in my eyes like I was a cartoon.

"Hey look... a pallet." I casually mentioned...

My husband looked at me incredulously. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know... something. It's free! And it looks good. And... umm... I can make something with it."

I actually didn't really have to convince him very much because I have a very artistic husband so if he has an opportunity to make something out of a pallet, he'll take it just because he's curious to see what gem we can come up with.

Of course I immediately went to Pinterest to get some inspirational ideas... Odds are since my husband is going out of town for work again tomorrow, this project will have to wait until the weekend considering I definitely can't be trusted with a saw all by my lonesome.

Source: thestoriesofa2z.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: ninasapartment.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: frenchbydesign.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: ana-white.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: seesawdesigns.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: homedit.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Blogging

2011-08-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I am a firm believer that a blog is like a plant. You have to water it every other day and pay attention to it. (Unless you're like me and water plants every few weeks when you remember them)

The point is, I LOVE when people blog every day. I love reading new things, new thoughts, new projects.

When it comes to my own blog... that's another story. I do my best to blog every day but I do take a break on the weekends. Some days I have tons to blog about. Other days, I don't, so I wing it (much like 99% of college).

Today is a winging day.

I did in fact survive TKB at the gym HOWEVER, I only barely survived so the rest of the night (after a quick stop at Old Navy) was spent watching Sense & Sensibility while I crocheted.

This is what I eat for dinner when my husband is gone (I won't include recipes - they're clearly unnecessary):

a pickle,
a slice of cheese,
a cucumber (similar to the pickle, but sliced with some ranch),
a few pieces of grilled lemon pepper chicken,
box rice pilaf (which incidently does NOT take 25 minutes to cook, contrary to the instructions), and
a bite of cookie dough (I'm not sure how this found it's way in there).

Let's rewind to the Old Navy part. I'm still desperately hoping that somehow somewhere a pair of tan sandals will magically appear for $9. (Don't ask me about that price. I have my reasons.)

Evidently once school starts, every store starts carrying boots and sweaters.

Obviously they ignore the fact that its still 97 degrees outside.

Anyway, I stopped at Old Navy looking for those sandals. I found sandals. None that were tan. And none that were anything besides a size 7. I need an 8.5 in case you're wondering.

After being defeated and let down by the sandal selection, I decided to browse the sales rack. I found a pair of white linen capris for $8.49.

$8.49!!!!!

Can you believe that? So here is where I sing my Ode to Old Navy again. Linen pants are raging expensive so to find a comfy pair IN MY SIZE was like a tiny little present for being disappointed about the sandals.

I mean, the tag literally said "For Stephanie R only".

I kid.

But it might as well have.

I snatched those babies up and I am proud to say that I completely ignored my Photo Collage project to indulge in a little shopping trip at Old Navy and I'm not sorry, not one bit!

I then proceeded to celebrate my victory with a meal of champions and a sappy movie. It gets me EVERY TIME when Marianne starts sobbing that Willoughby always implied that he loved her but never said it.

Heart. BREAK.

So.... in light of my ode to Old Navy, here's some goodies for you to oogle and if you have the patience, you may just be able to snatch these for yourself at a very VERY agreeable price.

Obvs, I'm into stripes and baggy tops these days.

Case of the Mondays - Part 98

2011-08-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

by Steph

Blogger's block.

Also known as "work".

Can someone send me a "Do NOT disturb" sign for my desk? I have other things to do besides "work".

In the interest of full disclosure, here's something you should know about me: I prefer the canned Kraft Parmesan Cheese over the fresh stuff in the refrigerated section.

Tomorrow (if I survive the TKB class at the gym tonight), I'll have some pictures of the frames I found at Goodwill over the weekend. Until then...

"I love you with all my butt. I would say heart but my butt is bigger."
- Pinterest quote

Friday list

2011-08-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

TGIF, people.

No, not Boy meets world. I wish.

But seriously thank the good Lord that it's finally Friday.

My husband comes back tonight from building houses in a far away land. YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I don't have to sleep with a golf club in my hand anymore)

2 all-too-short days of the weekend and then....and then....aaaaand theeennn....
And then comes Monday.

Which means.... 3 WEEKS UNTIL MAUI!!! (Insert: PANIC)

I have clothes that need to be altered so they'll feel new and I NEED (not really, but that's how I'm telling it to the hubs) a pair of t-strap tan sandals. They'll just be perfect, if I can find them anywhere.

Favorite part of my trip to LA: getting to hang out with my family on Wednesday night. Lots of laughter (probably a little too much for the rest of the restaurant patrons) and lots of sushi. All good things.

2nd favorite part: slipping on a wet puddle in the terminal at LAX and letting my knee catch all XXX lbs of weight. Major bruise on my knee. Major bruise to my ego.

Least favorite part: not being able to bring my husband on this little trip. Boooooo "real work and responsibilities"! No one likes you.

2nd least favorite part: realizing that I booked my return flight a day early. Oops. Thank you Southwest for being amazing!

This weekend I'll be doing a little project for a friend so I pinned a few inspirations to give me a jumping off point.... (Hint: I'm doing a photo collage) I'll be hitting up a few thrift stores to see what goodies I can find and then indulging in my spray painting madness.

Source: houzz.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: younghouselove.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: leftcoastluxe.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: stylemepretty.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: potterybarn.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Chicken Catch-a-tor-ree

2011-08-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

by Steph

When I was little my mom used to make chicken cacciatore and I loved it. I knew how to make it the easy way and as I got older, I could get creative adding mushrooms or peppers and every time, it was an easy favorite.

When I saw that PW had a recipe for her version of chicken cacciatore, I thought I'd see how she made it and try it out.

From Pioneer Woman

First of all, I did not add Turmeric because a) I don't know what that is and b) I couldn't find it after staring at the spice aisle for 10 seconds and c) I'm on a budget - no room for fancy spices in our grocery list.

Secondly, I did indeed add wine and I was concerned that it would overpower but after cooking it in the oven, you can't even tell that its in there except for a teeny, tiny slight tanginess which adds the perfect amount of somethingness to this dish.

Other than that, I followed her recipe and it was phenomenal. Of course. Are you surprised?

Here's the one thing I didn't like: it was very difficult to eat the chicken off the bone. I don't think that you can use boneless chicken here so I suppose I'll just have to deal with that little problem.

I mean really, when I'm eating, I'm scarfing that meal down and I don't have time for pesky bones to be getting in the way. It's annoying that bone-in meat is so much juicier and different tasting than boneless. We live in the 21st century right? If they can figure out how to grow boneless chickens, they should be able to figure out how to get a little juiciness in there too.

Tuesday thoughts for a Wednesday

2011-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I am actually writing 3 posts today (Tuesday) but you'll be reading this one tomorrow (Wednesday) which will actually be today for you. Also, I threw in some pictures that have nothing to do with the post so try to not lose focus.

I have to attend a seminar in LA which will be blah and since my husband is working far away all week, between my being in LA and his working, I won't see him until Friday.

MAJOR dislike.

My beloved Rainbows.

The perk is that I won't have to stay home alone. No no no... I'll have to stay in a hotel alone. In LA. The ghetto. Okay, not the ghetto, I mean I was born in East LA, I guess you can't get much more ghetto than that. But living in suburbia has made me quiver at the thought of the dark streets of LA again.

When I was little, we used to go to my grandma's house (she lived in LA - down the street from General Hospital) and my aunts would joke that we would have to wear bulletproof vests to walk to the candy store.

My little sis with her favorite person (umm.. animal?) in the world.

Growing up, there were drug dealers that lived across the street from our house. We weren't in the ghetto but I guess they thought they could hide in our neighborhood. I remember the police coming by often for the few short months they were there but I'm not kidding you guys, the sounds of helicopters and police talking on speakers is what I used to fall asleep to at night. It was soothing to hear sirens and gunshots. (Okay the gunshots was only one time and we can't be entirely sure that is in fact what they were. I mean I was young. My sisters and I had wild imaginations. Shocker.)

I discover PhotoStudio. Also I love Ruffles with sour cream. Delish.

Anyway, when I moved to Santa Clarita for college, I actually had a hard time falling asleep to the sound of silence. It bothered me to hear nothing. I'm sure being in a new place all alone had something to do with it too but it took me awhile to get used to the world of soccer moms and kids running around Target.

Having fun at Disneyland while my lil' sis was buying a present for a friend...

Pops

Momsie

Side note (even though this whole post is a side note): The grocery store that we went to when I was young was a Mexican store because in the meat section, they used to have cow tongue, lambs head and pigs feet. You don't really see that at Albertsons (or whatever grocery store you shop at that doesn't also have a separate Mexican food section).

I take pictures of my feet when I'm bored at work.

Well that was one big rabbit trail to nothing but I am actually excited for one reason: I get to have dinner with my sisters and bro-in-law tomorrow night (which is actually tonight when you're reading this) and we're having SUSHI!!!!

The first hat I ever knit. My sister said I looked like Dopey.

I have a deep and unrequited love for sushi. My husband dislikes raw fish so we don't really get to eat it often. My dad LOVES sushi and growing up, my sisters and I were all grossed out by the thought of it. Somehow, somewhere in college it clicked for us and we've been family sushi lovers ever since.

Except for my mom... she dislikes sushi also. Actually so does my bro-in-law so its kind of convenient for the 3 of them... husband, bro-in-law and mom get to whine about raw fish while the majority of the women (and the dad who spoils us) all enjoy our sushi meal.

I discovered Shake It! and that's my big sis.

Anyway, I'm flying out tonight and writing 2 posts in advance which should hold you over until I return. This one today (which for you is really yesterday when you're reading this) is just general musings because I have been so busy crocheting lately that there are no other new crafts on the table, literally. I'm sure I'll get tired of that and try a new project soon but for now I guess you'll just have to be happy reading my thoughts.

Rompin' love

2011-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I know I've mentioned my love for rompers before. Sure they're a little hard to get out of when you gotta pee. Sure they might make you look like you have no torso. But personally... I love rompers. (Did you notice?) I think they are the most comfortable outfit since the fleece onesies with padded feet.

I think the reason I just love rompers in the summer is because it's all the comfiness of a dress (remember, no muffin tops or sweaty legs?) with the modesty of shorts (i.e. not having to worry about having a Marilyn Monroe moment when a short gust of wind blows).

Well it's officially. 4 weeks until we finally take our honeymoon/anniversary vacation to Maui. (You can read more about that here and here.) FOUR WEEKS PEOPLE!!! I know I've been doing this outfit count down thing but now I'm panicking. What to pack?? What to wear?? (Besides all the rompers I own of course...)

Day 11 by reinersm54 featuring gold sunglasses

American Eagle Outfitters romper, $35
American Eagle Outfitters gladiator shoes, $20
H M shoulder bag, £13
Forever21 tribal jewelry, $8.80
ASOS gold sunglasses, $21
Forever21 straw hat, $13
H M leather belt, £9.99

TV Stand - The Before After the After

2011-08-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

by Steph

I've already showed you the "after" shot of our tv stand but I guess it can't hurt to tell you what we did and how we transformed this "blah" tv stand into a "eh..." tv stand.

Let me back up. Once upon a time, my husband lived with 3 other guys in college. Walking to their cars one day, he and his friend saw a huge screen tv sitting outside the dumpster. They decided to take it and see if it worked. After lugging the 800 lb TV to their 2nd story apartment, they found out that it did indeed work.

Fast forward a few years, my husband has dragged this ginormous tv from LA to Sacramento where it has ended up in our apartment weighing heavily on a nightstand for about 10 months. We decided it was time to upgrade to something with shelves.

Now, this is just a temporary fix. Our apartment is teeny tiny so someday when we have a less teeny house, we'll get a normal tv stand. Maybe.

This is what my husband text'd me from Habitat for Humanity (the BEST home improvement thrift store!!! Also where I found these lamps.)

BEFORE:

It had one broken door and that panel on top is one of the glass doors that was supposed to cover the left shelves. When we brought this to his parent's house (aka makeover workshop), I decided to drop the glass pane on the driveway. It shattered into a million trillion pieces and scared the daylights out of me.

We removed the doors and filled the holes with wood putty. I considered for a second keeping those doors but alas... the other one couldn't be replaced. At least not with the tools we had and we didn't feel like buying replacement stuff. This is the part where I irrationally decided I didn't want those doors. I may or may not be regretting that decision.

Then we sanded away... for EVER.

Yes, I had to hold the palm sander with two hands. It tickled, alright?!?!

We even got Brian's little bro to join in the "fun".

We wiped down everything and then the husby filled the holes and scratches with some wood putty.

After that dried, we sanded over where the putty had been and began the painting...

AFTER:

TV Stand: $15

Black paint: $6

TOTAL COST: $21

You might be wondering why there are random stickers on our tv. Well it turns out that when guys carry an 800 lb tv up a flight of stairs, they drop it often causing the plastic to crack. In a guys mind, a sticker holds it together and looks fine. In my mind... well, I'm sure you know what goes on in there. (And in case you can't read it, that sticker says "Hello my name is Brian". I bet you're all jealous that you don't have a name for your tv.)

Friday list

2011-08-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's Friday which means in just a few short (well, long really) hours I'll be home and chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool for 2 whole days. (Does anyone else know the whole Fresh Prince rap? No? Just me? Ok then.)

My husband was doing out-of-town construction work yesterday and he gets back this afternoon. So work ending... husband returning... weekend on the horizon...yeah I'm just asking for this day to creep by, huh?

It was just me and the shadows last night. I think I did ok. It's perfectly normal to sit in your bedroom with all the lights on, TV on, with a golf club in your hand, right?

I did occasionally put the golf club down to crochet. 2 more rows done, whoopee!!!

This weekend I will be...

crocheting some more. I am so impatient and I really really really want to see how this sweater thing is going to turn out. Unfortunately, my fingers don't work as fast as my brain does.
going to a wedding shower for the lovely Marianna!
practicing my mad volleyball skills.
celebrating 11 months of marriage!!! I can't believe how quickly it's gone by. Which means I'm only a few months away from the ripe, old age of 27.
Remember when you were little and birthdays were just so exciting? You could hardly wait to have your party and cake and presents... Every month was added on: "I'm 8 and 5/6 years old". Ah... the good ol' days...
Actually birthday's are still exciting for me. I treat myself to a little gift and I walk around claiming everyone should honor my birthday for the entire month. You know what doesn't help? Having a baby sister who was born the week before my birthday. What a scene stealer.
Did you notice I added a DIY page? I also split up the post from yesterday so you guys can have handy dandy individual posts if you attempt to recreate what I've done.
Speaking of DIY... how cool is this jewelry holder???

Source: thecharitywedding.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Okay, that's it for today. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!