Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Pizza Pizza


I was just giggling over the fact that I haven't heard the Little Ceasers guy say that for so long.

Anyhow, when I was finally getting over my cold last weekend, I came down with another very uncomfortable, and very annoying flu. Chills, aches, head pounding, stuffy nose, the whole works. Although I am actually breathing out of my nose now, I still feel a under the weather as a lot of us are at this time of year. I'm happy to be able to cook again, but I can only bring myself to make comfort foods. Yesterday it was corn chowder, and today I was in the mood for pizza. I love making, and especially eating, pizza. I usually make myself use at least half wheat flour in the crust, which takes some of the yumminess out of it, but I try to admit to myself that it's just as good. Today I did it. . .all white. It made our grilled chicken, spinach and goat cheese pizza just right, and the pizza stone gave it a nice crust. Pizza is awesome. It can be made so many different ways, and it can be as healthy or as bad for you as you want. As much of a fan as I am of using wheat flour I think I'll use it elsewhere. I did make pizza with a wheat biscuit crust not long ago, and it worked well for that. But for that chewy, thin, stringy cheese pizza that we all know and love, it deserves to be made in the traditional form. I saved half of the dough to be frozen and used for later use, but I think It's going to be used in the next day of two. I like trying different combinations of toppings. I'll tell you what we make next.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Before and After

Well my Space Bags arrived and I decided to put them to the test. I don't know if I packed everything correctly, but they are really going to save a lot of space. I think I'm going to really enjoy them when we're packing for a trip and can all pack in one suitcase. I've heard that is a great use for them. I'll admit, there is one blanket from this pile not packed but I also have not used two of the small bags. I have to ask myself why I'm packing most of this stuff at all and not just throwing it aways. At least it's taking up less space until I decide what to do with it. I would recommend these to anyone. Here's the website where I ordered. You can also get them at The Home Depot website, or any of the As Seen on TV stores. Happy space saving!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Lili's book tag thing

I've been book tagged by Elise. I'll post an excerpt from Elise's blog so you all know what this is about:

Rules of the Game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.


Funny I should be tagged since I'm actually reading a book right now and it is really sitting right next to me. Lili's obsession book, at that. I started "twilight" by Stephenie Meyer yesterday and am actually quite captivated. I'm really going out on a limb to go to page 123 since I haven't read to there yet and it might give something away, but I don't mind. It might add a little suspense.



I purposefully jumped in with the youngsters, trying to make it clear that I preferred Jacob. "That's Sam--he's nineteen," he informed me.
"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?"



What does it all mean. I guess I'll have to keep reading to find out. I tag Melody, Sarah, and Grandpa. Good luck.

KC avocado sandwich.


I took this picture a while ago when I bought these huge avocados. They were very delicious and I bought more than we could even eat before they got too ripe because they were such a great deal. The price nearly doubled in the next few days due to the freezing conditions. Anyway, I love this picture. It's set as our desktop background and it cheers me up every time I look at the computer.

He's been sick this week with the scratchy throat, swollen glands thing, and now here I am, sick too. He actually just left for church since he just has the usual coughing, etc. symptoms remaining, and I'm just beginning. I slept for a total of 2 1/2 or 3 hours starting at about 4:30 AM. I could barely swallow without gagging so every time I would nod off, I woke up abruptly. I started Zicam, the "miracle" medicine, at the first sign of this, so we'll see if it really reduces the severity/duration of this sickness. I'll base it on KC's conditions and put it to the test. You can see some reviews here. I am using the nasal swabs as opposed to any of the other options. Sprays and chewables usually have a tendency to trigger my gag reflex so these are perfect for me. They are completely odorless and tasteless.

He's very sweet and agreed to teach my primary class today. I even bought the sweethearts candies on sale (14 cents a box) to bribe them. I told him to only give them one heart candy for good behavior. They should last a while. since I bought quite a few boxes. I don't need those kids to be more hyper at church, and I'm sure their parents don't either.

So, you see, especially in conditions such as this, a good picture can be just what is needed to really cheer someone up. This is my picture of choice.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentines Day!




We didn't do much for Valentines Day this year. It's cold and icy outside and our anniversary is around the corner so we decided to have a cozy night in. I was planning on making a nice salmon dinner and have it ready and waiting for him when he got home. I knew I had everything to prepare it so I carried on with the day. I was out and about and I got home after KC was already there with pink roses and a box of chocolates. They are pretty fancy-shmancy too, with flavors like lemon-almond, mango, pear, tea, and the other regulars.

Since dinner wasn't even close to being ready, we decided on something quick and easy, bagel breakfast sandwiches, the most perfect food in my opinion. Crispy bacon, soft yolk, Monterrey Jack cheese, toasted sesame bagel, I could eat it for every meal.

Even though we were stuffed, what is Valentines Day without dessert. I had a few things for fondue and I finally used the tiny chocolate fondue pot that Mom got me in England. It worked perfectly for the two of us. Don't worry, we didn't eat all that was on that plate. We dipped quartered oatmeal choc chip cookies, dried apples, and strawberries. We also had whipped cream to dip them in as well. I'm a fan of the cookies and whipped cream. I really wanted to try one of the chocolates, but I think they are going to have to wait. Why do holidays always have to involve so much food. I guess that was my choice.

I'm very glad to have my Valentine this year. This is my first year as a married valentine so it was nice to be with someone who loves me. Sometimes I think he forgets about little things like V-Day but he always proves me wrong. I m a lucky girl.

Slippery Snow

Imagine the ground covered with snow cone ice. Wet, hard packed, icy snow. Usually the snow is safer to walk on than the street because of ice. Not in this case. The snow is extremely slick. As I was walking to work, I was enjoying the finally white covered roofs and trees, but the streets are always to inconvenient in the snow. Our landlord is always so nice to shovel our little walkway, and the friendly Hispanic man next door offered me ride as he has before. I thanked him and told him that I enjoy my little walk and the snow didn't bother me...until the stairs. I walk up and down these stairs everyday and I have to say it was a little frightening, especially going down. I could barely see where each step was and they are very uneven anyway. I had to really stomp into the snow to get a good hold and walk safely. I guess Matt would call these the stairs of dooooooooooommooooooom. I'm probably making this sound worse than it really was, but I did want to show our snow that all the news is about. So many schools and work places are closed today. I remember one snow day growing up in Utah and I think there have been half a dozen here already and this is the first snow to stick for more than 12 hours. Lucky kids. I hope everyone is being safe in the snow, wherever you are.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Dance Party

Some friends of ours are in a 10 week ballroom dance programs at their city dance hall. This week was a dance party and they were allowed to bring friends so she invited us to come. I really didn't know what to expect, she just said wear a skirt. I was thinking that I just wanted to be comfortable, so I wore a long khaki skirt, and my mary jane shoes. Little did I know how wrong of choices these would be, even just for a two hour dance party. It turned out to be a mini lesson on the Waltz, Fox Trot, Quick Step, Tango, and a couple others. KC took some classes at BYU so he was surprisingly good and taught me a lot. If I was wearing danceable shoes, and a movable skirt I would have been able to learn a lot more. We had to switch partners a couple times. There were only about 10 of us there, so there wasn't much to switch with. I think if you have a husband, you get to keep him as your partner. One man really went by that and wouldn't dance at all if it was a switching partner song. Once I even danced with the small, Asian instructor, with a lovely comb over. He was quiet, but very descriptive and very entertaining, to me anyway. Sometimes I caught myself laughing when there clearly wasn't any joke. I just found his descriptions and they way he said them very amusing.

It was a pretty fun night and I think KC was even in the beginning stages of the flu, so hopefully everyone in the class doesn't come out with it. I think we need to start seeking these funny yet fulfilling types of classes out. Some people just know how to keep ever night of their lives occupied with things like this. Though I wouldn't want to do that (24 and The Office nights are very important) an extracurricular activity every once in a while might do us some good. Any ideas? I think a painting class or pottery class would be fun. Maybe I'll search them out. I don't know how KC would feel about that. Maybe I'm on my own with this idea.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Silly me

I just realized that the words in my last post were all jumbled up from when I was arranging the pictures into the text. Silly blogger. I guess I should've read it one last time. It's fixed now if anyone was confused.

While I'm calling myself silly, I might as well mention one more thing I realized. I don't consider myself a very quick typist. That's not the silly thing, but I found out why. I don't use my pinkies when I type. I don't know how I developed this bad, and very unproductive habit, but I'm changing it right now. Unfortunately, right now it's producing an even lower amount of words per minute, but I'm sure with practice I'll become a much more successful typer.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Popular...this sho-ow is popu-u-lar.

As you might've read from Cami's blog, we saw Wicked last night and really loved it. I'm not as into musicals as Lili, or even Jake, but I enjoy them and get excited about them all the same. KC and I didn't know any of the music going in besides what we heard in Cami's car on the way up, and snippets I've heard Lili sing through the years. I liked not knowing the words because I tend to want to sing along and it gets very distracting. I also pay better attention to what the words are actually saying if I listen intently. We had great seats, but when I go to shows, always envy the ones on the front row. It's fun to see the actors so close up I and they just have to not pay attention to the hundreds of people watching them. But, I can't compain, our seats were great. By my understanding, we're lucky we were even sitting together, or that we even got in. It was totally sold out. I'm about to put the Wizard of Oz on our Netflix so we can put all the pieces together. I was never bored or tired (thanks to my afternoon nap). It was a great night. We had a fun crowd and ate at the cheesecake factory before, which we still have yet to eat our lemon raspberry cheesecake. I was sorry that we had forgotten our camera, but that's to digital technology, and Corinne's remembering to bring a her camera, we have this night documented. We'll probably want the CD now. I'd love to hear the songs again, and again. If you didn't understand the title of this post, listen to the CD and you'll get it.

Monday, February 05, 2007

My Washingtom Post Debut

When I was at work the other day I noticed a newspaper photographer in the hall way so I hurried to get out of her way since I was cleary blocking whatever she was taking a picture of. Another woman was having people sign a paper and she soon came to me asking if I would sign a waiver in case my picture ended up in the Washington Post. I just giggled and signed and went on. She said to look around the Post later because I might be in it. It went in one ear and out the other since I had no idea when it would come out, or what the article might be about, and I had a lot of work to do. Yesterday when I went to check to see if any of the NICU babies needed pictures, the nurse said from across the room that I am in the newspaper. She said it's a good picture and I should try to find one. I went to the gift shop and piad my 36 cents. I looked in the metro section and low and behold, on page B6 there I am zooming by with my picture cart. I look like I'm going really fast since I thought I was in the way of there Picture. I'll post the picture when I can scan it in. The article is on washingtonpost.com here. Sadly my pic was not included online. The nurses were all gathered around as I was looking at the picture and I think a couple were a little jealous. I felt kind of dumb since they kep calling me their little celebrity. The picture doesn't even show my face, but my name is in the caption. I just thought it was funny.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

De-cluttered...somewhat

We just finished two hours of cleaning out our storage room. It has been my goal to never have things in my house that I never use so I need to frequently clean things out to meet that goal. Things have gotten piled up in this first year of marriage and I thought it was time for a clean sweep. I can only imagine how many things can accumulate after years of this. It has become an impossible tasks to get rid of everything we don't use since some things have sentimental value. How long to we have to keep these things before we really don't care about them anymore? I feel like they are still cluttering up the place. I am really good at throwing things away and actual enjoy it. When I hear of people that hoard things and it takes over their house, I practically have and anxiety attack for them. I think I have decided that it's okay to store a few things that I'll never use again as long as it's not taking up valuable storage space for useful items. I am patiently awaiting my Space Bags to arrive. I ordered them online and I have piles of things ready to be vacuum sealed for much more storage space. As soon as that is taken care of, I will really feel that sense of accomplishment that comes with cleaning and organizing a very cluttered area.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

I suppose I'm crafty after all


I've always considered myself to be a non-crafty person. I've never been much or a cross stitcher, crocheter or even a regular giant journaler. Crafts have always seemed like a waste of time to me. There are to many decisions involved. Deciding colors, accessories, sizes, etc. I think it's because when I start something I am not satisfied with its imperfections and just tell myself I'm not that type of person. What I didn't realize is that you don't have to be a creative craft queen to make something for your home. I like to think I'm creating art and it doesn't seem like such a chore to me. I'm not demeaning craftiness in the least. I feel quite the opposite. I really respect those that have such talents since I don't. I have had a success this time and I'd like to share. This is my memo board. I had one that a friend made me in jr. high and have no idea where it is. I've been wanting a way to display more pictures without making a million holes in our walls. I think this did the trick. They are very easy to make (they have to be if I did it) and choosing the colors to match the house was really fun. I guess I'm still not too crafty since this is the only project I have done, or will do for quite some time. Don't look too hard at imperfections like whether or not the lines are exactly parallel because I already know they are there. And by the way, if you don't see your picture on here, these were quickly gathers to try it out. They will be rotated regularly.