Baking Machine

If my friends and family had to choose a few words to describe me I know for a fact that cook, or baker would definately not make the list, but for the last few days I've been in a big baking mood! Weird I know! Every attempt I've made to bake cookies in the last hmmm...26 years have ended up burnt and my family will never let me forget the time as a teenager that I thought rice crispy treats had to be baked and put them in the oven. I've given up on cookies all together and let Jeremy who is an amazing cookie baker take on that duty. Yesterday I was in the mood to bake something and upon seeing that we had apples that were just a little too ripe to eat on their own I decided to make an apple crisp...and lo and behold, it turned out VERY yummy! Today, still feeling confident from yesterdays success, I decided to try out a bread recipe my mother-in-law had given me a few months ago but I had never attempted on my own. And guess what?!?! That turned out SO delicious too! So I guess I maybe broke my bad luck spell when it comes to baking. In fact I'm loving eating everything that I'm creating soooo much that I might just have to make it a more common occurance. I'm sure Jeremy wouldn't complain! I didn't get a picture of my apple crisp yesterday but take a look at my homemade bread loaves!

Valentine's Eve

We were lucky this year that Jeremy's short work weekend fell on Valentine's day weekend, meaning he got home from work at 5pm on Saturday. We agreed this year we wouldn't do presents other than maybe a card and chocolate, which is exactly what I got him. So our first mistake on V-day weekend was thinking that since we were actually going out to dinner the day before V-day we wouldn't need reservations....well, we showed up at Texas Roadhouse and the wait was 2 1/2 hours!!!!!! Ummm....never in my life would I wait that long to eat! So we headed off to Cafe Ole which is usually pretty dead but we like their food. Luckily, they were busy but we got seated right away and enjoyed a yummy mexican food meal.

We had plans with our friends the Tolmans to go go to Blue Cow for frozen yogurt a little later but we had some time to kill after dinner so we went walking around the mall. We weren't looking for anything specific but as we passed Morgan Jewelers we both just wandered in. I decided my wedding ring needed to be cleaned since sometimes I forget to take it off while coaching gymnastics and it gets scratched and dirty. While we were waiting for them to finish we were looking at pearls....I LOVE pearls!!! I found a few things I liked but was just dreaming when Jeremy surprised me by saying, "Just let me spoil you with something, it would make me feel good!" Well I'm not about to deny my husband happiness, so I let him do as he pleased! ;) This is what I ended up with...
Decked out with my new pearls we soon after met our friends at our favorite frozen yogurt place and piged out on frozen yogurt. Doesn't make me feel guilty at all considering almost all of it is fat free! If you live locally and are reading this...GO TO BLUE COW!!! It's amazing!At the end of our frozen yogurt double date my friend Alyssa mentioned they were going to go rent Twilight and make her husband watch it. We told them we owned it so they came over for a late night Twilight watching. Yes I'm a Twilight series fan but everytime I watch the first movie I end up awkwardly giggling through the whole thing because of it's extreme cheesy-ness. Her husband hated the movie...no surprise...and we now all have a date planned to watch New Moon when it hits the cheap theaters. I have to say that overall this V-day, okay the 13th really, was a lot of fun!

A Walk Down Mission Memory Lane

So Jeremy and I fed the missionaries from our ward tonight. It was so much fun having elders in our house to talk about missionary life and for us to take a stroll down memory lane. I can't believe I've been home from my mission just as long as I was ON my mission. Lately it feels as if it was all a dream and it never really happened. It makes me so sad that I'm forgetting things that happened and people's names who I absolutely loved and adored. My mission was an amazing experience for me, not only because that is how I met one of the most important people in my life, but because it was a refiners fire that helped mold and shape me into a better all-around person. It pushed me to the brink of insanity at times and definately forced me out of my comfort zone, but every little sacrifice I made on my mission seems so insignificantly small when compared to the blessings I've received through my service. So tonight as I'm reflecting upon my experiences as a missionary I wanted to share a few pictures of the place we still get "homesick" for. . . a place we would love to go and visit again soon. . .a place we left a part of our hearts at. . . HUNGARY!

Sisters Slumber Party!

So for anyone who doesn't know Jeremy has been working full time and going to school full time. It's a crazy schedule which leaves us not seeing each other for days in a row every week. :( Well every weekend he at least works Friday 5pm to Saturday 5pm but every other weekend it's Friday 5pm to Sunday 9am. So to keep from being insanely bored and lonely I tend to hang out a lot with my in-laws! Last night I was in the area and so I stopped by and we hung out. When leaving at midnight last night I stole away my 17 year old sister in law, Brittany, to spend the night and keep me company!

We've had lots of fun today playing our new Wii Sports Resort game and our favorite dominoes game, Mexican Train! Yeah for having awesome in-laws to keep me sane while my hubby is gone. PS-Don't you just love Brittany's SUPER curly hair?!?!

Brittany is going to have some seriously sore arms tomorrow from playing so much. But, I'm getting a kick out of her trying to beat each and every record that Jeremy holds on the game before he gets home tomorrow. It's funny because I held a few records once upon a time but Jeremy wouldn't stop playing until he beat all my records....well like brother like sister.....

To go skinny or not to go skinny

So I've seen a lot of people lately wearing skinny jeans and realize that it's just a new fad. . .But, I wanted to try it. I bought a pair around Christmas originally to wear under some new boots I got. Well I thought they looked ridiculous with the boots I had so they've been sitting up in my closet unworn. But I'm feeling brave today and decided to pull them back out and try again, this time with just flats. The verdict is. . . I might just like it!!! I wish Jeremy were home or that I had a close friend who was a neighbor to let me know if I'm going to embarrass myself walking out the door like this.

On the other hand, the more embarrassing part may just be that I found a hairagami thing in a box I brought from home. If you can imagine it the hairagami is like two slap braclets sewn together on one end and you can put your hair in between and roll it into fun shapes. Well I've never been able to make it work in my hair since I got it when I was like 10. But today I got the courage to try again. . . and it worked. . . kind of! It actually "semi"-resembles the pictures of the "easy to do" hair styles in the manual. Trying two new things in one day is kind of pushing me out of my comfort zone, but as Jeremy always says, "Go big or go home." Lets just hope I'm not begging to go home because of embarrassment after going to work tonight!

Crafty husband

So a few weeks ago Jeremy planned a date night for us. While we were eating dinner he told me he had a surprise for me....look what he made!!! (excuse the bad quality and our ugly kitchen floor I took these with my phone)




















I had mentioned about a year ago that my sister had these cool watches that had changeable bands and so he went to the craft store the other day while I was at work and bought all the supplies he would need and made me this watch! My husband is SO crafty! I don't think I could have done any better! The vision of him wandering around Craft Warehouse in the beaded jewelry section makes me smile! I love you Jer!

Welcome to 2010!!!

Is it seriously 2010?!?! Time is just flying, and it's really crazy to me that if my high school still existed and hadn't been shut down, and if I cared at all about going to the reunion, we would be having our 10 year reunion next year!!! Well this New Years Eve was pretty fun. Unfortunately, Jeremy had to work, but we at least got to spend time together until he had to go into work at 5pm. As you can see from the picture below we had a gourmet lunch consisting of grilled cheese sandwiches, apple slices, and sparkling cider!



















After Jeremy left for work I headed off to bring in the New Year with my good friend Shae, who also was without her husband and baby for the New Year. We went over to some friends house from our old married student ward we were in and partied away. We played lots of games, ate lots of snacks, and had a lot of fun! Thanks Bucks for hosting an awesome New Years party! Here's a picture taken of all the girls at the party!

Christmas

I was trying to decide where to start my blog. I didn't want to go back and make up an entire year of married life so I decided we would start with Christmas and go from there!

Although this was our second Christmas as a married couple it was our first year with a real (0kay it was fake, but bigger than our 2ft tree of last year) Christmas tree! Considering we'd just moved into a large nice townhome it felt like a real Christmas in a real home!

I got many great gifts but was super excited for a new sewing machine from my parents so I can work on more crafts!

The sewing machine was shipped to us in one of the biggest bags I'd ever seen! I actually hid in it and Jeremy came looking for me and walked up and down stairs before I revealed myself!

We got these Santa hats from a secret Santa who brought us a different gift every night for the twelve days of Christmas. It was so much fun! We never found out who the secret Santa was but are so grateful to them for helping make our Christmas even more special.

Under Construction

So I finally gave in after looking at numerous friends and families blogs and started our own. No we don't have pictures of our cute kids to post for everyone to oodle over but hopefully you will still enjoy! Please have patience as I'm still learning how this whole new world of blogging works.