Semester's end

Being out of school is weird. I no longer live my life in semester time. And, now that I'm working full-time, I don't get to enjoy the benefits of semester breaks. For some reason though, I'm so ready for this semester to be over. I think it's because I can see the stress for Ethan and I wish I could help, but I can't. I'm ready for him to get fresh new classes that are more geared to what he's actually interested in. And who knows, maybe we'll get to sneak home for a couple days. Heaven knows I need a break from here too! Although, the weather has been beautiful and I enjoyed the sun coming through  my windows as I drive to and from work. Spring is coming, I can feel it!

Noodles and breadsticks

Let's be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of cooking. Well, I like it, but I don't like the time it takes and the cleanup. Because of that, Ethan and I tend to grab whatever it is we can find for dinner and we're good to go. I've been feeling guilty that I haven't lived up to my wife duties (well.. kind of, not completely) so I decided we would try a new meal that said was 30 minutes or less.

I was searching through my sister-in-law's cooking blog here and found the perfect recipe. She called it "Spicy Garlic Noodles & The Fastest Breadsticks in the World" and by golly it was good! No, I don't have pictures big surprise. I just have to insert here that I've never been one to think, "Wow, this looks awesome, I should take a picture!" No. I'm too busy getting the food on my plate and shoveling it in. I'll try better to take food pictures if I'm going to post about food. 

The recipe:

Spicy Garlic Noodles

7 oz of whole wheat spaghetti noodles

3 garlic cloves, minced (or jarred garlic)

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/3 cup Olive Oil (next time I'll cut that down a bit)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Parmesan cheese

Boil the noodles to al dente and drain. Add the garlic, red pepper, olive oil and top it off with the Parmesan cheese as you'd like. If you still think it needs a bit more, add some more salt to taste.

The Fastest Breadsticks In The World (no yeast, no rise, no knead- Delicious!)

1 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

rosemary or italian seasoning

garlic powder (I left this out just because of the garlic in the pasta)

Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Throw everything into a bowl and mix together (if the dough is too sticky, add more flour, it shouldn't be sticky at all)

Once mixed, flour your counter and roll the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. With a pizza cutter, slice the breadsticks as thick or thin as you'd like. Set the breadsticks on a parchment lined baking pan, then drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary or italian seasoning, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese. Pop in the oven for about 7-9 minutes, or until they are light golden

This is seriously going to happen again, it was delicious. Thanks again for the help Shannon!

Quilt progress

Like I mentioned back here, one of my projects was to make a quilt. I got inspiration from a quilt on Pinterest, but she actually sells her quilts so she didn't have a tutorial on how to make it. I started looking up how to make a herringbone quilt and finally came up with pattern and a way to do it. I realized a little too late that I should probably create a tutorial for it, but I got into and didn't think twice and now I'm at the point where I don't want to go back. But, if I ever make another one, I'll try to remember to write down how I do it. Here is the sketch that I started out with (the paper is a little wrinkled). This drawing alone gave me hope that it would turn out decent!

Right now I have all of the squares cut out and most of them are pressed. The next step is trimming the little tips on either end of the seam.

Those squares were a little more time consuming than I realized.

I'm excited to finish it though! For some people, the project is all about the process. Not so much for me. For me, it's all about the finished product.

Little gem

I was on the BYU-Idaho website a week ago and I decided to look at the picture galleries they have online. It's kind of limited but there are some good ones. I came across the Spring graduation '12 and I had to see if there were any pictures of people I knew. Lo and behold toward the last few pictures, I came across this one:

It actually took me a second to realize who it was. It's me at graduation. Seeing this picture made me smile a little bit because it brought back all of the feelings and memories of that day and how I felt I could do anything. My friend Laura (on the left) and Scott (to the left of her) also made the picture! It's amazing how one single picture can bring back so much.

Good things must end

This weekend I had my final basketball game of the season. We played a team that we were very evenly matched with. We played some of the best defense we've ever played, but we struggled to get some shots to fall.

 

Totally made this!

 At halftime, we were up by one. We were geared up and ready for the second half and BAM, there was a 13 point swing in their favor. Not our best moment by any means. We starting creeping back into the game and we were down by nine points with 2 minutes left. I miraculously hit a three to get us within six, but we just could finish it off. We ended up losing 66-61. Just like that we were out of the tournament and our season was over.

I think we felt OK about the game. We worked hard, we just couldn't quite get it back. Overall, this season has been great. I've enjoyed my team and I'm glad I had the chance to play with them.

Day two of spring

Many people look forward to spring. The sun is shining, flowers start to bloom and everyone starts to look less pale and a bit more sun-kissed. I think the yearning for spring is even stronger here in east Idaho. The winters are frigid and drawn out. In all reality, out hear, winter starts in October and ends in April or May.

Luckily for us, because the weather is so wacky here, we start to get a glimpse of spring in March. Other than a random rain/hail/storm this past week it has been quite enjoyable. The temperatures get around 40-50 degrees with sun shining (yes, that feels warm to us right now). That was, until last night.

Our ward had a temple trip that we went to at 7:00 pm. The weather was decent when we went. As we drove to the temple, Ethan asked if I thought the snow was over for the season. The base layer of snow has mostly melted so there is just a small amount of snow around. I told him there was no way it could be over yet, and he responded that even if it did snow, it probably wasn't going to be any amount that would stick.

Fast forward two hours. We get done and are walking out the doors when all of a sudden we see a good four inches of snow!! I knew the beautiful weather couldn't last forever. The flakes were huge and we looked like snowmen by the time we got into the car.

To make matters worse, to celebrate my month of no treats I wanted to go get the smallest amount Irish Mint frozen yogurt from Maverick (they have it because of St. Patrick's Day). I have waited the whole month and they have had it advertised on their reader boards for weeks! We go in, and to my dismay, all that's there is chocolate and vanilla. Seriously? I mean come on, give a girl a break! They called in to the other store and they didn't have it either. Can I sue for false advertisement? They'd probably claim puffery. The nerve of some people.

I left annoyed and vowed to never trust a reader board advertisement from them ever again! We drove home and I had three M&M's to soothe my sadness. I guess it worked well enough. I just hope that "spring" isn't this disappointing all season!

*On a positive note, I ordered Moroccanoil for my hair yesterday and am so excited to start using it and have silky hair again!

Getaway

For the past couple weeks, Ethan and I have talked about going on a cruise or somewhere warm and sunny for part of our summer break in August. We've talked about maybe going back to Dominican Republic for a 1 year anniversary as well. Groupon has been fantastic for us.

We haven't gotten anything set in stone by any means, but they have so many options on Groupon and it's so cheap! The biggest cost (no surprise) will be the flight tickets, but even then, if we keep waiting and watching for them, I know we'll come across a great deal. I'm just excited to find out where we'll go. Key Largo? Montego? Maybe a little place called Kokomo? The options are endless! Just a few pictures of the places we're considering. Gorgeous!

Sunshine

Yesterday we had some beautiful weather so it gave me an opportunity to work with my camera a little bit more. Ethan was so kind to let me use him as my model again and I decided I would try the AV mode just to see if I could work that manual mode a little bit better. Here are some shots!

Greasy hair

For the past couple days or so I've been a bit obsessed with trying to get my hair feeling good again. Ethan and I have had a couple marathon days and while we are watching or movies, I will sit with a pair of scissors and cut off every split end I see. I'm doing it because I want my hair to be silky again without have to cut off another two inches. It's hard to get your hair to grow with every couple months you have to cut off a couple inches to get rid of the dead ends, but you in turn just cut off everything that you've just grown as well. It's a vicious circle.

It was actually starting to feel a lot better and I was happy I was getting the results I was hoping for. Then last night I decided that I was going to try coconut oil in my hair. I have seen it all over Pinterest that it's supposed to be great for your hair. We got a HUGE thing of it for our wedding so I thought, why not, I'll try it. I put just a little bit of it in the palm of my hands and melted it to a liquid oil so I could run it through my hair. It definitely did not go on silky smooth like my Biosilk serum. I put just the smallest amount more into my hair and then realized I couldn't handle how it felt so I used a TINY bit of my Biosilk to even it out. 

I was going to the gym to tan and it was pretty cold outside. I ran my fingers through my hair and it felt like straw, almost like I had put moose in it. I thought it was just the cold freezing my hair so I didn't think much about it. I got back home and looked at my hair in the mirror. It was disgusting. I tried to curl it to see if that would maybe get rid of some of the oil. It curled great, but it looked like a greasy mess. 

I couldn't handle it anymore, so I went back to the tub to wash it all out. My hair is a bit more frizzy than it usually is because I washed and dried it twice, but I'll take frizz over grease any day!

Practicing

Unfortunately, this past weekend was not as expected. It was supposed to be beautiful and 50's, and it was only in the 40's and it was cloudy and windy. Because of that, my photography practice was limited, but we got 2 decent shots. That's right, 2. It is what it is.

The lighting wasn't ideal and the exposure isn't perfect, but I'm learning. One goal I do have is to learn to take good pictures before I start trying to learn how to edit. Better original pictures= less editing needed!

Good intentions

After this post I was determined to have pictures up on my blog. I had every intention of getting outside when the light was great and to get some really good shots. I got home from work yesterday pulled out my camera and when outside to shoot some pictures. Like I mentioned before I don't have the cute subjects that everyone else uses so I had to improvise. A skeletal tree and some houses were all I had to work with, and I did. Unfortunately, they turned out awful. I was half-tempted to put up the crappy shots and say, "This is why you will rarely see any photos on my blog." People make photography (in manual mode) look so easy. It is so not easy. I changed the aperture and the f-stop. Ethan came so so I added him into the mix. Then the ISO, back to the aperture, back to ISO, back to f-stop. Fail. I switched it to automatic and the picture was still awful. In my defense, by that time the sun was setting and heaven knows I'm not about to get a good shot without decent light if I couldn't get one with decent light. By that time I gave up and went inside.

Ethan and I went to Idaho Falls to get some grocery shopping done but not before we hit up Panda Express for dinner. I'm pretty sure every time we go there we ask ourselves why it's so good. We'll never know I suppose. I opened up my fortune cookie in hopes it would tell me I would soon become a exposure master. Too much hope? Well, it didn't. I don't even remember what it said to be honest.

We came home and brought the food in. My camera was sitting there on the table just looking at me. We're not done. I will learn to master that thing if it's the last thing I do!

Mood Music

I don't know if I'm the only one, (actually I know I'm not because my best friend Laura is very similar to me) but music can totally change the entire mood of things. I tend to be more into the folk music that's been around for a few years, (Iron and Wine, Civil Wars, Mumford and Sons, etc.) But, I swear, when that sun shines its pretty little rays down on me in the morning, I pull out my Hall & Oats, Beach Boys, Wham and some Glee. You may see I'm not that big into what's popular right now. Don't get me wrong, I like it, I just like the old stuff better!

It reminds me of Laura and I getting ready in the morning so excited and blasting our music in the car as we drove to class. There's something about the classic music that just brings out the spring/summer fever in me. The sun makes me so happy and right now it's out and shining. Hello upbeat music, it's been far too long!

Children & blogs

I'm an avid blog reader. I have my list of blogs that update regularly and I read each and every one of them. I'm always amazed at how they always have new and fairly entertaining things to read about. Then I sit down to write my own blog and it's like there are crickets in my head. You know what I'm talking about. You're watching a TV show and to show there's an awkward silence it has crickets chirping. Well that's how it feels in my head. There's not a whole lot of great material to write about. I would say on average my blog post could be this:

Today I went to work and Ethan went to school.  Both of us were too lazy to make dinner so we did our own thing and just hung out for the rest of the night.

Enthralling right? So what do all these other blogs have in common? They all have children! No wonder they have so much material! Kids are funny and they're entertaining. Kids + blogs= entertainment. Unfortunately for anyone that reads this, there are no kids so it may not be that great to read. But there's one more thing they  have in common: great quality pictures. Now I can work on that one. I mean, it'll take some time to perfect even a decent quality picture, but I do have a camera that has the capabilities!

Luckily this weekend is supposed to be in the 50's. Yea, I said it, 50's. Maybe Ethan and I will have to go do something even remotely entertaining so I can get some pictures up, and of course, so we can enjoy the beautiful weather.

Learning

I enjoy learning how to do things. It takes me some time to warm up to some of those things if they're a little more difficult, but sometimes I truly enjoy the challenge. For the past few weeks I've been working on developing a blog, other than my own, and I have truly found enjoyment in it (and it doesn't hurt that it's for my best friend!)

I've never been very good at things when it comes to blogging. Luckily, they have a fairly easy way of changing things to get them the way I want, but with this new blog, I have learned quite a few new skills. Will I put them to the test on my blog? Who knows. What I do know is that I feel accomplished every time I get a new trinket to work just right. It's not fully complete by any means, but I thought I'd share the blog thus far.

Here is it in all it's beauty (no pun intended):  B. Beautiful

Social weekend

This weekend was strangely social for us. We usually hang out with our friends once during the weekend and then spend the rest of the time hanging out with each other. Not this weekend!

Friday: We had a team dinner at our assistant coaches house. We did a taco bar and had a good time getting to know each other a little bit better outside of basketball. Ethan really liked our assistant coach's husband and we've decided we need to do a few more things with them! After dinner we went with Cameron and Hannah to see Oz: The Great and Powerful. I loved it! I'm  totally Oz fan from the original Wizard of Oz to Wicked, (the Broadway show about how the Wicked Witch of the West became wicked). I was a little skeptical of James Franco, but he did a great job and it was PG! Nothing is PG anymore unless it's animated!

Saturday: I had a game in the early afternoon, which we won, and then I finally got to see Brennan, Austin and little Lainey. She was as precious as ever. I could tell Brennan was exhausted so I told her to go upstairs and take a nap and I would watch Lainey. She melted my heart and made me miss being able to hold little babies all the time. We got her to sleep and headed to Wingers for some dinner. We had a great time catching up and all spending time together. (We're not-so-secretly trying to get them to move up here so we can all be friends and do stuff together all the time). Thanks for visiting B and Austin, we miss you guys already!

Sunday: We headed to church for the money. When we got back, Ethan went upstairs to take a nap and I spent my time catching up on Hart of Dixie. Talk about twists in the second season. I cannot wait for the new episodes coming up! Then we headed to dinner at Ethan's home teaching companion. They had a couple other families over and we had a great time talking and getting to know each other a bit better.

We had a great time this entire weekend, and it was just what I needed.

Project list

Over the past couple weeks, I've been trying to come up with different projects for me to do to keep me busy. That list is compiled here but I know I'll come up with more.

• Gray and white herringbone quilt. It's based off this one here, but she didn't have a pattern so I came up with one on my own using HST (Half square triangles). 
• When the weather gets a bit nicer, I want to really work with my camera so that manual mode because more like automatic for me. 
• Finish decorating my house. I know, I've been here for 8 months and I still have bare walls. 
• I want to paint the interior of our house. This one is a long shot since we are just renting but a girl can dream! 
• Make myself a maxi skirt. I don't know how many times I've talked myself into buying a maxi skirt and then talking myself out of it. There's a pattern here that I would love to use. She also sells the skirts pre-made. It's $58 for a maxi skirt. Hmm.. Yea, about that. I'll sew it thanks. 
• Help my brother and future sister-in-law plan their wedding. 
• Try more things from Pinterest whether it be more recipes or crafts. 

That's all I can actually think of but I know I had a lot more. Here's to keeping me busy!

Good night's rest

Two nights ago I had one of the best things happen to me: I slept well. For some reason, I have been sleeping awful. I wake up multiple times during the night, I toss and I turn and then it's time to wake up in the morning. I came home from work Tuesday and I was exhausted. I knew I had about an hour or so before Ethan came home so I decided to take a quick nap. Quick was the plan. I fell asleep around 5:15pm or so and then I woke up at 8:45pm. I was still so exhausted, but I woke up for a good two hours or so and then I went straight back to bed around 10:45pm. I didn't wake up until 8:15am on Wednesday. It felt fantastic to finally get decent sleep. Nights like that make me so happy inside.

On another note, Rexburg had BEAUTIFUL weather yesterday. It was in the 40's (yes I know that's still cold but for here it's a nice day) and the sun was shining. I was so excited to get outside after work and get a little run in. That was until I walked past the windows in our building and saw the horror outside. Did my eyes deceive me? No, there really were 1-2 inch snowflakes pouring down on us. All I could think was you have to be freaking kidding me! Oh Rexburg, you and your bipolar ways. Here's a picture that doesn't do it justice at all but you get the point.

Visitors

This weekend we are having visitors and I'm so excited. If I can't get out of Rexburg just yet, it'll be nice to have some fresh faces come to us. My best friend Brennan, her husband and her new baby Lainey from this post are coming to visit. Brennan's grandparents are up here as well as well as some other family so they are coming to introduce little Lainey to the rest of the family that haven't met her yet. And although they won't be here long and their time will be split, I'm so excited to see her. If it hasn't been obvious, I don't have many friends here anymore and I long to have those friendships again. It reminds me of all of the amazing times we've had together and keeps me hopeful that we'll always have those cherished memories.

My first trip down to Brennan's home

Cabin fever

I have known for sometime about myself that I enjoy change, that is, change that I initiate. I like to move around and meet new people and see new things. This has resulted in a lifestyle the past four years. After I left home for college I never really moved back, not even on my off-track. My life has looked a little bit like this:

2009:
January-July: Rexburg, ID
July-December: Milwaukee, WI

2010:
January-July: Rexburg, ID
July-October: Payette, ID
October-December: Oro Valley, AZ (basically Tucson)

2011:
January-July: Rexburg, ID
July-December: Mesa, AZ

2012:
January-December: Rexburg, ID (With a month break for wedding plans/traveling)......

I've been here far to long according to what my schedule has been in the past. Don't get me wrong, I really don't mind it here, I'm just starting to feel it's cold fingers holding me tighter and tighter and I feel like there's no getting away! But alas, I know it will come to an end and I will probably be sad to leave here. The people are great and the atmosphere here is special. I just need to get myself out here, just for a little vacation to recharge.

Find your happiness

Last night I was having a conversation with my mom, and just like she usually does, she gave me some great advice. She told me that I need to find what makes me truly happy. I've had the tendency to rely on others for my happiness. I tend to live off the saying, "I'll be happy when..." It's definitely not the best way to look at things, so I am making goals to challenge myself and to find out what really makes me happy. The first thing I have on the list is to make a new blanket. The last time I made one, I felt like I was on top of the world. I'll also try doing other things that challenge me and really make me work for it. I think being out of school, I've realized how much I thrive on learning and being challenged. I'm excited to start thinking of new goals to keep my mind (and attitude) positive!