21

I think that I am pretty much AWESOME now that I'm 21:) Can you believe it? I can.


The birthday was great! Went to worked- that sucked. But they got me a cheesecake which tasted like crap, so that was nice.

Patty and Paul took us out for the traditional birthday dinner. We went to Olive Garden- it was good. They also bought a cheesecake from olive garden...except it wasn't exactly cheesecake it was a combination of sorts...anyway- it was really good and I got to take home the whole thing!

Patty and Paul got me Twilight. We watched it. This part is so romantic. This was my third time watching it and I LOVED IT! The first two times I liked it, but had a hard time. This time I was warm throughout the whole thing. It was simply wonderful. It made me SO excited for New Moon to come out!

Oh yeah, and Clay's parents also got me my camera at Christmas time which was part Birthday as well. Which I LOVE!

My mom and dad got me AWESOME presents and let me open them when they were here about a month ago. I need to take pics. One was a Martha Stewart Cooking School book. LOVE IT! It is basically a manual for EVERYTHING kitchen/cooking/baking. HELLO! Totally my thing. I didn't even know that book existed, but it is SO ME! It was such a surprise and I was SO HAPPY! I also got a marble rolling pin (so nice, already used it many times), a 1/3 cup scoop, and pattern weights.

Clay TOTALLY spoiled me. I REALLY need to take pics of what he got me. He got me the Mamma Mia piano music (total surprise), 3 shirts, a pair of capris, and High School Musical 3. HELLO! I guess the clothes were all clearanced and SUPER good deals. None of my presents have come yet except Mamma Mia music, so he found a creative way to give them to me...that will come with the pictures tomorrow probably. Clay claims that he was justified in getting me all that stuff because even though I have a lot of clothes, they are all worn out- which is totally true. So many of my clothes are WAY faded and WAY balled up. Many even have holes in them...and I STILL wear them! Yikes. That sounds horrible and tacky.

Overall it was a great day! I'm sad that tomorrow is not birthday day. I have had fun saying to Clay, "Hun, it's my birthday...I can say want I want" or, "Hun, it's my birthday, do what I say". You know- things like that. This weekend is general conference- I am so excited. Patty got us tickets to go to the Saturday afternoon session at the conference center! I am super excited!

Pretty in Pink was in the $5 bin at Walmart. We bought it. I'm so excited. I can already feel the tears swelling up. Confused? Me too. I don't know WHY I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME I watch that movie. I have NEVER seen ANYONE ELSE cry at that movie. But somehow I ALWAYS do. And it's not only crying...it's full on BAWLING. That end scene where Duckie just lets her go and tells her to go after him...it's so heartbreaking, heartwarming, and just pulls the tears right out of me. Amy, I know you are smiling or laughing or shaking your head right now:) Just as you always do when we watch it and I start crying!

Well, I better go to sleep...so I can wake up and work.....................UGHHHHHHHHHHH. K. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to me! Oh- and thank you to everyone who called to wish me Happy Birthday! If you didn't get ahold of me- sorry...I heard EVERYONE'S messages. I really appreciate it! Love you guys!

Recovered kitchen chairs

So I THOUGHT I took a before picture...but apparently I deleted it? How the heck that happened I DON'T know. OHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well. I recovered my chairs- and I LOVE THEM! They were just all beige colored before. They are pretty much awesome now. It totally brightens up the room.

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

DIRECTIONS:

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In electric mixer, beat butter, shortening, granulated sugar, and 1 cup light-brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully combined between each addition. Add vanilla, and beat to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until fully combined. Remove from mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in chocolate chips. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, using a rubber spatula, stir together peanut butter and remaining 1/4 cup light-brown sugar.

Using a 1 1/4-inch scoop or heaping tablespoon, drop dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Make a thumbprint in the center of each cookie. Fill thumbprint with 1 teaspoon peanut-butter mixture. Top with a second scoop of dough, and carefully mold dough to cover "surprise."

Bake until firm, about 12 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks.

Caesar Pockets

Danielle Loves Kraft Food & Family magazine...

Clay says this was "top ten". We LOVED this! So easy and so yummy.

Pot Roast without mashed potatoes

Does anyone actually brave it? Seriously. I am eating leftover pot roast...with nothing else. Gravy, yes. But no potatoes. I suppose they don't have to be MASHED. But in some form....they just have to be there. I feel weird and the sensation pot roast gives you just isn't there without the potatoes.

Anyway. I will finish my dinner.

Clay is sick and in bed. Therefore I have to entertain myself while I'm eating. Thus, reading blogs, thinking about the potatoless roast, and blogging about it...letting the roast get cold...making it worse.

Goodbye.

Seriously...I am SO EXCITED!

Yeah. I just got updated on mugglenet.com, and watched all the trailers. It's gonna be great.

I tried a new recipe tonight. It was GREAT! I will post it later.

Blog under construction..............................................................................................

The Saturday morning breakfast dilemma

I wrote this blog this morning...but was having trouble with my picture...so anyway. Whatever.

So I had this vision last night of waking up early in the morning, baking homemade wheat bread, making my delicious scrambled eggs, and having eggs on toast for breakfast. Something the husband AND the wife would LOVE. However...a little something was calling my name the SECOND...and I mean SECOND I walked out of my bedroom. Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies.


Healthier...really yummy, yet time consuming breakfast? Overrated.

Why go for the bread option when you could eat 3 sugar-filled cookies, with the excuse of peanut butter for nutrients, and have a slight...but not overBEARING stomach ache after to show for it?

If you want the directions for the cookies, go to Chef Danielle...tomorrow I am actually updating it today...hopefully.

Do any of you get the Kraft foods magazine each quarter? I do- let me tell you..there are probably 7 recipes I am DEFINITELY going to try. Two being actual food...five being treats. Surprised?

I know most of my posts are about food....but until I have a baby, this is really my biggest passion. What else will I take pictures of? My car? That I drive an hour a day in while commuting to work? My desk? My coworkers? My dirty bosch that I still need to clean? Food is a much better option, I think.

Spring has come and BOY am I hoping it stays. I really wish all my siblings could come live in Rexburg for the month of January. 1) It'd be a blast! 2) They would NEVER complain about weather again! Spring/Summer is quite nice here. It doesn't last too long, but it is quite nice. Yesterday I saw a woman walking with her little daughter in a stroller. I longed with envy. It looked SO pleasant. I seriously have always been excited to go walking with my kids. It just looks like a wonderful time. One, I love to walk on nice days. TWO, while looking or listening to a beautiful child? I just love it. I am SO excited for those times. This is why I will need one of those BOB things. I have strolled Lizzie's kids in that stroller across playground sawdust stuff and it had NO PROBLEM! Those strollers are amazing. Am I crazy here? I am talking about how much I love strollers and certain kinds...and I don't even have a child of my OWN! I just know I want one of those when I DO have a child. The problem is, they are one of those spendy little buggers. I choose to have the attitude that I always have. "Hopefully we'll be millionares by then"......:) I know, we live in pure reality here at our house.

Clay has been looking up these things on YouTube where they teach you how to play certain songs on the piano. He is doing GREAT! I'm so proud of him. We had a long discussion the other day on theory. At first it was fun for me, to teach him all that stuff. Then it got exauhsting and I told him he should just hold on to what he learned for the day, and THEN move on. It's true though- that wasn't just a selfish act. He will probably forget half of what we talked about because you don't really understand well until you FULLY understand the basics. Anyway, some songs he's kinda learned are: Hey there Delilah, Clocks (by Coldplay), and I can't remember the rest. But he is also trying to get better at guitar as well. AND, he signed up for a singing class next semester so he can learn to sing better. He has ALWAYS been super into music, but everyonce in a while he gets all motivated and it's all he can think about! He brought out his electric-acoustic guitar that he bought in Brazil (meaning not the best quality, but cool) and it had a lot of "action", which means the strings were really far from the neck of the guitar, meaning hard to play...so he was having me play stuff and see how it felt...and I hadn't played guitar in SUCH a long time! It felt so nice. I didn't want to put it down. I think I need to play more. Anyway, I think he got it fixed.

Hopefully I will get these things accomplished today:

• Update my Chef Danielle blog
• Finish Clay's ugly quilt (it really IS ugly...it's purely for practicality's sake)
• Clean kitchen
• Prepare lesson for tomorrow's silly 6-7 year old class
• Make bread

Yowsa! That's a big list. I know it's not a TON of items...but the items are pretty big. We have some friends coming over tonight that I BARELY know...hopefully that goes well. I don't even know what we're gonna do! Play games...watch movie..something. I always wish we had more seating in our living room.

Okay- I'm off! Love you guys!

40 degrees, and feelin' good.

If you want the recipies to Muddy Buddies, Taco Salad, and Oriental Beef Crunch go to Chef Danielle.



























































That's right, 40 degree mornings. Heaven!

Well, life has been normal. We've just been
working...schooling...stressing...relaxing...eating...sleeping...the usual. I've decided that my husband is pretty awesome when it comes to some things. He rocks at trying things that I like. Take the following: he's read the entire Harry Potter series, entire Twilight series, and liked them. He's watched every episode of Gilmore Girls. He watches Road to Avonlea with me every night and calls it "epic"...and he is being serious! I don't know why, but I was just thinking about that in the shower this morning. I tried playing a video game with him...a few times, and I get bored after 10 minutes. Does that make me not as good of a spouse? I choose to think that I just have better interests...that everyone would enjoy if they tried:)

Here's a random story. Kind of related to the above. This will show you how big of a psycho I can get. We are laying in bed, talking about St. Patricks Day (happy day by the way). For those of you who don't know, Clayton is full blood Irish. So Clayton says, "I'm a pureblood"...then goes on to call me a "mudblood". At first I just teased back...but then I freakishly got offended, and MAD! What is my problem? We went to sleep upset with each other, because I got mad at my husband for calling me a mudblood. If you don't know what a mudblood is...first off, shame on you...secondly, read Harry Potter. I woke up so mad at myself.

Here is our new setup. Some of you probably think...what the heck- why does she think WE would care how her tv is set up or anything about it? Well folks, this is my husbands PASSION. And I mean EXTREME passion. We've been enjoying it. We even think the new way our sound system is set up sounds better. We watched Mission Impossible and the classic theme song sounded AWESOME!





































Long ago the Leslies came over to Clay's parents because we were going to go sledding, but sadly, the snow was melting. We had them come over anyway and Clay took them 4-wheeling for a bit and we had dinner together. It was way fun. Here are some cute pictures of the girls. They are SO beautiful.
























































































































I have been making DELICIOUS breakfasts the past few weekends. I love weekends simply for these breakfasts. Patty and Paul gave us this AMAZING german pancake mix that takes seconds to make and tastes SO GOOD! This is it.






















And this is our breakfast.




YUM!

I live for the weekends.

Doesn't everybody?

Well, the time has come. This has by far been the LONGEST I've gone without posting a REAL post. What with the Bachelor doing what he did to Melissa, parents coming to visit, and getting horribly ill, I either haven't had time, or haven't felt enough energy to post. However, I currently have the aftertaste of a Cadbury Mini Egg in my mouth, and am feeling great after downing disgusting orange cough syrup, and suddenly feel ready.

What have we been up to? Well...SO MUCH! Ha. Not really.

First off. We are amazingly spoiled and blessed. Clayton's parents decided they wanted a flat panel tv that could be hung on the wall. Long story short, Clayton did hours of research, had many sleepless nights, and we ended up with their old tv, while they have a sweet new tv. The awesome thing is, their tv isn't more than 4-5 years old, and is really quite quality. HD and everything. Now we have the complete set up. All we need is a luv sac and we're ready to go! Clay wants me to figure out how to make one.

Clay has been going to school and getting straight A's. Yay for Clay! I'm so proud of him.

I have been going to work. I'm just going to say it. It's hell. Why? Not because it's a bad job. Not because I'm bad at it. Not because I hate my co-workers (although one particular co-worker has drove me insane...positively insane). I just am DONE with the working-girl stage and ready for the mom stage. That's right, I said it. I'm barely turning 21 in a few weeks here, and I'm ready for the mom stage. Yes, people's kids annoy me and these parents of annoying kids look at me and say, "Gosh, I bet this is good birth control." or, "I bet you are really excited to have kids now". And you know what I say, while they are screaming and whining and being really really disgusting? I say, "Believe it or not, I still am so excited." I think work would be easier if it were part time too. AND if it weren't a 30 minute commute. All of this combined just makes for a crappy week, which explains the title of this post. I live for weekends.

On weekends, I get to sleep in (till around 8:30 because that really feels like sleeping in to me). I get to make a delicious breakfast. I get to watch tv however LONG I want. I get to spend time with my husband. As I'm typing I know what some of you are thinking. Once you have kids, you won't get any of that anymore. Oh well.

The snow has melted almost all the way. We are very pleased. But not at all convinced. It will return, I'm sure of it.

We are still primary teachers. I was thinking about it today and our little sticker system is kind of like the Bachelor, or American Idol, or any reality tv show. Every week at the end of class, we call them one by one to say, "___, you were very good today, come pick a sticker!" or, "____, you were pretty bad today, you don't get a sticker." I'm not even joking. It just makes me laugh. They all look up at us with a little worry in their eyes (except for the two angel children who ALWAYS get stickers) like...PLEASE let me get one. Of course, our one troubled child looks at us with a face that says, "I know I'm bad...I don't really care about the stickers." OH brother.

I've made a goal this week to get to work ontime EVERY day. That sounds bad. The truth is, my work doesn't really care when I show up late. Why should they? I don't meet with clients...I pull my fair share and complete lots of tax returns, even when I'm late. I don't cause trouble when I AM there. Anyway, I should still show up ontime. So I am going to try to get to work ontime EVERY day this week. I am also going to read my scriptures EVERY day this week. And I am also going to finish Clay's quilt this week. AND, make dinners this week. I hope I can accomplish these things. These are probably things all of you do already. Why is it so hard for me to balance life like that?

Well, as I am still sick, and as it is 10:49 pm, I should probably go to bed. I will update with pictures soon...they are on my camera, I just don't want to deal with them right now. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah. My parents came, and it was wonderful. They took us out to eat, gave me birthday presents early- which I will post about later because the presents were AWESOME! I wish they could've stayed longer. I love them so much.

Also, Dakota Fanning is playing Jane in New Moon. She'll be awesome, I think.

Also, Melissa is going to be on Dancing with the Stars. Jason is an idiot.

I know I'm forgetting something..........

Gotchya. We just watched Australia- LOVED IT! Loved it, loved it, loved it. Passion, love, action, humor, one of those EVERYTHING kind of movies.

K- for reals I'm OUT!

Ummm

I'll post soon- I promise. My back hurts, throat hurts, and head feels all weird. I have lots to post about, so...be excited! ha- probably won't be that exciting. Anyway, it just sounds exhausting to me right now. I love you all.