MOVED IN!

We are all moved in to our new place---YAY! We actually moved in on Saturday, two whole days earlier than we were expecting, which was awesome! It was actually a pretty long and exhausting day--we moved the Hoops's out, the Furness's over, and us in and we were moving boxes/furniture until 10:30. Then Owen and I decided that it would be a good idea to build our bed and all of our other furniture that night so who knows what time we actually made it to bed...

But we are all moved in now! And we were able to spend Memorial Day yesterday being very American--we had a flag in our yard, barbecued some hamburgers (+ had corn and watermelon!), and went shopping! Yay!

Our new house is so SUNNY! I looooooove being above ground. It's so wonderful to wake up to sunshine!

Ashley and Jordan (our new neighbors) have been total rockstars as well--they were so helpful when we were all moving and we owe them a ton.

I'm so excited that we are going to have the whole summer in our new home. I promise to post pictures soon--once we get all of those boxes out of our house!

Time to Get Busy!

from unknown StumbleUpon source, shared with my by Rachel

I am DONE! Yes! Three midterms and 1 CPR re-certification---COMPLETE! And know that I'm more than halfway done with the term, summer just feels so much closer and I can't wait! Now that all of my tests are done I have no more excuses to avoid the fact that we are moving MONDAY so I am going to have to keep things brief here and get packing! I made the kale pasta bake that I pinned the other day for dinner tonight and since it fills up the entire 9x13 pan, I'm kind of counting on it lasting us the whole weekend so I can pack all of our pots and pans!

Microwave Mysteries

photo source

Microwaves are truly a wonderful thing.

That is, until you heat something up JUST too hot, and then suddenly it burns your mouth, your tastebuds are destroyed, and then it takes forever to cool back down so you stick it in the fridge and then the whole process starts over again.

Since I am a science person, I have decided to approach this conundrum methodically, and through a series of trial-and-error experiments have produced the following results that may be informative for you. Below is a list of carefully calculated and tested perfect heating times for various foods you may be inclined to stick in the microwave:

Time required to heat a cookie to melty-warm-but-not-too-hot perfection: 13 seconds

If above mentioned cookie is quite stale: 15-16 seconds

Time required to heat delicious brownie (assuming brownie is 1/9th of 8x8 pan...): 23 seconds

Time required to make perfect nachos: 51 seconds

(side note: did you know there are RECIPES for making nachos??? Seriously???) 

Time required to reheat 1 cup soup so it doesn't burn your tongue but isn't gross and cold: 2 min 11 seconds

Time required to revive stale licorice (that was stale when I bought it! Lame!!!!): 7 seconds


Time required to revive stale tortilla chips: 30 seconds (unnecessary if you are making nachos)

Time required to heat water to perfect hot chocolate temperature: 1 minute 4 seconds




I am not making this stuff up people--it's science.


And if you didn't think Owen and I were nerdy enough, right now he is listening to different type of bouncy ball sound effects for the game he is making. He says there are not very many options. I think I've heard at least 37 different types of bouncing balls, very intriguing. You should google it sometime.

Guys & Dolls

And finally........what you've all been waiting for....photos from Lyvia's play, Guys and Dolls! I know it may seem a little presumptuous to say that it was her play, but folks, this stunning girl stole the SHOW! Here are a few snapshots I grabbed of the performance for you all to enjoy.

Isn't she the cutest thing? I wish the show was every weekend and we could fly home to see it! It was so much fun. And look at all of those flowers she got--it was insane! She totally deserved it, and I was so grateful for the chance to fly home Mother's Day weekend to spend with my family.

Isn't Quinn so tall? I can't believe it! My bet is that he will be taller than Devynne by next year (sorry sista)!

We just bought our plane tickets last night to go home to Washington after spring term--yay! We were planning to rent a car and drive (we're not quite ready to take the Spectra after our last road trip disaster...) but we were looking at prices, and it was only about $50 more to fly so we're going to try to at least partially preserve our sanity :) I can't wait!

To Live

 25Jesus said unto her, I am the ^aresurrection, and the ^blife: he that ^cbelieveth in me, though he were ^ddead, yet shall he ^elive:

 26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never ^adie. Believest thou this?

-John 11:25-26

It has been brought to my attention that many of my more recent posts have been quite, well, worldly to put it in the LDS lingo, so lest you think I am going astray, I wanted to share a quick scripture from my New Testament study today!

In our NT class, we've picked out many of Christ's "I Am" statements. I am the light, I am the bread of life, I am the good shepherd. To me, this passage contains the greatest assertion of all--"I am the life." How true that is! Thanks to my faith in Jesus Christ, I have been able to embrace life more fully than I could ever imagine. My service and participation and learning in the church have helped me grow in so many ways and truly have defined my happiness today.

Especially after my dad passed away last August, verse 26 has grown in importance to me. He that believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? It's a question I've had to ask myself many times, and a question to which I will answer with a resounding "Yes, I believe!" And thank heavens for it! Through Christ we can truly live, and I am forever grateful for his sacrifice and role in my life as my Savior.

How Pinteresting....

I finally have a Pinterest! YAY!

For those of you who don't know what Pinterest is all about, please continue to read :) So I don't know about you, but I am a "bookmarking" maniac. I feel like I always have to bookmark a page that has something cool on it, and if I don't, then I likely have lost that interesting tidbit or fun DIY idea or awesome recipe to the Internet forever. This is why I have like over 50 bookmarks on my Chrome browser, and probably why my Internet takes forrreeevvvverrrrr to load. Solution? Pinterest! Pinterest is a place where you can "pin" different sites and organize them into categories by simpling clicking on a button when you are on the desired page. Other people can view your pins, re-pin them, and get inspired! I love the look of Pinterest, and feel like this will be a wonderful and totally fun way to keep all of my ideas and inspirations in one place. 

If you have a Pinterest, let me know and follow me! If you would like an invitation to Pinterest, also let me know and I will hook you up! It's much easier when you get an invite from someone you know...it took me like three weeks to get accepted! 

Let the pinning begin! 

(yes I'm a total nerd)

What Do You Think About....

So now that my favorite not-so-kosher show has ended for the season (cough cough GG), and Psych is not set to return until FALL (booo!!!!), I decided that I needed to get into a new show. I'm not a huge TV fan, but it is kind of fun to be into one weekly show that I can watch while making dinner or something. As per recommendation to me by a friend who shall remain disclosed unless she wants me to share, I decided to watch the season premiere of The Bachelorette this week. The drama quotient was definitely up to par, and despite the cheesiness of the whole affair, I think this may be suitable light viewing material for the summer. Are any of you closet (or not-so-closet) Bachelor/Bachelorette fans? If so, here are my top picks from tonight!

Ryan P.

Definitely my number 1 so far. He seemed genuinely nice, outgoing, friendly, and he started a solar panel company--how cool is that?

J.P.

He's just attractive. This photo does not do justice to this construction man.

Ames

Thought the ballet tickets were a very sweet and thoughtful gesture, plus he's obviously super smart and successful. Only drawback--may potentially be super cocky.

So there you have it! Can't wait to see all of the cool places they are going to visit and to try to convince Owen once and for all that we should go to Bali!

Crafty Inspiration

Here are some glimpses at some DIY/craft projects I've been interested in/completed recently!

Remember that chevron rug that I was adoring over at UO? How about a tutorial on how to make my own! Definitely want to give this a try as soon as we move into our new place. 

An adorable button monogram that I made for an upcoming baby shower! (I would post a photo of my own, but I don't want to give away the surprise!) 

Remember the pompoms I had at my wedding? I think these would be such a cute soft little addition to my kitchen or who knows where...really I just think they are adorable but have no idea where I would put them...

I clearly have a thing for hanging orbs. I would put a few of these outside by our new back "patio"/porch thing to create a lovely romantic summer atmosphere.

How incredibly gorgeous would this unique wreath look on our front door?? And the best part is that it is completely DIY and alive! I may need to start taking more walks to local parks and searching for succulents! (anyone know of any good places?)

A super super simple idea to brighten up an everyday, usually boring space. This easy DIY will probably be one of my first projects in our new place!

Slacker

I know I know, I have been the biggest blogging slacker on the planet. Don't worry, I've already had my mom AND my sister nag me about it (my two biggest [only?] readers). But you know why, right? I haven't had time to blog because I don't work at the math department anymore! Now I have a job where I actually have work to do and I make progress and do cool stuff! Though of course, I do have to admit that I am currently at research right now, but that is beside the point.

Anyway, what it comes down to is that spring term has been way more busy than expected, but it has been a good busy! So far I really like all of my classes and am LOVING not being at the math department anymore! Though my paycheck definitely has taken a significant cut...good thing for Owen I guess! Okay no guessing really, but you know what I mean. Especially since that boy has been working 40+ hours every week this term--he rocks! And also Qualtrics rocks because since Owen works there and they are a huge sponsor of the Stadium of Fire, we get free tickets to the Stadium of Fire this year! I am so excited! I totally wanted to go but am too cheap to buy tickets ($30 for the cheapest?? If I'm spending that kind of money, I'll go to the U2 concert!). I can't wait!

Other good news: we participated in purchasing our first Bountiful Basket this week! If you don't know what Bountiful Baskets is all about, you MUST check it out here. We drove up to Lehi on Saturday at 7 am (yeah it was early) since we kind of signed up late on Monday and Lehi was the closest place left. When we got there, volunteers were sorting out the baskets, and we each got TWO of these baskets, all for only $15! It was such an awesome deal!

photo source

In our basket we got 6 corn on the cob (had them for dinner and they were HEAVENLY!!!), a box of mushroom, 1 head of romaine, 1 head of Swiss chard, a bunch of bananas, a cantaloupe, 3 mangoes, 5 tomatoes, 1 bag of carrots, 6 peppers, 6 Fuji apples, and a box of blackberries! Plus some stuff I am probably forgetting about...Anyway, so far everything we've eaten of it has been SO SO SO good and I definitely want to participate in this again! Hopefully we can score a place closer to home and then we can help volunteer too! Thank you my dear Emily Drennan for informing me about this awesome deal! Now I just have to make sure that we eat all of this delicious produce before it goes bad! If you like delicious produce at all, I totally would recommend this to you.

I know I'm a little late...

I know that this video is a little late, but since I was in Washington actually getting to be with my mom for Mother's Day, I don't feel too bad about it :)

Love this song + moms rock

(totally snagged this straight from a friend's facebook wall!)

New Place, New Look

(Dear Readers: Please keep in mind that the following post is based on the presumed notion that somehow Owen & I will fall into a pretty sum of money thanks to some long-forgotten relative who decides to bestow unlimited funds to us)

I am not sure if you have heard yet or not, but on June 1st, Owen and I will be living in a new house! YAY! We will be saying goodbye to awkward smoking neighbors, squeaky and super low ceilings, living underground, our dear potato bug friends, washing machines that don't rinse out soap, permanently stained floors, power outlets that always go out, and the dungeon! I am so excited and we are so blessed that we were able to find someone to move in before our contract was over. I am also excited because our new place has wood floors. You know what that means. Time to shop for rugs! And while I was at it, I figured, what the heck? Might as well pretend like I can totally redecorate and pick out all of my other favorite home decor items! I might have to call up some companies and ask them to special-make some items in the color scheme of my house, but whatever

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Okay, I'm kind of partial to Urban Outfitters decor right now, but hey! It's cheaper than Pottery Barn!

Delicious Eats: Panzanella

Photo borrowed shamelessly from here

One problem about being married is that it is hard to eat all of our food. I try to buy fresh produce and real food (as opposed to just mac & cheese or something) but they always come in portion sizes that are too big for me and Owen to eat in a reasonable amount of time. Unless we like only ever ate lettuce or something. This leads to me being really sad about throwing away food that has spoiled or just has been sitting in the fridge for who-knows-how-long.

In my fridge the other night, I had half a bundle of almost-there asparagus, a bowl of stale rosemary french bread left over from fondue, and a tomato that probably has seen better days. What on earth could I made to use up all of these poor ingredients before it was too late?

Cue this awesome recipe. In the directions, the blogger said that you don't have to be too specific about the portions of each ingredient, so I definitely just used this as a template, especially since who the heck knows how many tomatoes is 400 g? My edits are in bold below, and even though I adapted it for two people and to what I have in my sad little kitchen, it turned out delicious! Definitely would recommend it for a lovely light summer dinner dish!

panzanella - bread salad with asparagus and salami

serves 4

400 g ripe tomatoes (I just used one tomato, and cut off the part that looked a little shabby)

250 g asparagus (half-ish a bundle)

100 g about 5 slices salami (genoa) (didn't have any salami on hand, and since she said that bacon or prosciutto would probably also work, I used very thinly sliced ham. Close enough!)

250 g bread like ciabatta, baguette or country bread (La Brea Bakery Rosemary & Olive Oil bread, totalllllly stale)

2 garlic clove (used already minced garlic, because it is always so much easier)

2 tablespoon olive oil for the pan

a bunch of scallions or chives (didn't have any, so I just skipped this part)

for the vinaigrette:

4 tablespoon balsamic or red wine vinegar (went with balsamic)

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard (don't have any, so I just used regular mustard....)

1/2 teaspoon honey

sea salt and fresh ground black pepper (subbed kosher salt and lots of just regular old pepper instead)

Cut the bread in bite size chunks (about 2-3 cm / 1 inch). Peel the tough ends of the asparagus and cut off the bottom. Slice the salami in strips. Peel and dice the garlic and cut the scallions.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wide pan. Add the salami and cook until very crisp. Remove the salami chips from the pan and set aside on a paper towel. Add the asparagus to the same pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes then remove from the pan. Add the second tablespoon oil, preheat the oil to medium heat and add the bread. Cook, tossing frequently, for about 6 minutes. Add the garlic to the bread and cook for further 3 minutes. The garlic should not burn, lower the head if necessary. (Of course I wasn't paying attention, so the garlic did burn. Wasn't the end of the world though)

In a large bowl mix the tomatoes, asparagus, salami, bread with garlic and scallions. 

Make the vinaigrette and toss into the salad just before serving because the bread can get mushy after a while. (this is true! It also takes better served warm!)

Fame

Sometimes when I flip through a magazine in line at the grocery store or get distracted by the main Yahoo page, I seriously wonder, "How are some of these people famous?" With the rise of YouTube, reality TV shows, and Twitter, it seems like more and more people are celebrities every day and I don't even know where they come from or what they are famed for.

But one thing that I do enjoy is when I come to realize why certain names are famous. This has happened to me a couple times lately, and it's always just a nice surprise to think, "You know what? They deserve all of that credit." My two recent cases of fame discovery: Roger Ebert and Lauren Conrad

Ebert:

I've always heard of the two famed film critics, Ebert & Roper, but never really understood what the big hoopla about them was. However, Friday night as Owen was attempting to persuade me to see Thor with him, we stumbled across some of his reviews. I get it now. This man is HILARIOUS! We found his review of Battle: Los Angeles particularly hysterical. Here are some of my favorite lines from the passage:

"Here's a science-fiction film that's an insult to the words "science" and "fiction," and the hyphen in between them."

"The aliens are hilarious. Do they give Razzies for special effects? They seem to be animal/machine hybrids with automatic weapons growing from their arms, which must make it hard to change the baby." 

"You gotta see the alien battleships in this movie. They seem to have been assembled by the proverbial tornado blowing through a junkyard. They're aggressively ugly and cluttered, the product of a planet where design has not been discovered and even the Coke bottles must look like pincushions." 

"Young men: If you attend this crap with friends who admire it, tactfully inform them they are idiots. Young women: If your date likes this movie, tell him you've been thinking it over, and you think you should consider spending some time apart."

And the best part was, we did decide to go see Thor, and I decided afterwards that his review wasn't too far off! Accurate and entertaining--this guy is great. And thanks to him, I've decided that I definitely should give in to Owen's pleas to see Rango--who would have guessed?

Conrad:


Okay, I have never been one to watch the kind of shows that made this lady famous, but now that Laguna Beach is far behind her, I've decided that even though she is far too wealthy for what she has accomplished, at least the girlfriend has good style. I think she has tried to take herself more seriously and not just live off of her reality show fame, which I appreciate. Plus, I admit, I've gotten a little hooked on her website, thebeautydepartment.com. It is surprisingly helpful and I greatly enjoy the aesthetics of the site. I often find beauty websites too cluttered and too chatty, but this one has been better than I could have ever expected!

Other celebrity websites of note:  Gywneth Paltrow's GOOP.com and Rachel McAdam's GreenIsSexy.org

In any case, I hope you have enjoyed these enlightenments as much as I have. Happy Sunday!

leavin on a jet plane

You know it is true sisterly love when this weekend I am willing to leave this:

for this:

Just kidding Lyv! But in all reality, I am super stoked to be leaving tomorrow morning for my dear Camas, Washington to see my family and Lyvia perform in her super awesome lead role for Guys and Dolls! Yeah, my sister(s) rocks. If anyone is in Camas this weekend they should totally buy tickets and go see the show.

I've been saving up my calories today for a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll tomorrow--I think that is why I like flying so much...

Eat This Not That

Here is a secret that someone might not have told you yet about getting married--you gain weight. It's inevitable. Within the first six months or so of marriage, you will definitely not be at that ideal cute weight you were for your wedding. And your husband, who used to live off of Top Ramen and quesadillas, will also gain weight. There is really little you can do about it, so you might as well accept that sad fact right now.

But! It is spring time, which means summer is coming close, and since I am going to be in a swimsuit 4 days out of the week starting June 6th, I decided that now is the time to slim back down a little bit.

I've been using the "MyFitnessPal" application on the iPod to help keep track of calories and exercise--I've found it to be a helpful way for me to be mindful of what I put in my body.

However, today I was invited to The Cheesecake Factory for my friend, Kierea's birthday. I've never been, but I've always been slightly afraid and intrigued by it because it is always showing up on the "Eat This, Not That" emails that I get from Men's Health magazine. Owen always asks me, "Why are you getting emails about men's health?" but I love reading those types of articles. Anyway, they always make The Cheesecake Factory sound like the devil, and only recently has this restaurant released nutritional information about their menu. I didn't think it was real, but you can check it out for yourself here! There are like three things on the menu under 1,000 calories, and most of them are side dishes!! Here are some facts about some of their most popular choices:

The Grilled Chicken and Avocado Club


Sounds innocent, right? I mean, the chicken isn't even fried! Well think twice. According to many sources, there are 1,752 calories in this sandwich, 28 g of saturated fat, and 2,309 mg of sodium! Eat This, Not
That says that you would be better off calorie-wise eating 11 scoops of Breyer's Mint Ice Cream. The lowest calorie sandwich on the menu is actually the Grilled Cheese (who would have thought??) which still has 1,052 calories. Yikes!

Bistro Shrimp Pasta


Owen always wonders why I never want to order pasta at restaurants. Well how about this one for evidence--2,819 calories, 77 g saturated fat, 1,008 mg sodium, and 184 g carbohydrates! Eat This Not That says this is equivalent to eating 3 orders of McDonald's Big Mac with fries, or 14 Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Who would have guessed? There's green stuff in there so it looks healthy right? I am so glad that I have studied the menu before going! And I am also grateful for California state law which requires chain restaurants to release their nutritional information. People need to know what they are getting their bodies in to!

So you're probably thinking, "Okay, never going to that place ever again" by now, and that might actually be a safe choice, but I was determined to find something reasonable. And I don't just want a salad (only the ones listed as "Weight Management" salads are even below 1,000 calories, and how embarrassing is it to order that??). If I wanted a salad, I would make one at home and save the $15. But if I am going to a place called The Cheesecake Factory, I want to order some cheesecake, darn it! So here is what I have decided to order:

Margherita Pizzette -- 609 calories -- $5.50

Source

I know it is supposedly only an appetizer, but after looking it up online for photos, it sure looks big enough for a meal to me! And appetizer price = cheaper! 

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake -- half slice = 365 calories -- $6.50 (more expensive than my real food, sheesh)

This is the lowest calorie cheesecake aside from the "Low Carb" ones which just use artificial sweeteners instead. And if I am going to splurge and eat a cheesecake, I want one with the real stuff thank you very much. The good part is that I love lemon and berry everything, so hopefully this will satisfy my desire! Now the tricky part will be only eating half of it--that's what husbands are good for, right? :) 

Wish me luck tonight and happy eating!