Perfection

I was having kind of a crappy day. Just being grouchy and lame. Then, I read this wonderful post written by Janssen and I knew that the only cure was to make my way to Pearl street in Boulder for a free scoop of Ben & Jerry's with my man.

And boy, did it work.

First, we walked down the beauitful street lined with tulips and saw a long line in front of the store. That's OK, I thought, free ice cream is worth the wait.

While in line some petition people annoyed me for my signature....pretty typical considering Boulder. As we got closer to the front door I grew eager with anticipation. A free scoop of Cherry Garcia was about to be mine!

We were in to doorway to the store, so the ear doctor took his insulina...

I bellied up to the counter and placed my order...one Cherry Garcia for me and a Phish food for the man. I got my cone of joy. (notice the blurriness of this photo....it's an action shot)

Together we raised our cones. All hail Ben & Jerry's!

Oh, how I love my ice cream....

....and my man.

We spent an hour taking in the sights of downtown Boulder. Turns out this town was a bicycle friendly community from 2004 to 2007, but is no longer. Someone should inform that bike rider.

Also, nowhere but in Boulder is that random garabage shoe left on the street a HIKING BOOT.

We ended our night by swinging by the mall to buy me some shoes (2 pair for the price of 1! Booyah!) and eat some Rubios fish tacos. Imagine my thrill when Amy Grant's Heart in Motion started blaring from the speakers.

Evenings don't get much better than that.

Nice headpiece

The ear doctor and I are dancers. We break out into dance at least once a day, usually in the kitchen. I inherited this gene from my mother.

As a result, we watch Dancing with the Stars.

(don't judge me)



We cringe at the costuming, laugh at the comments, critique the frames and swoon over a well-hit line. The judges are kind of over the top, and the dancing is pretty good most of the time. However, my personal favorite moment of the show every week is when they introduce the band, and the lead singer gets her 10 seconds of screen time.


HOLY COW, that woman is AWESOME!


You know the dame I'm talking about, right? The lady with the crazy/awesome head piece every week!?!?! I wait in eager anticipation of her moment of glory like a kid on Christmas eve. I'm so glad the show is on Monday night because it really helps me make it through the week.


If you haven't seen her, you must. It's one of the high moments of all prime time TV.

Blocked

Anyone who has blogged for more than about 3 months knows the feeling. The desire to write waxes and wanes like the phases of the moon. Like the tides of the ocean. Like my personal craving for brownies.


And right now I'm looking at those brownies thinking, I'm just really not in the mood.


So please forgive me.

That magic moment

Last Wednesday I taught 12 little girls how to make chocolate chip cookies. This activity took place in the kitchen of my church building. My very old church building. Between mopping floors covered by eggs that exploded under the inexperienced crushing of 9 year old hands and wiping down counters crazily covered with flour I decided to take off my wedding ring. The last thing I wanted was to loose it down a 50 year old drain in a building that some consider a historic landmark.

I thought the window sill was a perfectly safe place to let my prized possession rest.




The next morning I dragged myself out of bed and off to work. I had to be in early for a meeting and didn't even fully wake up until I took the first sip from my daily ritualistic cup of hot cocoa. As I started typing my computer log on I looked down and was shocked to see a naked little ring finger staring back at me.

The Rolodex of my mind started whirring and flipped open to the correct card regarding ring placement. I realized that it was still sitting there in the church's windowsill.

Frantically, I called the ear doctor. Luckily, he drives right by the church on his way to work. I asked him to swing by and get it.

Phew, that was a close one.




My day passed and we decided to meet up for dinner at Chili's before a later appointment. I arrived first, got us a table and waited for my one true love to arrive. As he entered that fine establishment he had a gleam in his eye and hands stuffed into his pockets.

As we perused the menu we shared a few laughs. I hadn't even thought about my missing rings, trusting that he had got them alright. There was a slight lull in the conversation.

His eyes darted side to side and started to slyly curl up at the corners.

The next thing I knew he had slid around to floor, stopping just in front of my side of the table. He expertly balanced himself on one knee, brought his hands from his pocket to show me a beautiful gray ring box.

He opened it to show me my own wedding ring. I caught my breath.




There, in Chili's he asked me to be his wife. Again.





I almost snorted water through my nose, smiled and nodded yes.The entire restaurant burst into applause.






Sure, I already got the perfect wedding proposal. Its true, we've been married for 10 months. But, honestly, if he'd actually asked me to marry him at Chili's I probably would have been SO disappointed.



It's funny though; when I saw him kneeling there with ring offered up to me I felt the same excited, thrilled, elated, in-love feeling that I got during the real proposal. The feeling telling me I picked the right one.


And I'm SO lucky he picked me back.

My quest

6 years ago I spent the summer living in Logan, UT.

I hardly knew a soul in the whole town and this was before I realized that I love being outdoorsy. I had no air conditioning and lived in a free-to-me, 20 year old dorm room with 3 other girls who all spoke different Asian languages.

The result? I had a pretty low key summer.

The highlight of the summer, and the brightest memory from those 3 months was a cup of limeade.

One of the advisors who I worked for had a beautiful Brazilian wife who made the the most fantastic cup of limeade. The limeade of my dreams. It was creamy and cold and sweet and tangy all at the same time.

After returning from my lonely sojourn I attempted to duplicate the experience. I failed. I could never figure out the secret combination.

I really want to serve this sweet creamy drink at the ear doctor's party in a few weeks, so I decided to turn to the Internet for help. In my quest I found recipe after recipe that described limeade as a mixture of lime juice, sugar and water. This just ISN'T the same thing.

Then I stumbled on this recipe:

INGREDIENTS
2 limes
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons sweetened
condensed milk
3 cups water
ice

DIRECTIONS
Wash limes thoroughly. Cut off the ends and slice into eight wedges. Place limes in a blender with the sugar, sweetened condensed milk, water, and ice. Blend in an electric blender, pulsing 5 times. Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove rinds. Serve over ice.

Now we're getting somewhere! The only thing is that the comments say you have to serve it immediately or it gets really bitter (because of the lime rind?). I don't want to have to make this stuff the day of our party. Also, I don't really want to make it a blended drink.

So here is my question, mixed drink makers: Do you think that if I just cut all the rind off I could mix it all together and serve it unblended?

MIA

It's not that there isn't anything to write about.

Believe me, I'm dying to tell you about the passing of fou-tee, my romantic moment at Chili's, the arrival of lil mol-ay and my secret recipe for Polynesian punch.

It's just that the ear doctor and I have both fallen pray to a lower GI bug that has us living somewhere between the bed and the bathroom. 

Do you think you can get Montezuma's revenge from planning a Mexican themed party?

Someone call Professor Higgins

A while ago I was at a meeting where a man was giving a very technical presentation. He was presenting his design in front of a very big group of important people. He was preparing for a national conference where he was scheduled to make a very important contribution to the existing technical knowledge base.

Yet,


when he described one part being stuck between two other parts he described it as being "sammiched."

Not "sandwiched" but "sammiched."

Really?


When people pronounce words wrong I have a real hard time taking what they are saying seriously. Happens all the time when people say "impordent" instead of "important"


Anyone else have similar experience?

I like em....so what

As I've mentioned a thousand times before, I make a weekly dinner menu for our house. It's always on a torn piece of notebook paper and magneted to the front of our freezer.

Lately I've fallen into a really comfortable method for planning these menus. Sunday I make some fancy dinner because I usually have more time and energy. One night we have a big entree salad, these are quickly becoming a favorite in our house. One night is a free for all. One night we have leftovers, one night we go out, one night the ear doctor fires up his grill/smoker.


The last night is casserole night.


I always feel kind of bad/lazy to have casserole night. Some part of me thinks that if I'm not pushing my cooking skills I'm wimping out. Some part of my mind feels lame for having this night.


But,


after tasting the results of casserole night, I never feel too bad. Last night's cheesy nacho casserole topped with a big scoop of sour cream was NOT the healthiest thing we've eaten all week, but there is just something so comforting and familiar about scooping a big mixture of delicious food from a corningware dish.

Doncha think?

Isn't she lovely

My cousin is getting married Memorial Day weekend and I think she's going to be a STUNNING bride!

The search is over

Saturday morning we almost, ALMOST, made an addition to our family.

However, I totally chickened out and decided that we just aren't quite ready to have a little bundle of joy of our own.

After we had to leave our little guy at the store, I was pretty dejected and annoyed by my personal inability to commit to big purchases. So, we bought this:

5 times as expensive, equally long lasting, but (hopefully) a lot less work.

It's being delivered next Saturday and I hope we can get it in our house....

Getting me through

There are a few things that I keep at my work desk that I absolutely love. I don't think I could make it through my day without these little tokens.

First, my peep pen. Go ahead, tease me all you want, but I lurve the puffiness of peeps. I got this pen in an Easter basket of yore and just love to use it when I'm in a serious corporate meeting.

Second, my homie. This little gal was given to me by a machinist. It's a prized possession because sometimes there is a big barrier between the engineers and the people who have to decipher my work and actually make it happen. Him giving me this little gal really symbolized our friendship. Plus, my abs are totally flat and I wear belly shirts all the time......right.....

Third, my coin. For a company anniversary they make us these coins. When I got it I was kind of confused why a company would spend the time and money to get these things made. I shook my head and felt like I was in a dilbert cartoon.

Fourth, my ear buds. I spent a lot of time at my computer listening to music. When I first got the standard issue ear buds I tried to wear them and after about 30 minutes the insides of my poor little ear canals hurt so bad I wanted to curl up in a little ball and cry. The ear doctor got me these fancy gray spongey adapters and now listening has been a pure joy.

GOO

It's snowing today. SNOWING.

Big, thick, heavy, depressing, wet snowflakes are building up over the new fresh shoots that my peas have sent up in the last week.


And the only hot chocolate in the cabinet at work is SUGAR FREE. with no little marshmallows!




GRRRRRR

Thoughts?

YIKES!

My mom called me this morning to alert me to an interesting story aired on the TODAY show this morning. The expose was about Nalgene bottles and their potential to leech a harmful chemical into the water inside.

As I watched, I started feeling a little alarmed. They started talking about something right next to my computer monitor, my Nalgene.

This worried me.

The offensive bottle on my screen was the exact color of the vessel I held in my hand!

They told me to check for #7 plastic, so I turned my bottle over.

OH NO!

What do I do now? Throw them all out? Has anyone who has some bio-chemical knowledge heard of this and think it is actually worthy of my concern?

When I see beautiful pictures of kitchens I dream of having a simple, beautiful, everything-in-its-place space in which to do my cooking. Pictures like this really inspire me:

(via here)

(IKEA)

(via here)

But,


Have you ever noticed that these kitchens always have bare fridge fronts? Or, even more drastic, faux fridge fronts that look like cabinet doors?


I'm afraid to say that my fridge door will never be pristine. I have this serious need to magnet things I'm proud of to the front of the fridge for all the world to see. This is what my freezer door currently looks like:







1. weekly menu
2. the ear doctor's last glowing review from work
3. my notice of promotion from work
4. awesome bumper sticker
5. blackjack pizza magnet
6. church stuff
7. my latest acquired piece of art
8. local roller derby schedule....I am determined to go to one of their games this summer!





What does your fridge look like?

Ohhh, so pretty

If someone wants to get me this I wouldn't mind....

Confession

My head must be mis-shapen.



I've tried just about every type of head-band, -scarf, -elastic, and/or -ribbon, but nothing will give me the look so recently featured in the Anthropologie catalog.

I yearn for this hair style, but have come to the conclusion that it just isn't for me. Everything I've worn slips and slides around all day, driving me to the brink of insanity.

I hate having to admit defeat, but I feel I have no other option.

Talk about budgeting

I got this series of photos from my mom in an email this morning and it was so moving for me that I thought I'd post them here. I'm sure a lot of people have seen these, but if you haven't it really shows how blessed we are.

Each picture shows a family from around the world. What they eat in a week and how much it cost.

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily

Food expenditure for one week: $260.11

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide

Food expenditure for one week: $500.07

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca

Food expenditure for one week: $189.09

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna

Food expenditure for one week: $151.27

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo

Food expenditure for one week: $68.53

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo

Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village (Bhutan is between India and Tibet)

Food expenditure for one week: $5.03

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: $1.23

Great ideas

So, I've mentioned about a million times that I'm in charge of organizing and leading activities twice a month for the little girls in my church congregation, ages 8-12.

This responsibility has be SO much fun and I just love being a part of the program.

Now that the warmer months are upon us I'm getting really excited to plan fun, educational and uplifting activities outside. So far this is what I've got:

-Movie day. My apartment complex has a small 20 seat big screen projection theater in the club house. I'm going to make breakfast and we're going to watch Enchanted on the big screen. Not sure if I want to have it be a pajama breakfast yet or not.

-Campfire saftey. I live really close to a lake that has fire pits on the shore. I'm going to invite them over to a bon fire to learn about saftey and make smores. Maybe I'll even bust out my guitar? Maybe we could make a dutch oven cobbler together?

-Pool party. Not really sure if this one will fly, but I would love to have all the families of the girls in my group over to play at my apartment complex pool and have burgers. I have to run this one by the higher-ups to make sure it is safe enough.

-Trip to Berry Patch Farms to pick strawberries and learn about organic farming. I saw this on Design Mom this morning and thought it was such a great idea! I remember going berry picking with my day care when I was little and I loved it. Plus, they'll all get to bring home some berries and I might be able to get a flat to make some delicious jam!



Any other great activities that a 8-12 year old girl would love? I would love to do some kind of art related activity.

Dire situation

My little sister and I both got an allowance growing up. It was my parent's way change the Saturday morning mandatory house cleaning from cruel child slavery to a way to teach us the importance of a dollar. My parents are very big on "teaching" moments.

Anyway, after saving our money we'd get to go shopping.

Maggie would go into the store, see something she liked, buy it and walk out happy and fulfilled. She's so lucky.

I, on the hand farthest from that mentality possible, did not. I would take my money, clutch it tightly in my hot sweaty little hand and walk up and down every aisle. I would agonize over every treat, every doll, every game. I never fell head over heels for anything. I always looked at the toy I couldn't get it if I decided to get this dool and lament. Nothing was ever a done deal for me. Even when I left the store with something I was annoyed and disappointed that I coudln't get something else.

This inability to commit to a purchase remained with me as I grew up. I remember my first large clothing purchase (brown suede coat from Nordstrom). My mom went with me and had to practically FORCE me to buy the dumb thing. I was simultaneously thrilled to have the coolest jacket in the whole high school and annoyed that I couldn't get that pair of jeans too.


Now I am met with a serious dilemma. The ear doctor and I NEED to buy a new sofa. It has come to the point where it isn't a frivolous purchase, but a serious requirement if we are going to spend any time at all sitting in our house. We've been looking for months to find a sofa we both like. However, every single one we've seen has left me feeling like I'm going to have to compromise. And, if I'm going to compromise part of me just wants to get some crappy cheap thing that I really don't like and get it over with. How do you people pick something like that and not second guess?!?!?






If you think I'm having a hard time committing to a sofa you should see the internal conflict I'm experiencing over this potential puppy situation. Grrrr

Favorite things

Last year for the ear doctor's birthday we took a road trip up to South Dakota. It was amazing. He's the best road trip partner...always up for some random detour.


While we were up there we spent some time in Custer State park where President Calvin Coolidge had a summer ranch. It was beautiful, serene and we both had an amazing time. Neither of us are really souvenir people, but we saw this cool print and decided that we had to have it.

Sentimental....yes. Clearly, we have been lazy had haven't had it framed yet.

So hot right now

I'm at the perfect age to be surrounded by friends having their first babies. It's a really exciting time to see people turn from happy couples to happy little families. I love being invited to baby showers, christenings/blessings and first birthdays.

Plus, with all the celebrity babies popping out right now, having a baby has never been so hot.


Although, the phenomenon I've noticed lately is a little different. Am I the only one who has noticed that it is SO HOT RIGHT NOW to find out your baby's gender on the big day? I've had at least 3 couples in the past 4 months tell me they're waiting to find out.


I don't really have an opinion about it, one way or the other, but I think it's an interesting trend, no? Sure makes shopping for gifts a little more challenging.....

Sometimes bad news is good news

My little sister didn't get that cute house. However, I think that is for the best. Here are some other unbelievably cute houses that they are looking at today:

For $79,999:


For $79,900

For $89,900 (not that great on curb appeal, but check out the inside)

The second one is my very favorite! I guess there are some awesome perks to living in St. Louis!

Rad

My aunt sent me this picture today. I thought it was hilarious, but it makes me wonder what other cracked out pictures of me exist that I've never seen. Scary thought, eh?

Not quite right

I've been working on this invitation for the ear doctor's cinco de mayo/graduation party and something about it just isn't quite right. I don't know if it's the font, spacing or colors.



Any thoughts?

Sorta proud

Here are a few pics that I'm sort of proud of having taken.

I love mommy's shadow looking down over her.

Wish I would have paid more attention to the angle of the skyline in this one, but oh well.

One of the coolest 4 generation pictures, right?

It doesn't hurt to have the most attractive models on the planet.

Oh, I almost forgot!

Before the ear doctor left for his big conference this week I wanted to get him a little gift. After reading about how great cjane is to chupa, I thought my housewifery skills could be sharpened. This conference is a big deal and with his upcoming graduation it is a perfect chance for him to do a little networking. I thought it would be nice to get him some business cards made.


I've been singing the praises of letterpress ever since I stumbled across Jordan's site years ago. I think he thought it was cool too, but didn't really get it the way I did. (AKA he was not dreaming of throwing events simply to have an excuse to design pretty invitations)


That is until his business cards came back. He took one look at them, ran his thumb across the deep impressions into the thick card and said one word....."classy." This, in the ear doctor's book, is the highest compliment you can give someone/thing.


This order was super amazing because I contacted Alex at Dolce Studio on Tuesday, March 25th, discussed the design and I had the cards waiting for me in my mail box on Saturday, March 29! That's a 4 day turn around, people. I am so very impressed and love that I supported the homespun letterpress industry.

I'd post pictures, but it's all our personal contact info that I'm not so keen to post for the internet...you get that right?







BTW ~ I figured between sweet little Moses, party planning and getting Emily's save-the-date cards done, Jordan probably had her hands full. Otherwise I would have enlisted her services in a heartbeat.

Goo

The ear doctor is in Charlotte, NC from now until Saturday afternoon.

Boo.

I miss him already.

What a difference

Wow, I really am quite a lucky girl. Since I started writing about my favorite possessions I've started looking at my home with a completely different eye. It's been really rewarding to shift from seeing what is lacking to focusing on what I love.

Today I'm highlighting 3 little lovelies.

The first and most prominent in the picture is my cake safe. My mother in law got it for me as a gift for my bridal shower. In addition to this AWESOME stand she gave me her secret recipe for carrot cake which is AMAZING. Seriously, it's the best I've ever had. I love the straight sides and flat, round knob on top. It reminds me of something you'd find in a 50's diner and is so tall that I can easily get a 4 layer cake under the dome.

The second is my Easter lily from the ear doctor. My mom always got an Easter lily for the holiday growing up. I mentioned this to the ear doctor and the next day he came home with this beauty in his arms. She smells so sweet and fills our entire little apartment with her cheerful scent.

The third is the Orangina poster. The ear doctor and I love this drink and we would get it frequently while we were dating. After we got married we wanted to put something up on this wall, and the ear doctor suggested this piece of pop art. I was really nervous because it is really bright and was so different from everything else we have. Well, I trusted him, hung it up and I love it.

Ahhhhh

As I've mentioned before, the ear doctor is graduating in May. Consequently, he is starting to look for a job. The most annoying part of job hunting? Putting that resume together.

Last night for our family night we worked on his resume. Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert resume writer, but I have spent my fair share writing and reading them.

I was looking over his resume for the last time and came to the very bottom. I stopped short after reading his "interests" section.

Right there, below his list of publications he gave me a very sweet and personal shout out.

Pretty cool, huh?