The past month...

Golf date.



my first par. :)



California





Very sunburnt from the weekend.



Vegas with friends.










Anniversary: We stayed at the Anniversary Inn on Friday and it was so nice! We got the Capital Retreat. We went to Joe's Crab Shack and went to the movie Salt before.









Its been a really fun couple of weeks. School starts soon and our next break won't be until Thanksgiving. I think we've done enough partying to last us a few months. :)

Another Cali Trip

We go to California quite often. Since we've been married we've gone there 6 different times. It honestly is just such a nice vacation for us. And I always come home feeling more love for my husband and his family than I had before, so there is really nothing keeping us away. I guess there is the 10 hour drive that goes with it, but it does not seem that far when you are with someone who makes you laugh.

This weekend we went for a friend's wedding. Along with the wedding, we also saw Toy Story 3, went out to dinner, went to the Getty Museum. It has been on our to-do list for awhile so I was excited to finally go.



In front of the museum



Me in the antique furniture exhibit



Preston and his Mom, Karlyn in front of the musuem









Lots of beautiful, famous art.



What poor Karlyn had to spend a good chunk of the day doing to solve the many mini-crises of her family



Preston in the pool with Cami. Sweet googles, eh?



Chillin' by the pool

While we were there, we found out that a dear friend and old roommate of Preston's was going to pass away after a 4-year battle with cancer. He passed away on Sunday and will be sorely missed by so many. He truly was an awesome guy with amazing determination. While it is always so sad to see someone at the young age of 23 pass on, we have faith that he is being taken care of and is continuing his service to the Lord. My thoughts have been constantly turned towards his family since we heard. We miss you already, Jeff.

4th of July

Here's what our 4th of July weekend looked like. Fireworks, time with family, antique car parade, lunch at Tommy's, Eclipse, Spades, Bachelorette, at-home fireworks with Clint and Bobby.

Oh yes, and there was also the negative of having to leave the family reunion early and Preston hurting his back. Poor guy.

Work, Work, Work

My workload at Entice just multiplied by like 4. So, no more blogging at work. :(

This will be me for the next couple weeks as the dust settles.

the start of firework season

Cedar Hills Fireworks on Saturday night with Steve & Jessie.

oh....and my hair is still bright red.

I couldn't sleep last night once I got in bed, and I didn't even get in bed until 1:45am. Preston and I talked about some of the adventures we'd like to have in our lives and just big things we'd like to do. And just thinking about all the things that are on the horizon (some things on the very distant horizon) made it hard to sleep. Life is exciting. It is a cool moment when you have even a glimpse of what your life could look like in 5/10 years. Emphasis on the "COULD LOOK LIKE" because obviously plans change. I get butterflies just thinking about it, though.

Recipes:
(Sheri, if you are reading this, I'm stealing some of your recipes this week!)

Pork Souvlaki and a greek salad
Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Bacon and Potato Quiche
Steak and Potato Kebabs
Artichoke Chicken
Pepper Jack Chicken Pizza

Red hair?

Well.....

My hair is red. I've dyed my hair a dark Auburn red before and I had been thinking about doing it again. Last night, Preston and I got bored so we decided to just do it. Except, this time....it turned out more FIRE ENGINE red. NOT GOOD. It is so bright. I'm warning you before you see these pictures. It's.....really....really red.

Preston did it for me. haha. I've been told by a few coworkers today that I'm the bravest woman alive for allowing my husband to be in charge of dying my hair. I don't really know why we thought that was a good idea. But he did a good job! It's not the dying job that is bad...its the color of the hair dye I picked.

Here's how it went. Preston pours the first squirt of dye in my hair and says "I don't really know how to handle girl's hair. Why am I doing this?" Five minutes into it, Preston realizes that he really doesn't know what he's doing. I start to freak out and tell him that I'm just going to do it myself. I realize that I don't know what I'm doing either. I start to see what color the dye is on my hair. I start crying. We then realize that we are not going to have enough dye to cover my whole head. At this point I'm yelling. Not really at Preston, just yelling. So Preston goes running to the store to buy another bottle. He returns with a new confidence to make this work and save my hair from complete disaster. He told me he spent his drive to the store thinking about all the things he would tell the cop if he got pulled over for speeding. "Listen...my wife...she's having a hair emergency."

In the end...it could have been alot worse. At least I don't have splotches of brown throughout my hair. It's only a 28-day wash so it will fade quickly...I hope.

Preston says its "edgy" and I just think its a bit too bright.





Haha.....don't laugh at me.

In other less-interesting news, we purchased our first Bountiful Basket this weekend. Bountiful Baskets is basically a fruits and veggies co-op where you pay $15
and you get a WHOLE BUNCH of produce for a seriously discounted price. It is pretty sweet! Here's what we got this week.



Pretty sweet! It will actually end up saving us money, and force us to eat healthy snacks!

And I actually think its really annoying to blog about giveaways, but I'd actually like to win the silhouette that is being given away at southernhospitalityblog.com

New (For us) Car!

I'm so incredibly exhausted today. Thank goodness it's Friday.

Yesterday we officially purchased our first car as a married couple. We've been using a car that is owned by Preston's dad, and we are eventually going to be giving that car back to them. So when the opportunity came for a good deal on a car, we took it. My sister just bought a new car and gave us a great deal on her old one. It's really nothing special, but it gets us from here to there and should have some good life left in it still. The great part about it is that we already know the car has been kept up well and that it's not a lemon. This isn't it, but it looks just like this:



2001 Ford Focus. Low miles. She's a beauty. Kinda.

Waffles

We had a waffle party last night to go along with watching game 5 for the NBA Finals. Too bad the Lakers lost.



Can't wait to cook these meals:

Asian Lettuce Wraps
BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Taco Chicken
BLTs
Steak and Mango Salad (With Walnuts instead of macadamia....)
Lemon-Garlic Salmon
Bourbon Chicken Rice Bowl

Curry

Well, Preston didn't buy the jersey. And he was really excited that I bought it for him. Hooray!



These Indian-spiced pork skewers were delicious last night. However, my house smells really strongly of curry and it kinda makes me wanna throw up. I've even febrezed the room like 3 times and left the door open for an hour!

World Cup

A week ago, I bought Preston one of these as a suprise for the World Cup that he has been talking about basically since he got home from his mission over a year ago.



It's the Portugal World Cup 2010 Jersey...the away game one.

And last night, he facebooked that he really wanted one and was going to have to buy one of those jerseys for himself. And he was working a graveyard last night. So he probably already bought it online somewhere, and now we are going to have two.

And now its like, he already facebooked about it, so its not as cool that I thought of it and then bought it for him as a suprise.

And I can't ask him if he already bought it because he's sleeping (after the graveyard shift.

Hm.

PS I'm pretty sure he never reads this blog.
PPS I'm bored.

walk with me, suzy lee

Someone said to us a little while ago that we have an easy life. My first reaction was to say that we didn't. I wanted to say that we didn't have any money, so that was hard. And I wanted to say that we both were just trying to figure out what we want to do with our lives, and that was hard. And that we were trying to learn how to be a family and live the gospel well, and that is hard. But really, we DO have an easy life right now. We get to have as much fun as we want. We work so we can pay for life. We don't have kids, so we just focus on us most the time. We can go out of town for the weekend if we want, when we want. It's like we are kids who are actually adults. Awesome.

Probably won't last long in the grand scheme of things. But hopefully we will always at least make an effort to have as much fun as we are having right now. I don't really think it matters how easy or hard your life is. It's how you choose to carry yourself through the good and the bad. And it's how you choose to spend your time. Sometimes it's ok to struggle and make mistakes. It's how you recover that matters. That's how I see it.

Also, I have great friends. Seriously.

The whole crew. I noticed that if the couple is married, the boys have their hands on the girl's shoulder. If they are engaged, they don't. haha. I'm weird.



The wives club.



The boys.



Thanks for the pics, jessie.

And of course, my MGs.

My love's too big for you, my love

Every once in awhile, I find a song that is so healing and calming. Just beautiful songs that I could listen to over and over and anxiety goes away. What are your calming songs?

Here's one:



Here's another. Pretty much all songs by Ingrid Michaelson.



And another.



Another....



One more....




In other news, I made this the other day.



It started out as an ugly gold mirror from DI...I think I got it for like $1.00. I painted the rim green and painted a wooden "J" the same color. Then I used the vinyl design that we have in our living room and put it on the mirror. I used super glue to glue the J onto the mirror. I think it turned out pretty cute! I've actually had a few people ask me what the "J" stood for.........

wow.

Mangos

I've been really happy lately. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is that has made me feel so great, but I guess I just finally feel like my life is actually my life. I went from being single, in school, working part-time to being married, done with school and working a full-time job within a few months. It was a bigger jump than I thought it would be. Everything change, not really in a bad way, just different

But the last month or two that has all gone away. I feel like my own person. I have friends that I love to be with, hobbies that I enjoy, a church calling that brings me closer to the gospel, a husband who truly still makes me feel very in love and who I find completely adorable, a family support system (in both my family and preston's) that I know will always be with me no matter what, and a job that provides just enough money so we don't have to constantly be stressed about money. I never thought I'd be the type that couldn't go to sleep if the kitchen wasn't clean, but I am. I never thought I'd be the type of girl that has 100 blogs that I must read, but I am. I never thought I'd constantly think about ways I can make my apartment cuter, but I do. We all grow and change, and that is just fine. I'm trying to learn to not judge people, because you honestly never know when you'll be in their situation. You really SHOULD walk a mile in someone's shoes before you criticize them. Things are so different from the inside than it appears from the outside.

Last night I got mad at Preston for trying to tell me how to cut a mango. Haha really? Thinking about it makes me laugh. He just let me be mad about it for about 5 minutes and then we didn't have to speak of it again. Hahaha oh man....I'm ridiculous. I love that boy. I'm lucky. Oh, and in case you are wondering, here's how you cut a mango.

Thoughts...

-LOVED the LOST finale. We laughed, we cried, we discussed, and we were actually truly uplifted. I'm sincerely going to miss this show and these characters. I've never felt so emotionally connected to characters that aren't real.

-Bed, Bath and Beyond is so utterly and completely overpriced. Why do we let that happen? Seriously that place has a freaking monopoly. I recently went there with Natalie to pick out a present for a friend's bridal shower. We got a few items that were pretty heavy and asked for them to be gift wrapped at the store. So they take about 20 minutes to gift wrap my gift, and come out with a huuuuge and very heavy bag. So I take it by the handle and walk out of the store ready to go along with my day. Halfway across the parking lot, the bag breaks, tissue paper flying everywhere. Some dude in a truck drives by, laughs at my awkward struggle to gather the tissue paper without further damaging the gifts and yells out his window "Thats rough..." One of the gifts inside was glass and broke when it fell. You would think that they would gift wrap something so that it could be carried more than 50 feet without falling out the bottom. So, a new wrapping job and 30 minutes later, I'm finally on my way out the door. I hate going there. Slotted spoons for like 10.99? Seriously, its a spoon. Its used to stir stuff. I think I'll pass. Yet, I find myself there often because I live in a state where marriage is rampid and everyone registers at Bed Bath and Beyond. If I was ever going to get married again, I'd boycott that terrible place.

-I'm going to dye my hair soon. Preston wants red like it was when we first met. I'm thinking either that or blonde again.

-I ordered this ottoman today. Preston's parents have something similar to this at their new house and we wanted one when we saw it. Its got storage to put all my blankets in or DVDs or whatever, and the tops flip around to be TV trays! Cool. Anything else that I've found even remotely close to this one costs around $300. Someday we will get super fancy furniture for our home, but this will be great for now. It is a DEFINITE upgrade from the folding table we've been using as a coffee table for the last 9 months....

Meals for the week:
Pineapple Jerk Chicken
Pepper Jack Chicken Pizza
Indian-Spiced Pork Skewers
Chicken Fajitas
Grillled Cilantro Lime Chicken
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Spicy Honey Chicken Salad

Pineapple Jerk Chicken was yesterday...and it was soooo easy and delicious. Like seriously, done in 20 minutes.

Tuesday/Thursday Boredom

Every Tuesday and Thursday this summer, Preston works an 18-hour shift, starting at 2:30pm and ending the next morning at 8:30am. The poor guy has to stay up all night. He comes home just in time for me to take the car to work at 9. The nice thing about this job is that he only has to do two shifts per week, plus one rotating (and shorter) Saturday shift.

So one thing I'll be doing with my tuesday/thursdays is improving the decor in our apartment. I'm not like the most crafty person in the world, but I'm trying.

This idea came from dollarstorecrafts.com.
These ugly hooks were from dollar tree:



And mine turned out like this:



I also did a little "Weekly Dinner Menu" memo board made from a picture frame. I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out. I'll probably take the yellow bow off and do something else with that ribbon. I'm not sure yet. But basically I need to buy a dry erase marker and then I'll write that week's dinners on it.



I have some ideas about other projects I'll be doing this summer. Should be fun!

And...week two of our meal goals...

Monday- No dinner...still traveling home from California.
Tuesday- Jambalaya
Wednesday-Sloppy Joes
Thursday-Leftovers
Friday-Bean, Chicken, and cheese quesadillas
Saturday- Creamy Pesto Pasta and Rosemary Focaccia
Sunday- Eating over at a friends
Monday- Korean Fire Beef Salad (Seriously delicious...hardly counts as a salad. I'll post the recipe later)
Tuesday- Spicy Honey Chicken

California Blues...

Just returned from a weekend in California. We love being there, so it is always a drag coming back. We figure that we won't always be able to take long weekend trips when we have kids, so we try to take advantage while we can.

This weekend we had a barbeque out by the pool, swam in the pool/hot tub, went shopping, got yummy burritos at Jimmy Deans, saw Iron Man 2, got Pazookies from BJs, frozen bananas from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, made tasty treats, watched the laker game, celebrated Mothers day, got to talk with Preston's brother who is on a mission in New Jersey, and just spent time with family.

It was so great. I wanna go back.

I went to bed last night feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. Which is quite awesome considering we had just spent 10+ hours in a car.

Summer Goals

Preston and I have a few summer goals. We kinda realized that we are getting...a little chubby, so we are doing a little bit of a lifestyle change in our eating habits and exercise.

1) Cook dinner every night at home. This would be hard if I didn't have a husband who is competent in the kitchen and can help me with meals at night. I also really enjoy trying new recipes, so I'll have fun with it. I'm not an amazing chef by any means, but I can follow a recipe. That's about it.

2) Going to the gym 4 times a week.

3) Cutting out sweets. The biggest part of that for me will be cutting out soda. No more DP for me. :(

So yesterday we went shopping for our first week of meals. Here's a run down of what we will be making this week.

Last Night: Spaghetti and Meatballs with French Bread. Recipe here.



The rest of the week:
Chili Lime Mango Skewers and Cilantro-Lime rice
HERE and HERE



French Dip Sandwiches
Here



Teriyaki Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Here



Burgers
(Recipe in a cookbook)

Spinach and Feta Pasta
here



Chicken Enchiladas
(Recipe in cookbook)

Sides with these meals will most likely be a spinach salad of some kind because we have a bunch of leftover spinach right now.

Of course, these recipes may be spaced out a little more because we will have leftovers that we can eat on nights in between, but we are going to plan for 7 meals at a time, and shop again when we are out of meals.

As you can tell, this week's recipes came from Our Best Bites. This blog has a bunch more recipes that I'm sure we will be trying later.

I about died when we went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients. Next week I'll work on doing recipes with fewer/cheaper ingredients. We rationalized this by saying that we will never eat out. Eating out one time with the two of us is usually $20+, so in the end, we will be saving money. Should be pretty fun, we will see how long we can keep this up. If you have any recipes that are cheap and tasty...let me know!