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!

Birthday Weekend

My birthday was GREAT. I have a great husband who made sure that I had a good day. He's so sweet. :) On Saturday, I played my first real game of golf. It was me...and four boys. But it was fun and I did well! I think I want to go again soon. Preston has always said it's one of his favorite sports to play because it is just so relaxing to be out in the nice weather for a few hours and the actual game is just relaxing for some reason. I totally agree with him. It was a great afternoon.

Afterwards, Preston and I tried out a new Thai food restuarant for my birthday dinner. It is a place called Bangkok Grill. If you like Thai food, it is my favorite Thai resturant that we've tried in Provo. Still doesn't beat Siam Rice in California, but still very good. We got the Chicken Coconut Soup, Orange Chicken, a Noodle dish that I don't remember the name of, and a fried squid dish. YUM. That night we had a few people over to watch the Laker game. This weekend was a bad weekend for our teams...the Lakers got killed. And the Mavs also got beat pretty bad on Sunday. Sad day.

On Sunday we slept in and then went to church. After church Preston made me pancakes and bacon while I relaxed. Then we had friends over for a cake/games/mavs night. We had a spades tournament and Natalie and I won our game. It was the longest game of spades...ever. It was like 19 rounds and we were only playing to 300. I had a lot of fun just being with friends on my birthday. We are happy to have such a fun group of friends.

And of course, I have no pictures. But that will all change, because my birthday present is a new camera. YAY! I've been wanting a fully functioning one for quite some time now.

**And the other thing that I didn't blog about is graduation on Friday with my family in town. I DO have pictures of that...so that post will be coming soon.

Now I have 1.5 weeks of work to get through and then it's off to California. Life is good.

We got skillz

For the past two semesters, Preston and I have participated in BYU bowling leagues. Last semester we did alright, but we didn't get as in to it as we did this semester. Our dedication paid off tonight at the bowling league award ceremony. Going into the tournament, we were the 1 seed out of 16 teams. Pretty sweet! We played our way through the tournament and got to the final 4. We had a bad night and lost and ended up getting third place in the tournament.

3 out of 4 members of our team with our trophies. Sorry it's dark, they had the black lights going. Our other two team members are Preston's friend Jeff and then Ben, a freshman who we met through bowling who is a pretty solid bowler.



Our sweet third place trophy



Me and Preston with our trophies



And a pleasant surprise was that I got the MOST IMPROVED FEMALE award! SWEET. So I got a second trophy.

We are starting up again this semester and are hoping to get 1st this time! It is a fun night every Thursday that we always do no matter how busy the week is.

Summer adventures...

Lately I've just been loving the weather. I went on a long walk on Saturday around Provo. It got me really excited for a summer of adventures, being outside and just having a good time. While my daytime schedule won't really change, I just love the feel of summertime and I think this one will be a great one.

Here are just a few summer adventures that I am excited for....

End of April/May-

Graduation this Friday!
My Birthday weekend!
Mother's Day weekend trip to California
Grant and Callie get married!
Britt and Kyle get married!
NBA playoffs...





GO MAVS. (oh...and lakers...)

June-
Justin and Holly get married in Idaho
Nikki and James get married in Cali!
Jamie and Nicole get married in....Utah? I think.
Steph and Brad get married in Utah.
Possible Las Vegas trip?



July-
San Francisco trip? I've never been there and the dodgers play the giants at the end of the month...
My family comes to Utah
4th of July fun



August-
One year wedding anniversary. :)

I'm excited for a summer of short weekend trips, family, and weddings, oh and more weddings. My dear friend Jessie and I are hoping to get a couple of girls together once or twice a month for craft/projects days. There are like a million little projects that we've seen on blogs and such that we want to try, and it is so much better when you have other girls to do it with. I'll be posting pictures from our projects all summer I'm sure. The main project that I'm determined to finally do this summer is refinishing a coffee table for our living room. I love this blog, and I'd love to do a transformation finish like this, except not in that color. Just keep checking DI for the right one for cheap enough. We also want to take sewing lessons. I have a sewing machine, and I can KINDA sew, but not really. So I'd really like to start using it more.

Another new adventure is my new calling. Yesterday I got called to be a Relief Society teacher. I've never had to be a teacher, so I'm a little nervous, especially because I feel like there are a lot of women in the ward that could do a better job who have a lot more life experience for me. But I think it will be really good for me. Not sure how often I have to teach..once or twice a month I think.

And LAST, Preston and I are going on a diet this summer. We are waiting until Preston's done with school to officially start. Someone told me about cutting out the three C's: Coke, Candy, Chips. I think that is what it was? So, I'll start there. Plus just lots of exercise and making home-cooked low-fat meals every night. Should be fun...

So basically, it will be a great summer and I can't wait to spend it with good friends, a great husband and wonderful family. :)