Lunchables aka Cory's name for "The Hunger Games"

The much anticipated Hunger Games movie came out this week. A very long time ago I was talking with some of my ladies, and we decided we would go to the midnight showing. A few months ago this sounded fun, and spontaneous, and crazy. Thursday night, it just sounded crazy. We came pretty close to backing out, but in the end we went (except for Kristen, who gets a pass for being with child and under the weather that night. We missed you Kristen.)

Here we are patiently waiting for the movie to start. I think we had 1.5 hours to go at this point .

Oh yea. We made shirts. A little freezer paper magic and we were good to go. Here's a somewhat better shot of my shirt.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, but I'm not very discerning. Also, I might still have been under the influence of some pretty intense anesthesia. I had a little teeny minor excisional biopsy (everything is fine, and Cory is making me go to bed early so I heal nice and quick) a few hours prior to the midnight showing. 

I hadn't had time/access to scissors to remove the bands before the movie. And technically I was still a "Fall Risk" (one could argue I am always a fall risk...), so we left them on. 

Side note: The doctors told Cory I woke up from the surgery telling them all about Texas. I have no memory of this, but apparently it was on my mind. You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl. Can I get an Amen?

Saturday morning I took some fun pictures with Joanna and Ava. It confirmed to me that I am not a professional photographer in any way. Seriously--I have no clue.  But I do like the practice! And I liked getting to use my pink dishes. They do have a purpose!

Here's a sneak peak:

I've never tried those little meringues before. They're like a huge Lucky Charm. Which I find strangely alluring. 

I was also going to tell you about my recent conversion to weight watchers, but I'm super sleepy so it looks like that post will have to wait a bit. But, so far I'm really liking the program! So, more on that later.

The one where I realize my mother was right about everything. Everything.

I like parties. I just like them. It's fun, and you can have elaborate themes, and everyone looks nice, and they chat. It's kind of my scene. Every March, Relief Societies the whole world over celebrate our founding day. The day Emma Smith said "Let's do something extraordinary" and then Relief Society came into being. The "birth day", if you will. And what do you do on birthdays? You party.

Our theme was Rising Higher Every Year, and we went to town with balloons. And a crepe bar. I decided I would make the crepes for everyone...it seemed like a good idea at the time. Wanna get really good at making crepes? Make 60. You'll be a pro in no time.

It was such a fun party. The food was good, and the company couldn't be beat. We ate, chatted, and had a short program with a few stories and testimonies from the sisters, and watched the Mormon Messages video on Stephanie Nielson. We cried together, and finished it off by singing "As Sisters in Zion". I'm dreadfully biased, but I think everything was so great. I love the sisters in our ward so much. They are so inspiring and amazing.

In other news, I become my mother a little more every day. Seriously. I have her nose. I burn the last batch of everything. I write about loving Relief Society on my blog.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to forget my children need to be picked up from places all the time (Sorry kids. It'll make you stronger.).

Anyway, my dear mother has always favored a colored lip, and she pulls off wonderfully.

While I was visiting her a few weeks ago I borrowed her lipstick and people...it was life changing. Did you know you can make your whole face look better with just a swipe of lipstick? That's all it takes to brighten your eyes, and make you look pulled together. And her Revlon ColorStay is the energizer bunny of lipstick. It promises 16 hours, but I'm pretty sure it would make it through out eternity. 

Of course I purchased my own carbon copy of her lipstick upon my arrival, and took it for a test drive today.

I was running late so I didn't get a picture of it fresh before I left for church. Then when I got home I was hungry so I ate lunch.  Then I watched some Cake Boss with Cory. Then the home teachers came over. Then I ate some cookies and brownies they had delivered, and drank some milk too, of course. And THEN. Then I took this picture.

Seriously. This is 8 hours of wear. No touch-ups. EIGHT hours!  At this point I'm more concerned about getting it off, rather than keeping it on. And these lips are perfectly kissable. I think it tattooed itself on. Momma doesn't play games.

I've decided also going to buy some nylons this week.  (They make your legs tan and perfect! Why would I not want that?) 

Mom was right about everything. Does admitting that mean I'm a grown up?

Spring break is just another regular week when you're grown up.

This week was Spring Break for Cory. Which was really nice for him. It was nice and quiet at work for me too. Which was nice, because the next three weeks are going to be terrible. I can just feel it. Oh well.

Since Cory was blissfully homework free for ALMOST a whole week, he actually agreed to go grocery shopping with me. That was fun, in its own special way. We picked up some steak and veggies to grill, and that made for an awesome dinner. I knew that grill would be the best Christmas present. We already need to refill the propane tank!

Cory's Mom grills her veggies and they are so. dang. good. I could eat them all the live long day. We couldn't actually grill our veggies, on account of the grill is just barely big enough for the steak, so I broiled them and they were still delish. I based my recipe on what I could remember from what she told me/actually had on hand.

You'll need:
1 box mushrooms
1 box cherry tomatoes
1 sweet onion
1 green pepper
1 red pepper

Marinade:
1/4 cup Italian dressing
2 Tbsp Worcestershire
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Garlic powder to taste (I did 3 heavy shakes...is that a measurement term? It was more than a dash. You get the idea)

Chop the veggies (except for the tomatoes) into big chunky pieces. Mix together marinade and pour over veggies--let sit for at least 30 minutes. Then grill for 15-20 minutes on skewers or in a veggie basket, or broil for 5 minutes, stir and then broil 3 more minutes. Watch it pretty close in the broiler! Trust me. Then all you have to do is gorge yourself on deliciousness. You're welcome.

So, anyway, that was dinner one night this week. I can't remember if I actually cooked anything else this week. I think I did, it just wasn't very memorable. I do remember that I didn't wash very many dishes. I tried another approach.

Instead of actually doing the dishes, I bought some pretty tulip plants to distract from the mess. It worked really well for a while. Now the tulips are dying and kind of making a bad situation worse...

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

Sometimes I tell myself that I just don't have time to do the dishes every night. But the truth is, I just don't want to do the dishes every night. Its not a priority for me right now (or ever? we'll see.). And if it bothers Cory, he's not showing it. But I do other things instead. Like crafts. Its my outlet. Sometimes you just gotta make something. Craft it out, you know? This week I made a little pillow out of scraps and stuffing I had in my stash.

I'm really into hearts right now.

I gave it to Cory. He said, "For me?!" in this really high pitched/excited voice that is the perfect balance of jest and serious enthusiasm that really doesn't come through in writing, but is hilarious in real life. At least, I think its hilarious.

And because I'm corny and lame and really into embroidered things right now:

Awww. I'm ridiculously proud of it.

Now, off to get a few things together for the Relief Society Party this Saturday. I'm so excited! You should come. Crepes, conversation and general merriment will be had.

Butter Me Up

 I usually just wrap the butter up in the paper it comes in and put it in the fridge. My mom always kept our butter in the fridge growing up. Well, technically she kept it in the freezer and made it impossible to spread. Impossible. I've been wanting a cute little white butter dish for a while, but I'm reluctant to spend the $12.00 on one. While we were visiting some of my parent's friends in North Carolina, I saw that they kept their butter under a dome on the counter. I already had the dome, so I gave it a try. 

I've found that room temperature butter spreads on toast like a dream. A dream! But Cory says its going to kill us and refuses to eat it. I argue that it hasn't seemed to hurt the seventy year old people that keep it on the counter in North Carolina, but nothing will sway him. What say you? Are we going to die butter related deaths?

 

P.S.  Kristen and Lance let me take some baby announcement pictures for them, and they turned out soooo cute (if I do say so myself.) I've never really taken pictures of people before, so it was good practice. Congratulations guys!  Click here to see the pictures on their blog.(It would be confusing if I posted them here, I think.)

P.P.S. We won an Ipad 2 this week!!! We renewed our lease early, so we were entered into a drawing and WON! I've never won anything before! My sister Kourtney has all the good luck (she won a computer in a drawing, found a giant diamond ring in the street once, etc.) and my sister Jackie has all the bad luck (she was once punched in the face by a random man, aka the story of how she had a black eye at my wedding) so I've been content with neutral luck so far in my life. Maybe the tides have turned?? We'll see.

A Little Breather

It's that time of the semester. Mid-term time. Cory has been chained to his desk, completing assignments and studying his tooshie off for the past few weeks.

He finally had a little breather this weekend and we got to go on a date. A real date! I wore pants and everything. 

We hit up Momo's Pizza, where they make pizzas the size of tractor wheels. We ordered a medium this time, (Margarita style: Basil, Tomato, Feta and Mozzarella. My absolute favorite way to eat pizza ever. Sooo good.) but once before I have ordered the "XL". I seriously had to clean out the trunk of my car and open up the back hatch to get it home (where it was shared with many, many people). 

Cory hates taking pictures. I got him to agree  to take one picture with me, and this is what we got:

This is the face he makes when I ask him to look pretty:

Saturday morning I woke up early and finally tackled one of those dirty jobs you avoid for as long as possible (if you're really good, you NEVER have to do these ones. Ours was too gross though. I couldn't put it off any longer): Cleaning out the underneath of the kitchen appliances. I pulled out the oven, and cloroxed the heck out of many nameless horrors. There was a rusty 7 inch knife down there! We suspect foul play.

Saturday night we went on ANOTHER date! Two dates! Ah! We met up with Danny, Joanna and little Ava for dinner and game night (Sour Apples to Apples. I totally dominated). 

I also recently indulged my inner 85 year old lady (I also strongly support cardigans and floral print.) and bought this tiny gnome for my herbs on the porch. The basil has never felt so welcoming! 

Happy Leap Day week! Let's do something crazy, okay?

I love chair

We did it. We went back and bought the chair today. The man running the little barn/shack place told us he'd sell us the chair for $60.00 on Saturday. They only took cash, and we didn't have any cash, so we didn't buy it then. I dreamed about it all day Sunday. 

A different guy was running the joint today, and he told us he'd sell it for $35.00. SOLD. 

My parents are going to bring it down to Florida when they come visit in April. Until then, I'm posting this picture of it so I can can just sit and look at it throughout the day while we're apart. I love chair.

Sometimes I just get on planes and leave.

I decided on Friday morning that I really needed to come to North Carolina to see my parents. (Everything is okay, don't worry.) So, I talked to my boss, arranged my schedule, bought a plane ticket, and arrived around 11:30 Friday night. Apparently, I do what I want.

Cory is stuck at home studying his little tooshie off. Sorry babe. I miss you!

I so needed this trip. I really, really love my Mom and Dad. My mom and I can just talk and talk. People listening to our conversations probably thing we're crazy (i.e. my Dad.) but oh well. It's what we call a cyclical conversation. We find ourselves starting one conversation, interrupting each other, moving on with the new conversation, and four hours later, "Oh, so like I was saying about food storage..." and never miss a beat.

I might buy this super awesome mid century arm chair tomorrow. Amazing things are so cheap here! America's best kept secret, ya'll.

We made some chocolate chip cookies this afternoon after church. We always double the recipe, because we're awesome and can put them cookies away like there is no tomorrow. My mom always tries to "save" the cookies by putting them in the freezer. They've never lasted past a week in our house. And now my family has developed a very particular taste for frozen cookies.

Here is the recipe, as Betty Crocker intended. (Double it if you're awesome and can handle putting 2.5 sticks of butter into one recipe. I know. )

2/3 c. shortening
2/3 c. butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 package (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven the 375 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Cream shortening, butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla together. You want this part to be light and white and fluffy.

Stir in remaining ingredients (flour, soda, and salt). Combine thoroughly but do not over mix. Finally, add chocolate chips.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown on edges, still a little gooey in the center. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire cooling rack.

Betty says this will yield about 7 dozen cookies. Betty's cookies must be the tiniest little things. It would make about 4-5 dozen Hansen style. Also, when I think about it...we eat a lot of the cookie dough before it even gets a chance to be a real cookie. So, maybe Betty's right. I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

Back to reality on Wednesday, but for now I'm just going to enjoy some family time while missing my boo.