The Temperature Started with a 7

Yes, that's right. Today's high was 79 degrees. Even though we'll be back up into the 90s within a week, it was still really REALLY awesome.

Woke up this morning with a sore throat. After a cup of hot water/lemon/honey, I've been drinking water like it's my job. The girls are in bed. Asleep even! I think the baby crazies have been largely weather related. Good to know what I have to look forward to with the warmer weather making a comeback.

Why does bleach burn in your nostrils? I can still smell it, more than 5 hours later.

Tonight Alice is wearing pants to bed (pink ones with strawberries all over, which she loves) and Emma is wearing footie pjs (size 3-6 months, which are finally getting a little snug on her). These girls are so cute.

It's starting to become apparent that Alice is perhaps leaning towards becoming a girly girl. Every day she wants to wear a dress. To be exact, she wants to wear her fancy Easter dress (pictured here --> ). Once dressed she literally takes two or three minutes (an eternity for a two year old) deciding which shoes she wants to wear. Often she'll get one pair on, then take them off and get another pair to wear instead. Then I need to fix her ponytails. Usually she opts for two ponytails, not just one. Or, she changes her mind when I'm halfway through, exclaiming "Done, done, done, done!" (Translation: "One, one, one, one!") Am I headed down the path of a frilly, indecisive girly girl? Will she love PINK?!?!

I try to comfort myself with the fact that she's kind of a bruiser, frequently sporting bruises, cuts and bumps. This is probably more owing to her being a two year old. I know. I'm grasping at straws. I don't stand a chance.

I made some banana oatmeal cookies and they're kind of delicious. They taste like banana bread, but with oatmeal and cinnamon spectacular-ness.

Sometimes when I re-read my posts I realize how tired I am. This is one of those times. I think I'll go to bed early since it seems I might have the opportunity.

Quiche & Cinnamon Rolls

 I made a broccoli and cheese quiche recently. It was really delicious and I'm glad I took a picture so I could remember how delicious it was. I also made cinnamon rolls which were spectacular, although not the kind that use yeast. They were more of a biscuit than a roll. Unfortunately I have enough frosting left over (in my freezer) to make another batch.

Bummer. I'll just have to suffer through eating MORE cinnamon rolls. Click here to find the recipe for Easy, No Rise Cinnamon Rolls, which I found on a blog. She's got some pretty good recipes and ideas to stretch your meals so you pay less for groceries. Smart lady.

My Birthday Celebration Extraordinaire!

My wonderful husband did an excellent job on my 24th birthday! I've added the pictures to our web albums, for those who are interested. I was told I couldn't come in the apartment until 5:15 so I sat in the car for a few minutes when I got home. When I came upstairs there was a sign on the door that said "Wecome to Amy's 24th Birthday Celebration Extraordinaire! Please come on in!" So, I did.

There was Happy, in the kitchen, dressed as my waiter and cooking our spaghetti dinner as "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman played in the background. He had emailed his mom to get her recipe for meat sauce and had that simmering as he was cooking the spaghetti. However, when I walked in, he had a large pot nearly filled with water on a small burner with the noodles already in the water (which had not yet boiled). I asked if the water had boiled yet and he said, "No, that's not what the instructions said to do." Perplexed, I pulled out the instructions which read "Bring 4 quarts of water to a rapid boil" as the first step. I read it out loud and he explained that he thought that meant it wouldn't take that long for it to come to a boil... Like.... it would boil in hardly any time at all. After a long, hard laugh, we removed the noodles, moved the water to a larger burner and covered the pot. From then on, things went pretty smoothly.

As we waited for the water to boil, I opened my present--a craft organizer! I had mentioned that I wanted to get one of these a while back and Happy remembered this. There is a compartment for paper which Happy filled with some Hawaiian-designed papers and stickers for me to use for our Hawaii anniversary trip in July! It was wrapped in some lovely sports-themed wrapping paper (from Happy's birthday in August), and placed on our coffee table.

Dessert was strawberry shortcake (YUM)! Happy pulled out the shortcakes (bought pre-made from the grocery store) and the container of whole strawberries and the Cool Whip. Holding up the strawberries, he said "I'm probably supposed to do something with these, huh?" So he held up the strawberry and pointed the knife at it in a position that inspired me to offer to cut up the strawberries for our shortcakes. They were delicious and I even got to blow out a candle. Below is the video of that.

After dinner, Happy cleaned up and we got ready for Bible study where they sang Happy Birthday to me (for the fourth time yesterday), had cupcakes (made by Emily) and gave several cards with kind words and a gift card to Olive Garden! Emily also gave me a scrapbook with a palm tree on it for our trip to Hawaii :-) Apparently she and Happy had been conspiring for a couple weeks! Oh, and of course my sister sent me some beautiful yellow flowers at work :-) I got phone calls and e-cards and cards in the mail and even a letter from my brother in boot camp! I had a great birthday! Thank you to everyone for making me feel so loved!

Desserts

These are the desserts I made for the Valentine's Day Banquet. I realize that it is more than a month since the banquet, but I have only now brought my camera to work so I can transfer the pictures. From the top: Dessert Pizza (with peaches, strawberries, green grapes, mango, raspberries, and kiwi fruit), peanut butter brownies and apple-cranberry crumble. Of course I didn't actually take any pictures at the banquet, but I did get the desserts I made. It was fun. I've learned that I like to bake yummy desserts :-)

In other food news, I made lasagna Saturday night for dinner and Brian came to join us since he was at LAX dropping off his sister. I made a small one (8"x8") and it turned out really good! I was pretty amazed. BUT, now I know what I like (and what Happy likes)!

Sunday afternoon, as the fire burned in Anaheim Hills sprinkling ashes and spreading smoke throughout northern Orange County, Happy and I stayed inside. Happy was preparing for the message he gave in chapel yesterday (I shall leave that one to be explained by him since I couldn't go hear him) and I was putting together our wedding album!!!! It took all afternoon and evening, but I finished around 9 pm and I LOVE it! Of course I brought it to work to show those who were interested--namely the women--and it occurred to me that I should take pictures of each of the pages for those who are interested and can't actually see it in person. So, my goal is to get that done this week. And I'm not even going to say "We'll see how that goes" because I'm really going to do it AND upload them to our blog :-D

The last few days invoices have been slower than usual. It's nice to have slow times. I'm going to sort more wedding photos into albums that we've been given. We have a LOT of albums, but we still have probably 20 disposable cameras to develop. Works out well I suppose. On that note, I'm going to get to work on the albums I brought today. Have a lovely Tuesday!

Corn Muffin Story

Since my mom-in-law mentioned it, I thought I'd quickly share the funny corn muffin story.

So, as we know, it was in fact Happy's first baking experience. Seeing as he is SO amazing, he decided to help me out by making the corn muffins. The corn muffin mix is the Jiffy one that you add water, oil and eggs to. After mixing, he started to fill the muffin pan. Having filled one muffin cup, I glanced over and asked, "Did you spray the pan?"

He said, "What? It doesn't say I'm supposed to do that..."

I responded by picking up the box, pointing and reading "Grease the pan."

"Oh," came the response. Then of course, Happy emptied the muffin cup and cleaned and dried the pan.

Following this, he proceeded to fill four muffin cups before I glanced over and asked, "Um... did you grease the pan?"

"BLAST!" was his reply (or something like that...). So, he cleaned the whole thing again and did this time remember to grease the pan. What a wonderful husband I have! :-)

Spaetzle and Lentil Soup!

I thought I'd let you all know that there are more pictures in our web albums. This is Happy's first baking experience, or at least his first baking experience as a married man. He made corn muffins and they were excellent!

There are also pictures of me making spaetzle and lentil soup for the first time! Both came out good and I had fun making them. Then again, the lentil soup didn't take much.... I just put everything in the crockpot and let it do all the work. Crockpots are great :-)

The other album that I added is from this weekend when we went to Pasadena to have breakfast with "the guys" and Katie. Then we went to Christie's tennis match. I have a better idea of how tennis works, but I was completely ignorant before. I think now I'd say I can watch a game and sort of understand what's going on. It was kind of cool though since Happy and I will have tennis courts to use at our new apartment! Ok, that's it for this morning. Have a good Tuesday!

French Toast

Last night we had breakfast for dinner. I had planned to make eggs, bacon and toast; but things changed... I made FRENCH toast! It's strange to me how easily I have forgotten the food I loved as a child, such as french toast. And it's so easy to make. I called my mom for the recipe: beat an egg, add some milk and cinnamon, dip the bread in on both sides and cook it like you would an egg. It came out great!

Ok, that's all for now. I want to finish the book I've been reading for way too long. Oh, and I know I keep forgetting to put up new pictures, but I'm halfway there--they are on my computer at home. Now I just need to upload them to our blog. I'll be sure to tell you when I finally do that :-)

Drown it!

Today is an all-day seminar called "Get Motivated!" which about a dozen of the guys are going to. This means it will be a quiet and slow day. Good thing I have stuff to keep me busy :-)

I thought I'd let you all know (mostly my Mom and Mom-in-law who may be interested) that I decided to try to drown my plant--in a good way! Up to this point I've only watered it two or three times because I stick my finger in the dirt and find that it is still very moist. I thought perhaps the plant needs more water than I think plants need. Actually, that's the only thing I could think to do. Happy and I have been trying to give it more light which only seems to wither the leaves faster. So I watered it this morning before leaving for work. I'll let you know if it starts to perk up in the next few days.

My ride home yesterday was again a little over an hour. I think it had to do with the fact that it was the Tuesday after a holiday weekend. I'm hoping that's the reason. Plus, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are characteristically worse than Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays traffic-wise. You may wonder why Thursdays aren't as bad as the other mid-week days... Thursday is carpool day at many offices! I learned this once I began working in an office. Interesting. If I were running office carpools, I'd make our carpool day on Tuesday or Wednesday simply because everyone else takes Thursday. Hm. Oh well!

Yesterday for dinner was marinated chicken with pasta salad and peas. I found the recipe for the marinade online and it tasted pretty good. I forget the name of it, but it was pretty much a pineapple-ginger flavor. Kind of sweet with a little kick. Happy liked it :-) I think it'll stay in my box of recipes! Speaking of which, Mom-in-law--I need to get your snickerdoodle recipe!

Ok, back to coding invoices! God bless and have a Christ-centered day!

SO exciting!

My fish tasted good and the lemon pepper sauce came out great! I'm sure many were waiting to hear how it all turned out....

I ordered a set of four Tae Bo VHS tapes on amazon.com the other day. I remember my mom getting them a while back and paying more than the $9.99 I paid for them. Since these tapes came out in 1999 there have been others, but I like the old ones. You know when you just get used to one exercise tape and you don't want to switch? If not, trust me, it happens. I'm looking forward to getting them, except now I'll be making more noise in the morning :-\ Hopefully Happy sleeps through it!

Today is payday #2 in my office and I am the one that helps Rebecca (my immediate boss) to stuff all the envelopes. Something I appreciate about this office--I get paid every week for the following week of work. There is no one week delay and I don't have to wait every other week to get paid. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Angie went to Costco today and brought back approximately 800 lbs. of food. Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but she had two guys bringing it all in on a rolling cart. There was a LOT. Angie is one of the few women in our office and she has been here almost as long as the company has been in business (since 1947). I think she has been here longer than any of the VPs. Actually, I was told that she changed some of their diapers! That has to be strange, but it does show that loyalty is important. I hope to be a part of this company for a while, Lord-willing, so I'm glad to hear that it is well established. Yep, this is a boring post so I'll end it now. Maybe something interesting will happen soon and I'll have a more exciting post for once...

WAKE UP!!!!!

Time to take a break from coding invoices and reading because for some reason I'm somewhat sleepy today. I will say that I've been sleeping better though, which is WONDERFUL!

Last night's menu was BBQ marinated chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli. I think it came out pretty good. One question, does parsley have an actual taste? I've always thought it's used for color rather than any flavor it adds. Anyone know? Tonight's menu is breaded fish with lemon pepper sauce (I think) drizzled over it. We're also having pasta salad and a mix of peas and corn. I'll let you know how the fish and sauce come out seeing as I've never actually done this before :-D

I must say, I do enjoy making dinner. Even though I come home tired and sick of traffic, I like playing around in the kitchen. Last night I made more salsa with the recipe my mom-in-law gave me. Tonight I'm going to make more guacamole. Yum... I like guacamole.

It seems like most of my posting is about food. Change of subject. Does anyone know what sorts of indoor potted plants are really difficult to kill? I ask this because I would like to have a plant or two in our apartment, but I'm afraid I will kill it (since I've done so many times in the past... then again, most of the times in the past have been times that I forget to water it... hopefully now I'll remember). So, in light of this, does anyone have any recommendations of plants that don't need a lot of sunlight and don't die easily? I'd appreciate any input. Mom, I'm sure you could offer some suggestions...

We are getting a new phone number since we are switching to Verizon. Hm. I wonder if we are technically "switching" since we never really had a telephone line from AT&T that worked... Anyway, we should have a phone by next Wednesday and internet shortly thereafter, which means wedding pictures will be posted soon!!!! YAY!!! Well, there it is, my post for the day. Have a lovely afternoon!

Sloppy chef

It only took me about 40-45 minutes to get home yesterday!!!! I didn't take the side streets I had planned because apparently word has gotten around the office that my commute was ridiculous so I had several people tell me alternate routes that they use. Last night I took the 55 north to the 5 north and got off at Chapman, which I took all the way home. I think tonight I'll try taking the 5 north to the 22 east and see if that is better or worse. Still, I'm VERY glad to have cut down my commute :-)

My lasagna turned out pretty good, but I think I should have drained the meat before adding the tomato sauce because when I scooped out the pieces there was a sort of puddle in the bottom. It didn't change much of the flavor, which Happy said was good, but I'd still like to work on the consistency. I figure I've got time to improve. Raphaelle, I'm looking forward to the recipes to make enchilades. If I remember correctly, Happy really likes those. Tonight is chili and corn bread so all I really have to do is heat up the soup and make corn muffins. It'll be an easy night compared to last night (but it WAS fun making lasagna)!

I think my mom will have something to say to this as she remembers me "cooking" at home. I've learned that whenever I cook or bake anything, I generally make a rather large mess. When I made pizza, I got it in the oven and looked around to dough and flour smeared into the counter, sauce splatters on the stove, grated cheese on the floor... seriously, you'd think someone that is pretty organized and neat could cook in such a manner as well, right? Maybe I just need to get more used to what I'm doing? Eh, oh well. It's kinda fun making the mess. Cleaning up isn't so fun, but it is necessary, especially in my kitchen!

Well, as extremely exciting as this post is, I'm going to get back to work. By the way, for those of you who are wondering why Happy has only posted twice, the reason is because we still do not have a phone line or internet in our apartment. Supposedly it will work tomorrow at some point, but that'll be at least the 3rd date they've said it'll be working. Once we do have internet at the apartment, you can be SURE there will be many many pictures on our blog!

Cooking :-)

Oh boy! My cooking has been nothing extravagant since we don't have a refrigerator yet (Mike, the refrigerator is supposed to be delivered this Friday). I cooked more in Lake Tahoe, but nothing that tasty. Raphaelle, I didn't have any garlic! Yeah, it was rough and has been rough. The most important thing is that we aren't starving and we're getting by with what we have. I have a couple cookbooks that I'm thinking I'd like to pick out recipes from, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Tonight we're having chili and I'm hoping to make cornbread. I'm not sure if I'll be able to though since I'm not sure how long eggs will hold up in our cooler that's filled with ice! We'll see.

Enough with the cooking... Happy's job starts at the end of August and I have two job interviews tomorrow... sort of. One is with AppleOne (the temp. agency I applied at in Santa Clarita) and the other I found out about through my new mom-in-law. The receptionist of a plumbing company recently quit and they are in need. The company is in Irvine (about 14 miles from where Happy and I live) and I don't know much else about it yet. I spoke with the office manager this morning and will have an interview with her at 1pm tomorrow. Keep me in your prayers!

Not much else is new. We're just unpacking and getting used to being married. Thankfully Happy's not sick of me yet :-) Ok, time to get going. This is two days in a row at the library! I don't think it'll be happening like this but hopefully we'll have internet some time this week. Thank you all for your comments! Keep them coming!