Homemaker Projects

What do you get when you cross (a wanna-be) Martha Stewart, with a Betty Crocker cookbook, and a homemaking LDS woman?  ME!

Yes, I know that is the lamest introduction ever.  But I really have felt like a “housewife” lately.  Here are some of the projects I’ve worked on lately (with lots of help of T of course).

1. We redid our bathroom.  We got a lot of gift cards for our wedding, so we finally put them to use by buying paint, a cute shower curtain, towels and mats to match.  The green turned out to be a lot greener than planned but it is growing on us.  (The photos make it look even brighter, I swear it’s not a bright lime green!)

2. We also redid our bedroom.  We were unsure of what color to pick, but go [bold] or go home right?  So we did one wall a redish orange and the other walls a grayish brown.  We also bought a duvet and pillows to draw it all together. It’s been great because we got all of our stuff on sale, so we’ve been very thrifty.

Oh, you’ll notice that we haven’t put up any art or photos on the walls yet, but we’re planning on having T.J. do a few modern paintings for both the bedroom and the bathroom.

3. Another dinner party is in the making for tonight.  I invited the girl I sat next to in Relief Society.  She probably thought I was nuts for inviting a stranger over for dinner. But I’m determined to know the ward, so this is how I’m going to do it!  I asked her to bring another couple, so hopefully it will be great.  I’ve never made (or tried) stuffed green peppers, but it sounded delicious, so that’s what we’ll have tonight, along with homemade rolls (you’d be proud of me mom, they’re not like Penny’s “homemade” rolls where she would just thaw them), and a fruit salad.

Anyway, that’s what I have been up to.  Enjoy the pictures.  Next project: find new curtains for the living room!

[slideshow]

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Linus

You can call me Sinus Linus.

I keep waking up with a lot of sinus issues.  I won’t go into details.  But I am wondering if this is happening to anyone else?  Is it just something in the air right now?

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It's Not a Trick, Michael–It's an ILLUSION

My nail polish changes in the sun.  From pearl to pink.

Jealous?  You should be.

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Cougareat EXPRESS

Guess what I just heard?

The Cougareat will soon offer a service where they will deliver food to you wherever you are on campus.  So say you are craving a sub, but you don’t wanna leave your stuff at the library and go to the Wilk?  Or say you are stuck in the Brimhall building all evening and don’t have time to run to the Wilk?  What if it’s raining and you don’t feel like going all away across campus for lunch?

Oh, just order a subway sub (as long as it is a cold sub and you are allowed in the snack zone) and they will deliver it to you shortly!

Awesome, huh?  They are starting just with Subway and then going from there.

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Outfit Repeater

Yes, I am an outfit repeater today.  But why go through the trouble of finding something new when the outfit your wore previously worked so well?

So if any of you from church see me on campus today, please do not judge me.  I promise I showered and did not sleep in the outfit.

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Flash Back

So, I finally wrote in my journal yesterday with all the deets of our engagement story.  I know it’s late.  But better late than never right?

Since I didn’t have this blog when we were engaged, I thought I’d share the story with you.

Background: We had talked about marriage, but hadn’t set any dates or planned anything. We also didn’t want that long of an engagement, and T.J. said he didn’t have money for a ring, so I figured he wouldn’t propose for a month or so.  But back in December, we had looked at rings and I just was so eager to get engaged and start the planning! Oh and one last thing, since we had talked about marriage, I wanted to the proposal to be a complete surprise.  I’m not a fan of the cheese.  I just wanted it to be all of a sudden and out of the blue.

It was Friday January 8th, T.J. took me to Red Robin for dinner.  While we were waiting to be seated, we walked through mall (I bought an amazing down coat–another awesome thing from the night) and when we were in Gap, I saw T.J.’s feet dancing in the dressing room and heard him snapping and singing. I asked him,

“T, are you dancing?”

“Uh… yeah… I just had a good day at work.”  (Really he was excited for the rest of the evening.)

Strange, but that’s why I love him.

I was pretty tired after dinner so we just went home for a while and watched The Office. All night he talked about how he wanted to go to Chili’s to get our favorite lava cake dessert.  I was kind of confused why we would go to another restaurant that night, especially after eating a lot of dinner, but he was so persistent.  He just said he was craving it and so I went along.

When we got to Chili’s, we ordered and he left to go the restroom (he actually went and arranged with the waiter what he wanted to happen).  When our cake came out, there was a note addressed to me.  I looked around thinking someone “sent me a note” like a mormon version of “sending over a drink” or something flirtatious like that.  Then I looked at T.J. and asked,

“Wait, is this from you.”

He nodded.  I opened it up and thought he was just being cute like normal.  Sometimes he writes me notes and poems, so I didn’t think anything was up.

There was a poem inside (his Grandpa used it to propose as well), but I couldn’t finish reading because I noticed T.J. reaching in his coat pocket.

“T.J. what are you doing?  WHAT are you doing?!?”

He didn’t say anything back, he just nervously smiled, eyes wide, eyebrows raised.

Kneeling down on one knee, he asked if I would marry him… Or something like that, we don’t really remember the wording.  And I don’t remember if I said yes right away, I just met him on the ground, kissed and hugged him.

We were so excited/anxious/nervous to eat our cake.  I couldn’t get the fork to my mouth without making a mess.

Anyway, it was great.  I was completely surprised and loved how it was out of the blue and random.   Oh and he arranged with his coworker, Abby, so she could take pictures of the whole thing.  I didn’t even realize she was there until after he proposed!

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Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

On sunday, I made a big batch of Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.  I had a bunch of frozen bananas in our freezer that I was sick of looking at, so it was time to use them.  Anyway, enjoy the recipe.  They’re really delicious, and very moist.

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1¼ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1½ cups mashed bananas
1 cup milk
¾ cup smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9×5-inch loaf pans (or muffin tins.)

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

3. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, milk, peanut butter, vanilla and egg. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

4. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 50 to 55 minutes for bread pan (give it a check at 40 minutes), 14 minutes for muffin pan ,or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

Yield: 2 loaves or 24 large muffins

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Tiffany Blue

Today I am wearing my key necklace.  It’s a nock off of Tiffany’s.  But one day, one day far, far in the future, maybe I’ll get a real one.

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What's on my mind

  1. One of my fingernails is all rugged at the end and it keeps snagging things.  It has been going on for days!  I keep trying to cut it but it keeps breaking and now the nail is too short to cut.  Terrible.
  2. There is an adult ballroom camp going on this week on campus.  I love watching them, they are all so cute.  I hope T.J. and I will be like them when we are older.
  3. A beautiful bouquet of flowers showed up in my office this morning. My eyes got wide and a huge smile came across my face, only to find out that they were for my boss.
  4. We are going to Lagoon tomorrow with the Derrick side of T.J.’s family.  Last year I took dramamine all day so I wouldn’t get sick, which helped.  But at night when I was laying in bed, I felt like I was still riding roller-coasters, leading me to puke all night long.  Needless to say, I’m getting very worried about what this weekend has in store for me.
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She said she wasn't hungry.

I took my girl to a fancy ball;

It was a social hop.

We waited till the folks got out,

And the music it did stop.

Then to a restaurant we went,

The best one on the street.

She said she wasn’t hungry

But this is what she ate.

A dozen raw, a plate of slaw,

A chicken and a roast,

Some applesauce and asparagus,

And soft-shell crabs on toast.

A big box stew, and crackers too;

Her appetite was immense!

When she called for pie,

I thought I’d die,

For in my pocket I had but fifty cents.

My mom used to recite this poem called “I Had but Fifty Cents” by Sam Devere whenever we would eat a lot.  It actually became quite a joke.

“She said she wasn’t hungry….”

Today I was reminded of this poem because I ate SO much junk food at work today.  I won’t even tell you what I had, but it all consisted of bucket-loads of sugar.  I proceeded to have a sugar crash at about two o’clock.  And you know the only way to get out of that… more sugar.

Oh gosh.

“She said she wasn’t hungry…”

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