turning up the heat

I have had a steamer, I think since Mark and I were first married. Had I used it? No! That thing scared me to death. Holes in the bottom of a pan? What genius would put holes in a pan? oh. That thing's a steamer? I got it. 

The woman I sit next to at work, Hope, is such a healthy eater!! She cooks for her and her roommate almost every night and half of their entire meal is a steamed vegetable. Well, sitting next to her for so long, I was hoping something like that would rub off. So she'll be proud when I tell her of my Sunday Adventure. Here's how it went down: 

I followed the instructions and rinsed all of the beans (bought fresh from Costco-yum)…

I turned on the oven and let the water start boiling! *I read online to cover the pot to let the inner-temp rise
Then I put the beans in (I had to do 3 different sets because I was cooking 1/2 of the big bag! Trying to feed 13 people from these beans) to the steaming sauna. See the steam? So picturesque.

After they were tender enough (poked them with a knife), but still a little hard (b/c I like to think they retained a lot of the nutrients that way), I put them in the casserole dish with the lid on to wait for the rest of them. 

When I was finished with all that I wanted to cook, I added 1.5 T of butter, salt, lots of pepper, and a touch of garlic powder (you may already know I don't like cooking with garlic! It reeks. and so does the person who consumes too much of it!) Stirred it all together and VOILA!

So just incase you're one of the ladies too scared to steam.... I hope this little mini tutorial helps. It was just as easy as Hope said it would be. And they turned out so yummy I may do it every night this week for my dinner's vegetable. 

sun day

I wonder how someone came up with the name for today. Pretty nice, I must say, having a day devoted/named after sunshine. I wonder if they assigned names to the days of the week after the majority of Christian religions started practicing Sabbath on Sunday and it has a religious reference to the Son, who is our sun in a dark world? 

What do you think? (without wiki-ing it)

Either way, the sunshine that is now coming through the low parts of the valley earlier in the day is like a fire when it hits the trees. I love, absolutely love early morning sunshine. It's at its purest and brightest, I think, when it's morning. What a beautiful way to begin a Sabbath day. 

Buckwheat thought so too. *he needs a haircut! every time he starts looking at me like a wookie, I know it's about time...

3 years

Monday was mine and Mark's third anniversary. It was sad that it felt like any other day because unfortunately I had work, and that night involved a trip to the airport. Mark had the day off, since it was President's Day, and well, the military observes Federal Holidays unlike hospitals. hah! 

Luckily for me, Mark is a sweetie. He spent all day doing his own chores, but then also did laundry, vacuumed, cooked dinner...

... and surprised me with these!! He hung them while I was at work. Yes they are different heights because the windows are different heights + we needed them to the floor at the sliding door. Summers here are bright! Thank you, Mark!

PS - a lot of you asked, so here's a little of my reasoning for quitting. Mark and I have been hoping for a pregnancy for some time, and with it 'underway?' we knew we would want to take advantage of this time we have just us. Not that we haven't been doing it anyway, but now it's crunch time! :) So we are planning a couple little trips and I just want to relax for a little while. I have 4 more work days left (since I get Thursdays off), and afterwards I plan on painting canvases (seeing how it turns out will be the adventure), sewing (working on my quilts, and stockings), lots of walking (no slipping!) with Buckwheat, lots of cooking (I have lots of gathered recipes I'd love to try), lots of books to read, and 9 days of school to finish after my last day of work. Then I will be done with both my degree AND work! Hallelujah!

Valentine's Day

Mark and I celebrated our love-appreciation-day by making a yummy breakfast and then calling the temple. We signed up for the 1:00 session, but when the time came to leave, Mark did NOT feel well. We made it there on time, but we were rushing and decided to do sealings instead. The sealer was one of the oldest sealers I have ever seen. His name was Leon, and loved talking to Mark after we were done. 

We left the temple and when we got to the little restaurant I realized I left my coat! It was that warm. I told Mark it is a good day in Alaska when you walk outside and don't realize you left your coat.

Then we went to Chili's for the yummiest salsa and chips. Chili's has my favorite salsa of all time (I realized this when we lived in Texas where I would go shopping in town and grab their chips and salsa to go!). If anyone knows where I can find the recipe/a similar recipe, let me know! 

mighty change of hair

Thursday I cut and colored my hair. Being blonde was swell, but with trying not to damage any babies, I didn't want to keep coloring my hair every 6 weeks. With one color of brown I won't have to worry about keeping it up for a long while. So here is the Ask Aida hair cut on yours truly. 

This is Kim (on the left) and Katie (on the right). Kim was the birthday girl, so a bunch of girls from work went to celebrate! 

These pictures were taken Friday night at Gallo's a Mexican Restaurant in Anchorage, but everyone here (even the commercials on TV) pronounce the name "Galow's." It's really strange. Anyway, they had great chimichangas and spicy-hot salsa that was muy delicioso.  
Here is me and Sarah, my e-mail buddy at work. Being her visiting teacher is all-too-convenient when I see her every day!! And she is also the one that found me the job at AFOC. 

And this last picture is of me and Carol, Dr. Ryan's nurse. It will be sad leaving all these wonderful people next Friday (my last day of work). They have become like family!

sunny and share

See that? It's a sun-shadow. I had to show it off. You probably see them all the time at your house, but I haven't seen this at my house since ~November!! Since I'm away during the day at work, and most Saturdays have been overcast, I was pretty excited, and had to document! These were last Thursday. 

I know... still nothing up on the wall there, I'm working on it. :) 

Here is the sunshine from the deck. YUM!

hello spring? naah.. probably not for another couple of months. But hello sun!

anthropologie

mmm... my favorite place on my list of stores to stop in to. My pea pod friend loves this store as much as I do, I believe. She's lucky enough to live in the same states as one, though. I live vicariously through her and her savvy purchases. So when I go, instead of purchasing a ton, I just take pictures to look at later: 

It's so easy to make their set ups look like out of a magazine... see above. I love the pink hot-air-balloon-esque light. Paired with the aged secretary below, it's plain adorable. 

They even had fresh flowers on display. Yes, of course, I touched the flowers to see. I really need a hutch. I think if I had one, I might put a chair upside down on it like this one, above. I might not, but I might. I would need a hutch in order to find out!! The possibilities are endless. I found out that each of their stores has a designer assigned to that particular store, and they are the ones who come up with the fun designs. The light bulbs were pretty fun. I love the farm ladders, underneath them. It's almost like they wanted it to look like they were still hanging the strands of light bulbs. 

The best part was when we left the store and I looked in the window as we were passing and saw "ark" I thought to myself, "wouldn't that be funny if it said 'Mark'?" IT DID! Then Mark noticed the "J &" next to the Mark. I HAD to take a picture. We were made for this store... or the other way around. 
*the A in 'MARK' is the same A you see in the video clip from Ask Aida. Yep! Her set designer shops at Anthropologie. Now I just need to find out where they bought her pepper mill and salt dish. Any tips? I've looked many, many places.

pirate o's

never heard of this place? neither had I! But my in-laws love this place, and they have my favorite red Australian licorice, so I grew to like this place. Though, the owner didn't like me much! because after I snapped this little photo, he told me to put my camera away. how rude. I thought about not posting it, but I thought I'd do him the favor of giving him some publicity. .. or maybe that's what he he might be a real pirate? naah... anyway, here is a cute little aisle of goodies: 

tai pan trading co.

Store stop #1 in Utah was to Tai Pan Trading, Co. When we were on a rush around with all of the family in St. George, my sister in law wanted to see if they had something she was looking for. I don't think they did, but she did come out with three cute yarn balls. 

When we went back to SLC, Stacey satisfied my curiosity and took me to browse: 

I like that quote! Cute. Below are what was in a big part of the clearance section. I was on an orange kick that day, because these looked glorious. I still love the color: 
Yes, I love horses. Yes, I love books. Horse-head book ends? PERFECT! They were too heavy to get back home in my suitcase... I still need to check online. 
More orange. They had cute little set ups like this all over the place. I would love to throw in these accent colors around my house. So far I have yellow, and a little orange. When I finish working, I really want to get down to business and put out a lot of paintings for us to hang around our house. Then I can add colors and change it up whenever I'd like!
Oh, and these lovely little plates caught my attention. Again, I just had too many things to take back with me to AK. So ... I'll just have to wait. 
They also had a LOT of cute spring stuff out already, but I'm going to hold out on you until Spring shows herself up here. 

ask aida about haircuts!

Between now and the time my hair is long enough to be styled like Lena's from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II, I have found an in-between hair style. 

While being lazy on the couch one Saturday morning with my mother in law this past New Year's, we stumbled upon a Food Network show, called "Ask Aida." It was actually her hair that caught Stacey's attention, and she called me in to see how I liked it. I LOVED it. Since looking at her hair for the whole show, I decided she is the perfect host of a cooking show. Her show is more like an actual cooking class rather then 'look at me, I'm a better cook than you.' She is cute, sweet, stylish, cooks with a lot of ginger, and she takes questions that you send in, and she makes cooking look like a breeze; a FUN breeze, at that. I have a new love for the kitchen. Check out this little video of a recent show (yes, I now DVR her show... and save them to watch again to get the tips down pat). 

Here's a little hair-teaser. In some episodes she has her bangs more forward.. but this coming week, I will no longer be blonde! Hope you like the little clip; start watching her show if you don't already.. you might like it!!

oh yea! ha how do you like her side-kick, Noah? little dweeby, and he gets all the food!! I think he should keep that job forever. 

pleasant

I met a dentist in our clinic two days ago, and with him 'recommending me' to his clinic, I got an appointment two days later!! It was a nice visit, no x-rays since I'm pregnant, so I never even saw the dentist himself. I just got a nice, painless cleaning, and nice compliments from the hygienist. Of course, without fail, I was reminded to floss more. But it's a nice trade. Reminders for polished whites. 

While there, they had all their tvs hooked up to a central dvd player. While I was filling out paperwork in the waiting room, there was a boy enraptured with the movie. It was one of my all-time favorites. The Black Stallion. I may have blogged about it before, but it is always worth a note. 

Wow!! That was just the hardest movie ever to find good photos of! on a google search there wasn't even one good one from the movie - just three reproduced ones.. it must be like a good, rare stake. ha

Tonight I took it easy while watching the latest episode of Lost, online, and painting my fingernails and letting Buckwheat 'outside' while the snow is coming down gently. Pleasant night. Poor Mark, it's his last night in the frozen outdoors. A post on that to come.. maybe! I still have to do my little store-outings 'next.'

next

I fell asleep on the couch shortly after I completed the last post because I was beginning to feel a little ... sick. I woke up at 11:00 and now it is 11:50. I'm all ready for bed, and it is looking very soft right now. Ah! So in a rush to lay in the pillowy softness, I had to post what was coming up next! The stores!! 

The stores, my stores... the stores I have missed since being in the Frozen North. So good night, and sweet dreams. 

Oh! And Aubrey - Joeseppi's actually might be in Tacoma (on the side closer to Point Defiance than Seattle). It is a VERY good restaurante/bistro though! If you are ever in the area, I recommend it! My folk's favorites in that area are Anthony's (I ordered the Kalbi Chicken with jasmine rice and it was d-licious!!), Joeseppi's (a lot bigger inside that it looks from the street), and a mexican restaurant called El Toro, with apparently very delicious salsa verde. 

good eats

Since being pregnant, it is a good excuse to give into my spicy food cravings. I don't use it as an excuse to gorge - because I don't want to gain more weight than I have to!! But hello yummy little restaurants!

1. Rubio's: I thought these little rubies were only in Las Vegas! But as my lovely sister informed me, they are ALSO in Utah now! If you are in the area of Rubios - go enjoy. on me. but don't send me the bill. ha!

2. Cafe Rio: Another yummy mexican grill. Not as yummy (don't throw eggs!), but I can blame that on myself. While my meal is yummy, I just don't think I order the right thing. I like medium salsa, but green salsa is just not my favorite. Let me know what your favorite Cafe Rio menu item is! Maybe I'll try it my next time in Utah. 

In Seattle, when my mom and dad took me and Mark to Joeseppi's, we finished our dinner and my dad insisted on ordering us the chocolate cake. When the waitress rounded the corner, and we all spotted this monster (picture actually is at an angle that makes it look smaller), my dad was the one that probably laughed the loudest! It was about 7 inches tall!! 

On the way to Seattle, I was already not feeling well. So I browsed the selections of breakfast foods, all that smelled sugary and yummy, but I wanted substance, not sugar. So instead of a breakfast something or another, I wandered into a little gourmet bistro-express. It hit the spot, this little sandwich. That and an Odwalla fruit drink (strawberry and banana is my favorite). 

reunited

The week after Christmas, the week of New Year's, Mark and I were reunited with his brothers and sisters and parents for an immediate Reeder-Family Reunion. After flying to Salt Lake on Monday morning, we drove to St. George for 4 days. I didn't realize how much I had missed the south west. So warm and sunny! 

I still wore my coat because I was pretty sick, and didn't want to make matters worse. 

The house that we stayed at was the Reeder's neighbors'. It must have been one of the development's model homes because it had everything picture-perfect. All the fun sort of trinkets to make it feel like a picture.  
We got to see the sights of St. George, including roots that have grown too far out: 
But more importantly, the temple in which I was sealed to my wonderful family: 
When we went to the original Pizza Factory, I called my dad to see if the owner, Bill still worked there. Dad said he did, so I asked the hostess if he was in. He and my dad went to high school together, back in the day. He was on vacation with his family, so here's the note I left for him. I took a picture for you, Dad:  
Mark might be a tad embarrassed that I chose to put THIS picture up, instead of just sending it to Mike, his brother, who will get this joke. Outside of the Pizza Factory, there is a place called Jake's Old House. When Mark says the name "Jake," unless it's to a friend named Jake, he says it like he's about to spit some tobacco. I think it started with the John Wayne movie. Here is what it looks like when he says the name, "Jake": 

We also got a little tour of Brigham Young's Winter Home. This was my favorite little place in the house. I love the yellow, and look! the drawers are numbered: 

and a little close-up:

It was a fun little trip!! Thank you Stacey, and Marty!

present

Jayci Reeder? Present! I'm still here, and still haven't uploaded any pictures ... unheard of! I have been spending time after work sitting down with my sore feet up. Walking 10+ miles a day is what keeps me feeling good, but also feeling tired! 

Some things I have been enjoying lately: 

1. spicy, spicy food (thai, mexican, chinese with spicy sczechuan sauce, you name it!)

2. movies 

This has hit my favorites list.

I love the friendships, and just girl time.

The sense of culture and adventure while still having roots. 

I rented it on itunes and watched it twice in the 24 hours.

Again, I liked Lena's character the best, and

would love to style my hair like hers sometime

in the near future... dot dot dot.

(I will soon share pictures of my favorite movie hairdos)

interesting movie, I liked Meg Ryan's character a lot, 

even though what a situation she was put in, and 

I forgot to realize that I hadn't seen one male

in the whole film until the very last 

scene.. and even then, 

it was a baby.

I know, I'm a little late.

But I loved it as much as everyone said I would.

The aesthetics they let the music have were fantastical.

The way they portrayed the little boy being able to play his instruments

was beautiful, and inspirational.

Sorry if you think I'm a corny movie-lover. 

I am. I know.

I don't think I've already mentioned this one yet.

Beautifully made film. It is a hard movie, but very well done. 

With every horrible situation she is put in, 

she does the commendable act... almost every situation.

Georgiana is portrayed as a woman of strong character and drive, 

with maternal instincts stronger than everything else.

If you're up for the tears, I recommend this film!

This was a difficult movie to stomach.

The entire time, you know how the real ending goes, 

and it makes you sick 

thinking of how brave these men must have been.

What a scary time this was for the Germans who did not agree, 

and for those who were not thought of as agreeable.

*no, I haven't watched all these movies in the last week, 

more like in the past 3 months! But enjoyed nevertheless. 

3. walking. Walking at work, about 11-13 miles a day have really helped me not feel sick. Though I am always nibbling and taking 3-minute breaks every now and then, I have been feeling so much better since walking so much all day, every day. Nights are still difficult, but not too bad.

4. sleep. ah! it's 8:30 already? I'm off to get ready for some more sleep. Oh, and the dreams are insane. I already dreamt abnormal amounts, but now it's just crazy.

Thanks for everyone's comments my last couple posts. I appreciate all the tips and clues. I had my first appt last week and got to see the "little wiggler" on the monitor. So crazy! Heart rate is 180 - strong and fast! This is such a surreal experience. D-Day: August 17th, the day after Mark's birthday. He's pretty thrilled. 

home again

I flew back in to Anchorage yesterday afternoon and jumped back onto the work horse today. I survived the work day and just finished getting sick.. for your information. 

Morning sickness hit me about the same time that flu and cold did. Around week 8... isn't that a little late? I'm up for your stories, information, and other sorts of tidbits you might have. 

It is minimal, and if I snack it is better. But around lunch time and afternoon night... it is discomfort, hunger, and just plain ick-ness. 

In the morning when I get ready, I have to eat at least a piece of toast to not fall over and hug the white bowl in the bathroom. So if I get ready at night, I'm better off in the morning. 

Tips? Info? Breezy advice? do two year old prenatal vitamins still do you any good? Comment away! :o) 

far and away

I'm in Utah and have been for the last several days. It is so nice to see the warm sun and enjoy the wet snow (in Alaska it is very dry snow as it doesn't melt!) with Mark's family. We left after a full week of being really sick. I had been sick with two different bugs, and one is still plaguing me. Yes, plaguing. I had the stomach flu for four days, while struggling through a cold (nasal congestion and no sleep and now it is a cough) and then food poisoning on New Year's Eve. It really has been a plague. You see, I haven't been able to take much medicine for it because... well...

I'm EXPECTING!

I feel far and away looking at my situation and feel lightheaded and wonderful. It is exciting and terrifying. We are so excited and have been hoping for this news for a very long time.

This lack of blogging was because of how sick I had been, but thankfully, it is only minimally due to morning sickness. I am almost 10 weeks along and have my first (a little slow, eh?) doctor's appt in 2 weeks. I have been taking a lot of pictures so I have things to blog about upon my return to the Alaskan wilderness.

Hope everyone enjoyed some sort of Christmas Miracle, as I certainly did. Happy New Year, as well!

life lately

... has been miraculous - really! Full of Christmas Miracles. But it has also been very crazy!! That is why tonight I decided to update the blog. It was over due. Tonight I went from having 3 measly posts for the month of December to having 8!! I hope you have some time to browse, you never know what you'll find!

And no.. the Winnebago isn't ours, but it was kinda fun looking sitting in the snow a couple of weeks ago. It probably has a fun history tied to some hippies up here. 

winter

Before running our errands this afternoon, Mark and I drove Buckwheat down to the end of the street. Remember what this looks like in the summer? yep.. so different!! You can tell where the fog lies low in the valley because the trees are all white and iced over. The sun doesn't even touch down here anymore. And tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. Since we're inside the Arctic Circle up here, it is a huge deal! We can start adding on minutes of sunshine every day. Bring on the sun! 

Squadron's Christmas Party

Friday night was Mark's squadron Christmas Party at the Captain Cook hotel in downtown Anchorage. It was a great party!! Lots of funny people, a live band, yummy food - steak and salmon! - Door prizes, we won 2 tickets to the Symphony in January (thanks to a pair of friends). I forgot that so many people still hadn't seen me with blonde hair - it was fun to see people's faces change from normal to ultimate surprise. It's just hair, right?? ha!