the graduate

I can now proudly say that I am one of the newest graduates from the University of Phoenix Online Campus. It feels wonderful. And I'm sure it will feel even more so as it continues to set in, and as I spend much less time with this: 

While I do love my computer, it will be very nice for both my fingers and my pup that pouts every time he hears the little 'start up click'... yes, he pouts! For the entire 3 years of marriage, Mark has been married to a student. Now he will be married to a Jayci. Congratulations, Mark!!

so nice

I just ran out to beat the mail man to my box. I was going to be late on a bill if it didn't get today (Mark, I miss you!). We made it to the box at the same time, and right when I slipped my envelopes into the outgoing slot, the mail man stepped out of his chain-tired truck and said, "Let me guess his name, Toto?" I said, "YES!" (just trying to be funny, haw haw). He held out a milk bone (Buckwheat has never really loved them), but Buckwheat stood to reach it, gently took it from the mail man and booked it back to the house where he could eat it. I said, "Thank you!" and let Buckers pull me on home with his 9 pounds of horse power. 

Then I noticed a suburban parked in front of my house with two women from the ward inside. I hurried and tried to look presentable incase they came to the front door. Then I noticed Brandon, one of their sons with a snow shovel. They drove off thinking I never saw them. 

So many  nice people!!  

wrap it up

Thai Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps: 

When I was a sophomore and roommates with Jordan, our friend Mauri came over (then I didn't know her too well - seems so long ago!) and they were making dinner together. Mauri had come up with a little idea for chicken lettuce wraps. 

I took notes, and have made them a few times. If you're interested, here is... 

what you need: 

iceberg lettuce 

cooked chicken (of course)

Peanut Sauce (I use Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce-mmm)

optional:

mandarin oranges 

water chestnuts

peanuts 

happy things

While I'm dreaming of summer time and fresh grapes, my pup still comes in from the outdoors looking like this: 

because he likes to do things like this: 

and this picture, I just wish had turned out clearly, it just makes me laugh:

Tessa! these are for you. He's still due for that de-wookie-ing haircut.

grapes

The taste of summer. Especially the red ones! At the house I grew up in, my dad grew grapes outside my sister's window on a tall trellis (it was tall because my dad is tall and he still wanted to walk under it!). The grapes still grew, and it was fun to see them turn from small, bitter and green into round, red, sweet drops of summer. 

I have been enjoying them all week from the base grocery store, and thinking about other smells and tastes of summer. 

Another smell of summer for me is the smell of hot water coming through metal, just like the smell of water rushing out of a garden hose. Mark just put in a new shower head for me and it smells just like that!! When I turn on the water I put my nose close and take a deep breath. Just like summer! 

If you could bottle a smell or taste of summer, what would it be for you? I'm really curious!

trying

I am trying to let myself blog more often like the good old days (pre-morning sickness).  I'm still waiting for that icky part to end (the 15 week milestone is on Tuesday), and while I do, I'm finishing up work and tying up my lose-ends with school. It will feel so nice to have all that free time, so I'm gearing up to blog as I used to. 

Here's to hoping!

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!