Happy (late) Valentine's Day!

This year for Valentine's Day, Vince and I went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. They opened a few weeks ago at their first location in Utah (Lehi/American Fork). I can't believe there hasn't been one here sooner because it was packed (now yes it was Valentine's Day, but I've driven by and saw it packed on other days). I like that they selected Lehi for the location because there weren't as many "zoobies" as I was afraid there would be, which was just lovely! There were a few NBA games on and a college game. We went as soon as Vince got off work, so we were there a bit early to see any of the Ohio State game, but I still wore my shirt (hey it was red!). They eventually put on the Jazz/Thunder game on most of the screens, which was our cue to leave (haha). Also, instead of us each getting a gift for the other, we bought a joined gift, new sheets for our bed! We got a set for our wedding, and discovered that they are the most soft and comfortable sheets I've ever felt, but it was time to get a new set. Although they are a bit expensive, they are completely worth the pretty penny we paid for them.

A few days ago I also made a few Valentine's Day decorations. I've been on a "mini clothespin kick" you could say. It's so easy to store this way, and i can use the clothespins for several different and temporay projects throughout the year. The heart banner turned out so cute! The first one is in the living room/hallway, and the second is in the office.

I also made a few valentines that I've been uploading to Scrapetite. Here's my favorite one, the one I made for Vince. I found that adorable keyboard paper and knew I had to make something for Vince with it.

This weekend I plan on making some cute Valentine cupcakes to share since it's not so good to eat an entire dozen cupcakes by yourself! Overall I say it was a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Ethnic Dinner 2: Italian

This week we decided on the country of Italy! We wanted to try to make something Italian that didn't involve pasta, and chose Pollo al Marsala (Chicken Marsala). This has always been my favorite thing to eat whenever I go to an Italian restaurant and was low-carb friendly for Vince's diet. We used the recipe from here. In addition we had a side salad and some blood orange soda. Mmm!

For dessert I originally wanted to make cannolis, until I saw that you need some sort of cannoli mold. Since we didn't have anything we could use for that, and we didn't want to buy anything, we decided on a fruit salad with cannoli cream that we saw on Giada's part of the Food Network website. This was not very low-carb friendly, but very very delicious! (Recipe from here.)

Next time: Indian!

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

I can't believe I haven't made any of these before last week. They were SO easy to make! Found the idea on Pinterest (of course!). I made one for the kitchen and one for each bathroom. Also, they fit in with my love of all things farmhouse/country. I love them!

Super Bowl Yummies, school update and a new addition!

This past week has been a little busy. School is what is taking up most of my time, but I don't mind. Math is going well so far (we haven't done anything too terrible, although I still detest story problems). In English we are currently working on our second paper (out of only 5 papers for the whole semester). Our first paper was on problematizing a topic of our choice and I decided on bilingual classrooms. Still waiting to get the grade back, but I think I did well. It was a challenge to present a completely non-biased description of the problem, but I learned a lot. The second paper was problematizing an event in local or global news. For this paper I chose to write about a news story from back in November that took place outside of Cleveland about an obese child who was taken away from his parents because they believed that him being obese was a form of abuse. It's been interesting  to write about so far.

Stress management is the easiest class I've ever taken, which is very good for my stress level haha! Most of the assignments so far are journal entries and writing about personal goals. Psychology is still my favorite class by far. We finished watching a documentary last week called "Secret of the Wild Child" about a girl named Genie. Genie had been found in her home after nearly 10 years of living in isolation. Several psychologists and therapists were trying to determine if Genie could still learn and go on in life after missing out on important parts of language development as a young child. The ending was very sad, because Genie ended up being bounced from foster home to foster home and never was able to gain the needed language skills. We learned that the first few years of life are critical in learning to speak, and how important a good environment is for a child in all aspects. Today we went over the Susan Powell case and talked about how there were so many  signs that Josh Powell was a sociopath. It was quite interesting to reread the news stories with that idea in mind. 

Yesterday we had a small party for the Super Bowl, mostly as an excuse for Vince to make a bunch of chicken wings and for me to make some other delicious goodies. First I made some homemade ranch dip. I cannot believe how easy it was, and am a little upset at myself for not making any before yesterday! This will be a recipe I will use over and over again! The best part is, it tastes BETTER than the ranch you get from the store, without all the extra preservatives which may or may not be bad for you. 

Next I made some homemade french onion dip. I've been looking for years out here to find a good chip dip. I've tried several brands and was never able to find one yummy enough. I guess I was spoiled with two delicious chip dips in Ohio, one a local dip called Lawsons, and another (which may be regional, i'm not sure) called Heluva Good. The past few months I decided that if I couldn't find one out here ot buy already made, that I would make one myself, and so I started my search for the perfect recipe. This recipe was GOOD! Doesn't taste like either of my favorite already made dips, but a completely different and delicious flavor! Vince and I tried Saturday night to make homemade potato chips, but they just didn't turn out right. Maybe we did it wrong?

As another side, I made some deviled eggs. Mmmm I could eat them all day!

Finally for dessert I made some football cake pops using our brand new KitchenAid! I got a Cake Pop book (created by the woman who blogs at Bakerella) for Christmas and these were my first attempt. I think they turned out really well! Plus the  chocolate melts we got cheap from Winco. The only thing I wasn't happy with is the white stripes. I used royal icing because I didn't have any of the white decorating gel that the recipe called for, but now I know it's not the best.

Sunday Ethnic Dinners are back

Back in 2010, Vince and I had started out the year with a weekly Sunday Ethnic Dinner. I thought it was a neat way to learn about food from other countries by making a main dish, dessert, and sometimes even a side dish from that country, while reading about what made that dish significant and what part of the country it was from. We decided to start doing it again, but instead of doing it every week, we are changing it to only every other week. So today we started it back up again. Tonight's country, was Germany. For the main dish we made Weiner Schnitzel (recipe from here). It originally calls for veal, but since we couldn't find any we used pork loin. It turned out so good! For sides I made some mashed red potatoes (potatoes are a popular side dish in Germany), and a small side salad.

For dessert I made Berliner Pfannkuchen, which were essentially mini jelly donuts. These things are dangerously yummy! I made a half batch, which made it a little easier to not eat them all at once knowing there weren't many available haha! Recipe from here.

Two weeks from today will be Italian!

Spring Semester 2012

   Can't believe I'm already heading into the third week of classes! This semester is a fairly boring semester. First I'm taking Math and English, which isn't too exciting. I was highly recomended to take Stress Management. So far it's an interesting class, learning about the body's reaction to stress and how we can manage it. Plus it's an easy A, we were told we take our midterm with a partner and our book and notes! The final class is by far the most interesting and incredible class I've taken, Psychology. Our first assignment was to go on a few psychology websites, such as Psychology Today, to look at articles and topics within Psychology that might interest us. The funny thing is that I subscribe to some of those websites' rss feeds! Friday we annalyzed the behavior of the candidates during the latest Republican debate and talked about an upcoming project. At the end of class our professor told us about what topic we would be discussing monday. Any guesses? How music affects the brain. Is this not the perfect class for me or what?!

Proud new owner

Of this guitar:

I got it for Christmas in Ohio, but there was no way I could bring it back with me, so we returned it there, and I    used the money to buy it again at the Guitar Center in Las Vegas. I'm so excited to learn! I've mastered the woodwinds, can play some piano, and figured this was the next logical instrument to learn. I taught myself nearly every other instrument I know, so I'm hoping I can still do that. Can't wait to see what I can play in a month!

Pinball Hall of Fame

Saturday afternoon Vince and I went to the Pinball Hall of Fame with our friend Al. Vince had been before, but I hadn't. It's so cool! There are dozens of pinball machines, with some of them dating as far back as the late 40's! Here are some of the machines I played on or thought were cool:

here's an old machine from 1968!

One of the rows of old machines

a KISS pinball machine

a GNR one

Giligan's Island haha

Night Rider

Super Mario!

a cool space one that Vince loved.

and of course there was a ms pac man machine!

Consumer Electronics Show

Last year Vince and I were sick during CES, so we were excited that we got to go this year. I think it's more exciting if you only go once every other year or once every few years because it seemed more enjoyable having missed a year of it. Anyway, we flew down Wednesday night with a great deal we got from Southwest (plus I get rapid rewards points). Thursday we spent the entire afternoon there, and Friday just Miriam and I went. Here are some of my favorites from the show this year:

The super thin Lenovo Laptop. I am a big Lenovo fan so it was neat to see this. I was hoping to see the Lenovo Yoga, but it was only there in a press room.

This was a neat thing at the Microsoft booth. I tried to look at everything through the eyes of a future teacher, and this is something I hope will be in classrooms in the future.

The Microsoft booth is always cool.

Here's a SMART Board-esque touch screen from Samsung. Students can be at their desks using their Galaxy Tab and send information to the main screen in the front of the classrooms. Such a neat idea for future classrooms!

More info about the Samsung board.

This was my favorite tablet. It's a flip one from Sony!

Here it is open.

and here it is closed. Easily small enough to fit in even the smallest purse!

The LG Fridge with a blast chiller.

Stick a warm pop in here and it will be chilled within minutes.

LG had a cool 3D display at their booth.

I thought this pill box geared towards dementia patients was cool.

A video baby monitor! Neat idea for when your baby is sleeping in their crib.

These fruit ninja toys were just adorable!

These were pedometers geared towards kids. There's a website you can log in to show how many miles you've walked and get prizes and stuff online.

Miriam loved trying out this insanely huge lens valued at $32,000!

Also not pictured here, was the new Lenovo smart phone! Not sure when it will come to the U.S. but man I really like it! I'd say it was a pretty sucessful year. Of course there were plenty of other things that we saw there as well. I had a great time!

Christmas Village a little late

In early December my mom found the perfect Christmas village for me. I had been looking for years for a village that had a barn in it, but the cheapest I could find was 80 dollars for one building! That was wayyy too expensive so I just kept looking. Well, my mom found a village at Kmart that had a barn, AND it was affordable! When I looked at the pictures online I discovered nearly every piece was perfect! We could only afford to get one, so I decided on the cute barn, and just hoped that the rest of the buildings that I liked would be back next year. Well, my mom ended up getting the other buildings and pieces for me for Christmas!! Since I got it after Christmas, I set it up once I got home to see how they all looked together.

This is the mayor standing in front of the dance hall.

Here's the town knitting shop.

A cupcake cottage!

people with their Christmas tree, and a dog house decorated for Christmas.

The barn

A tree trunk with squirrels on it and an outhouse haha

The whole village! All I need are some trees. Can't wait to have it up next year!!