January 2016

I guess I’ve really been slacking because my last real post was from New Year’s Day. 

Saturday, January 9, Brian and I had my idea of a perfect date night with Chipotle and a Jazz game against the Miami Heat. The Jazz game was a late Christmas present of mine (a game of my choosing), so that was a blast. And shocker, the Jazz actually won! 

The following week Brian went back to school for the spring semester. My handsome husband is taking 18 credit hours (plus one course for 0 credits) while still working 3 days a week and trying to get the ward mission organized and going. I can’t express how proud of him I am or how hard he works. I am truly lucky. With the return of school, he typically has to take one night class a week and this semester it’s on Tuesdays, so Brian’s mom, Lindy, and I sometimes have movie date nights on Tuesdays. It’s nice since Megaplex Tuesdays make movies $5 then. On the 12th, we saw the movie “Joy” with Jennifer Lawrence. If you need a good inspirational movie that will make you walk out feeling like you can accomplish anything, see this movie.

That same week, we had our Relief Society monthly Night and it was all about preparing for the new year and budgeting. Brian and I have created a very strict budget for ourselves, and with his help, I’ve actually stuck to it more than any other budget I’ve ever had haha. I love having someone by my side thats 1000x’s better at money management than me. That’s semi-sarcastic but mostly true. :)

Friday, January 15, I had lunch with an amazing woman named Melissa Miller. I don’t think she realized how much an hour and a half of time with her made me re-evaluate every aspect of my life, but it was much needed and has set off a chain reaction of a new plan for Brian and I. Stay tuned on that one. But for anyone in the Ogden/Northern Utah area, if you’re looking for an amazing head-hunter (not the reason I met with her, by the way), look up Miller Consulting.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we both had off work, so we made ourselves be super productive and then took the night and went snowboarding together. I’m so happy my knee is getting stronger again and I’m really starting to get more comfortable trying new things again. Brian is a patient teacher, but it’s kind of funny when I tell him I’ll meet him at the bottom of the hill and he gets little-kid-happy and disappears off into the trees. 

Tuesday the 19th, I was super blessed to see my Grand-Big from my sorority. She was here on a ski trip with her parents all the way from West Virginia, so we got to catch up over some yummy “authentic” Utah food at the High West Saloon on Main St in Park City. I love that we can go forever without seeing each other, and then get together and catch up without anything changing :)

I indulged in another dinner date with Annalise later in the week over more Chipotle. Unbelievable as it is, she had never experienced the heavenliness of  Chipotle, but luckily there’s one in Bountiful which is halfway between our houses and a meet up location favorite of ours. 

That Saturday, we helped our Australian friends, the Rigby’s move. Tyler is currently away for work training, so we went to Jodi’s and helped her load up everything from their old apartment and unload everything at their new place. It was fun to see her and their adorable kids!

That night, we had dinner at our house then ventured out to the famous Midway Ice Castles with Kate and Zac. I say ventured because when we were headed back, it started blizzarding and what normally would have been an hour drive turned into a 2 1/2 hour drive on I-80 through the canyon. Nonetheless, the castles were pretty dang cool and it’s always a blast hanging out with Kate and Zac (And amusing when Brian and Zac get together).

This last Friday, we had a mini birthday party for Randy at our house, then he and Sabra and Brian and I went to the Weber State vs. Utah State hockey game. It was way fun and I forgot how much I like hockey. The only other game I've ever been to was a professional game in Florida to see the Tampa Bay Lightning play, so it was neat to go to another game!

The most exciting part of our last week was the baptism for a little girl in our ward. She had just turned 9. Her family are converts who joined in the last 6-7 months and it was wonderful to see her dad get to baptize her. Her stepmom, Ashley, is my visiting teaching companion and I got the opportunity to take her out for her first visiting teaching experience ever this month. They are a darling family and I am so glad we’ve had the opportunity to befriend them.

Oh, lastly we went to the movies last night with Brian's parents. His mom is always down for scary movies and we got his dad to come with us to see The Boy. Totally different ending than I expected, and it's definitely more of a thriller than a horror story. Not quite as scary as I imagined. There's my review, should any of you want it ;)

We’ve been getting a ton of snow, so I don’t really have any sympathy for the east coasters. Here in Utah, we get enough for it to be annoying, but not enough to get a snow day. This year has been the exact opposite of last year’s warm, mild winter. At least the lakes will be higher for wake boarding this summer! That’s all I’ve got for now, here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

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Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup

Apparently I've been on a squash kick lately, but anyone who knows me well knows I am positively addicted to butternut squash soup. So I had to find a recipe that satisfied the never-ending desire! This recipe comes from Wannabite.com, but I had to edit it a bit to make it fit my sweet tooth. Here it is!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 large roasted butternut squashes
• 1 pint of half and half
• ¾ stick of butter (browned)
• 2 tbsp of oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2½ cups of chicken stock
• ** I added a teaspoon of cinnamon, a few dashes of ground ginger, a dash of nutmeg, and probably 1/4 c. of sugar.
• 
  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the squash in half
2. Lightly coat it with oil, salt and pepper
3. Roast the squash for an hour or until tender
4. Scoop out the squash, put it into a blender or food processor add the half and half and the chicken stock.
5. Blend well and then place into a pot on medium heat.
6. Add browned butter (simply brown butter in a small pan) oil, salt and pepper and stir and cook on low for a few minutes. *add my ingredients, if you dare ;) *

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Recipe: Spaghetti Squash Carbonara

This is a total win for me!! Brian (the meat and potatoes man) is actually happy with me making him eat healthier! As long as it's filling. I'm getting much better with making something that fits my healthy standards while still being heavy enough to fill up the black hole that is his stomach. This was super yummy and a definite repeat recipe, so I thought I would share it!

This recipe comes from SimpleHealthyKitchen.com

Ingredients

• 1 large spaghetti squash (about 2 lbs.)
• 6 slices bacon (or ⅓ cup cooked pancetta)
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
• extra Parmesan cheese for garnish if desired

Instructions

1. Slice spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise, from stem to tail. Remove seeds and stringy flesh. Place squash flesh side down in a microwave safe glass baking pan. Cook 10-12 min. until flesh is soft . Let squash cool to touch, turn over and "rake" a fork through the flesh to create the "noodles".
2. While the squash is cooking, use kitchen shears to cut bacon into small pieces. Cook bacon in a large skillet.. Place on a paper towel lined plate when cooked. Reserve a small amount of bacon drippings in frying pan.
3. Combine eggs, cheese , salt and pepper in a small bowl.set aside.
4. Just prior to serving, add garlic to frying pan and cook until fragrant (about 1 min.) Add the spaghetti squash and bacon and heat thoroughly. Turn off heat, and add egg/cheese mixture. Toss to combine. (The egg will cook when combined with the hot squash).
5. Garnish with parsley and additional Parmesan cheese.

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Recipe: Yummy Lemon Salmon

So this was a random test trial... and it turned out awesome!! I found this recipe for lemon salmon but it had all this heavy, fatty sauce so I figured why not stick to the basics? I'm posting this so I remember how much we liked it so when I come across this post in the future I will remember the simplicity of what I did.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I took aluminum foil and places two to three slices of lemon in the bottom, placed the salmon on top, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and a little paprika, then put two thin slices of butter on top. I then folded the aluminum to wrap up the salmon, threw each individual piece in the oven right on the rack and cooked it about 45 minutes (because the salmon filets were frozen).

It came out white and flaky, didn't make my house smell like fish, and Brian called it gourmet because apparently "any kind of meat you squeeze lemon on is fancy." I'll definitely repeat this recipe. Yay me! :)

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Wedding Video! 11.13.15

Due to the size of the video, I have uploaded it to my Google+ account and the video can be found here: https://plus.google.com/107876195085412068943/posts/Mty7pLpZs2P.

Big thank you again to Austin Berenyi Photography for capturing our happiness on this special day!!

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New Year's Day & A Private Flight!

2016 started off with some physical fitness, aka snowboarding for my out of shape self. Brian and I finally made it up to Powder Mountain to get our season night passes and Randy and Sabra came with us for the night. It was my first time back on a board since partially tearing my MCL last season, and my first time with my new board. Let's just say I was on my butt a lot more than I was boarding.

I've always been pretty active, ever since I was a kid. Basketball and track kind of keep you running 24/7 so I've never had much of a problem tackling any sport I was offered.

But then I got old, apparently. About midway through summer last year (probably when Brian and I got engaged) I let my workout routine lapse and never really got back into it. After months of virtually no exercise and a weak knee, I could barely make it halfway down a slope before I'd have to land on my butt to rest my knee before it gave out on me and sent me hurling down the mountain face first. I guess this is my subtle hint that I need to start working out more again, so that's about to happen. *please note, this is not a New Year's resolution that I'll stick to for a week, this is one of those slap in the face moments when you realize your body doesn't rebound from an injury like it did when you were 17 and now you have to work for it. Depressing.*

Despite the delay, Brian was very patient with me, Sabra did awesome for her first time snowboarding, and a good time was had by all. 

The next day, January 2, Brian and I got the special privilege of flying with our friend Tyler Rigby. Tyler is a flight instructor/cargo flyer trainee who took us up in a private plane. He taught us how to turn, in the air and on the ground, what all the gauges and such were, and he even let me take off! I was surprised at how easy the actual take off part is, but then again he did all the hard setup stuff for me :) It was super exciting!

Unfortunately, that's all the news I have for you right now. Brian and I have gotten to the point where we think it's cool to spend our weekends running around trying to accomplish stuff like adults. It feels  good to be accomplished! But that leaves little time for exciting things to write about in my blog. Oh well, 2016 is starting great!

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