Sunday, January 27, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
macaroni and cheeeese!
i never really cared about macaroni and cheese, or grilled cheese for that matter, until i married cory. i knew he loved grilled cheese-i'm pretty sure he had ten grilled cheese sandwiches a week during our engagement. he makes them himself, i make them, or he gets them from various restaurants! anyway, during our first few months of marriage, with our own kitchen and a stocked pantry, i made my way through my mom's repertoire of delicious meals. one day, i decided to make her adaption of martha stewart's macaroni and cheese (http://www.marthastewart.com/271998/perfect-macaroni-and-cheese). we had this every so often growing up and i loved it, but i never craved it, you know? however, when i made it for cory, i got a reprimand for having withheld it from him so long! and then he made me make it for guests and for a work bbq/pool party and other various occasions. this mac and cheese is the kind that you bake in a glass 9x13 pan and cut it with a knife and it comes out in a nice square. it is cheesy and delicious, but it is not oozing with creamy cheese...which is why i included the second recipe!
the second recipe i've included is one i found online in my search into the wonderful world of CROCK POT MACARONI AND CHEESE. yes, you can put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and come home to yummy, cheesy goodness. i've only made this once (tonight, actually). i've made other macaroni crock pot recipes, but they weren't as creamy as this one. the only thing i don't like about this is it was a little grainy-i did use pre-shredded cheese-and i felt like it needed a little more spice. in my personal opinion, you can't make a good mac and cheese without DRY/GROUND MUSTARD. mom's recipe adds onions/bread and this recipe calls for cayenne (which i omitted for cor, but will probably include next time. or maybe some onions. we'll see :) personal preference. anyway, if anyone else has favorite macaroni and cheese recipes, let me know!
our favorite mac and cheese (serves a lot of people. like 8-10 easily).
8 T butter
3-6 slices white bread crust removed, small pieces (i usually use about 4 slices)
2.5-5 c milk (i usually use 3 c)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 c flour
1 lb noodles-elbow, rotini, shells..
1 tsp dry ground mustard
about 6 c cheese-usually i use what's on hand-colby jack, cheddar, mexican
1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. melt 2 T butter in large sauté pan
3. pour melted butter over bread pieces in a bowl. mix. set to side.
4. make noodles according to package while making cheese sauce. takes same amount of time for both roughly.
5. spray 13x9 pan with Pam or rub with butter, set to side
6. melt remaining 6 T butter in saute pan, add onions to it. sauté them. once butter is all melted and bubbly，add flour. you are making a rue here. keep over medium heat. stir until all blended. then slowly whisk the milk in. this is a little tricky. add a little milk at a time. keep whisking (is that a word?) so it's smooth. you want it to be thick and smooth. i usually add about 3 c milk total to the rue. it takes maybe about ten minutes to make the rue. once you stop stirring, it starts to thicken.
7. when it's done and a nice smooth sauce, remove from heat and add salt, pepper, dry mustard and 4 c cheese. stir it all till it's blended.
8. then add the noodles. mix them in. (make sure you drain the noodles-obvious but you never know). 9. pour cheese and noodles into 13x9 pan. spread evenly and then add more cheese to the top! like 1.5-2 c. then top with bread crumbs.
10. put in the oven for thirty minutes. i always check it about halfway and usually cover with foil then because I don't want the bread crumbs getting burnt. if the bread topping is not brown at the end of cooking, remove the foil and let brown for a few minutes.
11. enjoy! we usually eat this with fruit and vegetables. mom has served it with ham before too. it's mostly a main dish for cory and i. it also refrigerates well!
sorry i don't have a picture. just picture a casserole dish with mac and cheese in it.
creamy crock pot mac and cheese
(from http://www.101cookingfortwo.com/2012/08/creamy-crock-pot-mac-and-cheese.html?m=1)
i followed this recipe exactly. i will do bread crumbs, spices and better cheese next time i make this!
2 c noodles (cooked)
1/2 c sour cream
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 stick butter (4 T)
1 c milk
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 1/2 c shredded cheese
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional-i did not use)
1. cook pasta according to package, except cook for 2/3 cooking time. i cooked mine for about seven minutes, instead of ten.
2. combine pasta, milk, cheese, soup, sour cream, salt, pepper, butter and dry mustard into crock pot.
3. stir until blended and then turn to low.
4. cook on low for about two hours. stir when done.
that's exactly what i did. i went to class after i assembled it and then came home and it was a little brown on the edges, but barely. cory actually took a picture! it's not super appetizing i guess, but trust me, it's good. otherwise i wouldn't put it on the blog, and my crock pot wouldn't be empty. also, it doesn't make a ton...i would say it serves about 4-6 single servings. and that's like 1 c servings, not cory size. (he used my mom's serving bowl as his cereal bowl when we were home for christmas! :) he must burn some serious calories working so hard on the grounds crew!)
happy cooking!
the second recipe i've included is one i found online in my search into the wonderful world of CROCK POT MACARONI AND CHEESE. yes, you can put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and come home to yummy, cheesy goodness. i've only made this once (tonight, actually). i've made other macaroni crock pot recipes, but they weren't as creamy as this one. the only thing i don't like about this is it was a little grainy-i did use pre-shredded cheese-and i felt like it needed a little more spice. in my personal opinion, you can't make a good mac and cheese without DRY/GROUND MUSTARD. mom's recipe adds onions/bread and this recipe calls for cayenne (which i omitted for cor, but will probably include next time. or maybe some onions. we'll see :) personal preference. anyway, if anyone else has favorite macaroni and cheese recipes, let me know!
our favorite mac and cheese (serves a lot of people. like 8-10 easily).
8 T butter
3-6 slices white bread crust removed, small pieces (i usually use about 4 slices)
2.5-5 c milk (i usually use 3 c)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 c flour
1 lb noodles-elbow, rotini, shells..
1 tsp dry ground mustard
about 6 c cheese-usually i use what's on hand-colby jack, cheddar, mexican
1. preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. melt 2 T butter in large sauté pan
3. pour melted butter over bread pieces in a bowl. mix. set to side.
4. make noodles according to package while making cheese sauce. takes same amount of time for both roughly.
5. spray 13x9 pan with Pam or rub with butter, set to side
6. melt remaining 6 T butter in saute pan, add onions to it. sauté them. once butter is all melted and bubbly，add flour. you are making a rue here. keep over medium heat. stir until all blended. then slowly whisk the milk in. this is a little tricky. add a little milk at a time. keep whisking (is that a word?) so it's smooth. you want it to be thick and smooth. i usually add about 3 c milk total to the rue. it takes maybe about ten minutes to make the rue. once you stop stirring, it starts to thicken.
7. when it's done and a nice smooth sauce, remove from heat and add salt, pepper, dry mustard and 4 c cheese. stir it all till it's blended.
8. then add the noodles. mix them in. (make sure you drain the noodles-obvious but you never know). 9. pour cheese and noodles into 13x9 pan. spread evenly and then add more cheese to the top! like 1.5-2 c. then top with bread crumbs.
10. put in the oven for thirty minutes. i always check it about halfway and usually cover with foil then because I don't want the bread crumbs getting burnt. if the bread topping is not brown at the end of cooking, remove the foil and let brown for a few minutes.
11. enjoy! we usually eat this with fruit and vegetables. mom has served it with ham before too. it's mostly a main dish for cory and i. it also refrigerates well!
sorry i don't have a picture. just picture a casserole dish with mac and cheese in it.
creamy crock pot mac and cheese
(from http://www.101cookingfortwo.com/2012/08/creamy-crock-pot-mac-and-cheese.html?m=1)
i followed this recipe exactly. i will do bread crumbs, spices and better cheese next time i make this!
2 c noodles (cooked)
1/2 c sour cream
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 stick butter (4 T)
1 c milk
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 1/2 c shredded cheese
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional-i did not use)
1. cook pasta according to package, except cook for 2/3 cooking time. i cooked mine for about seven minutes, instead of ten.
2. combine pasta, milk, cheese, soup, sour cream, salt, pepper, butter and dry mustard into crock pot.
3. stir until blended and then turn to low.
4. cook on low for about two hours. stir when done.
that's exactly what i did. i went to class after i assembled it and then came home and it was a little brown on the edges, but barely. cory actually took a picture! it's not super appetizing i guess, but trust me, it's good. otherwise i wouldn't put it on the blog, and my crock pot wouldn't be empty. also, it doesn't make a ton...i would say it serves about 4-6 single servings. and that's like 1 c servings, not cory size. (he used my mom's serving bowl as his cereal bowl when we were home for christmas! :) he must burn some serious calories working so hard on the grounds crew!)
Monday, January 14, 2013
mr. & mrs. pillows!
i am so excited to finally debut my new favorite pillows! they are made of burlap and we used iron-on paper to write the "mr. & mrs." i saw something like this on etsy, but the pillows were over $100! when i went home to illinois for winter break, i had one goal-to make these pillows. i wasn't sure about sewing burlap and i had planned on using stencils to paint on the fabric, like most of the pillows i had seen. however, my mom, who is all about making life easier for the most part :), suggested iron-on paper! we finished this project in a few hours, because of a few unexpected occurrences, otherwise i imagine it wouldn't take more than 2 hours. i love, love, love these pillows! you could do any words on them. one of my favorite ideas is "mr. right & mrs. always right".
supplies:
2 yards burlap
scissors
measuring tape
thread
pins
sewing machine
computer/printer
iron on paper
3 14x14 pillow forms
1. cut out six 15x15 squares of burlap
2. mom and i ironed down each of the sides 1/4 in. to make sewing easier (we didn't use chalk)
3. i went on to microsoft powerpoint and used like 350 pt. font (can't remember exactly what size) to write out the words in the font of my choice-courier new
4. we got the paper at jo-ann's, as well as the fabric-use their app on your smartphone because you can use as many coupons as you want and save so much money!
5. so here's where it gets crazy-we thought the iron on paper would iron the ink onto the fabric. luckily we did a sample and found out that it ironed the entire paper to the fabric! we tested out a period and we got a nice patch of white, as well as the period. my darling husband, who happens to be a perfectionist, painstakingly cut out each of the letters/symbols
6. mom and i sewed straight seams across three sides of each pillowcase-making a sort of sleeve to slip the pillow into. don't forget to put the right sides together! just use a smaller seam, like 2.0 when sewing with burlap
7. i then turned them right side out and stuck a piece of cardboard on the inside and ironed the letters onto the pillowcase, following the instructions on the paper packet
8. we got some pillow forms on sale at joanns, and used more coupons and then cory, surprising me while i was cooking, folded the open side down and sewed a straight seam across the bottom and voila! three adorable pillows made for under $25!
shout-out to my mother for shopping with me and helping me out...sorry i'm so impatient! also, thanks to cor for your cutting and sewing skills-what a stud! i'm hoping to make an awesome headboard soon...hopefully a tufted one.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
oh fudge!
here's the easiest fudge recipe ever! it's pretty good, too. i'm not really a fudge expert because i don't eat it that often. but this tasted pretty good to me, my friends loved it and it didn't even last a week in our house. i made it because i had friends coming over for game night and needed to use the marshmallow creme in my cupboard...so great success ;)
i found this via google, sorry i don't have the link!
3 c. sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 stick butter (2 T.)
1 12 oz. package of chocolate chips
1 7 oz. container of marshmallow creme
first, mix the sugar, evaporated milk and butter in a saucepan. cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, stirring frequently. when it begins to bubble, let it boil for five minutes, still stirring constantly. after the five minutes, remove from heat and add marshmallow creme and chocolate chips. stir until very smooth (no chocolate chip lumps!) and pour into a buttered 9x9 pan. let cool for a few hours until it sets. i put mine in the refrigerator after about an hour of setting out.
it's very sweet and rich! we liked it because it doesn't taste like chocolate chips. and as a disclaimer-the picture is not of the fudge i made, it's just one i included to tempt you into making this recipe :)
i found this via google, sorry i don't have the link!
3 c. sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 stick butter (2 T.)
1 12 oz. package of chocolate chips
1 7 oz. container of marshmallow creme
first, mix the sugar, evaporated milk and butter in a saucepan. cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, stirring frequently. when it begins to bubble, let it boil for five minutes, still stirring constantly. after the five minutes, remove from heat and add marshmallow creme and chocolate chips. stir until very smooth (no chocolate chip lumps!) and pour into a buttered 9x9 pan. let cool for a few hours until it sets. i put mine in the refrigerator after about an hour of setting out.
it's very sweet and rich! we liked it because it doesn't taste like chocolate chips. and as a disclaimer-the picture is not of the fudge i made, it's just one i included to tempt you into making this recipe :)
dates, sushi and pokemon.
cory and i don't really have a set "date night". honestly, we try to make every outing into a date/quality time. since i can't drive, we run all our errands together and that's basically our alone time. and since we love food, most of our would-be dates involve going out to eat. we usually have friends that come along, like last night! i've been making an effort to be healthier so we haven't eaten out in about two weeks and i've been cooking all our meals. it's been good because i've loosened up on the idea that all meals have to be fancy and contain entree, fruit, vegetable, side dish, bread, a set table...etc. cory's low-keyness is starting to rub off on me. anyway, i'm trying to justify us eating out twice in two days.
we had a fab double date with matt and katie at the cracker barrel! basically, our fave place ever. lots of good food for a good price (under $10)! cory prides himself on eating six scrambled eggs along with the rest of his "country boy" breakfast. after, we played "wits and wagers" again (love it!) and watched "take it all"-this crazy show i have a hard time watching. so, yeah official date night accomplished!
aside-this is a really funny story, fyi. matt and adam were katie and i's home teachers my sophomore year. the first time they came, adam couldn't make it...and cory came instead. which is how we all first met! cory and i hit it off right away. i kept thinking, "is this real life?" and to make a long story short (or make for another blog post!) cory and i got married about eighteen months later and matt and katie got married nineteen months later :) and adam? yeah, he's marrying cory's little sister in two months!
saturday, cor had to shovel some more. i got straight across bangs (ahhhhhh!!!) and later we went out to my favorite sushi place, yamato. we like it cause it's decently priced sushi ($6-$15) and it's pretty authentic, at least according to trey and cory. and they both served in japan. we always get the yam roll, which is AMAZING, and the white or liz roll, which have salmon, cream cheese and apple or green onions...and an order of beef gyudon, rice, egg, beef and sauce mixed together. i love it. last night, trey came with us and thus, he and cory saw it as the perfect opportunity to play their gameboys. yep, you read that right. my 24 year-old husband and our 25 year-old friend have gameboys and play their pokemon game pretty much every other day or so. it started up last month. we have a pokemon game on our wii and all the boys became obsessed (reliving their crazy childhoods i guess). so to game stop we went and cory chose a gameboy as his christmas present from yours' truly. i'm so romantic. cory works hard to take care of our family-getting up at 3 am to work (shovel in freezing temperatures), and drive me places and play with pup and go to class and work between classes, so playing a little pokemon is not a big deal, right? my only hope was that people wouldn't judge because we were in a japanese restaurant, and the japanese invented pokemon...i love my life. really i do though :)
today was great because we went to our new ward at church-the family ward! it was crazy crowded but it seemed good! afterward, adam grilled some chicken in the frigid temperature outside and we all took long naps. we facetimed with cory's family simultaneously from four locations in the country via two laptops and a phone and ipad in our family room :)
anyway, LOVELY weekend in all. except for the fact that cor has a blog for his english class and it already has over 400 views and he keeps rubbing it in my face. rude.
we had a fab double date with matt and katie at the cracker barrel! basically, our fave place ever. lots of good food for a good price (under $10)! cory prides himself on eating six scrambled eggs along with the rest of his "country boy" breakfast. after, we played "wits and wagers" again (love it!) and watched "take it all"-this crazy show i have a hard time watching. so, yeah official date night accomplished!
aside-this is a really funny story, fyi. matt and adam were katie and i's home teachers my sophomore year. the first time they came, adam couldn't make it...and cory came instead. which is how we all first met! cory and i hit it off right away. i kept thinking, "is this real life?" and to make a long story short (or make for another blog post!) cory and i got married about eighteen months later and matt and katie got married nineteen months later :) and adam? yeah, he's marrying cory's little sister in two months!
saturday, cor had to shovel some more. i got straight across bangs (ahhhhhh!!!) and later we went out to my favorite sushi place, yamato. we like it cause it's decently priced sushi ($6-$15) and it's pretty authentic, at least according to trey and cory. and they both served in japan. we always get the yam roll, which is AMAZING, and the white or liz roll, which have salmon, cream cheese and apple or green onions...and an order of beef gyudon, rice, egg, beef and sauce mixed together. i love it. last night, trey came with us and thus, he and cory saw it as the perfect opportunity to play their gameboys. yep, you read that right. my 24 year-old husband and our 25 year-old friend have gameboys and play their pokemon game pretty much every other day or so. it started up last month. we have a pokemon game on our wii and all the boys became obsessed (reliving their crazy childhoods i guess). so to game stop we went and cory chose a gameboy as his christmas present from yours' truly. i'm so romantic. cory works hard to take care of our family-getting up at 3 am to work (shovel in freezing temperatures), and drive me places and play with pup and go to class and work between classes, so playing a little pokemon is not a big deal, right? my only hope was that people wouldn't judge because we were in a japanese restaurant, and the japanese invented pokemon...i love my life. really i do though :)
today was great because we went to our new ward at church-the family ward! it was crazy crowded but it seemed good! afterward, adam grilled some chicken in the frigid temperature outside and we all took long naps. we facetimed with cory's family simultaneously from four locations in the country via two laptops and a phone and ipad in our family room :)
anyway, LOVELY weekend in all. except for the fact that cor has a blog for his english class and it already has over 400 views and he keeps rubbing it in my face. rude.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
lists about the last week.
as evidenced, the other half of this "couple's blog" has now posted...much to my chagrin. i get these ideas in my head and am very inflexible. cory's away at scuba diving class right now, so i can blog to my heart's content! it's been a few days and yet in those few days, much has happened! i've included some lists of things that have occurred, because i love lists. i use my reminders app and my wunderlist app so much on my phone.
1. chad and jodie came to utah!
1. chad and jodie came to utah!
2. jodie moved in with us until she gets married march 8, 2013!
3. cory and i took chad up to rexburg, id to byu-i.
4. we shared cheese curds (surprisingly good) and a root beer freeze from a&w's.
5. i started running again (almost every day-woohoo!)
6. school started up again!
7. we had an awesome game night at our house and played this fabulous game called "wits and wagers". it's so fun-all about betting and trivia.
8. i made delicious fudge with only six easy ingredients-butter, sugar, evaporated milk, chocolate chips and marshmallow creme.
9. we finished sewing all the pillows in the front room and my decorative pillows for the bedroom. ABOUT TIME.
so thursday night, cory and i took chad to the local wal-mart and literally picked out everything he would need for his new adventure...COLLEGE. he pushed the cart and couldn't care less about things like sheets and skillets and toiletries. except for choosing the color of everything-black-cory mostly just grabbed stuff that i told him to and we prayed that chad would actually USE the stuff he bought :) i'm so excited for him up in idaho! i kinda felt like a mom, helping her child begin his first step towards independence. after that first (of four three) trips to wal-mart, we headed to the byu basketball game! it was the last one of the season and they crushed the other team. i don't remember who they played. i mostly just talked to all our friends who came with us. cory and i had received 13 free tickets from the bookstore after we bought christmas presents there. the next day after work, we drove up to idaho with chad. we stayed at one of his mission families' homes-the jones' were SO super nice. we helped chad check in and unpack at his new apartment. i rearranged furniture for a better ambiance. who wants to walk into an apartment and run into a kitchen table, anyway? on saturday we hit up wal-mart for food for chaddy and he got his id...where we witnessed a boy being turned away because he had holes in his jeans. luckily he traded pants with his dad. makes me grateful for byu!
cory and i are still adjusting our school schedules and getting used to this new lifestyle in which i work out every day, i cook healthy meals and we don't eat out, jodie lives with us (yay!), and our class/work times are totally different from last semester and from each other's.
and another list of funny things that happened to us to end this post...
1. i accidentally stole my co-worker's lunch today because we have the same tupperware. whoops!
2. as we were taking in chad's groceries, cory shut the trunk without taking in a lot of chad's food...and we drove home with us!
3. i was bending down and whacked my head super hard on our kitchen chair. it was the bone right above my eye and it's all bruised and swollen and cory is worried about domestic abuse charges.
4. for one of my classes, we are doing a masterpiece theatre production in place of all papers and tests. YEP, just like downton abbey-only the history of the english language.
5. cory and i have been accidentally charged way more the amount we owe on two different companies in the last week, which has overdrafted our account, but we've gotten it all worked out and don't have to pay anything (cause it wasn't our fault, itunes and winder farms!).
6. we're trying to "bell-train" sienna and it's not working very well. this isn't funny, it's just horrible and frustrating.
7. shelly is coming to visit utah. TOMORROW-for like two weeks! woohoo-cedar city trip in two weekends :)
8. oh, someone at costco made a rude comment to us about how we don't "look" very handicapped after we parked in the handicapped spot (with my pass-because i'm legally blind) and i had to casually shrug it off. RUDE.
the end! hope our life get's more exciting soon. i'll have some pillow tutorials and some recipes up soon.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Sears (Willis tower)
It is what it is and thanks to the iPhone 5's panoramic function it's a beautiful picture!
SINGER SEWING MACHINE
For Christmas and her birthday Ashley got this little sewing machine! So far, we have threaded it successfully and, AND sewn (sewed?) with it. Very nice!
chicken croissants=guaranteed man-catcher
this is my inspiration/where i got the recipe (my mom's website)
our first recipe! and it’s a good one! trey watched our dog
sienna for a week and for payment, he asked for these. cory can eat up to six
at a time. i normally will eat two per serving. they are AMAZING. and EASY! that’s
right people, a quick and delicious recipe that the boys love. sorry i don’t
have a picture yet. i usually don’t take pictures of my food…no instagram you
see :) but i’ll start soon enough! the link above is the recipe from my mom’s
food blog. i included it below with the few changes according to how i make it!
you’ll see that most of my recipes are from mymother-the domestic goddess .
chicken
croissants-this makes about 24 croissants for
me
8 oz cream cheese
4 tbls melted butter
4 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
4-5 tbls milk
2 tbls green onion
3 cans pillsbury crescent rolls (mom’s
recipe calls for 2, i usually can get 3 cans with the chicken mixture. also, i’ve
tried the knock-off brands-don’t do it. they’re gross.)
melted butter
bread crumbs (you can also use
crushed up ritz crackers)
chicken
croissant gravy
1 or 2 cans cream of chicken soup
about a can of milk
preheat oven to 350 and spray cookie
sheet. soften cream cheese, mix with melted butter, salt and pepper, and milk in/with
mixer. then add chicken and onion. i usually use about 2 costco frozen chicken
breast and thaw them in the microwave. dice them and boil it in water to cook
quickly. i have also used about 2 tbls of yellow onion before too, cause i
usually don’t have green onions on hand :)
i roll my triangle of crescent
dough into a ball and then flatten it into a circle and then put a spoonful of
chicken cream cheese mixture onto it. i pinch all the edges together on top and
then flip it upside down, so the seam is on the bottom. it looks like a rock,
but of dough and chicken goodness.
bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. meanwhile,
mix soup and milk together in saucepan for a few minutes until heated. use as
gravy!
.
that’s it! we usually serve it with stuffing and fruit or
vegetables. happy cooking!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
2012 in a large nutshell
well, this is lame. i've got all these great ideas for posts, but i am crippled by my inability to upload cute pictures for the background/titles/fonts/my google image picture/everything. too bad cory's playing his gameboy...i also should be cleaning because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law come tomorrow (yay!). at least, i worked and worked out-entitling me to a blog post, right?
anyway, welcome to our blog! it took me six months of dating, six months of engagement and eight months of marriage, but i've finally succumbed to a couples' blog! surprisingly, cory wanted me to make it. he then requested that i put all these weird security features and password protect it so basically no one can read it...isn't that what a journal's for? lord knows i only write in that thing when i find it while i'm cleaning out under the bed (like twice a year). i've decided to make this sort of an outlet for all my favorite things-food, home decor and my family/friends. today will be the recap of 2012! since we already clarified that my diary sees more dust than ink, i want to have some sort of record of my first year of marriage! i'm getting self-conscious about all the exclamation points right now. here begins the year in review...
january-cory and i had just spent two weeks for christmas at both my parents' house and his parents' house...and we will never do that again. we loved spending time with both families during the holidays, though! cory picked out some fab clothes for me at the j.crew outlet in maryland, which were featured in our engagement pictures in late january. it was also during this month that we realized that cory's beloved 1970 olive-green volkswagen bug would have to go. after a harrowing experience during a blizzard with a non-working defroster and the windows down and snow from the road in our ears, we knew it was time to go (mostly, i said "cory, it's me or the bug!" i also had babysitting money saved up for a new car).
february-the truck was ours! we got a classy white ford f-150, '93 baby! i don't really remember that much of february...we spent it planning the wedding, four-wheeling and our first valentine's day. i got cory moccasins and a huge box of ferrero-rocher chocolates which we kept in the truck and anyone who rode with us got a special treat! he got me a gps. we're working on the whole "romance" thing.
march-is it bad that i remember even less of march than i do of february? i feel terrible! well, march was spent going to school (still) and working out (ashley, at least) and OH YEAH-a spontaneous trip to Cedar City, UT and Zion National Park. cory and i went to get lucky charms at the little market by our apartments one friday morning walked over to our friends' lauren and hailey and decided that we would drive to cory's granny's house that night. it was so fun! i honestly thought i would fall off the cliffs while i was hiking the next day, not because i'm legally blind, but because i was laughing so hard.
april-remember even less...just kidding. I GOT MARRIED! to the sweetest, handsomest, kindest, funniest, burpiest man i know! it was a great month because we ended the semester. cory and my brother erik did the splash and dash at byu-a mile swim and a 10k. we ate out NINE times during five days. also the five days before my WEDDING. everyone wanted to take us out! which was great and i'm so glad we got to spend time with all the wonderful family who came out for the best day of my life. i'll have to do a separate wedding post. you know for posterity, not because i just want to relive that day over and over or anything.
may-cory and i had a little honeymoon in utah. spent the week in our new duplex and then began our epic road trip to illinois! we took the scenic route, driving through wyoming, south dakota, minnesota, wisconsin, iowa, nebraska, and illinois (this was the total of both to and from). we saw crazy horse (not worth it, sorry), mt. rushmore (somewhat cool-except crazy asian tourists everywhere!), and the largest corn palace in the world. probably the only corn palace too. we also stopped and watched a circus for an hour in nebraska. if we survived that trip, i think we can make it through anything. we had a gorgeous reception in naperville-thanks mom! and shelly :) we also listened to all of the hunger games books and some of the eragon books, thus there was a lot of screaming in the car, and not because of cory's driving. this month also began the warm weather in utah allowing us to go to the pool!
june-downton abbey. cory's birthday. swimming. summer games. barbecues. cattle drive. that pretty much sums up the month! we watched a few seasons of the office and downtown abbey. we had an awesome barbecue for cory's birthday! i also made my first cheesecake for his birthday-great success! we went down to cedar city so cory and aunt nicki could swim in the utah summer games. cory won many gold medals and we ran the 5k together. it was a marvelous weekend. even granny and dorothy walked the 5k! and our friends derrick and anika invited us to go on a cattle drive with them because anika's family owns a ranch in wyoming. mostly, it was two days walking along a road swatting cows with flag things to make them move faster. it was quite an experience! that makes it sound bad-it really was fun.
july-while resting during the cattle drive (at night), i found our new house for hopefully the next year and a half. in provo, you have to hop on housing because it gets snatched up before your eyes! luckily, my email was so enthusiastic that they held the house for an extra day so we could look at it. we are currently living in a cute, old two bedroom duplex, with its fair share of problems, but it has a backyard and is pet-friendly! anyway, fourth of july was awesome because cory and i rented a tandem bike and rode it for two days. ouch. and then we had another barbecue. yum! the rest of the month flew by because i was doing job interviews, packing, cleaning and cory was still working full-time on grounds crew at byu. at the end of july, we moved into our new house, we picked out a puppy to take home in august and i started my job! good month.
august-california! cory's high school friend justin got married in the beginning of the month, so we drove to stockton and santa cruz for the wedding because cory was a groomsman. it was so much fun to stay at his best friend's house and then see the gorgeous santa cruz. it was also my first time dancing with cory at a wedding and i wished we had it at our wedding, in retrospect, so everybody-have a dance floor at your wedding. they're awesome! the drive back was not so fun-fifteen hours in the car and having work the next day...but at least we got our beautiful chocolate lab sienna that day too! yay! she was the biggest puppy of the litter, cory picked her out. the breeder's kids had been calling her "big bertha"-ha. we went through a lot of nature's miracle and paper towels this month. i wasn't sure i would make it. we also started going on weekly hikes with the pup...enter in the lake pittsburgh hike. first of all, we were with our friends trey and kevin and none of us knew how to get to the actual location. so we drove around for an hour and half through midway. then we got there and started hiking like normal. then something happened. the trail became SUPER steep and basically loose rocks everywhere. it also became ridiculously long. and hard. and horrible. did i mention that i had passed out that week too? yep. full-on fainted for no reasons. but i was fine. this hike though, was the WORST hike of my life. every step i took meant that i went back two steps sliding on all the loose rocks. i had some pretty good scrapes. and then we got to the lake and it was so not worth it. we climbed over a THOUSAND feet in elevation. wow, this is really long. anyway, don't do it folks. although trey did jump into the lake naked and we did make it back in less than a third of the time it took us to climb it (four hours total hiking trip). and we had great sushi afterwards. also, school started again this month! yuck.
september-hmm, in september we went to several waterfalls in utah. unfortunately i cannot remember the names of either, so sorry. we also got to go to the utah fair in salt lake city, where i got to see my former roommate liz! it was fun to see the rides and animals and partake of deep-fried foods. my brother erik also came out this month to visit...actually to recruit byu students for his company in minnesota! battle creek falls! and stewart falls! those were the names of the waterfalls-both were great. thanks cory for looking those up.
october-my birthday month, woot woot! this month was great because we had chad (cory's brother), jodie (cory's sister) and erik all come to stay with us! at different times. it was nuts, but fabulous. uncle nick got baptized on my birthday. erik, cor and i went to tucano's and got cupcakes to celebrate. cory and i went on a shopping spree the next week so i could spend my birthday money and have some fun me time, while cory indulged me, and yes, that involved me eating noodles & co. i don't even want to admit how much indonesian peanut saute i had in the year 2012. it's probably a record. we also ran in cory's aunt's 5k-in which cory beat me! so now i'm running again, as of yesterday, january 1, 2013. cory helped our neighbor put together a haunted house for the neighborhood and we won a ward chili cook-off, for a ward we don't attend and chili we didn't make. we went to a byu football game with erik and his friends. also, cory got my grandpa's shotgun. so good month was had by me AND cory!
november-this month went by quickly! we had a random snowstorm in which cory had to work a gazillion hours in three days. it also knocked part of the tree down in our yard, as well as the internet and cables lines, and part of our fence and cracked our windshield. this was also the time when we watched shelter dogs for a week or so before they got adopted. but we went sledding and built snowmen and had delicious chicken noodle soup and monster cookies. we celebrated thanksgiving with our friends and our neighbors in the local church. weird, but okay! there were like seventy people there. i made sweet potato casserole, pecan pie and sour cream pumpkin cheesecake. all turned out beautifully! not the kitchen though....we went to another football game and that's all the memorable stuff i can remember :)
december-oh well, this starts off great because we began it flying from slc to long beach to maryland! we had a day with cory's family, which we spent getting ready for family pictures! they turned out great and we wished we could've spent more time there. ugh. luckily there's a wedding coming up in dc! (jodie's engaged!) on our return flight from maryland to long beach, we had along layover in which we spent the day with cory's extended family at huntington beach-so much fun! and then we flew back to slc and the real world. we quickly wrapped up school with lots of studying and cory getting sick and finals and packing for illinois! it was absurdly nice to be home for christmas. we got to sleep in every day. and then take naps. eat so much food. watch lots of movies. oh, and open presents! cory also managed an inhuman feat of consuming a large oberweis dairy milkshake three days in a row. we also went to the christkindl market in downtown chicago-a family tradition and smoque-the family's (not mine) new favorite bbq restaurant. we saw les mis and the hobbit and went to the bean and the sears tower-the tallest building in the western hemisphere. we were some one hundred something stories above ground, in the little bubble jutting out from the building. trippy.
whew. that turned out a lot longer than i wanted it to. mostly, this year was about spending time with each other (ashley + cory) and with our family and friends. i am SO grateful for the people we are blessed to have in our lives. as evidenced, our first year together was filled with so many things, people, experiences, animals, food to be grateful for. bring it 2013!
anyway, welcome to our blog! it took me six months of dating, six months of engagement and eight months of marriage, but i've finally succumbed to a couples' blog! surprisingly, cory wanted me to make it. he then requested that i put all these weird security features and password protect it so basically no one can read it...isn't that what a journal's for? lord knows i only write in that thing when i find it while i'm cleaning out under the bed (like twice a year). i've decided to make this sort of an outlet for all my favorite things-food, home decor and my family/friends. today will be the recap of 2012! since we already clarified that my diary sees more dust than ink, i want to have some sort of record of my first year of marriage! i'm getting self-conscious about all the exclamation points right now. here begins the year in review...
january-cory and i had just spent two weeks for christmas at both my parents' house and his parents' house...and we will never do that again. we loved spending time with both families during the holidays, though! cory picked out some fab clothes for me at the j.crew outlet in maryland, which were featured in our engagement pictures in late january. it was also during this month that we realized that cory's beloved 1970 olive-green volkswagen bug would have to go. after a harrowing experience during a blizzard with a non-working defroster and the windows down and snow from the road in our ears, we knew it was time to go (mostly, i said "cory, it's me or the bug!" i also had babysitting money saved up for a new car).
february-the truck was ours! we got a classy white ford f-150, '93 baby! i don't really remember that much of february...we spent it planning the wedding, four-wheeling and our first valentine's day. i got cory moccasins and a huge box of ferrero-rocher chocolates which we kept in the truck and anyone who rode with us got a special treat! he got me a gps. we're working on the whole "romance" thing.
march-is it bad that i remember even less of march than i do of february? i feel terrible! well, march was spent going to school (still) and working out (ashley, at least) and OH YEAH-a spontaneous trip to Cedar City, UT and Zion National Park. cory and i went to get lucky charms at the little market by our apartments one friday morning walked over to our friends' lauren and hailey and decided that we would drive to cory's granny's house that night. it was so fun! i honestly thought i would fall off the cliffs while i was hiking the next day, not because i'm legally blind, but because i was laughing so hard.
april-remember even less...just kidding. I GOT MARRIED! to the sweetest, handsomest, kindest, funniest, burpiest man i know! it was a great month because we ended the semester. cory and my brother erik did the splash and dash at byu-a mile swim and a 10k. we ate out NINE times during five days. also the five days before my WEDDING. everyone wanted to take us out! which was great and i'm so glad we got to spend time with all the wonderful family who came out for the best day of my life. i'll have to do a separate wedding post. you know for posterity, not because i just want to relive that day over and over or anything.
may-cory and i had a little honeymoon in utah. spent the week in our new duplex and then began our epic road trip to illinois! we took the scenic route, driving through wyoming, south dakota, minnesota, wisconsin, iowa, nebraska, and illinois (this was the total of both to and from). we saw crazy horse (not worth it, sorry), mt. rushmore (somewhat cool-except crazy asian tourists everywhere!), and the largest corn palace in the world. probably the only corn palace too. we also stopped and watched a circus for an hour in nebraska. if we survived that trip, i think we can make it through anything. we had a gorgeous reception in naperville-thanks mom! and shelly :) we also listened to all of the hunger games books and some of the eragon books, thus there was a lot of screaming in the car, and not because of cory's driving. this month also began the warm weather in utah allowing us to go to the pool!
june-downton abbey. cory's birthday. swimming. summer games. barbecues. cattle drive. that pretty much sums up the month! we watched a few seasons of the office and downtown abbey. we had an awesome barbecue for cory's birthday! i also made my first cheesecake for his birthday-great success! we went down to cedar city so cory and aunt nicki could swim in the utah summer games. cory won many gold medals and we ran the 5k together. it was a marvelous weekend. even granny and dorothy walked the 5k! and our friends derrick and anika invited us to go on a cattle drive with them because anika's family owns a ranch in wyoming. mostly, it was two days walking along a road swatting cows with flag things to make them move faster. it was quite an experience! that makes it sound bad-it really was fun.
july-while resting during the cattle drive (at night), i found our new house for hopefully the next year and a half. in provo, you have to hop on housing because it gets snatched up before your eyes! luckily, my email was so enthusiastic that they held the house for an extra day so we could look at it. we are currently living in a cute, old two bedroom duplex, with its fair share of problems, but it has a backyard and is pet-friendly! anyway, fourth of july was awesome because cory and i rented a tandem bike and rode it for two days. ouch. and then we had another barbecue. yum! the rest of the month flew by because i was doing job interviews, packing, cleaning and cory was still working full-time on grounds crew at byu. at the end of july, we moved into our new house, we picked out a puppy to take home in august and i started my job! good month.
august-california! cory's high school friend justin got married in the beginning of the month, so we drove to stockton and santa cruz for the wedding because cory was a groomsman. it was so much fun to stay at his best friend's house and then see the gorgeous santa cruz. it was also my first time dancing with cory at a wedding and i wished we had it at our wedding, in retrospect, so everybody-have a dance floor at your wedding. they're awesome! the drive back was not so fun-fifteen hours in the car and having work the next day...but at least we got our beautiful chocolate lab sienna that day too! yay! she was the biggest puppy of the litter, cory picked her out. the breeder's kids had been calling her "big bertha"-ha. we went through a lot of nature's miracle and paper towels this month. i wasn't sure i would make it. we also started going on weekly hikes with the pup...enter in the lake pittsburgh hike. first of all, we were with our friends trey and kevin and none of us knew how to get to the actual location. so we drove around for an hour and half through midway. then we got there and started hiking like normal. then something happened. the trail became SUPER steep and basically loose rocks everywhere. it also became ridiculously long. and hard. and horrible. did i mention that i had passed out that week too? yep. full-on fainted for no reasons. but i was fine. this hike though, was the WORST hike of my life. every step i took meant that i went back two steps sliding on all the loose rocks. i had some pretty good scrapes. and then we got to the lake and it was so not worth it. we climbed over a THOUSAND feet in elevation. wow, this is really long. anyway, don't do it folks. although trey did jump into the lake naked and we did make it back in less than a third of the time it took us to climb it (four hours total hiking trip). and we had great sushi afterwards. also, school started again this month! yuck.
september-hmm, in september we went to several waterfalls in utah. unfortunately i cannot remember the names of either, so sorry. we also got to go to the utah fair in salt lake city, where i got to see my former roommate liz! it was fun to see the rides and animals and partake of deep-fried foods. my brother erik also came out this month to visit...actually to recruit byu students for his company in minnesota! battle creek falls! and stewart falls! those were the names of the waterfalls-both were great. thanks cory for looking those up.
october-my birthday month, woot woot! this month was great because we had chad (cory's brother), jodie (cory's sister) and erik all come to stay with us! at different times. it was nuts, but fabulous. uncle nick got baptized on my birthday. erik, cor and i went to tucano's and got cupcakes to celebrate. cory and i went on a shopping spree the next week so i could spend my birthday money and have some fun me time, while cory indulged me, and yes, that involved me eating noodles & co. i don't even want to admit how much indonesian peanut saute i had in the year 2012. it's probably a record. we also ran in cory's aunt's 5k-in which cory beat me! so now i'm running again, as of yesterday, january 1, 2013. cory helped our neighbor put together a haunted house for the neighborhood and we won a ward chili cook-off, for a ward we don't attend and chili we didn't make. we went to a byu football game with erik and his friends. also, cory got my grandpa's shotgun. so good month was had by me AND cory!
november-this month went by quickly! we had a random snowstorm in which cory had to work a gazillion hours in three days. it also knocked part of the tree down in our yard, as well as the internet and cables lines, and part of our fence and cracked our windshield. this was also the time when we watched shelter dogs for a week or so before they got adopted. but we went sledding and built snowmen and had delicious chicken noodle soup and monster cookies. we celebrated thanksgiving with our friends and our neighbors in the local church. weird, but okay! there were like seventy people there. i made sweet potato casserole, pecan pie and sour cream pumpkin cheesecake. all turned out beautifully! not the kitchen though....we went to another football game and that's all the memorable stuff i can remember :)
december-oh well, this starts off great because we began it flying from slc to long beach to maryland! we had a day with cory's family, which we spent getting ready for family pictures! they turned out great and we wished we could've spent more time there. ugh. luckily there's a wedding coming up in dc! (jodie's engaged!) on our return flight from maryland to long beach, we had along layover in which we spent the day with cory's extended family at huntington beach-so much fun! and then we flew back to slc and the real world. we quickly wrapped up school with lots of studying and cory getting sick and finals and packing for illinois! it was absurdly nice to be home for christmas. we got to sleep in every day. and then take naps. eat so much food. watch lots of movies. oh, and open presents! cory also managed an inhuman feat of consuming a large oberweis dairy milkshake three days in a row. we also went to the christkindl market in downtown chicago-a family tradition and smoque-the family's (not mine) new favorite bbq restaurant. we saw les mis and the hobbit and went to the bean and the sears tower-the tallest building in the western hemisphere. we were some one hundred something stories above ground, in the little bubble jutting out from the building. trippy.
whew. that turned out a lot longer than i wanted it to. mostly, this year was about spending time with each other (ashley + cory) and with our family and friends. i am SO grateful for the people we are blessed to have in our lives. as evidenced, our first year together was filled with so many things, people, experiences, animals, food to be grateful for. bring it 2013!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)