Birthday Recap

My birthday was a good day yesterday. As simple as it was, I think it was my favorite birthday in a long time. I started the day waking up at 5 so I could finish my mountain of reading for my rhetoric of religion class. Treated myself to driving to school instead of sweating in 90 degree heat (before 9:00!) on my bike. After class I headed home, had some lunch, and headed off to work. After work was over it felt more like a birthday. I cam home to some lovely flowers from my sweetheart!

I was feeling creative and hyper so I made a headband out of my bouquet and posed Lana del Rey style. The flowers were just going to wilt and die anyways so why not make a sweet crown out of them?

See? Just need longer hair and serious eyeliner and you won't know who is who.

After I played with my roses, I opened my present from my sister in law jojo (Jonessa). She got me an amazing cookbook that I can't wait to try! It is super natural every day. Jojo says all the recipes she has tried are amazing so I can't wait to get cookin! My pinterest recipes will have to be put on hold for a bit :) Speaking of which I made my birthday cake from a pinterest recipe. I made triple lemon blueberry cake with lemon curd filling and lemon buttercream frosting. LEMON. It was super tasty and fresh. perfect cake for summer. Gotta give props to joey for letting me make a cake that definitely wouldn't be his first pick. I baked it the night before my birthday since I was going to be so busy yesterday. I was baking a cake a midnight, and anyone who knows me knows my brain stops functioning properly after a certain hour. Well I was making the cake just fine. Took a pic.

I thought it was funny how thick the batter was, but I had made cakes with thick batters and didn't think much of it. So I popped in in the oven and felt so proud of myself for making a tasty cake. Then I noticed 4 oval shaped brown things sitting in a cardboard carton. sweating...(it's really hot here) Yeah. forgot the eggs. Soo after the cake had been in the oven for 10 minutes I frantically snatched it out, slopped the semi cooked mess back into the bowl and folded in the eggs that I whipped together like I was folding chocolate chips into cookie dough. I was sure that this cake was screwed, but lo and behold it turned out great still! I wrapped it up and saved it for my birthday so I could frost it.

Joey and I went to dinner at the old fashioned which is THE restaurant to go to if you want traditional wisconsin food. it was delicious. I have always wanted to eat here since we moved, but it has always been so busy that we just end up going somewhere else. Last night though the wait wasn't too bad and we got our sconnie eats on.

Joey got the no.30 which was high cholesterol in a bun. grass fed beef burger, all natural bacon, local cheddar cheese, and a fried egg (which I'm sure was also cage free/natural feed/no corn standard stuff). it would have had fried onions too but we know how joey feels about onions.

burgers make joey happy

rar!! get in muh face!

the inside of the restaurant is cool too. it's filled with old vintage wisconsin stuff...and lots of loud people who think yelling is proper restaurant vernacular.

I had the macaroni and cheese which was bubbly and oozy creaminess, with little puddles of melted butter when it was placed in front of me...by the end of our dinner it was solid...yeah there's no fat in here.

what is a traditional wisconsin meal though with out cheese curds and ranch? this restaurant has the best curds in madison. hands down...now where is my lipitor and sweat pants?

we had a lovely dinner and I love this picture. despite joey's deformed hand haha.

after dinner we went back home and just hung out together. which might sound boring, but it was perfect to me. I just wanted to relax with my family and watch a movie on netflix while stuffing my face with cake. This is the inside of my cake after I sliced it in half. soo tasty.

before I sliced my (mini) cake I dressed it with pink sprinkles, 23 candles, and made joey and the cat sing happy birthday to me...gertie was hiding under the couch. she gets a little moody when the attention isn't all on her.

kitty wasn't too sure about the candles so she was squirmy

It was a perfect birthday! I loved just being with my joey and keeping it simple. It is funny the older you get the less hyped up you want to be about your birthday. Last night while I was falling asleep I was thinking of things I wanted to do in this next year:
1. graduate college
2. get a job/internship at an art gallery or auction house
3. fit into a pair of jeans that I had in high school.
4. get back into yoga
5. be more spontaneous
6. be more organized
7. be a better homemaker (cleaning, decorating, wifey things)
8. be a better wife to joey
9. read more books (good books. ie the classics)
10. learn a language (german or french)
11. become a better writer
12.apply to graduate school???

Birthday week

Woo! best time of the year baby! Birthday week officially commenced this weekend. Here's what happened...

                                                     I went to school. Took a final.

Found a food cart with green smoothies!

Joey got a new laptop for school. He is SO excited about it.

I got a card in the mail with some mula! Thanks dad! Also thanks Nana for the card and mula from when I was in town a couple weeks ago!

Made chocolate almond croissants for a baptism...that I forgot what time it actually started. Thought it was at 12, sent Joey to drop them off...yeah baptism was at 10 am. FAIL. Sister Missionaries sure got a lovely treat though!

We are training Gertie to be able to go on walks with us with out a leash. She did pretty well, but gets distracted sometimes and likes to wander a little bit. We just lure her back with a tennis ball.

We went to the movies at my favorite theater. Sundance cinemas. They are seriously the best! So glad we will have one in Houston too!

We saw Moonrise Kingdom. Best movie ever at the moment. This is the film of summer 2012. Go see it.

Kitty/Ethel likes to hang out in our cupboards.  She also has an undying love and friendship for computer cases. She has been pretty serious with my case since I got my laptop. Now there is a new guy on the block since Joey got his laptop. She is letting my case down easy not totally quitting it cold turkey, but she doesn't leave big black's sight for much. I thought she would appreciate me merging her two loves into one spot. I think it is safe to agree that she does.

I have an addiction to sweets. I also have an addiction to pancakes. I was seriously craving some almond flour pancakes yesterday, and these little minis did the trick. I should have waited to eat pancakes for later, because I want to try a pinterest "funfetti" pancake recipe on my bday...is that too many pancakes in a week? Prolly. Oh well. Happy Birthday week to me!

just walking through the woods

One of the things I miss most in Utah are the mountains. They are easy to be taken for granted when you live right next to them. Living in Madison though has made me so heartsick for them! I always make sure to do something in the mountains every time I visit home. My mom and I went up Millcreek Canyon and did a little hike for a couple hours. It was super fun. I was able to try out my new camera a bit, and chat with my mama while basking in the beautiful nature. I didn't bring proper clothing so I borrowed clothes from my little bro and my mom, hence my semi frumpy attire...whatevs.

I love how green it still is up here

thanks for the shirt johnny. I got it nice and sweaty for ya

there were random rose bushes everywhere on the hike

rattle snake!

took this for joey. only 7 more weeks left!

I hadn't showered after the hike so I was really fresh for susie haha.

 After our hike we picked up Nana from the house so we could all get lunch and then go to costco to get groceries for our big sunday dinner with the whole family. While driving down cute old main street in bountiful my mom saw a car she recognized and said susie was working at the fabric store! She pulled over so I could surprise her. Susie was my high school swim coach/one of my second moms while growing up. I love this woman so much! I ran into the fabric store and snuck up behind her to give her a big hug. She had no idea who was hugging her until I let her turn around and see who it was. We were both crying so excited to see each other! I haven't seen her in so long. It was so nice to see her and see that she has been doing well.

 After seeing Susie we went to Plates and Palates, our favorite place for lunch. This is seriously one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at. Their salads are to die for and everything else they serve is super tasty too. I got the waldorf chicken salad and as you can see it was delicious.

Sunday Funday

Happy Blessed Sabbath brothers and sisters. haha jk. Days like today are my favorite...minus the fact that I need to type two papers and study for a test....ya I need to get on that soon. It is a favorite though because it is a stormy day! I love rainstorms, and in Madison we get really good ones. The kind of storms that stop the speaker in church and all the little kids are like "OOHHHH!" after a ginormous thunder clap. I love the dark gray sky and its contrast to the vivid green flora. It makes the house so cozy to me. To add to the coziness theme I put some vanilla in an oven safe bowl in the oven at 300 (thank you pinterest) to make the house smell delicious...then I got real and made some knock you naked brownies (again thank you pinterest). They are in the oven as I type, and cannot wait to nibble on their chocolatey caramelicious faces.

 Yesterday was Cinco De Mayo! To celebrate I made cilantro lime chicken tacos which were so EASY and TASTY. What could be better right? It was just 3lbs BS (boneless-skinless) chicken breasts, 16oz salsa, two limes, 1 packet taco seasoning, mix all up in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8hrs. We loved them. Hated the tortillas I bought, but at least the meat was good.

Freddy food plate got a bean fro, rice beard, and taco ears.

I used cilantro and tomatoes from the farmer's market to make some mean pico. mmm.

So I mentioned in my last post that yesterday was also Mifflin. What is Mifflin you ask? One of the biggest parties of the year in Madison like around 20k people big. It isn't a party that necessarily supports our morals, so we didn't go,  but I find it entertainng to see how excited everyone gets for it...and the drunk facebook messaging/status updates that follow from my friends ;)

Mifflin is a block party held every year on the first weekend in May. Originally it was a war protest in the 70s but now is an excuse to let loose and get really drunk. This year there was drama with the Mifflin party because it fell on the same day  as Cinco de Mayo. The party's theme combined the two celebrations, and of course people got offended (someone always does). It ended up being that the Dean of UW sent out a really awkward video telling students not to go to the party. That opened pandora's box. If you go on Youtube you will find a bunch of videos making fun of the deans video with dubstep remixes, memes from movies, etc. I just find it hilarious. This was my favorite meme

The whole situation just makes me laugh, because this stuff is from another planet compared to what student life is like back in Provo at BYU. It is so funny how opposite these two schools are. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go to the party just a tinsy bit, but whatcha gonna do. Back to studying!

a not so average easter

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter! This year went a bit differently than it usually goes, but it was still nice. I got up early to study for a big test that I had today (blahhhhhh). Joey got sick this weekend, so I was nice and let him sleep. I went to church, and left early so I could get back to studying. Isn't this an amazing Easter so far? Well after I came home I got some breakfast going for the two of us. I made some resurrection rolls (yummy delish!)

they taste like cinnamon rolls but not as sweet :)

and our favorite Whole Foods black forest bacon. We swear by it. I don't know if it is only in the midwest you can get it or all Whole Foods has them, but it is seriously the best thing you will put in your mouth.

I know you can just hear it sizzle. When you cook it until it is super crunchy it just melts in your mouth!

After Breakfast Joey suprised us with easter baskets! So proud of him I didn't even have to ask for one haha. I got a cake pop kit, some cadberry creme eggs, and pink easter socks (which I gave myself lol). Joey even got a basket for Gertie and Ethel to share! Gertie got some bones and a toy, and Ethel got some Fancy Feast haha...Ethel likes to eat.

I got joey a very maritime outfit, but I failed on his pant size so I have to return it. I will make him model it though when I get the right size. Don't judge that I still don't know my husbands pant size! I also filled his 5gallon plastic storage box  Easter basket with peeps, lil debbie oatmeal cream pies and starburst sour jelly beans. Very successful in our loot from the Easter bunny.

I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to be studying before I met up with my friend Colleen. She was my first friend that I made in Madison, and was definitely the one I am closest to. Even though she is ten years older than me we totally clicked. She is so fun and we always have a good time together. We met working at Gigi's, and I remember the day she started that I wanted to be friends with her.  She unfortunately is moving to Georgia, and this was our last day to be able to hang out before she flew down south. Her husband is already down there so she was spending Easter all alone. We made plans to have dinner since she had to show her house until the late afternoon. Instead of your typical Easter brunch we had an Easter dinner at the Avenue Bar

....just the two of us since Joey still wasn't feeling well. We both had pot roast with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a whole lot of gravy! Talk about a wonderful Easter dinner!

blondies

We took our last picture together, and weirdly enough I didn't cry! It still doesn't feel like she is moving away. Maybe I have become numb to separations living away from friends and family, or I am just in denial. Who knows. Well I need to get back to the grind of homework. Slacking over spring break has not done me any favors. Time to read about mucous plugs!