High Five for Friday!

I've decided that I really like the idea of the high five for Friday posts.  It makes you think about what is going on in your life and to focus on the positive that is happening.  So, here are my top 5:

1. I am getting paid today!  At first, it was annoying that I only got paid once a month, at the end of the month, but it actually works out really well in the fact that all our bills are due at the beginning of the month.  So, it's nice to know that we will have money for those bills every time they come around.  I also got $100 extra for a meeting I went to before school started.  Woo!

2. I got the day off of school today because of parent/teacher conferences next week!  It felt so nice to sleep in today and don't judge, but I slept in until 10:30. (I didn't go to sleep until 12:30 last night, but whatever).  There is a lot to do today, but 3-day weekends really are amazing, even though they mess with my schedule a bit . Today is Saturday, I swear!

3. On Sunday, the 23rd, my family got together for Sunday dinner.  It was fun to eat yummy food, talk, jump on the trampoline and play Apples to Apples.  That seems to be our go-to game to play when we get together. It's a bummer I didn't get any pictures.

4. Scott is playing indoor soccer again and he loves it!  I go and watch when the games aren't too late at night and it's great to see him have fun.

Bad picture, but he's the one in the red jersey.

5. We are going to the temple tomorrow with my family to do some baptisms for family names.  The last time we did baptisms was a couple of years ago.  Afterwards, everybody's coming to our place for brunch!  I hope everything that I have planned to make turns out well.  I'll make sure to take some pictures of this event.

I didn't think there would be enough for me to write about, but there's always good happening if I just open my eyes and notice it.

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

Scott wants me to blog about what we had for dinner last night, so it's another pinterest recipe update!  Since we still can't eat out, I didn't want to deprive Scott of his favorite Chinese food, so I made this Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken and fried rice.

The recipe with more pictures can be found at the link above, but I'm going to post the recipe here.

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil (I didn't use 1/4 cup of oil.  I just put enough oil in to cover the bottom of the pan. 1/4 cup would be way too much, I think.)

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees.  Cut your chicken into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes. (I put on a timer for 20 minutes to turn.) Garnish with sesame seeds, if desired.

 

Fried Rice

 I used the fried rice recipe on the website as a guide, but really made it my own. 

 

2 cups rice, already cooked

Sesame oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)

Baby carrots cut into small pieces

Green pepper, chopped

Green onion, chopped

Onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

Ham, cubed

3 eggs, scrambled

Soy sauce, to taste

 

On medium high heat, heat oil in a large pan.  Add carrots and green pepper.  Let stir-fry for a minute, then add green onion, onion, garlic and ham.  Let stir-fry until tender.  Either push all ingredients off to the side and pour in eggs and scramble in same pan or scramble in a separate pan and add to mixture. (I scrambled the eggs in a different pan since the one I was using wasn't big enough.)  Add rice and soy sauce and blend altogether.  Enjoy!

 

It was "Mmm, mmm, good!"

Golf Date

Saturday morning, Scott and I went on a golf date.  Last year for Scott's birthday, we went to D.I. to take a look around and came home with golf clubs.  Scott doesn't go golfing a lot, but he's gone a couple of times.  I saw this golf date and decided it would be fun for me to go golfing with him.  The course he went to for his birthday this year is an easier course, so that seemed to be the best option.  The only problem is that you need your own clubs to play there, so we headed to D.I. again to get me my own set of clubs.  I also realized that I did not own a single polo shirt and as much as I really don't like getting clothes from D.I., I didn't want to spend too much money on this date and I bought a polo shirt there as well.

Me with my new bag, clubs and golf shirt!  

The morning started out fun with heading to Wal-Mart to get some donuts for breakfast (that does not count as eating out).  We then headed to the golf course early so that we could practice hitting some balls at the driving range.  The only golfing I have done previously to this was mini-golf.  I have never been to a real golf course, let alone even try to swing a real golf club, so this was all very new to me.  Scott did great at the driving range helping me learn how to swing and where to hit the ball, etc.  When our tee time came around, things changed.  I started to become really nervous about actually hitting the ball.  I'm not exactly sure why I was so afraid, but the ball was not going anywhere.

It got a little frustrating, but things got better as time went along.  Scott found a pink golf ball, where I then hit better than Scott did and so I called it my lucky charm and made sure not to lose it the rest of the time.

Me with my lucky charm.

He is a much better golfer than me.

Scott's ball he hit landed and made this dent in the ground.

Don't I look so professional?! Haha.

Yeah, that's great form right there.

 It was fun to get out and have a morning date.  We came back exhausted though (it was pretty warm outside) and weren't really productive the rest of the day.  It will be fun to go out again sometime and learn more.

High 5 for Friday

There's this blog that I like to look at, The Small Things Blog, where she does a high five for Friday post.  She then talks about five different good things that are going on in her life.  I figured it would be good to do the same thing, especially since my last post, to thing about the good things going on in our lives.

1. Rebecca and I planned on Thursday, after violin, to have a craft time and make fall wreaths.  It really is nice to have a home to be able to decorate, although it can be overwhelming with all that you can do. 

It's not done and the picture is not sideways like it's supposed to be and I'm not sure why.  I think it turned out rather cute even though it's not completely finished.

2. Scott & I have a golf date tomorrow morning!  We went and bought me some clubs, a bag and a polo shirt at D.I. today.  I will make sure to document our golf outing and blog about it.  This will be my first time going, so we'll see how it goes!  I got inspiration from this date idea.

3. There was a really beautiful sunset the other night and I took some pictures of it and marveled in the beauty that I saw.

4. Scott & I are doing "great" at sticking to our plan of not eating out the rest of this month.  I say "great" because Scott is actually craving fast food more than normal.  He says that because he can't have it, he wants it more.  Poor guy, he'll realize soon that it's because I love him that I do these things to him. :)

5. School is actually going pretty well right now for me.  The kids are actually pretty great and I'm doing well at keeping up with everything.  The only stressful part about school is waking up to go.

So glad it's Friday!

Singing the Blues

*Sigh* Is it bad that I am starting to become jealous and bitter when I find out a friend is pregnant?

I have quite a few friends (10+) that have recently announced that they're pregnant.  Usually, I'd be so excited for them and give a sincere congratulations.  Now, I say this: "Can you believe so-and-so is pregnant?!  It's just crazy!" Scott: "Yeah, well, that's good right?" Me: "Yeah, I guess so.  But, they shouldn't be having a baby. They've only been married so many months and they're not in the best financial situation anyway.  We've been married longer and are way better off to have a baby right now."  And then I write them to most non-sincere "Yay! I'm so happy for you!" to them.

How silly and mean is that?  I just can't help myself though.  I feel like I deserve to get pregnant because I'm ready and we're in a great position to have a baby.  We have a home to raise a baby in, no debt, steady jobs, we've been married 2 years, etc.  It's all these reasons that keep me thinking, why?  Why haven't I gotten pregnant yet?  I know the birth control taken with the shot can take some time to disappear, but why has it taken so long? 

I'm just at this point where it is constantly on my mind (probably more than Scott realizes) and I become upset and frustrated and sad whenever I think about it.  I'm not sure how to keep my mind off of it, especially when so many of my facebook friends either have babies and post millions of pictures of them or talk constantly about being pregnant.  And no, I can't just stop getting on facebook.  I have a unhealthy bond with it. 

Also, church is really hard to go to now.  We are stuck in the ward we are in.  There's no moving for a while.  It is really hard for me to adjust and feel like I fit in when 98% of the ward has kids.  I know that we can still make friends, but it's just harder for me.  Scott tries to help by saying to not think or worry about it too much, but how can I?

Anyways, point is...I want a baby and I want it now!

P.S. Since I don't have my own baby, here's pictures of our baby kitty Maddie. :)

She loves playing inside of bags.

She pulled this towel down and into the sink to sleep on.

Oops...I think I got her addicted to drinking out of the sink.  This girl LOVES water!

We love sharing our peaches with this silly girl!

Jewelry Organization

Ever since I got my ears pierced for my birthday in college, I've loved getting earrings.  I don't know why I waited so long to get my ears pierced, but I guess I was afraid that I would look funny wearing earrings.  Now, I feel funny not wearing anything.  I am still working on my collection, but I have enough that I needed something to hold them in.  Leaving them in jewelry boxes just wasn't cutting it anymore. 

While shopping at Ross, I found these cute box holders with dividers.  I saw them and immediately thought that they would be great for my jewelry.  It cost about $8 total for both of them and I love how much more organized everything is and how easy it is to now pick out what I want to wear.

I just love how cute the boxes are and how everything looks!  Yay for organization!

Laugh Out Loud

Scott and I have found a T.V. show that we are really into right now.  It was just luck that we stumbled upon it because it is on a channel that we don't normally watch.  It is called Impractical Jokers.  These guys just go around and have to do or say whatever they tell each other to do to unsuspecting people.  For some reason, we think it is hilarious, especially me.  Scott told me that he was surprised at how much I was laughing when we first saw this show.  There are a few things that can make me laugh a lot and apparently this show is one of them.

Sometimes the guys on the show can say some inappropriate things, but it really is quite funny to see people's reactions to what they do.  I always wonder while I'm watching what I would do if this stuff happened to me and I have no idea how I would react.  We invited our friends Heather & Skylar over last night for dinner and we watched a few episodes of this with them and they are addicted now as well.  I'm glad that they enjoy it as much as we do.

While we were talking to our friends, they mentioned it would be fun to do some of the things they do on the show and it reminded me of when Scott did Ellen's dance dare while we were out shopping once.  I took a video of it, but it's a little short because it wouldn't record the first part and so I had him do it again.  Luckily he finished right before the lady he was dancing behind turned around.  It was pretty funny.

Let me know if the video doesn't work!  It's my first time posting a video on here. Also, I'm not fancy with making videos, so I don't have cool dance music as a background, so just pretend or put some on.

Families are Forever

This past weekend, Scott and I traveled down to California to see David & Kristene get sealed in the San Diego Temple.  I took off school on Friday and we drove down early in the morning with Lane & Brita.  We had a marathon of Disney songs playing the whole way down.  I was actually okay with it.  It was a lot of fun listening to them and singing along.  Everyone, including Scott, discovered my Disney knowledge.  We played a guessing game of which movie the song is from and I got about 95% of the answers correct.  I actually surprised myself on some of them, but it was fun.  I told Scott that it was much better than listening to O' Christmas Tree over and over (we listened to Jocelyn sing that song the whole drive down when we went for Christmas).

Scott & I stayed at David and Kristene's house and their puppies sure loved having us there.  Their puppies are full of energy and jumped on us every time they saw us, but luckily they're so cute that it was okay.  We spent Friday night at the parents house eating dinner and playing games.

Saturday morning, we got up and got ready to head down to San Diego.  I felt like this day had too much driving and I was getting a little tired of it, especially since we had just driven all day the day before.  We headed to Old Town San Diego to check it out, but all we had time for was to eat some lunch.  It didn't seem like a place that was too exciting, but it would have been fun to check it out a little bit more.  I was trying to walk into each shop I could to see if I could find a pressed penny machine (best & cheapest souvenir ever!).  Wynette & Dennis wanted to see the Mormon Battalion site, so we tagged along, but only had time to get a picture, so we'll have to go back and actually take the tour.

Only view I got of Old Town.  Super exciting huh?

Scott & Brooke

We went for the no smile, serious look.

After Old Town, we headed to the temple for the sealing!  It was really nice and the sealer was perfect for the two of them.  It is just so great to know that families can be together forever.  While waiting for them to come out, we had fun taking pictures.

We don't have too many pictures of us kissing besides from our wedding.

We finally got a good picture after the 10th try.

The happy couple!

Once the sealing was over, we headed to Escondido for some pizza that David & Kristene so kindly provided for us.  It was yummy pizza and we also had delicious cake from Costco.  The funniest thing is that they didn't pre-order a cake to say anything special, so they come in with a cake saying "Happy Labor Day".  Haha.

 Sunday, we all went to church together and then headed to Riverside for a delicious dinner.  Well, I thought it was dinner, but then hot dogs and macaroni and cheese were being made and I always leave feeling stuffed with delicious food.  Seriously, it is hard to control yourself with so much yummy food surrounding you.

Pretty view, but I had just barely missed the pink clouds from the sunset.

While at the house, we got to see poor, poor Macy cat.  Brita is allergic to cats, so the cat got shaved so that hair wouldn't get everywhere.  The poor cat looked so...sad (nicest word I can think of).

These pictures don't really do it justice.

We then played a fun round of pictionary with everybody and then headed home to get to bed early since we had a plane to catch in the morning.

It was another quick trip, but we were glad to be able to make it and support David & Kristene in their sealing.  Family truly is wonderful.

Pizza Enchiladas

Another pinterest recipe update!  Scott likes eating out and while it's fun and I enjoy it too, it can make me a little bit lazy in cooking.  I'm trying to be better at menu planning and sticking to that plan, although it can be hard on nights when Scott works.  I have to think about when he needs to leave for work and how much time it will take to make the meal, so that there will be time to eat.  I do think that it was harder during the summer since I didn't have a schedule and whenever Scott would be hungry, I wouldn't be and so I would have a hard time commit to making dinner.  Now that I am back to teaching, it's much easier to stick to a time of when dinner should be made, which makes it easier to make what I planned on.

Anyways, I really love chicken, so about 3/4 of my recipes on pinterest are chicken recipes, but Scott likes beef a lot.  I try to mix it up, but it's hard to find beef recipes that will only feed two people.  I try not to do too many recipes with the same meat in a row, so tonight I decided to try this recipe of Pizza Enchiladas.  Scott loves pizza, but homemade pizza takes too much planning for a weeknight meal, especially if it's one when he is working.

These were quick and easy to make, which I always like and the ingredients are simple and cheap.  The only thing is that the inside of the tortilla isn't that full.  Pepperoni, ham, and pineapple can only go so far.  I probably could have made two layers worth of toppings, but that would have been too much pepperoni for me.  I also accidentally forgot to put cheese on the inside of the tortillas, so I used a ton on the top.  It's a nice substitute for pizza and I thought it looked really nice, but I don't know how often I'll make it.

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = Love

For my mom's birthday, she wanted me to make some cupcakes for the little party we had for her.  I decided to make these Chocolate Swirled Peanut Butter Blast Cupcakes.  I was a little worried at first because it was two different cake mixes and two different frostings and the time I had to make them was not much.  I went for it anyway and the cake mixes were simple to whip up as well as the frostings. 

The recipe is found here, on one of my favorite blogs to check out.  There are quite a few recipes I have found there that have become favorites (Scott's favorite lasagna cups are found on that website) and I definitely would not mind making these cupcakes again.  I mean, I may or may not have licked all the bowls clean (don't judge). 

The only thing I did differently was make a classic chocolate buttercream frosting instead of the chocolate ganache.  I also didn't swirl the frostings, since I haven't had much experience in that area and instead of crushing the peanut butter cups, I put two mini (like the smallest size you can find) ones on top.  I really like how they turned out in looks, but more importantly, in taste!