ABC pillow

I made a few of these pillows this Christmas and wanted to document it and the link so when I go back to make more I know where the template is.

I made these letters the full size of the template and if I wanted them all to fit on one side of a pillow it would have to be a pillow case. So instead I put half the letters on one side and the other half on the other side. If I make it again I will reduce the size of the letters.

Asian Beef Noodles

This is a pampered chef recipe that my friend Angel made for me a while back when I was at her house for a play date. Super easy and anything that includes ramen is a plus at our house. Thanks Angel for the great recipe. Asian Beef Noodles

Ingredients:
1 pound lean boneless beef top round steak, cut into 1/4-inch strips 3 garlic cloves, pressed 2 small pieces (1/2 inch) fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped 2 cups water		2 packages baked beef-flavor ramen noodles 3 cups broccoli florets 2 carrots, sliced 2 green onions, sliced

Directions:
1.	Heat Stir-Fry Skillet over medium heat until hot. Lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Stir-fry beef, half at a time, 3-4 minutes stirring with Bamboo Spatula Set. Remove beef from skillet; set aside.
2.	Add garlic and ginger to skillet; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add water; bring to a boil. Add noodles, broken into pieces, broccoli, carrots and seasoning packets from ramen noodles.
3.	Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer 3 minutes or until noodles are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Return beef to skillet; heat through. Sprinkle with green onions.
Yield: 6 servings Nutrients per serving: Calories 220, Total Fat 3 g, Saturated Fat 1 g, Cholesterol 50 mg, Carbohydrate 24 g, Protein 23 g, Sodium 370 mg, Fiber 3g *I don't use fresh garlic and ginger I buy them in those small jars in the produce section as seen to the left.

Appointment made!!

I so HATE my hair right now

It is way too long, you can't even see the bottom of it in these pictures.

But don't worry, it will all be gone soon!!

The appointment has been made for after Conner and Aanni's wedding.

Dexterity

Feb 17th

I couldn't be more excited, hopefully there is enough to donate. SO PUMPED!!

3.8 week 4

Due to Anna coming into town my work out routine was a step above flushed down the toilet. I worked out ONCE while she was in town. The hotel we stayed at had a nice gym but I some how forgot my work out clothes/PJ's and the gym shoes I brought were two different shoes. Pretty awesome huh. I got back on the treadmill today though and if felt so nice to start working out again. By next week I will be in Utah so we will have to see if I can remember the right shoes and if I can survive at such a high altitude.

On a different note I finally went to the doctor yesterday for an annual, I have been putting it off since we moved because I didn't want a new doctor. It took me a long time go find Jed, and I didn't want to find a replacement. It was a terrible experience, but I went into it knowing it would probably not go well. Not many Gynecologists meet a 27 year old who has already had 5 surgeries for endometriosis, but when you start at the young age of 14 that's what you get. I truly was spoiled with Jed, I forgot not all doctors empathise with their patients. I felt like she thought I was lying to her, because she eventually looked at my scars and said "oh yah, there they are." She also tried to push Lupron on me, um.. no thanks, and was confused when I told her how I have been using the pill (or the ring in my case) to treat my symptoms. I left frustrated and eventually crying in the car, but at least one good thing came from the appointment, when she was listening to my lungs she said "Girl how much you jogging a day!!" because I guess I had a larger lung capacity than she was expecting. I believe it's because I am a stomach breather but I will take the compliment, and Pray I can find a better doctor in Michigan.

Road trip to Alabama

So Anna has wanted to go to Alabama her entire life to do a Civil Rights tour. Her Husband Jared bought her a flight to SC so she could finally accomplish her dream. You can click HERE to see her version of road trip. She landed in SC so this meant that we had to drive to Alabama from SC. I thought I would share the scenery with you.

South Carolina

Georgia

Alabama

after we crossed the border into Alabama we exited the freeway to get some gas, Anna decided to do a little side road driving. She got distracted on a road heading nowhere and started driving really slow trying to figure out where to go when we noticed a truck was tailing us. So we turned into the closest turn off.

This is where we turned around!!

I'm in Alabama

SIDE NOTE: in Alabama you also get a lot of reminders to be more Christian like this.

3.8 week 3

This week I discovered incline.

I have been rocking the incline this week. The first day I worked out at an incline I did it at 15 (the highest it will go) for 20 minutes. I slowly worked up to it then slowly went down so still a 50 minute work out. My heart rate was up but I didn't really feel the burn. . . until I stepped off, and that night. Needless to say I have only been going to 7 or 9 and keeping it between a speed of 3 and 3.5. I am enjoying it, more than jogging so I took a break from jogging this week.
Hopefully next week my time will improve and I will jog more. That being said my sister is coming into town tonight and I am nervous because she has told me a few times that there will be no dieting while she's here. She wants to try all the southern food with out guilt (ie me eating a salad next to her). We are also going to go on a little road trip for two days so I'm not sure how much exercise I will get in in those days sooo... wish me luck and tell Anna she needs to be supportive. :)

On a side note, this is a lizard under a food storage tub. As Taylor (my amazing, only reason I am getting out of bed and exercising, partner) was walking out of her house she told me she had a lizard in her kitchen and was creeped out by it. I haven't seen a lizard in months so I was shocked that she had one in her kitchen. So before our work out we went and wrestled this HUGE reptile (a work out in it's self). Yeah I caught him, I'm pretty impressed with myself, and my reflexes for that matter.
No lizards were harmed in the making of this post, although I'm sure Taylor wouldn't have minded.

he says the darndest things..

"if you ever want to take cooking classes that is something I would totally be willing to pay for."

-Collin

Indian Curry

Collin and I fell in love with Indian food a few year ago, but had not yet mastered making any version of it at home. We have some Indian friends that have cooked for us but they use Indian spices they brought from India with them so I couldn't really ask for the recipe.
We would eat the "Mormon" chicken curry that is broccoli, chicken, mayo, cheese, and cream of chicken soup served over rice. Which is delicious but not very authentic or nice on the waist line.

The other night I was determined and searched the Internet for a recipe and this is what I found. It was simple (albeit it has a lot of ingredients, but easy enough) and has officially been welcomed into our rotation of regular meals.

As a side note, I took a big risk making this when we were having company over. I kept thinking what will we do if this is a complete flop? Luckily we all enjoyed it, and I'm sure you will to. Well maybe not Anna as it does have a bit of a kick to it.

Don't you love that this picture is so obviously taken as an after thought. :) Dinner was so good this is all that was left.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
salt to taste
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until lightly browned. Stir in garlic, curry powder, cinnamon, paprika, bay leaf, ginger, sugar and salt. Continue stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken pieces, tomato paste, yogurt, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove bay leaf, and stir in lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Simmer 5 more minutes.

What's in a name...

Today as I said "Delilah" for the millionth time I thought to myself "I really do like her name." I'm always wondering what other parents think when they name their children, what the story behind it was, if it was a tug o war with their spouse, or say if they just picked if off a place mat, I like to know back stories. With that in mind I thought I would share the story behind Delilah's name.

It started when I was 14 or 15 and in Sunday school. I was at the old Burton Lane building in one of the two classrooms upstairs. It was a HUGE Sunday school class, as I think about everyone in it I would guess 15-20 teens. We were a terrible class and went through several teachers from what I can remember. Anyway we were in class and of course learning about Sampson and Delilah. I remember when we first started talking about Delilah I thought.
"What a pretty name. I'm going to name one of my daughters that. I wonder why I've never met a Delilah, It's such a beautiful name. Oh.. that sucks, too bad it's such a pretty name."

Obviously I didn't think about this again until we became pregnant. Now I've always had a list of possible baby names in my mind but when the time came that I was actually going to be naming a human being I suddenly went into research mode. I mean this is a big deal, this is a HUGE deal. I was going to name someone and what I chose for them would be their name for the rest of their life THAT'S A LONG TIME!!! Collin and I took this decision seriously. We both wanted the perfect name for our child, one that would be fitting for a child, a woman, a mother, a daughter and a resume. We wanted it to be strong but still feminine, unique but not unheard of.

*Many of you know I was reluctant to share names we were thinking of with others. It's because people feel like it's their job to tell you their opinion regarding the name you have chosen, and then tell you what name they think you should name your child. It really annoyed me, and I can't emphasize REALLY enough. I have since tried really hard now to always tell people I LOVE the name they are naming their child because my opinion doesn't matter at all. They could be naming their child butt face and I would say "oh that is fun". Not MY place to tell them I don't like the name. I told a group of girls I going to school with some of the names off of this first list and one of the ladies said "OH MY GOSH!! That is an old woman's name you CAN'T name her that!!!" regarding Hazel. Since then my lips were sealed.

Draft one: this list was in my planner and I would mainly write down names I thought of or heard.

Notice two things; Delilah is listed and so are Ruby and Violet, names that my two sisters eventually named their daughters born in the same year as Delilah. Anna, who eventually named her daughter Ruby, tried several times to convince me to name Delilah Ruby, but I kept thinking "I can't name her that, what if she has red hair?" This same reasoning is why Scarlet got crossed off the list.

Draft two: this list is a list that Collin and I came up with together it was a little more official and each name had a reason behind it.

Notice on this list Delilah is crossed out. I loved the name Delilah but I couldn't name my daughter a name that means "to seduce". I mean my name means "like God". I couldn't do that to my daughter, I wouldn't think of it! I made several lists, Delilah always made it on but was always the first to be crossed off.

The last list: this is the last list we made together. Collin underlined his favorite, notice Delilah didn't make the list.

We had narrowed it down to Gwyneth or Scarlet well at least Collin had. I still didn't love either one and I couldn't name my child Scarlet if she was a red head. So we put it off until the hospital. We decided we would wait until we met her to name her. I kept reading the baby name books and looking online and trying to find the perfect name for our baby girl, but we quit making lists.

One evening when I was probably 8 1/2 months pregnant Collin was on the computer and I was nesting (rearranging a closet) it was a plain evening nothing much going on. We were skimming and listening to music when it came on. You all know what I'm going to say "Hey there Delilah" by the plain white Tees. I immediately said "Don't skip this song I like it". Collin said I like it too, and then we looked at each other and for a moment I felt like we both thought the same thing. We talked about it and I still couldn't bring myself to do it. I COULDN'T name her Delilah!! I COULDN'T.

So on April 2nd 2008 we went to the hospital to have our little girl. When I was in labor the nurses would ask "Do you have a name?" and we would say "we have a short list" and they would smile and go about their work. Delilah was born and we held her and loved her for a short amount of time when Collin and I looked at her then at each other, we didn't say much but we knew what her name would be. He looked at me as if asking and I nodded and he went and shared the good news that Delilah had joined our family.

Even after bringing her home I was nervous about it. What if I regretted it, what if she wasn't a Delilah, what if she hated her name? I eventually was less nervous and more proud of my daughter's name. I now regret nothing and know there is no doubt in my mind

She's not a Scarlet

She's not a Gwyneth

She's not an Olivia or a Ruby

She is obviously and undoubtedly a Delilah and she's all mine.

PS. Her middle name is Mae. Originally her middle name was going to be Day (my mothers maiden name) with whatever we were going to name her, but Delilah Day didn't go. We decided we would make it Mei (Chinese for beautiful) because she was going to spend most of her first year in China (plans changed). Her Chinese name would be mei-mei and since obviously she is in no way Asian descent we did the American spelling Mae. (if you watch ni hao kai lan, there is a character named mei-mei)

3.8 week 2

This week I have learned a few things.

1. Rain ruins working out outside. (at least for me)

2. I hate treadmills.

3. I like company.

This week it rained for a few days so I didn't go to the walk way but I did go to they gym at our apartment complex. I get so bored on treadmills and I don't feel like I go as fast on them as I do when I'm outside or as long. When I would work out at Golds and 24 hour fitness I had TV's and people watching that kept me entertained long enough to do my workout. This gym is pretty small and boring but I am thankful I have it.

I'm even more thankful for Taylor. My wonderful friend who lives across the street. She called me on Monday and asked if I wanted to go to the gym with her.

Um... Yes

We have gone every day now and hope to continue going. We both find it easier to have another person up there with us and it makes the hour go a lot faster. Especially today when we dissected biggest loser for most of the time. I totally can't believe Bob yelled that loud at the red lady, and doesn't Michaels hair drive you CRAZY?!

I didn't time myself this week but I did work out for 40 - 60 minutes each time. Now that I have someone to work out with up at the gym I don't know how often I will get to the walk way, but I will keep posting once a week so I have something to hold myself accountable to.

Soft Carmel Popcorn

I was organizing my photos recently and found I had taken pictures for a Carmel popcorn tutorial. This is the best soft Carmel popcorn recipe I have ever found. It's fool proof, super easy, and you don't even need a candy thermometer. This recipe has worked for me in Utah, Taiwan, and South Carolina, FOOL PROOF I tell ya!

I have to give credit to my mom for the sink trick. I grew up making popcorn in the sink and didn't think anything of it until I had to make it in a bowl and discovered how much of a pain in the butt it is. The bowl is always moving and to big to fit in the sink to clean. When I make it in the sink I just have to wash the sink, super easy!
*!*! So I just thought of something, in Taiwan I didn't make this in the sink because we had cockroaches that would climb up our drain. So if you have that problem maybe you should stick with the bowl, or make sure you plug your drain really good. *!*!

Soft Carmel Corn

1 ¾ Cup brown sugar 1 Cup karo 1 Cube butter 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1 Tsp vanilla 4-5 bags of microwave popcorn (fat free to butter lovers can be used)

Bring brown sugar and karo to a boil for 4 ½ minutes. Then add butter, milk, & vanilla and bring to a boil again. Pour over popcorn.

Afternoon date

We have two sweet sweet friends that recently offered to baby sit for Collin and I so we could go on a date. We haven't' been on a date alone since July (as documented here). I would like to tell you we spent it being romantic talking and re connecting but really we went and nerded it up with all the other nerds at Avatar in 3D.

I've never been to a 3D movie before and it was pretty cool, distracting but cool.
It was nice to spend some time together with out Delilah. As Collin and I were walking into the theater we were holding hands, at which time, we both realized we hadn't held hands in a long time because we are usually holding a littler hand, a stickier one. I am sure we all know how much I love her, but it's nice to have a break.

Thanks Ben and Taylor!!

a gift

I rarely get an uninterrupted shower. I usually get knocking, or pounding on the door followed by "mooomm, mooomm, mom, mom, mom, hi, hi, hi, hello, mom, mom" This time I got a beautiful picture sent under the door, and a giant "where have you been my whole life" hug when I got out.
I love this girl.

Cheap Chicken Dinner

This is one of our go to super easy super cheap dinner. You can leave the veggies out or add different kinds. (if you leave them out you don't need the broth added)

Week One

I have a new goal. There is a walk way near our house that I recently discovered. The route I walk is 3.8 miles. Today I decided to time myself. I didn't jog at all because I wanted to know how long of a walk it was.
I was disgusted.
58 MINUTES! that's a 15 minute mile!
So here is my short term goal I would like to start jogging and change this number to 38 minutes a 10 minute mile. I feel this is a good short term goal that is achievable.
You may ask why am I telling you? Someone once told me "a goal is just a wish unless you tell someone". You my friends are my "someone". To hold myself accountable I am going to post my time once a week on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Wish me luck I haven't jogged since high school.

Bruschetta

Last week I watched Julie and Julia twice while Collin was gone. I love Julia Child I have for a few years now, ever since I watched a documentary on her life. So of course I loved this movie, but that's not what this post is about. In Julie and Julia there is a scene where they are eating Bruschetta and it looked so good I HAD to make it. Here's what I did.
TOPPING:

GARLIC BREAD:

If you noticed the mis-spelling so did I, but was too lazy to fix it.

Also I like my bread toasted but still soft.

How to dice basil and garlic:

All in all this was delicious! I ate it alone but it is usually served as an appetizer.

Dear Collin,

Since you weren't here when I made School Lunch Peanut Butter bars I saved you two. They are on the bottom shelf in the fridge.

Well .. .. they were there and would still be there if they had of minded their own business and stopped yelling my name every 5 seconds.

"Michelle come eat us. Michelle it's so cold in the fridge. Michelle we are your favorite. Michelle it's dark in here. Michelle we will take you back to a simpler time. Michelle we need to be with you. Michelle blah blah we're delicious."

Very rude of them don't you think? They knew they suppose to be saving themselves for you. I don't know what got into them.

So I did what had to be done.

I ate them. I had no choice, they were asking for it.

Then drowned them with diet coke, so I couldn't hear them anymore, because you know how they like to tell you how fattening and high in calories they are, but only after you eat them.

Sorry babe, I bet you will get peanuts on the plane though, so even Steven right?

Happy Biirthday to this guy!

Hope you have a great day, maybe you can go fishing and catch another whopper like this.

We Love you!

Happy Birthday DAD!

a thought

Today I was coming home from Wal Mart when I saw something. . . odd.

So there was this man, he was well dressed, in a suit in fact it looked like a nice one too. He was cleaned shaved and had a proud and happy demeanor about him. Here's the odd thing he was on a bike, in the middle of traffic, helmet on with a back pack. It was a windy day so his suit coat was bellowing in the wind I think that is what caught my eye, or it could have been that he was on a mountain bike in a suit, in the middle of a busy intersection signaling left. Then something even more strange THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE!! He looked a little younger, and not too happy to be on a bike but the same thing, suit, bike, back pack, helmet. I mean who does that?

What's that?

Oh..

that's right, No wonder people think we are odd. we are!

I waved, I mean what else do you do?