Super food!

Warm butternut squash with chick peas and tahini dressing. Yum yum yum. I stumbled upon this recipe online. The blogger built this "salad" up to be the best thing ever. The flavors combine to tease the taste buds...each flavor complimenting and enhancing the next. In fact, she claims that these ingredients should not EXIST without the other.

After trying the recipe as written...I completely agree! It really is lovely. I am so sad there are no leftovers for my lunch tomorrow. :( I will definitely make this again, maybe tomorrow! :)

And I made my own tahini...in my power blender. Just 2 cups of lightly toasted sesame seeds with 2-3 tbs of olive oil. I feel so domestic.

This picture was just from the Internet, too bad I forgot to take a picture. Mine was much prettier! Really! My family all liked it...even Jaren, but no one liked it as much as I did. Of course, I had all day to think about it, dream about it, plan it, prepare it. After hearing the rave reviews, I thought for sure my family would come to the table oohing and aaahing. They did not. But I did ;)

I'm Back!

Ok, I am back with fire under me! I am committed to blogging. Thanks to my new iPhone blogging got 20 times easier! I am so happy!

I have teased my friends about playing with their iPhones like playing Barbies, but now I have one, I totally want to play Barbies with anyone that will play! Come over to my house and bring your Barbie!

I want this!!

If anyone needs a last minute, big ticket item for yours truly, to to the barn...its $125 and would up my happiness factor a lot. Especially if I end up teaching school :)

Christmas Giving

Sometimes neighbor gifts are such a pain, but it does bring me great joy! I love doing it. It's all about the packaging. I love wrapping and I love cute tags.

Merry Christmas!

Weed Notes and Caramel Apples

My grandma made pressed flower cards with dried flowers and tissue paper and plastic wrap.  I treasured these little handmade cards and wrote on.  I love her handwriting.  It's not special handwriting, but just because it's hers I love it.  In fact, when I was on my mission I wrote to her and asked her to make me some "weed notes" as she called them so I could write to investigators and members.

This new idea puts a new twist on weed notes.  I've had so much fun!  I sent some to my cousin Kelly who loves to make cards like I do.

"Want a sweet juicy car-a-mel apple maybe?"  -Enchanted (one of my favorite movies. I've had people tell me I am Giselle)

Notice?

Okay...  FYI.  I do have other clothes.  I just noticed that nearly every picture in my blog I'm wearing the same shirt.

Whoopsie.

Our 20th Anniversary

20 years, really?  I feel barely 25!  I didn't get married when I was 5, but my 18 year old is going off to BYU.  My 16 year old is counting how many kisses she's had.  My 14 year old so badly wants to be older. My 11 year old is enjoying his view of the older ones.  Anyway...

We decided this year we would recreate our engagement year by taking engagement photos, repairing our wedding rings, and returning to the Stein Ericksen lodge where we spent our honeymoon.  I guess "we" isn't the correct word, it's really "I."  I had been planning for so long to surprise Travis with all of my wonderful plans, but, it turned out not to be a surprise, and I decided that I just couldn't bring myself to spend $280 on one night at the Stein Ericksen Lodge.  So, I let Travis in on my disappointment and we planned together.  It was really a perfect weekend.  I bought Kara mint truffles because we ate them all during our honeymoon that were left over from our reception.  We had a blast and I'm way more in love than I was when we got married, and look forward to the next 20 years.