twenty-third year, begin.

Birthday Tess

Last night Conrad took me to sushi for my birthday. We went to Harney Sushi, and after, we planned to go to the movies to see Conan the Barbarian (Khal Drogo, my sun and stars), but I kind of got sick at the restaurant, so we just drove home and snuggled and watched a movie while Conrad ate all my birthday cookies.

Some of my goals for the new year (my new year, not the New Year) are:

• Graduate! I got into BYUI's online degree program, which means I can finish school here, but graduate from there. I can also work full time, plus, Church schools are significantly cheaper than most schools.
• Work more. I won't always be as mobile as I am now (without kids), so I'd like to spend more time making bank and saving money. Or spending it on awesome vacations.
• Visit 3 new states (at least). In the next year, Conrad and I want to do an East Coast tour and visit friends and family in Georgia (shout out to Wessmans) and North Carolina (shout out to Kirkhams), and at least one more eastern state. Neither of us have spent much, if any, time on the East Coast, and since the dollar is so weak, we figured we'd explore our own country.
• Visit 3 new countries (at least). We also want to visit Eastern Europe. We're thinking Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Greece? Maybe Turkey? Also, we want to invite friends to join us. We've found that vacations are more fun with more than 2 people. 
• Get a female for Ninners. He's lonely. And I want to make money by selling his babies.
• Learn to play a new instrument. Maybe cello. And maybe buy one. I eventually want to have a collection of instruments like my mom. 

Happy Birthday To Me

I just called my mom and had her recount my entire birth story. I know it's kind of cheeseball, but my birth was no cake walk, and I thought it would be special to have the story written down for the future. 

"Dad came home early from work to go to school. He left around 2, and I went into labor. The people at the hospital said it would take a long time, but within a few hours I was in hard labor. I just had babies fast, I guess. We didn't have cell phones, so I had to call Dad's school to get a hold of him in class. He came home around 4, and we went to the hospital. I walked in, had a contraction and doubled over from the pain in my back. Hard labor only lasted a few hours.

We didn’t have a sonogram. They said you were early, but the thechnology to calculate due date was a little more primitive. They put the heart rate monitor on me and you, and you were in serious distress. I was only dilated to a nine instead of ten. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around your neck. You would have strangled if I had pushed. So they did an emergency spinal tap for a C-section. I never got to use my breathing techniques. I never even finished my lamaz classes. Dad wasn’t in the room because it was such an emergency. I kind of passed out because so many drugs. I felt like I was floating in the air. They told me you were born, but I don't remember hearing your newborn sounds.

You were born and they gave you to me. I nursed you once because they said it would help stop my own bleeding. They took you away to go to baby care, but you had a blue episode and all your fingernails and toenails and lips turned blue, and you were put into NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). We weren't allowed to have you come back into the room. We had to visit you there. They thought you might forget to breathe again. You stayed there for 4 days.

I stayed in the hospital for 3 days because I had the Caesarian. They sent me home without you. I had 1 night without my new baby. My doctor didn't give me any painkillers for the surgery. 

You were 4 pounds 15 ounces. "

Just want to thank my parents, especially my mom, for doing all that for me 22 years ago today.

Hutch 2.0

Remember this?

I'm going to be doing a project with it soon. And I'll be needing one of these:

Watch your step

Bees have always been kind of fascinating to me. Not in the "oh, they're so cute, little bumble bees" way, but realistically. I've actually secretly fantasized about beekeeping someday, when my estate allows. I love honeys. I love that every flower makes a different flavor.

I've never been stung. Well, I had never been stung before this morning. I was at the beach and I stepped on one.

At first I was like, "Oh, I just stepped on a little pointy rock."
Then I was like, "Ow, it hurts really bad. Is it stuck to my foot?"
Then I was like, "MOTHER!!! did I just step on a needle or a jellyfish tentacle or what?! "

The pain started really mild and grew really big. I wobbled over to the lifeguards for some first aid assistance. They got me some ice, identified the wound (in between my toes, stinger had fallen out), and told me I might be really itchy tomorrow, and seek emergency medical care if I feel any shortness of breath. Thank you, I feel silly for being in so much pain from such a little thing! Don't worry, ma'am it happens all the time.

So I iced it. It felt a lot better. It was mostly numb/not in pain for the next few hours. But when we started walking around a lot, I noticed I felt really tired, and my foot hurt like my toes were broken. I came home to put some topical Benadryl on it.

Quick side note: Everyone go buy this. Put it on everything. Go.

I felt a lot better, then I started recapping the day. I realized that my beesting not only hurt me, but it killed the bee that gave it to me! I suddenly was sad for my little stinger-clad friends. I couldn't decide if it made me want to keep bees more or less.

More. I know it hurt me, but I still like bees.

Grilled Pizzas

I got this recipe off of Pinterest (what else?). We made pizzas and barbeque'd them instead of baking. They were incredible!

The toppings we had were:
Marinara sauce
mozzerella and cheddar
tomato
pepperoni
pineapple

and for on top (I like my pizza with salad on it):
lettuce
avocado
homemade garlic cream sauce or ranch dressing

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey {or sugar}
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour {give or take 1/2 cup…depending on the heat & humidity}

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer, stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. This tells you that the yeast is alive and kicking. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix.

Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn’t stick to your hands.

Once you reach this stage, turn the mixer on high to knead for 6 minutes. Turn a timer on and walk away! Resist the temptation to stop earlier than 6 minutes! That seems to be the magical number. It should look something like this when it’s done!

The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean!

Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn’t dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours. That’s it!

Now you can turn this dough into anything your little heart desires.

We had friends over, and we all agreed it was so good! I highly recommend using the grill instead of the oven. There's something so summery about it, plus it doesn't heat up your whole kitchen, PLUS you get a lovely smokey, charred flavor that you don't get otherwise. Cook it low and slow. Too high will burn the bottom and leave the top doughy.

Thrift Store Coffee Table

I found this pretty Ethan Allen coffee table at a thrift store today for $30! I looked online at the Ethan Allen store, and all the equivalent tables were over $1000. Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. 

I'm thinking about sanding it down and either staining it darker to match our current wood furniture, or white-wash it for a greater contrast and more antique look. I'll definitely do a post on the project and finished product. Any suggestions?

Yosemite

Road trip stop at the Cheese Factory

 Entering Yosemite

 Mirror Lake

 Hungry, fearless squirrel

 Lower Yosemite Falls

 Ahwahnee Hotel, beautiful copper fireplace

 Ahwahnee Hotel Dining Hall

 Deer

 Beginning of the first hike

 Middle of the hike

 Waterfall

 Nighttime in our cabin. cozy clothes

 Sisters

 Bike ride on Happy Isle

 Rafting down the river

 Blister on pinky toe

 Wawona Hotel

Rich as a King

And soon to be suffering from gout like a king, too.

You see, I just ate a delicious, fatty, buttery meal, and am almost positive I have some kind of disease now, because of it.

Pasta with homemade alfredo sauce and sauteed mushrooms.
Boil pasta.
Make homemade alfredo sauce. I could swear I posted the recipe, but I couldn't find it anywhere on my site, so here it is:

Equal parts butter and cream cheese. Milk. Parmesan. Garlic and salt and pepper (or, for the lazy homemaker out there, garlic salt and pepper). I don't measure, which is why there are no measurements. I love this recipe because all of the ingredients are things I always have stocked in my fridge. Anyway, I melt the butter over low-medium heat. This is where you'd add fresh minced garlic, otherwise just season with garlic salt at the end. Add the cream cheese (it will be really lumpy until you add the milk). Splash in a few (keep in mind I've never actually measured, so it could be as much as a quarter cup) tablespoons of milk and a handful (or five) of parmesan - fresh of course. Sometimes its perfectly fine to skimp on certain ingredients in order to splurge on others. For example, always use fresh parmesan and real butter, but buy frozen pizzas or cheap versions/offbrands of most grain products. Once the parmesan is melted, season to taste. It's thinner than canned sauce, but tastes so much better.

If you're making the recipe with sauteed mushrooms, use a little less butter in the sauce.
Saute your mushrooms with plenty of butter over medium heat. You can't really walk away from them. They should be moved a lot to prevent burning. Mushrooms are really spongy, so they soak up a lot of the liquid in the pan. The problem is, if the pan gets too dry, the mushrooms can burn really fast. Add more butter to the pan as needed. Your physical heart might not thank you, but your proverbial one will. It's good to leave a little extra butter in the pan, even after the mushrooms have softened all the way. Add some of the alfredo sauce to the mushroom pan, and the shroomy butter will mix with the sauce, making it even more flavorful than before.

Your welcome.