background

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Saturday.

Today started off nice and early. Dallin and I woke up around 6:30... something I haven't done in a while! Got dressed in warm clothes, grabbed a laundry basket and walked out the door into....


Yes. A Winter Wonderland. (I'm not going to lie, I'm ready for spring.)

We drove to Orem where we picked up our Bountiful Basket! We heard from some dear friends how amazing of a deal this is, so we decided we needed to try it out. You sign up at the beginning of the week and on Saturday, nice and early, you pick up a basket of fruit and a basket of veggies.
Here's what was in our basket this week....


2 mangoes
1 box of strawberries
4 Roma tomatoes
8 miniature pears
2 crowns of broccoli
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 bag of butter gold potatoes
9 bananas
1 bunch of asparagus
and
2 coconuts!!! (if anyone has suggestions of what to do with the coconut it would be much appreciated. haha!)


The best part-- it was only $15.

One last thing.


Happy 8 months to my hubby/best friend!!! I love you so much. Thanks for all you do for me; including doing this diet/exercise program. Even though you hate it.
You're the greatest. <3

Thursday, February 24, 2011

New happenings

I know this is super late, but I had to mention the happenings of our Valentine's Weekend.
First I had to add a few more decorations to our home....

Yes, it's made out of cardboard.

Then the festivities began. On Friday night, we had 3 couples over for a Valentine's dinner. We made the entree (chicken alfredo) and everyone else brought something to add to dinner.
Dallin bought these beautiful flowers to "decorate the table." I know it's really because he just wanted to buy me flowers. ;)

We also bought a bunch of candy to decorate the table as is Hague tradition. We will definitely keep that one going! Sorry we didn't get any pictures of the actual table/meal. It was delicious and beautiful. :)

Our Valentine's weekend continued on Saturday when we went to the Stake Valentine's Dance; complete with chocolate fountain and lots of delicious treats to dip. MAJOR FLASHBACK TO HIGH SCHOOL STAKE DANCES! We had SO much fun singing, goofin' off and dancing, especially to Cotten-Eye Joe.

Sunday was one year since this....


We had a great day lounging around, re-reading The Blog (Feb 13th 2010) that started it all, eating a great meal (and candy) and enjoying time together.

Finally came the actual Valentine's Day. Dallin and I celebrated by using his free birthday meal to Tucano's. They had silk tableclothes on all the tables with flowers, ginormous chocolate covered strawberries, a rose to bring home, and a few extra delicious meats to celebrate the day of love. We ate too much, as always. But loved every minute of it!

That brings me to our "new lifestyle." (the term used by my professors.) I have quite a few fun projects in my classes this semester including going on a vegetarian diet, going on a weight-loss program each for about 6 weeks, and getting someone to do them with me (guess who the lucky individual is!!). So I'm killing two birds with one stone and getting both projects done at the same time.

The day after Tucanos was the start of all this madness. For the diet, we are supposed to eat mainly fruit, vegetables, whole wheat and occasional dairy and poultry/eggs. NO red meat, and hardly any sugar. After one day we realized there is not nearly enough food in our pantry that fits the diet so we did some shopping. Now we've got tons of deliciously nutritious foods around our home. YAY! For the weight loss program, we're supposed to do our best to balance how much food we are eating and how much we are exercising. It's started out a little bumpy as both Dallin and I have been sick the last week... but we'll get the hang of it! :)

With the new "lifestyle" I have been doing a lot more cooking. Which I have decided is my new favorite past time... as well as stress management. lol! I have tried lots of new recipes... here's a few of the things we've tried.

-breadsticks

-whole wheat muffins










-baked orange chicken

-breakfast taquitos with homemade whole wheat tortillas










-cilantro lime dressing with bbq chicken salad

-copper carrots

Sorry I didn't get pictures of most things... they were all so delicious that we just couldn't wait long enough to take a picture. ;)

One last bit of news.
Dallin got an internship with this fantastic company


and we will be spending our summer in this beautiful city/state.


Portland, Oregon!

We are so excited and can't wait to get out of Provo for a little while and to be closer to family.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Season of Love

I decided that since Valentine's Day is
a week from today,
our home needed a little lovin'

After doing some much needed cleaning,
I gathered these items...

and got to work.

This was the final product.

It adds a lovely touch.
I think more is still needed but that will have to wait as I have a test to study for.

Thanks to oneprettything.com for the idea! :)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

xīn nián kuài lè

Okay so I don't actually speak Mandarin (surprise surprise)... I cheated and looked it up... and that's how you say Happy New Year!!!

In case you didn't know... today is the Chinese New Year. I thought it would be very appropriate to celebrate by eating Chinese food (with chopsticks) while listening to traditional Chinese music and finishing our meal with fortune cookies.






I must say it turned out to be quite a hit, and Dallin was pleasantly surprised. :) Although he was pretty hungry and had to switch to eating with regular utensils after the first 5 minutes.





Oh and I had to put these pictures up in honor of Dallin and his amazing sundae-making abilities.




Vanilla icecream ($3.99)
Toppings ($6)
Sundae glasses ($1 at DI)
Enjoying delicious sundae, with my best friend, while losing the game of Sequence (priceless)