Catch Up

It's been almost three months since the last post...I've taken a few pictures, but I was just too lazy to upload them.

In March Matt and I took a trip to a Pick and Pull junk yard to find a few parts for his truck. What a fun experience it was! We were in and out in a few minutes, and only ended up paying $2 for the parts that would have cost $60 new. Woohoo!

Happy B-day/V-day!

Valentine's Day is a very exciting time for us. Not really because we like the holiday, but because it's also Matt's birthday. What with being part of the 3-day President's Day weekend this year, we decided to be spontaneous and drive to AZ. The drive wasn't too bad, except for one little thing...We get pulled over for speeding, but I won't say who was driving {we'll let it slide this time since it was his birthday and all ;) }. It's hard to get a good picture of the flashing lights, considering their flashes alternate. This was the best I could get. Matt didn't want me to take the picture at all in case the cop saw and thought we were making a mockery of the whole situation. At least I didn't ask if I could get a picture of the cop or anything.

Aside from that excitement, the weekend was great. For the birthday festivities we went to the Phx Zoo, ate In-N-Out Burger for dinner, and had Coldstone cake to end the evening right. We really know how to party!

Jill was out of town that weekend, so we also had the chance to help babysit for a few days. Her kids are really cute, but a lot of work. Matt and I both decided we can wait a long time before having our own. If not for scaring you away from parenthood, what are nieces and nephews for? :D

1/2 Ton, Baby!

This is it. Our new truck, a '95 GMC 1/2 ton Sierra 1500 . Matt's truck. I'm not sure that I'll be driving it that often.

We bought a '99 Ford Taurus on Craigslist about a year ago for super cheap because he had to replace the head gasket. It was a good little car. Unfortunately, he was driving to work a few weeks ago when one of his co-workers slid through a stop sign about a block from their work and t-boned him on the passenger side. It was not too big of a deal, no one was hurt, but it left a huge dent on the side of the Taurus. Totaled! We had every intention of going back to being a one-car family, but then Matt found the listing for the aforementioned truck in the KSL classifieds. He was pretty excited.

The problem was his co-worker's insurance company. It's called Kemper Insurancer or something. And they were ridiculous to work with. It was one problem after another until they told us they would overnight the check on a Friday. That meant we should have gotten it Monday, right? Tuesday morning Matt calls to say we hadn't gotten it. The woman looks. Oh, she had messed something up and it hadn't even been sent out. He calls again on Wednesday to find out who will deliver it and if there's a tracking number. The woman has absolutely no idea. We finally got the check on Thursday.

Long story short, Matt got the truck of his dreams, and I'm just happy we didn't have to go back to sharing a car : )

The Christmas Report...Finally

First of all, I lied. I know, I know. It's a horrible thing to do. I really meant to take pictures of the food I made for Christmas dinner, but by the time the turkey was ready we just wanted to eat...so it didn't happen. I'm no master chef though, so I promise you're not missing much.

However, I do want to report that Megan helped me find a website with directions for cooking the turkey. This website was extremely helpful, and I produced an amazingly moist and delicious turkey. You should check it out.

As for other activities during the holidays, we went snowmobiling that Friday. The area where we went had just gotten 12 feet of snow in the 24 hours before we got there, so we weren't allowed to go very far up the mountain. The snow wasn't packed down well enough. So here's the story...

Just sit right back and you'll read a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started near a mountain top
Aboard some mid-sized snowmobiles. (A stretch, I know)

The driver was a mighty driving man (Matt),
The passenger brave and sure (that's me!).
Eight participants set out that day
For a two hour tour, a two hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The snow was really deep,
When we reached the top of the mountain, high,

Our fuel gauge then read "E".

Sorry, I don't think I can keep that up any longer. So we're up at the top and can't get our snowmobile to start again. Matt and I both think it was out of gas, but our tour guide claimed there was plenty. Regardless, all 6 men that were in the group stood around taking turns trying to pull-start it. They tried for half an hour. To no avail. So who had to ride three on a snowmobile? Matt and his parents. Who had to ride on the guide's snowmobile? Me. Then we're within minutes from the lodge when the other 3 snowmobiles are nowhere in sight. The guide tells me to get off while he drives the snowmobile in a circle to turn it around and find them. He drives it into a lot of unpacked snow and gets his stuck too. Very stuck. We left with 5 snowmobiles and came back with three. We had fun anyway. I started playing in the snow during the 30 minute wait at the top and was able to sink far enough in the snow that it came up to my chest. It was pretty entertaining trying to get out of that too.

If you ever get a chance to go snowmobiling, I definitely recommend it!

When the snow fell...

All we could do was build a snowman.

We named him Mr. Snowman. Pretty creative, huh? Thanks for coming to play in the snow with us, Megan!

It's been snowing pretty consistently here for the last week. On Monday alone it probably snowed close to 9 inches.

Almost every apartment in our complex is empty these days. Everyone is visiting family for the holidays. We, fortunately, did not have to make the long drive to Matt's parents. They came here instead. So it's pretty quiet around here. And now Mr. Snowman will be here to greet everyone when they come back from vacation.

I do not love the snow, but there are a few good things that happened due to this snow fall. We built a snowman (which I haven't done in a long, long time), and I happened to find my hot pink, furry mittens that have been lost for over a year. I absolutely loved those mittens. They were a Christmas present from my best friend Brittany a few years ago, and apparently sometime last winter I left them in the inside pockets of the coat I'm seen wearing above. A coat that obviously never gets worn. But thank goodness for our last snowfall.

I'm in charge of Christmas dinner, so I'll be sure to post pictures later of the delicious food I'm preparing!

Enough about Carrie already...

...that's probably what you're thinking about now. Well, since you all probably know I'm a big fan of Carrie Underwood (considered Matt and I made the trip to her hometown), I have one more story to tell.

I went to a Carrie Underwood concert!

Matt's not quite the fan I am, and opted out, so I went with a co-worker. But I have to say, lots of songs and 4 wardrobe changes later, it was the BEST concert I've ever been too. The competition?

1. John Mayer (seats 4th row center)
2. Kelly Clarkson (seats off to the side)
3. Anberlin (mosh pit style, and a close second to Carrie)

Okay, so I may not have a lot to compare it to, but just know it was amazing. Our seats were pretty far away, so I don't have any pictures of her to post, but it was enough just to be that close to her :)

At this point, I probably seem a little like a stalker. I even looked her up on Wikipedia to learn that we share the same middle name. We're practically best friends already! It's official...I am a stalker.

My co-worker and I sporting our cowboy hats in honor of the country music star

Comida Brasileira!

I'm taking a Portuguese class this semester (and will be for the next 2 semesters as well). I've also eaten at my fair share of authentic Brasilian restaurants. For these 2 reasons, I decided to try my hand at Brasilian cooking.

This is the sauce for the Brasilian Stroganoff. It's a little different from the American version I'm used to, and you eat it over rice instead of pasta.

The official name for these would be Pão de Queijo...or cheese bread. This was before they were baked. I got this recipe from my Portuguese teacher, who is Brasilian, so they were very authentic.

This is me making the dessert, called brigadero. Basically sweetened condensed milk and cocoa rolled into balls and covered with chocolate sprinkles. Delicious!

Guaraná. The infamous soda pop beverage of Brasil.

And here is a nice shot (not really, if only had Megan around :D). It shows the stroganoff complete with rice and matchstick potato chips as a garnish. To the side of that is the baked pão de queijo, and the Guaraná. We did have salad with the meal just to get some vegetables, but of course Matt says, "Oh, I'll just eat salad after I finish this."
Yeah. right.

And these are the completed brigadero. We ran out of chocolate sprinkles and had to use cocoa on a few of them. The recipe made quite a few, but as of today, this is all we have left. Like I said, they're delicious :)

This was me pretending to have a food blog for a minute. Just be happy I'm blogging at all! If you want any of the recipes, just let me know.