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.

Hello 1992!

I was told that it's typical for me to post about "weird" things. I'm not sure what Kim meant by that, but I'll just think of it as a really sweet compliment :D

Last weekend we were making Halloween sugar cookies. Kim had taken all of the cookie cutters from the house in MT, including letter cutters that had originally come with a package of jello to make Jello Jigglers. All the letters were in an old plastic bag. They'd been in that bag for as long as I can remember. So exactly how is it?

County Market Homestyle Wheat Rolls. Packaged on July 27, 1992. For 95 cents!

County Market doesn't even exist anymore. The one I remember my mom always going grocery shopping at is now a Ace Hardware.

So there you go...another post about something weird!

I Ain't In Checotah Anymore

But I was there a few weeks ago!

For those who may not know, Checotah, Oklahoma, is the home of Carrie Underwood--2005 American Idol winner.

During our exciting trip to Oklahoma, I had to go there because we were only an hour away.

Posing by the Highway 69 sign

Carrie's high school...very stalker-esque of me


"Where 69 meets 40, there's a single stoplight town..."
And I was totally there! One of the highlights of my summer :)

Craigslist Treasure

In the words of Kimby, it was a screaming good deal.

A Singer Touch & Sew 600 for $30.

I've wanted a sewing machine for awhile, but I just figured there was really no room to keep one in our apartment. When Matt found this listing on Craigslist about 2 weeks ago, we just couldn't pass it up. We don't know what year it was made (probably sometime in the 1960s), but it has had 3 owners previous to me. The girl that sold it to us said the 2 owners before her only used it a few times. It sat at her mom's house untouched for 20 years. She used it quite a bit, but she, her husband, and kids were moving so they decided it would be easier to sell than move with them. I'm pretty sure the sewing machine alone would be worth at least $75, and I got the whole thing (machine folds into the desk) for $30! I haven't used it yet, but we are pretty excited about the good deal. And don't worry, we were able to find room for it in our tiny apartment :)

Graduation!

This is a week late in coming, but lateness seems to be the common theme with my posts...

And the good news: Matt officially graduated from BYU!

My original idea for this post was pretty awesome. I was going to go all out and add the playlist thing to the blog, but only put the graduation march on there. (Pathetic...I can't even think of the name of the "graduation march") It would instantly start playing the second anyone looked at the page and probably scare you because you weren't expecting it. And then you would get sick of it playing over and over again anyway. It would have been perfect :)

Now the news is a week old, although still very exciting, and I figured the playlist idea just wasn't going to happen. But I'm posting anyway to say:

Congratulations, Matt! I'm so proud of you...and jealous since I still have a ways to go :)



UPDATE: It's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4 :D

Memory Lane

As we were driving into the Walmart parking lot tonight, the odometer officially read 180,000 miles! We obviously had to pull over and take a picture to remember that moment.

We've been driving this car together for over 30,000 miles. And don't worry, we plan on keeping it until it dies (which could be another 100,000 miles. Go Honda!).

This car has made several trips to Oklahoma and back, and all over the west. Who knows where we'll take it next. Maybe to YOUR house!