mashed potatoes

Over two years ago, an eager little nineteen year old went to the grocery store. It was her turn to be in charge of apartment Sunday dinner the next day, and she was going to make a roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, and asparagus. She had a crush on this guy in her ward and hoped to invite him and his apartment over to join in, so instead of buying just 6 potatoes, in faith she bought 12. After Church the following day, the invitation was extended and accepted, and shortly thereafter, the six boys arrived for dinner. This girl had worked really hard with all of her roommates to make a yummy dinner because she really, really wanted to impress this guy. Afterwards, he did all of the dishes.

Today, this same eager girl, now twenty-one years old, made the very same dinner for the very same boy. And he did all of the dishes. Except this time, he was her husband!

Dreams come true! :)

wendy's

Wednesday evening, Da Ducks had their last intramural basketball game before the tournament starts! They went 4-1! Afterwards, the whole crew met up at Wendy's for a late night snack in honor of DJ, who is visiting the Provo area for a few days. It was so, so wonderful to see him and so, so wonderful to have everyone together! We love our friends!!

You might notice two shakes in front of Ben & me - well, let me tell you! The manager of Wendy's brought out several of the new peppermint shakes (woo!) and distributed them to those in our big group who could answer a Wendy's trivia question correctly. I guessed right that Wendy's first opened in 1969 - does that mean I watch too much TV and have seen too many commercials? I don't know. Ben also won one by guessing what street the first ever Wendy's is on, and we enjoyed them from the freezer the next night!

keeper questions

This past weekend, our Stake Relief Society had a Women's Conference.

The first hour was a keynote speaker and then there were multiple breakout sessions, from which we could choose two to attend. Because organizing is one of my passions, naturally one of the sessions I chose was on organizing. The Conference concluded with a yummy lunch, and then I came home and told Ben about all the new things I had learned.

I told him about how our homes can be sacred as we organize every needful thing, beautify, provide light, plant seeds, foster the fulfilling of our measure of creation, and allow agency and provide Savior experiences. Then, we can tend our homes and have joy.

I told him that we learned that organizing can be streamlined if we first identify every needful thing. To do this, we use keeper questions:

Do I like it?

Do I use it?

Do I need it?

Do I want it?

Do I have room for it?

I told him about how we learned that we shouldn't keep things using excuses such as "I paid good money for this" because the store price is probably less than the price of the space it takes up and the price of maintenance. We shouldn't keep things just because we feel guilt or sentiment because grandma probably will be okay if we give her homemade afghan to somebody who will actually wear it. For the things we do want to keep, we use memory boxes. Another excuse we shouldn't use is "I might need it someday!" (The reason I own mostly everything I do!) Well, somebody might need it today, and we will be blessed when we do need it if we give it up today. We learned that Less is Best and "Big" isn't better, it's just . . "big!"

Well, all I had to do was come home and tell Ben about these ideas, and on Sunday morning I woke up to find this:

And now it looks like this:

And that is what I call a successful Women's Conference!! :)

v-day

Well goodness - Ben and I had just about the darn best Valentine's Day ever! Why don't I tell you about it?

What holiday would be complete without festive toe nails? Answer: none! So, during our most recent visit to the Patterson's for Sunday dinner, I had Claire demonstrate her skill on my toes!

Yesterday, Ben drove me to campus as a V-day treat, and when I came home, this lovely display was on the kitchen table! Precious and yummy, no?!

After busy and productive afternoons, I picked him up from campus and we went to Olive Garden!

It was rather crowded and the we had to wait a while . . . (no doubt very worth it)

We are a pretty particular couple; we know what we want! We both ordered Parmesan Chicken, but instead of spaghetti, we had Fettuccine Alfredo on the side. And we asked that our food be delivered after we had time to eat and enjoy our salad and bread sticks. Hey now, we don't want to be rushed!

When we got home, it was time for Ben's surprise. I sent him on a little scavenger hunt through our apartment. This is the first clue, it says: If you want something sweet and fruity, first look near the place where you go TOOTy! (My day is never complete without a little bathroom humor!)

Inside the toilet, it said "Now go to the place where, when tired and fed, you like to lay down and rest your sweet head."

That clue sent him to the inside of his pillow case where he found: "What? Still no treat?! Look under the place where we rest our feet!"

Which sent him to the underneath of the coffee (I mean, hot chocolate) table, where he read: "We're here at BYU where we mold our brains like silly putty - your next stop is the place we call 'the study'!"

Once he discovered the hidden heart there, he read: "A big, red bag full of lots of small pieces - almost there! Where do you go when you have lots of sneezes??"

On the tissue box was: "If this treat is what you think, you just might find it under the sink!"

And then under the kitchen sink, buried in all 1,000 of our old grocery bags, was a huge bag of Skittles!

Then it was time to decorate cookies! Doesn't this look like a happy table?

Happy Valentine's Day!! :)

the crock-pot fiasco

I came home from campus this morning for a 40 minute interlude before I needed to be at the Health Center for a doctors appointment. During my 40 minute break I had two goals: 1) put together the chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot so it can be ready for an early dinner before Ben's basketball game tonight, 2) eat lunch so I'm not starving at the doctor's. Simple enough, right?

So not so!

I started putting the ingredients in our normal crock-pot, the one I've had since my days of singledom. I soon realize that I need 3 cans of chicken broth, not the 2 that are in my cupboard, and the chicken broth I have anyway combined with the can of diced tomatoes are going to overflow my little crocky. So, I pull out the nice, big, family size crock-pot that we received for our wedding, unwrap it, get it all set up, and start transferring the ingredients over. I transfer the chicken broth, diced tomatoes, and chicken. Then I dice onion and green pepper, add cumin, chili powder, black pepper, and corn. It's all coming together. It fits. And it (should) smell really good. But all I can smell is smoke!

I put my nose near the base of the crock-pot and realize it's the heating part of the base that smells not too friendly. Luckily, the pot itself has not fully heated, so I grab the handles and pull it out. I unplug the base, exam it, turn it over and put my face real close, and there is a little puff of smoke that blows right into my eye! It hurt! So I run around the house to find my phone to call Ben so he can come home and take me to the hospital before I go blind . . . Okay, just kidding. My eye watered a little and then I put the base down.

Now what am I going to do?

I decide to **hope** that I can fit it all in the small crock-pot - I mean, I am missing a can of chicken broth, so it might be possible. It would be a disaster to try to pour it, so I ladle all of the soup - scoop, by scoop, back into trusty ol' crocky and there it lays - about a quarter of an inch over-flowing!

I am totally returning that nasty old smoker! We need a full size crock-pot! (My mother has been telling me this since I started dating/feeding Ben.)

Anywho, if you want the recipe, it is delicious. And it's below:

Tex-Mex Tortilla Soup

Put all of these things in a big enough crock-pot:

1 to 1/14 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast (I use tenderloins), frozen

3 14-ounce cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1/4 cup chopped green sweet peppers
1 to 2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon black powder
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn

Cook for 3-4 hours, then serve with tortilla chips, pepper jack cheese, avocado, lime wedges, etc.

Yum!

Oh, and did I mention that when I went to the doctor's I had to give blood?!

My least favorite thing in the whole world!

:)