Holy Flavor Explosion in my Mouth!!!

Wowzers.  Can I just tell you how much I love the blog Our Best Bites?  They have not failed me yet.  After browsing around today I decided to make both strawberry sauce and strawberry freezer jam with the 3lb of strawberries I bought the other day.  Then for dinner I made the Southwest Pasta Salad. 

UUUUH-MAZING.

The best part about the blog is its' pictures - it's jam packed with them!!  I have become a visual learner in my old age and for someone new to cooking, it's perfect! They have a lot of useful posts on basics like Handy Substitutes, Stocking the Kitchen,  and How-to's like Juicing Lemons and Limes, Cook Chicken Breasts, Make the Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg, and much more! And the recipes are seriously TO DIE FOR.

Seriously, check it out.  You will NOT be disappointed!

A Room Divided

I FINALLY got my craft stuff organized thanks to a little birthday money from Mom and Dad and a trip to the Home Depot.  I was shocked when all was said and done that I really don't have that much stuff!  And believe me, working at a craft store makes it very difficult to not fill those empty drawers and boxes.  Someday...

And I know it's stark white and boring.  That's a work in progress as well!

 For a brief moment in time my side of the room was as clean as Ryan's but not for long!

Popcorn Popping

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise,

Popcorn popping right before my eyes!

 

This little tree is my fav. :)

Alone on a Friday Night

After waking up at 5:30 a.m., taking Ryan to the airport, napping, running 6 miles then working 7 hours, I finally sit here on my lazy bum all alone on a Friday night.  I'm lovin' it. :)  I should be organizing my craft room, making a baby afghan for another friend,  looking for a new job, probably eating something, or doing one of the other 13 things on my to-do list but per request from my good friend Jenny, I blog instead.  Consider it a belated birthday present.

So first, a few of my wonderful wifely skills as of late...

I lose socks when I do laundry.  

It's just a fact of nature. 

Ryan, however, had never lost a sock until me.  

Luckily, since being married, the match always turns up (this did not always used to be the case).  

Sometimes we find it in the oddest places...

  

 Laundry is not a new adventure for me, but this, this was.  

A big ol' raw chicken - that LOOKS like a chicken!  YUCK.  

I'm a Tyson Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast kinda gal. 

BUT, when whole bird goes on sale for $0.59/lb I could not resist.  

With the help of a friend, we gutted him, boiled him and let him 

relax for a bit (as seen here) until we cut him up and had enough meet for 4 meals!

Ryan did a little bit of relaxing himself as last week was his spring break.

He took full advantage by sleeping in, taking naps, and eating very unhealthy foods.  

That is my kind of break.  Too bad I had to work.

But, I did have a few days off and we took advantage by going to the Museum of Life of Science.

We saw butterflies, bears, wolves, lemurs, dinosaurs, a LOT OF BUGS, and all sorts of other fun things.  

We had no idea how fabulous this place is!  

We finished off the day North Carolina style by eatin' some BBQ and 

going to Duke's last home game of the season.

We ended the week by going to our faaaaaaavorite restaurant - BUFFALO WILD WINGS!!!

We went to watch the Duke vs. UNC basketball game and 

LUCKILY got in despite showing up only 15 minutes before tip-off. 

Although the game was disappointing we had great food and good company.

This table is reserved for DUKE fans

Lastly, I got to see my little sister this weeeeeeeeeek!!

She flew into Charlotte on Tuesday night for a conference and we were able to spend the evening together.

I gave her a taste of North Carolina BBQ and a recommended French bakery.

We loved Charlotte and I would LOVE it if she went to grad school there as she's planning!

The only problem is that she would arrive as soon as we leave. LAAAAAAME.

THE END.

Once (maybe twice) in a lifetime!

Sorry this is slightly long-winded... you can skip to the pictures if you'd like!

I don't know how many of you actually care about Duke basketball but around here it's like Husker Football.  Except instead of the biggest rival being hundreds of miles away (Oklahoma) it's about six miles down the road at UNC!  Each year the teams play each other twice - once in each of their homes and it is a BIG deal - like voted one of the biggest rivalries in ALL sports (according to Sportscenter).  Ryan unfortunately did not get a ticket this year and was hesitant about the walk-up line.  The undergraduates have been camping out since DECEMBER - you saw right - TWO WHOLE MONTHS to guarantee their spot as a Cameron Crazie!  Well, as the game got closer, Ryan just couldn't resist.  After all, he's been a Duke fan LONG before coming here.  I think he has a 13-year-old pair of Duke shorts!  Anyway, it just so happened that I had the time off of work so before I knew it we were packing up and heading to campus for a long night.  Unlike the camp out in October, we were prepared for the cold this time! Even with a low of 22 (which froze Ryan's memory foam pillow...), Ryan persevered and we made it!  BUT, that still didn't guarantee we would get in.  We got to leave at 7:30 in the morning but had to return at 5 p.m. to wait again and just pray that there was space for us.  We were numbers 36 and 37 with Ryan's classmates right before us and a few church friends just a few spots behind us.  As game time got closer, we were getting very anxious and we EXPLODED with cheer as they gave us the go-ahead!!  The seats weren't great, but we got to experience something that very few people do.  I hate to admit that basketball is growing on me, or maybe just because the games inside Cameron are so exciting.  At the end my ears were ringing and we couldn't even hear the announcer it was so loud!! I am so happy we made it in and that we got to share it TOGETHER!

The undergrads looked like a bunch of homeless people...

 

 So we might have had pizza five nights in a row last week...

 

 Seriously, it was frozen. My weight is on it and it barely budged.

 

 School amigos

 Church pals

 

 

  BONFIRE!

Thu, Fri, Sat

Thursday

was Ryan's intramural basketball game.  It was the 1st year DPT students vs. the 2nd years. Boy, was there quite the turnout.  I don't think the refs or any other bystanders had ever seen anything like it before! They painted up, had signs, distracted during free throws and even made a tunnel for the winners to run through. These PT students really know how to party!

Friday

we encountered the pothole of DOOM.  We spent the evening with Ali and her parents (it was so nice to be around family!!) and all we decided to take a different route home so we could pick up a Redbox.  Well, it was dark and before we knew it, WE GOT ROCKED.  We weren't even speeding and I've never heard such a loud noise or felt such a jerk from a pot hole.  Apparently, neither had the jag because IT STOPPED.  Yes, the engine SHUT DOWN.  11:30 p.m. right on the street it just died.  Talk about FREAKING OUT!!!  It said, "Gear Box Failure" and we couldn't even put it into neutral to push it to the mechanic that was 1.5 blocks away.  That's it, 1.5 blocks!!  After 15 minutes of feeling sick to my stomach watching everyone else hit the pot hole, Ryan pulled out his owner's manual and happened to turn to a page about an inertia switch. (I know this was an answer to my quick prayer!)  Apparently his car can senses if you've been in an accident and it shuts down for your safety.  I'm so thankful we discovered this and all it takes is the flip of a switch to turn the car back on.  We pulled into the auto shop just as Ali and her parents came to our rescue.  A flat (maybe two) tires later and all valuables out of the car (we were in a GHETTO part of town), they brought us home to wait until morning to really discover the damage.  It bent the front and back rim but luckily only the front tire was flat so the spare is on and here comes the battle with the city to see if we can get any money out of them.  They OBVIOUSLY knew about this because the next morning there were cones up.  AND we heard that they used to have a big steel slab over it.  Pay up, Durham.  You owe us big time.

Saturday
was game day!  Note the tents that have been there for WEEKS camping out for the UNC game!  We had one ticket to the Duke vs. NC State basketball game so Ryan let me walk right in and he waited in the line of nearly 200 people.  Game time was nearing and still no Ryan.  I would have felt AWFUL if he didn't get in but thankfully he was one of the last 8 students and we had a spot for him in the FRONT ROW right under the basket!  Remember how I said that his classmates know how to party?  They decided to dress up as Zombies for the game and even invited the Duke basketball game out to a bar called "Shooters" with them.  And you know, what? They showed up!!  I really don't know what Duke Basketball would do without DPT.

Do you see Ryan just to the right of #5? He's famous. :)

24th Birthday

So I'm 24.  And I have to admit, I actually feel old.  I'm done with school and just working and now 24!  A lot of people are still in school at age 23, but 24?  Most people are done by then making me officially OLD.  I don't know how I feel about that.  I got quite homesick and really just wanted to be home with my parents for my birthday, but Ryan planned a great weekend for me!  We went to dinner on Saturday night with a handful of his classmates and then more joined us ice skating (even though they had HUGE tests to study for!).  Ryan does NOT like ice skating but knew I wanted to go so he held on tight the whole time and survived without falling once.  What a good sport!  At midnight that night he gave me a present - a HUGE bag of York Peppermint Patties - YUM!

On Sunday morning (my actual birthday) he woke me up with breakfast in bed and then cleaned up his entire mess and whatever mess I had left around the apartment.  :) We had not talked at all about what we were doing that night and I thought he might be planning something but he was NOT fessing up.  Finally, after I got a little grumpy he admitted that Mitch and Maile were coming over for dinner.  Little did I know, he invited the whole gang!  Dinner was oh-so-tasty as were my birthday cakes!! I have the best husband and the best friends.  I have had some AMAZING birthdays over the years thanks to all of you, wherever you live!

I also wondered if the York Peppermint Patties were my only gift.  I mean, I know money is tight, but it is my birthday!! Again, I was not disappointed.  Though at first I was worried - do you see the wrapped Cheez-It box?  I thought that's what was actually in the box.  However,  Ryan got me a Cricut cartridge I've been wanting and some all weather running tights for our marathon we are running on June 12, 2011 (our 1-year anniversary).  Yes, I know we're crazy.  But it's a goal of Ryan's and I'll give it a shot! AND my great friends Megan and Conner will be running it, too. Again, my friends ROCK!