Five Things {I'm digging} Friday

1. Sobe Coconut Water. OMG, so freaking delicious. The other two flavors are equally as yummy.

2. Master Chef. I just discovered this show and it's super addicting. The judges are awesome/scary and the contestants are pretty cool. I love the blind lady and the woman who named her baby boy "Danger". What a cool mom.

3. There's nothing I love more than lists. And really what's the best kind of "list"? A calendar! I even splurged and bought some new colored pens to fill out our glorious new calendar! I'm super jealous of Chad's new planner and all of the scheduling he gets to plan out. Nerd alert.

4. New Pajamas. Yes, they are too hot to wear right now. Yes, it is a one peice jumper thing. Yes, it is super ridiculous. Yes I am in love with them. And yes, I'm posting a picture of me trying on said pajamas in the dressing rooms of TJMaxx. Yes I was too embarassed to come out and show Chad the ridiculous pajamas and am now posting it online for literally everyone to see.

5. Breakfast. I am not a breakfast person. Why wake up early to eat when you can sleep longer? We are making a better effort at eating breakfast every morning and muffins are the way to go. Their easy, taste like cake, and can be eaten in the car. I made my mom's awesome Blueberry Muffins on Sunday and we've had them every morning, we finished them off yesterday morning. It looks like another batch is in our future!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

This week hasn't been the most exciting. We've mostly been trying to keep up with our new schedules. One car worked out just fine the past two semesters but it's getting a bit more complicated now that Chad is taking 16 credits. It's also hard for him to pick me up from work when I get bored waiting around and start to wander to nearby stores. Granted, I did text him, but I didn't know his phone had died. Woops. It made for a stressful Tuesday night. We think we've got our schedules figured out so hopefully next week will run a bit smoother.

As for this week it's mostly just been running around, lots of driving back and forth, schopping for school supplies, more shopping for last minute surprise school supplies and killing bugs. We are happy that Friday is almost here.

Awkward:

• An old lady showing up to her apointment 15 minutes early and deciding the best way to pass the time is to sit and stare at me. Seriously, a whole 15 min of some old lady stranger just staring right at my face. Every once in a while I would make awkward eye contact and smile. She would keep her same straight face and not budge. No smile, no "hi", nothing.
• We are becoming true Utards Utahns :) I couldn't help myself! I want Cafe Rio EVERY SINGLE DAY! I swear, instead of a grocery budget we now just have a Cafe Rio budget. I discovered their nachos last week and OMG, they are fantastic. They always look at me strange when I ask for hot enchilada sauce on them, but by the time we're done they always decide it was a great idea. Your welcome Cafe Rio.
• The Vulcan Dental Arts sign outside of a dentist office. Is this for real? Am I missing something here or is this Dentist way too hardcore of a Trekkie? No way I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out here...
• Learning that if we decide to go back country camping in Bryce Canyon we need Bear Proof Containers. Stringing food up in trees doesn't work anymore because the bears are becoming used to people!?! What!? I wasn't preparred to deal with cockroaches so I'm sure as heck not equipt to deal with freaking Bears!
• Our very last patient at the nursing home weighed at least 600 pounds. He was sitting on his bed with his feet dangling over the side. He decided he was going to lay back as the Dr. worked on his feet. He layed back and his gown went back with him exposing everything. Giant balls all the way to his knees. TMI? Yeah, it was too much for me too. Be happy you didn't have to see it. I'm just glad he wasn't wearing any shoes that I had to take off. Phew...

Awesome:

• Raspberry Lemon Truffle Cupcakes. From Kneaders, duh. What baked good to they make that doesn't taste like fairies dancing across your tounge? Even better than the cupcake place here that won Cupcake Wars.
• The giant Costco size bag on M&M's sitting in the kitchen at work. I always have a pocket full of M&M's at work now :)
• Three Day Weekend coming up! Woot! Chad's school schedule has really thrown us off so we are excited to rest, do something fun and study/clean. Well, we are excited about the first two.

Monday, Tuesday Fail

I had a beautiful post for you Monday. It was glorious really.

Ok... it wasn't that exciting really, but it had a rockin' recipe for Blueberry Muffins. My mom's Blueberry Muffins. Our Christmas Blueberry Muffins :) Mmmmm

Thanks to CTRL Z you don't get to see it. Stupid CTRL Z. Instead of undoing the last thing I did it just undid everything, leaving me staring at a blank page. Excellent. Then blogspots handy dandy autosaver saved my blank page. Thanks so much.

While I could have just re-wrote the darn post it seemed like a lot of work. Plus it was 11pm and that's when cranky, sleepy Danielle comes out to play. It's best if she just goes to sleep/relaxes and doesn't actually try to do anything productive. It's best for everyone, especially Chad ;)

Yesterday I also had grand plans at writing something super awesome. Except I really didn't have anything super awesome. And.... Chad and I didn't make it home for good until 9pm. We finished eating dinner around 10. Tuesdays are shaping up to be killer days. Hopefully we'll get into the swing of things and our schedules will smooth out a little bit.

I hung out for an hour after work until Chad's class ended and he picked me up at 5, I then dropped him off at school and rushed home to make dinner and wait for the maintenance man who never came. I was welcomed with lots of tiny little ants all over the counter and stove top. Sweet. I sprayed them all with whatever chemical concoction was available and just left them there to die. Gross, I know. Our once small ant problem is spreading around the kitchen. Grrr.

I went to pick up Chad at 7 and after running some errands and getting some more school supplies we finally made it home. The ants were gone. Seriously, all of the previously killed ants had disappeared. Now there were still a bunch of live ants running around but my dead ones were gone. Where did they go?

The ants are just the tip of the iceburg though. We've got these beauties outside on our patio.

Not the best picture but that is a black widow. Chad got some better pictures on the real camera. sorry :(

And cockroaches that keep sneaking into our house. They like to run in when I open the door. Gross. I've also been informed that scorpions will come out to play as the weather cools down. I am not preparred for scorpions. Or running into one of these for that matter.

Yup, that's a freakin' tarantula. We ran into him hiking at Zion's. He was actually pretty cool.

I was not properly prepared for the bug situation here. Because, for real, it's a situation.

We discovered poor Rukia had ants all over her last night. EEEEWWWW. We finally figured it out when we saw her food bowl c-o-v-e-r-e-d in them. No wonder she wasn't interested in eating any of her food.

Chad stayed up late last night trying to remedy the situation while I passed out early. There is lots of RAID in our future.

Not only did he attempt to fix our ant problem, fingers crossed it works, but he put dinner away, took out the pup and hauled the trash outside for pick up. After being in class from 9 until 7. All while I slept. Did I mention that he also made half of our dinner? He's great like that. :)

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

So apparently I had some funky setting so that only the privileged few could actually leave comments. Awkward. It has now, hopefully, been fixed so everyone can leave comments. Sooooo I am now expecting comments from everyone! No, but really, it has been fixed so if you would like to leave some comment love you now can. It's always appreciated ;) Plus that way I'll know if it's really fixed!

Awkward:

• While driving up to Provo last Friday we saw a lighthouse.... on the side of the freeway... in the middle of a desert. What the? I'm still confused over that one.
• Chad and I decided to wander around and take pictures at one of the new buildings on BYU's campus while Ash and Pat were at church. The sign said the section we wanted to go to was closed but that didn't stop us. What did stop us was the crazy alarms that I set off. Seriously, building wide crazy loud alarms sounding. I'm hoping we end up in the police beat section of the newspaper.
• On the drive home from Provo we got stuck behind some crazy California driver. He couldn't keep a consistent speed so we tried to pass him. All of a sudden he decided that he wanted to go 100 mph. Sweet. It was a fun game passing, then being passed. The strangest part was how he used his turn signals. He wouldn't use them to signal a lane change, that's ridiculous! Instead he would be driving in he left hand land and then turn on his Left signal. Where you going buddy? Or would be passing a semi and turn on his Right signal. As soon as he would pass the truck he would turn it off. Is there some sort of special way to use your turn signals in California that I am unaware of because this guy seemed nuts-o.
• Dancing in my office to Kelly Clarkson because I was sooooo bored, then getting caught by a patient dropping something off. Don't be jealous of these sweet moves. At least I wasn't singing.
• Pulling out an armful of charts (seriously about 40) only to find a GIANT black bug sitting on top only inches from my face. I did what any normal person would do. I screamed, threw the charts in the air and ran away (still screaming) flailing around a bit. Maybe a lot. There was a lot of jumping and waving. My manager though I had hurt myself. She hung up with the insurance company she was talking with and came running over only to find me laughing hysterically now. There were charts everywhere and one fat, black cricket (yup, just a cricket) hiding behind the filing cases laughing at me and my crazy.

Awesome:

• Spending the weekend in Provo with Ash and Pat! We are overly excited to have them close by.
• Getting a package from the parents! Including a new Jeffery Deaver book. woot. 50 more pages and I'm done. His books are the best!
• Monsoon Season! The rain and the storms are intense. The thunder and lightning are crazy! The roadways are turned into rivers and the thunder bounces around and rumbles for a long while. The weather has put on quite a show for us.
• Jury Duty. More spefically for the Dr. Jury duty for the Dr. = Happy Danielle at work.
• The new building on Dixie State's campus is awesome. It's super modern and has all these glass walls, balconies and all sorts of fun things. It's pretty impressive.

I'll Meet you at Midnight

It's becoming clear why we have a hard time getting up early. Friday night Date Night. For us it's really a Date Day since I get off work at noon on Fridays, woot. And really, our whole weekend is a Date Weekend because we have no kids. It's a fun time.

Anyways, Friday is our downfall. It starts out innocently enough. Lunch, usually a movie, then dinner. Lunch usually ends up being burritos from Cafe Rio, and then dinner is the leftovers. The problem comes later though.

We decide that we are going to go out and take pictures. At night. Once the sun is completely gone. So... around midnight. Which means we aren't getting home until 3, or 4. When other normal people are at home, you know - sleeping, we are acting like crazy people and wandering around the desert with cameras in hand.

2 Fridays ago we found some cool statues to photograph and then decided to drive around. All of a sudden we were in the middle of the Mojave Desert. In our janky car no less, shaking the whole way. We finally wised up and turned around to the main road. If we break down there is no one to call, especially at 3am. I joked and said we would just have to roll up the windows, lock the doors and sleep until morning when we could walk out. We made it home around 4am.

Last Monday night we decided to drive up to the Indian Reservation to see the wildfires. We had never seen one and were curious.. We grabbed our cameras and headed out.  Side note: the fires weren't near anyone's houses or anything so we didn't feel guilty about gawking since no one's house was going to burn down while we took pictures! It was very spooky. I felt like we were entering Mordor. It was smoky and black but the the lightning would come and light up the whole sky. We took some cool pictures and made it home after a brief blown tire.

We love taking night pictures and there's something very fun about being out just the two of you while everyone else is sleeping.

Well, fun until the next morning. It's not so bad until Monday really, when we have to wake up at a decent time and go to work. Blegh. By the time we finally adjust guess what? It's Friday, which means another Midnight Date Night!

Blast from the Past

 

We had an awesome weekend visiting Ashley and Patrick in Provo. It was fun to go back and hang out at BYU for a couple days.

We played some killer ping pong games, ate out of vending machines, got free donuts at Krispie Kreme and played ridiculous games in the parking lot at night! Much to Chad's dismay there was no flashlight tag.

There was however a energy drinking competition. Chad was able to barely squeeze out the win. Whoever could finish their Monster the fastest without burping was the winner. Classy game, I know. Classy games for classy people. The best part was the couple sitting in the same area as us. I'm guessing we put on a pretty good show to keep them around as long as we did.

After an awesome Kneaders breakfast Saturday morning we went up the canyon and hiked around Bridal Veil Falls for a little while. My favorite part was the photo shoot that was happening. Someone was taking bridals in the falls. The poor girl was a cold, wet mess. It was fun to watch.

We were also able to squeeze in dinner with one of Chad's mission companions up in Salt Lake Saturday night. After a fun dinner we came back and continued the food fest with the Flynns :)

We had a great time and can't wait for our next weekend hangout!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

In case you haven't caught on we are enjoying our new found photography hobby. Chad especially. He's also getting pretty good if I do say so myself. He's hoping to turn this fun, new hobby into a little side business eventually.

Fair warning: If you come to visit us now you will be used as models so that Chad can practice! Will and I acted like we were engaged a couple weeks ago and Nikki and Matt are up next month!

So if you'd like to see the pictures that Chad has taken and worked on I linked up his flickr account on the top right hand side of our blog. Go check them out! And leave him some comment love :)

If you can't find the link here it is: Chad's Flickr Account

I promise they are far more interesting than the janky camera phone pictures (like below) that I post on here!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

I thought an awkward photo would be fun. There sure are plenty to choose from...

The most awkward moment of the week?

Getting a flat tire at midnight, on an Indian Reservation, in the middle of a lightning storm, with a forest fire burning behind us.

Chad was a champ and changed it in no time at all and the next day we had a new tire. All is well. 

Awkward:

• As we are walking out of DI we see a these two women. They clearly are strangers. The younger one (in her early twenties) is carrying an teeny weeny little dog. The older lady asks to see her dog. So the younger lady goes to let her pet the super cute dog. Then the older lady proceeds to kiss and makeout with the strangers dog. LOL. It was super funny, and super gross.

•  An 80 year old man asked if I was the Dr.'s wife while we were at the nursing home. Upon finding out that I wasn't he told me how pretty I was. Over and over.

"You are soooo pretty... and I am a very naughty boy."

        

          blegh. Gross, you old, dirty man! 

• No one ever comes to our house. We don't know anyone. So the whole running around the house with no clothes on is really not a big deal, as long as the blinds are closed ;) Last night though, as I was sitting on the couch with no pants on, there was a knock on the door. I of course yelled "I have no pants on!" and Chad yelled to go hide in the bathroom. Luckily it was just the UPS man. 10 minutes later though there was another knock on the door. It was 2 men from church. LOL. We did the whole "I have no pants on!" thing again, and I hid in the bathroom while Chad chatted with them. Moral of the story: If you aren't going to wear pants at least have some downstairs to put on... just in case.
   
• My lips absorb the color from our beloved shaved ice like you wouldn't believe. So of course we always seem to get them as we are going out to run errands. So I spend the rest of the evening interacting with people looking like I've devored a dozen people. When I mix Dragon's Blood with Blue Raspberry it turns my mouth a lovely shade of black that doesn't want to go away. Going to work the next morning with black still lingering on your lips is not cute.

Awesome:

• Ashley and Patrick are here!!! We are taking off tomorrow afternoon to go see them in Provo and we are super excited to hang out with them!

• Coming home to a clean house with an empty sink and a running dishwasher. My husband is the best.

•  Presents from cute old patients. I'm slowly adding to my collection. I've got hot pads to go with my booties and towels. My favorite patient - the one who brings me chocolate covered pretzels :)

• The blowout that led to a new tire saved us the trouble of paying someone (literally the next day) to figure out where the massive amount of shaking was coming from. Shaking gone. We now feel safe in our car again! Woot.

Exorcist Needed ASAP

 
My work phone is possessed. By what? Satan most likely. Unless I'm calling a local number it is almost impossible to get through. Let me paint you a picture.

Once a month the Doctor goes to this small, tiny, little town in Nevada. I've obviously never been to this ridiculously small town but I've heard the stories. The most fabulous and ridiculous stories of the most crazy and insane people. The Doctor went to help someone take of their shoes so he could trim their nails and guess what he found in the shoes? Go ahead, guess.

Poop

No lie. Not some animal poo on the outside that maybe they had stepped in. Human poo. INSIDE the shoe. Classy. These people are uber classy. I'm assuming that you've all got a nice picture of this town in your lovely heads now. Moving on!

So, it is my job to call these patients and set up appointments for them when their turn is up. They obviously cannot be trusted to call and make their own appointments. Most of these patients are older, most of them are confused about what I'm calling about, most of them claim they don't see this Doctor, and most of them apparently poop in their shoes.

But before I even get to have these glorious conversations with these glorious people I have to actually get through to them on Satan's phone. I'll break down how it works:

Attempt #1:   "Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again"

Attempt #2:   "The number you are dialing has been disconnected"  (no it hasn't!)

Attempt #3:   The phone starts to ring! YES! Then complete silence after the first and only ring. NO!

Attempt #4:    Silence

Attempt #5:    Ringing, followed with the above confusing conversation. Did I mention that I'm yelling my part of the conversation because apparently no one can hear and no one owns hearing aids. It's a good time.

This is actually a pretty good representation of how EVERY SINGLE call goes. Every call takes an average of 5 times to finally go through, some more, some less. Not time consuming at all. And sometimes my phone decides to go even more berserk.

I'll finally get a hold of someone and while I can hear them, they can't hear me. Sigh.

Ringing.... Silence... Busy signal

Busy signal.... Ringing..... Silence

Ringing.... Ringing... Loud, horrible, ear piercing tone

*My Personal Favorite* The phone will be ringing and someone will answer. Then as soon as I try to respond the phone will start ringing again. What the freaking heck is going on?

Clearly Satan's phone doesn't like this town either. I think I need an exorcist.

It's too HOT for Meatless Monday cooking

I don't know how it is where you live but it's ridiculously hot here. And it's been ridiculously hot forever. And if it's not crazy, stupid hot where you are I don't want to hear about it.

"But it's a dry heat...."

Yeah, well, when it's 110, it's 110. And when the air in your car doesn't work and you get 3rd degree burns on your hands every time you try to drive and even your fabric seats heat up so much that your poor bum is burnt, it doesn't really matter if it's a "dry" heat.

I've taken to hiding in air conditioned places. Work, home, movie theaters. Our "mall" is a horrible excuse for a mall. No matter how hot it is I do not want to go to there.

By the time I get home from my wonderfully comfortable job I am ON FIRE. For real people. I manage to make it in the front door before I start stripping off ALL of my clothes. TMI? It's just that hot. The rest of the evening is spent in as little clothing as possible. While the heat is slowly pushing me to the brink of insanity Chad is handling it much better. Probably because of my whole not wearing clothes thing. ;)

Ok, enough naked talk. Because of the unnecessary heat though I am avoiding cooking at all costs. If it requires turning on a stove or oven I throw giant tantrums. The only meal that was worth turning on my stove for? The Panera Mac and Cheese. Do I sound like a broken record yet? It's that good people.

On Sunday we channeled our inner fatties and made a grilled macaroni and cheese sandwich. Made with the above mentioned best mac and cheese in the world it was awesome. We put another slice of cheese on (to hold it together of course) and some tomato slices. It was divine. Funny how that was the moment I said we were acting like fatties, not when we later decided to each make our own dessert that night and eat candy bars while we waited for them both to cook.

I managed to put on my big girl pants (not literally of course, I wasn't wearing pants all day) and turned on the oven for dinner. I heated up some frozen twice baked potatoes and whipped up a quiche. I L-O-V-E quiche. It's cheesy, eggy, and all in a pie crust. Who doesn't love pie crust?

4 eggs, a chopped tomato, chopped fresh spinach, a splash of milk and a cup or so of cheese later we had quiche! Mix it up, dump it in a pie crust and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Done. By the time I thought to take a picture I was halfway through it sooooo, here's an old picture of an equally yummy quiche from earlier this year.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward

• I came into work the other day only to find the biggest cockroach ever. This thing was a good inch and a half, two inches long, no lie. It was awful. So of course I went to take a picture of it. As soon and I got close enough to get a good picture it started moving. AGH! Twitching, and squirming with it's gross legs. Holy crap it was horrifying. Fortunately it was too far gone to actually move. So it just sat in the corner twitching for a good part of the day. Because you better believe there was no way I was going near that thing again, let alone getting close enough to pick it up and dispose of it. Chad came to the rescue at the end of the day and flushed it so I wouldn't have to avoid it for another day. He's brave like that.
• Wandering around the clothing section of the hardware store I smelled something weird. It's been r-e-a-l-l-y hot here so I did a quick armpit check to see if I was the funky smell. Nope, so I checked the other arm. That's when I was caught. Now it didn't matter that I wasn't the weird smell, that other lady now knew that the funky odor was coming from the crazy girl sniffing her armpits.
• Breaking the computers at work. Ok, I didn't really break them but I thought I did. A program wasn't working so I just decided to restart the computer. Then the computer decided that it didn't want to start back up again but instead display a lovely black screen with a blinking cursor. After a million tries at restarting, it finally just decided to turn back on. Phew. Side note: the program that started the whole mess still doesn't work. Boo. What a waste of a morning.
• Occasionally we have people call that only speak Spanish. Which is fine when other people are here who do. I do not. On my best day I can stumble through a conversation in Spanglish, heavy emphasis on the -glish. Most people are nice and slow waaaaaay down for me. Not the crazy lady who called Monday. She just kept right on going, full speed ahead, becoming angry at me that I didn't speak Spanish. Finally, after minutes of her just talking and then yelling at people around here (I was seriously on the phone for 5 minutes just listening to her yell at different people, um, hello? Do you still need me here?) she finally put her small, small child on the phone to talk with me. This girl was young enough that she didn't know her own phone number. It was slightly ridiculous.

Awesome:

• Chad and I have been thrift store pros as of late. Two of our favorite finds: super sweet boots for me and a slick watch for Chad.
• I've been getting a ridiculous amount of sleep lately. I'm finding that the ideal amount of sleep for me is about 9 hours. There is nothing more glorious than getting 9 hours of sleep for consecutive nights.
• Ash and Pat are moving out to Utah!!! :) They will be in Provo, still a couple hours away but right next door in comparison to Michigan. We are super excited and can't wait to see them! 
• We made our Panera Mac and Cheese again tonight, and actually used dijon mustard. That makes all the difference. It was slammin'. You need to make this ASAP, and don't forget the dijon! Also, cayenne pepper was a much better substitute for the hot sauce then red pepper flakes. We could have ate the whole pot.

The Dining Dillema

Our Dinning Room Table has had a number of quite dramatic transformations. We bought it at the Salvation Army right before getting married and knew that it would be our tester table to try out all kinds of finishes and other crafty things on. The poor things been sanded and painted, sanded and painted, sanded and primed and wallpapered and shellacked. Then scraped and sanded and primed again!

 

At one time it was clearly a high gloss black

After a failed attempt with wallpaper and modge podge we haven't mustered up the strength to fix our poor little table. And in all honesty there's not a whole lot of motivation to do so. It's been sitting in our second bedroom as a craft table/desk/catchall for things we don't know what to do with. It's been very handy! Now that we've got the King Size bed though our old bed now resides in the guest room. So our poor little table needed a new home. And since it would be ridiculous to put it in the dining room (lol) we decided to move it out onto the patio and create a little dining area out there.

We couldn't be happier with how cute it looks out there. Now granted the table still needs a face lift and we are using the cheapest WalMart chairs we could find... but you don't notice any of that when it's dusk and the lights are twinkling, the candles are glowing and you're dining on whatever goodness you handsome hubby made you.

Taking a ride on the Crazy Train

We were lucky enough to have another friend come out and visit us for a week. It was tons of fun! Chad had a mountain biking partner and we got to show off all of our favorite places!

We started by getting a new puppy. Then we took the new puppy back and it was a sad day indeed. Chad took Will mountain biking every afternoon, including one trail that I don't even want to hike up.

We accidently hiked through Snow Canyon Park at night. We realized it was getting dark real fast and we were in the back of a canyon. The boys thought it would be faster to climb up and over the mountain rather than going back through. So we tried going up. Note to self: It is never easier to hike over a mountain. Especially as it starts to get dark and your vision starts to go. Eventually we all came to our senses and hiked down and then back through the canyon in a lot of sand. Hiking in sand is not the most fun. Hiking in the sand in the dark is even less fun.

We also hiked Angel's Landing during a thunderstorm. The wind was crazy. A couple actually turned back because they though the girl was going to get blown off the mountain. Hey lady, if the chipmunks can handle it I think you'll be ok. Then we went and saw a midnight showing of the new Batman movie and woke up at 6:30 the next morning to take Will back down to the airport to (barley) catch his flight home. :)

It was a crazy week and a lot of fun. We were worn out and ended up needing a serious nap Saturday afternoon. As tired as we were, we are so happy that Will could make it out!

Meatless Monday: Panera Mac and Cheese

I've mentioned our recent obsession with Panera's Mac and Cheese, or Paradise Bakery as they call it out here. Whatev. After seeing a bunch of pins on how to make it at home we decided to try it out. Chad googled it before I could look it up on pinterest. It's a good thing too because he found it. He found Panera's recipe because they have it posted on their website! Score!

We were extra motivated to try it since it was closed on Sunday when we went there to buy some :)

We also made chocolate chip cookies. Because you can't have anything from Panera without having their cookies. They are the best. ever. end of story. I finally tried the oatmeal raisin ones on Friday and they are life changing.

The mac and cheese is super easy to make, and makes a ton, which means I get to eat it for lunch all week! It's super creamy, rich, and smooth. It also has a little kick from the red pepper that we added. We like our food to have a little kick. It took no time to whip together and was just as good as Panera's, probably because they told us how to make it :)



All of our silverware was in the dishwasher so we used our handy dandy frozen yogurt spoons :)

Like I said we got the recipe from Panera's website, but here it is, easy access in case you want to give it a try. And you really should. We didn't have hot sauce or dijon mustard. Instead we squirted in a little of good ol' regular yellow mustard and used hot pepper flakes. We will definitley be making this again!

Panera Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 (16-ounce) package of rigati pasta (or other small pasta shells)
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 2½ cups 2% reduced fat milk (or cream)
• 6 slices white American cheese, chopped
• 1 cup (8 ounces) shredded extra-sharp white Vermont cheddar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon hot sauce

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

2. Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly.

3. Gradually whisk in milk (or cream); cook over medium heat, whisking until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat.

4. Add cheeses, mustard, salt, and hot sauce, stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth.

5. Stir in pasta and cook over medium heat for 1 minute (or until thoroughly heated).

Serves 4 to 6

*UPDATE* The Dijon Mustard makes this dish! Don't leave it out and don't think the yellow stuff is a good enough substitute like we did. We re-made this with the Dijon and it is spot on! Cayenne pepper was a much better substitute for the hot sauce then the red pepper flakes. Now go and make some of your own!!!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Happy 100 Posts!

The first and most awsome thing: rainbow lettering. Why don't I use rainbow lettering all the time like my inner 4th grader wants to?

This is perhaps one of my favorite days to write, it's fun to think back through the week and be greatful for all of the "awesome" things that have happened. And of course it's funny to remember the "awkward" as well. Most of the time it's the awkward that makes the week interesting and fun! Hopefully you've enjoyed it as well and have been able to think back on your own week and all of the fun wrapped up in it!

Awkward:

• Poor Sunny is getting old. He had a bunch of mats on him, and now has a bunch of bald spots and a rat tail. Along with the tumor/goiter thing on his neck he's very sad looking. 
• Forgetting to put our trash out and having 2 weeks worth pile up. The going out in the dead of night to divide it up between our trash can and all of our neighbors trash cans. 
• Spazing out about getting my hair done. Does any other girl hate getting their hair done or am I the only crazy one?
• Not being able to speak all week. All of a sudden my mouth forgets how to form words while I'm trying to talk to patients on the phone, super professional. And not just mispronouncing something and just moving on, but I can't spit out words and have to stop, apologize and try again.
• I woke Chad up Saturday morning and he told me to "keep it sexy". LOL. He then promptly closed his eyes and continued sleeping.
• Taking people's blood pressure at work. We have this tiny little baby cuff that doesn't fit on you unless you are a tiny little baby of a person. So I get to attempt to put it on everyone and then have to break the news to them if they don't have a tiny little baby arm. "Sorry mam, your giant lump of an arm won't fit into this ridiculous small cuff, sorry you're such a fatty". Obviously I try to play it off like it's the cuff's fault (which it is) but they still look at me like I am the worst. Then when they come back in 9 weeks we get to play the game all over again. Woot.  

Awesome:

• Will's been here all week! We LOVE having friends visit!
• Finding a new pair of gently worn scrubs at the Salvation Army for $8. Score! And the pants weren't just my size but also a long. Double Score!
• Meeting an 80 year old woman who used to be a Las Vegas showgirl. She had some stoooories!
• Shaved Ice. Have I mentioned how much shaved ice rocks? Because it's the best... ever. 
• We've been having some seriously awesome sunsets as of late.
• Panera Mac and Cheese. It's way too expensive for the amount you get but it's so good we don't even care. And if you're going to Panera you can't leave without a chocolate chip cookie. Mac and Cheese with chocolate chip cookies - dinner of champions!
• The Olympics. I love watching the Olympics. We've seen sooooo much volleyball and gymnastics the past week, and it's been great! We can't get enough. It makes me want to go running or start swimming. Then I realize it's midnight and I just go to bed instead. Is there a gold medal for sleeping?
• Moving the guest mattress downstairs in our living room. Best. Idea. Ever. "Picnic" dinners are so much more fun on a mattress and it makes an afternoon nap that much better.

Strike that, just three...

Sadly we came to our senses this morning. Chad starts going to school full time in two weeks. I'm at work all day. Training a new pup was not going to work out. It wouldn't have been fair to him. Some times impulsive decisions don't quite work out... funny how that works.

So for now it's just us and Rukia, Penny, and Sunny. A new puppy will have to wait for a while.