Last Friday Night

We headed over to the grandparents Friday morning. They are headed back to Idaho today. We were able to send them off with peace of mind by letting them know that I got a part time job. They were very happy and looked very relieved. Chad was able to meet my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Cliff who were visiting and helping them pack. After some pizza and apple pie we said our goodbyes and headed out. Hopefully we can make it up to visit sometime this summer.

We ran home to clean our house before Holly, Alex, and baby Bri came by to visit. Chad took Rukia out running with him to hopefully wear her out so she wasn't so hyper. It was great to see Holly again and to meet her family. Bri was super cute and Alex was great, very funny. We had a great time catching up. Bri tried desperately to climb our stairs, we ate lots of pizza, and Rukia tried to lick up everyone's faces.

Some cute pics from BYU days, most of the pictures we took were pretty funny/awkward/not super flatering... I went with cute ones instead! :)

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Awkward:

• The giant bruise that's engulfing my left hip. It's pretty impressive and pretty tender.
  
• I think that I bruised my ribs on the left side during the epic fail of a crash on my bike. At any rate they hurt when I do anything that requires any kind of core strength, which is pretty much everything. Breathing deeply is no fun and sneezing is just plain ridiculous.
  
• I won't say who, but someone from church has asked us where we moved from a total of three times now. Now this wouldn't really be a big deal except this person is from Michigan too! You think a little detail like that would stick with him. Especially since we talked about it for years the first Sunday we were there. Each time we talk about it he is surprised and excited and tells us the same, exact stories. It's starting to make me look ridiculous because as he asks where we're from I look at him, then look at Chad, and then slowly answer him. I'm sure I look like I have no idea where I'm from when instead I just am in disbelief that this is happening again.
• I have no idea how to interact with nursery kids. I'm supposed to teach the Easter lesson and I have no idea what to do. I don't know what they understand or what is fun for them or anything. All I know is they like to hit people and throw things. I'm already anticipating the awkwardness that will ensue.
  
• Poor Chad didn't have any scantrons for his test this morning. He should have but he was super nice and lent one to a classmate that didn't have one last time. So he stopped at the bookstore this morning to pick one up. Class starts at 9 and the bookstore opens at 10. fail. After running around campus, talking to the very slow person at the library and the student service center, he finally was able to cross the whole of campus to buy some scantrons and then sprint back to class to take the test. Good way to mentally prepare for a test yeah?
  

Awesome:

• Homemade Angel Food Cake. YUM! It's our new obsession and doesn't last longer than 24 hours in our house.
  
• Passed my drug test! Woot!
  
• Our garden is growing! Almost everything we planted has a little something something going now. Now to keep it going...
• Our first quinoa recipe was a success, even the leftovers were delish!
• Every morning our cats now sit by the door and beg to be let out onto our patio. As soon as I let them they bolt outside and immediately dive into the dirt and roll around. It's very funny to watch.
  

Crash and Burn

Tuesday was on its way to being great, made granola, cleaned the kitchen, worked out. Then we went mountain biking and I flew over my handle bars and smashed into the ground. Worst part, I bent my rim on my tire :( So I collected rocks like my grandma while Rukia chased Chad around.

Drug Test and Syphilis Scare

Oh Monday, you did not disappoint today. I was woken up to the Parks and Rec Human Resource Manager telling me that they would love to hire me, for half of what I was making at my previous job. Granted, my previous job required schooling, and training, and some kind of skill. The woman informed me that I would first need to pass a drug test. Yay! So first up today was to take a drug test so that I can run a carousel part time in the park. Don't be jealous.

Meanwhile, we've received two notices for certified mail for Chad. We finally saw that it was from BioLife, the plasma donation center. What in the world would they be sending via certified mail? We called Matt to see what they would be sending us, all we could come up with is that during the blood test Chad tested positive for some sort of deadly disease. Matt pretty much confirmed this for us. Double Yay! So we headed up to the post office before my drug test. The first letter told Chad that he had tested positive for something. That was it. Nice and specific. The second letter had a packet of information on syphilis. What?! Awesome.

Chad called BioLife while I picked up some paperwork to take with me to the drug testing. After being closely supervised during the test, and feeling very much like a druggie somehow, we finally wrapped up that fun portion of our day and headed on to BioLife. We had come up with all kinds of crazy stories about how Chad had contracted some crazy disease in Africa, although our stories really weren't consistent with syphilis. We weren't too concerned, but you always hear those crazy stories about how people find out they have cancer or what not when they give blood. Chad met with some medical personnel for literally a hot second, where they told him that it was just a false positive. Seriously? A whole packet full of information on some crazy STD over a very false positive? Come on people.

So Chad's in the clear, it will take 24 hours to see how I fare on my test. Keep your fingers crossed!

Backing up a day, Chad and I both got callings at church on Sunday. Chad is the first counselor in the Young Men's presidency. This is perfect for Chad, and he is pretty excited about it! I am less than thrilled about my calling, I am in the senior nursery. I figure this will be a great way to meet people and make some friends. If there's anywhere I can make friends it's in a nursery with a bunch of psycho babies kicking and pulling my hair (and throwing toys at my face, seriously? what's wrong with them?) and manning a carousel. Not happy.

Hope that your weekend was awesome and that your Monday was much better than ours! Hopefully Tuesday will be kinder to us.

Awkward and Awesome.... Friday.... again....

Whoops, it's Friday again and I missed the Awkward Awesomeness of Thursday. So we'll do it again today! It really is my favorite blogging day, it's fun to think of all the funny and great things that happened during the week. Hopefully it makes you think of the good from the past week too!

Today I'm doing a Awkward and Awesome Zion's National Park Edition!

Awkward:

• Reading all the signs, all the way up the hike warning us to turn back if we were afraid of heights, um... hello? That's me! But the whole first half of the hike was literally a sidewalk going up the mountain. I can handle a sidewalk! So we pushed forward.
• Reading that 6 people had died on this hike since 2004. What? They died walking up the sidewalk? Confusion. This started making sense as we got passed the sidewalk section of the hike.
  
• We finally reached the portion of the hike where they had to anchor in chains to help you along. What?! I was prepared for a little of this but holy freaking cow. I am confused as to how they can encourage people to do this hike, it's nuts-o crazy town to cross over the last portion.
  

The last half-mile is across a narrow sandstone ridge.

Anchored support chains are attached along some sections of the sheer fin.

Sheer cliffs at high elevations while hiking on a narrow fin.

• We got passed what I thought might be the last portion and then came to a landing where we realized that we had gotten passed the easy part and now had to cross the "narrow fin", which apparently is code for balance beam in the sky. Don't go too far to your right... or your left for that matter or down you go and you'll become the 7th to die. I had a major meltdown. Shaking, crying, there was no way I was going to be able to do this. They were right when they said you shouldn't do this if you had a problem with heights. In my own defense, I may be afraid of heights, but I also didn't really feel like dying either, which I believe is completely reasonable.
  
• Having meltdown #2 when I realized that although I wasn't going on the death march to the top I would have to go back the crazy way we came. Breathe Danielle! We both had on backpacks and Chad had the tripod strapped to his bag. This didn't make balancing on the cliff face very easy. We were stoked once we hit normal ground!
  
• Still confused as to how people were taking their small children with them on this hike. I mean small, like 6 year old kids. I can't imagine us taking a squirrely 6 year old Chad on this hike. We are either huge babies or these people be crazy. We're pretty sure they're crazy.

Awesome:

• Zion's is just awesome in general, it's gorgeous!
• This was a killer workout for my legs, the first 2 miles were all uphill! Translation: No Insanity workout for me that day :)
• At the top of the mountain we saw 2 California Condors. It's one of the world's rarest bird species and there's only 210 alive in the wild. They were HUGE birds, and we got to take some cool pictures of them as the two of them just hung out in a tree.
  
• We stayed pretty late and stargazed for a while. Let's be honest, in Michigan we'd be lucky to get a clear night to see the stars, let alone get a clear night and be somewhere SO dark. It was beautiful out. I have never seen so many stars before!

We, of course, took tons of pictures, and we'll put some up after we edit our favorites! Hope everyone had a great week!

Bean Queen

A nice little surprise when I was taking Rukia outside this morning...


I am channeling my inner Aunt Peggy and growing a garden! I am extremely paranoid about overwatering, underwatering, and the cats eating anything that happens to pop up. Hopefully we'll have more pictures of the awesome veggies to come :)


Don't you wish that you could hold the title of Bean Queen?! I have been on a role, three days in a row of cooking beans. Refried Beans, Black Beans and White Northern Beans today. My secret weapon? My crockpot! Oh, how I love you crockpot!!! We eat tons of burritos and soup so we go through lot of beans, plus they're great for you! And the dry beans are so much cheaper! And I can control what goes it, make them more flavorful and use less salt! Have I convinced you yet?

The method for all are the same. After you go through the beans to get out any little stones dump them in your crockpot and cover them with a bunch of water (very exact measurement there!) Check on them every so often just to make sure that they stay covered with enough water. For the refried beans I throw in an onion cut in half, cumin, salt, diced jalepenos, cayenne pepper and garlic. For the black beans I did the same (minus the onion) and added a can of fire roasted tomatoes. Cook them on high for 8 hours and they're done! I've tried cooking them for 6 and that just isn't long enough, 8 really is perfect for us. After, make sure to rinse them off and get rid of all that cooking liquid, that liquid holds the magical stuff that gives you gas :) Beans, beans, the magical fruit... For the refried beans, I just throw the beans back in the crockpot and mash them up with a potato masher, super easy and delish.


The pup and I went for a run today while Chad went mountain biking. As soon as we got home from our 3 mile run Rukia threw herself down on the ground in the kitchen. This is her usual routine after we take her running or biking with us and it's hilarious. She did manage to pick up her head and smile for the camera though!

We are definitely loving the warm, sunny weather! Happy Spring Everyone!

Yum-O!

We have been cookin' up a storm as of late in the Lewis house! We've been trying new things and new recipes and been having some success. I am usually a pro at picking awful, nasty recipes that end up in the garbage and us eating pizza, so this is a nice change of pace :) Plus, it's a lot easier for us both to be cooking together now that we are in a bigger kitchen!

Chad made homemade wheat pasta dough and turned that into cheese filled ravioli. I made the wheat breadsticks and tomato basil sauce with shrimp.


Angel Food Cake. We made whipped cream and of course had strawberries. We just don't have a picture because we couldn't wait to inhale this!

Fire Roasted Tomato Bisque with Grilled Cheese


Avacado pasta, basically a creamy guacamole sauce!

Fried Rice with baked egg rolls, lots of veggies!


Mushroom and Spinach Quiche with Red Lobster Biscuits

In our Easter box the parents sent us a giant bag of quinoa, so that's up next to try. Anyone have any delicious recipes that include quinoa? Or any vegetarian recipes that rock? Please share!