We're being crazy party animals and watching a COPS marathon.  This show never ceases to amaze us because it always portrays the most intelligent Americans.  The next time I visit a foreign country I'm going to try to find their version of COPS.  I bet the people that make it on are pretty similar from country to country.  But that's just a guess.

I made reservations at the cute little B & B that we're staying at in couple of weeks.  30 seconds after hanging up, I realized that I made reservations for the wrong weekend.  The cute little owner lady probably thinks I'm slightly ditzy.  I guess I just proved that she's correct. Dang.

In additional to crazy COPS watching, we folded 4 baskets of laundry.  Whoops.  We got a little bit behind.

We have lovely friends.  Our lovely friends like to give away things like week long stays in Myrtle Beach. What?!?!  Yes, we would love to go to Myrtle Beach for a week.. and not pay for lodging... thankyouverymuch!

My husband already looked up when the Myrtle Beach Marathon is taking place.  He's figured out that running at sea level.. on flat beach.. is the only way to run a marathon.  The run bug is officially back.

I say the only way to experience a marathon is on the side lines, with a hot coffee, yelling run faster.  I'm truly a great fan.

Last night we were awake until 2 AM because our house was so hot.   Today it's 65 degrees in our house and the space heater is on.

If I were to make it into the Olympic games, I would be a grandma compared to most.  This is only slightly depressing.  I'm hoping my low maturity level extends to all areas of my life.. including my athletic peak.

Cale has less than 2 months and I have less than 3 months to make it on the cover of Time magazine.  After that Mark Zuckerberg will have passed us as having a more successful career than either of us currently do. 

We're hoping to come up with some brilliant idea AND carry it out before then.

Wish us luck.

I know you were probably all holding your collective breaths to figure out when the free yogurt was going to get here and if it would be cold or ruined by the time I noticed the box on my front door.  If you weren't worried about the ruined free yogurt you should have been.  It's really been a major concern of mine for quite some time.  Of course, as fate would have it, I finally broke down and bought yogurt from the grocery store this morning because I had given up on this actually arriving.  But alas.. it is here!  And one of every flavor!  I feel so sophisticated with name brand yogurt in single sized servings.  You can bet that the yogurt I bought today was tub variety of store brand (I actually checked the price and my store brand tub was only 50 cents more than a single sized Chobani).  I just hope that Chobani doesn't taste as good as I fear it may. 


If it's really superb, my tastebuds will probably forever reject store brand.  

I'm most excited to try the mango and blood orange.  I know that I will love the blueberry, strawberry, and vanilla.  And I'm rather nervous for the pineapple and lemon.  Those are two fruits I either always eat plain or squirted on top of something savory respectively.  

Okay, you probably could care less about my inner dialogue about yogurt.

It's here!  And it came cold!  

In other news, I mentioned an early anniversary present.

My husband got me new running shoes (he also got some for himself of course)!!!!  Our old running shoes were 2 years old and had been through every major sporting event including running since then.  My husband's shoes also had been through 2 marathons.  About a month into my New Year's resolution of not buying clothes, I realized my fatal mistake in not planning ahead enough to buy new running shoes beforehand.  Last week a 3 inch long blister appeared on the side on one of my feet.   I had been politely commenting (read complaining) about the dire state of my shoes for oh.. 2 months to my husband.  I thought it fell on deaf ears.  I think it probably did until my massive blister.   Anyways, we went to a running store where they watched us walk and stuff and told us the perfect shoes to buy.  We were slightly concerned we would be walking out with depleted funds but surprising (and without us even knowing) we both picked the cheapest pair in the store.  

This probably proves our lack of sophistication.

But I got my shoes 2 days before the premier of my favorite show so I've been running blissfully while watching Ms. Emily Maynard pick her new guy.  Don't tell me what happens.  I still have 20 minutes left of last weeks show.

Does anyone else think that Tim Tebow and Emily Maynard would make the perfect couple?  Please say yes.  And then hire my as an official matchmaker.  I think that should be my new occupation.

I walked into our bedroom and wondered what the heck smelled like trash.  I realized it was my nasty sweaty running clothes.  Whoops.  That's what running inside, upstairs, in a really hot house, whose owners refuse to turn on the air will do for you.  I still feel like I'm making minimal to no improvement in endurance but when I look at it as a whole, I realized that I was nowhere close to running 3 miles straight (kind of comfortably) 3 months ago so improvement indeed.  Just so dang slow.

I walked in from work yesterday to a spotless house, fresh flowers, and MOVIE TICKETS TO THE AVENGERS!  It was so great!  We weren't quite sure how we were going to do date night on a budget but we reminded ourselves that we weren't punishing each other for anything and the point was to evaluate our spending... not to become hermits.  

I feel like they should make a song for whatever day of the week is your first day back from a weekend.  Because my husband and I like to be eternally optimistic we call every weekend a vacation.  We think this is how our out-to-eat budget expanded to unbelievable proportions.  Oops.  Anyways, I still think of it as a vacation... I just make chocolate chip cookies at home instead.  

Side note: We really wanted to see the Avengers in the theatre.  Don't tell us what happens... we're anxiously waiting for it to come out on video... at the library. 

Speaking of 'vacations' my husband didn't get one this weekend and tonight is going to midnight launch of some video game... to sell bank accounts. (No, I'm not even lying.. apparently gamers need bank accounts too.)  Gosh, he's a hard worker.

I'm looking for some affordable weekend getaways to the mountains for our anniversary.  We were going to go camping but that takes some planning so we're going for complete relaxation and getting a hotel room.  We will probably sleep the entire weekend.  Nothing like napping with cool mountain air blowing on your face.

Also, my back is sore today... from practicing head stands with my husband last night.  Our house is basically a circus most nights.  You can come if you want to.

I think where I was ultimately going with the weekend/vacation thing is the first day back is always exhausting. At least for me.  

If you just followed that train of thought through the 5 random trains of thoughts.. you get a gold star!

You know what's great for supper when you're exhausted??  Jazzed up leftovers.  That's what.  My first encounter with curry chicken salad was at some restaurant in downtown Denver when we were first married.  It was so delicious and what made it even better was the ability to easily recreate it at home.  Now whenever we have grapes and chicken in our house at the same time Cale begs me to make this salad.

Curry Chicken Salad

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken (bite sized pieces).. I used the leftover chicken from this recipe
3/4 cup purple grapes, halved
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup diced purple onion
1/2 cup mayo (gross, I know... but so good!)
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder

Mix all ingredients to combine.  Serve as a sandwich, as a salad topper, with crackers, etc.  When we have people over I splurge for croissants.  It also refrigerates wonderfully for lunches the next day or as make ahead menu item for parties. So good!

P.S.  I recently read that if you soak an onion in cold water it loses some of it's zingy-ness.  I know I also mentioned this with the corn and black bean salsa.  But this trick is really awesome.  Since we take leftovers to work every day, I'm always self-concious about the smell of my breath and for that matter the smell of my lunch.  For this recipe, I just soaked them for about 10 minutes.  It still left a little onion zing but after brushing my teeth I'm not tasting any onion anymore.  I will be using the trick for all future raw onion encounters.

I was really looking forward to making some delicious strawberry shortcake for Mother's Day until I found out my brother was coming.

He's allergic to strawberries.  It's really terrible.  He gets hives and kind of looks like Will Smith in 'Hitch'.  If you don't know what I'm talking about you should probably watch that movie.  Because it's funny.

It didn't really matter because I've been eying some delicious looking salsa recipes and wanted to try them out on someone.  Cale would be the obvious choice but if just the two of us were going to be eating it... we'd probably finish it.. you're right.   But we'd also probably feel sick.  Enter family.

P.S.  I was going to write a post about how lovely and wonderful my mother is.  Which she is.  But isn't that sometimes hard to put into words?  Anyways.. I love you Mom.  I wish I could put into words how much I love you and how wonderful you are but there are no words.

So I checked out a bunch of recipes from probably 5 different sites and this is what I came up with...

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

2 cups of corn (I used frozen and made sure they were completed defrosted)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 of medium purple onion, finely diced
1/4 cup of cilantro, chopped
2 diced avocados
Juice of 2 limes (3 tbsp)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

First of all, I defrosted my frozen corn.  Fresh would probably be great.  While the corn was defrosting, I chopped up the purple onion and let it sit in a bowl of cold water for about 20 minutes (this takes the zing out of raw onion... if you really like the zing of raw onion you can skip this step).  After the corn was defrosted and the onion was de-zinged, I mixed together the corn, beans, tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.  In a separate bowl, I mixed/whisked the lime juice, olive oil, and all spices.  I poured this over the solid ingredients and mixed well.  I put this in the fridge (I made this about 3 hrs before serving) to let all the ingredients marinate together.  Right before serving I added the avocado.  

It was superb.  I would make it again today if I had all the ingredients.  Cale and I usually just make a giant bowl of guacamole... which is also delicious, don't get me wrong.  But this was really fresh and a nice alternative to the old standby.  It made enough dip for an entire bag of chips.  I think this would also be delicious mixed with quinoa for a side dish or as a taco/burrito topping.  

We had a great time at my parents house again.  We played Wits and Wagers again.  It was hilarious as ever.

This particular question may have been... What percentage of Americans have their high school diploma?  I won't tell you whose handwriting and faith in Americans guessed 13%.  But I bet you can guess.  Ha!  It's actually like 80% or something pretty high.  We were really surprised.  Also, 27% have their Bachelor's.  Now you know.

Happy Monday everyone!

After week 2 the stats are:

Starbucks- $0
Out to eat- $31.50 (from ordering pizza for the mechanics + families.  Totally okay with this.. still came out way ahead of taking it into the shop)
Groceries- $94.50

I'm really hoping my husband takes me out for a warm cup of coffee.  Our house is holding steady at 63 degrees and I'm fra-eeeeezzzzing.  
This week was much harder to try to plan for.  Next week will probably just get harder... and it will continue until July 1st.  This will sill be a great exercise for us and our savings accounts are already getting a little happier so our plan is working splendidly. I'm not quite sure why it was so much harder but nothing really spectacular was on sale and I was trying to plan groceries in the midst of my no cooking mood.  And we needed to buy milk and breakfast food.  These two things really affect our budget when we're trying to keep in under $50.  And for the reasons below: 

[A] Since the week before was the first week of the budget I really didn't have any leftover food to  carry over onto this week.

[B] Because I crashed and burned at the end of this week I know we need to have more food in the fridge for snacks and meals and everything.  I don't know if I did any better this week but we shall see.

Week 2 Menu

Saturday- Chicken and potatoes

Sunday- Mom and Dad's for Mother's Day (Dad is making dinner.. no cooking for me!)

Monday- Baked potatoes

Tuesday- Chicken salad on bagels

Wednesday- Spaghetti

Thursday- Rice and beans and ultimate salad

Friday- Hoping for leftovers from the rest of the week :)

How the $50 was spread this week:

Snack Mix (this is so delicious!)- $1.98
Chicken Broth- $2.00
Tomato Sauce- $1.89
2 Boxes of Cereal- $3.98
1 Box of pasta- $1.00
Soymilk- $1.95 (Discounted for being close to expiration.. no shame.)
1 Gallon regular milk- $2.79
2.2 lbs banans- $1.21
Guacamole seasoning packet- $0;50
Heavy whipping cream- $1.99
Cheese- $1.76
1 Lb of brats- $2.90
Celery- $0.88
Cilantro- $0.50
Cucumber- $0.50
1.77 lbs of apples- $1.75
1 green pepper- $0.50
1 head of green leaf lettuce- $0;99
3 avocados- $2.97
2 limes- $0.40
1.61 lbs grapes- $3.22 
2 mangos- $1.00
1 red onion- $0;59
2 lbs of strawberries- $2.50 
2 pack of SOFT toothbruses- $4.49 (I don't think this should count because it's technically not groceries but whatever)

TOTAL- $46.30

Whew... I had to re-write my list at least 3 times to make sure I was going to be under the magic $50.  This takes me a long time of looking at grocery adds, looking at the weather, and analyzing my taste buds to try to plan for any future cravings.

Okay, I was joking about the future cravings but I totally look at the weather.  Because I already know that if it's 80 or 90 degrees outside I'm not going to want to be roasting chicken in the oven for an hour.  It's just not going to happen.  Especially since we've pledget not to turn our air on until at least June.  On those days it's either cold food or grilled food.  End of story.  

After 2 nights of boycotting making dinner and therefore eating such delicacies as.. oh, nothing and popcorn respectively I finally gathered my wits and made dinner.  I'm not sure why I just don't feel like cooking sometimes but nothing can really snap me out of it once my brain decides I don't want to cook.  And that's saying something because I. love. food.  Anyways, something about a nice 40 degree Colorado day will always put me in the mood to cook and cook some more.  Roast chicken, potatoes, and strawberry shortcake were consumed in short order.  We are now sufficiently stuffed and I feel like I've made up for being a bad wife for the past 2 nights.

My sister showed my beautiful Grandma how to access my blog.  She is so hip.  When I was little I was determined to get us on Wheel of Fortune.  If anyone out there knows how to do this, let me know.   So Grandma.. if you're reading this, "Hello.  I miss you. I love you.'

My baby brother also asked me what was new in my life.  I told him nothing really but that I started a blog.  He proceeded to send me a message every time he stumbled upon something he wants in his next care package (he's stationed in Qatar).  I love you too, baby brother.  Can't wait until you're back in the States!  In the meantime, my sister needs to come down so we can bake all day (She's back for the summer!). 

I've had terrible bleeding gums lately.  Well, actually terribly bleeding gums about 3 months ago that gradually got better and then we switched toothbrushes and they were so painful that it hurt to eat anything citrusy.  After looking up the symptoms on the internet (I'm always either diabetic, pregnant, or stressed according to WebMD) I decided to try a new toothbrush.  I made sure to check the firmness and after testing out an new toothbrush today I figured out that our old toothbrushes were probably extra firm bristles.  My gums are fine.

My husband and I got each other our early anniversary present today.  They're better shown in pictures so you'll have to wait.

I've made it to another weekend.  Praise the Lord!  My husband has another 7 consecutive workdays before his next weekend.  Pray to the Lord!

While dinner was cooking I danced and danced and danced with my husband.  I'm a terrible dancer.  I just hang on tight and try not to fall over as my husband waltzes around the kitchen.  I love that man so much!

Usually, when one of us has a less than ideal day the other one has at the very least a decent day.  It usually works out quite fabulously that way.  Than the 'decent dayer' can dance jigs around the 'less than decent dayer' and the day is great.

Usually it works that way.

Except for today.  Each of us had one of those days that made us question what we were doing and why we were spending most of our time doing it.  I mean, we know the obvious answer to that.. we're doing it because there are things in life that need money.  And unfortunately we didn't buy a house in a climate where money grows on trees.  Darn it.

Cale walks in the house, I commence crying (for some reason I can't cry unless someone can hear me... it's really annoyingly diva-ish and a quality of myself that I hate and my husband dislikes).  Then I realized that it seemed like he also had a less than decent day.  Well crap.  And it's raining... and the temperature dropped so many degrees that the whole ground is steaming.  Double crap.

Then we reminded ourselves that God put us in our respective positions for a reason.  And that we are so blessed to have jobs that provide us with a more than comfortable life.  And if it so happens that we no longer have our jobs... He will provide.  And we really believe that.  

And tomorrow we will go back to work with smiles on our faces. 

But tonight... tonight we will eat junk food and watch movies.  

Amen.

Let me start by saying, not letting ourselves eat out really, really sucks sometimes.  Sorry if that sounds immature but tonight I decided not to eat dinner because I didn't feel like cooking anything and I didn't feel like cleaning anything up either.  As soon as we got married and had jobs we figured out why people eat out all the time.  Because it's easier people.  I totally get it.  

P.S. I pouted for 5 minutes because my husband wouldn't take me to Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  Gosh, I sound like  a spoiled brat.  Sorry Cale.  Love you!

I think my husband scrounged up some leftovers but even those choices were limited because I told him not to eat our lunches either.  Ha.. I'm probably 'hangry'.  If you don't know what this means it's basically that I get a little (and by little I probably mean lot) grouchy when hungry.

I just remembered that I have bagels in the fridge from one of Cale's customers.  Money!

Anyways, back to the best pizza crust ever.  I found this recipe on here.  When I went back to view it, I realized she changed the recipe.  Darn it.  I discovered this one night when I was looking for a recipe that only had a single rise step.  Basically because I'm not patient enough to let it rise for more than 1 hr.  Oh, and it's whole wheat.  I just like the taste of it better.  But the here's the recipe I use:

BEST PIZZA DOUGH EVER!

1 packet yeast
1 1/3 cup of warm water
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups regular flour

First mix together the yeast and warm water (I do this in my stand mixer for about 30 seconds).  Then mix in both types of flour.  After adding the flour, add the olive oil.  I do not wait for all of the flour to be mixed together before doing this... I just dump in the flour and then as soon as I find my olive oil I dump this in.  Let this mix for 5 minutes if you're using an upright mixer.  If you're using your hands, I suggest setting the timer for 5-8 minutes to make sure you don't cheat yourself out of a good workout.... I mean cheat your pizza dough out of a good knead.  Same difference really.

Then, I use my grandma's trick.  Well, actually I start this first but whatever.  While I'm mixing everything together I turn my oven on.  Once it's preheated to 100 degrees I turn it back off.  After the dough is done mixing, I take it out of the bowl, spray the bowl with cooking spray, put the dough back in and cover it with a damp towel.  Then I put the covered bowl in the oven and let it rise for 1 hr.  I let my dough rise this way because I can't find a consistently warm place in my house and this works every time.

Supposedly this enough for 2 pizzas which I totally agree... we just roll it out to make a jelly roll sized pizza.  Okay.. I probably just jumped ahead some steps.

After it's done rising, I roll it out to the size of my pan on a well floured counter.  Before putting it in the pan, I sprinkle corn meal on the bottom (this step is probably not necessary but we like it this way.. plus it prevents sticking).. someday I'll take a picture of that.

Then, we spread whatever sauce we want and cover with toppings.  Yesterday it was half a pizza of leftover quiche filling and half with leftover fajita fillings.  

Told you we use pizza as a catch all for leftovers.

I happened upon some fresh mozzarella (2 z's really, mozzarella.. I think 1 would have been fine) cheese and tore it into pieces and topped the whole thing.  Then on the half with fajita toppings I added whatever leftover 'Mexican Blend' shredded cheese we had leftover.

I stick it in the oven at 400 degrees and watch for it to get slightly brown on top.  I have no idea how long this takes.  Probably 20 minutesish.  We feed our pizza addiction probably once a week.  I have the dough recipe memorized. 

I'm a horrible blogger.  I apologize. 

Let me start by saying we are not animal haters.  We generally really like the outdoors and seeing beautiful animals.

Except for rabbits that sneak into your garage and eat through the wires in your car.  Not okay.  Yes this happened.  And then one time we pulled both of our cars out of the garage to chase out a rabbit.  But then we couldn't find it.  So Cale opened the hood of my running car and the rabbit was sitting on top of the running engine.  And this was after the wire eating incident.  Me, a former rabbit lover, is now a rabbit... disliker.

Anyways, after we were relishing the car victory we noticed a friendly bird sitting in the window above our front door.  The robin was singing us beautiful songs that were... well beautiful.  Then we noticed it flitting to and fro. (Ha.. I just wrote that, I'm channeling my inner Julie Andrews circa 'Sound of Music').  And then we noticed it building a nest.

Above our front door.

Approximately 5 feet away from 2 beautiful Aspen trees with oh-so-inviting branches.  

What the heck.

Also, when is the appropriate time to knock down a nest?  We still don't have the answer to this question.  Our original plan (when we still thought this bird was awesome) was to knock it down quickly so it wouldn't have wasted too much time building a nest just to have it destroyed.

It turns out the robin isn't so easily deterred.  It went right on building the nest from scratch.  Cale cleaned out the nest a second time and we thought this would surely deter the robin.  Fail.

The third time he cleaned it out he also sprayed some window cleaning solution on it hoping the faint chemical smell would make the momma robin want to lay her eggs elsewhere. 

We left the house for 2 hours and came back to a full blown nest.

Really, robin?  You think you can outlast us.  

You can't.

We do not want to be attacked by an angry momma robin every time we enter our front door nor do we want the remnants of your bladder spewed on our front porch.  Mmmkay?

Cale cleaned it out a FOURTH time and threw a stick at the bird for good measure.  (Not to necessarily hurt to the bird, mind you, we were just trying to send it a more clear and concise message.)

This morning we woke up to this.

Try that crap again and see what happens next.