Thankful

I'm currently very stressed out, moving is so irritating to deal with, and I've also had to say good bye to some of my friends lately. It's very draining, and the fact that I have a 2 week stint of Matt being gone, then immediately after that have to drive across the country with a dog and a cat, my world as I know it is crashing down around me. So I decided I needed to make a "thankful post," to look at pretty things that I like, and people that have blessed my life, to boost my spirits. 

Alright, so in no particular order, we have:

First, sunflowers:

I LOVE sunflowers. And calla lilies. There's something so cheery about them, isn't there? And while down here it's hot and humid, up north bright sunny flowers means the sun is shining and it's not too hot outside. Yay for flowers!

Second: Weddings

I LOVE weddings! Here we have my college roommates and good friends, Kelly and Nathan! I love weddings, it's so much fun to celebrate the love between two people. While Matt and I have yet to go to a wedding together, I've still had a great time witnessing family and friends get married!

Next, we have Jack:

I cannot stress enough how much I love my dog. I mean, can you resist this cuteness? No, you cannot. While he tries my patience probably more than he should, he gives unconditional love. Seriously, he's always there to smile at me when I come home, and he loves giving kisses and cuddles. He never stays mad at me. I LOVE my puppy dog :)

Fourth comes the ginger child:

Ah, little Huey. What would I do without your antics? He ALWAYS greets me at the door first and is the most amazing cat. He loves attention, even from strangers, but he is not needy, which makes him the perfect cat. He comes and says hi, but does not require a spot in your lap, which is nice. He also entertains the dog for me sometimes, which makes him an AWESOME cat.

And of course, I can't forget the husband:

I LOVE my husband. And while it's technically his fault we will have moved so much, I would gladly move all over the country just to make sure I stay with him. I don't want to get too mushy or carry on forever, I'll just leave it at this: Matt is definitely my better half and I have no idea what I would do without him. He keeps me level-headed and is so much fun to hang out it, especially since his idea of fun is hanging out in coffee shops. We make a great pair, and balance each other perfectly, if I do say so myself. 

Next, I'm thankful for this crazy girl right here:

My sister Rayla! Whoot! I love her so much! While we didn't get along all that great when we were younger, we can't say that now! We do crazy stuff like this! And we're not afraid to. She's so funny! And the best is, we're more than just sisters, we're friends, too :)

Can't forget this chicka right here:

It's my sister in law, Brittany! She is seriously a second sister to me! And she gives me great fashion advice, too. I'm so glad I have her in my family now!

New clothes:

 Do I really need to explain how awesome retail therapy is??? I didn't think so.

Next up, the family!

I truly do love my family, and it's not just because I'm stuck with them. I grew up LOVING to go to my grandparents' houses, and cousins were the greatest gift God had bestowed on me as a youngster. Thank you, family for always being there for me!

Next, my friends:

Even though this picture only shows 4 of my friends (two of which are my sisters!), this is meant for ALL of the friends that have graced my life. Whether it's Alex, who I have known since I was 7, or Kelly who I met in college, or Jaime, Erin and Nicole who I met here in Mississippi, I love you all and miss you all terribly! You have all in your own ways made my life so much better! Thank you!

The beach:

I love me my mountains, but the beach is seriously my happy place. There's nothing quite like sitting out on the beach all day, alternating between playing in the water and reading a good book. Okay, so I'm a nerdy beach goer, but whatever. The beach is awesome. And you can usually find some really awesome pina coladas somewhere nearby :)

My artwork:

This signifies that I have been given the gift of sight. Never forget the pleasure of being able to see color, observe what's going around you, and reading. I couldn't do any of that without my sight. And because I have sight, I can cross stitch and knit and scrapbook and cook. 

And lastly, my faith:

I don't lean on it nearly as much as I should, but my faith is somewhere I can always go when the going gets rough. I am SO looking forward to moving to a place where I can be there for a few years and really join a church instead of being a nomad. It would also help finding a job where I don't work on Sundays. 

There are so many other things I'm thankful for in life, but this covers the majority of them. I feel so much better now. I have been given such an amazing life, and while it gets annoying at times, I have so many people and places and things to be thankful for.

Florida Beach Time!

Well everyone, my illness, whatever it was, went away at just the right time: Matt and I went on a well deserved vacation to Fort Walton Beach, Florida!

Behold:

This is not my picture. Unfortunately we forgot our camera in our excitement to leave. But we did get to enjoy complimentary beach chairs and umbrella while we were there! SCORE. I can be outside on the beach but stay under the umbrella in hopes of warding off a migraine. It worked. SCORE AGAIN. 

Anyways. We rolled in on Saturday after a 6 1/2 hour drive through the middle of nowhere, Mississippi and Alabama. Actually, both Alabama and Mississippi are states in the middle of nowhere, but whatever. We hung out on the beach that night, and went to Buffalo Wild Wings with our friend Marco, who is stationed at Eglin AFB in Fort Walton Beach. JEALOUS OF HIM. We then worked dinner off with about a mile stroll down the beach to the pier (which you have to pay $2 to just walk on, no thanks) and boardwalk, where we enjoyed some delicious gelato. We then walked back to the hotel and enjoyed some drinks in their ridiculously tiny bar. 

Have any of you walked an entire weekend in the sand? My goodness, MY CALVES! They were screaming at me. Oh, well. Totally worth it. I don't understand how people run on the beach. Their calves must be huge. 

Anyway, we spent all of Sunday on the beach, rotating between hangin' in the water (yes, it's still warm enough to swim!) and sunbathing/reading under our umbrella. It was so nice to just relax and have nothing to do. We drove down to Destin for a visit to their boardwalk, and a trip to a Starbucks right on the beach. There's seriously nothing better than that! And the fact I got within 2 feet of a blue heron without it flying away. LIVING SCIENCE! As long as you didn't try and touch him, he just stared back at you. So awesome.

Marco later joined us again in the afternoon at the beach, and guess what? I SAW WILD DOLPHINS! 

Now, they weren't jumping out of the water like this, unfortunately, if they had been, I probably would have acted even more like an excited 5 year old. I just stood out in the water, watching the dolphins, chasing away jellyfish, and observing the pelicans dive bomb the water. Ah, dolphins! I could definitely live there. Seriously. 

That night, we walked back down to the boardwalk to a restaurant called Anglers. It was WAY more expensive than we thought, and the food wasn't anything special, but it was still really good and you're dining on the beach, so it's awesome. I enjoyed an Angler Freeze Breeze, a pina colada with raspberry and strawberry flavoring swirled in. Delicious. I also tried oysters on the shell for the first time. I was hesitant to eat something raw, but they were actually quite delicious and I got over the whole raw thing pretty quickly. I'm actually not surprised I liked them, considering my love of clams and mussels. 

We left the next morning. We were both so, so sad. I love the Florida beaches. Hopefully we can go back soon!

Sicky Sick Sick

I profoundly apologize for the lack of updates as of late. I got sick the day after my parents and in-laws left, and I have been sick ever since. 

It started as just body aches, but because they were so bad, it hurt to inhale deeply, so for two days I was breathing only shallowly. I also had some major fevers going on, too, I would wake up so sweaty that it felt I had just gotten out of the shower. I hate being sick. I couldn't really eat anything, or DO anything, for that matter. I had to call in sick to work twice and my last two work days I felt horrible during them.

After 4 days of that, I finally started feeling better this weekend, with the occasional cough and fever. Currently I just have a cough/whatever this is, but I think last night I had a slight fever. I'm not too worried about the fevers really anymore, since they're not so bad. 

Hopefully I start to feel better because this is really starting to get on my nerves. 

UPT Graduation Weekend

It's Monday morning, my dog has been walked with his bestest friend Goose, there is a full pot of coffee on that Matt hasn't gotten to yet, and my parents and in-laws have flown back to the Emerald City. Guess its time to write how graduation went!

Wednesday: Matt's parents came in to town. Jack loved having two new best friends, as did Huey. Jack had to give up his bedroom (he's so spoiled) for the kitchen, but he didn't seem to find. Tuesday and Wednesday morning were full of anxiety getting the house ready, but everything turned out fine. We fired up the tiny thing that is our barbeque with charcoal and grilled some hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn't want to serve just regular ol' hot dogs, though, so I had the fixin's for Polynesian, Italian, and Mexican hot dogs. The Polynesian  hot dogs were yummy, with pineapple, hosin sauce, and scallions. The Italian ones were, what else, tomato, basil, and shredded fresh mozzarella. Chipotle mayo, feta cheese pretending to be coteja cheese, and avocado rounded out the Mexican hot dogs. These are SO much better than your average hot dog :)

Thursday: It was a slow morning; I made eggs and we all took turns using the one shower. We went out to coffee before we picked up my parents at the airport. From now on, we would be driving two cars everywhere, since neither the Jeep nor the Mustang can fit 6 people (see Matt? We totally need a minivan). I had to drive back to the coffee shop with my parents so my mom and dad could get some coffee after their long trip. We didn't do much until dinner, when we went to UMI's, arguably the best restaurant in Columbus. Why? Because it's a Japanese Sushi and Steak Hibachi Grill! The sushi here is AMAZING and has turned me into a sushi eater (except raw fish, I still can't make myself eat that. But California rolls, on the other hand...). We decided to eat at the Hibachi grill. Now, if you have never been to one before, YOU SHOULD GO! Dinner and a show! They cook the food in front of you, but they also make it extremely fun. The soy sauce is in a whiskey bottle (why not?) and the water is in a vodka bottle. Get your drink on! When they're making the rice, they throw it to you and you have to catch it in your mouth! Let it be known that EVERYONE caught the rice in their mouth! Even my mom and mother-in-law! AND ME! The food, though... is SO GOOD. All us girls ordered calamari, if you don't think you like calamari, come visit me in the next month and I'll take you there so you can try it. The boys had steak except Dad, he was the odd man out ordering shrimp :)

Friday: GRADUATION DAY! This day seriously is a marathon.

Graduation Morning: I was up at 5:30 so we could fit 6 people in the shower all by 7:30. I also needed to take the dog on his morning walk. At 8 o'clock we were out the door going to the breakfast, where we ate yummy breakfast food (shout out to the biscuits and gravy!) and listened to a rather boring speech by the Commander that the parents would all like, but the students and spouses not so much because we didn't care :) Then it was off to graduation! We listened to 2 star general's speech, they passed out awards, and then everyone got their wings! Immediately afterwards they proceeded to break their wings, because traditionally it's bad luck to wear your first set of wings. Matt kept one half, I have the other, and the wings can never touch until Matt passes and they are then reunited with him to give him luck in the next life. Or something like that. I plan on putting my half on a necklace and wearing it whenever he is deployed so I can be with my pilot in spirit. Anyways. We took lots of pictures of me pinning his second pair of wings on, then went home for about an hour or so to eat lunch and change.

"Red Carpet": This is not what it sounds like. We go hang out in the squadron and the family gets a tour, we also listen to the flight commander give a little speech and give a little roast to all the pilots. Then we went out and hung out in the RSU, remote surveillance unit, or something like that. It's basically the smaller air traffic control unit for the T-38 runway. Because there are so many planes flying at any given time, the T-6 and T-38 runways have their own little ATC run by a instructor pilot and some students. The center runway is controlled by the actual ATC. But anyways. We got to watch some T-38 take offs. Sadly none of them landed while we were out there, that's the fun part because the T-38 is known for being one of the hardest airplanes to land, so students tend to screw it up a lot :) After that little field trip, we headed to the T-38 sim where we all got to screw around in the sim. Matt got mad at me for a second because when I got bored I started goofing off on the computer, clicking random things and moving the airplane around after he had set it up for his dad. It was fun while it lasted. I must say, I had an excellent take off. Landing... not so much. But at least I didn't get the red screen of death like my dad did. After we all finished in the sims, we rushed back home to get ready for the banquet.

Formal Banquet: It started with cocktail hour! The best part! The ladies sipped on wine while the guys nursed some beers, then we went in to eat dinner. The dinner was really good, we all had the chicken and it was scrumptious. The cheese cake, too, was amazing. Matt got two awards, an Academic Excellence Award and a Military Leadership Award. So proud of him! We listened to the general give another speech (I think), and then the married guys got to "serenade" their wives. Instead of a single red rose, I got a bouquet of sunflowers, my favorite :) Once the banquet concluded, we all came home and crashed, after use women took the dog on a walk to get his excitement all out. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure we even fell asleep with the dog sleeping in between us, we were so tired we didn't even care.

Shout out to our friend Bryan who came over as we were all getting ready for the banquet to walk the dog and tire him out for the night!

Saturday: Not an exciting day by any means, we went out for coffee in the morning and then to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Once home, we just hung out, walked the dog, and grilled steaks for dinner. I think everyone was still tired from yesterday being out in the sun all day, multiple parental figures were caught napping in the living room throughout the day. The steaks were delicious, and if you ever get the change to grill entire heads of romaine lettuce, please do. It doesn't sound all that interesting, but adding that grilled flavor to the lettuce- especially AFTER grilling the steaks- makes it so yummy. And easy. And romaine lettuce is cheap, so SCORE!

Sunday: Everyone went home. As it turns out, my parents and his parents were on the same flights not only to Atlanta, but then to Seattle as well. It was really quiet in the house after that! Matt beat me home, since I had to stop by work and get my schedule, and he told me that when he first came home, Jack kept running back to the door to look for everybody! Ah, how cute! He has adjusted quickly back to normal. But let me tell you, he could quickly adjust to living in a house with tens of people in it, so many hands to pet him!

And now we just sit idly around and wait for the PCS date to California. We're moving to California baby, whoot!

Nana's Cookbook Meals

My first week of exclusive cooking week started with Pinterest meals. This last week I made recipes from the cookbook Nana (my dad's mom) gave me and all my cousins when we got married (or was it when we went off to college? I don't remember).

Let me just say:

NOM NOM NOM! Matt and I loved ALL of them. And what I liked about the recipes is that there were no fancy ingredients, really. I spent no more than 30 minutes on any of the recipes, except maybe the pork chops, because my stove sucks.

For time's sake, and so this post isn't ridiculously long, I'm only going to include the ingredients, so you can get an idea of what's in the dish. If you want the directions, let me know and I can send them to you.

Here's what I made:

Pork Tenderloin with Herb Rub (use either fresh OR dried, not both)
      Herb rub:  2 tbsp fresh basil (2 tsp dried)
                       2 tsp fresh thyme (1 tsp dried)
                       1 tbsp fresh rosemary (2 tsp dried)
                       1 tbsp oregano (2 tsp dried)
                       4 cloves chopped garlic
                       a shake of garlic powder
                       1 tbsp of salt
                        2 or more tbsp of olive oil

       Pan Sauce:  2 tbsp of chopped shallots or scallions or garlic
                          1/2 c dried white cooking wine
                          3/4 c chicken stock
                          salt and pepper to taste
                          1 tsp of corn starch for thickening
                          sauteed slice mushrooms, optional


Baked Chicken Breasts with Parmesan-Garlic Crust
       1 c breadcrumbs
        1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
       3 minced garlic cloves
       2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
       salt and pepper to taste
       4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
       1/4 c minced fresh basil
       1/4 c mayonnaise (feel free to use sour cream or Greek yogurt)
       Lemon wedges for serving


Chicken Breasts Veronique
      4 whole chicken breasts, skinned, boned, and split (8 pieces)
      2 tbsp butter
      1 1/2 tbsp orange marmalade
      1/2 tsp dried tarragon
      1/2 c dry white wine
      1/2 c whipping cream
      salt to taste


Halibut with Garlic Mayonnaise-Parmesan Topping
     Topping:  2 tbsp light mayonnaise (or full on fat, whatever floats your boat or what you have :)
                    1 tsp lemon juice
                    1 small garlic clove
                    1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
                    1 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
     Halibut: 2/3 pound Halibut
                  2 tsp lemon juice
                  salt and pepper to taste
               
    Nana made a note and said this is also scrumptious with salmon. I would wholeheartedly agree.