My New Wife Mistake

When I thought about my new role as a Wife 4 1/2 months ago I thought about the new expansion of cooking that I was about to embark on. And with Katie giving me the idea to take the time that I had in the fall and try out all the new recipes I could find. I loved making all sorts of new and intricate meals and adding the home made rolls, and the sweet and sour sauce I made from scratch. But what started as an exploration ended in obsession.
When school started up again dinner became something of a chore instead of the fun it used to be. Even though I'm now the crock-pot cook queen I would still feel compelled to calculate the whole meal down to the side dishes and making sure I scheduled time in the day to get it all done. On Tuesday I was relieved to find out that some friends of our invited us over for dinner instead. Relieved until they called about 1/2 hour before and had to cancel!
I became flustered and panicked as to what I was going to whip up without having any ideas of plans! I got so put out and finally told Ben I was just going to make grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.
They took 5 mins tops and were delicious.
As I munched down on the cheesy goodness and received ample compliments from Ben I realized something - dinner doesn't have to be difficult, tasking, or new to be good. There are loads of dishes that were easy to make that I've only made once! Sometimes we need to delve into our own recipes and ignore the hot new dishes for dinner.
Tonight's meal: home-made pizza. :)

Its 2010!!!

I can't believe its been 3 months since my last post!!! For shame!!!

The holidays were terrific! I can't believe how wonderfully therapeutic going back to Nebraska was. I've now made the decision that Omaha wouldn't be such a bad place to live, as long as I could travel out of there at any moment I wished! I'll work on that second part as good as I can.

The main thing I worried about Christmas WAS: (can anyone guess?) presents! This was Ben and my first Christmas together and I couldn't stop worrying that one of us would buy more gifts for the other. And the most wonderful thing happened - we ended up getting the same exact number of gifts! Score! I didn't even mind so much getting snowed in for four days. The having to leave part was the hardest, but that just gets me more eager to get back there.

Now that both Ben and I are working full-time and going to school full-time we are busier then ever! Ben works monday, wedsnday, friday - goes to school tuesday thursday and is helping a friend of ours re-design a local computer/video game store. I go to school monday, wedsnday, friday - work tuesday thursday - have started writing for a local Wedding Magazine (their fashion and trends column, woot woot) and am in the primary presidency!!! Phew, i told ya we were busy. Some days i kiss him good morning/goodbye as he's still asleep and he comes home only to kiss me goodnight/hello as I'm asleep.

Absence makes that heart grow fonder and the texting bill up! We did however have a FANTASTIC date saturday night. We got ourselves looking mighty good and went to one of my favorite Idaho restaurants called 'Jonny Carinos'. Its really good italian food and is probably the nicest place to eat out in Idaho Falls. We had italian fire-sticks, cesar salad, warm bread, fettuccine Alfredo, and cheesecake, with a shirley temple to wash it all down. Its like grandma G says, "give her cheap food and she'll take two bites, but go to a nice place and she'll get your money's worth!" And the best part is Jonny Carinos is trying to compete with Applebee's 2 can dine for $20 so our whole meal was only $27!!! What a great date!

I'll make sure to get some pictures up soon soon soon! We're very excited for michael & cris' plus one and can't tell you how much we miss and love all of you! If you ever need anything we're a phone call away!