true snow day.

this is what a true snow day should look like:

 sipping hot cocoa from matching love mugs.

never leaving sweatpants all the day long.

side note:

i mastered the cinnamon pinwheel today.

tips: 

-don't use the sugar cookie recipe on real simple. it's too buttery and sticky and doesn't firm up well. use your own.

-let it harden in the fridge for a loooong time.

-cut thin disks when you're to the cutting stage.

-actually use parchment paper. it really did make a difference.

here's the finished product!

i added red sprinkles for christmas joy. 

goodie bags. ready to be tied and labeled.

that's about it.

happy snow day to all. and to all a good night.

season's eatings.

today was baking day.

like crazy.

matt was gone all day, so i made it happen.

first, i made some cookie mixes to give as gifts. check them out:

 the inside of the tag.

 the finished products, pre-tagging.

 close up. they're ball jars that my mom let me have. fun, huh? authentically old and everything. don't worry, i cleaned them out first.

with tag. done deal.

then, i began the baking. i'm going to give cookies to coworkers, so i thought i should have a theme for the cookies... like i couldn't combine peanut butter cookies with sugar cookies in the same bag. so my theme? cinnamon. who doesn't like cinnamon?

here's my snickerdoodle recipe and here's my cinnamon pinwheel recipe.

 the bins of finished snickerdoodles, waiting to be packed into bags.

 finished cinnamon pinwheels. not as good as what the picture on real simple looks like, but they taste amazing, so i'll survive.

 bags of pinwheels ready to go.

 the dough was complicated. i kept having to re-roll them on the cookie sheet. but here they are.

yummmmm.

at that point, i was on a roll.

so i decided that i was going to plan a whole week's meals, incorporate new recipes, and stick to it... buying groceries for those things only.

tonight's meal was a new recipe: chicken pot pie. matt loves it, i'm not generally a huge fan... therefore, it has never made an appearance. 

but. i did it. and here it is.

surprisingly good!

as a side note, bailey likes to be near whoever is home. since i was in the kitchen all day, this is how she laid, right at the edge of the kitchen.

just try and tell me there's a cuter dog in this world. it's not possible.

baking day was a success! i wish every day was baking day... i can't get enough. but alas, i would weigh a trillion pounds. i have no self control. eh, what can you do.

week of activities!

normally, my life is somewhat boring. but this past week, i've been quite a busy beaver!  here's the rundown of the fun things that happened this week:


susan came to visit!! we went downtown to pizzapapolis (she has the pictures of that, though...), made puppy chow, watched friends, and made the first fire we've ever made in our fireplace!

there she is. we did have a minor issue with not knowing if the chimney was open or closed... we accidentally filled our apartment with smoke and matt had to reach through FLAMES to save us all from carbon monoxide poisoning. okay, i'm exaggerating, but to a lesser degree, this all happened.


the next day, susan became miss susan and came to my school. the students LOVED her and asked her all kinds of questions about being a missionary.  however, the question that got the most response?


student: what's your favorite color?
susan: green
class: EXPLODED WITH NOISE. one girl yelled: my uncle's favorite color is GREEN! 


that's first grade for you. twas glorious.


REDWINGS GAME. 


matt and i never win things.
ever.


and matt won two tickets to a redwings game.
fourth row.


now, the redwings lost.
but we won.
BIG TIME.


we were on the jumbotron FOUR SEPARATE TIMES. i kid you not. we're famous. the camera guy was near us videoing the game, and he kept filming us. i'd like to think it's because we're hilarious. but it may be because we're ridiculous. i take it back. i'm okay with ridiculous.


here we are!

 what's a game without a hot dog? it was $1 hot dog night. we took advantage.

 there it is. my first time!

 free calendar night, too! chaaaa-ching.

that's how close we were. no joke. glorious.

retreating.

well, it's blog update time... i haven't had much free time lately, so here's to a massive catchup!


last weekend, we had a small group girl's retreat... just for our small group of sophomore girls.  we ended up having 7 girls go on the trip, me and my co-leader, rachel, and a WHOLE LOT of luggage and food.


we borrowed a 12 passenger van and a family's 2nd gigantic house out past lansing, and went retreating!


it turned out to be an incredible weekend.  we did a lot of hanging out, but some organized activities, like the following... 

 we gave the girls a bunch of ingredients, and they had to work together to make us all dinner and dessert on saturday night. they did an amazing job!


we also did a lot of Bible reading and deep discussion... but i don't have pictures of that stuff :)

it was SO good for me, too... i feel like i really got to know these girls! 

whataweekend.

top ten thanksgiving.

thanksgiving (and a five day break) was AMAZING.

here are some highlights, in no particular order:

1. the day of thanksgiving = TONS of delicious thanksgiving foods at the ebright household. filled with 7 nieces and nephews, 6 siblings-in-law, and 2 parents-in-law. quite a crowd.

2. being that there were so many kids, i wanted to make something to add to the feast. i made a giant sugar cookie thing (a recipe i got from real simple) that is made to look like a pumpkin pie. twas DELICIOUSSSS.

 doesn't look too shabby, i don't think!

3. when making this delicious treat, it required a rolling pin. i don't have one (i'm getting one passed down to me from my mom's side of the family at christmas). so, i used a nalgene. sprayed some pam on it, attempted to make flour stick to it, and did my thing.

i'm thinking of calling real simple and putting it into their "new uses for old things" section. i could be rich.

4. i got to DRESS LIKE A PILGRIM. at school. for our thanksgiving party. and i called myself "pilgrim peggy" and the students asked me questions about the Mayflower, First Thanksgiving, etc. as a review for what we had learned. i LOVED it more than i should have.

 there it is. and to think a student's mother gave me this costume instead of throwing it away. what a treasure.

5. HP7. FINALLY got to see it. not my favorite of the harry potters, but i knew it wouldn't be... a little dark for my liking. but, nonetheless, very well done. nothing like the wizarding world, that's for sure.

6. went to matt's 5 year high school reunion. talk about an interesting night! so many things: they rented out the ENTIRE hard rock cafe downtown (intense, right?), had free appetizers and drink tickets for everyone. a bunch of people came in a LIMO... because there was a lot of drinking going on for many people.

that being said, it was super fun getting to meet matt's old friends and people he had classes with and stuff... the whole ordeal was actually enjoyable and not something that was awkward for the wife. hallelujah.

7. BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING. an annual love of mine. but it's hard when you don't have money, right? so we bought a laptop for matt's parents. perfect alternative for us... i get the joy, we don't spend the money. best of both worlds. this year, though, we had to wait outside for an hour... it was snowing, windy, and FREEZING. i didn't know if we'd even get the laptop after all the waiting. but, alas, we did. twas a glorious time for all (except matt... but then he loved it post-waiting outside).

8. friday night, we ordered chinese (festive, right?). we never order chinese, so it had to be documented. while we were there, i made sure matt didn't touch anything. it was a tough few minutes for me.

 9. i had taken pictures of our favorite salads that we have every once in a while. nothing too exciting, but we love them. and they also happened over this break, so it fits.

 chicken caesar for matt...

 apples, almonds, and raspberry vinaigrette for me!

10. on three separate occasions over this break, bailey has chosen to poop on the ground while we're gone. it doesn't make a mess (it's solid, in case you were wondering), but it's ridiculous and we get super mad. she starts shaking like crazy, peed two of the three times out of fear when we push her face toward it (you know, to punish her), and one of the times: she didn't just pee, but was facing upward, and peed like a fountain. we started dying of laughter then realized she was making a mess AND we're supposed to be punishing her.

it's been an interesting weekend.

oh, one last story. thursday night we got home super late. i looked at chase (our bank) and saw two transactions i didn't recognize. we couldn't figure out what they were and i made matt go with me to the bank (in his defense, he kept telling me we should wait for them to go through before freaking out--they were only pending). when we got to the bank and the banker called the people and they gave us the exact date and time of the transactions.... we realized...

it was harry potter tickets and popcorn.

whoops. i looked like an idiot.

luckily i don't get embarrassed easily.

hope your weekend was grand! today is christmas decorating day, so more pictures to come, i'm sure!

the season is upon us.

welcome to the season of joy.

i think it's been here for a while, but matt refuses to let me celebrate it.
there's no longer any denying it. it's thanksgiving week, and christmas music is finally my constant companion.


but don't worry, i've been doing more than just listening to christmas music!


i've...

bought peppermint ice cream and not cared that it normally makes me sick to eat ice cream.

it's all part of the season.

bought and consumed many peppermint tootsie pops. because they are awesome and only come out this time of the year. 

wrapped a lot of christmas presents. at least a lot to be wrapping mid-november. and i loved every second of it.

i even got matt to buy me a christmas tree during a one-day sale at meijer.

you may ask: "but steph, wouldn't you guys already have a tree?"

answer: yes. and in a one bedroom apartment, more than one is not a logical move.

reason for another: CLASSROOM. yeah buddy. i'm spreading the joy like it's my job. at my job.

next steps: making a fire in the fireplace and having matt let me watch christmas movies.

but before that: this week is thanksgiving. thus i'll be watching the thanksgiving episode from every season of friends.

to get your own taste, here's a season one clip: Thanksgiving Episode Season 1.

enjoy!

remodel.

well, friday night i was messing with my blog, attempting to make it look cooler.
matt saw me.
and then, my ability to be involved promptly ended.
or was at least significantly diminished.


it became his world to edit, change, and blah blah blahhhh this thing.
but it looks good.


in the middle of editing, i made dinner.
super tasty foil pack chicken fajitas!

(that picture isn't mine, it's from kraft.com. mine wouldn't be caught dead with sour cream on it. yuck. sour cream is like lard)

but during dinner, not a word out of matt's mouth had to do with anything except this blog. even when i intentionally changed the topic.


he's got a technology problem.
but it worked to my benefit this time, i think.
thanks, husband.

baby central.

i'd say 3/4 of the world is pregnant right now.
or at least 3/4 of the females in my world.
which is still a lot.


two of them JUST HAD THEIR BABIES.
so matt and i took a whirlwind trip home to see these little bundles of joy.


let me tell you. they are too cute to handle. but try.

 baby jack! he's perfect.

 i would have stolen him, but then i realized it'd be a lifetime commitment. i'm just not ready for that yet.

 the proud mama! the day after the occasion... she looks good, right? :)

the other babe: abigail! she's three weeks old now, but also incredible. i love her. more than her parents do, probably. okay, maybe not. (i'm kidding. jeez.)

and the other baby! it's impossible to count the number of times matt and i compared actual children to our dog this weekend. people were probably offended, but that's just because they don't realize that bailey is more human than most humans. it's really a compliment.

to end... a confession. this weekend was the FIRST time i've ever held a new, new, newborn. and i was terrified. i fully thought that i'd pick it up, be shocked at how little/light it is, and then would promptly drop the baby.

i played out scenarios where i was basically eradicated from everyone's life.

luckily, matt was my spotter. no dropping.

phew.

break time!

well. last weekend (i know i'm behind), matt actually had a break. what? i know. a weekend of complete freedom while a slave to med school. we took advantage.


first things first: i went to the apple orchard with my small group of sophomore girls. you could say i was a tad excited.

once home, i decided to start eating healthy (gagfest.). with the apples i got, i soon after made these babies for a fall party we went to. clearly healthy.

carmel apple bars.

deeeeeeeeeeelish.

then, matt and i made carmel apples! still working on the healthy thing... at least this one involves actual whole apples?

then, matt and i had the time of our lives. ann arbor is a SUPER FUN place to hang out.

we walked around downtown. (word to the wise: don't wear stilettos to walk around downtown ann arbor. i ended up making matt take breaks. he wasn't happy with me. and to make things worse: i got sensitive about it.)

we ate a fun restaurant. 

and then: to top it all off... COMEDY CLUB SHOW. perfect situation. a night of laughter.

i like it when my husband can hang out with me.

makes for a great weekend.