life lately.

well, lately i've been siiiiick. so, life hasn't been too exciting. 


here are a few things that have been going on that may be of interest to others... or maybe not :)

what have i been up to?

well. feeding my dog wet dog food. (that's matt's hand, not mine. just so you know. my hands are crazy, but not quite that manly.)

 she loved it. so much that she destroyed the bowl. looks like she won't be getting wet dog food very often... we don't have a ton of bowls for her to chew up.

we discovered a great coffee shop. finally. it's great. great music, fun drinks, great atmosphere with lots of people who are artsy to the max--you know, lots of rob bell glasses and skinny jeans and colorful hair and such.

late night date to leo's coney island.

for fries and chili dogs.

does not get much classier.

right?

 what a good looking duo we are.

it's probably even classier that we took pictures while there... all the high schoolers were staring at us. whoops.

soon after the fries and chili dog fiasco, we decided we really need to start eating better. laziness and love of food has gotten the best of us.

so, last night i made delicious salads.

and then i found a slightly outdated container of fat free cool whip hanging out at the back of the freezer! 

(august 2011 is close to now, right? come on. frozen food can't go bad... i hope).

low fat cinnamon graham crackers with fat free cool whip shoved in between... frozen a bunch so the cool whip tastes like ice cream. they're seriously amazing.

so, that's my life lately. pretty exciting, right? 
but i sure do love it.
OH. and here's a gem for you:
matt and i wanted a good christmas card photo.
but then we remembered we don't have a lot of money. so we shouldn't get a photographer.
who needs a photographer when you've got a self timer, christmas muumuus, and christmas lights? 
jeez louise. check out this pure holiday joy:

you're welcome :)

oh, and if you didn't get a christmas card from us, it may be in the mail. and if it's not, i'm sorry... again, back to the not a whole lot of money lifestyle. consider this our christmas joy sent to you! 

we have a lot of it... clearly

post #101. failure 101.

welp.

sometimes you learn through failure, right?

failure #1.

apple crepes.

check it out...

perfectly caramelized apples...

terribly crappy crepe. and it was raw in the middle. 

eh, well. you can't win them all.

failure #2.

making dinner on a saturday.

couldn't make it happen.

so we ended up at hoggers.

(seriously, it was called hoggers.)

which was not a failure.

freaking delicious.

failure #3.

matt getting water.

but, not everything lately has been a failure!

check out the finished saloon doors...

and delicious peanut butter cookies, which i hadn't made in a while...

and a SUPER delicious maple apple chicken recipe.

brown chicken breast about 4 minutes on each side, then put in pyrex with cut up apples, 1/2 cup syrup and 1/3 cup italian dressing (mixed together). sprinkle with cinnamon and cook at 350 for 20 minutes or so. YUMMMMM!

hopefully you have better luck with crepes than me!

long time, no post.

well. it's been a while since i've been on here.  why, you ask? what have you been doing?


well. 
school. 
family. 
grad school. 
church. 
youth group. 
connecting with taylor friends in ann arbor. 
the oc (yep, we got obsessed with it again. who says you have to be in high school to love high school drama?!).


but the best thing we've been doing? dating and fighting.


here's the dating:

and here's the fighting:

 the official mac and cheese battle: which is better... spirals or character shapes?!

 let the great debate begin!

in the end... they both won and neither won. they both won because they both were delicious (i liked the consistency of mine better, but matt liked the consistency of his better... and as for taste, they were shockingly similar?!)... but then they both lost because we ended with stomachaches from eating a whole box each. eh, well. live and learn.

date night and food for every night.

date night.

artsy fartsy theater.

AWESOME movie. 

expensive downtown area post-movie walk and hangout.

makes for a great night.

 midnight in paris.

 they had an old popcorn machine made into an aquarium of sorts?

and then... new recipes!
this one... cilantro cajun tilapia--tilapia with cajun seasoning and cilantro, then topped with homemade peach salsa--peach, jalapeno, red onion, tomato, a bit of garlic..., with a bed of rice and asparagus... YUM.

and then, tequila lime chicken.  Chicken marinated in tequila and lime juice, then cooked on the stovetop and then baked a bit on the plate with cheese and homemade mexiranch sauce (ranch dressing and salsa mixed).  CRAZY good.

so, i hope those sound good to you--make them! and go see midnight in paris--it'll make you feel artsy and appreciate the world a little bit more.

sleepover.

so matt and i have 8 nieces and nephews. (he's the youngest of four Ebright kids).
we decided to take the two oldest nephews for a sleepover.


they're going into first grade, and incredibly energetic.

here was the craziness:

 a little wii after making homemade pizza...

 baseball on the wii. twas a winner.

 chuck e. cheese. completion of life.

 this is pure joy.

 then, homemade ice cream sundaes and a veggie tales movie.

whilst laying in a play tent.

and then we ended it all with pancakes in the morning!

duh. we're ready for children.
all you do is hang out and play at chuck e. cheese, right?


really, we're the children.
but i like it that way.

homemade celebration station.

who says you have to go out to celebrate something big?

because we didn't.

we decided to stay home and celebrate our anniversary for a variety of reasons...

1. we wanted to watch our videos.

2. we've been spending a lot of money lately... and we always feel guilty when we spend money (that's probably a good thing, right?)

so instead. we had a restaurant-quality-meal-at-home.

here's how you do it.

step 1: roses.

step 2: nice steaks (that i conveniently got on ridiculously good sale...)

step 3: a willing person to cook... i am this willing person.

 step 4: steaks. gourmet mac and cheese (recipe at the end--ridiculously amazing). asparagus sauteed with garlic and stuff. 

step 5: peace out. or happy 2 years. take your pick.

step 6: delicious dessert. homemade chocolate covered strawberries and cookies and cream cupcakes.

step 7: stuff selves. then get emo watching wedding videos.

that's a great night.

as a side note...

mac and cheese recipe:

7 oz 2% sharp cheddar

3ish tablespoons margarine

2 tablespoons flour

2.5 cups milk

a bunch of parm (who knows how much was in there)

1/2 a box of macaroni

homemade bread crumbs mixed with parm.

1. make a roux with the margarine and flour (basically, cook it together until it turns light brown... and yes, i watched a youtube video on it).  add the milk. a while later, add the shredded cheese... mix that trash until it all thickens together.

2. meanwhile, boil macaroni. tough stuff.

3. pour cheese sauce over mac, mix it up, cover with bread crumbs and cook for 20-30 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven (i covered it with foil for half the time because i don't love stuff that browns).

GOOD LUCK!

2 years. 2 best friends.

2 years ago, i married my best friend.

this guy.

(that was when we accidentally gave him a mullet. not when we got married. but this is funnier).


great things that have happened in the past year?
to name a few...


-we moved to an awesome apartment.
-i learned to roll my r's.
-we are more in love than ever before.
-i have sort of stopped being a backseat driver.
-he has NOT stopped tapping constantly on the steering wheel.
-we still constantly repeat the same phrases over and over. our most current phrase? "bee bop ba loo la, that's my baby... bee bop a loo la, i don't mean maybe."
-i always sing the above song off key. on purpose. really!
-matt made it through second year of med school.
-i made it through second year of med school.
-we still watch friends on an incredibly frequent basis.


overall, 2 years ago was the best day i've had to date... but every day since has been pretty dang wonderful.

thank you, Jesus.

life is good.

happy anniversary to us!