a pinch of this and that.

welp, i'm making recipes up today.

oatmeal cookies.

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

a dash of cinnamon

1/4 + 1/8 cup brown sugar

1/4 + 1/8 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup cinnamon chips

mix butter, shortening, vanilla, egg, sugars. for a while.
add flour, baking soda, salt mix just until mixed
add rolled oats, chocolate chips, cinnamon chips
mix well.
350 or so, about 13 minutes.


deeeeelish. 
and sort of made up... started with a recipe then made my own.


and then, a made up marinade for steaks tonight!
we'll see how it tastes... basically, a good amount of Worcestershire sauce, a bit of garlic, rosemary, white wine vinegar, olive oil, sea salt.


yummm!

adios, taylor university.

as much as i love taylor university, i love not owing taylor university any money even more.


we are DONE with undergraduate loans.
holy crap. i'm pumped. it's possible! less than 2 years after graduation.
living poorly has it's benefits!


now, on to... car, my graduate school, matt's medical school.
we sort of like spending money on school. 
we're geeks to the core.

a bad case of the mondays

my reason for not having a bad case of the mondays?


i have a few.


1. bachelor. one word. so much meaning. he's a creeper... but i can't help it. i love it.

2. i got to see my students today. and i love them. 


3. i got this letter in the mail:

"congratulations! you've completely paid off the student loan." 

hallelujahhhh... i mean, i still have one left through the other sallie mae, but we're SO CLOSE to having undergrad paid for. then comes medical school and graduate school. eh, one at a time.

4. we thought our car was broken. but matt took it in today, and there was NOTHING WRONG anymore. i literally think God saved our car.

NEWSFLASH.

okay, so i've posted a trillion times today.
don't care.
this is too good to not post about.


just now, i was attempting to pray.
when i heard this coming from matt, "oh roygbiv."


as in the colors of the rainbow.


and i literally DIED laughing. (not that literally).
so we decided that's going to be our new exclamation.


examples of phrases where roygbiv would be an acceptable alternative:
in place of: oh, boy. oh, man. oh, brother. oh my gosh. holy crap. 


examples in action:
"oh, roygbiv, i dropped the food."
"roygbiv that was the best episode i've ever seen."




also an amazing dog name. ah, hindsight is 20/20.

farting, laughing, being messy.

(forewarning: this post is a little cheesy about loving my husband. discontinue if you aren't interested.)


living with someone else, you naturally pick up some of their tendencies.
when i lived with my college roommate, we definitely had our things... (which i loved every minute of)
but with a boy...
the "things" are different.


-i've learned to hone my bodily function noises.
-i've learned that cleaning up isn't a huge deal, as long as things aren't actually dirty (i'm trying to change that one...)
-i've learned that making a good meal goes a long way.
-i've learned that i have to have at least a basic understanding of all major sports. and develop the ability to watch games.
-i've learned that if i want to talk about money, i'm going to have to make an appointment.
-i've learned to listen to music louder and sing even louder. and dance way too much.
-i've learned that tapping comes with the territory and saying the same phrase in different voices never gets old.
-i've learned that he must have milk at dinner, does not normally like breakfast foods, always needs dessert, and will forget to do most of what i annoyingly ask him to do.


but i recently realized that my boy has actually changed how i view things.
he is really good at loving people, not judging, and being open minded. all things that can be hard for me. especially open minded.


and today, i realized that i don't want to argue topics with people anymore. i think he's actually influencing me for the better. well, to love others... and to have a greater appreciation for any joke or phrase containing the word poop.


so anyway, i think he's changing me without trying. that's what living with someone will do, eh?




(i thought about all this watching david arquette on oprah. it broke my heart to see such a life in shambles. and made me thankful for what i have. as a sidenote: they did a tour of his house at one point, and one of "steph's favorite things" was in there!  mrs. meyer's cleaning products!! so i'm famous.)

my passion.

matt and i recently realized something.

we love food more than most.

like, it's sort of a passion. if i was given a choice between a present or an amazing meal and experience, i'd choose the meal and experience.

every time.

(by the way: i was at whole foods, and i tried a new kind of cheese... i don't remember it's name, but it was a heavenly mixture of gorgonzola and brie. i almost peed my pants it was so good. too bad cheese kills my stomach.)

so, here's what break looks like for me...

chocolate chip pancakes. 

 homemade twice baked potatoes (thank you, real simple.)

 and chipotle beef tacos. with real limes, corn tortillas, and fresh cilantro. here's the recipe for this one.

happy eating!

the land of "oh crap"

well, today, a lot of things got messed up. but it was kind of funny. (see, i'm looking for joy). so here you go:


1. when i bought pork chops, i froze them. i thought, "i'll save on plastic bags and stack the plates of pork chops." this left me with three layers of pork chops COMPLETELY frozen together. this picture looks like an ultrasound. so you'll have to take my word for it. on two things: that this is a giant stack of pork chops and that it is not showing the world that i'm pregnant via a picture of my insides. because i'm not. and it's not.

2. i made cupcakes. then, i used a trader joe's mix to make frosting. however, it got a teeeeensy bit too runny and was useless to attempt to make them look pretty on top (they're the martha stewart delicious ones again). they ended up looking like blobs.

3. i made this awesome card (i'll put it at the end of this post), but packaged it all up (with a stamp and everything) before realizing i wanted a picture of it.  then, i didn't rip it nicely... but i'm too cheap to put it in a new envelope because i'd waste a stamp. so, tons of tape instead. classy, eh?

4. i made cupcakes. but ran out of cupcake liners. i thought, "oh, that's okay. i'll just have some in liners and some not." this created some not-cooked cupcakes in liners and some over-cooked and wildly misshapen cupcakes without liners. not my best decision.

and here is that fun card. my sister-in-law just had a baby. 


also, i'm about to throw the computer on the ground for not cooperating. (happy birthday to the ground reference. take that.)

and the end.
maybe i'll post tomorrow... that'd be some kind of record for me.
pray for a snow day!