I've decided to do a post on things that I'm currently obsessed with.  We do it on this fashion forum that I'm on and I thought I would carry it over to this here blog.

This is a view of the back of the beach house we rented.  I get like this with vacations, I get completely obsessed with every detail about it until we get there.  I'm sure that's normal though, right?

This is a picture from the balcony of the beach house

This is a picture of my apartment pool.  It's where Blake and I spend most of our free time.  I LOVE this pool.

This is the book I'm currently reading.  It's called "Undress Me in The Temple of Heaven".  It's about these two women who decided they wanted to back pack around the world for a year after they graduated college.  They're deep in China when the author realizes that all of her friend's weird quirks are actually symptoms of Schizophrneia.

This is Chuy's.  It's the best tex-mex restaurant. ever.  Seriously, I could eat here every day of my life and not complain.  They have the best fajitas I've ever had.  I won't even order them anywhere else because I know these are the best.

I bought these shoes about a month ago and I am SO in love with them.  Aren't they just bitchin'?

Blake and I just discovered this great little invention a couple of weeks ago.  If you don't know what it is, it's a movie vending machine.  You can go to their website to find the nearest location.  You just select which movie(s) you want and it vends them to you.  It costs a dollar per movie per day so if you turn them in by the next night at 9 p.m, they're only 1 dollar each!

Blake introduced me to Joe Bonamassa awhile ago and I instantly fell in love with his guitar playing and voice.  This is his latest c.d. and I love every song on the whole thing.  Except one.  But, I mean really, who likes every single song on a c.d?  Either way it's a great c.d.

And this here is the new Dave Matthews Band c.d.  It is another awesome one.  I just might like every song on this c.d...

This is my most favorite scent at Bath and Body works.  Sea Island Cotton.  It's the most light and refreshing scent.  I light this bad boy every time I walk into my apartment.  P.S. Don't you hate it when you buy something and you go back a week later and it's not only on sale but 50% off.  Yea, that just happened to me with this candle.

Mmm I am SO obsessed with pink tulips lately.  Aren't they just gorgeous?  And so summery?  I keep dropping hints to Blake about my obsession with them and my upcoming birthday so hopefully I'll be receiving some pretty soon :-)

Well, that's it for now folks.  I've hoped you enjoyed my current obsessions as much as I have.  

Whew, so it's only been what, 3 months since my last blog post? Not too shabby. Ok it is in fact very shabby. Well not much has changed since we last "spoke". I'm obviously out of school for the summer and it's awesome. Just enjoying my free time. I ended up with a 3.12 GPA and 44 hours so that's pretty good. I sent in my applications and transcripts to UNT and Texas State so, just waiting to hear back from them. I don't think I'll have a problem though, the transfer qualifications for Texas State are a 2.5 GPA and 30 hours. The qualifications for UNT are the same or a little less, I can't remember for sure. Why did you apply to two universities four hours away from each other you say? Blake and I are not quite sure if we want to stay here or move back home this fall so this way, while we're making our decision I have both school options available. Now before you get all parent-y with me, both schools offer the exact degree that I'm going for so it really is just up to us to decide what city we want to live in. I think what I've settled on is to major in International Studies and minor in Spanish in hopes to do something in the travel and tourism industry. If all else fails I'm just going to major in business and minor and Spanish.

So, in 2 weeks my family, along with Michelle and Blake, are all driving to Florida to stay in a beach house...on the beach! Contrary to popular belief, most of the beach houses out there are indeed not on the beach, they are "within walking distance to the beach". Not the same thing. Anyways, we found a house on the beach that even allows dogs so we get to bring "poop on a rope" dog* and Marley. It's going to be a lot of fun, minus the drive.

I've made a lot of yummy recipes since my last post. I'll narrow it down to a few. I'll just post the links so the ingredient lists don't take up 1 jillion pages.
Giada's Roman-Style Chicken:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/roman-style-chicken-recipe/index.html


This wonderful salad:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Panzanella-Salad/Detail.aspx?prop31=2


And this delicious Strawberry Shortcake:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/strawberry-shortcut-cake-recipe/index.html


*http://basketcase-adventures.blogspot.com/2009/06/barbie-ballerina-birthday-girl.html

Alrighty well I suppose that's all for now. I sincerely apologize for my lack of skills at blogging. I'll try to improve :-)

I know, I know, I know, it has been FOREVER. Well I'm in school and it is kicking me in the arse so I'm sorry. It's only been 3 of my classes up until this week when my 12 week class joined in on the fun. So far though I'm doing really well.

So I bought these two workout DVDs since I am too lazy to walk to the apartment facility... just kidding I am not THAT lazy...(or am I?). There's like 10 machines in the "state-of-the-art workout facility" and I don't have to walk all the way down there to tell you that somebody will probably always be using the machines and weights I want to use. It was like that at 24-hour fitness and they had multiples of everything. So, instead, I'm going to try to stick to these DVDs. I did the first one today and my entire body is jello-y and sore already. That's not even the worst part, I wasn't expecting to be so out of shape. I really almost cried. I used to be one of those people who worked out every single day and could run a mile without even thinking about it. I have been athletic since I was a little girl. It's all I've ever known. I knew I was getting slightly larger/flabbier but I really wasn't expecting to be so out of breath half way through the first two minute cardio session...of jumping jacks. Workouts like lunges and crunches, that I used to do hundreds of every day, I couldn't even do them for one or two minutes. Sorry about all the complaining, it just sucks :-( But this will definitely be motivation for me to stop talking about working out and actually get off my ever expanding butt and just do it.

So my boyfriend, a friend of ours and I went out to Lubbock to celebrate my brother's birthday early this past weekend. The majority of my really close friends, my brother and his girlfriend all live in Lubbock so it was just a blast. I had so much fun and really didn't want to leave. I even seriously considered moving there until Blake said he wouldn't move there because he couldn't get into Texas Tech right now (of course there were other things that deterred me like the fact it's six hours from any civilization), I just couldn't stand doing the long distance relationship "gig" again. I did it for a year and barely survived. Plus everybody I know out there will be graduating within a year or two so once I got out there everybody would be leaving. Back to my original point though, it was so much fun, I'm definitely going to have to head out there again very soon.

These shrimp enchiladas are amazing and simple and healthy! When I made them, Blake and I ate the leftovers for a week until we finished them (this coming from two people who hate hate hate leftovers). My only suggestion would be to use fresh shrimp instead of frozen, I think it would add a little bit of *zing*.

Ingredients
1 pound peeled cooked shrimp (21-25 per pound; thawed if frozen), tails removed, diced
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
2 4-ounce cans chopped green chiles (not drained)
2 cups canned green enchilada sauce or green salsa, divided
12 corn tortillas
1 15-ounce can nonfat refried beans
1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheese, such as Mexican-style, Monterey Jack or Cheddar
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degree F. Coat a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine shrimp, corn, chiles and 1/2 cup enchilada sauce (or salsa) in a microwave-safe medium bowl. Cover and microwave on High until heated through, 2 1/2 minutes.

Spread 1/4 cup enchilada sauce (or salsa) in the prepared baking dish. Top with an overlapping layer of 6 tortillas. Spread refried beans evenly over the tortillas. Top the beans with the shrimp mixture, followed by the remaining 6 tortillas. Pour the remaining sauce (or salsa) over the tortillas. Cover with foil.

Bake the enchiladas until they begin to bubble on the sides, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil; sprinkle cheese on top. Continue baking until heated through and the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes more. Top with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

So, as you can see, I got a new blog layout and I love it! I got it from thecutestblogontheblock.com. On the left, click on Backgrounds then it'll take you to another page and on the right is a column of all of the blogs in categories. When you find one you like, just click on it and the website explains the rest.

I started school last Tuesday. Ugh. I'm taking Spanish, Intro to Speech, Travel and Tourism Management, and Art History. They are all thoroughly kicking my butt. Except Art History, I didn't notice this when I signed up for the class but it's a 12 week class instead of a 16 week class. You know what that means...cram fest. So that class doesn't start till mid February but when it does, every week I have a 3-page paper about ten different items of art. On top of my other three classes that I would like to pass this semester. Sheesh and this is only community college.

I know I promised one of my avid readers some apartment pictures but my apartment is messy. And I don't know if I've mentioned this but I'm a lazy person. It's not that it's that messy, it's just too messy to show the entire WORLD how messy it is. That's actually why I haven't wrote a new post yet...I've wanted to but I didn't want to disappoint my reader(s?). After weighing the pros and cons I've decided to just keep writing posts until one day BAM, there will be pictures of my sparkling clean apartment. It'll be a surprise, even better!

So on the days that I don't have school and feel like lounging, I watch the Food Network (I know, I'm lame. I'm a thirty year old stuck in a nineteen year old's body). Then I go onto foodnetwork.com and snatch up the recipes I watch and drool over. In this process I have found many great recipes but there's this one that I just have to share. I made it last night for the second time and if it's possible, it might have been better than the first time. The recipe title is...different, but the recipe is amazing. It's called "Get Yo Man Chicken"-yes go ahead and laugh. Now make the recipe so you can understand how incredible it is.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skinless
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in thick puree
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon-pepper
Hot buttered rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves


Directions:

Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken, meat-side down first, and turning once, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate to reserve.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the pan.

Add onion to the pan and saute until tender, roughly 3 minutes. Add the stock and wine and stir, scrapping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Turn heat to high and reduce by half, about 3 minutes. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and add the dried herbs and lemon pepper. Add the chicken thighs back in. Cover and cook on medium low for 40 minutes.

Remove chicken from liquid and serve on hot buttered rice. Ladle the sauce on top and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Your welcome. You can thank me later.

Hehehe

Somehow over Christmas Break, when I planned to do lots and lots of blogging, I actually got worse about it I think. I was so busy enjoying all of my free time and doing nothing... What also threw me off was that I learned more people read this than I thought did. And by that I mean my mom has it bookmarked at the top of her internet browser and she showed my second set of parents, the Johnsons, my blog. It's not that I didn't necessarily want people to read it, it's just I didn't expect people to even know about it let alone find it! Oh well, it's not a big deal, it just threw me off :-)

Not a lot is new, I've just been doing a lot of laying around and hanging out with Blake and our friends. All of our friends from Lubbock came in to Austin for New Years and stayed with Blake and I. That was a blast! I only get to see all of our friends from Lubbock a couple times a year; the summer, Terlingua, and Christmas Break, so I cherish the time I get to spend with them. Along with my family. It was really good to see my brother again and all of my relatives. Although I only got to see my brother's girlfriend for a good 30 minutes though, she was in New York the whole time. I had a great Christmas and a good time back home for the holidays. When I'm back at home I get anxious to get back to Austin but once I'm back in Austin I start to miss my family. I suppose that's normal though.

Here's a picture of my Christmas tree in the apartment this year:

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately and have lots of wonderful recipes to share. I actually got so coordinated that I took a picture of one of the delicious meals to post on here. I realized I haven't put any pictures on my posts the past few times so I suppose I should make up for that.
Here's the first recipe I would like to share, it's my mom's Chicken Pot Pie (actually it's Betty Crocker's Chicken Pot Pie but it's also my mom's)

Ingredients
1/3 c. margarine, butter or chicken fat
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. chopped onion (I myself am not a huge fan of onions so I use onion flakes and it tastes great)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 3/4 c. chicken or turkey broth
2/3 c. milk
2 c. cut-up cooked chicken or turkey
1 pkg (10 ounces) frozen peas, carrots, corn and potatoes
2 pie crusts (you can either make your own or buy the trusty Pillsbury Doughboy refrigerated pie crusts)

Directions
Heat margarine over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly (mine sometimes just forms a floury/oniony mixture and I just go right to the next step). Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and frozen vegetables; reserve.

Take one of the pie crusts and roll it out into a circular pie pan or you could use a square 9x9x2 in. pan. Whatever floats your boat. Now pour the chicken filling into your pastry lined pan and roll the out the second pie crust on top of the filling. Roll edges under and make some fancy design with it if you wish. Cut slits in center to allow steam to escape. Cook uncovered in a 425 degree oven until crust is brown, 30-35 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it in case it starts to brown too much, in that case just throw some foil on top of it.

6 servings


Speaking of food...I need to go figure out what I'm going to cook for dinner since I forgot to thaw out the chicken ughh.

So I saw this on my Aunt Sarah's blog and figured what the hey?  I think I just write 16 cool/interesting/weird facts about myself.

1.  The older I get the more OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) I get about certain things.  It's not everything but just certain circumstances or routines.  A large part of it has to do with germaphobia.  For example, when I'm cooking, I have to wash my hands every time they get something on them.  Wiping them on the hand towel is not sufficient, it's just going to get the hand towel dirty which will eventually get my freshly washed clean hands dirty.

2.  I'm a pretty lazy person.  I wish I was one of those people that just isn't happy unless they're moving but I'm the exact opposite.  For instance, I haven't worked out in about 2 years (coincidentally my boyfriend and I started dating 2 1/2 years ago...ok so maybe it's not a coincidence).  I have a very nice workout facility 100 yards away from me, it's just in my apartment complex's office, but I haven't seen it since I did the tour before I moved in.

3.  I'm partly ambidextrous.  I'm not completely able to do everything with either my left hand or right hand equally, but both are dominant for some tasks.  When I write I'm right handed.  When I grab ice out of the ice machine I'm left handed (which is weird because my hand always bumps the actual ice machine on the left but I just can't do it with my right hand).  When I drive I'm left handed.  When I text I'm left handed.  I know these sound trivial but I really can't do a lot of stuff with my right hand even though I'm technically right handed.

4.  I love the smell of my dog's paws when she's sleeping.  It's weird and Blake thinks they smell bad but for some reason I love the smell.

5.  I could shop every day for the rest of my life and be more than perfectly content.  Why not be a personal shopper you say?  Because shopping for somebody else every day for the rest of my life would be torture.

6.  I really hate the winter.  Well, I love the holidays and time off of school and time with family and friends and all that, but I can't stand the weather.  I would much rather be hot than cold.  Perhaps it's because I've lived in Texas all my life?  Luckily, I live in the South and it's still in the 70s during the day.  Except the temperature is dropping now.  Ugh

7.   I love cooking.  I love watching the Food Network to get new recipe ideas.  Last year when Blake and I were long distance and I didn't like the people I lived with, I sat in my room and watched the Food Network all day long.  Then, I would go shopping and make the recipes.

8.  I hate leftovers.  Refuse to eat them.  I've tried, I've tried many times and they just disgust me.  The smell just makes me completely grossed out.  They never taste the same...ever.

9.  I have really bad road rage.  It's a horrible habit but I can't get over incompetent drivers, there's just no excuse.  I could go on for days about it but I won't.  My boyfriend is the same way and we've noticed that even when one of us isn't the one driving, we both still get really worked up.  I think we feed off of each other... 

10.  I've buried 3 of my close friends over the past 5 years and it doesn't get any easier.  I think it actually gets harder because the last funeral I went to in July was the hardest.  Before I make this depressing I'll move on though.

11.  I come from an extremely great family.  I really love my family.  Not just my immediate family, my relatives too.  They're all great and the older I get, the more I love and cherish them.

12.  I'm terrified of riding horses.  I really wish I wasn't.  When I was little I got bucked off of one and if I had to guess, that would be why I'm so afraid of them.  I think they are amazing animals and I would love to be able to ride them but every time I try I have a panic attack.  And horses can sense that.  They don't like it.

13.  I have hyperglycemia (wiki it if you want the technical definition but my definition is if I go for an extended period of time without eating, sometimes I pass out).  I can feel it coming on so I can usually sit down and be okay but I have let it get too far a few times.  The last time, I was at the zoo with Blake and I felt it coming on so I sat down.  Now, usually when I sit down and wait the feeling passes within 10 minutes and I go eat some food and all is right in the world.  This time though, it wasn't going away and Blake was getting bored staring at the Gorillas and I knew this feeling wasn't going anywhere so he convinced me to try to walk the 100 feet to the gift shop to get a snack.  I made it about 15 feet and just grabbed on to him and the next thing I knew I was lying on the zoo floor with Blake shaking me.  Needless to say, I've learned to always have some kind of snack food in my purse and car at all times.

14.  I love mashed potatoes.  I have a thing for them.  If I could eat them every day I would.  Actually I'm getting pretty close because they have these amazing instant mashed potatoes at HEB, 5 for $5.  They come in all kinds of delicious flavors and Blake and I eat them probably 4-5 nights a week.

15.  I've never broken a bone.  I tried really hard to when I was little (like purposely jumping out of trees repeatedly) so that I could miss school but no such luck.  

16.  I love fashion and dressing nice and all but more often than not, it's t-shirt, jeans and my boots for me.  Most of the time I'm just in so much of a hurry because of Blake or school.  But most of the time it's Blake.  I think I just need some new clothes to inspire me.  Hmm

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving this week, I sure did!  It was a long day but filled with lots of family and friends and fun...not to sound cliche.  I got asked to share some memories for an upcoming book my Aunt Sarah is working on and I promised I would think of some and post them on here for her so here you go Sarah.  Now, some of them aren't really memories as much as just flashbacks of things I remember because I really don't remember that much of when I was younger.  

I remember going to Melody & James' house in La Grange every Christmas.  That house was beautiful and old and I loved it.  The town was so quiet and beautiful and safe.  I remember when Ethan and Hillary were babies and Erin and I would fight over who got to hold them and put them to sleep and help change them.  I remember when one person in the family was sick over Christmas, half of the family would get sick it seemed like.  Every Christmas night we would gather in the huge living room to go through the hours of opening presents (it seemed like it took forever because we had to go through the circle of everyone opening 1 present each...and I was a kid).  I remember going on walks through the town because it was so safe.  I loved Grandma & Grandpa's house in La Grange as well.

I remember when Sarah & Byron owned that convenient store in Blum, TX and Grandpa worked the grill there and made THE best hamburgers ever.  Mitchell and I would come visit the two of them and every time he would do something that upset me I would write it down so I could tell mom all about it when we got back home, "Mitchell called me stupid twice!", "Mitchell hit me and I cried", "Mitchell yelled at me!", etc.

I remember everyone traveling up to Indiana to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa.  I remember one year we snuck Aunt Sarah into this Motel 6-type motel that was infested with mosquitos in the room, it was a horrible experience.  I remember Great Grandma would make homemade food the entire time we were there, she wasn't satisfied unless she was making us food.  She made sticky buns from scratch every time we went up there.  Their basement scared me to death, to this day I still refuse to go down in that cold and dark basement.  I remember when I got my ankle caught in a trampoline spring right before we headed up there that year and Great Grandma healed my ankle up while we were up there.  She had special ointment to put on it and would change the bandages for me.

Those are about the earliest memories I have of the family.  I don't have many of Grandma and Grandpa specifically because they didn't move to Arlington until I was already a teenager.  Well I'm off to do some early finals work so I can come back home for Christmas soon.