Monday, May 7, 2012

Bomb Threat

So every once in a while I find something cute I want to do for Tyler to show him I love and appreciate him. I usually find something on Pinterest and it usually takes me months to finally get it done. This idea was no different. I literally had been wanting to do this since November, finally bought Rolos in January and wrapped them in red paper in February ( was hoping to have it done by V-day) and finally assembled in April and delivered in May. I know it shouldn't take that long, but hey at least I finally finished a little craft. I decided to use/abuse my access to the dental school lockers since I am a JDA officer ( it's a dental student wives club) and put it in his mailbox on Wednesday afternoon. 
Tyler cleverly posted this picture Thursday morning with this caption on Facebook.
Found this in my locker at dental school. This was obviously a premeditated attempt at my life.
An hour later...there is a bomb threat at Loma Linda hospital. Crazy coincidence huh? I got all of the blame from his dental school friends. Tyler even said for split second he thought he was in trouble for having something that looked like a bomb when they announced the issue to everyone at the school. 

Other news...MIDTERMS ARE OVER!!!!!
What a nightmare those are and in a few weeks finals will be here again, at least then we only have 3 years left after that. Right after finals Tyler and I will be moving into Loma Linda University housing. The current place we are at is quite disappointing. We had a choice to sign another lease with rent going up about $50 a month or go month to month for an increase in rent of $350. But the plus side of month to month is we only have to give them 30 days notice instead of 60. So our plan is to pay one month of MTM and then give our notice and move somewhere cheaper while we wait to hear on the house. Well we went in on Saturday to give our 30 day notice and they told us they changed their policies the day before (Friday) that everyone now regardless of what type of lease will have to give 60 day notice. They are a bunch of crooks!!  We will be asking very politely for them to make an exception for us when the manager is back in today, hopefully they will.

On Saturday we were able to go to Hadlee's baptism. Hadlee is the daughter of our good friends and fellow dental couple Amanda and Tyler Tatton. It was such a nice baptism beside the carpet stinking like mold inside the RS room where we were. But Tyler gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and he did a great job.  Later that night we went over to the Tatton's and ate cake that Amanda made. It was a 4-tier cake and it was beautiful and delicious, she is my baking idol. One day if I ever get a kitchen aid mixer and have more time I hope I can learn to be as good of a baker/cook as she is. Here is her blog if you want some amazing recipes.

This month is probably going to go by super fast, tomorrow I have a consultation with an oral surgeon, I have a couple JDA events, babyshowers (there are so many babies being born lately it is crazy, I am a bit worn out from babyshowers), Tyler's birthday (I'm throwing him a mustache party), packing (hopefully), and then the beginning of finals. I will try to keep updating.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Spring-ish Happenings

I would like to start off by expressing how much I enjoy living in warm weather. I feel so much happier this winter than I can remember in the past few years. I love not wearing jackets everyday and only needing light sweaters some days. I love waking up and it being sunny outside and not gray. I surely took growing up in Southern CA for granted, and I have a feeling it might take Tyler a little bit of effort getting me to leave again. Of course all he would need to remind me about is the traffic, the gas prices, and the crime rates.
I have been enjoying my new yoga job! I love the atmosphere, the opportunity I have to workout everyday, and the people. I really really love it. Yes, I am a little more tired by the weekend, but I also have never looked forward to working out before. Tyler has been very supportive and always wants me to show off my new yoga moves to people.
Tyler and I went to San Fransisco for a little break a few weeks ago. We had a wonderful time and meet up with Jason and Andrea who flew in from SLC. You can check out pictures on my FB page, I'm too lazy to upload them onto here as well. We were able to use these city passes that gave us unlimited transportation around the city and entrance to 5 different museums and attractions including SFMOMA and Alcatraz. It was a well deserved trip and we made it pretty budget. We found a hotel that served free breakfast and even bought a groupon for a restaurant ahead of time and for lunches we went to a grocery store and bought stuff for PB&J. Like I said, it was very budget, but we had so much fun.
We are still waiting on the house we put an offer in on. Today we heard that they should be making a decision soon, whatever that means. But we are hopeful, we can't wait to have our own place again, and I can't wait to be able to paint and not have to live among the off white walls anymore.
I am not supposed to brag about how well Tyler is doing in school because he doesn't like it, but I really really want to brag, so I have this little conflict going on in my mind. He probably doesn't read this blog anyway so I can squeal right? Ok here it goes, don't tell him I told you, but he got a 4.0 again and the highest grade in his anatomy class. Isn't he just awesome!!! We really look forward to this summer when he gets a 3 week break and then comes back as a D2!!!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Update for January and February and a bit of Decemeber

Well it's not like I haven't been posting every week almost, it just all I talk about is baking. I am so glad I joined this baking group it has been fun, but it has been hard for me to keep up the blog with everything going on. So here are some of the top events of the last couple months. In December my family (Mom, Dad, Marta) came to visit for a weekend. It was a lot of fun playing games and eating with them. Then for Christmas my work gave me off a week so we could go to STG. We had a blast there with all of the Utley's visiting. The craziness began early in January as Tyler started school on the 3rd and I started work on the 1st. Yes, I commonly go into work on holidays and Saturdays because I am so busy. I love my job so much, but I have never worked so hard at any job. But I prefer it that way, I rather be super busy than checking Facebook every 15 minutes out of boredom. I also have a lot of freedom in my job to plan and create and organize. All things I love. There is only one large downside to my job. The connections I have with my boss and my office roomie. Noha is so great and so nice, but she likes to talk a lot and I like to focus a lot and those two do not go hand in hand. I find myself zoning out while listening to her because I have so much work to do and she is repeating herself for the fourth time. Don't get me wrong we do get along and I respect her a great deal, I mean she is a professor and has two master's degree and a PhD, but I prefer when she is off teaching classes. And Dr. Z my boss is very kind and considerate to everyone and has been so accommodating to me. But there is over a 50 year gap in our ages and we just don't have much to talk about except her bum knee and her grandchildren. I am not complaining about them, I like them a lot, it is just such a different atmosphere than UPB. I guess I just miss all my friends at UPB. My birthday came and went, it was bad timing because Tyler had midterms the next week, but he still managed to make reservations to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney and we went on my favorite roller coaster California Screamin. Well moving on, Tyler is doing fantastic in school. He was on the Dean's List for Fall quarter and will probably be on it again for Winter. I am so proud of him. He seems to really be enjoying what he is learning. There was a ceremony a week ago where the fourth years receive their white coats and the first years get a Bible. It was really nice, they engraved our names on it and everything, unfortunately we had to leave a bit early because we forgot we had to feed the missionaries (Cafe Rio saved the day). For Valentine's day we didn't do anything special really, but we exchanged gifts for the first time since being married. I got his tennis and racquetball racquets restrung and we went shopping for some perfume for me. It was actually a lot of fun. Then just last Saturday we went to a dinner that the JDA (Junior Dental Auxiliary) puts on every year at the Dean of the dental school's home. It was so fun, we had Thai food and then played the newlywed game. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Tyler and I practiced before hand and we actually won a prize: Movie tickets and a gift card to a pizza restaurant here in Redlands. It really is so nice because we never go out to the movies and rarely go out to eat. Today I went into work then came home for an hour and then went to my new job! Yes, I have another job. I will start at the beginning ... Once I got my first job back in November Tyler and I started thinking about buying a home, but we knew we would need me to have a few pay stubs first before going to talk to a mortgage place. So in December we met a guy from our ward who is a mortgage broker and also the branch manager of Broadview Mortgage. He had us bring him all our papers and gave us a range in prices we should be looking at. Oh and he introduced us to our wonderful real estate agent Aida. So the beginning of January comes around and we start looking at places with Aida. We found a place, but someone out bid us by $20k so that didn't work, but then we found another and we are currently waiting, it's a short sale. So we understand we could be waiting for a long time. But back to the point, sometime when I was talking with Colin our mortgage broker I mentioned or he mentioned, I can't remember, something about yoga. He recommended The Yoga Room here in Redlands. Then a few weeks later he forwarded me a groupon where I could get 10 classes for $25. That is an amazing deal, since one class regularly cost $15. So I started going and I love it. Then one of the instructors mentions that they are moving to another building and they will hopefully have a receptionist so that the instructors won't have to check people in. That was when the light bulb in my head turned on. For a few days I wrestle with the idea of emailing the company and just letting them know I am interested. I didn't really expect a response when I did send an email with my resume saying that I would be interested in working in the evenings for them. A couple days later Shawna emails me back and wants to meet. So pretty much I got hired without even an interview because we only talked for about a minute before a class started and through some emails over the last couple weeks. But I am so excited to work there, especially because I'll get free yoga. So now after work at LLU I will go over there and check people in and then get to take the class. How awesome is that. The downside, Tyler will not being getting fresh home cooked meals every night, but I will probably cook on the weekends and he can re-heat. Oh and I am in the process of applying to grad school. YAY! But don't worry if I do get in it doesn't start till next January.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Bake 52 Week 7: Pizza

Tyler LOVES pizza. Even the gross cheap kind such as Little Caesars. So it was very appropriate to make pizza for Valentine's Day, the day of love and things you love to eat I guess. Lucky for me I made this recipe back in January and saved half the dough in the freezer. I love being able to do that. Tyler and I really love this crust and it isn't hard to make at all and it taste way better than Little Caesars. I topped our pizza with mozzarella  cheese, black olives, and red onions, oh and some tomato sauce. We are having a vegetarian week. Sunday we had black bean quesadillas, Monday we had sweet potato and bean burritos and then last night this pizza. I didn't really plan it that way, but we are going with it. I think next time I'll try to get fancy with the crust and put garlic salt on it or something. Thank you Betsy for choosing this recipe, it was easy and delicious and way way better than $5 pizza.
Tyler had me put on a few jalapenos. He enjoyed them.


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Bake 52 Week 5: 7 Layer Bars

So these were...AMAZING!!! If I could pick out all of my favorite things to eat and put them all in one recipe this would be it minus the cilantro. If i already had the pecans and coconut toasted it would have been a super quick dessert too, but that is because I couldn't wait for them to cool completely and ate one warm. Thank you so much Jesse for choosing this delicious dessert. Good thing I cut in half the recipe or else I would be in a lot worse shape than I am. I just love the sweet and salty mix and then the coconut and chocolate and pecans, in fact I am eating one right now and will probably go get another. Please go visit Jesse's blog so you can get the recipes, you will not regret it.
I loved these so much I posted a picture of myself eating one.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Bake 52 Week 4: Light Cheesecake


Ok so I am all about cutting calories if you can and it doesn't ruin the flavor. This week I made a cheesecake. A whole cheese cake. Bad decision. Yes, it is light, but that doesn't mean Tyler and I should eat it all ourselves. The texture was just fine, not as creamy as normal cheesecake, but not bad either. The taste was just a tad bit off, but nothing that bother me too much, I liked it. My problem was with the crust. I know in the past I admit that I skip steps or rush things, but I promise I didn't do that on this recipes because I know how temperamental cheesecake can be. So when it said wait for the crust to be completely cool before adding filling, I did exactly that. My result anyway...a soggy crust. I was pretty bummed. I mean my cheesecake cracked too, but that didn't bother me like this does. And just so you all know, I have made cheesecake before from scratch and it turned out how it was supposed to. So after reading Amanda's blog where she said it is only 60 calories less, I think I'll go with a smaller slice of traditional full calorie cheesecake. Thank you to Talesha for hosting this week you can find the recipe on her page. Maybe I should have done what Amanda did and made a smaller batch or made even smaller batch and put it in a cupcake tin and then freeze them and I could have mini cheesecakes whenever I want. Overall, if the crust was better it might have been a keeper.


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Bake 52 Week 3: Boston Cream Cupcakes

Amanda decided to help ruin some people's New Year resolutions by picking this recipes out. But it was bound to happen sooner or later and I was sure glad to have these yummy treats last week. During this recipe, because there were many steps involved, I felt like it was spreading my wings in the baking realm. So it was a bit more effort than most recipes I deal with, but it was so worth it. I wish I could have FedEx one of these to each of my friends and family because I was so proud of them and I should have spread the calories around. I did take them to a BBQ, however, the queen bee also brought hers to the BBQ so not all of them got eaten, so Tyler and I ate the rest. We also did our best to run it off afterwards. I look forward to opportunities where I can make these again. If you would like to try them out go to Amanda's Blog, however, I hope you have some event to take them to because they are hard to resist.

Some unique things about these cupcakes:
  • The cupcake is very dense while still being moist and somewhat fluffy.They puff up while cooking and then deflate and become flat on top. Also the recipes says to use 1/3 cup to fill the muffins, I would do 1/4 next time.
  • The cream tastes just like Bird's Custard. A favorite of my family.
  • The chocolate is the perfect texture and flavor and can be used on many other desserts. However, I did use semi-sweet instead of bittersweet chocolate.