Sunday, September 30, 2012

A Place to Sleep

I hate my mattress. I won’t lie, I hate it. When we first got it, a year+ ago, I liked it. It seemed pretty comfortable, and it was giant, so we didn’t have to sleep too close to each other. That sounds weird, but when we first got married, I didn’t care for sharing a bed. I’d slept by myself for my entire life, so having anyone touch me in my sleep kept me awake like crazy.

Then, things started to creep in that made me hate the bed. It’s too big for sheets. Even California King sheets weren’t big enough. I had to use little straps to keep the sheets down under the corners, and that didn’t work very well. And the bed got to be noisy. When Husband got into bed, and I was asleep, the noise and bounciness of the bed would wake me up and make me hate him. So I’ve been looking at mattresses, and finally found a few, and went to Husband with these mattresses, and tried to get him to see things my way. Then we went shopping for said mattresses, and got an amazing deal on a TempurPedic mattress. One that’s usually $1900 was marked onto clearance for $899! HOLY COW! So of course, after taking a few hours to think about it, we bought the mattress. We almost couldn’t afford not to!

So, we got it home, and in the process of taking off the old mattress, knocked Husband’s end table over, and everything spilled everywhere. We moved the old one out, moved the new one in, and put some sheets on there, an older set I haven’t used since I learned, after buying of course, that they were slightly too small for the bed, but on this, they fit perfectly! Then, almost the best part of all, Husband cleaned off his end table. I’ve been staring at it forever, trying to will him to clean it (because he doesn’t when asked!) and this finally made him clean it, and now it looks clean and awesome. This is worth the price of the mattress by itself.

Now. I settled in for the night, and I was PSYCHED to sleep in the bed. I was looking forward to the memory foam goodness. I laid in bed for a good long time, to try to fall asleep. My stomach had started hurting a bit before bed, I think it was from all the caffeine I drank. So I think that with the combo of the caffeine, and the stomach hurting…I had one of the worst nights of sleep I’ve ever had. I was awake for most of the night, I couldn’t sleep, I was exhausted. So of course, I woke up today, thinking I had made the worst mistake of my life, buying this mattress. But, I have high hopes I’m going to try again tonight, of course, and pray that it works out and I have a good nights rest. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Lemon Crinkle...Bars

Last night, I tried a new treat. Well…sorta. I was trying the crinkle cookies recipe, but instead of the chocolate and red velvet used in the past, I tried lemon cake today. And did it work, you wonder? No, no it didn’t. There was something about the mix, it was very similar to the red velvet stuff in that it was way too sticky. I tried to add some flour, to make it a little thicker and easier to roll into balls, but that wasn’t working, either. So instead of making cookies, I just dumped the rest of the mix into an 8x8 pan, and made them as sort of lemon bars. I put some powdered sugar in the bottom of the pan before I put in the “dough” and then, sprinkled a healthy amount on top before putting it in the oven. And it worked, too. Here’s a pic of them before baking:


Yes, that picture was taken in the oven. I put it in the oven, and after it had been in there for a minute or something, I realized I meant to take a picture, so I just opened it up and took it. I had no idea about how long to bake these for. I guessed 15, then it seemed like it was done, so I added 6 more minutes. Then 3 more. Then 2 more. Finally, the inserted toothpick seemed pretty clean, so I just took them out, and even though the top was a little more browned than I’d like, it still works.



I tried a little when they came out of the oven, and they weren’t gross! So I waited for them to cool, cut them into the pieces, and called them good. I’ve had one today, and they are pretty tasty. Thank goodness they ended up working as these lemon bars, otherwise, I’d have hated throwing away the whole cake mix and all. At least it worked for something!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Teriyaki Chicken

Normally, Sunday dinner in our house is something super easy. Weird, right? You’d think that because we have no work, or anything to do, that we’d do a big dinner, something elaborate and delicious. Unfortunately, that’s never what happens. Usually, I come home from church after noon, change out of my church clothes (that’s right, I don’t stay in them.) and then eat a biggish lunch, since usually, I’ve not eaten breakfast, and so far for the day, I’ve only eaten the gummy bears and chocolate covered peanuts in my church bag. So then, I enjoy a big meal at like, one, and then, I just don’t think about food (sometimes I have some snacks during the day) and then it turns like, 7 or 8, and I' think, holy we need to eat something! And quickly throw together something to eat, but today, it changed.

I had a lot of time today, with there being no church yet again. So I found this recipe on Pinterest yesterday, and I wanted to make it. So at about noon, I started getting it ready, and at noon-thirty, I had it in the crockpot, ready to cook. The recipe goes as follows:

Teriyaki Chicken:

4 Frozen Chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1 can pineapple chunks, drain half of the juice out
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Spray the crock pot with nonstick cooking spray and add chicken breasts. Pour soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and pineapple chunks (with the juice) over the chicken. Sprinkle as many red pepper flakes on top as desired. Cook on high for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken in the crock pot with 2 forks, and serve over rice.

Now, that’s how they do it. Let me tell you of my additions and changes. I used an extra chicken. There was 5 in the package I got, so I just threw it in there too, so it wasn’t just going to be by itself later. It didn’t take away from any of the juice, or anything, I didn’t think. Also, I read in the comments of the blog I took it off of that they chicken and sauce was way too salty, so I used low sodium soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. I also added a bell pepper, and half of an onion, because I thought they’d be a nice addition. I didn’t shred the chicken in the pot, I took it out onto a plate, shredded it there, and then let it cook for another 10 minutes or so, so it could be all soaked in the juice again. All in all, it took about 4 hours to cook, because it was all done by 4:10. And now, the taste….

IT WAS DELICIOUS! Honestly, it was so good. I recommend the heck out of this to anyone. I took a picture, of course, of it after I shredded:

 

Chicken

Yum!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A Scout is Helpful...

Tonight, as is usual every Wednesday, I had scouts. These kids...man. Only two show up every week, the same two loyal boys. Today, we were working on their Scholar badge, and we finished all the requirements, and still had about 30 minutes to go. We decided, instead of just playing around, doing nothing, that we'd get the boys started on another badge, and we chose Handyman. What did we choose to do, you ask? Oh, simple! Make the boys wash cars! (Hey, its in there!)
So, we drove our respective cars up into the driveway, gave the boys a hose, and let them go. They sprayed both cars, then we all got involved with the washing, then the boys sprayed all the water off. Then, we all pitched in yet again, grabbed a towel, and dried the cars. They were looking pretty dang good by the time we were finishing. And of course, after the cars were done, they ran off to play dodgeball or something (how they did that with just the two of them, I'll never know), and left myself and the other leader to finish up with the cars, namely, washing the windows.
But we finished, and now the cars look great. I hadn't washed Echo since about March (I think it was at the same time as my first mouth surgery, which I couldn't believe!) and now, it's sparkling, and shiny and looking near-new. So, yes, maybe it was a little odd to have the boys do that, but it's in the manual, and they're close to getting their badges. And tonight, our scouts were super helpful.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

A Day Off in the Middle of the Week

I suppose today isn’t the middle of the week, its only Tuesday, but I’m sticking with it. Originally, I had taken off today to finally go to Lagoon for Husband’s birthday. His birthday was indeed 2 months ago, and we’re only now getting to it. Yesterday, near the end of the day, Husband texted me to ask if we were still going. I said yes, and he asked if the place was even open. Of course it was! … I thought, until I checked and found out that yup, they do close during the week after Labor Day, and are only open on the weekend now. Jeepers! We decided to still take the day off, we could find stuff to do.

Cut to today, and we didn’t ever think of what to do. Last night, we didn’t really think, and then this morning, no one could really decide, so we just sort of did…nothing. I set my alarm this morning for 6:30. There was no real reason to wake up that early, but I thought it was better that I didn’t sleep in too much, lest I was unable to sleep tonight. The alarm went off and I thought, meh, I don’t think I’ll get up, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up for reals, I went on a run, and then got ready for the day, and we finally went to breakfast at about 11. To the Village Inn. FANCY! Whatever, it was delicious, and I got a couple of slices of pie to go for later, so I’m happy. Then, we shopped around Barnes&Noble for a while, looking for any book that we wanted to get. I didn’t find anything I wanted! GAH! I just have so many unread books that I own right now, so it seems crazy to buy another that I won’t read yet also. Then, a trip to Walmart to pick up some supplies for dinner (namely, small tortilla shells)

We came home to rest up, (Husband has BAD allergies right now, thank goodness I don’t) and I watched a little TV while he did so. Then, we were finally going to go on a bike ride. We loaded up the bikes, drove down to the mouth of Provo Canyon, then proceeded to unload the bikes. And after we got mine off, we saw that Husband’s bike (even though it had been given a tune up 1 week ago) was broken. The shocks of the bike had completely come off, and the tire/’fork” part of the bike was essentially holding on by just one cable- the brake. So we loaded them back up again, and drove to the local bike shop, so that they could fix it. Dejected, we went home again.

After we got home, it was pretty near dinner time, so we got that started. I made Chili Dog Casserole. And if you want to know how to make it, I direct you to Chelle’s blog here, she has really good direction. I will leave you with a picture of mine after I pulled it out of the oven:
IMG_2843

Yum!! This was seriously awesome. After dinner was eaten and settled, I decided it was time to paint my nails. It’s only been a week or so since I last did my toes, but they chipped, so I decided to do them again. Over the weekend, I bought a new paint color – Slick Slate! Here’s what they looked like when I was done:

IMG_2846

I thought they looked pretty snazzy, I was pleased. The white stripes aren’t the same on both nails, and that bugs me, but not enough to start again. As those were drying, I got going on another quick project, making some cookies. A long time ago, I wrote about making 4 ingredient crinkle cookies, and today, I wanted to make them a little differently. I used a red velvet cake mix this time, and boy, these were a beast to make. The dough was stickier, so the cookies were harder to make, but I finally got them all on the sheet to put into the oven:
IMG_2844

I thought they looked dang good, and was excited to pull them out! When I did, this is what I found:
IMG_2845

Disappointing! So I guess, lesson learned, you can make chocolate cake ones, but not red velvet ones. I’m sure they still taste fine, but I am disappointed at how they look.

And that’s it! My day. Yes, it was pretty boring for a day off, but at least, near the end, I got some stuff done. And it was nice, to not have a stressful day, to just do whatever I wanted.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Pizza Balls

Oh, Pinterest. So fickle. Sometimes, you give me such good recipes. Delicious recipes. Awesome crafts. Funny sayings. But sometimes, I have what I call the “Nailed it!” moment, and that’s when you try something from Pinterest, and it doesn’t work, at all. And then, all I want to say about it is “Nailed it!” because you super didn’t.

Tonight, I wanted to make pizza balls. Delicious, awesome pizza balls. They’re supposed to be easy. Ingredients:
3 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits (10/can), 56 pepperoni slices, block of Colby cheese, 1 beaten egg, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, 1 jar pizza sauce.

To make-
Preheat the oven to 425. Cut the block of cheese into 28 squares. Flatten a biscuit, and stack the pepperoni and cheese inside (Like a small sandwich. Slice of pepperoni, cheese, slice of pepperoni). Gather of the edges of the biscuit, and place it seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with Parmesan, seasoning, and powder. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Now, this is how the recipe on Pinterest said to do it. DON’T DO IT THIS WAY. If you cook it for that long, at least it my oven, it burns the heck out of them, and they’re hard as rocks. I’ll use some pics now, to help you along. Here’s what they looked like, before putting them into the oven:
PizzaRolls1I know it says to put them into a 9x13 pan, but Husband put them onto the cookie sheet before I realized what was happening. Maybe that also helped in the burning, but who knows? Then, I pulled them out of the oven, and realized that, yes, they were burned. I’ll put mine side by side to the pic off the internet, so you can see how awful mine are.

PizzaRolls2PizzaRolls3

See! Gosh they were bad. And they were barely even eatable. I only at a couple before I gave up and just threw them all away. And I guess you use the sauce to dip them in? After the initial introduction to the sauce, we’re not told what else to do with it, and that’s fine. And the one thing we want to say about these pizza rolls?

Nailed it.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sunday Activities

This weekend was a church and RSL game-free weekend. I know that technically, it’s a regional/stake conference, but growing up, we never went, so now as an adult, the habit of skipping these meetings is still strong. And I know, I should be good and go, but I don’t, and I enjoy the day off, so that’s how I roll. Anyway, I gave myself a huge to-do list, because I had all day to do it. And in my brain, if I don’t go to church, I need to be productive in some way, so this is how I do it. So all day, I cleaned. I cleaned all 3 bathrooms, including mopping them. I swept and mopped the kitchen. Vacuumed the whole house. Basically, just did the whole house.

Later in the evening, I was writing a birthday card to a friend, and I decided that it was time for me to change my phone paper. (as explained before here, I use a piece of scrapbook paper in my clear phone case to individualize it, in case people didn’t remember) And to change up tradition once again, I decided to stamp my own background this time, so that it was a little differently. After going through all my stamps, and all my colors, I decided on this:

PhoneBack

Ta-daaaa! Looking pretty good, eh? I don’t really ride bikes a lot, but recently I finally got my bike back from my brother, so I am a little more into it than before. Plus, I really like the bike stamp, it’s pretty cute. Anyway, the moral of the story is this: Even when I don’t go to church, I still get a lot of good done.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse

As usual, Monday = treat day. Last night was a specific treat day, because I am the hostess for Stamp & Chat this week. I was in the neighborhood of trying to find a healthy treat, and I stumbled on this recipe on – say it with me, everyone! – Pinterest! This has to be one of the easiest recipes I’ve tried. Here’s the recipe:

1 8-oz pkg fat free cream cheese

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup Splenda

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tub (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed. (Do NOT add to recipe unless until completely thawed)

With an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the Splenda and pumpkin pie spice and continue to mix until well combined. Unload the whipped topping from the tub, and using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon (DO NOT USE ELECTRIC MIXER), gently fold the whipped topping into the mixture, stopping as soon as the ingredients are blended.

Mousse-whip

Over stirring will cause the whipped topping to lose too much air.

Mousse-together

Spoon the mousse into individual dessert bowls (I fancily used 9-oz plastic cups), cover, and refrigerate for ½ hours, or until mixture is set. If desired, sprinkle each mousse with a light dusking of pumpkin pie spice before serving.

Mousse-cups

And ta-daaaa! Pretty easy, and they are pretty dang good. You can’t even tell that you’re using a sugar substitute or fat-free cream cheese. Of course, I haven’t tried the ‘set’ version yet, just as soon as it was mixed, but I don’t think the taste would vary that much. With a treat this easy and this healthy, it might be a pretty good treat to serve all over the place this fall.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Miscellaneous Monday

On Saturday, my sister in law gave me a call; she needed help with a school project, and thought I could help her. The gig was making postcards, which, I know how to make card-related items. So, Sunday afternoon rolled around, and we started to work. It took a little longer than I thought it would, it took over 3 hours to get these done. But we finished them, and they looked pretty good, I thought. I took a pic, naturally.

Postcards

When we were finished, and she put away her things, I surveyed the damage left over.

mess

After she went home, I cleaned up. It took a while to clean up, of course, but finally, everything was super clean and done. Sadly, all of the things I had on my to-do list didn’t get done, but that’s ok, I was doing a service, and that means blessings, probably.

I didn’t see a movie the entire month of August in the theaters. Things were busy every weekend, from our Colorado trip, people were out of town, and soccer games were on unusual nights, so it was just hard to get to a theater (I know, I’m whining about something that not a lot of people get to do, and believe me, I get it). This past week, I made up for it in a big way. I saw a movie on Labor Day, and then I saw one Friday, and one on Saturday. I made up for it all! I think there were only 2 movies that I didn’t get to before they left the theater, one being Spider-Man. I think I’ll have to RedBox that, which I’m ok with, it was never a movie that I was jumping up and down to see. But now, I’m caught up, and feeling pretty good about it.

I finally got a picture of me with our friend Canada. (I’ve decided to call him Canada, being his origin place, and his thick accent) Sadly, it happened at night, so the quality isn’t amazing, but now, you can see how much taller than I he is. See?

Cole-Vieve2

Such a difference! But now I finally have it, a size difference that I can show. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

New Addition

Recently, we’ve had a new addition to the family. Not mine and Husband’s, specifically, I mean my extended whole family. Recently, my brother (the one who lives by me, that I’ve spoken of before) adopted a baby – a small boy that they named Axel. Yes, you’ve read that right, they named him Axel. A few days after he was born, I went to their house, to see him, and this is who I saw:

IMG_2734

Cute! I of course, picked him up and held him:

IMG_2737

And he was fun. Very very small, and I enjoyed hanging out with my two nephews for a bit:

IMG_2728

So fun. I do enjoy getting a new family member, because then that’s a new chance I have to convince a child to like me best.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Foto Friday

This morning, I found a new addition to the McSnailington clan. Ok, let’s be honest, he could be of another one altogether, but I’ll call it at this one. I was on my way into work this morning, and I happened to glance down, and I saw him. He is tiny! You can’t really tell in the picture, I maybe should have put something next to him, so that you could see how small he is comparatively, but he is so tiny, I was surprised I saw him at all. But here he is:

IMG_2771

Cute! I didn’t touch him or try to kill him or anything, and I’ll assume he got to his destination safely. It was a nice treat to start my day off with that tiny guy.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

A Slight Delay

I forgot, the other day, to blog about the RSL game that we went to on Saturday night. It was, as usual, a good time, but an interesting game to go to. It was a chilly time, which is weird for August, but to be honest, it was a nice break from the scorching temperatures we usually have, and I just sit in the stands, sweating, drinking copious amounts of water, but not getting any cooler. So it was nice, for a bit. As we were walking into the game, it was sprinkling ever so slightly. The game started, and it was still sprinkling. We got 3 minutes and 15 seconds into the game, and all of a sudden, the referee blew the whistle, and stopped the game. Due to the proximity of the lightning, they stopped the game for the safety of the players. They made an announcement, saying that the players would be leaving the field, and for our safety, we should leave our seats, and go stand up in the concession areas. I’m a rebel, so we hung out in our seats, waiting for the players to return. I took a picture of the sky after they left, the sky looked so dark and foreboding.

IMG_2717

80 MINUTES LATER the players returned to the field. We sat there, playing games, chatting, and I live-tweeted the event, so that those at home knew what was going on, the inside scoop. Then, through the storm clouds, and the lightning, and all that, a rainbow emerged, and we thought the game might start soon.

IMG_2725

Finally, about 15 minutes after the rainbow was seen, they returned, and warmed up for about 10 minutes or so. Then they started, and we were chilly. PJ & I had to go to the team store during the first half, to get a jacket, she had left hers in the car, because on the way in, it didn’t actually seem like it was going to be cold. Husband left his too, so I bought him a long-sleeved shirt out of the kindness of my heart. Then we stayed and watched the game for the remainder, and we won! It was awesome. At the end of the day, we had stayed at the stadium for about 4 hours. That’s not a super long amount of time, but oh man did it seem like it a little. Thankfully, we all lived, we had fun, and the best news of all, we made it to Baskin Robbins 7 minutes before they closed, which was the miracle of the night.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Jugglin‘

I found out about an app today that has changed my life. Ok, I can’t guarantee the life-changing event, but I sure have had a LOT of fun with it this afternoon. It’s called Face Juggler, and it does exactly what it says it will. You import a picture of people, and it’ll move everyone’s faces around until no one has their original face. I did it with many pictures, but these ones were my favorite:RoryVieveMonster

Honestly, we look like monsters here. My face on her body (pink shirt) isn’t too bad, but her face on mine looks pretty horrible.

CaseyRoryMonster

He on her face looks just like an ugly guy, but her face on his body makes him look like the best drag queen ever.

AdamVieveMonster

This one doesn’t work on about a hundred different levels. Our heads are just too different, size-wise.

So there it is. I’ve been laughing at these all day, and sending them to people to laugh at too, so I hope you enjoyed these as well.

Monday, September 3, 2012

How I Spent My Labor Day

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday. Mine was pretty good, I won’t lie. I’ll do a small recap here, because of the awesome events. I started the day with a pretty good run up and then back down Provo canyon. After the run (in which PJ joined me) we made some good food, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, and some delicious bacon, that I made in the oven. I’d never done that before and while it was good, if I do it again, I’ll keep it in the oven for a shorter amount of time. When I pulled the bacon out, it seemed all sorts of burned, but after I let it sit on some paper towels for a while, it calmed down enough to see it wasn’t burned, and actually pretty delicious. I’d make it that way again and again! (Because I hate making bacon, I hate the popping burns I get)

Then later in the afternoon, PJ and I went and got some haircuts. I’ve been putting off getting a trim for a really long time, because I just want to have my hair long. But I’ve finally decided, it was time to go. I took off a good 4 inches – 3 ½ to cut my hair up to my layers, and then an extra inch so that the layer I was meeting up to had the dead hair cut off as well. It’s not a huge difference, you can’t really tell the hair being cut, but I can tell, the hair is just different. It’s very healthy now, and that’s freaking awesome. So I took a pic of it yesterday, to compare with a pic that I had taken of the back of my head a few weeks ago, so that you can see what the difference is.

HairCut

See, looks pretty good! I was glad I got rid of that dead weight at the bottom, and hopefully it’ll grow back fast.

After a movie (Bourne Legacy, in case you’re wondering) I had to make a treat for scouts. It’s our pack meeting tomorrow and we’re doing the Blue and Gold banquet, and the Webelos are in charge of the dessert. I’m not entirely sure how many people will be coming, but we seemed to have a lot of people at the last one of these, so I knew to make a bunch of something. I chose to make the Chocolate Treasures that I made last year, since they make a bunch, they’re small for kids, and it’s easy. So, PJ helped me make a double recipe, which ended up making 96 mini brownies.

UnfrostedBrownies

See how many that is? Sheesh. Once I got them all baked and out of the oven, we needed to kill a little time while they cooled so that we could frost them. So, PJ and I spent some time trying to get our phones to play the same song at the same time. We tried many many songs, and I think we only got them to play at the same for one song. There were many times where one of the phones was just like, a second off of each other, and we couldn’t get them to sync up. But finally, after all the phone shenanigans, frosting was made and applied to all the brownies.

FrostedBrownies

Ta-daaaaa! And then I shoved them all into 2 containers, and they’re ready for many hungry scouts and their families. I think everything worked out pretty well, and I got everything done on my list that I needed to get done!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Card Time, Once Again

It’s that time again – card makin’ time. I have card club this Saturday, and did I actually do this in time, or did I procrastinate, and leave it until the last week? The answer is, of course, I procrastinated! For the last 2 card clubs, I’ve had a mouth surgery the week before the meeting, and ample time off of work to do them. So it’s been nice, I’ve enjoyed that luxury. So this time, I’ve just had my regular time, and I’ve planned the cards, for weeks now, without actually doing the cards. This last week, I realized that I have zero time left, so I need to hurry up and do them. So after making a card each of the ones I’ll be making, I sat down today to finally get them done.
After I got home from church, I immediately sat down and got to work. I worked pretty straight through the day, with a 2 hour break for a family dinner. Then I came home, and worked through the rest of the evening, and finished them all! Huzzah! So now, for your viewing pleasure, my cards:
HalloweenCardThankCard
And I did a little fan of them both, so that you could see all of them at once, you’re welcome.
HalloweenFanThankFan
So now, I’m set. I have card club in less than a week, and my cards are ready, so I’m good to exchange. Hopefully next time, I’ll learn my lesson and make the cards at least a week in advance.




Sunday Stroll

Tonight, in the midst of crafty times (expect a blog on this later!) I felt like I needed to get up and take a walk. I've been working on this since I got home from church at noon, with the exception of a 2 hour break for a family dinner. So I needed to stretch my legs, pretty much. So I put on my walking shoes (flip flops) and left the house at like, 9:00. As I was walking out the door, Husband's like, don't go by yourself, you'll get kidnapped! And I said my standard reply to this, which is "Yeah, because some guy is just waiting around our neighborhood waiting for a white woman to walk around alone". Because, come on, that's not happening.
So, I get going, and walking around, and then I remember that every time, without fail, even though I'm totally tough in my house before I leave, once I'm out walking in the dark, then I really am like, "There's probably some guy walking around our neighborhood waiting for a white woman to walk around alone!" and I'm distrustful of everyone and shadows make me nervous. At one point, I was walking by the house where an emu lives (yes, there's a house that has an emu as a pet. Is that the weirdest?) and its pitch black, of course, and then, the emu, who was previously in a ball on the grass, decides to get up and look at me as I pass. And of course, my heart JUMPS out of itself, thinking that the bird is firstly a serial killer getting me, and then I think, what if it jumps out of the fence and kills me?! Because you know, that's totally going to happen.
On the plus side, I did make it home just fine, nobody attacked me, and I lived. This will probably not be my last solo night walk, and that's ok. I like these walks, especially because will all the frights I imagine, it gives my heart a nice workout too!