Vieve's Place...Enjoy Your Visit
Ok we have some good pics this week, you guys.
First of all, he’s been practicing his mad face, and I think he’s delivering.
He sat outside and this is him, watching cars. Doesn’t he look thoughtful? Like, he’s really pondering what life is about.
He also finds grass oh so fascinating.
You guys, I have some great news. I have finally been released from scouts! Last Thursday, one of the bishopric members came to my house, and extended to me a new calling! I couldn’t believe it at all, especially when he said the new calling…assistant Laurel advisor. I have wanted to be in the YW for a long time, so this is going to be so fun! I had to keep it a secret until Sunday, which isn’t too hard, because I don’t have that many friends in my ward/stake, that I see unless it’s a Sunday, so it wasn’t hard at all.
Knowing that I would have to stand up in church yesterday to be sustained made me so nervous. I was nervous all morning, and then when it was time for church, my stomach had anxiety bubbles. Finally it was time for callings/releasing's, so when he said my name, I stood up. He said my new calling, and two YW that were sitting in front of me whipped around so fast to look at me. I gave them a thumbs up, and they returned that, and I felt good. I was nervous that girls would be like, really? But that little boost was enough to help me feel a little more confident.
Of course, the first thing some of the girls said to me was to ask if I was going to camp. I asked when it was, and after learning the date, I can go, it’s in my free time of summer. I said I would come, and then immediately regretted this. Camping? Again? I just did this last year! But at least it’ll be different, easier, better than trek, so it’ll be all right. But now, lets all buckle up, because this new adventure is going to be crazy.
Whenever Husband wants to go out for sushi, I always order the tepanyaki stuff, and eat my cooked chicken, or steak, and go about my business. Tonight, we went out with Husband’s cousin, and went to a sushi place. They kind of talked me into just eating sushi with the rest of them, so I ordered the two rolls I like (one of which doesn’t have fish in it at all, and the other has very little) and then they all ordered their crazy rolls.
Here’s one of the plates. I was very diplomatic, and tried them all, even though I didn’t like most of them, but I tried! I branched out! I did something new! And then I wanted to get a cheeseburger, but I was too full from rice, so that was all right. And maybe this isn’t something that I’ll do often, but now I know that if I’m in the situation, I can survive by just eating gross sushi.
Ok, cute baby alert, this time, he’s wearing some PJs.
He’s getting to be so happy in the morning, look at that face!
He kind of locked himself into this little jungle gym, and couldn’t get out of there, look at that face, he’s so frustrated and I’m dying laughing.
Then he gave up on life, and just laid down like this.
Ok, today I needed to make a treat for a family dinner tonight, so I went to one that I hadn’t made before, but I had had before, so I already knew it was delicious. I copied the recipe from Chelle’s blog, so if you want to make this, head over there for the recipe, because I am too lazy to type it all. That’s right, too lazy. But here’s the pic I took, I did a little work here for this.
I’m realizing you can’t see the brownie part, but that’s ok. These are so tasty I wanted to eat the whole pan.
Ok this week, Darth got his pictures taken for Valentines day, and they are just too cute to handle. I’m not going to post them all, but these are fantastic.
Honestly this baby is too much for me to handle, and I’m obsessed with him.
Ok, I tried a new recipe tonight, trying to make copycat Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets. I should have looked at the recipe a little closer before getting started, because I was supposed to do a step for between 2 hours and overnight, and I only did it for about 20 minutes, but they still turned out okay, so I don’t know how necessary that is. If I try it again, I’ll try it for longer. But here’s the recipe I used!
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 1/2 cups milk, divided
1/2 cup dill pickle juice
1 cup peanut oil (I used Canola oil, apparently I didn’t have peanut)
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
Salt and black pepper
In a large bowl, combine chicken, 1/2 cup milk and pickle juice. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to overnight; drain well (keep in mind, I didn’t do this, I just did this for maybe a half hour). Heat peanut/canola oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1 cup milk and egg. Stir in chicken and gently toss to combine; drain excess milk mixture. In a gallon size Ziploc bag, combine chicken, flour and powdered sugar; season with salt and pepper. Working in batches, add chicken to the skillet and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
Ok, and then, I made the two sauces we usually get at Chick-Fil-A, the Polynesian, and the honey mustard. Recipes for both:
Honey Mustard:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon mustard
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Mix together all ingredients and let hang out in the fridge, chillin’.
Polynesian Sauce:
1 cup California French Dressing
3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons honey
Whisk together and let chill in the fridge until ready.
Ok on the Polynesian sauce, it was…interesting. There was WAY too much vinegar, so I would either cut back way way lots on that, or maybe do regular vinegar, instead of apple cider. I don’t know what would make it better, so I am just guessing on that.
Other than that, this was good! It didn’t taste EXACTLY like Chick-Fil-A, but it was pretty dang close. I think it’s the pickle juice, I never realized that was what I was tasting there. But I recommend this, guys, it’s really good!
We are now at the time of the semester (2 weeks after it starts) where I have to start thinking of paper topics. Last semester, I couldn’t ever think of any topics, so I stumbled into topics, and barely even liked them, and hated the papers. So I was determined this semester to pick topics that interested me, and then I would enjoy researching the paper. Now, I’m on my third paper for my class, and I can’t find a topic! I’m supposed to find a topic that has two opposing views, with legit sources to back me up, but I cannot find legit sources for this! It’s so frustrating to me, and it makes me hate English class so hard. I am counting down the days until this wasted class is over.
We decided to be pro-active and clean our carpets today. Of course, I didn’t think about it too far in the future, and realize that if we cleaned most of the carpets today we wouldn’t have places to sit. So after finishing my homework, in the kitchen, the only place to hang out was the bedroom, since all the other floors were wet, and the furniture wasn’t able to be sat on. I felt a little like I had been grounded, and not allowed to leave my room for the night. Hopefully it’s worth it, and our carpets will be nice and clean.
This weather has been amazing. I don’t know why our weather has randomly decided to jumpstart itself into spring, but oh my goodness, I am loving this warm weather. It’s just light jackets, and sometimes, no jackets at all. I’m back to wearing flip-flops, and I am just excited to be outside, and not freezing. I looked at the forecast, and I see this upcoming weekend, we’ll be in the sixties, and this is fantastic. I’m trying to figure out what outdoor activities I should do while I have the chance! Hopefully you all get the chance to enjoy it too!
I made my very first (and hopefully not last!) lollipop bouquet. It’s the birthday of one of the gals I visit teach, and I thought long and hard about what to give that was fun and yet not too weird to give. Finally, I settled on this, and after a late-night trip to Walmart (I had the idea at 10:00 Saturday night, and her birthday was today, of course) I got all I needed, and hurried and made it, and I think it turned out pretty dang cute!
Basically, you take a terra-cotta pot, throw a Styrofoam ball in there, and jab lollipops in there until you can’t see the ball anymore. Tie a ribbon around it, and ta-daaa! Finished! I think it ended up awesome, and I’m glad I thought of it in time!
We had some real doozies this week, guys.
He knows how to turn the charm on.
He got up close and personal this picture, and then promptly tried to eat the phone, I hear.
And look at that face! I tell you, he is a real cutie, I want to spend some time with this joker, if only he lived closer to me!
Tonight was Stamp and Chat, and it was a valentine theme. We had valentine/love cards, and we had red treats for dessert. I made some red velvet brownies, with a white chocolate frosting.
I’m too lazy to write all the steps of the recipe, but I found it here.
And then, Chelle and her mom conspired to make delicious cheesecake with a strawberry topping
And lastly, our cards were perfecto!
It was so much fun, and delicious food!
Today is a Super Bowl edition of the miscellaneous business. I was disappointed by the outcome of the game, guys! Why the heck did they decided to throw it THAT CLOSE TO THE ENDZONE?! Oh my gosh, they should have run it in! The disappointment was so intense for me. I was paying more attention to this game than I have to any other game in my whole life. And then, to have it end thusly. Oh man.
The worst commercial of the day? The Nationwide one. Didn’t see it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY
Enjoy that junk, if you so choose. I couldn’t believe the end of that. The kid is dead?! He’s been dead this whole time?! Oh my gosh did that bring down the mood for a minute or so. Sheesh.
Nearing the end of the game, I surveyed the damage of what was done. Basically, if this was alcohol, we’d all be super wasted.
Someone brought Mexican Coke, and we drank that all up like crazy. Hope you all enjoyed the game, regardless of the outcome!
Usually, church is a pretty somber affair. Not to say it’s super serious all the time, and depressing, but it’s a quiet place, where you sit quietly for 3 hours, and enjoy the spirit of it all. Yesterday, as we were starting sacrament meeting, a family behind us tapped me on the shoulder, and said if we got bored, they had stuff for us to do. They were saying it as a joke, since they no longer have little kids, but they still carried their little kid stuffs, just in case. Of course, I took them up on it, and took the bag from them. I was astounded by the things I found! They had stencils I played with, quiet books, and much more. It’s not like I wasn’t paying attention either, I was listening to all the people talking, and really more into it than I usually am.
There were some finger puppets in there that we looked at, and of course, played with for a minute. Then a few minutes later, I see this picture pop up on my phone:
Yes, a gal behind us took a picture of us playing with them, and then tweeted it out! I laughed at that, and enjoyed the rest of sacrament meeting. Hope you guys enjoyed your Sunday as well!
