Doctors, Boats, Dinner, & Planes

Pigs are surely flying somewhere because I have been out and about before 8AM the last two mornings. Part of my errands each morning has involved the hospital. Yesterday I had a meet'n'greet check-up thingamajig with my Primary Care Manager (who is awesome!). Today I had blood drawn for routine blood work. The guy who took my blood was the best I've ever had. There isn't even a mark on my arm! And I never felt light-headed which has happened to me more than once after being stuck with a needle. (It might have helped that I brought along crackers and a Yoo-hoo to devour afterward.)

I think I can add the hospital here to the Reasons Why I Love Fort Sill list.

We've also been battling the money pit known as our boat. Don't get me wrong, I still love the beast (which we fully intend to name some day), but she's kinda been a problem child since we got her. We took her to get looked at on Tuesday and got the call that she was ready to be picked up today. We asked them to look at the idle because she idled pretty rough. Well whaddaya know, but the engine in our boat isn't a marine engine. Whaaaa?! Someone at some point put a Chevy V8 in there. They knew enough to hook things up so it would work, but it isn't hooked up as well as it could be. The super nice guy at the shop told us step-by-step how to fix everything ourselves. That'll be Brian's project for the weekend. I find it so annoying that people out there do the wrong thing and then pass that crappy decision and it's consequences onto other people. Technically, marinas and boat repair places aren't supposed to touch an engine like ours. We may have trouble in the future getting it worked on or looked at. All because some dummy put a freaking truck engine in it!

It's the last day of May in the South and I turned the a/c off this morning. It is absolutely perfect weather out there. All of my windows and doors are open and there's been a steady breeze blowing through the house.

I made Creamy Jambalaya Pasta for dinner tonight and it was surprisingly tasty! I wasn't totally sure if the Cajun seasoning and Parmesan cheese would work well together, but somehow it did.

Less than a week until our big summer vacation. I hate flying, but I love our destination so I'll get through it. I already downloaded a bunch of new music (and by new I mean all of Phillip Phillips American Idol performances) to get me through the flights. If I try to read, do puzzles, or watch anything I tend to get motion sick, so my strategy has been to zone out to music the entire time.

That's all I've got for today.

Rest

I just ate a brownie for breakfast. Don't judge. You know you've done it too.

I was given strict instructions last night to NOT wake Brian up this morning. So here I sit wondering what to do with myself today. My productivity kinda peaked yesterday. I'm not sure if I could top it.

So, what did I do yesterday?

I made Sweet Cornbread Cake, PW Beans & Oreo brownies. We loaded up the truck with a big bookcase, an ottoman, the desk & a little TV stand and got all that into the storage unit. We had a lunch date at Arby's (worst run fast food establishment I've seen in a loooong time). I took every single thing off the walls in our house. Most of it fit in two big brown boxes.

As I was taking picture frame after picture frame down, I couldn't help but remember how long it took me to hang all those things up in the first place. A lot of them required two nails so I'd have to bust out a level in addition to the normal hammer and nails. It took me months to decide where things should go. Some things I feel like I just hung up. And it all came down in less than 10 minutes. Sorta bittersweet.

I think today I'll plan on taking it easy. Maybe we'll make another quick run to the storage unit, but no crazy cooking or packing for me today. Sunday is a day of rest anyway, right?

My New Favorite Cookie!

I bookmarked this cookie recipe a week or so ago and just got around to making them today. OMG they're gooooood. I highly suggest making them. But only if you're prepared to sit around all day eating them. You've been warned.

*Please forgive the poor photo quality. It was taken on my phone in my poorly lit kitchen.*

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Original recipe found here.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars together in medium bowl. Add vanilla and egg. Mix well. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased (or lined with parchment paper) cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

My notes:  My cookies were perfect after 9 minutes. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of regular because that's what I had. I think I like them better than if I had used regular sized - more even chocolate distribution! Also, I highly recommend leaving them on the cookie sheets for at least a few minutes after taking them out of the oven. They're rather soft at first, but firm up pretty quickly. Enjoy!

In The Last Two Weeks I...

...was ordered to stop wearing contacts so my damaged corneas have a chance to heal. I'll thank the perfect storm of allergies, all day contact use and old/dirty contacts for this fun predicament.


...ordered new glasses! This is about the only upside to the whole eye fiasco.


...got a tan.


...swam...alot! This was by far my favorite part of being here.


...drove my old car (Mustang convertible!). The pink tinge on my thighs and shoulders is from my joy ride around town today. :)


...fell in love with my mom's new Jetta. I totally want one now.


...nursed Tiny back to health after he developed some blisters on his paws from the hot ground outside. It was heartbreaking.


...cancelled our Disney World trip. I'm hoping this is a catalyst for some major change in our lives.


...bought some super cute clothes. I just love summer clothes!


...took advantage of my brother's discount. One of the only perks of him working his butt off for a poorly run clothing mega company in NYC.


...made the decision to seriously pursue graduate school.


...walked countless loops around the neighborhood with my mom.


...walked on the treadmill enough at the gym to watch Star Trek from beginning to end on my tiny iPod screen.


...watched the Lost finale with my dad.


...rented many movies from RedBox. It helps having one 2 minutes from my parents' house. I finally got to see: Dear John, Up In The Air, Crazy Heart and The Blind Side.


...saw Marmaduke on the big screen. It was totally worth the $6 just to laugh at the Great Dane -isms.


...ate. And ate. And ate. I hit up all my fav places and then some.


...made chicken and dumplings for my parents. It was delish!


...avoided anyone outside of my family. Sorry guys. I needed to hibernate.


...watched the Glee finale. Superb. Can't get "Faithfully" out of my head.


...went on a day trip to Fort Worth with Mom.


...was slapped (softly) by my mother. She was killing a gnat that had landed on my cheek. At the time, it was hilarious.


...went bowling. I broke 100 in both games!


...voluntarily washed the Mustang. She looks much prettier now.




It's back to LA tomorrow. Back to reality. Back to real life.

A Few Things

1. I ate a piece of lettuce last night. Does this count as an attempt at eating more veggies? (I first mentioned it here.)


2. I made The Pioneer Woman's famous chocolate cake tonight. It was every bit as good (and sinful) as she promised. Go make it.


3. I bought a new swimsuit today! I'm really excited about it. I'd describe it, but I couldn't do it justice - and I'd make it sound ugly and old-lady-ish. I also got a great pair of jeans that actually fits! I've been trying to squeeze into cheap jeans from American Eagle and stuff for the last couple years. The fact of the matter is that my body has changed and those jeans do nothing for me. It's been so long since I've gotten great new stuff - it was alot of fun. It helped that I got to hang out with my brother while shopping! (He's a great sport about shopping with me!)


4. Tiny went to the vet today. He's been having skin problems for the last few months (dry and flaky). The vet thinks it's a staph infection. We have orders to bathe him in medicated shampoo once a week for awhile and see how he does. I really hope it works. It would be so nice for Tiny to have a gorgeous coat again!


5. I called one of my oldest friends today so we could try to meet up while I'm in town and she put me off like she has the last 3 times I've been home. It always goes the same way: I call her, she makes plans with me for the last day I'm in town and then doesn't call me and doesn't answer when I call. Maybe this time she'll call when she says she will. Maybe.


6.  Hannah gave me an award today! I can't say enough good things about Hannah. She's the first blogger I struck up a friendship with outside of blogs. We email back and forth and chat on Facebook. She's a great friend to have, even if we've never met and live far away from each other!


Now about the award:

The rules:

1. Thank the person who gave it to you.

2. Name 10 things that make you happy.

3. Pass on to 10 bloggers and notify the winners.

So....thanks, Hannah! :)

Happy things:

1. Shopping

2. Tiny

3. Family

4. Good books

5. Rainy afternoons

6. Dessert

7. Yankees

8. Clean sheets

9. Spring days

10. Long walks

Seven bloggers (finding and linking 7 that Hannah didn't already tag took long enough - I just couldn't make it to 10, sorry!):

1. My real life high school friend Leslie @ Little Leslie Grows Up

2. Meg @ Adapting to Change

3. Allison @ I Heart Change

4. Becky @ My Life, From {Army} Brat to Wife

5. Marsie @ Quite Contrary

6. Casey @ The Ever-Changing Life of a Military Wife

7. Katie F. @ The Life of an Army Wife

Geez, that took a long time! All the linking and searching and thinking! I worked on this through the entire 2 hours of DWTS! Oh well, all you girls deserve it and Hannah deserved a big fat thank you.

I Prefer Snow to Rain These Days

The rain finally turned to snow sometime while I was sleeping. It's ugly snow. The ground is too warm so there's big bare patches where the snow has melted. It won't stick around long since the temps are barely freezing, but it's still looks pretty falling lazily.


The irony is that it's snowing here in central Louisiana, but not up North where Brian is doing cold weather and altitude training. I think he's colder, but I've got the snow!


Speaking of Brian, he found some random wifi out in the boonies so we got to chat on facebook last night. The only crappy thing was that the internet would go out for him when the wind changed direction. No joke.


It was good to talk to him even if he was distracted by work. Apparently he's still working his butt off and not getting enough sleep. Thankfully it's only a month. Right? I'm still hoping he doesn't lose his mind.


Have I mentioned before how much I hate cooking for one? It's rather annoying. Oh and I'm having a total love/hate relationship with this counting calories crap. I was so hungry after Wednesday that I sorta overcompensated yesterday. I've always had a good relationship with food and I am not ok with messing that up by starving myself. I'm still negotiating what works for me and I'll let you know how it goes.

The Best Dinner

I made, perhaps, the best dinner ever tonight. Well, the best dinner I've ever made anyway. I always like reading about other people's meal plans and such so this is what we had for dinner:


Pulled Pork with this BBQ sauce on these whole wheat rolls.


When it was all assembled, it was nothing short of perfection. OMG - best pulled pork I've ever had. Since I slaved making all those things from scratch, we had steamed corn and frozen fries on the side. But seriously, if you love pulled pork like I do, try this!

Christmas Eve Eve 2008.

Hello there. I have a few things to cover tonight.

I am listening to Straight No Chaser, a men's a cappella group born at Indiana University in 1996. Since I was a choir nerd for 7 years, I have a big soft spot for a cappella music, especially when sung by men. I saw a thing on them on CNN at the food court with Mom on Saturday, but missed their name or sound because the TVs in the food court don't exactly have their sound blaring. I came home and searched around and found them on youtube and my love affair was born. They put out a Christmas album this year after a record exec saw a youtube video of them from over 10 years ago on the internet last year. It's amazing what 10 men in their early 30s can do with their voices alone. I highly highly recommend you at least watch that youtube video of them. I promise you will chuckle.

Tonight I baked a dozen chocolate chip cream cheese muffins. I thought about it and realized that since I have been home I have baked:
-two batches of chocolate snowquake cookies
-one batch of "nanny cookies"
-and this batch of muffins
That really doesn't look like much written down, but they sure took a long time and I didn't botch any of them. I guess I was getting all my cookie baking out of my system while I was here with my mom's KitchenAid mixer. I find something so therapeutic about baking.

Moving on. Today is Christmas Eve Eve which means that this afternoon the Taillon fam headed to Dairy Queen for our annual Eve Eve celebration. I had a gross chicken sandwich, decent fries, and a delish peanut butter cup blizzard. Picture evidence:

^^I wish I had taken a picture of the food.

^^We were happy to be there.

Before DQ I was straightening my hair and found THIS:

That squiggly thing is a GRAY HAIR!!!! WTF?! How long has that been hiding there? How old am I? Why is it such a weird texture? Will all my hair eventually turn into this??? Please no! Luckily it's buried deep in my hair where it shouldn't ever rear it's ugly head in public, but still, now I know it's in there! I am not old enough for this. I think my mom thought it was funny. I, however, definitely did not!!!
Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, Brian should start his journey home. Wow. I have known this for about a week now and I have been putting it off in my mind. I am determined to make the very most of this Christmas with my family. Once Christmas is over, then I will start focusing on my emotions, getting back to LA, and everything I need to accomplish before the in-laws and Brian arrive. So far this is working remarkably well. Despite the gray hair that I will blame on the last year, I have been surprisingly laid back. I've spent alot of time with my parents (less with Keith due to his work schedule), and generally spent this time like I was on vacation. I wish I had gotten to the gym more, but 'tis life. I'll get back to it soon. I even might try to go in the morning since we don't have anything going on til 2ish. Anyway, here's to wishing Brian safe travels and a quick uneventful return to the United States.
That is all for today. Perhaps more tomorrow from our Red Lobster lunch/dinner and drive through Christmas Lane.
S.

In honor of it being October...

...I made these cookies:

With these cookie cutters from Michael's:
And iced them in the appropriate colors:
Except for these two which, unfortunately, didn't have such a good time in the pumpkin patch:

These cookies were easy and quick to make. They make a relatively small batch which I like. They cook quickly (7 min. for me) and cool quickly. The icing is a little hard to deal with, but it dries nice and shiny. I shall file this one away.

Happy October!

S.

Chocolate on chocolate.

I made my birthday cake today. I tried to document the whole thing with pictures, but I missed some steps. Sorry! The cake looks pretty dang amazing and I can't wait to see if it tastes as good as it looks tomorrow!

^^The recipe. Too blurry for you to copy. Sorry.

^^Greased the pans with Crisco.

^^Throw some flour in there and shake it around until...

^^...the pans are coated.

^^Gather all the measuring utensils.

^^All the dry ingredients. Mix.

^^Now all the wet ingredients. Mix with electric mixer.

^^Yum! The batter before the cup of boiling water. I skipped all the steps between the boiling water and baking. Oops.

^^The baked cakes cooling on the rack. They didn't fit too well. I had to hold up that one cake with a package of birthday candles. Ha.

^^The finished product setting up in the fridge. Notice how it's leaning. Ugh! Tiny didn't get to this one tho, thank God!

And that is all. Tomorrow I turn the big two-three which makes me feel old. 21 was cool cause I could drink. 22 was cool cause I wasn't 21 anymore. 23 just makes me feel like birthdays are that big of a deal anymore. I didn't want anything in particular this year. I don't like shopping anymore (as discussed in the previous entry). I can't even decide where to go for dinner. I hope tomorrow is a good day.

S.

Gnocchi & Cake.

I finally uploaded the pics from my camera. All the pictures centered around me making food. What does this say about me?

^^I had to roll each gnocchi individually before putting it in the pot. I was sweaty and had flour on my face. Super hot.

^^That much in there is the gnocchi dough. I had rolled all the dough in to gnocchis and put them in that bowl where they fused themselves together into a blob of dough so I had to do them all over again.

^^The finished product. I was super duper proud of myself. I'll wait a bit before doing it again tho.

^^Keith turned 21. I made his cake: yellow butter recipe cake with milk chocolate frosting and sprinkles! I also bought him some margarita candles that were super cute.

^^The traditional birthday crown.

^^I love his cheeks in this pic.

^^Let's take inventory of everything captured in this pic, shall we? 6 margarita candles. 2 numeral candles that make the number "21". 1 birthday crown. 1 packet of Lotta Zing from Golden Chick. And the top of 1 receipt from McD's that I'm not sure where it came from.

^^The cake minus the candles. Note the holes that the margarita candles made. Lovely. It was yummy!

The end.

I hate thinking of titles.

I definitely run hot and cold with this whole blog thing. I have alot to update on.

1. I know more about the IED incidents in Iraq. There were two seperate incidents within 12 hours. The first one involved 4 guys. They were all treated for concussions or mild TBIs. The second one involved 2 guys - one was Brian's good friend. Brian's friend was the most seriously injured. He took shrapnel to his arm and was flown to Germany for treatment. They expect him to return to duty at a later date, but not much is known beyond that. Brian took it kinda hard, but I think he's doing ok.

2. Because of the IED incidents, Brian was at the FOB for a few days earlier than expected. I finally got around to hooking up the free webcam Brian got a couple months ago. The first night he could hear and see me, but I couldn't hear/see him because he didn't have a webcam. I gave him explicit instructions to find one and he came through. The next day we talked from 8a-5p my time on the computer with webcams. He looked super hot and really good. I'm so thankful for that opportunity. It made things a little bit easier to see his pretty face.

3. I had an interview at JCPenny yesterday. I think it went well. I haven't heard anything either way yet, so I guess we'll see. There's a large part of me that doesn't want the job. I'm kinda taking it as a sign. If I get it, I'll try it. If I don't get it, someone upstairs is trying to tell me something. I'm trying not to think about it.

4. I finally baked Brian a batch of cookies and got them out in the mail. I actually got rid of everything I had for him so now I need to start brainstorming new things to buy/make for him.

5. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I hate V-Day. I think it's a retarded holiday and I'm not overly sad that Brian is not here for it. It'll just be another day.

That's all for now.

S.

Today.

Well, I was somewhat productive today.

I baked cookies:


Dad and I rearranged the furniture in my room:

I still have all this to unpack and find a home for though:
Eeyore is officially sharing my bed with me:
And I have all these things to do tomorrow (and the days after):

Alright, Cold Case is on and I want to watch it.
edit: Instead of watching Cold Case, I cried over my in-laws. I cried because they haven't called me since Brian's laptop came in and they wanted me to come pick it up so I could save his music for him. I cried because they have yet to let me know what they are going to send him so we don't send duplicates. I cried because they haven't asked me how I am doing. I cried because they haven't asked Brian how he's doing. I cried because I miss my husband and I haven't had a good conversation with him in probably a month. I cried because I'm sad.
S.

Will I Celebrate or Hate 2008?

We are officially 19 hours into they new year. I am worried about writing 2008 on everything. I much prefer writing the number 7 over the number 8. I'm quite sure I will survive, however.



I hung up my "You Might be a Reneck If..." calendar. This month reads: "You might be a redneck if...you've ever eaten a lard sandwich." I can say with complete certainty that, according to this month's calendar page, I am not a redneck. Yay!



I am going to Starbuck's at 8 to meet Leslie so we can catch up. There is a very large part of me that hates these once-every-six-months meetings. SOOOO much has happened to me in the past 6 months that it almost feels like, if you weren't around to witness it, it's too hard to explain in an hour or two at a coffee shop. Another reason I hate it: No one understands what I am going through or how I feel. People tend to ask too many and/or stupid questions that I am forced to answer. I get alot of those looks. Those looks are when someone looks at you with pity which I think is usually well intentioned, but is annoying nonetheless. Don't pity me people! I pity you for not knowing the immense pride I feel each and every time (which is obsessively often) I think of my husband.



Speaking of my husband...Mom and I made a cake in his honor using dad's ribbon cake pan.



I think we did a bang up job...and it tasted good too!
Ok, I'm going to get a chapter read in my book and then get dressed and out the door.
S.