things i am loving

+ Cafe Rio. We are nothing if not creatures of habit, and we have been to Cafe Rio every Friday night for the past.. oh.. three months. Last weekend we went Friday and Saturday. Heaven help us.

+ Giving my students raises. Because sometimes there are some really wonderful things about being the boss, and my students are so, so great, and giving them raises is fun.

+ This barley and chickpea salad. And chickpeas in general. Favorite food right thuuur. Poor Jason has been a GREAT sport as I've cooked almost exclusively whole foods, plant based, vegan foods for the last two months. But, I mean, the poor kid would probs love if I'd have a cookie with him every now and then (see previous post re: cookie intervention. Those days are long gone, my friend. Long gone.). Or even served him hot freshly-cooked chicken, instead of keeping a sliced chicken breast in the fridge and telling him to have at it if the beans and grains and vegetables just don't cut it.

+ Spring. Duh. Last night Jason had a four hour class and I wanted him to be home so bad so we could go for a walk. So instead I went for a walk by myself like a dork. I need a dog so it doesn't look weird.

+ Impromptu lunches with Grandma and my cousin Maggie! Grandma came down to go to the Sacred Gifts exhibit at BYU with Maggie and they invited me to lunch and you bet your bottom dollar I was out the door of my office in a flash and a half. It was fab.

+ This year has flown. I guess this could be a good or a bad thing, but I'm counting it as good because (a) it means Brianna is way closer to coming home than she was, ya know, before this year flew by, (b) Jason's aaaaalmost done with school, and (c) it's summer!!!!

cookies and the like

The best part about three-day weekends is that the week after a three-day weekend is almost over before it's started. Four days long? Ain't no thang.

My heart yearns for the day we get Google Fiber. T-minus one month! And then perhaps my TV shows will only be 22 minutes long, instead of 45 including buffering. And I won't have to read all my blogs on my phone. And Jason can read the news to his heart's content, regardless of which seat on the couch he's sitting on. Life will be good.

What sucks is that I still have an hour and forty-seven minutes left of work and I just ate my last snack. It was a pumpkin banana muffin and it was delish. I've been making muffins for the last month and a half to eat as a pre-workout snack on my way to the gym after work. Jason probably hates me because I usually leave the sugar out. But I think they are SO good. My favorite recipes are here and here. I die.

I went to the library on Wednesday and I can't tear myself away from my books now. I love reading. How silly of me not to do it more. Also Jas and I had a Cookie Intervention two weeks ago. We decided we eat entirely too many cookies. We'll eat SO crazy healthy allll dayyy long, and then I make cookies. It was bad for a while there. So we had a Cookie Intervention and decided to put a stop to our cookie eating. I haven't made cookies for an entire week so I would say that's definite progress.

I like this boy.

more thoughts

BYU offers zumba, yoga, and cycling classes during lunch for faculty and staff. I can't get enough of my cycling class. It is awesome and I love it. Also, I can now stiff-legged deadlift and squat 120 pounds, so I'm feelin pretty good about that.

I've been making homemade bread for our lunches and it's delish. Except this week the bread didn't rise cause I killed the yeast, so it's the densest, heaviest bread you can imagine. I mean it still tastes good but this morning Jason asked for his sandwich to be made on the wonderbread leftover from the sacrament on Sunday instead of homemade bread today, so yeah, you could say it didn't turn out that well.

For some reason Jason calls me Bucket. It started when we first were married and he called me Fancy Pants. And then for some reason, Fancy Pants morphed into Fancy Bucket, and then just Bucket. It is now Jason's reflex to call me Bucket. I knew we had a problem when I tripped and his first reaction was, "Ohhhhh, bucket! Are you okay?!" Sometimes I find notes for me around our house with a bucket drawn on the front. I mean I guess it's quicker than writing "Amy"?

Tis the season to be jolly

Life isn't so bad when you have five weekends in a two week period.

Or when you get a new job a few weeks before Christmas and get all sorts of exciting things like benefits and paid holidays and a desk of your own.

Or when your husband gets to quit his job to accept an internship in a hospital.
Or when he finds out he has only 21 more credits until graduation.

Or when your family has been here for ten days and you put 500 miles on the car running between Provo and Lehi and West Valley.
Or when you get to Skype with your sister on Christmas morning.

Or when you're about to have another two days off, only this time there will be no running all around and you get to relax and eat Two Jacks pizza and breadsticks and go to the gym and sleep in and reorganize your living room to fit your new Christmas couch and hang out with your best friend/husband.

Or when you're happy. :) Which I am :)

Lately

One thing I've learned is that turkey sausage is just not good enough to justify buying it, despite its nutritional value. I just can't get over how much I hate it. There are not enough spices in the world to salvage that stuff.

Another thing I've learned is that running regularly again after a three-month hiatus to heal my IT band is the most gloriosu feeling. Foam rolling is fer real, and my knee is almost back to 100%. So yeah, I'd say I'm feelin' pretty good.

I will never in my life have a dog, it's official, but I do kinda miss this little guy. Cristina left Bentley with us while she went on vacay with my parents a few weekends ago, and he grew on me. But, a little bit of poop on the rug was all it took for me to be happy as a clam to hand him off at the end of the weekend.

My cousin and grandma and sister came over on Saturday and we knocked out a rag quilt in six hours to send Bri for Christmas. It was great fun and I am just tickled that we got it done so fast. Mom embroidered Bri's name in Russian on a square, so as soon as that comes, I'll sew the last square in and ship it off to Ukraine! I almost got a blister on my thumb from cutting the seams for two hours, but it's cool. 

Hello again.

My thermostat says it's 68 degrees in here but my fingers are numb so I'm guessing it's broken. I should probably go turn the heat on buuut that would require removing myself from my blankets so it's probably not going to happen.

Last week some my coworkers ranted about how nasty candy corns are. I defended those tasty little buggers, loud and proud. I could never eat enough of those things. Which is probably why they are stashed at the top of the cupboard behind the griddle where I have to a) ask Jason to please reach them for me, or b) drag a kitchen chair across the room to get them. Out of sight, out of mind...or something.

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow and I'm ready for a change. But it seems unlikely that I will have a change because I don't want to cut it and I don't want it brown. That leaves few, if any, options.

I miss blogging and I plan to re-enter the blogging world. I've said that before, but I mean it this time.

Cake

Clearly I am not winning any awards for blogging consistently. Or blogging at all, but whatevs.

Jason started school this week and I did not. So that has been fun, or not, really. I love school to the moon and back so I'm def a little jealous. But, it's cool and I'll develop some new hobbies like sewing and I'll read some books for fun again for the first time in what feels like years and I'm still figuring the rest of my new hobbies out but I'll get used to it. :)

At the moment we have four cakes in our refrigerator. A wedge of Costco chocolate cake, a chunk of homemade cake from Jason's work, a giant red velvet muffin, and a half a peanut butter cake I made. I guess you can tell it was Jas's bday this week or something?