Kings Game

On Thursday night I went to the King's game with my parents. They couldn't find a fourth person to go, so I was totally the third wheel!! haha. The game started off pretty solid, but quickly turned during the 2nd period! :( The Sharks ended up killing us. It was really depressing. My the end of the third period I had shifted my attention from the game to Becks, Posh and their kids sitting behind the glass in our section. They each had a kid on their lap and seemed really lovey. The kids were all in King's gear and would jump up and pound the glass. They were really fun to watch...ok, back to the game. The Kings ended up losing 6 to 3!! See, depressing! Oh well, maybe next year Kings...

Laker Game

On Wedenesday night I went to to Laker Game with two other ex-Laker Girls, Vivan and Jeri-Faye, and my best friend Rachelle. We had a blast at dinner before the game and of course at the game itself. One of the highlights was seeing Tom Hanks and Rita wilson on the way in. They seemed sooooo nice and even waited in line like normal people to get in! (Celebs never wait in the line). Tom Hanks was shaking all the employees hands and just seemed like a genuinely nice person, which made me like him even more!

The game was fun to watch, especially all the LG perfromances. It was fun to reminisce on the days we were on the team and we even got on the jumbo tron. ;) We said hi to a few of the girls we know that are still on the team. It was great to see everyone and catch up. Made me miss my LG days, but it also made me feel very blessed to have created some wonderful memories and friendships that have lasted all these years!!

Coffee Table

After living in our house for over a year and a half we finally bought a coffee table!! :) It is definitely taking some getting used to since the space was empty for so long, but it looks great! The house decorating project is finally underway! :)

April Challenge Part 2

Here is the scrapbook page I put together really quickly last night. I used a kit and must admit that they are addicting. They are so much quicker!!

Decorating Easter Eggs

On Sunday night I went to Lindsay's house for dinner. I haven't seen her or the girls in forever. We sat outside eating pizza and catching up, then we decorated Easter eggs. It was really fun watching the girls make a huge mess decorating their eggs. They were having the best time and the eggs turned out gorgeous. Thanks for inviting me over Lindsay!

Ashley's Bridal Shower

On Sunday I went to my friend Ashley's Bridal shower! It was a really nice shower! The brunch was amazing! I had a freshly made omelette, fresh fruit, potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. ;) I got to catch up with some of my sorority sisters, which is always fun and we watched Ashley open all her amazing gifts. One thing that came up was a Life Registry. I mentioned that I always see stuff I want, but when people ask me for birthdays and Christmas I can never remember, so I joked that I need a Life Registry so anytime someone feels the urge to buy me something they would know just what to get. :) Of course, it is also helpful if you are the one buying a gift too. Imagine just checking a registry when buying gifts for your husband, boyfriend, parents, friend, etc. and never having to guess about what to get them. Everyone has at least one friend or family member that is difficult to buy for and this would make life so much easier. :) I'll keep you posted on what Williams-Sonoma says when I try to register. ;)

Spring Cleaning

Actually, organizing is a better way to describe it, but I did throw out a huge back of stuff! If you know me, you know how big of a deal that is. ;) On saturday morning I woke up with the urge to de-clutter. I don't feel like that very often so whenever I do, I run with it. I cleaned out my make-up collection; quite a bit of it was from my college days, so it was obviously expired. I cleaned out 2 cupboards in the bathroom and under my sink (although I still struggled with that one). All in all, it was a productive day.  Here are a before and after picture:

In the afternoon I went to buy some paint samples, a shower gift for my friend, and a few other things I have been needing to buy for a while. One of the errands was to buy a new pencil from Mac. As I was paying, the girl behind the counter mentioned to me that for eveyr 6 empty plastic or glass Mac conatiner you bring in you get a free eyeshadow, lipstick, or lipgloss. My first thought was, "I could have had tons of free Mac make-up by now." My second thought was, "I just threw away Mac make-up a few hours ago!" and my third thought was, "This is exactly why I am so hesitant to throw crap away! Everytime I do, moments later it bites me in the butt!" As soon as I got home I dug my Mac bronzer out of the trash and will be saving my Mac make-up to recycle from now on. To end my day of purging and splurging, Nic and I ate the most delicious sandwiches in our backyard, watched Grown-ups, and ate peanut butter eggs for dessert.

Easter Treats!

On Friday night I made a fun Easter treat to go with dinner. I bought a bunch of candy melts on sale at Michaels and was beyond excited when I came across this recipe using them on one of my favorite blogs. The best part of the recipe is that it only calls for 4 ingredients: peanut butter, powdered sugar, candy melts, and sprinkles. Just a few simple ingredients and viola! homemade peanut butter eggs! I didn't do the best job with the candy melts, but it was my first time and they say practice makes perfect...so I guess I better keep practicing. ;) On a side note, I made it to the gym twice this week. Not as good as last week, but we spent quite a bit of time working on decor for our house, so that is exciting and next week I will be back on track. Ok, now back to  Friday night...in addition to making the peanut butter eggs, I made chicken sliders and we watched Life As We Know It. I really liked it and Nic laughed a few times so that's a good sign. It was a really fun and delicious night!

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

www.picky-palate.com

2 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Wilton Candy Melts in yellow, pink, green and white

Non-parils for sprinkling on top

1.  Place peanut butter and sugar into a large bowl, mix until combined.  I used my hands half way through mixing with a spoon.  Dough will be pretty firm.  With a cookie scoop or spoon, scoop 3-4 tablespoons of dough into your hands and shape into eggs.  Freeze for 30 minutes to an hour until hardened.  Note:  I only froze mine for 15 minutes and I was able to continue, it’s just easier if dough is hardened.

2.  Start with one color of candy melts at a time.  Coat 4-5 peanut butter eggs with chocolate and place onto parchment or wax paper.  Sprinkle with non-parils quickly as chocolate hardens fast.  It’s important to work in batches so your chocolate doesn’t harden on you.  Continue coating all of your eggs until they’ve all been coated and sprinkled.  Let chocolate harden and serve.  Enjoy room temperature or chilled.

Makes 20-25 eggs

April Challenge Part 1

I spent Saturday scrapbboking at Remember When, so that made week 1 of my challenge pretty easy. :) Here are two of the pages I made (the first kit was from Lott's to Scrap About and the second was from Nicole Lysse).

Friday Night

I walked into the house to the most delicious smell. Nic started BBQ beef in the crockpot at lunch and walking in, on a rather cold day, to the smell of comfort food was the best. I spent the evening looking at decorating magazines and on the phone with Trend Micro trying to fix my computer (It was freezing up and I thought I had a virus). Just before Nic got home from basketball I started making a dessert I have been really excited to try. S'more Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies! We ate our dinner (the meat was so tender I broke it up with a wood spoon!) and finished making our cookies. They completely exceeded our expectations! These are my favoirte so far! If you try only one of the recipes I have posted, try this one! *I just want to take this moment to announce that I met my goal this week of going to the gym 3 times! (this was necessary before you see how massive these cookies are. ;))

S’mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

www.picky-palate.com

2 sticks softened butter

1 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 1/2 Cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips

24 graham cracker quarters or 12 full sheets separated at perforations

3 Hershey Bars, broken into rows of 3 bars

12 large marshmallows cut in half lengthwise

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment or a silpat liner.

2.  In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until well combined.

3.  Place flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl; mix to combine then add slowly to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips.

4.  Layer a graham cracker quarter (I cut the quarter in half) with 3 Hershey chocolate squares (I also cut these in half) and 2 marshmallow halves (I used one marshmallow half for each smore).  Close with another graham cracker.  Top s’more with a large scoop of cookie dough.  Place in hands and place another large scoop on bottom then front and back sides as needed.  Form dough around s’mores.  Will get messy, but stick with it, it does not have to be perfect.  S’mores will move around but it’s no big deal.  Place large cookies onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are cooked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack or serving plate.

Makes 12 large stuffed cookies.

Congratulations Nic

I just want to take a few minutes to brag about my hubby. On Wednesday he got the biggest sale in his companies history. I am so proud of him. :)

April Challenge

Remember these? I have been very bad about keeping up with my challenges (I've never been very good at keeping New Year's Resolutions) but I'm determined to keep trying. So here is my April Challenge for myself. I am going to make at least one scrapbook spread (2-page layout) a week. Hopefully this will encourage me to work on my scrapbooking more often so that someday I can possibly get caught up (wishful thinking, huh?) This one should be fun and will hopefully get my creative juices flowing. Feel free to join in on the challenge, this should be more fun than going to the gym 3 days a week and organizing the house. ;)

Mammoth

On Friday night, after Nic's basketball games we drove up to Mammoth. I don't know how he did it....he worked from 7:30-4:30, then coached from 4:30-9, then drove 5 hours up to Mammoth!

On Saturday morning, after a little bit of a sleep in, we went skiing. We met up with Brandon and Rachelle for a few runs and had a blast. After a couple hours of skiing we met up with my mom, dad, Tyler and has girlfriend, Laura, for lunch at Burgers. It was delicious!! It has been forever since I've had a chocolate milkshake and I enjoyed every sip of it. That night Rachelle and Brandon and the Mahlms came over for dinner. We played Just Dance and Michael Jackson for hours, had cox au vin for dinner, and pineapple/pear cobbler for dessert.

On Sunday we all went to lunch at Parallax. The food was amazing and so was the view. After lunch we went for a few more runs before heading back home. (I think we have been spoiled with all the flying cause that drive seemed long). It was really fun to get to meet Tyler's girlfriend and spend some time with the fam and bestie.

Back Update

So my back is still hurting me. :( The recovery has been such a rollercoaster. It seems like it is getting better, then one day a few weekends ago I couldn't even bend over. It is starting to improve again, and my upper back has started to adjust slightly (It has been so tight that until last week the chiropractor hadn't gotten a single crack in my upper back) so that is a good sign. I have also started exercising, which I think is helpful. I'm still limited in what I can do: I can do the elliptical and ski with no pain, but sit-ups and arching movements playing MJ hurt. It is so crazy that such a low-speed accident with very little damage to my car could hurt me so bad. :( Here's to hoping I make a full and speedy recovery.

Wednesday

Last Wednesday I went with my dad to have lunch with Oma. It was really good to see her and it was nice to have a little break from work. After work I went to the gym, (I went 3 days last week!) came home and started some laundry, started a load of dishes, hand washed and put away some dishes, cooked dinner, and baked brownies. Jeez, I'm tired just thinking about it. I felt very accomplished though. :)