New Furniture Renovations

We're probably going to be in Rexburg until Summer of '10 and we're having a baby, so Jordan and I finally came to terms with needing to start buying furniture. We've begun decorating our apartment: the bedroom is chocolate brown, copper, and off-white; and the living room is green, gold, and black. We bought a new bed (which is absolutely divine) with some of Jordan's graduation money, and started looking for a dining room table and a coffee table. Our goal for both of those items of furniture was a coffee table we could paint black (to go with the frames we bought at IKEA) and a dining room table we could refinish (we really like a dark, cherry color, so that's the color we'll stain it), and also put put some tile in the middle in order to avoid hot pads, and because it looks super good. It's the same idea as this, only the tile will take up a much smaller amount of space. Jordan also won't seal them in, he'll just cut into the wood so the tile is flat with the rest of the table, but if we get tired of the tile that's there we can just pop it out and put new tile in. So I looked on craigslist and found both of what I was looking for for super cheap and they're good quality! The pictures aren't online anymore, so here are pictures of what they kinda look like.
Since the table is round and pretty big, we'll put four 12"x12" pieces of tile in the middle (creating a square), and there are also 3 leaves to go in the middle if we need to have more people, so when we add the leaves the tile will be at each end of the table. Great idea, huh?

Yay for starting to get new things!

James Christensen

I just got Art.com's catalog today, so I've spent a lot of the day thinking about art which reminded me that I haven't looked at James Christensen's website in a little while. Here are some new pieces that I particularly like.

Food...Sigh

Being prego is an interesting thing to be in the food sense because I have to get a certain amount of certain foods every day. Right now, I'm eating way more than I ever have, ever, in my whole entire life. I haven't started to get super strong cravings yet, but with my constant eating, I am trying to branch out in what I eat so I don't get tired of what I eat everyday (too late). This has led me to experimenting with a lot of foods (I made pesto for the first time last week), and wanting to experiment with more. Such as this one:. Today, however, is not a day for me to cook. I'm am completely exhausted and all I want to do is go somewhere that smells good and have someone cook something I'm going to love for me. My frustration is therefore in my location. If you google "japanese restaurant pocatello" you will get not one site for a Japanese restaurant in my area. This is heartbreaking to me because that's all I want. I am worn out of spaghetti with whole wheat pasta, sandwiches on whole wheat bread, roast and mashed potatoes, Mexican food, soup, and everything else that has to do with any regular food American people eat on a daily basis. This leaves me with--asian food. I have a past post which celebrates me going to a Chinese restaurant, which is very good, and so far, that's the place that I'm going to go, but I don't actually want to go there, it's just the best of the things I don't want to eat. I'm going to go to the Change Garden which is a Chinese buffet. We'll see how that goes, and I hope I don't get sick--that'll just make me mad.

Salt Lake City Weekend

Jordan and I went to Salt Lake this weekend to see Jonathan Monson's wedding (my physics friend). It was so good, and everything was so beautiful. Jonathan Monson's suit was chocolate brown which was awesome and Rebecca (his wife)'s dress was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was in very good taste, even the cake, which was a three tiered rectangular cake, with the top half of each tier white and the bottom chocolate brown. The food was spectacular. We had panini's with some kind of berry sauce incorporated into the meat and cheese--so good. The chocolate fountain wasn't bad either. We got to sit by his mom, and me having heard so much about her and her hearing so much about me, and us both knowing a good amount about Jonathan, we both had a very enjoyable chat. We also sat by one of his...great aunts? I don't actually know who it was, but she's in MoTab, and told us some super cool stories about her experiences in it.

During the weekend we stayed at the Zamora's. We always stay at their house when we go to Salt Lake, and it is always a joy. We had the experience for the first time of having two of their kids (Dallin and Kailee) come and wake us up, talking to us until we were fully awake and ready to get up. That had never happened to either of us before, and it was nice--it was a reminder of how it's going to be in not very long.

We got to SLC late Friday night (too late to be able to see Tobe--sorry again), and got to chat with Gus and Becky for a while before we all got too tired to watch the Olympics. The next day was very enjoyable. We had kind of a lazy morning, went to breakfast at Denny's (where I got the ultimate omelet), went to see if there was anything at the "big sale" at REI (not that big of a sale), and then Jordan, Gus, and the kids went home for a nap and a bike ride, while Becky, her sister Jodi (who was also visiting for the weekend from Colorado Springs), and I went to a few stores. We first went to RodWorks where I spent most of the time talking myself out of buying everything in the store. I was about to buy an iron swirly bowl with some super cool glass balls in it. This is what it looked like (sorta), but instead of having those red balls I was going to put the ball in the other picture in the mix, only instead of black, it was white and instead of white, it was light green. The colors in our living room are gold and green so I thought that would look very good together, but then I realized we didn't have a coffee table, or any tables next to our couches, so there would be no place to put it.
We also went to a few fabric stores which were super cool, one of them being Material Girls Quilting. It made me want to quilt every single moment of every day. I didn't buy a thing there either, but I think I will make a quilt between Fall and Winter semester, since I'm going to be super pregnant, and probably won't be able to (or even just want to) leave the house because it's so flippin cold outside in Rexburg during the winter.

All of us (not just the women) also went to IKEA and spent a good amount of time there. Jordan and I went just because we like the store, and Jordan hadn't been there since he was 10, and I hadn't been there since Chicago, so we were both excited to go. It's just like I remember it--super cool and I want to buy everything. The only thing we did end up buying was a rug (which sadly does not match our living room, but will go in our bedroom), and some black picture frames (of a lot of different sizes) which will go in the living room. It was a super cool place, and it's a good thing I don't live near one or I'd probably go all the time.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend which I'm glad we went to. I don't know when we'll be in SLC again, but I wouldn't mind it being sooner than later! Also, there aren't any pictures on here because my camera's in my car, but when I go to lunch I'll go get it and post pictures later.

Baby Update

No, we don't know the gender of the baby yet. That'll happen on September 4th at 2 o'clock, Mountain Standard Time. We'll call all of you with the joyous news.

Two weeks ago I started feeling the baby kicking which was super cool, and even though Jordan hasn't been able to feel the baby yet (I guess his hands are too rough or something), Kaiter felt him kick last night, so I'm not making it up! I can usually just feel him kick me a bit, but Saturday morning, he full on rolled over. It was a weird feeling, but I hope it happens again. I figured it out, and if you stick your finger in the inside of your cheek, it kind of feels like that. Kinda...

Even though he only really weighs a half a pound and is 6 1/2 inches long, it feels like he gained a hundred pounds on Saturday. I went from having a good night's sleep to waking up every few minutes after 4 am because my back was killing me. I thought it was maybe the bed we were sleeping in at the Zamora's (not that it's an uncomfortable bed even in the least, but it's not my bed, so I wondered if that was it), but last night I was sleeping in my own bed and the same thing happened, so I might be doomed to the next 5 months of poor sleep (and then even worse sleep after that).

My body's definitely getting bigger, and I can no longer button or zip any of my pants, but my belly band is saving me. I wear it every day, double folded to hold up my pants.

Cake

As a rule, I don't like cake. It's usually too dry for my taste, and it just seems like there can only be a few different ways it can taste, and I get sick of it. Well, I decided to make a cake. It was a lemon cake with sour cream chocolate frosting in between the 4 layers, with sweetened condensed milk with lemon juice soaked through all the layers, with marshmallow fondant on the top, with chocolate chips in a circle in the middle. The chocolate chips are because it's supposed to be the middle of the sunflower. The fondant was supposed to be bright yellow, but I put yellow cake gel in the fondant instead of food coloring because I thought they were the same--they are not.



The fondant was a completely new experience which I think turned out pretty well for my first time ever. I will need to make a lot more next time because the more you make the less of a chance you'll have ripples when you put it over the cake (which I had a lot of). I also learned the cake has to be super smooth because fondant shows every little imperfection.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the experience. The cake tasted good and even though it wasn't yellow, it looked pretty good too. Yay for experiments!

Apple Raisin Bran Muffins (with Flax Seed)

These are absolutely the best bran muffins I've ever tasted. I made them last night, had two right then and had three this morning for breakfast. You should make them today.

Apple Raisin Bran Muffins (with Flax Seed)

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 30-45 minutes

Servings: Makes 10 muffins


Ingredients

1 1/4 cup raisin bran
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon milled flax seed
3 tablespoons water
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine
2 apples, peeled and chopped


Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine dry ingredients into large bowl.
Combine wet ingredients into smaller bowl.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
Spoon into greased muffin tins up to the lip of the tin.

Bake 15-30 minutes, depending on altitude (the higher the altitude, the longer you'll need to cook them).

To keep the ultimate amount of moisture while storing, place the muffins into a ziplock bag immediately after removing them from the oven (while still piping hot).

Note: If you don't have flax seed, add another egg and don't add the 3 tablespoons of water.

Note: The brown sugar can be substituted with the same amount of maple syrup.

Morning or Evening?

I don't know why, but lately I've heard more than a few times people comment on being a morning or an evening person, but to be honest, I don't think I'm either. I think I'm a late afternoon person. If I could just veg from the time I woke up to ~3 or 4 in the afternoon, shower, get ready until 5-ish, make a great dinner for people I know in a great location (preferably outside), and just talk to those people until I fall asleep in a chair outside sometime around 9 listening to them talk (of course in this fantasy there are no bugs and it doesn't get cold at night), that would be just perfect for me. Yep--late afternoon sounds just right.

Photos

I was just browsing around the Flower Boutique website and found these super cute skirts!




They're super cute and look super easy to make. I need a sewing machine so bad--I keep buying fabric and pin it all together but never end up sewing it!

I also need to find someone who'll take pictures like this. I love her style of shooting, but I'm not super keen on paying $150 to have someone take my picture. I think it's really cool that I have a pregnant body though, and I'd like some good pictures to commemorate it. We also need some family pictures, but we're going to wait until the baby's actually out of my body to take them.

Jordan's Scooter

So, Jordan bought a scooter with his graduation money. He drives it to work everyday and drives it everywhere he needs to go around town. He's still bitter from when his mom sold his moped for $20 while he was on his mission, and his dreams of having another one have finally been fulfilled. His co-workers made fun of him a lot, until he told them it got 100 miles/gallon. That made them shut up a little. However, being made fun of has still not come to a complete stop. This was illustrated when he came back to his office after being in a meeting and found his scooter on his desk. I'm glad he loves his job.

Twilight Series

So, I haven't bought the 4th Twilight book yet. I just need one of my friends to buy it so I can borrow it from them when they're done. I am, however, super stoked about the movie coming up in December of the first book. We saw the first trailer for it when we saw The Dark Knight (the most intense movie I've ever seen without being completely disturbing and getting into your mind). I wish the girl was pretty and a better actor. I've only seen her in a couple movies, but none of them have been good (Jumper was kind of good, but not not all the way good), but I wish she was prettier. Also, I was super psyched about Cedric Diggory being Edward, but it seems like they made him more vampire than spectacularly beautiful like he's supposed to be in the book. Also, since I think the Harry Potter movies do absolute justice to the books, and Cedric Diggory's in them, I expect these books to be of the same caliber, but there is no way that is going to happen. Sigh--too bad we have imaginations that ruin things like movies for us.

Here is the first completed scene from the Twilight movie.

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