Tuesday, December 14, 2010

oh hellooo

Exciting news- my grandma is back from her mission! Woohooo! It was great hearing her talk on Sunday and being around family. I also forgot to mention all the fun we had in Phoenix for Thanksgiving. But we had a lot of fun. And the food was delicious.

It's ALMOST CHRISTMAS!! I'm at BYU proctoring an exam right now (yes, I had to get up at 5:30 this morning to be here on time- ew). I just have to come here ONE more time for the rest of the year. That feels good. My thesis is coming along little by little, and that feels good too.

I never write about working at SIP Academy, because I only do it a couple days a week, but man those kids are funny. Until I have kids of my own, I will provide you with some funny things they've said...

5 year old girl: "My brother has a girlfriend"
me: "Wow, how old is he?"
her: "Oh you know, he's Shaggy. From Scooby Doo."

I spent a good 10 minutes teaching a 6 year old to play hang man, then a couple minutes into the game she says, "Ummm what is this game about?"
me: "It's about guessing letters and trying to make a word."
her: "No. I think it's about dying. And that's not funny. That's sad."

9 year old: "Are you like going on a mission or something?"
me: "What do you mean?"
her: "Like that thing for the church."
me: "No....."
her: "Oh. You just look like you are because your outfit"

6 year old: "Good thing there's not a no farting law, because I would be kicked off the planet."

5 year old boy: "Where did you get your earrings?"
me: "From the store"
him: "Can you take them off? I don't like them."

me: "Guess what guys? I brought you some candy."
9 year old: "I hope it's not American. American chocolate tastes like wax. I only eat European chocolate."


Don't worry though, the insults are worth it, because last week one of the little 6 year old girls brought me a card she made, with a lot of difficult math problems inside (e.g. 100 + 200 = 300). It was really cute.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Birthday Month- part 2.

Happy Birthday to Matt (a few days ago)!!!
I think everybody that reads this already wished Matt a happy birthday, so it's old news, but I think it should still be documented here.
His birthday was great. My Uncle Mark took us out golfing with my dad in Phoenix. It was a lovely sunny day and the course was beautiful. I actually only played about 5 holes until my cousin Isaac filled in for me. After that, we all watched the BYU - Utah game with hot wings and pizza. Don't worry I had lentil casserole. Which reminds me I need to get that recipe it was yummy. My sister Rebecca and my cousin Maren made no-bake cookies for the birthday boy, and we took a break at halftime to sing and celebrate, and Matt read all of his poetry cards that we made for him.  All the pics are on Facebook, but this is my favorite:


Love this guy!

Monday, November 22, 2010

La la.

I'm sick. Not quite sick enough to miss work, but definitely sick enough to sit on the couch all weekend long and do absolutely nothing. That's not true. If productivity was measured by how many old t.v. episodes I watched, then I got a LOT done. We watched half of season two of Lie to Me, I caught up on ANTM (if you don't know what that stands for, then I would be embarrassed to tell you that I love it.), and Community, and also watched my Netflix pick of the week- Josie and the Pussycats :) . Don't let my picks of girly shows make you feel bad for Matt. We watched football yesterday. all. day. long. Except for when we took a break to play baseball on the Xbox.  (I'll be honest- I had a lot of fun playing.)

Speaking of give and take, Matt has been encouraging me to de-clutter some of my boxes of "treasures".  This is really, really, really hard for me. To come to terms with it, I started making some video scrapbooks of all my things so I can talk about them before I throw them away. Pretty sure these videos would be painfully boring for anybody but me to watch, but I might post them anyways so I can pretend other people want to hear about every movie, concert, and play  I attended in high school, or seeing every little trinket and souvenir I collected in China.

P.S. Stephanie visited last week and it was SO FUN having her here, I just wish it could've been longer. It's always hard saying goodbye to family. We also got to see Jenna for a VERY short time, I wish she could've stayed at least another night or two!

P.P.S. We leave for Phoenix TOMORROW! Goodbye Winter Dreadful-land, hello sunny desert.

P.P.P.S. I am proud to report that I am actually making progress on my thesis. This too shall pass.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Birthday Month!

I love that Matt and I have our birthdays in the same month, and I love that mine comes first so for a few weeks I feel like I am catching up to him in age. And although we do share the same birthstone, we do not share the same astrological sign. Not surprisingly. 
Anywaaays, first of all, thank you all SO MUCH for the birthday wishes! It was the perfect birthday. I absolutely have the best in-laws anybody could ask for, not to mention the best husband who always seems to know how to plan a perfect day (and keep it a secret). Also, Elizabeth came to visit!! Our very first house guest.  How sweet.




Highlights of my birthday- 

Getting sushi for lunch with Elizabeth, then doing arts and crafts at home on the floor.

 Later,  I came home from work to find Matt with a big bouquet of flowers and a very sweet note. 
Matt took me out to dinner at Market Street Grill (YUM!) then told me we were going to meet up with Elizabeth to go bowling. I wasn't too keen on the bowling idea so I kept trying to convince him to go somewhere else. 

He finally convinced me, so we went to the bowling alley and I was very surprised to be met with a bunch of our friends! Our lanes and tables were even decorated with balloons, and I kind of felt like I was 12, but I loved it. One of our friends even brought me a gluten free RED VELVET CAKE which was super delicious. Good times with good friends... we did manage to get a picture of most of us.


Monday, November 1, 2010

New York

New York was the best!

Here's the highlight reel:

  • MARY POPPINS! Truly magical. Chicago was really great also.
  • MoMA, Guggenheim, and the Met. Could have stayed there for weeks. Preferably in the Abstract Expressionism wings.
  • Topaz = Best. Thai food. ever.
  • Shopping, of course.
  • Chinatown. Brought back some smelly memories.
  • Babycakes. Unbelievably good gluten free bakery.
  • Spending time with Diego, Joy, and their daughter Amalia. They are hilarious, so fun to hang out with, and really welcomed us into their home. I love their apartment.
  • Central Park was beautiful! So was Times Square. And Grand Central Station.
  • I loved seeing some of Matt's old mission area in Brooklyn! I might have been more excited about it than he was.

 Other than the fantastic Broadway musicals, to-die-for museums, fine eateries and such, here are some other things I gleaned about New York culture:

  • About 3/4 of the establishments we visited had informational posters about how to save somebody from choking. I'd never been that worried about choking before then.
  • If you want a slice of lemon in your water they can really only spare a sliver of a slice. Guess they have citrus shortage.
  • Favorite thing somebody asked us on the streets- "Hey, do you like drugs and midgets?"Not sure that merited a response.
  • If you want to fit in, wear black clothing, tall boots, and your best don't-talk-to-me attitude. I gave up on fitting in.



Happy November!



Thursday, October 14, 2010

Lake Powell!

Well my first trip to Lake Powell was a success. I didn't really know what to expect, since I've heard people talk about how awesome this place is for about 10 years, and it seems like everyone but me has vacationed on a houseboat. But lots of other people also think Twilight and Avatar are awesome, and I'd beg to differ. ANYWAYS, houseboats ARE awesome, and Lake Powell was a ton of fun. Paul and Mary (Matt's aunt and uncle) were incredibly nice to invite us and feed us and play with us there! They are such cool people. Even though it was just a 4 day trip, it feels like it was much longer. We rode jet skiis (all day every day) read in the sunshine, played in the red sand, swam (and bathed) in the lake, napped on rafts, looked at the unbelievable stars and planets, hiked to see indian ruins, and other lake activities.



And we also went spelunking in that cool cave!

Another neat thing I witnessed for the first time was cooking a turkey in the ground! We (Matt and his cousin) dug a deep hole in the sand, lined it with big rocks, burned a lot of wood down to ashes and coals until the rocks were glowing hot, then placed the foil covered turkey in there, covered it with rocks and sand, and let it bake for 6 hours. It was delicious!  
This is the turkey being raised from the hole!
I love vacations. Taking vacations is more important than... not taking vacations.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October is looking good so far.

Okay so I have come to the terms with the fact that fall has arrived, especially because it stayed warm and sunny for SO LONG. Our last day of sunshine was on Saturday, so we wanted to get out and do a morning hike before the first session of conference. We ended up taking a different trail than what we had planned on and we had no idea how long it would take or where it would lead us.




The mountains are so beautiful right now! And speaking of beautiful mountains, I got a pretty cool mountain of a spider bite right in the middle of my forehead!

Conference weekend was great. Aside from the talks, we also enjoyed not getting dressed for 2 days, relaxing on the couch, eating bacon, rice krispies treats, chips, no bake cookies, and lots of other healthy foods. Seriously disgusting. To make up for that we've had salad for the last 3 days. But sometimes the salad has bacon. It's hard to get full on spinach.

 But one more note about the junk food. We got these super delicious "rice and bean" chips from Costco (made by Boulder Canyon) and I am addicted. In fact, I am going to grab a handful right now. Good thing I remembered where I hid them from myself!


We are getting ready to leave for Lake Powell tonight! We're going with some of Matt's extended family and I can't wait! I've never been. We're leaving just in time to escape the rain and thunderstorms. So, even though I don't normally like October and the coldness and scary holiday it brings with it, I am so excited for our trip this weekend and another one coming up in a couple weeks!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Top Ten Reasons to Finish my Thesis and Graduate:

1) No more driving down to Provo. This will save roughly $1676 a year. Not to mention the probability that I will die in a car accident will decrease by 78%.
2)My family will come to visit. We'll all go out to dinner. I'm thinking Market Street Grill? I'll probably order the Alaskan halibut.
3) I will no longer have to answer the question "When are you going to graduate?"
4)When people ask me what my thesis is about, I won't have to bore them with the theoretical mumbo jumbo of ontological assumptions of the good life in psychotherapy. I'll just say I forgot.
5) I can get a FULL TIME JOB! One job, one location, one commute, one staggeringly large salary...
6) Maybe I'll want to have a baby one day. And maybe it will be a girl. And maybe I'll have to buy her cute baby dresses and decorate a nursery and play with her when she's born.
7) I can begin stories by saying, "Ah yes, back when I was doing my graduate work..."
8)I'll ask to be referred to as Master Emily Morris. Then maybe I'll become a ringleader in a circus.
9)I won't use my degree in my career, and then I'll write an exposé on the futility of graduate education.
10) Elizabeth said she'll buy me a present.


My thesis is temporarily consuming my life, I'll do a real post about what we're up to sometime soon!

Friday, September 3, 2010

It happened....

September came despite all my best efforts to delay its arrival. On the plus side, I am looking forward to new fall clothes, and Matt is anxiously awaiting football season. It is still in the 80s during the day, but the nights have been a lot colder. So, as a nod to the crisp evening weather, we had Apple Cider Chicken Curry Soup for dinner.

Very easy to make and it's one of our favorites. Here's the recipe...
Cook boneless chicken breasts or  tenders (about a pound?) in a deep skillet with about a half cup of apple cider on medium heat, covered. While the chicken is cooking, cook a large sweet potato* and then puree that with 1 can garbanzo beans (drained) and 2 cups of cider in the blender. When chicken is cooked, shred it (you can just use a wooden spoon to chop it while it's still in the skillet), then add the pureed potato, beans, and cider.  Season generously with about 1 tbs curry powder, 2 tsp ginger (grated fresh or powder), 1 tsp cumin. Stir together until warmed through, then salt and pepper to taste.
*The orange kind. I think the easiest/quickest way to cook the potato is to poke it all over with a fork, cover it with a damp paper towel, and microwave it for 7-8 minutes. Remove peel before blending.

I'm definitely not a professional recipe writer so I hope this makes sense. If anybody tries it, please let me know how it turns out! Mmmm I am hungry again thinking about food.

For everyone who just headed back to school and for everyone who just sent kids back to school- hope the first week(s) went well! Happy Friday!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Times they are a changin'!

It's official! Matt has left his previous job at NAI and has now joined the ranks of true corporate America- CB Richard Ellis. A quick Wikipedia search reveals why this is such a good change.


NA... who? Exactly.

CBRE. That's more like it.

He'll still be doing commercial real estate, and his office is still in downtown Salt Lake.

Now if I can just take a moment to brag about Matt. He is amazing!! This change was not an easy one to make, but after lots of prayers and discussions it's finally happened, and he's handled the transition very well. Overall, we are very excited about the new job!

In other news, this is my last Friday as a stay-at-home mom with no kids. No, we're not expecting. Starting next week, my schedule will get much busier as I begin TAing for my thesis advisor's classes. That's right, I'll actually have a job to go to 5 days a week. I even made a very elaborate Google calendar to help juggle the 3 different job schedules that change on a weekly basis. Just counting down the days until I don't have to commute to Provo. I could probably make the 50 minute drive with my eyes closed, and I've thought about trying it to prove a point, but the slim chance that it wouldn't work out might not be worth it.

I CANNOT BELIEVE that August is almost over! I'm not quite ready for fall. Not ready to say goodbye to days at the pool, picnics, hiking, barbecues, ice cream, long walks, and reading outside. I really hope the warm weather lasts awhile longer.


That's how happy I am in the summertime :)

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Bobby D.

This week was VERY exciting for me because I fulfilled by lifelong dream of going to a Bob Dylan concert. Yes- the great BOB DYLAN, legendary hero of folk music and everything wonderful in life. For those of you who don't like Bob Dylan, it will be impossible to explain how satisfying this was, so I'll just say it was amazing. My dear husband even accompanied me against his will. Can't say he loved it, but I also can't say he didn't love it.




The internet we ordered has yet to arrive, so I am currently in Barnes and Noble, which has much better background music than our apartment.

We've been loving the mountains lately, and feel so lucky to be SO CLOSE to nature. We've made a couple trips up Big Cottonwood Canyon over the last couple weeks. This picture is from a ward hike we did:

And what have we been eating you ask?  I've been trying my hand at asian food.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Our neighbors must have finally figured out that our whole building was using their unlocked internet so they took it away! So, after being blessed with such generous neighbors for years, I'll actually have to pay for internet service for the first time ever. It should be installed by next week, and then I'll put up some new pictures.
Well it seemed like this last week was just filled with one embarrassment after the other. To name a few:

  • At Cafe Rio, Matt went to get one last refill and asked me to take the tray to the garbage. I dropped the whole tray of food before even taking a step.
  • In Sunday School, I was given quote #6 to read. I thought the teacher said "Now who has quote #6?" So I said "I do.." and started reading the paragraph. I stopped reading when I realized he was still talking. I guess he said "Now let's turn to Chapter 6". I don't know if that was better or worse than a few months ago when I thought the teacher asked "How does smiling make us feel?" Everyone seemed really serious and quiet so I said "Happy!" No, not smiling, sacrificing.
  • At the grocery store, the bagger said, "Be careful with this bag it's really heavy." Trying to make a joke, I said "Oh I just got back from the gym, I think I can handle it." He said "No..I mean because the bag might break." When I was walking the groceries home from the car, the bag did break, and there went my produce rolling all over the parking lot!

Matt says I don't embarrass him. That's nice of him to say. He doesn't even flinch anymore when I spill something, bruise myself, fall off the couch, etc...
Aaaanyways, we are doing well here, we love and miss you all :)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Another day another parasite cleanse

We are on day 3 of our parasite cleanse, I'd like to say it's going well, but we have just been so incredibly tired from the herbs we're taking I don't even know how well it's working. I won't post pictures of what we've been eating because it's really not appetizing at all. We're not even entirely sure we have parasites- I'm just convinced I do since I have terrible digestion, and Matt's just coming along for the ride (he's been a great sport). Don't worry, we're under the supervision of a doctor my homeopath friend.
Matt starts his CCIM classes today. You don't know what that is? Me neither, and I've had it explained to me about 5 times. I do know that he gets to leave work a couple hours early two days a week and these classes will help him advance his career. ALSO, he got called to be an Elders Quorum instructor. I am just so proud of him for how hard he works at everything!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The afternoon nap lasted 5 hours...

So Matt and I are wide awake now.

We had a GREAT time at Jeff and Natalie's wedding last weekend. The wedding was beautiful and I'm excited to have another Morris sister-in-law! It was tons of fun hanging out with Matt's immediate and extended family and getting to know everybody better. The kids are all adorable and so funny! I wish we all lived closer and could get together more often. I loved staying at home, being with family, and re-decorating the guest room-I wish we had before and after pictures, Mom :) I miss you all already.
The trip was just too short!

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner (I wish I had better pictures from the wedding day!)

The past week has been really busy, but here are a few highlights:

-Matt's softball team WON! He even had a head first slide into home base!
-I got a second job :) I'll be teaching classes to children at SIP Academy.
-As a result of getting the job, I'm spending time every day learning how to use an abacus. Yep.
-Matt got a new driver which improved his golf game on Saturday
-We set up two of our friends and went out on a double date to Market Street Grill and it was very delicious. We played games back at our place and I won texas hold em (Matt bought me a poker set for our 1 month anniversary- very romantic and traditional ;)  )

We're just enjoying the summer and loving the weather. Ok, I love that it's in the upper 90s but I might be alone in that one.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Take me home, country roads!

We are leaving in..... 20 minutes!
Can't wait to see you all!

We'll probably be there by the time you read this, but Mom and Dad- you can be sure we will do some serious John Denver sing-a-long. It wouldn't be a road trip without it!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sometimes cooking requires blood sacrifice...

Steak with strawberry and parmesan salad.

Red Pepper Pasta- Good and good for you! Sauce is just red peppers, garlic, red onion, and a little olive oil. Brown rice pasta. Served with hot italian chicken sausage, made fresh daily at Sunflower Farmers Market- we love it. But not as much as I love the Blendtec! 

Spanakopita (or "spankyouverymmucha" as Matt called it)- Spinach, feta, tapenade, egg, and my first gluten free crust that didn't taste like dog food!


Shish-kabobs! Wednesday is Matt's cooking night since I teach that night and get home later than usual. He led the kabob project and did a wonderful job with the finger food.

And then I cut the corner of my index finger clean off while cutting the bacon for a BLT Salad. Less appetizing "finger food"....ok that is a gross corny joke. Anyways, it was very traumatic but Matt took excellent care of me. Here we are on our  way to his work retreat in Midway. Matt successfully finished the salad and everybody liked it. I also made Pavlova for the first time and it was delicious! I'll definitely do that one again. I'm feeling a lot better today, and now I am just worried that my finger will never look or feel normal again. Everybody cross your fingers (ha ha...) that it will heal well!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

The week in food:

Cobb Salad: Spinach, mixed greens, hard boiled eggs, bacon, grilled chicken, avocado, ranch.


Greek Tuna Pasta Salad: Penne, large chunk tuna, mediterranean feta,  grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumber, green bell pepper, salt, pepper, oilve oil, lemon zest and juice


Pad Thai:  Rice noodles,  steak, spinach, broccoli, peanut sauce (honey, peanut butter, sesame oil, teriyaki sauce, chili powder). pot-stickers from costco.

Enchiladas: corn tortillas, chicken, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, black olives, green chiles, cheddar cheese, avocados.



Friday-
Drive-in Theater! Cheeseburgers and fries courtesy of Red Robin :)

 







18 holes

After weeks and weeks of coldish rainy days, we think the sun might finally stay out. We celebrated by spending as much time as possible outside :)
Matt and I went golfing at Rose Park- my first time doing 18 holes....it was a doozy. It was a lot of fun and I might even be improving, even though Matt still put me to shame. A beautiful day on the course...




Friday, June 11, 2010

Being a domesticated house cat

It's FRIDAY! I have work and school off today, so today is laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping day. Last Friday when Matt got home from work to find a clean house and a meal waiting he called me a "good domesticated house cat"....I can only strive to live up to the name now.

As requested, here are the meals we ate last week:

 Sausage, eggplant, and zucchini lasagna with cranberry, pear, and spinach salad


Gouda cheeseburgers with spinach, and red onion and lemon relish. With sweet potato and regular fries.



"Breaded" (corn flakes and maseca) chicken with green bean, tomato dill salad


Linguine with italian turkey sausage, asparagus, parmesan, pepper, garlic and olive oil


Roasted pork loin with spicy honey barbeque sauce, and pineapple, cranberry and cilantro slaw

Matt's favorites? The pork loin, cheeseburger (especially the fries), and breaded chicken. Least favorite? Lasagna. If I made it again I would probably leave out the eggplant.

*yes, it's all gluten free. But I bet if normal ingredients were used it would be even better!

Last week's grocery list:
lasagna noodles
1 eggplant
1 zucchini
craisins 
baby spinach
mixed baby spring greens
1 pear
2-3 sweet potatoes
Russett potatoes
1 red onion
2 lemons
2-3 lbs. sausage
2 tomatoes
french cut green beans
pineapple (canned would probably work fine)
cilantro
1 bunch asparagus
1 bulb garlic
1 pint ricotta cheese
gouda cheese
Shredded parmesan
Spaghetti sauce
2 lbs lean ground beef
Pork loin
chicken tenderloins
hamburger buns
corn flakes
maseca
linguine (or spaghetti)
ketchup
honey
cayenne pepper
crushed red pepper


(Not including staples like olive oil, salt, pepper, milk, eggs, etc...)

Most of these recipes were adapted (aka made gluten free and more suited to our tastes) from Real Simple Magazine, so if you want to make them, go here!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Hello

We realized that in order to be officially married we'd need to start a married person blog. It's been about a month and a half since the wedding, and everything has been wonderful. We finally feel settled in.

 We'll try to keep posts updated on what we're up to :) Looking through our camera the other day, I realized the only thing we've taken pictures of since the wedding is FOOD. So expect a lot of food pictures and recipes... we like to eat.

One of my many favorite hobbies is planning meals for the week (always trying and inventing new recipes), so when I get a little more advanced at blogging- I'll share some of that!