Pesto, Presto!

Still no pictures for "Ashton's Big House" yet, but they'll come someday!

On to new topics, my darling, handsome, strong husband was told by the doctor that he needs to lose weight. Adam's hamstring has been really bothering him too, so he knows the doctor is right. So in an effort to be a good wife, I spent a long time looking up healthy recipes and organizing them into a meal calendar. I didn't account for leftovers though, so it's a good thing we only bought the first scheduled week of ingredients. It's already Thursday and we've only made one of them!

Healthy Pesto Pizza

Unfortunately, I get home after Adam and due to an event we had scheduled on Monday evening, he graciously made one of the dishes before I got home from work! And it was delicious! I didn't think to take a picture of the final product until after I chomped a giant bite out of my leftover Pesto Pizza on Tuesday night. Thanks, Honey for making it!

The picture looks blurry because I had to increase the size 50%. And I took it on my phone's camera. Anyway, Adam also made a nice salad and we shared a banana on the side as well. The pizza alone is supposed to be approximately 280 calories, so I think we did pretty well on this one! Whole wheat crust and everything!

It's my turn to cook tonight so I'm thinking I'll either make the Polenta or Quinoa Pilaf. I'm excited! Both recipes require ingredients that we couldn't find at the neighborhood grocer, so I looked online to see where Quinoa and Corn Meal might be sold. Fresh & Easy is where I found mine! But I hear Trader Joe's has them too. Not a bad deal for corn meal though - I got a big bag for $1.99! I'm really hoping Adam loves Quinoa because when I was visiting my sister in Arizona, I tried it for the first time and I loved it! It's a grain (or seed, rather) that cooks like rice, tastes good, and has protein! Although this recipe is much different than how I ate it at my sister's (with a little honey and peaches), I am interested to see how it tastes with broccoli and chicken!

Already this week: Adam has lost 6 pounds! I wish I could lose it that fast! But I am down one pound myself!

Ashton's Big House

I took a few days off last week to fly to Arizona with my mom to visit my sister and her family in Arizona where they just moved to last weekend. The purpose was to help them move in and/or take care of Ashton while they unpacked their boxes. I vaccuumed, but I pretty much just played with Ashton. He is SO cute! And so loving and sweet...quite a good boy. He didn't fuss much...at least when we were there. I was on potty patrol the whole time. The first time he saw me there was Wednesday morning and not more than five minutes later he had to go potty. His dad got up to take him but he said, "No, I want Ashleigh." So pretty much the whole 4 days I spent in Arizona, I took Ashton to the potty about 2 dozen times or so. 

Day 1 - Mom and I took Ashton for a walk while Jess was at work. Adam D. said the park was right before the school. My mom was the one who heard the directions and we ended up taking a right before the school instead of walking straight and seeing the park right before the school. So we walked around and around and around in the HOT desert community until we found a park. Not the park but a park. It was hot and we got exhausted pretty fast. Thank goodness we had water! Then we decided to drive to town to a Verizon store because my mom's phone wasn't working. They were no help. My mom wanted to give Jessica's car a good wash though so she found a car wash and without knowing it would take that long, I think we waited over two hours for them to complete the ultimate wash. That is a LONG time for a three year old. It was long enough for me! But Ashton was pretty good, we stopped to share an ice cream cone from McDonald's, and we finally made it home to his Mommy. Yay!

Day 2 - Pretty much went shopping the whole day it seems...I don't quite remember. We got some cute decorations for Ashton's bathroom...in his new big house. Every time we were out he mentioned his new big house. :) Ashton helped Mommy wash the dogs in the backyard. I think I recorded some cute video of my mom playing with Ashton this night...I'll have to try to get it from her.

Day 3 - We took Ashton to the kiddie pool. We had a LOT of fun and the water felt nice...almost chilly compared to the heat outside the pool. I even got goosebumps. We stayed for a really long time. We all had pruney fingers and toes. Later that afternoon, we got together to head to the community water park - free for residents, but guests cost a small price. I didn't bring my swimsuit for this occasion. I didn't think we'd be staying long and I was pretty tired so I was just going to read my book. I ended up not being allowed in because I didn't want to pay to get in so I could just sit and read. So I found myself lonely and desperately missing my Adam as love song after love song played on the speakers. I guess I discovered my limit of time I am able to spend away from my husband - three days. That's it.

Day 4 - Our plane wasn't due to leave until 4pm so we went back to the waterpark in the morning. This time my mom stayed back to read. I had a wonderful time playing with Jess and Ashton in the pool. He's so much fun, has an extensive vocabulary for his age, and he says he loves things when he sees something he thinks looks neat. I love that tower. I love that bucket. I love that slide. I love that fill in the blank. So after a couple hours of good 'ole pool time, we went back to Ashton's big house, took showers, packed our bags, and off we went to the airport. Ashton fell asleep during the car ride so we didn't get to say goodbye to him but we DID get to kiss his precious head. The SkyCabin guy told my mom and I how much of a pleasure it was to help such beautiful women, Mom almost forgot her credit card at ESPN Zone airport version because our plane was boarding, and some drunk Saints fan sat next to me on the plane ride getting his pre-party on. I pretended to sleep so he wouldn't bother me anymore but anytime I opened my eyes in the slightest he had something to say. He asked to take a picture of my wedding ring since he had one specially made for his wife and it looks "exactly the same, that's insane." Finally my dad drove up to the curb at the airport to pick us up and there was my handsome husband in the passenger seat with him! Hallelujah! I missed him so much!!

 

I love that!

It's only been six months?

Time goes by fast when you're in love! ...And when you keep yourself busy! September 12th marked the first 6 months of Adam's and my marriage. What did we do? We enjoyed church, taught Sunday School, Adam witnessed the conferring of the Melchezidek Priesthood upon Danny North, we went home and cuddled taking a nice long nap, had dinner with my folks and the amazing Fawley Family, then socialized in celebration of Erin Rix's 1/4 Century Birthday! Her baby Scarlett is gorgeous. We also got to wish Matt Brown well as he prepares to embark on another military journey to the Middle East. I would say it was quite a wonderful day!

This is a pic from an old game.

In good 'ole American fashion, we remembered the tragedy of 9/11 with great thanks for the freedom we enjoy by exercising that freedom and viewing a quaint patriotic display at the USC v. Virgina football. Great 50-yard line tickets courtesy of the Timpke Family. :) The band was great and the rockets red glare, but the game was pretty slow and neither team played very well. Let's just say I was happy to sit in the cold because I LOVE football...but c'mon guys, give us a better show. You barely pulled it off and had a couple of quarters where every other play you got a penalty. Costed you a goal too. Four hour game? 

USC fans, be not offended, but I'm really glad I didn't go there. Broken beer bottles left in the middle of huge walkways where crowds in their flip flops walk through? Not cool. And campus safety did nothing when I told them there were shards of glass sitting in right in front of the busy student store! I guess I'm just happy for the more safe and intimate atmosphere I experienced at Pepperdine. But you're right - we didn't have football.

Speaking of school...I start up again this week..at SC! Saddleback College, that is. I feel like I haven't been to school in forever! Do I remember how to study? Will Childhood Development be that hard?

And Adam starts playing ball again this week!

In The Beginning...

I never thought I would have a blog, but as the day is long and my work is done, and I've had the most I can take reading other people's message boards and playing online games...so here I am trying to think what I should blog about. Therefore, I am starting with the basics.

I know I'm interested in sports, working with children, finding cute modest clothes at a decent price, the ocean, my family, eating, things that are purple, budgeting, being creatively organized, and being a good Latter-day Saint to the best of my ability. Things I am interested in learning more about are cooking, sewing, gardening, and other old lady things. Please don't take offense if you like those things...I'm just starting to be interested. And I guess I can only say learn "more about" cooking since I know nothing about sewing or gardening. But eventually I would like to be able to make dresses for myself and my little girls should I ever birth any.

In the interest of being held accountable, I will share my current goals and how I am working toward them.

1 - Buy a home. Adam and I have constructed a budget that includes all of our monthly expenses including tithing and saving. We are reworking our budget to include longer term payments like insurances, car registration, general car expenses like oil changes, and things like that. At the end of each month, we add up our expenses and if we underspend in any of our pre-determined categories, we put that money toward outstanding car and student loans. Getting rid of debt is number one to purchasing a home. 

2 - Career Change. After four years or so of television production and 20 hour commutes each week, I'm pretty burnt out. I started getting burnt out two years ago and began investigating how to go about obtaining a teaching credential. I have passed the CBEST and have a CoC, but no time to invest in an academic program since my commute takes a huge toll on me every day. The thing about teaching is I would be in a career where I feel like I'm actually influencing people directly in a positive way. TV is a lot of negative influence and ALL indirect. Every job I held up til TV was working with children and I love them. I love instilling confidence in them that they CAN do things and I help to show them how. I got to do that a lot coaching gymnastics. So, my next step toward getting a teaching credential is preparing myself to have time to get one. I just enrolled in two early childhood education courses that will get me halfway qualified to teach at a preschool. If after next Spring I can get a job as a preschool teacher somewhere close to home, then I could finish a credential program within two years.

3 - Add to the Family. Yes, that means having a baby. Or two. Or a dozen. Okay maybe not. But if we continue working toward goal #1, we will be well on our way to #3. Not to mention #2 would give me valuable experience instructing children AND when my kids are older and in school, I can return to teaching and have the same schedule as them - including summers and holidays!

Finally, I would like to be able to post great pictures of fun activities as I attend them. This requires me to be better at taking pictures regularly...with a camera that flashes only every third shot. But it's doable! Chances are my blog will touch on the things scattered throughout this post. How am I doing so far?