Eight!

My 8 obsessions.....8 things that I am passionate about...
1. My Family
2. My Friends
3. Being Happy
4. Being organized
5. Blogging
6. Cooking
7. Creating
8. Love

8 words or phrases I use often...
1. Good (morning, afternoon) County Attorney’s Office. Amy speaking. How may I help you?
2. Seriously!?!
3. You know?
4. That’s tragic.
5. Totally unfortunate.
6. Adorable!
7. So annoying.
8. Ummmmm, no.

8 things I want to do before I die...
1. Photo safari in Africa.
2. Visit South Korea with E.
3. Stay in an ice hotel
4.Compete on Jeopardy.
5. Set foot in all 50 states.
6. Go back to school.
7. See Monument Valley at Sunset.
8. Learn to surf.

8 things I have learned from my past..
1. People will show you who they are and you are a fool if you don’t believe them.
2. Hard work does pay off.
3. Learn from failed relationships.
4. If you don’t like drama people who embrace drama should be cut out of your life.
5. Don’t look back except to learn.
6. The best friends will always be there for you.
7. Most of the time you are disappointed in people it’s because your expectations are too high.
8. Sometimes the problem is not that you need to lower your expectations.


8 places I would love to go or see..
1. London
2. Paris
3. Seattle
4. B.C.
5. Egypt
6. Africa
7. New York, New York
8. San Francisco

8 things I currently need or want...
1. Nintendo DS Lite
2. Tripod
3. Grey’s Season 4
4. Sleep
5.Someone to landscape our yard.
6. Vacuum sealer thingy
7. ipod Touch
8. Unlimited Plane Tickets

Eats!

So this afternoon while watching Food Network we stumbled upon Bon Appetit's Best Food Across America.
Talk about making you crave a hamburger, they were addressing what is the best burger, pizza, steak, fried chicken and ribs.
And I felt a pang of fear. Because whenever I hear talk about the best pizza in America I think of Pizzeria Bianco.....and so did they!
PEOPLE! It is already much too difficult to get a table there! For the sake of pizza stop! First Oprah, then Martha, now Bon Appetit?!?
So the continued outing of one of our fave pizza places inspired me to share the love...and talk about a few other local faves!

Pizzeria Bianco

This pizza is delish. Thin crust baked in a wood fire oven by the owner Chris Bianco. I particularly enjoy the mozzarella, tomato and basil salad, and the margherita pizza. So good!

Next restaurant on our list is Manna Cafe.

Manna Cafe

Most of you know that E served a mission for our church in South Korea so I'm sure it's no surprise that a Korean restaurant made the list. One of fave parts is that they serve your meal with banchan as pictured above (picture from google). Banchan are basically side dishes of pickles, kimchee and other tasty things. We really liked the beef rib eye, beef short ribs and kimchee stew.

These are just two of our local faves! I'm thinking this may be a continuing thing...next up local chains!

Spooky Saturday

I love a good productive Saturday of getting things done. I've already hit the post office, cleaned, switched out purses, did laundry, cleaned the windows in my car, got gas, stopped by the auto parts store to get a new headlight etc.

So while I'm busy tackling my to do list enjoy a sweet little Halloween card I made!
Loving this stamp set from Taylored Expressions Adorable!

Thursday Love!

Reasons to love Thursday:
It's almost Friday!
E is HOME!
It's almost 5!
I'm not making dinner!
There is still carrot cake in the fridge!
Great friends!
E still has a meeting this weekend but he's staying in town!
Planning a card day with friends!
Visiting teaching ROCKED!
Facebook FLAIR!

















Honeycrisp apples. Seriously the best apples I have had in awhile...super crisp with a great tangy flava!













Grey's!












Sweet cupcake fabric that I used to make an ipod case the other day. Adorable!

















ipod! It's totally keeping me company at work and I am grateful!

Rodeo!

So one of the things on my bucket list was to go to a Rodeo. Lucky for me the county fair happens in our very own little town every September and this year I actually had a friend riding! (As well as other peeps we know, Hi, Laurie & Alexandra!)

I also had no idea how fast everything would move to sorry for the bad pics! Except for the great picture that my friend C sent me of her riding. She's a rockstar!!
That is also her (the moving pink blur) in the next picture.....see what I said about fast?

Hysterical!

Tastebook

So you may have noticed some pictures that look like this:













Or this:













Well the reason would be that i'm making a tastebook. Such a fun idea! Basically it's a professionaly printed recipe book with your recipes and pictures. So everytime i'm cooking i'm editing recipes and taking pictures for my very own cookbook. Best part? You can print multiples so it's a perfect gift for family members and friends.

Card class!

So card class was yesterday and it was really fun. We have a great group of peeps who get together and I hosted this month! You can see the cards we made below and one of the snacks.

E is out of town (and my neighbors including several police officers are still around so don't get any weird ideas peeps I don't know) so I'm on my own for a few days. I miss him muchly! He just got home last night from being gone and brought me a cute new twilight t-shirt, darling!

That's all for now but expect more posts out of loneliness and boredom!

gingerSNAP!

These gingersnaps are so yummy with cider or eaten on their own. I like to make them slightly crispy and I love the spicy flavor. Cece my little neighbor girl once requested these as her birthday gift! So delish!

3/4 c unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/3 c sugar

1 egg

1/4 c molasses

2 c flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Beat butter and 1 c sugar on medium until well blended.

Beat in egg and molasses until fluffy.

In a separate bowl whisk ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt into flour.

Add flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture with mixer on low.

Using 1/2 tsp form dough into balls. Roll balls into remaining 1/3 c sugar. Place two inches apart on greased cookie sheets.

Using fingertip, place a drop of water on top of each cookie. Do not press down on dough.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until cookies are flattened or crinkled. Cool for two minutes on sheets, then place on racks.

Note: 12 minutes for chewy cookies, 15 for crispy.

Crossing a little something off the bucket list...

I sewed an apron.....and if I do say so myself. DANG CUTE!!!

Delish Soup!

So whatever E had I got. So not fun...I left for work feeling great and left work 2.5hours later feeling horrid. Still not feeling very good but I kept down some plain rice for dinner so that's a start. E swore that this soup is what made him feel better unfortunately we had finished all of it by the time the bug hit me.

I have made this soup twice in the past two weeks and we are loving it. E does not even like tomato soup but thinks this is fantastic. And while I have been known to enjoy a little canned tomato soup, when I first tasted this it was a revelation as to how tomato soup should taste like.

Here's the recipe Tomato Soup.

Date night at the fair.

I crossed something off my bucket list today! So happy!! But i've also thought about 30 things I want to add....such a perpetual project.
E is sick :( Gotta go!

Anyone else excited?

I love Grey's. I love Patrick dempsey and in fact I have had a little crush on him ever since "Can't Buy Me Love". That movie came out when I was SEVEN!

















Classic last season dialogue:
Callie:Do people ever think you two are a couple?
Meredith: No, because we screw boys like whores on tequila.
Cristina: Then we either try to marry them or drown ourselves.













I'm excited to get back to this moment....and maybe to have a happy Mer-Der relationship for once.











And some more eye candy? Nothing wrong with that!













Totally wish-listing this! Perfect to watch while cleaning, scrappin' or sewing.
I can't wait for September 25th....2 hour season premiere here we come!

















Tonight we went to the fair....actually some friends and I went to the fair at lunch and then E and I did date night at the fair tonight too. Agenda for tomorrow is crossing a few thing off of my bucket list. I'll blog after and post pictures from the fair. I have to say I love having E. home....he travels a LOT in the fall....he won't be home a single weekend in October so I'm loving having date night and chilaxin with him!

Remembering

It seems like I come to this day every year and no matter what else is going on in my life I find myself thinking constantly in moments of idleness about the terrorist attacks in New York and D.C. on September 11, 2001.

It amazes me sometimes because I didn't even live in the US at the time. I was in college in Ontario and had already had one early morning class that day. I was driving from campus to my guitar lesson listening to a CBC interview and they cut in to say that a plane had crashed in to the world trade center in New York.

I thought like everyone thought that it must have been a small plane accident. A small plane losing control and crashing. At the guitar store we watched the second plane hit. We watched the towers fall. In real time....no delays or scripted commentary. It felt like the world stopped and in some ways it still feels like it has.


















In completely selfish ways I feel the slight annoyances and bumps. The longer wait times at airport security, 3-1-1, immigrating to the US after 9-11, trying to open a bank account, all of these things were a different and more challenging experience in a post 9-11 world.

And some days I'm annoyed...I'm impatient and self-centered.

But today, I'm sad and I feel much appreciation. I may not agree with the war but I am thankful for the members of the armed forces who give their service and their lives. I feel appreciation for all of the law enforcement officers who daily work to protect us. Who were literally doing their jobs that day and gave their lives.

And I feel hope. I have HOPE that we are moving forward as a country. A country I now call home. I have HOPE that this upcoming election will more this country forward in a positive way.

Sometimes I get very maudlin and upset by my job....it's a hazard getting to exposed to the most horrible acts that people do to each other every day. But I'm hanging on to hope...hope that we as a people can do better and be better.
And I'm grateful.

Beautiful Arizona!

A few days ago I ventured out to our back yard after work (it was too venturing....I was wearing heels!) to look at what E. is calling the forest. You see as much work as we have done to the inside of the house and even the outside of the house....we have done NOTHING with the yard. So Wildlife abounds....like this cute little lizard hiding beneath the tumbleweed.

















And these beautiful wildflowers...that grow wild.

















So when I said we hadn't done anything to the yard this is the exception.
This is what E brought me out here to see....our trees!!! We planted a mess of trees in the spring in this sheltered corner of our back year to let them grow until they are strong enough to transport. So fun!













And now for my least fave thing about Arizona and living in the desert. This is a centipede that E killed on our driveway....so far that makes centipedes (none in the house this year though), black widows (never in the house) and scoripons. Fun times!!

7 things I love today

So in keeping with trying to incorporate gratitude into my life here are 7 things that I love and am grateful for today.

My husband. Why yes he is holding a spoon and the head of Dora on a stick.
He's a rock star and I love him. What you need an explanation about the picture? Two words birthday pinata. Anyways moving on he is a total support to me in my life and at the same time supports me in being totally myself. Even if it includes watching girly movies.












Oh Burt's bees. Our relationship is a strong one...I remember the days when I could not find you...in the cold hard north of Canada. Now is the golden years of our relationship! I can buy you at Target and WalMart and you live in every room of my house, in my car, my purse and my office.
















Here is a newcomer to my life. Introduced by Nicole C (I'll be forever thankful). A lozenge to soothe my sore sore throat that does not taste horrible. At moments it really does taste like ginger ale.
















How here is a geeky thing, wait everything on the list is semi geeky so I'm just going for it. FLAIR! I love getting it from friends and I love when they send me one and I'm like "YOU SOOOOO GOT ME!" My friend.....lets call her Serity sent me one pictured below labeled "book slut". She gets me.

















SCENTSY!!!
Beautiful wax warmers (I have the blue one on the right, so pretty) that make your house smell FAB!
No more sooty candles!













This was a recent discovery at Safeway. My fruit guy at the store, Travis, saw me checking this lemonade out and advised me "If you like lemonade, good tart-sweet lemonade, you'll like that." Travis knows his stuff...he also gave me the word on when to expect those lovely Honey Crisp apples. As a side note....having a good fruit guy = priceless. He has been known to whip out a knife and cut us a sample and he never leads us wrong.





















And last of all.....I'm grateful for you! I love knowing my family and friends like reading what I write! And random blog friends or even strangers....whatever!!! Embracing the love!