Neglect

I'm sorry my blog has been terribly neglected lately.

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately and I'm sorry to report that I've just been along for the ride, lacking the energy to really take charge. Here's what has been going on:

• Finals. 'Nuff said.
  

• Jeff is building a computer. In the meantime, I have no where to store my pictures. You may have noticed the lack of picture pizzaz lately...

• Moving. Yes, we're moving! I thought we'd live out the rest of our college experience in the place of the nasty carpet, but I was wrong. We were lucky enough to be offered a position as managers for an apartment complex (free rent!!) so we're moving. And downsizing. Packing has been a nightmare, because, have I ever mentioned, I'm a bit of a pack rat?

• Spring semester just begun, three days after the end of winter semester and Jeff Jeff and I are both taking full class loads and working on top of packing, moving, and reorganizing.

Basically, we've just been trying to maintain sanity in this neck of woods. April came, and with brought spring and birthdays and April fools and a whole slew of other things that I completely forgot about. But at least the trees and flowers are looking lovely and lively once again.

I hope that spring has brought bright, beautiful blossoms your way! Utah's crazy freeze/thaw spring season is driving us bonkers. I took my coats to the dry cleaners the other day only to wake up to morning snow showers, followed by a healthy dose of wind and sunshine in the afternoon, then hail by dinnertime.

At times like these, a good quote is an invaluable perk-up:

"Stop looking for the storms more fully enjoy the sunlight."-Gordon B. Hinckley

Stay tuned. Once I catch up to my life, I'll have so much to share!
In the meantime, enjoy the sunlight.

Madness of March

NCAA tournament?
Brackets anyone?
Sweet sixteen playoffs tonight?
Is this why family dinner has turned into pizza in front of the TV?

I love basketball, but thank goodness the madness is limited to March.

Now if only I could get my madness in line......

In the meantime, Go Cougars!
And as always, I'm pulling for Duke for in the Finals :)

Weekend Mirths

{Saturday's rainbow}

We've been experiencing some delightful weekends lately, which is odd, because we create mile-long to-do lists and it seems like we rarely take the chance to sit down (but of course we do-hello, it's March Madness!). While our weekends aren't restful, they are full of good food, family, a chance or two to sleep in, and the simple satisfaction of a few check marks.

These plain Jane activities have been salve to our poor little run down bodies, and the only thing that could possibly be better would be a weekend of doing nothing. Sadly, a weekend like that is nowhere in sight. We only have 3 more weeks of class and deadlines are becoming suppressive, not to mention our grueling schedule is really starting to take it's toll. As Jeffrey so fondly quoted, we feel "like butter spread over too much bread" (can you tell me what movie that is from??). We drag ourselves out of bed, puffy-eye and tousled, and sixteen hours later collapse right back into those same spots we abandoned that morning. Half the time, I don't even know what day it is.

However, the sun still shines! And we are still living, loving, and laughing. With all that we've been given, we couldn't possibly live any other way. We're so lucky to be getting an excellent university education, we're lucky to have good jobs, and we're beyond lucky to have each other to "suffer" alongside. Finding joy in our little journey is sometimes a difficult task, but here is how we accumulate bushels of joy on our everyday ordinary weekends:

{breakfast in bed, as I've said before, my ultimate indulgence}

{nothing says joy like a tea party with your husband, little neighbor girls, and their mother}

{fitting all the family on our couch for homemade waffle sundaes and movie night}

{nobody makes waffles like the Draper men}

Hey Mister

Can I just tell you about this guy for one second? I could, of course, take much longer than a second, but Jeff will already be upset with me for that one measley second so I have to move fast.

This guy gets up at 4:45am every Tuesday and Thursday to take a 1 hour bus ride into the city where he works. He then gets off work at 4pm, rides the bus back for another hour, and walks himself home from the bus walk, it's at least a mile-long walk. He does all in the attire you see above. He comes home a little rumply, and sometimes tired, always very hungry, but you know what, he rarely complains. In fact, he may never complain. The closest he comes to complaining is when he bemoans all those lucky people who don't have to work over 20 hours a week and go to school, or when he begrudgingly pulls out his books for the first available opportunity to do homework that day and it's already 7 at night. And then he grinds his way through arduous and endless math problems, refusing to give up on a major that is infamous in its difficulty. He works so hard. I've always loved and respected that about him. He does whatever it takes to take care of us and to make me happy, and I can't help but love that too.

So when he came home the other day and the sweet little neighbor girls, seeing him all dressed up, asked, "Are you dating Rachel?" I smiled to myself and thanked God that no, he's not just dating me, he's my husband.


Love you Jeff :)

Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecakes

I don't really like packaged foods, particularly packaged cookies. Sometimes the junk food bug bites me though, and I might be tempted to eat them, but the number of times I've actually given in are probably so few that I can count them on my hands. There is, however, one exception: oreos. I love oreos. I love that you get a big ole black crumbed oreo mouth when you eat them. I love that you can eat it as a sandwich cookie, or you can twist it apart and lick out the frosting (I don't think about what the frosting is made of when I do this....that would ruin it) and I love how it goes so well with milk. Oh and it's great with peanut butter as well.

In this super fast, SUPER easy recipe, the delightful marriage of peanut butter and oreos is made, and perfected, if you wash it all down with a cold glass of milk.

The Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecakes recipe from one of my fav cooking blogs, crepesofwrath.net. I hardly made any changes, but I would recommend using double stuft oreos....if you dare. And if you super dare, these would be ridiculously delicious topped with chocolate fudge sauce....and maybe a dollop of whipped cream. Mmmm, like I said, ridiculously delicious.

Weekend Mirths

When I grow up, I'm going to have an Oscars Party. It will be like a Super Bowl party, only it will be classy. We'll trade soda for mocktails, chicken wings and chips for fresh popped popcorn (a variety of flavors to be sure!) and a plethora of brightly-colored candy in beautiful glass jars. Maybe we'll dress up too.

In the meantime, I'll sit on my couch in my sweats and enjoy all of the beautiful dresses.

I was loving all of the blush and nude tones that were accented with lots of sparkle, it's a good indication of what's coming for Spring, and it's definitely a trend I can get into. Here are some of my favorite not-so-neutral dresses from the red carpet:













I hope you had a lovely Oscars weekend!


pics from msn

When life gives you lemons....

Dealing with reality has been a bit of a challenge lately. We're nearing the end of the semester, but we're not close enough yet to start celebrating, just close enough that school work is getting taxing and many large projects are coming due. On top of that, the weather is schizophrenic and threatens to drag us along on its treacherous roller coaster of warm weather, snow, thaw, rain, slush, and then warm weather once again.

We're not letting it get us down, because we know that when life hands you lemons, make lemonade! For an extra special touch, we made our lemonade with fresher-than-could-possibly-be lemons from Krista and Steve's house.


Honey Lemonade

1 C water and 1 C honey for every 1 C lemon juice
3-4 C cold water to dilute
Method:

Make a simple syrup by dissolving equal parts honey (or you can use sugar, or both) and water, and in a saucepan on the stove. Once you have a thin syrup, remove from heat and mix in the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Dilute with cold water. Make adjustments as necessary, either less water or more sugar or more lemon juice-this means you get to sample as you go! Some people think that honey is less sweet measure per measure than sugar, so more sugar may be necessary if you like really sweet lemonade. If you like a little zip, the equal parts measure will be perfect.



To embrace the schizophrenia, we used the lemonade to wash down some sinfully delicious potato soup. Summer drink and Winter soup. Things are looking up.


The potato soup recipe is from my bestie, Ash pants. Thinking of you lovely! I only tweaked it by dropping in a hunk of parmesan cheese and its rind and letting it melt and absorb before I added the mashed potato to the broth mixture, and I also added some sauteed slices of kielbasa to the mix since I don't love bacon. These two make it sinfully delicious. We devoured this soup, with Jeffie licking his lips and exclaiming, "I could eat this everyday for the rest of my life!"

Weekend Mirths: Roadtrip

Wow. This has been a long time coming. Please forgive me for not getting around to telling you about the adventurous weekend we spent in Arizona. Life swallowed us up once we returned, which always makes me wonder if vacations are really worth all the additional stress they put into your life. Reviewing these pictures, however, reminds me that memories and great experiences are definitely worth the extra effort.


Vegas at 11 o'clock at night. One word to define it, one word that explains why I want to go back: "sparkly". We didn't stay on the strip...I know know, I mean I didn't know, I had never been to Vegas before! We were down on Freemont Street, and while trying to find our way to the strip we counted three little wedding chapels, and one man who asked if we were looking to get married. Ha. He's two years too late. Been there Mister. Done that.

After we got tired of walking,we returned to our hotel, the Golden Nugget, and discovered that the strip is a few miles away from Freemont. Needless to say, we didn't ever see the strip. Not this time anyway. But I want to go back to the land of the sparkles, so there's always next time.

{our hotel had a shark tank! If you know Jeff, you'll know that's why we stayed here}

{the glittering Golden Nugget}

{after stuffing ourselves at one of the infamous Vegas buffets}

The road trip section of this journey was actually pretty eventful. Sort of. We got stuck in traffic in Arizona on a two-lane highway in the middle of the desert. We literally parked our car for two hours! The weather was absolutely beautiful so we rolled down our windows, opened the sun roof, and pretended like we were doing crossword puzzles at the beach. We didn't actually successfully complete one single crossword puzzle entirely on our own, but who really walks around knowing the capital of Samoa?

Once we finally got to Mesa, in the land of the sun, it rained. All weekend long. It was pretty rain though and during the breaks in the weather Jeff and I would sneak out to pluck some oranges right from the trees and devour them.

Krista and Steve are doing great, living in a cute little house with lemon and grapefruit trees in the backyard. Together with them we enjoyed a relaxing weekend of citrus, fresh Mexican food, movies, and cupcakes.

{from Sprinkles Bakery}

We dreaded the thought of returning from rain to snow without seeing one glimpse of the sun, so Arizona kindly ceased it's deluge for our last few hours and we were able to soak up some sun and catch a refreshing breeze on our way back home.

Weekend Mirths

Yes. It is the middle of the week and I'm finally getting around to weekend mirths. It's been that kind of week; high-stress, too much to do, never enough time in the day, but oh my, we had a nice weekend.

{orchids from my valentine}

{home made valentines}

{dreaming}

And oh my, are we going to have an0ther great weekend.

ROADTRIP!!!

Jeff are I are traveling down to Arizona by way of Vegas. I've never been to Vegas so I'm really excited to go! After traipsing around a bit, we're continuing south to spend the long weekend with my sister.

It makes the long week so worthwhile!
Wish me luck in Sin City! Be back next week!

P.S.-I had my 9 month (!!!!) check-up this week and the doctor says I'm doing great. I still can't believe it....

Valetines...all grown up

Growing up, I loved making valentines for all of my friends and especially for my mom. I would hand make some, but usually I bought a box of Disney Princess valentines to pass out to people at school. As I've grown, I'm still tempted to buy the princess valentines for old time's sake, but I definitely prefer to make my own special creations, from the heart. It's a great way to really think about the person you're making a valentine for, and a great way to send some extra love.

Here are some adorable ideas for your valentines this year, some conventional, some fresh:

{using thick paper and crochet floss}

{lace-printed paper, so lovely!}

{a really fresh take, creating a valentine that decorates and stays up as a reminder year round}

{create a keepsake: a sewed valentine album}

{put your heart on the map}

{download and print this design off to either decorate or send out}


{you can purchase these all-in-one valentines-note and gift- from inklore}

{"heart string" valentine}