Little Did I Know That Girl Was An Assassin Too

November 17th:

• the day I flew to Fresno to start my Thanksgiving break
• the day my necklaces and iPhone charger were stolen from my suitcase while it sat at the horrible PHX airport
• the day I sat at the PHX airport for 6 hours because my flight has serious issues
• the day I decided never to fly US Airways ever again
• but most importantly... the day I bought Battle Studies in the Salt Lake airport at 6 am MST and didn't stop listening to it on repeat until about 3 pm PST

That album has changed my life. I can listen to it anytime, anywhere, for any amount of time. John Mayer's lyrics are so powerful!

Now I have to admit. I heard Who Says and I wasn't completely convinced... It didn't make me want to buy the album when it came out. But I was sitting there in the airport and thought, what better way to spend a full day of traveling then listening to John Mayer's voice.

From Edge of Desire's "I want you so bad I'll go back on the things I believe. There I just said it, I'm scared you'll forget about me." to Half of My Heart's "Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring and half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything."

Perfectly Lonely is my theme song right now and I LOVE it. "Nothing to dooooo, nowhere to beeee, a simple little kind of free. Nothing to doooo, no one but meeee." AHHHH love this song!!

So why did it take me 2 months to post about this amazing album?? I decided today that I want to go to his concert this year. Well... He's coming to Portland and Seattle when I will be in Spain. So that's out of the question. So I looked up the rest of his tour dates and found out he will be in LA the day before we fly out of LAX for Spain! How amazing. Go see John Mayer one night and then hop on a plane the next night for Europe! Could that week be any better?? I think not. Only problem though, only crappy seats are left. So I got to find some gems on craigslist to purchase.

I am a little sad though that I won't be able to have the same John Mayer concert experience that I had two summers ago in North Carolina (minus the rain and my iPhone breaking because of getting wet) I LOVED sitting on the grass at the outdoor arena and listening to perfect music. Sitting inside a closed arena in uncomfortable seats won't be the same... oh well. Anything to hear him perform live again...

You're The Meaning In My Life, You're The Inspiration

I have been inspired!  I just spent the afternoon watching Julie and Julia and was enraptured all 120 minutes of it! I walked out of the theater debating the pros and cons of going to cooking school.  Two years ago I was very interested in doing it so I went online to check out the ones in Portland.  Western Culinary Institute sent me information and called me a million times.  Finally I had to tell them that I was very interested, but at this time I could not make it work.  They eventually stopped calling me.  But I still get emails from them every once in a while.  I would LOVE to go to cooking school.  And not even to become a chef or professional cook.  I just want to learn for myself.  Isn't that was school is all about anyway?  Gaining knowledge, and in this case experience.  

But alas, I am almost done with my communications degree, which is what I really want to do in the workplace for the rest of my life.  Well as long as I can balance it with the happenings of my life.  So no cooking school for me.  But I wouldn't be surprised to find myself enrolling in a cooking school when I am older and all my children have gone off to college.  I think I would enjoy it more then also because hopefully I will have much more mature taste buds by then.  This will help in me actually enjoying cooking all different sorts of foods.  Currently I avoid any kind of seafood.  I, just a couple of years ago made myself a ham sandwich with leftovers from dinner, because there was no more turkey and I loved it!  I used to remember having ham and potato casserole for dinner and in order for me to have more potatoes I was supposed to eat some ham.  This just killed me.  Well at the time I thought it was killing me.  But now I enjoy eating ham.  So one day I do believe that I will actually like seafood.  One day...

Like Julie, I have already started to blog about my baking.  I LOVE my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.  I have yet to find one that I love just as much.  I did spend a good 30 minutes looking through the recipe books at TJ Maxx yesterday and came away with three new books, 2 being cupcake books. I am returning one after looking closer and seeing that most recipes use cake mixes.  It's all or nothing for me.  As for now, all my recipes will be made from scratch.  I have however fallen behind on my updates.  I haven't talked about four cupcakes that I have made!  So here's a quick update.

Two weeks ago I drove with a friend to Fresno.  It was a surprise to everyone.  Except my aunt Carla. and Laura, because Carla told her... We drove through the night so we arrived around 6/6:30 in the morning.  Laura let me in the house, and when Reshea woke up she called for Laura's help and I walked in with her.  I loved her reaction. She said at first she didn't think anything of it because I am basically there all the time...  That is too true.  It was fun to surprise everyone and see newborn baby JJ.  And I brought treats!  I decided to make Martha's Cookie Monogram Cupcakes in honor of Joseph Jack's arrival! I spent the day before going to Michael's and other stores looking for tiny J cookie cutters, but could not find any.  So then I looked for cowboy cookie cutters.  Didn't find those either.  I need to find a specialty store in the area.  I settled for little tiny animals. Which actually turned out to be pretty cute!  

The day we left I took too much time walking to the grocery store to get the buttercream (it was a nice day and I didn't feel like driving), so I was pretty rushed in making them. The cupcake part was yellow buttermilk. mmm. :) My cousin was over and suggested that I put food coloring in the sugar cookie mix so that I didn't have to frost them.  I remembered a little too late so it wasn't completely mixed right with the dough and the color came out a little lighter than I had hoped.  Since I was changing the recipe so much, I decided to go with a quick and easy cream cheese frosting.  I picked up some blue sprinkles at the store and decided to cover the cupcakes in sprinkles and then set the animals in.  They came out alright.  I don't feel I can completely cross this one off the list, since I didn't do everything exact the same.  How am I ever going to learn if I do that?!?! But this day, desperate times called for desperate measures.  

After my mediocre performance I was itching to prove myself in the kitchen.  I was dying to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookie cupcakes.  And I thought for sure Reshea would want me to make them too, because she practically yelled at me for not picking occ cookies at Hungry Bear last time I was in Fresno.  I even found special liners for the cupcakes for the girls.  Spiderman and Hannah Montana!  We had a plan to make cupcakes one day and I was really excited... until Reshea pulled out the box to make strawberry cupcakes! WHAT?!? you have me there. Someone who loves to make real cupcakes, and you are going to have me make them from a box!?! She claimed they were good.  I reluctantly made them.  They were not good.  Oh well, it's what she wanted.  

When I got home from Fresno, I was anxious to make the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes.  They actually are Oatmeal Raisin, but I don't care too much for them, so I substituted chocolate chips. They turned out good!  I thought they were a little too dry at first, but then I realized its the cookie consistency... The next day another cousin was over and she helped herself to two of them.  That means that they're good.  Anyone can say they are good, but I don't really think that until they go for a second one!  It was fun to share these ones with my peeps. 

Then I went on a cupcake hiatus. My aunt and uncle were in town and staying at the grandparents and I didn't want to get in the way of what they were doing. Plus I was spending every evening up in Salt Lake watching baseball games.  Will blog later about my love.

Finally on Sunday I couldn't take it anymore and I had to make some more cupcakes. Unfortunately I didn't have any butter. Do you know how much unsalted butter I go through on a weekly basis??? You don't want to know...  So on my way home from Saturday nights game, I did the dreaded Saturday evening trip to Walmart.  I wonder if they have their best business that night?  It is always packed with people picking up stuff before the sabbath.  I got my items and left as fast as I could.  

Sunday after church I made Streusel Cupcakes.  mmm.  Reminds me of the coffee cake muffins from Costco that I loved.  I was so sad when they stopped making them.  The recipe book says, "All the features of a traditional coffee cake - tender cake base, crumbly, streusel top, and simple milk-and-sugar glaze - are packed into portable, single-size portions." Does that sound delicious??  And then the best part, "Try serving them for brunch." That makes them sound not as bad as a regular cupcake.  When eating these ones I didn't feel as guilty!  I like that. Like this lady, I felt that something more should have been in the actual batter. They were just too plain. I felt like i had to always get a bite of the topping in order to enjoy it.  But I have plenty left over and will be delivering some to my peeps tonight. They have one more day until the book says they go bad.  I don't really listen to that though... 

There's my "quick" update.  I hope to be more consistent with this now.  I can't wait to try another recipe!

Baby JJ Is Here!

Joseph Jack Vincent Greene

7lbs 4oz  20 3/4 in long

I CANNOT wait to meet him!  

I spent the morning looking at flights to Fresno for later this year.

end of an era

i am done with my internship.  i can't believe it. when it started, i thought it would never end. and i wanted it to. until the last 2 months. that's when i started opening up and started loving the people there. i will miss that place. really.  but it still feels like i will be going back in a few days. unfortunately after this vaca, i will be going back to provo instead. 

the last week i was in stl i had to get a rental car because i sold the parentals car.  unfortunately enterprise gave me a pt loser. but it sure came in handy when parking is so expensive and free street spots are hard to come by for the cardinals game.  i saw a tiny spot that i would have passed up in the taurus, but was able to comfortably squeeze into in the cruiser.

i am going to MISS busch stadium.  but i got out at just the right time. the cardinals haven't won a game since i have left. maybe they NEED me. :)  i need them too. the last night i was in st louis i went to the cardinals game.  a lot of people from the station got free tickets from mcdonalds, and i stole some from frank who was on furlough anyway.  so i sat up in big mac land. except i only was there for the last 3 innings, because i had to go to the doctor and finish cleaning my room so that i could hang out with my friends after the game.  

we went to mcgurks with a few people from the station. it was fun, but sad at the same time. once again, i am going to miss these peeps. kayla and i were planning on staying up all night since i had to be at the airport at 5 am anyway, but we were pretty tired and i wanted to get a nap. but we did go to steak n shake one last time.  we were the only ones there at 2 am. go figure. one thing i love about steak n shake is that it is open 24 hours AND the dining area is open 24 hours.  every fast food place needs to have their dining area open all the time. 

i almost missed my flight to vegas. haha. i guess part of me just didn't want to leave. i spent the day in vegas with morty and adrianne and aaron. nate was working. since i had been up for 7 hours already, i wanted to go to in n out when i landed. but it as only 9 am in vegas.  so we went right when it opened. and then we went to serendipity 3 on the strip. it wasn't good! 

 i will always like the serendipity in new york the best!  then morty and i took off for fresno! first stop. DOGHOUSE!  tri-tip sandwich=devoured...  loved it.

and now i am in fresno. having fun with everyone. baby jj's shower was super cute. retro cowboy theme.  SOOO cute. 

and it was fun to have aubrey and shawn here. i love greg. and was happy to finally see bryson!

we've just been hanging out at the house. i helped stan and reshea add a lovely addition to their living room media center. i have been pulling weeds, mowing the lawn. paying for my rent!  :)