Help!!

I've been really bugged lately by my lack of awesome-wife cooking skills. :( I feel like I can't look at the ingredients we have and make something out of it. So, whenever I do want to make something cool or delicious or just different than the usual, I have found that I have to spend time, and more importantly, MONEY to go to the store to buy just three or four ingredients. It gets really expensive going to the store two or three times a week for just a couple of ingredients each time. Don't get me wrong, I like making cool and delicious meals but I can't do that every night...

So, here is my question (directed to anyone and everyone who is good at cooking): how do you all do it? Where do you get your ideas? I've looked in several cookbooks but most of them require ingredients that I just don't have (as mentioned before). Do you all just stock up on random ingredients? Or do you have cookbooks that have recipes that are more simple? Or are you all just geniuses and mix together what you have to make a masterpiece?

I'm starting to feel like I'm never going to get good at cooking. And poor Ben has to suffer through my hardcore lack of said skills.

Does anyone wanna teach me? Lol or alteast let me copy some recipes? How about a recipe exchange in the near future, eh? Haha help!!

Vegas, Marriott, birthday, finals - Whew!

One of my favorite things about this time of year is all of the get-togethers everyone has. We had lots of fun spending time with family over Thanksgiving, can't wait for Christmas, and have had a blast at all of them:
- We went to Las Vegas for Ben's cousin's wedding and it was gorgeous! I loved it! But... we forgot our camera so no pictures. Oops!
- Every year the Lyman's get together around Christmas and stay in the Marriott in Salt Lake for a fun Friday night with the fam. It was really fun to be with the whole group :) I wish I had known that we would have been walking around Temple Square and such though - I would have brought a coat! ...And shoes other than flip flops hahah
- Ben's birthday was on Saturday and he did NOT want attention or anything fancy. We spent the morning with his family (at the Marriott) and enjoyed a relaxing day with no homework or worries! Then, instead of spending a bunch of money going to a fancy restaurant, Ben insisted on going to Wendy's for his dinner. Haha what a stud.
- Finals are this week. I think they stress me out more than they do Ben. Go figure.
- We are getting excited for all of the Christmas parties! But can't people all coordinate with each other so that we can go to all of them?! Seriously, there are like 5 just this weekend... :( We're bummed we have to miss some of them.

We're just loving life! Still no pictures of anything. I'm really bad at bringing the camera around... I'll do better :)

Love it.

I saw this picture and thought it was so cute that I had to put it on my blog. I will be trying to do this sometime this winter. It looks like it would take a lot of practice and time, but it'd be worth it.

So cute!

Procrastination King and Queen!

Ben is taking an English class right now and he hates english. So, we made a deal: I'd write his papers if he took me to Cafe Rio. Worked out for both of us! Haha

But this last assignment was a little bit tougher: 6-page argument essay that's worth all of the other assignments combined. Wouldn't usually be a problem but I absolutely HATE argument essays. So annoying, and I really don't have too much of an opinion about "current issues." And if I do, it's definitely not strong enough to write a 6-page paper...

So after lots of putting it off, coaxing and bribes (I think Ben offered to take me to Cafe Rio 5 times if I would write it) we decided that we would write it together. Here's the quick version of how it went: we told ourselves we had all of Thanksgiving weekend to do it but didn't do any of it over the weekend. So Sunday after church we decided that we were going to do it first thing and get it done and then enjoy the rest of our Sunday... Next thing we know six o'clock rolls around and we still haven't started. Funny how when you need to get something done, you find all of these things to take up your time!! Haha anyway, we eventually started on it and got about 2 1/2 pages done and then just lost it. We just started messing around and playing with our papers and notes and such (I could explain some of the funny jokes and things we laughed at but I have a feeling it wouldn't be very funny if it's not 2 am) Haha so we went to bed knowing we wouldn't get anything else done. This morning Ben finished it - go Ben! I think he printed it out just in time to speed to school and get to class on time. We are professional procrastinators!!

Impulse-buying = bad idea

So, I have a confession. I LOVE Christmas but I think that A LOT of the Christmas decorations I see at stores and such are super tacky. Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh and/or picky, I dunno...

Anyway, I ran to Smith's last night to pick up a prescription and thought it would be harmless to go down the "Seasonal" aisle just to check things out (I guess that was my first mistake: thinking that I could find something that would be my "style" down the Smith's aisle) There were a few really cute things but they were all really expensive. Anyway, after a lot of really annoying flashing stuff I saw a box of small ornaments that I thought were super cute. AND they were pretty cheap too! So, I told myself "Well if you're gonna buy ornaments, you need a little tree right?" So I picture in my head a cute little tree that would make our little home Christmas-y. Naturally, they had a cheap little tree next to the ornaments and I bought it. Looking back I think I was just excited that I was buying our first Christmas tree (I even called Ben to tell him the fun news!) Now I realize that I should never buy something within the first ten minutes of seeing it. I think from now on, I actually might even just leave and sleep on it and if I wake up and just can't live without it, I'll go back and buy it.

Lessons learned:
1. Don't buy Christmas decorations at Smith's (the cheap ones, at least)
2. Don't go cheap on decor. I realize that there are some good deals and sometimes cheap, super cute stuff, but I think the cute stuff - ya know, the stuff you'll still like when you get home from the store? - will probably cost more

I know that I could probably make cute decorations or search a little more, last night was just an impulse-buying disaster. :( I actually think I'll keep the ornaments. They're really cute. Just not on the tree... Go figure

P.S. It was so horrible that I couldn't even post a picture. In fact, every time I look into that room, I cringe a little lol. I'm probably being too dramatic and I'm sorry for being so negative on my blog, but I was just so bummed that I failed so miserably on our first Christmas tree. So sad... Haha

Our (incredibly long) update

So I think this blog is going to turn into my online journal. I love the idea of sharing our memories with our children later on, but I don't have the patience to sit down and write it all in a book haha. I think the majority of our blog (until we have kids) will consist of updates on our fam and random thoughts or comments about life and such.

So...
- I have been (almost completely) consistently working out for the past month or so. (Everyone misses a day here and there, right?) I'm no marathon runner yet, but way better than nothing at all! Now all I need to work on is cooking more meals that are healthy. We do some, but that area of our diets could definitely use some improving. Especially since Ben's diet right now is Lunch: 3 Ramen, Dinner 3: Ramen, Late night snack: 2 Ramen. Okay, I'm kidding. But seriously... Haha

- Our scale didn't like all of the candy that I ate at Halloween. I actually don't think I ate that much on Saturday, but someone brought in all of their extra candy to work the next week and put it all on my desk. What was I supposed to do?

- I am currently picking up piano again. The Lyman girls have a little concert thing every Winter and K'Lyn invited me to play. It's been over a year since I've played so I'm really excited to start playing again. I don't know if I'll have something together in time for the concert thing (it's amazing how much basic stuff you forget) but, regardless, I'm really excited to start playing again! I love the piano and love having music in the house. ....And by house I mean small basement apartment haha.

- I LOVE Cafe Rio. Love it. Just throwing that out there

- Ben and I have gone on a walk a few times recently and I love it! It's one of my favorite things to do with Ben. He usually gets started talking about something and gets so excited that he'll let go of my hand and use both hands to explain what he's talking about. I love seeing him get so excited about everything :) The weather has been really really nice this weekend and I want to take him to this really pretty park/path/creek place that I drive by everyday. The leaves are just so gorgeous right now, I have to get some "family" pictures! Those will be posted on the next post :)

- Ben's school is still really easy. Every three weeks or so, He'll spend five or so hours getting caught up on all of the homework from all of the classes before all of the tests. We're so lucky that his schedule is so easy right now. Gives us time to go on cute walks! :)

- One of my favorite things to do in the morning (if I'm a little bit ahead of schedule) is to get back into bed and cuddle with Ben. It's so cute, and one of the only times I can get him to cuddle for that long. Haha he's not that into cuddling - which brings me to my next thing:

Okay, here comes the cheesy-ness (sp?) these next few are about Ben:
- I love Ben. I don't know why but ever since we've been married, I've turned into this psycho clingy weirdo that loves to cuddle. Haha so when I've been at work all day and miss him so much, I just want to come home and hug him or snuggle up next to him! Haha I know I sound super lame, but it's true! So I think it was OK with him for the first few days but I think after a while he couldn't handle it anymore. Too much cuddling for a man to handle. So, he's coined a new phrase: whenever it becoms too much to handle, he'll say "too much cute." Haha! Sometimes I'll purposefully hug him for a long time to see how long he can stand it ;)

- I work as the front receptionist for a building in Sugar House and always have a lot of time on my hands. I really don’t do much at work. I’d actually like to get a job that requires more of me and is a little more exciting, but I signed a year contract when I started so I guess I’m working here for another 7 months at least. Anyway, I wanted to write this down: Ben calls me every hour or so and I love it! After he wakes up he calls to tell me his dream, or whenever he gets out of a class or when I’m on lunch, we’ll talk on the phone. I absolutely love talking to him so much throughout the day :) I feel really silly though because everyone in the office is working hard and I’m here typing away on my blog and jabbering away on the phone. So sometimes I talk really quiet or only when no one else is around. I guess this isn’t really that exciting for anyone else to read about, but I wanted to type it up so I can look back later and remember how cute Ben is :)

- Last night Ben and I rearranged our main room in our apartment. We love it! I feel like it’s so much more home-y (I know I probably spelled that wrong, oh well) and I actually want to be in that room now. And, we borrowed a tall lamp from Ben’s parent’s house and we love having the softer light in that room. (The light on the ceiling is really harsh, bright lighting and makes a really loud buzzing noise when it’s on, so it's nice to have a quiet, peaceful room.) Our little room feels like a cozy home now! :) Special thanks to Brian and Marie for giving up their 3-piece desk/shelf/side table set, it’s perfect for our little home :) P.S. I had a lot of fun re-organizing the room and especially our storage room. I don’t know why but I LOVE organizing things. It makes me so happy to find a perfect fit or spot for something! I know, I’m a weirdo.

- Today is our 8 months anniversary. Woot!! Being married has been so fun! We are loving it! I did realize the other day though that we still haven’t picked our pictures for our wedding book or sent out Thank You cards for our wedding gifts. Is it too late to send that out? I’m sure people have forgotten what they gave us by now...

- Just one last thing. Earlier this week, Ben and I were talking one night and had a great conversation. We just can’t believe how blessed we are. I mean we both have great, supportive families that live close and are so fun to visit. We have a smoking deal on our cute little basement apartment. We both have cars. Neither of us are struggling with any huge health issues. I have a job and Ben is able to go to school. We have a really good ward with really fun callings. There is just to much to be grateful for! Maybe we felt this way because it’s November and Thanksgiving is coming up, but we are just feeling so blessed and are so grateful for everything!

Wow… this blog has turned out really really really long… Well, clearly I’m not a very good blogger – like I said, it’s more of a “journal entry.” I’ll do my best to shorten up the next one ;)

The beginning of what I'm sure is going to become an addiction...

Hello! Well, after practically stalking everyone else on their blogs (and a little coaxing from our friends and family members), I have decided to make a blog for me and Ben! I am now officially a blogger!!

I'm pretty sure that anyone who's going to read this already knows the basics about us, but just for fun-zees:

- Ben and I have been married 7 months and 1 week-ish :)

- Right now we're living in a basement apartment in Taylorsville and loving it! The ward is great and we love our callings. It's been fun going to FHE with the other couples in the ward our age and look forward to getting to know them better.

- I'm working at a building in Sugar House and the receptionist. It's been fun, but clearly I have a lot of time on my hands... Haha

- Ben is a full-time at SLCC and is having fun. His classes are really easy so we are enjoying a less stressful semester while we can!!

- One recent event: So Ben and I love hanging out with each other. If we could, we'd just spend all day at home and just laugh, hang out, etc. Anyway so for the past few days we've been, jokingly, trying to "get sick" so we don't have to go to work or school. One of us even said well lets just both get the Swine Flu and have to be quarantined to our house for two weeks! Anyway, so the last couple days Ben has felt sick (a VERY rare occasion) and last night and this morning I could feel that something was happening with my throat. So this usually wouldn't be a big deal except Eddie (Ben's brother) called him this morning and said that Libby (his daughter), who we happened to be with on Sunday, had been tested positive for Swine Flu. We knew we should be worried and pumping ourselves full of vitamins or something, but we couldn't help but laugh! Our wishes just might be coming true!! Haha I'm betting we don't have it, but I guess I'll have to blog about it in a few days and let you know what the verdict is ;)