Great Mardi Gras!

    March 8, 2011 was Mardi Gras Day and it's amazing how no one celebrates it, except for those who already know what it is. It used to be a whole season, but now it has turned into one day no one remembers. But that hasn't stopped me from having a little fun!

    Jared and I celebrated Mardi Gras the best we could with a budget and in only a few hours when he was home from work. So, I made crepes! For a wedding present, we got a crepe maker and had no idea when we would ever use it. What a great present we never thought we'd use! It worked great yesterday and we are so excited to use it more! 

    And crepes are so easy to make! Mix two eggs, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 tsp of salt and 2 tbsp of melted butter. When that is all blended with a whisk, add in 1 cup of all-purpose flour and keep mixing. It's best to make this an hour or two before using it so it isn't all lumpy when you want to make the crepes. And it's simple! Just dip the hot thing in a little pan and pull it back out. Let the batter sit on the hot thing for a few seconds, and then they are ready to peel off. 

    Because dessert crepes are probably the best things ever, and that is what we did!

We had strawberry and chocolate pudding, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, bananas and peach jam for our dessert toppings! 

I even got to experiment and I made fried apples to put in the crepes!! Just got some butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar and I sautéd the apples for about 20 minutes.

We had a great time making our desserts and it'll be so fun doing this and more next year!

 

Jared was so great and did the dishes after I made the huge mess! :)

What a great husband! Look at him scrubbing away!

    Next year I'll have tons of green, gold and purple decorations all over the apartment! And I'll make a King Cake and maybe even Gumbo if I can get an easy recipe! It's times like these when I wish I was back in Mississippi celebrating the day in style! 

    Even though it's the day after, I'm still going to watch Princess and the Frog...it talks about Mardi Gras and I am thoroughly entertained by animated movies!!

    I pulled a head by watching Empire of the Sun which makes the running tally of movies watched for the other person: Jared 2     Stephanie 3

Recent Successes

    Friday Date Night was a success! On Jared's way home, he stopped and picked up Megamind and got a wonderful pepperoni pizza from Little Caesar's! We took a small break from eating at our table every night to enjoy our delicious meal on the couch while watching the movie. = Success!

    After the movie, the night was still young! One of the perks of our apartment complex is the indoor pool that is kept heated during cold Winters and chilly Springs. Hooray for a little dip in the pool when it's cold outside!! = Success!

    Saturday was a nice relaxing day, except for when we did laundry and worked out! Because I am totally lazy and don't want to walk down the hill to the Laundry Center every week, I wait until a day I have the car to do laundry. The wash cycle lasts about half an hour and the drying cycle lasts an hour. For the past few weeks, I have been trying to get healthy and make sure I don't "let myself go," so I've tried working out during the wash cycle. Jared got to come with me this time, and it was so great having company. I can quickly walk 3/4 a mile and run ("run" really means means "jog." ha ha!) the other 1/4 in 15 minutes! = Success!

    Also while working out, I did 10 push-ups. = Success!!

    Sunday was also a successful day. I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and being called a Mormon. Not only were the testimonies totally great, Jared and I both made comments during the other two hours! Jared spoke up during Sunday School and I made a comment during Relief Society. = Success!

    Sadly, the successful weekend did not want to spill over to the week. I am having such a difficult time getting motivated to work on school and all I want to do is sleep off my little head cold. But hopefully today is the day I hear back about a job from Bank of America! Then I will get to add that to my Success! list

    Also, I will be keeping a running tally of how many movies Jared and I watch for the other person. For example, I have watched Rocky, II, III, IV and Rocky Balboa and Saving Private Ryan (edited). To make up for all the man movies I've watched, he has sat through Enchanted, 27 Dresses, Wedding Planner, Gnomeo and Juliet and Baby Mama. He wants to keep track since the time we started dating, but that is so unfair because I can't remember what movies I watched in his apartment. I seem to have erased them from my memory (on purpose).

    Currently, my running tally is equal at:  Jared 2      Stephanie 2

A little birdie told me...

    A little birdie told me this morning to "WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!!"

    For the past few weeks, a bird has been sitting somewhere near the bedroom window and chirps like an annoying alarm clock. Every morning a little around 6, he will chirp 4 times very loudly and quickly. He repeats these 4 chips for about half an hour.  I can handle an alarm clock going off at 6 in the morning because it has a snooze button, or the poor person waking up can turn it off. The only way to hit snooze or turn off this natural alarm requires an act against one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13).

    But I can't let that annoying alarm clock outside ruin my day today! It's Friday!

    Today is a scheduled date night for Jared and me. We have planned this for a few days now and I don't know about him, but I am totally excited! It's nothing fancy, but it's the simple things that makes life worth living sometimes.

    I've been making our boring meals for the past two months. Jared has made a couple totally awesome meals and other times we've gone out to eat at cool places like Robert's Western World. Tonight though, we're sticking to the basic "dinner and a show" date. Except this dining and entertainment will be on a slight budget so we can still afford to live. We're doing a Little Caesar's pizza and stopping at a Redbox to get Megamind!

    The "dinner and a show" date is pretty standard and we've had some great nights involving that theme! Like a special trip to Chicago.

We took the train to Chicago to have a fun night out!

While in town we went and ate at the Italian Village.

And for a Christmas present we got tickets to see Wicked!!

    It's so nice to have a date again! Having life become routine and expected is just SO BORING! I would love some great date ideas to try out, if ya'll know any!