Best Pasta Salad Ever!

So my mother-in-law is an awesome cook, and a lot of the things I make on a regular basis I learned from her! But my most favorite thing that she always makes whenever we are visiting is this simply amazingly delicious pasta salad that I usually have at least 3 servings of at every meal. I've been craving it for weeks and I finally got a clue and asked her for the recipe so I could make it and eat it and be a happy full person (which I most certainly did) and I thought I would share it on here because it makes me smile every time I think about it. I hope Mama Duck doesn't mind me posting it because it is, after all, her recipe. :)

Macaroni Salad

Mix together:

• 1 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 Tbsp. mustard
• 2 Tbsp. dill pickle juice
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Add the following to the salad dressing mixture:

• 2 cups (raw) short elbow salad macaroni cooked in salted water, drained
• 1 can tiny shrimp, drained (I'm not a shrimp fan, but I don't mind these at all)
  
• 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 cup chopped lettuce
• 6 hard-boiled eggs (boil 10 minutes), diced
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper

It's as easy as that! Just realize that you can play around with the
amounts of everything to suit your own tastes. She always adds a couple of dashes of paprika and little slices of hard-boiled egg arranged neatly on top. It makes a lot!

A Very Happy 2 Years

So this past weekend Chase and I celebrated the happiest 2 years of our lives. We decided that we didn't really want to do anything too extravagant, so instead we did something better. We spent the day together just hanging out and being best friends. :)

But first, when I came home from work on Friday, I found a beautiful bouquet of flowers on the table. I love how cute and squat the vase is. Chase is so sweet!




Updated belly shot... 16 weeks.



First thing on Saturday, we decided to do a little family photo shoot in the back yard. I think they turned out alright for amateurs using the timer and balancing the camera on a ladder!





After that, I "surprised" Chase by taking us to the Tempe Center for the Arts to see their Fender Cars and Guitars exhibit. It was... small. But we both enjoyed walking around the building, it's really cool there. Sorry for the kissing picture. I just thought the sky looked kind of cool. :)




Anyway, after the art center we walked around at the Tempe Marketplace and bought Chase a wrist rest so he doesn't get carpal tunnel. I know, great anniversary gift, I'm the best wife ever.

After we went home, ate lunch, took a nap, and just relaxed, we decided that since we just found out the same week what our baby's gender is, it would be fun to pick out some cute clothes together! So we went to Target (because it was late and we couldn't think of any baby stores nearby) and got a cute little track suit and a onesie that says I Love Dad. Then, since we weren't hungry yet, we went to the mall where apparently they have a baby gap, and found some more cute clothes on the sales rack! Then we went and saw Shrek (number 4 I guess?) at the cheap theater. It was lame. And finally around 9pm we headed over to Nando's Mexican Grill (it's over by Dana Park on Val Vista and Baseline) and each ate like 3 bites of our meal. Not really sure where our appetite went that day. But it was still good heated up for Sunday dinner.

So it doesn't sound like the most exciting day, but we loved it. It was perfect because we just got to be together and not worry about anything. Oh, and we decided not to do gifts since we both just got new phones. But Chase cheated!! And he got me the BBC Life DVD set!! I was so excited. :) In all fairness, I got him a massage a couple of weeks ago, and I just made him buy a new pair of vans because his were so trashed, so I'm calling us even.

I'm sorry for anyone still reading. This is totally mundane and boring information, but it's more of a journal entry for us.

Anyway, the last few days (after our anniversary, ironically) I've been thinking about my Chaser more and more. And about how we both had a particularly rough few days that week, but we both kept each other up. He especially kept me up. And he always does. I decided he is just like Peeta (this is so tacky - but he's one of the main characters in the Hunger Games books). He's like Peeta in the way that he is always thinking of me and how to help me and serve me, and really do anything at all to make me smile. It's incredible to me how selfless he is, he would give up anything for me I think. I hope and pray every day that I am at least half as good to him as he is to me. I see couples around me sometimes where I can tell that one of them always wins and the other gives in and they don't make sacrifices for each other. And it's not just sacrificing to keep the other happy - it's doing it because you love them and it makes YOU happy too. Chase is such a perfect husband and best friend, and I'm always trying to be better because of him. It's amazing how much more I love him each day. I look back to when we were first married, and I can see that we are so much closer and more unified and in love now than we were then. Everyday just gets ten times better than the day before. I love my life because of Chase - because he is my life. Happy Anniversary to my most wonderful friend. :)

It's a boy!!!

The Doc said he is quite sure our little grub is a little man! We were hoping for a boy, so we are thrilled. :)