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. :)

Happiness

Happy thoughts (and lots of pictures!):

1. Well, there's the whole baby thing. I guess it's cool. We're like, sort of excited. :) Five more days until our next appointment! It's driving me crazy how long it feels like it's been since the last one! And we might find out the gender!

First ultrasound. :)

I haven't gained any weight yet, but for some reason my body seems to be moving all my fat to my belly, so I feel like a fatty-mc-fat-fat. :(

2. I married the king of finding good deals. But I am proud to say that I found a totally amazing deal on some baby furniture last weekend! I know, it's really early in the game to start buying furniture, and I wasn't planning on it. But a good deal is a good deal! I was browsing Craig's List just to see what the prospects were (I wasn't too excited about paying $200+ for a new dresser) and I found a listing for a white Babies R Us dresser/changer, originally about $400, and in great condition, for $50!! I emailed the lady who posted it and long story short, we went that night and picked it up along with some shelves, a lamp, and a storage tower, all for a total of $80! The dresser is perfect - the whole thing is solid wood, looks brand new, and should go perfect with the crib we want to get! Yay for Amy finally snagging a deal!

I want to replace the knobs with ones like these.

Love the bead board sides.

Planning on making a new lampshade like this one.

3. Coming soon:
The Mockingjay, the third book of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, is less than a month away. Need I say more?

I'm a nerd, if it's not already obvious. Nintendo just announced that the new official Zelda game for Wii will be coming at the beginning of 2011. Who's going to be rockin' the Wii while baby is napping? THIS MAMA!

The first half of the last Harry Potter movie comes out in November! Alright, I'm not the biggest fan of the movies, but I'm a HUGE fan of the books, so yes, this is one movie that Chase and I might actually see NOT in the cheap theaters. And is it pathetic to re-read the whole series in preparation even though I just did last August?

4. Our sweet little pup. I'm pretty sure she's the cutest dog on the planet. We love when she just wakes up because her fur is all pushed down on one side of her face and she just stumbles toward us and tries to paw our faces while she stretches, then she just collapses in our laps. Chase calls her our honey bear because she looks like she put her head in a honey pot and got just her ears all sticky (he's been reading Winnie the Pooh lately).

I made that freakish stuffed animal when I was ten. Little did I know that Mr. Coconut would be Rvca's new best friend. We love to watch her drag it around the house and trip all over it.

Hard to see, but these paw prints seem to be a common occurrence.
It would make me mad, but then she always knows how to get out of trouble.

Cute little head tilt that melts our hearts.

5. Chase. He is just ten times everything I could ever ask for in a best friend. He makes me want to be better and always do what is right. He makes me giggle every night while we read scriptures or talk about our day. He knows exactly how to cheer me up no matter what's bothering me. He is such a hard worker - he redid our whole back yard basically all by himself, working everyday after work and on Saturdays. And he looks totally hot with a beard. Could I ask for more?!

If you look closely, on the right lower corner of his mouth you can see a big white hair in his beard. :)

6. Our beautiful, newly landscaped backyard! All thanks to #5. He is so amazing.

This was right when we moved in. It's the only picture I have. A few days later it was full of weeds! Notice the dead looking tree. Everyone told us to pull it out.

Chase's hard work. Lots of trenches and pipes.

This was 6:30am before the curbing guy came. We woke up and filled up ALL the trenches. I was not a happy camper.

Afterward, some lovely curbing. :)

Just before we started planting.

Okay, we're not landscapers. But we had fun picking out plants. Hopefully they kind of look alright together? We got peach, orange, and grapefruit trees. Canna-lillies and hibiscus. And bright green sweet potato plants.

Sorry I have no "durings" but Chase dug the holes and I filled them up.

Sod all delivered and waiting to be put it. Yah, our front yard had a hard time transitioning to a summer lawn, but Chase fixed it all up.

Sod laid!! Oh, and I don't have pictures, but there was a HUGE pile of rock that Chase spread out in about 3 hours. What a man.

She LOVES it. No more nasty weeds in her fur.

Our lovely green shady tree. :)

This is our front yard when we bought the house. Our back yard looks about like this right now (as compared to the pictures above) and all the lines are filled in. Good to have it done. Next project: nursery. I think I'll have more fun with that one. :)

We're having a baby!

Or a little rascal as Chase would say. :)

So I'm due January 21st. Today was the last day of my 1st trimester so I'm exactly 12 weeks along. And we are SO SO SO excited!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We had our first appointment two weeks ago and we heard the heartbeat and got to see our little grub kicking all over the place! It was so incredible - I wanted to just laugh and cry at the same time. Really, those ultra sound pictures are so lame compared to actually seeing this living little baby inside of me moving around! It was amazing... I still just can't believe we are finally going to have a baby.

Our next appointment is August 4th. I'll be 16 weeks and the doctor said he'll probably take a peek and see if he can tell the sex. :) I'll keep you updated! And maybe post the last ultrasound picture, even though it doesn't really do our incredible baby justice.

My Unruly Job

Oh, right. Forgot to post it – but I got a job!

And not just any job. The perfect job! For me. It's the reason I have been jobless (aside from doing a little freelance) for the past 6 months. It's amazing how the littlest things can lead up to such huge blessings. When we first moved down here, we were in an apartment for 3 months in my old home ward and we were assigned a home teacher. The first time he came to visit he asked what kind of jobs we were looking for and told me he had a good friend who had his own web design company called Unruly Studios. He said he'd tell him about me and told me to e-mail my resume.

Well, I didn't hear anything back for 4 months. Then, a week ago out of the blue, the owner e-mailed me and asked to see my work, then for a phone interview. After that he invited me to come meet with him and I started working for him an hour after the interview!

But the best part is that I absolutely LOVE what I'm doing. Their company creates websites for other companies and in the past they would outsource for designers. Now I get to design their websites and logos (which are my favorite to make) and I get to write all the CSS/HTML code (which, for me, is so fun). I love the people I work with. They are really laid back and like to joke around and tease a lot. It's a small company – there are only 6 of us, and 4 of us are LDS.

Anyway, I work full time. My drive is 20 minutes, which is just dandy for me. The only downside that comes with this otherwise perfect job is that I have a later shift, so I work until 6:30 – which means less time with my boy. :( But it's okay. It feels SO good to finally be busy again and feel productive and actually enjoy what I'm doing all day. And my favorite thing about it is that the day goes by super fast. I know Heavenly Father blessed me to find this job. Well, I didn't really find it. It kind of fell in my lap. Which makes me even more grateful. I don't deserve to have such a great job, a beautiful home, a sweet little pup, and the most amazing best friend I could ever ask for. But I sure am glad I have them.

Owl-mitt

One time, I drew a picture of an owl. Chase wanted me to make something with it, so the other day I made this oven mitt.