This & That: Olympic Trials, Cooking, Hair and More...

It's been a while since I've had a good ole fashioned "random" post so here goes... 

1. Tomorrow, my brother-in-law is running in the OLYMPIC TRIALS! He's running the 800m in Track. He's a long shot to make it to the Olympics, but I'll cheering him on from home like crazy (the trials are in Eugene, OR and televised NBC Sports Network). We're so excited for him and proud of him!

2. On Saturday I have my company's annual party at The Edison in Downtown LA. I'm so excited to go to this venue. I hear it's amazing! The theme is 1920s and I'm not dressing up. I don't love that theme and I just did that in November.  The party should still be blast though.

3. I couple of weeks ago I put this little gift in the front seat of The Mr.'s car on a Sunday night so he'd find it on Monday morning when he got in the car to drive to work. I got the idea to do something unexpected and nice for my husband on The Dating Divas website. They have such cute ideas! He loved it.

4. The Mr. texted me this picture of our cat, Judah, the other day. I died. So cute!

5. I recently bought these Ria Summer Drink glasses from Crate and Barrel. I love how they match our house perfectly. And they are such sturdy glasses (I hate how breakable a lot of margarita glasses are).

6. I decided that I need to "pin" less and cook more from my recipe folder on Pinterest. So I made Grilled Corn Orzo Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette from Iowa Girl Eats. It was AMAZING! I'll be making this again. Such a wonderful summer salad and it tastes great with Mexican beer.

7. The Mr. made Tequila Lime Chicken on his new Char-Broil Infrared Grill to go with the orzo salad. It was really good!

8. I mentioned that I cleaned out a bunch of old pictures from my parents house of me in high school and college. From the high school ones, I picked a few favorites and made this frame. It's now on my desk at home. I love seeing how little we were! I'm so lucky to still be friends with most of these girls.

9. Looking though old pictures made me want to grow my hair out. Here's a pic of me a couple of years ago with longer hair. I want it to be that length or longer again. Any tips for growing my hair out?

10. Speaking of growing my hair out, I think I need to wash and dry my hair less, which makes me think I should invest in some dry shampoo. What's your favorite dry shampoo? 

13 Wedding Registry "Must Haves" for the Kitchen

I consider myself a bit of a wedding registry guru. I probably spent WAY to much time researching products and registering (and unregistering) for wedding presents. Warning: If you have a haphazard wedding registry I will judge you.

Now that I'm two years into marriage, I think I made some pretty choices about which items to registry and not register for. So I thought I'd share my "bakers dozen" (ha!) of "must-have" kitchen items that you should (and should not) register for. (Or if you're already married, considering adding these items to your kitchen!).

1. A Crockpot/Slow Cooker

I registered for this Rival crockpot and love it! It's the right size, it's easy to use, and doesn't do "too much." (note: all products shown are my actual products unless otherwise noted.)


2. Oven-to-table CorningWare

I have this Corningware set and it's great. It's functional, versatile, and looks nice.


3. A Kitchen Utensils Set

I hate when people register for each kitchen utensil separately. It's hard for people to piece together a nice gift of random spoons and spatulas and it takes up a lot of visual space on a registry. I like when people register for a set and I'm very happy with my Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Tools set that we registered for.


4. Extra spatulas

It's hard to have too many spatulas. It seems there is always one or two of them in the dishwasher. So after you kitchen tools set you should register for a couple of nice extra metal spatulas (good for grilling out too!). I really like our stainless steel spatula from Crate & Barrel.


5. A good set of mixing bowls

I think three mixing bowls in three sizes is about perfect unless you are a crazy baker. I love this Oxo mixing bowl set that we registered for. They are sturdy, functional, and I love the non-slip bottoms.


6. A Toaster Oven

Our toaster oven is the most-used item in our kitchen. It's SO versatile. You can toast all kinds of bread, heat up food, make nachos and other appetizers, and so much more. It appears that the Oster Toaster Oven that we registered for is discontinued but this one is similar. We love our toaster oven so much that we don't even have a regular toaster.


7. Nice everyday flatware

Most people register for flatware but I seriously love our Couture Flatware from Crate & Barrel. We spent a long time picking this flatware and it was an excellent choice.


8. Little dishes

I have these little dishes from Crate & Barrel and use them SO much. They're good for prepping food, serving sauces with main dishes, and tons of other things.


9. An Espresso Maker

If you're a coffee lover like me, then register for an Espresso Maker. It's such a fun treat to use it and if you're like me it's something you'd never buy for yourself. We like our Krupps Espresso Maker a lot.


Now for things I didn't register for but wish I did...


10. A Rice Cooker

I struggled through cooking rice for a year before I finally broke down and bought this Aroma rice cooker. It has made making healthy meals like chicken, rice, and veggies SO much easier. I wish I'd had this a long time ago!


11. Really good baking sheets

I didn't register and William-Sonoma but I wish I had so I could have gotten a bunch of their goldtouch products. I registered for cheapie cookie sheets and regretted it. I'm obsessed my goldtouch baking sheets that I got for Christmas this year.


Now for things I didn't register for, but got separately as gifts, and I'm glad I did...


12. Stainless Steel Cookware

I was registered for a mishmash of teflon and expensive stainless steel cookware when my mother-in-law told me that I should unregister for that stuff and she'd buy me some good cookware as a shower present. She bought me this surgical stainless steel "waterless" cookware set. These pots and pans really are amazing! It took a bit of time to learn to cook on them but they really are the best pots and pans in the world. And she paid A LOT less than you would have paid for a comparable set at Bed, Bath & Beyond.


13. A Wine Fridge

We really wanted to register for a wine fridge but the options at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Crate & Barrel all held between 6-18 bottles which really isn't enough if you're at all serious about collecting and storing wine. So we skipped registering for that item and with some of our wedding money bough a 40 bottle Magic Chef wine cellar at Home Depot for the same price as the smaller ones retail for at those other stores! It's a fantastic cellar and we love having our wine properly stored in it.

So that's it for our wedding registry "must haves" for the kitchen! Maybe I'll do a follow up for items for the rest of the house. What kitchen items do you are "must haves" for a wedding registry?

Newlywed Survival Kit & Surviving the Portland ER

I'm still working on getting together the wedding recap post from my Brother-in-Law's wedding. But I wanted to share a couple of things first...

1st - The gift!

Thanks for all of your advice on what to add to the Newlywed Survival Kit wedding gif!

I ended up adding a couple of games that I knew they wanted to add a little more fun to gift! I wanted to add a bottle of wine too, but I know she's not a big drinker so I skipped that.

Here's the final contents of the gift:

Cookbook, devotional, Dave Ramsey book, Bar Keeper's Friend, Skip-Bo, Phase 10, and Calphalon dish towel.

And here's how it looked all packaged up in a very functional gift bag (a cleaning bucket!)


I wrote out a explanation of the gift that you can read here. I hope they loved this gift as much as I did.


2nd - My trip to the ER.

As luck would have it, it turned out that a friend of the Mr's from High School was also getting married on the same night in Portland as his brother! Since Brother-in-Law's wedding ended early we had time to visit the other wedding, which was so much fun!

Well, toward the end of the night my feet were really hurting, so I decided to take off my shoes to dance (dumb!). I guess someone had broken a glass and I ended up cutting my foot really bad on the broken glass. It just kept bleeding and bleeding (so gross), so we decided to go to the ER to see if I needed stitches.

So two hours and several hundred dollars later, I left the Downtown Portland ER with seven stitches in my big toe. :(

The worst part was that I didn't get to go skiing on Mt. Hood because my foot hurt too bad and I didn't want to injure it more. Giant bummer!

The moral of the story -- always bring sandals to change into!

Newlywed Survival Kit

My brother-in-law is getting married in three weeks! So excited for him!

So I had the idea, to make him and his fiance a Newlywed Survival Kit, as wedding present. Basically a kit of things to get you through the first year of marriage.

So far I have...

A Dave Ramsey Book, because money is a major source of newlywed and marital conflict.


My two favorite cleaning products, Bar Keeper's Friend and Castile Soap, becauase we fought a lot about chores in the first year and these products make chores a lot easier!





And some dishtowels off their registry to go along with the cleaning products.





A couples' devotional book, Night Light, because reading and praying together can do wonders.


A Cookbook, because cooking together and cooking for each other is such a fun part of being a newlywed.



And I'm going to put it all in a cleaning bucket, because that's a great way to store cleaning supplies.



I want to add a couple more $5-$15 items, but I can't think of what else to add! What else would you add to a Newlywed Survival Kit?*

*Nothing to racy, ok? This is my husband's brother we're talking about here.

A Few of my Favorite Things from Christmas

This Christmas was definitely different than years past. I'd be lying if I said we had a very good Christmas overall. Not to say that we didn't have a wonderful time with my family, or eat great food, or have a great time exchanging gifts. It's just that we were not really in the "happy holidays" spirit. (Sorry if that sounds depressing or bratty, but I gotta keep it real with you all here)

You can tell I wasn't in the spirit by the fact that I hardly took any pictures. But we did manage to take our annual, obligatory, "in front of the Christmas tree" photo at my parent's house:


But I am very thankful to my parents, the Mr., and my Grandma for doing thier absolute best to make my spirits bright, including giving me some wonderful gifts.

My Mom knew I'd been in the market for a new wallet for quite some time, and gave me this beautiful one. Just what I had been looking for!


The Mr. gave me the William-Sonoma Goldtouch pans that many of you recommended to me. I can't wait to make cookies on them.


He also gave me the book, "Freedom", which I recently started reading and am enjoying a lot.


My Dad knows what a germaphobe the Mr. is so he gave us these awesome new "elevate" cooking utentisils. They have this little thing on the back that keeps them elevated when resting. Genius!


My Mom also gave me this herbal bean-filled heating/cooling pad that she got a craft fair. I love it! I think I may have gotten the most use out of this so far than anything!


"Judah" bought me this to go on my desk. Kind of looks like him, right? :)


And my grandma gave me money, which was much appreciated, because I am in the market to buy new skis, and will probably put the money toward that. I'm considering the K2 True Luv Skis.

And this purse was a HUGE added bonus present that my Mom bought for me when we found it on super sale at Nordstrom while doing "day after Christmas" shopping. It's so pretty and goes so well with my new wallet. Thank you Momma!


What were your favorite Christmas gifts this year? Did you get any "day after Christmas" deals?

I Hate Gift Cards - a Rant

I know this might be a bit Scroogey and I may be looking the proverbial "gift horse in the mouth", but I hate gift cards.

I know they have allegedly been the "hot gift" for Christmas the past few years due to some marketing genius, but they suck.*



A few reasons why gift cards are an awful awful gift....

1. The store always wins.
Whenever I'm using a gift card I feel like I'm playing some bizarre Price Is Right/over-under game where I'm trying to spend exactly $25 or $50 or whatever my gift card is worth -- calculating tax doing all kinds of crazy mental math. I don't want to be over because the only reason I'm at the store it to spend my free money -- I'm not trying to spend more money at the store. And I don't want to be under because I don't want $3.27 left on the card that I'll either never spend or carry around in my wallet for the next three years. I usually end up going over and the store scores a cool few extra dollars from me that I never would have spent without the infernal gift card.

2. You have to remember to bring the gift card to the store.
I'm not going to carry around 10 gift cards in my wallet for the off-chance that I happen to stop into Ikea/Williams-Sonoma/Bath & Body Works on my way home from work. Case in point: I still have a $15 Best Buy card from last Christmas (I know because it has a dancing Santa on it) that I have not yet used. Not because I don't shop at Best Buy, because I never remember to bring the dang thing with me. **

3. There is an amazing alternative to gift cards.
Did you know there's something that works just like a gift card except it can used at any store, never expires, has no restrictions, and you can always carry it with you? It's called cash (or a check). Cash can be used for all kinds of amazing goods and services! Feel weird about giving cash or check? Remember a gift card is just restrictive, annoying cash.***


I'm not trying to be a brat about the whole gift card thing, I'm still a very thankful and gracious gift receiver. I'm just stating the truth; gift cards are a giant pain. I've made a personal vow to never give gift cards except in extraordinary cases.

Does anyone share my sentiment, or am I alone in my gift card loathing?




*I will admit there is a time and place for gift cards -- like giving someone a gift card to the place where they set up their wedding registry. But that's about it. Giving someone gift cards to a random store as a wedding present? Not cool. I still have some of those over a year later.

** Another acceptable gift card one to a place that you know I frequent, like Starbucks or Trader Joe's. That would be considered acceptable because I would carry that card with me in wallet and would not be worried about over/under because I pretty much visit those places weekly.

***Don't even get me started on the Amex or Visa "anywhere" gift cards. That's a whole separate rant.

How My Birthday Present Turned into a Home Theater Sound System...

Remember how I said I wanted a Bose iPod Sound dock for my Birthday?

Well the Mr. and I got to talking about it and he said, "instead, why don't we just get a new receiver for our speaker system that has an iPod hookup for about the same price?" And I said "great idea!"...

Then he said, "while we're at it, let's get some new speakers that can go with the receiver and will be great for watching movies." I said, "hmmm, okay."

Well what did I come home to on Saturday?...



6 new speakers, a new receiver (with an iPod Hookup, woo hoo!), and a new DVD Player (we already have a Blu-Ray player).

This is SO the Mr.'s new "toy." He spent all weekend installing the surround sound speakers into the wall behind the couch and setting up the whole system around the TV.




Is it me, or did my birthday present just totally turn into a present for him? I love how guys can do this -- you give them an inch and they somehow get a mile. Next present I request will have to be shoes or something!

Oh well, in the end I got my iPod dock and I must say watching movies with the new surround sound is freakin' amazing. I guess it was a win for both of us.

Paper Anniversary Gift?

In just two weeks it's our FIRST Anniversary!

We have all kinds of fun plans that I'll tell you about next week.

But first I wanted to ask for your help...

The first anniversary is the paper anniversary, and I can't think of a good gift!



Do you have any fun "paper anniversary" gift ideas? Did you do paper gifts for your first anniversary?

What do I want for my Birthday?

My birthday is coming up on July 6th!

I'll admit, I've always been really tough to buy gifts for. I'm very picky about clothes, purses, fragrances, and even jewelry... so the Mr. doesn't even try to buy those for me usually. And now that we're married and share money, we usually just tell each what we want for Birthday/Christmas gifts and take each other out for a fun dinner. Boring, I know. But very practical.

So when the Mr. asked me what I wanted for my Birthday I responded:

1. Sprinkles Cupcakes!

Sprinkles cupcakes are just amazing. So much better than all of the copycat cupcakes out there. My mouth is watering just thinking about their vanilla or red velvet cupcakes.


2. A Bose iPod SoundDock

I have a generic iPod docking station that I use all the time. It is time to upgrade. Does anyone have a Bose? Do you love it?

3. To deposit money into our "Europe Trip" ING Account.

We're going to Europe next summer! Definitely to Italy and Germany and maybe to one other country. So my new favorite thing to do is to transfer money over to our ING "Europe Trip" Account that I set up especially to save money for an amazing trip!

PS- If you're a July Birthday, head over to Lis Loves.

Newlywed Annual Pilgrimage Re-cap: Christmas in San Diego

Christmas in San Diego was a blast! Wanted to share some of the highlights:

Spending time with Family and Friends. I saw some of my High School girlfriends. I spent lots of great time with my Mom and Dad and extended family. It's such a great time of year!

My Mom and me



Poinsettia Bowl! We got BOX seats for the Poinsettia Bowl, which was a great game (TCU vs. Boise St). We definitely took FULL advantage of the all-you-can-eat and drink smorgasbord.

My Uncle, the Mr., and Me in the Box Seats at Qualcomm Stadium



Suprise Baby Shower for Leanne (family friend)

The the sports-themed diaper-cake



Food! My Mom made so many amazing dinners. And I did some baking. I literally gained 3 lbs in 6 days.

Some amazing sugar cookies that I made. The icing recipe can be found here.



Parties! My parents had several dinner parties that included many friends, old and new.

The wine for the Christmas Day dinner party



Hope you all had a great Christmas! What are some of your Christmas highlights? (If you have a Christmas Highlight post -- please post the link!)