Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Law Breaker

I am officially a law breaker. A criminal in the eyes of the law. Ok, so maybe not that bad! But when Taylor and I were walking back to my car after lunch yesterday, I saw this pretty little orange note on the windshield...


Yes, I received my first parking violation/ticket of any kind from the City! Ha. We were so confused when we got back to the car because I hadn't parked over the lines and the meter still had time on it... but then, it hit me! About a month ago we got new tags for our cars and when I went to put mine on, I didn't know you were supposed clean the plate off first. Well, the tag got dirty and wasn't sticky anymore so I just put it in my glove box and thought, "I will just that later". But obviously, a month later, I still hadn't put the tag on! Ha. I felt so stupid when I realized what I did and my stupidity cost us $25 :( Oh well, I guess. Lesson learned and from now on I will put my new tag on right away, and clean the plate off first!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Spring Break Wrap Up

Well, Spring Break Day 5 didn't turn out so well! I wasn't feeling good on Thursday, and it just carried over into Friday. I ended up staying home from work and laying on the couch all day. Taylor just worked on homework for the majority of the afternoon and that evening we ordered take out, I think??, because neither of us felt like cooking. That day is kind of a big blur to me! Ha.

Saturday was a much better day and consisted of watching a lot of basketball games as we waited for TP and Jason to get in from Chicago! Kelli, Jason's wife, was out of town so the boys came down and spent Saturday night and Sunday hanging out. We ordered Papa Del's for dinner on Saturday and watched the basketball games. About 11pm, the boys decided they wanted to go bowling but I stayed home and played with Jason and Kelli's dog Oliver.


Isn't he cute?! He reminds me a little stuffed animal that requires food and water! Ha. And yes mom, I did allow a dog to stay in our apartment for the evening :) For a puppy, he was surprisingly calm and while the boys were bowling he just stayed at the top of the steps. I think he missed Jason!

On Sunday, we went to church and watched more of the NCAA tournament. I just love this time of year and watching all the games! I always feel like the tournament games are crazy and unpredictable, but this year has been really crazy. I should note that I do still have a Final Four team, UConn, in my bracket and if they win I will win the pool at work! Go Huskies!!!

The boys left Sunday night and this week has been pretty low key so far. Taylor is just getting back into the swing of class and is excited about finally getting to work in the lab! He joined a research group a month or so ago and he has been waiting until after Spring Break to really get actively involved. I hope your weeks are going well!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

SB 2011: Day 4

Homework. Work. Dinner. NBC Night of Comedy. NCAA Tournament. Yep, that about sums up our Thursday! Ha.

But, I did get a little creative tonight and decided to try a new recipe so I thought I would share that to make up for our lack of Spring Break excitement! Here's a peek of the finished product :)

So on our way home from AR a couple weeks ago, Taylor's mom sent us home with a delicious bag of chocolate chip cookies! We didn't finish all of them so I have been trying to figure out something to do with them because I didn't just want to throw them away.


I was thinking the other day, "I wonder if I could make a pie crust with the cookies?" So, I took a graham cracker crust recipe and replaced it with the cookies!


I put them in the food processor and pulsed them for a couple seconds, added some sugar, a little butter, pressed the mixture into a pie crust, baked it for 5 minutes at 350 and...


I had a chocolate chip cookie pie crust that turned out surprisingly well!


Next, I decided to make a peanut butter pie filling that Sarah has mentioned on her blog before! Ever since Yoder's Kitchen I have just fallen in love with peanut butter pie :) So I added 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 4 oz. of cream cheese and mixed it all together with the mixer. Then I folded in 8 oz. of cool whip (which I wanted to just eat straight out of the container) and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and mixed that together until it became creamy!


Then after eating a couple spoonfuls of the pie filling, ha, I filled the pie crust and placed it in the freezer for a couple hours! I also drizzled some chocolate syrup on top for decoration before.


And two hours later, we had dessert! I thought the peanut butter pie tasted really good with the chocolate chip crust and Taylor even really liked it :) I probably won't always make a chocolate chip pie crust, but it was fun to make something new and not waste some delicious chocolate chip cookies!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

SB 2011: Day 3

Well Spring Break day 3 has been a pretty good day! I went to work this morning, as usual, and Taylor worked on homework with Andrew. They have an assignment due Monday and I think they got most of it done today! This afternoon we had plans to do our long run for the week, since as you can see, we are supposed to have a cold front come through. We were supposed to run 9 miles, but with 30 mph winds, neither one of us quite got to 9! Ha.


Andrew actually ran with Taylor today, which I think Taylor really enjoyed. They started at our apartment and then ran to L & A's apartment which is about 6 miles away. I think the cold front came in a little faster than we had anticipated, and it was already close to 40 degrees when they got there! So once I got to 5 miles, I decided that was enough for today and headed over to their apartment to pick up Taylor! Ha. I just couldn't fight the wind anymore :)


We ended up eating dinner with them at their apartment tonight and watching Modern Family, which is always fun! I can't say enough how thankful I am that we were able to find some good friends so quickly up here. It really helps, since we are all away from family. During dinner, Laine said she had a present for me and when I opened the box it was these cute earrings! I had gone to a jewelry party with her the other day and this was her thank you for going. That was just so sweet of her! Earrings are definitely my favorite type of jewelry and I can't wait to wear these.

So that was Spring Break day 3, hopefully Thursday will bring something else fun to do.. and I am praying for no snow!!!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

SB 2011: Day 2

Well, Spring Break Day 2 has been pretty uneventful. Taylor just worked on some homework today while I went to work. I did stop by Old Navy on my way home this evening because Laine told me they were having a pretty good sale. I ended up getting a new pair of jeans for only $10 plus a new spring dress and shirt! I love the feeling of getting a good deal, even though Taylor's automatic response, every time is.. "Jamie, you still spent money"! Haha. Boys, they just don't understand, do they ladies?! :)


Here is a picture of what I picked up at Old Navy! The shirt looks yellow, but it's actually light grey with yellow stripes. I got a new brown belt when we were in Chicago last weekend that I can't wait to pair with the spring dress!


I mentioned that we stopped in St. Louis on our way home from AR a couple weeks ago and picked out some new running shoes! Here is a picture of Taylor's shoes, which he loves! I asked him after our run tonight how his shoes were feeling, and he said they just keep getting better!


And these are mine! Honestly, I can't tell a huge difference in this pair and my old ones, but I have noticed my shins aren't hurting like they used to. Taylor thinks I may have had too much arch support (or "posting" as the lady at the store kept saying) in my old shoes, and these have a lot less!

Well, hope your week is going well! I'll try to make Taylor do something more exciting than homework to post about tomorrow! :)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring Break 2011: Day 1

So Taylor is currently on his first Spring Break as a Graduate student! Since I don't have much vacation time, sadly we aren't doing anything very exciting.


But Taylor did get to play a course called Stone Creek today that he has wanted to play since before we moved here! Ha. Hopefully he can do at least one fun thing each day!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Over Due

Well, once again I am a slacker-blogger. But eventually I always catch you up on our lives, so that counts for something? Right? :)

A couple weekends ago we made a much necessary trip to B'ville to spend some time with Taylor's family and surprise my Dad for his birthday! Laine and Andrew asked us a couple weeks ago if we would be interested in riding back to AR with them, since they are from Fort Smith. We realized we had not been to B'ville since we moved in July so we were both excited to go back. I got off work at 11 Friday and we left around noon. It was nice to have two more people in the car with us to make the 8 1/2 hour trip. Plus, Andrew drove most of the way so I never had to drive!

Friday night we went to eat at Fred's, which is a delicious steak house with the BEST cheesecake. I actually find myself craving their a lot! Saturday, Taylor got up early and went running with his dad. He has been looking forward to running a long run with him for awhile, since while we are training we have to run separately. He is just to fast for me! Ha. After they got back, we ate breakfast and then Taylor and I made a quick trip to Dillard's. I think I have mentioned before we don't have one in C-U, so anytime we are back in AR or OK I try to stop by Dillard's. I picked up some new makeup and then we had to get my dad a b-day present.

After Dillard's, we got to FINALLY go see John David and Julia's new house! And boy is it beautiful! I have decided I want a front door just like theirs. I should have taken some pictures, but I forgot (surprise, surprise!). Seeing their house made us very ready for July when we can move into our rent house. After seeing their house, we headed to the golf course! It had been almost 6 months since we had played, so it wasn't our best rounds ever, but it was a beautiful day and we had so much fun.

They were running short on carts when we got to the course, so we got one of the fancy carts! Ha. Can I tell you how many times I prayed for one of these when it was cold or rainy outside and I was shivering under a tree?


And here is Taylor, back in his natural surroundings! Ha :)


After golf, we headed to Roaring River to surprise my dad for his birthday and eat dinner with my family. We spent the evening just hanging out and headed back to AR around 10. After church Sunday morning, we met Laine and Andrew to head back to Illinois! We made a stop in St. Louis on our way home to get some new running shoes, which Taylor has needed for a while. I wish it always worked out for the four of us to ride back together, because it made the trip seem much shorter!

Well, that was a recap of our weekend a couples weeks ago so I will try and give an update of last weekend soon! My family actually got to come to C-U last weekend and it was really nice to spend some more time with them.

Hope your week has started out well! Taylor is on Spring Break this week so I'm trying to not be jealous, but it's pretty hard! Ha.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Weekend Update

Sorry I don't have any pictures to share! We had a pretty low key weekend and didn't do anything real exciting, so I didn't take any pictures. Friday evening we cooked dinner and started working on laundry, I know, super exciting. Ha! We did go get ice cream with Laine and Andrew at Jarling's (our local custard place) because they opened for the seasoned earlier that day. They have very good ice cream so whenever you come visit we will have to take you!

After getting ice cream, L&A said they were planning on watching a movie so we decided to just come back to our house and watch it together. I just love watching movies at home! I would always choose to see a movie in my living room over going to the theater. Ha! After the movie, we just sat around talking and before we knew it, it was 1:30! So needless to say, we slept in a little on Saturday morning :)

Taylor has started playing basketball with some guys at the U of I gym on Saturday mornings, so while he was gone, I decided to go through all my clothes and get rid of stuff. I have needed to do this for awhile, because I can't even close my dresser drawers anymore. I know what you're thinking, "Wow, this post keeps getting more exciting!" Ha. Well after Taylor got home around 1, we finished up some laundry (it always seem to take forever to do laundry!) and then called to see if L&A wanted to go eat at Yoder's Kitchen with us that afternoon. Laine had mentioned earlier in the week she would like to go there, and since it was a rainy/gloomy Saturday with nothing else going on, it seemed like the perfect time to go! So I got peanut butter pie TWO weeks in a row, yummy!

After we got back from dinner, at 5pm since that's when they close on Saturdays, we just went to Walmart and then came home and hung around the house. Taylor always has homework to work on and I just did a little cleaning and watched some episodes of Gilmore Girls I had rented from the library. Today has been pretty much like the rest of the weekend, low key. We went to church this morning and then had lunch with L&A. Laine made cranberry chicken and it was so delicious! This afternoon/evening we have just been cleaning the house, doing homework, doing our long run for the week, and cooking dinner.

So that about sums up the weekend! I promise to have pictures next time :) We recently went to Wisconsin with some of our friends and I am trying to figure out how to get the pictures I took off my camera (I forgot to put the memory stick in the camera and can't find the cord to download the pictures!). Hopefully I'll have those to share soon!

Have a great week!