Stanley

 

It is time for me to come clean. The guilt. The lies. The anxiety. They all end here. I have a confession: on June 9, 2012, Andrew and I drove to Denver, Colorado and picked up our first dog, Stanley. We then secretly kept Stanley in our "NO DOGS ALLOWED" apartment for roughly 2 months until we moved to San Francisco.

Let me begin with the back story.

Two years ago for my birthday Andrew got me a book on Westies. We read it cover to cover and then, during church we got a little bored and started passing notes on what we should name our future dog. Killer, Snowball, Meatball, Fuzzball, Peanut... we were joking around and then I wrote down Stanley and the heavens parted, angels descended, and the name was confirmed.

Well once we had the name we started looking for dog friendly apartments in Provo. They don't exist. So we waited. A year later Andrew finished school, he was home all day studying for the CPA which gave him time to train our dream dog, so we started looking again.

Then we found Stanley, bought him, and smuggled him in and out of our apartment for 2 months to take him on twice daily walks and vet visits. Luckily Stanley does not bark (seriously) so it was really easy to get him in and out of the apartment with the help of my Puma weekend bag.

Now before you feel like this is animal cruelty, let me just state that I always threw treats in there for him and to this day if I put that bag on the floor Stanley runs and jumps in. I think he thinks it is a magic transport machine that takes him to fun places. We also may have used a microwave box sometimes too just to mix it up.

Yes, we are skilled in the art of deception.

And now he lives happily ever after (and fully approved by our landlord) in our studio apartment.

The end.

The Oregon Coast

Andrew and I had a pretty fantastic summer and we owe it all to our amazing families. We were fortunate to end the summer at the Oregon coast with Andrew's family and had a great time. The only bummer was that it was pretty cold the entire week so it turned into an indoor vacation with an amazing view. However, you can't really complain of a week spent with family, lots of little babies running around and tide pools.

Photo by Andrew's mom.

 

 

At the end of all our travels it was really nice to come home to our new apartment and get settled in. We are loving our new place, the location, and the city in general. Here is a sneak peak at our place, but I don't want to post more pictures until we have some more main things like a couch.

Hawaii

My family spent a week together in Oahu. It was a fun time and so nice to vacation as a family. I don't think we've had a trip all together since I was in high school. The trip came about  because my uncle went to the doctor to get lipo and when he found out it would cost $10k, he decided to take us all to Hawaii instead. Random and weird, I know.

Andrew and I spent most of the time on the beach swimming and floating in inner tubes. There is no evidence that I was in the sun all week because I wore a hat  and SPF 70 the entire time. Working for a skin care company totally ruined my love of being tan.

We also went in a shark cage and deep sea fishing. The shark cage was SO COOL and I highly recommend it. Deep sea fishing was kind of boring to be honest.

The digs

Our backyard

The neighbor

Besties!

Sunny = Squinty

Sharks!

The cage

 Jaw's first born

Part of my family plus my grandma's best friend and my uncle's boyfriend. We're missing some family members. When you travel with 13 people, splitting up is a necessity. 

P.S. Andrew was at the house studying for the CPA when the above photo was taken. He got a perfect score on his first test. Crazzzzzzzy. I married a winner.

New Orleans

It turns out I love everything about New Orleans, starting with the fact that people call it The Big Easy. How great is that?! The whole time we were there I kept telling Andrew how THIS was where we needed to live and that we were for sure buying one of those adorable mansions in the Garden District some day. I need to live there. And Andrew may not be coming because he has not (will not) agree to these imperative future plans.

Yep, it turns out that I love the South. I love the culture and the food and the people! I love the architecture and the jazz. My grandma grew up in Oklahoma and still says things like "warsh the clothes" so I think maybe I have Southerner in my blood.

This is what we did:

We stayed just outside the French Quarter in the Rathborne Mansion. It was completely wonderful and old and original. The only negative part is that I saw The Skeleton Key (you know, Voodoo movie starring Kate Hudson) and kept thinking about it while in the house and getting freaked out.

We took Dr. Wagner's swamp tour. A tourist must. First stop, swamp people. My future resident if the mansion doesn't work out.

There are monsters in the water.

And they bite.

We had a great time on the boat. 

We went to lunch at Willie Mae's which is famous and has the BEST fried chicken I have ever tasted. 

And we walked through the gorgeous streets of the French Quarter. 

We got to hang out with my family! Yep, that's my mom harassing my uncle. It's what they do.

We took a carriage ride/tour. That is Red Beans, our mule.

It was kind of magical.

We toured a huge, old plantation home. The history in the South is incredible.

The grounds were beautiful. (Narnia, anyone?)

This is my pocket-sized, adorable grandma. I love this little lady. 

That's my sister-in-law, Saki! I love her too.

There are no better 82-year-old travelers than these ladies! They stayed up till 11:30 every night gambling, walking around, eating, and just hanging out with the rest of us. 

I highly recommend New Orleans as your next travel destination. New Orleans is for lovers.

Crab Pasta Salad

This is a great summer meal. You know what I mean, quick, easy, and no oven required. I pretty much can't cook anything that requires preheating from June until August because we have no a/c.  Yep, no a/c even though it gets hotter than hades here and our apartment stays at about 85 degrees all. day. long. and all. night. long.

Moral of the story: anything that counts as a main dish that you can serve chilled is a definite winner.

Serve it as a cool main dish or as a side dish/salad at your next BBQ! It's light, fresh, and delicious. A little sweet, kind of tangy, very filling. All in all a great combination.

Crab Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman's Mac Salad

• 3 cups Bow Tie Pasta
• 1/2 jar Pimientos
• 1/2 can Black Olives, Chopped Fine
• 3 whole Dill Pickle Spears, Diced 
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1 Tablespoon Rice Vinegar
• 3 teaspoons Sugar, More Or Less To Taste
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt, More To Taste
• Lots of Black Pepper
• 1/8 cup Milk 
• Splash of Pickle Juice (about 3 TBS)
• 1/4 cup imitation crab meat

Directions:

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Set aside.

Mix together mayo, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, milk and pickle juice. Set aside.

Place cooled pasta in a large bowl and pour in the dressing. Dressing will appear thin but will thicken in the fridge.

Stir in olives, pimientos, pickles, and crab meat.

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

No, this can't be real.

So last weekend. Last weekend was the weekend where we found out housing in San Francisco is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.

A little background info: An apartment we desperately want popped up on craigslist Friday. We called and said we'd pay in cash and our first born right there if they would give it to us. No deal. We have to go to the open house the next day. They want to meet all their applicants.

Fine, but we live 14 hours away... So we buy expensive, expensive plane tickets. Andrew flys out for the day.

He arrives 30 minutes early to the open house. Two, white, affluent looking couples are already there. By the time it started, 13 other applicants had arrived.

He goes in, walks around, and then tries to make small talk with the landlord. She tells him to just turn in his application and go. No need to chat.

So we now are praying and holding seances and practicing witch craft to try and will these people to pick us out of the 15 other applicants. Please pick us, we don't want to have to keep flying out.

And for those of you who don't understand how hard it is to find housing in SF, I looked on craigslist for apartment in the Upper East Side of New York and they were 1.cheaper and 2. there were tons of options. San Francisco is smaller and thus, housing is harder to come by and more expensive.

Maybe the worst part of it all? My husband shaved off his bautiful, manly beard in attempt to make a better first impression. He promised me he would grow it back as soon as he shaved it off.

Before (LOVE that scruff!)

After (babyface Shaw)

Finger's crossed that it was all worth it!

Two Pea's Lemon Sugar Cookies

I have a new favorite cookie, and a new favorite cookbook. These Lemon Sugar Cookies are amazing. They are thick, chewy, crunchy around the edges cookies. Take an awesome sugar cookie and add a little lemon zing and you have these babies.

Swoon.

It is from the cookie cookbook by Two Pea's and the Pod which I bought for $0.99 on my Kindle. STEAL! 

I like them so much that I even risked heat stroke and baked them in my air conditioner-less apartment. It was approximately 90 degrees in the house by the time all the batches were done. Sure, we couldn't sleep because it was so hot, but with all the sugar pumping through us we weren't going to sleep anytime soon anyway. No big.

I suggest you make these asap. And then buy their cookbook for other delicious cookies.

Two Pea's Lemon Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Zest of 2 large lemons
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.

4. Add lemon zest, egg, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Mix until combined. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

5. Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets,  about 1 1/2 inches apart.

6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly brown around the edges and set. Let cookies sit on the baking sheets for two minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Really, could it get any better?