My crazy nephew!

So my nephew Austin is pretty much a total dork. My sister went into his room the other day and this is what she found. I just love this kid! (The little girl in the picture is a girl that my sister babysits...clearly she is not impressed by Austin's moves)

Back to school...

I didn't want to write anything about my back to school experience because I thought I would give it some time to marinade before making any formal opinions. It's been 2 and a half weeks now and I can officially say I am getting settled in (I already have 4 IEP's to write!!). I am teaching 2 classes this year Topics 1 and Financial Applications. I am also itinerant for the other 3 periods of the day. While I like the subject matter better in financial applications I am absolutely in love with my Topics 1 class this year. They are such a good group of kids. At first I was a little concerned because they were almost too quiet, but now that they have gotten settled in they are just the perfect amount of talkative. In my previous 2 years I have never had an entire class where all the students would be working when they were supposed to. They are always on task and that makes my job so much fun! Second hour on the other hand...well, that's a whole different can of worms. I have about 3 students who have made it their personal mission to drive me nuts!! All-in-all I like the class, but I am afraid that I have a long road ahead of me with this group. Yesterday for instance, we had a fire drill and all the other classes were standing outside patiently waiting to go back in...Not my kids...they were playing soccer and rock baseball with their binders! Aside from this, I think this is going to be a good year.

My Favorite (Healthy) Recipes

So I have been on a little health kick lately. It has been a little over a month now and I am really liking it. The best part is that I have actually lost weight, though I have no idea how much because I refuse to weigh myself. My routine has pretty much been eating 5 small meals a day:

Breakfast: oatmeal and a glass of low calorie orange juice (Tropicana with calcium)

Snack: Fruit of some sort

Lunch: a sandwich on whole grain with deli chicken or grilled chicken and vegetables with brown rice

Snack: Strawberry-banana smoothie or low-fat yogurt

Dinner: whole wheat cheese pizza with low-fat cheese

Dessert: low-fat ice cream (skinny cow or weight watchers variation)

I also go to the gym at least twice a week and run for a little over an hour on the elliptical and I do strength training at least once a week. Once the weather gets cooler I plan to add a 40 minute jog around the neighborhood to my routine.

Some of the recipes that I have made and like are:

Low fat pizza:

I use my other pizza dough recipe except I swap half the flour with wheat flour and I use unbleached flour for the remaining white flour. I recommend cutting the flour back to about 2 1/2 cups though because the wheat flour seems to absorb the water more which can make the dough tough. I also use low fat mozzarella cheese (I like the Weight Watchers brand). The recipe will make 4 pizzas. I cook 2 at a time and refrigerate the second pizza and the remaining dough (I have gone up to 2 nights with the extra dough and it tastes fine). I would also recommend reheating the extra pizza in the oven...not in the microwave.

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie:

1 ripe banana
3-5 frozen strawberries (depending on the size)
5 ice cubes
2T orange juice (fresh squeezed or from a carton...doesn't matter)
1T fat-free milk
1/2t sugar or sweetener for extra taste (optional)
Cool whip to top (optional)
This smoothie is awesome, but this recipe is not exact. I usually just eyeball everything.especially the liquids. Add a little at a time because you can always add more.

Grilled Chicken and Veggies:

Fajita Marinade:
Juice from 1 orange
Juice from 2 limes
1t cumin (I always add more)
1 clove garlic (I usually use a heaping teaspoon of the already diced stuff)
4T olive oil
1t salt
Crushed red peppers (optional)

Marinade chicken or steak (1 recipe=up to 2 lbs meat) for at least 4 hours and cook on the grill. I eat it with grilled zucchini and onion on top of brown rice (see picture), but it doesn't really matter. I got this one from Tyler Florence on foodnetwork.com

Kebab Marinade:
3 cloves garlic
2 t paprika
1/2t turmeric
1t cumin
1t kosher salt
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1/3 C red wine vinegar
1/2 C olive oil

Marinade chicken or steak for at least 4 hours. Recipe=1 1/2 lbs meat. Again I eat this with grilled onion and zucchini (slice, place on skewers, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper, cook directly on the grill)

So Joshua Thinks He Can Dance!!!

And the winner is...

Joshua!!!

I am absolutely in love with this show and have been for the past four years. I can say without reservation that this has been the best season thus far. For the first time I thought all of the final four were deserving of the top prize. First there is Courtney, aside from the fact that she was smoking hot she was a great dancer and performer. I am embarrassed to admit this but she made me cry TWICE!! (once on the performance finale and once during the results finale). Call me pathetic, but she just seems so sweet and honest which is something I can appreciate. Katie, Wow! She was a complete turn around for me. When the season started I thought it was unfair that she made it because I thought he friend was way better...I ate my words. She literally did not do a performance I didn't love...ever! Twitch. What can I say? I just want to hang out with that guy. He seems like he would be such a riot! I told Matt that though I felt bad for him last year for not making it, I think that's how it was supposed to happen. Last year he would not have gotten as far as he did this year so for that I am happy. Last but not least, Joshua. AMAZING!!! From the very first dance (No Air) I loved this guy (and so did Matt). I am having a hard time believing that he is "untrained," but who cares? I am so sad this season is over. Fortunately Matt got me the bootlegged DVD's of seasons 1-3 (from ioffer.com) to hold me over until next season. Its so much fun to go back and reminisce. It is crazy how much better the dancers have gotten each season.

Here is the top 20 from Season 4! Don't they look cute?

Here are some of the high points from this season (I could only think of dances):
The Door with Katie and Twitch
No Air with Katie and Joshua
The one with Katie and Will (pas de deux...i think)
The quirky one with Courtney and Mark
Mia Michaels Gothic wedding with Chelsea Hightower(sp?) and Mark

Josh and Twitch's Russian dance on the performance finale

Chelsea and Mark's hip hop dance to Bleeding Love

And here are the lows:

Chris-man he drove me nuts!!! I swear he was just so pathetic. It seemed like every time the judges would critique him he would try to defend himself...just shut up!
Thayne-I seriously think he has more teeth than the average person
Comfort coming back- I thought she was a riot, but the whole 4-real thing got old and I am sorry she was just not that good (at the other styles)
Jessica-I agreed with the judges...she was holding Will back

That was a fun trip down memory lane. Lets go season 5!!!!

Oh yeah...we got tickets to go to the concert this year :) My sister Courtney and I have been obsessed with the show since season one, but I also got my best friend Meghan and my other sister Danielle hooked this year so we are going to make the hike out to Glendale to watch the top 10 (and Comfort) perform...cant wait!

Favorite Marriage Memories

Nothing new has been going on lately so I decided that I would compile a list of favorite marriage memories:

1. The honeymoon-Cabo San Lucas in an amazing resort, right on the beach, for an entire week. It just doesn't get any better than that!!! I have told Matt about 300 times that I would pack up and move if I could.

2. The wedding! We had a DJ named Chris Birkett who was by far the best DJ we have ever seen. We just had the BEST time and if it didn't cost so much I would do it all over again.

3. Buying a house and decorating it together. I have waited my entire life to decorate my own house. It was pretty much a year long hobby. Our bedroom is my favorite of the whole.

4. Our first Christmas together. It was so fun to get up and open presents together. Our tree was a hand me down from my parents. Though it wasn't the most beautiful thing you've ever seen it was still exciting to decorate it. (The extra stocking is Katie's).

5. Sunday morning breakfasts. This ritual has been placed on the back burner for the past month or so because I have been on my diet, every Sunday we would get up and make breakfast together. We are definitely going to have to start this one back up.

6. Becoming "Uncle Matt." Matt just loves my nephew Austin. During the summers I babysit him on Monday's and as soon as Matt comes home the two of them just go and play. I think its really cute. This is kind of an old picture, but here he is in Uncle Matt's shoes working in our backyard (before there was grass).

7. Moving in with Katie. We adopted Katie from a friend of ours who took her from an abusive home. This dog is completely neurotic, but she provides Matt and I with so much entertainment. The picture on the left is how we found her one day after vacuuming (she is absolutely terrified of the vacuum...only one of her neuroticisms). The one on the right is her trying to cram as many toys into her mouth as possible. I have never seen a dog love toys as much as this one. She has her own toy box and Matt and I have to pick up at least 10 toys a day. Its like having a child!

8. Sitting on the back porch. Matt and I love sitting out on the back porch and just talking. Even in the summers our porch stays pretty cool and shaded so its a nice peaceful place to just sit an talk. When we first got our sprinklers put in Matt would make us sit out there at 5 when they would turn on. I swear you would have thought it was the fountain at the Bellagio. Needless to say it has become even more fun once we got grass. Its not the best grass in the world, but its better than dirt and weeds!

9. "Loosing" my wedding ring. I have a really bad habit of taking my rings off and leaving them in random places. One night when I was doing homework I put them on the desk. When I went to put them back on my wedding band was missing! I immediately broke into tears and frantically searched the house. After an hour of searching and not being able to find it I became worried that Katie had eaten it (Lets just say I was not in a right frame of mind, plus I had seen her eat strange things before). Here's the best part...I actually asked Matt to go look at her poop! Being the amazing husband that he is, and not wanting to argue with me when I was crying...he did it!! If that's not love I don't know what is. The next day after work I came home and found it wedged into a pad of paper...on the computer desk. I have yet to live this one down :)

10. My birthday. On my first birthday as a married woman I woke up to a kitchen decked out with birthday decorations. I guess Matt woke up in the middle of the night and blew up several balloons, taped these spiral things to the ceiling and hung up a happy birthday banner...all in the dark! Apparently Katie started barking, but I slept through the entire thing. (I am sad that I don't have a picture of it, but it was very sweet!).

11. Carpooling. I work at Gilbert High and Matt works at the post office right down the street so we are able to carpool. Aside from having to listen to 98 KUPD every morning I really love having this time with Matt.

12. Chores. Before we got married, Matt's mom had me so afraid that Matt was not going to do any chores. It turns out that he probably does more than I do. Aside from the bathrooms and laundry (because I wont let him touch it) he will do mostly everything else. I am not proud of this, but I have never vacuumed the house once because he always does it! I love a man who is domestically able.

13. So You Think You Can Dance. The past 2 summers I have gotten Matt to watch every episode with me and he doesn't even whine. In fact, he joins me in picking favorites and critiquing dances. I love this show and I love that my husband will watch it with me. This picture is from last season (I couldn't find one from this season).

14. Suns games. Matt is an absolute sports fanatic! Since being married (and even a little before) I have become quite the avid Suns fan. I really enjoy watching games with him...even though they cant seem to get a title. Here is quite possibly my favorite Sun's moment ever.

15. The little things that you can only learn about someone once you live with them. For instance, Matt sings in the shower when he is in a really good mood, he has to have music on when he cleans, or he hates when people leave their shoes around the house ;)

San Diego

A while ago Meghan and James asked if we would come with them to San Diego to take engagement pictures...so after Matt got some time off work we decided what the heck lets go. We had a nice time. The trip pretty much consisted of taking pictures, walking (a lot) and eating. Here are some pictures to document the occasion.

I didnt end up taking any pictures of our condo from the outside, but it was a beautiful community nesteled in the California hills. Once we got inside though I had to take a picture of these stairs. Lets just say we didnt have to worry too much about what we ate because we worked it all off on these stairs. We never ended up counting them but I am guessing there were about 45,364.

After taking a ton of pictures of Meghan and James they decided to take a few of Matt and I. Here is one that turnd out okay. Unfortunately when we were walking around on the rocks this happened...

I completely wiped out. Needless to say I was not happy. I had big plans to NOT get wet...guess someone else didn't agree. Here were my battel wounds. They were a lot bloodier before I took a shower.

After pictures we went to Tony Romas. Meghan and James are a big fan of this place and pretty much will eat there everytime they vacation. I got a grilled chicken sandwich and I must say it was pretty tasty. Katie agreed because she got the rest of it when we got home. The next day we got up and took some more pictures. This time on Coronado island.

After pictures we went to get some lunch at a place called Luigis and then we got some ice cream for dessert.

The pizza slices were bigger than any I had ever seen. I could not even finish mine. Fortunately Matt was nice enough to finish it for me (I really hate to waste food).

We finished our night with some swimming and sitting in the hot tub. On the way home we stopped and got some Mexican food at a place called El Indio. I guess it was on a show called Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I got an enchilada and it was pretty good...nothing beats good old Macayos though.

My Favorite Recipes

One of my favorite foods is pizza. While I realize that it is not even close to healthy I just dont care! Over the past few years I have worked on finding a recipe that tastes like take-out pizza and I think I have gotten pretty close with this one.

Homemade pizza:
Dough:
3C all-purpose flour (plus extra for kneading)
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. quick rise yeast
1 C warm water
1/4 tsp. sugar
2 TBS olive oil (plus extra for coating bowl), corn meal

Sauce:
1 can tomato sauce
1 can petite diced tomatoes with all the italian seasonings already in it (oregano, basil, garlic)

Directions:
Dissolve sugar into warm water (I warm mine in the microwave) and add yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes or until it looks frothy.
Sift together flour and salt into a Kitchenaide mixer or food processer bowl.
Add olive oil to flour mixture.
Add yeast mixture to flour mixture.
Knead dough for about 5 minutes. You really can't over knead pizza dough so go ahead and clean everything up while you let the dough do its thing.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a towel and let rise. The longer the better!! (at least 1 hour)
Divide dough into 2 balls. Form them into pizzas (use hands not a roller!! A roller will pop all the bubbles).
Put on as much sauce cheese and toppings as you like. Cook in a 550 degree oven on a pizza stone for about 6 minutes...yum!!!

Now this one I got from my friend Meghan in high school. I have altered it a little, but people absoloutely love these when I make them (especially Matt's dad and brother).

Home made cinnamon buns:

Ingredients:
4-5 C all purpose flour
9 oz white cake mix (this is about 1/2 a box of the regular cake mixes at the store)
2 pkgs quick rise yeast
1 tsp salt
2 C warm water (again I heat it in the microwave it should be about 120-130 degrees)
1/2 C butter (the real stuff...not margrine)
2 C sugar
4 TBS cinnamon
Brown sugar for sprinkinlg (optional)

Directions:
In a Kitchenaide mixer or food processer mix; flour, cake mix, yeast, salt and water all at once and mix.
You will need to add quite a bit of flour. I stop when the dough no longer sticks to my fingers.
Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (about 1/2 in thick)
Sperad butter over dough
Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over dough (I usually wont use it all, but you can)
Sprinkle brown sugar over dough
Roll into a jelly roll starting with the shorter side
Cut with a piece of string
Place in pan greased with...more butter (I am feeling like Paula Dean)
Let rise for about 45 min
Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 18 minutes. The tops should be lightly browned to ensure they are cooked all the way through (that one comes from experience)

While buns are still hot spread icing (recipe below)

Icing:
1 pkg cream cheese (it helps if its softened, but its not necessary)
2 C powdered sugar
1 TBS milk
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp vanilla

**This recipe is not exact at all...you really will have to keep tasting it to see when you should stop adding powdered sugar**

Directions:
Mix together (with a hand mixer or whisk) cream cheese and powdered sugar until there are no lumps
Add milk and vanilla

I cant lie these are a heart attack on a plate, but tasty none the less...

I do have some healthier recipes that I plan to write about later