Master bath...finally!

Well, it has officially been over a year since we have moved in, but I am ecstatic to say, that we have completed the LAST room that needed to be remodeled! I know you are all sad, since the makeover is probably the most exciting part of my blog, but I will try and do some fun projects here and there so you don't get bored by the rest of our lives!
It is almost funny to me to think of last summer, our enthusiasm and diligence in working on the house. It was no big deal to pull a wall down in a day, or lay hardwood flooring all night. Now, with this "small" bathroom project left, we could hardly muster up the will to get started, and once started, to complete it. But knowing that it was the last project, and having only 1 bathroom, now that we are used to 2, drove us to complete it :)

BEFORE...(again, these are the pictures that were taken when they were selling the house...this is NOT our stuff :)

A picture our realtor took after they moved out, before we moved in. His photography skills make it look pretty nice, and it was the room we decided we could live with for awhile, which is why we did it last, but it is amazing how different, new, and nice it feels now!A few "in between" pics...
The grout has a built in sealer (so we didn't have to do another step) but it is super sticky and we remembered from the last bathroom was close to impossible to wash off, so we improvised and put gloves on our feet. Pretty good idea.

And AFTER (aka now)....
So here's what we did: laid a warm tan porcelain tile in place of the ugly blue and gray vinyl, switched out the old 6 bulb brass light fixture for a brushed nickel more modern one, hung a fun new mirror, painted the cabinets antique white instead of dark blue, painted all the trim and baseboards white instead of blue (note...NEVER paint trim a weird color, please), painted the entire bathroom (including the closets and shelves) color-lunar tide, put on a new countertop and dropped in a new sink...and overall just made the bathroom feel 100x better. I love it! We're still looking for a white cabinet to put above the toilet but haven't found the right one yet. If anyone has ideas let me know.

Girl's Camp

It has been several years since I have been to Girl's Camp, but now that I am in the YW presidency, I felt it was a bit of a duty to go, to be there for the girls, and to hopefully have a little fun myself :)
Karrie and I both were not enthused about going, having to make up work before and after we were there, not showering for a few days, etc., but it turned out to be a pretty fun few days. We got there a bit late, as we left after work on Tuesday, so we weren't technically assigned to a cabin. We didn't want to make people move around and there was an empty cabin, so Karrie and I got a 12 person cabin to ourselves :) It was a lot of fun. I haven't had a "sleepover" in a long time and we definitely stayed up too late chatting, but it was so fun.
We really had very little responsibility, so just got to have a lot of fun making sure the girls were ok, we had a night at the pool, and helped with meals.

Karrie and I looking oh so pretty on our last day of camp...keep in mind we didn't shower while we were there!

All of the girls seemed to have fun the whole week. We decorated the table Hawaiian style for bishopric night, and enjoyed dinner together before we left to come home, to work again today :(

Gotta love Girl's Camp. I was glad to be a part of these girls' experience.

Fun with food

Our neighbor's garden is mass producing peppers already, so we reaped the benefits :) She brought over a bag full of peppers today...looks like summer cooking will begin. Fresh produce with everything! I love it.

As we waited for dinner to cook...we had a little fun with our food!

Happy Father's Day!

I had to give a talk today at church, which was sort of random given that it was Father's Day and I am in a ward too far away for my dad to come listen and my husband is not yet a father. However, my dad is the ultimate talk writer and giver, and I have several memories growing up, of him helping me write my talks (or writing them for me in my younger years :), and so I prepared my talk with him in mind. I wish I possessed his wittiness, use of rock and roll songs in application to the gospel, etc., but instead, I wrote a normal talk, but it did give me the opportunity to reflect on why I love my dad and am so fortunate to have him in my life!

This is one of my favorite pictures from my wedding day, because I think it captures my relationship with my dad perfectly. Often laughing about something, usually him making some sort of hilarious comment or noting an awkward situation.

To list just a few memories with my dad:
-Drove me to seminary for 2 years before I could drive, and then sacrificed his car and started taking the bus and his bike to work so that I could "have" a car my junior and senior year!
-"Taught" me that when you hit all red lights it means you're doing something wrong in your life...we had a few of these mornings on the way to seminary and would turn to each other on about the 4th red light wondering who had sinned the day before, haha.
-Coached some of my pretty awesome soccer teams as a child, The Blue Dolphins and Yellow Jackets, to name a few.
-Taught me the value of money. I attribute the financial success of my marriage to the knowledge I learned and frugality I inherited.
-He is a great cook and inspires me to try new things, as it seems like every time we go home he makes something new for us to try...prosciutto wrapped shrimp dipped in guacamole anyone? yum.
-We were the only ones in the household that thought Musicals were ridiculous and would make fun of them when my mom and sisters would love to watch them!
-Our bedtime stories were often tales of his years as a juvenile delinquent- burning poop on doorsteps, etc...it's a good thing he had girls!
-He is a huge inspiration to me in his dedication to everything he does. He is an amazing professor. I occasionally log into ratemyprofessor.com to read reviews about him and his students for the most part LOVE LOVE LOVE him, say he inspired their career choice, learned more in his class than in the rest of college, were entertained and loved to learn, etc. He motivates me to take care of my body and exercise, as he is diligent in going to the gym. And, he is a faithful church member and raised me to know the gospel is true and to love the Lord.

Happy Father's Day Dad! I love you.

Spy cake

A few months back at church we had a service auction and I "donated" a cake, meaning I would make a cake for whoever bought my service for a special occasion of their choice. I unfortunately was not able to attend the event and there fore did not win anything, but the person who won my service redeemed it this week.

Her is having a birthday party today, with a "spy" theme, so I looked through some pictures of cakes on google, because I had NO idea what a "spy cake" looked like. I found a few options, her son looked through them and picked one he liked, and below is the cake I made. The wording is the same as the one found and the ideas are similar but I changed a few things from the original cake picture and I think it actually turned out cuter so I was excited about that.
For a young kid, he definitely knows what he wants. He requested 2 layers, one vanilla, one chocolate, with chocolate frosting between the layers and vanilla on top. I thought it was a hilarious request, but it was easy enough so I gave him what he wanted...it is his birthday after all.
It was a pretty fun cake to do, but I realized once again that I really hope I have at least a girl or 2...girl things are so much more fun and pretty. Next project...my own birthday cake!

Grant tested, Taryn approved...

How about some Marinated Tilapia with Mango Kiwi relish and Citrus Rice Salad? This is what we had for dinner tonight and it was amazing! I found the recipe for the fish on San Diego Cooks. The recipe used salmon but I only had tilapia and it was still great, really any fish you like would probably work. The marinade is honey, soy sauce, and olive oil (full recipe on the link). Then, we topped it with this delicious "relish" which is just a mixture of kiwi, mango, cilantro, and orange juice. The cilantro added an extra flavor which was good but we had leftovers and I would prefer to just eat it by the spoonful without the cilantro.
I watched Giada's new show, Giada At Home, the other day, where she made this citrus rice salad and it looked amazing. I love citrus flavors (and colors) and was excited to try it. I don't think I had quite as much fun making it as she did (not because it was hard, only because I don't have an ocean view out my kitchen window!) It was pretty, my picture doesn't do it justice, and full of flavor. I read the reviews on the recipe and some people didn't like it, but I made it just how she said to (minus the parsley) and we both loved it!
I served the rice on a bed of spinach (so that it would flavor the greens and I wouldn't have to add dressing), and it was so good.
The marinade on the fish had great flavor and I thought the 2 dishes went together well.
Let me know what you think if anyone tries it! I'm trying to cook more seafood because Grant LOVES it. I enjoy it as well, it's just not usually my go-to meal.

Feeling a lot like summer

The air is getting humid, the temperature hot, Grant's class schedule is dwindling, and our house is in construction mode again. We ripped the bathroom apart, the vanity is now in the carport and we are using the other shower, and we decided to facelift the fans while we were at it.

This fan is the only original thing left in the living room, and it was a terrible reminder of what the house used to look like. Yesterday morning the fan looked like this:

And last night, it looked like this!

Buying a new fan would probably have been easier, but we updated both this fan and the one in our bedroom for about $6 total and a couple hours. Makes SUCH a big difference!

*Stay tuned for bathroom pics in the upcoming days/weeks... it will take a bit longer than our projects last summer because Grant is technically still in school and has a few classes and tests to study for and I am working more hours, but we are devoting the rest of our time to getting it done ASAP!

CSI puzzle

I "inherited" a very large, very cool sea urchin from my aunt Joan's house a couple of months ago. We like our house to feel like we live closer to the ocean than we actually do (kind of like dressing for the job you want...we have our house decorated for where we want to live). Anyway, we had it proudly displayed on the mantle when one day, the door got closed a bit too hard and it fell from above the fireplace, shattering into MANY pieces. I thought we would just need to through it away, but living with the problem solver that I do, he decided to take on the task of putting it back together! CSI Layton is what I call him today, as whenever someone on CSI is putting together a shattered bottle, etc. I comment on how tedious and terrible the chore seems. Grant did at one point wish he had their technology, so he could number and photograph each piece and it would then virtually put it together for him, but in the 2 hours that I worked today, he was able to put the entire thing back together, and you can barely tell it had ever been broken.

BEFORE

AFTER

There are only a few very small holes on the back (where I think the pieces were just obliterated when they hit the hearth). I have it sitting on the table in front of me and it looks as good as new. Good work CSI Grant!

Climbing around

Grant had 2 finals this week, so it was nice that he had a 3-day weekend to celebrate after all the studying. Our friends Nate and Travis (both in Grant's class) love to rock climb, and go to The Gorge, whenever possible, so we decided to go with them today. I didn't plan on climbing but after watching a few climbs decided I would try it out.

Looking hot in my harness, haha! Hadn't worn one of these since girl's camp long ago. This one was actually more stylish though (as stylish as a harness can be!)

Climb on, climbing!Nice butt shot, but cool to see the whole rock. My legs were definitely shaking a bit. The ledge just below me was a nice little break part way up.And finally, repelling down (the only part of climbing I had any experience with.) It's fun to hang and have the rope hold you, bouncing off the wall.Your neck tends to get pretty tired looking up at the person climbing so Grant found a few makeshift lounge chairs :)

The moss growing on the rock next to us was an awesome color. Not quite as cool in the picture but the hiking and climbing was beautiful and we had the PERFECT weather. It was sunny, but not hot, and not at all humid.

The guys...I was the 4th wheel girl but it was a lot of fun.

Familiar faces in new places

The greatest thing about living in a "large" college town is that the chance of having people come through, or even move here, is sort of high. Our friends Dave and Rashelle said there was a possibility of them moving here in the fall, but it was an unlikely choice. Nonetheless, he had applied here for grad school so I got my hopes up a little bit :) Well, after quite a course of events, they really are moving here!
They came here for the week to look for an apartment for the fall, so we got to spend a fun week together and help them apartment shop, which of course brought about a lot of talk about the apartment business (one that Rashelle and I are far too familiar with-we met while managing Raintree Commons in Provo and became great friends there.) Well, they found a great place to live, in our ward, and I'm very excited!
After our house, they were headed up to Columbus to visit Dave's sister, so we decided to drive part of the way up and go to dinner and do some shopping in Cincinnati. Of course, Cheesecake Factory was our destination. Love the food and it is at an awesome mall...with the NEW Crate and Barrel (seriously one of my favorite stores ever!)

We ate way too much (which was only like half of the food on our plates) and Grant couldn't even sit up for the picture!

We're excited for you guys to move out in the fall!

So easy, so yummy...

For dinner the other night, I didn't have a lot of time, but felt like a real meal, so I looked through the fridge and pantry and decided to throw a little pasta dish together. It literally took 15 minutes and it turned out terrific. I don't really have a recipe but if you want to try it, it's so easy to throw together. So, try it out this week if you get a chance.

All you need is some Feta (either regular or flavored, I like both)

Sun-dried tomatoes (I got a large jar at Costco to throw into different dishes, mmmm...)

Artichoke hearts (yes, I bought these in a jar at Costco too, but the picture of the fresh one was more fun to display on here :)

Any shape pasta that you like...I enjoy farfalle.And...a little bit of basil (from the garden if you have it) to top it off.

Directions: Boil pasta according to directions. While pasta is cooking, dice artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Saute them in a small amount of olive oil and some chicken broth. Drain the pasta, mix in the hearts and tomatoes (with any broth that hasn't boiled off), and then stir in as much feta as you want. Top with some fresh basil and enjoy.

Sorry I don't have a pic of the final product, you'll just have to make it and see it for yourself :)