This week in one sentence...

Clean, sleep, couch, tv, blizzard, taxes, hermit, passports, so cold, movies, butternutsquash soup, skittles, sleep, puppy dog cuddles, groceries, sleep.

Awesome.

People reenacting old photos of themselves:
http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/

Dear husband,

...you are so crazy brave that it baffles me. How you can get up in front of an audience of people (innately judgy people!) and do anything, let alone try to play a complicated riff or recite memorized lines, is beyond me. (Maybe it's just cuz you're awesome?) Anyways, I love you, I am proud of you, break a leg.

Meal Idea

One of my favourite healthy and quick meals:

http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/grilled-chicken-with-spinach-and-whole-wheat-couscous

We just use olive oil instead of safflower and powdered ginger instead of fresh. Also, the yoghurt isn't important it's all so good on its own. Good thing Martha Stewart is a genius.

This week in one sentence...

Study, study, study, MIDTERM, study, MIDTERM, study MIDTERM, sleep.

Marriage

"The point of staying married until you die is to have a witness to your whole life, to the meaning you built. In the end, you can look at your spouse and say: Somebody knew me—and I knew them." -Rachel Combe (Elle Magazine)

Last year I remember laying in bed, reading an article about marriage in a magazine. I remember coming across a quote that I loved and that really struck a chord. I even read it out loud to Andrew. A few months ago I thought about it and went to find the magazine so I could read it again. I looked in every magazine I had around the house and could not find it. I realized I must have recylced it. Today I decided I was going to try to find this article or this quote online. Thank Google, I did. The article is called "Till Whatever Do Us Part" by Rachel Combe and it was from Elle magazine. You can read it here: http://www.elle.com/Life-Love/Sex-Relationships/Till-Whatever-Do-Us-Part/Has-America-become-too-blase-about-divorce-Read-More-on-Love-and-Relationships-on-ELLE.com The context of the quote was this:

       "Yes! I thought, Fuck happy. The point of living isn’t to be in a perpetual state of fairy-tale ecstasy; it’s to find the meaning of life, the meaning of your life. And the point of marriage, I think, is to create meaning, with every happy and sad memory, every hardship overcome, every kind act, every moment of acceptance, every triumph (Gore will likely never get to have another wife watch him win a Nobel Prize), every child, grandchild, pet, and friend you accumulate ­together. The point of staying married until you die is to have a witness to your whole life, to the meaning you built. In the end, you can look at your spouse and say: Somebody knew me—and I knew them."
-Rachel Combe (Elle Magazine) 

Last night...

...in crappy cellphone picture form.

Dream Vacation Rental

Andrew and I are planning a trip to Europe this summer and are having a great time looking at all the possibilities. Which countries to go, what to do there and where to stay. One thing is for sure, if we weren't starving students this would be it: http://www.vrbo.com/255275 It's a 400 year old cottage in the most beautiful village in France. You can even follow the extensive renovations that the owners (a family from the States) did on it at this blog: http://www.stephmodo.com/ We can dream...

Pancakes for Dinner

I wanted to have pancakes for dinner last night, so I did. Now, I usually don't make pancakes because I fail miserably everytime. I can make waffles with my eyes closed but pancakes, not so much. Alas, I really wanted some I was going to try anyways. Guess what, I was successful! I think it had to do with an easy recipe, a hot griddle and a good flipper. The recipe I used was found online: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pancakes-i/Detail.aspx It was great; simple, quick and yummy. Here it is:

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• (I also added a tiny bit of vanilla)

Directions

1. Preheat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, milk and oil. Pour milk mixture into flour mixture. Beat until smooth.
3. Pour or scoop the batter onto the hot griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot. (Optional, make them look like Mickey Mouse...)

This week in one sentence...

Had a filling at the dentist where everyone marvelled at my young marriedness and my beluga shaped cavity prep, participated in a psych research experiment where my hands were hooked up to crazy sensors and I got to wear orange water-wing-esque attire, made some art, procrastinated studying, studied and made reservations for pre valantines day dinner tomorrow night. <3

I am in love with...

"Ikat" patterns/fabrics. They are everywhere and are quickly pushing my monochromatic floral patterns out the door. It's pretty versatile too; you could have ikat patterned dresses, tops, flats, pillows, bedding, curatins, plates, lampshades, scarves, carpets, everything! I especially love the oranges, purples and blues and hope to get some pillows for the living room or maybe some new summery sheets in this pattern.

(Image from http://wallacecotton.blogspot.com/)

Anthropologie has a whole Ikat collection right now, they even have a sofa!

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/category.jsp?popId=HOME&navAction=top&navCount=402&isSortBy=true&pushId=HOME-IKAT&id=HOME-IKAT

This week in one sentence

Aced a test, made some plans, changed some plans, ate spaghettini, headaches and a cold?? AGAIN, went shopping (a trip which would not haver been complete without my pina colada julius), had a good nights sleep.