LOOOOONG day!

Oh my gosh today was such a long day! I woke up feeling exhausted; I wasn't sleep, I just felt like I had no physical energy. I was walking to work and I just felt like my legs would hold me up! Well I get to work and after a couple hours they tell me they are going to pull me off the counter and put me in the back doing paperwork (I happen to love it when they do that!) I worked through my breaks, got 15 minutes for lunch two hours late, spent an extra 3 1/2 hours at work,and MISSED JUDGE JUDY, but damn I got a lot done! I ended up leaving at 6:30 with Spencer, which was really nice because we got to watch the sun set as we walked home. But I wasn't done yet! After work Spencer stopped at a friend's apartment (happens to be in the same complex) to visit. I grabbed the car and went to the pharmacy for him. Spent a lot of money there, but that's ok! He needs insulin to live, so money is no object here! Haha. Then I had to come home and make dinner. It's on the stove now, and it's going to take at least an hour and a half, so we'll be eating late, and then I'm going straight to bed! And then we get to get up at the buttcrack of dawn and start it all again...

Food Co-op

Ok I have totally fallen in love with the Food Cooperative of Utah. It's an organization that takes orders for food shares and buys the food in bulk so you get really good prices on packages. You have to order early in the month and then you pick up your food on like the third saturday. But it is absolutely awesome! I picked up my food today and was just astounded by what I got. Here's the list:

1 lb chicken breasts
1 lb beef stew meat
1 lb pork spare ribs
1 lb lean ground beef
1 5-lb bag red potatoes
6 oranges
6 apples
1 bundle green onions
1 head red leaf lettuce
3 artichokes
1 package mushrooms
8 kiwi

I also got another nut sample package:

1 lb whole roasted cashews
1 lb raw almonds
1 lb sunflower seeds
1 lb dried pineapple

the packages change every month depending on what's in season and what they can get, but it mixes it up so you get variety. You know how much I paid for all this? $33! That's right! I'm so amazed by how much I got. If you're interested, go to this website:

Utah Food Co-Op

you can order by fax, mail or over the phone. The people are all volunteers and they're super nice. All you do is order by the deadline, and pick it up on the day they tell you. And there's a couple dozen different pick-up sites in the valley so you can pick one closest to you. It's just awesome!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was absolutely awesome! Spence and I started out the day by sleeping in! We slept SO late today! We finally got up and got dressed, and decided to grab lunch. We ended up at Quiznos, which is someplace I normally don't go because it's expensive, but since it was a special occasion we figured it was ok. The sandwich was SO good! So yummy! Then we made our way downtown to Capitol Theater to see Madame Butterfly! It was my surprise for Spencer; he knew I'd gotten tickets to something but didn't know what it was til we got there. We was very pleasantly surprised! We both loved the show; it was so powerful and just beautifully done! The only problem we had there was the two women who sat in the row in front of us. The arrived donning jeans, baggy sweatshirts and mullets (I kid you not) and would not put their cell phones away the whole show! It was aggravating, but I did my best to ignore it and still enjoyed myself! Then we came home and I made dinner for us. Bacon-wrapped filet mignon with red wine mushroom sauce; hearts of palm risotto; strawberry-avocado salad with a homemade honey vinagrette. And chocolate cappuccino cheesecake for dessert! We had wine of course; cabernet sauvignon for Spencer, white zinfandel for me. :) It was such a great day; we had so much fun just spending time together and enjoying each others' company. I had a great time!


my sauce, doing it's damndest to reduce (say that three times fast)


my yummy dinner :)


dessert plate: cheesecake, strawberries, raspberries, and almonds


the box of chocolates I got for Spence. They're dove chocolates with my own personal messages printed on the wrappers!


and this is the box of chocolates Spencer got for me. From Sees! It's a full pound and a half, but he said I'm not allowed to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Dang.

Bleh.

On Wednesday Spencer and I had to go into work an hour early for a staff meeting. We stopped on the way to get coffee and croissants from the Brew Monkey so we could actually stay awake! and I was so focused on staying awake during the meeting (I usually nod off unintentionally) that as soon as the meeting was over and I went out to my counter, I started getting drowsy! Took me like another two hours to wake up! But the day usually goes more quickly after a staff meeting, because even though I go to work early, I don't actually start working til late. Anyway in the meeting we had to watch this video, "Defensive Driving for Government Employees." There were some really interesting things in there that I know will help keep me safe of the road, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in junior high again. You could tell the film was very low budget and it was kind of cheesy and mainly just showed pictures of car crashes. But the whole concept was quite entertaining.

I've been slacking off so much this week, it's insane. I finally worked up the ambition when I got home today to take out the garbage and load all the dishes into the dishwasher; I still need to wash the counters and put some clothes away in the bedroom but a lot of the work is finished. With the holiday this weekend, I don't want chores hanging over our heads; I just want to be able to enjoy our weekend! So I'm glad I was able to muster the energy to get things done.

This week I've been in the Lord of the Rings mood. On monday Spencer and I were both home sick from work and since we couldn't move anyway, we decided to watch a movie. We agreed on LOTR and it was a great distraction. It's been so long since I watched those movies that there were so many things that were like new again because I didn't remember them. Last night our regular shows weren't on so we decided to watch the Two Towers when Spence got home from work. Tonight I really wanted to watch Hell's Kitchen, but since it's been canceled for the NAACP Image Awards, we'll probably watch Return of the King! I love these movies!

I am SO excited for Valentine's Day! I've made some awesome plans (some of which Spencer doesn't know about) and I just can't wait! I don't want to say anything in case he reads it, but be sure I will post lots of pictures after saturday!

Groundhog Day

This just made my day. I found this very sad-looking picture of Phil and just had to share it.

My Subconscious Hates Me

I've been having these horrible nightmares lately and not only are they not going away, they're getting worse. I'll wake up in the night talking, or yelling, and people in my dreams and doing and saying all these horrible things to me. I wake up feeling sad and angry and they just won't stop!

Spencer and I finally finished putting up our decorations around the house this weekend. We put up our big wedding portrait and also finally got the tree of life wall hanging up on the wall! It was a bit of a battle finding a nail that was thick enough to hold it up (it's pretty heavy) but we found one! So now I feel like everything is finally in place and I can move on.



On friday we went to the Tavernacle bar for my friend Kelsie's birthday. Spencer had never been before and he absolutely loved it! It's a really nice piano bar and they can make any kind of drink you can imagine. I was the designated driver for the night but I still had so much fun! Spencer got to try a bunch of new things and we knew practically every song they played, which it made it that much more fun. The girls at the table next to us were SUPER friendly, and this one girl kept insisting that she knew Spencer from somewhere. So we made a new friend that night!




On Sunday my church had a chili cookoff (which they do every year for the Superbowl) and the Fire Dept came to judge. I don't think I tried the chili that won first place, but then again there were 23 different chilis! Spencer and I had so much fun eating chili and hanging out with our friend Becca. I love my church so much! The game was SO much fun to watch! It was so close and Spencer and I were jumping out of our seats! That 100-yard run in the first half and that crazy catch right at the end...This why I'm a Steelers fan!

This is how cool my church is: They remodeled the elementary sunday school rooms to look like a jungle. Here are a couple pictures I took because the room is absolutely awesome. This is where we ate our chili. :)