My favorite things

My card exchange group was tonight. This group has been so fun to be a part of. I love that through the group I still get to see some of my favorite people from my old neighborhood, my best friend from high school, my best friend from across the street and my two sisters. It is definitely a diverse group! Love too that we can see each other just every other month and we easily fall back into conversation and laughs.

Our assignment tonight in additional to making cards was to bring a basket of your five favorite things to exchange with someone else’s five favorite things. I am such a material girl—there are easily thousands of things I could count as favorites, so thought as of January 2010 what things are really speaking to me. Here is what I came up with:

One ~ The Perfect Bath

I have loved taking baths since before I can remember. My Mom would order us to take a bath growing up if we felt tired, professed depression, couldn’t sleep, get warm, etc., so it is kind of my go to winter stress reliever. Next to a really good workout, a great bath can put me in a really clear frame of mind. I feel like I get some of my best ideas just being alone without phones ringing or people constantly needing me.

I love listening to music pretty much anytime and anywhere, so had to put together a playlist of some of my favorite quiet tunes. I also love a huge liter of partially frozen water to offset the steamy heat. Put a bottle of water in the freezer a few hours before your bath. Yum. I also love a huge stack of magazines, catalogues, books and my Kindle. Included a Vogue as this month’s gave me a lot of creative inspiration. Lastly, you have to have a great bubble bath. I am really partial to the 3 in 1 products from philosophy. Spicy Gumdrop and Candy Cane are my go to scents right now. Mash them up for icy heat goodness.

Two ~Traveling

So anyone that reads my blog, befriends me on Facebook or follows me on Twitter knows that I have been obsessing non -stop about my upcoming trip to Paris. I have been dreaming about going for years since my first Art History class in high school. I am heading to the City of Lights in March for my first overseas trip. I am envisioning the art, the outdoor bistros, the pastries, the cheese, the Metro, the chocolate, the architecture, the language and positively swooning over it all. So, had to include a small silver replication of the Eiffel Tower.

Three~York Peppermint Patties

Cold York Peppermint Patties could be one of the greatest treats on the planet. I usually have a small stash of them hidden in the fridge away from my family. They really need to be the full size ones though to get the perfect proportion of the dark chocolate to the mint. And, they really must be cold.

Four~L'OCCITANE Shea Butter Hand Cream

Discovered this the first time I stayed at a Four Seasons. These are their toiletry products (another reason staying at a Four Seasons is beyond pampering). It is hands down the best hand lotion you can find anywhere. It is a combination of shea butter, honey and almond and jaw dropping wonderfulness. Plus, it comes in the most beautiful little silver tube (I really love great packaging, LOL). I have a tube in every purse I own.

Five ~ Fashion

I have been crushing on all the fabulous fashion lately. Clothes are the one thing that get me up in the morning. I love figuring out what to wear to work, finding the perfect jewelry and shoes, etc. I am kind of boring as I only shop at a really only a handful of stores that I know instantly will have perfect details, draping and that little extra to make something over the top cute.

I have been drooling over Miss Ruby Sue’s accessories for a few months. Flowers, tulle, grosgrain tied necklaces have been totally inspiring me. So, included a really cute flower headband in my box from Motley Handmade Designs Etsy Shop as I couldn’t quite justify a creation from Miss Ruby Sue’s yet—even for myself!

My cute sister Joey got my box, so hope you enjoy some of my favorites!

In honor of my favorite things for January, leave me a comment and the first five comments (if I get that many!) will win a Perfect Bath CD complied by me!

My last thing I shared with the group were my cards. I made really simple Valentine’s Day cards using some cute new brushes from Designer Digitals and House of 3. I emailed these to FedEx Kinko’s to print (love laser color copies so much more than ink jet); punched two holes in them, and attached to a cellophane bag with some cute ribbon. An easy and cute gift for a teacher, visiting teachers, a little unexpected gift to lift someone’s day, etc.

Vampires & Alfredo Sauce

I have been eagerly anticipating the release of the new Vampire Weekend album. Did not disappoint--probably my favorite band right now.

Fun GNO with Amanda and Tisha to Olive Garden on Wednesday. Relaxing to catch up and enjoy the company of two of my favorite girls.

Wii & Chicken Parmesan

Mack has been addicted to the Wii Motion Plus he got for Christmas. We have loved playing the Frisbee Dog Throw, Three Point Shoot Out and the Island Flyover.

Monday was a day of major wintery comfort food. I came home from work feeling this need to cook a lot of super soul satifsying goodies.

Main course was Chicken Parmesan with a green salad. I made the overly cheesy version, but am posting probably a version I like a bit better than won't induce major heartburn. Mack kind of likes this version better too--he really likes the spinach pasta. This is from the Body for Life Cookbook:

2 Egg whites

1/3 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

4 tbsp Reduced-fat parmesan cheese, grated, divided

2 portions or 1/2 lb Chicken breast

2 portions or 4 oz Uncooked spinach pasta (you can find this at Harmon's)

1 cup Low-fat pasta sauce

2 cups Baby spinach leaves

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites with fork until slightly frothy. Then, mix breadcrumbs and 2 tbsp of reduced-fat Parmesan cheese in a pie plate.

3. Dip chicken breasts into egg whites and then into the breadcrumb mixture, coating both sides.

4. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts on the baking sheet; bake for approx. 12 minutes. Turn over and bake another 12 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink in the center and coating is golden brown.

5. While the chicken is baking, prepare spinach pasta according to its package directions.

6. In a small saucepan, warm pasta sauce over medium heat.

7. Divide spinach leaves between two separate plates. Layer portions of warm spinach pasta and baked chicken breasts over spinach leaves. Top with pasta sauce and remaining Parmesan cheese. Serve.

& then we ended the night with these...

Golden Graham Treats. Sigh. Perfection!

Dinner & Primary

Dinner with my family at Famous Dave's. Fun and relaxing way to spend the start to the weekend. Such a long week this week after so much time off during the holidays.

Our annual Primary Get to Know you Activity was today. My job as secretary is to make all the rolls, lists and direct everyone to their classrooms. Whew! So much work every year. In awe that Mack is almost out of Primary and soon will be passing the sacrament.

Merci Beaucoup & Honesty

Had our card exchange at work today. These were my little thank you cards. Transparency, Emmascript, ribbon and French. Love.

We are trying FHE on Thursday nights as it is the only night we are work and church free. We did a lesson tonight on honesty. Here is what I put together:

Write the letters H, O, N, E, S, T on separate pieces of paper and hide them in the room. Have your family find them and decide what word they spell. For each letter, share a story of someone whose name begins with that letter and who was honest and true. H—Helaman (Alma 56:1–10, 45–48), Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:1, 3–5), Harold B. Lee (Valiant B manual, pages 219–220); O—Obadiah (1 Kgs. 18:3–4); N—Noah (Gen. 6–8), Nephi (1 Ne. 3:7; 1 Ne. 16:18–26, 30–31); E—Enoch (Moses 7:13), Enos (Enos 1:26), Ezra Taft Benson (Valiant B supplement, page 2); S—Samuel (1 Sam. 15:1–28), Spencer W. Kimball (Valiant B manual, pages 221–224); T—Timothy (“Timotheus” in Philip. 2:19–22), Teancum (Alma 50:35; Alma 51:30–37).

Games, movies & more games...

Sequence with Austin & Karla. Karla was convinced the mini cards on the board were messing with her Lasik. Laughed, but then agreed that is makes your eyes go buggy after a few minutes! Karla and I won a bunch though!

Chipmunks the Squeakel with the Gundersons. Kids loved it. It actually wasn't half bad!!

Happy New Year!! January 1 - 2.

Only made one resolution this year. I wanted to document my life and my families life more completely. There are many things I hope to do, need to do, etc., but I wanted to do something that I could really hang onto this year and for the years to come. Here goes!


Super cutie Miss Morgan blowing not one but TWO horns to welcome in the New Year. Mack partied it up at Jack & Karla's while I went on my annual ride along with Shane. We saw the usual suspects--traffic law breakers, a robbery, gun shots that turned out to be fireworks. Always have a fresh respect for Shane's job each New Years Eve, and get super grateful for my desk job that is luckily outside of the line of fire (for the most part!).

I took a whole week off of work during the Christmas break with the best intentions of organizing, cleaning and getting back to my housewife roots. Ended up seeing three movies, sleeping in way too late everyday, shopping, hanging out with Mack and Shane and of course eating too much. I did make one step towards uncluttering though with Mack's drawers. Was totally avoiding this task all week, but finally dug in tonight. This is one of the beautifully organized drawers that will probably be a haphazard mess by next weekend, but tonight, it is perfection.