Long Time, No Blog

Hello People. It's been a while. I blame that on a) an amazing summer's worth of adventures b) butt-killing bike rides and boating c) crazily hikes and Cabo d) delicious dinners and discovering new restaurants e) estupído (portuguese for stupid) studies and silly sight-seeing f) fast-approaching fall and farmers markets g) grand golf outings and our garden h) horrendously old carpet, a half-marathon (for one of us) and hide-n-seek and n) nephews. As I am not one for many words and I know all of you faithful blog followers are dying to hear about our lives, here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Love: The Browns

Bright Perspective

Time flies. But isn’t that a funny thought? Don’t the days seem endlessly long? Or is that just my to-do list?

So much has happened in our lives since the last post. New jobs, new semesters, new books to study, new ages for both of us (24 & 26), new checks on our life bucket lists, new found love for weekends, new goals and ambitions. The MCAT is behind, Med School applications are ahead. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you are too busy for everything.

All happening while time is literally just flying by.

We are in the thick of summer which is BY FAR the best time of year. My garden is booming, my bike is well used, my tan lines are crazy and everything seems to be slightly sun-kissed. I’m in heaven. Our dinners keep getting later and later because of all the plans we have to be outside and enjoy this glorious weather. I’m determined to master new things including, but not limited to, golf, tennis and Dutch ovens. Nothing is better than the sun being out and the world is your oyster. Or something like that.

We take the saying very seriously of: work hard, play hard. Brad’s 500+ hours of studying for the MCAT? Naturally that is followed up by a few appearances of tee times 5 days/week. My new job has demanded pretty much all I have to give for the last few months, so again a week is Cabo is the only logical move :) Brad and I have been swinging for the fence on pretty much all aspects of life lately. I’m so proud of the hard work we’ve put in and the fruit that we have begun to see and will continue to see over time. We are putting in the time and enormous effort to set ourselves up for a bright future. My dad always taught me to be mindful. He taught me to not to be impulsive, but to save up for the really good things in life because those are the things that will last and will make you more happy. I couldn’t agree more, Dad.

So in the midst of all the chaos, I couldn’t be happier. I am going through each of these new days with my very best friend and the love of my life. We are knocking things out of the park and becoming better people every step of the way. The future is bright and so is the sun outside. Let’s enjoy it.

Life Through My Eyes...

Well hello blogging world, it is the husband, Brad, once again. After a long hiatus from my ever-faithful blog followers, I have decided once again to come out of blog-hibernation and type a few words. Admittedly, however, I am only typing because I have been sitting in this chair at my desk far too long the past few days and need something else to do than review Acid/Base chemistry and other science-themed topics in preparation for the test of all tests, the test that will determine our future as a family, the dreaded MCAT. More on that later....

So here are some picts I have taken and how I see life:

Dani is going to kill me for posting these pictures but I can't help it. She is so darn cute.

 Now that basketball season is over, we will be doing much less FaceTime. Thank goodness.

Kitchen renovations really took it out of her...

I married the cutest IT nerd ever. Look at that bushel of Apple's she has...

#lies

Ah yes, the MCAT. I think as of today, we are t-minus 83 days until Test Day. I modified a gift from my sister to countdown the days (instead of count up the days our doorways have been bonked free). It cannot get here fast enough and it cannot get here slow enough. In just over two (2) months, I have logged just south of two hundred (200) hours for this bloody test. Its a good thing I don't have Organic Chemistry, Physics, basketball (well, I did), husband duties, etc etc...

Sorry, I had to vent about the MCAT for a minute....

Kitchen Reno

Alright, let me just begin this post by saying how excited these little projects make me. I’m 100% sure I get this from my dad. We had a blast, and as a bonus our kitchen looks WAY better. So! Let’s get to the good stuff.

My ideas:
1. Sliding pantry – more on this below.

2. Tile Backsplash – my dad is a master.

3. Update our cabinets. Let’s just say they all had the finish of a wooden spoon – which is literally my worst nightmare.

4. Create more storage in our small space.

Let’s Get to work! PS don’t ask why we chose to cut tile and use the table saw in the very coldest part of the year. Not a great idea.

First item of business- let’s paint. Here’s some action pics Brad took haha.

 

And my personal favorite of the painting/foot-rub combo. Workin’ hard! 

Old Yeller!! It had to go… It was literally taking 60+ minutes to pre-heat. A chef in training cannot work in those conditions!!

Once we got all the painting done – we started building the shelf! The idea was – utilize the 6” of space we have and turn it into storage! So we built a sliding pantry! Genius I tell you. And we now need to patent it.

 

Backsplash

So let’s look at the after pics!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

This is the coolest pantry ever! Slides in and out perfectly and is just awesome, turned out better than I thought!

 

BEFORE

 

This is the stove my parents bought when they lived in this basement apartment 30 years ago. They bought it used haha. My grandpa lovingly named it “Old Yeller.”

AFTER – Is this the same place?

A new range!!! Yay!!! Plus an awesome tiny LED light to light up the stove. Brad said we stole these lights off the headlights of an Audi.

BEFORE – bye bye old yeller+hood.

AFTER

Putting up this little tiny spice rack saved a TON of counter space. Haha it’s all relative I guess. It’s a ton for me!

Let’s just say I didn’t have much counter space to work with. Now that I look at this picture, I am wondering how I cook in this kitchen at all?? We’ve lived here for a year and a half already! Haha.

The tile looks so good! I love it! Oh and bonus, we put in a bench seat for our little corner table, which also has storage.

And then I just started getting crazy.

Our basement kitchen renovation was definitely a success! My new oven takes exactly 4mins to pre-heat. It even has a countdown timer on the pre-heat. It’s a dream. I think my cooking will seriously improve now :) Now if we could only do something to raise the ceilings……..

Out of my mind.

A few thoughts that need to be documented here. Because I’m trying to get them out of my brain!

1. I have survived my first experience with layoffs. Yikes. Got the good word this morning that the process is complete, phew. There was some bad juju around here the last few days. It has made everyone on edge and incredibly anxious. It seems strange that the Church would be laying people off, but it is a tough world out there and unfortunately, it is still a business and the Church is not immune to that. My department got hit with a 7% “reduction in force” aka RIF which is about 80 people. It has made me even more grateful for my job and the wonderful living situation we are in. I’m grateful to still have a job I love.

2. I cannot get the Les Mis soundtrack out of my brain. Seriously. Neither can Brad, haha. That crazy snow day while we were shoveling he just kept singing “I’ll escape now from that world, from a world of Jean Valjean. There is no where I can turn, there is no way to go ONNNNNNNNN!!!!” Ok yes, I have listened to the soundtrack like every day since we saw the movie, but I can’t get enough! My favorite song changes daily, but overall I love Empty chairs at empty tables. But today my favorite is “Is Marius in love at last? I’ve never heard him Ooooo and Ahhhhh” I’m a little obsessed here people. “It is time for us all to decide who we arrrreee” I love it!

3. My Kitchen. This is a whole other post, but I’m SO pumped. Little changes go a long way in our little basement apartment. My dad’s a master when it comes to home renovations, and I love doing these projects with him! I’ll put up some pictures when they become AFTER pictures. But here is my favorite picture, haha. Brad was giving me a foot rub while I painted :)

 

4. COLD. My body doesn’t let me forget the temperature outside for one moment. Continuous goosebumps. Ice storm in SLC this morning? Really? 128 traffic accidents this morning just in the Salt Lake Valley. YIKES. Check it out HERE. It is going to be a balmy 30 degrees this weekend, breakout the swim suits! I miss Hawaii.

5. Ice Cream. It is freezing outside I know, but I still love it. And I want some right now.

6. And last but not least, just because of the title of this post – it reminds me of this AWESOME video from a while ago. A hip-hop dancer and a ballet dancer. So You Think You Can Dance. Even if you don’t like either of these styles of dance, this video is still pretty sweet. I live vicariously through people who can dance. Check it out!

If we were at breakfast together this morning…

I’d tell you that this week has been a doozie.

I’d tell you I’m so grateful for a truly great living situation and I’m grateful for my job.

I’d tell you I’m grateful for tender mercies.

I’d tell you that I sold my first (and only) cookbook this week and I am beyond thrilled about it!

I’d tell you that my favorite show finally came back on last night, and I’m obsessed. #harveyspector #savedonna #litup

I’d tell you about all the mini basement renovations we are planning on doing this weekend and how excited I am to get started on that. I’d also tell you that I’ve already got a budget and project plan laid out for those because I’m a project manager and a little crazy, this is what I do! I love it! If we aren’t going to buy a house right now, we may as well spruce up the basement a little bit! I get the fun of the little house projects without having to pay for a house right now. I mean it’s a win-win!

I’d also tell you that I’ve been watching too much Property Brothers lately. :)

I’d tell you about my dedicated husband and the 8 MCAT study review books he just received.

I’d tell you about the Thai Chicken Pizza that I plan to make very soon. Or anything with big shavings of parmesan on it.

I’d tell you how I miss running outside in non-arctic conditions. And how I thrive on sunshine.

I’d tell you that Brad & I have a dinner date with an NBA player tonight.

And I’d tell you that I’m grateful for great friends. Because I have a lot of great people in my life who make it so enjoyable. And I’d tell you that next time we should really do this in person. I’ll cook :)

In My Kitchen – My Cookbook!

What is that you say – a book??

Yes, in fact I did write one! Not a novel, but a cookbook! I actually did it!

This has been a little dream in my mind for a while. I’m the worst at writing down my recipes and I thought it would be fun to put them all together! It was a lot of work, but boy was it worth it. The hardest part was keeping it a secret! I gave it to my family for Christmas and they loved it!
There are all my family favorites in here. And if you are thinking of THE ONE – yes that is in there too :) So take a look, and hey if you are feeling crazy buy one! It is available for sale on Lulu.com and will soon be on Amazon (how cool?). And just so we are on the same page they told me a minimum of what I could list my book at, so I didn’t really just choose that price out of no where!

I tried to turn it into an e-book, but it seems that changes all my formatting from my printed book. I’ll still work on the ebook and hopefully get that for sale!

The first 12 pages are available for preview on Lulu.com - Check it out!

In My Kitchen Preview