busy busy week

Classes have been in full swing for me over the past week.

While I anticipated my workload picking up, I had no idea how truly busy I would be. 

To sum up how busy I've been, I'll leave you with this list. 

• The latest I've slept in all week has been 6:00am.  
• I'm eating a bowl of cereal and a piece of cheese for dinner tonight. It's not even that I don't want to cook, but I literally haven't the time. :(  At least I love cereal. 
• I haven't been able to go to one class or meeting without fretting in my mind about the other things I need to be working on. 
• I'm slightly angered that the library doesn't open until 7:00am.  Come on, I know there's other people on campus that would love to have the library open earlier.

Alright, well that list was actually kind of lame, but I really need to get back to homework. 

I'm working with the intention of having a lovely date night with the hubby on Friday.

So excited!

And as for better and more frequent posts...bear with me as I try to juggle everything.  

I actually have some great recipes (I promise it's not cereal) that I want to share with ya'll.

Unfortunately my computer lost the ability to connect to the internet and my pictures are solely stored on that computer.  But as soon as I find the time, I'll transfer some pictures to a flash drive and get them up on the blog using dear husband's computer! 

But for now, I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer vacation.

Boy does vacation sound good about now...

venturing out

Today I will be elsewhere. 

But I'd love if you would stop by!

The wonderful Kenzie over at cameras and cupcakes has let me guest post 

oh her fabulous blog!

So come say hello to me over there today!

Now go have an awesome weekend guys. :)

But first come say hi to me {here}. 

Cause you know you want to. 

relaxing day

Last week Beau took the GRE.  I think we were both immensely relieved once it was over. 

It's been a grueling few months with hours of studying on his part.

So, how did we celebrate the completion of his test?

We got massages of course!

And then with packed lunches we hung out on a beautiful (though slightly touristy) beach.

And then of course we treated our self to some fancy schmancy desserts. 

We know how to live it large. 

hawaiian beauty

Beau had new-teacher orientation today and I decided to ride the hour to school with him.

Within a 30 minute time period, I'd say we saw about 7 rainbows. 

And once again, I'm reminded why I put up with all the rainy Hawaiian mornings.

This is pure beauty people.



pineapple chicken recipe

So last night I found the perfect looking recipe online 

and decided I would make it for dinner. 

Well, after only making the dressing/marinade, I decided it was not the recipe for me.  

Mainly because the dressing was disgusting.

Sooo, with a last minute idea in my head, I started pulling things out of the fridge.  

Here's what I used...

1/2 cup brown rice I had made earlier and stashed in the fridge

diced pineapple (I used maybe half a fresh pineapple)

about 1/2 a large tomato

chicken cut into bite-size pieces

lime juice

soy sauce

garlic salt

salt and pepper

1. Add a dab of OVOO to a pan and dump in chicken and pineapple

2. Add soy sauce and lime juice for flavor. Then add salt, pepper and garlic salt (not pictured).

3. While chicken is cooking, dice up tomato

4. Add tomato to skillet with pineapple and chicken.

5. Add rice to the skillet and stir.

6. And there ya go, a quick and tasty dinner!

Dear Husband

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Dear husband,
This past week has been great. On thursday we went and got free massages with gift certificates that were given to us.  Boy were those amazing. Seriously, it was an hour of heaven. I vote we implement massages at home more. :)
And thanks so much for Saturday, you were wonderful to me all day. Work was being done around our apartments and so we didn't have any power for 11 hours.  So what did we do? Well, you pretty much did everything I wanted to do....meaning, we did some paint projects we had been putting off.  We played card games. A lot. We went to the movies and ate out since we couldn't cook at home. And at 10:00pm (when we finally had power again) and I asked you if you wanted to go on a walk on the beach, you said yes with no hesitation.  What was intended to be a romantic stroll kinda turned into us being trapped on the beach in a rain storm though.  We walked the 10 minutes to the beach and the rain didn't start until we were between beaches, so we couldn't get off the beach until we got to the other side of it. And let me tell ya, the sky just opened up and the wind picked up and before we knew it we had wind and rain pelting our backs.  So we looked at each other and thought, "so much for romantic, let's book it!" So we went running down the beach, rain coming down and all, until we finally got to an opening and got a little cover under some trees at the beach park. Of course it immediately stopped raining as soon as we got there. Typical.
Thanks for an awesome day though hun.  You make the simple things so much more enjoyable.
Love ya tons, wifey  

a typical ride on the North Shore of Oahu

homemade almond butter

Want to make your very own almond butter? Well, lucky for you, it's super easy.

Got a bunch of raw almonds and half an hour? 

Oh good, then you're already set!

Take raw almonds and roast in the oven for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Once roasted, dump into a food processor.  I don't have an actual food processor, so I just used my magic-bullet knock off. 

Pulse for 10-15 minutes, periodically stopping to stir.

It may seem like the nuts will never become smooth, but I promise they will.  Just stick with it. They'll be pretty grainy for awhile though. 

Towards the end, add some honey and any spices you want (I added a dash of nutmeg in mine). If consistency still isn't as smooth as you want, add oil a little at a time until desired consistency is reached. 

And finally, ta da!

Enjoy your fresh, delicious almond butter!

easy and free tie rack

Have I mentioned that my husband loves bow ties? 

It could be because it has his name in it (beau).  

It could be because he looks like a darn good-looking southern man.

Or, as he says, it's just because "they don't get in the way."

Whatever the reason be though, he has begun his collection of them. 

He's up to five now. And as he finds great bow ties for awesome steals, the number grows.

Wanna know the funny part though?

He can't actually tie a bow tie.  I tie them for him every Sunday.

Yep, we're planning on being that cute old couple one day who depend on each other for the simplest of things...like tying a bow tie.

In our apartment complex we have an area called the "freebie bin" where residents can drop off random things  they no longer want or need.  To be honest it's usually junk, but occasionally you can find some cool pieces.  I was freebie bin-hunting the other day and happened upon some mangled, unrecognizable wire contraption.

Honestly, I have no idea what it is still. 

But, I saw some potential in it, so I took it home with me. 

Well, actually I only took part of it home. Seriously, the thing (whatever it was) was a mess, so I broke it apart and only took part of it. 

Once at home, I did a little wire-bending and wire-snapping and wha-la!

Tie rack!

I pulled out a couple command hooks and stuck it all on the wall.

P.S. Please excuse the pictures of my cramped closet. 

Moving moving and more moving

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So, as you may have noticed, I've been MIA this week.  Well, that's because WE MOVED!

We're still in Hawaii, in fact we're just around the corner from where we used to live.

So between packing our old house, moving everything to our new house, and trying to organize our new place I haven't found any time for blogging. 

And it doesn't help that our old apartment didn't have internet access for a week. 

And that we're still struggling to get a reliable internet connection in our new place.

So if my posting is kinda hit and go the next little bit, just know that I'm hard at work decorating and will have lots of pictures to show you in the coming days.  

But don't get your hopes too big for my decorating. 

Student budgets can be limiting.

homemade oreo cookies

So my husband and I kinda have a love for those ever-delicious, horribly-bad-for-you cookies known as oreos. So I decided to try and make some homemade ones. They turned out pretty good actually.  If I had to change one thing, I might make the frosting into a cream cheese frosting, but overall it was a successful baking experience. :) Hope some of you give it a try!

I put a bit (meaning way too much) frosting on this plate of cookies, but they were the only ones I took pictures of.  Just learn from my example...don't over fill cookies...

Chocolate wafers:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg

Filling:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and then the egg and continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass. Will be bulky. (If you're mixing by hand, like we did, this step may take awhile, so don't give up!)
2. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined (or greased) baking sheet approximately two inches apart. Flatten the dough and bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set cookies on a rack to cool.
3. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
4. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

conversation of the week #1

Me: It's your time to choose what we have for dinner tonight.  Let me know and I'll make it.

Beau:  Wanna make me mahi mahi tonight?

Me: Ugh....

Beau:  Fine, fine, just a suggestion.

Me: ...

Beau:  Want me to take you out to eat tonight? How about Taco Bell?

Me: Yeah, let's go out! But make it McDonalds. 

__________________________________________________

Some nights are just not meant for cooking.  

No matter how little you've actually done during the day, there is just no desire to get in the kitchen.

So we headed out to McDonalds. 

We like to keep it classy around these parts.