Take me out to the ball game!

"Go Mariners!!" "Go Yankees!"
(he said) (she said)

I love going to baseball games. The food, the excitment, the people watching! I love to watch the guys coming up and down the stands balancing the food, throwing it to people and sometimes coming close to dropping or hitting someone in the head with the food. I love eating peanuts and smashing the shells on the floor. Can you smell the garlic fries and imagine the taste of a baseball game hot dog? I love watching the replays on the big screen too because I am usually too busy watching something or someone else to actually watch what is happening on the field.

(In case you can't read it, in the background it says "Mariners Win!!! One good thing about cheering for opposing teams, one of us will always leave happy :)!)

We actually both left happy. We had a lot of fun! Can't wait until next year. Let's go again Mark. Umm, maybe to NY to see the Yankees play on their home field :).

We had a bit of time to spare before the game began so we went to the sports store where we took pictures all decked out in support of our opposing teams. I think people thought we were a little suspicious with all the laughing and cameras flashing coming from the dressing room, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Best Birthday Ever

I do not like birthdays.  Plain and simple.  I like other people's birthdays, but not my own.  I think this stems from being born on Thanksgiving and always feeling like we were celebrating my birthday on the way to our Thanksgiving celebration or on the way home from it.  If my birthday was on or after Thanksgiving no one wanted cake.  Everyone was always so tired of eating that they just politely took "a small piece".  I don't think it helped that one year we had to go gophering on my birthday.  Mom tired to make me feel better by saying we were just "giving the gophers some birthday cake", but the magic of a birthday was lost. 

Don't get me wrong, mom always did her best to make my birthdays special with my favorite meal and then in later years a homemade Red Robin style mudpie (that would take mom over 7 hours to make!).  I just don't really like receiving gifts and being the center of attention that a birthday brings.  Okay, so I like being the center of attention sometimes, but I don't like "having" to be the center of attention on a birthday. 

So knowing all of that, Mark had his work cut out for him.  He was determined to make it more than just any other day, and I was sure it would be just like any other birthday.  I was wrong.  From the moment I woke up until my head hit the pillow I was loved and pampered and throughly enjoyed the day. 

It started with the sweet aroma of biscuts and gravy filing the house.  I love biscuits and gravy!  It is my favorite breakfast food (actually one of the very few breakfast foods I even like).  The kitchen was decorated with balloons, signs and even window stickers.  More importantly, I got to spend the whole day with Mark!  He made the day special.  I felt like the birthday royality.

We went to Tri-Cities and out to dinner to the Bonefish Grill.  Later that night Mark said he needed to stop by mom and dad's place to pick something up he had left there or something he needed for work.  Needless to say, it was just a ploy to get me to my parents house where Mom and Dad, Crystal, Chris, Ashley, and Cailyn, Justina, Landon, Kendra, Braden and Malek were all waiting to have icecream birthday cake. 

I couldn't have asked for a better day.  Thank you Mark for making it all come together with my favorite things and more importantly, my favorite people.  I guess I do kind of like birthdays.  I actually woke up the next day a little sad that it wasn't my birthday anymore, so needless to say I'm already looking forward to my birthday next year! 

Conference Weekend

Dear Jenae,

Thank you for the fabulous weekend!  We loved it!  We loved spending time with you and cannot wait to come back and do it again!

 

 

Girls Camp, Mark?

Okay, so I will admit it.  I snuck my cell phone to girls camp.  I'm a newlywed and this is my first night away from my husband.  I actually had to spend 3 days and 2 nights away from him!  That's a long time.  On the last night I actually snuck him up to girls camp :). 

It was so good to see him.  I missed him.  Thanks for being our priesthood for our last night at camp Mark!  We got to break in our new sleeping bags and tent.  What does the fine print say?  Oh yeah, I pack for camping trips and you unpack and put things away.  Thank goodness for the fine print!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, from our family to yours!

Mark claims we will never, not ever dress alike and be one of those "nerd families".  Well, on the forth of July in Bayview you are a nerd family if you do not dress up, and dress alike, so I think with Kendra's persuasion, Mark gave in.

Food, Food, Glorious Food

Mark and I love food. We love everything about it. We love shopping for it together, we love making it together and we love eating it. (Which is probably why my pants feel like they are getting smaller. I'm not sure why the exact reverse is happening to my husband. He actually is buying pants 2-4 sizes smaller than he normally does, but I am feeding the poor boy, I promise I am!)

When we were dating we took turns cooking for each other. I have heard it said that most people have 10 recipes that they make over and over again on a rotating basis, so Mark and I decided that we would each make 10 meals for each other before we could repeat one of those meals again. We had a blast doing it and ate some yummy things.

I like to cook things I have grown up eating, recipes I have gathered from roommates or friends over the years but do not branch out a lot. Mark on the other hand loves to try new recipes. He hardly ever makes the same thing twice (unless I request it), and even makes up his own meals. (Don't tell him this, but I think he is a much better cook than I am, except for salmon. My salmon is much better than his is, but he too will admit this.)

It's kind of funny because when we go to a restaurant and order food I usually order between the same 3-4 things, just rotating them between visits. Mark hardly ever orders the same thing. The sad thing is that I usually end up preferring what he ordered! (I have thought about just letting him order for me because he does a much better job, but I actually kind of enjoy stealing bites of his food :)).

A couple of weeks ago we were trying to think of what to eat for dinner and decided to make a list of all the things one of us have cooked for the other (or cooked together). I think the list also came about because we have some married friends that eat the same 3 things all the time. (They are really skinny-maybe there is something to that :)) With our list we also rated the foods. Stars are really hard to make a whole bunch of and it is super hard to make just a half star so our rating system is as follows: Mark gets up to 3 orange circles. I get up to 3 green circles. We are also allowed to give 1/2 circles by not coloring in the circle. It was actually interesting to rate these recipes because some of the foods I love to cook and eat (crock pot chicken for example-you know cream cheese, Italian seasoning, cream of chicken soup mix) Mark only gave it 1 1/2 circles and I gave it 3! The meals we both agree on at a 6 star recipe are Teriyaki Salmon Sandwiches (made by me) and Chicken Bacon Ranch Wraps (made by Mark).

A dish that did not even make the book was Mark's stuffed shell pasta. I tried to eat it, but it was so bad. Come to find out the recipe had asked for 1/4 cup of lime juice and Mark made the mistake of putting in 1/4 cup of lime juice concentrate! (It was so sour and sour is not a taste I like!) Needless to say I will be requesting that meal anytime soon.

We have over 35 main dishes on our list and more being added all the time. What's for dinner at your house? We're looking forward to having spaghetti squash spaghetti sometime soon (unless Mark sprayed that plant too :))