WHAT am i doing?

*** THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all our friends and family who were so kind in wishing us the best as we embark on a new adventure! i am truly terrified and nervous to move to NY AND THEN have a baby. BUT with the encouragement of our family and the cheers of our friends, i know it will be okay! so, thank you:)

in 24 hours, i will be waking up on an air mattress in an empty NY apartment. am i freaking out? yes. do i even know where to start? no. will there be tears (either from pregnancy hormones or normal hormones)? most likely. 

cross your fingers, folks! we're going in.

in one week.

one half of my brain: "you need to be really stressed right now. you have a final tomorrow, TONS of french homework due friday, a moving truck coming monday- oh and did you see that you have literally 5/16ths of your apartment packed...? surprise, you've got lots to do sister."

other half: "hey pregnant lady, babies don't like stress, and if you stress your baby is going to come out all cranky and whiny... so you should probably just continue eating chocolate chips, cereal and tortillas, and forget about all you need to get done. the apartment will pull itself together on monday morning and if you fail your finals- so what! you're carrying a new human life in you, your professors will understand. now go get a manicure."

not even a joke. daily hourly conversation with myself. BUT on a different note- i have made lots of progress this week. this adventure is definitely happening- it better, because too much has happened to have it fall though!

thursday night i hopped a flight to NYC to meet secret (who had been working there all week) because we needed to find an apartment- a fairly important reason to miss school, right? the city was charming in some ways - holiday preparations - and a nightmare in others - 1/2 the planet decided to visit NYC this weekend, seriously, too many tourists.

 

 

we spent the day friday with our broker who made it possible to find an apartment in 24 hours. impressive, i know. i planned on it taking the whole weekend, but seriously, hiring a broker was the best idea i've ever had. first of all- he suggested a neighborhood i had ruled out. second- he knew exactly what we wanted. third- he made the entire process soooo easy.

 

by saturday night we had our apartment! i will give you a little sneak peak below, but let's just say, i knew we had the right neighborhood when down the street i saw this in the window....

they might as well put a sign up that says "hey, amanda: we have your dream dog. and we put him in the window right here for you to die over". you can imagine how quickly my pregnancy hormones caused tears to come to my eyes out of pure joy- especially when one puppy laid his head on the other puppy's bum to rest.... kills me. crying at the memory.

 

 

>>>> sneak peak >>>>                                                                           >>>> here's our building >>>>

 

 

 >>>> and here's the living room. it's small, it's clean, it's cozy. it's perfect. >>>>

(oh, and we purposely made sure to have room for guests- hint, hint...)

 

so now, back in SLC, i'm stuck with this....

(i know, we eat vast quantities of cereal....)

 

slow and steady wins the race, right? my womanly powers will have this conquered by monday. and by tuesday we'll be living with my parents. and by january first, we will be sleeping on those warm hardwood floors in our new NYC apartment.

 

(HAHA!) what an adventure.

 



first comes love.

then comes marriage.

then comes a baby, in a baby carriage.

after 3 months of continuous morning sickness, we finally feel comfortable telling people that there is a "little secret" on the way! it still seems surreal- i mean, for heavens sake, it's not everyday you get to see a little bean growing inside of you! but after hearing a little heartbeat, and watching it grow from a little dot, to a little HUMAN... this is most definitely happening.

(( yep, we know this one makes him/her look like a witch.... but sucking their thumb??? come on! that makes up for the witch nose!))

seriously- this is the CRAZIEST thing i've EVER seen. but it's so magical. nothing has brought me to tears faster! the best thing was watching the nurse try to follow him/her with the ultrasound- he/she was having too much fun bouncing and wiggling around in his/her little bubble:)

soooo, as you can imagine, the move to NYC really caught me off guard as i struggled to keep myself together after just finding out i was pregnant. AND still the thought of moving to a completely new city and having a baby just 5 months later really scares me... but people do it all the time! (right?!?!) so i can do it! the baby is expected to come the first week of june (that should be a lovely time in NYC)... so it will give me just enough time to get myself and our home together!

secret has been so amazing with all that has happened in the past couple months! he brings me gatorade in bed, does the dishes and laundry, and does his own work on top of that! how lucky is this kid to have such a rockstar of a dad??

we have been given an "educated guess" as to the gender of the baby... but we have to keep something a secret!

the adventure continues.

blogging has been on the back-burner for awhile now... mostly because the month of october was a {doozey} for us. i mean for heavens sake- over the course of one phone call it was determined that we are moving to new york!

i know what you're thinking-
"you just moved to SLC!"
"what about school?"
"when are you moving?"

all in good time, my friend. but for now, here's the short scoop! there comes a time and place to follow your dreams- and this is secret's time! his dream job has come up, and not only that, but he gets to do it with one of his best friends. two things too irresistible to pass up! so it's almost like our 4 months here were just a waiting period until this opportunity came up.

i'll admit, it really caught me off guard. there i was in the library at school, when secret calls me to say we're moving... with everything else that was going on in october, i was just silent. i mean, i'm super excited for him now, but in the moment, i was just instantly stressed! we moved to SLC so i could go to school... that's on the back-burner again... and so we could be close to my family... it was a good 4 months!

so the initial shock, surprise, stress... has worn off and now i'm excited for secret! he is going to do amazing things! his job starts jan. 1st- yikes!- so we're frantically trying to sell things off : anyone want a BBQ or a kia sorrento??? find an apartment, arrange to have our stuff shipped, christmas shop, and study for finals.

life is so lovely! i'm sure in 25 years we are going to look back and say "well that was a wild time, but so fun..." cross your fingers that we survive! it's supposed to snow tomorrow, which will be delightful, but every time it snows i picture us packing up a truck in the middle of a snow storm.. hahaha! it will happen i know it.

it was short and sweet, but it's important to me that our good friends and family be kept in the loop! next time: a more exciting post with pictures!

shocking pink pasta.

secret loves pasta. so much so, his favorite meal is spaghetti- just spaghetti. and i'm like "that is so plain and boring." and because pasta is my least favorite food group, we RARELY ever have it. but with my newest addition to my cookbook family, there was one pasta recipe i was NOT going to miss out on: shocking pink pasta. now THAT interests me.

 

 

here's the scoop. it's pretty much spaghetti (you're welcome, secret), except with lots more character! the flavor and color comes from the raw beets! BEET IT! (you like what i did there...??)  you blend up the raw beets with all these spices and it creates a very dynamic flavor... slightly meaty, faintly smokey, definitely delicious (but after that description you're probably like, that sounds disgusting... FALSE. it's not.)

 

i can do pasta as long as it has feta cheese and almonds. so therefore, BRING the FETA! BRING the ALMONDS!

 

Shocking Pink Pasta
Recipe from  The French Market: Vegetarian Recipes from my Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier
Serves 4

12 ounces / 340 g beets, peeled and diced
1 cup / 240 ml light whipping cream or unsweetened nondairy cream alternative, such as soy or rice
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds or ½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 pound / 450 g long pasta, such as spaghetti, bucatini, or linguine
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup / 20 g chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2⁄3 cup / 85 g almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
** i added feta cheese

1. In a food processor or blender, combine the beets, cream, garlic, salt, and cumin. Process until smooth.
2. Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add the pasta and cook until it’s a minute shy of al dente. Drain, return the pasta to the pot, and fold in the sauce. Return to medium heat and cook until heated through and al dente, about 1 minute.
3. Divide among warm bowls, sprinkle with pepper, and top with the parsley and almonds. Serve immediately.

bon appetit, mes amis!! it's a little bit wild, but i am 98% confident you'll love it! it's definitely on repeat at our house!

bon week-end!!!

hello, september, good-bye, september.

it came and it went. and just like the last post, time escaped me and now here we are. after a 35 hour work week, and full school days on top of that, this blessed day couldn't get here sooner. sundays are now my favorite days of the week, as i just get to sit and enjoy the entire day.

but this sunday did not get off to a good start...

i think we had been asleep for an hour when this crazy siren in my dream goes off.... oh wait, it's not in your dream, amanda. IT'S FOR REAL.

i literally had to COAX secret out of bed to go outside because i had no idea what was going on. running down the stairwell the alarm stopped. false alarm??? not a joke, guys. not. a. joke.

this is what one would look like when the fire alarm goes off at 1:53 am on a sunday morning.

p.s. if you're thinking "her nose looks bigger..." i think you'd be right. i swear when i wake up in the morning my  nose is always bigger. weird, but it's just a natural phenomenon, i can't do anything about it.

 

so i guess we'll work backwards in time for the report...

 

earlier this week, i was feeling tres malade[my french homework in action] and when secret got home from the store he surprised me with these {baby bananas}!! which is so tender as he knows everytime i'm at the store i see them and dote all over them, but never buy them, as they are literally two bites worth of food. that charming man... j'adore.

je vous presente the hanks family, the family of my origin and the family i laugh with the most. that man in the back, behind my mom and me, is my brother who is now on his mission. we took him to the (missionary training center) 2 weeks ago and it was so fun! that's the provo lds temple behind us, and i think the scenery is STUNNING. it's like DANG! THAT'S a MOUNT-AIN. clearly that hill already went through puberty. ANYWAY- so fun to have this 18 year old on his way to singapore!

>>> lovin secret's finger....

continuing on...  as we all know, secret works from home. which i personally love. if he ever has to leave and work in an office, i'm going to get a job there too, so we can continue being together all the time! but the funniest thing is when i come home from school at 4pm and this is what i see:

1-dressed as a teenage kid
2-dishes everywhere
3-on a conference call
4-you crazy new yorkers in your suits... bless your hearts...

next... week... (that's optimistic) (more like next post)(next month) i want to write about this new recipe from my new favorite cookbook >>>>>>

 

it's delicious in everyway. healthy in everyway. and delightful in everyway. i have to cook healthy in order to balance out all the pumpkin cookies this season has brought (bless you, pumpkin dear)!

 

and don't we love that the author's name is clotilde?!? i mean like, how much more french can you get? it just like rolls off the tongue and is so chic. it's like bonjour, je m'appelle clotilde...

 

ug, i hate it. but really i'm obsessed.

 

PS> THIS WEEK AT WEST ELM CITY CREEK: FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVENT. oh, la, la.  COME IN AND GET GREAT DEALS OCT. 1-7!!

bangs and baptism.

BONJOUR, mon ami!!

 

so i think the reason i haven't written in so long is because 1- school started, 2- i started working, and 3- i got my bangs cut. so 1 + 2 + 3 = i've been distracted! school is busy, as is work, but i have to admit, my vanity is distracting me the most! has anyone ever got a haircut they've hated and have seriously been DIStraught over it??? i keep telling myself that these new bangs are gonna grow on me and i'm gonna love them; but let's get real here, i'm lying to myself!

 

it's all my fault though, i have no one else to blame (except for maybe lea michele, who has bangs that i used [notice the past tense] to love).

 

for like 9 months i've wanted to get my bangs cut, but i haven't because i was afraid the husband wouldn't like them. well for some reason he encouraged me to "try something different". it was only a mere 45 minutes from the moment he uttered those words that i had bangs.

 

impulse decision? naturally.

 

 

everyone has been so sweet in telling me that they look cute, but i want to yell "get real, guys!!! i look like a bulldog!" whatever, i just avoid mirrors.

this week my sweet husband was able to go and baptize his niece. if you don't know about [lds baptisms], you can learn about it here! it's a really special thing he gets to take part in, and i'm bummed i couldn't join him! but among all that's going on in our lives, i love events like these the most, as they remind us of the things that really matter in life! at the end of the day it doesn't matter that i just spent 30 minutes eating gelato from the container and painting my nails, but if i used my time wisely in helping myself and others become better.

leave it to secret to keep me on track:) that handsome devil.

 

 

it's short. it's sweet. until next time peeps!

 

 

3 decades later.

 

it has to start somewhere right?

 

his birthday was kicked off, the night before, with a steaming hot plate of his one and only, asks for it all the time, most favorite food EVER: spaghetti and shrimp. honestly, i questioned him, "for your BIRTHDAY dinner, you want SPA-ghe-TTI? the bachelor food? spaghetti, the only meal i don't like?"

 

YES:) was the reply- so happyy birthday, sweet secret.

 

when you don't have a clothes box, you use the next best thing! now you all know my favorite cereal...

months ago secret mentioned how as a child he asked for a remote control plane for every birthday and christmas for many years... alas, it never happened. poor child, i'm sure his parents had a good reason! so naturally, the woman in me that LOVES to throw big surprises, give marvelous gifts and make people squeal with excitement- went out to the hobby store  (only woman in the store, imagine that...), picked out this spiffy lookin' machine, and handed it over.

 

lets just say his workday turned into a playday.

 

a few little tumbles didn't get this kid down! i couldn't help but find it to be so cute that this birthday boy was flying the airplane excuse me, bi-plane, he's been wanting for YEARS, on a warm summer day, on a baseball field. 3 things everyone loves, but especially this boy. so while i sat there in the grass watching him laugh and yell with delight, i just thought "what a wonderful chapter of life!" how blessed we are!

this is my youngest brother doing "heavy, heavy, hangover" to secret for the first time. CAN you BELIEVE this child has never had "a bonk on the head"??? HA!

 

so our fun birthday week was filled with so many great things! including a new job for this girl! i'm slightly nervous about it, but it will be really good! i can feel it in my bones! i'm sure i'll have more to report from that at the end of the week- wish me luck!

 

 







white > yellow

if you follow me on instagram you'll know that this week i've been working like a mad martha stewart with a paint brush!

here's the dish: when we first moved in, the apartment was already furnished (very weirdly. we ended up moving everything [except for a few small things] out and into a storage unit, replacing it with our stuff.) and the walls were painted this color ------>

 

now ya'll are probably like "oh, well that doesn't look so bad, it's like a country bumpkin yellow..."

well wait until you live here and then you'll see the problem: it's a light sucker! for some reason the color takes SO MUCH light out of the apartment (which is CRAZY considering the HUGE windows). so no matter what time the day- regardless of the fact that all the lights are on- even if i have make-up on (the days are dark without it...)- it was still toooooo dark for ANYONES liking.

 

so i had to contact the landlord to get permission to paint, she is apparently a interior designer, which i'm extremely skeptical about, considering the color of the walls and the furnishings that were here when we arrived. if she really is an interior designer she will totally approve the idea considering that white it only the hottest color ever and it will really boost the resale value of this place... are you convinced/on team white now?

 

got approved on monday at 10am. by 11am i was putting blue tape all over the place.

 

^ the kitchen was a monster with all of it's teeeeny, tiiiny over the cabinet crannies! ^

 

^ by tuesday afternoon i was sporting many random strands of white hair and dead arms, but a very big smile... can you see the light come back into the room? it's like the sun is poking it's little head out from some big, ugly, yellow clouds. ^

 

 

wednesday: start painting at 8am with t-minus 11 hours until my dinner guests arrive. this is clearly a job for martha stewarts conqueror, {me}. with the help of my mom and her ladder, the entire apartment was white washed by 2:30, cleaned up by 4, dinner was on the table by 7.

 

the paint gods were really on my side this week!!!

 

 

^^ check out the vintage TV. LOL, already here, so why not keep it?? ^^

 

^^ my favorite rug purchase yet ^^

 

^^ thanks to my sweet friend, [hw], for such a cute addition to my nightstand. i LOVE it! ^^

 

^^ and thanks to my mom who temporarily donated (haha) this vintage window for the beautification of our bedroom. when we move out, it's all yours again:) [can you tell which furniture is in the process of being replaced/is the result of the "interior designer" landlord?? college dorm Target nightstands don't really fit in, do they?^^

 

 

SO there it is. before i just liked  our apartment- now i love  it. it's just so much brighter and so much friendlier. it feels like we've added an extra 100sqft (it's an illusion...), and we finally sit down in the living room and actually want to be there.

 





chocolate chip cookies on steriods.

paula dean would seriously hate me. but guess what? i hate butter. if there is a recipe that calls for butter... then i'll use avocado or applesauce or pumpkin. i hate to be such a crazy, but seriously, if butter and i were to ever get in a fight... i would totally win.

so the other day i made some chocolate chip cookies with avocado instead of butter ( cause ya know, butter hater!!) and whole wheat flour instead of white, and secret LOVED it. he seriously kept referring to them as "healthy cookies". my sweet boy. i had to remind him that they weren't healthy! they still had sugar and choco. chips in them! they were just healthIER....

it was only after hearing "oh these delicious heathy cookies" 43 times that i thought "you want healthy cookies?? OH, i'll give you healthy cookies..."

so the challenge began.

i pulled out a cookbook that i never use (for various reasons, but mainly because one shouldn't have to hide vegetables AND by hiding vegetables you're enabling your eaters to be picky eaters, blah, blah...):

 
this lady's philosophy is to hide vegetables in your normal food by blending them up. so i opened up her book and sure enough- there is a recipe for chocolate chip cookies WITH: chickpeas (now we're getting somewhere!).

i liked the idea, but just chickpeas?? come on jessica, you can do better than that! so i decided to take it to the next level:) some of you are thinking: this is just wrong. no one should ever try to alter the buttery, celestial state of a good chocolate chip cookie. to that i whisper with a sly smile.....watch me.

BEHOLD!! THE REFINED, but unrefined, AND EVEN HEALTHIER:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.

 

 

(jessica seinfeld's choco. chip cookie recipe) (my replacements are in caps)

prep: 20 minutes 

makes 2 dozen

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (SUCANUT [unrefined sugar usually found in organic stores])

3/4 cup margarine spread (HALF OF AN AVOCADO)

2 large egg whites

2 tsp vanilla

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed (blend them up real good)

2 cups choco. chips

3/4 cup walnuts (optional)

2 cups all-purpose flour (WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR)

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

A GOOD AMOUNT OF FLAXSEEDS

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

1. preheat oven to 350. coat baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. beat sugar and margarine/avocado until smooth. beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. add flour, oats, flaxseeds, baking soda and salt. mix on low speed until thick dough forms.

3. drop dough in the spoonful onto the baking sheet, flatten with fork if flatter cookies are desired, bake until golden brown or 11-13 minutes.

 

** can be stored for up to 3 days.

 

 

SO that is what i made ladies and gentlemen. DID secret like them? no, he LOVED them! did i "one-up" this recipe? indubitably! do i feel guilty eating 3 in a day? n o   i   d o n ' t.

 

with that said: if you ever make these cookies, give me a shout out! i'd love to hear how other people liked (or didn't like) these cookies! some friends of ours who tried the cookies said: they taste healthy... hahahaha and that my friend, is because they are!

 

until the next recipe re-do!