Oh Martha

As many of you know, I love cakes...making them, decorating them, and mostly eating them! I saw this cake on the cover of this month's Martha Stewart magazine at Costco and I bought it (the magazine, that is) thinking the issue would just look nice on the coffee table for Christmas time. Well, this morning while nannying, I saw Martha on Today with this cake once again and I started thinking I should try to make it. Emilie, Joey's mom, was telling me she tries Martha's ideas but they are always hard to accomplish, but I've never even tried one yet. So I am hoping that maybe I can get Alex to "help" me and we can work on this cake at least sometime before Christmas. The funny thing is, I don't like gingerbread that much, but I am drawn to this cake! There is just something about that dang Martha.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend is all over; it always seems to go by way too fast no matter where we are. This was our first Thanksgiving together that wasn't spent at Alex's parents' house. We stayed here and enjoyed a great dinner with friends over at the Ence's in the Marina. Lots of delicious food! Later that night, we went with some UOP folk to see Fred Claus. It was good, not the best, not the worst.

Here is a photo of some of the foods we had at Mark & Tami's. Tami had their place decorated so cute! Unfortunately, the other pics that Alex took didn't really show much of what went on so I am just posting this one....

On Friday night, after a lot of studying for boards with Alex, we headed to Union Square for the Christmas tree lighting. It was packed, but fun to be in the middle of the excitement! Onward with the Holiday Season!

We're Connected, Finally

Since we will be around for the whole Holiday season this year, I decided it was time to get cable. I'm guessing we will be one of the only people left in our apartment complex on Christmas and it will be nice to have some type of "new" entertainment to keep us in the holiday spirit. Plus, Comcast had a special for digital cable for the first 6 months at $30/month and after 4 years, I figured what the heck. So we will see how it goes. They came and installed it today, after much confusion involving the right apartment, and downloading issues. I am excited to have nonstop access to the food network and disney. But, even though it is digital cable, we still don't get that may channels (no BYU tv, for example). And I swear, everything is extra-HD, DVR and any other acronym they offer. I think Comcast needs some competition!

Zoom, zoom, OUCH!

My night had quite an interesting and unplanned Zoom! Whitening turn at the dental school. Alex and I were walking home and he got a call from his classmate who had a question about one of his patients who was getting her teeth bleached. This patient didn't speak English, so since we were right by the school, we stopped in so Alex could help her ultimately understand she wasn't the best candidate to have whitening done. Jokingly, they asked if I wanted to get it done since they had nothing else to do and everything ready to go. I was like cool, free white teeth! Here is the "after" picture-not the most attractive way I smiled, but at least you can (hopefully) tell they are whiter....

Alex had it done in Vegas once and all I remembered was how he said it hurt a lot after. Oh was he right. The first cycle was fine during, the second one it got quite sore and started to sting. But the real pain began after....I get these completely random zings of shooting pain throughout my lower teeth! It comes and goes quite fast, but it is so sudden and strong that I make these funny wincing noises and shouts of anguish. You'd think I had a mild form of Tourette's. But, I can notice the difference in my teeth and Valerie did a great job so I am glad I did it. I just hope the little twinges ebb very soon.....

I've Been Tagged #2

Sandy got me this time; I love reading everyone else's so here's mine....

Where I was 10 years ago:
I was a Freshman at BYU living in Heritage Halls on campus. There were 6 of us girls with one bathroom; I don't know how we did it, really. I specifically remember finals week that semester and walking with Danielle to the testing center in 10 degree weather just freezing our booties off!

Where I was 5 years ago:
Living in Las Vegas with Kelly; I had been there a few months and just started working at Nordstrom. Officially, I had briefly met Alex at church, but we didn't really know each other until January....

Where I was 1 year ago:
Living here in the same apartment in San Francisco, helping Alex survive his first year of dental school. I had just come back from my trip to Bulgaria, Greece & Turkey with my family to get my brother Bobby from his mission. Also, I was nannying for various San Fran families (and still am!). And getting ready to rent a car and drive to Vegas for Thanksgiving!

What I was doing yesterday:
A lot of nannying! I watched Daniel first; it was raining all day so we spent part of the time at the Bay Club playclub; lots of fun toys! Then I went and nannied Peter; we saw Bee Movie-it was cute and better than I expected. After I got home, I did laundry, played Uno and fell asleep to Ratatouille.

5 places I’d rather be:
Disney World
A house that we owned in WA somewhere....
A (Disney) cruise ship
Greece
Our old Vegas condo transplanted here in SF

5 treats/snacks I love/like:
Donuts
Milkshakes
Buttermilk biscuits (they'e not really a snack, but I want them)
Eryn's peanut butter cookies
Fiber One PB/Oat Bars (they are super moist!)

What I would do with 100 million dollars:
Pay off ALL of dental school
Build a house
Buy a few vacation homes
Get Alex a BMW
Get my parents a new house in Redmond

5 TV shows I like/watch:
The Office, of course
CSI-only the original one
The Amazing Race
Private Practice
Reba (I think Van is so funny)

5 people to tag:
Courtney, Malarie, Jess, Danielle & Michelle

I Ate This, Really!!

While I was nannying a couple weeks ago, I had this pasta for dinner with the kids I was watching. It was so delicious, I was shocked. The main reason I was so surprised I liked it is that the basis of it is cheese, and as some of you may know, I have quite an aversion to cheese. On pizza, it pretty much has to be burned/crispy or I'll pull it off. Although, I can handle some shredded parmesan on things.
Anyway, this is so yummy, give it a try!

I've Been Tagged #1

Danielle & Mal both tagged me for this one and I'll do the one from Sandy sometime soon!

6 Things You May Not Have Known About Me

1. Around the 6th-8th grades, I was obsessed with The Mickey Mouse Club. It was the new one with Britney, Justin, Christina, etc, etc. Every day it was on at 5:30 right after Kids Incorporated and I would tape it. One year we were at Thanksgiving at my uncle's and the VCR didn't record it. That was a night full of tears and sadness. I always wanted to be one of the mouseketeers...the closest I got was to be in the audience a couple times in Disney World.

2. I have been known to be fickle and flaky in my personal life. At least I've always been the complete opposite at work. Maybe because I know it won't be tolerated as much there....I don't know. Even my friend Kelly, who I met Alex through, told Alex I was like that before we started dating-I guess he got over it. My thing is, I get excited about doing something, but when the time comes, I get lazy. And I also just can't decide what to do. The past year or two I have really been working on this, and sometimes I slip, but it's been getting better.

3. I love reading, watching and surfing online about cooking. My cookbook/magazine collection is having a forever growth spurt, but I really need to start utilizing all these recipes I run into. The reason I haven't cooked as much as I should yet is probably related to my previously-mentioned flakiness.

4. My real hair color is a boring, and quite blah, brown. It is that mousy looking brown that just looks so dull and stale. So that is why I get it highlighted and probably will until I am too old to care anymore. Once a few years ago, I tried the brown thing again and it was depressing. Maybe some of you already know this since I'm not the best about getting my roots touched up as often as I should!

5. Kickboxing at 24 hour fitness is my favorite form of exercise. In Vegas, I was a die-hard. Out here, I rarely go because most classes are in the evenings (I prefer going earlier) and the ones I have tried have been so crowded you can't move or the teacher is scary and/or confusing. However, Patience Adams got her teaching license, but is over in San Rafael...one day I will have to make a special trip to go to hers. Thankfully, I was so into it before that I still have a lot of the "rounds" memorized. If we hear a song on the radio/tv that was in one of the rounds, I will start doing the moves and get weird looks from Alex.

6. I would love to be a travel agent, specializing in Disney of course:) I have searched a lot to find an agency out here I could work for, but all I come up with are Asian businesses and I don't know anything about Asia really. I guess, in the meantime, I can just offer up whatever knowledge I've accumulated so far. So, if any of you are wanting to plan a Disney trip I would be more than willing to answer any questions. I get so excited about it, it's ridiculous.

Yay, I made it through! Now I tag Rira, Sandy (this is a different one, hehe) & Angela.

Organic...should I?

Lately, I have been interested in the whole organic/whole foods buzz (and I get lured into it whenever I step into beautiful Whole Foods). Out here, especially, it is quite easy to find ANYthing organic, but I always have wondered if it is really worth the extra price and fuss. However, and it may just be my imagination, but organic food usually seems to taste better. Well, somewhere online I found a list of certain produce that we should get organic, and others where it's really not necessary. Here it is....

SHOULD get organic:
Peaches
Cherries
Apples
Lettuce
Bell Peppers
Grapes
Celery
Pears
Nectarines
Spinach
Strawberries
Potatoes

DON'T waste your money on organic:
Onions
Asparagus
Avocado
Kiwi
Frozen corn
Bananas
Pineapples
Cabbage
Mango
Broccoli
Frozen peas
Eggplant

Do any of you buy organic? What do you think about milk and dairy???

Alex's Nashville Trip

As I mentioned, Alex went to Nashville, TN for a few days for an ADEA conference. He had a lot of fun and now has an appreciation for all things South.

Alex got to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. It looks pretty neat, reminds me a lot of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas, country-style of course. This is Elvis' Cadillac.

Alex, Nakako, Erik & Zach. It was just the 4 of them. One SCOPE rep was to go (Alex) and the other 3 are the reps for their respective years at UOP. Before he left, Alex decided he wanted to fit in more so he grew out and shaped his sideburns so they were these thick, hideous chops. He was very excited when people out there assumed he was a native.

That is a lot of ribs. He also took an "after" shot of his dinner, and yes he finished the whole thing. I'm not quite sure how well he slept that night......