All about me!

While we usually delete emails that start with FW: without giving them a second thought, for some reason Marcia actually read one today that had a “a bunch of random questions about you” in it. We decided that we’d play along, but rather than annoy people who also dislike the letters F and W in their email subject lines, we’d post our responses here, on the blog.

Here’s mine:

1. What time did you get up this morning? About 11:00

2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Pirates of the Carribean 2

4. What is your favorite TV show? Good Eats

5. What did you have for breakfast? Cereal – Marshmallow Mateys

6. What is your middle name? Ryan

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Seafood

8. What foods do you dislike? I’m a very unpicky eater, but I’m not very fond of lima beans or caviar

9. Your favorite Potato chip? Sour cream & onion Baked Lays

10. Favorite CD you’ve been listening to lately? Mormon Tabernacle Choir – Consider the Lillies

11. What kind of car do you drive? Honda Accord

12. Favorite sandwich? Reuben

13. What characteristics do you despise? Closed mindedness and self-centeredness

14. What are your favorite clothes? Blue jeans and a simple but nice shirt

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Tuscany – for the food!

16. Favorite brand of clothing? Old Navy

17. Where would you want to retire? Anywhere where the church is strong that isn’t in Utah.

18. Favorite time of day? Very late at night

19. Where were you born? Provo, Utah

20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Marching band

21. Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi, though I don’t really care for either

22. Beavers or Ducks? Ducks

23. Are you a morning person or night owl? Night owl, definitely

24. Pedicure or Manicure? Pedicure, I suppose. I’m not that metrosexual, though.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share? I’m married!

26. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? A pilot.

27. What is your best childhood memory? Being with my family

28. Ever been toilet papering? Yes, more than I should admit

29. Been in a car accident? Yes. Twice. Less than a month apart.

30. Favorite restaurant? T.G.I. Friday’s

31. Favorite flower? Roses. They’re pretty and smell good and taste good (really!)

33. Favorite ice cream? Homemade vanilla (not plain vanilla, I mean stuff that tastes really vanilla-ey)

34. Favorite fast food restaurant? In’n’out burger.

35. How many times did you fail your drivers test? None. Got it right the first time.

36. From whom did you get your last e-mail? My business credit card payment processor.

37. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? The nearest
Steinway dealership

38. Last person you went to dinner with? Marcia, Fulton, Dan, and Steve

39. How many tattoos do you have? None.

40. What time did you finish this survey? I don’t know, I’m not done yet.

41. Favorite magazine? Bicycling

42. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be? I’d like to go biking
with Lance Armstrong, go to dinner with Emeril Lagasse, attend a lecture by Stephen Hawking, learn about public speaking from Steve Jobs, or do an acting workship with Johnny Depp.

43. If you could choose another first name, what would it be? Pedro. But only Marcia will know why.

44. If you could change your profession right now, what would you be doing? I’d have Curtis Stone‘s job.
There.

More than you ever wanted to know about me. I wonder what Marcia will say!

Introducing the New Girls to 2007

Just after midnight Jacob and I headed over to the hospital with Ronda and Matt to see the new girls in the family. After Matt and Ronda, we were the first ones to hold and feed the little ladies in 2007. We were able to spend the first few hours with them. It was fun and really cool. Here is a video of uncle Jacob holding Gretchyn and Matt (daddy) Holding Geneva.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGBaG6b7IzU[/youtube]

Our honeymoon video – NOT THAT KIND!

Our big “secret honeymoon” was to Bardolph, Illinois St. Louis, Missouri. We had a Great time and got to see lots. The Highlight of the trip was our visit to the zoo. We were able to watch the feedings of the sea lions and the penguins. However the most remarkable part was what we heard in the ape house. Listen to the video for what is said six seconds in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AqKTbj-TAc[/youtube]
Jacob says “You’ll never hear THAT on the Discovery Channel!”

Congratulations Ronda and Matt!

A hearty congratulations to Ronda (who sometimes comments on this blog) and Matt, who gave birth to adorable twin girls on Friday, Dec 15. We are so very excited for you and for the two tiny people that you’ve added to the family!

The girls were a few weeks premature, and things were a little dicey for a while. They’re not out of the woods yet, but things seem to be reasonably stable considering the circumstances, and for that we are grateful.

Because of the critical nature of the birth, Ronda wasn’t able to hold the babies right away, as they were quickly whisked off to intensive care. In fact, it wasn’t until sunday night that she finally got to hold one of them.

Ronda, the highlight of my entire weekend was watching you hold your daughter for the first time last night. She is truly beautiful.

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream for Ice Cream!

I love ice cream! My two current favorites are Bunny Tracks and Peanut Butter Brownie Sensation. Oh, then there is a seasonal Cinnamon. Birthday Cake flavored is yummy too, I prefer it without the sprinkles. Mint Chocolate-chip is good. While I am not a great fan of Rootbeer, it is good with Vanilla ice cream. Peaches and Cream is probably my favorite with real chunks of fruit. I love Strawberry ice cream, but not the kind that has the big clots of shredded fruit in it.

I hate doing dishes though, so one (this one) must eat from a cone to truely enjoy the experience.

Where pigs fly

Just a quick post in the middle of a busy few days. I checked the weather this afternoon on my favorite weather site to see just how cold it was going to be, and this is what I found:

Where pigs fly

Apparently it’s raining pigs in Table Grove, IL.

Oh, and to top it off, I put our zip code into wunderground, and it gave us Table Grove, which isn’t even where we live. Something fishy (or piggy?) is going on here.

Recipe? We don’t need no stinking recipe!

Every few weeks I get to feeling adventurous in the kitchen, and I make something completely by the seat of my pants – no recipe, no plan, just start by chopping something and see where I end up. Most of the time, this results in mediocre food. Occasionally it results in something really awful. But every once in a while, the result is absolutely fantastic – a dish you might see in a great restaurant or on one of those over-the-top shows on the food network, like (my favorite) Iron Chef America.

Sunday night was one of those adventurous nights, and one of the rare ones where the result was marvelously good. Here’s what I did:

Started with a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. I decided to add some Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Seasoned Salt to the garlic, and before I knew it the worcestershire sauce was out and I mashed it all into a rub. A splash of lemon juice completed the rub, which was applied liberally to the chicken.

I started some chicken stock on the back burner, and then coated a skillet with olive oil. I seared the chicken in the skillet, then put it into a baking dish with a bath of chicken stock. I wanted something else in it, and Marcia suggested nuts. She chopped a bunch of almonds, peanuts, and cashews and I put about 3/4 of the nuts in the baking dish with the chicken and stock. Into the oven at 350 degrees.

With some more chicken stock, I started some Fettucini noodles, and once the stock was boiling I tossed in the rest of the nuts. This permeated the noodles with both chicken flavor and nuttiness.

When the chicken finally came out of the oven (of course it needed to be basted several times with the stock in the pan to keep from becoming dry), I dished the pasta onto plates, put some oregano on the pasta, and a piece of chicken on top of the pasta bed. The whole thing then got one more spoonful of the baked chicken stock, and was covered in the chopped nuts that were in the bottom of the baking dish.

Moment of truth…

Delicious! This is definitely a course to keep and use for company at some point in the future.

Oh… last but not least… this delicious pasta/chicken dish was served with the new Cranberry Sierra Mist. What is it about cranberrys and poultry that make such a great combination?

Happy am I

I never really resolved for anyone else that my car runs well now. Thanks to my now husband was fiance. In the end the last thing fixed was a leak in the gas tank. Oddly enough after all the work I had done on it I believe I am getting worse gas mileage. Perhaps some failures under the hood make the engine run better, though I really have no desire to run out and brake anything.

Now I am done with the B&B. I miss all the new people, but at the same time it is great to be in the same town as my love. Less than a week back and I was asked to fill in at the university daycare for a week and a half. It was great, I love children. And it is often better when you can give them back at the end of the day. The next week was all wedding all day.

The wedding went very well with out anything too big to handle. There was one hitch with the boquet. I am not a big spender, especially on one-time-use things… And I spent a lot on that, only to have it look like a twelve-year-old boy could have thrown it together in a vase. Thank goodness for a wonderful mother-in-law, who is extremely talented, and took the flowers apart and added to it to make it what it is (can be seen in the photo in the last post).

Today I had an interview at the local university. My job starts tomorrow. The people I will work with seem friendly and I like the job discription.

I am now a married woman. I now have a full-time job. I am healthy.

I am happy!

We said “yes!”

Ladies and gentlemen, US!

Here we are coming out of the LDS temple in Nauvoo, Illinois after our wedding this morning. The day was fun and wonderful but exhausting at the same time. We’re excited and ready to jump into this new adventure head first.

We’ll post more pictures when we get back from our honeymoon, but for now, this classic picture in front of the beautiful doors of the temple will have to do.

We would be remiss not to recognize the talents of our good friend Dan Tieken who is a talented photographer, nice guy, and all around wonderful human being. He took this picture and most of the other great pictures of our wedding day that we’ll be posting.

So, without further ado… Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Thurman.