Saturday, June 20, 2015

15 Things For Summer 2015

This summer Parker and I decided to just have fun. We aren't getting jobs because we want to take advantage of this last summer we have before medical school takes over our lives. We are just going to play all. summer. long! And I have been loving it so far! Parker has had mixed feelings about it haha He doesn't like feeling lazy... me on the other hand.... haha I'm the queen of laziness. Anyway, in honor of tomorrow being the first official day of summer, this little post here is all about 15 things that I would like to do this summer of 2015!


1. Go camping! My parents have already invited us on a couple of their camping trips so we are pretty dang excited about it.

2. Get tan! We've already been hard at work getting a nice tan this summer.. we kind of cheated because we went to the Caribbean before we came to Cardston but oh well. I love the sun!!

3. Exercise! I have this awful habit of gaining weight over the summer because I'm always fed lots of super good food... I need some serious work in the self control area of my life haha no better time than the summer to get into better shape!

4. Read some good books! I need some suggestions!

5. Go to Wally's Beach! "Let's go to the beach, beach, let's go get away." We've already gone once and it was beautiful. The water was still pretty high and pretty dang cold but it was such a good time. I'm already looking forward to our next trip out there!

6. Play tennis! A few summers ago my dad decided to teach my mom and I how to play tennis.... it was pretty unsuccessful. We've got little to no depth perception and our reaction time is sloooow which isn't a good mix for tennis. I still enjoy it though, even though I spend the majority of the time chasing the tennis balls all over the court haha! We've already played twice since we've been in Cardston and I've noticed some improvements in my game already!

7. Family history! I've never really gotten into family history all that much... I've done a little indexing here and there but that's about the extent of my experience. I would love to somehow dig up a name or two to take to the temple this summer! Nana, care to help me out? :)

8. Win at stones! There is a card game called Stones that Parker's grandparents play with us and my luck with this game is rotten! I have never been so unlucky in my life! I'm not sure I will ever win... but I would like to, so it made the list.

9. Play softball! I'm pretty terrible at sports but softball is one of the few I actually enjoy playing. I would love to get the cousins together to play some softball on these warm summer nights!

10. Learn to make some good meals! Thanks to those of you who sent me recipes in response to my last post! I really do appreciate it and I'm so excited to try out those meals!! They all looked so yummy and Parker was really excited too haha!

11. Have a movie marathon! I used to love the Love Comes Softly series and I would love to watch all of those movies at some point this summer.... I don't know if I can convince Parker to watch them with me but we'll see!

12. Sew something! Whether its another scrunchy, a hair bow, or a even a dress, I would love to sew something this summer!

13. Hike Bears Hump! I'm not a huge fan of hiking... so sue me. But I would like to hike bears hump this year. Followed by some Big Scoop ice cream of course!

14. Refinish some furniture! My mom and Parker and I actually already did this a week or so ago but my mom has found some other pieces that we can refinish too!

15. Spend less time behind the computer/phone/ipod/ipad/tv screens and be present! I would love to spend more time behind the camera though ;) I'm all about documenting each and everything on this list as it happens throughout the summer!

Both photos via pinterest

Cheers to the best time of year! May this summer be the best one yet!!
Xoxo!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Help!

You guys! I'm happy to say that I have survived a little over 24 hours of Parker being in Guatemala....... it's been difficult. But I'm keeping busy with things like starting a new TV show on Netflix, exercising, and blogging (as you can see), which helps a ton! Only a week left haha!

It has recently, as in since I got married, become known to me that I am a very picky eater.... I never though I was picky before marriage, but I'm pretty sure that's due to the fact that my mom catered to what her children would eat so I was always fed things I liked at home (which is not a bad thing!! I love my mom's cooking and I am grateful she was so thoughtful!). And then when I was a single student, living on my own, I would cook for myself, so I never had any issues of eating things I didn't like there either. But now that I'm married, I'm realizing how bad it really is....
Photo via pinterest
I really do love to eat though... like a lot... like I think of few things other than eating a lot of the time..

The reason I entitled this post 'Help!' is because I need help in finding easy recipes, emphasis on the easy, that are foolproof. I wish so badly that I got my mother's love of cooking and her talent in the kitchen, but alas.... I was cursed with the opposite. I hate cooking and I'm bad at it. Or I'm bad at cooking so I hate it. Its another chicken and the egg scenario.

Anyway, does anyone have any recipes that are (or websites that could lead me to) healthy, simple meals that don't include the following:

Tomatoes - number one most disgusting thing on my list. Even the smell makes me sick.
Mushrooms - unless they are tiny, like in mushroom soup
Raw onions - cooked are ok if they are small enough that they don't overpower the flavor
Raw peppers
Olives - black and green
Avocado- I have tried to like this stuff but I just don't. Even guacamole. Yuck!
Eggs - Like eggs for breakfast just trigger my gag reflex
Honeydew
Cantaloupe
Beans - All except green beans. I love green beans!
Sweet potatoes - I love sweet potato fries though
Tortillas - sometimes I like them, other times I hate em. 
Cottage cheese
Greek yogurt
Sour cream
Coconut - including the smell
Shrimp
Apples - including apple juice
Grapefruit
Ginger
Curry...
Peas - raw and cooked... I do like them creamed though
Chick peas
Sweet pickles
Brussels Sprouts - they taste like ear wax
Tofu
Celery - sometimes its ok, like when its in things or when it has cheese whiz in it :)
Oysters
Lobster
Mustard
Relish
Black licorice - I realize I wouldn't cook with this but its nasty so it's on the list

So there ya have it folks. That's my list of foods I don't like. Pretty please share your recipes with me either in the comments below or via my email which is chelannybobanny (at) gmail (dot) com. This really is a desperate cry for help here because Parker and I are getting pretty sick of the few meals I actually know how to make.... And who knows, perhaps I'll find one I love and feature it on my blog one day haha!

Thanks in advance for your help! xoxo!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Parker's Birthday!

Since we moved less than a week before Parker's birthday and we had to fit all of our belongings into our small car, I couldn't do Parker's birthday gift shopping while we were still in Utah. And of course it didn't even cross my mind to shop online while in Utah and then have things sent to our Montana address so everything would be there on time. Instead, I waited until we were in Canada for a few days, then I got Amazon Prime and ordered his gifts on there.... with Prime you're supposed to have 2 day shipping, so the way I planned it out everything I ordered was supposed to be delivered by his birthday. But of course this didn't actually happen right?! (I'll also mention that its been almost a week and his gifts haven't all arrived yet). Needless to say, I really dropped the ball. Which, unfortunately, is a common occurrence in our house. I was determined to make his birthday good regardless of his gifts not coming on time.

Parker requested crepes for breakfast and his grandparents were willing to teach me how to make them. They turned out so well and we had a lovely crepe breakfast feast! He then wanted to go golfing, so we took advantage of his free birthday round at Lee Creek Valley Golf Course here in Cardston and he played the whole 18 holes (very well, might I add) while I watched from the cart. I opted out of playing with him because I would have slowed us down another hour or two haha! We were blessed with beautiful weather the entire day! After golf, we went back home and ate some lunch, relaxed, watched some HGTV (our fav!), and dozed a little bit. Parker's grandparents cooked up a delicious steak dinner, per Parker's request, as well as some yummy carrot cake! After dinner we took off to my parent's house to watch game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Obviously, Parker being from Ohio, he wanted the Cavs to win.... unfortunately, they didn't realize that it was his birthday because they lost the game...... My mom made her awesome caramel popcorn for us to snack on during the game, which made it not such a horrible loss. I had my mom print off pictures of Parker's gifts that were in the mail and I wrapped the pictures up in different size boxes so he would have at least something to open on his actual birthday. Its tradition in our house to hide the birthday gifts and then the birthday boy has to go find them while the rest of the family guides them around by saying warm, warmer, hot, hotter, boiling, etc. until they find all their gifts. Parker seemed pleased with his gifts so I'm hoping he wasn't too disappointed that they weren't here on time.

I sure hope he had a good birthday! I know I enjoyed having a whole day to celebrate him! I'm so grateful my best friend was born 23 years ago!!!