New Blog!

Guess what! I finally got a ".com" and created a new blogsite for myself.

From now on I'll be writing over at http://manionamor.com/. Go check it out! And let me know what you think!

 

Super Bowl Party

I know it's probably not hard to believe that I don't like watching football, but this year I kind of did it. In fact, I sat on the couch in front of the TV the entire time the Super Bowl was on. Not exactly the same thing, but still, pretty impressive when you think about my past track record. The reason why I agreed to this in the first place? So I could have an excuse to throw a small party. Okay "party" is used pretty loosely here; it was only Grant and I and Nick & Briana. But still! It gave me an excuse to make some cute food and decorate the table. And we had fun hanging out with the Godfreys, just as we always do.

The spread:

Cheese & Crackers:

Football Brownies:

Sliders & Toppings:

Football No-Bake Cookies:

Chips & Salsa:

Football Chocolate-Covered Strawberries:

Pretty fun!
 

Management Retreat

I have an incredible job. Not only do I love the work, but I also love the people with whom I work. This is especially good because we went on a Management Retreat the last weekend in January and I spent all weekend with my two bosses and the other manager, Annie, at our company. We worked a lot, but we also had a ton of fun.

We left around 2pm on Friday and drove to our hotel in Frisco. We were greeted with a basket full of treats and office supplies (my favorite), along with our itinerary for the weekend. We spent an hour or two getting some work done, and then Annie and I took off for our mall scavenger hunt. We had to take pictures laying on a love sac, wearing sunglasses, riding the carrousel, and posing next to a mannequin. We also had to collect the business card of the best salesman and worst salesman, a wedding registry, a perfume sample, and a movie ticket stub. And we had to find out our sleep number, get our eyes done in two different mascara colors, and visit the Apple store to find inspiration. We had notebooks that we used to take notes on the different types of customer service we saw--noting what we liked and what we didn't like. It was a very interesting experience. Some people went out of their way (and literally came out of their stores) to help us, while others barely looked up over their books or cell phones.

After the scavenger hunt, we ate dinner at Bucca di Beppo in the kitchen (which was awesome) and then ended the night back at our hotel working some more.

The next morning we made some plans for our office over breakfast and then headed out to do some shopping at Target and Ikea. We found a lot of great ideas for our office at both places and have already started to implement some of the things we thought of.

After our shopping experience (Ikea on a Saturday? Exhausting.), we went to The Float Spot to float for an entire hour! Have you ever heard of floating before? It was incredible. Check out their website here and watch the video. We were each in our own pod, which is full of water and 500 pounds of epson salts. As soon as you slip in, you immediately float to the surface of the water. Each pod is more concentrated than the dead sea! We could choose music and whether or not to have lights on, and then just had an entire hour to relax. The water is set to the exact same temperature of the surface of your skin, so after a while you can't tell the difference between your body and the surrounding water. Crazy, right? It was so relaxing! And before we went in, we each had a 10-minute hydro massage. I loved the entire thing!

The next day (Sunday) we ended our retreat with a two-hour yoga session with Moniek (Shauna and Jill's favorite instructor). It was so awesome and very relaxing. So although we got a lot of work done, we also had a much-needed relaxing weekend.

Meals this Week

One thing Grant and I have been trying to work on this year is eating more meals at home, and--here's the kicker--not out of a box. Yes, I admit it. We love Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I blame it on my mom really--I was never allowed to have it as a kid! I always had the healthy stuff--you know, the all-natural white cheese shells. And of course I loved them, but that's because I didn't know what I was missing out on! (Wait, when did this turn into a rant about my love for Mac & Cheese?)

Getting back on track...We've been making an effort since we moved into our new apartment and here's what we've come up with so far:

Friday night we had Nick and Briana over for dinner to repay them for making such delicious Peruvian food for us. We knew we couldn't make anything foreign, but Grant does make a mean ginger sauce to go with our favorite hibachi-style meal.

And for dessert I made a chocolate mousse pie with Cadbury eggs on top.

The next morning I woke up early (well early for a Saturday...it was 9:30) and decided to make Grant and I a big breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and steak.

We continued to eat our hibachi leftovers throughout the week, but we did take a break from it one night when I cooked up a chicken breast that I had leftover from when I made enchiladas a week ago. I didn't want it to go bad so I experimented with breading it (without bread crumbs since I realized too late I didn't have any) and baking it. It turned out really good so I was happy about that.

As lame as it might be, I decided taking pictures of the food I make might be some kind of motivation for me to cook more. I bet you're going to get sick of seeing our dinner plates pretty soon!

All Moved In

One week later and Grant and I are all moved in. Not too bad, right? We actually got everything unpacked, besides decorations and books, by last Monday and then didn't get around to pulling out the decorations and sorting through our boxes of books until last Thursday. But now our apartment is completely unpacked and set up and it feels like home, which is such a great feeling. I love the area we live in, I love our ward, and I love our apartment complex. The gym is really nice (and so close to our apartment) and the pool, even though I'm pretty sure we won't be going for a while, is beautiful. Everyone we've met here has been really helpful and nice. So far so good.

I made some attempt to clean up tonight and take pictures of everything. The pictures never come out right, but you'll get the general idea.

Bedroom:

Bathroom:

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Desk Nook (off the kitchen):

Kitchen:

That's our laundry room through that door. I would have taken pictures but let's be honest, it's not that interesting. I might post more pictures of our kitchen in a couple of weeks because we're getting all of the appliances switched out. Instead of white, we're going to have a new stainless steel fridge, microwave, stove, and dishwasher. They're also going to replace all the gold knobs for brass. I'm pretty excited--it should look really nice when it's all finished.

And did you notice my new pillows? I made those when I was home in Connecticut in December. I'm so happy with how they turned out and they look so much better than the old ones.

From this

 To this.

Quite an improvement, right? They fit my style and my furniture much better I think. And they were my first pillows I've ever made, so it just feels good to complete that kind of a project. Grant likes them too. Bonus! I had plans to recover my chair (the one that used to be in the same fabric as the red striped pillows) in the gold/brown/grey fabric you see on the pillows now, but apparently I got this fabric for a steal. When I saw it in Connecticut it was only $3.00 a yard. Everywhere else it's $40.00 a yard...so that's probably not going to happen. I'm watching to see if it ever goes on sale again.

My next project is making a coffee table for our living room. I saw something on Pinterest that gave me the idea and Grant and I started it last night. It'll probably take a few days, but I'm very excited about it! I'll post pictures as soon as it's all done. Wish me luck!