Man, lots of changes recently. First of all, my old phone of 4 years finally died....she wouldn't let me into the menu or let me press enter, so I had like 10 text messages that I couldn't read, which was a tad bit frustrating. Anyway, so I have a new phone! I beautiful, fun, way to distracting iPhone. So, I'm having a lot of fun with that...figuring out Siri and the GPS and playing too many games and stuff. haha.

I'm moving!!!! Surprise! Now, before any of you freak out, it's just down the street from where I'm living now, but it will be quite the change: 4 roommates to six, sharing a bathroom with 1 girl to sharing a bathroom with 5 girls (who had the brilliant idea to put only 1 shower in an apartment of 6 girls anyway?!), a new ward, living away for the summer, a large bedroom to a ...not so large bedroom, knowing all of my roommates to not knowing any of my roommates. But it will be a grand adventure!!!

Another exciting thing: some great people in my ward and I have started a dinner group! It's so much fun and I love not having to worry about dinner every night and I actually rather enjoy cooking for people, so double bonus for me. We've been going for a week so far and it's great! You all should try it sometime. :)

Next: my wardrobe. Well...at least some of it. My dear friend Katie and I went shopping the other week and we got me some amazing deals on kind of a new style of clothing for me. And I have to say, I love it! I feel more comfortable and pretty and I just love new clothes in general. :)

And the last...well, it's bittersweet. Friends come and friends go. I've had so much change in this category over the past couple of years, but I guess that's all part of the point of life that I'm in. One thing I have to say I don't like about college is that people move away. Many of the friends that I've made this semester and gotten really close to...they're graduating in two months and moving on with life. I know it's not practical, but I'd like to keep everyone I love in one area! Gr...just one of the frustrations of life I guess. But anyway, it's great to meet new people and have amazing, fun times, but (and I know this sounds cheesy, but you should know me well enough by now to know I'm completely cheesy, so just deal with it) my heart aches when people who I've been friends with for long periods of time just either fade or we just have to go our separate ways. Some of them have been my choice, and some of them have been theirs. It's just hard sometimes, but I guess it's for the best.

But enough complaining from me. The sun is shining, and it's been incredibly warm! My sister and I actually went and got ice cream the other day and just sat outside on the grass. It was wonderful!!!! School is half-way over and then I'll be free for 4 months! Woot! Life really is so great. And it's amazing how much better it is when you are living the Gospel. I'm telling you people: IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!! I'm just super grateful that Heavenly Father has so much patience for me, because I certainly need it. But anyway, have a wonderful day!!!!

P.S. I just got a whole bunch of new assignments for work, so look for new sewing projects coming!!!

PPS. The Vow was kinda disappointing, but I cannot wait for The Lucky One! Have you seen the trailer? My future husband sure does look hot!!! ;)

PPPS. I've discovered I love NCIS.

PPPPS...Boys are confusing. Boys say girls are confusing.....but no, it's the other way around.

Pinteresting it up!

One of my new year's resolutions was to make actual meals for myself this semester to eat a little bit healthier (since my schedule last semester made my eating habits totally wacko). And I have a plethora of new recipes to try from Pinterest, and so far they have been quite successful, so I thought I would share the ideas with all of you!

Here we have the Buffalo Ranch Chicken Tacos.

Ingredients:

-1 pound chicken breasts, skinless, boneless, cut into 1-inch pieces

-1/3 cup flour

-3 Tablespoons cornstarch

-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

-1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce (I used Franks Buffalo Wing), plus extra for topping

-1 Tablespoon olive oil

-10 6-inch yellow corn tortillas

Toppings:

Shredded lettuce

Green onions, sliced thinly

Cilantro

Avocado slices

Ranch dressing

Preparation:

Ina large bowl, combine cornstarch, flour, cayenne, and garlic powder. Season the chicken pieces with pepper, then cook until done in the olive oil. Once done, dredge in the flour mixture until pieces are evenly coated. Toss chicken with 1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce. Assemble 10 tacos (or however many desired).

Now, I have to say with this one that the original recipe says to put the chicken in the flour mixture before you cook it, but I was afraid the chicken wouldn't get cooked all the way through, so if you decide to try it that way, let me know how it goes! But it really was such an easy, tasty dish!

This is the Avocado Chicken Parmesiana
Ingredients:
-2 chicken breasts, cut in half lengthways
-1/2 cup plain flour
-2 Tablespoons fresh milk
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 cups dried breadcrumbs (I used Ritz crackers)
-2 Tablespoons olive oil/cooking spray
-1/2 cup tomato pasta sauce
-2 avocados, sliced
-1/2 cup grated mozarella cheese

Instructions:
It says to first pound the chicken with a meat mallet, but I didn't have one of those, so I just skipped that step, but if you have one, go for it!
Place flour and breadcrumbs on two separate plate and lightly whisk milk and
egg together in a shallow bowl. Coat 1 piece of chicken breast in flour(shaking off excess), dip in egg mixture then coat in breadcrumbs using your fingertips pressing on to secure. Place on prepared baking tray lay with foil or baking paper, repeat the same process with the remaining chicken breast with flour, egg and etc. Lightly spray or brush the prepared chicken with oil, bake for 30-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from oven and spread each chicken breast with 1 heaped tablespoon of pasta sauce. Arrange avocado slices over sauce and sprinkle with a decent amount of mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and bake for another 5 - 7 minutes or until golden and chicken is cooked through.
Serve with either garden salad or use it as a main topping on cooked pasta.

And this one I don't have a picture of, because I forgot to take a picture before we ate it and I put the rest in a tupperware in the fridge, and now somehow it doesn't look quite as nice as it did when it came out of the oven. But anyway, this is the Doritos Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
-2c. shredded cooked chicken
-1 c. shredded cheese (or more if you are a cheese hound)
-1 can cream of chicken soup
-1/2 cup milk
-1/2 cup sour cream
-1 can Ro-tel tomatoes (canned tomatoes with jalepenos-mild)
-1/2 packet taco seasoning (or more- to taste)
-Bag of doritos
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350-f degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except doritos. In a greased 2 qt baking dish, put a layer of crushed doritos (about 2 cups), then a layer of the chicken mixture. Repeat once more, ending with a layer of chicken mixture. Top with more shredded cheese, cover, and bake for 30-35 minutes, till bubbling hot.

This one was so good that the friend that I had over went back for thirds! And it's not bad as leftovers either, as I've been discovering the past few days. haha. But with husbands or kids, it's sure to be a crowd favorite!

I know this is kind of a long post, but I hope that you enjoy these dinners as much as I and my roommates and friends did. I'll try to post some more recipes as I find good ones! Happy cooking! (I've been watching WAY too much Chef Pepin on the create channel at work...haha)

Luckiest Moment of My Life

Let me tell you a story. So yesterday my friend Jeff and I went to a place called Nickel City to play some arcade games. (Speaking of arcade games, I've decided that they are a Mormon and children's version of gambling, but that's a topic for another day.) Anyway, when I go to an arcade, I don't play the games just to play, like the racing or hunting games or even dance dance revolution. You want to know why? Because you don't get tickets from those games! And what fun is it going to an arcade if you don't get to see how many tickets you can win?

Well, Jeff and I were doing pretty well in the ticket area. We'd won 70 tickets playing Deal or No Deal and we were pretty happy. We were spending our last few tokens on a bouncy ball game.....when we won the Monster Jackpot!!!! Worth 999 tickets! I was jumping up and down because it was so unexpected and I was so excited. And this lady came up to us and said, "Congratulations you guys, I've been trying to get that for the past 3 weeks!" Haha. JACKPOT!!!!

We could barely keep ahold of them all as they kept coming out of the machine and we had to go ask the manager to put more tickets in because it ran out! We ended up with almost 2000 tickets, which I think is a record for me. And I got a cute little teal monkey with my share of the tickets. I still need a name for him though. . . any ideas? Anyway, it was a grand moment in my life. One I'll always remember *sniff sniff*.

Keep smiling. Life is good!