I've been doing my best to keep Matthew well fed. When I was just cooking for myself, I thought I was pretty good that whipping up delightful dinners, but cooking for two has thrown me for a loop! Especially trying to compete with Matthew for Best Cook - He is amazing! My man has the Midas Touch when it comes to the kitchen - time and time again, he reaches into our refrigerator with one hand and to the stove with the other and magically creates something both beautiful AND delicious, when I was SURE we had nothing to eat. I'll never understand how he does it! But I'm grateful!
Out of fear of ruining dinner, I do very little experimenting while I cook. I mean really, ruining dinner is bad news bears! Not only have you wasted a lot of good food - but you still don't have anything to eat! Siiigh.
This weekend though, I forced myself out on a limb and did some ego-pumping up by creating my own bacon smothered chicken. :) Mmm... halved chicken breasts, stuffed with cheese and bacon, wraped in bacon strips. (precooked, and rubbed with brown sugar and pepper). Then baked them in cream of mushroom soup and served over white rice. YUM! I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time!
All in all - it was an amazing weekend! But how could it not be?.. We're newlyweds!
Weekends have never been better! I just cant get enough of those minutes between 5:00 pm Friday and 5:59 Monday morning! No one told me that once you are married the weekend turns into mini vacations every time! Conference was the perfect excuse to pull out the hid-a-bed, our notes books and pens and stay in our pajamas all weekend! Siiigh... Life can't get any better than this. :)
Conference was a good experience. As usual, I have a list of areas that I am set on improving in. I love our Prophet Thomas S. Monson with all my heart and soul and definitely have a secret old-lady crush on our LDS - silver fox President President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
I watched conference this time with a little different view in mind. In one of my classes, we were assigned to listen to a speech and write an evaluation on it. A girl in my class, who is not religious - and is not very fond of the LDS Church asked me what time our conference was showing. She commented that she had to watch some of it in order complete our evaluation assignment and was sure to mention that she wasn't happy about it. I have really come to like her over the semester, and I spent most of conference trying to think of things as if I were her. Obviously there were a lot of things that I wouldn't understand, every time the "great and spacious building" was mention, I had to smile to myself, I'm sure a lot of the typical "mormon" terms are pretty confusing to people not familiar with our beliefs. We may even sound nuts! But over all, even trying to put myself in the shoes of the other 6,756,823,885 people in the world, who believe in something else, or nothing at all, I was as I always am, so impressed with how in tune the brethren are to the needs of the day. They know (through divine inspiration), exactly what is needed. I believe that. The principles that were taught this weekend will not only help improve the lives of our church members, but even if their council is taken at face value, as if it were just advice from old men, they could really change the world if they were applied to the lives of the masses. Imagine, if six billion people were a little kinder to each other - judged each other less, gave to the poor a little more, had more hope, tried to be more educated, more honest, what if six billion people suddenly got more involved in their communities and more importantly, what if 6 billion people got just a little more involved in their families - imagine the difference it could make!
I know that the instruction we heard this weekend was more than just good advice - it was divine commandment. and I am SO proud and grateful that I belong to a church that promotes such goodness! Dang straight I'm proud!
It was mind opening experience though, to try to see our teaching through the eyes of someone with different beliefs. I remember growing up in Washington, being one of two LDS kids in my school, and how different things were - I have gotten pretty used to living in LDSville and I think it can be hard to remembered that there are others out there. :) I hope my classmate watched a talk that struck a good cord with her. I'll have to ask what she heard.. Maybe it will improve her view of the gospel or at least, like it did for me, open my mind up to the thoughts of others.
Matthew is heading to New York this weekend for a business expo with Orange Soda! It will be a great trip for Matthew though. He was a NYNYS missionary (New York, New York South Mission) and I'm sure he will be stoked to trek over his old mission places and see people he knew while there. He will also interview with several companies while he is in the big city - he promises that they are just for his practice and experience, but everything he lays his hands on turns to gold, so I'm a little bit wary.
While I'm so excited for him, I wont lie, I'm going to miss him like crazy! He will be gone for 6 days - the longest time we've been apart since the day we met. And while I don't think of myself as a clingy person - I have to face the facts. I'm madly in love with him and I don't want to see him go. :)
Work has been pretty slow lately and after looking through mountains of online recipes for two, decorating tips, do-it-yourself projects and "how to be a better wife" guides (I've even combed Wikipedia for the Jonas Brothers - I have to make sure my sister's celebrity crush is worth while...) I have extinguished my desire to every be online again. BUT boredom reigns and here I am once more. I've decided to revive the blog idea. Possibly to Matthew's chagrin. :)
I want to throw a thank you out there to the many many people who were so helpful while we planned our wedding. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Also we appreciate so very much the many gifts we were showered with. Several of them were recieved without a name or card, and we want everyone to know how much we appreciate your kindness. Thank you for helping us get started as a family! We have been so blessed! Listed below are some of the gifts we recieved that had no information attached. Please let us know if you know where these came from, we want to make sure everyone knows how much they have meant to us!
A double set of White Towels: These were recieved my bridal luncheon in December. We searched but could not find the givers name, these have been so wonderful! THANK YOU!We are loving these towel sets!
A 44 piece set of dishes from Bed Bath and Beyond. Somehow this came with no information, and BB could not tell us who it was from. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Ah! Here we are! The Yack's are one month old and kickin! Yesterday we celebrated our one month "anniversary" as a family. I cant believe its already been a month!
We are mostly settled into our little apartment. I use little relatively, its much bigger than we expected to find! We live in a split level four-plex near Barnes and Noble. With two rooms, one and half bath, living room, dinning area and kitchen - it is PERFECT for all the junk I hauled here! Matthew has done an amazing job at getting us all let up! In the last four weeks we have outfitted our home with a a kitchen table, couch, easy chair, computer desk and hutch, book shelf, entertainment center, and finally a washer and dryer! I feel like a queen in my very own hive, Matthew however must feel like a worker bee.
and so we're off! Between work and school we are pretty swamped. But we still find time to play!
