World of Warcraft - My Lovely Guild.

So if you're not a WoWer (what I call people who play World of Warcraft) or my family who listens to me ramble all of the time about WoW and occasionally puts up with me while I raid at the dinner table (I'm guild leader, kind of have to show up for my own raids) you'll have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. Just jump to yesterday's post and read that instead, sorry.

I just wanted to talk about how much I love my guild. Two coworkers and I started our own guild a few years ago. We were casual players and weren't into the super intense raiding scene but also were tired of getting tells like, "hey, join my guild ." I mean really, there are several guilds on my server with misspelled words in their name, not going to happen. Anyway, we made our own guild and as I had been playing a lot longer and had more WoW experience, I became guild leader. We invited a few of our irl friends and we soon had an awesome local guild. Our first guild "meeting" (meeting means drunk fest) had just enough of us show up to a dive bar/pizza joint to fill up one of those large half circle booths. We had such a great time. Subsequent meet ups featured me getting a lip piercing on a whim and a mini corn dog eating contest at a local bar, and lots of nerdy WoW conversations and discussions.

I love my guild because we ask each other questions, we share things; gear, information, mats - even when we could sell them in the AH for a lot of money. We give each other free power leveling run throughs all of the time and most of us have at least one refer-a-friend mount because that is how much we love to play with our irl friends. We may be a small guild that can barely get enough people to show up to down lvl 80 raid bosses (I think I've had a full raid group only once), but we kill them anyway, we don't mind wiping a couple times. I can't wait until we have enough lvl 85s that are geared enough to tackle heroics with me. It's lonely being the only one from my guild in a group.

We may not be the largest or most geared guild but we are great friends, we are helpful, and we have a lot of heart. I'm really proud of all of my guildies for their accomplishments and I can't wait until we get our next guild reward.

I mean really, how many guilds do you know of that plan a hot tub party where at least 6 or 7 people showed up in Azshara just to hang out in the hot tub and jump off the diving board? We're awesome!

Vintage Salt & Pepper Shakers.

By now you all know how much I am loving my time spent in the kitchen. Awhile back I featured these awesome salt & pepper shakers on an etsy treasury I had made and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them since. I'd run into similar ones all over the internet so I finally went back and made them my own from TheVintageApartment. I can't wait for them to arrive so I can fill them full of some Salty & Peppy. My favorite part is that they belong to two different sets and yet look so cute together. I guess the old adage that opposites attract is true. I think their names might be backwards though because she looks rather salty and he looks kind of peppy.

Laundry Hell.

Ugh. When Jake's mom moved out and got her own apartment she took the washer and dryer with her, as they were hers. Not having a washer and dryer sucks but we both seem to have a lot of clothes so we kept putting off going to the laundromat. We're moving next week so it was time to take care of our laundry. We took 5 big totes full of dirty clothes, blankets and towels. It ended up being 11 loads of laundry. The laundromat itself wasn't too bad (except for the guy who spent 30 minutes in the men's bathroom and then left the bathroom door wide open). We got Taco Bell and had fun goofing off together.

Everything was hunky dory until we started folding our clothes. One load had weird spots on a few of the items, ruining my favorite hoodie, a tank top, and a few of Jake's shirts. I have no idea where the spots came from since there was nothing that color in the load. A few loads later, everything was tinted light yellow. There wasn't anything yellow in the load. I have no idea where the yellow came from but it ended up ruining even more articles of clothing. So yay, I have to pay to use your machines that ruin my clothes.

It really pissed me off but I tried to just let it slide. At least our laundry is already clean and packed in totes. I've been saving up for a washer and dryer and right now I have enough for one but not both. I might have to use that money to help us move though depending on whether or not we need to rent a U-haul. I'm really hoping it's a not because I am over laundromats. They sucked in college and they suck now.

An Award?!?

Clair (who is really sweet) over at The Upside Down Cupcake (awesome blog, it's even on my short list over on the right, go read it) gave me a blogging award (I told you she is sweet). I'm supposed to be getting our laundry together to go to the laundromat but I'm doing this instead. Thank you so much Clair, I feel special and I love the excuse to procrastinate on the laundry.

So part of this award is that I'm supposed to link back to the blogger who gave it to me, tell you 7 random things about myself, and pass it on to a few other deserving bloggers. I'm not going to pass it along though because I'm a party pooper. I normally don't participate in blog awards because they get passed around so often but I thought it was super sweet of Clair to give me one. Plus, I just suck at finding other people to give an award to that don't already have one and I give up.

Do you really care to hear 7 random things about me? No? Too damn bad.

1. I am crafty. I like to make flower headbands and greeting cards. Soon I will be reopening my etsy shop. Watch out world.

2. I cut off my hair to donate to locks of love. Although I'm glad that it went to a good cause, I miss my hair and will probably never do it again.

3. We have 3 cats and I totally have a favorite. I can't help it. I'm a bad cat mommy.

4. I refuse to use white plastic hangers. I hate them. Any color but boring old white please.

5. My current bedroom wall is covered in some sweet homemade diamonds. I would've given you a tutorial except I just left Jake with some rulers and tape and he did it all himself. I have no idea how, and I'm good with that.

6. I used to only ever wear high heels. I have a beautiful collection. For the last few years I have only worn flats. At least my heels look pretty in my closet collecting dust.

7. Someday I'd like to run my own successful business. I'm not really sure what it would be though. If that doesn't end up happening, I want to work from home. I'm sick of being nice to pita customers to make a dime for someone else.

If you are looking for other great blogs to read, here are some of my favorites:

The Tsaritsa Says

The Word For Love Is

A Beautiful Mess

Kamui Cosplay

Extreme Couponing = Insanity?

Everyone is trying to save money with the economy how it is, but some people are on a whole different level. Last night I watched a show on TLC about extreme couponing. I had read about it before but this just reinforced to me that this is both brilliant and insane. Extreme couponing is where you wait until a time when a particular item is on sale at the store and you also have coupons for it, whether they're from the internet, circulars, or dumpster diving. Then you buy that item using the coupon which essentially makes it free. You buy enough of that item so that you won't need to purchase it until it goes on sale again, which is generally every 3 months.

These people spend hours preparing for their shopping excursions. If you have the time and the tenacity, more power to you. They are getting thousands of dollars of food for practically nothing. I like to save a few dollars and I do clip coupons, but I just can't see myself going to this extreme (Jake says he can picture me doing this).

If you're interested in becoming an extreme couponer, howtoshopforfree is a good place to learn the ropes. Even if you don't want to be quite so extreme, she posts links to online coupon sites.

The thing about coupons is that a lot of times people get excited about the prospect of saving money and they use a coupon just because they have it. They end up purchasing something they normally wouldn't have, which means they just ended up spending extra money. I try really hard to only use coupons for things I would normally be purchasing anyway.

A lot of companies will mail you packets of coupons and free samples. Register here and here.

Pulled Pork in the Crock Pot.

I've been wanting to make pulled pork for a long time and now that I have a crock pot I got busy digging up recipes (if you have a smoker, that's the better way to make it). There are so many recipes online so I took ideas from several and composed my own recipe. For pulled pork you should use a shoulder cut. There are two, the Boston Butt and the Picnic Roast. Basically you just want a fatty cut, it's perfectly okay for it to have a bone, it helps to flavor the meat. Once you've decided on your cut, you're ready to go.

You'll need:

Pork

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Root Beer

Favorite BBQ sauce (we like hickory & brown sugar)

Rolls/Hamburger buns

Mix your garlic, salt and pepper, and any other favorite spices and rub onto the meat. Let sit for 30 min - 1 hr. Put your shoulder into the crock pot and cover in root beer (I used Henry Weinhard's). Cook on low for around 6 hours or until you can easily pull the meat apart with two forks. Drain any leftover root beer, pull all meat apart and put back in crock pot. Add BBQ sauce and mix with meat. Let cook on low for 30 min - 1hr. Put your yummy smelling meat on rolls and serve. It's a really simple meal that everyone loves and takes almost no effort on your part. Heck yes!

Note: Some people like to poke holes in their meat with a knife or fork before cooking to absorb more of the root beer for flavor.

Ana-White

Very Pretty Farmhouse Bed.

Have you guys heard of www.Ana-White.com? It's a DIY furniture website that has many amazing projects. Often times you see something really awesome and beautiful in the store but you can't justify spending so much money on it, that's where this site comes in. She has tutorials on how to make all of those beautiful pieces of furniture for a lot less money, often times around $50-$150. All of the instructions are included from material lists, step by steps, and even videos. You can also keep a to do list of the projects you'd like to create.

I know Jake already has a honey do list saved as we don't have a kitchen table or a bed frame. I think he's actually excited to make them though; he likes puzzles and challenges. This particular table is the one on the honey do list. We both absolutely love it.

We Got the House!!

You guys should've seen me twirl around our living room floor. We got our house, our dream house. We get to rent it and they said they're willing to sell it to us in a few years when Jake's foreclosure is all over and done with. I am so excited! I love this house. It is so beautiful. I can't wait to move in and take pictures to show everyone. Also, it has an amazing kitchen, seriously, it's nice and big, bright, and airy. Don't worry, I'll give you lots of pictures just as soon as I can. Yay! Time to bust out some wine and celebrate. Oh wait, it's Sunday, no wine on Sundays in Utah.

Bulk Foods.

I've been wanting to use more bulk foods in my cooking so I went to the grocery store's bulk food section and was amazed at everything I found there. They have rice, pasta, flour, seeds, grains, candy, dried fruit, and even dog food. It gave me so many ideas for cooking and I bought a lot of stuff. Then when I got it all home I had lots of bags of bulk food and nowhere to put it. You can't keep it in cloth because if it gets any moisture it will rot all of your foods. The best thing is to put it in some kind of air tight container such as plastic but you want to make sure you use a food grade plastic. I decided to use 1/2 gallon mason jars instead. I prefer the look of glass and I think plastic is bad for the environment and that sometimes your food will take on a plastic like flavor. If you're saving for a nuclear holocaust or something, 1/2 gallon jars won't be big enough but for just everyday use, they're a nice size and they look really pretty on the shelf.

It can be difficult to find mason jars that size but I've had luck at Ace Hardware.

Trail Mix.

I've been trying to make healthy snacks for us so while in the bulk food section the other day, I decided to pick up some stuff to make trail mix. All of these items were found in bulk foods and I saved myself a lot of money because I didn't buy the prepackaged versions of these items. The awesome thing about trail mix is that you can customize it to your own tastes. Ours has almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, craisins, and mini m&ms. Yum!

Sweet Potato Fries.

I've never been a fan of sweet potato fries from restaurants but I decided to make some myself, on a whim, and they were so so good. I mean, way better than any I've ever tried at restaurants. Here is my recipe for awesomely yummy sweet potato fries.

Preheat oven to 375

2 sweet potatoes (this was enough for 2 people)

1/2 onion

2 cloves minced garlic

salt

pepper

lawry's seasoned salt

extra virgin olive oil

Peel potatoes and chop them into the regular french fry shape.

Chop onion into strips

Add other ingredients and mix in a large bowl, be sure everything is lightly covered in olive oil

Place on baking sheet and bake 20-30 min

Optional: broil the fries for just a few minutes to make them a little crispier, be sure to keep a Close eye on them to avoid burning.

Let cool and enjoy!

If you're like me and you love onions, these onions are seriously delicious.

Nicole Kidman.

I've always liked Nicole Kidman but she kind of comes of as an ice queen at times. However, does anyone else think she seems happier, friendlier and more accessible since marrying Keith Urban? I like her so much more now. I mean, watch her sing along to a Katy Perry song at 3:36, it's kind of adorable. Way to show some personality and not be a robot anymore (I know it was the after effects of being married to Tom Cruise, no worries)!

Awesome Breakfast Food.

This morning I made these awesome flaxseed bran muffins. I've never been much of a muffin person but Jake really liked them.

Preheat oven to 350.

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat bran

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1 cup applesauce

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 T peanut butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

milk of your choice until moist enough

Add any nuts, fruits, choc chips, etc that you'd like (I added craisins)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, cook in cupcake pan.

The recipe didn't give a specific amount for milk so I used a little over 1/2 a cup and then added more to the remaining batter that didn't fit in the first batch. I liked them with less milk, Jake liked them with more.

The recipe for Egg Muffins can be found on Kalyn's Kitchen. I love scrambled eggs, in fact, that's the only way I like my eggs cooked (other than hard boiled). These are basically just scrambled eggs but somehow, when baked, they taste even better than regular scrambled eggs. Also, they are in cute little cupcake wrappers, what's not to love?

Produce Bag Sets.

In the spirit of yesterday's post I stumbled upon these awesome farmer's market produce bags on etsy today.

Zenthreads also sells some cool rooster towels that I really like. They're priced really well too compared to a lot of similar towels on etsy. In fact, that shop is full of hand printed eco friendly awesomeness at great prices.

Green Living in the Kitchen.

bag found at WasteNotSaks, along with many other cute reusable sandwich and snack bags.

If you know me you'll know I am an advocate for recycling but there is so much more we can do for the environment in our everyday lives other than just get 5 cents for our cans and bottles and get rid of the annoyingly giant stack of newspapers. With this in mind, I was very inspired by this post by Kristina over at Lovely Morning. She very thoroughly goes through all of the areas in the kitchen that produce waste and offers a waste less alternative. As we're moving soon, and we'll have a brand new kitchen I thought it would be the perfect time to implement all of her wonderful ideas.

I've already purchased and begun using glass jars from Ikea to store our leftovers. Not only does it beat the plastic tupperware that you're constantly replacing because they're all different sizes and you lost the lid, but they make your leftovers look so much prettier and more appetizing. Soon I'll be ordering some paperless paper towels and I'm really excited for them as I absolutely loathe paper towels even though they are so useful. I've also been saving pieces of fabric to make my own napkins. I already have a set of 4 my sister gifted me a few years ago.

In addition to making my kitchen more environmentally friendly, I have goals to use more bulk foods such as beans in my cooking and to plan meals in advance so I'm not trying to figure out what to cook at the last minute since that usually ends in me ordering pizza.

You can find all kinds of great bags to store your fresh veggies in at Eco Bags.

We're Back from Idaho.

We just got back from Idaho last night. It was a fun trip and we found the most amazing house. I really hope we get it. As soon as we walked in I thought, "hey! This is my dream home!" I'm trying not to get my hopes up though just in case someone else gets it. The nice pretty house was the last one we looked at after a long line of scary and crappy houses. We looked at one that was pepto bismol pink on the inside and you're not allowed to paint it. We also checked out a house where you could smell the neighbor's animal infested house from next door. It was disgusting.

While in Idaho we stayed at Jake's sister's house and we spent a lot of time at his other sister's house. One of them has a 3 year old daughter who is hilarious. She told me, "I have blonde hair, you have brown hair, Jake has black hair, but not very much." She kept me laughing all weekend.

Also, while driving I realized the entire town of Jerome, ID smells like cow poo. I would suggest not living there because it's really really bad. In fact, be prepared to clothespin your nose shut as you drive by as well.

My Friends are Blogging!

Some of my lovely friends have started to blog! This makes me so happy. Joy is someone I met at a summer camp I went to in Idaho when I was 15 or 16. If I could only use one word to describe her it would be sunshiney. That's not even a word but it's the one I would use. Joy is an aspiring photographer and she posts her thoughts and photos at Joyous Occasion.

My best friend growing up, Sarah, has recently started blogging as well at Baby Fox on the Way. I've been bugging her to do it for years but she felt like she didn't have anything to write about. Well, it's been almost a year since she and Andrew were married and they recently found out that they're expecting. The little one has been dubbed Baby Foxy Pants and I am so excited to follow Sarah's pregnancy journey as they wait for the little one to arrive!

I'm really excited to follow their blogs and watch how their blogs grow and evolve as they get the hang of this blogging thing. Good luck ladies!

Domain Names.

Did you guys know it's super easy to register your domain name through Blogger (Google) and it's only $10 for one year? I was sick of typing .blogspot.com whenever I linked my blogs anywhere so I am now www.trailergypsy.net and www.bebeandjays.com, finally. It really irked me that I had to register as .net for this blog rather than .com because some jerk had already registered this name as .com even though they're not using it at all. It is possible to sometimes buy the domain from the owner but that is generally a lot more expensive and I'm anti negotiating when I can just get .net for $10. Seems much more reasonable to me.

If you are at Blogger and you're interested in doing this go to Dashboard > Settings > Publishing > Custom Domain. It's really easy to register and they'll change the url for you.

Happy V Day!

I went and volunteered today and finished a very long project I had been working on for weeks. That felt good! Then I went to Target and picked up the Zac Brown Band c.d.s for Jake. He has mentioned several times, "I really like that guy's voice." I also bought him a red heart shaped box of chocolates because that's basically required and a card with a guitar on the front by Papyrus. Did you know they sell Papyrus cards at Target? I didn't.

Next I went to the awesome gourmet grocery store which is my new favorite place and picked up some asparagus and halibut. I had never cooked halibut before but it's Jake's favorite and fish is generally pretty easy to cook.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Butter a piece of foil large enough to wrap around the fish in a little oven

Squeeze fresh lemon on the filet

Bake for 10 min per inch of thickness

I haven't decided what I want for Valentines Day yet. I'm kind of leaning toward some supplies to get me started quilting but I'll probably wait until after we get back from Boise this weekend just in case we find a place and have to spend a bunch of money on deposits.

Our Struggles.

Things aren't always easy for us. Jake was in the Army for 8 years and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom III. After he returned home he was working a great job that he loved up on the Air Force base when he started presenting with symptoms of PTSD. He has a very severe case of it and was told that he could no longer work. However, they didn't offer benefits and for a year he only received unemployment, which was nowhere near enough to pay the mortgage. Eventually he got a hold of someone in political office with the help of some people at the VA and he got benefits but not after a year of missed payments. So he's losing his house, he's tried everything, talking to the bank (the mortgage has changed banks 3 times), hiring lawyers, now we're trying for a short sale.

Not only are the symptoms of PTSD hard; anxiety, awful headaches, memory loss, depression, nightmares, and many many other health issues, but having so many of the dreams for your life taken too, it's been rough. Jake joined the Army when he was still in high school. He went to boot camp before he graduated and was looking forward to a life where he could use the GI Bill to go to school. Now his memory is so bad that he can't take classes because he can't retain the information, he can't even read books and remember what is going on. He can't go to school, will have medical problems for the rest of his life, and is losing his home.

He doesn't regret going to Iraq, he feels he did the right thing, it's just hard to watch all of your dreams crash because of it. He is getting benefits now and he sent the bank almost everything that was past due on the house but they wouldn't accept it because it wasn't the full amount, it was 90% of what was past due, every cent he had. They sent it back and he used it to pay off all the other past due bills instead. Everything is current but the house, and the ridiculous thing is that he makes enough to pay the mortgage but they won't let him unless he pays the full past due amount. That doesn't keep the bank from calling 3 times a day 6 days a week though. In December all of the stress of the constant doctors appointments, harassment from the bank, and roommate problems caught up to Jake and he checked himself into 3A.

3A is the mental ward of the local VA Hospital. I was so proud of him for being able to recognize that he needed help, and being strong enough to ask for it. He spent just under two weeks there and they changed all of his meds and he's doing a lot better. He's happier and feels better about life. He also had an experimental procedure done at his civilian physician and although his headaches are still constant, the pain is at a much lower level.

Every night I drove to Salt Lake to visit Jake during the 2 hour visiting time. I'm glad there is such a place as the VA to help those who have served our country when they need it. The services are free because his injuries are service related and they really take good care of him there. When your loved one is really sick and hurting and there is nothing you can do, well, it's an awful feeling. I just tried to show my support and be there for him however I could.

The experience really reinforced to me some of the reasons I love Jake. He's brave and courageous, strong and honest. He's loving and he tries his best to make me happy. He is an amazing person, who gave a lot and didn't get much in return but he doesn't complain. He just tries to move on and make the best of it, which is what we're doing. We're saying good riddance to this house and this town and we're going to make a new start in a new place where we can make new memories together.

The Story of How We Met, on WoW.

Valentines Day is coming up so I thought I might share the tale of how Jake and I met. At first when people asked how we met I would just say, "through mutual friends," because it is a really nerdy story and people always give me funny looks afterward and it was just easier. However, that isn't exactly the truth.

One day I was at work when my friend Chris showed me some new pvp gear you could get on World of Warcraft. I'm not much of a pvp person (player vs. player) I'm more of pve (player vs. environment, where you kill non player characters) player but there was a neckpiece that was better than the one I had, so I resolved to do battlegrounds when I got home to get enough honor to buy it. I was just going to do BGs by myself but I noticed some guy in trade chat spamming "LFM to BG, please have vent" which means he was looking for more people to do battlegrounds with him, and to please have a mic so you could talk to each other. I messaged him back and a group of us went and queued for random battlegrounds. We did 4 or 5 of them and then went our separate ways but whenever we passed each other in game we'd always have our toons wave at each other.

Then one night I had a question about something and none of my other friends were on so I messaged him and we just started talking. We became WoW friends. After a couple months of being WoW friends, we traded facebook info. Guess what, he was cute! Shortly after that we traded phone numbers and would text each other occasionally but our main communication was still through vent. We'd talk to each other all night while raiding, BGing, farming gold, whatever. Then we'd talk on facebook chat after we had logged off WoW.

Eventually we decided to meet. I flew over to Utah first. Mainly because I really needed a break from my job and to get out of the Coos for a bit. I was a little nervous but not really since we already knew each other as friends. So I landed in Salt Lake and called him to find the way to the baggage claim where he was. He gave me directions to go right then left then down the stairs. So I'm coming down the stairs, still on the phone, and I can't find him anywhere. I keep asking him where he is and am turning in circles looking for him like a complete idiot while he is laughing on the phone because he can see me the whole time. Butt head. I finally found him and we got in the car. We were both really nervous because it's weird to actually meet someone in person that you like and have been talking to for a long time. I stayed in Utah for 4 days and we just hung out, watched movies, nearly got killed by his friend's questionable driving skills, cuddled, and walked out in the ridiculously hot sun. I mean seriously, it is freaking hot here in the summer.

The next month he flew out to Oregon. We went to all my favorite spots in town and at the beach. We went to Shore Acres Botanical Garden and the Japanese Garden at the park. He met my family and befriended my cat. We talked about one of us moving. I decided to move because I was ready to be leaving Coos Bay anyway. So I flew back to Utah again and stayed for a couple weeks where we both were really sick and did nothing but sleep or play WoW. One day I was especially miserable and Jake got up and went to the store at 5am to get me medicine. He's just that nice. I quit my job, spent a few weeks visiting family in California and then Jake flew out to drive with me to Utah.

And here we are, together and happy in Utah but hopefully moving somewhere else soon. I do not love Utah anywhere near as much as I love Jake. We have our computers set up right next to each other and we WoW together all the time. In fact, we even share a lvl 85 mage (in addition to our lvl 85 druids, priest, and dk). He uses it for pvp and I do pve.

When we were dating long distance I kept a notebook in which I wrote to Jake. Some of them are love letters, some are just writing down things he missed or memories I want him to be able to refer back to later since he has a really poor memory. I kept it a secret for a long time and even once he found out about it, I kept it until Christmas when I wrapped it up and gave it to him on Christmas morning. When we're apart and miss each other, he can read our book and be reminded of how much I love him.

Finding a Home.

image found here

I'm feeling a little discouraged trying to find a home. Jake and I both want to leave Utah and are trying to find a home in or around Eastern Oregon, we're cool with Western Idaho too. The towns we're looking at are small country towns and there aren't a lot of rentals available. When I look at the towns that are a little bit larger, all I find are boring subdivision houses. Some people really like them because they're nice, new, and large. They're just not my style. I prefer houses with a little more personality, odd nooks, and a vintage or country feel. The rentals I do find that aren't in a cul-de-sac tend to be really small, which is okay with me, but Jake likes to have a lot of space. We're making the six hour drive to check out houses in a week and I really hope we're able to find something so we can leave Utah as soon as possible.

Wieners for the Lush.

(the photo sucks because it was taken on my phone)

We went to a party for the Super Bowl and I made some lil smokies and artichoke dip. My mom always cooks her cocktail wieners in beer which gave me the idea to cook mine in a fifth of rum. We made a trip to the liquor store and I got to work. I don't eat meat but the sauce was amazing and mine were the first wieners to disappear at the party. Woot! Plus, it makes your house smell delicious.

Here is the recipe:

3-4 packages of lil smokies

1 fifth Sailor Jerrys or Capt. Morgan

1.5 cups brown sugar

1/2 bottle of hickory bbq sauce

2 T ground cloves

Mix everything into a sauce in your pot or slow cooker, add wieners, let cook, voila!

It's Almost V Day.

So, who is doing something awesome for Valentines Day? I keep seeing all kinds of pretty V Day crafts on the blogs I follow. I just don't feel like doing any crafts for this holiday. We're not really doing anything special. We're not doing gifts because we're hopefully moving soon (if we can find a sweet house). We talked about getting each other a wii. We were going to do that for Christmas but since PtheD broke Jake's xbox we got one of those instead since we already had a zillion games for it. We're going to save the wii for after we move though. So we'll probably just end up spending Valentines playing World of Warcraft. They celebrate holidays in the game. We can have a romantic picnic, eat yummy candy and have a nice virtual date.

Cast Iron Skillet.

Jake's mom got an apartment of her own, taking most of the kitchen with her. Since all of my kitchen supplies are in Oregon, Jake and I dressed up and went to Ikea. We didn't dress up for Ikea, he took me out to dinner after. Anyway, at Ikea we bought a bunch of items for our kitchen. We didn't want to get too much because I have a lot back home, but there are basics that we need in order to be able to cook.

One of which is this awesome frying pan. Who knew Ikea sells cast iron, and in such a pretty color? This is my all time favorite frying pan ever.

Cast Iron requires special care. You have to "season" your pan and you're not supposed to ever put it in the dishwasher because it can rust. To season your cast iron:

• Preheat your oven to 350.
• Rub lard or bacon grease all over the inside of your pan with a paper towel. Since I don't eat meat products I used Crisco Shortening instead.
• Place your pan upside down on the top shelf of your oven.
• On a lower shelf, place a cookie sheet to catch any drips from your pan.
• Leave in your oven for 1-2 hours.
• Remove and wipe with a clean paper towel.

When cleaning cast iron some people use warm soapy water, drying it immediately and heating on the stove for awhile to ensure it is dry.

Others prefer to use cooking oil and salt to scrub their pans.

We did buy a crock pot for something I'm making for a Super Bowl party but unfortunately it wasn't this particular one from Target. However, Jake said I can have this (not available in stores) crock pot so if anyone needs a slow cooker let me know as I'll eventually be handing down the one I just got.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!!

Especially to my two Hare Brothers. Happy year!

I finally got around to stacking my lucky oranges BEFORE the holiday for once. Woo hoo!

Another Dress.

It seems like every year there is an anthro dress that I just have to have. There was the airplane dress and then the lobster dress and now this, which I call the little birdie dress. Anthro always has pretty dresses but occasionally one comes along that really speaks to me and my insides hurt until I find a way to come up with the money to make it mine. I find this to be quite hilarious as growing up I had no interest in dresses and wore shorts to school everyday for much of my childhood. It was much easier to play wall ball when you didn't have to worry about a pesky dress. I still don't wear them super often but when I find a good one, they make me so happy.

Song of the Lioness Series.

image via

When I was young I loved the Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce. The other day I was at Barnes & Noble getting a book for my friend when I saw them out of the corner of my eye. I know my younger cousin Zoe is a bookworm just like I am and I thought she might like them too so I bought her the first in the series, Alanna The First Adventure. The books follow the story of Alanna of Trebond, a young noble, who at the age of 10 is being sent to the convent to learn to be a proper lady. Eventually she'll go to court and marry another noble. Alanna wants none of this and decides to switch places with her twin brother who is going to the castle of the king to learn to be a knight. They forge their father's signature and Alanna goes to the city disguised as a boy to learn to be a knight, while her brother Thom goes off to become a sorcerer. These books are filled with knights and kings, magic (not the Harry Potter kind so much), adventure, friendship, and destiny. A young girl shows her determination and learns to believe in herself.

This was the first fantasy series I ever read and it's fabulous. Since I bought the first one for Zoe I decided to read it again really quickly before I sent it off. This led me to getting a library card here in Utah so I could check out the other 3 books. That led me to checking out the series that comes after Alanna which follows a young girl named Daine who possesses wild magic.

Isn't the cover hilariously awesome? The book was originally published in 1983, plus most fantasy novels have terrible covers.

A note to my sister: these books take no more than a few hours to read so they'd be great for baby napping times.

My Goals for 2011, or soon after.

I have a habit of writing down goals and to do lists in notebooks to help sort out and remember what it is I wanted to do but then I never look at them again. So I'm going to write my goals down right here, where they're easy for me to find again.

• Learn to use a sewing machine.
• Use new found sewing machine skills to learn to quilt.
• Move to Oregon or Idaho or somewhere that isn't Utah.
• Learn to cook a variety of things well.
• Learn embroidery.
• Raise chickens.
• Plant tulips.
• Start an herb garden. Including the cat nip herb.
• Reopen my etsy shop.
• Read more.

I know there are other things I'm forgetting right now. The beauty is that I can come back and add them later.

Pasta and Wine.

I was sitting in the VA waiting room the other day while Jake had a doctor appointment and I was getting pretty bored. I started flipping through the giant stack of Family Circle magazines they had there (it was that or the Marine newspaper, like I want to read that propaganda) and found all kinds of recipes in the back. So like any decent 80 year old woman, I ripped out the pages with the recipes I wanted and put them in my purse. A few days later I made their Farfalle with Peas and Goat Cheese recipe which is super easy and is now a favorite. There weren't any leftovers (which made me kind of sad) because we scarfed it all.

My sister can't eat dairy for awhile so this recipe would be perfect for her. The only diary ingredient is the goat cheese, which could easily be left out. It does require 1/2 c. of white wine though.

Speaking of wine, in Utah you have to go to the liquor store to get it. Umm...what? Yeah, exactly. So while I was at the liquor store I decided to stock up. I bought this wine because it sounded like it would be sweet, and I actually really like it. I'm not usually much of a wine drinker (I prefer copious amounts of vodka) but this isn't too sweet and it doesn't have too much of that bitter wine taste so I'm sold.

You can sign into the Family Circle website to gain access to their recipes. I just unchecked all of the boxes so my inbox doesn't get spammed, or apparently you can get a subscription for $5.99 for 15 issues. Seriously? That's insanely cheap. But don't even think about getting me a subscription, I still can't shake that pesky Woman's Day one the Aunties got me years ago.