Friday, September 30, 2011

Back to the Grind...

So last semester our contracts to the apartment that we were living at were sold before we had a chance to renew...
& so.. we were... homeless.. [or temporarily without a place to live] for this Fall!


But we found these cute townhouse kind of apartments that we all lovved.. so we decided to try it.
&& I am absolutely loving our new apartment!


There is lots of space in the living room/dining room.. just in case we need to have dance parties.. or people over.
:) 
you never know..


& there is an upstairs with 6 rooms and two bathrooms.. 
But even with our own rooms [my first semester in college not sharing a room!]


My roommates are awesome at finding time in between homework and class to do things together :)
I'm probably the worst roommate ever now with Blake because I seem to be with him quite a bit..
But they are still sweet as ever
& I'm so blessed to have such fun friends to live with. 

So.. on the subject of my fun roommates, all of my California friends (which would be 1/2 of our apartment) had a friend from their home town down visiting us in potato land last week & they wanted to have a bonfire while he was here..


And I think it's safe to say that those Californians definitely know how to throw a bonfire! 
The fire got a litttllle out of control..


It was soo hot that it was painful to even roast them behind our home made shield of cardboard!


& there was one point where we were 90% sure our fire was going to burn the tree down next to us after they added I think 4 NEW pallets...
So this is Jordan playing fire fighter.. 
[I wish I would have caught this on tape.. all the screaming and running around was the funniest experience]


Luckily.. The tree ended up living to see another day :)

& the rest of the bonfire was way fun.. 


 I got to spend my night with some of my very favorite people in Idaho.. 


 & I don't if you've ever tried this.. buttt..


Here is my "bonfire challenge" for you..
Marshmellows smashed between chocolate chip cookies!
SO good.. I liked it even better than smores.
:)

Then Saturday... was just awesome.
[I'm soo excited for the Fall.. it seems like I've been growing more and more fond of it over the years..
It's just kind of a cozy feeling month
(& of course.. during the fall is my birthday!.. ha but we will address that later in the season)
I've just found myself longing for pumpkins and leaves and things that remind me of Fall lately..]

SO Saturday we got to go to the Straw Maze! 
[that just screams Fall time to me.. & I was so excited]
& we got to go with some of our funniest friends ever.. Kelly & Adam!


Kelly is one of my old roommates.. & I absolutely love her.
It doesn't ever matter what we are doing she can keep me laughing the entire night!


When we couldn't find our way out of that maze... and found ourselves going in endless circles..
[despite Adam's awesome marking the glow from the glow sticks on the bales of hay]
They decided to get creative..


Unfortunately though.. Adam didn't find anything in that bale of hay.. except more hay..
SO we stayed completely lost..


 
 & then we tried asking this nice man that got to walk on top of the haystacks..
And I really think he might have helped us had I not blinded him with the flash of my camera..
haha and then he was very adamant that he didn't know where we should go..
& he also may have said that he was going to remember my face for when we come back during the haunted season of the straw maze..
great.


So we stayed lost..
There was one point when we got advice from a girl who told us to just stick to the path because we were almost there..
So we did.
Until there were twenty forks in the road..?!


After finding our way back to the entrance THREE times..
We became a little desperate..


& even once we reached these little tunnels and you might think it looked promising..
Nope. Still Lost.
haha 
Then Kelly got a brilliant idea of mentioning how awful it is to be allergic to straw in a straw maze..
& all the sudden the nice little men walking on top of the haystacks seemed to give us a lot more hints..
Is she really allergic to straw? I'd say that's irellevant.
What is relevant is that..we found our way out after hours.. days.. months even.. of being lost in that deep itchy land of straw!
Good job kel. good job.
:)
 Then I got my first experience at the cocoa bean..


& that cupcake was... one big delicious cupcake.

& I don't really know who all reads my blog.. or what you would want to see but.. I know that I always enjoy seeing tutorials & recipes.. SO i tried a new one last night..
I made Philly Cheese Steaks..
& they were really easy..
AND really delicious

  • Prep/Total Time: 30 min.
20 10 30

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 pounds beef top sirloin steak, cut into 1/4-inch strips
  • 1 medium green pepper, julienned
  • 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 5 to 6 French or Italian sandwich rolls, split
  • 2 cans (4 ounces each) whole green chilies, drained and halved
  • 5 to 6 slices Swiss cheese

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the steak, peppers and onion over medium heat in oil until meat is no longer pink. Spread butter on rolls; top with meat mixture, chilies and cheese. Wrap in heavy-duty foil.
Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted. 
  • Yield: 5-6 servings.


 So if you try them let me know! :)

Happy Friday everyone!

I'll be blogging soon.. I got done with classes early this week & I'm going to Utah in a couple hours to hopefully mark something off my bucket list.. so I'll let you know if it happens.

Hope everyone's doing great! Miss you and LOVE you all.
Have a good weekend!