February's Us Photo

Taken Valentine's Day at Downtown Disney. After church Rick surprised me with early dinner reservations at the Rainforest Cafe, then we saw the movie Valentine's Day. It was a beautiful day out and an ideal way to spend time with my very own Valentine.

Spreading the Valentine's Day Love

I spent yesterday afternoon baking up some sweet treats for Rick to take to work to share with his co-workers. I decided to make some cookies, as well as some chocolate covered pretzels. The best sweet treat (my personal favorite) are my home made thin mint cookies. They taste just like the girl scout cookies. So much so that I was a little worried that they would think they were! I went to a few different stores trying to find Valentine's day sprinkles, just so that there would be no doubt they were home made. Unfortunately I couldn't find any :( So it was Rick's duty to make sure everyone knew that I made them. hehe...

I called him this morning when I woke up at 8:30 to see how they went over. He said they were all gone. I love it. It's the best feeling when people appreciate things like that. I can't wait til the next time I send him off to work with goodies.

The awesomeness that is Harry Potter

****WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS****

It's a bittersweet feeling to be done with this amazing series of books. I regret taking so long to finally give into them. I really was afraid that there was so much hype about them that it would never be able to live up to my expectations. I was so wrong.

I loved it all from the very first book. Although as most people said, it did get even better as it went on. I'm actually not sure how to even rate these books on goodreads. The first 5 were great, but not exactly worthy of 5 stars, the last two were though-- and the series as a whole was just awesome. I don't even really have the words to describe it.

I was really happy with how everything played out in Deathly Hallows. There were a lot of moments that really tore at my heart, and if I hadn't had my fill of snottyness from being sick I totally would have been crying like a baby. I've always loved Dumbledore's character and wasn't sure what type of role he'd have in DH, I'm so glad that we really got to know him in this book. And yay for Snape! He might even be my favorite character now. I constantly went back and forth wondering if he was good or bad. I was so worried after HBP that he really was bad, but I had that teeny tiny bit of hope still.

I was very satisfied with the ending, and I did cry when Harry was talking to his son Albus. I *loved* that his middle name was Severus and the story he told him. ....sigh....

Peppered Shrimp Alfredo

After nearly 3 weeks and only making 1 real meal for Rick I decided last night I was ready to take a baby step to getting back on track. I decided to cook dinner. I did this as much for Rick as I did for myself, because everyone who knows me knows... I LOVE FOOD.

I made peppered shrimp alfredo from allrecipes.com. It wasn't necessarily the healthiest meal. But I did make some modifications that probably helped some (I didn't use butter, but sauteed veggies in EVOO, and used half and half instead of cream, also used whole wheat pasta). In addition to those healthy changes I also left out the mushrooms because ours went bad and used frozen shrimp that was already seasoned--just pop those suckers in the oven and add to pasta when everything is done. Lastly DO NOT use the amount of cayenne pepper in the recipe! It is waaaaaay too much. Trust me on this. I like spicy food a lot, and I knew going into it that 1 tsp of cayenne pepper was absurd. I used a little less than half and it was still pretty spicy. We enjoyed it like that, but I'd highly suggest erring on the side of caution and using less.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces penne pasta
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 pound portobello mushrooms, diced
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 (16 ounce) jar Alfredo sauce
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter together with the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onion, and cook until softened and translucent, about 2 minutes. Stir in garlic, red pepper, and mushroom; cook over medium-high heat until soft, about 2 minutes more.
3. Stir in the shrimp, and cook until firm and pink, then pour in Alfredo sauce, Romano cheese, and cream; bring to a simmer stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir drained pasta into the sauce, and serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Nutritional Information (according to actual recipe)
Amount Per Serving Calories: 981 | Total Fat: 68.9g | Cholesterol: 305mg

January=Fail

January just wasn't my month. I had so much going on that just about everything was put on the back burner, including my project. Rick and I experienced the joy of finding out we were pregnant, only to be devastated a week later when our angel baby went back to God. The process was not only hard physically, but emotionally as well. We're still working on healing. Our faith helps a lot (as well as the support of our family and friends) but it's still a very trying process, filled with ups and downs much like a roller coaster. Then last week I caught some sort of bug and was basically out of commission for 5 days. I went to the dr. and was told that this was pretty normal after a miscarriage since my immune system is already weakened. I've been on antibiotics since friday (since I developed an infection) and still don't feel 100% better yet. Sooo yeah, pretty much nothing was accomplished in January :( I don't even have an "us" photo for the month. But I'm not going to beat myself up over it. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

I did finally finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix though. It was probably my least favorite of the series thanks to Dolores Umbridge (who I think is just the worst "bad guy" ever!!! hem...hem)

Keeping my fingers crossed that February (and the rest of 2010) is much better to my hubby and me :)

Still reading

I've had A LOT going on lately, both good and bad. Unfortunately the blogging fell a tad bit behind as a result. I have continued reading the Harry Potter series though. I started and finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban shortly after the start of the new year. It was so good that I literally finished it and picked up the very next book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) right after. Even though that book was pretty big I finished it in a week!

I am loving this series! Although I wish I would have given in to it years ago I do think it's pretty cool that the only wait I have between books is because of myself. I don't actually have to wait for the book to come out or anything like that. And a nice bonus has been watching each movie with my dh after I finish the book ;)

I blame it on my age...

and the fact that I'm getting old. I forgot to post December's "us" picture. So here it is, a little late but still. And in honor of me getting older and being forgetful this pic is from my 26th Birthday :)