No post yesterday, nothing exciting happened except laundry and dishwashing.  Woot.  See?  Now aren't you glad I didn't post about that?

Today, however, was T's day off.  He called around lunch and asked if I'd like anything special for dinner.  I requested a beef roast with potatoes and carrots, he happily acquiesced.  I came home to a house smelling of roasting goodness! 

After dinner we ate part of T's Christmas present, which was a bar of bacon chocolate.
  Yes, bacon chocolate.  Think I'm lying?  I'm not. It was really weird, actually.  Not very bacony, just like salty chocolate.  We didn't know if it was going to be chopped bacon in a chocolate bar, or a piece of bacon dipped in chocolate, but we were ready to be surprised.  The chocolate was really good though!  Check out the link above if you're curious...

Here's a fun game for those dreary winter nights--explore your kitchen cupboards!  See what you might find!  I got the creative bug again.  We've had my dad's old cappuccino machine lying around for a few years and I've only used it once.  I bought T a pack of coffee syrups for Christmas and so I though tit would be fun to break them out and enjoy some hot java deliciousness.  We didn't have any espresso, so we just put some normal coffee in the coffee grinder to get a finer texture.

You know, one of those cute little things that is pink, fits in your purse and has crazy long battery life?  One of those.  I need one.  It's for your benefit, really, so I can carry it with me all the time and snap pictures of living fabulously.  But alas, I didn't snag T's camera tonight, so I have no pics.  :(  Maybe sissy will let me have her old one.  Maybe...

Tonight was our 6 monthaversary!  T took me out for dinner to our best Italian restaurant where I had "The Portabello."  Chicken, spinach ravioli, and obviously, portobellos in a creamy sauce.  Yum!!!  We had contemplated ordering dessert, and said that if the waitress uttered the words "tiramisu" it was meant to be.  What was the first dessert out of her mouth?  Tiramisu!  Ooooooh, espresso-soaked lady fingers, creamy deliciousness and cocoa powder.....this is the stuff I dream about!  To top it all off, I told our waitress it was our anniversary (left out the 6 month part...) and she gave it to us for free!  I heart free dessert and I heart my hubby!!

We topped off the night by seeing the one-act plays at school.  Oh my kiddos, they're hilarious.  I think going to see a play is waaaaaay more fun when you know the people in it.  I laughed so hard at their antics, especially at the kid who was supposed to be a 2nd grader dressed as a skunk in the school play.  You can imagine the hilarity that ensued...hahaha!  Lots of "spraying," let's leave it at that.

And now, friends, now I will say, "bon nuit" to you and "bonjour," to my cup of tea.

Hello friends!  Today has been the most mundane of days.  T and I had no plans except to go to a party tonight, so we had the whole day to do something fun.  What did we do?  We lazed around until noon!  I haven't eaten lunch in my pajamas in like, 5 years!  Then I had the crazy idea to go visit the kitties at the Humane Society.

I just have to share this with you, this is my younger choir singing the national anthem at a basketball game last week.




Man, I love these girls and I love my job!

Yesterday my Chamber Choir sang for the Legislative Memorial Service at the Capitol.  I got so many comments on how beautiful they sounded!  They were a big nervous too; there were a ton of people in there and the room is a little intimidating in the first place.  I also met up with some old friends who are legislators and caught up for a little while.  The worst part was definitely me accompanying them on piano.  You know, I can sing in front of hundreds of people and be just fine, but sit me down at a piano and tell me to play in front of 50 people and I get all sweaty and freak myself out.  At least I made it through the piece all right.  Didn't screw it up too terribly bad.

Well, my plans have drastically changed for the weekend.  I was planning on going to Sioux Falls for a big music teacher conference and spend some time with my parents.  That was, of course, until the South Dakota weather turned vicious again and I decided to be safe and stay home.  It's okay though, because they ended up postponing the conference anyway.  That just means a free weekend with my hubby!

Tonight T and I went out to our fav Mexican restaurant with some old family friends.  He is a legislator and got stuck here for the weekend too, due to the weather.  How lovely to have plans when we didn't have any 12 hours ago!  Funnily enough, we also have plans tomorrow night.  Apparently a ton of people were planning on leaving Pierre this weekend but everybody got stuck here, so we're having a "crappy weather" party and all hanging out.  I'm excited!  It's just too bad that I finished all of my fun projects last weekend.  Any suggestions for fun project for a snowed in, iced in girl???

T still hasn't heard about med school.  We've been expecting to hear word for going on 2 weeks now, and I still get butterflies every time I even think about the mailbox!!  It's pathetic.  I'm gonna have an ulcer before this is all over.

Happy weekend everybody!

Yum.  I made this last night for dinner, straight from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  It was low-fat AND pretty easy.  Not only that, but I used the broiler on the oven for the first time!  (I had to get T to show me how to do it, but it worked!)  I also added a bit of lime juice to the rice steamer so we had lime-infused sicky rice!  MMMM!  Served with a bit 'o salsa and some corn.  How festive.  This dish matches my living room...haha!  Here's to a delish dinner with a lovely hubby!

So I'm beginning to think that the Wii Fit's scale isn't exactly accurate.  I'm pretty sure there's no way that I can loose 4 pounds in a day and gain 5 pounds back the next day.  Is that even possible?  They say on the game that your weight can fluctuate up to 2 pounds per day, but 5??!!!  Silly.  I've been working out at least 5 times for the last 2 weeks, eating healthier and still haven't lost any weight, according to Wii.  Well, in any case, I am developing a new appreciation for running.  That is, running in place.  My new fav workout is the "free run."  I can watch TV while the little speaker on the remote keeps track of my time and tells me I'm "keeping a good pace."  I doubt that, but still...watching TV is more entertaining than watching my Mii run on screen.

That's about it...for now.

Last time I posted about all of my crazy goals for yesterday.  Well, as it turns out, it took me 2 days to get it all done, but I also managed to squeeze in some quality time with my pillow, as well as my husband!

First things first...I cleaned my entire house from top to bottom yesterday, which it desperately needed!  I think the floors in the kitchen/entry/bathroom needed about 2 hours of attention between vacuuming, dry swiffering, vacuuming again, wet swiffering, and then picking up the bits of wet lint that were still lying around.  I hate how that happens.  Our entryway was also full of gravel.  Man, I hate winter.

Anyway, after I cleaned the house, ran errands, I managed to concoct this centerpiece for our dining table.
In this picture its actually sitting on my coffee table because my dining table is filled with sewing supplies, but I need advice.  Should we spray paint the branches white?  T picked up the branches while out target shooting last week.  I kind of love it.

Anyway, on to fabulous project numero dos:  diet coke bread!

I think T was making me giggle about something here...not sure what...Anyway, my mom gave me this mix for beer bread, but as we don't have any beer on hand, the box said to use soda instead.  T was skeptical of adding diet coke, but the box said soda, and it was the only soda I had!  It turned out really good!  It's very dense and a little sweet, but tastes really nice with some butter on it.

While the bread was in the over, I tried my hand at making a ruffle fleece scarf, as mentioned over at Posy the Porcelain Pig.  Hers looks waaaaay  better than mine, but she's also a much more accomplished seamstress than I.  I did end up altering the directions on the ends a little bit though because the extra flaps just looked funny on mine.  I connected them and it gave the ends a more rounded look.For my first adventure in scarf-making, I'd say it's not terrible:

Last but not least, my beloved pillows.  I've been meaning to do this project since probably September, but just hadn't had the urge to dig out the sewing machine!  T and I originally bought the fabric at IKEA because we were going to re-upholster a chair with it.  Well, re-upholstering isn't cheap....and it's too complicated to do ourselves, so we decided to just leave our yellow chair yellow.  (I like it better that way, but T doesn't...)
I love this fabric.  Like, really really love it!

So there you have it, my crafty past two days in a nutshell.  Fun huh?

Oh the beauty of a sunny Saturday morning.  I'm on my couch, I have my coffee, and watching White Collar on USA.  T is at work and my only job today is to clean the house, run errands, and find something interesting for dinner.  Optional activities include making a new centerpiece for my table, sewing Michaela's very cool new fleece scarf, and recovering pillows.  Of course, I do have a 3-day weekend to accomplish all of this, which is very cushy!  I think I can spare an hour or two to relax and enjoy my coffee.  Yumm.

I am pretty sure I have the sweetest husband ever.  Last night I came home from work to find a nice bouquet of orange daisies and a wrapped box.  He got me pearl earrings, just because!!!  There was also a card, which I had convinced myself contained Ted's acceptance letter, but alas, I had my hopes up.  My hubby loves me and that's all that matters!  (We're still waiting for a letter...)

We went to a basketball game last night and watch our girls team get creamed, it was pretty great.  Actually, the people sitting in front of us were way more entertaining than the game.  This family had 4 kids, 3 little boys and a girl.  The father just sat there and yelled at the game while the mother chased around the 3 little boys.  They actually got into a fight and the father just waved her off, right in front of us!  I was appalled!  This is why I'm scared to have children.  Not that T would ever shove them off on me like that, but it just seems like the most stressful job ever.  And then I watch a Johnson's baby wash commercial and see that little rolley polley thing sitting in the sink...

Well, I suppose it's time to let the cleaning begin.

I'm going to break a bit of a personal blogging standard, which is to not blog about TV shows.  Living fabulously is not about watching TV.  Well, at least, not usually.  However, I do live in South Dakota, and it is January, and I already blogged about American Idol last night.  So, it is with a slightly regretful heart that I'm going to tell you about my new favorite show...NCIS.  It's on most nights on USA and T and I just love it!  We got hooked on it this summer when we were always looking for something to watch during dinner (we eat in front of the TV...so sue me!) and we had run out of Scrubs episodes.  I never know how it's going to end and it's not as scary as watching Law & Order SVU.  (For some reason that show spooks me out.)

Well, the semester test saga goes on.  I gave my kids review sheets more than a week ago and they hardly studied at all.  The funniest part of it is that the stuff on the test was stuff we've gone over day after day after day.  Key signatures, note values, just the basic stuff, plus a singing test.  Amazing how a choir can sound so good with so many kids who can't hold their own part.  Silly me for thinking that.

Anyway, T got another secondary med school app tonight, this time from a school in Tennessee!  It looks like it's in the mountains and really pretty.  We'll see if he gets an interview, maybe I'll beg to come along!  I haven't used any of my personal days yet this year, so it might be a good opportunity.

I was so sure that we were going to hear from USD today, and then we didn't.  Boo.  I got myself really worked up about it.  I usually do about these things, you know, when they're totally out of my hands.  I can't wait until we just know already!!!!

Watching American Idol and now kinda get annoyed at the cheeziness sometimes.  I haven't watched it in like 3 years probably because of that.  Cheese, cheese, cheese.  Blech!!!!

Well, I am psyched to say that I have 8 (almost 9!) new choir students for next semester!  INSANITY!  I am so excited!  Some of these are kids that I've been trying to get to join since the beginning of the year.  I even have 4 new guys!  1 girl is still on the edge of joining, she said she was going to her counselor to change her schedule today...so we'll see if she pulled through with it!  YAHOO!!

Anyway, if you want to read something funny, check out this blog: Sleep Talkin' Man.  I found it yesterday as a blog of note, and T and I were nearly rolling on the floor we were laughing so hard!!!  My sister got a pretty big kick out of it too, you should check it out!!!

(Apparently I have decided it necessary to end each of the preceding paragraphs with copious amounts of exclamation points; it's like I'm subconsciously compensating for my lack of physical energy.)

I wish I had some crazy great story to tell you, or some pretty pictures to post, but I just don't.  I think that means it's time to stop.

G'night all.

What is it about winter that makes me perpetually tired?  I come home from work, I'm tired.  I wake up from a nap, I'm tired.  I eat dinner, I'm tired.  What is up with that?!  I've been exercising this week too, so it can't be from lack of activity.  I just feel like after a day of lounging, I should not feel like I've ran a marathon.  I've even been taking my iron pills, so I know I'm not anemic.  Going to the doctor tomorrow to have my blood checked, so maybe I'll ask her.  I honestly think this first week back at school just completely wiped me out!

Anyway, on to more important things.  My cousin got engaged today!  That means a roadtrip with the fam down to Arkansas this summer.  Giddyup!

It was 41 degrees today in Pierre, so T and I decided that it was probably time to take down our Christmas lights.  Amazing that only 2 days ago, the temperature was 50 degrees colder that it was today.  Holy crap, South Dakota.  Insanity.

In other news, T and I finally finished up his secondary applications for med schools.  I just helped him with wording and everything, which lets me feel productive and helpful.  I think T would rather me help him out than do my other act of "helping:" nagging!  The sooner it gets done, the sooner he gets into med school!  Woot!  We've been secretly looking at real estate websites looking for a little house for us to move to next year IF he gets in to USD.  I hate how our future lives hang on the decisions of that little committee.....ugh.  If only we knew already!

T had a little holiday party with his co-workers tonight at his boss' house.  Boring!  I love parties, but this one was just, well, slow.  There were only like 10 people there and all of us "young folk" plopped ourselves in front of the TV and watched the Cardinals/Packers game.  Now, those of you who know me know that in my land the only thing more boring than watching football on TV is watching golf on TV.  Oh well, at least we got to eat ribs and yummy pineapple cake.

The end.

Well, Ted and I did something today that we haven't done together yet.  We went thrifting.  (I know somebody will be shocked to read this!)  Normally a thrift store is the last place you'd look for me on a Saturday afternoon, but I just got the itch for some new sconces for our bedroom today.  We found some!  They're wrought iron little curly-ques and they're perfect!  (We still had to check out the other thrift store too, just in case I found something I liked better, naturally.)

Currently T and I are sitting on our couch tapitty-tapping away, him on his med school apps and I on blog. Yup.  He has 18 essays to write for one school.  Holy cow, that's a lot of essays.

T cooked pepper steak for dinner tonight!  Oh Lord, thank you for giving me a man who cooks!!!!  It was marinated perfectly in tangy teriyaki sauce, and delivered on a bed of sticky rice.  YUM.

Now it's off for an evening with Bond.  James Bond.

I fell.  On the ice.  In below zero temperatures.  The funny part of it is, because I landed in a small pile of snow, my knee was instantly numb.  That lasted for like 5 minutes once I got inside.  Oh, my pesky need to check the mail when I get home from school.  I fell out in the middle of our driveway.  What's the bad news?  I ripped my favorite tights, AND doing my Wii workout may be quite painful on my poor little knee.  :(

T and I are seriously loving our Wii Fit.  What's crazy is that we've had it since Monday, played it every day and STILL haven't played all of the activities on it!  I think that so far my favorite game is the skiing games, the hula hoop game, and maybe the rhythm parade one.  (It's like you get to be the drum major for a marching band and move the baton up and down while you march.  Always wanted to be a drum major...T thought I was a SUPER geek on that one....)

It's been a great week in choir too!  My kiddos are learning the new music WAY faster than I thought they would.  Have you heard this piece?  It's an Eric Whitacre piece that was originally made for a Disney movie called Seal Lullaby (based on Rudyard Kipling's story by the same name) but then they decided to make Kung Fu Panda instead so this music never got used.  It's a gorgeous song, though!  My Treble Choir is singing it for our Feb. concert.  Have a listen!




In other news, T keeps getting more secondary apps for med schools! This is such great news and we are so thankful that he has the opportunity to continue the application process. Hopefully we'll have a CHOICE of where we want to go next year! That'd be awesome, wouldn't it?! EEEEEE!!!!


Ok, ciao y'all.

Oh, what a lovely day to live fabulously!

Currently watching Ted box the socks off the Wii Boxing Trainer.  Oh, I love you, Wii Fit.

Today was a happy mail day.  Oh the mail we received!  We finally got Christmas presents from Ted's family.  They sent them a long time ago and we were wondering if they magically got lost in the mail somehow, but they arrived!  We also received our Wii Fit, which Ted ordered from Overstock.com for me, as well as a returned Christmas letter and other Wii goodies such as another remote!  Here's the best present that came in the mail by far.  From Ted's mom:

Yes, it is a coach handbag, folks!  LOVE IT!!!!   You can't see it, but the lining is fuschia.  Pretty sure that makes it 10x better.  Yes!

I wish there were more than 24 hours today.  I ended up staying at school an hour longer than I normally do, and that was after going there on Friday to make copies and get my life in order.  What a hectic day!  It's almost solo/ensemble contest, so the kids are actually hunting me down to practice with them.  It's nice to be wanted, ain't gonna lie, but it's a pain to not have any time to accomplish stuff I have to do!  I still haven't finished putting together my semester test study guide, which I have to have done by tomorrow.  Ugh.

I'm on the board of directors for the Children's Choir in town, and we had a board meeting tonight.  I think it was the first time I actually opened my mouth at a meeting, probably because I don't have much input on fundraising, rehearsal schedules or the upcoming trip to Ireland.  But, I do have ideas on how to get parents and kids to commit to an activity!  Ha!  Anyway, at least it was a good excuse to eat out at Perkins.  Woo hoo!  (Love the broccoli and cheddar soup!!)

I worked out for a half hour tonight on the Wii, that was pretty crazy, and crazy awesome!  I like the yoga thing and I'm pretty good at balancing, which is fun.  I actually like the aerobics too, because they're really easy and fun to do!  I love how the little audience cheers you on!

I'm exhausted and have to be back at school at 7am for Chamber Choir.  Holy smokes, it's gonna be a long stinkin week.

Ciao!

Per Michela's request, here are some more pics of my house.  First, the kitchen.  There's a half bath behind the closed door, it's also our laundry room.

And last but not least is our office/music room.
And, my cute little piano:

T woke me up before he left this morning by saying, "hon, if I was you I wouldn't go outside today."  I took his advice and I got no further than my garage...with the door shut, naturally.  It got down to at least -4, but I'm sure it was actually much colder.

I was thinking about how to best utilize my indoor day, and decided upon a leisurely breakfast followed by a chat with one of my former Vietnamese students.  When I told her how much snow we currently have, she told me she thought she'd die if she experienced it.  Haha, poor thing has never seen snow!  Ah, for a tropical climate today!  Almost made me want to go back to Hanoi.  Almost.

On to the topic of my post:  living fabulously indoors.  Living in South Dakota, it's pretty unpleasant from oh, December through March.  It's pretty easy to get cabin fever, and mine hit early this year.

Here's idea number 1:  rearrange a room in your house.  Last night I got the idea to rearrange our living room.  Here's a before picture:


It was a pretty great open layout, but with the coffee table in the middle it was hard to play the wii.  Just not a whole lot of space.  The couch did create a nice entryway space, though.  (That's our front door at the far left edge of the picture.)  You can also see the corner of our table at the far right edge.
After:  We found a nice niche for the entertainment center and even had room to bring in my favorite purple chair from the bedroom!  It may not seem like there's a ton of extra room, but it does in real life.  At least I won't have to move the huge heavy coffee table when I want to play the new wii fit!  The coffee table is now between the couch and the wall.  The only thing I don't like about it is that now the living room is pretty cut off from the dining area.  I suppose it defines the spaces more though...or something.

Anyway, we had fun doing it.  Well, I had fun directing T around.  He really likes the new arrangement, and I think it will grow on me.  Maybe I should post pics of the rest of our apartment so those of you who will never make it out to SD can see it!

So, step 2 of living fabulously indoors:  make yourself a tasty tropical drink!

While T was on the phone with his brother I scanned through my fav cookbook:  Better Homes and Gardens!  We made mocha smoothies.  It had banana in it, which I didn't think I'd like, but actually it worked really well and gave it more of a smoothie texture.  Haha, I just noticed that we match.  Ridiculous.  This was of course after our new dessert, pumpkin pie with frosting.  I found a pumpkin pie that a student had given me before break (don't worry, it was properly refrigerated!) but we didn't have ice cream or whipped cream, so I softened some frosting and used it for topping. Perfectly delicious!

Tomorrow should be pretty frigid too, look for more ideas of living fabulously indoors!  And, while you're at it, let me know if you like the "before" living room or the "after" better!

Ciao!

Hi Everyone!