Christmas Part 2: CHRISTMAS!

The Curtis Family celebrates Christmas a lot like the Larsen family. Everyone goes to my grandparents on Christmas Eve, we eat dinner, exchange some gifts and some people will show off a talent if they want to (except we were forced).

On Christmas day, Jacob and I slept in pretty late. In fact, we were woken up by the parents this year... and fair enough because it was 9:45 and they couldn't wait any longer. We opened stockings and presents and had a big breakfast. Jacob spoiled me this year and I tried to spoil him. I gave him a camel back backpack, a dutch oven which he always has thought about getting but never has, a book and a few dress clothes to wear. Jacob pretty much blew my attempt to spoil him out of the water. He gave me the DVD Despicable Me, a new eye mask for sleeping, a sewing machine, bread maker, wallet and purse.

I tried my best to make up for his spoiling by making him a purse with my new sewing machine. I don't know what happened to it... but trust me... he LOVED it.

The next few days were very relaxed. I took a nap every single day!

Now we are back in Rexburg, all rejuvenated for our move to Arizona!

Christmas Part 1: The Interview

Jacob and I went to Boise this year for Christmas. Boise is much much warmer than Rexburg. :) We went a few days early so Jacob could go to an interview at AXA Advisors. A financial advisory firm that deals mostly with life insurance from what I can tell. 35 minutes before the interview we realized that Jacob could not find his belt, he forgot his dress shoes and he didn't bring a tie because he knew he was getting a couple for Christmas. So, he borrowed a tie from his dad, put on his everyday shoes with his black pants and his mom offered a brown woven belt that he thought about wearing until he thankfully found his belt in the car. But that still didn't solve the shoes. I was not about to let him go into an interview like that so we found shoes at Famous Footwear that were the right size and looked pretty good, except they were so stiff that Jacob couldn't bend his feet and on top of that the tongue was grinding in to the top of his feet. It didn't matter. We had 15 minutes to get there and he wanted to be early so he wore the shoes out of the store.

We didn't make it. We were 5 minutes late, Jacob couldn't remember the name of the person who was supposed to interview him, he had a big tie, no suit jacket and he was hunched over to help him limp faster. But the interview went as well as it could have gone, even though the guy was looking for more sales experience. Door to door type sales experience, so I don't think Jacob was very disappointed and neither was I.

We brought the shoes back the next day. Thanks for letting us borrow the shoes, Famous Footwear.

Clean Up Surprises and A Christmas Gift

Jacob and I like bananas. They are cheap, there is no cutting involved, no juice squirting on your face or making your hands sticky, and they go great in smoothies. Sometimes I buy more than we can eat before they go brown so we throw them in the freezer and save them for banana bread.

Now that we are migrating south for the winter we are trying to eat what is in your refrigerator and freezer instead of buying more food.

Well, I guess we hadn't made banana bread in a while... or gone through our freezer.We found 19 bananas! Thats a lot of banana bread. We did throw away the questionable very black, bumpy bananas. Jacob peeled and mashed the rest of them and I measured the mashed bananas in to baggies. We had enough to make 10 loaves of banana bread! Our freezer definitely has much more room now.

Last week we went to Jacob's work party. Every year they give away a gift to every employee. In the past, Jacob has received a drill and a suitcase. This year they gave away track suits....My little asparagus, Jacob.

If you think Jacob looks funny, imagine men running around in circles and doing stretches on stage to model the track suits.

They make really great pajama pants, so thanks Melaleuca.

If you need us....

We'll be in Arizona!

We are escaping Rexburg for the winter and taking off. Jacob landed an internship at a place called Waterstone Mortgage in Gilbert Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. He had a first interview that he felt pretty good about and he said he felt relaxed during the interview. On Friday he got a call saying they were going to interview him a second time and they were accepting two people and interviewing four. So today the guy he interviewed with called again and said that a second interview wouldn't be necessary. Jacob's heart dropped for a second, but only a second, because they offered him the internship!!

We are so thrilled. I for one am ready for a new adventure. I have only been to the Phoenix area once with my friends when we were teenagers... supervised. All I know is there is swimming pools galore and that will make for one happy, happy, hopefully soon to be TAN (and well sun-screened), blond. And this may sound weird, but I really really like the cactus plant. Jacob and I plan to cut one open and find the water.

Jacob is excited for our new adventure too. He is excited to learn what he can about loans, mortgages and what not and for the change of scenery.

Now all we have to do is find somewhere to live and we're outta here. Easier said than done.

A Cookie Contest Emergency

So, I know my last post was about food and this one is going to be a post about food too. Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. I live to eat. (And thank heavens I am a self proclaimed distance runner too or else who knows what I would look like!) But this one is more interesting. I promise.

Jacob has a drawing for an iPad at work this week and you have to earn the tickets for the drawing. Today they had a cookie making contest. If you brought in cookies you got a few tickets and if you won, you got more tickets for drawing, plus some kind of gift card.

Jacob forgot to make cookies. He called me a little after four and asked me to bring him winning cookies by five. Okay, he didn't say winning, but I know he wants that iPad. I said I would bring him what ever I could find, probably chocolate chip cookies. But I just didn't feel like doing that. I just opened my cupboards and let inspiration take the lead.

We had a Betty Crocker Cake mix so I thought CAKEYS! (Cake cookies. I am not sure how to spell it but Cakie looks wrong to me so I am sticking with my way.)

I knew just a cakey wasn't going to cut it so I decided to make frosting while the cakeys were in the oven. I opened the lazy susan for some frosting inspiration and found lemon extract so lemon frosting it was. Then I found my old decorating kit and piped one huge drop flower on all the cookies.

The cakey was satisfactory, but definitely NOT a winner... So I dropped them off, glad that I had made Jacob feel better about forgetting to make cookies.

AND WE WERE 2nd PLACE!

Can you believe my silly cakey made second place? No gift certificate, but I will take second place out of 14 people. Jacob said the cakeys received lots of compliments though. He also said the winner made some kind of chocolate meringue. Well maybe... this is how he described it in his text. "They were made with chocolate and egg whites. They looked funny but they were super moist on the inside." Does that sound like a chocolate meringue type thing to any one else? Maybe not the part about being super moist inside.

So, for the next time you realize at the last minute that you said you'd make a treat for your next ward activity, or you need a quick dessert any occasion I left the recipe below.

I think the trick here is to make them as fast as you can.

On your mark. Get set. Go.

I'm pretty sure everyone can make a cakey, but here is what I did.

1 box Betty Crocker white cake mix.
1 egg
1/2 c. vegetable oil

Mix it up. It might seem a little on the dry side but that is okay. The dough didn't look smooth when I used beaters so I switch to a spoon. Make cookie dough balls as big as you'd like. Put them in the oven at 350 for 9 minutes. Around 7 minutes the cakeys still looked like balls so I opened the oven door and patted them down with a spatula. A little more liquid in the mix probably would have helped, but whatever works, right? :) At 9 minutes I turned the oven off and let them sit in there for one more minute. I don't know why I did that. Then I took them out and put the cookies on a cooling rack.

Frosting:
1 tsp. lemon extract or grated lemon rind.
cream that in with 1 1/2 T. room temp. butter.
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 T. lemon juice mixed with 1 T. water

Add 1/2 a cup of the powered sugar to the butter and beat it until its all mixed in. It will be very very dry.
Add a teaspoon of the lemon-water mixture and beat it in.
Keep adding the powdered sugar and the lemon- water mixture one at a time until you get the consistency you want to frost your cookies.
I didn't use anywhere close to the amount of lemon-water mixture I mixed together, so scale it down if you want to. And if you want it extra lemony add more grated lemon!

Sorry that there is no picture. But I had to be out the door.

I also have had cakeys with a strawberry cake mix and vanilla frosting that were really good So use what you have and remember the trick is to do it as fast as you can and not think too much. In fact, don't measure anything.

Best of luck in your next cookie emergency!

Pie and Ice Cream

This weekend I tried my hand at making my grandmother, Sharyn's ice cream. I have never made it before, and I even impressed myself with my final product! It starts with a stirred custard, "creme anglaise" if you want fancy about it. It does taste more like a custard when it is all done too. When I was little I couldn't figure out if I liked it or not, but now I love it. And the guinea pig Jacob liked it too! I was really worried he wouldn't.

We got out or fun ice cream dishes and put some famous Fenton's caramel on top.


















Since I was having good kitchen luck this weekend, I decided to make pumpkin pie today. It wasn't my mom's tried and true recipe. I found it in my baking text book. But I think I should have gone with my mom's pumpkin pie. It was good, just doesn't beat my mom's. Go Mom! We ate it warm with left over ice cream!It was a yummy Sunday dessert. And if you are in the Rexburg area and have a sweet tooth, please invite yourself over. Jacob and I can't eat all this dessert by ourselves.

A More Serious Post (a little on the venting side)

I, Kate Curtis, am a free woman. Still happily hitched to Jacob. :)

Winter in the fencing industry is really slow. Especially this year. The laborers were all done with their fences a week before Thanksgiving and when I got back from my Californiacation, work was deadly slow. I went a week with out doing a lick of work. So my bosses came to me and said they just didn't have anything more for me to do and told me I looked extremely bored, gave me a check in the sum of what they would have paid me for the winter (two or two and a half months...) and I am out of there!

I have been loving the last two days. I have applied for part time work here and there and only one of them was for a secretarial position. In all honesty though, I am done being a secretary. I've been someone's secretary since I was 16. And I'll prove it. Here's working past, starting from the beginning. (Its boring, this is for my venting purposes.)

Junior Clerk - City Manager and Mayor's Office
File Clerk - Berg Injury Lawyers
File Clerk - Sarrail Lynch and Hall (Now Sarrail, Castillo and Hall)
Receptionist - Movers International Group
Administrative Assistant - City of Alameda
Sales and Marketing Intern - Volterra Semiconductor
Student Secretary - BYU - Idaho
Office Manager - Western Fence

And that is not including the time I worked at Curves or as a math tutor. YIKES!

So I have decided, I am done being someones secretary. Unless I have to support my family in the future. I would rather sell baked goods door to door or at a farmers market right now.

I have been so happy the last few days and so much more relaxed. So I feel really comfortable right now being more adventurous in my money making endeavors and I am excited to see what I can do on my own!

Thanksgiving Part 2 - Sacramento, San Francisco and Too Much Football

During our week back at home Jacob and I had a list far too long of things we wanted to see and do.

Jacob kept talking about all the pizza he has liked in California, so first things first. I took Jacob to Zachary's Pizza in Oakland.

I am never disappointed in Zachary's Pizza. I immediately get hunger pangs as soon as I start thinking about it. Its Chicago style pizza with the sauce on top and cheese and your choice of "toppings" in the middle. This place is ALWAYS packed.

For our second adventure we took a trip to Sacramento. We visited the temple, which is beautiful and very small with lots and grass and trees around it. Then we went to the outlet malls and spent a little too much money. We hadn't even visited all the stores before Jacob and I knew it was time to go home so we didn't cause any more damage.

On Wednesday we went to San Francisco. Jacob had never been to the down town area so we went there first. We walked around Union Square for a few minutes, but seeing as we had spent so much the day before we didn't spend too much time browsing around. We loved the heart with the golden gate bridge painted on it.Union square was getting ready for the Christmas Tree lighting and there were all sorts of kids running around on field trips to the ice skating rank, so we moved on and walked to North Beach to visit Little Italy and eat some lunch. We ate dessert first. A cannoli and cream puff! Then we found some delicious paninis and ate dessert again at a gelato shop where a chunk of one of my molars chipped off. Oh well.

Then we walked some more down to the piers and back to the BART station to take us back to our car. Lots and lots of walking.

Thanksgiving was all football and food. More like football, football, football, football, food, football football. By the end of the day I was ready to start banging my head on the T.V. I was so done with football.

Friday we avoided shopping and I went to help my Aunt Holly make eggs Benedict, which I had never had or made before, for a baby shower for my cousins wife. The food was really good and it was a fun, laid back baby shower. Then Jacob and I were treated by my parents to dinner and a Christmas show to kick the holidays off. And then more football.... and more football.

Jacob and I made a pact that I wouldn't go on facebook if he wouldn't bring up football. It didn't last long on either side.

Sunday morning we made the trip home. The roads were only really bad in one spot. Other wise it was smooth sailing. Now we are home and back to school and work. It was a great, very needed break. Thanks mom and dad for flying us home!!

Thanksgiving Part 1 - L.A., a Wedding, and a Confused Cashier

I came to California sorely unprepared. I brought one light coat, flip flops and one pair of socks. Well, let me tell you, it does get cold here and it DOES rain in L.A. (This is a long post, the cashier part is a little funny.)

If you would have asked me 6 months ago if I thought Annalise would be married by the end of the year I would have bet all my money that the answer would be no. This isn't to say anything bad about Annalise by any means. Shes one of my absolute best friends, but I don't think anyone saw this coming. She met Ryan, her husband as of November 20th, while he was on his mission believe it or not. He taught her sisters boyfriend. (Yes, Ryan served in her homeward and got to know Annalise and her family very well.) I am not sure how they switched contact information, but they started writing when Annalise moved back to Rexburg. He came home after a few months exchanging letters with Annalise and before we knew it they were engaged.

We arrived at 10:30 on Friday night to a damp and cold Los Angeles. We got a Chrysler Sebring for less than $40.00 for the whole weekend! (Hotwire.com has had the cheapest car rental deals 90% of the time... for the next time you need to rent a car.) So Saturday we woke up, to not a damp, but very wet L.A. Of all days to rain in L.A. it had to rain on Annalise's one and only wedding day. We saw at least 5 big accidents during the 40 minute drive from the hotel to the Los Angeles temple. The rain must have really thrown L.A. for a loop. But thankfully by the time the ceremony was over the rain had stopped and it was just very cold. Here are some pictures of us goofing off until it was time to take pictures with the bridal party.

I wish I had taken more pictures! I didn't get pictures from the reception or anything else in L.A.

Between the wedding and the reception Jacob and I hung out with my friend Rebecca who lives in Alabama and I do not get to see very often. We decided to go in on a gift with our other friend Amy, (pictured above). Its a tradition for us to leave a basket of wedding night goodies in the get away car. You know, the kind of stuff your best friends get you. Amy had already bought her part of the gift so Rebecca, Jacob and I went to Target. (Im going to make this as family friendly as possible.) We found a set of "pajamas" and Rebecca thought they were so cute she decided she wanted some too. So I bought one set of pajamas for Annalise and Rebecca bought her own set and we split up some of the other treats, peppermint whipped cream (for their hot chocolate... of course) and a sample box of stuff that can be found in the family planning section. While we were checking out, Rebecca started chatting with cashier, and then it was my turn. Jacob had taken a trip to the bath room and hadn't found us yet. So, she had started ringing me up and got to the matching "pajamas." She looked at me... then looked at Rebecca... back at the me... down at the pajamas... back at me and said, "oh... you're together." If you only knew the assortment of wedding night goodies Rebecca and I had picked out...

"Yup!" As soon as I said it I knew what the cashier was thinking. So I quickly corrected, "Our friend just got married, so we're buying her a gift." I am not sure if it fully explains the matching set of "pajamas," but I wasn't going to let her go on thinking what she was thinking.

In other L.A. happenings, we accidentally found the W.B. studios.

We drove down Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. Lust, LUST, LUST.

We saw the city of my birth, Panorama City. A far cry from the stereotypical glamorous L.A. No ritzy shops, palm trees and big houses. All you can see from the freeway is a big Budweiser and Bud Light factory.

We drove home with my parents who had come to the wedding too and stopped at the famous Harris Ranch in the middle of no where for lunch, then slept and slept until we woke up at home.

A Pie Maker and Distance Runner

This week at work my boss told me to sharpen pencils for his grandchildren. He has 43 of them so there was a lot of sharpening to be done. If you happened to look at my facebook that day, you saw that I was not very happy about this. Here I am, 22 years old, college graduate, and I am sharpening pencils. Where did I go wrong in my life? I have nothing to show for 22 years. So I decided I had to do something about it.

I called Jacob while he was at work because I actually was really upset about this and he told me to think about things I actually wanted to do. And so I thought of things... lots of things. But a lot of my ideas would require money to buy equipment to get started. Like a sewing machine, or a chocolate tempering machine so I can make all sorts of candies. So, I decided to break out my baking book and master pie. Last year at this time I was getting ready to make my first pie for a baking test and I had Jacob's mom walk me through the process. And we made a dang good apple pie if you ask me. With the apple pie under my belt I decided to make my first ever berry pie! Blueberry and blackberry It was a process, but it was absolutely delicious. I learned to keep the top crust thick on these types of pies so the gooey filling doesn't start to seep through like it did on mine and if I do a lattice top again, I will make sure the filling is all the way chilled so it won't be as runny. It made for hard lattice making conditions. I also forgot to pinch the crust on the edges to make it look nicer. All in all, it was a very good pie. My official taste tester, Jacob approved too. The only thing missing was some french vanilla ice cream! Next up, pumpkin pie!

I also decided that next year I am going to run a marathon. Don't know where and I don't know when, but its happening. So get ready treadmill, we'll be pounding some miles out together this winter. I don't have to buy anything for that! ... Just the money to register for the race.

As of today, I am a 22 year old self proclaimed pie master and distance runner. Next on my list of self proclaimed mastery? I don't know but I am open to any ideas.

In other news, Jacob graduated from Man to Manly Man when he replaced a car battery for the very first time. It was a very cold morning. Look at where the battery was bolted down. Did Kia just assume this battery would never have to be changed? Jacob got it done and our car has not had any more problems!

Our first...

Scarecrow!

Jacob and I decided to build a scarecrow for our date night tonight. We went to D.I., bought a chair, a shirt and a hat and went to K-Mart and bought a pumpkin head. Then we collected all of Jacob's Wall Street Journals he is supposed to be reading for a class, crinkled them up and shoved them down his pants. We found an old pillow for the stomach and this is what our little guy looks like.

(The dead plant is supposed to be there.)

I feel like our little guy is missing something. Maybe some patches on his jeans. We considered stealing some hay from the straw mazes. Jacob was was against my idea to make hands out of plastic knives or blinging him out with dollar store jewelery.

From now until we put up Christmas decorations our new friend will be welcoming us home and protecting our house while we are away. I have all my confidence in him.

Boise and Dallas

I have not updated for a while mostly because there hasn't been anything interesting going on. Jacob does his homework and I go to work. I clean on Saturdays and Jacob does his homework.

I was happy to get a break from this routine when we went to Boise to watch a BSU Football game. The stadium looks much smaller in person. We had open seating in an end zone and by the time we got there, we had to squeeze between two large men. Thankfully, this game was a quick blow out and by the third quarter the crowd was starting to thin. My dad said it was such a slow game that the cheer leaders were being interviewed on T.V. We had a great time anyways.
Let me tell you something about Boise State fans. They are intense. I did not see one person at the game that did not have a Boise State shirt on. I have been to football games and sporting events before, but I had never seen anything like this. Even walking around Boise during the day, half the people had Boise State shirts on. The Bronco fans are nuts. They even color coordinate.One of the guys in our section missed the memo that he was supposed to wear blue and wore orange instead. I bet he felt dumb.

Harold took us out to Mexican on Saturday and chauffeured us so we could use his Costco card. We love Costco, but I was really disappointed in the samples. Cheryl made us a delicious dinner on Sunday. Roast, salad, baked potatoes and fruit. Yum! While Cheryl was making dinner she went out in the back yard and pulled a cantaloupe right out of her garden and we ate it with dinner. I am still so impressed and that was one of the best cantaloupes I have had.

In other events, Jacob went to Dallas last week. He was impressed with the sky scrappers.He also met a cow named Rosie. She belongs to the service missionaries in Dallas. The long horn cow doesn't get as much attention. It is not cute like Rosie.

He visited Southwest, Bank of America twice, Travelocity/Sabre, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, FDIC, Northwestern Mutual, JC Penny, Coamerica, AT&T, The Analysis Group, JP Morgan Chase and Pier 1 Imports. Did Pier 1 seem out of place to anyone else? He said he made a lot of great connections and he is going to work on thank you cards and staying in touch. He has decided that he wants to work for a bank at least for a little bit in the future, but he'd be happy to intern at any one of these places.

And I slept so great while he was gone. Right in the middle of the bed a whole 8 hours.

Summer Send Off

This week Jacob started school. Boo. I miss having Jacob all day and every evening with no homework. To say good bye to summer we went camping in Jackson Hole over the Labor Day weekend. We took off after church on Sunday to a very cold and very windy Jackson Hole. We walked around ate ice cream and debated staying in a hotel for the night as temperatures were supposed to be in the 30's for the night. We called the cheapest places we could find, but even the Motel 6 was sold out for the night and they were asking for 100 bucks for one night. Sorry Motel 6... your not worth it. Not even in Jackson Hole. So we took our $20 to the Gros Ventre campground, just a few minutes outside Jackson.

Thankfully the wind had all died down and we set up our tent, got in, and stayed in until morning and tried to stay warm. We were thankful that we brought extra blankets and very warm clothes to sleep in. We saw a moose. Actually two of them.

In the morning we went on a morning hike in Teton Village. 7.4 miles to the summit of a mountain, 4,100 feet uphill. Remind me not to do that again fueled on a maple bar and a banana from Albertsons. By the time we were at the top I was panting and it was VERY cold up there and windy. We heard rumors that it was around 18 degrees. The view was great but I was ready to get the free tram ride back down, get in our warm car and find lunch. (We found Burger King in Driggs, Idaho. It was yucky. Besides my french fries.)

That night we watched the Boise State-Virgina Tech game. It got a little intense there for a minute.

This weekend I was grateful to not have much going on. Just homework for Jacob.

Next weekend we are running the Melalueca 10K in Idaho Falls.

Mesa Falls Half Marathon

Jacob and I ran the Mesa Falls Half Marathon on Saturday. We finished before our goal time of two hours and thirty minutes but we still ran really slow now that I think about it. I am really glad Jacob was there with me because we kept each other going. I just don't think I could have done that all by myself.

Getting ready to run!
The course started down hill on a gravel trail big enough for an ATV to go through. So there was a lot of running over bushes to pass people. We ran ahead of people and finally found a good spot where people were running on the right and passing on the left. At mile 3 we made it on to pavement and at mile 4 we started up hill for the next 2.8 miles. The rest of the race was rolling hills and the last mile was through the town of Ashton until we ended at a park. We saw an old roommate of mine, who we ran with for the first little bit. She set a pretty good pace for us and was keeping time.

I will explain my emotions mile by mile

Mile 1 - Wheres the mile marker sign?

Mile 2 - We ran 2 miles in 18 minutes. Sweet.

Mile 3 - 27 minutes. Still doing good.

Mile 4 - Headed up hill. Feeling great because we're passing walkers. Lost Serena who started HAULING up the hill. Never saw her again until we spotted her getting a free massage.

Mile 5 & 6 - Just keep swimming (running), just keep swimming (running).

Mile 7 - Half way there!!! We're actually going to do it!

Mile 8 - These rolling hills are making this a whole lot harder.

Mile 9 - We're actually going to do this!

Mile 10 - This should be over now. I took off the iPod and shoved it down my shirt and started running with my hands on my hips for a while. I felt a lot more comfortable like that.

Mile 11- Please stop. Please stop.

Mile 12 - Where is the finish line. At this point we were running on city streets in a lane made with orange traffic cones. It felt like it just kept going and going and going.

Mile 13 - WE MADE IT!!!Once we stopped running our bodies tightened completely. It was painful to walk or move. Someone finished a couple of seconds a head of us and he was on his three hundredth marathon! I don't know how people have the knees for that!

We got free massages to help stretch us out and ate the free food that was provided, went home, got cleaned up and slept.

Sunday we were VERY VERY sore. Our legs and shoulders we stiffer than stiff. We looked pretty ridiculous waddling around on Sunday and today we are feeling much much better.

We felt such a great sense of accomplishment afterward. Believe it or not we are ready for another but all the races are coming to a close at least for Idaho/Utah area this year.

Jacob Did The Laundry

Sometimes we have a hard time finding time to go to the laundry mat. We try to go together because it takes a lot longer to go alone. About a month ago Jacob went alone and this was actually his first time all by himself that I can remember. So I was a little nervous that my whites would come out discolored with splotches of pink.

I usually try to keep my whites looking bright with a scoop of Oxygen Powder, the off brand of Oxy Clean and I usually keep the tub of soap and Oxygen Powder in the laundry basket so I don't have to gather them up when it comes time to go to Magic Suds.

So Jacob was off into the laundry abyss armed with quarters, soap and Oxygen Powder. When he came back, nothing was discolored or ruined and the whites looked amazingly bright. I thought he did a great job. The next time I did the laundry by myself and I didn't find the Oxygen Powder anywhere in our baskets, but I didn't think much of it. That is until last night when we did the laundry again.

We were sitting and talking and I was people watching as usual at the laundry mat. Some ones load had finished and I started to laugh because the guy had accidentally washed and plastic grocery bag. Jacob thought that was funny too, but he definitely topped the grocery bag. He admitted to washing the whole tub of Oxygen Powder on accident and nothing was in it when he found it in the washer after the cycle had finished. No wonder and I couldn't find the Oxygen Powder and no wonder our clothes were so white!

Battle Wounds

There are really gross pictures of my toe at the bottom. I will try to type enough so you can choose to scroll down and look at the pictures or not.

Getting ready for the half marathon has been going good so far except for my toe. My toe just keeps getting worse and worse but I don't want to stop running because we're far too far into training and too close to the race to have a set back for a silly toe! So, on the right side of my big toe, a huge blister has developed, and I mean huge. Yesterday I put a blister band aide on it and ran ten miles. I didn't feel a thing until the last block and it started stinging a little. But when I got home and took off my shoes I could tell through my socks that things had gone very badly with my toe. The blister pretty much doubled in size while I was running and even started oozing all by itself and got all over my sock and made the band aide all slimy. Even Jacob was taken back when he saw it. So I have decided to do some biking for the next two days and try a run again on Thursday.

Other than my nasty toe, not much has been going on. We've enjoyed the break from school and our weekends are busy busy busy. This weekend we will join Jacob's parents in Island Park for a Curtis family reunion and the next weekend is the big run. After that we're going to do a last-weekend-of-summer trip to Jackson, WY again to take a hike and maybe a night of camping. I also want to go to the ice cream shop again that sold guns. They had some yummy ice cream.

Hopefully I have talked enough to have the pictures hidden now at the bottom. Maybe I've talked the blisters up enough so that when you see them, it wont seem so bad.

Peeling off the band aide

Schools Out Forever!

I am DONE! No more school!

This weekend we had both sets of parents in town along with my grandparents and brother to celebrate my graduation. I am glad that they all came to show support.

We actually had graduation on a Friday which made things a little difficult seeing as I had to work all day. Both bosses were getting ready for an extended family reunion. Bosses trump secretaries. Always. Thankfully, the only other person that can run the office came back from a fence job half an hour early and told me to go home. So I went home stuffed myself with Jacobs left over lunch and got my cap and gown on. I had to line up at 5:30 even though graduation didn't start until 6:15. Everything I learned about graduation the first time in high school held true the second time in college. They are hot and you are going to sweat places you didn't know you could sweat, you're going to get hat hair, and it'll feel good. I seriously think those robes were made for Eskimos. Not to be worn in the hot afternoon sun.

So after sitting and listening to speeches for I don't even know how long , I finally got to walk across the stage.A very short but momentous walk for four years of a lot of work.

Recent Events

So, after our happy moving announcements our managers called us and told us the rent of the apartment we were moving to was now $600 a month. No thank you. Compared to other apartments around here, frankly, it was a rip off. So, we will stay where we are until we finish school and maybe put some of the money we will save towards a graduation trip for Jacob.

We spent the 4th of July in Jackson Hole WY. Jacob's friends Jaimen and Joe came with us. Jaimen is a mountain man and took us on a 16 mile bike ride with a 4 mile hike in the middle. Needless to say Jacob and I were dead after that trip. But we did find a really good "homemade" ice cream shop in Jackson that also sold guns. I was very glad to find a homemade ice cream shop because it just isn't the Fourth of July with out homemade ice cream.

We also went to the Idaho Falls Zoo with free tickets from Jacobs work. I felt really bad for those animals. They had really small cages or little areas of land to live on. If I were a PETA member they would be hearing from me, but the animals were fun to see nonetheless.
Lastly, we had some toilet problems. Not to talk toilet on my blog because no one likes that, but we had some real problems. We went to ACE Hardware and asked for their best stuff. They gave us liquid fire and told us to be very very careful. Well, not even liquid fire solved the problem and we treated our toilet three times with the strongest acid we could find. So, I felt that the managers owed it to us to fix our toilet after raising the rent on us and had them get us a plumber. Now the toilet, thankfully works like a charm.

Our 2nd Move!

Jacob and I got news today that we are moving! Not very far at all. Infact, its only about 100 feet. We love the apartment we are in now. It's perfect for newlyweds and just me and Jacob. But once you get more than three people in there, it is just too cramped. With everything that bothered us about the apartment, we decided to move two doors down to a house that its devided into two apartments. We thankfully will be in the upstairs and we are so excited about the move. Here is a link to pictures of the apartment from tenants that lived there before the current tenants, Tim and Amy. I dont think the pictures do this cute apartment any justice, or gives you a real idea of what it looks like but you can see that this is much bigger than our old one. We are very excited.

Pillow Talk part 2

If you haven't read the first Pillow Talk you probably should, because here is part two. And the best part is, part two happened all in one morning. For whatever reason I woke at 6:00 this morning and didn't feel tired at all. Jacob was still sound asleep or so I thought until he started quietly laughing to himself in his sleep.

Jacob has been reading books for his leadership class. One is about an explorer named Shackleton. So when I asked him what was so funny he started laughing again and told me about his book and how Shackleton got frostbite and his fingers and toes fell off and had to get them replaced. There was a long pause while I was trying to figure out why that was so funny. Then he said, "And another part too." I'll leave the part up to your imagination. He turned over and kept laughing and went back to sleep. Shackleton didn't lose any other part. Jacob said he made it up in his dream so it would be funnier.

A little while later Jacob twitched in his sleep so I asked him why he was twitching. He claimed he was "watching a movie about an owl and ants and ants were in the hole and the owl was eating the ants and it was gross," so he twitched.

I've decided to start talking to Jacob more while he's asleep because you never know what he is going to say.

Another Vegan Adventure

This weekend I tried a new vegan recipe. Enchilada Casserole. My wonderful guinea pig, Jacob even had good things to say about it this time. My version of vegan enchilada casserole wasn't exactly vegan. I put some cheese on top because... I married a Curtis. They like their cheese. I thought it would be a compromise. I have a link to the recipe. I did not use as much enchilada sauce mostly because I did not like the brand. On the off chance that you actually try it, don't get the enchilada sauce that comes in a yellow can with red writing. GROSS. I also didn't use olives. Gross too.

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/07/mexican-lasagna-or-enchilada-casserole.html

This is definitely something I would do again. Jacob and I found that using it as a tortilla chip dip is really good too. Jacob said it'd be really good with some ground beef in it too. I don't doubt that either. So, one for the recipe books!

Gifts I Would Never Get My Father

With Fathers Day coming up, I've been running into all sorts of Fathers Day gift ideas, including one titled, "11 Father's Day Gifts with Universal Appeal" on MSNBC.com. I thought to myself, "Yeah right. Not my dad." But I clicked anyways to see what exactly has universal appeal for men.

1. Beer Tender from Kraups Your very own beer dispenser. I've seen enough singing and dancing from him that he does not need to loosen up any more than he already does at a family party.

2. Bacon Flavored Vodka "Goes great with brunch!" Well, 0 for 2 MSNBC.

3. Adjustable BYOB Sandals from Reef This is a sandal that has a bottle opener in the sole. I'll be sure to get these for him so he can open his bacon flavored vodka at brunch. Can we see something that doesn't have to do with alcohol? 0 for 3.

4. Slingbox Slingbox lets you stream live TV to your mobile phone from your home cable box. This is so-so. Plus, he sits with the TV on mute listening to a book on iTunes, not even really looking at the TV (You'd think he'd just turn the TV off.) So, TV let alone TV on the cellphone that only works inside the house is pointless.

5. Workout Music No offense to my dad, but never in a million years. I'll let is next book on iTunes get him pumped up for his next walk.

6. Books for the Man Shelf These are "man power" books. I don't think he reads man power books and seeing them on his bookshelf wouldn't "evoke a sense of pride like a stone lion guarding a castle." Thank you for the metaphor MSNBC. Those stone lions are quite intimidating.

7. Chef's knife by Food Network's Guy Fieri Well, he can't exactly use as a back scratcher, or any other kind of scratcher.

8. Professional-Grade Barbecue Beeper from Weber "Like a baby monitor for your dinner." I think my mom dishing up when it's ready has been working out really well for him. That baby monitor has been working for 28 years!

9. Straight Razor I had to Wikipedia this one. " Straight razors require considerable skill to hone and strop, and require more care during shaving." We had better stick with the safety razors.

10. Military-quality marching compass My dad is not marching anywhere he needs a military quality compass for. How about a GPS for the car?

11. Diaper Bag from Diaper Dude "Dad's love dragons... Diaper Dudes Diaper Bags look manly... Also an apparent favorite of Brad Pitt!" I'll get him this one to use as a carry on for his next trip. Just for the manly-dragon lover-Brad Pitt wannabe I know he is.

I love you dad, but thanks to the uninspiring gift ideas, you are getting a card for Fathers Day.

Vegan Exploration

Today I was inspired to try some vegan cooking. Just to be clear right now, I do not want to be a vegan. With all this free time I have I thought I would try something new. It all started because I am throwing a bridal shower for my friend Cari who has a vegan friend so I googled vegan party food and stumbled upon a vegan recipe blog and decided to try at least 25 new recipes. Nothing with tofu. Not a fan of the tofu.

I told Jacob about this venture over a text message and I knew that he would be very hesitant. His response, "I am raising our kids on meat and that is final," followed by a few more confused and upset responses. Well, I am not going to let Jacob stop me and I know he wont mind being a taste tester, vegan food or not.

So, recipe number 1: Low Fat Peanut Butter Banana Cookies (with my comments). I chose it because I had all the ingredients.

1/2 cup natural peanut butter, chunky or smooth1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (I left about an 1/8 of room left at the top of my measuring cup and filled it with corn syrup. Higher moisture percentage in cookie recipes makes them more chewy and I think for this it worked.)
3/4 cup mashed banana (I used 1/2 a cup and thought that was plenty)
1 cup unbleached flour (What difference does it make?)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used white cake flour. I grew up on white bread and white everything. Wheat bread isn't bad, but I avoid using wheat flour for baking anything but bread. I think wheat flour in this type case would be a great compliment to the peanut butter and banana flavors.)
1 teaspoon baking powder1 pinch salt
1/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.

Cream together the peanut butter and sugars. Add the mashed banana and mix until creamy.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter a little at a time until totally absorbed. Add the chocolate chips, if desired, and mix until well-blended, but do not over-mix.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared pans, about 2 inches apart. Flatten with a fork dipped in water. (These cookies will not spread as they cook, so the shape they’re in when they come out of the oven will be about the same as when they went in.) Bake for about 10 minutes, until bottoms are golden brown. (Don't wait for the whole cookie to look done, I promise.) Remove and let cool before serving. (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/12/lower-fat-peanut-butter-banana-cookies.html)

All in all, these were not too bad. Obviously not your Otis Spunkmeyer or your grandma's secret recipe. I would do this again if I had kids with an insatiable sweet tooth. Its fun and different and not too fatty. And that is saying something because I forgot the salt.

Jacob just walked in the door and is giving it a try. He is pacing and doesn't look pleased that he wasn't welcomed with a normal cookie. Not much to say from Jacob. He likes his animal products. Animal Killer. (But I like him so we'll let it slide.)

Bountiful Baskets

Another reason to love eastern Idaho. I had a friend tell me about Bountiful Baskets. You sign up online and play 15.00 for a basket full of produce and you can play an extra dollar for a loaf or bread. I finally remembered to sign up for it and sent Jacob on an errand to pick up our basket. We had so much stuff. A laundry basked filled half way up. 2 heads of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, 2 bags of baby carrots, apples, zucchini, peaches, oranges, squash, bananas, avacado and the list goes on. Here is a picture. All of this for 15.0o!! I was getting my hair done while Jacob was picking up our produce and the lady that was doing it gets bountiful baskets too and says if you do some price comparisons with the grocery store that you would spend about $50.00 dollars instead of 15.00. Maybe 50 dollars is a stretch, but its still a good deal if you ask me.

The problem is, I don't know what to do with all this food! That is way more than Jacob and I can eat before it goes bad. The only thing I know how to do is take something perfectly healthy and turn it into sugary junk food. Like peach cobbler and apple crisp or zuchini brownies or zuchini bread. Either way, I am very excited for our Bountiful Baskets. I had an orange today and it was the best orange I have had in a long time.

Meet Kellen

Sorry for being a slacker at this whole blogging thing. I think a blog with out a picture just looks boring, but uploading pictures and putting them into the blog just seems so daunting to me.

So, here is the latest with the Curtis'.

First, Jacob's hours and worked switched again. He was promoted to night time Work Flow Manager at Melaleuca and works from 4 to 10 pm, (but most of the time its 10:20ish). This means he doesn't take any more calls, other than that, I am not sure what his job duties are, but Work Flow Manager sounds fancy!

No new news with me. Still working and still very happy. (Cheryl, if you are reading this, my boss served on the high council with your dad a long time ago. I had to put it here because I always forget to tell you.)

Jacob and I have added to our family. Last weekend we bought a blue and orange betta fish and named him Kellen Moore after the Boise State quarter back. We got Kellen his own rocky smurf turf. Believe it or not, but I think this fish has some personality. If you start waving at him he will wave a fin back at you. And if you point to some food that he's missed he'll swim over and eat it. If you put your face right up to the tank, Kellen will come up and blow you a fish kiss, and call me crazy, but I think Kellen gets excited when Jacob comes home. Or maybe that is just me being extra excited to finally see Jacob at the end of the day.

Jacob and I are liking Kellen Moore and he his the perfect low maintenance pet.

Car Owners

I was going to make a post about all of our Hawaii adventures minus the headaches, but I first wanted to make a celebratory blog about Jacob and I officially being debt free. We paid off his car earilier this month with our tax return. We got brand new tires and an oil change to start off our car ownership on the right foot. Lets hope this car lasts a while!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Here is a picture of my final cake for my cake decorating class. It is a lemon cake with butter cream icing. I am not 100% happy, but my teacher gave me some compliments. The leafs I am definitely not all the way happy about, but I did like the extra color.
I think that the most valuable thing I learned in my cake decorating class is how to make a mean frosting.

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

Cream the fat together. Add powdered sugar while beating in thirds. Add liquids. Add some almond extract too. My teacher did this and I craved her frosting every single day this semester. As with any frosting, keep balancing the the liquid and sugar out until you get the right consistency. Its so smooth and spreads nicely on a cake. And this is so easy to cut in half too because this recipe makes way more than enough for a normal size cake.

Twenty Two and Good News

Twenty two. That is how old I am! Gross! I suppose it could be, and will be worse in less than 365 days.

I did have a great birthday and I had no problem letting Jacob spoil me. My day started out on the right foot with my first and only class that day canceled. I decided to go to work to let Jacob study and it turned out to be an awesome day at work. My supervisor Kriss bought a beautiful cake for me and everybody sang Happy Birthday. I felt very celebrated and I got to keep the rest of the cake. It was delicious.

Jacob picked me up from work and we went back to our apartment so I could change. He surprised me with a decorated living room with streamers and a balloon. He also wrapped up curtains he bought for our bathroom window and a curtain rod. Sounds like a funny birthday present, but its exactly what I wanted! Then we headed to Idaho Falls to get my free birthday burger from Red Robin. I don't remember eating at Red Robin before so I was hesitant, but I was impressed. The waiters sang to me and gave us a free Sundae. Then we browsed the mall. Jacob bought shorts and I bought pants.

All in all a very good birthday despite feeling too old. Thank you to everyone who called and sent cards. That is what really makes me feel special on my birthday.

In other events, I received the job I applied for! After the interview I felt like a complete idiot. They looked so bored while we were talking and I was depressed the whole night. I just couldn't shake that bad interview off. But the owner called me today and offered the position. They are willing to work around my schooling for the rest of the semester. Horay! So, I, Kate Curtis, am the Office Manager at Western Fence. Not too shabby for a 22 year old. Not the most glamorous job, but definitely a job that suits me.

When I'm Right, I'm Right.

Exhibit A:
Our refrigerator died. It had been making horrible noises. Really horrible. It sounded like a drum roll on a cookie sheet. Then the drum roll would stop and a click sound would start. Kind of like flipping a light switch. Those noises would go on for about 5 minutes and our refrigerator would finally start. This had been going on even before we moved into the apartment, so we were aware that our refrigerator was going to die soon. Our managers knew too and said they were working on getting us a new fridge.

I reminded our managers about the fridge two weeks ago and I told them I was nervous that the fridge would finally die on a Sunday night at 11 o'clock and where are you going to get a new fridge on a Sunday night, especially in Rexburg?

Guess when the fridge finally kicked the bucket? Sunday night. I am not exactly sure what time, but the drum roll started and I thought to myself, its not going to start again, but I didn't think much else about it. Jacob realized our fridge was dead around 10:00 p.m. and the food in our freezer was already starting to thaw.

Exhibit B:
I had a victorious pastry class on Monday morning. Someone (a 40 year old guy who doesn't like to take advice from anyone and has 8 kids) was trying to make a syrup to pour over his genoise cake. Those types of cakes are usually pretty dry and tasteless so a syrup for the cake to soak up is a must. Anyways, the particular type of syrup he was trying to make takes a little more than just pouring some water and sugar together and letting it cook to whatever temperature. So I watched him mess up 5 times. 5 times! There were pots filled with rock hard burnt caramelized sugar. (He spent quite a while cleaning those out too.) So as he started his sixth round he was getting pretty upset. I told him how to fix it (which I won't write because it isn't the point of my blog and its boring) but he got all defensive and said none of that mattered while leaning against the table and shaking his head at me in away that made my advice sound totally stupid.

Well exxcccuuuusssee me for trying to help. Try your way again and see how that works out for you. Before I could walk away my teacher came to my defense. I'd like to note that this is a word for word quote. "Everything Kate told you is right. If you do what she says, your syrup will come out how it should." In. Your. Face! I didn't say that, but I had a really hard time keeping it in. Instead I smiled, gave him a pat on the back and walked away.

The moral of the story... and I mean this in the most humble way possible, when I am right, I'm right and people should probably listen to me more often.

For a happy ending, today I am grateful for left overs, whoopers, water, orange juice and the internet!

A Passionata Flop

When I saw Passionata in my baking book, I knew one day I would make it. Little did I know it would be for my midterm this semester. Passionata has a meringue disk base, pineapple simmered in vanilla syrup and rum flavoring, and the pineapple is covered with passion fruit Bavarian cream, then those layers are repeated, surrounded by toasted coconut flakes. Its supposed to be topped with a glaze, but the glaze just did not happen. Thankfully the presentation wasn't marked off for not having a glaze because my teacher wanted us to test a short cut that didn't work. In fact, it failed miserably, which is why the top is just the Bavarian cream and pineapple. The glaze topping makes the dessert look very elegant. The pineapple, also my teachers idea, made it look worse, in my opinion.Despite the looks of it, Jacob really likes it, so at least I did something right! When he opens the fridge he says, "Dessert Stuff" in a yoda-ish slow sort of way and takes a few bites.

So there you have it. Passionata. Thank heavens I was only graded on taste.

Today I am thankful for pillows.

Gratefuls again!

I think today, even more than the last post I need to remember what I am grateful for. When I lived with roommates, most every night we say somethings we were grateful for during the day or just in general. I usually had a rambling list, while others were more to the point, and I still make rambling lists.

1. A refrigerator. How did people live with out them? Did they kill a cow everyday?
2. iPods. I definitely couldn't keep up my running with out them.
3. Socks.
4. People who are happy.
5. My job, when it is busy.
6. Making something delicious in class.
7. Being successful.
8. Learning new things.
9. Hulu. Its a must with no cable.
10. Dishwashers.
11. Cereal and microwaveable oatmeal.
12. Spaghetti.
13. Spaghetti.
14. Spaghetti.
15. Books that I can't stop reading.
16. Hawaii in 50 days.
17. Scriptures.
18. The sun!
19. Doctors.
20. Cookies.

Jacob- Your Local Terrorist

This week I made pinwheels, croissants and a braided loaf. They were so flaky and delicious.Last night Jacob decided it was time to get rid of some khakis he had. Big holes were starting to form in the crotch. I sewed them up and thought it looked pretty awesome considering the holes weren't on the seam and it was my first time sewing up a hole, but new wholes kept coming. Of course, Jacob had to put the pants over his head before they hit the trash. He came out singing Phantom of the Opera but he looked more like a terrorist to me. That's when he decided to start the recruiting.But decided he might be able to get more people to join his band of terrorists by posing other ways. Then he thought he might be able to make some money by doing a print ad for Sprite. After all, creating recruiting campaigns can make a terrorist pretty thirsty.