Easter Weekend in Review

We had a busy weekend!
Friday Michael had the day off. We hung out at home in the morning, went to the gym, and then took the boys to the zoo. I can get in free now with passes from my work. YAY!




Of course we saw giraffes because they are my favorite


George climbing at the zoo park


Tummy slide


Friday night we went to the Melting Pot for April's birthday


Sean and April at the melting pot


Saturday morning we went with the family to see Horton Hears a Who. George sat by mom.


Isaac sat with me, then heather, and by the end of the movie he was asleep with Michael. And snoring. The little boy in front of us turned around after the movie, pointed and said, "THAT IS THE BOY THAT WAS SNORING!" :)


Then we dyed easter eggs. Isaac liked to make the eggs "plop". (Which turns out also breaks real eggs)


Flower dying eggs




Michael tickled Isaac and made silly faces


I made the coconut cupcakes from my cooking class


Sunday morning we went to breakfast with our Mitchell family at the Renaissance Hotel downtown.


Afterwards we went to church at the Wellington, where my dad's parents live. Then we took them to my parent's house for lunch.


Here I am with my Easter basket from my mom. The bowl is a serving bowl to my new dishes I got for Christmas. There were also snickers eggs and caramel ghirardelli chocolates, marshmallow rabbits and more candy. Oh and also an iTunes card for Michael.

We had a great weekend with lots of fun!

Sunday Rolls

I like this blog the Pioneer Woman Cooks and how she shows pictures of everything she cooks. This is my less detailed version. My mom makes fabulous rolls that we have at most family dinners or holidays. I made them for our Easter lunch this year. My mom could probably make them in her sleep, but I still have to consult the recipe.


First: In a large bowl, whisk together 1 &1/4 C of warm water, a package of active dry yeast, and 1/2 C Sugar. Then let it sit for 5 minutes for the yeast to activate.


While you are waiting, crack 2 eggs in a small bowl and beat with a fork (or however you beat eggs)


Then add 1/2 C of cooking oil to the mixture


Add the eggs


Then mix together


Then add 4 C of flour and 1 t of salt


Mix it all together


When you are finished mixing it will look like this. Cover the bowl and let the mix rise for a minimum of 4 hours. (You can let it sit overnight). This recipe will make 18 rolls. It can easily be doubled.


The dough will rise to the top of your bowl. Then you will kneed out the dough (adding in some flour because it is very sticky). Roll out the dough with a rolling pin (or your hands) until it is about 2 inches thick. Then cut out little circles with a small glass or cookie cutter.


Then you dip the dough circles in butter and place together in a muffin tin. Then let rise (about 2-4 hours).


I let these rise over night. In the morning- viola big fluffy dinner rolls!


Cook in the oven at 400 for 10-12 minutes. (Just until a little brown)

Serve and enjoy! Serve with butter or honey. (I like mine with jelly).

Easy Easter Dinner

For my birthday my sweet friend Emily treated me to a cooking class at Williams-Sonoma. This was the first class since my birthday that we were both able to go to and wasn't full, but who doesn't love a belated birthday present? The class tonight was called "Easy Easter Dinner" and had several sides to go along with an Easter meal and finished with some yummy coconut cupcakes (that I will definitely make this weekend). The chef was very funny and personable, and I think what I enjoyed most was just watching her cook and the little things she taught along the way that weren't necessarily a part of the recipes. We had the best time and it was so good to get to spend some time with Em.


Here we are in the store after the class

You should definitely check out classes at your local W-S store! You have a great time, get to sample great food, and if that isn't convincing enough you get 10% off purchases the night of a class. I also learned they offer free classes Saturday mornings. The Saturday classes are shorter and more technique oriented than learning a particular recipe or meal. I will definitely be checking those out!

Thousands of bottles of pop on the wall, thousands of bottles of pop!

We finally had our first POPS experience. We went with our friends Bill and Amy. We have known them since high school. It was great to catch up!

Amy and I picking out our pop (p.s. if you have been to Australia and you think the lemon creme pop looks like it might taste like Solo, it does not and you will be disappointed)



Waiting outside


Look at all the pop in the window


Did I just win the lottery?! No, our name was finally called after almost an hour.


Amy and me outside by the massive pop bottle

Sleepover with Ryan

Our niece stayed over this weekend.


We played while our made-to-order pizzas cooked.


We went bowling...




Michael beat us both




We went and got some ice cream


We had pancakes, I tried to make a # 7, but it was thick and didn't come out the greatest, but you get the idea.

We also watched a movie, played webkinz, and made candy necklaces. It was a fun night!

Here's a video of the evening (mostly bowling):

More Bublé

Not sure if I've already mentioned it or not, but this guy was PHENOMENAL!!!

Fever (Complete)

Notice the Bublé version of "OKLAHOMA" at the beginning of this one.

Feeling Good (Complete)


Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Complete)


Save The Last Dance For Me (Clip)


Everything (Clip)


Irresponsible (Clip)

This one is also my new favorite song.

I'm Your Man (Clip)

A night with Michael B.

We're pretty tired after a really great night at the Michael Bublé concert but we wanted to share our fun... hope you like the videos.

We bought tickets last minute (the night before) and so we weren't really sure where our seats were going to be or if they'd be any good, but they were great. We could even see the spit fly out of his mouth anytime he got a little carried away singing (Gross, I know, but cool!) We could also hear him talking to his band when the microphone was away from his mouth.

MM or I will post more pictures and possibly another video tomorrow, but for now, I have to go to bed because I'm gainfully employed now and have to get up early in the morning to go in to work. 7 AM!!! Oh the horror!

Once you go Mac...

I have to admit that I'm pretty proud of my alma mater/employer today.

In an exciting new move, OC announced today the launching of a new mobile computing initiative where every new student will be given an Apple MacBook AND their choice of a FREE iPhone OR a FREE iPod touch. The best part is that it doesn't cost the students any more than they were already paying for the Dell (and before that IBM) laptops that the school has been providing every student since 2001.

For the full story, check out the following links or watch the videos at the end of this:

http://blogs.oc.edu/ee/index.php?/ocnews/oklahoma_christian_to_offer_macbooks/
http://blogs.oc.edu/ee/index.php?/talon/cat/campus_chooses_apple/
http://www.oc.edu/apple/

This is the video that was shown in chapel today in front of all our students and several hundred high school students who were on campus for Spring Visit.



This is a video of the crowd reaction after the announcement was made.



P.S. If you Digg, why not Digg this story?

Date Night

The Mitchell's had a date night tonight, because we haven't had one for a while AND also to celebrate my new part time job!!! After 10 interviews, I am happy to get started doing something. We ate at Bellini's, an Italian restaurant. We went there in high school for our junior prom, and haven't been back since. It is right by our house and I always think about going there when we drive by. Since it was my celebration I got to pick, and it was great...just as I remembered!



I also colored my hair this week. I still don't recognize myself. But, I haven't cried or majorly regretted it as I normally do with a big change! :)

What if there were only 100 people?

We're going on the subscription only plan

AM will be starting a new job in the foreseeable future in a profession (Marriage & Family Therapy/Mental Health) where having all of our life blogged out in public on the WWW where any of her clients who are looking for it can find it is probably not the best idea for us anymore.

So... on March 5th "AM & MM's Adventures in Life" is going to the subscription only plan.

If any of you, our faithful readers, would like to continue being able to access this blog, please post a comment that contains your email and we'll add you to our "subscriber" list. If you're not thrilled about leaving your email address in a comment on our blog, send one of us an email and we'll add you that way.

We know this is going to cause us to lose some of you. We don't know your name, but we know who you are. We have analytics on this bad boy and we see you coming to our site each day from a myriad of different links, web browsers, geographic locations, and Google searches. You know who you are, you creeper you. Don't worry or be embarrassed though, we're probably creeping on you too. If you all of the sudden decided to make your blog subscription only, you know we'd probably subscribe.

If giving up the guilty pleasure of anonymously creeping on our blog is too much to ask for the insignificant return on investment that reading it provides you, then in the words of those Budweiser commercials (imagine someone singing)... WE SALUTE YOU MR. (OR MRS.) ANONYMOUS BLOG CREEPER! It's been a fun ride.

The iPod Game

The iPod Game

Step 1: Put your iPod/iTunes or equivalent on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs when someone guesses correctly via comment.
Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING

================================

1. I've heard it said that a man would climb a mountain just to be with the one he loves.
Third Day - Love Song
2. Can't change this feeling I'm way out of touch.
3. I know a town where people are running away from life it seems very funny.
4. Lord you beautiful, your face is all I seek.
Insyderz - Lord You're Beautiful
5. We've got to give a little love, have a little hope, make this world a little better.
6. What is this thing called love?
7. Disturbed by the words and the message that they sent.
8. Always there when you call, always on time.
9. Enya - A Day Without Rain (it had no lyrics!)
10. Your eyes seek conclusion in all this confusion of mine.
11. Sylvie, Sylvie, I'm so hot and dry. Slyvie, Sylvie.
12.I can't wait to be with you no I just can't sit still, are we there yet?
13. She's electric. She's in a family full of eccentrics.
Oasis - She's Electric
14. Your letter said that you were leaving, but you didn't know how long.
Third Day - It's Alright
15. Gee but it's great to be back home, home is where I want to beeeeeeee!!!
16. Don't mind telling you in my humble fashion that you thrill me through with a tender passion.
17. Talking away, I don't know what, what to say - I'll say it anyway, today's another day to find you.
18. I'm a mess, I guess. It's what I've asked for, what I've needed.
19. My friend assures me its all or nothing, I am not worried, I am not overly concerned.
Counting Crows - Anna Begins
20. I can't get to bed, but I'm really tired. The things in my head, you used to admire.
21. We've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for #1.
22. When friends come for Saturday night, it's nice to make up some Sangria wine.
Jerry Jeff Walker - Sangria Wine
23. Unsure of what the balance held, I touched my belly overwhelmed by what I had been chosen to perform.
24. They say Taylor was a good girl, never one to be late complain, express ideas in her brain.
Jack Johnson - Taylor
25. Spend your lazy, endless crazy, days inside my head...
26. (# 9 had no words) Little ghost, little ghost, one I'm scared of the most, can you scare me up a little bit of love?

Have fun guessing... I can't get most of them without looking at my lyrics cheat sheet.

WARNING!!! SHAMELESS PLUG!!!

Music Recommendation

If you haven't already listened to his music on the iLike sidebar here on the blog, I want to recommend a guy by the name of Eric Hutchinson. His music is a combination of Stevie Wonder meets Justin Timberlake meets Ben Folds meets Prince meets Billy Joel. Sounds like a weird combo, but trust me, it's good. He has a very original, very upbeat pop rock sound with a lot of electric piano and foot tapping beats. Having said all that, despite how cliche' it sounds, E-Hutch (as a like to call him) really does defy categorization. Which probably explains why we're not hearing his stuff on the radio.

Songs I particularly like, though they're all good are (pop up alert):

You've Got You
Ok, It's Alright With Me
You Don't Have to Believe Me
Rock & Roll
Food Chain

Hope you enjoy.

Last week's project...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We painted our upstairs room red this past week. At first I thought we had made a horrible mistake, but 3-4 coats later I am happy with it. The lighting in these pictures makes it difficult to tell what the true color looks like. We messed up our white trim, but I think we will take a break and work on that later. We started using rollers to paint, then from Kate's recommendation moved to these pads. They were awesome! "I will never roll again" (spoken like Buttercup on the princess bride when she claims: I will never love again!) My mom came over and helped me make the curtains to fit the window on my sewing machine. (One of my 08 goals if you recall!)I am thinking about painting the closet doors black. Please comment yes or no to black doors (or maybe white..hmmm).

Happy Valentines Day

I was really disappointed but we forgot our camera on Valentines day, so no pics. Michael worked, and I made heart sugar cookies and, as the tradition stands, helped my dad decorate my mom's bulletin board at her school. I love holidays! We picked up our favorite meal to go from Cheesecake factory and went downtown to stay at the Skirvin with Michael's well accumulated hotel points. The hotel was nicely remodeled and very swanky! We relaxed, ate cheesecake, went swimming, watched LOST, and had a yummy breakfast. I don't think it gets much better!

My flowers from Michael and our cards for each other and from parents.