Gifts for My Darling Valentine

Valentines Day is special to David and I because we met only a few days before Vday in 2011. My friend Andy told me to come to his band's show. My friends and I got there just in time. Then I saw David, dancing around on stage. I was instantly in love. He was my soulmate and I knew it! I turned to my friend Kellie and said, "He will be mine." 

We were in the very front so I was able to make eye contact with him. After the show I found him and he said he was watching me while he was playing. Even though I was confident I would have him, I was still so nervous (and I am NEVER nervous around guys because it usually takes me a while before I start really liking them. And if they ever caught my eye and I talked to them, they always disappointed). My soul was just so happy and jittery.  I didn't ask for his number and my ride was leaving so I just left.

I was freaking out wondering when I would see him again. I made Andy tell me everything he knew about this guy. Then he said their next show wasn't for another 2 WEEKS. I couldn't wait that long, so I got Dave's number from Andy. I was prepared to send him a text within the next day or two.

The next day was a Sunday. I thought about him all day. That night was my friend from the ward's 4 year anniversary of being baptized into our church. I distracted myself with that. I got ready, then asked Andy if he was going. He said he might, then said DAVE WAS GOING TO BE THERE.

My heart started racing. I screamed....then called Andy and threatened him if he would not come. 

He brought a friend, and the three of us headed over. We walked in and I saw him almost immediately. I freaked out and hid myself, walking through the crowded house. I found a friend and started chatting, and out of the peripherals of my eyes I could tell he just saw me. He poked his head out like a bird, then made his way over. He came up, hugged me, and said, "I've been thinking about you all day."

I about died right there. I said "Me too." Which doesn't actually make sense or mean that I was thinking about him. That's how nervous I was.

I continued to chat with friends, and he was on the couch with his friends. After a while he grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his leg and made me put my name and number in his phone. I loved how forward he was. It's what I was looking for. He invited me over to his house afterwards, and of course I went. We talked for hours. We saw each other every day. On February 14th I asked him to be my Valentine. He said "Of course." This is our third year being each other's Valentines. It has been an amazing and challenging journey (a story I might share at a later time) that I am so glad I decided to go through.

 I love my life and all the people in it - the ones that helped me get here, the true friends, the ones who loved me, the ones who hurt, used, or abused me, and the ones that I hurt. And I'm thankful for the ones who loved Dave.

Now, on a lighter note, I made two things for David. The first one is a painting/ink drawing of Jonsi. He loves Jonsi and would probably marry him in another (weirder, gayer) life and make him sing and create musical fusion all the time. And I've chosen to respect that... So here it is:

The second is a dessert: Mountain Dew cupcakes! Just because Dave loves Mountain Dew.

Here they are:

I will later post pictures of the AMAZING gifts that Dave got me.

Thai High

So, Dave and I love Thai food, and I get increasingly more obsessed with it. Our favorite entree is Pineapple Chicken Curry. I found the perfect recipe to mock the one at the restaurant in Utah we miss.

I have a lot of the ingredients from previous times, but not the one-time-use ones (which happen to be the most important), so when I was craving it a couple nights ago and didn't have the time or money to go to a restaurant or make the whole thing, I remembered I bought a jar of something called "Thai Red Curry Simmer Sauce" a couple months ago!

It has a lot of the same ingredients you need to make it yourself, so I figured it can't be that bad. It smells weird in the jar, but when I started heating it, it smelled delicious. I was able to make this awesome dinner in 20 minutes. I started cooking the rice as soon as I started the curry. I microwave-thawed some chicken, sliced it up with some veggies and threw it all in there. Added some spices. And since I didn't have pineapple chunks, I dropped some of the Orange Juice w/ Pineapple that Dave bought to add some of that fruity flavor. It wasn't as good as the real thing, but it was definitely satisfying.

So if you're someone who wants/needs to make quick dinners sometimes, try this!
AND IT'S GLUTEN FREE :)

Here is a picture of the food and the jar so you know what it looks like:

14 weeks

I don't have time to say much, so here is the picture. They are both 15 cm (5.9 inches) and have an average heartbeat of 160 per minute. They look like babies now, with little noses, round heads and booties. The due date is August 8th, but since there are two, it will most likely be in July. They are for sure fraternal.

Top: the baby on the right is showing it's body a lot more (it's back I think). You can still see the outline of the other one though (looks more like the side profile). They are parallel.

Bottom: You can see mainly the two heads. Cute heads.

Gluten Freedom

I've never loved Saturdays as much as I do now. I work full time and I never feel like I have enough time to do all the things I need to do (even though most of those things I could do if I was really good at prioritizing). But on Saturday I finally have DAYTIME to do things. Ended up going to the grocery store twice... Target was the first trip which was more fun - I got a really pretty painting on clearance, and they have couches that I can sit my exhausted butt on.

I made a parmesan chicken dish for dinner but we didn't get to eat it because it wasn't done until right before we had to leave for a friend's surprise birthday party. It was fun though, and now we have food for tomorrow.

The birthday girl does not eat gluten or egg annnd other stuff? So I found a recipe for "lemon kale chips" which are really simple and I like lemon and kale so since I didn't have time to make that let alone barely my own dinner, I will bring it over there later this week and see how it is.

For my sister (and anyone else gluten free):
http://www.elanaspantry.com/paleo-diet-recipes/

This is where I found the kale chips.

And here is the latest picture of my belly (13.5 weeks):