Hey Sis, What's for Din-Din?

Spicy Chicken with Broccoli Recipe

2-3 boneless chicken breasts (about 2 pounds)
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 pound broccoli
3 green onions
1 hot chili or 1 tsp crushed red pepper
3 tbls vegetable oil
2 tbls brown bean sauce (black bean sauce works too)
3 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp chopped ginger root
1/4 cup chicken broth


Cut chicken into small chunks, about 2 x 1/2 inch pieces. Toss chicken, cornstarch, salt, and white pepper in a med bowl. Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes.

Cut "trees" off from broccoli and you can also use the steams and cut them into small chunks. Cut green onion diagonally into 1 inch pieces. Remove seeds from chili and cut into small slices. (Leave some seeds in if you want some extra fire).

Heat wok or large frying pan until very hot. Add the vegetable oil and coat whole pan. Add chili, brown bean sauce, garlic, sugar and ginger root and stir-fry for about 10 seconds. Add chicken; stir-fry 2 minutes or until chicken is white. Add broccoli and green onions; stir fry 1 minute. Add chicken broth and cover about 5 minutes stirring periodically or until broccoli is tender but still a little crunchy and some of the sauce absorbs into them.

Serve on prepared angel hair or thin spaghetti or rice or whatever you like or have in the kitchen!

Payson Trip

This has been quite the eventful weekend. Trips to northern and southern Arizona. So fun! Today we went up to Payson to a place call Horton Springs Hiking Trail in the Tonto National Forest.

The weather was so beautiful and such a nice change from the hot and stinky valley. The hike, I believe, was about 3 miles long. Dean and I went along with our friends, Jerod, Aimee and Brice. I was able to get some really sweet, awesome, rockin shots while on our little nature hike.

I also got to experiment with slow shutter speeds and running water, which I really haven't gotten to take very good ones in the right kind of settings until today! I am really pleased with the outcome considering I didn't even have a tripod with me!

It was a lot of fun and super nice to get out and walk in nature. Haha. A lot better than being stuck in an office all day long that's for dang sure!

Here's one of me! Can you spot a dog named Hooch in the second one below? Haha.

So that's that! Sorry for the picture overload. I think I really like taking nature pictures because Green is my favorite color! Yay! Haha. One last one picture. I promise. This last one is of this topless cabaret, called Pete's Topless Adult Cabaret, that we always drive by when we are in Payson. Is there something a little odd about their sign? Um. You be the judge. HAHA!

Tucson Trip

Yesterday, Jason, Petey and I took a little road trip down to Tucson. Jason's aunt and cousins live down there who he hadn't seen in a while so we decided to take Petey on his first road trip. He was quite excited and couldn't sit still most of the way there. This was the farthest Mr. Petes had been from his home since we got him.

Whenever we take Petey for car rides he always seems to sit in the same spot. Which is kind of a dangerous spot for everyone in the whole car, but he doesn't seem to mind.

When we arrived at his aunt's house, Petey found a new girlfriend, Sadie. Petey was a little scared of Sadie at first but then it was love. Sadie had fun in the pool while Petey watched. We tried to put him in the pool but he wasn't havin it.

It was really nice to see them and Jason enjoyed catching up with his family. Those are pretty much his only cousins, which is really strange for me since I have like 100. We BBQ hamburgers with smoked Gouda which were delicious and Buffalo Turds. (Grilled Jalapeno Poppers). So good!! Definitely my favorite appetizer! His aunt made artichokes which I hadn't had in a long long time and Jason had for the first time. Mmmm. He didn't really get what was so great about them. But whatever. And then we had Angel Food Cake with strawberries. Yum. We looked at old photos from when Jason was a kid. Those are funny to me considering he hasn't changed one bit since he was born. He still makes the same funny face expressions in pictures from when he was 2. Then we headed home.

It has been kinda stormy here the last couple of weeks and I was able to get a nice Tucson sunset picture as we were leaving his aunts house.

So, one of our main goals to accomplish while being in Tuscon was to go to a place called Eegee's. They serve sandwiches and fries and whatnot. But are known for their fruit slushy things. I can't really even describe them. They're not quite a slushy but more of a creamy smoothie but they aren't. They're shaved ice but really smooth I guess.

Anyway, our friends heard that we were going to Tucson and insisted that we bring back Eegee's. Then Malibu somehow got in the mix and we were going to have an Eegee's Malibu fun night and so we did. We bought $35 worth of Eegee's in 2 giant buckets and drove them all the way home.

Then came the Malibu.

Then came drunkin RockBand and the rest is history. Well kinda. I was actually in bed by 10:30. I was a little pooped from the long day.

Fact Friday

So yes, I realize that it has been quite some time since my last blog post. I am sorry for all the pain and anguish that I have caused you all. HA! J/K. So yeah, I decided that my life is definitely too boring to have a blog. But, I think that I will give it another shot. I will try to make my posts as interesting as possible, even if I have to lie, cheat, and steal. But hey, whatever it takes to make you happy and find myself amusing, right? So let's get on with it!

After reading my sisters blog, Mama Belly Blog, about 1,700 times a day. I decided to go with the day theme idea. I think that I will make Friday's "Fact Friday". Whether you actually find my facts useful or interesting, I could care less. But there will be some sort of factual information in each post.

Last night, here is sunny AZ, was the craziest most insane lightning storm that I have ever encountered in my life. It was seriously non-stop lightning for about 3-4 maybe even longer hours. So naturally to go along with the lightning was a constant rumbling thunder that never stopped. So of course me and my 3 roommates, were sitting on the back porch enjoying ourselves and almost in awe just watching the storm. (Mom, I know how bad you hate the word "awesome" and "awe", but I didn't know what else to say). So anyway, of course we had little Petey out there, (our little chihuahua), and a huge CRACK of thunder hit like a bomb and there went Petey. He took off running so fast in the back yard. Everyone went running after him because it was pouring rain! Poor little Petey. Breaks my heart just thinking about it. All cold and wet, looking like a sewer rat.

According to AZ Family.com 3TV, there were over 5,000 lightning strikes that actually touched ground here in the valley. Those are not including all the lightning that didn't touch down. Insane. Also, there were 85 mile an hour winds, which classifies as a Category 1 Hurricane. Crazy. So there are your facts for the day.

I had a very difficult time trying to get good pictures of the lightning, which is hard to believe, I know, with how much there was. But yeah, my photographer skills weren't up to par. But I included some anyway. I also included some of my BF, being an idiot. (Can you believe he wants to be a fireman? Huh.)

Photoshoot at the Zoo

Last weekend, Dean and I went to the zoo with our close friends, Jason and Kate and their kids Layla and David. It was pretty fun and I got some pretty good pics out of it! Enjoy!

Boredom at the Workplace

I have yet again been slacking on this whole blogging thing. But I've come to a decision that I'm not that exiting of a person. I don't have kids to take care of...Well expect for Petey...But he doesn't count. All you have to do is give him a dryer sheet and he'll be entertained for hours. I don't really do anything besides sit around the house all the time. It's getting too damn hot here already. And I don't like it. The high is like 105 today. Boo for that. But apparently it is supposed to cool down by the end of the week. The only exciting thing that has happened is that I pretty much spent the whole weekend at Ikea. Man, you gotta love that store... You should see our house. It looks like it could be an ad right out of the damn catalog. It's pretty much insane. But it's coming together quite nice. It's finally starting to feel homey. It was a little empty for a while. We have been there for a year already! I can't believe that.

Today, in all of my gloriousness, have decorated my cubicle at work. I think that it turned out nicely. Besides the fact that all of the pictures were printed on our work printer and are all black in white, it looks good!

Lots of pictures of the cutest nephew that ever did live. I am also impressed with the quality of my cell phone picture taking abilities. You can actually see what the pictures are of. Along with my Certificate of Continuing Education of Advanced Microsoft Excel. Can't forget to mention that. haha.

I really will try to blog more frequently and take more pictures. Take care.

What the &%*@!!!!!

It's strange how situations work out... A lot of catching up to do.. So, I'm not moving out. Which actually is a really big bummer for one reason only and that is this blog. I was looking forward to blogging my way through having to live with my mom. Well, sorry mom, not having to live with her, but just the whole experience. But, I decided that I will continue this blog regardless. Only, I will just inform my readers what is going on in my life with him, which by the way his name is Jason Dean. I will probably refer to him as Dean in this blog. (I know, I hate calling significant others by their last name, it's so high school jockish of me, but it's more like a first name anyway, plus that is how I was introduced to him in the first place and I can't seem to call him anything other than that.) Anyway, we had a long chat one night and seemed to work out our differences and all that jazz. In the end, this whole situation has really opened both of ours eyes and we definitely have a better understanding of each other. I happened to realize that no one on the face of this earth will ever love me the way that he does and no one will ever treat me with such respect and kindness. He has supported me with every single decision I have ever made, even the stupid ones which put me in this situation to begin with. I truly do love him with all of my heart and that is that.

So a little recap of the week.. The gynie went just fine. Nothing that is that mentionable... You all know how it goes. Friday, was my friend Chelsey's graduation. It was long and boring what can I say. We got there late and had horrible seats so all you could see was a blur of blueish/purple gowns and horrible lighting. We had a little party for her at our house afterwards for a couple of her closest friends. It was pretty fun. She always talks about her other girlfriends and none of us has actually ever met each other, so it was fun to meet everybody and finally get to find out that she actually did have other friends and she wasn't making it up this whole time. Haha. It's pretty funny that we all have different lifestyles and personalities yet we're all friends with her. That shindig ended up going until about 4am so, Saturday was a lazy bum day. I didn't do much. Chelsey and I went to the mall so she could return bad graduation gifts. haha. Dean and I went to Buca di Beppo that night and ate ourselves silly which is a common occurrence with us, especially because they have family style dishes and it was just the two of us. Blah. I just threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about it. But it was good. Sunday, of course was Mother's Day and an interesting one at that. Well, we arrived at my moms somewhat early and ordered lunch from Red Robin. Bruce (my mom's boyfriend) went to go leave to pick up the food and shortly came back in the door. He had locked his keys in his car while it was running. So I said that he can take my car to get the food. So, we got our food and ate it and watched I am Legend, which was alright. So it was all fun and relaxing as Bruce told us about his gout and we left to go home and I noticed a scrape on the side of my car. Dean and I joked around and said that Bruce probably hit something, but thinking that it happened in a parking lot or something. Well, later that night my mom calls and told me that Bruce had been stewing all day and felt terrible that he backed into my car! I said oh it's no worries and we could probably buff out the scrape. Well, later that evening we got back from grocery shopping, and I was inside putting groceries away and Dean was outside doing something. He comes walking in and he told me that I should come see something and told me that I might want to put the pop tarts down. I walked outside and noticed a huge dent in the side of my door. So it was quite an interesting Mother's day and very eventful. I'm not mad at Bruce but just a little upset that he didn't tell me right away. Oh well, though, what do ya do? I don't really care that much.

So, skydiving didn't happen. I'm a little saddened but I'm sure the opportunity will come up again. I decided that I should save my pennies for more useful things like plane tickets and such. I'm so exciting! I'm going to go home to MN in June for my little nephew's 1st Birthday! I can't wait! Plus I didn't get my stimulus check like I anticipated... Boo.

Until we meet again...