Sick in Bed

This is how I've felt since waking up Sunday morning after about 10 hours of sleep.  I woke up feeling fine, but quickly felt nauseous.  I went back to sleep on and off for 6 hours, waking up for a few hours and eating a few crackers before sleeping for 11 more hours!  This morning I woke up for work, ate 1/4 of a bagel with butter, but only stayed there an hour before I gave up and came home.  I slept for a few more hours (yes, I am sick of sleeping at this point!!!), and then woke up and had some chicken and rice with soy sauce.  For some reason, that's always what I want when I'm sick and no food sounds good.

What is your go to food when you're not feeling well?

One of My Favorite Desserts - Cheesecake Brownies

If you didn't already know, I am a food lover.  And we all know the best type of food is obviously dessert!  For 4 years, I worked next door to a restaurant called Fresco, and they make THE BEST cheesecake brownies.  I definitely became "addicted" to a lot of their food from working next door for so long.  I had to have a delicious brownie while I was in Santa Barbara.

A nice big picture of the best cheesecake brownie I have ever had!

They also have delicious chocolate truffle balls, flourless chocolate cake, lemon bars, cookies, tarts, cupcakes, and so much more!

What's your favorite dessert?  Do you make it yourself or do you get it somewhere?

My Cousins Got Married

My whole reason for going back to California last weekend was because my cousin's, Garry and Chelise, got married.  Chelise is a wonderful addition to our family!  Below are a few pics from the wedding!

My cousin, Garry, with the man who married them, waiting for Chelise to come out.

Chelise about to walk down the aisle.  All of the more close up pictures came out blurry :(

My cousin Bob, my grandma, my mom, and my cousin Gloria.  Looking happy to be together!  Yes, that's Bob's happy face!

Garry and Chelise, married!!!!

My cousin is obsessed with Star Wars, so they came into the party under lightsabers.

Yummy cheese and crackers appetizer.  I love gouda!

The beautiful wedding cake.  I love how wedding cakes have multiple flavors!

My mom with my little cousin, Valor!  I think I interrupted his roll eating.

Dinner was amazing!  I think it was mushroom stuffed chicken, veggies, and the most delicious mashed potatoes ever!

The wedding was beautiful, the party was fun, and dinner was delicious.  I think my only regret is not being in any of my pictures!  Do you love weddings????  I know I do!

Dinner at Aldo's in Santa Barbara

I am the worst with gift cards - I hold on to them for way too long.  I won a gift certificate for dinner for 2 to Aldo's in Santa Barbara about 2-3 years ago, and finally used it when I went home last weekend.  I took my mom out for dinner and we were both so excited since we love Italian food!

I normally don't order appetizers but I ordered garlic cheese bread.  OMG it was so delicious and so garlic-y!

For dinner, I ordered chicken piccata.  All of a sudden, I love lemony chicken with fettuccine alfredo.  It was pretty delicious, but I did bring half the chicken home for my sister.

My mom ordered lasagna bolognese.  She also loved her food, but brought some home for my sister.

Our dinner at Aldo's was so delicious, and it was nice to go to a fancier restaurant for a change.  Do you have a favorite Italian food?

We Went to Knott's Berry Farm!

Almost a year ago, I won 2 free admission tickets to Knott's Berry Farm from SoCal Locale!  My mom and I finally got to use them this weekend because I was down in California for a family wedding.  We hadn't been to Knott's in years and were so excited to get to go!

It's a horrible pic to start with, but I want to go in chronological order.  This was after the Timber Mountain Log Ride.  I was in the very front and at the end of the ride, I got splashed in the face with water.  At the same time, my mom tried to hide behind me and head butted the back of my head!

This was inside of the Calico Mine Ride.  I really love the old west theme of Knott's!

Our $30 lunch.  Amusement park food prices never fail to shock me!

Our one and only selfie aboard the Calico Railroad.

The robbers on the train, they don't seem to scare people anymore.  That's good because they always used to get me!

The beautiful horses at the Butterfield Stagecoach.

A nice dark picture of my mom inside of the stagecoach.

Me inside of the stagecoach.  I can't believe people used to travel like that!

We made it to the Wild West Stunt Show just as they were closing the doors.  They did awesome stunts but it was also a comedy!

I DRAGGED my mom to the Peanuts Character Show.  I have always loved all of the characters at all of the amusement parks.  They did a really cute Christmas show.

Who can resist Snoopy Santa?

Ghostrider was closed which is a bummer, I love huge coasters like that!  We did get to go on Jaguar though which is also a good roller coaster!  We also rode Bigfoot Rapids where my mom got drenched and I laughed hysterically at her!  We rode Pony Express for the first time which is a cute little coaster on fake ponies.  We also got to try out the new ride Voyage to the Iron Reef.  It is a 4-D ride where you get to shoot at creatures in order to save Knott's from them LOL

Have you ever been to Knott's before?  If so, what is your favorite thing there?  If not, would you ever want to go?

Idaho Pizza Company

I'm determined to try a new restaurant at least once a week here!  I tried this place once before but forgot to take pictures, so here are the pics from my latest trip.  I'm a buffet junky, and Idaho Pizza Company has a buffet every day at lunch time, so I will be breaking my own rule and going there a lot!

Can anyone tell me why some of my pictures come out weird sizes and directions?  Anyway, they have a delicious salad bar with lots of fresh veggies and amazing breadsticks!

I'm pretty predictable with my pizza flavors.  Pepperoni on the left and chicken on the right.

My dad got some kind of veggie pizza and then dumped dressing all over it.  I forgot to get pics of his other pizzas.

The best pizza with chicken and bacon on it.  And yummy cinnamon breadsticks for dessert!

What's your favorite kind of pizza?  Do you ever go to a pizza buffet?

I Did Art!

The techs at my new job try to get together once a month for "date night" to bond as a team.  Luckily, I started just in time to go to this month's event at Piggy Pigs Pottery.  I'm not very artistic, so I was a bit nervous.  Thankfully, I think I work with the nicest people ever and they were all very supportive of my lack of creativity LOL

It took me forever to choose what to paint.  I didn't want anything too big, too small, too detailed, something I wouldn't use, etc.  I finally decided on a vase because that was one thing I noticed I don't own when I moved.

It's supposed to be dark teal and dark purple.  I'm hoping that after they put the glaze on and whatever else they do, it will get way darker.

Believe it or not, this took me quite a while to paint.  I was also proud of myself for the black line between the colors! :)

Have you ever been to one of the paint your own pottery pieces places?  Did you like it?  What did you make?

We Tried Out Texas Roadhouse Tonight!

My dad and I have always enjoyed going out to dinner.  He said he wanted steak tonight.  I looked up a bunch of places on Yelp, but in the end we ended up going to Texas Roadhouse.  I really don't use Yelp for chains.  You know what you're going to get at a chain LOL

We've only been there once before.  I forgot they start you off with delicious bread with cinnamon butter stuff.  I was so excited that I dumped my butter over in the basket ugh

I ordered a bbq half chicken, rice, and salad for dinner.  My dad got a steak special with rice and a baked potato.

The salad came with the best ranch dressing!

My plate looks so empty!  But there was so much chicken that I brought half home.

They forgot my dad's rice at first so he had an empty plate also. LOL

The waiters and waitresses danced twice while we were there.  My apologies for the poor video!

We both really enjoyed our dinners.  But since we just moved to a new city in a new state, I want to try every restaurant before I start going back to ones I've already been to.  Do you like going to the same restaurant over and over or trying new ones all the time?

The New House in Meridian!

So for now, I am living with my dad.  My very hopeful plan is to save up enough money to buy my own house in the Spring/Summer.  But without further ado, here are the pics from when we moved in.  Still a work in progress!  I will have to take more photos without all of the boxes everywhere!

This is the kitchen, pantry, new fridge we bought, and lots of cabinet space.  There are still boxes all over the counter (oops)

This shows the dining room and the 3-sided fireplace, one of the main things my dad bought the house for.

My bedroom.  I now have red blinds up, a tv on the dresser, stuffed animals all over the window seat, and more lol

This is the spare bedroom/the dog's bedroom for now.  We need to get a bed in there before my mom comes to visit next month!

This is the guest bathroom / my bathroom.  It now has a weird shower curtain and no boxes on the counter

This is my dad's humongous master bedroom.  It has soooo much room in it!

The master bathroom, with dual sinks, a separate toilet, and a huge walk-in closet.

The annoying laundry room.  First the dryer wouldn't work, now the washer won't work.  Who needs to do laundry anyway???

The backyard with real grass for Hunter.  He has had so much fun running and rolling around in green grass.  Too bad the lawn is going to die for the winter soon.

I think we've actually made a lot of progress on setting up the house since I took these pics about a week ago.  Moving into a new house is fun, but it's a lot of work!  I am definitely never moving out of state again.  Have you ever moved out of state before?