Helicopters!

So... lots of people have heard me talk about my "sister who's a helicopter pilot". This weekend I visited her at work, and check out these pictures!

This is my sister, Heidi, in front of the news helicopter:

I learned that all but one of Dallas' local news channels use these helicopters. The one directly behind Heidi is for channels 4 and 5 (they share a helicopter), and the one behind that is for channel 11.

This is the camera they use to shoot the news. It is somehow steady in that thing so that it doesn't produce a shaky video.

This thing that looks like an udder on the bottom of the helicopter is called a "pod" and is used to send and receive signals with the people at the tower... that's how they're able to do live feeds from the helicopter.

And here's Heidi at the controls.

I had a great time in Dallas and got one more look at the house before closing next Friday! So excited... it's almost here.

Oh! Update from the Game On Diet--I've lost 3.4 lbs!

Let the furniture shopping commence!

So... I went shopping for furniture today. For the first time. Ever. How on earth are you supposed to know what to buy?? I don't know what I'm going to like in 10 years, so why should I try to find a good quality couch that will last that long? On the other hand, I don't want to buy cheap furniture that falls apart when the (future) kids jump on it. And what color? A friend told me to get a colorful couch to bring life into the room. But what if I get sick of it? You know that at some of these stores, you can custom-pick every aspect of the sofa, including the shape of the arms, the shape and color of the legs, the shape of the back, the number of cushions, and (of course) the fabric and color. HOLY CANOLY that is too many choices!! Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a sectional I really liked a lot, at Bassett. But like I said, today was only the first trip in what I anticipate to be a multi-trip endeavor. Leave your helpful (or not) comments below.

I realize that there are bigger problems in the world, than what kind of furniture to buy. This is simply the problem I'm choosing to focus on for the moment.

The boxes are piling up!

Only 11 days till we close!! We are about to be homeowners, and I am stoked! Cannot wait to unleash my mad decorating skillz on a clean pallet. Also cannot wait to live in the same house with my hubby again! So many good things to look forward to. One thing I am not and have not been looking forward to is the overwhelming task of packing up all our stuff so that we can move it to our new crib. But as you can see, I've already started! Don't worry--the boxes aren't really leaning. I just took the picture that way.

It's amazing how unattached one can feel to his/her stuff when he or she has to pack it up and carry it somewhere. I've thought about craigslisting (verb: to craigslist) so many things around the house lately. Only the forethought that we might actually want a couch to sit on in the new house has kept me from craigslisting several of our living room "set". It's sort of a set. Some things match. Anyways.

Thanks to a very flexible faculty member, I got my test date switched this week so that I'm able to head to Dallas tomorrow! Sweetness.

The Game On Diet

Today begins a 4-week competition with several of Daniel's family to get fit. Daniel and I are on a team, Team Awesome. We're competing against two other teams: one is Daniel's parents and the other is Daniel's sisters and her hubby.

The Rules:

-- You get points for doing stuff, and the team with the most points after 4 weeks, wins.
-- A perfect day earns you 100 points.

• 6 points each for 5 sanctioned meals, spaced between 2-4 hours apart
• 10 points for drinking 3 liters of water
• 15 points for getting at least 7 hours of sleep/night
• 20 points for doing 20 minutes of exercise daily
• 10 points for doing your "good habit" you decided on at the beginning of the game
• 10 points for not doing your "bad habit" you decided on at the beginning of the game
• 5 points for communicating with a teammate and an opponent every day

-- You get bonus points (20% of your weekly points) if you lose 1% of your body weight in a week.
-- You get one free day a week and one free meal a week. And you can eat 100 calories of anything you want everyday (except alcohol, soda, or diet soda)

So it doesn't sound that hard, right? Except here's the catch. A "sanctioned" meal consists of a palm-sized portion of protein, a fist-sized portion of carbs, and a thumb-sized portion of fat. And that's good fat, mind you. Not like you can have a thumb-sized portion of donut. Oh, and at least two meals a day must have 2 fist-sized portions of vegetables. And no snacks between meals, except celery and cucumber.

If you think this sounds extreme, I would have to agree with you. It's gonna be rough. But hopefully it'll be helpful too. And the winning team gets $40. So Daniel and I are already planning how to spend that money.

Now, since this blog is public to the world, I'm not gonna share all my weight-related goals. But I will say that if I give this game a good shot, I will probably lose about 7 lbs by the end of these four weeks. That's exciting! If I were really gutsy I would post "before" pictures on here. Sorry. No such guts here.

Well, lonely week #1 is coming to a close, and I am happy to say only 6 of them left. Daniel has enjoyed his first week back at Fairchild in Dallas. He's been putting in long hours, but it sounds like the work is enjoyably challenging, and he likes the people. I spent the week going to class, re-learning anatomy so I know what I'm doing in lab as a TA, and making to-do lists.

Pulling off this move reminds me very much of when Daniel and I were engaged. Then, we were long-distance as well. He was in Dallas and I in College Station. Now he's in Dallas and I'm in Galveston. Then, I was planning a wedding to take place in a city different from where I was living. Kind of like buying a house in a city different from where I'm living. And, I was also in my final semester at Texas A&M... kind of like I'm in the final semester at UTMB now. Gosh there are actually a lot of similarities. One important difference is that I'm not worried about the "flight risk" factor now, like I was when we were engaged. I should actually note that Daniel was very helpful in planning the wedding, as he is in the house-buying process.

I liked the compare-and-contrast essays we had to write in elementary school. Those were great.

We are starting to get cool breezes during the day, and I love it! Winter is coming... slowly but surely.

If anyone has not yet enjoyed music from pandora.com, you need to. I have listened to one of my stations so many times that I know every song that comes on... even ones by artists I'd never heard of before. A particular favorite, whose music I would NEVER buy because of the horrible lyrics, is Lily Allen. She's British, and I love her songs. But truly the story lines in them are appalling. It's a darn shame, because they're very happy-sounding.

That's it for now.

A BitterSweet Weekend

The Sweet Part: My sister and her husband and kids came! The time we spent at the beach can best be described as "soggy". It rained the entire time. But the boys had fun battling the waves, and who notices the rain when you're up to your waist in sea water. Speaking of that, this is one of my adorable nephews, commenting on the quality of said water:

"Mommy, the water is YUCKY! Ppbbtewww!

My sister, with baby Elizabeth behind her. Note the ominously dark clouds behind her head:

I bet you want a closer look at that beautiful girl, huh? Here she is.

The Bitter Part: This is Daniel's last weekend here in Galveston. He starts his new job in Dallas this week, and we will live apart for about 6 weeks, until the official move, Nov 1. Hopefully this will mean some good quality study time for me and some good "climbing" for Daniel of the steep learning curve associated with any new job. But it is still sad. It's like the end of an era, albeit a rather short one, as eras go.

Easier Carrot Cake!

Have you ever googled "easy carrot cake"? Well if not--don't bother. The recipes that come up involve combining mayonnaise and cake mix with shredded carrots. Sick. (no offense if that's the way you make carrot cake!). I don't think there's any such thing as "easy" carrot cake. Which is a darn shame, because it's delicious!

But since I recently entered a phase in which I only want carrot cake (not pregnant... it's just me), I had to find a recipe I could make in a somewhat timely manner that didn't involve skinning my knuckles with a cheese grater (shudder).

What I found is a recipe from All Recipes, called "Best Carrot Cake Ever". With 695 reviewers and an average of 4 1/2 stars, how could I resist? I made some slight modifications based on others' reviews, and I should tell you... it's completely wonderful.

Inspired by blogger Ree Drumond, I'm sharing the recipe with you, photo style :).

Ingredients:
6 cups carrots, "grated" (yes, I do know how to use quotation marks... you'll see)
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup "chopped" walnuts (for cake)
1 cup "chopped" walnuts (for top)

Meet my two favorite kitchen appliances:


the Kitchen Aid Mixer and the Sunbeam Oscar Food Processor

I actually registered for and received a brand new food processor for our wedding, but my mom found a Sunbeam Oscar (like the one I grew up with) at a garage sale, and she let me trade for it!

Anyways, these two appliances are must-haves in order for this to be "easier" carrot cake.

Stick all the carrots from 2 of these 10 oz shredded carrot bags...

into the food processor...

for a few seconds...

And you have "grated" carrots! Easy peasy.

Now mix the brown sugar into the carrots.

Like this:

And let them sit for about 30 minutes
(or 60 minutes if you like it sweeter).

While they are sitting and getting all nice and juicy,
do all the rest of this stuff.

Crack 4 eggs into the mixer.

Beat 'em until they're light and fluffy.

Now slowly add in the white sugar.

And the oil and vanilla.

I buy my vanilla from Mexico when I can.
Or from the man on Hwy 3005... ya know, whatever's closest at the time.

Anyways, add the oil and vanilla.

Now add the pineapple.

It doesn't have to be totally drained,
but get most of the juice out of it so it doesn't make the cake too moist.

Now put all that dry stuff in a bowl together.

I use a cup of wheat flour*, but you can use all white
flour if you want. I think the wheat flour makes it
heartier... and for some reason I like that in this cake.

Now just add all the dry stuff into the wet stuff,

and let the Mixer do the work.

Get that food processor back out and "chop" your walnuts.
I think technically, if you put them in a food processor,
they become "processed" walnuts. But obviously "chopped"
sounds much better and is close enough to the truth.

Anyways, let the food processor at them for a second...
So they look like this!

And now drain the sugary carrots.

And toss them and the walnuts into the mixing
bowl with all the rest of that good stuff.

Now mix it a little more, and pour it into your greased
and floured cake pan.
You can use a couple 9x9 pans or a 9x13 pan.

My MIL gave me this cake pan last weekend, so today is its christening.

This will be a giant carrot cake cupcake!

Bake it at 350 F for 45-50 minutes (mine will take longer in this deep cake pan).

When it's done, let it sit for 10 minutes in the pan,
and then take it out, let it cool some more, and then frost it.

Oh yeah! The frosting!

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
8 oz cream cheese
1 lb powdered sugar

Stick the butter and cream cheese in the mixer
(after you clean out the cake batter from before)


And gradually add the powdered sugar.

After you've frosted the cake, cover it in more of those chopped nuts.

And voila! Yummy carrot cake!
Enjoy with decaf coffee after dinner.
Or with regular coffee for breakfast!

*A word to the health nuts: this cake is healthy. It is. It's got wheat flour in it. And carrots. And pineapple. And walnuts, too. And the icing just helps you digest all that fiber. So... don't feel guilty about this, guys. It's practically a granola bar.

News about the house!

So... I wasn't going to post this minor update, but when I shared this piece of news with a classmate of mine, she goes, "Well, you didn't update the blog."

So...

We are under contract!

For those of you who haven't yet done this
house-buying thing yet, that means that we've reached an agreement with the sellers over the price of the house and any additional things we want (or they want), and now we have 10 days to get our inspection done and make sure everything is as it seems. After that, we won't be able to back out (right... like we'd want to). We found out yesterday that two other offers came in the day after ours (house has been on the market 4 days now), and if we'd waited even one more day we would have been in a "multiple offer situation," as our realtor put it.

So thank you to Ginnie for finding this house on the day it was put on the market! You rock.

Above image borrowed from here.

Love this casa!

Negotiations are underway! Doesn't it look nice? I love the trees.
We are hoping to close Oct 2nd and move into the house Nov 1st! So exciting!

Happy Birthday to Jack!

The time has come... I am branching out... to video clips on the blog! Thank you, Google and all you code monkeys, for making this so easy.

Jack is another one of my adorable nephews. His 3rd birthday party was this last weekend, and I decided to try using the i-movie application of my Macbook to record segments of the party. Now I am a huge fan of my macbook. It's light weight, user friendly, and doesn't mind that I almost never shut it down properly. But I have to point out one obvious (to me) flaw with the i-movie application: anyone you are filming can SEE that you are filming them. Since the camera is at the top of the screen, you have to point the screen at the person you are filming, and they see the recording on the screen. That means little kids are wholly distracted from whatever adorable thing they were saying, once they see their cute faces staring back at them on the computer.

Example:
(two more of my adorable nephews)


However, despite the awkwardness of carrying around a computer to take a video, and the problem with adorable nephews reacting to their own large faces projected on the screen, the i-Movie application got the job done.

The party was so much fun. My nephews seem to have a love/hate relationship with each other, but over all they play well together. Jack really enjoyed the game of hide-and-seek that all the aunts/uncles/grandparents/cousins took part in.

Here are a couple of my favorite clips from the evening:



Happy Birthday, Jack!



A word on the house: we are checking our emails about every 15 minutes, looking for updates on the house. We put in an offer yesterday and are eager to hear back! Will keep you posted...

Is it the ONE?

Image from here

An interesting thing I've picked up on, about house shopping: any properly educated home-buyer isn't supposed to view his or her final pick as "the one," because that title implies that you hold a romanticized and naive view of said house. Instead, as Daniel and I have been learning from our very helpful realtor, you should view a house as objectively as possible, paying little attention to "the feel" of the house and much attention to the house's floor plan, square footage, foundation issues, and other more "practical" or "boring" attributes. Although my appreciation for these kinds of things has grown substantially over the past several months of house-hunting, it is hard to ignore that "I'm-home" feeling that tends to overtake even the most cautious home buyer when he or she has found "the one". It's probably too early to disclose details about the house we found today, but I'm pretty sure we'll be calling it home in a few months. And as soon as I'm granted permission, I will update with photos and details galore!

Tornado picture

Daniel is famous!

Cream Cheese Cookies

Yum! I used my awesome cookie press today. I love this recipe.

My pampered chef cookie press:

The squeezed out cookies:

Delicious cream cheese cookies:

Recipe: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

1 c white sugar
1 c butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg yolk, reserve yolk
2 1/4 c white flour

Combine and mix all ingredients except flour. Slowly add flour. If rolling out and using cookie cutters, refrigerate dough for two hours beforehand. If using a cookie press, immediately load into cookie press and squeeze out, one by one. Brush cookies with egg yolk for a glossy finish.
Bake for 7-10 minutes on un-greased cookie sheet at 350.

Addendum: approximately 6 days after making these, when the supply of them was running low, Daniel goes, "Kimie, I have a plan."

"What's that?"

"We make more of these cookies."

Good plan.