Not So Funny

I'm not quite sure how to explain my humor. It tends to change based on the situation. I'm pretty sarcastic and (I like to think) witty on spur of the moment, but cannot be witty on cue. I also like really dumb jokes and anti-jokes. This annoys J very much. He groans at my jokes much more often than he laughs at them. I really like word play, especially in songs. For example,

If I was just another dusty record on the shelf
Would you blow me off and play me like everybody else?
If I asked you to scratch my back, could you manage that?

Isn't that just clever? And this one is all me:

Where do Catholic cats go? Purrrrr-gatory.

J groaned at that one. Of course. So, how is your sense of humor? Are you witty at the drop of a pin? If so, I'm supremely jealous of you. I can only be witty after I've had time to think about it or at the wrong moment.

Pretend there's an awesome segue here.

I joined a website called Lose It! recently. It's a calorie and exercise tracker to help you lose weight. I haven't weighed myself since I started it, but I'm hoping it'll help keep me in check. If it's correct I'll lose the amount of weight I want to by my birthday (August 9th, fyi). One thing that should be noted is that I love carbs and hate exercise, so this isn't exactly easy for me. Before Quinn I held pretty steady at 170 lbs (I'm 5'9" ish and don't really care if you know what I weigh) without exercising and eating "normally". With Quinn I gained about 35 lbs and had lost about 25 of them. Then I weighed myself and I had gained 4.2 lbs back. I think that was kind of the last straw. I don't dream about having a supermodel's body (well, I do dream about it, but it's not a goal), I just want to be healthy. Healthy, for me and my body, means weighing less than I do and having less of what weight I have be fat.

I'd also really like to fit into my skinny jeans again. I miss tucking them into my boots.

So, that's what I've been doing lately. Also, to help with the weight loss I have given up soda. I originally said it was for Lent, but have decided to not go back afterwards. I may have it in the future on special occasions and I'll have to for my favorite adult drink (Long Island Iced Teas!), but other than that nope. Luckily J and I don't drink the same kind of soda so having his in the house won't tempt me.

And now after that wall of text, a picture of my hair for your time. I think I'm going to do the entire underside next time. Who knew I'd love hot pink hair so much?!?

Days 38-51

First I want to apologize for my horrid lack of posting. I just kind of got into a slump. On to the pictures!

38. This was so long ago. I need to start updating more often before I forget why I took the picture. Luckily this one is pretty self explanatory, if you know what's in the bowl. I made baked apple chips. Slice an apple up thin, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar/spicy goodness, bake at 350F for 10-ish minutes (more or less depending on how possessed your oven is compared to mine) and NOM. They're delish.

39. I'm always so amused at just how flexible babies are. Quinn's hilarious when she sleeps because she has to pull her legs up to her chest, kind of bent like a frog's, and her hands have to be under her chest. I tried to replicate it to not avail. I'm nowhere near that flexible anymore.

40. This one doesn't really have a story. Just a cute picture in the new outfit from JCPenney.

41. J and I on the aforementioned Date Night. We had so much fun. Thanks SO MUCH to my mom for babysitting.

42. Quinn's newest favorite toy is our glasses. Both J and I wear contacts and glasses. She snatched these right off of J's face and I've had my fair share of fingerprints. Luckily I have PLENTY of old glasses and I gave her ones that I won't ever be able to reuse to be her play glasses. Poor baby's gonna have horrible eyesight when she gets older. I'm hoping MAYBE she'll be an anomaly like my sister and not need glasses at all despite both parents having bad eyes.

43. Trying to keep her entertained while I'm trying to do a chore or make a phone call is requiring more and more creativity on my part. You should see some of the random things I put in front of her just trying to get a few more seconds of calm curiosity.

44. For Valentine's I made fudge. It was yummy. The recipe is here. You can kind of see it, but I made a heart in the fudge before it completely set to make it more Valentine's-y. J didn't care about the heart, he just cared that it was chocolate.

45. And here's a ridiculously happy baby girl in her V-Day pjs that I got at Old Navy for $1.50. Gotta love clearance sales.

46. I don't go out of my way to buy things locally, but try to when I can. J requested beer and we got this wheat beer called Shock Top. Oh silly Kansans with our wheat. Even WSU's mascot is a shock of wheat. It's weird, but the beer wasn't. It was good.

47. I must have been channeling my inner chef because I made cupcakes too. From scratch. I am NOT a decorator though. Pretty sure my 2 year old niece could do about as good of a job.

48. Quinn is starting to sit up by herself! My little baby is growing up too fast :( She can't quite sit by herself for more than a few seconds, but she's  getting there and loving it. She hates not being able to see what's going on.

49. I recently learned how to french braid my hair. I LOVE IT. It's my go-to hairstyle now. Much nicer than just a ponytail. I also just got Instagram on the iPhone that no longer functions as a phone. It's kinda like just having an iPod Touch I think.

50. Sneak peek at the beginnings of my grocery list. Thank you St. Jude's for the free notepad.

51. And one more of the Bambina. I love the look of concentration in her eyes.

TV

Do any of you have particular tv shows you HAVE to watch? J and I pretty much have a set schedule every week. Mondays it's "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two Broke Girls", Tuesdays are "Ink Master", Wednesdays are "America's Next Top Model" and "Face Off", Thursdays are "Project Runway" and "24 Hour Catwalk" (those are all me, though), Fridays are "Supernatural", and Sundays are for Food Network. Right now it's "Worst Cooks in America".

It's not horrible if we miss a show (that'd be kinda lame), but we definitely look forward to an hour or so to just veg and spend together. At least I look forward to it. He plays his game (Star Wars: The Old Republic) during the girly shows.

We were never the going out couple. We've only been to a bar a handful of times, only ever went to small parties at friends' houses, usually just hung out with a few friends and talked or watched tv or played video games. Maybe having this weekly tv thing isn't 'cool' or whatever, but I like it.
I tend to get jealous easily. I get jealous of other 22 year olds who are out partying or staying up late or not having to clean a house and cook every day. I get jealous of people who, even though they got married young, still seem to have a social life. I usually bounce back pretty quickly and remember that I am incredibly blessed, the grass is always greener, etc. It's just something that's been on my mind lately.

Sorry that this seemingly innocent post about tv shows turned into something more in-depth. I guess I'm not quite sure what I wanted to say with this. Sometimes it's just good to talk/type it out, right?

If you're not a huge fan of this post, don't despair. A picture post is coming soon. Also, my j key is breaking :(

Domingo Confesiones

Every single time I see Alyx's "Sunday Confessions" I get Usher's "These Are My Confessions" stuck in my head. Unfortunately, I only know the beat/line "These are my confessions..." so it just keeps repeating in my head.

1. I don't shower daily. Or even every other day. It's more like an every three or four day thing, unless I exercise or get smelly for whatever reason. I've got a baby and showering is just not a priority while she's napping. I'm just at home most days not doing anything strenuous, so if I'm not dirty why shower? Which brings me to...

2. I hate taking showers and absolutely will not take a bath. That probably is what causes numero uno. I get a little squicky about the tile and ceramic. It might be partially caused by my anxiety, I'm not sure. It didn't use to bug me, but now I can't clean the tub/shower because it's just too icky. I know that sounds lame, but at least J doesn't complain when I have him clean it :)

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3. I bit my nails constantly for about thirteen years. To get all psycho-analyst on you, it started when my parents got divorced, who knows if it's related. I finally stopped sometime last year when I was pregnant because I realized that I was ingesting a lot of germs and didn't want that to affect my baby. I still stick my fingers in my mouth (wow that sounds gross/weird) in stressful situations and my nails are weak, but it's a lot better than it used to be.

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4. I'm in love with honey. I think flavored honey sticks are the best inventions ever. I bought four of them yesterday at the women's fair and I only have one left. I think I might eat it now. I wish I could have them ALL the time. That probably isn't very healthy though.

5. Much like Alyx (which is weird to type, she went by Ally in high school), I have things about lists. She has  to have five things, I just need an odd number. Same with exclamation points. One is okay, three is great, two is BAD.

Date Night

J and I actually get to go out tomorrow night sans baby. I'm so excited. I'm so nervous. It'll be the first time since Quinn was born that we get a date. Boy do we need it. At least I do. I've felt like we've been kind of off, not really sure how to act to each other as parents as well as spouses.
Luckily for us, I won a book called "Babyproofing Your Marriage" from an awesome blog, The Parent Du Jour. I'm really excited for it to get here so I can read it. I know that one of the things it mentions is that date nights are important.
The best thing about the entire date night (other than dressing up, I love dressing up and am jealous of my sister who's going to prom this year, but that's a whole other post) is that we're going here:

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That, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing the awesomeness, is Sumo by Nambara. A Japanese steakhouse aka the best kind of restaurant EVER. They have the best fried rice and the best cooks (chefs? knife wielders who happen to make food?). I'm getting giddy just thinking about going out tomorrow night! Although, that might also be because I'm on my second glass of sangria. Who knows.

<3 Breenah

Breenah Bakes (& Sometimes Cooks)

Since I posted about cooking last I've tried three things. One was great, one was really good, and one failed miserably. Two out of three isn't bad, right? Let's start with the bad and work our way up.

Cinnamon rolls sound like an easy thing, right? WRONG. I had only ever popped them out of the Pillsbury wrapper and baked them before. Never mixed dough and rolled and cut and rolled. Nope. However, being a S@HM is making me Suzy Homemaker. I found a recipe from Budget Bytes that seemed easy enough. No knead is good, it's easier. But I managed to screw it up. They came out of the oven hard, but I thought I'd make the icing and see if I could salvage them, but I must've been on a roll because the icing came out gritty and gross. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but I doubt I'll try it again soon. If you happened to have not scrolled down to see my Project 366 post yet, here's the picture. They look promising right? Well they're full of doughy lies.  

Another thing I tried, and that has already been previewed in the Project 366 post, was Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili. I got my crockpot for our wedding two years ago and this was the first time I had used it. The recipe came from Reds at Photo a Day and was really simple. I'm excited to use my crockpot more and I highly recommend this recipe, however make sure you have the right amount of chicken. I only had two chicken breasts and didn't realize it and there was not enough chicken in there for me. I like my chicken.

And the absolutely amazing thing I made were soft pretzels!!! HOLY MOLY THEY ARE YUMMY. J had three, I think. And he even helped. I was so surprised. It's hard to get him in the kitchen to cook (or clean, haha). Unfortunately in all their yumminess I only got a cell phone picture of them. I think I'm going to make some more soon (I bought a bunch of packets of yeast at the store!) so I'll take a better picture next time.

Tonight I'm making Magic Broccoli, haha. Apparently it's so good even people who don't like veggies will like it. Cross your fingers J will eat it!

And just pretend my little Breenah signature is here because it's saved on a different computer.

Days 30-37

30. I bought some fabric at Wal-Mart (don't judge me, I'm limited) and was planning on making some burp rags along with maybe appliqueing something on a onesie. Then my sewing machine revealed that I can't get the throat plate up. The machine is 54 years old, so it's kind of understandable. Unfortunately the closest Singer repair shop is 40 miles away so it's gonna have to wait. I also really just want a new machine. In the mean time the fabric is laying over my machine taunting me.

31. Yes, I'm using this as my picture of the day, however I'm not gonna talk about it. You'll have to wait for my Breenah Bakes (& Sometimes Cooks) post. Which will probably be posted shortly after this one.

32. Another picture you have to wait to hear (read?) about. Bwah ha, the suspense is killing you isn't it? No. Probably not.

33. This one you don't have to wait for! I was making breakfast for dinner (I love having a waffle maker, btw) and had pulled out the eggs while fixing other things. J walks into the kitchen and says "You do realize that's not how you make eggs, right?" completely serious. I do usually have him make eggs because he makes them better, but I have made them before thankyouverymuch.

34. On Friday I had returns to make to Toys R Us and JCP and I had a coupon for Old Navy (spend $60, get $30 off) so Quinn and I made a trip to the mall. I would up spending $1.04 at Toys R Us and $1.14 at JCP after the returns. I was pretty excited for the low prices, but all the stuff was for Quinn. Well, at ON I actually got myself things! Two awesome t-shirts, a 3/4 length tee, and this adorable sweater. The colors make me happy.

35. I am 22 (and 1/2 on Thursday!) and had NEVER french braided my own hair before, but on Saturday my friend Darci pinned a video and I finally learned how to do it! Turned out pretty good for my first try, if I do say so myself (which I do). I also tried to fishtail braid it, but my hair's too short :(

36. You didn't think you were gonna get a whole picture post with no Quinn did you? Originally we had planned on going to my sister's house for an anti-Superbowl party (where we watched the Superbowl anyway), but her kiddos got sick so it was cancelled. I dressed Quinn up anyway. J made fun of the poofy skirt, but he doesn't "get" fashion so it's okay ;)

37. Yesterday we needed to go grocery shopping so we took J lunch from Arby's (that man is obsessed with fast food, I tell you) and chatted while he quickly ate. Quinn was super excited to see her daddy in the middle of the day.

Really Cool Things, Really Lame Title

I'm gonna start doing a weekly "things I've found this week and are cool" post. Probably on Sundays. However, it still has a lame name because that's the way I roll. Nothing cool up in this joint. Oh, I guess I named my cooking posts Breenah Bakes, & Sometimes Cooks. Speaking of which, I have a post about that. Maybe there'll be two posts today! Crazy~ Okay, enough of me, onto the cool things.

These are all things I've pinned this week, although two of them aren't really new. One's from last September and the other's from way back in February of 2010.

This gorgeous craft room is from Natalie at Johnny in a Dress. I can't wait until I can move into a house and actually have a room (or at least part of a room) for all my craftiness. As of  right now there are multiple tubs and boxes with my random odds and ends. I'm sure J will appreciate me not having my stuff randomly around the place also. 

This picture is beyond adorable. This is Jill (Dr. Jill to be more precise) and her family from Say Yippie. I'm not planning on being pregnant this Christmas (fingers crossed!), but other than that aspect I really want to recreate this for our Christmas card. Quinn will be a year and four months by then. I can't believe it was just Christmas 2010 I found out I was pregnant. Time FLIES.

I CANNOT wait to make these cookies. Susan from Living with Punks is a GENIUS. Between the cream in an Oreo being (more or less) the best thing ever and the colorful sprinkles, I'm pretty excited for these. Although, I don't think I'm going to like the scale afterward, haha.

This is the one that's from two years ago. It's still absolutely brilliant, though. Brittany at SuperWoman came up with this in order to organize her bathroom. I think every woman should have this and it's SO easy to do. Magnetic strip with sticky back and BAM. No more (or at least less) lost bobby pins. Another thing my husband doesn't like finding all over the place :)

Okee, well I'm off to browse more crafting blogs. I'm kind of obsessed at the moment. Also, if you click on the picture it'll take you to the picture on my Pinterest if you want to repin it. Hope you all have a great Sunday. Oh, and Superbowl? Yay. Haha.