"It Could Have Been Worse"

It's hard to believe that almost sixteen months ago my dad's cabinet shop caught on fire. That day will go down as one of the crappiest days in O'Connor family history. It was also the day that "could have been worse," according to Dad. He's always been able to see the positive side of things. At the time it was hard to see anything positive in the situation, but he was very reassuring and comforting during such a terrible situation.

On that morning I didn't think to grab a camera at all, but I did have my phone. And just recently I was able to get the pictures off the phone and onto my computer. I wanted to document the pictures and include them in my blog book. The following are the pictures I took from that cold, rainy, dreary Sunday morning in November that none of us will soon forget.

All the cabinets inside were completely damaged.

I hated seeing a beautiful mantle sitting out in the rain after being pulled out of the rubble.

Dad talking to the firemen

We had a lot of support from friends and family. It was very comforting.

I Passed!

I had the ever-so-famous glucose tolerance test at the doctor's office today. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous! I've just heard so much about it and how gross it is:

"It's like drinking a can of Mountain Dew with an extra cup of sugar in it."

"It tastes like you're drinking cough syrup right out of the bottle."

"You'll never want to drink Sprite again."

After getting checked in and getting my blood pressure taken the nurse asked me what flavor I wanted for the drink. I chose orange. The physician's assistant and his wife at my doctor's office are friends of mine, and she said out of all the flavors she's tried the orange was the best. So I went with it! I was told I had ten minutes to get the little 10 oz. bottle drank, then I needed to keep track of what time I finished.

So I opened the bottle at 10:42 and went for it. I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It tasted like Sunkist without the carbonation, but with a little more sugar. However, I'm not used to drinking a can of Sunkist that fast! Or anything, for that matter. I struggled for a bit. Three minutes later I was finished and onto the rest of my appointment.

My belly measured well, and the baby's heart beat sounded great. Phew! Always a good thing to hear. The doctor answered a bunch more of my crazy questions that I had for him {Is it bad that I haven't felt the baby have hiccups? Is my weight gain on track?} and then I sat in the lobby reading my book for 40 minutes before going back for the blood test. Just moments after the nurse pricked my finger she told me I was normal and in the clear for gestational diabetese. Yes! I thought for sure I had ruined my chances after that week of wanting to eat nothing but candy and sugar ha ha. But I was actually quite far under the maximum number to have before you've got it. The one thing the test showed, however, is that my iron is a little low. I need to be eating more red meat. Guess Tyson needs to take me out for a steak! Dang.

Happy appointments sure are great.

{PS I went right to Subway after my appointment for some food. I ordered a footlong sub. Yes, a footlong. But for the record, I ate half of it at noon and the other half at around 2:00. Totally worth it!}

image via opticsplanet.com

Wii Had a Great Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day this weekend.

It all started on Friday when I walked in the house from work and saw these on the kitchen counter:

Tyson bought me flowers! So sweet.

Right after I saw the flowers and snapped a few pictures, I headed over to my mom's house where Amber and I baked a heart-shaped cake for Saturday night's dessert.

Amber did a fantastic job decorating it!
We also colored it pink so it was pretty cute when we eventually cut into it.

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Saturday the 13th. To kick things off, we went to lunch at Papa Kelsey's with Aaron, Britney, Che', and Amber. It was fun to sit and visit with everyone for a while.
Before lunch we decided to open presents. I got Tyson a Wii and the new Super Mario Bros. game. He was pretty excited!


I had secretly been saving some of my tips every day until I had enought to buy one. But I almost didn't get one anyway, since no one in Idaho Falls has any! But luckily Game Stop in the mall was getting three consoles in right before Valentine's Day, and one of them hadn't been reserved. So I went for it and picked it up on Thursday. Phew! Cutting it close!

Tyson got me two round cake pans and a muffin pan. Perfect! I didn't have either (except for the 6-count muffin pan that I had from college ha ha) so I was really excited to get these. And of course, a delicious Hershey bar. Yum!

And Kristine got married yesterday so Tyson, Che', Amber, and I went to her reception. She looked so pretty! Amy did her hair and it turned out awesome.

I really liked her cake and the cake table/corner. It was so pretty!

After the reception, the four of us decided to head over to Olive Garden for some dinner. We were on an hour wait so we stayed in the car and talked outside ther restaurant (where this picture was taken.)

And now I'm going to tell you about our special Olive Garden experience. We'll do this in bullet form so I don't forget any details. Here it goes!

• After an hour wait we were sat at our table. It wasn't a booth, but it wasn't the worst table to sit at.
• When we sat down I started looking around and noticing the people around us. The two booths to my right had a couple in each, and both were waiting for their food. They weren't talking at all, and it seemed like they had been waiting to get their food for a long time. As a server, I tend to check things like that out when I go out to eat. But just an observation I made.
• Our server greeted us, got our drink/appetizer order, then got our drinks out. I ordered water with lemon, but didn't get the lemon. No big deal, easy to forget.
• Then the server took our order. When we got to Che' he ordered the Tour of Italy with marinara sauce on the pasta instead of alfredo. Sounded delish.
• We eventually got our appetizer (calamari - yummy!) then soon our salad and bread sticks came. Always a yummy part! (And PS, if you would like the recipe for that good dressing they put on the salad, just click here!) Che' had asked for a side of ranch but never got it. He would have asked for it from our server but he didn't come back.
• Around this time I started noticing other people around us. Those two booths occupied by couples had eventually got their food, but they were back to sitting there waiting. This time to get their check, which didn't come for a very long time. They had the same server we did.
• We sat and visited for a while, anxiously awaiting our yummy pasta. But it seemed to be taking a long time. And our server had gone missing. Our drinks were all empty and we were just sitting there with a bunch of plates. He must have just been really busy.
• Eventually we saw our server come back through his section. When he walked by our table I suddenly smelled cigarette smoke. And it smelled really fresh. For a minute I thought it was our server, then I considered the thought that it was one of the guests who had just sat down at the booth across from us and the smell came up as the server walked by. Hmmm...
• We eventually got drink refills from our server and he took our empty dishes. After more waiting for our food, the manager came up to us and explained that there was a "mis-hap" with our food and it would be out in about 5/10 minutes. She was super nice and apologized, then left us to wait for a little while longer.
• Amber, Che', and I have all been servers so naturally we started discussing the situation. We brought up our own experiences of working in a restaurant and how the "mis-hap" seemed like another of way saying that our server forgot to ring in the food. We figured that if all our food came out hot then that was probably what happened.
• Then Che' asked us if we smelled the cigarette smoke when our server walked by. And immediately all four of us answered emphathatically with, "Yes!" and continued to discuss how our server pretty much went out for a smoke break. We've had enough smoker friends in our days to know the smell of a person right after they smoke a cigarette, which was exactly what we could smell at the time.
• We ended up waiting an hour before our food got to the table. And it was all hot. But Che's was wrong, so he had to ask for a different sauce. The server blamed the cooks, of course.
• We all had two bites when the guys took their credit cards out and set them on the table. Our server eventually came back and boxed our food up. Then the manager came by and let us know that she was sorry for all the trouble and she was going to give us free dessert. We already had dessert waiting for us at home, so she ended up taking an entree off each of our checks.
• Needless to say, our server didn't get a 20% tip from us. The whole experience was a little frustrating, but the boys held it together and kept their cool nicely! And we still enjoyed the company we were with.

After dinner we went back to Amber and Che's for cake and icecream. It was delicious!

Tyson and I went to his parents' house for lunch today and it was fun. All of his siblings who live in the area were there. The tables were set up with Valentine's Day decorations and chocolates. And there were name cards at each of the plates. So cute!

Hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day! We sure did!

We Tried the Chili

Our sis-in-law, Britney, posted a delicious recipe for White Chicken Chili
on her blog and we decided to try it last week. It was so yummy! We really liked it. One thing I would do differently for next time: add less cayenne pepper. I liked the way it turned out, but both my mom and Tyson's stomachs had a harder time with it. I used one teaspoon and will probably use a half teaspon next time. Another thing I would do differently is cut the recipe in half. But only if I'm making it for just the two of us. This makes a pretty good size batch. And overall it was great! We really liked it. Thanks again for posting the recipe, Brit!

***

White Chicken Chili

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small white onion, diced
6 to 8 cloves or garlic {or about 3-4 Tbsp of minced garlic from a jar}
1 - 7 oz. can diced green chiles, strained
2 - 15 oz. cans white beans, unstrained
4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp chicken buillon granules {I used 1 cube}
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne {I used a full teaspoon but will start using a half at the most}
1 c. sour cream, plus additional for topping if desired
3 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese {I used 2 cups and it was perfect}
chopped fresh cilantro
chopped roma tomato

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook the chicken by your desired method {I boiled mine}. Cool and tear into pieces. Set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook and stir until the onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the chicken, chiles, beans, broth, chicken buillon, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Simmer 30-45 minutes. Chili can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated or frozen for later service.
4. Add 1 c. of sour cream and the cheese {sprinkle in the cheese a little at a time so it doesn't all clump together}. Continue cooking until the cheese is melted. Keep warm until serving.
5. Serve in bowls and top with cilantro, tomatoes, and additional sour cream. Enjoy!

For more of a soup consistency, add up to two more cups of chicken broth.

Erika Turned 23

Happy birthday, Erika!

This was the second of the two birthday parties we had this week.

Our sister-in-law, Erika, turned 23 on Sunday, January 31st.

She had a birthday party at Tyson's parents' house with a lot of family and friends.

It sure is fun to get together with everyone! We all had a great time!

After a delicious dinner of sandwiches and salads, we played a wild game of Bingo. It was so fun! Lots of prizes were given out.

Everyone was concentrating really hard.

Including me! I was doing really well at first, but then couldn't get anything at all.

And there's my surprised face ha ha.

Tyson's mom, Julie, holding Jack

Kristi & Bailey

Angie, Kate & Steve

Tyson and I each got a bingo!

I picked the Reese's and he picked the Milk Duds. Delish.

(I immediately threw that Reese's in the freezer when we got home and ate it the next day. They are so good frozen!)

After Bingo we had birthday cake and ice cream.

Erika lit the candles.

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Wait...trick candles! What!

Tyson & Jack

Dustin cutting the cake

Lillie & Rachel

Angie, Jack & Alisha (Erika's sister)

Brotherly love

Dustin, Tyson & Clark shootin' the breeze

Time for presents!

Love Spell products from Alisha & Lance

Jewelry and a scarf from us

A gift card from Milan & Julie

And everything under the sun from her nieces ha ha.

It was the cutest! They go through their rooms and put together birthday presents that include toys they'd be willing to give away. It was pretty funny what Erika ended up with.

And we can't forget about her "Glee" t-shirt from Tacie!

It says, "I'm a gleek." :)

Happy birthday, Erika! We sure love you! :)