Getting the Ball Rolling

Got home an hour ago from the Glendale Civic Center. Mike and I had an appointment with their event coordinator there to tour the venue and talk prices. We liked it. It is a very nice, basic venue that lets you have a good amount of freedom as far as decisions.

We really liked their "Fountain Court" area for the ceremony. It's $1000 just to have the ceremony out there. But then its 900 to have the reception in their banquet hall. So about 2 grand total for the venue. Seems silly that the ceremony site costs more than the reception hall. Hmmm...

We are going to ask her what it would cost to have both the wedding and the reception outside. I'm hoping it won't be too hot for an outdoor wedding in May.

My philosophy is that if its going to cost 2k to get married at the civic center why not spend a tad more and do what we initially wanted, the Desert Botanical Garden. Will be checking that out shortly! If the difference is negligible I would go with the garden. However, the 2k at the civic center covers so much. Chairs, Tables, a coordinator, etc.. Sometimes you just cannot pass up a deal.

The catering is a whole separate animal. They have a minimum of $38 per person, which isn't terrible. The bar options are plentiful. They even sell margaritas by the gallon. Um, yes, please. :) The quote for the catering plus alcoholic beverages was near 7k. I expected this. But man does this all add up kinda fast! At least I'm finding this out now and not a few months from now.

Soooo..."how are we paying for this?" is whats running through my mind right now. Being broke is no fun. Can I graduate, get a good job, and make 60k a year now? k. thanks.

Madonna of the Kitchen

I just spent about 3 to 4 hours in my kitchen and now I am exhausted....

I made Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Buttercream Frosting. The picture below is off the Martha Stewart website. Mine do not look like this. The cupcake itself is good. It came out really moist. My only complaint is that all the chocolate chips fell to the bottom. It was an intense recipe. Instead of just adding eggs like you usually would I had to take 5 egg whites and make a meringue and then fold it in to the batter. Weird. I had never made meringue before. It was labor intensive. I had to sit there with the mixer on for a long time. We only have a hand mixer so my thumb gets tired from pressing on the button.

The frosting...ugh. I think its too sweet (and that's saying something cause I have a sweet tooth) and Mike thinks its not sweet enough and it tastes like sour cream. Awesome. This is not my idea of good frosting. Damn me for not using my mom's butter icing recipe and using Martha's buttercream recipe. Will never do that again. I'm tempted to scrape the icing off the cupcakes and make my mom's icing. Hmmmm....

So I put the cupcakes and remaining icing (remaining because at this point I still have 9 cupcakes cooling) in the fridge to see if it will set up a little. It is a really thin icing. Why??? Because I think I am a baker and can tweak recipes. Once again this is an epic fail. Basically buttercream icing has 3 components; an obscene amount of softened unsalted butter, an entire pound of confectioner's sugar, and a tsp of vanilla extract. Now let me tell you what I put in it. I started with the recipe. Tasted it. Hated it. So I put 3 tbsp of Crisco in it to cut the sugar a bit. Then I could still feel the powdered sugar in my mouth so I added about a tbsp or two of milk. BIG MISTAKE! Now its thin and apparently tastes like sour cream. Awesome (sarcasm). Just writing this is making me want to go throw it all out. Yuck.

Overall Michael rating: 7 out of 10

I guess I can't complain. Now I have 33 of these cupcakes. Definitely giving some of these away.

Before I went on the cupcake adventure I made Club Chicken Salad. This is a great breakdown of a chicken club sandwich. Mike and I enjoyed a very light and late (just about 4pm) lunch with this on a flour tortilla. A wrap basically.

This recipe was also pretty involved. But I would say worth it. Basically, anything with bacon in it is worth it. :)

You take bacon and bake it in the oven on aluminum foil. When it is ready to be flipped you move it to one side of the pan and put chicken breasts seasoned with salt and pepper on the other side. I added Montreal Chicken seasoning for a little extra something. So basically you are baking the chicken in the rendered bacon fat. Awesome (no sarcasm, it's really awesome). Then you chop up some celery, red onion, celery stalk leaves, and some tomatoes. This required the most time. I bought little cherry tomatoes because I figured it would be easier. It was! Except seeded them was a disaster as I frequently got tomato juice and seeds all over my WHITE shirt. Then I just added some mayo and white vinegar. Then I chopped up the chicken, crumbled the bacon, and tossed it all together. The outcome was a really refreshing spin on chicken salad.

Overall Michael rating: 7 out of 10

I think he low balled my chicken salad. But apparently he said he tasted some seeds in a few bites. He probably just got some residual tomato seeds that I missed.

Meal plan for this coming week: Cayenne Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa (this will be our second time making this because its amazing), Seared Spicy Fajitas (beef) with grilled onions and red pepper (and of course a few wedges of lime), and Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche (excited about this as I've only ever made Spinach and Swiss or Mozzarella Quiche and Mike is a little sick of it. haha)

Now I am off to make flashcards of normal and abnormal arterial blood gases,normal blood counts, and the dreaded electrolytes. Critical Care starts Wednesday. Yikes!

Flight of Ideas

It has been 9 days since my last post. Woops! I have really dropped the ball on the every other day thing. However, I pretty much stick to that when it comes to the wonderful cookies and cream ice cream in the freezer :P

Item 1.

The shoes I ordered for my mom's wedding came about two weeks ago. They are no where near as blue as in the picture (which I copied into a previous post). They are teal actually. I got the largest size of them that Forever21 sold......They are too small. Bummer. But maybe its a blessing in disguise as teal and black may not work so well. So I am ordering these instead cause they come in a bigger size and they are red, which will go awesome with the black dress and some gerbera daisies (mom's wedding flower of choice).

Item 2.

Mike has vetoed the cupcake tower idea because he hearts cake. So I am going to let it go and let him eat cake. :)

I found another cake that I love. It would look neat to add some red to it. Maybe some of the layers are piped with red instead of blue or something.

Item 3.

Still trying to find a time to make an appointment at the Glendale Civic Center. Our schedule and the wedding coordinator's just never match up!

Item 4.

I saw a really cool idea online today. On the Style Me Pretty blog. This couple had their guests keep their name cards and write notes to them on the back and then hang them up on a tree that was on a table during the reception. The cards looked like luggage tags and they had a little satin string on the end. Very cute.

I've also been thinking about having a table of different candies on a table. Sort of like a candy bar. Glendale Civic Center will put one together for you. I have to figure out how flexible they are with things. I could do a lot on my own. Like finding candies that match our wedding colors and collecting cool jars or something.

Also found really cute favors. They are called "Cupcake in a Jar". One couple that Style Me Pretty featured got these as favors. The label is very cute. The picture won't paste so here's the link.

http://www.stylemepretty.com/wp-content/plugins/montage_maker/imgs/clear.gif

Anyways, the label reads "We love you like a fat kid loves cake. Thanks for celebrating with us."

So many ideas! Can't wait to see how it all turns out! :)

Wedding Planning :)

Hopefully making an appointment to do a tour of the Glendale Civic Center. It costs $1000 to have your reception there. That includes tables/chairs, a wedding coordinator, and much more. Pretty amazing. I'm really hoping that Mike and I like it because if so we are going to be saving a lot of money. It has gotten great reviews online. Everyone says its beautiful and affordable. Will be calling this week.

I've been checking out wedding cakes tonight. And I love this cake....

However, I'm also thinking that a tiered cupcakes might be a fun idea too. No cutting and serving involved. Plus I love cupcakes. They are fun, cute, and unique. Definitely throwing that idea around.

I've also been looking at wedding dresses like crazy. I'm going cheap. Hoping to get it for less than $300. I'd post some up but the pictures won't paste right. Bummer. Anyway, they're on lightinthebox.com. It's a company out of China that sells wedding dresses wholesale. I was a little worried at first but their reviews are all positive.

I'm into the black baroque styled invitations. Similar to the cake above. This one is pretty.

Available in 6 Colors!">

Very simple. I love it. Originally I was thinking about just black as the wedding color theme with hints of red. But now I am thinking red, aqua, and black.

Love it!!!!!! Buttons. What an amazing idea and a really cheap way to decorate the tables. I'm into it.

I also love "The Traveling Photo Booth"

You rent a photo booth and then you can log in and view all the pictures after the event. Pretty awesome. The nearest location is LA. So I'll have to see if they'll rent in Phoenix. Many people use it as a guest book rather than having people sign in they take a picture. Fun!

Ok, well Mike keeps asking me if I'm done. So enough for now!

Nursing Exams...Woof!

So I should be studying. For sure. But I had blogging on the mind cause it's been a few days and when I started this I wanted to post at least every other day. :)

Anyway, just had a short clinical day because we left early and attended an addicts' meeting, which was really interesting. One thing that drives me a little crazy about it is the emphasis on "god". I personally believe that you are the only person who can control you. But whatever. Thats a whole other can of worms that I could go on and on about and I refuse.

Clinical at the actual hospital was interesting. I actually got to see someone in a "manic" phase. This poor kid. He just has a terrible and traumatic experience which has landed him hospitalized from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). He was so freakishly happy today. There is such as thing as too happy. You can't really fathom it until you see it. Smiling at nothing. Totally creeped me out. Gave me the chills. What is going on in that kid's head?

Definitely not going to pursue psych nursing ever!

I have an exam tomorrow afternoon on personality, somatiform, cognitive, and dissociative disorders. BOOOO!

Why can't it be on what this kitteh is studying ... I would get an A+++++!

Anyway. Car is finally going in for service Friday. Can't wait since the little scion sounds like a semi-truck right now. Something is up with one of the belts or something. It will be nice to get it taken care of.

Mike and I are hitting the ballpark to see the Diamondbacks take on the Pirates on Sunday. Yay! Beer and relaxing in the bleacher seats=awesome!

I made my own garlic knots the other day. Used pizza dough pre-made from the store and just tied it into little knots. Popped in the oven for 15 minutes and then tossed them with minced garlic and olive oil. They came out alright. Not great. They didn't seem to bake evenly. I have another batch in the freezer. Maybe it will be better next time.

Next Adventure is Chicken with Artichokes and Pasta. Will probably make this tomorrow night.

Ok. Time to buckle down.

Sunday Funday

Lots of things to do today!

My mom finally gave me the recipe for her brisket. Yay! But, of course, since its Easter, the store sold their last brisket before I could get one. So I am subbing two roasts for the brisket. Won't be as good but it'll do. We'll see how it comes out. I also completely forgot to get disposable pans at the store. So I will have to go out soon and pick some up so I can start the 6 hour adventure. :)

Mike, Anne, Teddy, and I all hit Oggi's last night. It's a brew house and pizza place. It was happy hour all night. So $3 microbrews and cheap appetizers. Sweet! The beer wasn't bad. The hefeweizen was good, but nothing compares to Four Peaks hef. We were trying to watch the Suns game but the TVs were hard to watch from where we sat. Overall, would go again.

We got home early last night which was nice considering we were running around all day yesterday. We went to probably 5 different Lowe's/Home Depot looking for flub paints cause they're cheap. No dice. But we did buy our own painting supplies. Next weekend we will be painting our powder room. I'm excited because then the first floor is done as far as painting. We also went to the Arrowhead mall. That was overwhelming. So many people out. It was too loud and crowded for me. We did go into Macy's and looked at shoes. I saw the cutest pair of coach sneakers. Now I will dream of them.....

We also hit TJMaxx and Mike found a great new Penguin buttom down and he also bought me a pair of Steve Madden Mary Jane pumps. I am spoiled. :P

Anyway. I got in bed around 9 pm and watched the end of Father of the Bride. I cried. I love that movie but its a tear jerker for me. Then I watched 3 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and laughed regardless of having already seen them.

Just bought shoes online for my mom's wedding. They are so bright. It will look awesome with my black dress!

Ok..Aurie is asleep on my Hello Kitty blanket. He is precious when he wants to be. Need to go shower and start working my list of things to do: store, roast, study.

TGI freakin F!

It's Friday, Friday! Mike and I got off work early which was an awesome surprise! Good start to the weekend.

Anyways.

I continued reading Through the Looking Glass last night and have to say that I am enjoying it thus far. Except my free kindle version is missing some of the poetry which sucks. Then again, I certainly do not feel like spending 10 bucks to read a book right now. So the free Kindle version is a love hate. Love that its free, along with many classic novels, but hate that its not complete. Bummer. I did discover the the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland as well as the new Tim Burton "continuation" mix two characters together. There is, of course, the Queen of Hearts, who is an evil see you next Tuesday, and then there is the Red Queen, also pretty awful. Tim Burton's version showcases the red v. white queen deal. Actually these particular queens are made to mimic chess pieces that Alice had in her home. Alice comes through the mirror in her living room and finds a live chess set. The Queen of Hearts is from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and she is the one with the playing card guards. Whereas, the Red Queen and White Queen have chess pieces for protection. So far I find Through the Looking Glass an easier book to follow.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that Mike and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the other night. It was loooonnnggg, but I would say worth it. It was very interesting. A cool story. Makes me wonder who thought of having a man age backwards. I still just can't seem to see what the big deal is with Brad Pitt. He just doesn't do it for me.

Wedding Fever continues! Starting to discuss budgeting. We also have been working on getting the guest list under control. Decided that I would like to check out the Glendale Civic Center for the venue as it was rated as one of the best places to get married in AZ. My mom recommended I check out the Martha Stewart wedding website and sign up for the organization tools on there. I did and it's pretty amazing. Some really great ideas. And..Mike and I must know some secrets because every tip for budget cutting we already have in the works. Such as having a friend or family member marry us, getting hitched at a museum as its cheaper and very little decoration is required. Plus I will be letting bridesmaids wear whatever little black dress they want. :) It's all so fun! All I ask is that I have little to no stress during this process.