Valentine's Dinner

For Valentines, I cooked Steven bacon wrapped scallops, mac and cheese that had shrimp, artichoke and bacon, and dipped some strawberries in chocolate. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the strawberries before Steven and I ate them.

If you would like to try making the scallops yourself, this is the recipe I found online. It doesn't say how hot to heat the pan, so I heated my pan on medium high and cooked each side for about two and a half minutes. The left over butter and bacon grease had too much burnt particles that I decided to clean the pan, melt some more butter and add the garlic and lemon for the sauce to go on the scallops after they finished cooking.

Steven and I really enjoyed our Valentines dinner! Hope Valentines was a good one for you!

I Bounced Back Quick

In my dream last night Steven and I had gotten a divorce. I wasn't emotional or anything, just felt a little lost. Partly confused as to what had happened. Well in this dream Collin Firth (he's on the left) shows up and he looks like his character from Dorian Gray, looking like he was in his early 30's. I think he just had a divorce too and we bonded a little.

Next thing I know it is perceived that a couple of months have passed away and he and I have been dating. As we're walking in the same place we met I notice I still had my wedding ring on. I was surprised by it and took it off feeling silly I hadn't noticed it sooner. Collin notices me doing this and says, "Ah, looks like you're finally over him." He then turns to me, "I want this to be simple-" meaning he didn't want to go through the whole fiasco of proposing. With that he pulls out from his jacket a ring. It wasn't just any ordinary ring though. It was a bronze rose. In the midst of the petals was a big diamond. The stem of the rose coiled down. I spiraled the ring around my finger and interestingly enough it fit beautifully! My finger was even able to bend with ease.

As we stood there happy together it then dawned on my my grandmother hadn't met him yet and she said I couldn't get engaged again until she met him! In the dream my grandma was Sissy Spacek and she looked like her character in The Help. I said, "I suppose we'll hold off on telling everyone until she meets you. We'll do this over sushi... which I'll be making."

With that we head off to this open field and in the midst of it is what looks like a country club or some nice venue. Outside were many table with white table clothes. Lots of people were there I knew and foolishly I've left the engagement ring on. As we approach people start to notice the ring and point it out. They begin getting all giggly and I try to shush them. I can see my grandma begin to look around trying to see what all the commotion was. I try to slip the ring off, but she notices me, saying, "Don't you hide that ring from me!" She takes my hand and looks it over. She then look at Collin and smiles real big and gives him a welcoming hug. I finally relax.

The rest of the dream was a blur of horse drawn carriages and kisses. I think I suddenly was wearing a period dress at one point (like from Pride and the Prejudice- which Collin also starred in). But nothing more developed before I woke to myself needing to cough.

Little Kids Everywhere!

This week consisted of me adjusting to the new work schedule. 5:30am I'm up in the morning (yuck...) and by 9pm I'm in bed (yay!). The job itself is pretty easy and very physical as I'm discovering. For the past 6 years I've worked with 5-11 year olds in which I didn't have to chase after hardly, only worked 15 hours a week, didn't have to pick them up constantly, and most of all they weren't as sick.


The 1-4 year olds I work with are crying, sassing, spitting, sick, runny noses, running away, and so on. I also get to work with them full time. I am so grateful my back is so much healthier! I've been lifting toddlers and pre-schoolers regularly and boy bed time can't come fast enough.


On top of all the excersize I've been doing with these kids, I've caught something from them. Probably the common cold. I've done great avoiding the real pit fall on the illness all week, but now I'm probably at my worst. I am hoping it's all up hill from here because with me being on a 2 week trial, I really, REALLY don't want to take a sick day.


Anywho, that's the new job. Steven thankfully hasn't caught what I've gotten, but it's only a matter of time... For his week, he was able to have guys over to play magic 3 days in a row. It was pretty awesome. One of the days I was able to enjoy some Sequence with my friend Jessica while most of the guys played.


Steven's also been excellent on making sure we stick to our new sleeping schedule. He goes to bed and gets up with me :)


This week I continue adjusting to the work schedule. I hope to get better real quick too. And here's hoping Steven or my friends and family don't catch what I've got.


<3 Meri

This is how I feel. The Pokemon's name is Koffing. I really hating coughing so much...

Chemistry Homework Assignment (Really!)

My Junior year at Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA), my Chemistry teacher wanted us to draw a picture that told a story. I cannot remember why it was relevant to the class.

How Busy Life Can Be

The first part of the week was a breeze. Monday and Tuesday I began to work on waking up early, but that was proving more difficult to do when the internet was down and I had nothing to do at 6am in the morning. I also took advantage of my last day of no work by cooking a turkey! It turned out amazing! Here's the turkey.

Wednesday I went into work for my afternoon shift since that was all they wanted me to come in for and got to do a bunch of paper work. With that I found I have a uniform to follow and was on a 2 week trial run. I also had a bunch of guidelines and rules to read through and with that felt somewhat overwhelmed. That feeling of second guessing my capabilities were creeping into my head. But they were kicked out pretty quick. By the end of the first day I was getting good feed back from the teachers I worked with saying a was quick to get involved.

Thursday did the same afternoon shift again. I was put into a different classroom and again received good feed back from the teachers I worked with. Of course I was eating it up, but then there's the part of me who says, "Meri, don't let it go to your head. You're not officially hired yet."

Friday I went in a bit earlier than I had for a 6 hour shift. Whoo that was a long day. I had kids to run after and deal with their sass. I also got to stack a bunch of food into the storage closet. And cleaning up at the end of the day is a slight work out too. But one thing that I get to look forward to now at the end of the day is picking Steven up from the Link Station. Saves him about 30 minutes of travel time.

Then Saturday comes! Oh man was that a busy and fun day! Steven and I met up with a high school friend and went to the Point Defiance Zoo. I hadn't been to the zoo in quite some time and it made for a fun date with Steven. Plus it was a really nice day!!!

Us being cute <3

Steven took my picture, then I took his. Thank you photoshop :)

These fish were really cool. They burrow in the sand. They would pop in and out of their hole and spit out sand or shells.

The Sea Lions were so cute and active. It was so touch getting a decent picture of them with my phone.

After looking at most of the animals, Steven and I had to zip off to the cannery to help with dry packing. My parents asked us if we'd help in return for some food storage. We said sure and good thing too since they ended up leaving to go see my sister, Holly, and bro-in-law, Jess, to bless their little baby. It was nice seeing members from my old stake there. It definitely made the dry packing lots of fun working with friends. Thankfully it was a quick session. About an hour long.

Then right after that it was off to my mother's clinic to finish the mural. Steven worked on laundry which for once was finished before me. But 8 o' clock I finished cleaning up everything and took pictures real quick to show off here (the finished Mural). Then after such a long day, Steven and I treated ourselves to the Mizuki Buffet. Oh man! It was amazing. Delicious sushi (though Steven said it was okay) and a nice variety of other tasty entrees and desserts.

Bed was well welcomed as well as this Fast Sunday. Tired bodies and full bellies :)

Wishing you all a great week :)

The Mural.3

I finished the Mural! I'm so glad to be done. It was pretty crazy how much time it took up. But it's really cool I have some art up on public display ^_^

SUSHI!!!!

This picture unfortunately doesn't not do the sushi much justice. Steven and I have been without internet for 4 days and I have had little time to spend at the library. Plus it is somewhat difficult to tell if the photo I took on my phone was any good until I see it on the computer. Anywho...

I made 4 different kinds of sushi but the only one I think is obvious from the photo is the Salmon Nigiri. The others were salmon, cucumber and tuna-crab-cucumber rolls. I didn't add quite enough water to the rice, but while fresh, the sushi was quite good still (after refrigerating them, the slightly under cooked rice was VERY apparent).

I hope my Japanese friends approve. I wish they were here for me to share. But for now, I think I did pretty darn good for by myself (and some help from a Sushi Cook book).