Food Loco

We're on a diet this week. My sister Julie likes to call weight gained after marriage “happy weight”, but the problem is you eventually realize you are slowly becoming a less attractive person, which isn’t so happy. So I'm going to go ahead and reminisce about food we won’t be eating this week.

On friday I wrote a "rigerously graded" book report on "Mountains beyond Mountains", because I'm in Jr. high. I also made 9 bundt cakes for Brad's missionary reunion, and took pictures as I thought of how I was making my own mountains beyond mountains instead of writing about someone else's more meaningful ones. Mine tasted better.

Flavors included: Southern Strawberry, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Coca-Cola, Lemon Poppyseed, Red Velvet, Chocolate Fudge, Pineapple upside-down cake, and vanilla. I wish I had a pic of the pineapple one right when I took it out of the pan, it was pretty.

For our St. Patty's meal we had glazed corned beef, colcannon, and Irish soda bread. The flavors were wonderful.

I realized I forgot to post anything about Brad’s birthday meal, and I really went food loco on brad’s b-day. It was our first birthday married and he was turning 30, kinda a big deal so I wanted to make it special. For breakfast we had waffles with homemade buttermilk syrup, scrambled eggs, and candied bacon. Yes, I skipped most of my first class. Dinner on the other hand, is where things really got crazy. I had class till 4, then I got home and made mint chip ice cream and oreo brownies to have for dessert.

I decided for dinner to attempt my own take at Papalote’s triple threat burrito. (a SF winner that I’ve never even tasted, I’ve got no clue if it even resembled it.) A large tortilla filled with everything: Carne asada, achiote chicken, grilled prawns, homemade papalote roasted salsa, guacamole, jack cheese, refried black beans, guacamole, sour cream, Mexican rice, and Brad’s favorite jalapeno chips on the side. It was fun learning to use some ingredients I’ve never worked with before: pepitos, achiote paste, chilies del arbol, California chili pods, etc. Too fun!


After all that work I ate the fabulous concoction with gusto, but was haunted by the fact that Brad would have been just as satisfied eating a café rio burrito and store-bought mint ice cream. He does recognize when things taste yummy and is quick to thank me, but he’s also a boy, just barely learning that burger king is gross. I think next time I go to all that work I should make sure there are some girls to appreciate it, unless of course it’s Brad’s birthday. :)

April Madness!

I can’t wait for April to arrive, especially this year. If you happen to not be a sports fanatic, but have loved ones who are, you know what I mean. I just can’t wait for April madness! You probably haven’t heard of it because I just made it up. As a (soon to be) march madness veteran I recognize the need to balance things out, even out the playing field if you will. I declare April the month of nonsports fans. It’s a great month anyways: Easter, General Conference, and more predictably springy weather. Beyond this, the month should also include home improvement projects, yard work, and plenty of HGTV and the food network. If you don’t enjoy it, you should pretend to because you realize how important it is, and after all, it’s just once a year! This is the month to spend that $20-30 dollars on a Vietnamese pedicure guilt free. It might be the month to buy a full priced item from Anthro (or your preferred store where you don’t dare glance anywhere else but the sale rack). It’s the time to go to your favorite gourmet store (be it William & Sonoma, Orson Gygi, Sur le Table, or Spoons & Spice) and get that new kitchen gadget you’ve been pining for. Your loved one should even change the channel away from PTI when they sense a strong urge coming from you to slap those yelling men, without being prompted they should say "hmm…maybe its time to watch 'what not to wear'”. Now that's an April attitude! So sportsfans, soak it up like a sponge while you can, because before you know it, the NCAA tournament will be over... and after March, comes April.
From a month of this:

 to this:

Good riddens March, HELLO April!

Brad’s big 30 Birthday!

He’s just so wonderful, and I want to make sure you understand why.

Top 10 things about Brad: (Just in the order I happened to come up with them, not ranked by importance)

1. He is all my nieces and nephew’s rockstar, he is going to be such an amazing dad. Associated with this one is his ability to give my babies real Latin blood.

2. He is literally young at heart…okay, not literally, but seriously. He has the sense of humor of a little boy most of the time, and most of the time…it’s actually pretty funny.

3. He’s not satisfied with ordinary. In any aspect of his life- work, school…(although this one might not be a good thing), church, romance (hello, he proposed under the Brooklyn bridge without so much as asking me if I might be interested in marrying him at some point). He’s passionate about life, me too. I love that!

4. He’s smart. He called me from work once and just said “I thought you should know you married a really smart guy. I’m smart.” And he can do that, because he IS smart. Not just nerdy book smart, but street smart and all aspects of smart. I have confidence that this is the year he will earn his degree, this may never affect his success, but it’s still important, and I know he’ll do it. : )

5. He’s adventurous. Who else gets arrested in China while scalping tickets at the Beijing olymics, sneaks into Cuba with his future wife, and takes her to ride camels in Morocco for their honeymoon? I’m sure one day we’ll do some normal vacation, a cruise or something, but we both have the same desires to get off the beaten track when we travel, and I love that.

6. He’s smooth. He somehow managed to convince me he didn’t mind “just being friends” at the beginning of our dating relationship, I was so surprised by it, it made me want him.

7. He’s confident. Did I also mention after saying he was cool just being friends that he told me I’d one day realize what an awesome guy he was and want to date only him, and that he would wait around as long as it took me to figure that out? Because I was worth it? This goes back to the smooth one. But he’s so confident, without being cocky or trying to bring down others.

8. He’s a guy. Look up the definition of guy, it is synonymous with Brad. Loves to play sports, loves to watch sports, loves to watch other guys argue about sports. Leaves the toilet seat up. Is entertained when I accidentally sit into the inner rim of toilet because of this. Thinks logically, easily disconnecting emotion from decisions and conversation. Is perplexed when I am upset by his logical answers and statements. Thinks it's okay to lightly rinse his cereal bowl with water and use it for weeks.
I’m still getting used to living with a guy, and even though sometimes it makes me want to scream and go find some girls to eat chocolate with, shop, intimately discuss our lives and offer one another laughs and emotional support because we know just how each other feels, I’d have it no other way. Obviously, because I like guys. And brad is one of them. The best one, really. In my opinion. It’s a learning and growing process for us both and it’s fun. I live with a boy. It’s the way nature intended it to be, you see, we balance each other out. Together we make one awesome human being.

9. He’s a hustler. He’s got some of that red personality in him that makes him a leader. He makes things happen. (check out Zinch, he's a founder.) He’s not afraid to talk to anyone, about anything. He’d defend me if I wanted him to, even if I didn’t deserve it. I think this is important to me because its how my dad is and it’s awesome. When guys aren’t like that it makes them seem so wussy to me.

10. He’s cool AND spiritual. I was always looking for that. Not the "cool guy" RM who reverts back to lame highschool ways while forgetting everything learned in the mission. Maybe fun, but the clearly skewed priorities are a problem. Not the good-but-ultra-nerdy BYU boy with khaki cargo shorts, high white socks with tennis shoes, and a BYUSA t-shirt. A good guy, but not outside of the box enough for me. Brad- just right. Takes the gospel seriously, but still cool and fun. My vocab has gotten way less nerdy since marrying him. “I’m down with that.” (yeah, I'm a nerd...)

Happy Birthday mi Amor! I can’t believe I found someone with all the qualities I need in a guy to keep me happy forever. You know how to put up with me and my crazy ways, and that makes you a saint. You deserve an awesome birthday, and I will give that to you the best way I know how, with food mostly. : )

Plunder’s Lovers Delight or McFlurry, it’s Love.

Half year Anniversary & Valentines.
It’s a big love day for the Hagens.
A lot of people seem to not like Valentines, I’m discovering it has less to do with if you have someone to celebrate with or not, and more to do with how annoyed you might be with the commercial/cheesy aspect of the holiday. You may disregard a newlywed’s take on Valentines, but I have spent the majority of my V-days without a sweetheart and still always enjoyed Valentines. I think there’s nothing wrong with adding a day to celebrate love and relationships each year, even if sometimes it’s just celebrating the idea of it. Come on, we have calendar days dedicated to trees and popcorn… there’s nothing wrong with a love day.

I like decorating sugar cookies, being able to wear pink and red together, and reflecting on the love in my life. Whether we’re eating Plunder’s Lovers Delight or sharing a McFlurry, this Valentines will be the best, because it’s our first one together. It’s so weird that me and brad weren’t even officially dating last Valentines, and now we’ve been married for 6 months. Time is flying by and marriage is living up to the adventure I expected it to be. It hasn’t been bliss every day, but overall being married to brad has made my life infinitely better. I’m changing and growing into a better woman than I was before. I love life with you Brad! Happy 6 month anniversary and Happy Valentines. Te Quiero. XOXO

P.S. We've been sleeping on a matress on the floor for the past 6 months, and today, in honor of love, we bought a bed. I absolutely love it! (I walk in the bedroom just to stare at it. Then when I'm on my computer all of the sudden I'm looking at pictures of it without even realizing it. I'm almost ready to move on to a normal relationship one might have with a bed, soon.)

California and Work

So, Brad is in San Francisco today for work and I’ve got the day off, go figure. Our arrangements of work and school never seems to coincide how I’d like them to. Actually, I don’t really like it when he goes anywhere without me... Right when we got home from our honeymoon, just the fact that Brad left for work each day didn’t work for me. I was a big sap that first week and wanted to cry every time the door shut in the morning. Luckily, I got past that, but I do hate sleeping alone. I hate it, so I will reminisce and blog till I feel better. I am trying to remind myself that we did get 2 weekend trips to California together in the Fall. California really is a beautiful place. Our first trip was with my family at Newport Beach:

The Yummiest nachos and Pina Colada ever- Las Brisas.

Then Brad had to leave for work before we could go to one of the most magical places in the world, Disneyland. (Note to self: We are grateful for work. We are grateful for work, really we are.) So our big family group of 21packed up and headed for the Park.

The Haunted Mansion was decorated like the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Space mountain is my favorite ride, I went on it 3 times. (no lines on a Tues in October!) My mom loves it too.

Don't Worry, I don't know those people behind me. You can tell this ride is in my comfort zone. The Tower of Terror on the other hand, was not: (notice how everyone else is smiling and I'm screaming bloody murder) I'm not normally into big falls, but my brother Aaron convinced me to go on this, and I actually had fun! This was my first time going to California Adventure, and I thought it was pretty awesome.

These pics are poor quality; I like taking pics of the screen with the picture so I don't have to pay for it. :)

Our second jaunt over to California was a work-related trip to San Francisco: We didn’t really take pictures or do anything touristy; but we ate the best pizza I’ve ever tasted and I window shopped as we ran through the streets of San Fran till our feet hand blisters.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I get frusterated because when I have breaks, brad is working. When he has trips, I'm in school. BUT...I'd now like to give a shout out to work, without which, no trips to California could be made (with or without me). So, in the end, I'm glad for that love-hate relationship I have with work. Thanks for working Brad, and thanks for letting me be a sap sometimes. Life can't be all play, and maybe when I quit paying to work myself and actually get a paycheck, I'll like work even more. Maybe. :)

Autumn Activities

Sunday drive taking the rough, steep, winding road home from heber. (pretty sure it was more than 5 miles)

Halloween Trick-or-Treating with my hot lil' Harry Potter :)

Decorating sugar cookies with our scary neices and nephews

    first time experience with Thriller- cool and fun for the most part!