I Love Being Warm

I really hate being cold, but I LOVE to be warm. I'm the proud owner of not one, but two Snuggies and I must say, they are awesome. I can be warm while watching TV AND texting, or playing Wii or doing any number of great activities. I also love my electric blanket which preheats my bed for me. I love to be behind the super warm heater when it's freezing in the mornings. Ah...I just love to be warm.

And this concludes my month of Loves. I only missed two days, but my guilt made me make up for them and I ended up posting all 28 times. It was so fun to tell everyone about the things I love. There are so many more that couldn't fit into the time frame, but so it goes.

I love February and the whole Valentine's Day romance and love theme. I'm so glad we have Valentine's Day every year to remember to show everyone that we love them. I'm excited to do it all again next year. I'm excited to see what March brings and I hope it's as great as February was. I also hope that I'll keep up with posting so often. It's fun to write about life and get everyone's comments.

Thanks all for reading! And keep posting, because I love to read your blogs. 

I Love the Ottesens

Evan's family is so good to me and I'm happy that they accepted me into their family. I love toeat dinner, play games, or just hang out with them.

I love that Cory can explain all of Evan's physics and math questions and that he is so kind and fun to be around. I love cooking and talking with Maureen and hearing her funny stories about kindergarten.

I love getting letters from Casey every week, they make me happy. I'm so proud of him for going on a mission. Mitchell is so fun to hang out  with and I love that he shares my love of games. Max always makes me laugh and I love talking on the couch with him while we wait for Evan and Cory to be done talking about math or physics. And of course, I love Evan because he's amazing and he's the best husband a girl could ask for.

I got pretty lucky when it comes to in-laws and I'm so grateful to have the Ottesens in my life.

I Love the City Skyline

I love seeing the Albuquerque skyline after a very long drive home. I had such a great time in California and I'm so sad that my sisters don't live closer. But it's sure good to see home and know that I won't have to be in the car too much longer. Plus the city lights look so pretty when you come in from the west. It's like a big valley of treasure.

Anyway, super fun trip. I love my new niece. She's so tiny and beautiful in real life. Can't wait to see her and the rest of my family again soon.

I Love Crafting

I never thought I would utter those words. If you knew me 5 or 6 years ago, you'd know why. But I love to make crafty things! Last night my sisters and I all sat around Kellie's kitchen table and sewed up stuffed animals, blankets, made hair bands and hair flowers and we had so much fun! I loved it. I love looking at things and figuring out if I could make it myself and I usually can, it's just the motivation part that stops me from actually doing it. If any of my fun friends want to have a craft night, I'd love to have an invite. And no, I didn't just invite myself. You were going to invite me anyway, right? 

I Love to Travel

I love to travel. It seems like we're always out of town and it's because we are. I just drove to California with my dad yesterday and we had so much fun listening to books on CD, talking and eating road trip food. I love that in NM we have so many great places within a 3-4 hour drive. I love going to Colorado for a quick cabin trip, or California to see my sisters. I've been to so many amazing places like Georgia, Florida, Mexico, Canada, New York, etc. I love to see new places and see all of the things I've always heard about. I can't wait to visit all over Europe, New Zealand, Australia, parts of Asia, Africa, the rest of the US. I want to see it all! I love to travel.

Want to go on a trip?

I Love Kid History Episode 1

I LOVE this video. It makes me laugh so hard. I think about it sometimes and just laugh out loud by myself. I love the part where he says, "I'm gonna punch...your car" and when he goes to the park, and the door, and then goes potty, and when Randy doesn't have any Barbie toys. I just love the whole thing. Evan and I are constantly quoting it and it still makes me laugh. If you haven't watched it yet, please, partake of the hilarity.

They have two other episodes that are quite humorous, but I think the first one is by far the funniest. 

I Love My Friends

My friends are some of the best people on Earth! Whether they're in China, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, or anywhere else, I love them so much. I love the memories I have with friends from the present and past, the fun times we've had that I can always look back and and be happy about. I love having a movie night or a game night or just hanging out and talking. My friends are so much fun and I'm so thankful that I have all of them in my life. 

I Love Paula Deen

I know she smiles like a 4 year old pageant queen, and she used 8 million pounds of butter and she says "ya'll" too much, but I can't help it. I love Paula Deen. Her recipes have never ever failed me. They're always amazing.

I just made her cinnamon rolls this weekend and I must say, they came out tasting pretty dang good. This picture is precooked of course. I just thought they looked so fun and swirly. After they baked, I did panic a bit because when I got them out of the oven they were dry and bread-like. I didn't realize that you have to put the glaze on them to make them ooey-gooey and delicious. I've never made cinnamon rolls. The way I used to make them was to get in the car, go to Golden Pride, order and partake. I think I might still stick with the old way because it's easier, but these tasted awesome nonetheless. Thank you Paula.

Anyway, last year my sisters and my Mom and I took a trip to Savannah to celebrate Kellie's (of Little Bo Bakes) birthday. We went to Savannah specifically to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Son's Restaurant. That was the best darn chicken pot pie you could ever dream of eating. I know pot pie doesn't sound like something that would be anything but "eh", but this my friends, was legendary.

I can waste hours looking at her recipes on pauladeen.com deciding which one I should make. Which one I should use all of my caloric intake on for the entire week in one serving. This weekend's cinnamon roll was so worth it.

Have a good day ya'll. Just kidding. Not about the good day, just the "ya'll".

PS I know this is the second post of the day, but I didn't post on Saturday and I just couldn't handle that I'd skipped a day, so I had to make up for it.

I Love Getting Letters

Getting letters just makes me happy. Real letters and email letters. Now that Casey is on his mission, he write emails every Monday and it just makes the day better. All of my family members write nice thank you notes after birthdays and Christmas and it's nice to get a real live letter in the mail. It's just great to know that someone is thinking enough about you to actually write you a message that isn't generic. Anyone want to be my penpal? I've got to admit that I'm a terrible pen pal myself. I always forget to write, and when I do write, I never get around to sending it. Maybe I love getting letters because I never do because people don't write people who don't write people.

Anyway, write me a nice letter or email already. I promise I'll think about writing back.

I Love TV

I love TV and I don't care who knows it! I especially love TV because we have an awesome TV, Hulu Plus, Instant Netflix and we are now a 3 gaming system family with a Wii, XBox and PS3. So now that we have a PS3, we have a BluRay player too. So I can watch all my favorite shows, movies and play games! I don't think I'll ever leave our apartment again.

The TV shows I really love right now are The Office (although this is more of a loyalty sort of love these days), Modern Family, Gossip Girl, and Friends.

Alright, well I better get going. Hulu Plus is calling my name! (School is really putting a damper on my Gossip Girl Monday Nights.)

I Love Games!

I love to play board games! Well, let me try that again. I love to play board games that take 20 minutes to an hour tops. I can only handle so much board game. Sorry Risk and Monopoly.

Anyway, we just got home from playing games tonight and it was so much fun. Our fun friends from Idaho introduced us to this game Bohnanza and we love it! We played two rounds of it tonight with our awesome friends the Nuckols and we all had a ton of fun. I'd like to add that I won both games! Boo yeah!

Other games that I love besides Bohnanza are: Banana Grams, Mexican Train Dominoes, Taboo, Cranium, Scattegories, Things, Funglish, Scribblish,  Life, and all of those other fun short ones.

Anyone want to have a game night? I have this great game we could play called Bohnanza. :)

I Love to Bake!

Baking makes me happy. I love to mix good things with good things and get great things! My favorite recipe to make is the basic Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. It never fails. I recently discovered that I make a mean Snickerdoodle as well. I love to try new baking recipes when I have a few free hours or a whole free day. The past few weeks I've made dozens and dozens of heart shaped cake pops (recipe and idea from Bakerella), 8 million cinnamon sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting (recipe from my awesome mom!), and a Pig Cake (recipe from Pioneer Woman). They were all way good!

The main thing I love about baking is that it's a way to just focus on the task at hand, not think about anything else and just make something great to eat. I also love that at the end you get something sweet and fantastic to try.

It's kind of hard baking for only 2 people, so my coworkers have been my main consumers, and they seem to like it, so I'll keep doing it.

I think I'll start finding something fun to make for St. Patrick's Day next month. Maybe Shamrock cakepops? Guess we'll have to see.

I Love My Nieces and Nephews

My nieces and nephews are great. I'm sad that they live far away, but it's so much fun to see them when I get the chance. We'll all be together in a few weeks and I'm super excited!

Olivia is such a sweet, smart, funny, pretty, fun girl. She gets prettier every time I see her. I love that she loves Justin Bieber and reading and writing and drawing. Her favorite thing she got last time I saw her was a ream of blank paper all her own. I love that she's so strong willed and stands up for her opinions and doesn't back down. Even when it means she won't wear what I want her to wear or she won't let me curl her hair. ;)

I love how Jaxon loves to play. You can't stop the kid from playing, not to eat, not to sleep, not to play something else. I love when I can get him to laugh and joke with me. I love how he gets excited about fast cars, airplanes and anything fast. He's such a sweet, fun boy and I love him so much!

Sevrin is one of the funniest people I know. Not the funniest 4 year old I know, the funniest person I know. He's always doing something crazy to make us all laugh. He knows how to work the crowd and I love it. He's got the cutest red head of hair. And, he's a man after my own heart, he loves candy and eats it til it makes him sick. I love this kid.

And finally, my new niece Ella. Kellie and my mom have sent pictures every day and she just gets cuter every day. She smiles a lot and she's still very tiny. I'm so excited to meet her next week!

I Love Sleep

There's nothing better than sleeping in after going into work at 6 every day. I love to sleep. It just makes me feel so refreshed and fantastic.

Today I got sent home sick, and being sick is somehow exhausting, you know? It just makes you so so so tired. So when I got home at 8:30am, I went back to bed and I slept ALL day. And it was everything I dreamed it could be.

I think it's time for bed again.

Happy Sleepy Day!

I Love Makeup

I love makeup. I love all of the bright, loud eyeshadows out there. I love that you can make someone look completely different by just putting the right colors in the right places. I love the way thick black eyeliner can complete a cute retro look, or a loud hot pink can mix with a bright turquoise and violent green to make an awesome 80's inspired look. I love the way concealer, foundation, bronzer, blush and highlighter work together to make someone's skin look flawless and perfect. I love primers, base eyeshadows, crease colors, dark liners, black mascara and liquid eyeliners. It's all just so much fun!

In high school and college I would go to Dillard's and have them do my makeup every weekend just to learn how to put it on right. I still haven't perfected it, but I still love it. One of my favorite Saturday activities is to turn on my favorite music, pull out my huge makeup box, and get full-on, balls-to-the-wall, pretty.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you're enjoying it!

I Love Friends

Ok, I love my real friends too, and much more than the show, but today I'm talking about Friends the TV show. I LOVE this show. It always makes me laugh and I can watch it over and over again. We watch it almost every night and it makes me laugh out loud every time. Some of my favorite episodes are the one with Mike saying he's going to change his name to Crap Bag and the one with Ross's leather pants where he makes a paste with lotion and baby powder.

Pretty much every conversation I have, I have to fight the temptation to relate it back to a Friends episode I thought was hilarious. Oh you're doing dishes? Remember that Friends where Chandler breaks all of Monica's fancy dishes? Oh you're going on a vacation? Remember that Friends when all of them tell Pheobe they're going on a mini-vacation to Central Park? Seriously, every time we talk, you can almost guarantee I've got a Friends episode in mind that relates to it. And I'm sure it was hilarious.

Evan wanted you all to know that he is my best friend (he really is) because he encompasses all of the Friends characters. He's nerdy like Ross, he likes to eat and is (kind of) Italian like Joey, OCD like Monica, says funny things sometimes and other that aren't funny sometimes like Chandler, likes fashion like Rachel, and says weird things about his past sometimes like Pheobe. Which, I guess is pretty true. He really is my best friend. He's so awesome.

Anyway, I love Friends. It makes me happy. If you ever want to watch an episode together sometime, I'm definitely up for it.

I Love Heart Shaped Food

There's just something about food cut into heart shapes that makes me happy. I posted a page from my Martha Stewart magazine on our fridge with all kinds of heart shaped foods to give Evan a gentle reminder of what I want for my meals on Valentine's Day.

Well, he got the hint. We celebrated Valentine's Day today since I go into work at 6 in the morning on Monday and Evan gets out of school at 9 at night. We had such a fantastic day!

It started out with heart shaped pink pancakes.

Then we went to run some errands and came back home and while I got ready and did my makeup, Evan kept bringing me treats he had cut out with the heart cookie cutters. I got heart shaped turkey sandwiches, ice cream sandwiches, and apples. It was so cute! Then I sat down to have a granola bar when I got hungry around lunch time and he noticed that it wasn't heart shaped, so he took it from me and cut some hearts out of it. Unfortunately the pictures of those turned out really weird, but it was cute. Trust me.

When we went out to dinner at this AMAZING restaurant Thai Tip, guess what they brought out?!? A plate of rice made into a heart! Made my whole night.

It was such a great day, I love Evan so much and it was so nice to spend time with him. He makes me so happy and he's so considerate. I love that he took my subtle hint and turned it into a full day of heart surprises.

I hope you all have a great "real" Valentine's Day. We had a great one today!

P.S. It seems like everything I love is food related, right? I just love food! Sad but true.

I Love Pizza!

Let's face the facts here, pizza is downright fantastic. Even pizza that sucks is pretty freakin' good. Even that "horrible" cafeteria pizza we all used to get that was square with little squares of pepperoni wasn't even close to the worst thing I've eaten. It wasn't even close to the things I sort of don't like (which, believe me, the list is long. I'm pretty picky). The combination of bread, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and any other toppings (even little squares of pepperoni) is just amazing. Give me a pizza Margherita and a Diet Dr. Pepper with no ice and I'll be happy for days. Or like an hour. Then I'll just want more.

I Love My Brand New Niece

Miss Ella

Miss Ella was born yesterday! She's so cute and I can't wait to meet her in a few weeks! All I keep hearing is how tiny she is and I'm so excited to see her in person! Even though I haven't met her yet, I love her like crazy!

Congratulations to my sister and her family!

I love you Ella!

I Love My Birthday!

My birthday is my favorite day of the whole year. I count down to it starting the day after my birthday. In fact, yesterday was my half birthday! Baskin Robbins very kindly recognized this and gave me a 2 for 1 scoop coupon. Half the price for half the awesomeness of my birthday! 

My birthday begins (ideally) with a donut from Dunkin Donuts and a Diet Dr. Pepper in bed. Then I like to get full-on, balls-to-the-wall, pretty. And I like to spend the rest of the day with Evan, my family and my friends. And get lots of great presents. 

A day to honor me staying alive for all these years? Yes please. 

Less than half a year to my birthday! Woo hoo!

Happy February!

I Love My Sisters

My sisters are super great. They're tons of fun to be around and they make me happy. Kellie, Sarah and Stacey, you are AWESOME.

Kellie is my rock and the one I go to for advice. She has such a solid foundation and she has plenty of great advice. She makes me laugh a lot and she makes herself cry a lot. Just kidding, but not really. She's the best to tell good news to because she gets so excited that she cries. I love that.

Sarah is my little Noodle-doll. She makes me laugh so hard and she laughs at all of my jokes, so she makes me feel extremely hilarious. She's very laid back and when I'm around her she makes my stress disappear. She's so thoughtful and understanding and patient. She makes me happy.

Stacey is the smart one. She's the one I go to for all of my questions of things I don't understand. She's so patient in explaining. She's so giving and generous. She makes me laugh with our sarcastic stories and she is super easy to talk to. I love her so much!

All of my sisters are so far away and it's so sad that we don't get to hang out all of the time. It makes me so happy when we get to hang out together. Hopefully we'll all be reunited soon. 

I Love All Things Precious

Ok guys, I've become one of those weirdos that you all make fun of. I love puppies! They're so cute and precious and I just want to squeeze them with love! I want a dog really badly. I can't wait until we have a house with a yard and a bigger place to hang out. We can go on walks and have a grand time together. I'll tell him/her how precious he/she is and it'll be Jackie's best friend.

I also love other precious things too...baby seals, baby tigers, cute little miniatures, I just can't help it, they're all just so....precious!

Oh man, what's happened to me? If someone would have told me 6 years ago that I'd be a puppy loving, noise hating, socially inept, (although still pretty awesome), quilt-making 25 year old, I would have told you you were crazy. Who's crazy now?

Ok, I have to go turn the page on my Puppy calendar to get ready for tomorrow. Just kidding. Sadly, not really. Evan got me one for Christmas because he thought it might be the next best thing to actually having a puppy. Close. Real close.

Happy second week of February!

I Love to Par-tee

Today I love Superbowl parties! We just finished ours and it was so much fun! I'm not terribly crazy about the actual game, it's stressful and it makes me really sad when the loser loses. However, I do love being with my friends and family to hang out, eat and watch TV. Sadly, I was rooting for the Steelers, but they let me down. Oh well. My mom and I put together a whole puzzle though, so that was fun!

Happy Superbowl Day!

Love...Yum

Today I must honor my favorite treat.

Candy. 

I LOVE candy. I dream about candy. When I don't have candy, there's a good chance I'm thinking about candy. All kinds of candy. Even those fantastic candy hearts everyone thinks taste like chalk. I usually eat so many of them that my tongue turns that loud pink color that all the words are printed in. I've eaten so many SweetTarts that my mouth gets burned, so many Starburst that my mouth stings from the acids, so many chocolates that my stomach hurts. You'd think after all the times I've been burned by this stuff, that I'd hate it, but I just keep coming back for more. It's just so good! Some of my favorites are the Cadbury Mini Eggs (that are due out soon because Easter is coming), Peanut Butter M&M's and a good plain Hershey's with Almonds. Although I am a fan of pretty much all candy, there are some things I will turn down. Like white chocolate, Baby Ruth's/Payday and anything with marshmallow fluff and/or goo in it. Although, if those are around, I'll admit, I'll take those too. 

I'm hoping someday that something magical will happen to me and I'll hate candy for some reason because it's so bad for you in almost every way. 

Or for something even more magical...I'll move to CandyLand!

I love...

 Albuquerque!

I seriously love this city. I love the weather (not including the present freezing temperatures). I love that it's hot in the summer, cold in the winter, but not horribly extreme in either direction (not including the present freezing temperatures). We have a fantastic fall with Dixon's apple orchard, McCall's Pumpkin Patch, the State Fair and of course, the Balloon Fiesta. I LOVE the Balloon Fiesta. It just makes me happy. We also have the Tram, Sandia Peak, and some fabulous sunsets. 

Not only are there tons of great things to do here, but everyone I know and love is here in Albuquerque, or from here. (Thanks a lot dumb ol' California and Texas for taking my sisters, ugh.) My parents, my fun friends, and my awesome in-laws all live here and make Albuquerque the greatest city on earth. 

I love you city of Albuquerque!

I sure Love....

My parents!

 

They're just the coolest. My mom is so generous and giving and I just love being around her. Not because she gives me stuff, but because she's so much fun! I love to watch movies with her and shop with her and talk about quilting and just talk to her in general. I'm so lucky to have her and I'm glad we have gotten so much closer in the past few years. My dad is also awesome. He's so funny and so strong. I've always looked up to him and he's so easy to talk to. My parents have done so much for me and I'm so grateful that I have both of them.

I love Tootie and Shel Bell!

Happy February 3rd!

PS Thanks to Evan I realized that I use "so" WAY too much. Tomorrow I'll try to cap my "so's" at 2. Wish me luck. I'm so gonna need it. Jk. But seriously.

Today I Love...

Snow days! Ok, so technically it was only supposed to be a two hour delay, but I decided to take vacation for the rest of the day and stay home with Evan since school was canceled. Oh yeah, and my class is canceled tonight! Woo! It's so much fun to just stay at home, watch TV and just watch that icky, yucky, snow come down all day while I sit inside being warm and happy.

Plus, I made this awesome Snow-Bot!

Just kidding. Evan and Max made it and I told them I was going to take credit for it. Max is on the right in the creepy mask.

I've never actually built a snowman. It's just too cold for silly things like that. I think if I ever do make a snowman, I'll need snow pants, snow boots, snow gloves, a mask and a hat. I HATE being cold.

This weather has actually made me really love not living somewhere cold too, so another thing to love.

There are things and people I love MUCH more than snow days, but this was just so relevant today. Be back tomorrow with another of the many things I love.

February is awesome!

Valentine's Month!

You might think that I hate Valentine's Day because it seems like something I would think is stupid and weird, but I deep down LOVE Valentine's Day. I love the hearts everywhere, the cute pink and red decorations (especially the cute lovebird stuff), the candy, the heart shaped pancakes, brownies, cookies, etc., the romanticism, the way we get to show our love for people around us, especially our significant others. I just plain love Valentine's Day. It's awesome.

So, in the spirit of the month of February, I've decided to post something that I love for every day of February. Unfortunately, there are only 28 days in February, plus, I'm quite certain I'll forget to post several times, so really I'm only listing about 10 things, so my list will have to be cut short, so if I miss anything, it doesn't mean I don't love it/you/them/him/her. There just aren't enough days, or enough memory in my brain to remember to blog every single day.

So...to start off I love my awesome husband Evan.  

He's so good to me, and I'm so lucky to know him and be with him forever. He's so much fun to be around and he's so smart and patient and I love him so so so much. (He just told me last night that he hates the word "so" being used too often. I just remembered that.)

Happy Valentine's Month! 

P.S. I might have stolen this idea from someone. And that someone might be Evan's cousin. Sorry Chelsea. I just loved the idea so much.