Future Plans...

The semester is almost over, and man am I excited for SUMMER! I want to bust out the sandals, BBQ burgers, frisbee, swimming, sunbathing, snowcones, and shorts! If it'll stop snowing...eventually... boo. Right now I'm working for a company called Qualicare, doing in home care providing and I LOVE IT. Tomás has senioritis BIG TIME. Only two more weeks and he'll be home free. Next semester, he's taking a bunch of fun classes, like Soccer and Guitar. I'm just excited to lay out in the sun.

Jared, Tomás' younger brother, is going to stay with us this summer, so it's going to be a par-tay. We have two bedrooms, one of which is a study currently. We're gonna shuffle around a few pieces of furniture, and he'll have a bedroom! Tomás is excited to jam out with Jared every day. Since the recent electric guitar purchase, we've got almost everything a small band owns: drumset, acoustic guitar, microphone, amp, and a tambourine. I play the tambourine, of course, and Tomás and I both sing. Jared's pretty good at the drumset, so it'll be an adventure. I've got my heart set on a new digital SLR camera. Ah, one day!

Lately, we've been looking online at places to live in Nampa, Idaho (for the Fall). We've found a few nice places, which are reasonably priced too. This one of Tomás' favorites right now. It comes with your own one car garage, and a basement. It's like a little house, all for the two of us! He wants to turn the basement into a music studio. The checkerboard kitchen floor and arched doorways are what get me! Here, check it out.

Good news...

Today, Tomás found out that he passed his Spanish Praxis exam! Hooray! Now he's officially certified to teach Spanish in the Secondary Education spectrum. Over the weekend, he took the ESL Praxis in Pocatello, but he won't find out for about a month if he passed or not. He said he felt better about this second one. Soon enough, he'll be a real teacher! In August, we'll be heading to Nampa/Boise, Idaho for Tomás' student teaching, and then he's all done! The future is bright.

Today, I'm excited to do a dance photo shoot with my friend Sarah Schrader. Don't worry, I'll definitely post pictures. I really don't have very many flattering action shots dance-wise, so I'm excited to get something legit. You know, something like this...

New Things...

Tomás has been eyeing this new electric guitar for some time now.

It's a Fender Telecaster. (a.k.a Expensive)

Well, for his birthday, Sara (his sister) and  I teamed up and we purchased it for him!

It's his new baby.

He even turns the heat on in the room its in, just so the guitar will stay preserved.

Now, he just can't get enough of playing this new thing.

The day before Tomás' birthday, an unexpected thing happened. It was the day of the Career Expo on campus. Tomás usually has one class and tutoring appointments all day. One by one, his tutoring appointments started canceling on him, so he decided to hit up the expo. It was all set up around a big raffle. Each event you participated in, you received a ticket into the big raffle. Tomás spent all day going to as many events as possible, so he could have a better chance to win a prize. They raffled off an iPod touch, a Wii, and the grand prize was an iPad. Guess who won the iPad? Tomás.

Let's just say, Tomás' is a liiiiiittle spoiled right now! :)

Tomás' turned 24!

On friday, I threw Tomás an ice cream sundae birthday party! We invited a bunch of people, and had a GREAT turnout. It definitely was a blast.

We had everything you could think of to put on a sundae. 

 

And Sara drove up from Utah to come! Yay!



Lots of friends came. Thanks guys!

He got lots and lots of his favorite thing... chocolate!

Things I Love

While Tomás is in classes and I'm at home, I have some time to think about the little things. Today, these are some of the things I love. Some of these are also things that remind me of Portland.

Tomás
A great view from up top
Scent of candles burning
Horchata
Ripe Mangos
Wheat Fields
Dogs barking down the street
Feather pillows and pillow-top mattresses
Cloudy days
Sunny days
Echo of a dump truck lifting trash into its bed
Crashing waves
Sweet treats
Pepperoni Pizza
Killer sales
Whirr of a train's wheels rolling over the tracks
A warm wind
Roaring thunder and flashes of lightning
Candy hearts
A flickering flame
Groves of trees planted in a perfect grid
Birds singing and chirping when the sun comes out
Milka chocolate
Pouring rain
Upbeat music
Downy laundry detergent
Watching dance pieces that make me cry
Photo shoots
Being silly
Painted nails
Tropical places
The way it smells before it rains

Cranberry

I've been really into baking and cooking lately. Today, I had a craving for cranberries. Maybe it's because I never had any cranberries at Thanksgiving or Christmas. So, I decided to throw some chicken in a crockpot with this yummy cranberry glaze. It was taaasty. It's always nice to try something new for a change, instead of the same old chicken-type seasoning. I served it with rice and fresh cut honey dew melon.

While the chicken was cooking, I made these fantastic oatmeal craisin butterscotch cookies. I'm not a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, but I love craisins. I will admit, they are pretty tasty. Tomás calls them "dangerous."

Valentine's Day

 We love eachother.

It's nice to have a whole day out of the year to spend with your love. When I was single, I hated Valentine's day. Now that I have a Valentine, I love it!


For Valentine's Day, Tomás and I went out to eat at Famous Dave's in Idaho Falls. It's famous for their Barbeque. Mm... I love Barbeque. I got boneless chicken wings, and Tomás got the ribs. I still don't quite understand why the mascot is a pig. Aren't they famous for their pork too? To me, it's like that pig is holding a cooked friend of his. Either way, it was very delicious.

After dinner, we went to see Tron in 3D, which we had been planning on seeing for quite some time now. We both loved it. We enjoyed the symbolism that was portrayed, the Daft Punk soundtrack, and how beautiful of a picture it was. I thought Disney did a great job. Valentine's Day was a hit.