Surprise Ticket's!

Speaking about surprises! When Mark does a thing, he does it right. And this is true about surprises as well and most anything else.

Mark knew I had a hard week in school. I come home after finishing it up on Friday, totally wiped out, and I walk into the bedroom to see this:

Mark had cleaned up the bedroom and made the bed!

And what are those, nestled on the pillow next to charlie and our other friends?...

CONCERT TICKETS! :-D

yes, indeed, Mark had planned a romantic evening for the two of us. We got dressed, went to dinner, went to a concert, and had a completely lovely evening.

Thanks for making life so wonderful best-est friend! I sure love and appreciate all you do for our little family!

Mark's Surprise

I may have mentioned before that I am not good about keeping secrets. Especially surprise secrets. They just pop out when I get asked a question that is remotely related to the topic of the surprise.

The problems is, Mark COMPLETELY loves being surprised. Totally loves it. So I keep trying at making surprises for him and keeping secrets.

For example: for his birthday, I was extra super sneaky. I wanted to plan something really fun and special for him since it was an important birthday. I wanted it to be a surprise party, but I knew he had to work, and he had to work really late, so it wouldn't work to do it after work, it needed to be something different. And, I wanted to involve his friends from work too, since he spends so much time with them. So! I came up with a devious plan....one he would never suspect. muahahahaha!

Extensive preparations were involved to make this happen and maintain secrecy: the crux of which involved emailing Mark's adviser, who agreed to plan a group meeting on the morning of his birthday, and getting permission to bring birthday breakfast for Mark and his compadres. Once that was done, all I had to do was plan a way to get all out of the house to set up the breakfast without Mark being any the wiser. Luckily! Mark loves playing basketball in the morning, and is out of the house! WHO-RAY! PERFECT PLAN! :-D

I had planned the morning to look like this:

• Mark would leave to play basket ball (like he always does on Friday morning) at around 530.
• I would leave to go to the store and purchase fruit, juice, and cream cheese and pick up the doughnuts and bagels on the way back to the house. Earlier in the week I called Mary Lou's doughnuts and ordered doughnuts ahead of time so they would be ready to pick (which Mark loves and has fond memories of eating with his parents when they went camping), and I also called Eisenstein's bagels and ordered bagels to pick up that morning as well.
• I would come back home, make the fruit salad, hide the evidence, then go out to Mark's lab and set up for the surprise breakfast.
• I would come back home, jump in bed, look sleepy when Mark came in, (he usually waked me up when he gets back from Basketball) and tell him "oh, sorry, I slept in and wasn't able to make you breakfast, how about I drop you off at your group meeting, and then you come home after your meeting and we have a big, nice breakfast together?"

hehehe! oh the deviousness!!! :-D The planning!! the utter surprise-ness that is was going to be!

*sigh*

but then :-(

Friday morning rolled around, and Mark decided NOT to go play basket ball.

*GASP!* The plan! The surprise! It was all in jeopardy!! WHAT TO DO?!

I encouraged him, prodded him, HIGHLY suggested to him that he should go and play. Wouldn't he feel so much better if he got some exercise this morning?

He did not leave.

...

I sat, and I thought and I stewed.

I owed it to Mark and his love of surprises to give it one last try.

I rolled out of bed and started to pack up everything I would need, dishes, knives, etc. When he asked what I was doing, I gave him some lame excuse.

"uh...what am I doing? well....that is a good question. You see, the thing is...i just remembered, my friend really needs these dishes, like, right now. Its an emergency, and so, I need to go take them to her..."

Yes. I tried to convince him that someone needing to borrow our dishes, at 6 in the morning, and it was an emergency and I would not be able to come and make him breakfast until after his meeting. He needed to ride his bike to the group meeting, and then come home after for breakfast. I was very specific that he was not to eat breakfast before he went, despite how hungry he was, since I was going to make him a really nice breakfast when he came home.

Then I left.

Man, I am really good at coming up with plausible excuses on the spot. It is a huge talent of mine.

So, I went and picked up all the goodies, and prepared the fruit salad NOT at home, and set up the breakfast surprise at the lab.

Meanwhile. Mark sat at home, and thought, and stewed...

And when he arrived at the meeting and I was eagerly anticipating the look of utter surprise on his face, he just smiled at me and laughed! HE HAD TOTALLY FIGURED OUT THE SURPRISE!

He said that he knew from when I tried so hard to get him to go to basketball, and then I left, with dishes, super early in the morning, (which I never do) to go help someone, and forbade him to eat breakfast until after his group meeting.

*sigh*

If only he had went to play basketball :-)

He did admit that had he left to play basketball, he never would have suspected, and the plan would have worked out great.

Anyway! Despite the surprise not being a surprise, we did have a lovely group breakfast, they sang happy birthday to him, and it was a nice way for him to start his birthday even though he had to work.

Happy Birthday Mark! Here's to a million more!

Bowl games!

Natalie and Trevor are awesome. I am not sure if we have talked about them before, but I came across these pictures and wanted to share one of our adventures with them that involved football, snacks, and T.V. shuffling.

This picture makes me laugh. Here we are in our tiny apartment, with the couch right in-front of the coffee table, which is right in front of the non-usable T.V. upon which was sets Natalie and Trevor's really nice flat screen that they brought over from their house so that we could watch a bowl game together.

You see, PVIL comes with cable or something like that with channels that allow us to watch the bowl games. The only problem was, Mark and I do not have a T.V. that will work with the cables. So, we brainstormed with Natalie and Trevor and came up with a solution: we have the channel but no T.V...they have a T.V., but no channel. With our powers combined, we can have a game day celebration!

side note*** (see that T.V. in the entertainment center? We have had it for 4 years, and the only time we have used it was when Kiora came to visit and brought her Wii for the kids to play with. This, my friends, was a momentous period in Mark's life, one that lives on in his memory and prevents us from parting with the T.V. in anticipation that when Kiora comes to visit again, she will return with the Wii and with the nieces and nephews and Mark can play with alex and Chio again. We don't want to get rid of it too soon--heaven forbid--what if Kiora decides to come on a surprise visit and we are caught T.V.-less?!? Hehe. Mark makes me laugh! So, we are only going to get rid of it when we have a replacement for Wii playing purposes. But, judging by how we never use the T.V. in general...we are not sure when that day will come. )

Anyway, back to the story. So! Natalie and Trevor brought their super nice T.V. over, we hooked it up, I made snacks, and we enjoyed the bowl game together!

Here are pictures of the snacks. We had fajitas, beans, rice, veggie tray, pico de gallo, guacamole, chips, and 7 layer dip. num num!

Thanks for coming over and watching the game with us! We love it when Trevor and Natalie come over, they are so much fun :-) And so willing to go along with crazy schemes.

New Years Snacks!

One of Mark's favorite parts of the holidays is being able to watch college football. One of my favorite parts of the holidays is being able to make lots and lots of snacks to eat while watching football.

I think it works out pretty well for both of us.

We were able to spend the holidays with Mark's family in Indy and they invited someone from the ward who has just moved in (his family hadn't come out yet) to join us so he wouldn't be all by himself. It was a really nice evening.

Adventures in cake making

I could not wait to post these pictures!

I made this for Leydy's quincenera on saturday 10/8/11. She looked like a princess, and I was really glad to help make her day special.

Top

Middle
Bottom

I had so much fun making this cake.

It was a lot of firsts.

My first gum paste flowers. My first gum paste leaves. My first spun sugar. My first sugar gems.

Here is a run down on the details:

Lillies: We colored the petals after they were dried, using luster dust. After coloring, we used edible pen to draw the dots. They were a lot of fun to make.

Spun sugar: Not difficult at all, but it makes a HUGE mess. Mark can verify. You basically boil sugar and water until it gets to 310 degrees, and then let it cool, then dip a whisk (or fork) into the hot syrup and quickly flick the whisk back and forth over pot handles. You do that over and over and the drips form a cotton candy like web. We left our syrup gold (since that was one of her colors) and used it on the top and around the bottom, and to support the lillies. Anyway, in the flicking process, it gets everywhere. Including on marks pajamas. And then when he went to bed...it got all over the bedroom too. I tracked it all over the carpet. Not good. I will have to shampoo the carpet, but now we know. Its difficult because the threads are so fine and basically clear, you don't know its there until its too late.

Mark is a saint to let me do stuff like this.

Sugar gems: Basically the same as the spun sugar, you just don't cook it so hot. Just to 275. Then quickly pour it into greased molds, wait 5 minutes, then they pop right out! The gems were put on top of the sticks on the upper tier, and for the butter-cream daisy centers in the middle and lower tiers.

I am really glad that the tops of the middle and bottom layer turned out so well. I was supposed to frost them totally different, (like a ruffle cake) but it kept looking terrible when I was practicing on a plate. It was getting late, I was getting tired, so I just left them totally white and went to bed. And I dreamed about cake, and this is what I thought up! swirlies with white flowers on a pink back ground. Not all that original, I know, but it worked. I had been totally drawing a blank the night before, its amazing what a little rest can do.

Anyway! I love making big cakes like this. It is incredibly fulfilling. I have been asked "why go to so much effort when someone is just going to eat it?" in my opinion, that is one of the best parts of edible art. It is going to make people happy, get eaten, end of story. I like that. Very simple.

Anyway! Happy 15 Leydy! Glad we could be a part of it!

Charlie and Friends: The Stuffed Brothers

Let me confess.

I have a turtle.

His name is Charlie.

He is filled with stuffing.

And I love him.


:-D

Just look at that face!

Mark gave me Charlie on our second wedding anniversary. I clearly remember naming him Charlie as we drove the rental car back to Charlotte from Myrtle Beach, passing the boiled peanut stands that dotted the roadside in SC.

[Side note: Have you ever driven in the south? Why are there so many boiled peanut stands? I have never understood the allure of boiled peanuts...If you understand this phenomena, or have an opinion on the matter, please, enlighten me. Thanks! ]

I love charlies floppy legs and his happy, chill smile. He is such a mellow dude. And he loves giving stuffed animal turtle hugs! Charlie is so great, he even helps to keep us safe at night by staying in our room with us. With our other two stuffed dinosaurs:

Stanley...


...and Purple Dinosaur.


They are good palls.


Stanley was given to my by my cousin Brendon, and Purple Dinosaur has been Mark's pal since he was a baby. I got him out from the box of animals Mark's mom gave to us from when Mark was a boy, and he has slept in our room ever since.

We have since discovered a long lost cousin of Purple Dinasour that lives at Mark's parents house, which we like to call Taupe Dinosaur:


He seems like an amiable fellow. I have it on good authority that he belonged to Mark's brother.

I don't know why it's so much fun to have stuffed animal friends. But it is.

Perhaps its because we don't have any pets. Or living children. Or house plants.

I will have to think on this....

Visiting with Jasher and Jenny

After we went to Myrtle beach, we headed back to hang out for a day or two with the newly wedded couple. I know....perhaps we should not have invited ourselves back over there...but we really wanted to spend time with them! and they said they really wanted to spend time with us! so it's all good. I hope.

Anyway!

Jasher had a beautiful home before they were married, and Jenny only improved on it with her awesome taste. I am amazed at how people can tell that this potted plant will look really cool here, right next to this picture and statue thingy...and it totally looks awesome! Jenny...she is like that. And SUPER nice. I. Totally. Love. Jenny. She is AWESOME! I wished she lived next door.

So! Let me tell you a little of our adventures.

There was food. Delicious food. At the house, and at the awesome little place where we stopped to get ice cream. And trips! There were trips! We went to the Billy Graham Library! I am not really sure why they call it a Library though, its like a house that is a museum, and then a big barn, and then lots and lots of beautiful grounds. We even contemplated going on a carriage/hay ride that takes you around the grounds...but the line was super long... So! We contented ourselves with visiting in the house. And the barn. There was a giant window in the shape of the cross on the front, and a dairy cow that narrated some of the story of his life. There were lots of kids there, so we didn't take the dairy cow guided tour, but we did check out the really cool nativity that they had in the front. There were real animals! They were really clean and fluffy and cute. And, there were real people! They were dressed in period clothing, and they walked out to the "stable" and then they sat and let people look at them. The kids thought it was really cool. I admit. I did too. I was pretty vocal about it, and I think I startled some children.

We also went to ChristmasTown USA. It was pretty sweet! There were a lot of people there, waiting to get in and drive around the little town and lake area that was decorated with beautiful Christmas lights. Jenny said that people will drive to that town specifically to mail their Christmas cards to get the cool postage stamp that says "Christmas Town" on it.

When we were at the house, I also sneakily helped Jenny wrap presents for Jasher's birthday/Christmas while the boys played Wii. It was pretty amusing to watch them play. They are both super competitive. Mark loooooves to play with Jasher and they both get all riled up. They are hysterical. And it was super fun to wrap presents! I like being able to sit and visit with friends and have something to do to keep hands busy, and present wrapping was just the thing! I think the boys knew that we were wrapping gifts, they were just not allowed to know what the gifts were, and that was the sneaky part. I am not good with secrets. It's a good thing that Jasher didn't ask me specifically what his gift was or I would have caved.

Anyway! It was so nice to get to spend some time with you guys, we loved every minute of it. (Even the sleeping! That bed. So comfy.) Thanks for letting us come and crash your honey moon, we love you both, and hope to see more of you in the future!

Visiting with Michael Lindsey and Noelle

After we went to Barry's reception, we were able to go and visit with Michael, Lindsey, and Noelle. This was the first time I got to meet Noelle as I was not able to attend Mark's Grandpa's funeral in the winter. Noelle was a baby then, and still on oxygen. It was so wonderful to see her so big and healthy and active and to get to play with her! She was so sweet to watch. She loved her stuffed animals, and the blanket that I gave her, and it was so nice to watch her sit and "read" story books to her self. She would just carefully turn the pages and run her fingers along the pictures and kinda babble to herself a bit. She was learning to talk, and would say some words, but mostly the words she associated with things. It was so so great to get to meet her and spend time with her and her parents! What a wonderful little miracle she is!

It was also really nice to get to spend time with Michael and Lindsey, it was the first time we got to see them since they were married. Lindsey was having fun playing "crafty" with her mom and making things to decorate the house, and it looked so nice and cozy. Lindsey was so great and made delicious stew for us, and then we played around and made brownies with kisses in them and dipped the tops in chocolate ganache. We made. A huge mess. Sorry Lindsey! I didn't want to check the recipe. Bad idea. The ganache ended up like chocolate milk, I wanted to drink the it...but I managed to restrain myself. Barely. Good thing I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Mark's sweet sister-in-law (mine too!)

I didn't take my camera on this visit, but Lindsey took a picture with us and Noelle that I have commandeered a copy of. I snapped a picture of it on my cell phone and sent it to myself to my blog. Shameless, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures.


Isn't she a sweetie pie?! This is the second niece of ours that we made the hair pretties for :-) I love those little pig tails! :-D

It was just a short visit, we stayed the night, went to church with them the next day, and then headed out to the airport to get back to IN, but we were so glad that we got to go and spend time with you! Thanks for being willing and able to come and get us and take us to the airport, and all the wonderful time that we did get to spend with you! We were so glad that we got to meet Noelle, and hope that we can see you guys more often than every 2 years! Cross our fingers!

Barry and Nikell's Wedding

December was a busy month for us :-)

We also had the privilege of also going to my dear cousin Barry's wedding. They were sealed in the Bountiful temple for time and all eternity, and it was so wonderful to be able to see them there, surrounded by family. It's a little slice of heaven. Un pedacito del cielo.

(unfortunately, there will be no pictures for this post. I didn't even take my camera on the plane...)

We had to make a short trip of this as it was during finals week. We flew out, and my parents picked us up from the airport and took us to our Aunt Rhea and Uncle Jim's house (my great aunt and uncle actually). They are so awesome. My aunt made us some pancakes in the morning that were taken from the journal/ cook book of our family history...I can't remember who though! Rats. Mom, do you remember? They were soooo yummy. :-) My Aunt Rhea is a great cook. At one point, she and her daughters did catering together, but not any more :-) It was really nice to get to hear stories.

Anyway, aunt Rhea gave me a photocopy of the photocopy she has for the pancake recipe, I have it right here and there is no name on it, but it is lovely. I love how it is so old, handwritten, and oil stained. You know it is gonna be good if it comes off an oil stained, highly folded, handwritten family recipe card. Some of the directions are obscured because of the oil stain in fact, but you can still make it out.

Aunt Rhea is an amazing women. She is the sister of my Grandma Norma, my mother's mother. When I look at my Aunt Rhea (or my Aunt Marie)...I see my grandma.

My mom likes to tell stories of my aunts and all the trouble they would get into with my grandma. Rhea was the wilder one and would get my grandma to do all sorts of crazy things she probably would not have done all by herself. :-) I love listening to their stories. Uncle Jim is a very, very big man. Like, if we were playing tug-a-war....I would want him on my team. Period. He is really funny too, and super gentle. They are an awesome couple, and it was really nice of them to let us stay at their house. Thanks guys!

An added benefit to staying with Aunt Rhea was that it was a stone's throw away from the temple. Well, if Mark was throwing the stone...not me. If I were throwing it, it would have to be in Aunt Rheas living room.

The Bountiful temple is nestled in the mountains, and it was wonderful to be there. Nikell looked angelic :-) Barry looked super happy :-)

After the sealing we went to lunch with the family, and later to the reception. They had HOT CHOCOLATE! :-D I was flabbergasted. I loves me some hot chocolate something fierce. And luckily, I maintained enough self control not to scald myself.

All of the family was there at the reception, and it was really fun to play with my cousins...and their children! I had a plate full of cinnamon rolls I had ripped into little pieces and I was very liberal with giving out snacks when their little ones would come over for more. I made lots of friends. heh heh heh...

Congratulations again you guys! We are so glad we were able to come! We love you!

Myrtle Beach

After we went to Jasher and Jenny's reception, we headed to Myrtle beach to celebrate our 2 year anniversary while they headed out for a secret honeymoon destination. (I am pretty sure that it was a secret, I think there was even secret bag packing...but I could be making that up...)



Anyway! It was really fun to get away and have a little adventure to celebrate.
We got a hotel that was on the beach, and we had a really good time. The view from the beach was breathtaking.



And! The place was deserted--shocking, right? In the middle of December. Go figure. ;)

I have never been to a beach like this, like a vacation town. There were so many swim suit stores right next to one another. It was like car-dealerships...only with swimwear.

When we went to church on Sunday, we were not expecting to know anyone, and we were really surprised when someone came up to Mark and asked "Mike? Mike Pfeil?" and thought Mark was his dad ...and that they had gone to school together (despite the age difference). And I ran into someone that I had gone to girls camp with back in NM! What are the chances, right?

We tried to spend as much time on the beach as we could.

I give you....crooked sunrise over the ocean! :-D




Here is a better one that is not crooked, and gives you a good view of the shoreline we were on. Our hotel was right behind us, and we had a pretty nice stretch of isolated beach.


We were watching the waves go in and out and Mark noticed that as the water receded around the seashells in the sand you could see the flow make "mach cones." I took a video.

Here is a link (surprisingly, from Purdue) that you can play with an aplet and make mach cones ....of your very own!! :-D Just what you have been waiting for, I know. (make sure you are not blocking popups or you wont be able to play along)



However! its kinnda hard to see in the video, so I took a picture too! Hopefully they are more clear here.

There were also these awesome little birds that would run really fast to escape the wave as it came in and try to eat what was left behind after the wave went out. Hours of entertainment watching these birds. Hours. We will share a video with you so you can be entertained too! YAY! :-D




Here is Mark getting close to a seagull. He is so good at not scaring animals and being friends with them. Its amazing. Although, he didn't have to use his animal whispering skills on the seagull, it was really friendly. I think it wanted us to give him food.


And here you can see some of the cool little birds feet prints! Beach sand. Awesome :-)



It was a really lovely weekend, what a beautiful world we have to live in.
Happy Anniversary Mark! Here's to a million more!