Being at Home

This summer has been the first time in a long time where I have some spare time. At first I wasn't sure what to do with myself but I quickly created a long list of to-do's. 

Yesterday was one of these days where I didn't have anywhere to do. Since all I am committed to currently is work and I am part time I have several days a week where I get to spend the day at home. I decided to make myself be productive and managed to keep myself busy.

I started my day by watching one of my favorite daytime television shows Rachael Ray. I find her to be hilarious and she always has entertaining guests. She also makes me want to do better in the kitchen and make delicious healthy meals. 

I then went to the grocery store because it is always important to have food in the house. To make my trip even better I found an old Smith's gift card from our wedding and used it to pay for ALL of our food. The only thing better than food is free food! 

When I got home I figured I should be a good wife and clean up the house. Garret is always a good help with cleaning but usually all the messes are my messes so I figured it was about time I picked up after myself.  I also did laundry and even washed the towels and sheets which doesn't happen probably as often as it should. Even though I don't clean much I do love the feeling when you are done and you sit down and look at your nice clean home and feel happy to be there. I should clean more often so that I can always have that feeling! 

I also got into my cooking mood. First I decided to make a delicious pasta salad to have for lunches for the week. The recipe I use is one that my mom always made growing up. I consider it a summer comfort food because it taste so good and is nice and cold on a hot summer day. I also decided to use a cake mix we had had since our wedding and made a yummy yellow cake with strawberry frosting. I am trying to eat healthier and this is definitely going in the wrong direction but cake is just SO SO SO yummy! I am also proud of myself because I made a circle cake with two layers. (That is pretty advanced for me, especially compared to all of my talented baking relatives) For dinner I decided to really go all out and I made homemade hamburger patties with some egg and seasonings. I also bought yummy breads from the bakery to use as buns that tasted amazing! For the side I made parmesan potato wedges that tasted so good. I have never made my own fries before so I was surprised at how easy it was to make them and at how good they tasted especially because they were baked and not fried. Overall my cooking went well for the day. Hopefully I can keep this going. 

I always love having nights at home with my hubby!  Garret is so busy with work, his internship, and school that I just love spending time with him where we can just sit and enjoy each others company. We watched TV for a little bit and then just sat on the couch talking and laughing. Even though I love having extravagant days with Garret I love days like this better because this is what every day is like. It is great to do crazy things but it is more important to love all the days in between. 

Summer Days!

Garret and I had a fun summer day this past Saturday. 

We started our morning at 5:45 when we woke up to get ready for a 5k we were doing. My sister Amanda slept over that night and on our way to downtown we picked up her boyfriends brother Dillon who was running with us. We did the Color Me Rad 5k downtown that was a fundraiser for the Utah Art's Council. Garret and I had started preparing for the 5k a couple months ago but for the past several weeks I hadn't run once so I was a little nervous about running a 5k when I haven't gotten out for such a long time. But it ended up being amazing. I was able to run the entire race and I got covered in colored chalk along the way. This was my fist 5k and it was such a great and fun experience.

After getting our exercise the four of us went out to breakfast to the amazing Kneaders! I love Kneaders, especially for breakfast. We all got the french toast which tasted amazing after the run. 

Garret and I went home to get all cleaned up after our color run. Once all clean we decided to head back downtown and we went to the Utah Art's Festival. It was so fun to see all the artists there and their artwork. We saw some very creative things as was as some very impressive art. We saw some fun yard art as well as things for the walls and kitchen. 

After walking around for several hours we decided to go get some food. We went to Chili's which is one of my favorite places. At Chili's they have some new flatbread appetizers. We shared a margarita flatbread which was AMAZING. It tasted amazing! I also had a steak with mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and texas toast. It was such a wonderful meal and I really ejoyed it. 

After eating we were exhausted from being outside in the sun all day so we stopped at my moms to borrow some movies we hadn't seen yet. When we got home we got some popcorn popped and watched The Hobbit which I really enjoyed. I am really excited for the next movie. We also watched Casino Royale which we hadn't seen yet either. It was a great movie as well. Although the end of it I didn't really watch because I was half asleep from our long day.