Veeves & Baklava

I got to talk with Veeves for about 3 hours this morning (her evening). It was wonderful. She called at 6:54 am Tucson time and I called her back about 7:30...it is now 11 am. So much for finishing my paper this morning. However, I am 100% NOT complaining and am so thankful we finally got to catch up. At the beginning of our conversation I mentioned that I had already bought all the ingredients for baklava so she just walked we through how to do it over the phone. It was so easy. I also started, finished and put away a load of laundry while we were on the phone, washed my bed sheets and made my bed. It was great!
Here is what it looked like right out of the oven.
'
A view from above

All the yummy layers!

Brian and I both had a piece and were really impressed. As I was taking a bit Veeves said, "You know what would be so good with that." I cut her off, "A scoop of Blue Bell ice cream". "That is exactly what I was thinking!" Veeves said...she didn't even call me Uncle Lindel for cutting her off! :)

I don't know if I shared this already but I thought it was just too pretty not to take a picture! I like to make things from scratch when I can and have the time. Since Brian and I are trying to somewhat watch what we eat it is hard to justify buying or ordering alfredo knowing that cream sauce is not the best thing for your body. However, I was craving fettucini alfredo so I went looking online at allrecipes.com to see if I could find anything decent. I found a great recipe that had almost 500 reviews and a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. With all the cheeses and dairy that the recipe called for I used fat-free or skim instead and used the Brummel & Braun cream spread instead of sticks of butter. We didn't have fettucini noodles either so I just used the pasta I had on hand which added a nice color to it and instead of chicken we used crab & shrimp.

I was pretty impressed with myself and Brian liked it too! That always helps! :)

San Diego pictures

Sandy, Lyndsey & Heather on one of the back porches. This compound was amazing!

Lyndsey "the birthday girl" and Heather "the bride"

Nate & Sandy Parde, Lyndsey and my San Diego hosts! Thank you guys SOOO much!

The gang socializing

Lyndsey's birthday cake!
This really was one of the sweetest moments of the evening. The party was for Matt & Heather however they went and got a birthday cake to also celebrate Lyndsey's birthday!! Those are good friends I tell you!

Heather & Lyndsey with the birthday cake!

Lyndsey and Heather took the fancy rings of the cake and wore them proudly for the rest of the night!

The sisters!

San Diego

I had a great weekend...after entirely too many border patrol stops! I headed out to visit Lyndsey for a super quick fabulous 30th birthday celebration! She was in San Diego celebrating her friends, Matt & Heather, 3.5 wedding party. They were married in NY back in November but have had parties in Long Island and San Diego so the families could celebrate too! Since Lyndsey was the maid of honor and best man in the wedding she has been invited to all the parties.

The drive was only 6 hours and actually quite enjoyable with just me, Brian's GPS and a good couple books on tape (my iPod). We had a great time with all of Matt's side of the family and friends and then went and had mexican food for her birthday. The sweetest part of the day though was when Matt & Heather brought out a birthday cake for Lyndsey during their wedding party! That screams AMAZING FRIENDSHIPS!!

Lyndsey and I spent the night at Nate & Sandy Parde's super cute house and then I headed back home on Sunday morning. I wished I could have stayed longer but I accomplished what I had set out to do!

Happy 30th Lyndsey!!

It's Saturday!

Finally! Work has been going very well but I just have not been feeling very well which has worn me out. I wished I had some exciting stories...but alas, welcome to the wonderful life of living in Tucson.

I have another big paper coming up for school so I will be working on that this weekend.

My friend Shannon will be turning 25 on Sunday so we went to Ra for sushi last night. That was delicious and a lot of fun because Dave (good friend to us all) was able to hang out for a while and Gavin & Veronica (Brian's cousin & gf) met up with us too! We went with them for gelato afterward! YUMMY!

I am really sad to be missing my friends Shep and Tabitha wedding next weekend. I know it will be beautiful but plane tickets are not my friend right now as they seem to be cheap most places but Tucson to Dallas on AA.

Brian is playing racketball with Dave now so I just got done bleaching the shower and the toilets. You might think that everything is spotless now but remember the house is old with a lot of its original parts and we live in the desert which means DIRT!!! EVERYWHERE! All the time!

Love your guts!

Oh, and for VEEVES & LYNDZ: I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Legally Blonde musical soundtrack! It is what I listen to every time I set at my computer!! It's so much fun! Now, I just need to get out to NY again so I can see it...and catch Wicked one more time! :)