one of those days.

Happy Birthday Harry Potter!

I would've watched a movie or read a book in honor of him if the day hadn't gone how the day went..

Aside from some stressful situations at work that aren't exactly going as planned, I had to register my car and get my driver's license because my license expires on 8/2 and in order to get a license, you have to register your car. So I left for lunch, stood in line for an hour and a half to get my registration done, and had to wait in line for my license twice because our insurance just barely expired and we haven't received our new cards yet. They wouldn't take anything that didn't have both the coverage and date on it so I had to go to state farm and get some other fancy document. Lots of driving and lots of lines.

It put my in the worst mood. Ever. I was so bugged that when I got back to headquarters and Mickey Mouse was there, I couldn't get myself to stand in yet another line to get a picture. Yes, sad. It was that bad.

BUT.

I am officially..

A Texan.

After getting all of this taken care of we went and got some yummy Panda Express.

My fortune was too funny.

The day was definitely memorable, but definitely anything but lucky.

Luv, Lindsay

we can watch!

First, a shout out to my awesome cousin Derek and his cute family for loaning us their old TV antenna so we can watch the Olympics. It is pretty amazing. We got to have dinner with them and my cousin, Jake, on Sunday. Good catch-up time!

The dessert I made actually turned out really good. Easy too!

Recipe is included at the bottom.

My job search continues. I was sad to turn down a job offer I received but after lots of prayer and talking to people, I just knew it wasn't what I was supposed to do.

But here's what I wore including a skirt from my NYC trip and my wedding shoes :)

So the job search continues still.

Luv, Lindsay



Chocolate Dream Bars:
(Adapted from a recipe by Peggy)

Ingredients:

1  package chocolate cake mix (I used devil's food)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (6-ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I only used 3/4 cup and it was great)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil.

Empty cake mix into a very large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the egg and oil into the well. Using a mixer on medium speed, blend until the mixture is combined to a crumbly texture (like wet dirt). Remove 1 cup of the mixture and set aside for use later in the recipe.

Pour remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of the foil-lined baking pan. Press firmly into an even layer.

In a small saucepan, bring the sweetened condensed milk slowly to a simmer. Turn off heat and immediately stir in chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir until chocolate is melted and all is combined. Pour chocolate mixture evenly over the crumb layer in the pan.

Sprinkle reserved 1 cup of chocolate crumb mixture evenly over the fudge layer.

Bake about 25 minutes until the edges are firm. Place on a rack and let cool completely before adding the frosting.

I had some leftover canned frosting that I needed to use up so I whipped it with some cream cheese and powdered sugar to make my frosting but you can use whatever thick buttercream/cream cheese frosting you want. Just make sure it's not runny.

Pour into a zip-top plastic bag, press out all the air, and seal. Snip a very tiny bit of the corner from the bottom of the bag. Use as a pastry bag to drizzle frosting in a decorative pattern over the top of the brownie dream bars. Let brownies sit at room temperature for about an hour before cutting to let the frosting firm up.

let me eat cheesecake.

Happy National Cheesecake Day y'all!

We were already planning on eating at The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate this holiday but when we found out that the cheesecake was half price..what a nice surprise!

I'm not even much of a cheesecake fan. *gasp!* I LOVE all of the chocolate cheesecakes, but the ones that are mostly the true cheesecake...not a fan. I just feel like I'm eating sweet cheese. I guess that's what it is..it's just not my favorite. But what we had today had real cheesecake and I loved it. Read on..

I'm not usually an appetizer order at restaurants, but have you ever had the avocado eggrolls at Cheesecake Factory?

 They are so worth it. It comes with 6 rolls and they are so amazing. Try them.

Why yes, that is a forest on our table. It was a salad night. They are so huge and make for a good next-day lunch. I got the Grilled Chicken Tostada and Paul got the Chopped. They were both good but next time Paul has to remember to get his without the bleu cheese.

This was after we had BOTH eaten some of my salad. Hardly a dent in it!

Paul's birthday was last week and mine is this week so we mentioned that to the waiter hoping they'd sing us a song. They did. And they gave us a candle and wrote on our plate in chocolate! It was definitely a wonderful birthday cake.

We had the brand new Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake. I'll let you read the description:

OREO® Dream Extreme Cheesecake
OREO® Cookies baked in our creamy Cheesecake with layers of fudge cake and OREO® Cookie mousse. Topped with a milk chocolate icing. Available July 30th on National Cheesecake Day. 

Can someone say incredible? I sure did.
It had the real cheesecake but enough chocolate to balance it out and make it absolutely amazing.

 Happy Birthday to US!

 I was basically in heaven.

Oreos and more chocolate?

It doesn't get much better.

Happy National Cheesecake Day. I hope you got your piece.

Luv, Lindsay

Willie

In 1928, Steamboat Willie was premiered! 

The production of Steamboat Willie took place between July and September 1928 with an estimated budget of $4,986. There was initially some doubt among the animators that a sound cartoon would appear believable enough, so before a soundtrack was produced, Disney arranged for a screening of the film to a test audience with live sound to accompany it. This screening took place on July 29 with Steamboat Willie only partly finished. The audience sat in a room adjoining Walt's office. Roy placed the movie projector outdoors and the film was projected through a window so that the sound of the projector would not interfere with the live sound. Ub Iwerks set up a bed sheet behind the movie screen behind which he placed a microphone connected to speakers where the audience would sit. The live sound was produced from behind the bed sheet. Wilfred Jackson played the music on a mouth organ, Ub Iwerks banged on pots and pans for the percussion segment, Johnny Cannon provided sound effects with various devices including slide whistles and spittoons for bells. Walt himself provided what little dialogue there was to the film, mostly grunts, laughs, and squawks. After several practices, they were ready for the audience which consisted of Disney employees and their wives.

The response of the audience was extremely positive, and it gave Walt the confidence to move forward and complete the film. He said later in recalling this first viewing, "The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!" Iwerks said, "I've never been so thrilled in my life. Nothing since has ever equaled it."

Yeah, that's all I've got for today. Today was also National Lasagna Day but since I didn't make lasagna, this was my celebration :) This is my cute little friend:

Yay Disney :)

Luv, Lindsay

attendance in spirit.

Last night was a little stressful..because without TV we had no place to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Lucky for us, there was a free viewing at a movie theater not too far away from us. Olympics on a movie theater screen. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better!

And after, we had some delicious Japanese food. 

Aw look how happy he is.

It was such a good date night!

 Today was a party too. A very productive one.

(Very sad about Michael Phelps though.)

We played tennis this morning and I actually did much better than I have before! After cleaning our apartment until it shined, Paul went and played some basketball and I made some food. I discovered that making 1/4 of my mom's roll recipe is the perfect size for a small group. We had a game night with a few other couples from our ward. We brought rolls and a delicious salad of cucumber, peppers, corn, and some dressing I made up. Yummy!

We played Apples to Apples, the most fun UNO game I've ever played (Killer UNO), and, of course, The Great Dalmuti! It makes me think of late nights at Priest Lake playing cards...so sad I missed out on that vacation. 

But we were there in spirit, as these lovely pictures show. Awww...I love you guys.

I'm hoping so bad we get to go next year!

It's been a good weekend. 

Oh, Happy Chocolate Milk Day. I had some tonight and it was lovely :)

Waiting for my crazy headache to go away! 

Luv, Lindsay

a happy post :)

The Knights have some exciting news...

No, we're not pregnant. People need to stop assuming that every time I say there's something exciting to tell that I'm pregnant...oh wait..that's what it usually means..

Again, no, not pregnant. :)

Paul has a job! A real, grown-up, post-graduation job! That pays you with real money!

It's an exciting thing.

He will start as a full-time employee of Ernst & Young in September and be an auditor with clients and everything! We got to go out and celebrate last night at El Fenix with the other E&Y Interns. Some of them are still waiting to have their full-time interviews. Most of them have at least another year of school left though.We get to start right away!

A small part of the reason I applied to Business School in the first place was the fact that I love suits. Love suits. Dressing up in general. Paul loves shorts and t-shirts. Well guess what? Now he gets to wear the nice clothes and I am wearing the shorts and t-shirts to work. A little backwards.

My job status is currently pending..stay tuned...

Happy Opening Ceremonies Day :)


Can't wait to see the ceremonies - but without TV I'm mostly just hoping we can find somewhere to watch it!

Luv, Lindsay

bagelfest.

Happy Bagelfest!

I love bagels. Einstein Bros. are the best. It makes my day when they have them at work. 

Unfortunately, they  weren't close enough for me to make a run this morning. So I just got the cheap grocery store ones. They were fine. My other favorite bagels are from Costco.

It was a good morning, though. Yummy! 

Get this - Bagelfest is actually a FESTival in Illinois. They go crazy for this. The festival was last week I believe. They have a Miss Bagelfest Pageant, Beautiful Baby Bagel contest, Run for the Bagel, parades, and all sorts of stuff. They love their bagels!

If you didn't get a bagel for breakfast, you should probably go get one for lunch. 

Luv, Lindsay

a melted mess.

Happy Hot Fudge Sundae Day!

We have no ice cream. And I had no desire to go to the store and buy some or go out and buy a Sundae. So I decided to go to Pinterest and see the suggestions.

Apparently you can blend up frozen bananas into ice cream?

Lucky for me, I had some frozen bananas.

Unlucky for me, my ice cream did not turn out like their pretty pictures.

And once you put on the hot fudge..

Big melted mess. Like a banana chocolate frosty.

And it was not delicious, my friends. Not at all.

Tomorrow is Thursday! Almost the weekend!

Luv, Lindsay

Pioneers.

If you're from Utah or Mormon, you probably know about today's holiday.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Pioneer Day in Utah is almost bigger than the 4th of July. Seriously.

It celebrates the day the Mormon Pioneers came into the Utah Valley. I am very grateful for their sacrifices and what they stood up for in defense of their families, their freedoms, and their religion.

Unfortunately, they don't do anything to celebrate in Texas so it was just a normal day for us.

Here's the sign I put up over my poster when it was drying:

I had gotten some funny comments earlier from folks who aren't the biggest Longhorn fans..this was for them. :)

Luv, Lindsay

Texas Fight joins Texas Flight!

While today is National Hot Dog Day, I had another celebration to participate in:

Yesterday Southwest Airlines announced its 5-year sponsorship of UT Athletics! So for at least the next 5 years, Southwest will be the Official Airline Sponsor of the Longhorns. It was quite an exciting event. Now, it meant that I once again had to be at work very early (before 5am to catch a flight to Austin) but it was definitely a party.

Do you remember when I was talking about having to work on something that was a secret and I would tell you later? Well, this sign was it. Yes, everyone. I created this beautiful sign! 

No, really. I did. Here's my proof from the floor of the marketing lobby:

I'll have to post the sign I put above it when it was drying..

Gary Kelly (CEO of Southwest) was there along with the director of UT Athletics, Deloss Dodds and other important people. I actually got to meet Gary as well as David Ridley, the CMO. 

We passed out lots of lanyards..I was the lucky one who got to carry them on the plane.

The reason I created the big banner in the first place was so that everyone could break through it during the announcement. And that is what happened. It was pretty sad having to run and break through my hard work (that thing took forever!) but it was worth it. We had cheerleaders, Hook'em (the Longhorns' mascot), and the UT Alumni band.

David Ridley, CMO.

Gary Kelly, CEO

Deloss Dodds, UT Athletics

Hook'em!

This is my sign after the event..pretty sad looking.

Sometimes Southwest has in-flight concerts. How cool is that? Granger Smith (country artist who I hadn't heard of before) played on my flight home.

It was a fun day. And I ate about a million breakfast tacos. But it definitely wore me out!!

Congratulations, UT and Southwest! It's going to be a good 5 years.

Luv, Lindsay

Parents!

Happy Parents' Day!

'Nough said.

Nap time.

Luv, Lindsay

i'm in love.

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart..He's a whopping 24 years old today!

I love this guy so very much.

He puts up with me when I decide to be crazy and holds me whenever I want him to (almost).

He got some golf shoes for his birthday and a glow-in-the-dark puzzle for his birthday.

He got to play his favorite sport, basketball, with some friends and go out for lunch today. Then it was us time! We went to Medieval Times for an awesome Knight-filled evening. I thought it was appropriate. And last night we saw The Dark Knight Rises so our whole weekend was just all about the Knights! Gotta love it.

There is a Knight in the background, if you couldn't see it.

My big head wouldn't fit in the crown..

My Knight in Shining Armor. 

I love my last name.

We were on the red team.

So we cheered for the Red Knight.

Best one!

The horses were so pretty!

Yeah Red Knight!

The King and the Princess

  

The food was really really good

But you had to eat it all with your hands!

No utensils here.

They had different competitions from jousting to sword fighting.

The Red Knight threw me a flower!

Awww.

The Red Knight won the tournament, of course!

 It was such a fun evening!

I love you so much, sweety! You make me so very happy and do so much for me!

I hope you had a fun birthday and can't wait for the many more we will celebrate together!

Luv, Lindsay