MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #41

For more info on the MilSpouse Fill-In check out Wife of a Sailor's blog.

1. What is one of the things you always do special when your husband returns from a deployment?

You mean besides in the bedroom? Bow chicka wow wow! ;-) (sorry, Mom) No but really, I don't do anything all that special. Just the normal stuff like "welcome home" signs, stocking the fridge/pantry with his favorite things, etc.

My "We Survived Deployment" sign.

2. What do you do to help your spouse and/or yourself re-adjust after a deployment or long separation?

I try to give up my typical control-freak ways (yes, I can admit it) a little and let him decide how he wants to spend his first few days at home. I try not to make him do anything (like go to a party or whatever) he doesn't want to do, since he did just spend a year at war and all. Other than that we just try to go back to life as normal as quickly as possible.

3. Are you a crazy coupon clipper (I’m becoming one, so share your secrets with me)?

No. I suck at couponing! I always have the best intentions but then I forget the coupons at home, don't take the time to clip them, or buy things I don't need because of the coupons. It's just not my thing, unfortunately.

4. What’s your most treasured memory of you and your spouse (not counting your wedding – that’s a given)?

Hmmm....this is hard because there are so many. I guess one of my most treasured memories is our first date. We were both brand-new freshmen in college and he asked me to be his date to the very first football game of the year. I remember being so excited when he called to ask me out because I just felt differently about him than I ever had about anyone else before. And on the date, he kissed me at the end as part of a Texas A&M tradition. I vividly remember the feelings of awkwardness/butterflies/elation. Good memories! :)

This got me reminiscing so I just dug up some old photos...

This is I'm pretty sure our first photo ever taken together. It was 80's night at Fish Camp. I'm on the far left in pink and he's in the back with the bandana (obvsies, since he's the only dude). He asked me out on our first date a few weeks after this photo was taken.

First Date. Man we were young!!

Thanksgiving 2003. This is the weekend that we first said "I love you." to each other. :)

I think this was Junior Year Formal.

We look like we know what we're doing on those horses.

I forgot about this photo until just now but I love it. This was taken at a football game our Senior year. We were newly engaged at this point.

Okay enough with the flashback photos. Sorry I got carried away! :)

5. If you could live anywhere overseas, what would you pick and why?

Greece. Hands down! It's probably #1 on my list of dream places I'd like to visit, and I think living there would be so fun (but bad for my waistline).

A Fishy Twilight Date Night

Saturday night was a laid back date night! Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well all day on Saturday so we had to cancel some plans we had to go out of town for the night. After laying around for most of the day I started to feel better so Alex insisted that we get out of the house for a date. It didn't take much coercing when he mentioned that we could go to dinner somewhere and I could pick a movie! :)

We decided to go to a local cajun seafood restaurant called Fish City Grill. We started the meal off with some delicious drinks...I had a "Summer Sangria" and Hubs had a Stella Artois.


Then we ordered the Oyster Nachos to start...

Sooooo good! I just wish there had been more of them. It was basically just chips with a fried oyster and pico de gallo on top. Simple, but somehow the flavors all worked so well together!

Hubs ordered the Parmesan Crusted Marlin with a Bloody Mary Marinara...

He really liked it! He said the marlin was so meaty he could have mistaken it for a pork chop. I tried a bite and I also give it my seal of approval. YUM!

For my entree I ordered the Blackened Wahoo with Mediterranean Couscous and Cheesy Cauliflower...

This was really, really good too! I had never had Wahoo before and I really like it! It was perfectly seasoned and cooked. The Mediterranean couscous was possibly my favorite part though! I have no idea what was in it but it seemed sort of like a risotto made with Israeli couscous.

I only ate about half of my meal so I could save room for this....

YOGURT! My favorite! My mix included cheesecake & strawberry swirl with raspberries, mini chocolate chips & graham cracker crumbs.

After dinner we headed over to the movie theater and I chose to see ECLIPSE!! I felt a little guilty dragging my husband to this movie but I had really been wanting to see it and I figured I should take advantage of his "pick any movie you want" statement while it lasted. :)

I think Eclipse was definitely the best installment of the Twilight movies yet! Even Hubs said "It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be." WOW! That's high praise from him.

What started out as a crappy day of not feeling well turned into a great evening out with my best friend. I love date nights!

Seen any good movies lately?? Tell me about them!

Hodge Podge

What's for Dinner? 6/2/2010

-Salad with leftover Queso Poblano Sausage & balsamic vinaigrette
-Buttered Toast



Another quick and easy dinner because I had to meet up with some of the girls tonight to do our grocery shopping for the big trip! It was a successful trip and I certainly don't think we're at any risk of going hungry this weekend. A few of the must-have items on the list: wine, cookie dough, guacamole, chips, and alcohol. I think I'm gonna have to let myself have a break from the healthy eating routine! :)

I left Alex to fend for himself for dinner and he ended up having a Healthy Choice frozen meal and THREE hot dogs. WTF?!? How random is that? Men are so freaking weird!

Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk + Nostalgia {What's for Dinner? 3/5/2010}

Last night I came home from work in a foul mood and this close to being in tears. It was just one of those days where I felt defeated, both personally and professionally. Luckily, I have an amazing husband who wrapped me up in his arms and told me everything was going to be okay. Then he told me to go relax and he would take care of dinner.

Of course, because I'm a control freak, I ended up helping make dinner anyway but it was a team effort. Then we ate dinner and proceeded to watch an episode of Parks & Recreation {I really wanted to watch True Blood Season 2 and I thought we could find it On Demand but alas we couldn't...so this was our second choice}.

We had never watched this show before but it turns out it's totally HILARIOUS! It's a lot like The Office in the way it's filmed and the humor {which is okay with us because we love The Office}. We ended up watching all 4 episodes of it that were available On Demand for free and it was great.

After we finished watching the shows I started feeling nostalgic so I made Alex tell me the story again of how he decided he wanted to propose to me and how he went about planning it all. I love that story. It makes me happy. :)

When he finished the story he said "Hold on one second" and went to put our engagement video in the DVD player. I don't think we'd watched it since we've been married so it was so fun to relive it all again. And just because I feel like it, here are some photos from September 2, 2006:

Realizing what's happening

Will you marry me? under the Century Tree

Saber Arch

Suddenly a horrible start to my Friday night turned into a wonderful date night with my husband. I love when that happens!

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NOW, enough blabbing. Dinner was a delicious Thai-ish shrimp dish! Here is the original recipe for Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk that we bookmarked but we realized that the recipe was a bit off on some of the measurements so below I will post the recipe the way we did it.

We served the shrimp over brown rice, which is really a must since this make SO much extra sauce. You have to have something to soak it all up! We also made some simple roasted snap peas on the side. All I did for those is toss them in some olive oil & kosher salt and then just roasted on a sheet pan for about 15-20 minutes in the oven on 400 degrees.


Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk

Ingredients

* 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
* 2 tablespoons coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
* 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes {The original recipe wouldn't have been spicy at ALL so I think it's a little ridiculous that it is called Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk. We added the red pepper flakes to add some spice.}
* 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
* 1 can unsweetened coconut milk {NOTE: We had never cooked with coconut milk before so when we first opened up the can and found the milk solidified and separated we were very close to throwing it away. However, upon googling, we found out that is perfectly normal. All you have to do is stir it up. So don't be afraid of solidified coconut milk!}
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 pound shrimp, peeled and cleaned
* 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
* lime wedge (for serving)
* Cooked rice

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium heat.

2. Add onions and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Add garlic and ginger, cook 2 minutes.

4. Add all the spices, cook 1 minute.

5. Add tomatoes, cook 1 minute.

6. Add coconut milk,water, and salt, and bring to a simmer.

7. Simmer until thickened 5-10 minutes.

8. Add shrimp, simmer, stirring for 5 minutes.

9. Stir in cilantro.

10. Serve over rice with lime wedges.

What's for Dinner? 1/15/2010

1/15/2010
Domino's Pizza

We had planned on making steaks and baked potatoes for dinner tonight. But then, we just didn't feel like it. Just keepin' it real here! It's rainy and cold here tonight....pizza and a movie just sounded better. Doesn't everyone have those nights?

So, we ordered some pizza and popped in a DVD of The Ugly Truth. Normally we would have probably made the pizza at home but we didn't have all the ingredients on hand. So Domino's it is! Pepperoni & mushroom for me, pepperoni and jalepeno on his. We did the 2 medium, 2 topping pizzas for $5.99 each...

....And he ate A WHOLE MEDIUM PIZZA. By himself.

Oh how I wish I had the metabolism of a man. I hate them.

And I might be on Raspberry Mojito #3 tonight...damn my husband for being such a good bartender!!

Tomorrow night won't be any better....we're going out with friends for Mexican and margs...oops.

On another note, YAY for it being a 3 day weekend!! Happy Martin Luther King Day, dear blog readers!

Under Pressure

Let me introduce you to little Ashlex, our future child, according to www.morphthing.com: drumroll please.................................................................

I think Ashlex is pretty cute, in a semi-creepy kind of way! I had never done one of these "What will your baby look like?" things so this was fun.

But the most fun part was the email I sent to my mom with the subject line "Our Baby" and the photo attached.

You see, my mom is...hmmm how shall I say this....OBSESSED with the idea of being a grandma. Aren't you supposed to DREAD being a grandma?!? Well...she doesn't. It's ridiculous. And she tends to get just a teeeeensy bit jumpy at any mention of ANYTHING that could POSSIBLY be related to Alex and I having a baby.

For example, I say "Ugh I feel nauseous." Mom gasps and says "Morning sickness?!?!?"

Or I look at a very cute baby in church and say "Aww...cute." Mom's response: "Not nearly as cute as YOUR baby will be." ::wink::

My dad isn't much better either. In fact, he could even be worse, considering his speech at our rehearsal dinner involved him holding up a baby cousin of mine like she was Simba from the Lion King and saying something along the lines of "THIS is what you and Alex need to produce now." WE WERE NEGATIVE 24 HOURS MARRIED AT THIS POINT. So you can only imagine the pressure we get from him now that we are 2+ years married.

OH! One more story. {I could go on for hours about my parents baby-centric antics.} Our first Christmas as a married couple came about 4 months after our wedding. My mom put a PREGNANCY TEST in my stocking. She claimed she "just wanted to see the look on my face" but we all know that this was actually a thinly veiled plot.

Want proof? Here is when I looked in the stocking and saw what it was. I'm looking at her with the "I can't believe you did this" look.
And here I am giving the death stare and holding up my precious "present".

I've since learned that the best plan of action against this is to do nothing....other than roll my eyes. Because if I try to explain how we're still young and we're not quite ready to be parents yet they just come back at me with 25 reasons why we SHOULD be ready.

So anyway, when I sent the "Our Baby" email to my mom I knew it would get her all flustered so I was anxiously awaiting her response.

Her response was "Don't ever do that to me again." hahahaha

Sorry, Mom!! It was just too easy.

{And in all honesty, it actually makes me happy how excited both of my parents are for future grandchildren because I know our future children will be SO LOVED by Grandma and Grandpa. But they could be a little more discreet about their excitement for pete's sake! :) }