Sorry I haven't blogged in like 3 weeks! But SO much has happened :)

Ok, the weekend of my birthday started out with a girl's night with Heather :) We went to the Sportsman's Bar, had some delicious food (and drinks!), and then realized it was TRIVIA NIGHT!!!

 Our team was the Nancy Drewers. And we got second to last place… :)

This is my birthday present from Heather. She got it from my favorites on etsy :) I LOVE IT!

 My sister got me this cute little necklace from my favorites on etsy too :) She also made me some homemade caramels and gave me some apples. They're AWESOME!!!

 Tim and I went to Grand Rapids to go mainly to Plato's Closet. I didn't find much there, which was disappointing, but we did go to Krispy Kreme :) I was just going to get one donut, but Tim suggested we get a dozen. I willingly agreed lol :)

 Bavarian cream, lemon, pumpkin spice, blueberry, chocolate, cinnamon roll, and regular. Yummy!

 We then took a random picture with the gourds at Meijer...

 On my birthday, Tim said he'd be making dinner and cake! And um, no that is not a spatula, it's a pie cutter/pickerupper lol. He rarely cooks. 

 Yummy, red velvet cake with vanilla frosting. I had wanted german chocolate cake with frosting, but Tim kept saying how he wanted to write on the cake, so I got red velvet. Still good :)

 Making the one AWESOME dish he knows how-tortillini with cherry tomatoes and spinach.

 SO GOOD! Don't mind the just showered, no makeup look. Tim said I should take a shower since I just worked out and looked like crap lol.

 THIS IS WHY!!! Tim covered my eyes, led me into the kitchen where the cake was lit, and when I opened my eyes, he was down on one knee :) It was so nice. We ate so many candles LOL! I was COMPLETELY surprised and started crying, as I was perfectly content with him just making me dinner/cake for my birthday, unaware that he had other plans :) Tim had originally planned on having a friend come pick me up and us drive around a little bit, ending up at a place where he would come riding up on a horse (like my knight in shining armor), get off the horse and propose :) AND THEN IT RAINED…ALL WEEKEND! :( I still love the cake though-and his handwriting :)

 Since it's just us two, we sometimes drink out of containers rather than getting cups. I know normally guys only do this, but it's SO MUCH easier than getting a cup dirty lol :)

I always thought I'd want something vintage, not realizing that this is me. Simple but SUPER sparkly :) I love it. I can't wait to see it with the wedding band :)

I did my own nails because I'm cheap that way. Oh my gosh, it's hard making an upside-down heart lol!

Quinoa burgers and sweet potato fries

I don't know WHY this picture turned out the way it did-quinoa burgers look more appealing than this :) Click on the link below to see a delicious looking quinoa burger :)

Tim and I have been trying to eat healthy; however, this normally includes me sneaking healthy foods into our dinners. Tim's parents didn't really have any fruits/vegetables at meals besides corn. When Tim and I first started dating, it was super difficult to try and make meals because he was super picky and wouldn't try anything new. Well, I'm proud to say, I've changed him. He doesn't eat carrots raw or anything, but he'll eat pretty much anything I make now. I've just "hidden" the vegetables. Chicken pot pie, shepherd's pie, chicken noodle soup, chili and lasagna (with added veggies)…etc., he'll eat it all. And these quinoa burgers? I'm happy to say, yes he ate not only one, but TWO! I love quinoa, not only because it's good for you, but because it has such a unique taste/crunch to it. This recipe has some interesting ingredients in it that you wouldn't think would go together, but they do.

On top of our quinoa burgers, we had sour cream. I actually even tried cottage cheese on top (besides what was in the recipe), and that tasted pretty good too. Tim wanted more flavoring, so he added some ranch dressing. I also made homemade buns that were AWESOME!

I wasn't sure what to eat with the quinoa burgers but finally decided on Alexia Foods, spicy sweet potato fries. Tim and I have been trying to find good sweet potato fries; however, we were disappointed again. They were OKAY, but nothing special. We'll keep looking and let you know if we find the right one :) By the way, we have tried their onion rings, and those were good (besides the ones I burnt), so if you like sweet potato fries, try these; maybe you'll like them more than we did :)

You can get the recipe I used for the burgers HERE. I used the carrots in this recipes; however, I have used zucchini in the past, and it tastes great! I didn't use normal quinoa in my recipe, I used (can't remember the brand) a spicier quinoa with black beans. It just added an extra kick to it that tasted great. You will not be disappointed by this recipe.

 I swear Saturday mornings with blueberry waffles and turkey bacon just make the entire day go better :)

My "Friday" scrubs. Ugly. There is black on the sides of the scrubs for "slimming" but then they put a stupid pocket in the front of the scrubs; and in my opinion, everyone looks like they're pregnant. I can't wait until I have a job where I can dress up for work-or at least don't have to wear scrubs that make us look like we're from "Star Trek", according to one of our patients :)

 I took the short cut home the other day and ended up sitting, waiting…gotta love construction.

Um yeah, Tim forgot to check his pockets when he put the laundry in….an ENTIRE box of gum went in with our clothing…I am SO HAPPY I saw it before I put the clothes into the dryer. And he's the one that says he always checks his pockets before putting his clothes in the laundry basket, so why should he check his pockets again before he puts them in the washer? :)

 My awesome sister-in-law surprised my brother for his birthday with a trip up to where we live. He went on a hike with our brother-in-law, and then we had a mini celebration for both of our birthdays-his is September 29, mine is October 14.

 I finally got rid of the summer decorations, HELLO FALL :) :) :) Hello comfortable sweaters and jeans, drinking tea on the crisp weekend mornings, chili and other fall soups/stews, not sweating so much when I work out :), leaves falling, fall scented candles!!!, my birthday, and so much more! Fall is my favorite season.

 Is it too early for Halloween decorations? I think not.

 My day gets 10 times better when these lovelies come in the mail :)

My first apple pie that actually turned out!!! Not too juicy, flaky crust, ahhhhhh. It was perfect. FINALLY!

Gotta have apple pie and ice cream. We always buy the Haagen-Dazs vanilla bean. I feel better eating it since there's only five ingredients.

Gotta do this with the crust-my mom always does :)

 Okay, so last Tuesday Tim and I had the ENTIRE day and night off. No work for either of us. It was the best day off together we've had in a LONG time. We bought "The Avengers", went out for some delicious pizza and breadsticks at a place we've never been, went home and watched "The Avengers" and just laid around the rest of the day. It was the best. The picture above does not show AT ALL how our day went. Tim always does his best spoiling the pictures I take of him when I tell him to smile...

 These breadsticks are definitely in my top 5. They were so light and flaky and DELICIOUS!

 The pizza was okay-for some reason they used a different sauce on the pizza than on the breadsticks, and it was sweet. I don't care for sweet sauce; however, when we get BOGO large pizzas, I'll eat it :) Two large pizzas and breadsticks for $20? I'll take it. It fed us for three meals :)

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I've been having a really hard time since we decided not to move to Traverse City. I'm just depressed and disappointed in myself that I still haven't found another job. I GUARANTEE when I find a new job, I'll feel 90% better. We just live in such a small town, it makes it difficult finding a new job when no one is hiring…I'm also at that point in my life where I'm done with school, had a "grown up" job for the past three years, and just want to TRAVEL. I have the travel bug and IT'S AWFUL! Tim doesn't want to travel until he's done with school due to money which makes perfect sense, but I'm going stir crazy! I just want to see the world. So until he's done, I'm going to try and plan mini trips. Somewhere. ANYWHERE! We're planning a trip with two of our good friends somewhere tropical in February (Heather and I get severely depressed after Christmas, we figured this would be the PERFECT time to take a trip!), and then Tim wants to go to PAX East 2013, which is a video game convention in Boston in April. It's one of the largest video gaming events in America! I'm super excited for that! I'm not addicted to video games like he is, but I still think it'd be really cool meeting people who are high up in the video game industry, meeting people from Game Informer…etc., and I've always wanted to go to Boston :) I'm taking one day at a time. I have good days and bad days. Tim does his best to make me feel better. I feel bad that I even talk with him about how bad I'm feeling-I don't want him to feel bad about us not moving to Traverse, but I DO feel better after I talk with him. That's all part of being a couple :)

If you've known me since I was a child, you'd know I'm addicted to candy. Not so much chocolate, but give me sour patch kids, jelly bellies, caramels, hard candies, sweet tarts, shock tarts, anything Willy Wonka really, and I'll eat it. Fast. I have a problem. Seriously. This photo was taken the morning AFTER eating all the sour sugar from the bottom of a sour patch kids bag. I couldn't stop lol! Now I get to pay for it today. Sad thing is, this isn't the worst my tongue has ever looked. I went through our cupboards yesterday and threw out all the foods that are bad for us. I'm trying so hard to be healthy, I just gotta keep the candy out of the house :) I'm surprised all my teeth haven't fallen out.

 Our cat LOVES being outside. So her and I spent the day out on our deck :)

 Detoxing while rereading The Hunger Game series. SO GOOD. The second book is BY FAR the best though. And yes, sometimes I get hungry when I detox. I figure reduced fat triscuits have like 5 ingredients, so they're definitely not the worst thing I could be eating lol.

Trying to do an outfit picture by yourself is slightly difficult-you know, getting the best lighting, keeping your face in the picture...etc...LOL :) This is the best one I took, and of course, my face isn't in it. I gave up after this picture. I do really like this dress though, super summery, super comfy, and it even has "hidden" pockets. I got it at Kohl's for like $10.

Onto the fall season-I picked up half a bushel of tomatoes last weekend and decided to be Miss Betty Homemaker and made homemade marinara and spaghetti sauce. Best. Decision. EVER. 

We made homemade pizzas with the just finished, still warm marinara sauce.

Zucchini; yellow, red, and orange peppers; yellow squash;
spinach; pepperoni; and cheese. This was obviously mine :)

Sausage and pepperoni for  my hunk o' love :)

There is NO COMPARISON between homemade marinara and store bought. I just wish that I had made this sooner!

It was kind of disappointing seeing how few bags I got from the tomatoes (this is just from one batch FYI); HOWEVER, this still saved us money! And there's seriously nothing better than knowing every single ingredient in the pizza you make. So cool.

This is from my second batch of sauce I made the next night. This sauce was sweeter, made for spaghetti sauce. I actually made lasagna with homemade garlic knots. It was to die for. I could have eaten just that bread and sauce for the rest of the night. Yum.

Ahhhhhhhh...glorious Lake Michigan.

I officially conquered my fear of heights-there was a spiral staircase going to the top of the lighthouse, and you could SEE THROUGH the stairs. And yes, Heather and I used both hands to hang on to the railing :) It was super nerve wracking when people would pass us...I think we climbed over 200 feet high.

Ugh. It was totally worth it though.

We all got stickers lol-made it totally worth it :)

Don't mind the weirdness of this picture lol-it was SUPER WINDY! Our shirts kept blowing up; and holy crap, you should have seen our hair afterwards :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our friends.