New Years Eve Plans/ Garbage Ban

I ate like most people do at Christmas when they go home. A lot. of crap. Like peppermint ice cream with peppermint oreos. And sugar cookies. And birthday cake. You know. Enough that by the last day my body was like, "Help me! Help me!" So Brad and I are swearing off crap for a month. Kind of like no sugar, but not exactly. I can eat jelly. And yogurt with sugar. But not anything that exists for the sake of being junk food. Which has been great since the 27th- three days- but was so hard yesterday. I got home from work on Sunday morning at 8 and was ravenous. So I had cereal and slept. Woke up at noon for church and was ravenous. I ate a toasted pita with peanut butter and bananas on the way there. After church I was convinced I was going to die if I didn't get tons of food in me as soon as possible. It is hard to come up with healthy stuff that's as easy to stuff in your mouth as fast as a handful of chocolate chips!! I threw together a spinach salad with kidney beans and really good cheese, the whole time convinced I might pass out on the floor. Luckily, while I was eating Brad made Pozole, which is a Mexican soup you can buy in a can which somehow has a lot of fat but tastes healthy and seems healthy and has lots of protein and fiber and which I have every intention of continuing to eat and I ate that. And I put frozen fruit and milk in a bowl but then fell asleep before I could eat it because I was so tired from work and my 3 hours of sleep. But I was hungry when I slept, too, because I distinctly remember eating 4 different times during my dreams. I ate the fruit when I woke up at 10:30. (I had put it in the fridge.) And I made chicken with butternut squash and peas. And a peanut butter apple. Whew! And now I'm hungry again. :o)
For all this and for working out on the 26th, the 28th, and the 29th (and not working out any other time during last week), I have gained 2 pounds. I love my body. Whatever. :o) Really it's fine. I'm not reverting to the high school craziness. I promise.
Oh, and Jessicca, this is for you (mostly)! I am going to see the Boise Steelheads play hockey today at 3. "How," you ask "is this possible?" Because they are playing the Phoenix Roadrunners. Yay! I'm going with Doug, who is friends with me and Brad and is 30. I thought this was going to be an evening thing that turned into a midnight kiss, which I am okay with, but, now I don't know who on earth I'm kissing at midnight, which I am not excited about. We'll see what happens. If I end up with a bunch of dumb 22 year olds at the church ice skating party I will not be thrilled.
Back to hockey, though. I've never watched a game before and was always a little sad that I never got to see Boise play. So that will be super fun. All right, I think that's all. Later!

I almost forgot

I have, in my life, created three art projects that have turned out pretty well. So this year, as Brad would say, I decided to "go for broke" and paint this picture for Ariana. In it, she is listening to her favorite CD with her favorite Nike poster on the wall, eating an apple, and doing her calculus, which she "finds soothing." My mom said, "It looks like one of those pictures that people pay a lot of money for and you think 'hmm. I wonder why they paid a lot of money for that.'" Candice said it was "special."
I had fun. Ariana thought it was cool.

Family Picture

We haven't taken a picture of our family since 2000, I think. So here's the one we took yesterday. Remember, Candice is 5 months pregnant!

Christmas Morning

I got to be a nurse this morning. Someone in my dad's ward called right before we opened presents. Her husband was flailing around acting weird- he's about 82. We ran over. I checked his pulse, talked to him, had him smile to make sure one side of his face wasn't paralyzed, and basically calmed him down a bit. But he was acting weird, so we called the paramedics. I didn't know he was diabetic- I forget this with some of my own patients unfortunately- and they checked his blood sugar, which was really low. They just gave him a shot of dextrose while I held his hand and he calmed right down.
When we got home, everybody was ready to open the presents. Kaitlynn was on the top of the world because she got a "Kitty-so-real" that blinks and purrs and meows and blinks his eyes. And growls if you pull it's tail. Which scares Kaitlynn half to death. It growled when she set it down one time and she was like, "You are so naughty! Don't you growl. Don't you be naughty!" She brought that over to my mom and dad's house and we opened all our other presents. hmmm... the coolest thing is that my dad got my mom a trip to Prague that they are taking in August for their anniversary-she's never been overseas. Brad and I got cool cookbooks. Jessica got me mine. I got Brad his. Otherwise it was just normal Christmas stuff, but definitely a fun day.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Oh! And I got Kaitlynn 2 books- Pinkalicious and There's a Bird on My Head- which I highly recommend to any little kid. They are quite cute and funny.

Kaitlynn and I took a little Nap

This is just a picture of me and Kaitlynn taking a little nap on the 23rd. Lucky for me, I can always go to sleep, so I get nominated to help Kaitlynn take a nap. The next day, Kaitlynn wanted her dad Adam to take a nap with her "''cause she sleeps better that way." When he said he couldn't, Kaitlynn said, "But Dad, Mary sleeps with baby Jesus some times." awww...

Carbiener Christmas Traditions

A couple things that the Carbieners do each Christmas:
1- Watch the cartoon "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"
2- Read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 and put each piece back into the nativity as we read the story.
3- Read the Polar Express

As many of you know, there's only one grandkid in this family, and she's almost 3, so we were all a little excited to see how she would be this Christmas. As we read the Christmas story about the angel, my mom explained that the angel told the shepherds not to be afraid. Kaitlynn held the angel up and said, "Don't worry shepherds. Jesus is here. He won't hurt you. He loves you so much." It was so cute.
My Nana and Grandpa live in Idaho Falls, but are staying near my parents for a few months so my mom can help them out. My Nana is getting kind of old and doesn't think quite as quick as she used to. She used to read aloud to schools and kids and still has the best reading voice ever. One of the most special things this Christmas was listening to Nana read aloud the Polar Express. It was the most magical part of Christmas this year.

Birthday French Toast

I turned 28 on Christmas Eve, which luckily was less traumatic than turning 27 (nothing bad happened; it was just a shock to my system to not be 26 anymore...)
Anyways, Kaitlynn's birthday is the 26th, and with all the sugar that is already associated with Christmas, my mom was like ""do you really want a birthday cake?" So I thought about it. And I thought about a conversation I had at work about stuffed French Toast. I had never had stuffed french toast, nor had I heard about it. Something with Cream Cheese inside and folded French Toast. And I decided to have Stuffed French Toast for my birthday.
We all got online on food.com and found a recipe that called for chocolate chips, cream cheese, and bananas inside the french toast, covered in strawberry or raspberry puree. It was super sweet but very good. And with a candle in the middle, every bit as good as a birthday cake. Especially because my wonderful amazing fabulous father slaved over a hot stove to make it for me. Of course.
Happy Birthday to Me!! :o) (Oh, and please just ignore the huge zit in the middle of my forehead on this picture. I didn't think about concealer for breakfast. :o) )

Christmas Shopping

A little bit about how fun Christmas shopping was this year: So fun! First I went to Borders which had the cutest fairy wrapping paper ever. Unfortunately, I hadn't bought anything there so they couldn't gift wrap it for free for me. I asked, though, if I could buy some. "How much do you need?" the nice old ladies said. "I don't know," I said. "I haven't even bought anything yet." They started ripping me off sheets and said, "Hurry. Get out! The manager's right there!" hahaha. It was so fun. Then off to Crate & Barrel and a few other places. Deseret Book had a cute Santa Claus book and calendars that were half off, and a cute bag I needed was also the only one in the store that was half off. So, really, Brad and I had an awesome time shopping.
I got Kaitlynn 2 books: Pinkalicious and There's a Bird on my Head, both of which are super fun. I love an excuse to sit in Barnes & Noble.

Freakin Pappadeaux

So the plan for this week's party involved alligator appetizer, gumbo with cornbread, and sweet potato pie. Pappadeaux- the still amazing seafood restaurant-- told us two months ago that we could buy frozen alligator from them. We called and checked like 4 times. And then at 11 on Saturday night they gipped out on us. Freakin' a! We were so mad.
Just us, though. Everybody else didn't care. It was actually a very awesome week. For this one, the bishop and his wife and one of the councilors and his wife (The Mathesons and the Smiths) came over too. Also, Travis, Layton, Jared, and Ariana. Everybody left about 11. Just a sweet awesome time.
Travis made fun of Ariana for liking Nike commercials, Travis got grilled about dating, Brad told the bishop about our idea of playing Spin the Bottle at church activities to spice things up, and Brad was called to be the Marriage Counselor in the ward. Not really on the last part. But really on everything else.
None next week. 'Cause it's almost my BIRTHDAY!!!
I'm almost 28!! sosososo old.... :o)

This was Too Funny...

You Were Nice This Year!

You're an uber-perfect person who is on the top of Santa's list. You probably didn't even *think* any naughty thoughts this year. Unless you're a Mormon, you've probably been a little too good. Is that extra candy cane worth being a sweetheart for 365 days straight?

Were You Naughty or Nice This Year?

Lenny Kravitz, Finger Eleven, and Emerson Hart

So for Christmas Brad got me tickets to go see Lenny Kravitz last night, and we went together, which was fun. There were two opening acts- Emerson Hart was first- he used to be the lead singer of Tonic ("if you could only see how blue her eyes can get when she says....when she says she loves me....") He was actually very good. We bought his CD and met him and this is our oh-so-amazingly dorky picture that we took together. Which I'm only sharing because we both look equally dorky and I love you guys.
Finger Eleven was loud, and I thought I didn't know who they were, but they sing "I'm not paralyzed but I seem to be Struck by You" and "If i gave it all away..for one thing...wouldn't that be something." You know, those songs. They were very entertaining performers and did a great job.
And Lenny Kravitz was just amazing to watch. Partly because he thinks he is, and he carries that with him. And he dresses great, although I'm sure that every girl there agreed he was wearing way too many clothes. :o) Does he really need a jacket, a scarf, and sunglasses in Arizona? He didn't play very many songs, and he spent a while telling us all to let love rule and change our global consciousness. But he's hot and he sings great, and I had a fun time.
What a fun present! Thanks, Brado!

I Made Google

So finding this blog used to be impossible, but thanks to Maria, I made google. You see, now if you "google" my name, Maria's comment about dusting fairy wands with me comes up, linking the whole world to my blog. Makes me think about how much I can divulge without getting in trouble.... :o)

My Irreverent Personality

Travis put his on his blog, so I thought I'd do it to. It's fun, even if only 99.9% accurate :o)

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. And you do break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don't get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

What's Your Personality Type?

Christmas Tree Shopping

I should have posted this last week, since we got our tree exactly a week ago, but here's two pictures of it. The guy who sold it to us is from Oregon and helped us tie it on my Altima. Sweetness! :o) The shirt I'm wearing I bought at Target for the party. It says "Kiss" (the band) on the top of the back which made it even cooler. There's a little snowman from Jack in the Box on the top left of the tree. It was my first ornament my first Christmas on my own in 1998 :o)

Thai Night- LemonWood and Cabbage Wraps

First of all, Brad did a very good job shopping for all the crazy stuff this night called for. He even enlisted the help of a Thai lady at the Asian store who helped him get all the right curries and the tamarind. He also bought the prettiest head of lettuce I had seen in a long time. Which turned out to be cabbage. Which didn't register with either of us until everyone else pointed it out. However, they are much sturdier in lettuce wraps than lettuce ever is, so there were no complaints.
So...this dinner party was crazy nutso.
The appetizer was marinated shrimp with lime juice. The lime juice was supposed to "cook" the shrimp. Like Peruvian "cerviche"- the fish version. It took about 15 minutes of that before I realized I was sauteeing those shrimp. Gray shrimp meat is not appetizing. In fact, it's about disgusting. So the appetizer was that shrimp mixed with ground pork, strips of cooked egg, and lemon grass. Which has the texture more of bamboo than grass. It went in the food processor pretty quickly once I realized how hard that stuff actually is. It was surrounded by "lettuce" leaves, celery leaves, and cucumber slices. It sounds weird as can be, but was very good. And it had a cool dipping sauce which is also complicated and involves citrus leaves, tamarind, and shrimp juice.
Out next recipe was Red Beef Curry, which also calls for citrus leaves. Luckily, citrus grows great here in December on Orange street, one block south so I sent Brad to steal a handful off our neighbors' tree. Actually, I told him to knock and ask. He didn't. Whatever. That turned out to be our main meal, served over rice.
We also had Siamese fried chicken- a lot like killer good chicken nugggets- which was easy and very tasty.
And we had banana splits for dessert. We were going to have fried bananas, but we ran out of oil.
This week we really didn't know ANY of the people who came over, and they were all totally fun. We laughed a lot- the guys especially were hilarious- so we had a very good time.
The food required so many burners that our kitchen looked like a tornado hit it! Oh well! It was great!
(The cute little ornament place holders on the table we got from Crate & Barrel. We are using them exactly twice, but they are so much fun.!)

Chestnuts Burning In the Roaring Flames...

So Brad and I threw our first party. It turned out pretty fun. It was definitely a mormon party and was pretty mellow, but fun for sure. Soo...Brian (from the two hot guys my age party. We hang out a lot. Nothing is going on there, tho. Which is ok. ) and I went shopping earlier for all the stuff. He told me I needed to buy lots of soda in case lots of people showed up. We have about 7- 2 liters left over. haha. We started sending people home with them near the end.
We also went searching for a chestnut pan. To roast chestnuts on an open fire, according to everyone on the internet, you have to cut little slits in them and put them in a saute pan with holes in it. You can order one on Amazon.com, actually. But that was expensive. So Brian and I looked a few places, and I was finally like, let's just go to Marshall's. Brian's like, "If Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't have one, Marshall's won't."
And I was like, "You never know; That place has random stuff."
And they had a copper grilling saute pan thing with holes all up in it for 8 bucks. Sweet!!
We had everybody bring an appetizer so we ended up with mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, quesadillas, and veggie trays. We started the first fire in our fireplace, which was less scary than I anticipated. And roasting perfect chestnuts was way harder than anticipated. About 1 in 5 turned out good. They taste a little like sweet baked potatoes. No one had ever had one before, though, so everyone was excited to try them. Apparently, also from the Internet, in Thailand and England (and France) they sell them in the streets and they are amazing. So... Cim, while you are over there, could you please find out the magic tricks to make perfect chestnuts. Please?
Brad got the only mistletoe lip kisses. Vanessa O and Ariana. That livened things up a bit. I kissed three guys on the cheek, one who blushed like crazy, which was fun. Oh, and one couple kissed once. Ariana told Brian and I to, but that didn't happen. Who knows with that whole thing...
We all played Twister on my bed, but that ended up being not as popular of an activity as I thought it would be. I definitely had fun.
Also, Brad has a projector in his room so we all piled in and watched ELF and Polar Express. And then I read The Polar Express to the 9 people who were left at the end.
Overall, a very good first Christmas party. :o)

Do Something Nice...

So I don't put too my church stuff on here generally speaking. But today the 97 year-old President of the church said in a Christmas devotional, "Maybe 'Merry Christmas' is the wrong thing to say. Maybe we should say, "It's Christmastime. Is there anything I can do to help you?...Are your burdens too heavy?" I loved it, and it seemed very much in the true spirit of Christmas.

Mistletoe Party

On Saturday Brad and I are having a mistletoe party. That means: Twister, Polar Express and ELF movies in Brad's room, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and about 6 mistletoes. Yay!!!!

I banned myself from Whole Foods

I realized the other day that I spend way too much money on groceries, especially on fun things I find at Whole Foods and Wild Oats. So I banned myself from going inside anymore. This led me to greatly appreciate Trader Joe's, which, it turns out, I didn't like so much my first trip, but this last time I bought a ton of stuff for like 40 bucks and am thrilled about it.

Heavy on the Antioxidants

Tonight's party went really well. A couple things:
Lychees- little chinese fruits that taste a little like fruit cocktail grapes. In a can. Not that great, but not bad
Cornish Game Hens- I've cooked these 3 times before, always one or two, and I've never defrosted them. However, if you're cooking 6, defrost them first, or dinner will take a lot longer than expected. Oops.
Brie- The first time I had it, GROSS- I hated it. But Trader Joe's Double Cream Brie is absolutely wonderful. Soo soo good. It's like $3.50 for a huge chunk. Sweetness.
So the appetizer was grilled chicken breasts on arugula with brie and blueberry sauce. Dinner was Game Hens with Raspberry Hens. Dessert was a coconut ice cream banana split with mango sauce and lychees.
Here's some pics!