Vegas Baby- Day 2!

Our second day in Vegas consisted of us pretending to be world travelers. It started at Mr. Lucky's 24/7 at the Hard Rock cafe where we shared a sub-par overpriced breakfast and where I was reminded once again that Vegas is definitely it's own culture- where dressing slutty and wearing a bikini to breakfast is totally acceptable. However, the music there was awesome and I was reminded of my great love for 90's rock. Yay!
Then we headed to Serendipity 3 for, yup, more food. (It was a long walk!) Brittney had also told us we had to go here for frozen hot chocolate. Which was, granted, completely delicious. However, it was also a 45 minute wait and $10 for one glass, which seems completely ridiculous. The mango sorbet, however, was $4.50 and was completely to die for. It was like 80% mango and 20% sorbet stuff. yum yum yum.











Next, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. It's half as high as the original, and something tells me the view isn't really anything the same, but it was fun anyways. We were up there for about 5 minutes when Jonmark says, "Quick- I need a piece of paper!" And just like that, we started throwing paper airplanes off the eiffel tower. Only 3 total, really, but it was hilarious. As was hiding them from security when they walked by. I think we may have landed them all in The Paris pool.




Next! Off to New York! Which looked like a short walk but really wasn't. We were both exhausted, but we did get shots of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. I was actually pretty impressed by how realistic they were. (The one of me by myself is at the real one 4 years ago.)



We also strolled around Little Italy and ate perfect little fruit cups and sat and listened to guys play dueling pianos in the Times Square bar. Basically, it was just chill and fun.
And then I finally got to see the Bellagio fountains. I've actually been to Vegas a couple times with my family but only for about an hour. And I'd never seen them. I had no idea it was like a huge lake!! So fun.
AND...the escalator. This is something I wish I could have taken a picture of, but there was really no way. After going up several elevators over the last few days, Jonmark suddenly says to me as we walk by an escalator, "I can go up that."
"Um, what?"
"Yup. Stand behind me. Let's go!"
And so we did. Like 3 times. And it was awesome. Mostly to see everyone's reaction. As we got off one, a 20-something kid came up to us and was like, "Dude, that was the coolest thing I have ever seen in like, the LONGEST time."
It was.
We finished off the night with delicious Carl's Jr. and a quick stop at the Hoover Dam at night. It was beautiful. And such an awesome trip.

Vegas Baby!! - Day 1

So school is over. And I've decided to take a hiatus. Maybe a long one. Which has freed up my schedule a bit to do fun things. Like go to Vegas. With boyfriend. To see Phantom.
Because of all the things I've done and seen in my life, I've never seen The Phantom of the Opera. Not the movie. Not any performance. Ever. And Jonmark loves it. And sings it. Well. But that's a different story. Phantom plays every night at the Venetian. Which is where we almost stayed, except that it would have been like a million dollars.
So instead we stayed (click here). It used to be the old St. Tropez, and it definitely was an old hotel that seemed like IKEA got a hold of. It was really fun. And the pool was awesome. And so was the DJ who played all day long.
I knew Vegas was a Jonmark place when he came into my room at noon shouting, "Wakie, Wakie!! There's a pool party at noon! Whoo-hoo!!" (We didn't get in until like 2 the night before).
So I got up and got ready and headed off to Planet Hollywood for Earl of Sandwich. Brittney from work said we HAD to go there, and she was totally right. The sandwiches were delicious!


Then off to Sephora because I forgot my bronzer. And the one place pale girls don't want to go without bronzer is Vegas....And Jonmark talked me into this:

The lipstick. Not the picture. I seem to do this about once a year. And then remember how utterly impractical red lipstick is. And how it gets in the way of kissing. And gets on my teeth. And makes me self-conscious. It is, however, a great red. For special occasions.
I also bought a shirt that seemed very Vegas to me, which is somewhat hard to do when considering sleeves and hemlines, but I was excited. I also curled my hair with my flat iron and was very very proud (How sweet is the Venetian's bathroom?)

And Jonmark found a sweet shirt 15 minutes before the show started at Banana that was half off and I had $30 in coupons, so, um, yep. It was free. So sweet.
Phantom was PHENOMENAL. The auditorium is created for it, so it's all very exciting and just awesome. I snuck in one picture....

Next we went to eat at Canaletto still in the Venetian. Our waiter was actually from Italy and was so cool and friendly. We had caprese and pasta and seafood. And it looked like this.


And it tasted like YUM. And there was even a pigeon for authenticity! (can you spot it?)

And then.... TAO!!!
Tao is the nightclub in the Venetian. It was just rated #1 in Vegas and we really wanted to try it out. I've never been dancing in Vegas, but I wanted to, and Jonmark really loves getting his groove on :-).
The line was crazy long, and so while I went outside to look where the end was, Jonmark asked the usher where the line started. The usher asked how many of us there were. Then suddenly the two of us were being ushered to the front of the line, past all the people who actually had to pay to get in, into the elevator, and up to Tao. The place was definitely vegas, and so so crowded, but the people were all really cool. I never knew quite how much attention a girl could get from dancing on the lap of a guy in a wheelchair. (p.s., mom, it was really REALLY crowded. I was literally being shoved constantly. There was no where else to dance!) We didn't stay for too long, but it was so so fun.


And then we went to the parking garage. Where we stayed for 2 hours because neither of us could remember where we parked. And we were led all over the place to different garages until finally we broke down and asked security to go find it. And they did. On 7b. In between the 7th and 8th floors. In a weird dumb place that I still couldn't figure out how to get to so I crawled up through the steel ropes and then drove it back down. Never ever ever will either of us ever forget to remember where we parked!!

Microwave Cookout

ATTENTION MINDY: Jonmark and I are back on.

Moving on....
so Jonmark has begun his healthy summer diet. I suppose I have started it with him, as I did finish of the last of my Butter Crunch Blue Bell earlier. (Also, I thought I might have had a little chest pain associated with it, so I went running, too.) Afterwards, I met up with Jonmark after some work appointments for a workout.
Then we stopped by his mom's house for a bit and for our post-workout meal.
Jonmark and I eat very much the same. We eat veggies and fish and chicken and brown rice and pride ourselves on being pretty healthy. (Even if we might eat a lot of taquitos. Guacamole=avocados=good fat.)
The difference in our eating is that Jonmark can make these things quickly. Like in a microwave. I generally take about 30 minutes longer to cook anything, at which point I've likely consumed enough sugar to balance out the healthiness. (Hence, Brad yelling "I'll make you a sandwich! I'll make you a sandwich! every time I get hungry.)
Oh, and I eat butter on my rice and veggies. That's different, too.
Today, however, Jonmark made a delicious discovery. Now, Jonmark's mom is 73. She has a few idiosyncrasies. For example, she loves the dollar store. LOVES IT. And yesterday she discovered Sweet Chile Garlic Sauce. Today Jonmark discovered it.

He put it on his rice and green beans. I was skeptical. "No, really! It's good! Try it," he said. "It's like Chinese food now!!" Oh boys.
While eating this delicious Chinese food, I myself made a discovery. It was this:

Following a questioning look, Jonmark said, "She gives money to save the Jews."
Um, what?
"Yeah, she might be overdrawn like crazy and have no money and she'll still give money to the Jews. She feels she'll be blessed for saving God's people- kind of like tithing."
I don't know why this struck me as hilarious. I think it just struck me as the absolute most random thing anyone could ever do. Especially a 73-year old American Mormon woman. Really? Is there a special Jew in your life? Did you ever visit Israel? Or, for some reason, it just is your sweet mission to help save the Jews? Whatever it is, I'm glad she does it. And so are they.
It was the best random cookout ever. And I even learned how to cook tilapia in the microwave (not with the rice).

Bunny Cake

Once upon a time, I had a friend. Who said to me that "bunny cake" was his favorite part about Easter. Although my mom may have made the coolest birthday cakes ever for us, we never had bunny cake. I'd never heard of it. Since asking around, though, I have learned that about 50% of Mormon moms make bunny cake for Easter.
This friend is John. I emailed John's dad. Here's the recipe:
FAMOUS EASTER BUNNY CAKE ... 1. a regular yellow cake mix 2. white frosting (canned) 3. coconut 4. make one round layer and the rest make in cup cakes 5. cut round layer in half (after baked & cooled) and put icing inbetween and stand up on side (body of bunny) 6. 1 cupcake for the head 7. ice the body & head 8. cover with coconut 9. cut out paper ears from construction paper (white) 10. use tooth picks on ends of ears to hold on to the Bunny 11. use Jelly Beans for eyes & nose 12. ice & decorate ther rest of the cupcakes to put around bunny.

Well, Vanie, loves coconut and John was having dinner at his house (with a new girl....), so I decided I would make two. (I didn't google it for fear of stifling my own creativity. Or running into a blog that demonstrated a masterpiece I could never live up to.)
Even though the ratio of cake to cupcake head didn't seem quite right to me. And the head and the legs and the tail being the same size seemed odd. I did make the frosting by the myself. And they were DELICIOUS bunny cakes. Even though one looked a little like a dinosaur and the other like it got hit by something (the cake completely fell apart when I took it out of the pan) It also just looks a little fat and lazy.

So, for your enjoyment, may I present:
"Bunnysaurus" and "Roadkill Bunny"



Happy Easter!! (And for more fun, click here)

p.s. Just for the record, I DID google bunny cakes today. And there are WAY worse ones than these :-)

OOPS I FORGOT! Two classic reactions:
Annette: "You know. This is good. It's a little different than what I expected it to look like." (completely straight-faced)
Gabby: "That's a nice...............bunny?"

Pedialyte and Noodle Soup (and family time. and sad break-up time.)

Sometimes it's best not to blog right when your in the throes of things, but sometimes it's best when you just do. Because sometimes so much is going on that you just need to talk about it, and journals just don't cut it those times.
So this week my parents came in to town. Not for any reason but to just chill and be with us all. And maybe see the Easter pageant. Sunday night, I cooked for everyone and it was just a quick little visit before they took off to sleep at their hotel.
Monday night, we went to Pappadeaux, our favorite Texan Cajun restaurant that is somehow miraculously here. It's not quite the same deliciousness as there, but it was amazing nonetheless (especially, maybe, Jonmark's Hawaiian Tuna incredible-ness).
So we had a wonderful time, and my parents met Jonmark and loved him and met Brea and loved her and it was just fun to sit around and talk forever.

And Tuesday morning Jonmark and I decided to take a little break. From each other. It was one of those things we both were waiting to happen and hoping it wouldn't, but it did. I spent the rest of the day eating cashews and strawberries and a cupcake and doing homework. Tuesday night my family and I all went to the Easter pageant at the temple and ate Bahama Bucks shaved ice afterwards 'cause that's the Mormon thing to do. My mom kept saying how much she missed Jonmark (yes, we all did), but it was still a good experience, and my dad may have even shed a couple tears at the pageant. Maybe.


I, lucky me, woke up at 4am puking my guts out. I thought at first it was caused by me taking iron on an empty stomach, but it wasn't and I felt like dying all night long.
I texted Jonmark to see if he was sick. He wasn't. What he was was incredibly sweet and good to me. And brought me over noodle soup and pedialyte and beautiful yellow tulips. And read me my favorite little kids' books that I have in my room. While I tried to stay awake. And I think I did. For a little bit.

My puking stopped. It actually stopped with dramamine at noon. But my fever was 100.6 (You know I took it no less than 5 times a day). Thursday my parents left a day early. Something about their children being responsible (Brad) and sick (me) and boring (both of us). I was feeling good enough to go to Brad's with Jonmark and say good-bye.
And after spending most of the day together again, Jonmark left for Reno for Easter. I was almost going to go, but somewhere in between us "taking a break" and it being the last crazy weekend of the semester and clinicals and promising Brad to spend Easter with him, I stayed.
And went shopping on my own for some sustenance. In my pajamas. Including bananas, potassium pills, more pedialyte, and calming nighttime baby lotion. Which was good to have on hand. Because sometime around 2 a.m. today, our "break" turned into a change-it-on-facebook kind of break-up. It was, of course, quite possibly my fault. It seems to generally be. Whether it be commitment or timing or my heart or whatever, for now, we're not dating.
But he is still an incredible man. This I, of course, know- or we wouldn't have dated. So, anyways, we'll see.
It feels a little like my world is quickly becoming unraveled.
First, this.
And, my clinical site fell through. Which was also a job opportunity.
AND, another job opportunity is moving slowly.
AND, my lease is almost up and I don't know where I'm going.
AND, I am probably going to drop out of this program at semester because I cannot be excited about it and because finding a place to do my project is not going well at all and basically, I am declaring, I NEED A BREAK!!!
BUT that upsets my whole equilibrium which is already not doing all that well.
It hopefully means I can work out more and do a triathlon again, and maybe, possibly, enjoy my life instead of staring at a computer screen every waking moment and missing another gorgeous spring.
Hopefully it means that I can at some point make time for lover and babies.
We will see.
For now I will focus on eating. Because, since Tuesday night, I have had:
2 pieces of toast (one with ginger jam and one with huckleberry, both given to me with love)
1 roll
1 banana
1 piece of bread
1 bowl of noodle soup
1/2 bag of baby goldfish
2 liters of pedialyte
1 cookie
1 bowl of cereal
And lots of water.
That's it. The semi-anorexic in me is wondering just how long a girl can live on Pedialyte.
Don't worry. I'll be eating soon. Maybe even tomorrow.
And just in case he's reading this:
Thank you. So much. I'm a lucky lucky girl.

Late Night Taquito Run

I think, perhaps, that taquitos have not been given their due respect on this blog as of late.
A certain number of taquitos have played quite an important role in our relationship.
And they have certainly contributed to me gaining 3 pounds. And to Jonmark's diastolic going up 10 points.
You see, this is Rolberto's.

Rolberto's is open 24 hours a day. Which has been helpful when Jonmark leaves my house at 1 am starving. Not that it's close to my house. But it's somewhere between our two houses, which is still not close.
They make the best Horchata in the world. They also serve 5 taquitos for $2.90. Or 3 taquitos for $2.55 (I think). Loaded with tons of guacamole and cheese and they are perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
Jonmark was in Reno when we starting dating. He was there for 5 days afterwards, so I was kind of excited to see him.
He brought taquitos to my work and we ate them in the break room and it was oh-so-cute.
Since then, there have been several late-night taquito stops.
Taquitos with the movie Tangled.
Taquitos at 12:01 on Monday morning.
Taquitos after I got my nursing license renewed.
Taquitos this Thursday night at work.
Taquitos with new friends. Taquitos with Brad.....
You get the idea.


Sometimes Jonmark can be a little crazy when posing for pictures. But, see, even when he's tired, he loves his taquitos.

Fiddler

A few weeks ago, Jonmark and I went to Fiddler. You'd think I would have taken pictures, but I didn't. Because sometimes I'm a slacker. And really, I want my Canon Elph back anyways.
Anyways, Jonmark and I both independently decided we needed to go see more plays and stuff and be more cultured. So he bought us tickets to Fiddler on the Roof. Neither of us really knew anything about the play, so we were really excited to go see it.
We were running almost-late, but I said to him that we'd totally make it. He said, "I don't know, this theater is really an obstacle course for a wheelchair dude." Oh, yes, it was.
So we got in, but apparently our seats weren't "accessible." So they stuck us in the VERY BACK row. Um, no. That does NOT work. Especially when he paid for VERY GOOD seats. I told Jonmark I'd be right back. I ran down to where our original seats were and realized we were only 6 seats from the end. I explained the situation to our "seat neighbors," who obligingly moved to our seats and gave us the end ones. I ran back upstairs.
I asked Jonmark if he could make it down 6 stairs. He said maybe. We got close. He saw the stairs. "Uh, yeah, not THOSE stairs." Crap. As we tried to figured out how we could do it together, this super cool lady comes and asks us what's up. She was like, "Oh, honey, my husband is totally strong and he'll be here in just a minute."
Her husband and I carried him down the six stairs. He hates that stuff, but I kind of felt like a stud and it made things exciting, so....
So we got into our seats and the usher was like, "Um, we're going to have to take your wheelchair our of this aisle. And we'll give it back to you after everyone leaves."
Fine lady. Really, could you be more uncool?
The show was so cute and fun and really well-done. Apparently the dad in it (Tevye) has done 1500 performances and was incredible. It was 3 hours long, and it didn't seem like it at all.
So, like we were told, we sat in our seats until everyone left. Including everyone who was old as dirt and had to get by us and thought we were the rudest young couple ever. One couple was like,"Are you staying?"
Jonmark was like, "Yeah. We're going to go ahead and wait for Les Mis." hahahaha.
Anyways, the cool people came back and we got back up the stairs and it was all well and good.
Next stop...
Well, Les Mis of course. Or maybe Phantom in Vegas :-)

I don't wanna be a playa' no mo'....

So I should totally be in bed but I just got off work and I will be doing massive homework today so instead of doing the boring thing, I'll blog. I can only look at those restaurant pictures so long.
Ok. So. I passed my nursing boards in February. My idea of celebrating is to go to dinner.
Jonmark thinks a little bigger.
We went to Mexico. True, it's only like 3 hours away. It's actually closer than ANYWHERE else we could have gone. And, being that people are getting killed constantly over there, we got a great deal at the resort. So, off to Mexico.
First, I have to clarify. Yes, we stayed at a resort. NO, we were not naughty. We did not go there to be naughty. We went because it was spontaneous. And fun. And because I had never been. And we were totally super good kids. And who else packs their bags for Mexico with less than 24 hours' notice?
No one. That's who.
So, we drive to Mexico. And as we cross the border, the border patrol says to Jonmark, "You come here a lot, don't you?"
(heehee. He was there 2 weeks before.)
Then the other guard says, "Hey, that's not the girl you brought here last time!"
He swears he's not a player. um-hum. It was hilarious. He was so embarrassed.
Driving in Mexico was a little bit terrifying, but also kinda of exciting. Especially the whole not-dying part. There was one time when we actually did get scared when there were all these police cars and firetrucks. But it turned out to be a random parade through the middle of town. With the most excited 4-year old girl I have ever seen watching it like this was the very best day of her entire life.
The resort was gorgeous. There was one family staying there other than us. As in, I'm pretty sure there were 6 people at the entire place. Which was this place.
We had the pool to ourselves, the beach to ourselves, the restaurants to ourselves, and....well, anything we wanted.
The thing about dating someone half paralyzed is that he just happens to come with a wheelchair. Which leads to some interesting experiences. Especially with someone like me. Who was completely determined to make out in that cabana by the beach even if it meant navigating some 50 feet of sand. After some serious contemplation about my strength and the payoffs of crossfit, we opted against me carrying him. And for me dragging the wheelchair across the sand. Which apparently is usually not a one-person job. Unless you have a very strong and determined girlfriend.
And it was totally worth it.

We also had fun navigating curbs and me learning to dissemble a wheelchair in 2.5 seconds as to not be attacked by some would-be attacker. (This is usually something he does himself when danger isn't lurking around every corner.) I had fun attempting to do homework and group skype with somewhat less-than-stable internet. However, it wasn't terrible, and I got 3 assignments done. :-)
But besides the craziness was the awesomeness.
It was truly absolutely beautiful. The weather could not have been more perfect. The room was right on the ocean, and the breeze blew in constantly. There may have been a mariachi band playing until, i don't know, 2 in the morning, but that just made it a little more authentic. :-)
Jonmark found this perfect little breakfast place that was about as Scottsdale as it gets in Mexico. It was called Coffee Haus- a German guy came to Mexico and started it. The first day I had a Philly Omelet with cream cheese and Jonmark had tropical French Toast with whipped cream, coconut, mangoes, and bananas. So amazing. They have huge glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice for $2.50! And grapefruit juice. And chocolate milk. We ate breakfast by the pool and then laid out tanning. Jonmark turned four shades darker while I covered my face with his shirt so I wouldn't burn and fell asleep (Yep, that's him tanning in the pool picture.)


We ate tacos at this delicious little taco stand/restaurant that gives you an entire tray of condiments to go with your itty bitty tacos. So we ate tacos and drank orange fanta and turned down random offers from random street vendors and may have gotten lost for a little bit looking for a club, but, overall, it was a perfect quick little vacation.


Including the last morning where we ate another Coffee Haus breakfast at the Marina and got warned by the policeman not to drive my Altima down that close to the water. I'm pretty sure they would have come and saved me, but maybe that's not a story I would want to tell.
As soon as we crossed the border, we were bombarded with frantic phone calls and horror stories of people hoping we'd made it out alive. Apparently it's a little more dangerous than we had initially thought.
Sometimes it's good not to read the travel warnings.

POSH (WHNP style)

So, I took my boards 2 weeks ago and I passed them. I am finally truly 100% a women's health nurse practitioner. And I could not be more relieved. And happy, of course. But truly relieved. (And I have 2 jobs in the works....I'll keep you updated.)
For the first part of celebration, Jonmark and I went to POSH.
I've wanted to go here for quite a few months, but it is definitely something that demands a special occasion.
Instead of a menu here, they give you a list of ingredients. If you think you don't like something, you cross it off. Then you select if you want 4, 5, 6, or 7 courses. And then the party starts. They make you whatever they want to from the remaining ingredients.
Jonmark and I each crossed off one thing. It was amazing.
We had 5 courses. They were all different.
Here's the rundown:
Pre-course snack- Cucumber caviar (not real caviar) with cheese and radish sprouts

Course 1: Me- Kumquat endive salad. Him- Pumpkin curry soup















Course 2: Me- Ahi tuna with avocado mousse, blood oranges, and lemon foam Him- Smoked Sea Bass with White Asparagus on a Tomato Sauce


















Course 3: Me- Wild Boar Bacon with Butternut Squash and haricot verts Him- Shrimp with red quinoa and the best asparagus on the planet

















Course 4: Me- Kangaroo loin with mashed parsnip and blueberry glaze Him- Short Ribs on I-really-don't-remember
















Course 5: Me- Chocolate bar on Chocolate cookie with roasted banana sauce and almonds. Him- Pistachio scone with whipped cream/ice cream and strawberries














Post-course snack: Frozen lemon curd lollipops


After-dinner send-home snack: Toffee and cookie pieces
Overall feeling: INCREDIBLE!!! (so fun!)