La Tormenta

If I could only eat one type of food for the rest of my life, it would probably be Mexican food.  I like it.  A lot.  But not just any kind of Mexican food.  Like, you're not going to catch me driving through the drive-thru at Taco Bell.  Can that even be considered Mexican food?

Derick and I have our own special spot in town and it is called La Tormenta.  It is heaven on this earth, and it holds a lot of memories for the both of us.  It has been our go to spot since we started dating 5 years ago.  I even remember downing 5 whole jalapeños from there for a group scavenger hunt.  My lips have never been so on fire.  When Derick was on his mission I saw people moving tables out of there and I went home and cried because I thought it was out of business.  How am I ever going to tell Derick??, I thought. But I was wrong.  They were still in business.

We have been procrastinating going grocery shopping so last night when we were dying for food we discussed a few places to go.  We decided La Tormenta was the best decision.  We got a lot of food.  I got 3 tacos, with a side of rice and beans, a large coke, and a bag of Takis.  Derick got 2 tacos, the burrito supreme, and a large coke.  Our total was $12 buckaroos!!! Can you believe it? That is how much it would have cost one of us at any of the other places we were considering going to.

If anyone is looking for a good, cheap, bite to eat in Logan Utah, I would definitely recommend this place.  La Tormenta, real, authentic, Mexican food.

Husband Lottery

Disclaimer: This post may have a little too much cheese for some people's liking.

[caption id="attachment_804" align="aligncenter" width="560"] It's ok to use my wedding pictures over, and over, and over again, the first year of marriage, right? ;) Check out Jessica's photography to see her amazing work![/caption]

One of Derick's favorite things to say after I compliment him or thank him for something is, "Ya you won the Husband Lottery." I always respond by rolling my eyes.  But deep in my gut I know he is right.

Yesterday, I don't know what my deal was, but I was just on edge about everything, and I was having a down in the dumps sort of day.   I was laying on our bed feeling sorry for myself and Derick came upstairs and tickled my back, and talked me through my problems.  He asked me why I thought I must be upset.  I said I felt like I didn't have anything in the "near" future to look forward to.  He responded, "with like what? This summer?" and I said, "...no, this week." He smiled his cute lopsided smile, the one where he thinks I have just said something awfully cute, and told me we were going to fix that right then and there.  He then mapped out our schedules and planned out 3 fun things for us to look forward to this week.  It made me feel a little better.  I told him "I won the husband lottery".  He responded, "Ya, you did." after rolling my eyes he finished, "You really did though, because no other man on this planet would love you as much as I do." So I did indeed win the husband lottery. After giving me a big long hug a little while later he said "Are you only feeling sad today because you are prettier than all the other girls? You feel guilty, don't you?"

Ya, That's it. ;)

St. Patty's Day!

I have never been one to celebrate St. Patrick's day, but i wanted to do a little something for Derick.  I originally decided to make a rainbow out of layered skittles in a jar, with gold coins at the top, with a note saying 'Happy St. Patrick's day'. But I decided that was a little too boring for my liking.  I improvised a little, and decided Derick needed to go upstairs in our room and stay there until I was ready.  I made a long trail of skittles leading him to a pile of gold!

I ran upstairs exclaiming "Derick! You will never believe what happened!! A leprechaun came to visit us!!! you better go follow the trail."  His response to everything was: "You need a kid." I guess I just look at him as my guinea pig for testing out the potential traditions we could do when we have children ;)  I love Derick though for going a long with it all.  He even let me take pictures a long the way.

and this morning he made the mistake of pulling out green suspenders from my drawer, "where did you get these from?" I had them from a few Halloweens back, and I had completely forgot they existed.  I then forced him to wear them to church.. Luckily, for him, I let him wear his suit jacket on top, but I thought they added to the holiday a little.

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Olivia and I always say a big reason why we need kids is so we can get away with doing the childish things that always tend to interest us.  We could go from being the creepy adults doing a 'meant for kids' activity, to "Oh, no. I'm only here because little Jimmy wanted to come.  I think it is such a bore! I would much rather be doing anything other than this." You get the idea.

Well, this past week we were more than thrilled to have the chance to go to Dinosaur Park.  There weren't very many people there, since not everyone has crawled out of their holes, convinced winter isn't really over. The few people that were there, though, had kids with them.. and i'm sure we were acting more excited than the kids.  We had a blast.

Avocado Feta Salsa

This is the easiest salsa I have ever made, and it is delicious!!  There isn't an exact recipe that works, it all depends on how much of which ingredient you like the best.  For me, I love avocado, spice, and a little extra lime so I always put extra avocado, lime, and peppers in there.  It is all up to you!  Here are the ingredients needed and the amount I prefer to put in the recipe:

Avocado (2)

Squeezed Lime (2)

Garlic (I use just a dash of the garlic powder.  It is a lot easier but you can use a clove or two if that is your preference)

Purple Onion (1/2)

Serrano Peppers (2)

Tomatos (2)

Feta Cheese (A Small Containers worth)

Dice all of the ingredients up as small as you can, and then mix together! It is as simple as that.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

A Farmer's Daughter

I grew up on a farm.  My childhood consisted of playing in fields, on haystacks, on top of shed roofs, in ditches, building clubhouses, the list can go on and on.  I reminisce about my childhood a lot. I had so much fun.  Actually helping on this farm though, was something I never really did much of.  I remember the dreaded Saturday mornings that my dad would wake my sisters and I up early to help him move cows to a different coral.  Or the few times a summer we would have to go help him move the irrigation pipes. We didn't do these things very willingly.  When I was really little I always begged my dad to take me with him to go milk the cows at 4 in the morning.  I only managed to wake up for that once, though, and the one time I went I wet my pants because I was too nervous to use the bathroom in the barn that didn't have a lock on the door ( I was a weird kid) I was so embarrassed I never went with him again.  Then there were the times I would go to my dad begging for money, and he would make me help him feed cows for a day for an extra $5 bucks... which came at the end of the month like a normal paycheck would.  As I grew older my daily farm visits turned into weekly, then monthly, then yearly.  Our farm was literally a 2 minute walk from my parents back door, but as my imagination got smaller my interest in going there got smaller. I had no reason to ever go there, and when I did it seemed like some old run down memory that made me kind of sad.  Things just weren't the same as they had been when I was little.  As I got older I got busier and the thought to help my dad never crossed my mind.

Besides getting engaged there, this farm didn't really hold very much importance in my life over the past 8 years. Until recently.

A few months ago my family got the news that no family ever wants to hear, but hear they do, much too often.  My dad had cancer.  Lucky for us and him it was caught extremely early, and it was the #1 curable cancer for men.  Prostate.  There were a few different options for what he could do for treatment, of course none of them seemed more appealing than the other, but he decided to go with surgically removing everything to get rid of it quicker.  This meant he could not do a single bit of manual labor for 6 whole weeks.  He was stressed about the farm, wondering how it was supposed to stay maintained while he was out for the 6 weeks.  My 4 sisters and I reassured him everything would be fine and that we would take over.  3 of us also had husbands to do the extra hard work.  It would all work out.  We are a week into taking over the farm and I have grown a whole new appreciation for what my dad does for our family.  My sister, brother in-law, husband, and I were about half way into our full Saturday's worth of work when we complained about how much there was to do! Then we took a step back and realized there were 4 of us, and only 1 of him, and he managed to do it by himself every single Saturday.  During the first week when my alarm would go off at 5:30 in the morning I would think about how tired I was and the fact that I had to go to school directly after I was done feeding the cows, and then go directly to work after class made me even more tired. But then I remembered my dad does the same thing every single morning but at 3:30 instead, so he can make it to his other job on time, and then he comes home from that job around 5 or 6 and goes back out to feed.  All by himself. I've always thought of my dad as the hardest working man I know, but this experience has taken my knowing that to a whole different level.  My sisters and I have all sworn to each other that even when my dad does get better we will never allow him to take on his work load all by himself again.  We have all humbled ourselves quite a bit and realized we have been kind of selfish.  I have been blessed with such an amazing, hard working dad, who taught me to never give up, even when the work load may appear to be unbearable. And I love him for that.

I'll admit it:

I'm pathetic.

I remember Derick and I had "officially" been boyfriend and girlfriend for 1 whole month when we had to not only spend our first whole day apart, but our first whole week apart.  We both thought we might die.  We texted 24/7. We called each other every night, and talked  for hours being as sappy as we possibly could, "I miss you", "will this week ever end?" A couple of weeks after he got back from his soccer camp I was forced to go camping with my family.  The prospect that I could possibly not have service, or an outlet to charge my phone, was killing me.  How was I supposed to survive three whole days without seeing or talking to him??

Luckily, I had service (for 24 hours before my phone died--no outlet).  And it just so happened that this camping trip brought the 8 paged text that contained the first time Derick ever said the 'L' word to me.  That's right, folks.  We confessed our love to each other via text.  But that was the only option... What if a bear ate me or something and we never got to tell each other the deepest feelings we had for one another?  You might be able to imagine how sappy and pathetic we were.  I was just barely 17 and he was almost 18.  I guess it makes a little sense.

Fast forward to a year and a half later when Derick left to serve his 2 year LDS mission.  I hated 'Summer of 2008 Caitlin'. I had it so easy then.  I took so much for granted. I couldn't believe there was once a time when it was hard to spend a week apart, and now I was supposed to survive 2 years with out seeing the man of my dreams, or talking to him at all.  It's safe to say I had hit rock bottom.  I was depressed.  I watched lifetime movie, after lifetime movie for 2 whole months (The couch probably had my body print permanently indented into it).  Each one of them made me cry sob. I hated the movie 500 days of summer. Why the hell heck was it supposed to make me happy to know that you can eventually move on from the 'love of your life'.  Stupid movie.  I didn't understand the fuss over it, and I secretly despised the people who raved over the movie. I ended up crying in my bed for 3 hours after I watched it.  It only discouraged me more.

But time passed and Derick finally came home.

• 24.5 months


• 106 weeks


• 744 days


• 17,856 hours


• 1,071,360 minutes

Later he came home. Life was good again and I promised myself I would never take him for granted, and I would never freak out about not seeing him for a few days. I would not be the type of  girl I couldn't stand while Derick was gone: "Ugh, I can't see my boyfriend for 3 whole days!!" (In the most whiney voice you can imagine, with the biggest pouty lip) and then there is me thinking awful things about this person.. maybe envisioning myself punching them in face, all because they had no idea what 2 years felt like.

But fast forward to a year and a half later.  Derick and I are married.. have been for 7 months, and we haven't spent longer than 2 days apart since the mission. That is.. until now. Now we are supposed to spend 1.whole.week. apart from each other. Why??  Why me?  I'm suddenly feeling like 'summer of 2008 Caitlin' all over again!

Like I said, I'm pathetic.

FHE

Every week Derick and I try to do a Family Home Evening activity that will help our relationship grow, and to help us get to know each other better.  This past week we made a yummy dinner of Turkey Burgers (Super quick, easy, and healthy meal)



After we ate dinner we decided to begin the long process of designing our dream house! We have never talked much about what we want in our dream house, so it was a lot of fun planning it out together, and hearing the things Derick wants, and all the many similarities in the things we hope to have.  It got me even more excited for the future, at the thought of Derick and I building a dream home together :). It won't be for a very very long time, but it is still exciting to think about.



For all those many married couples out there, I would recommend this activity!

Marchin' into March

I'm a slacker, I know it.  I haven't blogged since Valentines day! I definitely have an entire list of things to blog about.  I don't know when this will be, because it isn't going to be right now.  Please.. stay on the edge of your seats.

Today, while I was driving around, I saw a presidents day sale sign.  My thought process then went as follows
"oh I bet presidents day is coming up real quick. Its next to Olivia's birthday (February 22nd) how many more days until her birthday? What day is it today?"

uh, HELLO. It's March! Presidents day and Olivia's birthday have already passed.  Where have I been?

I should have known it was March since this morning when Derick woke up he was acting a little kookie and told me to join him in "tradition". He linked arms with me and made me march all the way around the room with him.  Believe me, his marching was extremely exaggerated.  I had no idea what the heck he was doing but I went along with it.  Finally he explained to me that he was Marching into March! (I like to think he is creative, but I know this was just the half asleep, crazy, Derick talking)  We then made the decision that our kids will forever know the 1st of March as the day they march down the block with their parents.  With goofy hats, and horns. Our neighbors will know the 1st of March as the day that crazy Cox family marches around the street in their pajamas.  It will be a celebration, that's for sure, as we march into March.