Bryan & Brittney Austin

So I am not very good at remembering to take a lot of photos while cooking. But I am starting to get a lot better at is slowly. So below is a recipe for Chicken Soulvaki Sandwiches. They are so yummy and we really enjoyed them. Another recipe I found online. I do down the meat amount for just the two of us but the recipe I will give is for four servings.

So, I really love the cooking channel. I love watching all the different meals that are out there to cook. Cooking Channel by the way, NOT the Food Network. Food Network does have some okay shows but the Cooking Channel is nothing but cooking shows mostly. It is the kind of food too that I can make. Maybe not as well or fast, but yes I definitely can. Also, I really love cooking. It is fun and exciting to see how the recipe will work out and if I did it all correctly. So lately, I have been a bit on a health kick too. I have been trying to watch what I and Bryan eat more. So all the recipes that I share on here are for healthy eaters. You won't find fattening dishes here. I want to share how good it can taste to eat healthy. I also love reading cooking blogs so I am going to make my bad attempt at trying to show what we are enjoying and maybe share a good recipe here and there. Sorry for how bad my photos are but I am not the best at photographing food and my kitchen is not that big or great. All I have to work with is about 5 feet of counter tops, 3 feet in width of walking space, so I am a little crammed. For sure the next house I buy/build will have an awesome kitchen, with so much cabinet space and a lot of room to roam. Mmm... I will have to save my dreams for another house though. So here it is. My first recipe that I wanted to share/show is one I found online. It is for Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry. It was so yummy and Bryan gave it the thumbs up approval to make again and again.

Well we did have fun together this last weekend. First Bryan started the day off Saturday by going over to his cousin's, boyfriend's apartment for a LAN party. It was nuts! The only other time that men ever get this squeezed in close together would be in a midget size submarine. It was so jammed packed of boys and there computers, you could not breath. 20 guys had shown up for the party in an apartment that is no more than 800 square feet. They had guys in the living room, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. They had to run extension cords from all over the place just so they did not trip the breakers. They opened every window and the front door even to try and ventilate and it was still smelly and crammed. I went over to hang out with Bryan's cousin, Desi. It did not take long after being there that the girls decided to leave and go somewhere that did not smell of sweat and computers. I do not envy Shane for his power bill should be thru the roof this month. Shane was cool to invite Bryan to come over and hang out with all the guys. I just wish there would have been a little more room.

Desi and I ended up going to a piercing and tattooing parlor for her to get her nose pierced. I have never seen anything like it before and it was interesting to watch. All the people getting tattoos too it was kind of interesting. I would never be able to commit to a tattoo like that or a piercing either but it was a new experience to see. Desi and I then ran some errands before going back to the party. We picked up one of the other guys wife, Keirsten. We went to dinner at Tres Hombres. I hate to be negative, but I was not impressed at all by Tres Hombres. It was really lacking in the flavor department and it was way over priced for what you got. The company was great but the food was not that good. We ended the night with picking up the hubbies and going home.

The next morning (Sunday), Bryan and I got up extra early to drive out to Alpine for my friend's, Megan, baby blessing of their little girl. She is such a cute baby and it was so great to see Megan and Stephan again. We do not get to see them often enough. I really miss hanging out with Megan. She is so much fun, laid back, and just a good person to be around. I hope that we can hang out with them more often before I head down to school this fall. We ended our Sunday with a very long walk, 9.5 miles to be exact. We walked from Bryan's parent's house to Valey Fair Mall and back to about 5600 West. It was a long but wonderful walk. We talked the whole way and enjoyed the long walk. It was a little tiring by the end of the night we both crashed. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Well we had a fun and adventurous weekend this last weekend. Bryan and I got this last Friday off of work because we had originally made plans to hang out with my cousin, Rich and go dirt biking and four wheeling down in Moab. Well due to a dirt bike malfunction, Rich was unable to come down so Bryan and I decided that since we had the time off we would still stick to our travelling out of the Salt Lake Valley plans. We just wanted to get away too bad. We took a road trip up to Idaho. We love Idaho. It is so beautiful and country style, the kind of style we love. Both Bryan and I have a desire to move from Utah and live a quiet and quaint life in the country side. We ended up driving thru some different towns and areas, looking at different horse property that is for sale. We hope to buy some next year.

We first made our way towards Shelley, ID. We had to stop off in Blackfoot, ID by my Grandma's property and we lucky enough to run into my awesome Aunt Pat. She was loading up her horse with her friend when we got there and got to "shoot the shit" as Aunt Pat put it for a while before finishing to our first destination in Shelley. We really liked Shelley. It was small, quaint, and would fit us just right. We then took a nice long drive to Arco, ID driving thru Atomic City, ID. Not a whole lot of anything there but we did really like Arco as well. We continued driving and really fell in love with Moore Mackay, ID. They are perfect towns with country feel, small, and in a valley surrounded by a beautiful mountain range.

At this point I would like to say that the Tom Tom has been fired from us using it again. We had found a small bed and breakfast in Mackay that we had made arrangements to stay at. We put the address into the Tom Tom and took off driving. It led up 16 MILES out of the way in the wrong direction. It is fired. Once we realized that the Tom Tom was wrong when it said we had reached our destination, in the middle of no where, we quickly checked the directions the website had given me and realized that it had led us way past it. We ended up almost at Mount Borah before realizing it. It was really sad. But we did end up finding our way back and to the B & B with no problems finding it once we turned around.

The Mackay Homestead Bed and Breakfast was wonderful. It was so quiet and beautiful. We had pretty much the whole lower half of the house to ourselves. It was a nice bed and the hosts were very gracious and wonderful people. We enjoyed our stay immensely and would recommend it to anyone who wants a get away to the mountains but do not want to camp. They treated us with home made cookies and fresh fruit. The morning of Saturday they brought down one of the best breakfasts I have ever had. It was cheese, spinach, potato, and bacon frittata and it was so excellent. They brought fresh fruit, homemade whole wheat bread, and the best freakin' jam I have ever had. It was so fresh and had little sugar in it. It was so good because you could taste the fruit in it. We loved it.

Well after driving through Idaho Falls, ID on Saturday morning, we became afraid of the snow that was starting to fall and decided to head back early so we would not get caught in a snow storm. We got back home and decided that since our friends that we were supposed to hang out with were sick and could not go out, that we would have a fun date night instead. We went to Applebee's first and enjoyed watching part of the UFC Championship and eating some good food. We then went to the movies and saw Red Riding Hood. All in all it was a good movie. The only thing we did not like was the cliche moments that were a little to close to the fairy tale that made you giggle a little. Other than that the acting was good and it kept us on the edge of our seats for most of it. Not a good one for kids though. Some sexual content and violence.

Sunday was not so good for Bryan but a good one for me. Bryan woke up Sunday and was not feeling good at all with a cough and chills. I made him stay home while I walked listening to Don Williams, Alison Kraus, and Garth Brooks, my three favorite artists of all time. I love their music and it made my 6 mile walk that much better. I walked over to the West Valley Family Fitness Center for my friend, Francie's little boy, Tukker's first birthday party. He is such a cute kid and it was fun to see Francie again since we do not get to see each other that often.

All in all a good weekend for sure. I will update with some photos when I find the time to plug the camera in.

Well the past couple weeks have been super busy for the us. Well mostly me, Brittney. I worked for thirteen days straight at work. We were switching over to a new computer system and it was a lot of training and transferring of our patients into the new system. Totaling at almost 40 extra hours of overtime I was very glad for a couple days off. Also had a big test, a big assignment to do and needless to say, I was burnt out by Friday evening.

The friday starting out okay. Bryan made me dinner, spaghetti, which he ended up dumping in my lap and burning me. Then we ended up just falling asleep with Bryan laying on me on the couch (he thinks I make an excellent pillow) and ended the evening early at that point since Bryan had to go to work at 11:00 pm until 7:00 am. He currently only has to work the graveyard on Friday which was pretty nice for me because then I got the whole bed to myself. I will admit I was grump when I got home so actually having a good nights rest and a bed all to myself helped my mood and soul from going postal on Bryan. Saturday was fun for me though. While Bryan slept from his late night shift, I had this groomer lady come to the house and groom Chewy and give Daisy a good bath while I started to sand and refinish one of our end tables. It was actually relaxing and enjoyable for me to sand and work on the end table. I love doing wood work and having fun craft projects. Chewy now is back to his devilishly good looking self and Daisy is a pretty girl with her claws trimmed so she does not tear my legs to shreds when she get a little too excited to see me. I did finish sanding the whole side table but due to the bad rainy/windy weather we had I was unable to finish staining it. It will have to wait for a good Saturday morning to finish. Bryan told me I could do furniture refinishing more often if I want to and I would love to refinish more furniture and he had the excellent idea to just get furniture off of KSL for free or real cheap and refinish that. Yeah, I love starting new hobbies.

Saturday night was actually a blast for Bryan and I. We ended up walking down to The Pizza Stop in downtown Magna and having some of the best pizza we have ever had. It was awesome and we had the pizza called "The Magna." It has Colissimo's sausage, pepperoni, olives, cheese (obviously), and bacon. OMG! It was so good with such fresh ingredients. Bryan and I will definitely be going back. Then we walked back home, ran and got some pretzels, and then went home to watch The Next Karate Kid (one of Bryan and mine favorites) and had a lazy evening. It was wonderful.

Sunday was wonderful too. Bryan and I to get out of the house, but due to the rain we could not go for our usual walks, we drove around to different stores just to see what is new. We went to the Guitar Center, a couple Petsmarts to see the dogs and cats up for adoption (just for fun), KMart for their closing sale (we ended up some new collars for the dogs for only $4 and a zipline for them to run between when we are camping instead of using the chain which Blue hates), then we used a gift card I got from a co worker for Christmas to have dinner at the Olive Garden. We only spent $25 for the day. We then ended the evening by watching the new Simpson's, Family Guy, and Alaska State Troopers. It was just a nice relaxing weekend which was much needed.

Hopefully this week will not be as stressful for me but Bryan is doing great. He is still just working and loving his job.

I also got my acceptance letter to Utah State University's Bioveterinary Program. I am excited to started in classes but wondering what I am going to do about work. I will have to start looking for a new job which I really do not want to do. I love where I work and love the people I work with. If only it was something I could do the rest of my life.

So we have not been too busy lately and not a whole lot going on.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and it was a very uneventful one at that. Since both Bryan and I work we did not get to spend much time together. I left for work at 8:30 am and Bryan was not awake yet. Then I got home at 8:00 pm due to having lab class right after work. Bryan had left for work at 3:00pm. He did not get home until 11:30pm. The only thing we did together was share a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and then went to bed. No whoopy this Valentine's Day. We both were just too tired.

But this last Saturday we did get to enjoy a treat together. Bryan and I went with 97.5 The Blaze radio station on a Valentine's Ghost Hunt. I had won it off the radio being lucky caller number 7. First we met at the radio station and all loaded the party bus which took us to Tracks Brewery in Tooele. While there we got a steak dinner that was pretty good. I have to admit I was surprised that we got steak dinners and was kind of expecting finger foods instead. It was a fun place though and we enjoyed the food.


Then we got to board the party bus again and go to the old Tooele Hospital. It was closed in 2001 and had been open since 1947. It is said to be the 3rd most haunted hospital in all the United States. It was pretty cool to go and see it. It was creepy for sure and there was definitely a presence there. At one point they did a light response test. Let me tell you. It could convince anyone. They will take a twist light and twist it just to the point of on and off. Then they leave the light in the middle of the table. They did it with more than one at one point and even three lights. Then they ask the entities different questions in hope to get a response through the flashlight. For example, while we were there (this was in the old conference room), they asked the entity if her name was Jessica ( a usual resident of ghosts) and if so to turn on the lights, all of them. Sure enough all the lights would light up. Then they asked her to turn them off and they would shut off one by one. It was insane. It was amazing to see. It was obvious that there were no tricks to this. They even had a device that would detect the different energy waves in the air and determines words from the dictionary to what the entities were saying. At one point I was pretty excited and sitting upright and tensely in the coach that Bryan and I were sharing. The voice said "Couch, relax." I relaxed realizing that he might mean me. It was completely dark too. There was no way to see what my expressions were. Then, Bryan left me for a bit to go explore. At that time while they were talking to the entity in the room called Tommy, I felt someone brush there hand against mine. It was ice cold but definitely felt like a hand. Then the voice replied to a question with "Couch, pretty." I felt chills just fill my spine and whole body. I was definitely a sinick but now am a believer of the paranormal.

My sister, Darcy, is buying a new home. Which seems a little crazy because they were not able to sell there old home, they are now renting it out to college students so they can have a bigger home and a little newer one that has more home for them to raise a little family in. They are hoping to start trying to have children this summer and hopefully have a kid by next year. I am rather excited for them. I want to be an aunt so badly. I have waited for a long time to be one too. Darcy and Danny, get to work. The best thing about kids, is making them.

Olive has found a family that will take her for the rest of her life and love her as much as we would. They are a great family that has huge yard, doggie doors throughout the house, another black lab female about Olive's age to play with, and have only ever taken rescue dogs. They will better understand her not wanting to leave us too. We were able to have Olive get her surgery through the help of friends and family. It is wonderful to see her running (not jumping yet) around feeling good and she is finally making her final steps to becoming a happy dog for the rest of her life. It is sure bitttersweet though. We have grown so attached to her through the past several months that we have had her. I really do and so does Bryan, love this dog. She is so wonderful and she has left a paw print on our hearts. We will miss her so much and it will be hard to get along again without her.

Well that is about all that I have right now. Will continue with our lovely stories that we endure through our adventures.