Disney World: To perfection and beyond!

This video accurately displays our excitement as we packed up for the best Disneyness ever. 

DISNEY WORLD!!!!

It was the best Disney trip I've ever had! After being to Disneyland Paris, Disney Tokyo and Disneyland [1872 times], I can officially announce that Disney World is the best park. Seriously it is beyond amazing. It's huge. Felt like it was bigger than Tokyo Disney, which is like twice the size of Disneyland; Disney World is 46 miles long! It was perfect weather. [I totally italicized that buisnaz for a sort of palmtreesswayinginthewind effect.] Everyone had a lot of phooey things to say about Orlando, like "Oh it's so humid it's inland, it's so hot, there's nothing out there, it'll be the worst weekend to go, it's too far, yada freakin' ya." It was only a 1.5 hr drive! Considering that +Zane and I have always had to FLY to Disneyland, this was perfect. It was not humid at all! We had lots of perfect breezes [relating to the previous italicized verbiage] and even some crazy rain! And perfect sun :]. We went Memorial Day weekend; one of the craziest weekends to go. It was ALSO Star Wars weekend and Disney Summer Kick Off weekend! It was really the only time +Zane and I could go. It was an amazing deal too [how many times have I used the world amazing? don't cur] ; $129 for FOUR DAYS AT DISNEY WORLD. Like what?! There are four different parks [not including extra things like Downtown Disney, those are in another part too]. We focused on two parks; Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. Hollywood Studios is very similar to California Adventure. Same design, similar rides, but this park is more focused on mind blowing shows and the history of Hollywood with Disney and old school Hollywood in general. The hotel we stayed in Friday-Sunday was awesome. It was pretty cheap and had a free shuttle to Disney World! Friday was probably the craziest day. We got to Magic Kingdom at 5pm after I worked and the place was packed. It was really the only day that was packed. It was 6am-6am Friday! Saturday we went to Hollywood Studios. Entertained the entire time. Like 8am-11pm. I was worried that we wouldn't have enough to do, considering there's only like 3 main rides. But zip-a-dee-doo-dah was it wonderful! Unfortunately, my wonderful brain explosion has left me as the worst person to go to parks with. Poor +Zane haha. I get so sick so easily and I'm a huge scaredy cat [who came up with that phrase?]. But it was still kind fun :]. We went on a CRAZY roller coaster called Rock 'n Roller Coaster. Google it.  It's like Space Mountain because it's indoors and really dark, but has a lot to look at during the ride. It's dedicated to Aerosmith! When we walked into Hollywood, these nice random girls gave us their Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania! We were like waaaahhh?!?!?! Yay! The wait was 180 minutes for Stand-by! We had a blast [pun originally not intended, but I changed my mind and now it is intended]. 
We went to so many awesome shows like American Idol for REAL, which is starting the new season at Hollywood Studios and we voted! Sunday was Magic Kingdom again, so we could do all of the rides :]. Again, when we walked into the park, some random guy gave us his Fast Pass for Splash Mountain! Not too crowded at all on the day most people arrive for Memorial weekend. We did the 5 most popular rides in the first 1.5 hours! We were rocking it on the Fast Passes. We went to this hilarious Monster's Inc. stand up; they chose +Zane to play Randall and he was so funny! It was a perfect day. The buildings and rides are so much bigger than I was used to at Disneyland. There are so many details that go into every nook and cranny there [ew, that phrase is naystay]. Disney World just doubled the size of Fantasyland! There are so many different rides and restaurants! There are multiple castles. Our main focus on Day Four was eating at Be Our Guest. Wow. It is gorgeous and so realistic in relation to Beauty and the Beast. The food was deelish. Each day at the park we brought our own food; we forgot our million dollar bill and therefore could not afford to eat in that World :]. But after we saw this restaurant and castle on Sunday... well we just had to give in. +Zane was especially excited :]. We ordered quinoa salad with potatoes, veggies and salad, along with braised beef and julienne green beans, yummy mashed potatoes and lots of veggies. We shared the dishes :]. We didn't have to go into too much debt :]. Every day we were so amazed by the castle. There's a suite in there and a beautiful restaurant! In the FRIGGING CASTLE. We saved the best ride for last; Peter Pan :] I left out so many details.... I would be writing for a week if I didn't :]. There are too many pics to post; check out my Facebook to see them! 

Busy, Busy, and Busily Beaming!

Ow do!

[Southeast Londonese for: hello. [explain that?]]

Okay, I officially have no idea how people blog with work and life. Blogging was much easier for me when I was simply a student. And then, I decided graduate from Neverland [i prefer to be pictured as Wendy, and not Peter. thannnnk YOU.] [speaking of which... totally going to Disney World tomorrow.] You see, thinking is required to blog and I  therefore have no time for said blogging any more: 5:45am wake, work, 4:30pm home [aka work at a smaller building], make dinner, gym, clean dishes, do laundry, make lunch for tomorrow, bed 9:00pm. And this is sans an additional human! I wish I had time to woo you with attempted witty remarks, but alas, I have 3.5 minutes to post this. 

I have decided to declare that Chipotle is the best burrito establishment to ever be established. 
end scene.


Zane and I got hooked on Raising Hope [do I say this literally or figuratively?]. It's hilarious. 

We've been bbqing and beach volleyballin' with our spare time and we love it! We absolutely love our complex. Our beach volleyball court is right next to the Tiki Bar, which is right next to the gym, which is right next to the basketball court, which is right next to the billiards room, which is right next to the computer lab, which is right next to our apartment, which is right next to the pool/hot tub. And that's only one side!

HUGE art piece at Lido Beach!

Zane and I finally found time to go to the beach! So beautiful, the most amazing sand and the perfect water. We got to beach it with our tradish group a few weeks ago, followed by Coldstone and Mud. If you have not seen Mud, YOU GO NOW. It is amazing and I guarantee it will get the noms next February :]. At Coldstone, none of our gift cards [still have like 136 of them from our wedding] worked, so they gave our desserts to us for free! [I just realized that stressed is desserts backwards. yep.] 

Zane has finished his first year of medical school!

What better way to celebrate than a trip to the most magical place on earth [well, on the east side of the earth [yes, america is the earth]]. Stay tuned for the next post, padawan. [which will hopefully come to fruition before 2014 :]]

 

 

Mickey D's

Hiya!

[Looks more like the karate HIYAH! than what I intended it to be.] 

Well, Zane and I attempted to go on a date. It is such a foreign concept to us... considering the whole, medical school thing. Ain't no thang. 
[Actually it totally is a thang. There is no such thing as a "weekend" in Medical School Land, therefore a "date" is an endangered species.]

We found our golden ticket to the golden arches in the mail on Friday. Two coupons for wraps and drinks! It was a glorious event. The emotions were very reminiscent of the following vidja. You must watch the first 30 seconds to fully understand. If you watch any further, you may go slightly insane. 

Our McDonald's date was simply wonderful :]. The new wraps are SO GOOD. We drove on this little backroad that we had never seen before and found the perfect spot to park and eat. 
The sun was setting, the food was great, the weather was perfect and the music sublime.
I never thought there could be so much to say about dinner at Mickey D's :].



And then there was that one time where a cockroach jumped on my shoulder. Yeah I highly recommend to avoid this situation. Guess he didn't get the memo about the welcome mat. [If you have no idea what I'm referring to, then you should read my blog more often. :] ] 

We made our favorite hash browns! [+Zane has informed me that it's hash browns and not hash browns. Tomayto tomawto.] [I've decided that it is illegal to say tomawto.]

• 2 russet potatoes, cubed into 8 pieces
• 1 medium onion, diced
• Pinch of salt 
• 1 tablespoon extra morally clean olive oil
• Blender with 1-2 inches of cold water
• Large bowl, medium bowl, towel

1. Put cubed potatoes into blender, 4-5 at a time. 
2. Blend for a short period of time so you don't end up with mashed potatoes!
3. Place the towel over the medium bowl and pour the shredded potatoes onto the towel. [This reduces the moisture.]
4. Place [semi] dried shredded potatoes in the large bowl. 
5. Add the diced onion, salt, olive oil and mix.
6. Cook to your crispy preference! 

These are the best we've ever had! We're using sweet potatoes next time :]. 

For more of my foodieness and fitness[ness?], visit my new blog!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week. 

Frog Legs at the Bayou

 

Awriight. 

[Colloquial greeting from the Yuke.] [Yuke = UK for those who aren't hip and with it.]

Whilst on the subject. In America The Great, if you have a foreign accent you're automatically smarter slash cooler. Can someone please tell me that we have a ceteris paribus agreement with the rest of the world? [Ceteris paribus essentially means equal in Latin. Now you know a term in Latin. So your automatically awesome. And I hope a Latin-speaking person would feel cool when they learn how to say something in American English.] [And if you find a Latin-speaking person let me know and let me use your time machine.] Moving on.

I can never get enough of Florida. Especially Lakewood Ranch. Everything is about family, friends and community. This place is filled with amazing parks after parks, literal jungles, playgrounds, pools, soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, lush foliage [such a gross word. couldn't think of another.], and, families. Case in point; just went with the Balles to a huge park that I had never even seen before, and it was five minutes from home! There was so much to do. We were there for like two hours, IN ONE AREA. Which is awesome because obbbbviously we will just have to go multiple times to get the full experience :]. We explored one of the trails and I literally had to convince myself that we weren't in Bangkok. We found this hidden yet ginormous bird castle. The most insane/tropical birds I have ever seen.     

                               We had no idea what they were! They were making the strangest noises. We heard a monkey. No joke. There were like a brillion [combined trillion and billion for cool points] lizards covering the entire trail. Some of them didn't have tails... maybe it was like a fashion statement or something. We found a HUGE turtle! He was very sassy. Dawson immediately fell in love with him and would not stop following him into the jungle! [When I say jungle, I seriously mean jungle.] We got to go on these hidden rope swings; it was awesome. Felt like Mowgli the entire time.

Disneyland's Blue Bayou, but for real.

+Brad aka Dad came to visit last night! +Zane and I have calculated that, although we live on the other end of the planet [humor me], we have had six visits from family in less than a year! Thank you, Howard Hughes. The three of us went out to dinner and had the ultimate Florida adventure. 

Makes a tasty chowder

The Linger Lodge. A restaurant. In an RV camp. On the bayou. Hidden behind the Spanish Moss and palm trees. The interior designer must have been a taxidermy hunter. The food was NUMMY. Especially the frog legs. Dad ordered the BEST alligator chowder, blackened alligator and fried green tomatoes. +Zane had a huge crab avocado salad and uh-may-zayng ribs. We all shared the River Bottom Pie! While we were eating, these hilarious old men were singing karaoke from the 50's. Zane and I just had to give in and share our [attempts at] singing with the world. Problem was: all songs were made before jogging was invented. We decided to go with a Sonny and Cher classic; I've Got You Babe. Luckily no one was in the room when we belted this golden number. We had so much fun there and will become the regulars. 

Well friends, my career has begun :]. I'm a Personal Trainer! +Malori is my first official client! I have another blog now; Pow! Exercising, sports, fitness, whaterr you guhn call it, has been my life. For my entire life. And will be for the rest of it. For the past couple of years, my interesting health situation has made me appreciate and delve deeper into food and fitness. This blog is interactive; you present a question, I offer a solution or advice. Nutrients, muscles, pains, programs/techniques, recipes, etc. [The kind of recipes where you already HAVE the ingredients. Hah seriously. Every "15 minute dinners," "easy recipes" website that I see should be renamed, "Dinners that are easy if you have all ingredients that no one ever has or has heard of." I'll have my first post on Pow! tomorrow :].

Cheerio.

                                    

Easter in Paradise

Let me just start off by stating my position on all vermin. They've clearly been confused by the homo sapien tradition of a "welcome" mat on a doorstep. However, I show no mercy to these vile jive turkeys. 

My mat does not and will not welcome you, you nastay thang. Humans only. 

On a tastier note; food. I love food. [I was going for the whole "I love lamp" mood... didn't work.]   I had to take a picture of this amazing green pepper before I ended it's superlative and [literal] spotless life. Like that's how in love with food I am [even though I do eventually and happily eat any and all]. This pepper and a can of tuna [ew] gave me one of our new favorite dinners; tuna burgers!! WOW. You really cannot taste/smell the tuna. Better than a turkey burger, cow burger, weaksauce boca/veggie burgers [which are filled with cheese in case you forgot], etc. Cheapest kind, healthiest kind, yummiest kind. [Recipe is below :] ]. 

Prefacing the most wonderful Easter Sunday was lots of work and lots of play :]. +Malori and I had an amazing night at our complex with free dinner and my FAVE Disney movie [while outside!], Brave! [Rhymed. NBD.] +Zane and I went to +Malori and +Kristian's for an awesome game night with our newfound friends, Haleigh and Mike. 







+Malori and I got more clients for The Crate Escape! Spent lots of time planning a LECOM event with my SAA [Student Advocate Association] presidency, especially with my girl +Kailey. LOTS of time went into making new tee shirt designs, meetings, prepping the food, making flyers,etc. It was most definitely worth the work! We had a perfect turn out, great food, lots of beach volleyball and ping pong, and, most importantly for our hardworking significant others; rest. 

And then it was Sunday. Easter Sunday! Yay! It was packed and perfect.
We ate our favorite breakfast; pancakes. The kind that you don't regret after consuming mass quantities. [Recipe below :]] After church we had a Resurrection egg hunt. 12 eggs, filled with scriptures and figurines representing why we celebrate Easter. Then, we had a lovely dinner that took my tastebuds to yummy town. Marinated pork chops, veggies, homemade [fat-free] gravy, rosemary potatoes and, of course, homemade carrot cake [exhibit H of food/cooking obsession]. After dinner, we had SUCH an awesome egg hunt with the Balles. +Zane and I filled our plastic eggs with the candy we like and dyed hardboiled eggs [which failed miserably] and the Balles did the same [minus the failing part]. 
We each left our eggs in our apartment, went into the other apartment and hid the eggs! Then, we hunted :]. Hah we still have not found half of them; whaterr. 

                       

Tuna Burgers

4 servings
1 (6 ounce) can tuna, drained
1 egg and 1 egg white
3/4 cup steel oates
1/3 cup minced onion
1/4 cup minced carrot 
1/4 cup minced green pepper
1/4 cup reduced fat mayo
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preferred amt. of Chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 dashes of Worcestershire

A bit of garlic powder

Combine all, shape into patties and refrigerate for about 30 mins. Coat a skillet with cooking spray; cook patties until cooked through; longer if you like 'em crispy. These are fragile, so be careful when turning them.

Flourless Pancakes

Serves 4
3 ripe and mashed bananas
6 eggs
1 cup shredded coconut 
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Mix, pour onto skillet, serve. Delish with sugar-free maple syrup, clover honey, sugar-free jam.

Banner that +Catherine gave me a year ago. Always comes in handy!

Amish families have joined the Church!

When my amazing Young Women leader, Cathy, was visiting me, we talked for hours! Catching up on her wonderful life and family was truly a gift to me :]. Her family moved to Ohio quite a few years ago. In the past little while, they have had some amazing experiences with friends joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I have always been intrigued by the Amish culture and it's devout people. [I suspect that's how people feel about us :] ]. It's been really cool to learn more about them; we have SO MANY Amish people and Mennonites here in Lakewood Ranch! The most renowned restaurant in the area is Yoder's, an Amish family's restaurant that serves delish comfort food and the best peanut butter pie. In fact, while Cathy and I were on the beautiful Siesta Key beach, two Amish women were parked next to us [amid a few other interestingly dressed individuals haha]. They're very noticeable because of their attire. Beautiful pilgrim-esque dresses and neat bonnets. I love that, just as our Church encourages, they stay away from the materialistic, superficial ways on the world. [I write this as I wear my Seven jeans...]

Side note: The Mission President for Columbus is in Cathy's congregation [ward].  For those who aren't LDS [Mormon] the Mission President is simply the man who presides over the missionaries in that area. Just for kicks, thought you Utah people should know that he owns every Cafe Rio and has their food shipped to where they live alllll the time. Not a fan myself, but rock on Mish Prez.

Cathy's ward is very close to an Amish "village." A man in their ward frequented one of the Amish member's wood shop for their fine furniture. After a few visits, he gave a Book of Mormon to the owner. After some time, the man decided to read it.

 I have found that it's so much easier to read things you agree with. However, how can you know whether or not you agree if you never open the book? 

This man continued to read the Book of Mormon and wanted to learn more about it through the missionaries. He had to do so secretly in their barn at night; their people would not have approved :[. He shared his experiences with his two brothers, both of which decided to start reading and learning with him. Their families also started to learn about the Gospel and felt the exact same way.


Despite the known tribulations that lie ahead, each family member chose to be baptized! They have recently gone through the temple have been sealed as a family; together forever :]. Although they can still live their wonderful culture, their conversion has brought many difficulties into their lives. They are true examples of faith, sacrifice and testimony. I just want to run up to Ohio and meet them! I find the more private details of their story to be so similar to the experiences of Joseph Smith. I hope that everyone learns of these amazing people. The Church is true. I always want to share what I love with others, and I am so happy that the members in Columbus did that with the wonderful Amish people.

Wonderful Things

Salutations!

Let me start off by saying that hopefully everyone has understood my insanely dry sense of humor and strong doses of sarcasm throughout each post! If not, welp.

Can I just tell the world that I have the most wonderful husband in the entire universe? [Almost every person will say the exact same thing. And it's absolutely true; they have the most wonderful spouse for them :].]

First of all, he cleaned the microwave. Ladies: HE CLEANED THE MICROWAVE. An extremely rare phenomenon that makes me want to throw confetti in the kitchen every day. [Hopefully he would clean that up as well.] Exhibit B: every night he offers to massage my feet. I'm thinking that there is something in the water in Florida... and I dig.

As the cherry on top, +Zane woke up at 2 in the AM [as a result of my screaming] to attack the largest cockroach there is; the Palmetto. Which, is also the name of our ward; how comforting. [ <- example of sarcasm.] I couldn't sleep and wanted a sinful snack and went to the kitchen for a cookie. No joke, I had the thought that I should turn the lights on. AND THERE SHE WAS. [I refer to this roach from the depths of Hades as a female because boats and ships are always assigned to be females, thus emphasizing the size of the thing.] +Zane  came in, luckily before it started to fly. Yes. They have wings. TERROR. We had no idea what to do. I ran into the closet to get the vacuum, as it was our only potentially effective weapon. He grabbed the hose and sucked it up with a performance comparable to Chuck Norris. Interesting fact: cockroaches poop. And leave it on your counter. As a welcoming gift. Luckily this was our first encounter and it better be our last. End scene.

I got together with my fellow medwife and wonderful friend Lauren for a craft day! Her husband is a fourth year and graduating soon, then off to residency!                                     She had the greatest idea for a goodbye-guestbook. We cut up a bunch of colored paper in the shape of petals. When put together on a mountable canvas, it's a huge flower! Before gluing all of the petals onto the canvas, each friend who came to the farewell party would write a sweet message on a petal. So beautiful and creative! Her farewell party was so great and bittersweet. Great food, good music, perfect weather. They're off to South Carolina! So sad to see her go. After the party, +Zane, +Malori, +Kristian and I got together for dinner and our traditional game: Cranium. +Malori and I soundly defeated the gentlemen [although they hardly are when it comes to gaming] and it felt wonderful :].

This is entirely juvenile, but I just have to inform the nation. I have been trying to learn how to french/dutch braid since middle school. NEVER could. The other day, I just decided that I was going to try. And WUHBAM; it worked! It was a miracle. And now I do it every day and feel like the cat's pajamas.

Great fun with friends so far this month :]. With the Balles, Halls and Rappaports we played games, ate good food and had yummy desserts. And, I got to spend time with my wonderful YW leader from long long ago, Cathy Sargent! More importantly, my best friend +Zane and I have had the perfect day every day :]. Always having fun together, learning together, eating together and loving each other.

Happy March to all :]

P.S. We found our first gator in our backyard! He's a little baby that +Catherine and +Malori and I named Charles haha.