Oh, that sounds good

It has been a day full of goodness.

Good sales.

Good music.

Good smells.

Good pictures.

Good food.

Good use of time.

Today I practiced being a personal chef, for none others than myself and Ryan! It was so much fun!

I spent a little over an hour at the grocery store this morning getting ready for the day of cooking. They were having great sales, and this made me quite happy as I was purchasing food for eight meals. Except for the Cracker Barrel cheese. That stuff sells for $41 for less than a pound! I did not buy that.

When I got home, I blasted my Bruno Mars station on Pandora and got to work. I made four meals for us - the other four are for a taste testing I'm going to do next week with ladies from my church. I danced and sang and thoroughly enjoyed the background music.

The house quickly filled up with amazing smells. My favorite came from a recipe called Tuscan Pepper Soup (not only did it smell good, it was also a pretty awesome shade of yellow/orange).

I have been trying to learn how to take good pictures of food. Ryan suggested that I move up a little table we had in the basement to serve as a prop. I bought a few other things to add color and fun. Here's a couple that I took:

Might not exude professionalism (I only have a point-and-shoot after all), but I was excited that I captured the steam coming off of the pork chops.

I decided to have Mondays (for now) be a cooking day for us, because I am hoping that other days during the week I am busy cooking for other people. If that happens, I doubt I will have a huge yearning to come home and cook even more. In fact, this week I have booked three families! I will get a lot of practice and training this week, and I am so happy that I am getting some interest for my services. 

Wish me luck, I am hoping that everything goes smoothly!

For the love of...

Guess what?! I am learning that I can enjoy things that I never used to or thought that I would!

I am almost 27 years old, I have NEVER had ANY interest in politics. How did I choose who to vote for, you ask? Easy. Other people's opinions. But the 2012 elections have hooked me. Every time there is a debate on, I find myself wanting to watch it and enjoy every moment of it. I am anxious to learn who ends up winning the primary, and even more anxious for the presidential election in November (even if it is better odds that Obama will win than that he will lose).

Sports. Football in particular. I cannot honestly say that I sit down and watch the whole game - it's more on in the background while I look at Pinterest or play a game on our iPad or something else equally multi-taskable. But there is something magical about rooting for a team, and that magic grows tenfold when that team has a player that is being praised by the entire nation. I'm even getting a hang of all of the rules! There are seriously SO many it's almost ridiculous. The only thing I don't like about it is watching them play in such cold weather that I can see their breath puff out from behind the cage-like apparatus on their head. That makes me sad for them.

Country music. I know. You're probably thinking (at least if you know me well), "Wha?? Chantal likes country music???" Yes. I do. Not of all it - but seriously, is there any genre of music in which every single song can be loved and adored? No sir. But there is something about country that makes me feel all lovey dovey inside. I don't have a favorite country music singer yet, but I think I'm likin' Tim McGraw. I think that this is the most dramatic of my new likes, because it is music that I have been exposed to in the past, and have never ever even a little bit been able to find some enjoyment from it (except for Shania Twain and SheDaisy). Before I would admit my new liking of country music, Ryan would turn it on sometimes and then catch me wiggling my hips to the beat, and tease me for it. I figure it is about time to fess up to it.

So, how do you suppose I have become a lover of politics, football, and country music? My husband. These are all things that he has enjoyed for some time. I love spending time with him, no matter the activity or the background music. I love watching him react to good and bad plays that happen during football games. I love watching debates with him and having somebody next to me to answer my questions. I also love that it gives him somebody to talk to when he wants to discuss politics, instead of having to wait for our up-and-coming lawyer friend to be in town. I love plugging one of our phones into the speakers in our room and turning on country music to get ready to in the morning. I even sometimes listen to it by myself on Pandora at home while Ryan is at work so that I can learn the songs and know them when we are listening to it together.

I really like liking new things.

Sniffaluffagus

A couple of weeks ago I had my first experience as a personal chef. It was really quite fun! The client I was cooking for has 2 cats. I am allergic to cats, so this quickly led to my sneezing and blowing my nose and washing my hands every ten minutes. It was just glorious.

However, after I left her house it only got worse. For the following 4 days I had a bad cold that somehow spawned from my allergic reaction to cats.

Because Ryan loves me and might have kissed me once or twice while I was sick, he didn't feel at his best during the next week, and a cold hit him pretty hard last Friday evening and he was out of commission until Monday afternoon. And then, because I love Ryan and had kissed him once or maybe twice while he was sick, I woke up on Monday with a sniffly nose. By Monday night I was 100% congested, and now I look like Rudolph from blowing my nose so much.

Last night before bed I took NyQuil - the liquid kind. And then brushed my teeth. Twice. Because that stuff tastes horrible to the extreme. But did you know that on the "be aware" list on the back of the bottle it says that "excitability may occur"? And very next on the list: "marked drowsiness may occur". Well, come on folks, it has to be one or the other. Needless to say, my brain became excited from the medicine I took to help me sleep. I seem to recall that the same thing happened the last time I took NyQuil.

So I lay in bed last night listening to silence coming from my NOT snoring husband (for once). What luck.

That being said, I am grateful that Ryan was finally able to get a good night's sleep. He needed it. Here's to a speedy recovery!