pretty pink

mmm...

In the past week I have made or helped make the following:

1. Buckeyes. I randomly found this recipe online a few years ago and LOVE it! If you are a fan of chocolate and peanut butter, this is a MUST try!

2. Dutch Oven Cobbler - we tried both Cherry Chocolate and Raspberry Chocolate. Sorry, no picture, but it was dee-licious!

3. Strawberry Turnovers. They turned out to be pretty good, but I'm not sure they were worth all the effort.

What are your favorite summer treats?

girls only like guys with great skills

As you may or may not know, Jeff has been working on getting his CPA for the past year. We found out last fall that he passed all the tests (woot! woot!), but still had to wait for him to acquire the required hours to claim the prestigous initials. Jeff got the *official* letter back in March that he was finally a CPA. Very impressive, considering that many people don't pass the tests on their first try, let alone meeting the requirements within a year of graduation. :)

Then, to make me even more proud, Jeff noticed this little gem in the Idaho State Board of Accountancy Newletter last week:

That's right folks - Jeff scored 4th highest on the CPA exam in all the state of Idaho for 2008! What a genius - what a man! He's definitely got skills!

a year later...

Way back when I mentioned some Scrabble tiles I had acquired for projects. This is the long awaited result - a beautiful little necklace charm. I was so happy with the finished product!

i heart the kitchen

In case you were wondering, I have been back from DC for almost a month now. Thanks for bearing with me through all the photo posts! I have a ton more pictures that I didn't put up, but it's time to update you on my post-DC life. :)

One of the best parts about coming home was cooking/baking again. I don't consider myself to be a gourmet chef, but there was something so wonderful about getting back into the kitchen, putting on my apron and cooking a tasty dinner for Jeff - I loved it! Since then, I have also tried out some DELICIOUS recipes, including Chris Bianco's Pizza Dough from Martha. It is truly amazing! I am in love with thin crust vegetarian pizza, so I spread the dough thinner on mine. Jeff likes fluffy crust, so I kept his crust thicker for his BBQ chicken, bacon, and pineapple pizza. It turned out yummy both ways!

georgetown

3 things I love about Georgetown:

1. Iceberry Frozen Yogurt. I had the honeydew melon with strawberries - so amazing! Considering that the closest one is in LA, I'm going to have to try some of the local fro yo joints to see if anything compares.

2. Georgetown Cupcake. Words cannot even describe - you have to check out their website. I tried taking a pictures of my cupcakes, but transporting them in a box on the Metro made them not so photogenic. :) The Peanut Butter Fudge and Lemon Berry cupcakes I had were totally worth the $2.75 each and all the ensuing calories. Amazing!

3. Paper Source. I do love me some pretty paper, and Paper Source had a lot of it. With cute rubber stamps and sets of lovely letterpress flats for a mere $3.50 what's not to love?

cherry blossoms

In every shade, from white to pinkest pink, the cherry blossoms in DC are beautiful!

Happy Easter!

pictures of the National Botanical Gardens in DC

Library of Congress

WWI Memorial

I love Monday

Well, at least this past Monday in DC. What am I doing here, you ask? For those of you who don't know, I am currently working for the U.S. Senate office doing constituent services, meaning I help citizens who are having problems with federal agencies. It's a fun job, and I LOVE being so closely involved in politics. I got to come out to DC for some training on how to do my job better, as well as to get acquainted with DC's political and tourist workings so I can explain it to constituents back home.

Staring out the work week was Monday, which was AMAZING! Since the actual training didn't start until Tuesday, I had the day to meet my DC coworkers, get my Senate ID (which, PS, gives me access to some pretty cool places!), and get a taste of how the whole DC scene works. We had a little time in the morning, so we got to go to the Library of Congress and see some really neat things, there, including an original copy of the Book of Mormon!

Later in the afternoon, I was lucky enough to go to a hearing that my boss was participating in about some current controversial legislation. Not only was it fun to see how the hearing process works and see a number of prominent Senators speaking, but...wait for it...I was on C-SPAN! *See the arrow in the picture below, pointing to me sitting down.* Now to the average everyday person that may not mean much, but for a political nerd like me it's pretty darn cool! Click here if you want to see the whole video - I can be seen at 27:27, 37:33, and 1:10:28. :)

After that we came back to the office, and not to much later we rushed with my boss over to the Senate floor in the Capitol for a role call vote - again, very cool! We got to see even more Senators there, including leadership from both parties (Senators Reid, Kennedy, and McConnell to name a few). It was so interesting to see how they actually vote and observe the comradery between the Members, even those of different parties.

Now it may not seem like much, but Monday really was one of, if not the the best work day of my life (this was another cool day)! Since that time, I have done other fun things, like eat in the Senator's Dining Room and say hello to Senator McCain, but Monday has been the most fulfilling and exciting day by far. It's fun to ride the Metro into work, all dressed up in my business clothes. And I love walking around the Capitol amongst the folks who make such big, far reaching decisions that affect our country. I really love being a part of the process and seeing up close, firsthand how it all works!

the view

from the balcony of my hotel room in Rosslyn.

More happy details on my AWEOME, AWEOME Monday to come!

greetings from dc!

Greetings from our nation's capital! I am here all this week for training - yipee! I am excited to do not only touristy things, but fun Senate things, too - like attending a committee hearing (yes, I am a political nerd). Hopefully I'll have have more pictures up this week to share...

a little late...

but I just wanted to mention Pi Day, one of my favorite days of the year (I posted about it here last year). As always, we celebrated with yummy pies, although a Saturday evening activity prompted us to move the festivities to Pi Day Eve (aka March 13). The classics returned (key lime, chocolate, and asphalt [aka mint chip ice cream and oreo]), and a delicious Raspberry Custard Pie, like the one pictured above, made its Pi Day debut. The one I made was definitely not as pretty, but tasty none the less. You can get the recipe here (note: I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust instead of the Pate Brisee).

Do you celebrate Pi Day?

Picture from Martha

little birdies told him

A little late, but here is a picture of the card I made Jeff for Valentine's day. How can you not love cute, little, blue birdies?