Post-Grad Life

So now that I'm a college grad, I find myself doing a lot of manual labor.  A little ironic isn't it?  I have plenty of house projects to do before my grown-up job begins, and they've been going great.  It is nice to sleep in until the late hour of 8 o'clock and spend the day in basketball shorts working like a mule (and going to Tucanos for lunch, but that's beside the point).

Here's photo number one of my house's summer makeover.  We're finally saying goodbye to the final remnants of that peachy-creme color that covered our entire house.

Maybe this is not enough progress to have our own TLC show, but I'm excited about those doors.

April Affairs

The Foley's have liked April.  Find out why:

•  I graduated. Convocation was super long and I didn't even get to sit by people I knew for those three hours, but it was a nice rite of passage. I'm very happy to be an alum.

Woohoo!

• We saw the Hunger Games.  Scott continues to ask me about characters named Candice and Pita (pronounced Pit-uh).  I think he needs to read the books.
• We're making big improvements on our backyard.  We were planning to do the whole thing this year, but then we realized that would be a lot of work.  So the plan is scaled back but still in action. 
•  Now that it's April, we've come to terms with the fact that some of our New Years' Resolutions are just not happening.  So we're trying again with new health goals (aka a diet).  It's not a weight loss diet.  It's a we-ate-too-much-Easter-candy-and-got-sick diet.  So, we're off of sugar for a while.  On day 2 of said diet, Scott asked how long we were going to be doing this.  Haha. 
• We've been on some "classy" dates lately.  First, we went to Five Guys, which was filled with a million families with a minimum of seven kids each.  On top of that, one of the workers was slapping 50 lb. bags of potatoes on a bench right next to us.  It was really romantic.  On another date, we went to Yogurtland for our new monthly sugar fix.  It was packed, so we ended up sitting next to a pile of rubbish on the strip between the parking lot and University Parkway.  It might have been classier than sitting next to the potato hauler, but then cars began pulling in and shining headlights on us.

This is where we ate our yogurt.  Next to the busted UTA sign.

• The ward talent show is coming up.  Normally I'd head for the hills at first mention of one of these things, but this year I'm going to be in it.  I'd like to say that this is happening out of the goodness of my heart, but I have some other motives.  (My visiting teachees are planning it, which means the "Can we do anything for you?" question was actually utilized this month.  Also, I'm not-so-secretly hoping for a new calling.  Piano callings are the best!)
• We spent Easter with the Bruening's.

  

  Notice my siblings have a basket, a giant stocking, and a pumpkin to collect eggs in.

• Spring is gorgeous in Utah.

• My sunbeam lesson today was about having bodies.  We, of course, drew bodies on the board.  I wish I had erased them before the parents arrived...

The girl in charge of drawing the hair claimed that she was giving them Rapunzel hair.  Has she seen that movie???

There's a Photo of Me and an Eggplant in Here

I have so many unanswered questions about eggplant.

Like, "What is it?"

Well, I sort of found out this week with some exciting cooking endeavors.  We had eggplant parm, zeppole, and a salad involving tomatillos.  Prior to this week, I didn't even know where to locate ingredients for some of these things in the grocery store.  Thankfully Winco has a large assortment of weird foods, and I found everything.

Here are my reviews:

1. Eggplant Parmesan:  I have no idea what eggplant is supposed to taste like, so I have no idea whether this was a success.  It tasted like...eggplant...maybe?  As far as average-bystander-dinner-eater tastes go, it was a pretty good meal though (plus it was oh-so-cheap).  Main advice: slice the eggplant super thin.

2. Zeppole: Holy smokes, I've been searching for this dessert ever since our stay in that 5-star hotel in Texas.  Thanks to Pinterest, it pretty much found me (I couldn't remember the name for the life of me).  The recipe was super easy; and if these weren't fried in oil, I'd eat them every day.  Main advice: dip in chocolate.

3. Tomatillos: I'm in the same situation with these as I am with eggplant.  Does anyone know what these are supposed to taste like?  We used them to make a Cafe Rio pork salad (as part of the dressing).  So, I guess you can't go wrong with Cafe Rio pork, and the tomatillos were, as far as I can tell, delectable.   Main advice: cook extra pork and don't tell your husband about how much cilantro he just ate. ;)

(Maybe someday buying eggplant will be less of a novelty for me...)