You don't need new pants, you just need pants, and the party's in New York, so you may not even need pants.

Last night Jeremy and I went up the the Chalk the Block festival at Riverwoods.  They sell parking spots to artists to earn money for a charity, and the artists have about 24 hours to create a masterpiece in the parking spot using chalk.  There were some amazing drawings!  Here are a few pictures I took:

I just had a Moonpie and a Ding-Dong, and washed it down with and Orange Crush in the cafeteria, I have no desire for anything nutritional.

I have officially had my first bridal shower.  My sweet roommate Bre, with the help of my other roommates, threw me the best little bash ever.  It was so fun to see everyone; my mom even came up for it!  I still can't believe how spoiled I was that night.  It was like having a birthday party when you are 5 and everyone brings you the best gifts ever!  Here are some pictures from that fun night:

 My dad's side of the family: Grandma, Aunt Kim, Aunt Lis, and my cousin Camille

 My mom's side of the family: Aunt Angie, Aunt Libby, grandma, and my mom

 My roommates: Kenze, Bre, Whitney, and former roommate Tina

 My future sisters-in-law: Brittany and Kristine with cute Emma

 Former roommate Marian

 Erica and Emily

Neighborhood friends: Whitney, Rachel, Mikell, Lisa, Lizzie, Kaylene, Bre, and Morgan

Time is pressing. I have a ten pound salami sitting out in the van.

The wedding plans are coming along.  The announcements have been sent to the printer, engagements and bridals have been taken, the guest book has been ordered and is in the processes of being created, and much more.  The most exciting event that has happened as of late (for Jeremy and I, that is), is that we now have a place to live!  We are really excited about our new place.  It is 3 bed, 2 bath, and it is in a great location.  When we finally start getting things moved in I will take some pictures for you.  In the meantime, here are some engagement pictures taken by Heidi Brinkerhoff:

Sew some bacon together because this woman is getting ham!

I witnessed three ridiculous things today after work.

The first was on my drive home. I was flipping through radio stations trying to get some music, when I heard 100.3 promise me that they are the only station that will have you feeling good at work with their "30 minute feel-good music set."  Directly following this promise they play Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends."  A song that consists of lines such as: "like my father's come to pass," "drenched in my pain again," and "as my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost."  Who's feeling good now?

Ridiculousness #2-  I had to stop at the Dollar Store on my way home to get some stuff for school.  On my way out I witnessed an elderly man dressed in a kilt refilling the candy vending machines.  'Nough said.

And to end the list of ridiculous things, when I got home I grabbed a frozen pizza to cook for dinner because I'm too lazy to find something to eat.  Look at what a good pizza I bought on sale:

Freschetta Pizza proudly presents their pizza with 50% (count it, 50 PERCENT) more pepperoni!

I counted 15 pepperonis.  Apparently, the pizzas only came with 7.5 pepperonis before.  Good thing I didn't buy the pizza on the amount of pepperonis I thought I would be receiving.

What are you doing here, Sassy McSassterson?

This morning after my run I wanted to make me a green smoothie, but I haven't gone to the grocery store for awhile, and I was running low on items.  I opened the fridge and found me a few items, blended them together, and it ended up being one of my favorite smoothies.  Here's what I did:

1 apple
1 peach
2 handfuls of spinach
Pineapple juice
Greek yogurt
Vanilla extract

If you want to blend some ice in there it will make it colder, and give it a thicker consistency.  Bottoms up!

Drat my luck. I took all my cannonball securing tools out of my truck just yesterday.

In the process of getting items for my Sunday chicken dinner yesterday, I forgot to get rolls, again.  When I mentioned that to Jeremy he requested the rolls I make that taste like Texas Roadhouse rolls.  I've made them in the past, and we loved them.  Today I also made the cinnamon butter, and it was delicious.  Here's the recipe I used.  I got it from realmomkitchen.com:

Texas Roadhouse Rolls with Cinnamon Honey Butter

Ingredients

• Roll dough:
• 2 tsp active dry yeast plus 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 cups milk
• 1 Tbsp. melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3-4 cups flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• Cinnamon Honey Butter:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions

1. Add yeast and 1 tsp sugar to the warm water. Set aside.
2. Place milk in microwave for 45 seconds. Add butter to milk and stir in until butter is completely melted. Check the temp of the milk, it should be lukewarm, if not then allow to cool until lukewarm.
3. Once yeast has doubled in volume, add yeast mixture to milk mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and enough flour (about half) and mix until it reaches the consistency of a muffin batter. Let rest for 10 minutes.
4. Add egg and salt to the mixture. Beat well. Add enough remaining flour to make flour to form soft dough.
5. Knead dough in mixer with dough hook until smooth and satiny.
6. Cover and let rise in a warm area until double in size.
7. Once double in size punch and let rest for 10 minutes.
8. Press of roll dough on a lightly floured surface. Shape into a long rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half using a pizza cutter and then cut each half into 6 pieces.
9. Place on greased baking sheets and let rise until doubled.
10. Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes. Until golden brown. Makes 1 dozen.
11. To make the butter: Beat butter with hand mixer until light and fluffy.
12. Add remaining ingredients and beat with mixer until well blended. Serve on warm rolls.

You lost me at carrots. Which, uh, by the way, was the first draft of ‘you had me at hello’

I called the temple today, and we are now on the schedule!  I feel like I can officially say that Jeremy and I are getting married October 26, 2012!

She’s the essence of cool. Cool’s her street name. She’s got it monogrammed on her towels and everything

Last night Jeremy and I met up with his family to have a little pinewood derby contest at the Provo Beach Resort.  This was a very serious matter, for the men.  Jeremy was nice enough to let me paint the car though.  This is how our car, or shall I say truck, turn out:

(You can't tell in the picture, but the truck was silver and red).  The men then took over the serious matters.  Such as...

putting graphite on the plastic wheels, and...

making sure all the cars weigh the same.

Then it was time to race!  Who do you think won?  I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to watch it for yourself:

and the winner was...

Team Jeremy and Nicole!

We are officially the unofficial champions of Provo Beach Resort's Pinewood Derby!  Feel free to applaud.

May your love last long like it's battery-powered

So that guy I'm dating decided that he can't live without me (thank heavens).  He proposed this idea to me, marriage.  Since I'm head over hills for him, I decided it was worth a shot.  Here's the proposal story...

Earlier last week I told Jeremy that I wanted to take him on a date because he is  always spoiling me.  I decided to take him to a Bees game up in Salt Lake.

It was a lot of fun, and there were even fireworks after.  The next day I had to take the Praxis test in the morning, and I realized I didn't have pencils.  I asked  Jeremy if we could stop at Walmart on the way home.  He was a little apprehensive (which I figured was just because he was tired), but he consented.  Once we got home he told me that he had a treat inside for me because I am always spoiling him.  When I opened the front door this is what I saw...

You can't see it in the pictures, but the stairs were lined with candles, and there was also some asphalt pie on the coffee table, I'll explain...

We first met at a service auction.  He bought a dinner that my roommate and I auctioned off.  When he and his roommates came over for the dinner I had made asphalt pie for dessert.  I cut the pie into 8 pieces, not realizing that there were 9 mouths to feed.  Since the slices were already kind of small, I just served them, and didn't have a slice for myself.  I claimed that I was full, and didn't want any.  Sometime while we were dating Jeremy found out this is what had happened.

When we walked down to the basement Jeremy said that he wanted me to finally have my slice of asphalt pie.  He then read a really sweet letter to me, and proposed!  I said yes before he could even get the question out.

He is getting me a custom-made ring, so I just have a band for now.  I'll post a picture of the real ring when I get it.

It's not like you get a car or a lifetime supply of Rice a Roni.

So last night I went the the DI, and I found this beauty. ^  I couldn't resist the buy when it was only $25.  I took it home, and immediately started to strip it of its parts.  I made Jeremy go buy spray paint with me, and this morning I tackled the project.  I started at 8:00 this morning, and finished up around 2:00 in the afternoon.

This is how it turned out.  I'm quite proud of my work.  After the spray paint purchases the bike totaled out to a whopping $40!  If I wanted to ride it I would need to buy new tires, but the plan is just to get a basket for flowers and use it for decoration.

When I do my double jump kick off the amp with slashing windmills, I'm gonna need more room

This month I've had a lot of time to hang out with my family, which has been nice.  I went down to St. George for a week, and then they came up here for my cousin's wedding, and next week Jeremy and I are going down again to hang out at the cabin with them.  Here are some pictures of our good times.

I loved hanging out with cute little Brey.

He loved playing with his "vroom, vroom" that Papa bought him.

Of course in the St. George heat we had to go swimming.

Brey loves getting kisses from his Aunt Cole.

When my family came up for Missy's wedding Spencer, Whit, Brey, Jeremy, and I went to the zoo.  It was so much fun seeing all the animals.

Spencer was so excited to see the crocodiles.

This bird tried to take out Spencer and Brey.  It has a frightening beak that makes it look the birds on Alice in Wonderland.
I loved spending time with my family, and I'm excited to see them again this weekend.  I'm trying to be better at taking pictures, so I'll make sure I take more to post later.

Olive Garden's Lasagna Rollata Al Forno

I just found this recipe online, and you better bet that I'm making it tonight!

Ingredients:

Five Cheese Marinara Sauce

• 2 cups marinara sauce
• 2 cups alfredo sauce
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup italian blend shredded cheese
• 1/4 cup red wine (I'm going to use beef stock and some basalmic vinegar instead)

Filling

• 1 egg
• 15 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 (8 ounce) mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup asiago cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon italian seasoning, blend
• salt and pepper, to taste

Noodles

• 1 lb lasagna noodle
• 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Blend first two marinara ingredients together in a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients and heat on medium, stirring frequently. The cheese will melt and the sauce will become creamy. Keep warm.
2. Set aside 1/4 of mozzarella cheese. Beat egg into a large mixing bowl and add all remaining ingredients, blending well. Keep refrigerated until you are ready to use.
3. Cook lasagna exactly according to package directions. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water so they are cool enough to handle.
4. When ready to make, spread about 1/4 cup of marinara sauce in a large 9x13 baking dish. Based upon the number of noodles in your 1 lb of noodles, divide the filling accordingly. Lay one lasagna noodle in baking dish and spread with filling along noodle. Loosely roll the noodle up, jelly-roll style. Decide if this looks about right to you. If so, keep rolling the rest of the noodles. Otherwise use more filling per noodle and discard the extra noodles.
5. Continue with each lasagna noodle until all noodles are rolled and arranged in baking dish. Cover each roll with remaining sauce, the remaining mozzarella cheese and top with Italian breadcrumbs.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degree for about 35 minutes.

He calls me his girlfriend now with no visible shaking

I just wanted to take a second and brag about my boyfriend.  Yesterday he showed up with these beautiful roses and these. v

I know what you guys are thinking, "Nicole, what kind of guy brings you razors?"  The answer is: an incredibly sweet one.  I bought a super cool huge razor awhile back thinking it would be miraculous.  Well, it wasn't.  Jeremy was with me when I bought it, and has heard my complaints about it, and decided to help me out a bit.  How sweet is that?  I just wanted you all to know that however cool you girls think your boyfriends are, well, mine is better.