Do NOT do this at home.

Soooo.. In Dominica the bread is ridiculously bad.  It's dry and flavorless.  Which means all of us student spouses get to make bread if we want our families to have yummy sandwiches.  I came up with a recipe that I love and I started to bake and sell it to other students and families.  It's called my Sweet Wheat Oat Top Bread.  Well, tonight I made a few loaves, turned the oven's gas on and lit it inside, then went in the other room to do something else while I waited for it to preheat. 
**side note: There aren't gas companies here like there are in the US.  If you want to cook you have to fill your propane tank and hook it up to your oven.  Sometimes when a shipment hasn't come in for a while we will have propane shortages.  It really stinks when your tank runs out in the middle of baking bread.  THE WORST. bleh.**
Well, when I came back in to put the bread in I opened the oven and it wasn't hot. Noooooooo! The propane ran out!  Ug.  It was too late at night to go use someone else's oven.  I thought MAYBE I could kind of coax a little propane out if I shook the tank a little.  I turned on and off the gas knob again (BTW there aren't temperature settings on the oven.  just numbers 1-4 and you have to guess about where 350° would be) and then got a match to tryyyy and light the stove.

SCREEEEEAM!  A HUGE fire ball exploded in my face!  I looked down and my cut off shorts were on fire and I patted them out.  I ran to the shower and stripped down in a matter of seconds.  As I stood there in the freezing cold heaven sent stream of water I just started to sob.  It hurt so bad and I knew I couldn't stay in the water forever.  My upper right arm killed, as did the inside of my right leg. When I finally got out I looked at my face.  My eyelashes and eyebrow on the right side were all curled up.  That was sure a horrible night to get through. ouch.
I guess the flame I lit in the oven to preheat it had somehow gone out- maybe when I shut the oven door.  The gas had been working all along and just filling up the oven.  When I opened it- and left it open while I jiggled the gas tank- the cloud of gas was slowly enveloping me.  Then like a dope, I lit my fate.  Well, Darwin, you haven't gotten me yet.  I'm still alive and kickin.

Thought You Should Know Thursday

HE GOT IN!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

(That was quick!  His interview was just Tuesday! [as mentioned here and here] 

He was given the choice between going in January or going in May... 

we'll be praying about that for the next few days) UPDATE: He starts in MAY!
To learn more about Dominica (where we'll be moving) see this post

Anyway....Just thought you should know.....

Thought You Should Know Thursday

Thought you should know...about this burger. 

The best burger I ever ate..... for a VERY limited time at Liberty Market (ie: the rest of October). 

The Oktoberfest Burger. 

It features sauerkraut, emmanthaler cheese, black forest ham and a mustard aioli. 

This is what Aaron ate for his free birthday dinner on Monday.  (we went rock climbing and then hit Lib Market and Joe's Real BBQ for dinner.  lots of fun :)   He gave me a bite and I melted almost as much as the emmanthaler.  It was the juiciest, most savory combination of flavors I think I have ever tasted.  It took a lot of self control to not quick snatch that thing out of Aaron's hungry vice grip and make a hot mess of my face and diet. Cookie Monster would've had nothing on me. 

Anyway, just thought you should know.

Thought You Should Know Thursday

I thought you should know that there is
a CGCC vocal majors recital on
November 2nd at 6:30 at the PAC on campus.

Instead of all the classical and opera stuff I've been practicing, I'll be singing this:

Just fun and no stress :)

Come and support the arts.......... and me :)

See you there!

www.cgc.edu/arts  CGCC Box Office 480-732-7342

Thought You Should Know Thursday

Who shops at Fresh and Easy?

I heart that place.  Not as much as I heart Sprouts, but pretty close.  Do you know why I love it so?  No, it's not because I can nom a whole bag of their granola in one sitting- it's amazing.  No, that, my friends, pales in comparison to.........Their clearance section.  DUN DUN DUUNNNNNNN. 

The Fresh and Easy policy is to keep food always fresh, so they try and keep the food for only a few days before they bring in a new delivery. SO, as a result, all of their fresh food items have a short window of time before their sell by date comes up. Every night when the stores close the employees take all the items off the shelf that needed to be sold that day, and they mark them down anywhere from 40-80% off. The items are then put back out in their specially marked clearance section.  I've gotten all types of produce, bread, cookies, rice pudding (extra yummy) Tiramisu (scratch that last comment- this one is extra yummier), scones, dinner rolls, salad mixes, reeeeally cheap steak, roast, and brats.  

The best time to shop Fresh and Easy if you're looking for those marked down clearance items is right at closing time  while they are stocking the secion at 9:45pm, or when they first open at 8am. Throughout the day they will mark down clearance items even more, however the selection will be sparse. I LOVE Fresh and Easy!! I can get produce for our family for CHEEEEEEAP. And since I try and have a full fruit bowl on the table at all times for when my kids get the munchies, cheap produce= healthy kids. 

Speaking of which, I am currently nomming a bowl of summer squash sauteed in butter, garlic salt, and pepper.  Dinner cost me 50¢ tonight.  Thought you should know.

Thought You Should Know Thursday

Hey bloggies :) 
I am making something up called "Thought You Should Know Thursday," where I tell you about something I think you should know about.  uhhh... yeah... that was a little reduntant.  sorry.  Like the Pinterest post, or the post I wrote about Ingrid Michaelson.  Well, today is Thursday and I have something I think you should know. 

I have a new music crush. 

It's on Jukebox the Ghost.

Here are a couple of my faves

for your listening pleasure :)  Enjoy.
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Hold It In

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Summer Sun

Isn't that awe-freakin-tastic? 

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Anyway, just thought you should know.

AIRPLANE

Sorry I slacked on telling you all about the US Airways shoot. It all started on a cold dark night when I sent our (Aaron, Stephanie, Megan) headshots and resumes to a commercial company in response to an audition notice for a US Airways commercial...... lawl
We were chosen and on Wednesday we went to the US Airways building just off Rio Salado in Tempe for a costume fitting (they told me what they wanted and I had to pick out similar things in our wardrobes and bring them).  Then they played doll with us. "go try this and this on.......hmm no, lets try this and maybe that." back and forth trying on different combinations with our and their supplemented accessories and such.  Then on Friday night we went to the US Airways hangar at Sky Harbor where they dressed us in the clothes they'd picked out and some ladies from MAC with pink hair and upper lip beautymark piercings did our makeup.   There were about 5 or 6 other actors.

Here's the airplane!  The screen reflects light into the plane where we were filming.  The stairs to get up to that monster were kind of wobbly and really steep (they are not the ones seen in the first pic- they were on the opposite side.  Megan was scared so Aaron carried her part of the way. My high heels kept sticking in the little holes. ha ha

They took out seats so the camera crew could set up all their stuff.  Sorry I didn't get a better picture of the set up inside!!  If you know photography equipment, you should geek out when I tell you the whole thing was shot using the RED EPIC camera which takes like 240 still shots per second, so while they are using a "video" camera, it's taking stills and they don't have to switch between still and video shots. 

It turns out that it's not for an actual commercial (although they could still use it for a commercial if they wanted) but for all of US Airways promotional materials in airports/ website and training materials and videos.  We were told not to be surprised if we see these pictures in a magazine in the future.  No one had to speak and we just followed directions like, "Now look at the flight attendant, now look at each other, now look at Megan's book like you're reading something intersting, now look back at the flight attendant, now walk by and smile at the flight attendant... etc etc etc.."

We got to eat a lot of airplane snacks... What's your pleasure?  It was a snacky free for all.  And I don't know what was up with the orange bracelet.. sheee-oot!  They ended up changing my outfit a little in the middle of the shoot and made me wear someone's glasses cause I looked too young...  That always seems to be a problem.

Oy.  I look bad in this picture. however, I think Aaron looks awesome and it's been a while since I've posted a pic to show how thin he's gotten :)  What a handsome guy (they made him shave his full beard into a moutee).

We only had to stay until about 1:15am (because they wanted to get Megan in and out before a case of the tireds became a problem {halleluia}). Everyone else had to stay... It reminds me of the Brian Regan joke about still getting a whole sno cone even if he only played half of the baseball game. "So I'd rather play half game."

It was pretty cool to write up the invoice when I got home.  I told Meg that she has to put half into savings and pay tithing and the rest she could use however she wanted.  She's buying a parakeet and cage. She has wanted one forever and couldn't save up her money long enough to buy one.  fun stuff.
What is your opinion on that?  Aaron says that we are entitled to hers but I think that she should get all of it...tell me what you think.


Anywho, it was fun and I'd do it again in a second. woot.  BTW- if my posts get sparse I'm truly sorry- I'm in school, work, running carpool and boot camp, doing homework and bleh bleh bleh... boring, but busy.  Just shoot me an email if you miss me and I'll post some Steph candy.

PS- coming soon... singing at the Barrett Jackson Auction last week with William Joseph and a 300 person choir! FUN!  It was pretty cool..... shoot.. I don't want to give too much away....