An obvious question?

At Smiths (I can't vouch for other stores... I shop almost exclusively at Smiths these days. Sorry Macey's), when you check out and are ready to pay, you slide your credit card, and then a screen pops up on the credit card sliding machine that says:

$20.08
Is this ok?
Yes       No

And you're supposed to hit Yes to continue. But every single time it does I look at what I bought and then look at the amount and think "you know, actually, if you really are asking, $20.08 seems a little high. How about $12.83?? That seems much more reasonable."

But of course they really do want the full $20.08 for my fruits, vegetables, yogurts and meat and sugar and chocolate and two containers of ice cream.

Why are they asking if they don't even care??!!!

The overstatement of the season

Utah was supposed to get the winter blizzard of all blizzards yesterday... but all we got was a dusting of snow and a big letdown. What a kick in the pants eh? The best part was how serious BYU got about it, and I guess if we had actually gotten a legendary blizzard it would have made sense. Better safe than sorry I suppose, but...

1. they closed down campus early, at 3pm (not that I'm really complaining about that) and
2. sent out numerous text messages and emails and calls through their emergency alert system. This wouldn't have been so bad, but the texts that I got came in random, non-coherent pieces. For example, Matthew got this message:

S: Extreme Weather Emergency alert from BYU Police: The National Weather Service is warning of a winter snow today that will far surpass anything that we've seen, probably for the last several years. The combination of snow, extreme cold and possibly damaging winds will make travel extremely hazardous. The storm will begin in the north and move south., hitting SLC later this afternoon. Please watch the weather reports and be prudent in your travels.

So that was the message he got, all in one text. I got what was supposed to be the same message, however it came to me in 11 different texts as follows:
Text  #1: S: Extreme Weather Emergency a
        #2: Police:
        #3: warning of
        #4: surpass a
        #5: for the la
        #6: of snow, e
        #7 winds will
        #8: The storm
        #9: south, h
        #10: afternoon
        #11: and

What the...???

Anyway, I guess Salt Lake valley did get a fair amount of snow, and I'm sure other places in Utah got more than we did too, but for us, we were super excited for tons of snow, but all we got was a little bit of white stuff on cars and the grass. Lame sauce.

We're having...

A GIRL!!!!

Its totally legit... 'nuff said.

3 Reasons Why Harry Potter isn't Epic

Matthew and I did end up seeing this last Harry Potter on the opening day. And I have to say that although we enjoyed the movie and thought it was overall pretty good, we are both of the opinion that Harry Potter movies (not the books, but the movies) are just not what they could be. They're good, but just not epic. Feel free to disagree, and we're sure many people do, but this is our personal opinion. Here are the reasons why:

1. Acting. Neither of us feel that many of the lead roles have very good actors, with Harry, Ron and Malfoy being the biggest culprits (Seriously, does Ron have any other facial expressions other than "ugh, I'm scared and I think I'm going to be sick"?) To their credit, they have gotten better throughout the series, but still the acting leaves much to be desired. And actually, now that I think about it, many of the minor or supporting characters aren't that good either. Albus Dumbledore is an exception. He's wonderful of course.

2. Soundtrack. While the main tune is good (you know which one I'm talking about), I noticed that the  general soundtrack just isn't that memorable. I can't think of a single other tune in it, and even though the main song is catchy, its just not epic. For example, I can only think of one song from Pirates of the Caribbean, but hello it is fantastic.

3. Book-turned movie plight. We felt that instead of striving to form a coherent and compelling plot with good character development, the writers chose instead to pick and choose exciting events from the book and throw them together. We understand that you can't include everything (especially all the conversations) from a book in the movie, but we feel that more could have been done to create a storyline that could stand on its own, without having to rely on your knowledge of the books to put things together. For example, Lord of the Rings (an epic trilogy if there ever was one) does a fantastic job of combining sweet action scenes with good character growth and a developed storyline.

Something I wanted to get off my chest

Sometimes I feel so lame being pregnant. Clarification: I"m excited to have a baby, but sometime I feel so lame being pregnant, oh and unemployed, in Utah. Especially in Provo, Utah, where it seems like seriously every other girl is preggo. I'm a blog stalker, I admit, and more lately because I get bored, but if you have a list thing on your blog of other people you follow, likely I've at least read at least some of them. I know its kinda silly. And anyone who is around Provo is, I swear, pregnant.

It just makes me feel so dumb, especially because I didn't get an internship and I'm not working now (not my choice but that's just what life is right now). I feel like some ditzy stereotypical girl who went to BYU just to get married and start popping out babies as soon as possible. [Even though I know that most, if not all, of the girls who are pregnant (including myself) aren't ditzy and care about education and are just doing what they feel is right about baby timing.]

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't feel this way (or at least a lot less so) if I was pregnant in any other state or, hint hint, any other country, but for some reason being pregnant in Provo just makes me think like this. Can anyone else relate to this feeling?

Celestial Food

So, my mom came into town for several days this past week. It was so fun! We bought and made lots of good food and had lots of girl time. One day we seriously made one of the most flavorful, delicious meals I've had. We tried out a recipe for teriyaki beef with pineapple salsa and holy smokes it was an explosion of flavor in your mouth!

We marinated strip steaks in the homemade teriyaki sauce, then pan-fried it in some of the sauce. The sauce thickened and carmelized a bit (or something like that) onto the steak and coated it in a layer of deliciousness. Then we made a salsa with diced fresh pineapple chunks, red pepper, green onion and cilantro. You serve the beef with the salsa, and we also rounded out the meal with sauteed sweet potato, raspberries,  and the rest of the pineapple. I wish I had taken a picture--the plate was so colorful! Like I mentioned earlier, the steak combined with the pineapple salsa really was just a burst of delicious citrus and tender flavorful beef that worked amazingly together. Am I talking this meal up too much? I hope not... it was unique and scrumptious. Sorry again I don't have a picture to help convince you, but I'll include the recipe below. It really is worth a shot!

Teriyaki Beef with Pineapple Salsa

2 2-pound beef triangles (I have no idea what this means... we just bought 3 strip steaks. I'm sure whatever you use is fine.)

Teriyaki Sauce (We made just half of this, because our steaks weren't huge...it was definitely enough).

2 cups soy sauce

1 cup pineapple juice

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 Tbsp chopped garlic 

Pineapple Salsa: (we ended up omitting the red onion and green pepper. Just saying... Also, a lot of these measurements we just eyeballed what looked good. If you're making a smaller amount of beef like we were, you probably won't need to use the whole pineapple for the salsa.)

1 pineapple, diced small

¼ cup chopped red onion

¼ cup chopped green onion

¼ cup chopped green pepper

¼ cup chopped red pepper

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

(Mix well and let sit at least 3-4 hours) 

Place beef triangles in sealable plastic bag or glass dish.  Combine teriyaki sauce ingredients with whisk and pour over beef triangles.  Place in refrigerator.  Marinate for 3-4 hours or overnight.  Broil or grill to desired doneness.  Serve with pineapple salsa.

One last thing... sweet potatoes, holy cow, how did I not know they were so good? We cut them into strips and fried them in a little oil with cajun seasoning and salt. I went from dubious to a believer.

The learning curve

If being married has taught me one thing, it has taught me that insurance companies are just not your friend. The other day I was talking on the phone to my mom about my woes trying to get insurance to cover stuff, and my dad walks by and says, "Oh, insurance companies? Let me talk to her...Stephanie, at the second coming, the wicked and proud will be burned. I am convinced that certain companies and certain people in those companies, like insurance company people who enjoy denying claims and watching you squirm and suffer, are included in that category." I thought that was hilarious. bahaha.

Currently I've been trying to get my insurance to pay their normal covered rate for some pump supplies. In the past it wasn't an issue, but now they are saying they will only pay a much lower rate, and if I want the higher rate, I have to buy from a different supplier. You with me? The problem is that the supplier's prices are so much higher that either place I buy from, I'm going to be paying at least 2.5 times as much as I was for pump supplies. So my goal has been to try to convince the insurance company that it actually is in their best interest to cover me for the original, lower cost manufacturer--they save a bunch of money as well. Doesn't make any sense, but of course they don't really care eh? So my initial call to the insurance did not yield any good results. However, my mom and dad had this brilliant idea to call the manufacturer who I normally buy the lower price supplies from, and see if they could help me out on their end. Turns out in one relatively short call I was able to get my needed supplies for a very good price. Relatively speaking.

The thing I realized during all of this is that I am paying for... wait for it... plastic tubes and plastic plungers. What?! Very possibly the most overpriced plastic there is. When I was on my parent's insurance (before marriage), diabetes supplies just magically appeared in the the cupboard. Too bad that doesn't work anymore eh?