30 Random Facts About Me: Christina

I'll never forget the night that I met Dave Navarro. Not because meeting him had any impact on my life whatsoever, in fact, I'm not even sure I have ever even heard any of his music, but because of the way my mom handled the situation. 

We were about eleven, maybe twelve, and had gone to the movies at the theater in the Palms Casino here in Las Vegas. Walking out to the car, my sister saw Dave Navarro and immediately started freaking out...she was a big fan of his growing up. My mom kept telling us to go up and say hello, but of course we were too scared. We went back and forth until finally, my mom walked straight up to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Mr. Navarro, my girls would like to say hello to you." If you could see the look on his body guards' faces! Oh my gosh!  I swear they were ready to take her down! I'll never forget, my sister, with this totally shocked look on her face said, "Do you know who you are??" Of course, he laughed and said yes, he did. He was extremely nice and talked to us for a few minutes before going off on his way. I wish I had a photo to share with you, but that was back before everyone carried a camera in their pocket. 

I learned an important lesson that night, though it has taken me over ten years to really understand it. If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done. See, had it been up to Amanda and I, we would have never gotten to meet him as we would still be standing in the corner trying to convince ourselves to go up and talk to him. 

This applies to a lot of things in life. If you never step out of your little bubble, you can never reach anything on the outside of your little bubble, no matter how hard you try. 

"A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown."

--Denis Waitley

I started thinking about this today on my way to work. If you follow me on social media, I'm sure you saw that the news anchor for Fox 5 Vegas came to speak at one of my classes today. I know it is super lame, but I am a Journalism geek and was so excited just to be in the same room as him. I mean this is someone who has had such a successful career in the field I am pursuing, though I definitely want to be behind the camera not in front! 

Anyways, after class, I was in the hallway talking to a classmate about an upcoming project when John Huck, the anchor, walked out of the room. I really wanted to introduce myself, but I didn't really know how to start a conversation. I went up to him and introduced myself and said that I thought it was funny that he had worked in Nebraska, Rapid City, and now Las Vegas because I was born in Nebraska, moved to Rapid City and now live in Las Vegas. Long story short, he ended up being super nice, walked me out to the car to introduce himself to Josh and even said I could use him as a reference for my internship application with Fox 5! How freaking cool is that! 

So here, again, is another situation in which stepping out of my comfort zone gave me an opportunity I would have never had otherwise, except, unlike Dave Navarro, this time it was with someone that could potentially impact my life. 

My goal from now on is to be a more sociable person. No one ever believes me, but I am naturally a really antisocial person. I'm the girl that wears headphones in the grocery store so I don't have to talk to people and looks down when passing people on the street so that we don't make eye contact. I have a tendency to keep to myself or stick with the people I know rather than introduce myself to others. I am really going to try to work on that in the months ahead. Journalism is a career in which I will have to step out of my comfort zone more often than not, so I might as well start practicing that now! 

That being said...

Hi, I am Christina Morales and this is me stepping out of my comfort zone to introduce myself to you! 

1. My favorite movies are The Hunger Games, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Wreck it Ralph in that order.
2. There is a strong possibility that my future children or animal's names will have something to do with the above movies. I'm thinking Rue for my next dog/cat and Andrew Kristopherson for my future son.
3. There is a 100% chance my future daughter will be named Catherine after my grandma. The language it will be in is still debatable. There is obviously Catherine in English or Catrin in Irish Gaelic, or Katya in German...we shall see, we shall see.  
4. I could eat tacos every day of my life. Though, I don't like burritos. Interesting.
5. I am an online shop-aholic and frequently purchase things off of eBay, for super cheap I might add. 
6. My favorite colors are yellow, peach, mint green and teal. 
7. My lucky number used to be 22, but things have been coming up in 27's lately which is the day Josh and I got married. 
8. I am terrified of car accidents and require Josh to text me whenever drives so I know he is safe. Also, I am terrified of cancer. It has taken the life of far too many of my family members. 
9. My nickname is "B" or "Baby B," though only my mom still calls me that. Baby B is currently my license plate, but I am thinking of changing it because everyone thinks it is for my dog...which is weird. 
10. I used to have an imaginary friend named Sting growing up because I was terrified of the wrestler named Sting and I thought if I pretended he was my friend he wouldn't be so scary
11. Let's be honest, that guy still freaks me out. 
12. My biggest pet peeve is hearing people chew. I recently found through Buzzfeed that this is an actual brain disorder called Misophonia, which, according to Wikipedia is when a person is "angered, and even enraged, by common ambient sounds, such as other people clipping their nails, brushing teeth, chewing crushed ice, eating, slurping, drinking, breathing, sniffing, talking, sneezing, yawning, walking, chewing gum, laughing, snoring, typing on a keyboard, whistling or coughing" So, there's that.
13. I love commas and compound sentences; does that make me weird?
14. Speaking of Buzzfeed, I am obsessed with it. I check it every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to bed. 
15. I have a bad habit of interrupting people.
16. I hate white shirts.
17. I am far to emotionally attached to people and am always wanting their approval. 
18. I love country music. And, side note, the new Eric Church album is AH-mazing! As is the new Jennifer Nettles. 
19. Growing up, my grandma always wanted my sister and I to be "professional singers" like she was. We would have rehearsals in the living room after school.
20. I am obsessed with daytime talk shows, currently The Chew is my favorite. I refuse to watch night time talk shows because my grandma passed away in the night while watching Jay Leno and it makes me depressed. 
21. I am an Aries, though I have no idea what that means. 
22. I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar and the piano but have never tried.
23. The only time I make my bed is when company is coming over. 
24. I am a chronic straw chewer and it drives my hubby NUTS. 
25. I do kiss my dogs on the lips, and no I don't think it is gross. :]
26. My favorite words are hella, side note, ooftah and rando. 
27. My dogs and I frequently have random dance parties in the mornings. 
28. I used to hate soup, but have been really loving it lately! Weird. 
29. I have a tattoo of a cupcake on my foot. (I have three others as well, but this one is the most random)
30. I know they aren't that cute, but I love pajama dresses. I just purchased a Duck Dynasty one...very cute. haha

The End. :]

Bomb Bread

 

I am officially back from my little blogging break. Midterms came up faster than I anticipated this semester!! Luckily, all went well and I am actually looking forward to my midterm grades for once! In addition to being busy at school, we have also had some things come up around the house as well. We purchased our first "adult" bed this month! How exciting!! I will be sharing photos soon of our new bedroom. I am so excited! We have been sleeping on a full sized bed for the last three years, and it feels wonderful to upgrade to a king! 

What else, what else. I am just excited about starting to blog again and have lots of stories ready to go. :] I will be playing around with the uploading schedule a little bit to try and see what works best for us, but I promise to write at least three times a week from here on out! 

So, with that, let's hop into the recipe today! 

This bread came about by complete accident. One day, when Josh and I were first living together, I made pasta for supper. I have always liked making my own garlic bread, so I put the butter on the bread and put it in the oven to warm up on broil. I started talking, and wasn't paying attention, shocker, and the bread started to burn! Josh, being the supportive man that he is, said he would still eat it, even though the ends were a little black. A little black is an understatement, they were like charcoal! But guess what? It ended up being so good!!!

I named it "Bomb Bread" because every time I make it, Josh takes one bite and says, "Bomb." Although the idea originally came from charcoal black bread, I make sure not to get distracted while it is baking so that we just get a little crisp instead of a lot of burn!

It is super easy to make. You can use any kind of bread that you like. The bread in the photo is ciabatta, but I have used rolls, french bread, even just regular sandwich bread. I really just use whatever I have on hand. The great thing about this recipe is that you can add garlic and parsley to your butter to make a garlic bread, or you can use just the butter. I recommend using the spreadable butter as it is MUCH easier than regular.

My best advice is to watch the bread closely. Broil is an interesting thing because there is a very fine line between delicious, crispy food and burnt to a crisp, throw it away food. I like to make ours in the toaster oven because it has a glass front so I can watch it without having to keep the oven door open. 

I hope you try this and love it as much as we do!

Taco Ring

My mom was a Pampered Chef consultant growing up, and this was her go to recipe for her shows. It was the first recipe I learned to make, the first meal I cooked for Josh and is still my favorite recipe for special events. I never even thought about putting the recipe on the blog because it is pretty old and I assumed everyone knew it already. I posted this photo on Facebook the other day, and had a lot of people ask for the recipe. So, here it is!

My favorite thing about this recipe is that it is really customizable. There is really no right or wrong way to make it. If you don't like something, you can take it out and the recipe will still turn out great! I have used salsa instead of taco seasoning, added in different vegetables, and have even seen a buffalo and Italian versions of the ring on Pinterest.

The original recipe uses ground hamburger; however, neither my mom or I use hamburger. We both have a hard time digesting red meat. She usually uses ground chicken. I use ground turkey.

I would love to know how you made it if you try this recipe! This is one of our favorites. Josh requests it for birthdays, company...he would literally eat it everyday if I let him!