Last Friday Night

We headed over to the grandparents Friday morning. They are headed back to Idaho today. We were able to send them off with peace of mind by letting them know that I got a part time job. They were very happy and looked very relieved. Chad was able to meet my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Cliff who were visiting and helping them pack. After some pizza and apple pie we said our goodbyes and headed out. Hopefully we can make it up to visit sometime this summer.

We ran home to clean our house before Holly, Alex, and baby Bri came by to visit. Chad took Rukia out running with him to hopefully wear her out so she wasn't so hyper. It was great to see Holly again and to meet her family. Bri was super cute and Alex was great, very funny. We had a great time catching up. Bri tried desperately to climb our stairs, we ate lots of pizza, and Rukia tried to lick up everyone's faces.

Some cute pics from BYU days, most of the pictures we took were pretty funny/awkward/not super flatering... I went with cute ones instead! :)

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Awkward:

• The giant bruise that's engulfing my left hip. It's pretty impressive and pretty tender.
  
• I think that I bruised my ribs on the left side during the epic fail of a crash on my bike. At any rate they hurt when I do anything that requires any kind of core strength, which is pretty much everything. Breathing deeply is no fun and sneezing is just plain ridiculous.
  
• I won't say who, but someone from church has asked us where we moved from a total of three times now. Now this wouldn't really be a big deal except this person is from Michigan too! You think a little detail like that would stick with him. Especially since we talked about it for years the first Sunday we were there. Each time we talk about it he is surprised and excited and tells us the same, exact stories. It's starting to make me look ridiculous because as he asks where we're from I look at him, then look at Chad, and then slowly answer him. I'm sure I look like I have no idea where I'm from when instead I just am in disbelief that this is happening again.
• I have no idea how to interact with nursery kids. I'm supposed to teach the Easter lesson and I have no idea what to do. I don't know what they understand or what is fun for them or anything. All I know is they like to hit people and throw things. I'm already anticipating the awkwardness that will ensue.
  
• Poor Chad didn't have any scantrons for his test this morning. He should have but he was super nice and lent one to a classmate that didn't have one last time. So he stopped at the bookstore this morning to pick one up. Class starts at 9 and the bookstore opens at 10. fail. After running around campus, talking to the very slow person at the library and the student service center, he finally was able to cross the whole of campus to buy some scantrons and then sprint back to class to take the test. Good way to mentally prepare for a test yeah?
  

Awesome:

• Homemade Angel Food Cake. YUM! It's our new obsession and doesn't last longer than 24 hours in our house.
  
• Passed my drug test! Woot!
  
• Our garden is growing! Almost everything we planted has a little something something going now. Now to keep it going...
• Our first quinoa recipe was a success, even the leftovers were delish!
• Every morning our cats now sit by the door and beg to be let out onto our patio. As soon as I let them they bolt outside and immediately dive into the dirt and roll around. It's very funny to watch.
  

Crash and Burn

Tuesday was on its way to being great, made granola, cleaned the kitchen, worked out. Then we went mountain biking and I flew over my handle bars and smashed into the ground. Worst part, I bent my rim on my tire :( So I collected rocks like my grandma while Rukia chased Chad around.

Drug Test and Syphilis Scare

Oh Monday, you did not disappoint today. I was woken up to the Parks and Rec Human Resource Manager telling me that they would love to hire me, for half of what I was making at my previous job. Granted, my previous job required schooling, and training, and some kind of skill. The woman informed me that I would first need to pass a drug test. Yay! So first up today was to take a drug test so that I can run a carousel part time in the park. Don't be jealous.

Meanwhile, we've received two notices for certified mail for Chad. We finally saw that it was from BioLife, the plasma donation center. What in the world would they be sending via certified mail? We called Matt to see what they would be sending us, all we could come up with is that during the blood test Chad tested positive for some sort of deadly disease. Matt pretty much confirmed this for us. Double Yay! So we headed up to the post office before my drug test. The first letter told Chad that he had tested positive for something. That was it. Nice and specific. The second letter had a packet of information on syphilis. What?! Awesome.

Chad called BioLife while I picked up some paperwork to take with me to the drug testing. After being closely supervised during the test, and feeling very much like a druggie somehow, we finally wrapped up that fun portion of our day and headed on to BioLife. We had come up with all kinds of crazy stories about how Chad had contracted some crazy disease in Africa, although our stories really weren't consistent with syphilis. We weren't too concerned, but you always hear those crazy stories about how people find out they have cancer or what not when they give blood. Chad met with some medical personnel for literally a hot second, where they told him that it was just a false positive. Seriously? A whole packet full of information on some crazy STD over a very false positive? Come on people.

So Chad's in the clear, it will take 24 hours to see how I fare on my test. Keep your fingers crossed!

Backing up a day, Chad and I both got callings at church on Sunday. Chad is the first counselor in the Young Men's presidency. This is perfect for Chad, and he is pretty excited about it! I am less than thrilled about my calling, I am in the senior nursery. I figure this will be a great way to meet people and make some friends. If there's anywhere I can make friends it's in a nursery with a bunch of psycho babies kicking and pulling my hair (and throwing toys at my face, seriously? what's wrong with them?) and manning a carousel. Not happy.

Hope that your weekend was awesome and that your Monday was much better than ours! Hopefully Tuesday will be kinder to us.

Awkward and Awesome.... Friday.... again....

Whoops, it's Friday again and I missed the Awkward Awesomeness of Thursday. So we'll do it again today! It really is my favorite blogging day, it's fun to think of all the funny and great things that happened during the week. Hopefully it makes you think of the good from the past week too!

Today I'm doing a Awkward and Awesome Zion's National Park Edition!

Awkward:

• Reading all the signs, all the way up the hike warning us to turn back if we were afraid of heights, um... hello? That's me! But the whole first half of the hike was literally a sidewalk going up the mountain. I can handle a sidewalk! So we pushed forward.
• Reading that 6 people had died on this hike since 2004. What? They died walking up the sidewalk? Confusion. This started making sense as we got passed the sidewalk section of the hike.
  
• We finally reached the portion of the hike where they had to anchor in chains to help you along. What?! I was prepared for a little of this but holy freaking cow. I am confused as to how they can encourage people to do this hike, it's nuts-o crazy town to cross over the last portion.
  

The last half-mile is across a narrow sandstone ridge.

Anchored support chains are attached along some sections of the sheer fin.

Sheer cliffs at high elevations while hiking on a narrow fin.

• We got passed what I thought might be the last portion and then came to a landing where we realized that we had gotten passed the easy part and now had to cross the "narrow fin", which apparently is code for balance beam in the sky. Don't go too far to your right... or your left for that matter or down you go and you'll become the 7th to die. I had a major meltdown. Shaking, crying, there was no way I was going to be able to do this. They were right when they said you shouldn't do this if you had a problem with heights. In my own defense, I may be afraid of heights, but I also didn't really feel like dying either, which I believe is completely reasonable.
  
• Having meltdown #2 when I realized that although I wasn't going on the death march to the top I would have to go back the crazy way we came. Breathe Danielle! We both had on backpacks and Chad had the tripod strapped to his bag. This didn't make balancing on the cliff face very easy. We were stoked once we hit normal ground!
  
• Still confused as to how people were taking their small children with them on this hike. I mean small, like 6 year old kids. I can't imagine us taking a squirrely 6 year old Chad on this hike. We are either huge babies or these people be crazy. We're pretty sure they're crazy.

Awesome:

• Zion's is just awesome in general, it's gorgeous!
• This was a killer workout for my legs, the first 2 miles were all uphill! Translation: No Insanity workout for me that day :)
• At the top of the mountain we saw 2 California Condors. It's one of the world's rarest bird species and there's only 210 alive in the wild. They were HUGE birds, and we got to take some cool pictures of them as the two of them just hung out in a tree.
  
• We stayed pretty late and stargazed for a while. Let's be honest, in Michigan we'd be lucky to get a clear night to see the stars, let alone get a clear night and be somewhere SO dark. It was beautiful out. I have never seen so many stars before!

We, of course, took tons of pictures, and we'll put some up after we edit our favorites! Hope everyone had a great week!

Bean Queen

A nice little surprise when I was taking Rukia outside this morning...


I am channeling my inner Aunt Peggy and growing a garden! I am extremely paranoid about overwatering, underwatering, and the cats eating anything that happens to pop up. Hopefully we'll have more pictures of the awesome veggies to come :)


Don't you wish that you could hold the title of Bean Queen?! I have been on a role, three days in a row of cooking beans. Refried Beans, Black Beans and White Northern Beans today. My secret weapon? My crockpot! Oh, how I love you crockpot!!! We eat tons of burritos and soup so we go through lot of beans, plus they're great for you! And the dry beans are so much cheaper! And I can control what goes it, make them more flavorful and use less salt! Have I convinced you yet?

The method for all are the same. After you go through the beans to get out any little stones dump them in your crockpot and cover them with a bunch of water (very exact measurement there!) Check on them every so often just to make sure that they stay covered with enough water. For the refried beans I throw in an onion cut in half, cumin, salt, diced jalepenos, cayenne pepper and garlic. For the black beans I did the same (minus the onion) and added a can of fire roasted tomatoes. Cook them on high for 8 hours and they're done! I've tried cooking them for 6 and that just isn't long enough, 8 really is perfect for us. After, make sure to rinse them off and get rid of all that cooking liquid, that liquid holds the magical stuff that gives you gas :) Beans, beans, the magical fruit... For the refried beans, I just throw the beans back in the crockpot and mash them up with a potato masher, super easy and delish.


The pup and I went for a run today while Chad went mountain biking. As soon as we got home from our 3 mile run Rukia threw herself down on the ground in the kitchen. This is her usual routine after we take her running or biking with us and it's hilarious. She did manage to pick up her head and smile for the camera though!

We are definitely loving the warm, sunny weather! Happy Spring Everyone!

Yum-O!

We have been cookin' up a storm as of late in the Lewis house! We've been trying new things and new recipes and been having some success. I am usually a pro at picking awful, nasty recipes that end up in the garbage and us eating pizza, so this is a nice change of pace :) Plus, it's a lot easier for us both to be cooking together now that we are in a bigger kitchen!

Chad made homemade wheat pasta dough and turned that into cheese filled ravioli. I made the wheat breadsticks and tomato basil sauce with shrimp.


Angel Food Cake. We made whipped cream and of course had strawberries. We just don't have a picture because we couldn't wait to inhale this!

Fire Roasted Tomato Bisque with Grilled Cheese


Avacado pasta, basically a creamy guacamole sauce!

Fried Rice with baked egg rolls, lots of veggies!


Mushroom and Spinach Quiche with Red Lobster Biscuits

In our Easter box the parents sent us a giant bag of quinoa, so that's up next to try. Anyone have any delicious recipes that include quinoa? Or any vegetarian recipes that rock? Please share!

Valley of Fire

Every time we drive to Vegas we pass signs in Nevada to the Valley of Fire. The name was cool enough for us to want to go check it out. So we packed up a lunch and our pup and took off to see what the Valley of Fire had to offer. It did not disappoint! The red rocks were amazing! Out of nowhere they started jutting up out of the ground. It definitely lived up to it's name.


At a certain point the red rock meets up with the white. There is a clear line right through the mountain of where the red meets white.


There is an awesome spot called Rainbow Vista. The mountains are literally all colors of the rainbow. Obviously lots of red and orange, but there was yellow and golds, and our favorite, purple! Bright purple streaks all throughout the rocks and up the mountains. It was beautiful!



We had a great time and can't wait to find another new place to hike!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Yesterday we went back up to Zion National Park. It was awesome! It was more awesome when we made it back down to the ground without dying. I think next Thursday will be all about the awesome awkwardness that was our attempt at climbing Angel's Landing. So here it is, a day late, but here!

Awkward:

• Chad hitting another little kid in the face at Trampoline Land. He has hit me in the face multiple times in the car trying to put things in the back seat. I now recommend keeping at least arms distance from Chad at all times.
• We have NO Air Conditioning in our car. We knew this would pose a problem in the summer when we are melting from the Utah sun. We did not anticipate this to be a problem in March. We are in big trouble here people.
  
• We primed our old dining room table so that we could get all crafty with it. We used an oil based Kilz primer. Chad attempted to clean out the roller and proceeded to get paint all over his hands, way past his wrists, and the paint wasn't coming off. Detergent and soap weren't touching this stuff. Oh, and he left his wedding ring on to do this. I made a run to Home Depot and all was solved with some paint thinner.
• Between Daylight Savings Time and Spring Break our schedule is all jacked up. We usually make it to bed around 3am and of course that means that there's no way we're waking up until at least 11am. So much for waking up early.... School starts again next week and that will force us back into our normal routine, thank goodness.
  

Awesome:

• Not having any specific examples of how awkward church is this week :)
• Ninja Warrior!!! Has anyone else seen this crazy awesome show? It's on some man channel, G4, and it's ridiculous. New life goal: become Ninja Warrior.
• Homemade applesauce is the bomb. Seriously. Cut up some apples and throw them in your crockpot on low for 6 hours with a little water to cover the bottom and you will not be disappointed. Even better, add in some brown sugar and cinnamon. When it's done, smash it up and eat it straight out of said crockpot with the big wooden spoon you've been using to stir it. Heaven.
• Easter Package from the Parents!!!! After a long process of trying to get our package we finally did and it did not disappoint! Quinoa, CousCous, nail polish, a sock, and lots of candy :) While regular mail has become quite disappointing since we are now supposed to be adults, boxes from mom and dad save the day and make mail fun again!!!
  

Spring Break: Trampoline Tuesday

We had a coupon to AntiGravity and decided to try it out today. We both got an hour of jumping for free! As soon as we got there we knew we were gonna be in for an awesome time with all the other 8 year olds that were there to rock out for Spring Break! There was a giant arena that was about 4 trampolines by 8 or 9, with trampolines up on the wall too, as you can see from that awesome picture. We went nuts, bouncing over everything, attempting to bounce off the walls, and lots and lots of flipping.

After a good half an hour or so Chad finally convinced me to try to do a front flip. Once I realized that I was a grown adult with full control over my body, and that if the six year old next to me could do it I could too, I gave it a go. No, I did not smash my face, break my neck or injure myself, I just flipped over, phew. After that it was game on and we really went crazy. Jumping off the walls proved to be pretty difficult though considering that the wall basically just threw you back down and you ended up looking like a spaz with no control over your legs. An awesome spaz though that could jump off walls.

We were pooped after about and hour and a half, and super hot and sweaty. What a workout! It was a rockin' awesome time and we will definitely be back with our coupon stash to release our inner 8 year olds!

Spring Break: Movie Monday

It's Spring Break Week! WoooHooo, Spring Break! Not that our lives are terribly busy otherwise but it's an excuse to do fun things. Today was full of LAZINESS, lots of sleeping in and naps followed by good eats and movies, with some job applications somewhere in the middle. Not a bad start.

Homemade mac & cheese, yum :)

Brownie Sundaes and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nothing goes with chocolate like Red Bull

Poor Rukia

Our poor little baby Rukia. The three of us went hiking in Nevada on Friday and our little puppy couldn't quite handle it. She did great but tired out quickly and by the time we made it home she stumbled in the front door and plopped over as soon as she hit the carpet. Between her poor paws that got some scrapes on them and her sore muscles she has been quite the site, refusing to walk more than absolutely necessary and sleeping all day. The best part was when she was eating Saturday morning. She usually grabs some food from her bowl in the kitchen and then takes it into the living room to eat it, then goes back for more and so on. The tile was too hard to walk on for her so she just sat at the edge of the kitchen and stared at her bowl. I moved it into the living room for her and she mustered up enough strength to lay down and eat. It's got to be one of the funniest (ok, maybe pathetic) things she's done.

Feel better soon pup!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday!

Awkward:

• Chad hitting a little girl square in the face with a volleyball. We apologized over and over, but she just stared at us with tears in her eyes and then rode away on her trike. We did what anyone would do and immediately ran away.
  
• In an attempt to save a little boys nerf arrow thing Chad climbed up onto the roof of our condos. The little boys thought this was extremely awesome but the mother who poked her head out of her door and saw Chad creeping around on the roof thought differently.
  
• Freaking out over something getting caught in my eye. I wear contacts so getting something in my eye is like an everyday occurrence. But this time I got something in my eye as I was taking my contacts out. I used drops, Chad tried to see if he could see it and get it out, I stuck my eye under the faucet, blinked and blinked and blinked. Nothing. I of course thought that it would be stuck in there forever. I was planning trips to the eye doctor and everything. An hour later whatever it was finally came out once I left it alone. Overreact much?
• Someone from the Elder's Quorum called to see if Chad had done his home teaching for the month of February. Hard to do your home teaching when you've never been given anyone to home teach. They kindly dropped off a list for him on our front door step that we found at 11 at night letting Rukia outside. Maybe next week we won't have anything awkward to say about our new ward...
  

Awesome:

• It's currently 62 degrees outside. Loving the sunny and warm weather. Makes me a happy, happy girl!
• Chad rockin' out his second set of tests. He's turning into one of those people who gets upset if he misses one or two questions on a test. Love my smarty pants.
• Trail running. Up the mountain - super hard, Down the mountain - super fun. The views weren't too bad either.
  
• I finally got a long dress!!! I have literally been looking for one I like for a year. Best purchase ever!!! Super comfy to wear to church, hello pajama dress. Best part, didn't have to shave my legs that morning ;) There are definitely more long dresses and skirts in my future.
  

Cat Nap

We did it! We finally woke up early this morning! It has been a goal of ours to be those awesome people who wake up early and accomplish wonderful things before we would normally get  up. Our alarms have been set at 5:45 for, oh I don't know, like 2 years, and for almost all of that 2 year period we have slept right through them.

Last year we had a couple good attempts. We woke up, did P90X, ate breakfast, showered and got ready for work and then... I threw up. Good Morning! We stopped again after that. But really, can you blame me.

Today was not as hard core for me. Chad woke up and made us breakfast :) Then he went for a run while I laid down on the couch and tried not to fall asleep. So Chad was a super awesome rockstar this morning and I had a cat nap, literally with the cats. I did manage to wake up and work out around 10. Better than nothing! There's always tomorrow.

In honor of the beloved cat naps, here's our crazy Penny who refuses to sleep curled up in a cute little ball. Now you can see how our tiny little kitten can take up half the bed at night...

No that's not the crack apartment where we found and rescued Penny, it's just our old janky, falling apart, apartment.

 

Sleeping inside our luggage 

Don't you just wish you were a cat?



Congratulations if you made it to the end of the most ridiculously long post! Now go snuggle with your pets!

I'm a Barbie Girl

I used to have the best calling ever.

You can't argue with proof like that!