Awkward and Awesome Thursday

While the rest of the family stayed behind Chad and I ran back further on the trail where we weren't supposed to be. They were teaching their kids to be responsible and obey signs and such, I was also following what my dad taught me to do - sneak behind closed signs, go under red ropes and explore where I'm generally not supposed to be :)

 Awkward:

• We ran out of cat food and the cats had to go a whole 24 hours without food. You would think that they hadn't eaten in years the way they were acting. Sunny resorted to eating trash out of our bathroom. All of Tuesday morning he just ran around beside me meowing/screaming at me. He then decided to scale our pantry in search of food. Dude, chill. It was 24 hours. If something happens to Chad and I and we somehow die in our house, Sunny would immediatley start eating us.
• Our house is SOOOOO quiet now after everyone is gone. It's sad and we don't like it.  
• Even more sad now that everyone is gone is poor Rukia. The first few days she searched the house, sniffing everywhere trying to find her friends to play with. Now she's just sad and depressed and sleeps all day. We should probably get another puppy :)
• Some strange kid came barging in our house 2 nights ago. If your kid doesn't know where you live maybe you shouldn't let him play outside by himself. Just sayin'.
• Some door-to-door salesman came to our house last night and when we told him we were eating dinner he said he would just come back. Awesome. So he came back and we ignored him. Then he came back again. And then... again! Serioulsy guy? Four times? Then he tried to sell us study guides for our kids. Ha. We definitley weren't worth coming to see 4 times.
• When I asked this very, very old lady at the nursing home what her name was she responded by mouthing "shut up" to me, v-e-r-y slowly and v-e-r-y clearly. What a doll. Luckily a nurse was there to tell me her name because I was not going to ask again for fear of a worse response. I had flashbacks to a former Michigan patient when another old nursing home guy tried to kick me in the face for taking off his socks. Boooo old people.

Awesome:

• Debi was a cleaning rockstar when she was here. Not only did we get to hang out with all our awesome family but then Debi cleaned my house! Not just picked up, but cleaned! It was fantastic! Our house stayed suprisingly picked up the whole time and when they left the sink was empty and the floors and bathrooms scrubbed. Awesome.
• Dylan helped us to discover that the shaved ice huts in the parking lots aren't creepy and weird but amazingly awesome. Super cheap, super delicious. Chad gets sour spray on his and I get Dragon's Blood. Yup, I am a 12 year old boy.
• The Doctor is back from Europe which means I have to work again (sad day) but it also means that I now have a drawer full of european chocolate (yum). Soooo good.
• Box from the parents full of dog goodies from the Doctor and food! Among the goodies a giant container of JIF peanut butter :)  It really doesn't get any better than that.

Glowing Crafts

I thought I would brag again about my awesome husband. This is one of my favorite projects that he has made so far. It was very easy, cheap, and we plan on making more in the future. He made this in our last apartment, and it now hangs over our bed. It casts a really nice glow and you could use any kind of string to suit your style. He used regular ol' twine which gives a nice eathy and natural feel, but you could use any color of string! I've seen pictures where people have used yarn as well - lots of color possibilities with that route!

So what's the supplies list?

• Big store bought bouncy ball - gives a much better shape than just a balloon.
• Twine, or any other string of your choice
• Glue. Chad used a wood glue. Other places say you need fabric starch or tapioca starch. Nope. Nothing fancy here people.
• Vaseline
• Marker
• Lamp kit
• Container to dump all the glue in

How's it done?

• First mark your opening for the lamp kit on the top of your big ball. Chad also chose to leave an opening on the bottom.
• Rub vaseline all over the ball so that it can be removed easy once dry
• Get to work! Dip your twine/string/yarn/whatever into the glue, making sure to coat it well and then start drapping it all over the ball. Do as much or as little as you want for your desired effect! Make sure all the string has glue on it so that every part of it will harden. Chad went back when he was done and put more glue on certain areas.
• Let it dry for 24 hours. I don't think we waited this long, we are not patient people, especially when it comes to projects! Makes sure it is dry and hard though becore you remove the ball. Now you can either deflate you ball like normal people (then re-inflate if you want) or stab it dramatically like the crazies we are. Peel it away and wa-la!

*Pro Tip: DO NOT dump all the string/twine/whatev into a big container of glue thinking this will speed things up. This will result in a giant messy glob of stinginess that is not going to untangle for you... ever. Luckily we didn't have to learn this lesson the hard way!

Meatless Monday: Veggie Burger Success!

We had an AMAZING week last week. We played, hiked, and jumped all week long! It was fun to have people out here to show all the fun places we've discovered in St. George! Pioneer Park was one of the favorite places and we went there twice to hike through the narrows and scamper all over the giant red rocks.

We of course had to take everyone to Trampoline Land! The kids had a blast, and so did Chad.

We also made it to Zion's National Park not once, not twice, but 3 times! What can I say, it's just a really cool place. The third time we took Kristy and Dylan and the two oldest boys to hike up Angel's Landing. It was a steep and high climb but we ALL made it! There was a fair amount of panicing and anxiety but we all made it across! The kids were rock stars and did better than most of the adults :)

If I wouldn't have been at work when everyone left I would have stole this cutie and kept her as my own!

Emerald Pools

At the top of Angel's Landing!!!

Ok, onto the meatless potion of this Monday! We made these veggie burgers when Jared was here and I was a little concerned. This is the guy who doesn't like peanut butter for pete's sake. Ashley and I would have lengthy conversations with him as teenagers about all of the food he didn't like, fried ice cream? Come on Jared! So when I made these I was really worried that they were not going to get eaten... by anyone really, let alone Jared.

I was pleasantly surprised when I tried these guys out, they were really good. The texture was great from the seeds and nuts, gave it some crunch, and all the spices really gave it a wonderful flavor. We all finished ours and I threw the leftover "dough?" in the freezer. It made a great lunch 2 weeks later. These are definitley in our dinner rotation now, especially being able to freeze it. I've decided I need to start prepping our dinners better on Sunday so that we (I) don't cave and get take out after work. We also made these when all the family was here last week and they were a big hit again!

You can find the recipe here at OhSheGlows. That's where I stole the picture from because we were soooo hungry that I didn't remember to snap a picture. I wasn't kidding when I said these were good, we inhaled them! I didn't have any black beans on hand the first time so I just substituted white beans. Instead of using the "flax egg" I just used regular ol' eggs. I just added them one and a time until I got the consistency that I wanted. It's great to finally have a good burger substitute for the summertime!

Vacation

 

 We took the kids to Pioneer Park. It's basically the very northern side of St. George, so it's really close and a really fun place.

 The kids had NO fear. None of them! They were little rock climbers and managed to make it up, over and through everything Uncle Chad was!
 

Rukia was very confused as to where she should sit on the ride home. Frustrated she just leaped up onto the boys laps. You can see how happy they were about this. We were all HOT and just a little tired, so sharing seats with a big, hot, panting dog wasn't super exciting for them. 

  
 BFF's. They stopped moving for a hot second so I could snap a picture. They have been running and playing like crazy all week. They are having just as much fun (if not more, really) as all of us!

Penny on the other hand is freaking out. She does not like all the commotion from the animals and kids so she hides all day in our room. Since she's hidden all day in constant fear she's become insanely needy whenever Chad and I are near her. She is usually not very snuggly but as soon as I got on the bed she jumped onto my chest and started purring. Not normal for Pens, but very nice and very cute.

MIA

Our normal slow paced, easy life was interrupted as of late. Starting out Friday and continuing for a while... and we couldn't be happier!!! I'll start at the beginning...

It was a C-R-A-Z-Y weekend! Chad was told last minute about a scouting camp out that he needed to go to. Sweet. So... he managed to sneak in a test early and make it to the camp out. What did I do without my lovely husband? Something super awesome and girly? Wrong.

Poor Rukia and Penny were very concerned that Chad was never going to come home.

We also had Scott come down to visit! It was exciting to see him and hang out, especially since we hadn't seen him for 2 1/2 years! Chad got home from the camp out just in time to change and shower and then went and picked up Scott. He spent the night after being abandoned by his roommate and hung out all morning. Chad dropped him off and then headed out to church to teach his lesson. I was a super slacker and stayed home and cleaned, a little, just enough to avoid the nursery really. Then Chad and I had to fit in all the cleaning and grocery shopping we were planning on doing all weekend into a couple hours Sunday night. Eeeek! We managed to fit it all in though, except the whole grocery shopping thing, and it was totally worth it to be able to have such a surprising and fun weekend! We really could have managed to get to the grocery store but we HAD to watch The Killing. Was that not the BEST?! Seriously, I need more. Thank you AMC for delivering all kinds of TV awesomeness! Aaaaand to top it all off? We've got Chad's family in town with us for the week!

Kristy, Dylan, Debi and all the babies managed to survive the drive out west! It's a long and horrible drive and I was glad to be on the welcoming end this time. Every other summer growing up my family and I would trek out to Idaho to visit all our family. The first day was always fun with the movies and treats every 100 miles... but it gets old real quick, the second day is just the worse. Nebraska is not a kind state. It's exciting to have our family travel that far to see us now! :)

Monday we hiked the Narrows at Zion's after a delish lunch at Cafe Rio. Chad made us dinner and brownie sundaes when we finally made it home. Last night was veggie burgers, Trampoline land, and frozen yogurt. Who knows what fun today will bring?

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward: Wearing a tail and pretending you're a werewolf.

 Awkward:

• People at church still asking who I am. People I have introduced myself to 3 or 4 times. No lie, no exaggeration. Remember the lady from months ago who tried to trick me into standing up in Relief Society to get introduced for the 2nd time? Yeah, she comes up to me in nursery on Sunday and says... "now I don't think that we've met". Yeah, we have... 3 (new to you) times. And that's kinda what I said, minus the whole 3 times before thing. Maybe she'll remember me now.
• Not to sound like a broken record but 2 weeks ago when the senior and junior nursery combined the woman who was in the other nursery asked when I had moved in. Yeah.... 6 months ago. Let's just be real here. This is happening on a weekly basis and isn't really that awkward for me anymore. It is however awkward for the people asking and that makes me happy.
• The Bishop asked me my name again and my calling, again. At least he didn't ask me where I was from.
• The names crack me up: Diamond. Atticus. Taizley. Strider. And no, Diamond is not a stripper but a teenage boy. Your welcome for brightening your day with that one.
• The boss and wife are on vacation for the next two weeks (awesome hours for me!). They are slightly nervous about leaving me in charge of it all when they are gone, probably because they've really only known me for a couple months, but mostly, it turns out, because of past employees. They told me before they left that past girls would have their boyfriends in the back and would give the massages. Awkward when patients would walk into that. Awkward when patients tell the Dr. about that. Hopefully it made them feel better when I informed then that Chad has waaaaaay better things to do then come to work with me early in the morning for a couple hours. Like sleep, or eat, or go to class, or study, or anything else really.
• Frying our garden. It literally burst into flames from the intense heat of the sun. Ok maybe not literally, but as soon as things were starting to look really good it got really hot (and we left for Hawaii.... the poor little girl who watched our house watered the heck out of our garden to no avail). And our garden shriveled up into a brown, crispy mess. No fresh tomatoes for us :(

Awesome:

• Fumbling my way through an entire phone conversation in Spanish. Yes, it was mostly me just saying random words with absolutely nothing connecting them into phrases but she understood me. Or at least pretended to, and that's good enough!
• While Chad was in a meeting after church I sneaked into the primary room to play the piano (I haven't played since we moved so it was interesting). The bishop popped his head in and after chatting for a hot second asked if I would like a key so I can come up and play whenever I want. Um... YES! He's totally redeemed himself from asking where we moved from fifty times.
• There is a little girl in the nursery who has hated me since I've been there. Would hide under tables from me, refuse to talk to me, and would sit in the corner and stare at me like I was just the stupidest person she had ever met and couldn't believe she had to spend two hours breathing the same air as me. Then this Sunday she came over and smiled and wanted me to help her make the craft we were working on. She smiled, and talked, and played with me and sat on my lap when we sang. It was a good Sunday.
• When we were at the Dole Plantation in Hawaii we (of course) had some of their famous Pineapple Dole Whip ice cream. It was amazingly delicious. You apparently can only get in there and Disneyland (Disneyworld? both?). Anyways, you can also get it here in good ol' St. George. Now it may be some sort of rip off or whatever but it tastes pretty darn good. They've got it at a couple places and our taste buds are super happy with us right now!
• Mmmmm Sauce. I have been reading about Mmmmm sauce ALL OVER the internet for a while now. In our quest to not eat candy, redbull, and pizza every night for dinner eat healthier I thought we should give this a try on top of our stir fry's instead of just dumping a bunch of soy sauce all over it. It did had some weird ingredients (nutritional yeast anyone?) that ended up being really tasty! Mmmmm sauce for the win! When has the internet ever led us astray...?

Goodnight Bed

Last Friday we said goodbye to our beautiful and wonderful bed. For those of you who don't know Chad made our bed as a wedding present right before we got married. It was an awesome bed. We had gone and looked at furniture stores to see if Chad could replicate one because we knew there was no way we would ever spend that much money on a bed, regardless of being able to afford it or not. We looked at pictures online and measured out beds at furniture stores and he decided that he would *just* make one. No biggie. Love my husband.

So he did. He built our bed in my parents garage while we planned and got ready for our wedding. I helped every now and again, but only if he needed an extra set of hands. It was then that I really learned how handy/crafty/awesome my husband can be/is. Our bed was everything we/I wanted it to be! It was a beast of a bed to move into our apartment (I was soooo glad I was at work that day, thanks boys!), and then back to my parents house and then into a moving truck and then into our new apartment (no boys to help out here). And by the time our wedding bed had made it into our new home we knew that this was the last move for it. And it made me sad to think that I wouldn't have it forever.

Then we went to Hawaii. We slept in a King bed. It was glorious. Again, it could have been the lack of animals or the fact that we went to bed at near exaustion every night, but it was simply glorious and we had never slept better. Fast forward 3 weeks later when I get a text from Cheryl. "we have a King sized mattress and frame you can have for 50 bucks". SOLD!

While I am sad that we aren't sleeping on our wedding bed anymore it's now right across the hall in our guest room. That's right, our guests can now sleep on a bed instead of our garbage couch! Get excited people! That also means that Chad and I can sleep even though our crazy animals sneak into our bed in the dead of night. I can roll over. Yup, I am no longer wedged between cat and dog and Chad. I can MOVE at night without waking up and throwing animals acoss the room.

It also meant that it was project time. That lovely husband of mine decided that he would build yet another bed for us. You all know he loves himself a project. So after we picked up the mattress we headed out to my least favorite place in the world Home Depot to pick up supplies. Two trips later and 10 o'clock at night Chad put the bed together. He is nothing if not efficient. We decided to go simpler this time since the bed takes up more space in our room. We white(gray?)-washed it yesterday and it's done. It was a fast and easy project and we love how it turned out! Thanks for yet another bed love!

Pure Michigan vs. St. George A to Zion

 Let me just start by stating the the Pure Michigan commercials are freakin' pure genius. Tourism offices at every state should be bribing whoever put that lovely little marketing piece together to come and do one for them. That or Michigan in the summertime just plain rocks. It might be the later. That commercial plays A LOT out here and every time I think, why did we move to a stupid desert? This is dumb! Why are we not lounging on the beach at Lake Michigan or playing at Sleeping Bear Dunes?

In contrast we have this janky St. George tourism commercial that makes me ashamed to live here. These two older people meet and are trying to seduce/show up/date each other or something. They go golfing and the lady is all "I was thinking we could do something more vigorous?" and the weird buff older man is all "can you handle it?". Uncomfortable. Seriously Uncomfortable. As Chad says, that's how you get the HIV. Then you see them biking, hiking, rock climbing, ziplining and doing all the really cool things that there are to do here but the whole thing has been ruined. It ends with them running through the dessert as fire balls fall out of the sky "chasing" them. I kid you not, I couldn't make this stuff up. 

So then I'm feeling all sad about my hot, dry, dessert life (with flying fireballs!?) when I could be back home in the lush, green, gorgeous, lake filled, forest swept Michigan! But then my brain says, "hang on, remember this?"

The snow is literally half way up his thighs in spots.

Winning.

Meatless Monday: Chewy Granola Bars

Does anyone else dread Sunday nights? Fridays are glorious and Saturdays are the best, but Sunday night... boo. Then to make Mondays even worse I usually stay up too late Sunday night because I know as soon as I go sleep it will be Monday and then I will be at work.... double boo. The fact that the only TV shows we watch religiously are on Sunday nights help to make it another awesome weekend night. Is anyone else watching the Killing? We are addicted to it, it's like a good book, and if it was a book I would have had to finish it before ever putting it down! The twists! Mad Men has been dissapointing this season but then we get the Next Food Network Star! We were in a really good habit for a while of working out while watching all our crazy amount of TV on Sunday night but yesterday we just chilled, ate dinner and popcorn and did some light yoga (from Chad's class) to help my baby back.

I made these granola bars for the Hawaii trip simply because I had everything needed to make them. While crunchy granola bars are delicious there is something about the soft, chewy, Quaker granola bars that are amazing. Probably because they remind me of candy bars. Nothing wrong there! I made these expecting them to be ok at best, but they are great!!! You can mix up the flavors any way you want depending on what you have on hand or what you're craving. My last batch just ended up being a "dump everything that's still hanging out" into them thing. My first batch were s'more flavor :) YUM

Chewy Smores Granola Bars

Ingredients:

• 4 T Butter
• 1/4 C Brown Sugar
• 1/4 C Honey
• 1 C Rice Krispies
• 1/4 C Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 C mini marshmallows
• 2 C Plain Granola

Directions:

1. Combine the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until the butter melts. Bring it to a boil and then simmer until all of the sugar has dissolved.

2. Add in the granola and Rice Krispies and mix well. At this point you can really mix in whatever you want. For the smores version I mixed in the marshmallows. Spread out your mixture into a 9x9 pan, or whatever pan you want to use! Sprinkle the chocolate chips over top and gently press them into the granola. Let the bars sit for 15-20 minutes before cutting.

These tasted great no matter what I threw in them, PB chips, raisins, almonds, coconut! Nutella would be yummy swirled in there as well :)

Five Things Friday

1. Work was straight up crazy today. Dr. is on vacation for the next two weeks, computers were being installed, programs downloaded, and new patients again didn't know their addresses (yup, a grown adult woman and her 16 year old child didn't know their address and literally had to call their husband/father to get it).

2. My legs are crazy sore from running... 4 miles total this week. pansie

3. I need to incorporate yoga into my life for real! My lower back is all tweaky again and I'm hoping this will help my baby back get strong. When I can't bend over the littlest bit to spit after brushing my teeth I know it's time to do something about it!

4. Sesame oil smells. It will fill your whole house with it's awful smell and make you feel sick.

5. The Aliens movies are awesome. Why I have I never watched them before? We watched the second on Thursday, the new Prometheus movie this afternoon, and have the first one ready to go for tonight! Loving them! As a side note these movies are confirming my "I'm never having a baby" mindset.

Have a great weekend!!!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday (Night)

 

Awkward:

• The dad yelling at his child at the bus stop right outside our window. Not calling her by name but yelling out "kid". The same dad was yelling at his child to "heel" at church. Now I understand I am not a parent and shouldn't judge but.... really? Come on.
• The Fundamentalists that came in as patients today. The mom didn't know her son's birthday, had to ask him his families medical history, and didn't understand what to put down as her address. Oh my.... Now I'm not saying she's a bad mom, I'm just saying maybe she was just the one free "mom" today for the 5 kids that she brought in.
• Falling asleep at 6pm Tuesday night. I woke up for a couple hours before going back to sleep for good but Chad slept for 15 hours straight!
• Rukia's sunburn is turning into these giant ulcer like things on her back. They are really gross and it looks like she has leprosy or something. Poor baby girl. Chad is taking good care of her though although she'd much rather snuggle with me since I'm not the one inflicting pain while trying to keep the wounds clean. All I want to do is wrap her up in an unna boot like my past ulcer patients. 

Awesome:

• So far I have run twice in the morning before work this week! I hate waking up early and I hate running in the morning but I've done it! It helps that Chad has a 7am class I have to drop him off at :) All I want to do is come home and jump back in bed for an hour but I've taken LeeAnne's advice and just head out before I really realize what's going on! 
• We found a yummy veggie burger recipe that isn't mushy! Still not a burger (ask Jared) but the best we've found so far. 
• Patients who bring me candy at work! 
• Will's coming to visit! 
• Only working the mornings for the next two weeks!

My Phone Has Eyes

Life according to my phone. 

Sunburn Remedy

 

Hidden Kitten

 

Missing...

Happy Birthday Weekend!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD AND JARED!!!

We had a GREAT vacation with Jared! Not only did the boys completely wear themselves out with all the hiking, biking, running, and video games but we got to celebrate their birthdays all weeked! Friday afternoon we went and saw Snow White and the Huntsmen. I don't quite remember what we did for dinner but we spent most of the evening playing video games and baking cake.

Saturday (CHAD'S BIRTHDAY!) we slept in a little bit and headed out for french toast at Kneaders. After 2 huge pieces of french toast Chad had them bring him 2 more, which turned into 4 more when 2 employees tried to be helpful. It made for a great breakfast Sunday morning too! The boys were dressed in their matching birthday t-shirts! I loved it. So did everyone else that we ran across that day!

Matching Birthday Shirts!!!

After breakfast we headed out to Snow Canyon Park to hike and spend the day in the sunshine! We started out with Cinder Cone which is an extinct volcano. It was a lot of fun with AWESOME views! It was a steep hike up and quite the decline trying to go down. Chad of course ran down like it was no big deal while Jared and I slid down. We would take a step and slide a few feet, then take another and slide some more, you get the picture. There was tons of loose lava rock which was very light and good at cutting you up. I scraped up my leg because I can't keep my balance trying to surf down volcanoes. The rocks also cut up Chad's new birthday shoes :(  We ended up returning them because the rubber was strangely soft and we all (employees at the store too) agreed that the shoe had some sort of defect with the super soft sole. And they didn't have another pair in his size... So.... no birthday present for Chad :(

You can see our little car down there on the left to get an idea of how high up we were

We went around to some other running stores and checked out other shoes but he didn't like them as much. So he'll either get another pair of the same shoes he has now or the new New Balance zero drop barefoot shoes. Now he's figured out that we would have to get new running shoes for him regardless of the birthday situation so he's trying to come up with a different birthday present :) At least he has his super cool t-shirt.

Chad struggled to get these babies on. It could have had something to do with the whole separate toe thing, or the fact that they were a size too small! Either way it was fun to watch :)

Our volcano hike didn't take too long so we struck out deeper into the park and explored. It was really hot and sunny. We found a little cave that we explored and it was some much needed relief from the heat. The views were wonderful and we had a great time. After a couple hours though we were all wiped out.

We tried to get some free birthday ice cream but our favorite dollar cone place shut down, like shut down forever. It was quite the blow. Happy freakin' birthday. We had a bunch of coupons I had saved for this weekend so we could all be total fatties so we were all disappointed. I am sad about the lack of ice cream that will be in our lives, yet happy about the lack of 16 year old girls flinging themselves at my husband. So we went to a cupcake place instead and got Jared a cupcake to save for his birthday (I was NOT making 2 cakes!) and Chad ended up getting a free cupcake :)

Blurry photo, had to add it! It was our only pic together on the bday!

For the birthday dinner we stopped at Cafe Rio and all got giant burritos. Not as giant as the Sagebrush but still really good, and no dishes! We devoured them, we were starving after hiking in the sun all day. We had carrot cake and sang when we got home and relaxed - we we're still pooped!

Crazy eyes!

Blowing out the candles the first time

Trying to figure out a wish since he didn't make one the first time around.

 Sunday (JARED'S BIRTHDAY!) Chad was the only one righteous enough to make it to church. We had a nice day hanging out, cleaning (me!), and chatting on skype with family. We then celebrated Jared's birthday with lots of pizza, cinnamon sticks, and cake! We were able to round up birthday presents for him, 2 shirts and a pair of shorts. Poor, poor Chad... Again, the shirts made an appearance!

We all had a great birthday weekend and were both super excited that Jared could not only make it out to visit but make it out here to celebrate their birthdays!

Chad and Jared at Angel's Landing! Yup, they both braved the crazy hike and made it! Now I've got to put on my big girl pants and make it too! The views were worth it!