Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Crazy sno cone lips.

Awkward:

• Trying to look up a website to get our logo printed on shoe horns and emery boards and going to a porn site, per the sales lady on the phone. Is there anything more awkward than porn in the work place? Unfortunately this isn't my first time...
• I went up to the church to play the piano last night and a little boy came in. This itself is nothing new. Then he sat down next to me, as I'm playing, and said "When I'm near a piano I just have to play!" He then started playing. Confused as to what the heck was happening I stopped and got up while he continued to "play" his own "music". I use these terms extremely loosely. One of his "compositions" consisted of three notes played over and over and over. I finally just gave up and left so this little boy could play out his feelings alone.
• Our pets have boundary issues. Chad and I will be snuggling on the couch and Sunny will jump up on me and try to snuggle with Chad's face. Rukia also has no problem squeezing herself between us and snuggling down. Penny's the only one who doesn't want to cuddle with our faces. She'd much rather snuggle with our butts while we sleep.
• A family member that was visiting a patient at the nursing home telling us stories of (1) how he had bugs that laid eggs under his toenails. Once they started hatching and crawling out, he just pulled off his toenails. (2) If he gets any sort of tooth pain he just pulls the tooth out himself. He's pulled out one whole side of top teeth and a few on the other. WHAT?! Crazy Alert! He told me to call him if I need a tooth pulled. Uh, yeah. no thanks. I'll gladly pay a trained professional.

Awesome:

• The Voice. Anyone else addicted to this show?
• After hiking Angel's Landing in the dead of night last week with Nikki and Matt we had a nutritious and delicious dinner consisting of the biggest and best onion rings and a "mini" shake the size of my head. Awesome.
• Fry Sauce.
• Chad rockin' out his second round of tests. He's a smarty pants ;)
• Making muffins on Sunday so we can have breakfast this week! No matter how much I hate eating breakfast, it really does help!
• Chad has a mid semester break for a few days next week!
• We are finally out of the 100 degree weather! It may be high 90's but at least we've made it down a little bit. The nights are now lovely, mid 50's, and we can sleep with our windows open.

What were the best parts of your week?

Wrap it Up!

So how did my goals pan out last month? Let's see:

1. Wake up. Hahahaha. Yeah, no this didn't happen at all. Moving on....

2. Take More Pictures. This I did! We went down to the rodeo specifically to take pictures on a date night and I was armed with my camera on our camping trip to Arches. While I may be frustrated that I'm not as awesome as Chad, I'm practicing. And practice makes perfect right? Or at least makes you better :)

3. RUN! This we did! We started running that first week that I made this goal. We are averaging about 3 miles per run during the week with longer runs on the weekend. We didn't run when Nikki and Matt were here but we definitely moved with them! Hiking, climbing mountains, and jumping on trampolines (no matter how fun!) are all definitely workouts. And I've got the sore legs and buns to prove it! We've started running again this week since Nikki and Matt left us forever :(

4. Keep the Kitchen Clean. Check and check. The dishes have mostly been done every night. The counters have been relatively clear and wiped down as well. Now I need to move on to the nasty floors. Between our dog and all of our outdoor stuff (rock climbing, running, hiking, oh my!) we track in a lot of dirt.

5. Get my Cute on and wear something besides scrubs and workout clothes. Done! I dressed my self like a proper adult should do the first weekend and fortunately I was camping the second weekend :) So that means workout clothes were required! :) Last week the Dr. was out of town and I wore actual cute clothes to work twice. Two times is better than nothing! Last weekend was another success as well!

So it's a new month which means I'm updating the goal list. I think that shorter term monthly goals are working out better for me. I can focus on them for a month, hopefully make them a habit, and then add in some more the next month. That or abandon anything good I had going last month and fail miserably. Either way really. We'll see.

1. Wake your lazy butt up in the morning! Seriously. Get. Up.

2. Play the piano more. And when I say play more, I mean play anything in general. Playing once would be playing more. I'm gonna shoot for once a week.



3. Keep on top of the Laundry Situation. Laundry blows. I think we can all agree on that. But it's even worse when you put it off and have to do crazy amounts of loads on a sunday night because you have 1. no clean underwear  2. no clean scrubs  3. no clean pants (Chad).

4. Floss. I. HATE. Flossing. Why? I don't even know. When I'm tired at night I just want to fall into bed and pass out. But I'm already taking out contacts and washing my face and brushing my teeth and putting on lotion (gross, does anyone else hate lotion or am I the only crazy one?). I might as well add in flossing and mouth wash for that matter, especially since I don't know when we'll be at the dentist next.... Oh to be poor college kids!

5. Eat more fruits and vegetables. I used to have really good intentions and would buy us lots of fruits and veggies every week. And every week a larger portion that I would like to admit just sat there and went bad. So I stopped buying very much. Now that the kitchen is clean and Chad is in classes and we've settled into a routine, I'm better at making dinner every night. So hopefully we can be good and eat all our produce now.

While I've got a shiny new list of goals, I'm still going to keep doing my other ones from last month. That's the idea right? Making new habits?

What goals do you have for the month of October? What New Years Resolutions have you already accomplished because you're a rockstar?

Meatless Monday: More Muffins

Oh Monday... Why can't you be more like Saturday?

Friday we drove Nikki and Matt back down to Vegas. We walked the strip, looked at things we couldn't afford, gambled away a grand total of $6 between the four of us and then cried all the way home from the airport. Chad and I were hoping we could convince Nikki and Matt to stay forever with all of our sno cone goodness and awesome National Parks. They had three better reasons to go back home :)

Best Picture Ever? I thought so too. Other people take beautiful pictures with their camera phones, I take these.

We got home Saturday around 2am. We slept in and stayed in our pajamas the majority of the day. We used our weekend to relax, grocery shop, do a ton of laundry, watch too much TV, and cook. We were also going through family withdrawal so we called a few people on skype and chatted for a long while. Some days we are bummed we are soooo far away from every one, yesterday was definitely one of those days.

Saturday we also got a Fall Package from my Mom and Dad! Is there anything better than getting surprise boxes in the mail? We put up holiday decorations they sent, ate all of the chocolate, and made Bran Muffins. My mom sent me everything I needed to make these muffins and easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Those are on the list to make tonight! :)

These Bran Muffins are awesome. Not only do they taste great but you can make up the whole recipe and store it in your fridge for up to 6 weeks. Feeling like muffins? Pull out the batter and bake some up! The longer you let it sit the better the batter gets, breaking down all the cereal. I can never wait though and made a half batch on Sunday afternoon with raisins and chocolate chips.

Thanks Mom and Dad! ;)

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 t baking soda dissolved in 2 c boiling water
• 1qt. buttermilk (if you don't have any add 4T lemon juice or vinegar to milk, walah!)
• 4 beaten eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 5 c wheat flour
• 1 c shortening
• 1 t salt
• 3 c All Bran
• 2 c Bran Flakes

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs.

2. Mix eggs and soda water together and add buttermilk.

3. Stir in the cereals and mix until just moistened.

4. Store in the fridge in a covered container until ready to bake. Will last for 6 weeks.

5. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Sunday Dress

Dress, Cardigan & Shoes: Target, Earrings: F21, Belt: DownEast Outfitters

Chad brought me home a little surprise last week, this super fun leaf belt. I couldn't wait to wear it. I thought it might jazz up my plain, (somewhat) shapeless dress. Especially when wearing a cardigan over top, this dress needed some help, bad.

Purple Leaf Belt to the rescue! Why hello there Mr, Belt. Where have you been all my life?! Am I the last person on earth to realize that belts are really my best friend? Not only are they functional but they really can change up the entire look of an outfit. I'm so glad we've found each other.

Linking up with ModernModestBeauty and WatchOutForTheWoestmans

Five {Holiday} Things Friday

It's almost October, which I can officially let out all of my holiday crazy!!! Singing Christmas carols in July all of a sudden makes planning out a Christmas bucket list in (almost) October seem very much acceptable. Clearly I'm overly excited for all of them! Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Talk like a Pirate Day... What? You didn't Talk like a Pirate on September 19th? Ok, so maybe my Dr. was more into that one than me.

I am compiling lists of things to do for each and every holiday so that I can milk each and every one for all of it's goodness and glory! Thanks Pinterest for all of your ridiculously wonderful ideas and feeding my crazy!

Here's some things I'm digging for the upcoming Holiday Season:

1. Scarecrow Treats. There's candy corn, a cake mix and peanut butter involved. Sounds like a good time to me! Now I just need to make friends who also like candy corn so I don't have to eat them all by myself.

2. I think I'm gonna have to set aside some time to decorate sugar cookies. I love decorating cakes and cookies! Ridiculously cute and tasty? It's a win, win.

 3. Face Paint.  F-r-e-a-k-y. Now we just need to find a Halloween party to go to.

4. I made a Countdown to Christmas for Chad the first year we were married and it was a lot of fun. Last year we were in the middle of moving and it was crazy. This year we'll either countdown again or do this: The 12 Dates of Christmas. Or a combination of the two! Either idea is a nice way to sneak in as much celebrating as possible!

5. A Thankful Tree. What a cute way to bring in the spirit of Thankfulness all November long! Plus it's cheap, and when I say cheap, I mean pretty much free. woot.

What are you most excited for this Holiday Season? Crafts? Food? Shopping?

Share any fun ideas you have and let us all in on the action ;)

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward: Sweat Dresses. Although I'm pretty sure it would be perfect to wear in the nursery on Sundays. I'm thinking that a sweat dress would definitely be a step down from scrubs though.

Awkward:

• Trying to send out mail from the office without stamps. Great job genius.
• Changing into my "pajamas" next to our car in the parking lot while camping. I was changing my pants, just chillin' in my underwear when Nikki yelled to me that people were coming back to the parking lot from the trail. Yup, just putting on a show for the hiking teenage boys. Your very welcome. At least I bothered to check when I changed into my sports bra :) What's camping without a little peep show?
• Trying to throw something out of the car window only to discover that the window was rolled up as my hand smashed into it.
• Attempting to cook dinner in a foil pouch on top of the car's engine. Not super effective.
• Peeing outside. Enough said.
• The smell of our car driving back to St. George. 4 dirty campers and a filthy dog. Throw in some wet dog food and you've got yourself a winner!
• Sleeping in a 2 man tent with 2 backpacks and 2 camera bags. Oh, and a giant dog. While she really isn't giant, she is giant in a tiny tent. Little tip? 2 man tent was really only made to accommodate 2 people.

Awesome:

• Arches National Park!
• Watching sheep being herded across a highway. Taking pictures of the "cowboy" herding them and then him asking us to send him the picture! Chad makes friends everywhere he goes!
• Trampoline Land! We almost killed ourselves but we had a ball!
• Not having to workout due to our "sneaky" workouts. Hiking and jumping on a trampoline for an hour definitely count as working out! And they are also major fun.
• Chad was a champ and drove the whole way to Arches and all the way back home.
• Seeing the fall colors in Dixie National Forest. While it's still summer down here, it is most definitely fall at that elevation. The colors were gorgeous!
• Sno Cones and Frozen Yogurt!
• Potato chips from Kneaders. OMG. They are thick, kettle style and are dusted with Parmesan cheese. Holy yumminess. I could eat these forever.

What was Awkward or Awesome about your week?

We're the girls from Beverly Hills, shopping is our greatest thrill!

Friday morning we packed up all our camping gear, food, clothes, and camera gear. We then all stood outside our tiny little ford focus, with our dog, and contemplated how it was all going to fit in there. I was fairly confident that Nikki and Matt didn't want to drive for 5 hours with a giant dog on their laps. Did I mention the A/C in our car bit the dust for real? Yeah.... good times.

It was a loooooong, HOT drive.

Once we got to the Visitor's Center we had to go over the rules for back country camping. My favorites?

• Do not walk on/disturb the dirt. Set your tent up on the large rocks.
• No pets allowed
• Bury your human waste at least 4 inches deep. Better yet?! Carry it out with you!

Chad cheerfully agreed, "Oh yes, of course!". When the lady mentioned carrying out our waste he replied with "Sure, we've brought bags for that". We love sleeping on rocks and carrying around our own poo! If you think I was going to carry my poo out in a plastic grocery bag you've lost you mind. There weren't any garbages in the whole park except the visitors center, so we would have had to drive a half hour with that stuff. Nope. Not going to happen. In fact, let's just be real here, there wasn't going to be any poo-ing outside for any of us. We happily drove to the pit toilets every morning. Too much potty talk? Yeah, I agree.

Friday night we hiked up to Delicate Arch to take some night shots. Not researching anything before hand, we're super prepared like that, we thought it would be more of a walk. Not a strenuous hike up mountains and along mountain ledges with our puppy in the middle of the night. We made it though and were "pooped" (ha) by the time we finished.

Trying to find our tent in the middle of the night was super fun. There was no moon so that was also super helpful. There were however, lots of cactuses. Cacti? Whatever they are technically called there were lots. We basically had to tiptoe through a field of cactuses to make it to our tent. We had little to no faith in Rukia's ability to avoid the cactuses, so I ended up carrying her the last stretch. Overprotective much?

So we were supposed to sleep on the rock. We all know that didn't happen. Rock or sand? What would you choose? Add in to that decision making process the fact that we forgot pillows. Pretty much the easiest choice of our lives.

One of us ::cough::Matt::cough::  might have been afraid that they were going to get eaten in the night. The visitor's center had all kids of pelts and skulls of animals from the area. That didn't really help the situation. Chad might have pointed out animal tracks on the way to our camping area as well. Again, not super helpful. He may or may not have thought that Rukia's breathing was a wild animal waiting outside their tent to eat his face. Once he survived the first night the paranoia seemed to fade a bit. Just a bit.

That morning we were t-i-r-e-d from our midnight hike, so we thought we would do the other most strenuous hike in the park! Woot. It was blazing hot! 4 hours later we had walked 6 miles and seen a handful of arches. The views were amazing!

We weren't about to eat peanut butter and jelly after that afternoon so we went into town and ate pizza until we couldn't eat anymore. We also stopped at a general store to pick up "pillows". Our cheap selves weren't about to buy new pillows so Matt, Chad and I bought packs of napkins to use. Nikki already had her pack of toilet paper, which explained why she slept like a baby compared to the rest of us the night before :)  FYI jeans don't make a good pillow no matter how they're folded.

Sunday morning was chilly! It also looked like it was going to rain, so we packed up fast and took some pictures by "our" arch on the hike out. This was the arch that we camped by. If you look really close you can see Matt and Chad on top of the arch on the right.

We decided to take the scenic route home and hit up Bryce Canyon and Zion's National Park. All we had to do was take one road south. That was it. Just follow the road south. Done. Easy Peasy. After a gas stop we managed to somehow start heading west instead. BAH! We figured this out after driving for 45 minutes. Bryce Canyon was all of a sudden over an hour east. We reluctantly let that dream die and just enjoyed Dixie National Forest. We also were able to stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

After a terrifying drive down a horrific mountain we were back on an interstate and back on track. Our car is now in desperate need of new breaks. We decided to save Zion's for another day and instead high tailed it home so we could eat ridiculous amounts of Mexican food. Mmmmm. Cafe Rio, no better way to end a camping trip.

We couldn't quite get the timing down. I've now decided that jumping photos are mandatory. They are fantastic! Even more fantastic when they fail!