What I am Thankful For

YUM!!!!

YUM! That is all I have to say

Change

My trip to San Diego was delightful- despite my flight home being delayed an hour and a half because of the snow that was supposedly falling in Salt Lake. One of the best things I took away from my trip was a new way to read the Book of Mormon. Now I know I am not the only one who has struggled with regular scripture study. I do really well until I get to the Isaiah chapters and then I put down my trusty quad and the bookmark will remain in the same place for months on end. I am getting better, and my new effort has lots to do with my dear friend Nikole. While I was visiting her flooded apartment we were discussing reading our scriptures. Nikole is much better at it than I am, and she got to hear the mission president in her area give a talk about the Book of Mormon, and how to read it with better meaning. He has all his missionaries read the Book of Mormon this way, and Nikole took good notes and started to read it the same way, and she has in turn passed it along to me. So for all of you who are interested here you go.

1. Get a new copy of the Book of Mormon- and I mean the cheap $2 one from the distribution center.

2. Get 4 different colors of colored pencils.

3. As you start to read, mark your scriptures in the following way:

Color #1- Anytime Christ's name is mentioned (nikole and i also mark any form of Christs name, ie: God, Lord, etc.)

Color #2-Principles or Doctrine of the gospel

Color #3- Attributes of Christ

Color #4- Any time that Christ is speaking or being quoted.

It has been very interesting to read this way, and I have found myself paying more attention as I read.

Also everyone should check out Jeffery R. Holland's talk from conference this past Sunday. WOW!

Off I Go

Am off to San Diego, will think about coming back......

I Want One!!!

My best friend had baby #2 a few weeks ago, and she is beautiful, and I want one! (yes i realize i need a husband for this to happen, and to have a husband i need a boyfriend first, and to have a boyfriend i would actually need to, ya know, date-not that i am not trying)

This is her a few days after she was born

and here she is at 3 weeks- isn't she beautiful!

The Trip!

HAVASUPAI 2009

The gaggle of us that went down (sorry the picture is so fuzzy- 17 of us in all!)

What we saw on the way.....

What we did while we were there....

The local wildlife....

It was a blast, and I didn't die. If you get a chance to go- DO IT!!!!

Here I come!

I will be here this weekend. Stitches and all! If I don't die, I will post all about it next week! Stay tuned.......

7 Stitches

I went tubing down the Provo river yesterday for a ward activity. Needless to say I am a clutz. I lost my tube, and in the process of trying to get it back I went over some rapids on my shins, which resulted in me gashing open my shin. After going into shock on the middle of the river, getting me up the side of the river bank and into a car, off to the hospital I went with some of the other people in my ward. We only had to wait like 2 minutes before I was back in a room getting my vitals taken. Keep in mind I am still in my swimming suit, and ver dirty from the river. It was all very funny, the guys that were with me kept me pretty entertained, even though John had to leave the room as the nurse injected the cut with Lidocain. I ended up with 7 stitches and one heck of a bruise.

I took some pictures on my phone, and will now add them- so if you don't want to look at them you don't have too.

This is Kevin, John, and Liz from my ward, they came with me to the hospital and provided the comic relief for the day.

Here is the cut before I got the stitches, and before they cleaned it up a little. We had made a lovely pressure bandage out of John's shirt, he did not ask for it back and the shirt he is wearing belongs to our friend Karen.

Here it is after the stitches. The red area has now turned even more red and is getting ready to turn into a lovely bruise.

The trip was really fun and I had a blast, and according to John I shouldn't worry because guys really dig scars.

Life in Prison

I work at the prison. For the most part it is pretty boring and your basic job of same stuff, different day. The exception to this rule is Tuesdays. Every Tuesday inmates parole. We get to see all the cute little families come and pick up there significant other and take the required 'the day i got out of prison' picutres (you think i am kidding). These are the scrapbooking moments we all want to share right?

Today however we got a treat. A black limo showed up to pick up an inmate. We were laughing slightly at this, then came the great part- the women getting out of the limo was a rather large women, had on a black mini skirt, thigh high silver boots, and a black fedora. More laughter followed her exit from the limo, and more employess of clinical services came into the pharmacy to get a better look at her. Out comes the inmate and they get into the limo and very slowly leave the prison.

Then comes the best part.... a couple of hours later the limo comes back! Same women exits the limo without the hat and looking not quite as put together as before, and picks up a second inmate!

Needless to say we have been giggling all day!

Utah Barbie

So I found this on a friends blog, and it was pretty funny so thought I would pass it on, no offense intended. (also since i havent' blogged in forever)

If Mattel were to tailor a new line of Barbies for the Utah market they'd look something like this.

Park City Barbie: She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a million dollar home. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

'Draper Barbie'The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Wind star Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

'Ogden Barbie'This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows, and a meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) unless you are a cop; then we don't know what you are talking about.

'Sandy Barbie'This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

'Spanish Fork Barbie'This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and Tweety Bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick Mullet-Haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

'Scipio Barbie'This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased Beer-Gutted Ken out of Spanish Fork Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

'Moab Barbie'This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two MoabBarbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.
'West Valley Barbie'This Barbie now comes with a stroller and 2 infant dolls. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. White boy Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now very difficult to find since the addition of the infant.
'Provo / BYU Barbie'She's perfect in every way, mainly due to the high levels of antidepressants in her system. We don't know where Ken is because he's always at church meetings
Hope you had a laugh, I sure did!

My Mom

I think my mom is the greatest. Yes I am slightly biased, but she really is. Even with all she struggles with she still trys her best to do what she can for her kids. It is her birthday today and it has already been quite the day. I called to confirm her appointment she has with the orthopedic surgeon and find out it was yesterday, not tomorrow like we had thought. No phone call from the dr. office to confirm or remind my mom at all, no just well it was yesterday so she missed it. The next time they could see her would be on the 23rd, which is two weeks away! Through all this I call my mom and give her the bad news, which doesn't make for a very happy birthday! While trying to work out SOMETHING, a girl at work suggested calling The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murry, and wouldn't you know they just had a cancelation and can see her tomorrow morning! It is all ment to be right? So I got to call my mom back and through her tears, cause yes she was crying over the fact she was going to have to wait another two weeks to try and get her hip fixed, and was able to tell her she gets to see someone tomorrow. This made her much happier, and helped her think on the poisitive side of things and actually have a happy birthday (i hope). It has been a long couple of weeks with her, what with being in the hospital, out of the hospital and many, many docotors appointments, but I am very greatful that she is still with us and hope the doctors will be able to make her more bionic soon. Lots of love to my mom and hope she has a good birthday!

Many, Many Projects

*quick update before the post, mom is doing much better, she is home resting, trying to remember to take it easy. she came home from the hospital on friday.*

And now on with my post. I like to be kept busy. I feel bad when I sit in front of the t.v. and do nothing but watch it. I feel much better about sitting on my rearend when I am multitasking while doing so. I like to crochet, knit, cross stitch, whatever. I also get bored in sacrament meeting if I don't have something to keep my hands busy, I think it must be adult onset ADD or something. Anyway, I like to do projects.

The current project list, and reason for this post, is that there is something in the water cause many of my friends and family are having babies! I love doing baby projects, cause they are just fun. I switch around a lot with which medium I create the project in, but right now I am in love with these car seat blankets.

I didn't make this one, I stole the picture from another blog, but I think they are great, cause the staps for the carseat feed in through the holes, you buckle the baby, then wrap them up. This may not be a new thing to all you mothers out there, but I like them.

So anyway, if you are expecting a baby and want one of these, I would love to make one for you. Just leave a comment about what color you want for the blanket and the crochet edge, if you have a 5 point or 3 point car seat, and your address so I can get it to you. Seriously, don't hesitate if you want one.

I'm on an episode of 'House, M.D.'

**WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!!!!**

So this week has been absoulty awful! The saga started on Friday, my mom was in a car accident and totalled her car, although she was just fine just bumps and bruises. I made plans with my mom to drive her around on Saturday so she could run errands, and that made her feel better. Meanwhile I go to the instacare on Friday night because I have a bladder infection, get meds and get home around midnight.
Saturday comes and my roommate and I take my mom around, we get all the stuff out of her car, and start working on getting her another one (my roommate's dad is a used car salesman.) Later that night to keep my mom's mind off of the fact she had no car we took her to see a movie. While we were leaving the movie theater my mom started feeling light headed. She doesn't move very fast anyway because she is waiting to get a hip replacement, so we just took it easy and let her rest for a minute. We make it to the car and while helping her into the car, she got really lightheaded and started to pass out, and became unresponsive. We take her to the instacare-after lots and lots of arguing about wheather or not she really needed to go- and they sent us down the the emergancy room.
We get to the emergancy room and they take her vitals, give her and EKG, which came back normal, and then tell us to wait until they have a room for us in the back. Two and a half hours later we finaly get a room! (yes by this time it is about 1 o'clock in the morning) We chat with the doctore, but since it has been so long, mom of cource has no symptoms left. So nice ER doc sends us home and tells us if she starts felling dizzy again to come on back.
So Sunday comes, and I go to church and on my way home to get my ticket to go to the Draper Temple dedication I get a voice mail from the Primary president in my parents ward saying she is back at the ER because she had passed out during sharing time. She also tells me that she lost her pulse, and they had to do CPR for about a minute before she started breathing on her own again.
I skip the temple dedication (big shock i know) and rush down to the emergancy room, find out that my mom did not have a heart attack, but they don't know what the problem is. (all this from the nice ER doc from Saturday night-yes same doc) Mom gets taken for more tests, and admited because the cardiologist wants to know what is going on before she gets to go home. More tests on monday, all come back normal, and then while walking back from the bathroom mom starts to faint again like she did at the movies on Saturday. So mom gets confined to bed, which drives her nuts! Tueday more tests, and we find mom's plateletts are low and she is getting two bags of packed cells, they also want to do a bone marrow biopsy. More heart tests, all coming back normal.
So today (Wendsday) mom goes in for an elecracal physiolical (probably didn't spell that right) study of her heart. The doctor finds out that she has ventricular tachacardia, and she needs to have a defibralator implanted. (like a pacemaker only fancier)
So much relief because we finally have an answer! I left the hospital to come to my history class, and she was going to surgury. She still needs to have the bone marrow biopsy done, but that should be done tomorrow and she should be able to come home by Friday. So yes, this week I have flet like I have been part of an episode of House, without the cute Austraian doctor to keep me company.
Will post more later and update on what the bone marrow says, and how the surgry goes, but for now mom is doing much better and is happy they found out what was wrong. What is really impressive is when you look at the stastistics, the percentage of people who have this V-Tach happen, are then brought into the hospital and are able to leave is 1%. The percentage of people who are saved by CPR is only 30%. So my mom is part of 30% of 1% who actually live after having this happen. I think God wants her to stay put for a while.

Dancing Queen

Some of you may be scandalized by this post, but don't worry it was all in good fun! Last week I was very daring, went completly out of my comfort zone and went dancing. What type of danceing you may ask........POLE DANCING! Yes you read that right. Here in good old Utah there is a studio that teaches pole dancing as an exercise class. A girl from my ward and I went list past Saturday and just giggled the entire time! It was so much fun and I was very sore that afternoon and the next day cause it takes some muscles to pole dance. We were taught a simple routine, and also some spins on the pole. Was totally worth the $12.50 for the class and if it was closer to my house I would totally get a membership.

Ode to Motherhood

To preface this post, I am not a mother, nor are there any plans to become one in the near future seeing how for me to have kids I need a husband and to have a husband I need to actually date, but that is a whole other post. Anyway, eventhough I am not a mom I have many years of babysitting under my belt and have done over nighters with my neices in the past. But the true test of my skills came this past week when I went to California and played stay-at-home mome for a week while my sister and her husband lived it up in the Cayman islands.

I bow before any of you that my be stay-at-home moms! You are amazing and have a tougher job than anyone probably gives you credit for. By day 3 I was going stir crazy. It didn't help that we were on an Army base with literally nothing around. I am not kidding. We were 30 miles from the nearest town that really wasn't that big, plus even though I could leave post, I wasn't sure I could get back on with my sister being gone becasue the gate people had not given us (me and my room mate who went with me) a visitor pass. So the week was spent inside my sister's house with some trips to the park.

I survived getting 3 kids plus myself ready for church on sunday, and to church on time, and a week of getting kids up and to school on time, and homework and piano practice completed every night. I was told a couple of time my my niece Hannah that the dinner I cooked wasn't 'that bad' and was cheared when I made them chocolate chip pancackes for dinner one night.

It was a good trip, but I was so tired when it was done and very sadly excited to go back to work. I hope I don't have to work when the children I will eventually have are small, but for now am happy with working and I give props to all you stay-at- home moms who do this every day and manage to keep you sanity as well as keep you children happy and healthy. My hat is off to you ladies. Well Done!

Cute Guy #1 and #2

I am taking a piano class this semester, and now that we are about 4 weeks into the semester I am finally getting chalanged, but that is a whole other story. Anyway, there is a cute guy in the class, and yes I refer to him as 'cute guy' (i think his name is cameron). So background to this delightful tale is I took piano lessons for about six years when I was younger, and with choir and a hymn book handy all through jr. high and high school I can plunk out notes and sight read my way through a couple of different hymns. So the fact that we started the semester out with 'there are 88 keys on a piano, and there are white and black ones' was a little easy for me.

My proffesor however has clued into the fact that I know what I am doing most of the time and will call on me to help other students in the class who have never touched a piano before in their lives. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago, I was helping a student and missed the instructions of how the proffessor wanted us to practice what we were working on, and we did a co-teaching thing between students and we taught each other. To make a long story longer, cute guy came and explained how we were to practice whatever, and lucky me got to sit by him and enjoy his pressance.

Fast forward to last night's class, and although cute guy has not fallen desperatly in love with me yet, I was once agin called upon to help a student cute guy #2. I don't know his name yet, but it was his first week in class so I got to catch him up on everything we have done so far this semester. Not a hardship on my part at all, and did notice he didn't have a ring on his left hand, so hey possibilities!

High School

So I saw this tag on a friends blog, (thanks Jackie) and although she didn't tag me I am lacking in things to blog about cause my life is boring, so I thought I would post it and share the love. Enjoy!

HIGH SCHOOL TAG

1. Did you date someone in high school? No one person, dated many, many boys.
2. What kind of car did you drive? I didn't, we only had one car for us kids to drive, so I had NO motivation to get my driver's license so didn't get it until I was 17, then had to wait and wait to get a chance to drive our beat up 80's something or other that basically had 4 wheels and an engine.
3. Did you pass your driver's license test the first time? Yes.
4. Were you a party animal? No, still am not.
5. Were you considered a flirt? I don't think so, was very shy around people I didn't know, but with friends would chat your ear off.
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir.
7. Were you a nerd? No, but got decent grades.
8. Were you on any varsity teams? No, me and sports are NOT a good combo
9. Did you ever get suspended or expelled? no, I dont' even thing I ever saw the inside of the princepal's office
10. Can you still sing your fight song? Parts of it, but I don't remember the whole thing.
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr Lindsay and Mrs Brown.
12. Where did you sit at lunch? the choir room or outside the drama room near the commons
13. School mascot: Bulldogs.
14. School colors: Green/White
15. Did you go to homecoming and who with? nope, was not asked to a dance the entire time I went to high school, I did all the asking. The one dance I went to where I didn't ask, my brother set me up with someone else and it was with someone from my ward, and it was basically the entire YM/YW going to the dance together.
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? parts of high school I liked, but would not want to repeat the entire experience
17. What do you remember most about graduation? that someone tossed a beach ball into the group of graduates while one of the speakers was talking.
18. Where did you go on Senior Skip Day? Lagoon.
19. Were you in any clubs? I was in Key Club for a couple of years until we misbehaved at the reginal convention and lost our charter, and then was in NHS.
20. Have you gained weight since then? I have actually lost some since high school, and am still trying to loose more.
21. Who was your prom date? Mitch Warner, and I asked him.
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yes, my 5 year was pretty fun, so plan to go to the 10 as long as I am told when it is.
23. Did you have a job while in high school? Not an official job, but I did a lot of babysitting
24. Worst class? AP English and Pre-Cal
25. Favorite class? Choir

I tag anyone who went to high school!

Back to School

So I started back to school this week, which I am excited about. I am taking two classes this semester, American Civilizations which is just your basic history class, and a group piano class which I haven't actually started yet, becasuse classes started on Wendsday and the piano class is on Tuesdays. The history class sounds like fun though. The proffesor is a normal, non-weird nerdy type of guy who reminds me of my home teacher, but makes the three hour class only last two and a half, and makes it interesting, so it should be fun.

Slacking and Knock You Naked Brownies

So I am way behind on my blogging, but all is well and I have not been abducted by aliens, have no fear. Am thinking up ideas to keep myself in the blog mode, even if I don't think I have anyting interesting to say. For now I am going to take a page from the fabulous Rachel and give you all a recipie that was really, really good. They are called Knock You Naked Brownies, and I made them because of the title. So here you go and enjoy!

Knock You Naked Brownies

1 package German chocolate cake mix (18.5 oz)
1 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup + 1/2 cup evaporated milk-divided
1/2 cup melted butter
60 vanilla caramels unwrapped (one 14 oz package)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry cake mix, nuts, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and melted butter.
Press half of the batter into the bottom of a greased 13×9x2 inch glass baking dish. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for eight minutes.
In the microwave or top of a double boiler melt caramels with remaining 1/2 cup evaporated milk. When caramel mixture is well mixed, pour over baked layer. Cover with chocolate chips. Chill for about an hour or until the caramel is hard. Press the remaining batter on top of morsels. Return to oven and bake 28 minutes (or less for gooier brownies). Let cool before cutting.