oklahoma, okay!

i've had a few projects in oklahoma over the last few summers. lucky me, because every time i go i get to see kimberlee and fam. and i love it. this summer hasn't been an exception, and i've been a couple times already, with a few more trips coming up. so excited!

someday, i'm going to get pictures of me and kim. for now, pictures of these three cuties will just have to suffice. it's kind of crazy how much these girls loved the $1 sand buckets ... i swear they wore them this way without any persuasion.
and this little boy is just so chill ... loved it!


we also had a little extra time to try our hands at these bows ... some worked really well and others, well ... not so much. but it was fun, at least!

i got stuck in oklahoma for an extra day this trip too ... too bad, right? that extra day was fabulous! swimming, bowling, movies ... we had a blast!

my pretty perfect weekend

don't you all want to know what's involved in a nearly perfect weekend? i am happy to share ...

first, i took friday off work and went here with some of the fam for some waterpark fun:

friday night i went here with some fab friends for some delish pasta:

saturday morning i went here to receive my endowments, surrounded by my awesome family and friends (and may i add ... goal #3 accomplished):

saturday evening we celebrated avery's 4th birthday at her house. i stole this adorable picture of avery & addie from mietra's facebook ... hope she doesn't mind.

and sunday morning i went back here for an 8K. and i ran the whole thing. i surprised myself, and am happy, even if i ran slow (goal #4 accomplished, and one-upped):

singing in the 801 rain

last summer i volunteered my seat on two flights and received a couple vouchers for free flights in return. what a steal.

i needed to use them before may, and mia and i wanted to visit some friends in utah, so we booked the trip. the closer we got to departure, the worse the weather forcast in utah looked.

but, we went anyway. we had 2 lists. people to see and places to visit (which happened to mostly be restuarants). so we paired them all up and had a fab trip ... in the rain/snow/sleet/hail. it was lovely.

day one: lunch with jen and her girls. i haven't seen jen in 7 years (i think that's what we decided) and had never met either of her girls. they were all fantastic! we did lunch at the thanksgiving point cafe (yum) and then just sat and chatted for a while. so fun! (thanks, jen, for the memories & good times!) i'm a little bummed that i didn't get a picture. will we both look the same in 7 more years?

we went to spend some time with billy, josette, and chuck that night. that little girl is adorable. seriously. and it was SO good to see that little family again ... plus a little dinner at cafe rio ... what's not to love?

day two: i've been wanting to visit welfare square and the humanitarian center for a long time. probably since i heard that you could tour them a few years ago. these tours were high on the priority list. we went to the humanitarian center first. they have you sit and watch a movie before the tour, which was a.maze.ing. it made me cry. we've done some service projects for them in the past, but it will most certainly be on the top of my list of service opportunities in the future. i had no idea how many countries and people they serve.

welfare square was good too. i think i had a better understanding of how the program worked before i went. but it was so great to see the facilities where many of the welfare food was made, packaged, boxed, etc. loved both tours.

for lunch that day we went to the garden room at the joseph smith memorial building downtown salt lake. yummy food, excellent friends, and a nice view of the temple (minus the snow). i still want to see how that garden room roof opens up ... i'll have to go sometime when it's sunny.

{stephanie joined us for the tours and then for lunch ... and actually dinner that night too ... it was fab to see her again!}

{josette will probably hurt me for posting this, but if it's ok for facebook, it's ok for the blog. they met us for lunch at the garden room too!}

that night we ate dinner at tucanos with stephanie & her fiance and pamela & her husband. tucanos was delish, and it was so good to meet up with pamela again too. yahoo!

day three: a quick (hour long) run on the treadmill ... because i felt the need to work off some of the food we'd been eating all weekend. then shopping at fashion place mall with josette (i bought a couple new pairs of shoes ... aren't friends supposed to stop you from spending money?) then we made billy swim with chuck in the hotel pool.

{i took a bunch of these pics while she was sitting/splashing in the pool, but this face was my fave!}

{the girls playing with the camera during swim time}

that night we went to see gina in provo ... good (and strange) times. we ate at denny's, in provo, after midnight. there are some real weirdos you run into in that scenario!

day 4: a little church with billy & josette, then in & out burger for lunch. we couldn't leave utah without our burger, fries, and shake from in & out!

overall ... fantastic long weekend. i didn't want to come home. is there a way to get all of my family and friends in one place so i can see everyone anytime i want?

{i just love this pic of me & mia ... we were just driving around and decided to take a picture}

{i was putting gas in the car ... it was a purple taurus. purple. and that's what we called it.}

welcome to my non-runner's world

{from the last 5K i did ... walked the whole thing ... it can only go up from here!}

for those of you keeping up on my goals (is anyone, really?) ... one of them is to run a full 5K. then we found an 8K close to home in the end of may. and someone convinced me to sign up for it. if i can finish the whole thing, i will be able to cross that off my list and say i one-upped myself at the same time.

in order to do that, though, i downloaded a "couch to 10K" training app on my phone. i love love it. i open the app, start my music playlist, and then listen as miss-bossy-pants tells me when to start warming up, when to run, when to walk, and when to cool down (that's my favorite part!). in the beginning, it was run for 30 seconds, walk for 4.5 minutes. but over time, the amount of running has increased and the amount of walking has decreased. the run today was the first one with more running than walking. and it felt so good!

a few running-related things i've learned in the past month:

1. i'd prefer running outside to running on a treadmill. even if it is 35 degrees outside. there's more to look at and it's harder to quit in the middle of the run.

2. i'm in love with my headphones. skull candy ear buds. you should try them.

3. geese are big, dumb, dirty birds. and i'm afraid of them.

4. running with friends is better than running alone. even if your friends are faster than you. the good ones run a little ahead then turn back to meet you. i'm looking at you, mia casey. (thanks)

5. every day that i finish a run, i surprise myself. sometimes i feel like a 5K, 8K, or a 10K is out of reach ... but then i decide if i take it one run at a time, i'll get there. because i can. and because it's going to feel oh-so-great when i do.

hummus in the nick of time

yesterday i got a facebook note ... "where are we on those homemade thin mints?". holy cow, seriously almost forgot to make my new recipe for the month! it would be easy to say that it's been a busy month, though right now i can't figure out what i've been busy doing!

so it was march 28, and on top of that i was leaving to go out of town the next day and basically had about 1 hour of free time left to find and try a new recipe. luckily, we had planned foreign food night for family home evening at church on monday, so i needed to take some dish to share and it had to be foreign. my mind went to a friend's blog (thanks kate!) and her "hummus: nothing easier" post. hummus is foreign. hummus is new. hummus it was. at first i didn't love it, but then i tried it with the naan and it was so good! the only thing i'd change in this recipe is to change the blender i used. it didn't "liquify" it as much as i hoped. but, it's still a keeper.

yum-o chocolate layer cake

so the good find for february's recipe was a last minute one ... rich chocolate layer cake. check out the recipe here. we made it for rob's birthday celebration last night. and it. was. good. delish, even.

we didn't have our round cake pans available so we just made it in a 9x13 pan, then cut in in half, and then cut each half in half to make 4 layers. and, we substituted mini chocolate chips for the coconut & almonds that it called for. because what's better than chocolate cake with chocolate frosting? chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and mini chocolate chips. doesn't get better than that, folks!

the frosting was fantastic, really. i think i might doctor up my canned frosting every time from now on. who would have thought that a little sour cream and vanilla would transform it?!?

so you should try it. yum-o.

goals amendment #1

one of my goals this year was to try a new recipe once a month. however, after a so-so recipe last month, and a couple of near disasters this month, i'm making an amendment.

first though, the story of the no-good-horrible-very-bad thin mint. i saw the picture and recipe here. and i had two thoughts. one, i love thin mint girl scout cookies. and two, i need to take a treat to go with my relief society lesson on sunday. so on saturday i tried it out. problems ensue. first, the recipe as written did not turn into a dough, but rather into a flour-y mess. after trying to "fix" the recipe with a little extra butter and vanilla, it was roll-out-able, so that's what i did. however, after baking them up, they were super crumbly. and, after tasting them, they were super bad. seriously, what kind of recipe calls for a whole cup of cocoa? so into the sink they went. and my lesson went on without a treat.

without further ado, the amendment. try new recipes each month until i find a good recipe, worthy of serving to friends and family and/or worthy of making again. good luck to me.

well that was a lot of snow ...

the drive to work this morning was bright and white. really pretty, with the clear blue sky and all. it was a drastic change from the first night of the blizzard. usually the weather predictions disappoint me, because they always say we're going to get a bunch of snow and then the storm misses us. but they were right on with this one. we probably got about 2 feet of snow, and some crazy wind to blow it all around.

{the view out the back window around 11:30pm}

work closed early on tuesday, wasn't going to open again until at least noon on wednesday. at 6:15am they (who's "they" anyway?) closed all the roads in lake county because of hazardous road conditions. and the office closed for the entire day. snow day!

{the same view, the next morning. the snow drifts were up to the pool top, plus some!}

{the view from the front door. you can barely see my car over the drift!}

it took us about 3 hours to clear out the driveway. we haven't started on the walkway. i did get a lot done yesterday. worked a little, scrapbooked a lot (i finished 1/3 of the baby book i'm working on!), made a few recipes i've been wanting to try ... turkey-pepperoni pizza on a flat out for lunch (yum!), barbeque chicken salad with BBQ ranch dressing for dinner (yum!), and a "healthy" chocolate cake (rubbery and gross, dont' do it!). i also planned a relief society lesson and visited with the fam. it was a good day!

the plow finally came this morning to clear out the cul-de-sac. driving to work was strange, with narrower-than-normal driving lanes, turn lanes filled with 2 feet of snow, and large white mountains in every parking lot and on ever corner. i wonder how long it will take for the roads to feel like they're back to normal.

{the driveway is now about 10 feet longer ... there was nowhere else to put all the snow!}

{crazy piles of snow everywhere. it's a winter wonderland!}

so there it is. blizzard of 2011, snowpocalypse, snowmaggedon, and my favorite snOwMG! who wants to go sledding?

start that year off right!

new years day. bulls beat the cavs (100-91). and we watched it from the suite. loved it!

{avery holding molly}

{julez holding molly ... he loves babies!}

{i think harper was annoyed that i was interrupting her pretzel eating with a picture}

{me & zoe}

{rob & mom packing up the food to go ... should have brought a ziploc!}

{mcmillan family}

{middleton family + one}

{verrette family}

warm spinach garlic spread

january's recipe of the month ... completed. on new year's eve we had some crackers and cheese at our little celebration. the box of club crackers had a recipe on it, so i decided to try it. here's my review.

it tasted good. i'm not entirely sure what the milk, oil, salt, and hot pepper sauce added to the recipe, but it obviously didn't hurt anything. however, i only put in 2 teaspoons of garlic, and it could definitely use more. in the end, especially when it started to cool off, it returned to a cream cheese consistency. so, while i thought it was okay as a dip/cracker spread last night, this morning it was seriously delicious on my bagel and turkey breakfast sandwich.

*side note, i used fat free cream cheese and would probably eliminate the oil next time, just to have a low calorie, high-ish protein, zero fat spread. yum.

here's the recipe:

warm spinach garlic spread

1 package chopped frozen spinach (10 oz)
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
2-3 teaspoons bottled roasted garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
12 oz cream cheese cut up
club crackers (original flavor)

1. cook spinach according to package directions. drain in colander, pressing spinach with back of spoon to remove excess moisture.

2. in medium saucepan stir together milk, oil, garlic, salt and hot pepper sauce. cook and stir over low heat until warm. gradually add cream cheese, stirring until melted. stir in spinach. heat through.

3. serve warm or chilled with crackers.

am i behind?

i feel like i'm behind. i know we're only a week into the new year, so how can i be behind? i have to keep reminding myself that i haven't even received a paycheck in 2011, so i can't be behind on my savings goal. and i did actually include an extra sum in the car payment i mailed this week.

other than that, i looked up a knife skills class and found one closer to home. i haven't signed up for it yet though. i did choose a spinach & garlic spread for my new recipe this month. i might get ambitious and try multiple new recipes each month ... an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert. we'll see how it goes when i'm travelling 4 weeks per month and have to cram a month's worth of personal errands and social life into 4 saturdays.

and what am i going to do with the rest of my month? get a foid card, start some running (realistically it'll be walking this month, i'm sure), and find a reputable company for lasik surgery .... i'm almost out of contacts and don't want to wear glasses around for any longer than necessary!