Happy Day After Halloween

This year was the first year we actually had trick-or-treaters. It was AWESOME!!!! There were some great costumes and super cute toddlers :)

Here's our jack-o-lantern, a cooperative effort for sure :)

We bought a house!

I have been super bad at updating for the longest while, i know, I am a horrible person.

But we bought a townhouse in Smithfield in September, so that has been pretty exciting!

We're still in the process of putting everything away, but once I have a room complete, I will definitely post some super sweet pics :)

So I am still alive

Ok, boot camp day one went alright. I ran the mile - mostly sort of. I cheated and skipped part of the course. I was the last one and I knew everyone would be waiting for me, so i turned around a headed back a little before the mid point where I was supposed to. I know, I am a dirty cheater who is only cheating herself, yeah yeah.

The rest of the jumping, lifting, crunching, etc didn't go so bad. I totally had spaghetti legs by the end and my hear was beating like crazy. I'm a little afraid of the pain i may feel tomorrow.

I'm also starting to keep a food journal. WOW! No wonder i've packed on the weight. New goal: eat at least 3 fruits and 3 veggies every day. That ought to keep me full and away from my chocolate easter bunny - i hope.

Here's my starting stats:

Weight: 184

# of sit ups/min: 16

# of pull ups: 7 - using the wall for leverage

# of push ups: 8 - the girly kind with bent knees

Here's hoping i see some improvement in a few weeks!

I am scared

Last week I got an email alert for a local deals service that lets you know about promotions run by local businesses. Usually I'm not really that interested in what's being promoted, but this time they caught my attention.

I am going to boot camp.

Yes, exercise boot camp and let the record show, I am afraid, very afraid.

In six weeks I'm hoping to go from zero to hero, but the more i look into the type of stuff we'll be doing, the more nervous I get. You see, I'm not really a runner. Imagine if you will an goose with a broken foot trying to run away from a predator. Do you see it, that kind of desperate waddling skip-hop run? Now put my face on the goose's body and that's what it looks like when I'm running.

Also, having been blessed with Houdini level "trick" knees, I'm worried about hurting myself as well. I'm planning on being VERY challenged through out this class, but dang it, I want to LIVE through it too.

Here's hoping I make it. Pray for me.

Stuff has happened

A lot has been happening and i have photographic evidence and I will show it to you eventually :)

In February:

It was my birthday - the big 28

It was Valentines day - ahhh love day

I hired new VISTA members for my site

It snowed, a lot - booo!!!

Went to a USU b-ball game with the 'rents & saw the backboards break

In March so far:

I made a super fancy cake - gum paste flowers & butterflies

I went to a baby blessing - yay Emily Brooks

Bought seeds & planted seedlings for my garden - the broccoli sprouted!

My friends moved away :(

We temporarily inherited their 50 million games

Spent a girls weekend with my mommy - IKEA!

I'll post the details soon - i hope :)

Time to get going again

I really, really HATE wintertime. Recently i biffed it on some stairs and totally tweaked my knee. Although painful, this is not a new occurrence and wonky knees have been a constant companion ever since I started getting tall.

I've decided (finally) that enough is enough and I'm going to do something about it. So my resolution for the year is to get those knees back in shape. This means going to the gym and lifting weights and using the giant rubber band thingy to do exercises called a "grapevine" and other weird stuff like that.

If you know any knee strengthening exercises I can do, pass em along. Hopefully i'll soon have quadriceps that can crush a walnut. I'll keep you updated :)

Christmas & New Years 2010

I know, I'm supposed to be looking to the future, but there was lots of fun stuff I didn't post about the most recent holidays.

Like . . .Chris' parents were able to come to Utah the week after Christmas. We got to got to temple square with them as well as Chris' brother Justin & his fam.

Then, later that week they came up to our house and had New Years dinner with us. Too bad we had to wait all day! We grossly underestimated how long it would take the turkey to cook :( It was worth the wait though :)

Mmmmm, it was delicious!

Toasting the new year with sparkling cider!

Year in review

Another year gone by. It's amazing how quick it goes. We definitley saw some great challenges and also some great rewards. Here are the highlights:

-We purchased a flat screen TV - blessing!

-Blaire got to go to OK to train a whole staff of C/S reps - blessing

-Blaire got laid off - challenge

-Blaire got a new job as AmeriCorps VISTA- blessing

-Chris was made head of the Food Program - blessing/challenge

-We celebrated out 4th wedding anniversary - blessing

-The transmission went out in the Saturn - challenge

-Blaire sold her beater car - blessing

-We paid off the Saturn - blessing

-We purchased a 09 Sonata - blessing/challenge

-We drove to Kansas for Thanksgiving - blessing

-We got to spend quality time with the Saunders clan over Christmas - blessing

-Blaire lost 10 lbs - blessing

-Chris lost 17 lbs - blessing

-We got to see Brittany & Dan again in December - blessing

-Chris was voted "Favorite Health Department Employee" - blessing

-We got to have Mom & Dad Nelson for New Years Eve - blessing

Overall the blessings outweighed the challenges and I'm so grateful. Hopefully 2011 will be even better!

This is why you shouldn't pick on old ladies

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson police say a 71-year-old woman knocked a man who attacked her unconscious with her frying pan.

Police Sgt. John Moore said 25-year-old Kevin Funderburk talked his way into the woman's home on Saturday, claiming he was homeless and had nowhere to go.

Moore said that when he tried to attack the woman, she fought back and "beat him down with a frying pan."

"When we arrived, he was unconscious and lying in his own vomit in the back of the house," Moore told The Hutchinson News. "He was in the hospital in Wichita over the weekend and they stapled his scalp."

The Hutchinson News reported that the woman was injured, but Moore did not release how serious her injuries were.Funderburk was jailed on $55,200 bond on suspicion of attempted rape, aggravated battery, criminal restraint and criminal damage to property. He was wearing a neck brace when he made his first appearance Tuesday in court.

Here's the damage she did to this guy:

Happy Christmas!

Hooray, this was my first year with a Christmas tree over 4 ft tall :) We got this beauty from one of those guys that goes into the mountains and cuts down trees and sells them from his RV. Whoah that sounded totally shady - but it wasn't!

We also had to tie it to my houseplants in the window sill because the trunk was so small it kept tilting out of the stand. So my tree is a little wonkey, but i still love it :)

Spooky Punkin

Chris and I either go all out or do nothing for Halloween. Since I was in charge of making a scene for my work for the local Pumpkin Walk, I wasn't really into planning a party or even thinking of a costume.

We did carve a pumpkin though. We like to each do one side of the face. Usually I carve first while Chris prepares the seeds for toasting. Then i cover my half and he carves his half. Then we have the reveal and see how we did. Somehow it always turns out pretty good. We carved the pumpkin Friday night.

For halloween this is what we did:

We ate dinner

Got some awesome Fro-Yo from this new place - Twizzle Berry

Watched TV shows all night

And guess what . . . It was awesome!

Birthday Cake!

So a while ago it was my grandpa's birthday. I decided to make him a cake since it was the big 8-5 and all. I also made his 80th birthday cake so there was appropriate symmetry :)

I also wanted to try using modeling chocolate. It turned out to be super easy to make and moderately easy to use. You just need strong hands to warm it up and roll it out. If you have a pasta roller outer, that would make it waaaaay easier.

If you want to give it a try use this recipe from cake decorator extrodinaire Colette Peters. I

recommend melting the chocolate in the microwave 30 sec at a time. No need to bother with the double boiler thing. Also, buy high quality chocolate, things turn out better that way. It ends up tasting like really dark tootsie rolls. Yum!

And here is the finished result:

A month goes by in the blink of an eye!

Despite my lack of posts, there has been a lot going on in the last couple of weeks.

I finished a project for the Cache Foster Care Resource Center. I was raising money and collecting donations of clothes and furniture for local foster families. We also had a comedy night featuring a really funny improv group called Out of the Blue Entertainment. All in all we raised $1900 in goods and cash. I feel pretty good about that :)

Also I sold this:

And bought this:

Yes, I finally upgraded from the '94 Ford Escort to an '09 Hyundai Sonata. It's nice to have 4 doors instead of 2. I like having air conditioning again after 4 HOT summers. The windows go up and down with the push of a button. And I'm pretty sure the door handles/locks won't freeze this winter.

Coming up in October is the Pumpkin Walk in North Logan. My boss signed me up and the theme is the Magic of Animation. So cartoons from TV, animated movies, that kind of stuff. The theme for our scene is the movie "Corpse Bride." I only have a week and a half to gather all the necessary stuff, so hopefully I can pull it off.

Also, a personal victory, I got my visiting teaching done for the first time in 2010. All the credit must go to my VT partner Maevis, but hopefully I can establish a good pattern in my life from now on :)

Sad then happy

So last saturday I was in charge of a mini golf tournament to benefit the Cache Valley Foster Care Resource Center. Everything was all planned out and set up and the day was gorgeous. Then Mother Nature decided I had been left in peace too long and send 20 mph winds with 40 mph gusts.

It was insane! All our bake sale items blew off the table, the shade canopies almost flew away, all our signs went all over the place - unbelievable. We ended up having to pack up and go home, which was a major bummer for me. I had been working on planning this all month long.

The good news is that I've got a back up plan. Karrie, a gal I work with, knows some fellas who have an improv comedy troupe called Out of the Blue Entertainment. They're going to do an improv show for us at the TSC Auditorium(USU Campus) on the 24th of September.

It was really hard for me to accept defeat when the mini golf tournament didn't turn out how it was supposed to. I've been trying to see what the lesson was in that situation and it's been a struggle. With things going so well for this comedy night, i'm starting to get a clearer picture.

Anyway, you should come if you'll be in the area. It's $3 with current student ID (USU or High School) or $5 without ID. It'll be lots of fun and we're having a prize drawing too. Come check it out!

Bacon Sprinkles?

Friday the local newspaper held a cupcake competition at a recently opened cupcake shop in town. When i was in there a few days before to ask them to help with a project i'm doing, my co worker Karrie and I saw the fliers and she told me I should do it. So i decided I would :)

When i went to Seattle in April for work training, my friend Cheryl told me about a cupcake shop that had something like an eggs and bacon cupcake and that got me thinking about my entry for the competition.

So here they are: Pancake Cupcakes with Butter Maple Icing and Bacon Sprinkles - Ta da! I know it sounds weird, but the sweet and salty think really works. Plus a pancake cupcakes is awesome-er than regular pancakes because it's portable :)

So there were 50 entires into the competition and the winning categories were:

Best Icing

Best Presentation

Best Cake

Most Unusual Ingredients

Best Overall

I thought i might have a shot at the most unusual, but the winner of that category was a chili chocolate cupcake. I thought for sure i wouldn't win anything then, BUT I did win. I won the "Best Cake" category instead :) The overall winner was a Creme Brulee cupcake and it had the caramelized sugar on top even. It was probably the best choice for the store since they were going to sell the winning cupcake.

I was really happy with the outcome of my first food competition, so maybe I'll have to do it again sometime. Don't ask about the recipe - it's top secret!

Some goings on

Wow, It's been a long time since I posted anything. I wish I could say it was because I was doing really exciting things and didn't have time to post an update. The real reason is I haven't wanted to bore anyone to tears with my lack of activities :)

The only thing of note to happen was Chris' car started acting funny, so we took it to the shop and we got the great news that we're going to need a new transmission. Oh joy :) Thank goodness for the emergency fund or else we'd be paying for that repair for-ever!

At work I'm coordinating a service project for the Cache Valley Foster Care Resource Center. They help foster families get extra stuff like clothes, beds, dressers, and baby stuff when they're transitioning between the different ages and needs of the foster kids placed with them.

It's been a ton of work and we haven't got a lot of help from the community. I know we're in a recession, but all I'm asking for is that people donate the clothes their kids have grown out of or to pick up an extra shirt when they're school shopping for their own kids.

I'm also doing a miniature golf tournament on Aug 28 to raise money and hopefully we can get a lot of people to come out and play.

So that's it - bored now?

Happy Anniversary to US!

We did it, we made it 4 years of wedded bliss. A lot of couples don't make it this far, so sometimes I like to think of married years in terms of dog years :) On one hand it seems like we've been married for a really long time and on the other hand it feels like it wasn't that long ago.

Big plans to celebrate the occasion include:

Me leaving work early and Chris having the day off

Eating lunch together - i wish we could do this every day :)

Going out to a nice dinner - We picked Iron Gate Grill

Going to see a play - The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged

Maybe getting some ice cream or treats after

Also since Pioneer Day is the 24th, we like to pretend the entire time from our anniversary on the 21st through the 25th is our own holiday. It's great to spend extra time with each other away from the usual day to day routine. Plus, everyone lights fireworks for us! :)

Summer Movie Review

Now that the summer is half over, here are some movie reviews so you can know what's good when you're looking to spend some time out of the heat in a dark, air-conditioned place :)

A-Team

This one came out early in the summer, you could probably still see it at the cheap theater in your town. Chris and I both liked it for the mix of comedy, one liners, explosions, and the possibility of a sequel. 2Thumbs UP!

Karate Kid

Jaden Smith is the new karate kid with Jackie Chan as Mr Miyagi. The duo worked together pretty good and the studio did a great job of making a classic feel brand new. A lot of the cheesy things I expected in this movie were avoided and the over all product was really fun. The only criticism we had was that we wished the karate kid would have been cast a little older. 1 1/2 Thumbs Up!

Knight & Day

A rom-com about a gal who's in the wrong place at the wrong time entangled with a stranger where situations get more action packed and out of control. Cameron Diaz was pretty good, but sometimes she played it a little too silly. Tom Cruise was awesome. Lately in the media he's seemed a little crazy and maybe imbalanced. In this movie he gets to take his usual spy persona and play it a little crazy and imbalanced :) 2 Thumbs Up.

The Last Airbender

If you are a fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Nickelodeon, you will be disappointed in this movie. I like M. Night Shamalyan, but he should not have written, produced and directed this movie himself. If he had taken only one, maybe 2 of these jobs, i think the end product would have been a lot better.

In the cartoon, the characters are more vibrant, funny and relate-able than they were in the film. It seemed like the actors were kind of phoning it in with the exception of the kid who played the Avatar. I'd save this one for a matinee or wait until the cheap theater. It's an entertaining show, but not the blockbuster I was expecting.We both gave it a "meh".

Despicable Me

Chris and I LOVED this animated film which follows the evil villain Gru as he tries to steal the moon. The voice acting is pretty good and so is the animation. Although this movie is offered in 3-D I wouldn't go for it. There really isn't anything special in the 3rd dimension that would add to your appreciation for the film.

The story is great, it feels original and the best part are Gru's minions. They look like cold pills in overalls and although there are hundreds of them, they each look a little different from each other. I laughed till I cried at some of the gags they did. A great movie for the whole family. 2 Thumbs waaaay up!

Twilight Saga Eclipse

The third part of a now to be 5 part series, these movies keep building in quality, direction, styling, tempo and action. Edward and Jasper now have their hair under control, so that's one major distraction out of the way :) The dialog was less cheesy and more likely to be said by a person from Earth. As much as I hate to say it, i believe they've pushed Jacob's Abs to the limit. I think he only had a shirt on like 3 times in the whole show!

All in all, pretty good and I'm looking forward to the big wedding in Breaking Dawn part 1. One thumb up :)

Sorcerer's Apprentice

Chris and I just saw this and it was pretty good. Rated PG, it was still full of action, explosions, love, revenge, magic, and maybe a costume designer with too much of a penchant for gaudy jewelry.

That aside, the story was really great. Nic Cage is a wizard- Balthazaar-who trained with Merlin and is looking for the Prime Merlinian who will have the power to stop the evil witch Morgana LeFey from back in King Arthur times. He find the PM in New York in 2000 and things go a little wrong. Fast forward to 2010 and things come to a head. This is a great flick for the family, although i'd recommend it for kids 7 and older. 2 Thumbs Up!

Well that's what we've seen so far this summer and it's been lots of fun! Have you seen any of these shows? What did you think?

Happy Birthday America!!!

I think the first time I really understood the difficulties in establishing this great nation was when, as a high schooler, I went to Valley Forge. This was the winter camp of General Washington and his armies. At the time, it was a forest of trees far from any settlements, supplies or comforts. The soldiers cut down almost every tree to build drafty barracks as quickly as possible and the fires necessary to warm themselves. They slept on plank bunk beds as Washington and other generals tried to obtain cooperation from the Continental Congress to get supplies and carry forward in his battle plans.

It was these brave and enduring soldiers that made our country free. Those that survived the war for independence returned home and farmed the land, built families and instilled in their children the importance of a free nation governed by citizens who lived in it.

Many generations would pass and those original soldiers descendants would fight in many more wars to protect this land from threats both within and without our borders. They would fight to free slaves, to keep Mexico at bay, to slow the growth of communism, halt the reign of dictators and remove the threat of nuclear destruction.

I'm grateful that righteous men, influenced by the Spirit of God, had the courage to make the tough decisions to establish this great nation. That humble men, many farmers, were willing to fight and even die to ensure that all men would be able to live, worship, work, assemble, own, eat, love, sleep, have families, build, write, and speak in the manner each one saw fit.

Today we enjoy the freedom to elect our officials, question their decisions, agree or disagree, elect, re-elect, not elect them and pray that they will have soft hearts that remain open to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. That mistakes can be avoided and decisions made that are in harmony with the Lord and keep us favored in His sight.

Happy Birthday America, thanks for the 234 years of freedom, peace, war, harmony, discontent, growth, knowledge, development, strength, hope, courage and the years to come filled with much more of the same.

I almost made it

So earlier this year I made a New Years Resolution with two parts. First I wanted to loose 20 pounds in 6 months and second, I wanted to keep the weight off through the end of December - at least.

The end date of part one was yesterday and I almost made it. My Goal weight was 164 lbs and I weighed in yesterday at 167 lbs. So that leaves 3 more to go!

I'll admit, I prolly could have made it on time, but for about 8 weeks I was not exercising or sticking to my eating plan or anything of the sort. So I know why I didn't make it and what I'm supposed to do to finish my goal.

I'll post a before and after pic soon so you can see my amazing transformation :)

A little of topic, but Happy Birthday to my sis-in-law Britany and my bro-in-law Kyle!