I have a cat named FrySauce...you got a problem with that?

School is almost over...now what?

2011-11-28T09:22:00.001-08:00

I will be graduating in three weeks with my RN in nursing. It's been a long road in finally getting to this point and I'm so happy to have it done with. But I have to admit that I'm nervous now that the long road is over. Where do I go from here? I've been wanting to be a nurse for years and now that I've finally reached my goal, I'm kind of feeling stuck. What do I do now? Where do I want to live? Where do I want to work? Will I actually be a good nurse? It's a huge responsibility and I want to do the job well, but what if I really suck at it? What if I can't find a job? Way too many "what ifs". It's a little scary to think of making some huge life changes in the next few months. I don't mind small changes but big ones scare me. Sometimes having too many choices is harder than having none at all. Something to think about I guess.

Summer fun

2010-08-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

This summer has been a busy blast! We crammed in tons of camping, my brothers came up for the 24th of July and we all went to Lagoon! I turned 35, completed by 2nd and 3rd triathlons and had fun with family. It was my little nieces first time at Lagoon and I think it was a hit! I love it when my family can all get together! We went to the parade, explored the mountains and slipped on the slip and slide. Jason made amazing food and we had a fantastic time together! Wish they all lived close so we could do this every weekend! Oh well. My littlest niece Marlowe is walking now and Aspen just started school! My how the time flys! They are growing up so quickly! My sister, friend Kim and I went to see Sugarland in concert and had wicked awesome seats! Here are some pictures of our escapades this summer.

March Madness

2010-03-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

Went to Las Vegas for the big Mountain West Basketball Tournament where the mighty Cougars came up a little short of winning. That was OK because their outstanding record pretty much guaranteed them an invitation to the Big Dance. It was really fun to go with my dad and watch the championship games. My parents go every year for the whole tournament and I usually go down with my niece for the last couple of days. This year I was solo as my niece wasn't falling for the promise that the pool at the hotel would be open this year for sure. It never is and it always breaks our hearts as we stare out our hotel room window at the perfectly good pool that is just sitting there, mocking us, because it isn't open yet. One day Sunset Station I will stay at your establishment when that pool is open! Maybe I should shoot for May or June instead of early March. :) That might help a little. My Mom decided she'd had enough b-ball games by Saturday and they Y had been eliminated, so I got to go in my Mom's place for free! It was awesome! SanDiego won both the Men's and Women's championships. Anyone but UNLV or New Mexico my family says so we were pretty happy. One funny story that happened the night I got there. Some background into the story is my parents hate the New Mexico and UNLV basketball fans as mentioned in the "anyone but UNLV or New Mexico" comment before, and this year they were pretty much surrounded by Lobo fans thought the tournament. So anyway, my dad had a feeling that he should bring some napkins with him on his way to his seat. Well the Lobo's fan that sat behind him had his feet on my dad's chair. So when my dad got over to his seat he said to the Lobo's fan, "Lobo's are like dogs. You always have to clean up after them." Then he wiped off his chair and sat down. My Mom almost fainted and thought my Dad was about to get beaten up, but apparently the Lobo's fan was caught off guard by my Dad's comment that he didn't even say anything back to him. I would at least have given him the finger had the shoe been on the other foot but this only goes on to prove that my Dad is awesome, a little crazy, but awesome! Who else would even of had the guts to say that? I rest my case. Love ya Dad! I left early Sunday morning to drive back home and ran into the craziest snow storm I'd ever driven in! It hit right after St George and lasted for about 3 more hours! It was crazy! Here are some pictures right outside of St George before the storm hit. The roads hadn't been plowed so the mountain passes were just covered in three or four inches of snow which made it interesting to drive in and very slippery. I passed crash after crash with tons of spin outs on the sides of the road. I'd prayed before I left and I was constantly praying as I drove that I would make it home safely and Heavenly Father was watching out for me. My car handled like a champ and I made it home safe and sound.

What a fun Valentines Day

2010-02-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

My sister loves holidays and Valentines day is no exception. The house gets decorated and lights get put up and she always makes her super fantastic Valentines dinner! This lady goes all out! We devoured strawberry daiquiris (sans alcohol of course) shrimp, a strawberry and spinach salad and a fabulous main course. This year it was steak! Yeah, meat! For desert she has my favorite, chocolate dipped strawberries! It's a little bit of heaven her on earth! Who needs a valentine when you have an awesome sister like I do!? Well...it wouldn't hurt. Maybe next year. :) Hope you all had a fantastic Valentines day and got to spend it with those you love like I did.

Dreaming of a Green Christmas!

2010-02-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Almost every year for Christmas, the Leffler family finds themselves gathering together in Phoenix to celebrate. We pretty much do the same things over and over again, but I love it. We had a new addition to the family again this year as Joe and Teri welcomed their third daughter named Marlowe in August. Here she is in all her naked splendor! Check out those rolls! Yep, she's a Leffler alright. You just can't miss their first Christmas so me and the Grossmans decided to pack things up and head on down to Phoenix! This year I flew down, when normally I drive with my sister and her family, but I couldn't take very much vacation time so flying was the best option. Anyway, my sister and her family always bring an extra cooler to fill up with snow when they hit Flagstaff and bring it into the valley so the little girls can have a snowball fight! They brought two coolers this year so they had ton's of snow. It's always fun to run around the back yard surrounded by orange trees, throwing snow at each other! It's great fun and the little girls love it. Christmas morning we woke up early and opened presents. I got Jason a Colt's Snuggie that he LOVES!!! I'm pretty sure the reason why the Colts made it to the Super Bowl is because I bought him that Snuggie! We all had fun opening presents and we all got a bunch of good stuff. Santa was very good to us, again. Thanks Mom and Dad! We had our big Christmas breakfast that Jason whipped up. I was his sue chef, but I put milk in the scrambled eggs which is apparently a no-no. Almost got demoted for that one. :) Jason planned a scavenger hunt for the girls that had a big surprise at the end for them. He, Michelle, Chloe and Israel decorated the back yard like a winter wonderland and put up a huge inflatable snowman. They wrote notes that they attached to candy canes, that lead them from one clue to the next and hide them around the house and front and back yards ultimately leading them to the side of the house where Jason had wrapped up a big slide. It was hard waiting for Joey, Teri and the Girls to come over after their Christmas morning. They finally got there and we tore into more presents then it was time for the scavenger hunt. They were so excited going from one clue to the next, and when they finally got to the back yard and saw the decorations they were jumping and squealing with joy. They loved the slide and even the candy canes were a big hit. Christmas day is usually pretty lazy. We eat, watch TV, play games, take naps and just enjoy each other. Joey told us about their Christmas morning and it was great. Aspen and Paisley had asked for new bikes from Santa so they got them the bikes with their other toys, but they hid the bikes out on their back patio and pulled the drapes so the girls couldn't see them when they first walked out into their living room to look at their toys. But they did put helmets out for the girls to see. So after the girls had opened most of their presents Joey and Teri started asking the girls why they think Santa gave them helmets. They started to think for a second and then Teri asked Aspen to open the drapes to let in some sunshine. When she opened them she didn't really look outside so Teri had to say look outside. Aspen finally saw the bikes and let out a big gasp, then Paisley saw them and ran over to the window. Paisley pointed at them and said "I gotted a bike, Mama!" and started jumping up and down and clapping her hands. Aspen started in on the jumping too, then Paisley ran over and grabbed her helmet and put it on! Aspen was still kind of confused but Paisley was ready to ride! Joey recorded the whole event on their camera and showed it to us. I've got to get a copy of that because it was the cutest thing I've ever seen! There's nothing like watching Christmas through a child's eyes. Everything is so exciting and new and just plain magical. Nothing beats it. The whole trip was so much fun but way too short. It was sad when it ended but that just makes me even more excited for next year!

My Nieces are cuter than yours!

2010-01-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure you'll never find cuter kids than my nieces! Go ahead, I dare ya to give it a try! Love ya, Chloe, Aspen, Paisley and Marlowe!

Family Fun and Cougar Wins!

2009-12-21T09:31:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd catch up my blog with everything that's happened this last month. This is a long one, just to warn you. Thanksgiving this year was a little more low key than normal. My little brother and his family couldn't make it up so we didn't have any little kids to play with but it was still a bunch of fun. My big brother Jason made the long drive up and it was so much fun to see him! He came up a week early to go to the BYU/AirForce game with me and he was a good luck charm because they won! We lucked out with getting a win but it turned out to be the coldest game day of the year! It was FREEZING!!!! We all had on about 5 layers of clothing then we wrapped up in blankets, hats scarves and gloves. That worked until the sun went down then it just got colder and colder by the second. We stuck it out for most of the game but did end up leaving early so we could thaw out. We still had a really great time. We ended the day by eating dinner at Famous Dave's. They have the best BBQ! It was a great day! My Mom treated me and my sister to a girls night out and bought us tickets to Bravo Broadway, that played at the Utah Symphony. It had three Broadway singers that took turns singing well known Broadway hits. It was one of the best nights ever! We had so much fun! It was over 2 1/2 hours long but the time seemed to fly by! We really hope they do put it on again next year so we can make this a girls' family tradition. Thanks Mom!!! Dad turned 66 and we had a little party for him. I love that his birthday is always around Thanksgiving so I get to spend it with him every year! Love ya Dad! The morning of Thanksgiving was our wards annual Turkey Trot around the neighborhood. We had a few more people show up this year than last, which was still not as big as we'd like but I'm sure we'll get more each year we do it. It was freezing cold that morning also but we all had a great time. For as much food as I ate later that day, I'm really glad I got some exercise that morning. :) Jason got sick the day before Thanksgiving and ended up not even eating anything the whole day. Poor Jason! Fortunately he felt better in time for the biggest rivalry in college football, the BYU vs. Utah game! But unfortunately, by Dad caught his bug, so my sister went in Dad's place. Poor Dad! This was only the 3rd BYU vs. Utah game he has ever missed since he started getting tickets in the '60's. But Michelle had fun in his place. Michelle ended up sitting with me and Jason was with Mom. You couldn't have asked for a better game! The Coogs were sleeping for most of the first quarter. It was pretty scary there for a bit. They got their first, first down with 6 minutes in the first quarter!!! Thankfully they woke up and put a bunch of points on the board. Then they fell asleep again and let the Utes slowly chip away at the lead until they ended up tying it at the end of regulation play and they had to decide it in overtime!!! Talk about a nail biter!!! The Utes got the ball first and the Coogs held them to a field goal. Then it was the Coogs turn!!!! The Utes were all over the Coogs and it was third down. We needed this play to work or we'd have to settle for a field goal to tie. Max Hall found Andrew George in double coverage, he hit him right in the hands. George grabbed it and held on for dear life expecting to get creamed from both sides, as the two Utes were running at him from opposite directions, but they missed him! They went for the ball instead for going for the tackle and the two Utes ended up crashing into each other and George ran it in for the touchdown and the win!! I still get goosebumps thinking of that play!!! Tons of people stormed the field, I was too chicken and up too high, but everyone went crazy including my sister and I! We were jumping up and down and screaming like little girls! My Cougar Tail I'd bought to bring home was trampled in the excitement. We cracked up over finding it smashed on the floor. (That's a really long maple bar for those not in the know.) What a great game!!!! I love it when the Coogs smash those wimpy Utes!!! Bragging rights until next year are ours!!! You gotta love it! A few days later we went over to Winder Dairy for our annual tradition of eating hot yummy scones with honey butter! I love Winder Dairy! I love that you can still have milk delivered to your house by a Milk Man if you want! I just love it! The Winders had all decorated their houses with cute cow lights. It just isn't December without a drive down Winder Lane. A few week ago we got our first big snow storm and man oh man did it dump on us. We had over a foot of snow that day. We're supposed to get another big storm like that starting tonight. I'm happy about the storm because the snow had almost melted away. You gotta have a white Christmas! My dear friend Shelley found out that she had uterine cancer and had a complete hysterectomy the first week of December. She is a wonderful and amazing woman! As the day of her operation approached she decided to have a "Farewell to my uterus" party. It was packed with her friends and family that love her and we all had a blast. She found out a few days ago that they got to her cancer before it had spread! Thank you Heavenly Father for watching out for my friend! I love you Shelley! My friend from work and I send out Christmas Cards every year as a joke to everyone in our office and a bunch of random people too. Here is this year's picture. Anita is the best! Last but not least this weekend was a time to fit in as many get together as I possibly could before leaving for Phoenix. We had our Relief Society Christmas dinner, a get together with some old mission companions and a "Chocolate and Cheese" party at my place with some wonderful friends from the neighborhood. I didn't get any pictures of the last parties but rest assured we had a blast! I'm so grateful to have such amazing and wonderful friends and family in my life to share the holidays with. You all bless my life more than you'll know! I wish you all much love and happiness and a very Merry Christmas!

Halloween time!

2009-11-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Every year Halloween kicks off my favorite time of year...Fall! It's the best! You just can't beat this time of year. I started having a Halloween party a couple years ago. My good friends and their families come over and we play games, carve pumpkins and eat tons of food. This year we kind of skipped all the games and such and just talked all night long. The kids went off and played outside until it was too cold then they moved down stairs. They looked like they had fun even without the games and carving so I'll call it a success by those standards. Annette, James and family where there, along with Rachel, Alex and Judy, Jessica and her darling little ones and Hailey, Clint and their little dude. Jessica had the best adult costume by far. She came as OctoMom and Hailey's little dude Max was the best costume overall with his Lord of the Rings' Hobbit costume! He was adorable! Annette made the best food dish. She made chicken noodle soup but the noodles were in the shape of worms and she added red food coloring to make the broth look bloody. It looked a little kind of nasty but tasted delicious! Way to go Net! Thanks everyone for coming over and making this year's Halloween party a blast! The Thursday before Halloween I and my parents caught a plane to Phoenix for my newest nieces blessing on Sunday, Nov 1st. We had a great time down there. My little nieces are just the cutest little girls! My brother Jason decorated the house all spooky for them and blew up balloons to play with. We started watching a movie later that night and Paisley was so transfixed that instead of walking over to the couch to sit down she grabbed the closest thing possible to sit on. That turned out to be a balloon and to all of our surprise it didn't pop when she sat on it. It was so cute to see her sitting on the balloon watching a movie that I couldn't resist taking a picture. For Halloween Aspen dressed up like a Mermaid and Paisley was a Fairy Princess. You had to make sure not to leave off the Princess part our you'd get in trouble for calling her just a Fairy. So cute. I got together with some friends I hadn't seen since before my mission and went out to lunch on Halloween. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone! I forgot my camera of all crazy things so I'll have to steal it from someones facebook account when they post it. Marlowe's blessing on Sunday was very nice. Joey got a little choked up at the end of it. He's such a softy! Teri used the same beautiful blessing dress her other daughters were blessed for Marlowe and she looked adorable of course. She doesn't quite know who I am so didn't really like it when I held her but I got a few pictures of her. Her hair is the absolute best how it sticks out all over! She is so stinking cute! My parents and I flew back to Utah this morning and I raced over to work. Another fun weekend but now it's back to business. Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Behold, the power of cheese!

2009-10-15T16:35:00.001-07:00

Went to Melting Pot with my Mom and Dad the other day and it was delicious! For those not in the know, the Melting Pot is a fondue place in downtown SLC. It has tons of different types of fondue, some cheese, some chocolate and then there are some broth fondue's that you cook your meat in at your table. So cool. This was our chocolate desert. I'm drooling just looking at it. For our appetizers we had cheese fondue with veggies, bread and fruit to dip in it. I'd forgotten how cheese can make everything taste like heaven! I was grabbing anything I could get my hands on just to make sure I could dip SOMETHING in the cheese...a penny, breath mint, anything! I couldn't spoon that stuff into my mouth fast enough! While we were eating I couldn't help remember back to when I was a little kid. My parents were always trying to make us be healthy by torturing us with "green, leafy veggies". I despised them. Especially brussel sprouts, spinach and lima beans (I get that lima beans are technically a "bean" but they are so odious to the taste buds that I have always lumped them in this category. Plus, their green so it kind of works.) It never failed. Every night at dinner something green and leafy was placed on the table, and the war of wills would start! Michelle, was the brown nosing, oldest child and would take her heaping spoonful of glop with a smile on her face, and then pass it on to me. I'd hold onto the bowl for a few seconds and maybe stir the contents, so it looked like I was dishing it up, and then pass it right onto my brother Jason, without putting any on my plate! Jason, oddly enough like everything green, except for peas. Go figure. But I digress. So after fooling everyone with my trickery, I'd dive into the main dish or the mashed potatoes with relish, until the bowl would get to my father, then the jig was up. My dad would look at everyone's plates before dishing up his helping and would ultimately see something missing from my plate. "Zan, did you take some veggies?" he'd ask. I'd just sit their staring at him like I didn't understand what he was saying. Then he'd ask again. Now you couldn't lie or you'd get spanked, so I usually had to fess up at that time, and to reward my honesty, he'd dish me up a huge spoonful of whatever crap was being served. But that was only half the battle. He still had to get me to eat it and that's when the real war would start. The rule was you couldn't leave the table until you'd eaten everything on your plate. Normally I'd just give in and eat them but there were some nights I'd end up falling asleep at the table because I was so stubborn. Man, I was a brat, wasn't I? But this terrible behavior did have some reward. Every now and then, taking pity on us, dad would make a cheese sauce to pour over the greens so we'd eat them without complaint, and it worked. Ladies and Gentlemen, if a simple cheese sauce can get a brat like me to eat BRUSSEL SPROUTS without crying and whining, you know it must be the most powerful substance on the earth! The CIA should use it in their interrogations! Forget water boarding, just have have someone in the room eating something smothered in cheese and tell the insurgent that he can't have any until he spills the beans on his terrorist organization. They'd be amazed at how fast he starts talking. :) Mmmmm...cheese.

Girls night out.

2009-10-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend was General Conference and while the fellas went to the Priesthood Session us girls got together and went shopping! Ton's of the local craft and home decorating shops have caught onto this event and have special sales just for the girls. This year we went to Ti Pan Trading Company and got some fun decorations than ran over to Gardner Village to check out their deals. Gardner Village is one of the cutest places to go. They have tons of little shops that they decorate for all the holidays. One of the funniest things I found in one of the toy shops were these Twilight Bella and Edward dolls! I can only imagine what type of crazy nutcase fan would want to buy those dolls. Sadly enough the sales lady said they had sold tons of them. Wow! Who knew! I guess they are kind of like Barbies and I did have a couple of those growing up, so maybe it's not that weird. But only if your under the age of 10! We took some fun pictures with the witches they had scattered around. We had a blast! Too bad Conference only comes along twice a year. :)

Last of Summer and Kick off of Fall!

2009-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been a slacker and have neglected my blog these last few weeks. School is going well but is tough. I try to squeeze in as much studying as possible but still fail miserably at getting as much in as I'd like, but that's OK. B's get degrees right? :) My goal is to get an A on the last 5 Unit tests I have so we'll see how it goes. These first few pictures are from our Ward Camp out that was back in August. We had a great time there and had a pretty good turn out. It was in a little camp the church owns back in Midway, with a pond that has a zip line. The kids took turns riding the zip line across the lake but it always got stuck in the middle so they ended up getting to take a dunk in the lake. There was even a moose and her baby that paid us a visit, from a safe distance, thank heavens. They had canoes and we had some canoe races. It was a great spot. We had a potluck for dinner one night and ton's of ward members drove up just for that and the little program around the camp fire. I made my famous chicken and veggies in a butter cream sauce. Delicious! We roasted marshmallows and had Smores, the last of the season. Everyone had a great time. My awesome friend Kim turned 33 and her family threw her a fabulous birthday party at their house. Check out her cake!!! Burgers, swimming and ton's of fun! To top off the great day we even watched the BYU vs. Oklahoma game where the mighty Y beat Oklahoma!! Take that ya Sooners! I have to admit that win had visions of a National Championship dancing in my head. Those visions ended just a few weeks later when the Coogs met up with Florida St, but it was good while it lasted. Happy Birthday Kim! Love ya! Sept 10th was a day I look forward to every year. It's not exactly because of the date but because that is when the State Fair is here!!! I love the Fair. It's just plain luck that my office is within walking distance from the fair grounds so a friend and I have made a tradition over the past few years of going to the fair for lunch. It's the one time a year that I have to eat a giant corn dog, no exceptions and just about everything else there. This year I had the corn dog, half of a Phillie cheese steak sandwich and part of the strawberry smothered "Elephants ear" that Laurel got. I was in fair food heaven! There were some super cute bears at the fair this year that performed and so we sat and watched them play in the water and roam their cage. Kind of sad if you think about it too much it gave us a very rare opportunity to see one of these beautiful creatures up close and personal. I was about 5 feet away from that big guy when I was taking pictures. The fair never let's you down and this year was no exception. We checked out the pigs on the way back to work. Cute little piggies! I recently got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Stake Young Women's and our first big event was to put on a Standards Night for the youth. The topic was about dating and all the do's and don't they should follow. It turned out really well. The speakers had that perfect mix of seriousness and humor that helped the kids see how much fun dating can be when you stick to church guidelines. I think the kids got some great dating advice, me too for that matter! I should be a dating queen after this, right? :) My friend Annette came up with the decorations and I just had to take a picture of them. So talented Annette! She's the best! We served chocolate cake, plain and strawberry cheese cake and carrot cake with some punch at the end of the event. I ended up getting season tickets to BYU football this year and it's been fun going to the games. Well, the Florida St game was the most painful game I've ever sat through but the other's haven't been too bad. I took my niece to the Colorado St game and it was fun to sit and talk to her about all the fun things happening in her life. She turned 14 this year and is really looking forward to driving and dating in the future. I was trying to think about what I was doing when I was 14 and we had just moved to Phoenix. Wow, that was a long time ago. :) She is a really good kid, for the most part. I guess we'll keep her. :)

Bear Lake fun and New little niece in Phoenix

2009-08-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend was probably the last weekend for some fun before school starts on the 26th so I had to really pack it in. Annette and her family and I went to Bear Lake for a couple of days and had a food extravaganza while we were at it. On the way there we stopped at LaBeau's in Logan and had the Mammoth burgerJame's brother in law had been talking about for a while and I'm glad we stopped. It was the biggest burger I've ever seen! It was seriously the size of your face and piled about 6" high with nothing but meat! Well, that's not true, they did through in the mandatory piece of lettus and a slice of tomato but the rest was meat heaven! There were honestly about 10 layers of the stuff! It had hamburger patties, slices of ham, pastrami, bacon and cheese, and there were two layers of everything! It's insane! Annette chickend out and got the chicken cordon bleu sandwich which looked really good, but me and James went for the mammoth! James finished his and was actually able to walk out to the restaurant under his own power instead of us needing to carry him out. I wimped out and only got through about 1/4 before I though I was going to explode, but it was well worth the tummy ache. Two thumbs up LaBeau's! We also went to Bear Lake Pizza for the Old Ephraim I'd told them about last year and dug in! It was as good as I remembered it! The crust seriously rocks! That's my favorite thing about pizza. Annette's showing you just how enormous this puppy is! It's crazy big but delicious. Bear Lake it's self was beautiful, the water was awesome and we had a really fun time playing in it. The trick is to stay in the water long enough that you get numb, then it really does feel good. :) We arrived in Bear Lake on Thursday night and I took off Friday night because I'd scored a really good deal on a flight to Phoenix for Saturday morning and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go down and see my new little niece Marlowe. She is just adorable, as expected, and I had fun seeing the rest of my family. Aspen is a crack up! We were eating dinner and we had corn on the cob. Joey asked someone to pass the margarine and Aspen said, "Do you know Spanish Dad?" We all cracked up over that one. Who knew margarine was a Spanish word? She also got mooned by a boy cousin and started fanning herself with her hand and said "Us princesses aren't used to that." She is seriously a crack up! Paisley, will go over to the couch, sit down and then pat her lap, thus signaling that she wants to hold Marlowe. It's so cute to see her do that! Man, I miss those little kids when I'm gone! Paisley and Aspen were a blast and boy do they love their new little sister! It's always hard to come home after visiting with them. I wish we lived closer together. I'll have to start working on them to move up here.

Coming up for a breather!

2009-08-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, has this summer been busy! I feel like I've been going non stop since it began. Here are just a few more things that have happened this summer. I went to girls camp and was the assistant camp director to my fabulous camp director Rachel and we had a great time. Annette was the Stake Camp Director and she put together tons of fun activities! The crappy part is that I misplaced my camera after the hike so I only got pictures of the ski lodge at Snow Basin where we did our hike then nothing else. But this ski lodge is something else! It really didn't look like that impressive from the outside but the inside knocked my socks off! It was like a castle inside, with huge dining rooms with long tables and chandeliers. Enormous fireplaces and stuffed animals on the walls! It honestly was breathtaking. I will stay there before I die!!!! I will, I will, I will! But girls camp was really fun, harder than I had expected but still really fun. The best part was floating down the stream that ran right through our camp. That was a great day. After getting home and unpacking I felt like sleeping for a week and the next Sunday Rachel and I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting about all the fun we had. It was kind of funny because we both spoke, then all the young women came up on the stand and we sang the song we learned for camp and then I taught the lesson for young women's. I'm sure they were all pretty sick of me after that was all over. I was supposed to run a 10K on the 24th of July but didn't get to because I didn't get my race packet the day before the race. They didn't have packet pickup the morning of the race so I was out of luck. Actually it was probably a blessing in disguise because it probably would have killed me off. I really need to get in shape! But anyway, I was happy to settle on watching the parade later that morning. The parade was great and we got to see President Eyring , he was in the parade, and President Ukdorf, who was just sitting in the stand in front of us! We had a great time. We followed the parade up with our weird tradition of going to Crown Burger to get a burger, frys and the most delicious FrySauce you've ever eaten! Weird tradition, yes, but we love it, so take that. :) On the 25th of July we went to the Beez baseball game to watch my brother in law through out the first pitch of the game! It was awesome and, unlike the wimpy through of President Obama, Israel's pitch went all the way to home base. He did a great job! My big brother Jason came down for the 24th festivities and on the 28th was Stake Lagoon day, and since Jason hadn't been for over 20 years, we decided he was way past due! Jason dropped me off at work that day and came and picked me up at noon to head on over. We made the HUGE mistake of eating lunch right before going on the rides and ended up getting sick after the third ride we went on! We're pretty pathetic now with being able to ride the crazy rides. Sheeze, I used to love going on all the rides that flipped you around and spun you in circles, but now being older my head and stomach aren't quite up to the challenge. It stinks, but oh well, the train was fun. :) We really did have a fun time. We went on the Tidal Wave twice and scram our heads off, and went on the swings. There were tons of cute little kid rides that I hadn't seen before so hopefully when Joey, Teri and the kids come up in the next few years we can all go and have fun. The next day, my sister and her family along with Jason all went up to camp at the Spruces in big cottonwood canyon and did some fishing. I went up after work on Thursday and spent the night. The next morning we woke up early, ate a delicious breakfast of french toast and bacon, then went on a hike to Twin Lakes Reservoir. It was a pretty steep hike but the like was worth it! So beautiful and crystal clear. Jason and Chloe brought their fishing polls and they each caught a fish. They were very tiny fishiesthat they let go but it was still really fun catching them. This was Chloe's first time catching a fish and she was really excited. We rounded out this last few weeks of adventure with a birthday party for Chloe's 14th birthday on Saturday(her birthday is in May but she wanted a pool party so she waited until it was warmer) and another party for my mom's 65th birthday on Monday. My mom's so excited that she's old enough now to receive Medicare! You go Mom! My parents left this morning to spend a few weeks in Phoenix. My sister in law is due any day now with her third little girl. They are naming her Marlowe Mae and I just know she is going to be adorable! I can't wait until she gets here! I need to go shopping! :) Well that's what's been happening for the past few weeks. I'm tired just thinking about it. :) Next weekend is Bear Lake with school starting sometime around then. Then its the ward camp out, Isreal's birthday and the beginning of BYU's foot ball season! Go Coogs!

4th of July and Dog Lake

2009-07-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July was pretty relaxing. My parents were up for the summer and my sister and her family came over for some food, fun and fireworks. We had a blast! I had a recipe for home made girl scout Samoa's that I made. Delicious!!!!! We played card games and lit the fireworks when it got dark. Good times. My dad even played cards and came out for fireworks, normally he doesn't do either so this was a really good 4th. Saturday we finally got back on track with our hiking and went up to Dog Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon, around the 10 mile marker. It was one of the prettiest hikes I've ever been on. The flowers were all out in full splendor. Bluebells lined the stream, Queen Ann's lace was about as tall as my niece and then there were tons of wild roses, Indian Paintbrush's and even wild snapdragons! It was incredible! The beginning of the hike was pretty steep then it leveled out until the last .8 mile. When you get to that last .8 mile there's a little sign that points in the direction of the lake and you think, wow we are so close, maybe another 10-15 minutes and we'll be there. That's where it gets you. They fail to tell you that even thought that last little stretch of the hike isn't that far away, it's almost straight up!! Holy crap that was steep! It took us 40 minutes to finish that last part. Then you get to the top and you're so excited to see this brilliant, crystal clear lake and you get a stagnant puddle. Such a disappointment at the end but the trip there was outstanding. The lake was cute but that's about it. One other annoying thing is that at the beginning of the trail and right when you get to the lake there are big signs that say that this is a water shed area and that dogs are not allowed. So what do you think we saw when we got to the lake? About 10 dogs running through the lake playing. Now it's always cute to see dogs playing in the water, having a great time, but come on people! Can't you read the signs? Pick another place to go with your cute little pooches. I really don't want to turn on my faucet and have a big glass of water with your dog's doo doo in it. Honestly! I really do like dogs, and if I had one I'd take them hiking with me in a second, but we would pick places that they were allowed to go. And what's this aversion of not picking up after Rover after he's done doing his business and not having him on a leash when he should be? We were sitting by the lake enjoying the view, when a HUGE orange dog came over and almost ate us. Well, OK, maybe he didn't try to eat us and he was pretty cute, but I know he was eyeing my cheese stick pretty closely. :) It really was a great morning and we ended it at the Cottonwood Cafe for an egg white omelet and the biggest chocolate chip pancake I've ever seen! It took all three of us to polish that thing off. Can't wait for next Saturday.

Youth Confrence

2009-07-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Three days after I got home from San Diego, it was time for our 3 day youth conference. We had a blast! Thursday was the first night and we had a Dutch Oven Cook off with the boys against the girls. The boys made delicious rosemary chicken, cheesy potatoes with almost more bacon in them than potatoes and a to die for strawberry rhubarb cobbler. The girls went with a pulled pork in a bbq sauce that was melt in your mouth, buttery squash and yummy peach cobbler. The judges vote ended in a tie but we were all the winners because we got to eat all that good food! The next morning we met up early and went for a hike up to the granite quarry that they cut the granite for the Salt Lake Temple for, and picked up trash along the trail. We each picked up a little piece of granite to keep so we could have a little piece of the temple with us. After that was over we drive up to Alta Ski Lodge and had a picnic lunch and snow fight. James and Marc pollished off the pickle juice and James followed that with a shot of mustard. Boys are so weird. On the drive up to the Alta we saw a Moose on the side of the road just chomping away at some leaves. We hit the breaks and turned around. By the time we got back down the road he had gone back in to the woods a little more but I was able to kind of get a picture of him. He was very cute! That was the first Moose I've seen in Utah. It was great. We finished up the snow fight and went back to cool off with some water games at the church pavilion. While the others were playing the games I was off making ice cream for later that night when we put on an activity night for the older singles in our ward. The ice cream was fantastic, the games were fun and I think everyone had a great time. We ended Conference Saturday by going to the open house for the Oquirrh Temple followed by lunch at Ab's. With all the eating we did for this conference I think I gained 10 lbs! Not good! I'll have to double up on some runs to get it off, but it was sure fun putting it on.

Some sweet, sweet beach time!

2009-07-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Sheeze, life has been crazy busy lately, so I'll try to catch up with what's been happening. My sister-in-law's family has a tradition of camping on the beach right outside of San Diego called San Elijo State Park, and ever since my brother married into their family, they have invited us to go along with them. It's has become one of my favorite vacation spots ever! There's a little camp ground that is right above the beach that has showers and flush toilets and great little camp spots that we put out tents up on and get ready for a week of sun, surf and food. It's fantastic! This year my parents and older brother decided not to come so it was just me and my brother's family, but it was still awesome! My little nieces had so much fun playing in the sand and jumping in the waves. It was just fun watching them. But we also built sand castles and took turns burring them in the sand. Aspen loved that, Paisley not so much. She hates getting dirty. Paisley also just turned two before we left and we had a little party for her before heading out to the beach. This was honestly one of the best vacation's I'd taken in a long while. I didn't think about work once!!! Always the sign of a good vacation. One crazy thing did happen while we were there. The fellas decided to go snorkeling in La Hoya bay and check out all the fish and maybe see some sharks. I decided to tag along just for the heck of it. That lasted until I got chest deep in the water. I'd seen a couple dark shadows pass by me and didn't really think anything of it until I joined up with the guys who were standing around talking and Teri's brother Bryan said "Did you see those sharks that just went by?" Sharks you say? Even before we really got out into the bay? That's when I decided that the whole snorkeling thing was way over rated and that if I actually went out where I couldn't touch, I was sure to die. That and I just didn't have a very good feeling about it either. At that precise moment I was having these thoughts, Teri's brother-in-law said that he was having trouble with his mask leaking and that he was going to go back to shore. Talk about miracles from HEAVEN!!!! It took me about 1 second to hand him my mask and to count me out! You can call me chicken all you want, that was way too scary! The funny thing though was the guys had been joking with me about how you just need one person that's slower than you to avoid getting eaten by a shark. That had been my brother Joe until I'd decided to tag along. Now it was back to being Joe and he wasn't too happy with me leaving. He kept asking me, "Are you really leaving?" Uh, yeah! No sharks for me, thank you. :) That kid sure has guts because he sucked it up and went out with the guys, all the while, I was waving from the shore. :) The guys were gone for about 3 hours and all the girls back on the beach were starting to get worried. All of the sudden one of the guys came walking up the beach and his legs were pretty banged up and bleeding. Turns out that they all got too close to the cliffs and got grated across the rocks. He said that Joe was really bad. Teri and her sister Megan took off down the beach and I followed a little later thinking that I knew some CPR and could stop some major bleeding if needed, but thank heavens we ran into all the guys walking up the beach. Joe was pretty bad. He said that he got to close to a cave and almost got sucked in, but he grabbed onto some rocks that pretty much acted like a cheese grater on his body, but he didn't want to let go because it was either the rocks or the cave. The guy I gave my mask to has help save him by helping pull him up higher on the rocks. They climbed over the rocks to a more calm part of water where they jumped back in and swam for shore. Joe said that jumping back into the water, while he was bleeding was the scariest thing he's ever done. He kept expecting to be bit by a shark the whole time he was in the water. I'm so glad I didn't go. Honestly, if my big 6'4", 270 lb brother who's pretty dang strong, was having a hard time holding onto those rocks, I would have been a goner. I don't think I gave the Holy Ghost credit for the bad feeling at the time but I know it was him now. I really need to start paying attention to him a little more. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, thank heavens. I can't wait until next year! When I got back I had a change to get together with some wonderful old friends from Phoenix. It was really good to see them again. Sometimes it's just really nice to go home.

First Saturday hike and pictures from our Cake Auction Girls Camp Fundraiser

2009-06-09T07:42:00.001-07:00

Early Saturday morning, while everyone else was sleeping, 4 crazy ladies woke up at 5:30 to head out on our first Saturday hike of the summer! We chose Little Cottonwood Trail for our first outing because it wasn't too hard or steep and we needed something to build our confidence if we were to tackle something harder next time. It was beautiful!!!!! The creek was super swollen from the snow melt and rushed by like crazy. The trail kind of follows the creek up the mountain until you reach the old quarry where they cut granite for building stuff. Don't know what stuff but it was cool to see the old ruin. We laughed and talked and sang while we walked up the trail. It was one of the best times ever! I can't wait for the next one! Love ya Annette, Judy and Tracy! Thursday night before the hike we had a fundraiser for our ward's girls camp. We had taco salads with fresh hot delicious scones and honey butter. We also had people make cakes or cookies to donate to be auctioned off at the end of the dinner. They were so cute! I made the campfire cake and was pretty surprised how cute it turned out, if I can brag about myself for a second. :) Annette made the absolutely scrumptious looking strawberry and chocolate tower cake! I just wanted to shove that whole thing in my mouth!!! It looked so good!!!! One of our girls made the picnic table cake, which was adorable! There were tons of other cakes but I thought I'd just put up a couple of them. I think we did pretty good money wise and hopefully we'll be able to put on a really fun camp for the girls now!

Take a hike!

2009-06-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday for our combined Young Women/Young Men's activity we hiked up Ensign Peak. It was the first time I'd been up there and it was beautiful! The hike wasn't that far maybe 1 1/2 miles, a little steep in a few places, but was totally worth the effort. I've decided that I'm going to become a hiking queen this summer and try out all the great hikes in the Salt Lake area. I posted a few pictures from the top, looking over the valley and some of the pretty flowers that were out along the trail. Net and I have decided we want to get out every Friday/Saturday and try a new hike each time, so if you'd like to tag along just let us know. Happy Hiking. :)

Wicked dude!

2009-06-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! I almost forgot to post about going to see Wicked on May 1st! I was actually ticketless until the night of the show and then a friend's child was sick so she couldn't go so I got a call announcing the wonderful news as I was driving downtown to meet them for dinner. I love going out with friends so even though I didn't have a ticket I still wanted to go out to dinner with everyone so that's what I was doing when I found out the blessed news! We went, and it was one of the best things I've ever seen! So funny, creative and brilliantly put together, I can't wait to go again! My pictures didn't quite turn out so I'm posting the only dorky one I have. I'm scrunching down and Judy is talking. Sorry Judy! I had on some absolutely fabulous black sparkly strappy stilettos which made me about 6' 3", Judy is maybe 5' which led to some very funny pictures of her head being at my boob level when I hugged her. Kind of why I don't hug short men. I'll stop there. Anyway, see this show if you get the chance! It's like, totally Wicked!

It was worth a Tri!

2009-06-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what it would be like to be to willingly subject yourself to torture? Well that's what I did on May 16th! For some reason I let myself get talked into signing up for a sprint distance Triathlon in American Fork called the Women of Steel. It think it was the cool name of the event that was the deciding factor to me giving in. :) So anyway I signed up for the race in January thinking I have plenty of time to get in shape for the 300 m swim, 12.5 mile bike ride and the 3 mile run, and ultimately squandered my time away until I looked at the calender and almost died when I realized that time had slowly crept up on me and the race was only weeks away! Panic set in. I finally decided to go buy a bike (yeah, I hadn't really ridden a real bike since I was 12 and spin classes kicks your butt but aren't quite the same. Not too smart of me.) Purchased the bike the Saturday before the race and went on a little 2 mile ride on Monday to "break it in" before the race. I'd been running so I wasn't too worried about the running part of the race, but I was worried about the swim. I'd been practicing swimming at the local rec center. They have a 25 m pool that I felt pretty comfortable in but it turned out at the race that they used a 50 m pool to swim in. Now I was used to having a break every 25 m because I had to turn around at that point at the rec center pool but now I wasn't going to be able to get a break until 50 m, I was pretty nervous about that. Anyway, the day arrived and my friend's wife Jerry picked me up at 5:30 AM so we'd have plenty of time to get there and get set up before the race. Jerry is the most wonderful lady and we had a blast driving down. She is in her mid 60's and she totally kicks butt in these events! She'd completed this race last year and had so much amazing advice that she shared with me on the drive down that was invaluable! So we got there and set up our areas by placing a towel down and setting out shoes and socks and everything we'd need for the transitions in order, and went and look around at the competition. For some reason I was thinking that there would be just some regular looking people there but no, all these ladies looked like they meant business! They all had Tri suits on and they looked like they were in really good shape. Gulp! That was my first hint that I was in trouble. It was finally time to start the race and everyone gathered at the pool. You were supposed to have timed yourself to see how long it took you to swim the 300 m before you got there so you knew where to line up when you got there. Jerry and I both stood in the 9 minute line and waited for our turns. That was the worst! You have to stand there and watch these ladies that could give Michael Phelps a run for his money finish the swim in 3 or 4 minutes! It was seriously intimidating. The way it worked out was they had two lines that you could choose to line up in, and each line was divided up into the different time's with the shortest time being at the front of the line. The 9 minute people were towards the end of the line. Anyway, the first person jumped in and a timer held off the next person until 10 seconds had passed then they let the next person in. This pattern continued until they reached the end of the lines. There were three lanes you swam in, going up one side, turning around in the same lane and going back down that same lane. When you reached the end of that lane you dove under the lane line into the next lane and repeated the swim, going up one side and back down the same side of the lane. You did that for a full 3 lanes, then you got to get out of the pool and race over to the transition area to get ready for the biking portion of the race. This was where my inexperience got to me. I hadn't purchased a tri suit, I'd just worn my tankini thinking I'd just pull my bike shorts over my swim bottoms, pull my shirt on and creatively get into my sports bra while taking my tankini top off, slip on my socks and shoes and I'd be off! Yeah right! I hadn't really practiced this part of the race, thinking that it wouldn't be that hard to hurry and change, but oh was I wrong! Bike shorts are pretty easy to put on when your dry but they didn't want to budge up my wet legs! It took me forever to get those babies on, having to contort my body in way's I didn't think were possible, giving everyone a show who were around me. :) Oh what I'd have given for a bed to lay down on so I could wiggle them on and do them up! I almost decided to just leave them and pull some shorts on I'd brought for the run when I gave them one last yank and they slipped up! Thank heavens they did because I think my butt would still be sore today if I hadn't of worn them. The bike course was a 6.25 mile loop that you did twice. That was fine except for it had three huge, steep hills right at the very beginning of the ride that almost did me in. When I got to the top of the last hill all I could think about was that I had to ride up them again! I ended up having to walk up the last hill the second time around, but that's what I get for not training on a bike beforehand. I really wanted to quit by the time I was 3/4th through the bike ride. I couldn't even contemplate having to run after the biking portion. But I remembered what my goal was and that was just to finish. I didn't care what my time was but I just wanted to be able to say that I finished it. So I calmed down, finished out the bike ride and went for the run. That was the funniest transition because my legs felt like jello from the bike ride and it took me about 1/8 of a mile to get my rhythm down for running. The scene that kept coming back in to my brain was a clip from Seinfeld where Kramer went to the dentist to get a tooth fixed so his mouth is numb and he's also wearing these new exercise shoes that make him walk funny so people keep thinking he's mentally challenged. Anyway, that's how I felt I looked like as I was trying to get the kinks out of my legs so I could run. The run felt great and I actually passed a few ladies. I finished really close to being the last person but I at least finished! In retrospect it was the most amazing race I've ever done and I'd love to do it again, but it took me the weekend of recovering to have that attitude. :) If you ever need any advice on what NOT to do for a triathlon give me a call, I'm an expert on that. :) Can't wait for the next one, it really is worth a tri.

Clean as a Whistle!

2009-05-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

This post may be TMI for some people but I'm just so proud of my dad that I couldn't resist posting it. My dad made an appointment for a colonoscopy a month or so ago and that blessed day finally arrived bright and early Tuesday morning. My Mom said that he has kinda been looking forward to this event, oddly enough, but only in a "I'm a man, I can totally handle this" kind of way. I can actually picture him kind of jogging in place, doing some boxing punches and stretching to loosen up before going into the exam room. Maybe even throwing a "Let's do this" out while walking through the door. He cracks me up. He told my Mom that he was just going to drive himself home afterwards so she didn't have to go if she didn't want to. Yeah, right. Short story, my mom went and drove home, silly Dad, but he did have a clean bill of health! To hear him tell it, the Dr stated that he'd never seen such a fine specimen of colon as my Dads'. :) Way to go Dad! My Dad has been a big fan of fiber since I can remember and it looks like fiber has been good to him over the years! Hopefully they'll send him a picture of his clean colon that he can frame and hang on the wall. Hum...maybe I've just found the perfect Father's Day present! Awesome!

Ugh!

2009-05-11T06:44:00.001-07:00

I think I'm having a mid life crisis. How does one get over it? I've tried chocolate (the not eating chocolate thing lasted about a day) buying things and sleep, but so far the only result I've had is that my pants have gotten tighter. Tight pants have not helped the crisis. Any recommendations on how to get over it?

Disneyland, just what the Dr ordered!

2009-05-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gotten to the point were your just done. Done with work, done with school, just done with the same old crap you have to put up with everyday? Ever wonder what could possibly fix that rut your in? Well I have the answer for you: Disneyland! They don't call it the happiest place in the world for nothing. It was the perfect little getaway. Work, school and all the other worries that had been plaguing me for the last little while where completely forgotten in watching my cute little nieces experience the magic of the park. We arrived Monday afternoon, checked into the hotel and headed right over to California Adventure. My dad scored some sweet two day park hopper passes from AAA so we could take our time and go where ever we wanted, when we wanted. It was boiling hot but nothing could dampen the spirits of the two little jumping beans posing as my nieces as we went on the rides. They loved it! I think the best part was watching them run through the "cool off" places where they had misters and shooting water fountains the girls and us bigger kids were running through to cool off. It felt so good to get a little wet. Paisley was cracking me up. Her hair got wet and she kept laughing saying "Mommy, hair wet Mommy" then she'd let out this little chuckle. Aspen was laughing and getting as wet as possible. They both are just darling! Joey, Aspen, Paisley and I went on this little Ladybug ride that is very similar to the Teacup ride at DL but not as twirly. Aspen was laughing the whole time, just loving it, but Paisley sat there for a little bit not knowing if she like it or not and then towards the end of the ride she started making these siren noises, "whoo, whoo, whoo" without moving her lips. Joey and I just started cracking up! Her face never changed but just these noises started coming out of her. Oh my gosh, it was funny! The only down side was that the girls didn't get to meet any of the Princesses. We looked all over but couldn't find them. I'm sure the girls got over it pretty quickly but the adults were all bummed out. We still went on the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Small World, Haunted Mansion and the Dumbo Ride along with ton's of others. We honestly just about walked onto every ride there. Longest wait was for Splash Mountain and that was maybe 20-25 minutes. It rocked! Perfect time to go. One of the best rides was Joe taking Aspen on Thunder Mountain. She was so excited to go but two second into the ride she was screaming "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" which was so funny because that's what Joey used to do when we'd take him on rides when he was little! You'll have to ask him about the Magic Carpet ride at Lagoon when he was a little guy! Hilarious! On Tuesday afternoon Teri took the kids back for a nap and Mom and Dad went to lay down too, so Jason, Joe and I got to go run around hitting all the "grown up" rides. The Tower of Terror is fantastic! Sorry Joe and Jason for grabbing your legs! They really need to show you where the hand hold are before they drop you 5 stories! :) We rode on the crazy, non-regulation sized Screamer Coaster. I was actually fine the first time around...it was the second time that got me followed by getting spun around in circles on the Rapids ride. I had to head to the closest bathroom. Eating a bacon cheese burger and then going on those rides isn't the best of ideas, so my puking spree continued! But that's all part of the fun, right? :) I got to meet up with my emailing buddy John for dinner Tuesday night and had a blast finally talking to him. It was so fun to sit and actually talk to someone I've been emailing for over a year. The time flew by and the restaurant was closing before we knew it. We'll have to do that again, I had the best time. So summing everything up, that was a fantastic vacation! Can't wait for the next one in June...camping in San Elijo State Park on the beach just outside of San Diego. That's going to be fun!

Sugar Coma!

2009-04-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law sent me this picture of my Phoenix nieces after their sugar high wore off. I love it! If you look close enough you'll see they're holding hands as they sleep. It's probably the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my entire life! But talking about sugar, I've come to a decision that if I ever see another piece of chocolate again it will be too soon!!! I had a dream last night that someone offered me some chocolate and I was grossed out at the thought of eating it even in my dream! You know you've been bad when you can't even dream about chocolate without getting sick. :) So now I've decided to go cold turkey and ban myself from eating chocolate FOREVER!!!!...or at least until Halloween....or my birthday...NO Halloween! It's just chocolate people, not the end of the world! It's on! It'll be super easy once I get past the cold sweats and shakes that are sure to come as early as tomorrow. :)

Little tidbits from the last couple of weeks.

2009-04-06T08:13:00.001-07:00

I feel like so much has been going on that I haven't been able to catch up on all the fun stuff. So here's a little review of what the last few weeks has been. I've been writing like a crazy women for my Psych class but I'm almost done with that class so there is an end in sight for that madness. My final is on my birthday. It will be a very happy birthday as far as I'm concerned, because I'll never have to take that class again! Hallelujah! The young women in my ward are just adorable and I got to take two of them down to watch the Young Women's session at the Conference Center. We had great seats and loved being able to listen to the leaders of the church. It was so touching to stand in that amazing building and listen to 16 thousand beautiful young women sing the closing song with all their hearts. I can't even remember what the song was but I can remember the feeling it gave me. Just another witness to me that the church is true. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. Just yesterday between the two conference sessions I got to meet up with a companion from my mission at the conference center. Soeur Summer Leavitt is now Summer Miller. She's married to a wonderful guy and has a little boy named Cole, who is adorable. It was so fun to see her! She was my very last companion on my mission and one of my favorites of all time! Having her as my companion after having had a few hard companionship's was a blessing in itself. The last months of my mission were perfect and I have her to thank for a lot of that. She was a hard worker, close to her Heavenly Father and gave her whole heart to being a missionary. It was so fun to see her again and talk about the old days.

All I want for Easter are my two front teeth!

2009-03-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was jumping on my bed, or the couch or the love seat... pretty much anything bouncy. That is until my parents gave in and bought us a trampoline. Well apparently the need to jump on anything and everything around is hereditary because it has become one of the preferred activities of my little nieces in Arizona. I must have had real superpowers because I was never injured during this jumping phase despite taking a few tumbles off the tramp. Unfortunately my niece Aspen hasn't had as good of luck as I did. A week or so ago she and her sister were jumping on one of their bed's when she somehow flew into the dresser and tried to take a bite out if it. The dresser won and Aspen is short two front teeth. Her parents rushed her to the ER and they were able to push her teeth back in but they never reattached so her dentist had to pull them the other day. She was a real trooper about it all and still looks as adorable as ever. Poor little thing! I hope the tooth fairy was extra nice to her.

They don't call it March Maddness of nothing.

2009-03-17T07:36:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I kidnapped my niece and met up with my parents in Vegas. I really only had two goals while there. #1 sit by the pool and soak up some rays and #2 go watch the Y beat up on some unsuspecting team. Honestly that doesn't sound like too much to ask for of a short weekend does it? Well unfortunately, neither of them came to pass. The pool was closed for cleaning and the Y lost to San Diego, yes, I said San Diego. Thus the Mad part of March Maddness enters the picture. How can you lose to people you've already beaten this season? Annoying! Oh well, I got over the lose pretty quick and the rest of our time there was pretty fun. My niece and I had a blast driving down and hanging out with my parents. And despite the Coogs losing their game, we had a great time cheering them on! Our seats were almost to the top of the arena so we had a great view of the court :) and we had a bunch of really fun Y students sitting in front of us. It was fun. Just being in Vegas is a blast. I love that place! Take away the prostitution, people drinking until they pass out and Strip Clubs and you have a pretty fun place. :) How can you not like a place where they have ton's of food for really cheap? The buffet at the Sunset Station Casino was loaded and delicious! I didn't stuff myself so I'll call the eating part of the trip a success. :)

The Cougars got an 8th seed in the playoffs and they'll play Texas A&M in the first round. I'm completely positive we'll win that one. We might have a little bit harder time in the second round but I'm sure we can pull that one off too. Who the heck is UCON anyway? I'm sure we'll cream them...right? :) A girl can dream.

I got tagged!

2009-03-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

I got tagged by my good friend Sara so here it goes.

Here are the rules:
Answer these questions with only one word, no explanation's, just one word.

1. Where is your cell phone...desk
2. Where is your significant other...hiding
3. Your hair color... muddy
4. Your mother... wonderful
5. Your father... funny
6. Your favorite thing... home
7. Your dream last night... bazaar
8. Your dream goal...ten
9. Room you're in... cube
10. Your hobby... shopping
11. Your fear... snakes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years... home
13. Where were you last night... school
14. What you're not...president
15. One of your wish-list items... abs
16. Where you grew up... Utah
17. The last thing you ate... cereal
18. What are you wearing... cords
19. Your TV... flat
20. Your pet... adorable
21. Your computer... essential
22. Your mood...sleepy
23. Missing someone... daily
24. Your car...dirty
25. Something you're not wearing...thong :)
26. Favorite store... Target
27. Your summer... packed
28. Love someone... unconditionally
29. Your favorite color... blue
30. Last time you laughed... yesterday
31. Last time you cried...Sunday

There you have it. 31 one word answers that wrap me up.

Wow, that's pretty!

2009-03-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Like normal, I never see outside until I'm leaving for work and I open the garage door. This morning there was a beautiful surprise awaiting me with the lifting of the door...Snow! It was so pretty that I just had to take a few pictures of it . I love it when there's snow on the ground, the sky is clear and blue and you can see the mountains with the sun just starting to peak over their tops. Who knows, this could be our last snow of winter...we can only hope. :) Bring on Springtime!

Finding a guy named Kitty Cat shouldn't be that hard...right?

2009-02-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Teri sent me the funniest email the other day. She was describing how my 4 yr old niece Aspen wanted her to play "pretend" on Friday. So they started playing. At first she wanted Teri to be my sister Michelle and little Aspen was pretending to be my other niece named Chloe. They played that for a while then she wanted to change things up a bit. So this time Aspen wanted to be me and get this....she wanted to pretend it was my wedding day. She wanted Teri to be the groom and guess what his name was? Kitty Cat! Teri says she was pretty adamant about saying that he wasn't a cat but that was just his name. Lucky me! So apparently I need to start looking for a guy by the name of Kitty Cat! Now I know where I've been going wrong with this whole dating thing. I was focusing on guys with normal names! But that does bring up the question, where does one find a man named Kitty Cat? Maybe he shortens it to KC? She is the funniest little kid! What a little cutie! She absolutely cracks me up! Its nice to know that she hasn't given up on me yet. I just hope it's before she walks down the isle. I don't think my ego could handle my nieces being married off before me. :)

Girl's from the Hood Day

2009-02-16T07:33:00.001-08:00

Hey Ladies! Just a quick reminder that we have our get together this Saturday, the 21st at my house. I'll send out an email, also as a reminder. I'm excited to see you all!

A little Marvin Gaye never hurt anyone.

2009-02-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

It's a well known fact that Valentines day isn't my most favorite holiday. But this year, I've come to the conclusion that its not such a bad day and I might as well celebrate it, if just a little. So in the spirit of trying not to be bitter and hate this holiday, I've decided to create a list of my most favorite love songs of all time. There really are some good one's out there and hopefully they might help all you love birds set the mood on this, the most schmoopy of holidays.

Let the love fest begin!

15. Halo, Beyonce
14. I'll never let you go, Steelheart
13. Unforgettable, Nat King Cole
12. When we Dance, Sting
11. Let's get it on, Marvin Gaye
10. Home, Michael Buble
9. At Last, Etta James (I still like it even thought it was used at Obama's inagural ball, but it was a close call)
8. J'attendais, Celine Dion (It's in French but the lyrics are some of the most beautiful I've ever heard)
7. Take my Breath Away, Berlin
6. All I want is You, U2
5. Have you ever been in Love, Celine Dion
4. The Way You Look Tonight, Tony Bennett's version
3. When I'm with you, Sheriff
2. Now and Forever, Richard Marx
1. Hands to Heaven, by Breathe. My absolute favorite of all time!

I think I did a pretty good job of limiting myself to only two Celine Dion songs. Not an easy task, I assure you. :)

Most of the songs are on my playlist player, so you can scroll through them if you'd like. Now you have no excuse for not knowing what songs will set the mood for you and your sweetheart this Valentines day. Happy Valentines day everyone!

Fast and Furious weekend!

2009-02-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got to have a small taste of what it would be like to have three adorable girls for children. It was my friend Annette's 10 wedding anniversary and they asked if I'd watch their little munchkins while they celebrated with a short weekend getaway to Midway. They were dropped off Friday afternoon and picked up on Sunday before church. The two older one's started off making signs for their new bedroom doors so they didn't get lost, while the littlest one proved to me how un-kid friendly my house is. She found the litter box for my cat, jewelry box on the little dresser in my room and the poisonous poinsettia plant(Annette had to tell me about that one, who knew?) that was still hanging on from Christmas. You never think about the things on the shelf that are at eye level with a 1 1/2 yr old until they start pulling them down. :) Good learning lessons for later in life, I guess. Here they are decorating sugar cookies we made. They were delicious and beautifully frosted if we don't say so ourselves. We used football themed cookie cutters in honor of the Super Bowl on Sunday but when we tried to frost the football player cookies his arms or legs would ultimately break off before we finished with it, so all the football player cookies ended up getting eaten as we were frosting...couldn't have happened better if I'd planned it that way. :) We went over to the discovery zone at the Fitness Center on Saturday and the girls had a blast running around, climbing ladders and going down slides while me and the littlest one built an awesome Lego castle. I love Lego's. We made a quick run to the store for some more Mac and Cheese and watched some fun Disney shows. The girls loved playing downstairs. There's a plastic toddler slide and a bunch of pillows and some stuffed animals down there along with a very under utilized plastic exercise ball that's great for bouncing on. I'd forgotten how when your little you'd just make up your own games to play with your siblings or friends and it would keep you occupied for hours! They were such creative girls and we had so much fun just playing tag or one of their made up games. We'd watch a movie before bedtime to help us wind down and we'd all just pile on the couch with a blanket and enjoy the show. It was a great weekend. I'd watch them again in a second! The Super Bowl was a little upsetting....poor Cards! They almost pulled it off but it just want meant to be. Oh well, there's always next year!

25 Random things you never knew or never wanted to know about me.

2009-01-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

My friend tagged me on facebook where I'm supposed to come up with 25 random facts about me. Since I'm not quite sure how I post the tag thing on fb I'll just put it on my blog. That count's right? If you want, give it a try. It was actually kind of fun! Did anyone know any of these things about me?

1. I love the rain.
2. My favorite color is blue with green running a close second.
3. My dream home is in the mountain's by a lake...but not too far away from a mall.
4. I always wanted to be 6 feet tall....missed it by 2 inches.
5. When I was little I wanted to be an Archaeologist, a Dallas Cowboy's Cheerleader or a Veterinarian when I grew up.
6. I can wave my little toe on my right foot.
7. I can't do the splits. Thus the end of the cheerleader dream. :)
8. I have a cat that can play fetch.
9. Je parle francais!
10. My favorite desert is chocolate covered strawberries.
11. I loved Paunch and John from CHiPs.
12. Bones is my new favorite TV show.
13. I HATE boxing and UFC fighting.
14. I've only broken 2 bones my entire life ... both in my left foot.
15. I love Coke Slurpee's.
16. Most of the time my socks don't match because I hate looking for matching ones in my sock drawer.
17. I have green eyes.
18. I was the tallest kid in elementary school until the 5th grade.
19. If I could pick any super power to have I'd choose being able to fly.
20. I paid $130 to see Celine Dion in concert while she was in Vegas and would do it again in a heart beat!
21. I used to hate cooked spinach when I was little but now I love it.
22. I carry your heart with me, by EE Cummings is my favorite poem.
23. I've been to Disneyland over 20 times and I still love it.
24. I love all sea food except for fish. Go figure!
25. I've witnessed a miracle.

Raise your hand, if you love Santa!

2009-01-12T11:28:00.001-08:00

I forgot to add this my last post so here's the last entry relating back to '08...I promise. :) My family meet up in Phoenix this year for Christmas and we had a blast! My little nieces are just the cutest little girls on the planet! You just can't pass up spending Christmas them when they're that cute. Now if they were only kind of cute, then sure, I pass it up, but they're adorable! :) I drove down with my sister and her family. First stop was in Kanab, the redrocks were all sprinkled with snow, beautiful. Next we stopped in Flagstaff, AZ to fill a cooler up with snow to take down in the valley for a snowball fight. The girls had so much fun building a little snowman and then running around getting everyone with their snowballs. So cute! The girls made Santa some cookies on Christmas Eve and little P couldn't get enough of the sprinkles. We opened presents Christmas morning, Santa was very good to us, and my big brother Jason made everyone breakfast! It was delicious! He has mad cooking skills, I tell ya. We did a little shopping, a lot of eating and the fellas went to the first playoff game for the Cardinals in their new stadium. Joey won the beard contest they decided to have from Thanksgiving until Christmas. They were all looking really grubby so I'm glad that's over with. Us girls decided we needed to have a leg hair growing contest to give the guys a little taste of their own medicine but then Joey pointed out that Teri doesn't shave her legs anyway so what's the point. :) It was a fun Christmas.

The best and worst of 2008

2009-01-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

It's time for the highlights of 2008 post, and playing catch up for neglecting my blog over the holidays, so here we go! Probably the coolest thing that happened was that I got to returned to Paris for the first time since my mission! The reason for the return was because my fabulous friend Claire was married in April. Paris in springtime is everything wonderful you've heard people talk about and more. Really, it's the perfect time to go. It was an amazing yet sureal experience and I wish I'd gone back sooner. I kept feeling like I should stop people on the street and talk to them....once a missionary I guess. I went to Disneyland Paris, walked the bank of the Seine to Notre Dame Cathedral (the pink tree has the side of Notre Dame in the background), saw the Lion King and ate my fill of cheese and pasteries. Delicious! I can't wait to go back! I went camping with my family and great friend Kim at Bear Lake, which was a blast! If you go up you have to eat at Bear Lake Pizza, it's awesome! Camped at up at the Spruces a couple times and went to Girls Camp with MY GIRLS at Palasades State Park outside of Manti. I love camping and am already planning this years adventures. FrySauce turned 5 and I turned 33...yes I remember his birthday(refer to title of blog)! I lost some weight and gained some....not a highlight. Ran my first 5K! Made some wonderful new friends and got reaquanted with some very dear old ones. Here are Me, Heather, Sara, Angie and Keelie, some of my girls from the old neighborhood. It was so fun to see them. My family ended the year with Christmas down in Phoenix. We had a great time together and can't wait for next year. Joey and Teri are expecting a new little Leffler in August so Christmas of '09 will be that little one's first. Can't miss that! Over all 2008 was a fantastic year but there was a very sad event that happend this year. March was a very hard month because that was the month we lost my sweet little Grandma. She was my last living grandparent, my mom's mom, and I still miss her. She was the funniest little old lady you would have ever met. She was 94, had an infectous laugh and could kick your butt playing boardgames without even trying. She gave my sister and me the worst perms known to man when we were little kids and she always had homemade cookies in the freezer she'd take out when you'd come to visit. She LOVED clothes and getting her hair done and wouldn't leave the house without lipstick on. She made friends with everyone she met and never liked to see anyone sad. Her chicken noodle soup and icebox cake were the best in the world and she was always proud to tell everyone around that you were her grandchild. She was one of the greatest blessings I've had in my life and I'll always be greatful that I was her grandaughter. We love and miss you Grandma but know we'll see you again.

One thing Cougar and Ute fans can agree on ...Barry Switzer is a JERK!

2009-01-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

So, first things first...Congratulations and way to go Utah in kicking some Alabama keaster! I had to swallow my pride so I could cheer you on but I'm so glad I did. (Thanks John for helping me w/my U issues.) You deserve all the credit in the world for bringing your A game to the Sugar Bowl and winning the biggest game ever for the MWC. You were nothing short of brilliant and you deserve all the credit in the world! Way to go! That said...did anyone who watched the game want to beat up Barry Switzer as much as I did? What a jerk! I didn't hear the initial comment he made about how teams like Alabama wouldn’t lower themselves by recruiting players where the MWC does, but I saw the halftime show where they made him eat his words! You big jerk! But what should I expect from the same coach who was to BIG OF A CHICKEN to have his Sooners play the Coogs for the National Championship in '84 and has been making derogatory comments about the Y or any team that's not Oklahoma for that matter, ever since? Pull your head out Barry and you'll see that there are some pretty good football teams outside of Oklahoma! Annette, please have Burly Man add him to his "hit list" if he hasn't yet. If I had my own list I'd put him at the top! What a Jerk!

Work Christmas Card

2008-12-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

My partner in crime at work and I always get Christmas Cards made for our co-workers or just random people in our building. It started out as a joke four years ago and well....it's still kind of a joke. We pick a different place in the building each year, make up the cards and send them out to unsuspecting victims. We only print out 10 of them so they could be considered a collectors item....yeah, they really aren't. It's just something fun to do. This is our picture from this year's card. Cheers!

No one says it better than Linus...

2008-12-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

This time of year tends to get a little crazy. There are millions of things that need to be done before the 25th and if your anything like me you have your list that your frantically trying to cross off before you run out of time. It's pretty easy to be distracted from the true meaning of Christmas, so I thought I'd post a little something to help us refocus on what this wonderful time of year is really all about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn10FF-FQfs

Merry Christmas.

Don't worry, it's just chocolate.....or is it?

2008-12-16T07:41:00.001-08:00

Friday's are one of my favorite days, one, because I don't have to go to work and, two, because it's Dance Dance Revolution day at Annette's house after we go to the gym. It's our little reward for going to the gym all week and heck, we just really like to play DDR! So last Friday, after DDR, Annette and I were sitting talking, while her cute little kids were running around when all of the sudden Annette notices a blob of brown stuff on the computer desk. It looked pretty suspiciously like poop to me so I wasn't going anywhere near it.
Good ol' Net is a lot tougher then me, because she swipes it off the desk with her finger, smells it and says, "Oh good, it's only chocolate." Now not being a mother myself, I'm not quite used to having to tell the difference between chocolate and poop but one thing is for sure. You couldn't pay me $1000 to stick my finger in a brown blob of something that looks like poop and then smell it. I was torn between laughing my head off and dry heaving! Annette, you are the WOMAN!!! All I know is that if mother's actually received a salary for taking care of kids you deserve HAZMAT pay or at least a HUGE bonus for going above and beyond the call of duty....or should I say doodie! Hee Hee! Tell the "Burly Man" you need a raise!

Thanksgiving fun!

2008-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

I'm almost recovered from the virus from HELL and I'm back to work! Good times! I thought I'd finally post some pictures from Thanksgiving. My whole family made it up and we had a great time! My sister brought over her Wii and we are totally addicted to it! We also made it down to check out the lights at Temple Square and they were beautiful! Of all crazy things, we actually ran into my uncle's family there that we don't get to see very much so we took a picture to document us seeing each other. We had a wonderful time and I wish it could have lasted longer.

Here is my 1 1/2 yr old niece playing Wii ski jump. She was awesome! And above my 3 1/2 yr old niece and I are catching up on our Dr Seuss reading. He rocks!

We have a tradition of making "Olive Fingers" with the olive's every year so here's the tradition being passed down to the next generation.

Here's the picture with my Uncle and his family. It was really good to see them!

Little legs get tired walking around so I got to give a fun piggy back ride. I love that little kid!

My family minus one big brother. He was the first to go home and missed the lights. Hopefully next year we'll get him in the picture. We missed having him there.

Ugh, I'm sick!

2008-12-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

The down side: My body aches, my nose is raw from blowing it and my throat feels like it's on fire!

The up side: I got to stay home from work for 3 days! Granted, that time was spent passed out in my bed, sneezing and coughing with snot running down my face, but I was at home, not work. Yipee! Also wonderful friends like my friend Annette make you homemade chicken noodle soup, that tastes like ambrosia and bring you over a huge steaming bowl. How wonderful is that! And to top it off, she even figures out how may weight watchers points it is for me! She is going to heaven for that!

Things I'm grateful for....

2008-11-26T23:44:00.000-08:00

My family, cat, friends, car, bed, jobs, delicious turkey, pumpkin pie, day's off from work, taking naps, being able to see, good health and cute shoes. I'm sure there are a million more things I'm grateful for but these are what came to mind while I was thinking.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

And down fall the mighty Cougars!

2008-11-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

Oh, it's a sad day for any BYU football fan! They murdered us! Well I guess they hung in there until the end of the 3rd quarter but it was all downhill from there. Like I said before, I didn't get to watch the game but I got updates from James the mighty Annette's husband, and the tone was not warm and fuzzy. He pretty much told me to forget watching this game unless I was looking to have my heart broken, so I opted out of watching. Oh well. Good luck Utah. Bring back some BCS money we can all share. :) Even without watching the game, I think my heart still is a little broken. :( And that's all I have to say about that.

Tailgate party anyone?

2008-11-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

My friend and I started a tradition six years ago at work where we have a tailgate party every year for the BYU vs. Utah football game. It has since turned into the coolest party of the year, if I don't say so myself. :) Everyone decorates their cubes in the office with all the sports crap and signs they can find for their team and we have a blue and red potluck with blue and red food! People get pretty creative with coming up with blue food ideas because let's face it, there are only so many blue foods to bring, but we have a blast experimenting. Here are some pictures of the festivities and the grub I chowed all day long. I really need to hit the gym tonight for, oh just 10 hours straight to burn off what I inhaled.

Here's the delicious blue food table.

And here's the delicious red food table.

Do you see that delicious chocolate cupcake there in the middle? The one with the beautiful sprinkles? Yeah, I ate it. It's now residing on my butt right next to the Bear Lake Pizza that's still there from this summer. Well, I didn't want the pizza to be lonely.

I left all my decorations up when I left this afternoon so come Monday, I'll either be really happy to see them or really grumpy. I'm hoping for Happy! Go Cougars!

I'm awake ....maybe.

2008-11-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

Today is a diet coke day if ever there was one. I was late to the gym this morning, late taking a shower because I came home and collapsed on my bed. I was late leaving home and late getting to work. All of this lateness is my own fault because I just HAD to stay up late and watch Law and Order: SVU. Was the world going to end if I didn't watch it? No, it's all because I saw the teaser they showed while I was watching Fringe or Biggest Loser or something and it showed Elliot getting shot! I love me some Elliot so of course after watching that I was afraid that maybe he was going to die or something and stayed up WAY past my bedtime of 9:00. Thus the cycle of lateness began. Have I learned my lesson? No, because getting my Elliot fix was worth it. You rock Stabler! You can arrest me anytime. :)

The Game of the year....and I'm gonna miss it!

2008-11-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

As you know the BYU vs. Utah football game is happening on Saturday. Kick off is at 4 pm and I'm going to be working! I decided to get a second job and I'm immediately regretting it. Of all the games to miss, why this one! Ugh! I hope this isn't a sign of how this second job is going to go. I just might as Net if she'll record it for me and I'll come over after I get off work at midnight and watch it. How does that sound Net? I'll keep the sound really low and not scream too loud. :) No one tell me what happens! I want to be surprised. I guess I'll have to settle for watching my favorite clip from two years ago until then. Johnny Harline and John Beck connecting for the winning touchdown in the very last play of the 2006 game, will forever be one of my favorite moment in sports history. Go Cougars!

Boondocks = Good times!

2008-11-17T08:13:00.000-08:00

So this weekend I went on a date to Boondocks in Draper and it was a blast! They have so many activities, we didn't even get through half of them. Well, it didn't help that it was freezing outside which drastically decreased our desire to play on the bumper boats, ride on go karts, or fit in more then one round of mini golf, but they are seriously on the list for when it warms up a little. Inside they still have tons of stuff to do. They have laser tag which was great fun, our team won, and tons of video games to play. They also have an air hockey table, that if your not careful, you just might get creamed on. Yeah, I got creamed. Actually, creamed is a nice way of putting it. Massacred would more appropriately describe the outcome. We pretty much stopped counting when the score reached 20-2, in his favor, and I'm sure it ended around 40-2. You like how my score didn't increase at all? Yeah, he killed me, but it was really fun. Hopefully I'll get a rematch and be able to at least break my high score of 2! Sheeze! If you get a chance to go do it, you'll have a great time.

Update: I got my rematch Saturday night and we kinda tied. We played 4 games and each won 2 so if he isn't too scared to finish it out maybe we can see who the winner really is. What do you think K? :)

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

2008-11-13T08:06:00.000-08:00

I talked to some friends this morning, at the gym of all places, about pizza and I can't stop thinking about it now! There is one of the best pizza places in the world called Bear Lake Pizza and I'm totally craving it. They have one of the biggest pizza's I've ever seen called the Old Ephraim and it's good enough to make you drool at the mention of it's name! I thought I had a picture of the actual pizza of it but it turns out that I only have a picture of the pizza pan it's made in, which is still impressive. The Papa pizza that's next to it is like a family sized pizza from Papa Murphy's, just to give you something to scale it to. I think it's the crust that I like best about pizza, oh and the cheese part isn't too shabby either, but I'm all about the crust. This may weird you out but I'm not a pepperoni or sausage fan for my pizza! In fact, I'd be happy as a clam if I had a plain olive and cheese pizza with nothing else. Super boring, I know, but it's delicious! Sorry pepperoni! Now, before you start thinking that I'm anti-meat, let me clarify! I don't mind the BBQ Chicken pizza or the all so popular Hawaiian pizza either, they are quite pleasing to the palate and would be quickly devoured if placed in front of me. It's just pepperoni and sausage that I discriminate against. That's just the way it is. I wonder if I close my eyes tight enough and picture the pizza in front of me if my breakfast of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran with skim milk will taste like pizza? Here's wishing for a miracle!

The FrySauce himself!

2008-11-12T08:31:00.001-08:00

I've had people ask me what my cat looks like so here you go! I don't wan't people to think that I'm a crazy "Cat Women" so I've tried to avoid posting his picture. But he really is a totally cool cat so why not put his picture up? He plays fetch like a dog! Who wouldn't like a cat like that?

If you were a hotdog....

2008-11-10T11:31:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE Will Ferrell and one of my favorite characters he ever played on SNL was Harry Carry! My wonderful friend Annette found this clip and posted it for me so thanks Net! You'll have to click on it to see the big guy in action. I love how he keeps calling Colin by Norm's name. It's a clasic!

So I should appologize....

2008-11-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

So the Utes won against TCU and I really should appologize for not supporting them. A friend recently told me that it's not going against BYU to cheer for the U and it really would be good for the Confrence if a team from Utah went to a BCS bowl. So here's my appology to any Ute fan that may read my blogg....I'm sorry that I wanted you to lose to TCU. I should be supportive to any Utah team that can get the job done and stick it to the BCS people. So good luck to you in your next game and may the best team with on the 22nd. There. I did it. I feel better. Thanks John for talking some sense into me.

2008-11-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

So the Cougars are out of BCS Bowl contention and my little heart is broken. But to make matters even worse I had a U of U fan come up to me and tell me that I had to cheer for the Utes now. You've got to be kidding. I was told that it was for the good of the confrence and I should put my feelings aside and cheer them on. Yeah, that's never gonna happen, I replied. No member of my family has ever cheered for the Utes and it for sure isn't going to happen now! Sheeze! The nerve of these people! Go TCU!

Wow! It's been a while!

2008-10-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so it's only been 3 years since I've done anything with my blog, but I'm back and I'm totally dedicated to getting this baby up and running again. It will just have to be a little at a time but I'll get there so stay tuned!

BBQ rocks!

2005-06-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

I recently went home to visit my new little niece and I had the greatest time! Dinner time is the social event of the day. We all gather around and eat an amazing meal that my brother, chef Jase, cooks up. We eat and talk until we feel like we're going to explode! It's great! This last visit my brother made his "eat until you puke" ribs. He slow cooks them in the oven till their tender and then finishes them off on the grill, coating them in his home made bbq sauce. They rock! That's all I can say. Even my newest little niece wanted some. She's showing that she has wonderful tast in food at an early stage in life. It was a great time.

Dance fighting.....a very underrated sport

2005-04-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I went to see the ballet version of Carmen tonight with some fantastic friends. I think we all agreed that the part in the ballet where they were "dance fighting" was the highlight. It was supposed to be a very serious part of the ballet but I couldn't stop the immage of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson "breakdance fighting" in the movie Zoolander from popping into my head. Needless to say the dramatic imagry of the dance fighting was lost on me. But on a whole the ballet was very good.