Dalan & Ash

Florida in February

2012-02-18T07:28:00.001-08:00

I attended a conference in Florida last week. I actually already blogged about it (probably my best post ever, but you'll just have to take my word for it), but the post was cruelly lost by blogger after I selected 'save'. So we will try this again......

We left Logan at 5:45 on Sunday morning. We were all ridiculously tired, and after a day of travel and a very disappointing dinner we were SO ready to go to bed.

At around 3:30, I was awoken by what I assumed was the hotel room alarm clock, but after punching the clock a few times, I finally came to my senses and exited the building.

Turns out some yahoo decides he couldn't go outside for a smoke, so he tried to disconnect the smoke detector in his room. Jerk.

It took about 30 minutes for the fire department to get everything sorted out. Micah (ever the optimist) pointed out that we were all outside, in our PJs and perfectly warm, it was much better than if we had been in Utah.

Next day we had some free time before we had to pick up Patrick from the airport. We headed over to Sanibel Island which was just a few minutes from our hotel.

Sanibel Island is known for seashells, they were everywhere! More common than gravel, they were used in gardens, pathways, and even in the asphalt in the road.

We spent awhile at the beach, it was SO warm and absolutely gorgeous!

AND again, with a ridiculous filter, just to make my Utah peeps jealous.

We ate lunch at Holy Smoke (not to be confused with THE Holy Smokes in Layton where I've told y'all to eat).
See, different logo/piggy

They did have pretty great sweet potato fries.

So I guess I can forgive them for being different from my usual fave. (But seriously, if you haven't had the Holy Smokes in Layton, get in your car Right Now and go order some pulled brisket. YUM!)

We wandered the island a bit more and strolled along some perfect beaches.

I have never, ever been tempted to live in Florida before, but holycrap! This is what it looks like in February.

Micah wanted some icecream and thanks to Yelp! We found some tasty gelato.

This was apricot biscotti and it changed my life. I ate it on a bench next to this dude:

He wasn't to interested in me though, he only had eyes for Jason.

We decided to stop at an antique store on our way out, I thought this was an interesting find.

Only $85 and it could be yours!

My schedule for the conference the next day was pretty sporadic, I ended up having 3 breaks over 30 minute, so I spent every spare second outside in the 75+ weather.

I made another bird friend during a short walk.

This is the view sitting outside of one of the conference rooms.

Most of the rooms had large picture windows, it was pretty cruel to tease us like this during a lecture.

The next day Micah, Jason, and I all had an hour break before dinner, so we headed for the beach again.

By the way, I was wise enough to not pack a stitch of Florida appropriate clothing. All of the beach trips are with my dress-slacks rolled up and my shoes in-hand.

Micah and Jason were much braver than I and the ventured out onto that sandbar.

This guy and all of his creepy friends stopped me.

What the crap is that?! They were everywhere and I did NOT want to step on one, so I played it safe by the shore.

We made it back to the conference just in time for sunset.

Back at our hotel, I settled in for the night. I talked to Dalan and Tobey on FaceTime.

You see how freakin cute my dog is?!

Then....

At about 1:30 we got a repeat from our first night.

Dear Marriott,
What the heck?

The next night we skipped the conference dinner and headed back to Sanibel. We were searching for a restraint known as The Mucky Duck which was right on the beach and faced west. We found it right before sunset, and decided to postpone dinner awhile.

The next day was our last full day. The last class finished early. Jason wanted to find an alligator head for his kid, so we went in search of tourist shops.

Marcel, I am very disappointed!

Micah and Jason had grabbed a Rib City menu earlier that day. And I was sold from the very first item!

SEE!!!

Aaaaaaand that's the end. I wouldn't say no to a February South-West Florida trip in the future.

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In case you were looking for something to do this weekend....

2012-01-26T20:52:00.001-08:00

Might I recommend this?

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The post Blogger forgot

2012-01-18T17:32:00.001-08:00

I posted this already today, but they are MIA. Sorry if this is a repeat for anyone. We finally went on the Storybook Land Canal Boats on our last trip.

I was blown away by all of the details. Another reason annual passes are so great, we are able to take our time and enjoy attractions we wouldn't have normally tried. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

<3

2012-01-13T15:32:00.001-08:00

Disneyland is pretty :)

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You're In good hands....

2012-01-09T20:55:00.001-08:00

This is clear back from July, but we came across this billboard while driving by Helper, UT. We actually pulled over and walked the 1/2 mile back so we could take a picture on the side of the highway.

There are just SO MANY THINGS wrong with this.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Early Christmas

2011-12-18T13:31:00.001-08:00

While we were at church today, Tobey and Scout decided they couldn't wait for Christmas any longer. They decided to unwrap the presents under the tree and shred/eat/play with their contents.

Only one thing was ruined, a few others may have dog spit on them, but I'll just let you all sit and wonder if yours is one of the choice few :)

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Lights

2011-12-08T18:49:00.001-08:00

After my aunt's wedding dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, we took a quick walk thru temple square. I wanted to experiment with some of my new camera apps, but it was too darn cold! We took just one picture and then retreated indoors.

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As Christmasy as we get

2011-12-04T14:57:00.001-08:00

Our tree is up, this is quite an accomplishment for us.

This is probably the extent of our decorations this year. I do collect nativities, but you can only cram so many on one tiny coffee table before it looks trashy. And last year Scout decided that she wanted the stable animals to all be her friends and they would never stay put (and some ended up with some pretty intense battle wounds). So TaDa! Here is Christmas @ the Hilton's.

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D-Land Delayed

2011-11-17T14:31:00.001-08:00

So we went to Disneyland October 20-23. Don't know why it's taken me so long to post, but here are a few pictures.
*warning-we went by ourselves so get ready for a heavy onslaught of self portraits :)

After a very, very long drive we finally made it! Even the entrance was decked-out

Best. Meal. Ever! First thing we did was share an order of fried chicken at the Plaza Inn. It was the BEST fried chicken I have ever tasted and the portions were huge! This filled us both up. We need to share meals more in the future, if we each eat only 1/2 a meal, then we have to eat 2x as often, which means we get to try even more amazing things :)

Lots of Halloween decorations, this is the hearse in front of the Haunted Mansion

Big Thunder Ranch had dozens of hand-carved pumpkins and the artists were so talented. Here are just a few

Another new taste sensation, cream cheese filled pretzel. It was a yummy salty pretzel on the outside with cream cheese leaning dangerously close to frosting on the inside

Haunted Mansion Holiday is one of my favorite rides. Even though it's super dark, I just had to get a photo of Scary Teddy, he is SO cute! (don't worry my flash was off, no fellow riders were disturbed in the taking of this picture)

Dalan found a great John Lasseter shirt, but it was $74. Maybe next time Mr.

Halloween tree: inspired by Ray Bradbury

Dalan getting creative with dinner. We decided to save money, we could only eat one meal @ the park each day (hence another great reason for sharing and getting to eat twice). Our hotel had a fridge so I made some breadsticks, spaghetti, burritos, muffins, etc before-hand. We just forgot our can opener for the sauce, oops!

At the train station waiting for the LillyBelle. It's a special car, the caboose on one of the regular railroad cars, named for Walt's wife. You go on a trip around the whole park and get an exclusive conductor who tells you some of the history of the Disneyland Railroad as well as the Disney family.

Dalan was so excited to get his ticket

Verne, our conductor. He was basically awesome.

Us inside the car

Outside of the LillyBelle

At the castle

Messing around with a new HDR app

We spent awhile at the Wishing Well to get away from the crowds

Court of Angels in New Orleans Square. On our first day it was decorated for Halloween and on our second day they pulled out the Christmas decor

Dapper Dans performance at the Main Street Fire Station. They sang a rendition of This Is Halloween, it was great! They are so talented. Their full-time grown-up job is to sing in a barbershop quartet at Disneyland

Sourdough soup bowl @ the Pacific Wharf. Not my favorite. I didn't get a picture, but the loaded baked potato soup at the Carnation Cafe is to die for!

Waiting for Aladdin. Such a fun show, I highly recommend it :)

Teacups

Dalan was a good sport and went on It's a Small World with me. I just really, really wanted to see Stitch!

Haunted Mansion Holiday

Quick FYI I spent forever curling my hair in the morning, and this is what was left after only 2 hours

My most favoritest ride ever, The Jungle Cruise! One day I will be a skipper, just you wait.

Tasty roast beef sandwich from Carnation Cafe. The bowl at the top of the picture was the loaded baked potato soup you've already heard about

Flower Mickey in his Superhero Halloween costume

Someone who was surprisingly happy to see us when we got home

Next Disney Escapade in exactly 30 days. Woo!

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Perry

2011-10-24T21:17:00.001-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have developed a liking for Perry the Platypus. This is completely random (especially since I had never even seen an episode on Phineas and Ferb), but look at how cute he is!

I actually watched 3 episodes this evening, so i now consider myself a Perry-expert. Here is an excerpt from his wiki page:

Perry is the pet platypus for the blended Flynn-Fletcher family, and is perceived as mindless and domesticated. In secret, however, he lives a double life as a member of an all-animal espionage organization referred to as The O.W.C.A. ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym"). Many entrances to this organization are usually found all around the house; such as the side of the house, most notably the tree that the boys sit under and many other everyday objects that seem to elude the family's attention. He engages in daily battles with Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a mad scientist who desires to take over the Tri-state area with obscure contraptions.

I would like to reiterate two things from above. 1. Organization Without a Cool Acronym and 2. Doofenshmirtz. Here is an image of Perry or Agent P.

So basically, Perry is The Shit. Yes I just typed that, there were no other words to encompass what I needed to say. If you don't like it, I suggest you leave. If you do like it, I recommend you watch this clip:

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=G44Lono1xkc

Sorry, you probably have to click the link. I can't seem to get the embed to work on the iPad, and to do it on the computer would mean getting out of this extra comfy blanket/pillow nest I have built. So yeah.

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Black & White

2011-10-15T21:02:00.001-07:00

Today while we were waiting for our oil change, we walked over to the mall and played a game of giant chess.

Turns out, I am very, very bad at chess.

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Something I Pinned, and Then Actually Did

2011-10-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

Maybe this should be a weekly installment. I, like many others, am crazy addicted to Pinterest it has made recipes/cooking in our house an absolute DREAM. I find lots of other useful things there too. Things to make, things to buy, things to make our daily lives more organized and MUCH easier. I 'installed one such thing today, and am very very very happy with the results.

The original inspiration:

source

My in-home predicament:

New and Improved:

Instead of hooks I decided to go w/ a magnet. I purchased the magnetic knife rack ($14.99) and the metal-handled measuring cups ($3.99 & $2.99) from IKEA. The knife rack actually came with attachments that needed to be screwed into the backing, but I'm never a fan of making permanent changes like that. My new best friends 3M Command Strips did the job just fine :)

September Menu

2011-09-05T11:56:00.000-07:00

I finished this months menu a few days late. After the fiasco that was the August 2011 menu, I'm just glad to have created anything for September at all. Trip to Disneyland = Pure meal planning chaos (totally worthwhile meal planning chaos, but still....). Here is our dinner fare for the month of September:

A few things I've learned about Menu-ing

-Pinterest is an absolute DREAM when it comes to organizing recipes. I'm to the point I need to break mine into sub-categories. It is so nice to have all of the recipes for the month in one place. Dalan is able to look at the schedule and pull up the recipe on his iPad if he feels so inclined to help with dinner. I've even reached the point where I will find my favorite recipes from books etc. online so they can be included in my Pinterest board.

-Creating my shopping lists monthly is a disaster. I will never ever ever ever ever do this again, ever.

-It is actually really nice to have the time to cook in the evening, it helps me unwind from work, and usually Dalan will help me out, so we get some extra time to talk about our days etc.

-I'm trying to schedule more veggie side-dishes, which brings me to my next point:

-Carrot Fries are DE-LISH!

-Next time we go to Disneyland (in about 5 weeks!!) I will be scheduling our meals. Our hotel has a fridge and microwave, so I will be bringing, pasta salad, burritos, etc. Hopefully this will keep our trip cheaper and healthier :).

Thats about all from the Hilton menu-front, any amazing dishes you've tried recently?

One thing I forgot to mention

2011-09-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

We purchased ANNUAL PASSES!!!

SO, if anyone is looking to go to Disneyland in the future, we would totally love to tag along and split the gas bill :)

Disneyland!!

2011-08-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

We had SO much fun on our trip!!

We stayed the first night in Vegas. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich, it was tasty! Then we checked into the Excalibur and it was YUCKY. It was super dirty, had a smell, and our shower wouldn't drain. We called them about the drain, and they said they were sending someone to fix it. 4-hours later (after everyone had fallen asleep) they finally showed up and after waking us all up it was fixed. THEN an hour later, the front desk called and said that the maintenance guy told them that there was a Do Not Disturb sign up, but they were ready to fix it..... jerks. But before that, we headed to the Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Meg was in heaven and I was surprised with how big it was and how many different kinds of fish/sharks/turtles etc. they had.

The next day we headed to California, first we stopped at Laguna Beach. Not the best beach I've been to, but there were some pretty waves.

After some serious searching on Urban Spoon and Yelp we decided to try dinner at Rofino's. It was pretty intimidating at first, we had a difficult time finding it, and it wasn't in the 'cleanest' part of the town. We also had to wait for a really long time, but it was totally worth it, they had great breadsticks and our food was delish too!

And I'll just tell the rest with pictures:

Waiting at the entrance, we were like #10 in line!

With our tickets!

After we went thru the gates we had to wait again at the ropes.

Mad Tea Party

Shout out to Hali!

Dalan is having a hard time keeping it together until June.

My Ellie Pin souvenir

Day #2

In line @ Star Tours

Not quite Husband, maybe next time

Waiting at the ropes for DCA

Lunch @ Corn Dog Castle

woot!

Anniversary dinner, sweetest hubby ever!

Waiting for World of Color

Star Tours Again, we found REX!!!

BEST. RIDE. EVER.

Pretty soggy after Splash Mountain

When I was pressing my Eeyore penny I turned around and there he was!

Dalan & Lightning

According the Prince Adam's Library, these are the characters we are most like

Tangled Tower

Standing at the Geological Center of Disneyland

Drive home :(

Vaca Photo Dump: Part One

2011-08-21T21:59:00.001-07:00

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Down by the Bayou

2011-08-17T16:45:00.001-07:00

It is our anniversary, I can't believe we have been married for 6 whole years! For the first time ever, Dalan surprised me! Somehow his surprises always end up ruined for one reason or another. I came home to this today

So excited to go to the Blue Bayou!

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no No NO

2011-08-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

I just found out that ALL of my photos on blogger before November 3, 2011 have been DELETED. This is all that is left:

Turns out this is because I was using 2 blogger accounts to post, I decided to combine them and POOF! No more pictures. So now I am going through and trying to gather and repost all of the pictures. Any recommendations on 3rd party image sites to use instead of blogger?

August Menu

2011-07-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure my Pinterest peeps have noticed, I've completed our menu for August. A few changes that I have made from last month are:

-Trying to add more veggies, either in the entree, or as a side dish.

-Made a shopping list for each week at the same time I created the monthly menu (FYI, this was NOT a good decision, making a shopping list as we go is much better).

-Cut back on # of eat out nights. I figure we will still keep it to once a week, but this way it can be as circumstance dictates and not how the schedule dictates.

-Cooking smaller quantities and schedule less leftovers, we weren't eating them anyway.

-Organizing ALL of my upcoming recipes on Pinterest, that way Dalan can look it up on his iPad and start dinner before I get home.

Here is our August Menu:

I'm pretty proud of us sticking to it for this long, lets see how month 3 goes down.

Weekend Project

2011-07-27T06:16:00.001-07:00

I first saw this project on Pinterest. I showed my usually skeptical husband, and surprisingly he was all for it. Not only did he jump on board, he knocked me down as he scrambled to take the helm :)

We went to the hardware store and bought 1 sheet of 4'x8' plywood and four-eight foot 2"x4"s. Dalan then got to buy a new toy because his table saw 'wouldn't work' to cut the plywood. I think he is just making stuff up to get more tools. So, Dalan bought a new circular saw, and we got started.

Step one: safety first!

Step 2: using our new circular saw and some sawhorses, Dalan cut the plywood into 4" strips.

Step 3: mark out 'center ' on each strip and attach the 2x4 with screws, so it is now a T.

And apparently i missed some pictures, I guess i was too busy making dinner.

Step 4: attach the T plywood side up to joists in the garage ceiling. Dalan first attached it loosely so he could verify that it was straight.

Now more missing pictures, I got distracted by our other project.

We then attached another 2x4 to the bottom, now making an I shape. We had pre-measured each sized tote that we used and our tracks needed to be 17.75" and 16.25" apart.

A big goal for this storage was to get our Christmas tree out of it's ratty box, but we could find a tote big enough for under $80, we found one that was 'pretty close' so Dalan improvised.

And here it is all finished.

I think we ended up spending about $50 in materials. TaDa!

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Clipper thingy

2011-07-20T15:09:00.001-07:00

Bobbi gave me one of these today, and I think they are crazy awesome!

It's like a paperclip/staple love child, AND the clips can be reloaded when you're done with them!
I realize that everyone else is probably not as excited about this as I am. I am probably too easily amused.

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Menu-ing

2011-07-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

I decided to give it a little while before I wrote this post. And as luck would have it, we have now surpassed 2 weeks on our menu system, so I now feel it is safe to spread the word. Given our upcoming trip to Disneyland, Dalan and I looked over our budget to make sure everything was going to work for the trip. We were SHOCKED to discover how much we have been spending on eating out and decided that we needed a big change pronto! I've been organizing our entire month of meals, and we are going grocery shopping every Monday or Tuesday to buy the ingredients. I've included days that we will eat out and days to have leftovers. So far, it has worked great. There are a few nights that we haven't felt like eating the scheduled item, so we swap it with something from the same week, which we have the ingredients for so it works great! Here is our July Menu:

So far, the extra delicious items to note are:

Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Pizza Factory Breadsticks

I have some plans for how we are going to tweak our system in the future. I want to rig a huge magnetic calendar on our fridge that I can stick the recipe cards to and then it will be easier to swap out the items. Then we can keep the same cards and use our favorites again next month. I'm getting ready to start preparing August, have any great recipes you want to share?

Nerdy Alert

2011-06-24T21:27:00.001-07:00

So I am an absolute nerd. I didn't quite realize it until a few years ago. Thank goodness I married a fellow nerd. I have found an awesome blog that embodies my nerdyness exactly. The writer is a Disney/Doctor Who/80s flick freak, I'm pretty sure if we were to meet, we would be bestest friends. The other day she posted a link to Olly Moss who is a silhouette artist. Check out the website, you could spend a good hour just having fun identifying the silhouettes.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Not only would they look great above my staircase, I think it would be a nonchalant way to identify kindred spirits. Some would just say 'oh that looks nice' and others would say 'HOLY CRAP you have a dalek, Rufio, and the loose seal on your wall!!!!!!!!

And that is how you weed out who to take to twizleberry.

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..... lately

2011-06-23T18:47:00.001-07:00

I know we've been MIA recently. A lot has been happening. To make a long depressing story short, at 10 weeks pregnant we found out that I was going to miscarry. Its been a rough few weeks, but we are so grateful that what was starting to look like a much more serious health problem has been resolved and we are bouncing back.

Dalan has been fortunate enough to obtain an internship on campus. While it is unpaid, he is learning extremely valuable skills, and it is a requirement for his degree. He is also a teacher's aid for Fall and Spring semesters, a student host for the Operations seminar, and a member of the Lean Leaders organization on campus. It's funny to think that my plumber husband is so involved in business and academics now. He is scheduled to graduate in May and depending on internship opportunities, he may begin his MBA next Fall.

Our house is still for sale, we've now passed the 1 year mark and it doesn't seem like we'll ever be able to move. Things are expected to pick up during the summer months, so hopefully we'll see some more interest.

We've decided that we need a little break, so we are going on an end of summer trip to Disneyland with the Lewises. We are SO excited and will be heading out in August!

Trident

2011-04-19T18:48:00.001-07:00

We lose forks like crazy. Out of the last set of 10 we bought I only have 4 left and somehow I have 16 spoons. Tonight our entire fork supply was all dirty, so we had to improvise some spaghetti vehicles.

I nabbed a packaged spoon/fork combo and Dalan was left with a serving fork, which he fondly named Trident.

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2011-03-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

Dalan and I had a great Saturday, first we went and browsed at Hastings. I found some noteworthy reading material.

We found a few DVDs to rent, one of which was MegaMind. We decided we might as well make the rest of the evening immature.

We went to Twizlberry first (because dessert first is awesome!) we got some extra yummy fro-yo.

Then we came home and made some pizza. We pretty much threw everything in the fridge on top, including bacon (which made it extra greasy and pretty gross).

While the pizza was cooking we built a blanket fort in the basement. It was pretty sweet! Sadly, I have no pictures. We ate our pizza and watched our movie in the fort. Apparently the fort upset Scout. She jumped on the blankets, tried to pull it down, and then peed on it (hence the lack of pictures).

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2011-03-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

When we remodeled our front room last year it was always planned to add crown molding. It's been almost a year now, and we finally decided to finish it.

Our almost finished front room.

Scout is absolutely TERRIFIED of the air compressor. She scrambled up my leg and made me hold her while trying to hide.

Dalan had an interesting solution to reaching the ceiling over the stairway, I about had a heart-attack.

First wall installed.

On a side note, holy crap it sucked. Apparently molding comes in different angles, and Lowes didn't feel a need to advertise what the angles were. We ended up installing and pulling down at least five 8 foot lengths trying to get it right, but we ended up buying a jig that made a world of difference. No finished images yet, we still haven't finished caulking. Last things we have to do are touch up a ding in the hardwood and paint the exterior door, and then we can call our front room finished!

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Location:Work in progress

A Short Explanation on Why I Love Paying Bills

2011-03-09T16:34:00.001-08:00

Seeing this:

Rocks my Socks! Our car is officially paid off.

Dinner Disasters

2011-03-01T18:12:00.001-08:00

It's official, I am a horrible cook. I can't follow a recipe to save my life. In the thick of it I convince myself that substitutions are ok, I don't need to preheat the oven, and we can make do without that one little ingredient. These disasters happen often enough, I figure it could be a weekly installment on the blog.
-I should note, disaster is a very strong word. Almost always the outcome is edible, but that doesn't make as good of a story, now does it?

GOAL - Mac N Cheese

INGREDIENTS - wouldn't you like to know? Too bad I'm already in bed and too lazy to look it up again.

Flop #1 -The substitutions.
The first I don't view as a problem, we only have 'spelt' at our house instead of flour (my husband ground it, on our wheat grinder, we aren't quite 'those people' but we know enough of them that it's bound to rub off). The brown color was somewhat off-putting. I also only buy fat-free cottage cheese and sour cream, this can also change the outcome.

Then as I was adding the cottage cheese I found out I didn't have enough, but that's ok, I had sour cream and feta in the fridge. If you mix those two together it's basically the same thing right? RIGHT?!

The goo wasn't very pretty, but it's not like you can go wrong with sour cream and cheese, so I had no plans to abandon ship.

Flop #2 - I would like to blame McCormick for this one. Our paprika didn't have a sprinkle top. What the?! Copious amounts seasoning resulted.

Flop #3 - I didn't preheat the oven, and then I had to go get Dalan from class so I took it out 14 minutes early.

RESULT - I have no finished product picture, it looked basically the same as above, and frankly I was bored with it by this point. And that's exactly what we got, a bored dinner. It tasted like noodles. I should have saved the time and given a shout-out to my homies at Kraft and just gone with the box version.

FOLLOW UP
I shouldn't cook anymore, but since husband is back in school, I don't really have a choice. Tune in next time when I make Janae's Honey Lime Chicken enchiladas. Last time i attempted these was an official disaster, let's see if I learned anything.

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Some things

2011-02-10T17:34:00.001-08:00

I am at a conference in Vegas this week. Their weather makes me super jealous.

This hotel is pretty swank. They have conversational areas on the veranda and Naked juice for community snacks.

I really really need to hem my dress pants. These safety pins aren't quite cutting it.

I saw the Luxor from the airport and that is the extent of my 'Vegas experience' this trip. I think there are 2 quarters in my bag. Maybe I'll live it up at the slots later.

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The Puerto Rico Post, FINALLY! - Part 1

2011-01-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

I know that it has been SO long since the trip, now that I've finally recovered I guess its time to blog about it. I thought I could get this in one shot, but it looks like we will have a multi-part series. ahem, Part One:

11/26

3:30am - We wake up, obviously we couldn't miss the Black Friday sales. We arrived at Kohl's at 4:00am, ended up getting a few odds and ends, and checking out around 6:30. Then Dalan bought me a string of pearls for Christmas, even though as usual we were not supposed to buy each other gifts. (On a side note, I have wanted pearls ever since I read Anne of Green Gables when I was 12). We went home and napped for about 2 hours and then finished packing.8:00pm - We left for the airport!!

11/27

12:50am - We boarded our first flight to Atlanta.

Dalan, Braden, and I watched some movies on our iPods and played a LOT of solitaire.

9:00am(ish) - We enjoyed a glossy-eyed breakfast at the Chili's Too at the Atlanta airport. It was CRAZY expensive and I creepily got hit on by the host and completely missed it. By this point we were pushing 24 sleepless hours

2:30pm(ish) - We arrive in Puerto Rico. We stuffed 7 people and 14 large bags (plus all of our purses, backpacks, etc.) into a mini van. Dalan and I braved the backseat, Thankfully the ride to our hotel was short, I could only balance mom's suitcase on my head for so long.

In San Juan we stayed at the Verdanza hotel.

It was pretty cute, and I was impressed for the price that we paid. Some of the information wasn't correct on our reservation, so it took awhile to get to our rooms. We were stuck in the van while my dad tried to sort it out. This resulted in one of my famous laugh/cry attacks that freaked the entire family out, and it was a great start to the vacation. (please keep in mine I'm about 36 sleepless hours here). The staff at the Verdanza was extra friendly, even with our copious amounts of luggage they were still super nice.

4:00pm - We attempt to find dinner, we had a short amount of time so decided to play it safe with Wendy's. The employees at Wendy's didn't speak English, so Braden got to do all of the ordering. I ordered a classic #1 with a Diet Coke that tasted exactly like gasoline (or at least like the smell of gasoline, I guess I don't have first hand experience). We then headed back to the hotel where we rushed to change into swim attire.

5:30pm - We head out to pick up Braden's friend Fransheska before heading to the Bioluminescent Bay. Puerto Rico driving is the scariest I have ever seen. I felt so bad for my dad, he had to drive the entire trip and by night was always worn out from the stress. After a few wrong turns we found Fransheska's home. Her adorable mom, Alta Gracia, invited all 7 of us inside. (I think that we are at about 40 hours here, not the best of company). Then the family + Fransheska piled into the van for the 1 hour drive to Fajardo.

Now we come to one of my favorite parts of the trip. In Fajardo we kayaked to the Bioluminescent Bay. Each kayak held 2 people. Dalan and I had quite a struggle working out a system at first. We followed the guide into the ocean, and then went around an outcrop and into a small stream lined with mangrove trees to reach the bay. (This is a daytime picture, the sun had already set by the time we got to Fajardo).

The way in was extremely stressful! Multiple groups lead tours into the Bio Bay, and there is only one route in and out. There were parts that the stream was about 20 feet wide and there were groups passing each other, it was also totally dark, the only light was from the small glow sticks on the front and back of the kayaks. Dalan and I repeatedly ended up in the mangrove trees

and then had to find a way to pull ourselves out (can I mention again that it was pitch black?!). I could hardly handle it. Some people in our group decided to be complete jerks and run their kayak into others. With the dark, oncoming kayaks, getting slapped in the face by trees, and random attacks from the drunk crowd I about lost it! My aunt and grandmother kayaked together, but my grandma got seasick. This made their ride even more unbearable. My aunt ended up paddling while my grandma tried to keep her Wendy's down. We finally made it to the Bay, and it was absolutely amazing! There are microorganisms in the water that, when disturbed, glow a bright blue. You could run your hand or paddle through the water and the shape would stay. You could also just get your arm wet and let the water drip off, the drops would begin to glow as they moved down your arm! We disturbed a school of guppies and they swam off leaving a bright blue trail behind them, it was one of the neatest things I have ever seen! Sadly (and smartly, we got SOAKED) we left our camera behind, but here are some images the company has posted.
I really looks like that no joke! And don't make fun of the cheesy smile, if you were experiencing something that awesome you would have a cheesy smile too!

Since we were the second to last group to leave for the bay, the ride back was awesome! We could see the light of the guide in front of us and just had to paddle straight (kayaking in the dark is quite an experience!) Dalan and I finally figured out a system. I would steer by using my paddle as a rudder in the front and Dalan powered us from the back. We hit zero trees on the way back YEA! Marna and Janae were towed in by our friendly guide Orlando (who has apparently towed up to 4 kayaks at once).

More crazy Puerto Rico driving and we finally made it back to our hotel @ 1:30 am. This may have been the most glorious part so far, because after just short of 48 hours awake, I GOT TO SLEEP!!!

Lame-Sauce

2011-01-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

I've tried to cut Digis some slack for the last year or so, but this is absolutely ridiculous. Our internet works well maybe 40% of the time, the rest is a complete struggle. If we call and complain they'll say nothing is wrong, it must be our computer/router/blah blah blah, and magically after the call it works again, for about a week, and then the same struggles happen again until we get frustrated enough to call again. Apparently they have too many users so now they have to throttle people back, our usage is limited, and even though we are supposed to have a download speed near 7mb/s we are somewhere closer to .41mb/s.
So, we are definitely in the market for a new internet provider. Sadly, Qwest is not an option in our area. Any suggestions?

Kitchen Guts

2011-01-17T19:34:00.001-08:00

Today I took on a HUGE project and cleared out, cleaned, and re-organized our fridge, pantry, cupboards etc.

I found some scary things among the disassembled kitchen drawers.

Article A:

21 American Express magnets

Article B:

A mustache...... stuck to retirement paperwork. Uh, yeah.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why I Love Etsy

2011-01-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

I can find things like this
and this
and this

and this
and this
and a million other things I haven't had time to look at yet. And apparently I have recently developed an owl fetish.

Creeptastic

2011-01-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

Maybe talking about it will make it seem less scary. In Barbados we went on a tour of the historic Sunbury Plantation. I wont bore you with all of the details, but in the main house there was a nursery. And in the nursery there were toys. And some of the toys have been messing with my sleep for the last 4 weeks.

And now you are lucky enough to share in my horror. Good Night!

Mediocrity at it's finest

2011-01-02T22:27:00.001-08:00

Earlier this weekend, as I sat enjoying my orange cream yogurt and kroger-brand granola, I saw my husband preparing his eggos (note: There are many different ways to top an eggo, my current preference is sugar-free strawberry preserves). Dalan apparently prefers his eggos topped with peanut butter, and then nutella, and then syrup. I sat with my jaw wide open and partially chewed granola waiting in my mouth (don't worry, it's not gross, partially chewed granola looks the exact same as un-chewed granola), staring in awe and jealousy at his much superior breakfast. With a wake-up like that, his day had to have rocked! I however, only had mediocrity to look forward to.

And that is my current bloggers block, I keep postponing posting, hoping that something noteworthy will happen. As much as I would like a peanut butter, nutella, syrup kind of existence, it looks like we are stuck with yogurt and granola.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Slackers

2010-12-19T21:41:00.001-08:00

We are really behind this season, but we finally got our tree up today.

And that is the extent of our Christmas decorations. Super exciting, I know.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Poladroid

2010-12-12T14:48:00.001-08:00

I just downloaded Poladroid and I am having a lot of fun with it.

Puerto Rico post coming soon, but I need a few days to recover first :)

Funicular

2010-12-07T07:34:00.001-08:00

This is the route we take to get to our hotel room.

This is the vehicle that takes us.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My weekend looks better than yours...

2010-11-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Logan, Utah

The Simple Things

2010-11-15T21:11:00.001-08:00

After an extra long day at work (and a migraine), I find the really simple things send me into hysterical giggle fits:

I realize that this is not the first Spongebob video clip I've posted on here. Deal with it.

Transplant

2010-11-12T12:36:00.001-08:00

I've performed minor surgery on Moose a few dozen times, but I think this injury is going to require a butt-cheek transplant and skin graft.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ahem

2010-11-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Predictive Text,

I assure you I meant to type Netflix and not Negroid.

Please don't let it happen again,

Ashley

Fives

2010-11-04T18:35:00.001-07:00

Today I ran 5 miles in 55 minutes and finally acheived a total weight loss of 5 pounds.

In other news I made (and threw out) parsnip soup for the first (and the last) time. My iPhone case has started pulling up the shield. And we leave for Puerto Rico in 22 days.

Inner-Child

2010-11-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

My inner-child demands PB&J for lunch on a regular basis. The only difference between now and 20 years ago is that the PB is organic and the J is sugar-free and the bread is whole wheat. Sadly I don't think that is enough to make it a sophisticated choice.

Partay

2010-10-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

I think our Halloween party was a success, we had quite a variety of characters.

Made By Myself

2010-10-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

I made this headband the other night and hated it.

When I woke up this morning it was cute, so I decided to wear it.
Maybe its just me, but fabric flowers are a pain in the BUTT! It took so much fabric glue to make this I was far past high from the fumes by the time I finished.

Guster

2010-10-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

This is Guster

(actually its a picture of another Guster that I googled because I'm too lazy and its too cold to go outside).

Guster is currently on The List. His 'Fuel Pump Module' had to be replaced, which is apparently a big deal. A $777 big deal. After being fixed, Guster makes weird noises. Noises like the fan working extra card when the car is idle, or it whistles when I push on the gas. So help me Guster, if I have to fix something else, you are gone! The big question is, do I trust Guster to drive me thru the canyon in the maybe snow tomorrow?

Uranium.... Bombs

2010-10-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why but this song has been in my head for about 6 days now.

Oopsie

2010-10-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Due to some unfortunate events, I managed to delete my blogger account and a few other things. Thank goodness another email had admin rights, but for now the blog will be plain and ugly while I try and figure a few things out. :(

6 months.... and counting.

2010-10-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

Dear House,

Although the last 2.5 years have been awesome, we are ready to move on. No really, it would be great if you could just get someone to buy you. I had hoped 6 months would have at least an offer, but no. Although we really enjoy your great location and our newly finished front room, we really can't afford to keep living here if the Husband loses his job. Could you please make a little more effort?

Thanks,

The People Who Pay The Bank So We Can Live Here.

2 more weeks!

2010-10-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

Only 2 weeks until my little brother comes home from his mission. We are pretty excited!

Skippyjon Jones

2010-10-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

So Lacy had mentioned this book to me awhile ago. I saw it in a Bookstore today and remembered how freaking awesome it is.

Skippyjon Jones is a siamese cat who decides he is actually a chihuahua. It is pretty hilarious and I love how random it is. Kudos.

While this is a cheesy version, and the accent is not nearly as good as when I read it, I think it will suffice.

Gee, Thanks!

2010-10-08T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hotmail just complimented me. I wish I was as accomplished in my housework.

One Day

2010-10-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

One day, I may have a kid. Just so I can dress them in this. Not just for a Halloween costume mind you, this thing has Sacrament Meeting written all over it.

Hiney

2010-10-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

In case you ever wondered who makes bathroom stalls & accessories, I can tell you. Hiney Hiders. Thats all, I had a chuckle in the bathroom today.

The Tenth Incarnation of the Doctor

2010-09-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Even though Dalan and I are probably the only 2 people I know that actually watch Dr. Who, Dalan really wants to be the Tenth incarnation of The Doctor for Halloween.

I'm a really big fan of David Tennant, and especially his hot suit. The problem is, where do you find a suit like this?

While you would think a brown pin-stripe suit would suffice, not for my stubborn husband. His suit has to have the royal blue stripes, no exceptions!

We found this suit that is actually named the Tennant Suit. $525 is a little steep for my pockets (Dalan is actually trying to justify it though).Also in my search I found this blog dedicated to David Tennant's suit. The author actually has 5 other blogs about different incarnations of The Doctor and another blog about David Tennant's Coat.

Oh wait, did I forget to mention the coat? This thing is a beauty

Oh, and that thing in his hand is a sonic screwdriver, long story. Don't worry I've got it covered.

Anyway, back to the blogs, this guy features dopplegangers, fabrics, and fanatics. The author and his wife dress up and have photoshoots as The Doctor and Rose Tyler. He has actually documented every tie from every episode and where to get it. I really envy the amount of time some people have, and their ability to make money off of things like this :)

So far it doesn't seem that a month is going to be long enough to meet all of the Husband's costume demands. Hopefully my mad search engine skills can accomplish more

On the bright side, I did find some glasses..... I guess we'll keep looking.
If you happen to come across a brown and blue pin-stripe 3 piece suit, let me know.

Cute or Creepy

2010-09-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Fun fact about Ashley. I collect nativities. A coworker brought this to my attention today, and I really really want it!

Those are Fisher Price Little People, so cute! My husband, however, has labeled this 'creepy' and 'wrong'. Is he right, or just a fun-sucker?

Bio Bay

2010-09-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

So we are leaving for Puerto Rico in just 60 days! It to FOREVER to get here. Especially since I started looking for plane tickets back in January. There are a lot of things I'm excited for, our cruise has so many different excursions, but I just can't pick! The thing I think I'm the most stoked for right now though is kayaking through the Bioluminescent Bay in Fajardo. The water seriously glows in the dark!

Its filled with billions of tiny micro-organisms that glow like fireflies when the water is disturbed.

In other news my brother comes home in 29 days! Wow, the last few weeks have flown by. I'm sorry if I'm a little giddy the next time you see me. I know its completely out of character, but I have some awesome stuff coming up!

Wenda

2010-09-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

I just bought this:

So I can be her:

Now I just have to get Dalan a Waldo costume and Scout a Woof costume and we are set for Halloween!

Gasp

2010-09-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

It may sound like an overstatement, but I am absolutely in love with this machine.

I'm just on day 1 with it, but I ran for 65 minutes straight and I feel awesome. Going about 15 minutes on a treadmill makes me pray for a serious injury so I can go to the hospital instead of run.

This is the embarrassing post where I put some actuals (gasp) out there so I'm accountable for some results. I weighed myself about 3 weeks ago and came in @ 128. I started a eat healthier/work out program 1 week ago. I now weigh 126. My goal is to be somewhere between 115 and 120 in 2 months. I also want to be more muscular through the leg, buttock, and tummy areas.

So, this is how I'm going to do it:

1. Work out @ least 5 days a week. The Fieldhouse is about 10 feet from my office, so going right after work isn't a problem. I've got the Netflix app on my iPod now so I can watch shows while I'm working out. (The music thing just doesn't do it for me).

2. Eat healthier. I'm not going to call this 'diet' or say that I'm cutting anything out completely. I just end up frustrated and binging when I try too hard. I'm planning a weekly menu every Saturday (hopefully based around our Bountiful Basket). I'm not counting calories, but just trying to limit how many times we eat out (this makes our bank accounts happy too).

3. Drink lots of water. This is sooooo hard for me. Water tastes metallic and I have a hard time swallowing it. I've got my pink lemonade mix-ins and I'm going to increase this intake gradually. Right now I'm at about 40oz without trying. I'm going to try and be to 64oz in 2 weeks. The more water I drink, the less room I have for diet coke.

4. Pack healthy snacks. I usually just eat food because its there. Leaving a cluster of grapes or a handful of bran crackers on my desk keeps my mind away from all of the yummy peanut butter m&ms that are just a few steps away.

Well, there you have it. Probably more information than you ever needed to know about me, but I really want some results this time!

1 Year Old

2010-09-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

My baby just turned 1. I vow to never ever ever breed a dog ever again. Delivering the puppies was absolutely traumatic. Our original plan was to sell all of them, but we had to fight so hard to keep Scout alive I couldn't bring myself to sell her.

She has the sweetest face ever, even when she is covered in paint and spackle.

I even love her crooked ears.

This is a video from when she was a puppy, probably the cutest puppy ever.

Even though she is itchy and not very smart we still love her lots!

Squishy & Stealy

2010-09-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

So I stole this from Lacy.
Because I liked it.

Too much time

2010-09-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

With Husband back in school, I need to find worthwhile things to occupy my time.

Like this:

Anyone who can think of a game where you launch birds into pig fortresses is an absolute genius.

Now that I've beat Angry Birds, its time to move on. To this:

I think its time well spent.

Sunday Accessory

2010-08-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

We just started selling these at my work. Since we have no children (and I obviously have to buy it), it looks like I'll have a new scripture case to take to Relief Society.

You can also get it a Deseret Book, I really liked their description:

"Scripture power has never been so much fun! These stylishly adorable tin scripture totes are sure to start a new fashion trend in your ward. And since they're large enough to fit all four standard works with room to spare, you'll be able to free up some room in your own overstuffed church bag. The sturdy design is a perfect way to protect your child's scriptures."

So watch out NL6. It looks like a new fashion trend is heading your way.

I'm going thru a purple phase.

2010-08-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

FYI ModBe swimsuits are 60% off. I thought this was a great deal and ordered myself the eggplant one.
Only 100 days until Puerto Rico! Guess I'm now set in the swim department.

Dos

2010-08-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

To support Dalan returning to school (and my crazy internet addiction), we decided to purchase a second computer. I think it was a great decision, but its still a little awkward to be in the same room and not speaking while we work on our separate projects. Its also pretty weird for Dalan to be studying ever night. I spent 3 hours working on a cub scout tracking spread sheet last night because I was so bored. Yes, I am awesome. The only bad part is, to be the supportive wife, I let Dalan have the new computer (also desk space was total drama). My 20" computer is looking pretty shabby now.

I keep glancing over my shoulder and sighing with envy @ the 27" monster behind me. I believe we have to name them now, referring to "the computer" isn't good enough anymore. Any amazing name suggestions?

Bestest

2010-08-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 years ago I married my best friend.

I'm so lucky to have found someone as random as I am.
We've done so many fun things together, life is a blast

And just when we thought we were grown-up, life throws us for a loop. Our house is for sale, Dalan is going back to school in the fall, and I've been promoted to upper-management at work. The next 3 years are going to be interesting, but at least I've got my bestest friend to keep me company!

Detoured

2010-08-16T15:39:00.001-07:00

Here is my regular peaceful drive to work.

Here is what my drive to work looks like with 2 random road closures and 1 police chase.

ps. the chase wasn't epic or anything, I just saw a police car try and pull a girl over for over 5 blocks. I took the little loopy to avoid them, and she ended up pulled over in my parking lot anyways.

Rehab

2010-08-10T17:21:00.001-07:00

I think I have a problem. In the last month I have bought 5 pairs of shoes (one of which I fell in some mud and ruined the day after my purchase). I would like to blame it on a stressful time at work, but I still have at least another month before things slow down. Hopefully our bank account can handle it :)

Burnination

2010-07-29T19:02:00.001-07:00

That's gonna leave a mark.

African Art

2010-07-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

So one of the coolest people I know (Hali) got to go to Ghana for study abroad *jealous*. I was lucky enough to have her bring me home a painting, which I absolutely LOVE!
Isn't it awesome? Now I just have to decide which room to grace its presence with.

Oh, Canada

2010-07-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

I went to Canada (Waterloo to be exact) for a few days for a business trip. The trip was slightly awkward since it was me and 4 older guys. I learned a whole lot more about cars than I ever wanted to. For the most part it was meetings on top of meetings, but we did get one free afternoon, and we decided to visit Niagra Falls. It was really really pretty, and definitely worth the drive. I just wish I could have enjoyed it with my family.

Reduce, Reuse, Accessorize

2010-07-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Today, with 5 extra minutes (and some help from Karlie Jean), I made some new earrings. And since this is post #100, lets have a giveaway.

I'll throw in a free pair to the first person to guess specifically what they are made of.

ps. Karlie Jean, you can't guess.

Cloche

2010-07-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

So, I've decided I want a new hat, but I've had a really hard time describing what exactly I want. A straw hat, with a ribbon, and.....? After some very productive googling I've found out what I want. The exact title would be a cloche hat. 20's inspired and WAY too cute. Now I just have to decide which one. I've found a few good prospects online, but not really sure what happens without trying them on... Also, I am looking to have a picnic soon. I think it would be the perfect occasion to break my new cloche in.

Pain

2010-06-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

I get migraines regularly. Thankfully I'm blessed with aural migraines, so it is usually not a big deal. I can feel the migraine coming about an hour before it hits, and can medicate in plenty of time to avoid it. Sometimes, when I get tired, I can't think reasonably and I don't realize that the fact that I can't see well means a migraine is coming. When I have to take my medicine in a rush, I also have convinced myself that eating non-stop will help prevent it. If I actually think this through, I come to realize that it is probably more to do with giving the medicine time to work, rather than the massive amounts of food I've consumed. In a headache stupor today, I conveniently forgot this logic, and ate a whole box of cheez-its before the pain subsided. The only problem now is the massive cheez-it induced stomach ache.

Double the C, double the S, and you will always have success

2010-06-22T14:58:00.001-07:00

Danny Tanner taught me how to spell that word back in the day. And we have had some recent success. We waited out buying our Puerto Rico plane tickets to try and get the lowest possible price. Back when I started looking in January they were around $890 (ouch!) We finally bought them last month for $468. I was a little nervous that they would come down more, but when I looked today they are now averaging $750. Looks like we win!

Look what I found

2010-06-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

100 calorie ice cream sandwiches. I think that should be some sort of oxymoron.

Kid's Shoes

2010-06-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

By buying these in the little boys section, I save $17. You know you're jealous of my tiny feet.

Big Fat Project

2010-05-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

My puppies decided to get me an early Mother's Day present. They knew how much I wanted a new front room, so they kindly shredded the carpet in there. Not only did I get new carpet, but also some wainscotting and new paint. Aren't they sweeties?

Here is where we started. This room was already on my list, but was somewhere around the #10 thing we needed to fix in our house. Sadly, this pushed everything else way back.

First we removed the furniture, and then started in on the chair rail and trim.

We bought supplies from Lowes. This power roller turned out to be an absolute dream, although it was a pain in the butt to clean, We finished painting a whole day earlier than we had anticipated.

After about 8 different paint choices, Dalan got fed up and just bought my most recent favorite before I had made up my mind. It worked out great though. At least we painted a sample section first.

We had to deal with a lot of problems from the previous owners, the paint in the corners was so poorly done that it was cracking, and we could just peel it off in sheets.
The door frames did not match the wainscoting we wanted to install, so they had to come down too. I forgot to take a picture of the 'before' frame, but here it is torn out. (you can also see my couches in the kitchen, we got to eat out for a week, my scale was thrilled).
Saturday morning Meg and Steve showed up to help. Probably the best thing that could have happened to us. They were troopers and didn't even have to use a step ladder to reach the ceiling. Dalan and I gladly let them take over the upper parts.

Phase 1 finished. It was so nice to not have to worry about dripping paint on the carpet!

The stair area was already painted white, but we decided to brighten it up a few shades, I think that it made a huge difference (but I'm not so sure that you can tell in the picture).
Scout tried to help. She even dipped her nubbin in paint, and wagged her tail against the wall.
This has actually been really nice to help tell them apart, we may keep this as a permanent Scout feature.
The windows framing our exterior door had a lovely yellow trim. We decided that we should probably paint it to match the rest of the room though.

We also had some hot lace window treatments. I 'accidentally' threw them away.

Installing the wainscot turned out to be slightly more difficult than we originally anticipated. Finding the angles in the bay window was easily the most time consuming part of the project.
One door frame installed, yea!

Installing the vertical wainscoting was a blast, it went so quickly!

All painted
Not only was my house a sad/pathetic mess during the whole thing...

So were my babies :(

Ready for carpet.
Yea! Pretty carpet, we got an awesome deal from Ogden's Flooring.
Tobey is pretty happy with it too.

Sob

2010-05-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

I get that you weren't a main character, and therefore the most likely to go. But to be taken out by a door? I think that you deserve a more dramatic farewell.

a fruity whiff

2010-05-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

To help me get all of my fruits and veggies in, I have bowls of snacks on my desk today. Thanks to the bowl of strawberries I keep getting a whiff of childhood. Somehow the combination of fresh strawberries and my office smells exactly like one of my plastic Strawberry Shortcake dolls. weirdy.

Hottie Body

2010-05-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

I am hosting a 12 week get healthy challenge. If you would like to join let me know! It is based on a point system and calculated on a spreadsheet I will email to all participants. It includes daily challenges such as: drink 64oz water, eat 5 servings fruits/veggies (note, this is five total, not five of each), and 30 minutes of exercise. There is also a weekly challenge that changes, things such as: no soda, 8 hours sleep, etc. There is a $10 entry fee, and at the end the person with the most points will win the money. The more participants that enter, the more winners we can give prizes to. Since the tracking is all done on the computer, anyone who lives anywhere can join. So tell your friends/family. This should be a great chance to get healthy. You can join the event on Facebook for more updates.

And here is my motivation, I want to wear one of these swimsuits to Puerto Rico in November. Not only do I want one, I also want to look great in one. Which do you think?

BOOMERANG! You DO always come back!

2010-04-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you care or have even seen the cast line up for The Last Airbender, but I am very very disappointed in Sokka.

Here we have a picture of the meat loving/boomerang throwing/sarcastic character.

And here is a picture of the guy they got to play him in the movie. I'm just not seeing it. (in case you hadn't noticed, Sokka is definitely not white). This guy has creepy vampire written all over him.

And here is who Dalan and I decided should be playing him in the movie. Not only does he look the part, he also can rock a mohawk.

Perplexion

2010-04-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

The scroll ball on my mouse has not worked for approximately 1 year. I have found tutorials online @ youtube such as this:

The only problem is, the tutorial moves way to fast, and I need to pause it so I can catch up. How am I supposed to pause it, when I've taken the apart the very tool to pause it with?

Oh, and also, I'm lazy. This is getting really really old. I guess I could just buy a new computer, one that comes with a Magic Mouse. Then there is no scroll ball involved, problem solved.

Stalled

2010-04-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

We are most assuredly creatures of habit. Today, when I went to my regular Student Center restroom there was someone in MY stall. This shouldn't be a big deal, but I actually rocked back and forth for an embarrassing amount of time before I decided my need for relief outweighed my need for consistency. I think I'll start to mix it up a bit. Tomorrow, I might even visit the upstairs bathroom, for something other than a good cry.

In just one sitting....

2010-04-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

I could eat an entire bag of Lay's Kettle Cooked Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper chips. Not only do they cost more than a regular bag, the bag is mucho smaller, and the amount of chips inside fills about 30% of the bag. I am actually somewhat grateful for this, eating a bag in one sitting is only about 1/3 as bad as it sounds.

Oh and ps, its still worth the extra money, despite the lack of chips.

The Stauffer Fam

2010-03-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

This post starts off with a shocker, I went to Enrichment meeting. If you know of my past experiences with Relief Society, you'll realize what a big step this was for me. One of the women who I used to work with in the Nursery was giving a lesson on family history, and she guilted me into coming.

I've actually been thinking about getting into family history for awhile. My friend Heidi is religious about it, and she has some great stories. Also the show "Who Do You Think You Are?" makes me laugh. I think its funny how big of a deal they make on what seems pretty mundane processes to us mormons. Anyway, Enrichment meeting. We learned about the new.familysearch.org website, and when I got home Dalan was (of course) working in the garage. I decided to poke around and see what I could find. My direct lineage chart was missing a major link, none of my Grandmother's information was listed, so the entire Stauffer line was unavailable.

One quick call to my dad, and I discovered that my Grandmother's parent's were Glenn Harold, and Irma Irene. Just locating that small piece of information linked an entire line to my family.
The Stauffer line now goes back further than any of my other family lines, all the way to 1530.

Its pretty crazy, I assumed that all of my family history was mostly done, but in just 20 minutes I was able to add some information that helped complete this information for all kinds of relatives I didn't even know I had.

S.O.S. (Save Our ..... Creative word that starts with an 'S')

2010-03-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

I need some serious help. My front room is somewhat of a disaster. (Please ignore my photography mess).

The paint job doesn't look too bad, from a distance. Now that Dalan and I have actually taken the time to deep-clean that room we've noticed everything wrong with it (including all of the lovely paint on the ceiling, apparently the previous owners did not feel like using tape, and also the 1/4" nails that are sticking out from the chair-rail). We are up for a change, any change.

Drapes are also a must.
This is the area directly across from the front room, it is in desperate need also, I don't know whether I should match it, or make it it's own space.

The awesome green of my couches. I would have had a wall color picked out long ago, I just can't seem to match these bad-boys.
I only have 2 conditions:

1. The green couches stay.

2. I REFUSE to paint the walls tan. I've seen way to many speck homes with tan walls, and I am SO BORED by them.

I would love to hear any suggestions!

Spring Cleaning

2010-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't started anywhere that matters, but I did do some serious damage to my desktop today. I wish I had taken a before picture, so you could really appreciate how squeaky clean this is. Just know, that there was not one spare space when I started. Not only did I get rid of all the clutter, I actually organized it into the appropriate folders. WOO! Now if I could only bring myself to start on the house :(

Crafternoon Prep

2010-03-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

My sewing machine and I bonded tonight. I was able to make a ruffle shirt. As always I decided to just wing it instead of follow the instructions, but I don't think it turned out too poorly.

I started out w/ 2 Tshirts (I got them @ Down East for $5). I cut the sleeves off one (I basically couldn't bring myself to cut up a perfectly good shirt, but the ruffles would have worked a lot better if I had used the back of the shirt instead of the sleeves).

I then cut 2" strips. I was planning on this shirt having 5 ruffles, but with 2" strips I was only able to fit 3.

Then I sewed one line down the center of each strip, using the longest stitch available. Pull 1 of the 2 threads tight and work towards the center of the strip.

My hubby borrowed the camera at this point, but I then pinned each strip to the shirt and sewed, going over the loose stitch with a regular one.

TaDa

Things I learned

The ruffles need to start out double as long as you want them in the end.

Be careful when using the reverse stitch, with the stretchy fabric the sewing machine can get stuck on one spot and cause holes etc.

This shirt looked a lot better on the tiny Asian chick in the tutorial.

This pattern isn't the best if you're busty.

....sigh

2010-03-08T17:24:00.000-08:00

I want to live here,

instead of here.

Scout's Ears

2010-03-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

Remember how I told you about Scout's "special" ears. Here is the proof. All of these pictures were taken in less than a minute, and I did not touch her once, they are this spastic on their own.

Its like a doggy mullet, business on the side a party on the .... other side?

"Did anyone see where I left my ear?"

This is the only time when her ears look almost proportioned.

Twinners

2010-03-04T17:09:00.001-08:00

I know its very likely that my love for my doggies is unhealthy, but look @ how stinkin cute they are. Scout (front left) had her first haircut today, and Tobey went along. I should have taken a before picture, they were both on the verge of hobo. I have now learned 2 things:

1. My dogs look creepy alike (especially when they are both staring at you and cock their head @ the same time), we are going to have to buy them different color collars from now on.

2. Scout's ears are freaking screwed up. We didn't get the docked like Tobey's because I didn't want to hurt her, so we assumed they would be normal floppy ears. Turns out her right ear is normal and floppy, and her left ear is pinched and folded to the side. It gives her a very "special" look, which is actually very fitting. She is definitely a very "special" girl, but we love her anyway.

ps if you click on the picture you can see the remnants of Scout's dinner. If you ever want to witness dog food carnage you should watch this puppy eat!

Anyone have sweet circus hookups?

2010-03-03T07:04:00.001-08:00

We took a trip with the Morrills to St. George this weekend. We went hiking in Snow Canyon (pretty pictures coming later), and once the weather turned nasty we ended up driving around looking for homes that we could never afford. In one such home we met this man This beauty was from a Deseret News article published in 1978. Don't worry, he still has the same beard. Apparently he was a magician with Ringley's 30 years ago. After meeting Jack Hart I've realized how mediocre my life is, this guy started in Cache Valley, joined the circus, was the advertiser for Ringley's, Disney on Ice, and Monster Truck Ralley. Now he spends his time showing million dollar homes that he sells with his 2 brothers. I have found my new life goal, first I just need to discover my hidden juggling/tight-rope walking/contortionist skills and away we go.

Dinnertime

2010-02-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

So, I'm a failure as a wife. I can't bring myself to make dinner. The very few times I actually make any effort at all we have pastaroni. I bought a big a** crockpot (over a year ago) to help with this situation. And I finally decided to take it out of the box. My mom was a sweetie and gave me a bunch of crockpot recipes for Christmas, but my picky husband will only agree to try 15 of the 75 (what a stinker). Anyone have any great recipes they are dying to share?

I need some opinions

2010-02-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

So, the other day I went to IKEA to buy some prints to hang on my office wall. there were a few there I liked, but after looking @ them I realized that it would probably make more sense to hang my own photography on the wall of my work-station. Which photo do you like best?

I really wanted to go for a black and white theme, but I just love the greens and purples on the barrel cacti.

The Disneyland Post, Finally!

2010-01-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

Well, over a month later I finally decided to post the pictures from our trip to Disneyland. It was SO much fun! We will definitely only go in December from now on. There were hardly any lines, and it just got crowded in the evening for fireworks.

We couldn't find Dalan any Lightning Mcqueen sunglasses, he was somewhat consoled by these ears, and the news of Disneyland opening a new land called Radiator Springs, Dalan is now trying to get a job there so he can run the piping for Lightning McQueen.

It was decorated so cute. It was all decked out for Christmas and they thought of every little detail.

Since last time we went Splash Mountain was shut down, we had to give it a go. Even though it was December and we were soaked, it was totally worth it.
The haunted mansion was decorated after the Nightmare Before Christmas, it was awesome! I couldn't believe how much work they must have put into it.
One of the best parts of Disneyland, pineapple whip from the Tiki Hut. Mmmmmm!
Now I can't wait for our trip next year, we are totally going to wear sweaters even better than Goofy's.

We found the entrance! Don't worry I'm not drunk from going inside, just drunk from envy.

Toystory Mania is the best ride ever!

Dalan inspected Mickey's house. The water heater wasn't quite up to code, but he looked the other way considering it was Mickey.

Disney made it snow every night (I think with bubbles). Can't you see it behind us? Me neither, but trust me it was there.
Pretty Castle!
Dalan warming up for the run to Toy Story Mania, we had to beat all of those seven year olds.
Only a five minute wait, guess the warming up helped.
This is us, sad that the magic of Pirates was ruined. We got stuck for 45 minutes, and then they turned on the lights in the "sky." Jeff the workman had to get in the water and push our boat back to a point where we could evacuate.

We had so much fun! If anyone wants to join us next year we're game. Or maybe even a trip to DisneyWorld.

The Stalker

2010-01-18T19:50:00.001-08:00

That would be me, I'm creeping your blog late at night, and you have no idea about it. I don't dare leave a comment, because that would give me away. I usually type the URL directly, so feedjit will not give me away. Not only do I creep your blog, I am also slightly offended by the low amount of posts. While I may go 3 months in-between, that is no excuse for your once-a-week attempts. So please think of something interesting to write, I'm sitting here in my jammies, with my bowl of generic, spiral, mac n' cheese just waiting to read about your equally enthralling life.

This time, I'm serious.

2009-11-06T14:11:00.000-08:00

So I am totally going to buy these shoes this weekend. I know I've been talking about it for months, but its a pretty big commitment ;). I want this brand because they are apparently the comfiest shoes ever. I need a pair I can wear to work, that still look semi-professional. Please help me pick! I've narrowed it down to 3, but I just can't decide!