a post for a gloomy day

Since today is so drab and gloomy in Logan, I am posting about COLORS- gotta love 'em.

This weekend I went to the Festival of Colors with the Gordon's while Jake spent ALL day helping his mom with an 8 minute video (anyone else think that's kind of funny?)
It was my first time at the festival of colors, but it was great. I didn't take my camera because I knew I could depend on Ash for some great pics, but here are the pics from afterward before showering and cleaning up. It was a lot of fun and wish Jake had been there with me.

Just kidding, we cleared off all of our pictures in preparation for the Bahamas and I can't seem to find the ones from my camera, so here are some of Ashley's (from Facebook- Ash, hope you don't mind!)

here are the dancers- there was a celebration before they burned the evil witch and threw the colors.

No, I didn't go to Woodstock, but it was so neat to learn more about this Hindu celebration. Apparently this one in Spanish Fork Utah was the most attended in North America. 

We love the Gordons

 I love my curly hair. (Yes Mom, I bet you never though you would hear me say it, but I love it!)

Ashley and I- thanks for letting me tag along guys!!

Oh and I did find another picture that will bring more color to this drab day:

we died Easter eggs last night. We obviously need to work on our skills in this area, but it was a fun activity for Family Home Evening. 

I hope you have found some color in your day in spite of the gray outside. 

kindle giveaway

I love my kindle. Especially now, when we are getting ready for a week long trip. I know I just have to bring my kindle instead of carefully selecting the book I want to take and then not knowing if I should take more in case I finish it, etc. I just take my kindle and I have all the books I need.

Anyway, Pionner woman is doing a kindle giveaway today. I think you have to enter by midnight so head on over.

Boutique!!!

hey everyone, there is a boutique coming up on Saturday, April 10th. We will have some jewelry at it and there will be other vendors too.


It is at the Pioneer Hall, 1137 W. 7800 S. West Jordan (close to Gardner Village) from 11-5.

For more information, visit the blog.

I would love to see you there!

the magic of books

During the month of March I have accomplished little.  I have most likely cooked dinner half of the time and have worked every day (except during our spring break adventure), but can not tell you anything I have accomplished after work besides doing the laundry every week and reading. 

I want to get back into making more crafts, doing more things for others, but this month I have been lazy. After work and going to the gym (I have to pray for the motivation some days) I read. I love reading. Books have such a magic to them. They capture you and take you away to an enchanted island, a pioneer trail, a poor ghetto, a magical world..... And I love them. 

I am currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I put it on hold at the library forever ago and my number on the list came up. I am only 150 pages in and it is interesting. But one thing I know for sure is that I totally understand the attraction the little girl has to books... they are so mesmerizing. 

Anyway , I am promising myself that I will be more productive in April. Hopefully the long plane ride to the Bahamas and back and sitting on the beach there will get in all the reading that I need for now. Then I can go back to reading only 30 minutes- 1 hour a day and actually do other things with my time. 

What have you done this month? 

depressing and inspiring

First, the depressing part. We had to have the transmission in our SUV rebuilt. It didn't go out on us or anything, we just noticed it shifting weird so we took it in and we needed it to be rebuilt. The initial estimate wasn't too bad, so we decided to go for it. Then the next day the estimate doubled because there were more pieces that needed to be replaced. So, after it being in the shop for a week and a half, we got it back to day, and $4000 later we have our car again. I guess the upside is that it runs like a gem. And I realized how much I love this car.
On a more positive note, I really like this blog post that I read recently. I have been struggling for the last few months feeling like my branches are bare and my bucket is empty. But I am thankful for God's love and inspiration that always shows us, at least in small ways that He is mindful of us.

"Because somewhere in your bare branches, He is writing His love to you."

i love ruffles

i love ruffles. Have I mentioned that before? :) I know they are in style right now, but I have always loved a ruffle on a classy white blouse, on a beautiful skirt, etc. And right now I love them on everything!
Speaking of ruffles, I recently found this cute blog that I enjoy reading. They are having a contest right now and since I know that you are all very creative, I wanted to put it out there in case any of you want to enter. The prize is big and great and since I am fresh out of ideas of something to make (and know I would not win anyway) I figured I should pass it on in case one of you wanted to.
And, by the way, she is doing a giveaway on her blog now, so head on over to enter.

spring break

We are sad to see Jake's spring break end, but we had a wonderful time. We spent as much time as we could playing.
Monday -Wednesday we were at Sarah's uncle's cabin near Bryce Canyon, UT.  We enjoyed the time away from all other civilization and relaxed, went on some hikes, played games and watched movies.  It was hard to come back to work and real life, but here we are.

You can see the cabin in the background. 

There was a fun swing that we hiked to.

And the girls even won some of the games! 

(Actually the majority of them)

The rest of the week we spent hanging out, watching movies and enjoying each other's company. We went to see Bounty Hunter last night and had some fun laughs through it. Then today we went shopping! I think we are all ready for the Bahamas in 2 weeks.  Now it's just a matter of being motivated for work and school for the next few weeks :) Hope you all had a great week! 

more recipes

Here's some more recipes that we recently tried that we enjoyed.  Have a great week everyone!

Ravioli with Apples and Walnuts from Real Simple

These potatoes.

I don't really know why I am posting about recipes when all I am looking forward to right now is a the next 3 days with a break from work. Oh well. Try them sometime, they are very good.

spring break

Today the end of classes marks spring break for Jake. We are excited for the break, and love the warmer weather that we have been getting.  But the most exciting part about spring break is that I get a break too! After work today I get to put on my out of office email and not log back in until Thursday next week. I love doing that.

The Gedges have been kind enough to invite us to go to a cabin with them near Bryce Canyon, 4 hours south of here and we can't wait!!! It will be so fun. They are such great friends and have been so kind to us. We can't wait to just relax and enjoy!

recipes

In the last 2 weeks Jake and I have tried several new recipes.  I just realized that the majority of them come from The Pioneer woman.  I really don't know why- maybe because we have been on their more and Jake even went there too so we could try to win a kindle for him.  But anyway, here are some of the recipes we tried that we recommend.
1. tres leches cake is my very favorite cake ever.  I was feeling brave one day and decided to try it, AND it is the first time ever that I have tried to do a layered cake. While not perfect, it turned out great and I was proud of myself. See the pictures below

2. Cinnamon bun pancakes.  We enjoyed this and will be hanging onto this recipe
3. bacon and mushroom pasta. I love sauteed mushrooms. They are so good. And eating mushrooms takes me back to Kennett Square, a town I lived in for 6 months of my mission where we worked with so many wonderful Mexicans who worked in the "hongo" factories.
we also tried Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, but for some reason they didn't turn out all that amazing to me.

a new start

This weekend Jake got a new desk. It wasn't something we were planning on doing, but he has been wanting an "L" shaped one for a while and since we recently got our taxes back and it wasn't too expensive, we got it.  Mostly I just wanted him to be happy since he is nice so often and lets me get a little thing here and there that I like. That usually adds up to his big things, so he definitely deserved the new desk.
I was worried about how we were going to rearrange our extra bedroom in this apartment. While it's not a super small apartment, it is only 2 bedrooms and both of us work from home so we both have a desk in the extra room.  But, it turned out great. We ended up getting rid of the shelf that goes on top of my desk to make more room and we switched locations too.

Here's my lovely desk. Yes, it is still messy and a bit crowded with 2 computers and a monitor, but it's great. (remember it's our first apartment. or, to quote one of my favorite movies)

"well, we dream on a budget here"

and the three best things about the new desk (after my husband being happy) are....(drumroll please)

1. hopefully he will actually use it and keep it organized with all the space he has. 

2.  I now have some more wall space! wait, you can't see it very well there. 

here you go:

do you see all that wall space? There's a good 4 feet there! (I bet you are about as excited as Jake was when I told him that) but, alas maybe my last 2 paintings that I have will have a home

 (as soon as they get a frame, which will probably be a while)

and.... the 3rd great thing about Jake's new desk is.........

My sewing machine gets his old one!!  I now have a very small corner that is my craft space. And it's spot for my sewing machine to sit so I don't have to get it out and put it on the kitchen counter when I have a project. Maybe now that it will be out I will use it more. 

At least it makes me want to use it now. The empty table has been calling to me all day to have something on it. And my sewing machine is the one thing that's shouting the loudest, "pick me, pick me!" 

As soon as I am done with work....

Tagged

I got tagged in a fun photo tag by Hannah (great picture by the way) and a great idea for having something to post when I don't have much to say :)


Here are the rules:
1. Open your 1st Photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people.

My folders are by date, and this is the oldest folder, so it's the first. It is a folder of old pictures that my brother scanned in and I got from his computer at Christmas. This picture is of my grandmother when she was a child and is so cute. I recently framed this picture and put it on my wall because I love it so much.  It is one of those perfect vintage pictures that will always be awesome. 

Ready? Tag, you're it: 1. Stephanie  2. Brent and Christa 3. Jennifer 4. Emily 5. Audra and any one else who wants to do it! 

And, in case you were wondering... my mouth is still hurting from Wednesday. I don't think that's normal. I still can't chew or even lay on that side, but hopefully healing will come soon. Hope you all had a wonderful sabbath. 

open wide

Today I have been a little bummed all day, and I just now realized why. I have a dentist appointment this afternoon. I guess you could say I have the dentist blues.
Going to the dentist is one of my least favorite things to do, which is funny considering the fact that when I first met Jake, he told me he wanted to be a dentist.  He has now changed his mind, although I still think it might be nice to get free dental care one day, and my mom thinks we need a dentist in the family :)
But anyway, the worst part of it all is that the current dental care I need is expensive dental care. Today I am getting a crown. I also need a tooth implant!! At (almost 27) years old! Anyway, that dental care will come when I make sure I can afford it and that I am not over my insurance maximum amount for the year. At least after today I can chew on my right side until I can afford to fix the left (instead of chewing carefully on either side now)
Ha! I bet you've never had the dental blues :)

disclaimer: the author of this post is very well aware of the fact that her blog is no longer (and maybe never was) interesting, enlightening, or well written.  She is however, deciding between leaving the blogging world behind for a bit or continuing to write nonsense posts.

bahamas

We will be in the Bahamas with Jake's family next month. So in honor of that, I bought myself flowers yesterday. They make me happy and are too pretty to just get a few times a year. So, i went to a flower shop and picked out the ones I wanted- a beautiful, big hydrangea stem and 3 ranunculus flowers in bright colors (I temporarily forgot the name and looked like an idiot at the shop when I kept calling them 
rhododendron) but, in spite of my spaciness (which seems to have happened much more lately now that I am out of school), I needed to see some bright colors. I am so sick of the blah, no sun, cold weather and am so ready for the sunny, bright colors of spring. And I can't wait to see the colors in the Bahamas.
So, if you're having one of those days, go buy yourself some flowers. It's just what the doctor ordered. :)