Sunday update

I missed my Sunday update yesterday, but I had good reasons. After a great weekend, I was exhausted and in bed by 8pm. Nice.
This week I made dinner most nights. I am trying to eat healthier so Jake is left in the dust some nights if he doesn't want what I am having, but it's ok. I exercised every day Monday-Friday and the dishes were done most nights. Friday after Jake made cookies it sat in the sink, and I am embarrassed to say, they are still there now.

I felt so good on friday after exercising every day- the only bad part was today when I tried to start the week again. After taking 2 days off, I was feeling it today. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle but hopefully that will be good enough for tomorrow.

Saturday we served in the temple, I started painting some baskets to get some small projects off of my list. Then at 5:45 we were talking to my parents who were in Idaho Falls visiting my grandmother (she moved from California to there and is now in a nursing home). And spontaneously we decided to drive up there an meet them and hang out with family. We had a wonderful time and got back on Sunday at 5pm.

It was so fun to see my grandma, aunts and uncles and cousins. I love connecting with them again now that I am grown up. With the family dynamics, many of my cousins are closer in age to my parents then to me but it is fun to talk to them and interact with them.

Here's to a great week. Mine started out a little rocky, but I am confident it will get better.

this week

this week
I've been working on eating healthier
I exercised every day Monday through Friday!
I've been able to enjoy good conversations with friends
I had a fun craft night and now have this project sitting on my table for me to finish

I finally started organizing my craft room
Had some disappointments but also some great times with my wonderful husband
I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for being at the temple at 4am Saturday.

What have you been up to?

wordless wednesday

amazon

I love amazon. Friday night I started going through our house and listing anything on Amazon that we don't need (especially since being unemployed we need dinero).  I listed all of the books that we don't necessarily want, books from school, etc. Since then I've sold 5. Going to the post office now to get them sent out....
Thank goodness for extra cash.

Brian Regan

We went to see Brian Regan on Saturday and it had a wonderful time. Laughter is great medicine.

We laughed the entire time. I think my favorite part was when he talked about tennis. This isn't great quality, but here's a video.



He has some great classics, and it was fun to hear newer things also.
Here's one of my all time favorites (starting at around minute 5 is what I love most- "You know Kevin?"


This guy introduced Brian Regan and was great too. I would definitely go again.

January goals-weekly update

Both of my sisters do a great job of reporting on their blog every week as a way to stay accountable with their goals. I think it would help me also so I'm going to try to do it.
Since I didn't do a very good job of being consistent with my goals last year, I'm keeping it simple this year and focusing on 2 goals, maybe 3 each month.  Hopefully once I do those 2 things for a whole month, it will become permanent.

at Brian Regan

January's goals: cooking dinner, exercising and if possible, doing the dishes each night before bed.
So far I've been doing ok, but not perfect. This week I cooked 5 out of 7 nights. Last night we were on our way back from Salt Lake after seeing Brian Regan so we grabbed some food on the way back.
Thursday night while I was at aerobics I asked Jake to start dinner but he got pizza instead. So, not too bad for this week. Exercise wasn't the best, I did it a few days this week- Tuesday- Thursday. The aerobics class I went to Thursday night kicked my butt so bad that I was so sore I couldn't work out Friday and Saturday. Today I can walk down the stairs without being in pain :).
Dishes were done every night except 1, which is great. It is such a pain to go to the sink the next day and realize there are still dishes.

The weather has been rainy this week; Saturday it turned to snow. It was so much slush, but it sure made the temple and the assembly hall look so pretty. This week went by quickly- as has every week since I stopped working.  I've been able to help Jake in his office and have been avoiding having multiple melt downs a day by trying to stay busy.
Wednesdays nights I am taking a basic Photoshop class and it has been fun to learn a few tools so far. Saturday was our last week of having the day off from the temple for the next six months. It opens again this week and will be open until it closes again in July. Jake and I got an assignment as assistant group coordinators, which means we will be going to bed even earlier on Friday nights. We will need to be to the temple earlier on Saturdays to make sure the lights are all turned on, etc and will be there until everyone on our group is gone. I love being in the temple, I'm just hoping I can have the energy- I think I now know why people buy bulk packages of 5 hour energy at SAM's club :)

Jake's birthday

One day I will be a good wife and wake up earlier to make breakfast in bed for Jake. 

He wanted me to get him Chick-fil-a so I did. 

 we had family over for dinner and cake. We played games and had a fun time. 

 I made this cake.  It definitely didn't turn out as pretty as Bakerella's but it was sooo good. Seriously one of the best cakes I have had in a long time. 

I bought Jake a remote control helicopter and it was the perfect gift- he's been enjoying it every day since. It's fun to see the inner boy come out.

popcorn

I do really good at staying caught up on here and then I skip a week. Anyway, last night I made some amazing popcorn because we had some friends over and because it was national popcorn day.

Here's the recipe:
8 cups plain popcorn (we use air-popped popcorn)
Fine salt
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
1 1/2 cups Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

directions:

1. Place the popped popcorn in a large bowl and salt to taste. Set aside.

2. Mix the honey and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir vigorously until all the peanut butter is melted, then mix in the vanilla extract.

3. Immediately pour the peanut butter caramel over the popcorn and gently stir with a long-handled wooden spoon until it's all coated. Spread popcorn on a large baking sheet. Drizzle popcorn with melted chocolate and let sit until chocolate hardens. Stir in the Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

We used air-popped popcorn, but you can use microwave popcorn or stovetop popcorn. If you can't find Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, you can chop up regular Peanut Butter Cups.

so yummy!!

wordless wednesday

January 12of12

1. working at the insurance office 2. my wee office plant trying to stay alive. 3. I love working with Jake
4. Package on the porch! 5. using Siri.  6. current audio book  7. cooking dinner 8. new toy (package opened)  9. trying out letterpress 10. coupons 11. my new phone- I sold my Ipad to get the $. 12. table I'm in love with at Down East.

happy 26th

It's this wonderful man's birthday today.

I'm so grateful for him. For his strength, his courage, his faith, his optimism, his love and so much more. 

He makes me smile and also tells me when I need to calm down. He balances me out and I am so grateful to have an eternal family with him one day. 

Happy birthday, mi amor. I hope it's a great one and that my stress over trying to make it perfect doesn't ruin it. :)

wordless wednesday

projects, projects, projects

I have so many things to do in my life. While they aren't all important, some of them are- like getting a night stand for my husband so his precious ipad isn't always on the floor for someone to step on, etc.  I'll be posting them as I finish, but just wanted to let you know that a lot of my recent projects can be seen at Sisterview.com.

unemployed

Well, yesterday was my last day of work. So far I haven't found anything in Logan yet. I am still applying, but it just takes a lot of time.  Unfortunately with my degree in Spanish and my work experience, I don't have a specific career path or anything. I am mostly looking for office manager or project manager type work.
In the meantime I will help Jake in his insurance office. It is so fun to be around my husband so often.  And I want to see his business succeed so it will be good to work there and feel like I am working towards something that will help us, not just some huge company who really doesn't care whether you are there or not.
I am trying so hard to be frugal and to simplify.  I think I need to just never go online and never look at catalogs or stores and I'll be good. Yeah, probably not going to happen. But I am working on it. I just made the mistake of opening my west elm catalog last night to see this:

Maybe if I scrimp and save I can buy it in a few months. Oh and my duvet cover that I have been saving for is on sale too. I just hope I can get it before it's gone, especially because I didn't ever get this rug in time that I dreamed about. 

Does this sound so trivial? I know it is. It's just so much easier to focus on this than the big things.  I'm a professional at pushing things out of my mind and ignoring them. Honestly, I don't even feel like it's something I can control. (I've often wondered if it is a cause of this experience, but I'm not sure).

But, it never hurts to look at beautiful things because they make me happy. :)

friday quote day

A great reminder for us, especially as we set new goals for the year:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. 

2011 quote book

Remember this post?   Well, I did my 2011 quote book and thought you might want to see it. I uploaded the photos to a picasa album here .

I think I will be doing the same thing for 2012 too. The poem Do Not Go Gentle is great.  It was also quoted in a recent book that I read and really liked called Matched.

And in 2012 I am going to simplify my life and use my time wisely. I am going to limit my goals to 1 or 2 small things each month so that I can accomplish them.

wordless wednesday

Happy New year!

We had a party for New Year's and it was great.  We played games, chatted and had yummy snacks.  It was fun to be with wonderful people and ring in the new year.

The theme for the party was gold and silver and thanks to some wonderful people, it came together just in time.

We played the kinect along with guesstures, killer bunnies and five crowns.  I made this and this and this for the party. I didn't have a ton of time to do all the things I wanted, but we did end up hanging balloons  from this inspiration pic.

I made this as a favor, along with some popcorn for the guests to take home. And, of course new year's isn't complete without some sparklers.
Thank you to everyone who came and made it a great evening.

Happy New Year!

finishing up December

We had a wonderful Christmas. We went down to Riverton on Christmas eve to have dinner with the family and stayed at my in-laws that night. Christmas day we went to church, had a yummy breakfast, opened presents and enjoyed time together.
It was also really nice to get together with some of my family members on Christmas evening.  We played games and chatted and had a wonderful time. Brent and Christa and their family were in town from Mississippi so it was fun to be able to see them along with my local siblings.  I am so grateful for family relationships.
Here are the only pictures I have from Christmas day:

The day after Christmas I drove to California with Ashley and her cute son Gideon.  We visited the beach and were able to hang out with some amazing friends. I forgot to charge my camera battery before the trip and failed to bring the charger so I didn't get too many pictures.

But, I did get to visit this beautiful place:

with these amazing people:

We also went to the San Diego Zoo (courtesy of Wendy) and had a blast. here are the pictures I took with my phone while there:

It was a wonderful break. Tomorrow it's back to work for me for the last week of my job. After that I am unemployed.