The L.A. Times

Happy Birthday Sistah!

2011-06-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to the best big sis!!

The poor thing is sick due to pregnancy, so I'm thinkin this might be the worst birthday she's ever had - SO here's a little highlight for your day, hopefully it will make you feel better for a second!
REASONS WHY SHE'S FOR REALS GREAT:

1. She's UNBELIEVABLY creative.
2 If I ever have a question about how something looks or if I know something needs some tweaking, she's the first person I call
3 She's almost always down for some new project or crafty thing.
4 She's an incredibly talented photographer
5 She was a great missionary
6 She's kind to those less fortunate
7 She's a great driver
8 She's great about sharing - ideas, clothes, boots (even though i kept them for 2 years), etc...
9 She's so thoughtful
10 When it comes to family, she makes sure they come first before anything else
11 She's got that hot-headed mother bear in her. Don't mess with people she loves
12 She's thankful for all her blessings in life
13 She's SO good to my puppy/child

14 She took care of my house and responsibilities while i was in Europe
15 She's always willing to help me when i'm in a crunch
16 did you know she's Martha Stewart in the kitchen?
17 Last year when a kid sliced part of his finger off at our shave ice stand, I was out of town and she totally handled it. I was so grateful for that
18 Because I wanted to be her when i was a kid. I think that was a pretty good thing to try and model myself after.
19 She's got a GREAT conscience

20 She bought Zoe toys just because she loves her
21 She is the one in our family that makes us DIE laughing when we get together
22 She's always the person to get people together
23 She's ALWAYS down to play games
24 she's a great sounding board

25 She's such a positive support in any thing anyone close to her is ever doing.
26 She's naturally beautiful
27 she's just overall a wonderful, reliable person and sister!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOTTERHEAD!

Isn't she loooovelyyyyyy

2011-05-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

Isn't she wonderfullllllllll

Yep, that's right folks!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my AGELESS MOM! I hope that when I'm in my 40's I still look as slammin' as her. Tell me she doesn't still look the EXACT SAME now as she did when she was just a tiny little tot - In these pictures I think she's around Celeste's age.

Happy Birthday to one of the most creative, fun-lovin people I know. Love ya Mom!

Just a Heads Up.

2011-05-31T08:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Potential Employee,

Please pay attention to the following.

I don't mean to judge you; however, as an employer, I have no choice but to do so. I receive hundreds of emails a day inquiring about the positions I have posted on Craig's List and KSL. I have to have a method to sift through these applicants in order to find the best person suited for the job. Yes, my methods are highly flawed, but they work for me, and I can promise you that I am not the only employer who does the exact same things.

When you are applying for a job via email, please make sure your email address isn't "hotpantz228", "numba1balla", "jessieluvztheladiez" etc... (yes these were real addresses). I will not take you seriously. I might skim over your cover email, and if something jumps out immediately to me, then I won't delete your resume. If not, your email will find its self in the trash can.

Please know that I WILL look you up. I will look for you on Facebook first. If I am not satisfied there, I will find you on MySpace, Twitter, etc. This method may sound creepy, but it's a very helpful one. Your social network pages tell me more about you than you might in your interview, when you're trying to impress me. That being said, either block your social network pages so I can't see what you're REALLY like, or clean up your pages so you seem like a presentable human being.

If I Google your name and a mug shot of you is the first hit and a KSL news story about you and your arrest is the next hit, I will research you a little more.

In my Craig's List ad, I asked you to write a short cover letter with your resume attached. When I said short, that didn't mean your name only written in the subject line. When I said short, I didn't mean "please write one sentence"...For example, this is not okay, "The reason that I what to work for you because I what to give people an opportunity to try food from Belgian." Like I said, a one-liner won't cut it. Also, please make sure you know what you're talking about before you write something (it's BelgiuM). And PROOF READ!!!

Also, please keep your email simple. If you over step your vocabulary abilities, it will not work out well for you. For example: "I am a good fit for you as of I have good customer service skills, very flexible with my time, I like keeping things organized seeing as no one is confused and know how things are going on in the work when things are organzied, As well as I am a hard worker and like making others satisfied with my out going personality. Please e mail me back with when we can re arrange an interview of some kind."

So, if you DO make it past my initial email screening phase, pat yourself on the back. You have utilized your spell check function and have a respectable email address.

When you come to your interview, I WILL (subconsciously) judge you. First impressions in a job interview are all I have to go off of. Please don't smoke a cigarette right before you meet with me. Also don't over-perfume yourself. It tells me that you don't bathe OR that you will always over-smell and that all of us will have to endure that when we work with you. If your shirt has stains or holes in it, that tells me you aren't clean and that you don't understand that a clean appearance is important in the restaurant industry. Please don't dress similarly to Lady Gaga either. That won't help your chances. Please don't wear high, high, HIGH hot pink pumps, skin tight jeans and a extremely low-cut shirt. Please don't slump in your chair, wear sunglasses, or check a text message during our interview. Please don't ask if the pay will increase, if you can go ahead and have the first 2 weeks of work off, or ask about what happens when you're "sick" and you actually do the air quotations when you say sick.

If you can manage to not do all of those things, I'd say you have a pretty great chance of getting the job.

If you can NOT manage some of these, please find a different employer.

Sincerely,

Ashley
(Your potential employer who has interviewed one too many ridiculous applicants and now has to be the most judgmental person in the entire world when I look at your email application. Thanks a lot!)

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother’s Day!

Since I can’t be with my mom on Mother’s Day - I decided I didn’t want to send her a gift... But it’s because one of the reasons why I give gifts is to ACTUALLY, physically give it to them, to be able explain to them why I chose it. So my gift to my mom is a blog post! I can think of a million things to buy my mom, she’s actually pretty easy to buy for if you know her (which makes her pretty fun to gift-shop for), but I figured this would be the best thing to do this year.

I really hope that when I am a mom I end up having the wonderful qualities she has..

Mom is thoughtful.

My Mom has always made every Christmas memorable. I remember opening my gifts and never feeling let down. She puts a lot of thought into every thing she buys, thinking about our personalities... Even when she would buy me and Heather the same thing, she’d choose the color or pattern or model that she knew would match our personalities best. That can’t be easy, to buy gifts for her children and to be spot on with every single thing.

Any time Mom has a surplus of something, or retires a purse she knows that I would love, or giving me retired dishes (!) she always tries to make sure she gives it to me. As a single college student I didn’t exactly find a lot of gratitude in this gesture, but as a poor married gal I LIVE for this kind of thing. I think it shows a lot about her thoughtful personality to give me these lovely things, especially because I hardly ever ask her for it.

Birthdays were always so fun. Mom has made sure that we had a good, celebrated, wonderful full day where we felt special and very loved.

Aside from holidays, gifts and celebrations, Mom is a very thoughtful person with those around her. In high school, I often had large groups of friends over at our house after school. Because it was important to me, Mom always made sure to stay downstairs, talking to my friends, making them feel welcome in our home, cooking them Tombstone pizzas and cookies. This is something I’ve always thought was really great, and is a quality I want to implement as a mother. I want my children to WANT to be home, I want my children’s friends to love being in our house, to feel like family. That’s something else that my mom did. My best friends feel like my mom is like THEIR mom. She was always warm and loving to them, and still very much cares about them. Still, to this day, I have friends who talk about mom’s kindness, sense of humor, and warmth she provided them with. Thanks, Mom. That has always meant so much to me.

Mom is fair.

Anything mom has ever done for one kid is always done for the other. She never wants to make any of us feel left out or favored. To me, this is a pretty cool attribute. I’m sure sometimes it is a difficult thing to balance, making sure we all feel equal, and it truly has never gone unnoticed for me. I want to make sure my kids always feel equally loved the way you have.

Mom is has standards.

When I was a teenager I may not have appreciated this aspect as much, but I have full confidence that a lot of my embedded truths, morals, and standards have been driven and taught by her - and I am so grateful for them. Thank you for even planting the idea that righteous PRINCIPLES are essential in life.

Mom likes pretty things.

I used to fight the frill, the floral and the color, but I love it now. Because of Mom, I can decorate a table, I can cater a party, I can make vintage christmas ornaments. Mom is always up for crafting, learning a new creative skill, and then teaching everyone how to do it. We’ve done a lot of crafting projects together - a quilt or two, hair pins, ornaments....she’s encouraged my (unhealthy?) obsession with glitter. I love crafting with my mom - she’s full of great ideas. Seriously. ALSO, Mom has always been someone I can do girly things with. She’s always up for a pedicure or helping me figure out how to get tan (spray on tan anyone?), she’s always got amazing face cream or ultra moisturizing lotion, and she always smells good. I know if I ever have smelly breath or need a freshening-up, mom’s for SURE got atleast a travel-size something in her purse...because of Mom, my sense of smell has been heightened (which is a double-edged sword...bad smells are my arch-nemeses). Mom is always up for a good shopping trip too, which I love, even if I leave with out buying anything.

Over all, I give a lot of my positive qualities to her. I LOVE love, and I know I get that from her. I love talking and listening to people, and truly caring about them, and ANYONE who knows mom even a LITTLE can very much vouch for this fact about her. She is the ultimate friend - she will stay and listen to you until you can’t talk any more. I think everyone could use a friend like her. I like to curl my hair and look cute when I leave the house, and y’all know Mom isn’t going ANYWHERE with out looking great.

Thanks Mom, for teaching me a lot of things I hold dear to me....and these things are only skimming the surface of things I’m starting to learn about myself that are totally connected to you. Thanks for always being such a great example, for being a mom, for being vulnerable and strong at the same time. For being stronger from the trials you have been through, for not letting negative experiences define who you are. For being a convert to the church who loves the gospel more than anything, and for being a wonderful member of the church. I am positive you have touched more lives than you are aware of.

Happy Mother’s day mom!
Love you!

(The following post is from Lance. Most of you know that he's not one for words, so his little letter is actually a LOT coming from him. Enjoy)

Kim,
U are funny and a loud texan, and that’s why we love you so much. Never a dull moment with you. You have raised 4 of the most opinionated people on the planet, and I hope someday we have many grandchildren you can continue to influence. You cook well-especially that delicious oreo ice cream cake - yum, you are beautiful, and (even though I dont want to admit it) you really do have great taste in decorating. I hope when ashley is your age she looks as great as you. With your higher level of spirituality you have been a great example to us, and i appreciate your presence in our lives. You're a great person and i'm so glad that YOU are my motherinlaw. Thank you for everything. Love you KIMMMMM
lance

YUM

2011-05-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

Okay.

My new, annoyingly addictive, favorite website is Pinterest.com - a community where creative people come together and easily share pictures of anything ranging from party ideas to home decor to style...everything you can think of. I love it because it's a great place for me to save ideas in an organized way as opposed to sending an email to myself and hoping I remember about it.

Last night i came across a picture of these egg, sausage and broccoli "biscuits", and i was starving, so i looked up such a recipe.

With a few adjustments to the original ingredients, it actually turned out to be quite amazing! These little guys would be yummy for breakfast OR dinner... and, turns out they work well as left overs the next day (just pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds).

SO here are pictures as well as the recipe. It's so quick and easy, I don't know why you wouldn't try it!

Recipe for Broccoli and Italian Sausage Egg Muffins

1 pound Italian Sausage (sweet, mild, hot variety depending on your preference-I used Jimmy Dean HOT because we LOOOOVE spicy spicy SPICY foods)
1 cup cooked broccoli florets
8 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese as needed - (I used mozzarella because that's what I had on hand and it worked out quite well).
**My personal addition** - I diced up a handful of previously sliced jalapenos to add another layer of spiciness.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Sausage for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is no longer pink. Remove from heat and stir in previously cooked broccoli.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder. Season with salt and pepper.
**if you opt to use jalapenos, whisk those into the egg mixture.
4. Use non-cook spray on your 12-cupcake sheet pan.
5. Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake section.
6. Ladle the egg mixture over the sausage and broccoli.
7. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (in my case, the mozzarella)
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Europe.

2011-03-22T08:41:00.001-07:00

What Living in Belgium/Europe Has Taught Me:

1. I love America.

Since I am a Texan, I’ve always understood and maintained fierce loyalty and love for my country and state. Living in Europe, however, has helped my love for America to grow and flourish. I never really, truly understood how wonderful my country is. I knew the facts: we are a free country-that is a good thing. I have rights as an American citizen-that’s just the way of life. There are laws and rules – I’ve always seen most of these as hindering…and many others.

Living in Belgium has helped me UNDERSTAND these things. We are a free country with a running, functioning government (even though there are elements that are corrupt and unjust, it still is functioning and is doing its job better than most other places). The way our government is set up allows us to grow, prosper, and – for lack of better words- to live the American Dream. I understand that concept on a deeper level now, and am grateful that the opportunity exists. Belgium currently doesn’t have a government established, and when a government HAS been established, it quickly is overthrown. I love the stability the American government provides, and that there is a system that is generally respected by its citizens. I am so grateful for my rights. My gratitude starts with the smallest thing like the Texas anti-littering campaign, “Don’t Mess With Texas”. I love that in the places I have lived in the states, having clean streets is a priority, and that people even volunteer to do their part in picking up roadside trash. Belgium is so dirty!! They don’t even have a public trashcan system, so there are almost always bags of trash bags lining the street (side note: we find this pretty amusing, because Belgium has recycling centers like every few city blocks where you can go and deposit your recycling. You also get fined if you don’t recycle properly…it just feels like their priorities are a little backward!)

2. I love being LDS.
I have always loved being a Mormon. I’ve always appreciated the lifestyle and the fact that we have certain lifestyle standards that we live by. I love that literally across the world we are being taught the same principles and even the same lessons that are being taught at any other time in any other meeting house. Living here has sharpened my love for the fact that I am LDS. Going to church every Sunday was like going home. I went to church in multiple countries and cities, and in each place, I felt the same spirit—the same feeling of warmth that is given out back at home. I love that I know that the gospel is true and that I have the opportunity to live it every day.

3. I love driving.
I’ve always had this romanticized idea of how cool Europeans are because a lot of them live in cities where you can walk everywhere. While I still appreciate this concept, I have to admit that I MISS HAVING A CAR! I like that I was forced to walk everywhere, and that helped get me through the daily grind of sitting down for 8 hours in front of a computer. However, if we wanted to get anywhere, we had to do some serious planning. We had to make sure we knew what metro to catch to ensure that it arrived to the right train station in time and make sure the train goes to the right bus stop. It’s a balancing act that (thank goodness!) Lance was a natural at, but it was incredibly inconvenient and made even the smallest errand take 3x as long. For example, it should only take 45 minutes to get to the Charleoi airport, but instead we have to walk the 400 yards down to the metro, wait for it, arrive at the station, run through the station to get to the train, wait for the train because it’s always late OR in missed the train by 30 seconds so we have to wait another hour for the next one to come, ride the train for an hour, arrive, take a bus from the station to the airport. It’s a journey…The one that was the most frustrating for me was the fact that the grocery store is about 400 yards from my apartment-so carrying heavy groceries that far became not fun very quickly.

4. Speaking of grocery stores… I LOVE American grocery stores.
I had always heard missionaries who went foreign RAVE about American grocery stores. I always sort of shrugged my shoulders and thought “what’s the big deal?” I GET WHAT THE BIG DEAL IS. In American grocery stores, DOG FOOD that looks like hamburger meat is not mixed in with ACTUAL hamburger meat – which, don’t forget, is labeled in French and Dutch. The diapers are not placed next to the pasta sauce, and olive oil is not placed next to the brooms and cleaning supplies. In American stores, you can find whatever you want in whatever variety you want. I remember on multiple occasions going to the grocery store and being annoyed about something dumb like finding that they didn’t have some random variation of a spice, and feeling flustered that I had to settle for a slight variation of it. Here, I feel lucky that garlic powder is even something I can buy. American stores are (usually) so clean. Product placement is not only considered but is a priority. They provide you with grocery sacks…. If you don’t have your own backpack/bags, you can opt to use a cardboard box (think costco style) BUT often they are OUT of cardboard boxes, so if you don’t have bags, you’ll be shoving your things in your purse and shirt and jacket instead….and to my favorite point:THEY ARE OPEN LATER THAN 7:00. In fact, they are open 24 HOURS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK.

5. I WILL NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT WALMART EVER AGAIN.
The end of my last point brings me to this point. I freakin love walmart. Belgian grocery stores make walmart look like the freakin White House. I don’t care if there are sometimes inappropriately clothed people shopping. I will even be able to turn my head from some bad parenting that goes down in some of the isles. I don’t even care that the lines are almost always ridiculously long. I love the “rollback prices” and the ability to buy things in bulk. I love that I can buy shoes, shampoo, bread, and a t-shirt all at the same time for reasonable prices if I want to. I love that they are open literally 24-7, so if there is an emergency – NEVER FEAR. Walmart to the rescue….and don’t even get me started on my love for Target. I’ve always loved Tarjet. But loving Walmart, by default, bumps Target to a much higher level. Target might as well be considered Nordstrom to me….oh and Nordstrom – I officially have beef with Nordstrom. Which brings me to my next point.

6. American shopping is LAME.
I’ve officially got beef with Nordstrom. WHY is H&M and ZARA dirt cheap here? Why are H&M’s clothing so inexpensive but (most of it) is found at amazing quality? Why are there SO many shops with SO many options and better fitting clothes? Nordstrom of Provo, I have officially dubbed you as lame and overpriced. American H&M and Zara, you are annoying for being more expensive than is necessary. I wish I had endless euros so I could redo my entire wardrobe here to correct the mistakes in my closet at home.

7. European style, in general, is TRULY amazing.
Some of it is a little strange, but I love it all.

8. I love my dog.
But that’s no secret or revelation.

9. Europeans LOVE American music.
It’s everywhere. In metro stations, in restaurants, in clothing stores…everywhere.

10. Europeans LOVE American TV and Film.
It’s just fact.

11. I do NOT like tiny cars.
Never have, never will. In Europe, it is really only possible to drive a tiny little compact car. They are hideous. I also now officially have a distaste for hatchbacks, as that is all I have seen here. I am now officially ready for a mid-sized sedan/small SUV.

12. I REALLY don’t like public transportation.
It’s EXTREMELY dirty. It’s smelly. People yell at you sometimes (or make fun of you in another language! RUDE!). It’s unreliable. You have to plan your LIFE around it. The upside to this means of getting around is the fact that there are some REALLY interesting people who ride… and it can be pretty entertaining. However, those same interesting people sometimes turn into scary-seeming people when I have to ride the metro/bus/tram/train alone. Did I mention it’s dirty? Thanks to the nasty public transportation, I wear gloves everywhere. Thanks to wearing gloves everywhere and my germ-a-phobe attitude, I have officially kicked my gross habit of chewing my nails! Really! I have ZERO desire to do it, and I LOVE having long nails. To celebrate this, I went out and bought some bright red nail polish. I love it.

13. I LOVE AMERICAN PUBLIC RESTROOMS.
They really don’t exist here. And if you’re in a restaurant or movie theatre where they MIGHT have a restroom, you have to pay… usually it’s around .30, but my friend Shayly once told me she had to pay 2 EUROS! This is only one side of the issue. The other side is that since there are NO public potties but there are a LOT of beggars and bums, they simply use the corner as their personal potty. Due to this, the ENCLOSED UNDERGROUND metros ALWAYS smell like fresh, warm urine. SICK. It’s so disgusting, truly.

14. The Europeans (and few americans!!) I have gotten to know and love over the last 3 months are truly wonderful people who have all left great impressions on my heart. I love the fresh view on life my friends have shared with me.

15. I am grateful for my family and friends in the states.
Not being able to communicate with them whenever I want or to be able to see them whenever I want has really heightened my love for them.

Overall, my European experience has been really positive. I’ve made some truly wonderful friends across the globe and have experienced a lot of things I will never forget….and I still have 20 days left of roughing it through Europe! Who knows what else I will learn/see/experience.

I still cant wait to come home and see my little pup, though. :)

Katherine, you are the best!

2011-03-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND!

I love March 21. It was the day Katherine Suzanne Young was born! In case you somehow managed to forget, Katherine is my best friend/sister. I have known her since I was a tiny tot – I think it’s safe to say 5 years old --… somehow we were separated for 6 years and reunited when I moved houses and our ward switched to Denton 1st ward. I’ll never forget my first encounters with her. Katherine and Heather stocker were sitting in Primary in t-shirts, long black skirts, and their hair was slicked back into ponytail buns. I thought they were SO cool. Over the next month, after a few sleep-overs and Wednesday night activities, we knew we would become a trio.

Growing up, Katherine and I lived our lives in parallel - and we did so much together. We shared core best friends, and so many tween, awkward experiences were shared, SO many EFY’S (I’ll never forget when Katherine picked BJ out of a crowd of boys and said “that guy’s so cute” and together we found a way to approach him), teenage heart break, Student Council, cheating in Geometry (whoops!), so many Girls Camp experiences, laughing laughing laughing… the list can go on and on. She’s been one of the very few that has always stayed with me through thick and thin. She’s one of those rare friends that you can not talk to for months, but when talk again it’s as though no time has passed at all. Katherine has never passed judgment on me (or really ever on anyone), only loving me for who I am.

Katherine is seriously a wonderful person. One of the things I have always loved about her is her ability to laugh in any situation. One of the greatest lessons I learned in life is that making light of heavy situations is the best way to get through them – you know that quote from Steel Magnolias, “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion” – this concept is something I learned to love from Katherine.

Not only does she know how to flawlessly handle a heavy situation, but she knows how to make anyone laugh. Her sense of humor is warm and contagious. One of the more recent ones was when I had just gotten married. The ceremony was over, and I had to change back into my wedding dress, which was NOT easy to zip up. At first just my mom and older sister were in the dressing room, helping me zip it up, but I knew Katherine needed to be there to make the experience complete. So I think Heather ran outside and asked her to come in. As they were trying to help me into my dress, someone, accidently pricked her finger on a safety pin and got blood drops on my dress. My instant reaction was tears, but luckily Katherine was there to crack a joke about and make us all laugh…I know this story doesn’t do what happened justice – but the point is that she just makes every situation better.

She’s also always been a sort-of moral compass. She is always my go-to person for level-headed, unbiased advice, and I can trust that her opinions are given from a righteous, loving place.
Katherine is also one of the most selfless people I know. She has always been the person to take care of those in need around her – especially her friends and family.

These two pictures are a pretty good visual description of how we are when we get together.
I know I’ve already listed a few things that I love about Katherine, but here is an official 25 reasons why I love Katherine for her 25 years of existence:
1. Her laugh is contagious!
2. We can talk for hours and it feels like minutes.
3. She has such a strong testimony
4. She is one of the least judgmental people I know
5. Her sense of humor is my favorite
6. That we can communicate without even having to say anything
7. He love is unconditional
8. Our friendship is unconditional!!
9. She is my sister, and is like a sister to all my siblings
10. She really has great taste in decorating (lance says I could learn a lot from her, rude. Haha)
11. She is seriously so beautiful, inside and out.
12. Like I said, her moral compass is reliable
13. She’s SO thoughtful to how others might be feeling
14. She is the best secret keeper.
15. She knows me better than most, and still loves me for me.
16. She is an AMAZING wife
17. She is going to be the best mother
18. She’s SO brave for so many reasons
19. She likes to drive and I like to entertain (this applies to the many road trips we have taken. It worked out quite well)
20. She knows how to laugh at herself
21. Her heart is HUGE
22. She is SUCH a loving, caring, encouraging sister
23. If I ever need her for anything, she is ALWAYS there
24. She’s always got some amazing recipe on-hand
25. Because she exists!

I LOVE that we were all in each other's weddings!

I really just feel so blessed, so fortunate to have been given someone as special as Katherine. From the bottom of my heart, I love you Katface! Thank you for everything.

Gordon B. Hinckley

2011-03-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

is so wonderful! I miss hearing his sweet stories and his cute sense of humor. The following thing i am about to post is something i found a VERY long time ago, rediscovered today, and feel I need to share...enjoy this little anecdote.

"… When I was a little boy on Valentines Day, we traded paper hearts at school, and at night we dropped them at the doors of our friends, stamping on the porch and then running in the dark to hide. Sometimes we would tie a fishing line to a valentine, and when the would-be receiver would go to pick it up we would pull the string. That happens in life with some of us.

Almost with out exception these valentines had printed on their face the words, "I love you." I have since come to know that love is more than a paper heart. It is the very essence of life. It is the pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. But it is not at the end of a rainbow; it is at the beginning, and from it springs the beauty that arches across the ky on a stormy day. It is the security for which children weep, the meat and drink of youth, the adhesive that binds marriage and the lubricant that prevents devastating friction in the homel it is the peach of old age, the sunlight of hope shining through death. How impoverished are those who lack it, and how rich those who have it!"

-Gordon B. Hinckley

i love j.crew

2011-03-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

It seems like lately all i've been blogging about are things. But most of you know i'm not that dense, so here I am, continuing to blog about things.

I just wanted to express my love for j.Crew and how lovely every thing they offer is. Right now, i am loving their swimsuit options. I am loving that one-pieces are really something that has a retro feel to it and is becoming something quite stylish to wear. Here are a few of my favorites:

P.S.

In the UK they call these "Swimming Costumes"

Cute eh?

Drooling.

2011-03-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I need to take breaks during the monotonous work that comes with being a glorified secretary (Business Administration). So I surf the web...and stalk bloggers that I don't know - not in a creepy way - because the people I stalk are those who intend to be blogCelebs (see my bloggersistalkbutdontknow list).

The first thing I've been drooling over is the Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts -as most of you know. 17 bucks on Amazon? I think that's do-able.

However, this next website I WISH I hadn't found is http://www.catbirdnyc.com/

It's full of such dainty, unique jewelry... but for a pretty penny. So for now, I will continue to drool. Maybe one day the husband will spring for something? eh eh? :) Please enjoy my favorites:

This one comes in a GORGEOUS, to die for rose gold.

i WISH i would have seen this when i was thinking of bridesmaids gifts! how perfect would it have been to have each bridesmaid's initials? aye me. Maybe one day for christmas presents (and I can confidently say that about each one of my bridesmaids, considering they are all still my sisters and my best friends!) I wouldn't mind picking one up for myself either, with my initials maybe?

Sooo pretty. :)

Oh, and don't forget to check out my european adventures - www.bloggingfrombelgium.blogspot.com

have a lovely day on the other side of the world y'all!

Little words of advice

2011-03-01T03:33:00.001-08:00

Sometimes it's a little challenging to be a newlywed. With a budget. (A very tiny budget). And new clothes never fit into that budget... Anyone who knows me knows this, in its self, is a challenge. I know there are worse things in life, but I love clothes. I love the smell of them. I love the texture of something crisp, never worn. I love the bright colors, never faded by the harsh detergent, water, and wash cycle. I love buying something I see that's on trend, that makes my wardobe a little more complete. I love snazzing things up. I love getting un-bored with my clothes by making a simple purchase of a new cardigan...

I really could go on and on.

SO. That being said, I have a hard time with not experiencing this little high that I used to experience quite often before I was married, and have to give myself a pep talk every now and then.

It's actually been kind of an adventure, pulling things that I haven't worn in a while and trying to make them interesting.

Today I read this blog post, written by my non-celeb fashion icon, and it made me feel so much better - it just solidified my revamping of the wardrobe theory. Old can be fabulous.

check it.

http://www.thechloeconspiracy.com/2011/02/outfit-of-day-as-light-as-feather.html

I heart Martha

2011-02-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

So yes, she went to jail for insider trading...

I say she was just ahead of the game.

So yes, she is a little bit rigid.

And when she has guests that try and be independent/make a joke/aren't 100% proper - her feathers get ruffled and she makes things really awkward...

But the woman is a genius.

Sure, she has a task force behind her.

But her empire started with HER.

I freakin love Martha Stewart. I love her website. I love her methods. I love her home. I love that she loves dogs.

Guess what I learned today?

MARTHA STEWART WAS A MODEL FOR... none other than the OH so classy - CHANEL - in the 1960's!!

Maybe it's not as surprising to you, and when i really think about it, it makes sense...

I think it's pretty amazing. Martha Stewart is my hero. (Not really, but she is my craft hero!)

www.styleite.com/media/martha-stewart-model-chanel/

Creative Candy

2011-02-14T07:33:00.001-08:00

So I decided I spend a lot of time searching for fellow bloggers who are talented, crafty, and have a unique twist on things (think dear lizzie/nienie etc...), and i find a lot of them, but i can never remember where i found them when i want to come back to it. So, from now on, if i find a wonderful blog, i'm going to put it in my blogsidontknowbutstalk section. SO - why don't y'all help a sister out - if you know more bloggers who are famous/not so famous/just your friend who happens to be creative... PLEASE share with me!! After all, didn't Picasso say something like "bad artists copy. Good artists steal"? Let's share the love, for the love!!

thanks y'all, and happy love day!

First Post from Belgium

2010-12-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Something is wrong with my belgium blog, so it is rerouted for the time being...

here goes:

So we made it! Whew! Let me give the quick rundown of how the trip has been thus far.

Our flight to Chicago went smoothly-however it was running around 20 minutes late. Not a problem, except that our connecting flight to Brussels left 60 minutes after our flight was supposed to arrive.... so we arrived, and by the time we taxied and got out of the plane, we had 20 minutes until final call. They made me check my carry-on in Utah, so I had to wait for them to retrieve it for me...Lance ran as fast as he could to the next terminal and begged them to hold the plane for me (princess treatment, Lance would say). Luckily they agreed and I made it to the gate literally as they were starting to shut the door. We checked our carry-ons again and raced into the airplane. I've never been on such a large aircraft - with so many classes. We walked through the first rank - each person had like their own cubicle with recliners and flat screens. Next rank, they didnt have recliners but they did have enough leg room for a 6''0 person to easily stretch out their legs, and they shared their space with one other person with huge flat screens per person. Next class the chairs looked normal like one might expect an airplane to be set up. However, in the first 10 rows the chairs were a little bigger with more legroom. Then the entire rest of the seats were like any normal airplane. As we kept walking and walking and walking to the back, and the further we went the more I felt like I was like Jack on the Titanic. Once we reached our seats, we noticed there were people in them, so we spoke to our adoable (male) flight attendant who (im pretty sure thought we were on our honeymoon) bumped us up to Economy Class - the one where you have 5 more inches of legroom. Hoorah! Except lance and i were put in the row with three seats, and since im way shorter than him, he got the isle.... here's a pretty accurate picture of what the person next to me looked like (heather I thought of you . hahaha)

let me be a little clearer, she actually was african american and was a mix of brenda and the homeless woman if they were morphed into each other. It wont make sense to you if you haven't seen Adventures in Babysitting. haha.

Anyway. The flight was only 8 hours. I brought Excedrin PM to help knock us out to help with jet lag and time adjustment. We landed fine and took the train immediately to Charleroi to meet a recent convert that works with the missionaries in Belgium every week - Patrick. (Let me tell you, lugging around 3 bags at 50 lbs each, two carry-ons and a back pack was NOT a piece of cake. Especially attempting to make the trains on time...and transferring twice) Patrick is one of Lance's favorite members, and he agreed to let us stay with him tonight and is also letting us leave our bags at his house while we backpack to Paris and the Swiss Alps the next 10 days (we're only taking 2 backpacks...I have a bittersweet feeling about that). Lance wouldn't let me nap because he said it would help me adjust quicker, so after we showered at Patricks, we got in the car to visit Namur-the first city Lance served in on his mission. I seriously loved it. Picture NYC style streets and shopping with the hustle and bustle, stores, unique boutiques, and incredible architecture. The vibe in the streets was so high.

We then walked down one of the streets and visited a huge cathedral (which sits at the base of a CASTLE). It was gorgeous, but I was anxious to visit the said castle. So we got back into the car and drove the zig-zag driveway up through the castle grounds. It was so amazing. Patrick told us it was atleast 1,000+ years old and told us how it was a fortress to protect the bridge that was near-by. Apparently if the bridge were to burn down/be destroyed it would have ruined the city of Namur's economy - theres a huge river that runs through it and the bridge provided means to bring in goods etc...so yes, they built the castle for the bridge, not the bridge for the castle. ha!

We came home and patrick made us frietes (fries) and biscuits/gravy and it was amazing. Serious carb heaven. hahah.

I am so tired. I feel like someone drugged me, but I am holding out alteast until i am done posting this to go to sleep.

THINGS I LIKE SO FAR:
Patrick and Belg Waffles from street vendors-

the amazing bakeries that are everywhere

the streets and alleys and shopping

The historical architecture

the adorable cafes

ONE thing i DONT LIKE so far:

DOG POOP all over the streets that you WILL step in if you're not watching. seriously. everywhere.

Here's the rest of the pictures of the day:

Mom this next one is for you - we went into this cool church converted into a mini flea market...they were selling hand knitted scarves. hahah lance thought of you and we took a picture. :)
look closer and the buzzer says ELDERS. this is where lance's first apartment was.

This ADORABLE restaurant inside the castle walls. so cool
behind them is a roman theatre that the Belgs illuminate at night. super cool

What's New...

2010-10-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am so unbelievably excited to write this post. As most of you know, Lance served his mission in the Belgium, Brussels, Netherlands, Northern France mission. He spent a lot of his time in Liege and Brussels and a little time in Northern France. He speaks French beautifully and his native friend told me once that Lance sounds like he is also a Native Frenchman.

I've never really had a drive to go to Europe until I met Lance. He showed me all the amazing pictures he took on the mission, told me stories and explained the fashion and architecture that he was surrounded by. I fell in love with the place, story after story.

Last year Lance applied for an internship in Belgium but for one reason or another he was denied but told to apply the next year. A few more he reapplied, and we crossed our fingers that the odds would be in our favor.

Fast forward a month or so and (after stalking Stacy more than Im sure she wanted) Lance found out on Monday that WE GOT THE INTERNSHIP! We leave September of next year and it's a 3 month long journey. Hopefully I will also be able to work and use my English degree while I'm there... but I cannot tell you how excited I am. It really is going to be so amazing! Lance told me that during the weekends we can use the money we earned that week to go to Venice, Paris, the French Countryside, and basically any where we can think of to sight see!

I'm going to audit French 1 and 2 the next two semesters at UVU to have some kind of base of the language before I immerse myself in the Belgium culture... AHH! I can't wait to buy amazing, rich, luxurious Belgium fabrics, take in the fashion, get new ideas, and just live life there.

Enjoy a few pictures from Belgium - Brussels- Bruges... woohoo!

A few quick facts:

The Belgium Flag: three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), yellow, and red; the vertical design was based on the flag of France; the colors are those of the arms of the duchy of Brabant (yellow lion with red claws and tongue on a black field)

History: Belgium became independent from the Netherlands in 1830; it was occupied by the Germans during WW1 and 2. The country prospered in the past half century as a modern, technologically advance European state and member of NATO and the EU.... It is located in Western Europe, bordering the North Sea between France and the Netherlands. The country is about the same size of Maryland. The terrain consists of flat coastal plains in nortwest, central rolling hills, rugger mountains of Ardennes Forest in southeast.

Art in Thread

2010-10-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

I so appreciate art in unexpected forms.

I stumbled upon this blog

http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com

while I was researching ideas for gifts to make for my friend and his wife who are having a baby in December.

I can not believe how talented this woman is. I tried my hand at stitching a scene on a square of felt to be made into a pillow. It is a relatively simple design but literally took me hours to stitch.

I love creativity!

I Can't "Borrow" Anymore.

2010-10-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

So apparently Comcast dictates what I can and cannot view on the internet. I suppose this is a double-edged sword - that means no inappropriate websites can be viewed by our male tenants downstairs and Comcast serves as a filter for accidental sites we wouldn't want to visit... However, it's really putting a wrench in my music life.

I love music. I mean REALLY love it. When I am cooking, cleaning, doing homework... anything - music has to be involved. But it has to live up to my unrealistic standards. My taste shifts from time to time, mostly due to a few people with good music taste who share their researched and digested music with me - and it saves me time that I simply don't have. However, those three people can't always come through with amazing recommendations, and that's where my lovely Pandora comes into play. However, Pandora comes up with some amazing songs and artists I've never enjoyed before, and that makes me want to look further into the artist and listen to their albums.

This presents a problem.

I am not willing to drop $15.00 on an album until I am sure I will love it and listen to it often. So, enter my "resourceful" internet skills. Years ago, I downloaded an application that allows me to download torrent files - basically I google the artist name and put the word "Torrent" after it, and I can download the entire album for free to enjoy and listen to. Now before you judge me for stealing music, here is my defense. If I like the album, I make a beeline to FYE or Slowtrain, when I am in the Salt Lake area (I prefer to buy local first to support our local businesses), and buy the album. However, more often than not, the artist I've fell in love with only has one track worth listening to...therefore making it an obsolete candidate for purchasing. Then the album is deleted off my hard drive, and that's that.

However, apparently Comcast's dictatorship has stuck its nose into my music expedition, and has BLOCKED my torrent searches!

Looks like I will have to find a new way to be resourceful. Any suggestions besides Grooveshark?

Our home, Featured on Better Homes & Gardens!

2010-09-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

haha just kidding.

I HAVE, however, been asked multiple times by multiple people to see pictures of my house. It was a little bit of an embarrassment when we first moved in - it was old, dingy and just not the best looking place. It all started with dad and the first time he stayed at our house. The bathroom door to the guest bathroom was a pocket door - you know, the kind that recess into the wall, basically. Its understandable why a pocket door was the first choice. Our hallway is so narrow it seems a little silly to put a door that opens out in such a place - it can't even open all the way. Yes, I see the logic. However, the pocket door was so old that it wouldnt shut all the way. Yes folks, that means it would be cracked open about a 1/4 of an inch, and there was defiantly no sound barrier there. Lovely, I know. My dad being the very private person he is, was not happy about this. The next morning, the first thing he did was go to home depot, buy a door, and install it. Everything snowballed from there... the porch, the kitchen remodel, the ripping up of carpet etc. It's been crazy. There was about 2 weeks when I was washing dishes out of the bathtub and cooking breakfast eggs on our grill OUTSIDE in the SNOW...(there's a little coil burner on the side of the grill. haha.) This has been quite the adventure...and we're not done yet. We still have a lot of little loose ends to tie up in the kitchen, and due to a water leak we have to rip up both bathrooms and fix them, and we're resanding the wood floors and we're going to leave it at its natural blonde color, (and a paint job in the house wouldnt hurt either). SO. Here's our kind of...half way-ish point of our home makeover. I went around with my iphone, so the quality isn't superior, but its good enough for you to get the drift.

Living Room

(please note zoe's multiple toys by the chest.)

Dining area

(it's not too early for Halloween decor, I say.)

work-in-progress kitchen

(What you CANT see are the white and tan foot-thick vertical stripes in the pantry. SO adorable. The stripes will ALSO be in the laundry area, and then we're frosting these enormous glass doors so you cant see in. Im SO excited for this to happen!)

(Cabinets to be stained or painted.... can't decide yet)

(crown molding to continue around the kitchen, and more cabinetry above the fridge)

(I LOVE this mat. Thanks mom!)

(obviously, something needs to happen under the oven and by the sink. hahah)

Our lovely split-level entry

Guest Bathroom

(This wallpaper is ancient and is curling down at the top. I don't think it's the smartest thing to have wallpaper in a poorly ventilated bathroom.)

(I am SO in love with these towels!)

Our...interesting...office.

(what you CAN't see behind the curtain: all my winter jackets/hoodies + a filing cabinet + all my fabric + Lance's mission boxes... it all fits in this small little closet...and yes that is Bob Marley you see. These two posters are Lance's contribution that I allowed him to put up...)

(This picture wall was one of the first things I did to the office when we settled in to make it feel a little less drab and a little more put together.90% of it is wedding pictures - if you look closely, theres a silver frame with the stock picture in it. Whoopsies. I guess its finally time to fix that.

(this is my homework/sewing/craft station)

(my VERY adorable mousepad/notepad from Anthro)

Guest Room (aka my area. No boys allowed)

(MY closet. Lance kicked me out of ours because my clothes were overtaking his. Weird. haha)

Master Bathroom (yes, this is technically called the "master bathroom" but there is nothing master-like about it)

(Here is our Closet. I mean Shower)

(Yes folks, this is the MASTER BATHROOM toilet. Very classy, the homage to the sea. Also very adult.)

(Lovely shower door)

Master Bedroom

(This little corkboard was made for my 7 Habits class. Lance and I did it together. Pretty cute, eh? It has all our long-term and short-term goals printed out. Its such a great reminder to have those up where we can see them every day)

(i LOVE my bedframe. And I LOVE Lance for getting it for me for my birthday... gotta love KSL and the killer deals... I was very close to killing my husband because he likes to sleep diagonal. We were both sick of not sleeping well at night... The King size bed is so amazing and large. I love it.)

Tada! The End.

A Slew of Random Things.

2010-09-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last night, after many weeks of incessant begging, Lance and I saw Inception. There are an innumerable amount of people who told me it wasn't good, it was stressful, confusing. To my mind, that description gets me EXCITED! (Plus Leo DiCap is in it, and I've loved him in literally every single film he has ever been in. And its not just because he was my first real crush in the Titanic.) I am a self-proclaimed movie snob and I am totally okay with it. I just can't sit and truly enjoy a film that follows strict protocol on following the "movies-for-success" formula: the intro, the rise, the climax, the fall, the solution/conclusion. It drives me crazy. (I'm sorry, Letters to Juliet and Charlie St. Cloud just can't cut it for me. Nice enough films, but nothing to get excited about.) Anyway - due to my very narrow view of what a good film is, they usually end up being rated R, which means I will be skipping out on seeing it. Boo. So when I saw the trailer for Inception, I became very excited. So - finally - we saw it. (we biked there, this is where the biking accident I fb-ed about took place. Ill blog about that some other time, hopefully.)

This very long intro leads to my joke... and for those of you who didn't see it, you won't get it. Basically the very lowest layer of complex story line is: the film is about dreams within dreams within dreams.

This morning Lance and I were talking, and he was telling me how glad he will be when we get around to remodeling our closet-sized bathroom (this is no exaggeration. our shower literally is the size of a teeny tiny water heater closet).

Lance: "Man I can't wait to rip out this bathroom"

Ashley: "Oh yeah! Me either. Last night I had such a good dream about our new bathroom"

Lance: "Are you sure you're not still dreaming?"

(insert laughter with those who've seen it.)

hahah Lance really catches me off guard sometimes and says some witty stuff. Usually the stuff that he says that makes me laugh is stuff most normal people wouldn't say. It's a really good thing that I have thick skin. I emailed this conversation Lance and I had to CJ and he said it made him laugh for like 5 minutes. (ah how I miss the CJ contagious laugh!!)

here's the context of the story:

Lance and I have been going on bike rides a lot lately, mostly because he said "bike riding will help get rid of office-butt" (yes it's still quite a battle on my front. if you dont know what office butt is please scroll down a few posts and read the definition.) We'd been on like 4 longer rides over the last week and I told him I wanted to do something that would force us to go uphill. He suggested going from Provo to Springville... I suggested going from our house, down to university ave, then up to the huge Y on the hill's parking lot. His eyes lit up and said "OKAY!" This was not my finest decision making moment. It was sort of like...you know when you're REALLY hungry and you order/make food and you get SO MUCH because you KNOW you will eat it all because you are THAT HUNGRY...and then you eat like 5 bites and are full? Yeah, my ambition to bike up those hills to the "Y" was definitely an eyes-bigger-than-my-stomach moment.

I can't really explain how difficult and steep it is up in the foothills, but for someone who clearly has less musclemass in her butt and theighs, trying to charge a steep mountain like that (and for fun, no less) - is stupid and torture. So of course, Lance is far ahead, having no trouble at all, Zoe right there by his side.... look behind him and there I am pedaling so hard - I might as well have been pedaling underwater - it looked very similar to such an activity.

Finally, I huffed my way to the top of the first really steep hill, threw down my bike, and laid in the grass. I literally couldn't talk. here's how our conversation went once I caught my breath:

Ashley: "Oh my gosh I am so dead"

Lance: "You okay, sweetie?"

Ashley: "Yeah, I guess I am just really out of shape. UGH I don't think that's normal that it was so difficult for me to bike that. You didn't have a hard time at all."

Lance: "Oh no, you just have to understand that im go-go-go all day, so I'm used to it. You're not"

(okay, rude. haha. Its okay, he's not trying to be. he's just simply stating facts - in his mind at least)

Ashley: "HMmmm interesting." (usually my defense mechinism against such harmless yet still rude comments that he doesnt realize he's making)

Ashley: "Lance this isnt normal. My heart is beating SO HARD. Seriously. I can literally feel my heartbeat in my butt"

Lance: (totally serious) "Oh good job sweetie! Thats good. That's your hearts way of letting you know its finally getting oxygen and blood circulated down there. Its because you're sitting so much, those things rarely get the chance to make their way down. It also means its burning fat. So good job!! You tell Office Butt who's boss."

haha seriously, Lance says some funny stuff sometimes. Thats kind of my favorite thing though, people saying things that arent intended to be funny...

anyway, here's a slew of random pictures from over the last few months. enjoy!

Our wonderful baby who we take more pictures of then ourselves..whoopsies. But those of you who have met Zoe, know that she acts like a human.

Lance and Joey in Seattle... Im so green with envy that I couldn't go this time!
Seriously, so cute. And I shoved this bandana on her...which didnt last long because she plays ROUGH with other dogs.
This is from the other day when we went to the temple TOO EARLY and had to leave. hahahah woooow. I love this though, our temple is a simple 5 minute walk from our house. so lovely!
Again, demonstrating office butt. Has it gone down at all since the last post?
This is right after one of our runs together....I was so in love with our new bedding. Too bad it's in the guestroom now. I wish I would have known we would soon be investing in a king sized bed. I found the duvet i want, so if anyone wants to get it for me, i wouldnt be mad about that.
This is from our trip in Oregon
This is my ice shack from when i was 16. Lance picked it up from texas and hauled it back here.
This is after a little remodel sesh
and TADA! our finished product. I havent exactly blogged about this experience, but I will soon. We sold Hawaiian Shaved Ice all summer in this little thing. We had mostly seniors in high school running it and a few girls from Hawaii. It was all natural and SO YUMMY! We just shut it down last week and I am already craving it (we even had a 100 calorie option. cool, yes?)

thats all for now folks

My (non-celeb) Fashion Icon

2010-08-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

Before I get to what the title of this post is referring to - let me preface.

I've been obsessing over home-decor and meticulously finding inspiration of good taste and unique items from all over, and for good reason.

Heather and I have officially decided to launch an online boutique with adorable, unique items that are within a reasonable price range! It will be a mix of home decor, hand stitched items, and random items that make the heart happy.

It's in the works right now, but we're on the right track. Stay tuned for more details.

That being said, I ran across this adorable girl's blog, and is officially my non-celeb fashion icon. I really think clothing taste reflects so much about our personalities and I could only hope my taste is as bold as Chloes.

Check it.

Chloe aka ADORABLE

Inspiration!

2010-07-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Again, my "Anthropologie rooms" google search lead me further and further into the abyss of creativity and uniquness (which is frustrating because I have a rather large paper due tomorrow and I haven't even started! Ah, the vortex that internet surfing is) - here is my latest find of adorable things. This really makes me want to get going with all my crafty ideas i have in mind! Maybe once i'm done with school I can actually do that... (after this one, one semester left! Woop!)

Ann Wood

And Kensie brought it to my attention that the link I last posted didn't work - so if you're curious, here you go.

Aphro Chic

Indulging

2010-07-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I catch a moment in my life where I can indulge in something to stimulate my creative section of my brain. Today I googled "anthropolgie rooms" to get some ideas for my now coming-together-home. I came across a few fun blogs and then found This Blog. I could NOT stop looking at it. She's got great taste- and although they aren't blog entries of HER home, she has a spectacular eye for unique design and color. She finds them from all over and compiles them into one little blog. I love this! She's done all the work for me. I just thought i'd share the love. :)

revamped skirt/office butt

2010-06-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

Take THAT short skirts!

2010-06-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

So I have a nice sized wardrobe.

It's treated me well over the last few years.

Each item was bought with purpose and reason.

I have pieces that cost $1.00 up to $200.00.

All of which were bought pre-wedding, of course. Marriage doesn't permit such a luxurious lifestyle yet.

The only problem with pre-wedding items... is that a LOT of them are unwearable after. I never really wore excessively short skirts or tank tops or (gasp) a belly shirt...hahah... but VERY SURPRISINGLY a lot of my skirts which I would have deemed "modest" before, are infact, UNWEARABLE! I've been frustrated about this literally since the day after we got married. I mean most of my skirts are actually to the top of my kneecap. But when I walk, apparently they get a little shorter. Or if I lean over even a LITTLE, it doesn't work out very well... So besides the two Maxi dresses i have and 2 pencil skirts (which luckily don't have slits in them) I've been looking like a frumpy 12 year old going to church, wearing hand-me-down skirts i took from Mom's closet (don't worry mom. It's just a Khaki skirt that's a size 4 and a plaid skirt that came from circa 1992)....And, as previously mentioned, being a newlywed, it's just not smart to buy clothes when we have bills to pay and food to buy.

Yesterday, I took charge.

I have a few amazing skirts from Banana Republic and Anthropologie... a few stores which are a little pricier than most - but to me are worth it because they last longer (i still have a few banana republic shirts from high school that are classic AND in good shape!) When I cleaned out my closet and gave my salvageable clothing to friends and charity, I kept the pieces I couldn't bear to part with. Not that I had plans for them, I just wasn't ready to watch money float away so easily.

I have a million and one projects to do around the house, let's get that straight, but I wanted to wear a skirt to work the next day. A skirt I hadn't worn for a while. I busted out this navy blue silk/cotton pencil skirt with a little pleating and POCKETS (I loooove a dress/skirt with pockets. obsesssed).

The skirt is actually quite similar to this one.

The fabric is so soft yet structured. It is also about 2 inches above my kneecap. I got out the seam ripper and took out the seam. Guess what? there was about THREE inches of excess fabric!!!! Oh, the delight. I cannot express how happy I was to discover so much fabric and the fact that i could no doubt, wear it tomorrow without worrying about a wardrobe malfunction.

I didn't take a picture of it, I've been too busy - maybe soon. haha i wouldn't hold your breath. Maybe today after work ill get lance to take a picture of me IN it (and then you can maybe see Office Butt in action too! OOO a double-whammy)

The happiness didn't start there. I took out my anthropolgie dress i wore for a friends wedding (and only got to wear once, dangit. i got engaged right after she got married. hahah). and guess what, THE SAME THING HAPPENED! SO much fabric in the hem! I tried with another skirt, but it had about half an inch of fabric in the hem - but that's okay. I have so much excess fabric i can sew onto the bottom.... I am determined to start looking cute at church on Sunday. I feel like I've been so disrespectful looking so disheveled each week.

Stay tuned and I will post final products.

The Amazing Aussie

2010-06-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

You really can't understand how amazing an Australian Shepherd is unless you own one.

Zoe, our little cutie, is about 7 months and she is so awesome.

Yesterday Lance bought a lawn mower off KSL but it was up in Sandy (about 30ish minutes away from us.) We took Zoe with us to pick it up, but by the time we got up there we realized it was rush hour time AND they are doing construction on I-15, so we KNEW it would take us around 2 hours to get home. So, we spontaneously decided that we'd just do our date night right then instead of Friday. We went and got something to eat and decided we were going to go see The Karate Kid (which we LOVED) We didn't want to keep Zoe in the car for that long, so we decided I would take her in and if someone stopped me, i'd tell them she was my service dog. Which actually isn't lying or fibbing. The girl at PetSmart told us it was perfectly legal to do so. hahaha. So I put her on a leash, walked in, bought a ticket, the ticket guy took my ticket, I went inside, sat down, and left - and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING TO ME! Not one word. people looked, but no one said anything. SO CRAZY! i was seriously in shock. it was AWESOMEEEEEEE. Not only was that awesome, but Zoe was too. She walked with her leash like a good doggie, sat down right next to me, and didnt really move the enitre movie. like she is SUCH an amazing dog.

Anyway. That's just one reason why she is so wonderful. She really does act like a person. Sometimes she will insist on crawling into our laps (which she really is WAY too big for but it's hard to say no to something so cute), she tries to communicate, she understands a lot of words, phrases, and specific body language... the list is endless!

ANYWAY, to illustrate my point a little, here are some videos displaying them. If you don't feel like watching them, AT LEAST watch the Extreme Sheep Herding video.

Office Butt

2010-06-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

You’ve never heard of the disease before, either? Neither had I. Until my lovely husband informed me of it.

Let’s face it. My wedding bod is long gone. I should probably hold a funeral for it. Mostly so I can mourn my loss (or gain, literally, I should say). You know, thinking about my 115 lb body and lovehandle-less waistline is a bitter sweet experience for me. It had been a very long time since I had walked this earth without those lovehandles, and you know – I didn’t miss them. Not one bit. I was almost a size 0… and the kicker is I still thought I was a little on the chubby side. Like I said, thinking about this is bittersweet – the fact that I willingly gave my self a healthy, structured diet and exercise routine and had a pretty cute body makes me feel so accomplished. And then I think about how I “let myself go” – I hang my head in shame. All that hard work turned back into playdough. To make myself feel better, I do, in fact recognize that this happens to a lot of girls. Work really hard for their wedding day, and then a year later they find themselves where they started, or worse. So that’s cool, I’m among the masses.

But then I see moms with 6 kids and they look like they could go head-to-head in a bikini contest with Jennifer Aniston and win.

I have no excuse.

Let me explain to you how my awakening began.

(Circa April 2010)

Lance: Ash, you have a ghetto booty.

Ashley: Interesting.

Lance: No, I mean it’s hot. It’s like, the perfect size big. You know, like J.LO. I can’t decide though if it got any bigger if it would still be hot or you’d just have a fat butt.

Ashley: Interesting.

(Move to June – last week)

Lance: Hey Ash, have you heard about Office Butt?

Ashley: hahhahahaha…hahahahhah!! What?

Lance: No, dude for real. It exists.

Ashley: Lance, what are you talking about?

Lance: I read an article or something.

Ashley: Okay, what’s Office Butt?

Lance: You know, like – your upper half stays the same size, but your butt grows big and forms to what the size of your chair is. I think its to protect your butt because you’re sitting on it all day. It’s your body’s way of adapting to your environment.

Ashley: Lance that’s a crock. Hahaha… That’s kind of ridiculous.

Lance: No dude, think about it, it makes sense. You’re sitting still all day, not burning any calories.

Ashley: Hm, kind of.

(fast forward to a few days later)

Johanna (Lance’s friend Joey’s wife): Did you know that if you have a desk job and work all day, doing a 3 hour intense work out daily still won’t make up for the calories you didn’t burn at your desk.

Lance: HA! SEE! Office Butt DOES exist!

And here we are.

After that conversation, I realized Lance was so fixated on the whole Office Butt theory because he thinks I HAVE OFFICE BUTT. Hahaha. Okay, cool. I can take a (gentle) hint. I had been running between 2-4 miles randomly throughout the weeks (mostly for my sanity- I had to take Zoe out to get all her excessive energy released) – but I have now kicked it in gear. I religiously run 2-4 miles daily, and now I’m going back to the gym with my hubs aka drill sergeant. The first day back at the gym, he made me RUN TO THE GYM (it’s very uphill most of the way) and then do legs/squats (surprising? Hahah no. He wants Office Butt gone, apparently.) and then I came home and did the Nordic Trac Ab Roller. Which, if you’ve never used one, is so freaking hard. I mean, its HARD. I could do 3 rolls (with good form) and then I laid on the floor like someone had just stomped on my stomach muscles (possibly someone with Office Butt?). But I loved it. The next day my entire body ached and I felt like I had been put through a garbage disposal, but it was the good kind of hurt. I’ve taken out all unnecessary carbohydrates (such as rolls, slices of bread, pasta etc), and eliminated unnecessary/unnatural sugars (like icecream etc.)

My diet is back on the WeddingBod plan – LOTS of green veggies (asparagus, broccoli, spinach), lots of veggies in general, medium amounts of fruits (steering clear of pineapple and high-sugar fruits) and monitoring portions. It actually is pretty tasty AND I feel more energized and light (ha, imagine that.) Lance calls me a Recovering Carb Addict, so this is pretty big for me.

So here I am, a week later. It’s amazing how our bodies have muscle memory. My good friends, the LoveHandles, are almost gone. This, my friends, is amazing. Never in my life have they disappeared so quickly. However, Office Butt (and Thighs) apparently are going to be a bigger task to tackle. I know you’re on the edge of your seat, so I’ll keep you intermittently posted on my progress.

So that, my friends, is the Office Butt Disease.(Which is now a regular phrase we use.) I hope you’re not suffering like I am.

OH, and note to self - and you. Be happy with your body, and be healthy. It's easy to not be that way.

An Unmarried Would Never Really Understand This.

2010-06-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

I came across this article very randomly - in fact, i was reading about the oil spill in the gulf, and the next article was this one. it caught my eye and i read on. i couldn't have felt more understood.

"...And they lived happily ever after."

You're smart. You know life is no storybook. But admit it: Somewhere deep in your subconscious lurk romantic visions of Cinderella, or maybe Julia Roberts. The images may be sketchy and a little outdated, but you can still make out the silhouette of the bride and Prince Charming riding off into the sunset.

In real life, sometimes your Disney fairy tale ends up feeling more like a Wes Craven horror flick — and you're the chick who keeps falling down and screaming for her life. I've been there. Let's face it, marriage is not for the faint of heart. You want to believe your pure love for each other will pull you through. And it does. But it ain't always pretty.

That may sound grim. But here's a secret: Sometimes it's the least romantic parts of marriage that have the most to teach you about yourself, your partner, and the nature of love. Read on for some simple truths that will unlock the surprising treasures and pleasures in your imperfect, unstorybook, real-life love.

1. You will look at the person lying next to you and wonder, Is this it? Forever?

When you get married, you think that as long as you pick the right guy — your soul mate — you'll be happy together until death do you part. Then you wake up one day and realize that no matter how great he is, he doesn't make you happy every moment of every day. In fact, some days you might wonder why you were in such a hurry to get married in the first place. You think to yourself, This is so not what I signed up for.

Actually, it is. You just didn't realize it the day you and your guy were cramming wedding cake into each other's faces, clinking champagne glasses, and dancing the Electric Slide. Back then you had no idea that "for better and for worse" doesn't kick in only when life hands you a tragedy. Your relationship mettle is, in fact, most tested on a daily basis, when the utter sameness of day-in/day-out togetherness can sometimes make you want to run for the hills. That's when the disappointment sneaks in, and maybe even a palpable sense of loneliness and grief. It's not him. It's just you, letting go of that sugarcoated fantasy of marriage that danced in your eyes the day you and your beloved posed in all those soft-focus wedding photos. You're learning that marriage isn't a destination; it's a journey filled with equal parts excitement and tedium.

Waking up from a good dream to face the harsh morning daylight may not seem like a reason to celebrate. But trust me, it is. Because once you let go of all the hokey stories of eternal bliss, you find that the reality of marriage is far richer and more rewarding than you ever could have guessed. Hard, yes. Frustrating, yes. But full of its own powerful, quiet enchantments just the same, and that's better than any fairy tale.

2. You'll work harder than you ever imagined.

Early on, when people say, "Marriage takes work," you assume "work" means being patient when he forgets to put down the toilet seat. In your naiveté, you think that you will struggle to accommodate some annoying habit, like persistent knuckle cracking or flatulence.

If only it were that easy. Human beings, you may have noticed, are not simple creatures. Your man has mysterious, unplumbed depths — and from where he sits, you're pretty complicated, too. You have to learn each other the same way that you once learned earth science or world geography. And getting married doesn't mean you're done — it just means you've advanced to graduate-level studies. That's because every time you think you've mastered the material, he'll change a bit. And so will you. As two people grow and evolve, the real work of marriage is finding a way to relate to and nurture each other in the process.

(i LOVE this paragraph- this is ashley speaking.)

"It's like losing weight," says Andrea Harden, 45, of Buffalo, NY. "You want it to be a one-time deal. You lost it, now just live. But then you learn it's a lifestyle. That's marriage. The effort is a forever thing." So don't be too hard on yourself — or him — on those days when you feel like you're struggling through remedial math.

3. You will sometimes go to bed mad (and maybe even wake up madder).

Whoever decided to tell newlyweds "Never go to bed angry" doesn't know what it's like inside a bedroom where tears and accusations fly as one spouse talks the other into a woozy stupor until night meets the dawn. If this scenario sounds familiar, I've got three words for you: Sleep on it.

You need to calm down. You need to gain perspective. You need to just give it a rest.

I've found that an argument of any quality, like a fine wine, needs to breathe.

A break in the action will help you figure out whether you're angry, hurt, or both, and then pinpoint the exact source. Maybe the fight that seemed to erupt over the overflowing garbage can is really about feeling underappreciated. Could be you're both stressed out at work and just needed to unload on someone. Taking a break will help you see that, and let go. Or maybe you really do have a legitimate disagreement to work out. Without a time-out, sometimes a perfectly good argument can turn into an endless round of silly back-and-forth, rehashing old and irrelevant transgressions as you get more and more wound up.

Even when you do manage to stay focused and on topic, there are some fights that stubbornly refuse to die by bedtime. And if you stifle your real feelings just to meet some arbitrary deadline, your marriage will surely be the worse for it. "This was a huge lesson for me," says Andrea. "As women we've been trained to make nice. But the whole kiss-and-make-up thing just to keep the peace was eating me up inside. I'd let things build up inside me until I just exploded. Now I wait a while to get hold of myself — let the emotions settle a bit — and state my position. Even if that means reopening the fight the next day."

5. Getting your way is usually not as important as finding a way to work together.

I can be a bit of a know-it-all. There, I said it. It's really not my intention to be hurtful or brash with people I love. It's just that a lifetime of experience has taught me that in most areas, at most times, I am right about most things. What shocked me several years into my marriage, though, was the realization that the more "right" I was, the more discontented my husband and I were as a couple. See, oddly enough, throughout his life Genoveso has been under the misguided impression that he's right most of the time (go figure!). So we'd lock horns — often. That is, until I learned a few things.

Namely, that when it comes to certain disagreements, there is no right or wrong — there is simply your way of looking at things and your husband's. "I used to be very black-and-white earlier in our marriage," says Lindy Vincent, 38, who lives in Minneapolis. "Now I see that I'm not all right and my husband is not all wrong. There's more gray in life than I thought, and that's taught me patience and the value of compromise."

The more I get to know and appreciate my husband for who he is, the more I respect his positions. That doesn't mean I always agree with him. But I can see the value in striking a balance that satisfies us both. And instead of harping on how wrong he is, I can usually swallow the verbal vitriol and simply say something like, "I see your point" or "I hadn't considered that." After I sincerely acknowledge his view, it seems to become easier for him to hear mine. And because I know I'm being heard, most of the time now, I don't even want to prove how right I am anymore. Funny how that works, isn't it?

6. A great marriage doesn't mean no conflict; it simply means a couple keeps trying to get it right.

Maybe you think that because of my newfound wisdom, Genoveso and I never fight anymore. Ha! As important as it is to strike a balance, it's also important to have a big, fat fight every now and then. Because when you fight, you don't just raise your voices; you raise real — sometimes buried — issues that challenge you to come to a clearer understanding of you, your man, and your relationship. I wouldn't give up our fights for anything in the world, because I know in the end they won't break us; they'll only make us stronger.

7. You'll realize that you can only change yourself.

Ever seen the '80s sci-fi cult classic Making Mr. Right? When the stylish heroine, played by Ann Magnuson, is hired to teach a robot how to act like a human, she seizes the chance to create a perfect guy. A hotshot commercial whiz, she uses her marketing prowess to shape John Malkovich's android character into her personal version of the ideal man — sensitive, eager to please, and willing to listen.

There is a bit of that makeover fantasy in all of us — something that makes us believe we can change the person we love, make him just a little bit closer to perfect. We may use support and empathy or shouts and ultimatums, but with dogged conviction we take on this huge responsibility, convinced we're doing the right thing.

Whatever our motives, the effort is exhausting. Transforming a full-grown man — stripping him of decades-old habits, beliefs, and idiosyncrasies — is truly an impossible task. And you will come to realize, sooner than later if you're lucky, that it is far easier to change the way you respond to him.

Here's a perfect case in point: "I used to go off on my husband because he didn't empty the sink trap when he cleaned the kitchen," says Kimberly Seals Allers, 36, of Bay Shore, NY. "It got me nowhere; my rants only made him resentful. Now I come home and when the kitchen looks clean, I'm like, 'Cool, now all I have to do is empty the sink trap.'"

8. As you face your fears and insecurities, you will find out what you're really made of.

I've got issues. Trust issues. Control issues. And others, I'm sure, that I've yet to fully discover. I guess I've always known I wasn't perfect. But in more than a decade of marriage, I've been smacked upside the head with the cold, hard evidence.

There were clues when Genoveso and I were dating, especially with the trust thing. Early on, I was supersuspicious of him. He used to say things like, "I'll call you at 8." Then, just to try to trip me up, he'd call at 8. I knew he was up to something, I just couldn't figure out what. The same kinds of experiences followed after the wedding. Except occasionally he would actually mess up. And I had no sense of scale when it came to rating his offenses; everything was a major violation. Whether he teased me about a new haircut or came home late, I seethed for days and even let thoughts of divorce creep into my head. I figured, if he loved me — really and truly — this stuff wouldn't happen.

I'd like to be able to say that this irrational behavior lasted only a few months and I eventually worked it out. Kind of, sort of, is closer to the truth. After years of looking deeply into my soul and talking to good friends and the best sister a girl could ever have, I've come to recognize certain things about myself. Not to get all Dr. Phil about it, but I've had to examine my history with an emotionally distant dad and a strong-willed mom and face up to all the ways, both good and bad, that those relationships have affected how I approach my marriage.

I still struggle as a work in progress. But I am completely clear in the knowledge that many of the deepest frustrations in your relationship are an opportunity for you to confront yourself. That can be difficult to accept — after all, it's so much more comforting to keep a running tab of your hubby's deficits and tell yourself that his failings are the only thing standing between you and a better marriage. But if you let it, this bumpy journey toward self-awareness can be one of the more fulfilling rewards of a committed, long-term relationship — you'll learn to love your quirks and be compassionate toward yourself, just as you're learning to do with him.

That's the strange beauty of marriage: It's full of hard times and hard lessons that no one can ever prepare you for. But in the end, those are the things that give richness to your life together — and make your love even deeper and stronger than when it began.

Reveal Yourself

2010-06-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

A couple of things.

I reformatted my blog and somehow I lost many blogs I follow. If you are reading this and own a blog - please look at my blog list. If you are not on there, please either email me or leave me a comment and tell me your blog address so I can add it in. I don't have a clue what happened!!

also.

If you are reading this blog, and you're one of the following, I have instructions for you:

1. You are one of Lance's friends/family/someone from the mission
2. You know my in-laws, Rob and Clydie
3. You've stalked me through other people's blog
4. You don't have a blog but you like to read mine
5. Any other reason you're reading my blog, but I don't have your blog address

Come out from behind the curtain! I'd like to know who you are! Sometimes I feel like I'm writing to myself or for my mom and Katherine... which is fine, but i have a sneaky suspicion that isn't so (is that assuming/haughty of me?). Anyway, point being is i really would LOVE to know who my audience is, so

reveal yourself!!

thanks everyone.

Love
Ashley

I think I shall call him Edward.

2010-05-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is not a joke.

This statistic comes from the Social Security Administration website.

The top boy and girl names for 2009 are…

Jacob

And

Isabella

Wow, Americans. Wonder how those names ended up as #1? Weird.

And yes, I had to put the no-shirt-shot of Jacob. So sue me.

This sparked my curiosity about my name and its rank in my birth year. I looked it up.

Ashley gets the #2 spot for 1986!

No wonder there was always at LEAST 2 other Ashleys in any given class in any given year.

So my curiosity skipped to Heather’s name.

#9 for 1984.

Then Christian’s.

Christopher was #2, but no Christian. So I broadened the search to 100, and it was ranked at 60 in 1990. Not bad mom and dad!

Next, logically, I searched Celeste.

# 351 in 1993.

Looks like mom and dad got more creative as the children went on. Woop!

Jerry in his birth year was #30 and Kimberly was #16

(Have I gotten slightly carried away with this topic? Maybe...)

I searched for the popularity of my favorite names (which, if you don’t already know them, I will keep them to myself. I’m so paranoid someone will steal them and they will rapidly reach #1 on the national baby name list!), and good news is they’re within the top 200 most popular names of 2009, but not in the top 15. I think I am a little obsessed with these numbers due to the fact that I shared my name with every other girl in the school (Sometimes my first AND middle name together!) and I remember hating it. (and I NEVER use the word hate).

I don’t want my kids to have some weird name like Grass or Helicopter, I don’t want to encourage bullies – but I would like them to have a fresh name that their teacher’s don’t have to tack a “W.” after their first name. (After all, due to my very common name and lack of signifier in his phone, it is the reason Lance and I started dating…if you don’t know the story, ask. Ill tell you. It’s pretty humorous. Maybe a common name isn’t such a bad thing then, eh?)

On a slightly more interesting note, Ashley reigned the top of the name charts, never dipping below #4, usually standing tall at #1 from 1982 – 2002, where it finally sinks to a crummy #5. In 2009 it took a huge dip and stands at #9.

Awesome.

Autumn Dame

2010-05-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is a semi-selfish post.

The larger reason for writing it is due to my LOVE for the following items:

*Fabulosity

*Hand crafted things

*Clothes

*Cardigans

*COLOR!

*Mixed fabrics/patters - especially when it’s surprising, but somehow “goes” perfectly

But most importantly, as a fellow entrepreneur,

*Self-made companies

The good news is, ALL of these things are found in little nooks and crannies across the world, and usually I find them by stumbling across them. Lucky for me, my friend Mari has not one but TWO companies that have all of these items rolled into adorable, wearable packages. She has INCREDIBLE taste and amazing style-sense, and I am more than ecstatic that she has launched her two darling websites www.AutumnDame.blogspot.com and www.MariElizabethCouture.blogspot.com

Most of you already know my love/obsession with every single piece, but for those of you who don’t, you MUST hop on over and atleast browse.

As an added bonus, she has frequent giveaways and discount items – and today is a giveaway day! It goes on until the 30^th, but this darling cardigan is more than enough incentive to enter the drawing. Check it out.

http://wechirp.blogspot.com

(this was the selfish part of the post)

Now, if you’re too lazy to go look for yourself, here are a few pictures of my favorite pieces created by the fabulous Mari. Enjoy!

I own this in a longsleeved version - i get SO many compliments every time i wear it!
are you kidding me with the bird detail? SO adorable

I own this - and i love it. Its my all time fav head piece.
Mari custom-made my version of this - its a white sheer pinwheel and a smaller tan one on a thin, white leather band. LOVE it. I've worn it more times than i can count, and get STOPPED asking where i got it.
does this necklace not SCREAM Anthropologie? And everyone knows that anything reminiscent of Anthro equals perfection.

Longest. Weekend. Ever.

2010-05-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

So looking back on this post, it's a little whiney - so if you opt just to view the pictures instead of actually reading the entire post, please - feel free to do so.

This weekend was… and adventure, to say the least. Here’s how it went down:

Lance and Joey have been scheming for a while to go camping. It was pretty warm earlier in the week so going camping sounded lovely – even Joey’s wife Johanna and I (not the biggest camper fans) were happy to go. As the week went on it got colder and colder, and by the time Friday came it was in the low 40’s. I was a little worried because I despise being cold (especially self-inflicted cold) and I knew at night it would only get colder and colder.

We decided to go anyway.

Earlier in the week Lance had run into Mitch (one of his favorite mission companions) and he and his wife, Kensie, opted in for our little camping trip – which was such a great idea since it’s been a long time since we’d spent time together.

So like I said, Friday afternoon came, and I raced home from work to pack and get all our camping stuff ready. Mitch and Kensie showed up, I went to the grocery store to get French toast supplies for the AM, and Lance tied up a few loose ends before we left (like getting an amazing 2 room tent, 2 person sleeping bag, and 4 toasty sleeping bags for us and the Gibsons, and a little camping stove – all from his parents who donated to our camping trip).

Our scheduled time to leave was 12:30, but of course, we were on Coslett Standard Time (or Mormon Standard Time…those are usually about the same. Haha) and left around 2:00.
(Zoe, ready to go)
Joey and Johanna didn’t make it to our house in time but were going to drive out to the campsite later.

We went and found some abandoned pallets to serve as fire wood and stopped at Arctic Circle to grab a bite to eat, and it was pretty sick. It was my first and last time to go.

We drove up the alpine loop only to face a “ROAD CLOSED” sign. Glad we drove an hour for nothing? So Mitch had an idea of somewhere we could go – the vast, forbidden land of the west – aka the west side of Utah Lake.

an hour and a half later, we make it to our self-proclaimed campsite.

It was mostly tiny trees and dusty ground, but it was open, hilly, and most importantly – no rules! We pitched our tent and set up camp. Mitch took his dirt bike out of the back of the truck and Lance took his aquired-from-my-dad 4 wheeler and they took off. While they were riding around, Kensie and I realized I had left our milk and a pan to make French toast with at home. BAH! So we decided we’d try and make eggs out of this cute little teapot thing Kensie brought. Great. Haha.

Not 10 minutes pass when Lance comes racing back on the quad with a matching HISSSSSS sound… awesome. Apparently since the quad has been sitting still for 5+ years, the tires were old and couldn’t take the relatively rough terrain of our campsite and a hole was punctured in one of them. So we loaded it backed up, and that was it for quading for the day.

Good news though – the weather was PERFECT…almost HOT! I took off my sweatshirt and hung out in just a t-shirt. It was around 65-70 degrees. Perfect. I was happy.

Joey and Johanna made the hour drive from Provo all the way to the little highway that led to our campsite… we had Mitch staked out at the bottom of the hill so he could show them where we were. Somehow they couldn’t find Mitchy and finally had to turn around and go all the way back home! (sorry guys!)

So Mitch came back and we began to gather fire wood. Since there were mostly only little tiny baby trees, we kind of had a hard time finding firewood… Eventually we gathered enough to last us through the night. We started burning it and guess what? It was a special kind of wood that when it burns, it smells like dog urine. Hahahah. Nevertheless, we busted out the hotdogs and started cookin! Mitch and Kens went all out with these bad boys- they were seriously SO good. And I don’t even like meat that much. We sat around the fire on the crates and coolers (bc yes, I had forgotten to pack our lawn chairs, of course) and chit chatted, telling stories and just enjoying our time together and the outdoors.

Zoe even made a friend on this little trip.

I wish I would have taken a picture of him. He was a golden lab/some other dog (I say boxer or pit but no one else agreed with me) and atleast 3 years old. He LOOOOVED Zoe. There was a huge RV that was a little down the ways from us, and we were pretty sure he was from their campsite. Every 20 minutes or so he’d come over to our site and mess with Zoe. He was twice her size, but she loved playing with him. He’d come running straight at her as fast as he could, ram into her, send her into multiple somersaults, then run away and do it again. Sometimes they’d both disappear for a few minutes, but would both come running back pushing each other over and wrestling so hard that all you could see was a huge dust cloud and a paw here and there. Lance and I were totally okay with it because we knew it would make Zoe sleep through the night and get a little of her excess energy out. That little girl is like the Energizer Bunny. Eventually we had to go to sleep, so we had to take her friend back to his camp – and when we got there we discovered there were about 5 more dogs (no wonder no one came looking for him! I’m sure no one even noticed he was gone!) and two of them were little Aussies, just like Zoe. It all made sense now, this Lab totally knew how to handle a smart, herding Aussie – he was used to them!
Zoe tuckered out from the trip

Anyway- so we called it a night, woke up early the next morning, packed up and went home. It was a little chilly that night, but thanks to Rob and Clydie we were nice and toasty.

At noon I had a hair appointment with Hannah to do her hair for her bridal pictures. I love doing hair so much – it’s seriously like therapy for me. It turned out pretty well, yes?

Later that day, Lance went to the gym and my sister came home from shooting Hannah’s bridals and invited me to go to dinner at this little Mexican place called Diego’s down by Center Street in Provo. I got a veggie-type meal and it was DELISH. I came home, prepared Clydie’s dark chocolate covered strawberries and called it a night.

At least I THOUGHT I was calling it a night.

I woke up at midnight to greet my porcelain toilet (which luckily I had JUST cleaned)… I began throwing up atleast twice an hour all night. I spent most of the night lying on this

A makeshift bed of the multiple regal robes hanging in the bathroom.

because it was too painful to even get up and get back in bed. Cute little Zoe sat right out side the bathroom door with her little ears perked up, making sure I wasn’t going to die (which I’m pretty sure I almost did).

I kept throwing up throughout the day, but I had a little sunshine at around a little before 9:00 – I got a phone call from little missionary CJ! I wasn’t expecting it at all… My phone rang, I reached over, answered, and heard “Ashley? Hey.” I knew my favorite brother’s voice right away and immediately didn’t feel sick any more. I was so excited! He called to tell me he had given dad the wrong phone number, and dad wasn’t near his phone for CJ to tell him otherwise, so he called me! I got off the phone with him to let my parents know, and eventually me, heather, nick, lance, celeste, mom, dad and aud all got to have a Skype telephone conference with CJ in Brazil. It was so awesome to hear from him and to know how he’s doing, hear some funny stories, learn about his companion and district, and just to hear his voice in general. – even though I was intermittently throwing up and writhing on the floor in pain - He really is doing so great. Struggling a little with the language but doing great out in the streets. I’m so proud of my little brother. He’s such an awesome person and def. one to look up to.

Little Lance was so sweet throughout my little sick episode. We decided I had gotten food poisoning from the lovely Diegos. It’s my fault. One of my cardinal rules in life is “NEVER ever ever go out to eat in a dive restaurant”. This rule was conceived due to my dad’s philosophy and his success telling me horror stories about restaurants in order to gross me out paired with the show Kitchen Nightmares… But for once, once in forever, I broke my rules to eat dinner with my sister and her hubs.

That’s what I get for breaking rules, right? Listen, rules are NOT meant to be broken.

Anyway, so Lance and I have a calling teaching 14-15 year old darlings, and Lance also teaches Priesthood every other Sunday. Guess what? today Lance got to teach BOTH classes… Needless to say the little 14 year olds took over and Lance felt a little like he was in that movie Hook where all the lost boys are running around, throwing paint and proclaiming anarchy.

However, lance and two of the lost boys did something so sweet for me. He sent two of them down with a huge bouquet of beautiful roses as a “get well” kind of thing. So sweet. The nice-Lance continued throughout the rest of the day. I had previously told Clydie I’d make mother’s day dinner for her, and Lance, being the good son he is, held true to the promise and made fish, chicken, mashed potatoes, and baked asparagus all on his own! (of course with a little guidance from yours truly, lying on the couch trying not to hack while I gave him directions while ignoring any smell drifting over from the kitchen). Dinner was a success (or so I was told by the Wakefields), and I finally drifted off to sleep and slept like a baby all night.

I feel better today… however I feel slightly crosseyed and a little like I just got off a 7 day boat trip – sea legs, I guess you'd call it – and like someone drugged me with some kind of muscle relaxant. Probably not a good thing since im working at the Attorney’s office right now… bahaha.

ANYWAY. That’s the end of the forever long post. And the forever long weekend… I’m ready to crawl back into bed.

Aerobically-Challenged

2010-04-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

This post is taken from a very talented peer from my creative writing class. It's very difficult to write satire and humor, and she does it quiet well. I just had to share this revised piece of hers - it is hysterical and I totally relate!

Rules For The Aerobically-Challenged

First rule: Choose wisely.

You’re thinking about taking one of those trendy dance aerobics classes that combine latin, salsa, and hip-hop moves with high-intensity dance music. That’s fine, but don’t be fooled into thinking that “dancing” makes aerobics “less work.” It is not only not less work, it is probably more work. Watching “Dancing With The Stars” might have taught you the difference between the cha-cha and the tango, but unless you have some actual dance training, these are not moves that come naturally to your body.

Second rule: Location, location, location.

You can’t just stand wherever there’s an open space; the place you stand affects the entire class. You don’t want to be at the front, because then everyone behind you can see you mess up constantly. You don’t want to be at the back, because then it’s your fanny that the people on the treadmills are watching through the glass wall. You don’t want to be on the extreme sides, either, because when you do moves that turn you around, you will all of a sudden have no one to watch. The best place to stand? At home. Or in the locker room. Or under an invisibility cloak, although that might trip you up a little.

Third rule: Don’t hold back.

Nothing makes up for a complete lack of skill like bounding enthusiasm. Do the moves with reckless abandon, with a great big smile on your face. People can’t judge you nearly as harshly if they think you are either a) enjoying yourself or b) too dim to know you’re doing it wrong.

Fourth rule, and this one’s important: Don’t look in the mirror!

Don’t even glance! So what if you feel like the tutu-wearing hippo in Fantasia? You are as graceful as Ginger Rogers, as sultry as Shakira. Don’t let anything crack that facade. It’s the only thing keeping you going, that pretense of not looking like a complete idiot. Under no circumstances should you let reality invade that beautiful mental picture!

Fifth rule: You’re not alone.

If your ego needs a boost, look at someone worse than you. Surely you’re not the only one in the class who is struggling, right? Avert your eyes from the cute skinny blondes who seem to know the moves intuitively. Ignore the pregnant women in the back whose fetuses are probably more coordinated than you. Focus instead on the woman on the left with the red face, who keeps turning the wrong direction and looks like she’s doing jumping jacks while everyone else is doing the mambo. Yes, that woman, who keeps stepping on her own feet and just whacked herself in the face with her arm. At least she looks like she’s having fun, she’s got such a big smile on her face… Wait a second, that’s YOU!! I said DON’T look in the mirror!!!

Sixth rule: Banish any jiggling from your consciousness.

Just because your thighs and butt are as wiggly as a plate of Jell-o, doesn’t mean you need to dwell on that. It will bring you nothing but pain, my friend. That’s the purpose of the tight clothes everyone wears, to keep all of your excess flab in one place. It’s much easier to exercise if you know your butt isn’t a half-step behind the rest of your body. But until you have rock hard abs, keep any thoughts of how you would make a great female Santa (shakes when she exercises like a bowl full of jelly), out of your mind.

Seventh rule: Don’t give up.

So what if you looked like a complete moron the entire hour? That the instructor directed some pointed encouragement your way and the treadmill runners thanked you for the great entertainment? You lasted the whole hour! You sweated and huffed and wheezed your way through 60 minutes of seriously intense aerobics! At the end of the day, your body doesn’t know how embarrassed it should be at your lack of finesse, all your body knows is that you burned some major calories. That’s great, so long as you don’t drown your humiliation in a pint of Haagen Dazs. And if you can follow these simple rules, you too can join the ranks of the aerobically-inclined.

Sometimes he surprises me

2010-04-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here's another one of our conversations:

Ashley: Hey, do you know what my favorite flowers are?

Lance: uh... hydrangeas.

Ashley: What? yes! good job! what's my second favorite?

Lance: uh...the ones that sound like panties.

Ashley: Peonie?

Lance: yep.

Ashley: What about the third favorite?

Lance: Lilies, any kind.

Ashley: nope, that used to be my favorite.

Lance: What the heck dude who does that?

Ashley: What? i still like them

Lance: yeah but i can't keep up.

Ashley: Okay well just for future reference Dahlias are my third favorite.

Lance: Okay dear.

HAHAH! I was SO surprised by this conversation. Sometimes it seems like he doesn't pay attention to much detail -- especially flowers.

SO! serious Kudos to you sweety for knowing what the heck a hydrangea is... (although it just dawned on me that while we were in San Fransisco a few months ago, we were driving near the bay and every single house had huge Hydrangea bushes and every 5 minutes Id beg him to steal me one or two blooms.... haha still, either way - remembering the name is impressive!)

Wedding Season!

2010-04-09T09:21:00.001-07:00

I'll have my Cakery website up soon - but until then, I know weddings are being planned and vendors are being booked.

SO

That being said

I am available!

What my services are might sound a little abstract from one another, but just consider me a Wedding Planner Extreme.

I do:

Wedding Cakes
Groom's cakes
(not only are my cakes pretty but they are SO YUMMY!)
Bridal/Bridal Party hair
Bouquets
Flower arrangements

ALSO wedding planning!! This is something I have a great zest and love for.

I also do birthday and occasion (like anniversary or birthday cakes)

SO... Spread the word - I can't wait to expand my portfolio!

To have truly succeeded

2010-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

I really dislike when Emerson is misquoted (it is almost always the case) - and I haven't done my research to see if this is a misquote (taken completely out of context) - but that doesn't exactly matter. This is a beautiful thought -- one I hold onto, sometimes forget, but strive to live by:

People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Funeral

2010-03-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

I've hated them since the day I met Lance.
CJ has too.

They've been a part of him since his mission, and he's refused to cut the apron strings; they mean too much to him.

They've been with him through thick and thin.

He's worn them down until they stopped being a help and started being a burden.

But he didn't care.

He loved them; they were hard workers. They took so much abuse. They've been around the world - they understand his needs.

They were low-maintenance - exactly what Lance needs in a companion, and they were always there for him no matter what the occasion.

I've tried and tried to get him to purify his life and distance himself from them - but to no avail.

Until Dad came into town.

Dad's got a way - a way of talking sense into people...and with Lance if he's not the one footing the bill, he's even MORE apt to listen.

We were at Walmart, and dad needed some "Throwaway workshoes" - We scanned the isles and found a $9.00 chuck-look-alike pair. Lances eyes got big and Dad said "my brotha, lets get you a pair." So off they went with matching shoes - dad's the kahaki ones, lance the black ones.

me: "Lance, does this mean you're going to get rid of them?"
lance: ".......yeah......"
me: "YESSS! okay let's have a service for them and we can let them go."

I told him he had to let them go himself- he had to make the choice himself or else he might resent me forever.

He said a few words, and I said a few words (and a few words of thanks in my head)

And we tossed them in the trash - Goodbye forever.

Goodbye forever - shoes that make your feet smell like you stepped in dog poopie.
Goodbye forever - shoes that are just aesthetically unattractive.
Goodbye forever - shoes that could make the ugliest outfits uglier, or ruin a perfectly darling outfit.
Goodbye forever - shoes that are missing a shoe lace because Lance used one as a make-shift- leash for Zoe one time in Salt Lake.
Goodbye forever - shoes that started cutting into your ankles because you wore all the padding and cotton down due to wear-and-tear.

Goodbye. Lance will miss you. I will not.

Hellooooo new (hopefully these will actually stay) work shoes.

Sigh of relief!

2010-03-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

We are remodeling our kitchen/livingroom (at a snails pace, mind you)... and I had to decide our counter color today. I had a mini panic attack because it's such a large, permanent decision (definitely an Achilles heel of mine!) and became extremely worried I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I've been notoriously known for making outrageous decorating/fashion decisions which never really bothered me before, but now that I am deciding for two (plus the next 10 years + I'll be stuck looking at it)... So I googled in a frenzie, searching for a timeless look. I've always loved the French-Country look (and Lance served in the French countryside for the majority of his mission)... so I'm pretty sure this style will work for me for a long time. Anyway...in my frenzied-search, I came across this awesome blog - which I will use as a guide for how to get my house to (someday) come together. For now, I think I have finally made a decision - I just have to buy it, give it to Lance (and dad), close my eyes, and go do something to occupy my anxiety. Who would have thought picking out counter top colors would be so stressful?

www.euroantiquemarket.blogspot.com

Louisville, KY... I need to come visit you STAT!

Straseberrys

2010-02-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

I don't know if our conversations are as entertaining to you as they are to me, but I share anyway because they crack me up. This is a text message conversation we had earlier today.

Lance: This super annoying guy with his legs crossed is wearing those shoes you bought for me, the Straseberrys.

Ashley: That's okay. One rotten apple doesn't spoil the bunch. And they're called Sperrys.

Lance: Yeah it does, like that dude wearing Ugz. Not okay.

Ashley: Shush

Lance: It's like when someone you don't like has a name, you're not gona name your kid that name. It's a rotten apple.

Ashley: Well, since you own Lugz and Timbs I guess you don't mind representin Tha' Hood do you?

Lance: Not even a little. Hood style is bomb. But homosexual style - no good.

Ashley: I think you're confused....

Lance: No you are. I know what's up.

Ashley: Okay sweety. I love you.

These are Sperrys
These are "Timbs"

These are Lugz

Hahah Lance makes me laugh. Mostly because he's so serious about this.

That's what I get.

2010-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

well

Yesterday at school I was walking from the library back to the main building, and there's this relatively steep stairway you have to walk up to get in. There was this girl who was briskly going up and alllllmost made it to the top but then her toe caught an edge and she tripped a little. I was watching her the whole way up (i was far enough away to watch the scene as I was walking towards the stairs) and i laughed really hard in my head. There's just something so funny about about people falling and tripping. I know that might sound kind of rude but you know you think it's atleast a LITTLE funny, even if you think it secretly.

I was laughing still in my head as I began to go up the stairs, when halfway up
BAM!
I tripped up the stairs. Hard. Palms smacked down on the concrete.
And through the glass doors about 50 people saw.
COOL.

Karma anyone?

(I made this post at work, so sorry if there is commentary/lame music on this video)

I Love Sundays.

2010-02-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Just a few quick things that made me laugh today:

A conversation Lance and I had this afternoon when I was getting ready for church.

Ashley: (showing Lance my jewelry i was deciding to put on) Ah man, i'm so mad about this. Uncle Ralph gave me these earrings for my birthday a few years ago and I can't find one of them...

Lance: Dude, why do you love jewelry?

Ashley: (serious laughter)

Lance: whaaaat?!

--------------------------------------------

Today Lance and I went for a walk by the temple (because we live a block away) and it just so happppend to be the time when the missionaries are allowed to go to the temple (what? it also happens to be the same time we get out of church!) anyway.
we brought Zoe with us, and the missionaries lovvvvved her....
once we got to the actual temple grounds there were other non missionaries there, and zoe was just running around being friendly. well...
this one guy was about 20 yards from her, saw her, and SCREAAMMMED at the top of his lungs and ran away. (I'm pretty sure he was handicapped... but it was just so funny to me because Zoe is so tiny and a puppy!)

--------------------------------------------

Today in church, during sacrament meeting, there was a young mom with three boys under the age of 7, sans dad, sitting behind us. Our bench was by the wall, and due to the nature of the old building we're in, there were vents that ran all along the floor against the wall, which were on a high speed. All of the sudden i had a few shreds of a candy wrapper that fell onto my lap. I looked back and the boys were seeing how long they could keep their wrappers floating above the vents on the stream of air... and the trash ended up in our laps. haha. Then, later, it was stone quiet and one of them said pretty loud, "I wanna go home now." Lance and I couldnt contain our laughter, yet again.

_________________________

I love Sundays.

Free Stuff Lovers

2010-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

So since I'm a broke newlywed, I'm always looking for new deals. I love when other people "share the wealth", so here I am, returning the favor.

I found this cool thing on Sephora.com...here's the deals:

http://www.sephora.com/promo/beautybonuses/?searchString=free

and for all you dentonites who love wingstop, just fill out the form and get the coupon on your birthday for free wings:

http://wingstop.com/email_club.aspx

and coldstone free icecream
http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/birthday/birthday_club.aspx

or a yummy red robin burger
http://www.redrobin.com/eclub/

thats all for now. but i'm on a roll. stay tuned!

The Old Folks Home

2010-02-01T10:23:00.001-08:00

Let me preface this post with a disclaimer:

I LOVE my ward. I absolutely adore it. I have never been in a ward with so many insightful, educated, experienced, loving people. I’ve learned so much in the short half year I’ve been in attendance, and the level of people is that which I’ve never been able to experience before.

That being said.

I experienced the funniest Sunday school of my life.

It was ward conference, so instead of having to teach our 14 year olds, we got to go to the grown-up class. It’s been a while, so I’m not quite sure if this is a normalcy for this crowd or not, but let’s just say I was so irreverent but I truly couldn’t contain myself. Let me just paint a little picture.

So we sit down in the front row (it’s a smaller room, but it’s completely packed.) There is an adorable younger girl teaching the lesson. A few minutes after class started, an old man shuffled in…quietly, but sloooowly – decked out in his oversized neon yellow sunglasses that he wears every Sunday….
About 10 minutes after that, I hear “Frank. Frank. FRANK. FRAANNK! He can’t hear anything, you need to turn up the mic”. The poor girl teaching didn’t really know what to do, so we halted the class… Apparently there was a partially deaf old man who needed a special hearing aid to be able to hear the lesson… It was similar to those headsets they use for people who need the lesson to be translated into a different language… this was just for volume amplification. Haha. So that was fine.
But then…
Smack, smack,smack,smack,smack….
(you know…the kind of smack that sounds like someone has something REALLY sticky and wet in their mouth… the kind that makes a Coslett throw-up at even the slightest hint of that sound?)
Smack,smack,smack(pauuuuuuse),smack,smack, smack,smack,smackysmacksmack.
I looked over at Lance with big eyes like “what the heck” and my eyeline proceeded to look past him to find the culprit. It was an old man sitting in his electric wheelchair rocking his feet back and forth, smacking to the rhythm of the movement. Are. You. Kidding. Me. After I stopped looking at that train wreck my eyeline met lance’s again, and his big eyes mirrored mine. We both had huge grins on our face and were suppressing laughter.
Then…
The teacher asked for a volunteer to read 10 verses out of Moses. This (very sweet) native Japanese woman raised her hand, took the mic (oh yes, there is a microphone they pass around to people who volunteer to read or have a comment that is connected to the SURROUND SOUND system they have in EVERY ROOM so the old people can hear what’s being said. This is not a joke.)…. And she proceded to put the microphone up to her lips (and the sound was turned up VERY LOUD)…. And she began reading the verses… IN JAPANESE!! What? Yes, seriously.
THEN…
About 5 minutes after that, it was very quiet, and only the teacher was talking… It was something pretty spiritual and moving… and then the sound came. It kind of sounded like….you know when theres the microphone attached to the pulpit, and someone pulls it down and it makes that kind of amplified scratchy sound? Well we kept hearing it, and I really did think it was the teacher, but I kept looking up from my scriptures and she was NOT touching her microphone… and the sound came in a very rhythmic pace… Lance and I were looking around to see what the sound could possibly be… or where it was coming from. Then it dawned on me.
No.
Really?
Really.
Lance gave a nod to an old dude in the back corner of the other side of the room who was half slouched sideways, his head practically resting on his shoulder, his mouth wide open…
He was snoring.
SNORING!
Like it was the middle of the night!
Given it WAS 2:00 and probably naptime for him… but still.
It was too much…
And it went on for ATLEAST 5 MINUTES!
We couldn’t take it. My body was shaking because I was laughing so hard – but the quiet laugh…. And lance had his face buried in his hands between his knees. I could not suppress this, not even a little. It was even worse when the old lady behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hey, what’s that noise?” and I said “That man is snoring” and she said “Oh my.”
Why did no one wake the man?
Seriously. We are in a nursing home ward (which I reiterate: I love)….Ah I will never forget this Sunday.

Drum Roll Please....

2010-01-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Meet

Zoe! (That’s Zoe with an accent, but i can’t figure out how to do that on here!)

The newest edition to the wakefield clan!

>
She is amazing. Let me explain.

She is a full bred Australian Shepherd.

And she’s 95% potty trained.

The first full day Zoe joined our family, Lance had her... When I came home from school, he informed me that she understood what “Zoe, you need to go potty?” meant, that she needed to potty on the grass... she just wasn’t totally aware that she ALWAYS had to go on the grass. She’s only had a handful of accidents inside. She’s so awesome! I say 95% trained because she still has issues of going potty in the middle of the night.

Reasons why Zoe is awesome:

*She is SO SWEET

*CUDDLY

*She loves people SO much

*She doesn’t bark unless she’s hungry

*She’s learning not to nip (she DEF knows not to nip me - she knows whos boss. ha!)

*She snuggles when we’re in the car

*She’s unbelievably smart

*She’s beautiful

*She’s got a vibrant personality

*She’s gentle-natured

*When she has to go potty, we leave the front door open and don’t have to supervise her at all. She will run out, potty, and explore. She has a very distinct sense that the road is dangerous, so she doesnt even go near it. If people and other dogs walk by, she doesnt freak out, she just wags her little nub of a tail, and she stays only in our yard. When she’s done, she’ll just run back in.

*She NEVER whines

*She’s great when we take her places like Home Depot

*She loves her soft dog bed and only sleeps on that - she’s just like me and knows you don’t sleep well unless its the perfect amount of softness - i think it’s a Coslett thing...glad i could pass that on to her. hahaha.

*When i hold her in my arms, she puts put paws around my neck and tucks her head right underneath my chin. it’s SOOO freaking cute.

*When she's just hanging out, and a person is around, she MUST be touching you atleast with paw (if not her entire body) or else she is NOT content. (looks like we have a lot in common. hahah)

I could go on, but i wont. She truly is a wonderful dog. Emily Winegar WAY hooked it up - she breeds those dogs and generously helped us out with getting Zoe.... So we KNOW she came from a wonderful home and I know the Father (Wiley)... I was teaching Emily homeschool when she aquired wiley. He’s always been a sweet dog...

Don’t get me wrong, Zoe has given us a run for our money a couple of times and Lance and I have argued about who’s turn it is to pick up one of Zoe’s accidents... but it’s so fun. And adorable seeing Lance have a new little BFF.

She’s not an Airedale terrier, but she is amazing and we really love her with all our hearts. I know you want to meet her!

** how we decided on the name Zoe:

Lance isn't a fan of a lot of my baby names ive told him about (NO im not pregs and will not be for a long time. its just fun to play.) So i decided if i found cool french names (since he served in france/belgium) he'd be down for them. As i was looking, i saw a lot of neat names... one of them was Chloe, another Zoe. When we decided we were going to take the puppy, we started talking puppy names. I asked him if he had a favorite person he baptised on the mission, and he answered "Sophie"... while i loved the name, it sounded more like a poodle name...It made me think of the name "Zoe", so i said it out loud and he immediately liked it! (Sing praises here.) So we knew that since we agreed on something so quickly it was destined to be. It was French, spunky, and strong... good thing it COMPLETLY fits our little darling. :)

I also believe that when you name someone/thing it should have a meaning behind it. I don't like things to be aimlessly named.... it gives more purpose... and i had looked up Zoe previously, here's what it means:

is a feminine first name, which came from ancient Greece and means LIFE in Greek.

but it can also mean 'a (means of) living', 'subsistence',

Famous "Zoe's"

Zoe Bell born 1978), New Zealand stuntwoman and actress, known for Xena: Warrior Princess and Kill Bill

, Zooey Deschanel (born 1980), American actress and musician

Zoe Greene (born 1995) Fought lions at age seven

Zoe was the name of several Byzantine empresses. It was later used as the name of one of the Muppets on the children's TV programme Sesame Street.

So.. Zoe is fitting for our little girl all around. :)

Ill write a post later telling you more about the Australian Shepherd Breed.

ELDER COS with Zoe

our first night with her

I spy with my little eye....

ZOE!

Oh Anthropologie...

2010-01-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

pottery barn, restoration hardware, and martha stewart...

Why can't I own everything you offer?

To complete my guestbathroom look... i've been eyeing these literally for years. i love them so much.
this would look perfect on my newly (personally) laid (and personally stained) hardwood flooring

cute soapdish to continue the guestbathroom theme
im SOOO in love with this camel color for my next couch purchase. It's PERFECT and will compliment our VERY dark dark wood floors.

stripes are my favorite these days...
I don't know exactly why, but I'm REALLY loving the whole "bring nature inside" look. there's something so captivating and simple yet ornate about it... theres a chandelier i saw at lowes that looks similar to this but lance rolled his eyes at me when i pointed it out to him... so i'm thinking that's not gona happen. who knows, women do have power of persuasion over their husbands...right?

this Armour is so gorgeous.
so i want to find a couch with the camel color but with this big, cozy look/feel to it.

one day when i own the world i will get everything to make my home look amazing and like a magazine... with one of these to top it off:

Incase you were unaware - I am COMPLETELY in love with these guys - the AIREDALE TERRIER. (the king of terriers)

they are so amazing. here's a quick rundown on how wonderful they are:
very intelligent
independent
strong-minded
sense of humor
Friendly,
adaptable
courageous
Sensitive
responsive
used as a police dog and a wartime guard in World War II.
companion dog
Airedale's talents are guarding, watchdog, hunting, rodent control, tracking, military work, police work, and competitive obedience.

back in the day, they were considered one of the best kinds of dogs British royalty could own.

I WANT ONE! cute guy.

Cayenne Pepper? Really!!

2010-01-02T11:19:00.001-08:00

Okay so follow up from my last post... the verdict is in - Cayenne Pepper RULES!

Here's what I did:

Step 1:
Gargled 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper with a medium sized glass of very warm water.

Step 2:
20 mins later:

mixed OJ and 1/8 tsp CP

Step 3:
20 mins later:

Repeat step 1.

I had to be in the car for about 4 hours on the way from St George and it was as if I never had a sore throat at all.

Word to the wise:
1. make sure you MIX the CP in the water.... or else you WILL INHALE IT and you WILL FALL OVER WITH FIRE IN YOUR THROAT. haha. I had to find that out the hard way.

2. Your throat MOST LIKELY will be very dry the next few days. Nothin some ice cream/cold water/Ricola drops wont fix.

SO I'm sold. They say if you feel a sore throat coming on, do the whole CP thing, it should prevent the sore throat all together.

**Just a side note, I really preferred the OJ mix the best.... you cant even taste the pepper. However... there's something about inflicting a little pain on your pain that's satisfying.....Does that make sense? 'Feels like I'm accomplishing something. :)

Hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year. We spend ours with the Cooks! Love these guys. They are always my Guinea Pigs on my new recipes. (thanks kens, you're such a good sport!! I can't wait to learn your meatball recipe.)

Happy 2010! (How do you say it now? like oh' nine [2009]... do you say oh' ten? or twenty ten? that's not cool and short....)

Cayenne Pepper? Really?

2009-12-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

So I have a monster sore throat. It's the tail-end of the flu I've been fighting (which luckily never became fully developed) - and this is the final Bowser for me. It feels like someone is sitting on my chest while shoving a flame-throwers stick down my throat. Yippee! It's been bearable until this morning when I woke up and couldn't talk because it was too painful. Lance immediately jumped on earthclinic.com to see if he could find a natural remedy for a sore throat.

Success!

Gargle cayenne pepper... that's their answer.

So I'm slightly nervous. I was reading the forum, and a lot of people said while it did in fact help, it was a fiery experience. However, the common thread between the horror stories is using TOO much cayenne pepper - exceeding the recommended dose.

SO I'm going to try it.

Lance hopped up and ran to the store just a few minutes ago, so wish me luck for when he returns.

Here's a little bit more info about instructions (if you care to try it) and the effects of cayenne pepper usage.

Method 1: (You may want to put some sort of chapstick or vaseline on your lips before this.)

Begin with 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper and warm water. gargle, don't swallow. Repeat every 15 minutes as necessary. (If you feel a burning after gargling, place a piece of bread at between your tongue and roof of your mouth and press.)

Method 2:

In a tall glass of pulpy orange juice, mix in 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper and drink. (This is for those who can't handle the spicy taste of the cayenne pepper).

A sore throat is an infection that can be either viral or bacterial. It is most commonly caused by a contagious viral infection such as the flu, cold or mononucleosis,(that's me....the dumb flu!) although more serious throat infections can be caused by a bacterial infection such as strep, mycoplasma or hemophilus. Bacterial sore throats respond well to antibiotics while viral infections do not. For viral infections, there are many natural remedies that you can take to cure a sore throat. Some of these folk remedies work within an hour or two, others take effect overnight.

If it is too late, as in strep, it takes gargling with cayenne in water every fifteen minutes until it goes, and be patient, because it GOES. I haven't had a sore throat take hold in 15 years or more, though many have tried to start up, which also is a way for many illnesses to sprout. I generally will gargle cayenne in water at whatever strength I like and do it as much as I can until I tire of it, and then repeat every fifteen minutes, each time swallowing a tiny bit real slowly (not necessary). It only stings the tongue a little when spitting out, otherwise, no discomfort, you can get used to even the swallowing part when you see how well it works. I use the cheap Mexican stuff, but also keep on hand in refrigerator the pesticide free stuff from health store. Cayenne is a miracle cure for ulcers and so many other conditions, plus aids assimilation of nutrients and vitamins. I will keep cayenne in water in the bathroom in case I get up in the night, so I can gargle once in the night if I am very sick, but if it is in water, it will go bad quickly and needs to be put back in fridge in morning

okay so here goes... I'll let you all know the results once i figure it out.

Oh, and to back up this theory a little more - read on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-485486/Scientists-discover-chilli-holy-grail-anaesthetics.html

"You're such a hippie!!"

2009-12-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

...this was something I heard over and over when my Dad came to visit. I take it as a compliment. Some of you have had a few questions about this very strange lifestyle I have taken on (yes, I completely agree - it is slightly strange)... here's a website I found with a lot of good facts, information and even recipes - to quench a little of your curiosity - that is if you have the patience to take a little time and read.

http://www.ntptalk.com/

I've been considering creating an organic cooking blog to share my successful and tasty recipes that come out of the trial-and-error experience that is my cooking. I figure it is a good way to document the good stuff while SHARING the good stuff at the same time. What do you think?

I found this recipe and it looks so fabulous, I can't wait until I get home from St. George to try it out:

Spinach Pockets with Marinara
Please note that the dough needs to be mixed the night before and don't worry about making your dough look perfect; the uneveness and rustic quality of the dough lets everyone know that it's homemade. Make sure you use hard wheat flour, not soft or pastry, otherwise the dough will be too soft to work with. The dough ingredients are from Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. yeilds 8-10

Yogurt dough:

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 pound butter, softened
3 1/2 cups freshly milled, hard wheat flour
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

Filling:
1 pound spinach
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 cup fresh mozzarella, cut into small cubes
olive oil, to brush on top
sea salt

Marinara:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
Italian seasoning
sea salt
honey

In a large mixing bowl, cream yogurt and butter. In a medium bowl, whisk together salt and flour. Turn mixer on the lowest speed and slowly add flour/salt combination until just incorporated. Turn mixer off and mix the last bits of flour in with a wooden spoon, or if you prefer, with your hands. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook spinach for about 2-3 minutes or until wilted. Pour spinach into a colander and squeeze excess juice out. In a large bowl combine spinach, parmesan cheese, garlic, bell pepper, eggs, salt, and mozzarella. Clear a large area on the counter and sprinkle flour on top. Take about a 1/4 cup of dough (I just approximate and pull off a large chunk) and roll out to about a 9-inch round. Place a scant 3 tablespoons of filling on one half of the dough round and fold dough in half. Beginning on one side of the dough, place your index finger down on the dough and gently wrap bottom layer of dough over the top of your finger. Press down to seal dough. Continue this around the entire edge of the dough until entirely sealed. Place pocket on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until all pockets are formed. Brush each pocket with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

While pockets are baking pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into medium sauce pan. Add garlic and cook over medium heat until sizzling (do not let brown). Add 28 ounces of diced tomatoes, a few shakes of Italian seasoning, a teaspoon of sea salt and a small squirt of honey. Let simmer for about 10 minutes until thick. Serve in small bowls alongside pockets.

To freeze, cover and place in freezer before baking. To bake add about 10 minutes on to the baking time.

The Scarlet Letter

2009-12-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know our Provo City drama... you will understand more what's going on.
For those who don't - here it is in a nutshell.

We extended our deck, and it is two feet too far into our yard, so now it's us against provo city to ask to keep it. Otherwise, we have to tear it back.

Last week, we woke up to THIS in our front yard:

h

I feel like I am Hester Prynn... Literally every car who has driven by sloooowssss down to see what the heck it is. It's like we're on trial with every person who sees it! Might as well walk around with a big scarlett A on my chest too. hahah. OH the joys of provo. Wish us luck, our hearing is in thirty minutes!

RockBand Mania

2009-12-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

SO Lance and I have been promising our little 14 year olds since the very first day we taught them, that we would have a Rock Band party at the end of the year, before they were whisked away to us to the next poor soul who babysat them on Sundays. (JUST kidding! They are QUITE the handful but we love them so much! We're going to miss those little heathens!) SO... Last Sunday was our last week with them, and we decided right after the ward party that previous Friday would be the perfect day to have our party. They were all astonished that we actually came through on our promise... It turned out to be a massive success! All but 3 of our kiddies came. Lance's favorites (is he allowed to have favorites?) are these two boys who look like twins. They are quiet, and when they DO have something to say, it CRACKS Lance up.... mostly because it's usually irrelevant and obscure. Anyway - His favorite (I call them the twins) and MY favorite, Jordan (he's the all-american perfect child. Also the bishop's son) were the stars of the night. They seriously played like the crazy kids you see on YouTube who do every song on expert with no sweat. It was entertaining just to watch them. We had our darling friends Mitch and Kensie over too. Mitch is a rockstar legend....When Lance and I were dating, almost every time I'd come over Mitch was either rocking out, or putting his shirt back on after a rock band session. Kensie has the most beautiful voice, so it's not exactly fun trying to go up against her in the vocals. :) We have a wii-lovin house, with wii-lovin friends and wii-lovin kids. It was a great night...even though we jammed in the dust of sheet rock and exposed 2x4's... I dont really think anyone noticed. Anyway - here are a few pictures I snapped with my iPhone (I cant find my battery charger for my camera anywhere!)

My fav, Jordan, is far left. my next fave, Austin, is on tha drummms

Lance told me that in Hawaii you ALWAYS take off your shoes before you enter someones home.... We're following that tradition here... Lance also told me if the house looks like the picture above, with a ton of shoes out in front, you KNOW it's a good party and it's worth checkin out. HOLLA looks like we were a bumpin' partay!

mitch, kens and lancey.

Childbirth Relief

2009-12-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

So we were talking about giving birth. Lance, CJ and me. It was kind of an in-passing kind of conversation, and it went like this:

Me: Lance, don’t think you’re going to be seeing the bottom half of me when I’m giving birth. You’re going to be up by my face holding my hand.

Lance: No way dude. If I’m up there then you’ll be yelling at me.

(CJ dies of laughter)

Me: Lance! I need to hold your hand while I’m doing something that painful!

Lance: NO WAY dude. We’ll just give you a wooden block to squeeze.

(CJ almost falls out of the couch with laughter)

Me: LANCE! Ouch!

Lance: Okay, I’ll give you a stressball then. And a wooden spoon you can bite on.

Me: (Roll my eyes with a suppressed grin on my face) Thank you dear, you’re so sweet.

Apparently lance thinks wood and the 1890’s are the answer to childbirth relief.

Put your shoulder to the wheel....

2009-12-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

OH MAN! It's been over a MONTH since i've been on this thing. Here's a quick update on life:

We're newlyweds, so it's not like we're "rollin' in the dough". But I have an extremely thrifty husband. His mom told me once that ever since she could remember, lance has always saved his money and spread it out in very particular and specific ways. Looks like that transferred over into his adult life! He's used KSL and manpower (and bff Von) to buy materials for literally 1/6 of the cost, we've been blessed with the opprotunity to revamp our livingroom and kitchen. It's still in the works... and i'll post more progressive pictures where you can see before, during and after progress once we've completed it... Lance also has made me a workhorse, and I have quite literally been there with him side-by-side tearing out sheetrock, pulling up floorboards and carpet, ripping out nails, sanding, sawing, cutting, measuring... everything. LITERALLY both of our blood, sweat and tears are in this project (actually only my tears are in it thus far... i had my first breakdown the other day - i think everyone has one in every remodel project). My latest thing was, after i helped lance nail in the wood flooring, I hand-sanded the entire floor, and stained it. whew! anyway. So i've been MIA for this reason... i'll be back soon to show you the miracle of some good ol' fashioned handy work.

Here's Pre-Demolition.... pantry and laundry area.

pre-painting, pre-demo
pre-demo
prep for demo/installation

lance bein an engineer.
sunday

Political Paula

2009-11-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't take such an interest in city politics....But that's because I've never been a home owner before. Cindy (one of the three Cindys in office) sat in front of our house, surveyed our new deck, and sent us a letter informing us we have to take down the deck because it was out of code (two feet too big). SO that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Lance was sick of Provo city pushing him around....He wanted to do something about it. We were trying to find an investment property, but BECAUSE OF CINDY - we aren't able to right now. (Long story short)... Our real estate agent just happened to be a HUGE advocate for Sterling Beck, as well as the others we were rooting for. He enlightened us on their backgrounds and gave us their phone numbers. Lance got really into it - flyers, signs...he even stood up in all his BYU auditorium-filled classes and made announcements discussing his knowledge and rallying for students to care, and vote.

VICTORY!

The results are in.

Mayor

John Curtis, 5,321

City Council District 2

Rick Healey, 1,229

City Council District 5

Sterling Beck, 695

Citywide Council District I

Laura H. Cabanilla, 5,550

WOO HOO! all our guys won. I really hope they live up to the hype. I love my deck...

ON a even MORE exciting note:

Mitch and Kensie are getting married in a few days! Lance and I are carpooling over to California for the event... I can't wait! These two have really become close with Lance and I... I can't wait to have more married friends! :)

BOO!

2009-10-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

So last Monday, we continued our new tradition of FHE with Mitch and Kensie (Kensie didn't make it till later, so Von took her place at first) (we missed you Heather and Nick). We had a snappy little lesson and carved pumpkins! Lance was so cute because he even got into the Halloween spirit. Not only was he excited to carve pumpkins but he suggested we watch a Halloween-ey movie. Not surprisingly, all the pumpkins turned out pretty cute - and each one totally matched our personalities. This was so much fun... i really wanted to do it again the next day.

(Mom do you see the little flags in the lantern? I made those! They say Halloween-ish type things in English as well as French. I think you'd love them)

All of our jack-o-lanterns lit up!
(This little banner says "SPOOK". I made it with the cute little pumpkins Audrey gave me at my wedding shower which i painted black, and my inherent creativity skills my mother gave me. Thanks Mom!)

Hiking.

2009-10-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

SO Surprise, surprise, Lance and I went on yet another adventure. We wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the fall leaves before the colors turned from brilliant yellows, greens and reds into brown and naked. So for our date night, we set off for the hills. We made our way up to Squaw Peak, but instead of turning right to the fork which leads you to Squaw Peak, we went left where the camping grounds are. The light was fading fast, and we couldn't find a really awesome hiking trail... So what's left to do? Blaze your own, the Pocahontas way. So we did. It was pretty cold, which is why there was snow spotting the ground. But it was beautiful. The way we hiked had every kind of terrain possible. Flat, rocky, gravel, trees, brush, open, prickely, and so on. It was pretty difficult, and the sun was setting once we reached the top, but something about reaching the peak of a mountainside is completely satisfying.

Coming down the mountain was actually more difficult than going up.... Here's how Lance and I got creative getting down in the more dangerous parts....hahah...

Off to AZ

2009-10-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

Lance and I finally hung our whiteboard so I could feel a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment after the laundry list of work we do gets done (oh come on, i know it's not THAT weird to love checking off something once accomplished.) SO. In order for both of us to feel justified in me going to Arizona this weekend on a girls trip with Virg and Heather, we made this list and I finished everything! (Don't worry. Lance has his own laundry list to do, we just didn't write it down... like re-roof the roof..hahha)

The smell of fresh baked whole wheat bread is drifting down the hallway into my room....that means my list is done. AZ here i come!

PMS

2009-10-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Seriously, why is PMS even necessary? I am an emotional nightmare. Today I cried at a toilet paper commercial. For real. Poor Lance. But the boy knows how to suppress PMS Paula back into her deathcave. He took me for a surprise trip to the grocery store and got this bad boy:

yes, that is a tub, folks. a TUB. Not a little packet, not a tube, a TUB. That means I get to sneak cookie dough for a long time.

and to my surprise he indulged too. Any of you who may know Lance will be slightly shocked at this entire post.

Ah the (literal) sweet taste of success.

Still remodeling...

2009-10-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here's our SERIOUSLY awesome deck:
(and lance's parent's dogs that i LOVE)

This is our carport roof... i guess these quail live in our bushes, but they all just showed up on our roof while we were putting up the deck. they were just so cute and funny i had to snap a picture.

i also painted this wall... i think its like 25+ feet long and extends from the living room to the dining room. i really dislike purple, but this eggplant color turned out really great, i think.

anyway. the maddness continues!

Our First Night Home...

2009-10-03T14:19:00.001-07:00

SO This first group of pictures is actually our very first night in our house. My in-laws and sister and hubby were all so sweet and had set up our bed, cleaned the house (which was previously occupied by some very unclean boys), and surprised us with a new dining room table! wooha! So here is a picture of our very first night in... it was a disaster area! i was so overwhelmed, but we found happiness in it somewhere along the way.

eventually our home ended up looking like this:

not too shabby, but not exactly home either. note the really awesome blinds we've got goin on.... yay for renovations.

Projects + Crafty men = extreme makeover: home edition!

2009-09-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

SOOO Little Lancey is quite the ambitious one. He and my dad have been talking about projects to do around our house here in Provo since we were first engaged. I didn't think we would actually get everything done they were talking about, mostly because they were such LARGE ideas.... but OH ye of little faith.... I stand corrected!

Dad decided to get up to Utah to help Lance do projects before it got too cold to accomplish. It's been really great having him here! He's my first official house guest, and it's fun for me to get some use out of my cute little guest room (which is still doubling as a storage unit).

Our house was built circa 1970, I'm pretty sure, so there are a lot of interesting little features someone somewhere thought was a brilliant idea, such as: the whole split-level home thing. I don't think i will ever understand that. Who thought that would be cool? like "hey, when i walk into a house, I really think it'd be neat to have to make a decision whether or not you'd like to go UP or DOWN. no walking forward. That makes too much sense." hahah OR the fact that the deck, while it very nicely wrapped around the house, someone thought it was brilliant to extend it only about 3 feet. so strange. The BEST one, by far, is our guest bathroom, which is accessible via hallway, and essentially is the only bathroom anyone really uses (minus lance and me). You would think it would have a normal door, yes? NO. It's the kind of door that recesses sideways into the door frame. Okay, sounds cool, maybe convenient and flush; most likely it was the first few years it was used. HOWEVER. The door does not shut completely. There is always about an inch gap between the door and the frame. SO, dad, being the private person he is, decided the next day it was the very first thing to go....
There are a lot of other nuances that are funny and i dont get, but that's okay. that's what SuperDad is for, right?

YESS!! A BATHROOM DOOR! A REAL BATHROOM DOOR! Never in my unmarried life did i ever expect to be so completely thrilled and as excited as a little diddit on christmas day to have a legit bathroom door. That was day/morning 1.

While dad was doing that, Lance was working on installing the french doors. What had happened was back in Lance's bachelor days, the i think second night ever he spent in his new house (this house we now live in) he had some girls over, and one of them was riding his indo board

(i doubt she was wearing heels, because he would have probably married her!)

and slipped... and the indoboard shot right through one of the four large livingroom windows. To patch the hole, as bachelor boys might, they ripped up a large piece of cardboard and taped it over the hole. The glass still lying outside the window. To a HUGE surprise, it made the entire house freezing cold in the winter. So Lance, now the married man he is, took charge, found some cheap french doors, and installed it with the pops here.

SOOO those are the finished products! it may not look like much to the eye, but seriously it makes a HUGE difference in the house! Dad just finished extending the deck, and those pictures will come in my next post, along with the new wall painting.

Heather was here too, hangin out with us.

this was my first big family dinner around the table!

I don't think it's supposed to look like that...

2009-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

So this post is slightly out of chronological order, in terms of order of events, but that's okay.

I decided I wanted to be slightly more domestic. Since my cooking isn't as good as i'd like it to be, I figured i could do something that is pretty impossible to screw up, like making bread - in a breadmaker. This is basically fool-proof, right?

Lance and I pooled together some of our Target giftcards from the wedding (ahhh i love those things) to buy a beginner's edition of a breadmaker. (I got Lance on board with this purchase because I convinced him i could make bread with 8 or less ingredients that he recognized and approved of, which is something we both do when we buy groceries - make sure we know what the ingredients are, and if we dont, we google them really quick and understand what that ingredient means. You'd be surprised what things they put in your food! One time, one of the ingredients was the same ingredient they use on roads to de-ice them!)

SO i was slightly over-anxious, and decided I wanted to start out making a multi-grain bread for my first loaf.

drumrolllll please

THIS is how it turned out. UMMM PRETTY SURE that's not normal, and that's not how it's supposed to look. So much for my domestic-ness, yes? hahaha.

It actually tasted pretty okay. I liked it because it was really salty and nutty (and reallllly dense) but lance was NOT too amused. Virg tried it and she said it was good too. so who knows.

I used it on my breakfast the next morning and it actually went nicely with these little eggys.

i HAVE however, found a really good recipe that i tried right after my failure, and i've done it at LEAST 6 times, and it's turned out perfect and heavenly every time. I'll just pat myself on the back for this victory. Here's the recipe if youd like to try it on your bread machine.

100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread (2 lb recipe)

Water - 1 1/4 C + 2 TBL
Oil - 3 TBL
Honey - 1/4 C
Salt - 2 tsp
Dry Milk - 3 TBL
Whole Wheat Flour - 4 1/3 C
Dry Yeast - 2 1/2 tsp

Put these ingredients in in that order. I usually put a little indention in the wheat right in the center where the yeast can hang out.

This bread is so yummy and healthy. Also very dense, so we slice it super thin, and it lasts a relatively long time. AND my husband thinks im really cool and domestic because I made HOMEMADE BREAD! ooooo! "yes it was really hard, Honey" i tell lance, " but I do it for you because I love you and I support being healthy." hahah yep, its true.

They might be confused that I'm 14 too.

2009-09-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

Lance and I have received a new calling in our ward! (Which Lance calls the walking dead. there are literally 75% almost croaked older people in our ward, the rest basically newly weds).

THAT lovely thing being said,

We've been called to teach the 14 year olds in Sunday school as a joint calling!

wooha!

I can't wait!

The Wedding Day!

2009-09-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

So WOAH two posts in one day... yeah yeah I DO have a life, thank you. We just got done watching the BYU football game (sooo shameful! but im still rootin for them! its not over yet!)... It's really neat because we live on Stadium avenue. And yes, for once the street name actually makes sense. We live on the same street as the stadium! (You know what I mean? like communities called like, "Fresh Springs Falls" and its located in the middle of Arizona? It's just funny because there are no "fresh springs" or "falls" located anywhere. It's just funny to me. And i really like when I discover street names or communities that actually make sense.) We live a few short blocks up the hill, east from the stadium, the MTC is only a few blocks east of us, also on the same street. If you keep heading up the street a little more, past the Missionary field, the Provo temple is right there! (We went to the Provo temple last week, my first time ever in that temple. It was surprisingly really really large! and gorgeous, duh.) A few blocks south of us is the BYU campus - the Marriott center, to be exact. (Which really came in handy the other day when I ditched class to go experience the prophet speak. i'll blog about that later.)

Wow, that was quite the tangent.

I'm here to blog about my wedding day. I'm wanting to blog in detail so maybe some day it will be of great interest to my kiddies or my husband... ( you can print and bind your blog, right?)

SO here we go.

We all were still pretty jet-lagged from the 5 hour time change, so most of us woke up starting around 3. I was awake around 4, and went wandering around the front yard that overlook the ocean around 5:00. I sat there waiting for the sunrise and ate my oatmeal. It was so peaceful. The perfect kind of thing to wind my body down from the night before, which i'll re-cap really quick.

I was SO blessed enough to have ALL of my sisters there: Heather, Celeste, and then my non-blood sisters, Katherine, Virginia, and Kassie (actually, Heather Stocker was missing, and that was pretty sad for me. But having the others was so awesome.)

I'm not sure if all of you know kassie, but she is SO much fun. She doesn't know a stranger, and is cozy wherever she goes. She arrived quite a bit later than everyone else, but she didn't hesitate to make herself right at home. Lance, his groomsmen, and one of his really good friends Stacy all decided they were going to have a bachelor party for him, which was totally fine with me because A. they were all returned missionaries, no scary things would happen on this outing.... dangerous? maybe. adventurous? for sure. make lance do embarrassing things? definitely. I didn't really ask what happened on this outing, but i think it's better off that way. :) Anyway, Kassie didn't skip a beat and hopped into the car they were piled into onto someone's lap and escaped into the night.

Katherine, me, virg and heather (along with nicky and lance's brother jared) went for a walk on the beach and sat on a lifeguard tower listening to the ocean... that didn't last that long, so we made our way back to the house and heather, nick and jared disappeared, and it was just me, katherine and virg sitting on the driveway still in earshot's distance of the breaking waves. We sat there talking and cracking up, like we always do when we're together. Katherine was giving me marital advice and tips. CJ found his way down to us, which i really loved. I was glad I got to spend a little time with him too. I'm sure i've mentioned it before, but ceej is like a best friend to me. All my siblings are like my best friends, it's just a different kind of best friend with each one. Anyway, point being, it was special to me. about 3 hours later, virg found her way to a bed, and CJ had long passed out on our laps, but somehow me and katherine still stayed up talking. We went inside and found an abandoned twin bed (which also had a box spring laying next to it, which will come into play in a minute). Katherine layed down with me and we just kept talking and cuddling... im not sure what time it was, but the crew came storming in for a pit stop, and we guilted kassie into staying and chatting with us. we all three piled into the twin bed like sardines and talked and cracked up even more for atleast another hour. katherine and i slept on the twin bed and kassie fell asleep on the box spring with a seat cushion for a pillow. haha i love it... This is a particular memory i will hold special to me forever. It was like we were accidently reenacting our entire adolescence. That's what we would do. Spend so much of our time at kassie's on a tiny twin bed with makeshift pillows and no AC, staying up all night talking and laughing and getting yelled at by her mom for being too loud. I truly had one of the best childhoods/adolescence anyone could ever ask for, filled with the most amazing people who I am so lucky and blessed to still have such an enormous part of my life.

Well that wasn't such a brief recap, was it?

Anyway.

SO it's our wedding day. Its way too early Hawaii time, but normal time Texas time, so I'm vegging, making sure to be calm. I always promised myself i'd be a relatively chill bride. My philosophy was that it's supposed to be the BEST day of your life, not the most stressful. So I held true to that.

Lance and I had to be down at the governor's office at 8:00 to get our marriage license. While we were waiting in the office, i snuck a picture of the guys desk, which i think turned out actually pretty cool

That took about an hour, and on the way back to the house, we picked up two of his friends from the airport. Hawaii is pretty cool, and relatively small. Almost everything was along the coast and right off the main "highway"/road... so it was easypeasy to pick them up and run our errands.

We made it back to the house, and Lance disappeared with all his buddies to go body surfing (i can't wait to get my CD of professional pictures from my photographer to see what pictures she snapped of this!) and i took over my self-imposed bridal duties.

Like i've mentioned, i REALLY love my bridesmaids. I could not have asked for a better group of girls to be there.... You know how it seems more often than not, theres always atleast one or two bridesmaids in someone's bridal party that's there kind of by default or from the brides pangs of guilt? I am sooooo HAPPY I wasn't stuck with that. My bridesmaids were all the people who i deeply, truly love and who all have been my life-long friends and sisters. It was fun too because we all have this fun, quarky, dynamic when we're together, and that really added to the easy, comfortable atmosphere of my wedding day.

Because I loved my bridesmaids so much, I wanted to find a way to spend a little time with just me and them, one on one, so i took on the duty of doing their hair. Not that I'm a professional, but I felt like i did a pretty okay job. I liked doing this too because i REALLY wanted my bridesmaids to feel comfortable on the wedding day. It's so terrible to be wearing a dress that you feel not cute/chubby/whatever else negative in, and to, on top of that, have hair that makes you look like you walked out of the 80's or that you have earmuffs on your head. SO that's why I took many hours to find dresses that would be comfortable and REWEARABLE, as well as complimenting my wedding... I felt they turned out WAY more perfect than I had even planned... They turned out to go with my loose 1940's theme I kind of stumbled upon, starting with my invitations.... i loved it. My original point was, i wanted their hair to agree with the Hawaiian humidity, as well as be casual, yet still have a pretty swept feel to it. My mom had the idea to put flowers in their hair, which i ended up LOVING (which i was against at first, mostly because I felt it might have been cliche, and it was but it was perfect). Virg, Kassie, me and Mom had gone out earlier along the street picking flowers from plumeria trees for this purpose. (which matched my bouquets and lance's lei) i LOVE plumerias. They've got this really waxy petal with a hint of color. The white ones have this pretty yellow in the center, and the pink ones are pink and fade to white. There are a few others, but those are the ones that ended up in the bouquets... ahh anyway. I can't help but rant about how perfect everything ended up being. Anyway.

SO while i was doing their hair, Katherine was so sweet and ironed my dress i left my reception in, and a few groomsmen's shirts, and lance's shirt.

I was running out of time, and heather was one of the last ones in my beauty salon, so I called upon my assistant, Virginia to help me. Heather has such thick, luscious hair, so having a helping hand was DEFIANTLY needed!

The ceremony was relatively quick, but really awesome. I wish i could have recorded it! It was the second counselor of the temple presidency, and he had some VERY inspired, VERY specific advice for Lance and I. It was so fun to look around the room and see only people we truly loved and had a deep relationship with (OBVIOUSLY there were people missing, and we wished they could have been there. But my point is it was intimate and so personal for us, and i really loved that.) Lance's aunt and uncle, two very best friends, buddy from the MTC, mission companion, mom and dad, My mom and dad, my aunt and uncle, my sister and nicky, katherine and BJ.

My wedding dress wasn't perfectly white, so I had to change into it in the Bride's room before i exited the temple, and that was FUNNNNNN-Y! My dress was an adventure to get into, so i had to have a team to help me get it on and zip it up. Mom and Heather were there safety pinning and zipping, and we needed another teammate, so we called in for Katherine. Which added even more to the laughter we were trying to contain. so safety pinning, pricked fingers, blood on the dress, figuring out if the ice-myth was true or not, the fresh flower controversy, and a few other crisis's averted, i finally made my way out with my HUSBAND! WOOHA! It was sooo surreal! I was a WIFE. It took me a few days to wrap my head around that concept... I felt like a celeb walking out of the temple and having flashing lights bombard us. THAT was surreal and strange too. I really am not one to really dig being in the center of attention. I like being in the circle of attention but not the center. hhahah. It was kind of a whirlwind after that - family pictures, temple pictures etc.... Then we had to scurry back to the house for dinner.

That was an adventure too.

We had too many people and only about 4 cars to transport... plus my photographer. everyone found a car, and there was a handful of us who found ourselves carless. SO my very awesome photog (who i will gush about later) offered to play taxi. I hopped into her front seat, and Lance and a few others cuddled up in the back seat. That was really funny and unexpected. It was great too because she snapped a few pictures to document this experience.

We made it back to the house, and Lance was still being so awesome and cooperative with the whole picture thing. My bridesmaids and groomsmen gulped down some water and walked across the street to the beach and the lavarocks to finish up picture time. That wasn't very fun, and scaling the sharp lava rock was interesting (especially in my quilt of a dress), but it went fine, and we all headed back to the house to get the reception going.

My mom, dad, Clydie, Rob (lances mom and dad) and my Aunt Deanie and Uncle David, (and I'm sure there were others I didn't mention) were so awesome at having the tables set and the ambiance fixed....I felt like we were in Mama Mia... the ocean's waves crashing in the background, the sun setting with brilliant colors, a calico mix of chairs and tables, with a tiki torches and dimmed lighting, beautiful table settings and a group of fun, vibrant people. It was such a calm, easy going atmosphere. Not to mention the food ([prepared and cooked by my amazing family and bridesmaids and Stacy) was SO GOOD! Like, better than restaurant! I wanted to have like 12 servings. Clydie made this really awesome fruit drink called the Raspberry King Kahmehameha. My cake was a slight disappointment, but only because it kind of looked like a baby shower cake... but after i put some fresh flowers on it, it helped.

All in all, the day was a success, and all the faraway planning was worth it. The people were amazing, the elements were perfect, the day was so easy.... I loved it, and I'd do it again exactly the way it happened.

Thank you everyone who was involved physically and/or monetarily! Lance and I love you so much, and it wouldn't have been the same if even one of you was missing. I am so blessed to have such an incredible family and group of friends (who have amazing husbands too!), and the best in-laws anyone could ask for.

I've already posted these on Facebook, but im putting them here for my own whateverness. I can't reiterate how much i adored my photographer. I love the way she edited these. I know these edits aren't a lot of people's cup of tea, but that's okay because she's sending me a separate disc with all the prints in their original form, no editing, for the family members who just want normal pictures. :)

I am SO happy with her though. I found her on craigslist... which was a little sketchy (ask heather about her craigslist experience. haha.) BUT i was able to see her online portfolio and i was in love. When I met her on the wedding day, I was mid-doing-hair, and i IMMEDIATELY loved her. You know how some people's personalities just click? We probably could have been friends in a not so specific instance. Her personality meshed so well with our families, her easy going attitude was exactly what i wanted. That might have stressed other people out, but i was so glad she wasn't irritating or too bossy or invasive. She was perfect!

Gettin' to Hawaii

2009-09-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

SO the journey continues....

This was right before we left for Hawaii. This was us in the process of turning our big room into a big tent! That was a lot of fun to do. My dad is really creative and innovative, Lance is great at making my creative projects logical and do-able, and I'm the idea generator.... Actually the tent idea was originally my dad's. I just found the way thought i felt would look best. A few weeks before we left for Hawaii, Lance and I cleared all the couches, furniture, pictures...everything...out of the room and SOMEHOW managed to place it all into a very small small room. It was like doing a life size jigsaw puzzle. Later that day, Lance, Dad and I laid on our backs and stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to engineer this thing. There were a lot of elements which came into play with this decision: the weight of all the fabric, how to get the bolts into the cement, what to string the fabric with... the list went on but we got it figured out. Good thing I'm surrounded by smart men! after all was said and done, after we ran into a few hiccups...it ended up looking really pretty.

(i just noticed mom over there in the corner hanging out. haha.)

SO onto Hawaii. It was quite the adventure, that's for dang sure. The penny-pincher Lance is usually comes in handy... however... when it comes to traveling, saving that extra $50 is NOT worth it. I will tell you that. (I think I may have Lance convinced after this.) We found a cheaper flight out of Houston. I'll tell you our adventure.

Pretty sure I mentioned that Lance and I sold cars all summer so we could get a solid foundation to start our life with. Well, we had one last truck that we hadn't sold, and our departure date for Hawaii was rapidly approaching. We spent a lot of time asking the Lord to help us find a way to get it sold. Well, our prayers were answered.... but the guy who wanted to buy it lived in San Marcos (three hours away) and wanted us to bring it to him. (The Lord has a sense of humor, yes?) SO since we were driving down to Houston anyway, we for some reason thought It'd be no big deal to hit up San Marcos on the way. Check out the map.

Start at the northern big cluster of red. We start there... with a truck and trailor with a truck ON the trailer. We head down to the heart of the southwestern cluster of red. Drop off the truck, head to the DMV to register the truck for the guy, then head off to the southeast cluster of red. Please note the red, and please note that originally we were going to go from the north cluster to the southeast cluster.... anyway you see my point, yes? quite the amount of driving, ill say that much.

Lance and I have a secret though. We found a way to make the time pass. We had to make a few trips to Utah and back this summer... So, SOMEHOW Lance talked me into watching Smallville... Uhhh it's a show on the WB about Superman when he was a teenager. Yes, laugh if you will. I did. I was extremely skeptical about this. But i decided i would humor the boy (after all, he does do 95% of the driving). SO i will admit it, i got hooked. We bought the last three seasons and watched them all in one trip to Utah. Brilliant idea though. It's like watching 24 hours of one long movie. So for this really cool adventure down to Houston, we bought another season of a show we liked: Friday Night Lights. (let me disclaim: we're not huge TV watchers, so we kind of had to guess which shows were more wholesome than the rest... because we all know that's not the easiest thing to find. This one actually has morals to it.)

Anyway, we made it to Houston safely. One of my friends from high school had just moved there, so she was sweet enough to let us stay there that night and take us to the airport that next morning.

We finally caught our flight. the 8 hour flight. We scored big though because we had TV on demand, two and a half meals and free drinks on our flight. Apparently no other airline provided that. CJ said a cookie he bought on his flight cost like $5.00 . That's a bit rediculous I'd say... Anyway. We made it into Honolulu. Oh did I mention we also had a 2 1/2 hour layover from Honolulu to Kona? yeah, that was a money-saver thing we did too. So we park our tired butts in the terminal and I went walkin around to find some food for my hungry fiance. As I was trying to find a place to eat NOT McDonalds and NOT Wendys and NOT a million dollars (this took a while) I saw a lady who looked short and really cute, and i thought - "Hey! That totally looks like Mom." and as I got closer I realized HEY! THAT IS MOM! so i ran up to her and started hollerin, and she took me over to the rest of the fam. That was so fun running into them! Who would have thought. They weren't on the same connecting flight as us, but it was still fun all the same to have them in the same terminal as us. (This is Lance waiting in the terminal)

The 45 minute connecting flight to Kona felt like a blink compared to what we had just done, and it was so nice to be greeted by my darling soon-to-be-mother-in-law.

I was SO excited because I had always seen in movies where people land in Hawaii and get leid with beautiful Hawaiian flowers, and I always have secretly wanted to have that happen to me. It's like Clydie knew it, and she leid us!!!

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We had to wait for Lance's dad, Rob to get there. Not quite sure what happened, something with traffic and what not, but it took about an hour... and guess what? we ran into the family AGAIN!

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We ALSO ran into Lance's very best friend from his crazy high school days, Dave, who was also dubbed his Best Man. It's always so cute to see these two reunite. They're like two little girls. They get so giddy and hug each other really tight and just talk nonstop. Finally we got into the car and were on our way to our beach house. The highway that ran from the airport to the house was pretty close to the beach, but there were some pretty large hills obstructing the view. Lance hadn't seen his Hawaiian ocean since long before his mission, and I think the same with dave, so they both had their faces pressed against the window, craning their necks, vocally getting annoyed with the hills because they were in the way. It was so cute and funny! finally the hills departed and i heard a collective "DUUUUDE!!!!" and they high fived each other and started talking about how excited they were to get into the ocean, and that it was the first thing they were going to do once they got to the house.

the rest are just pictures of my family at the beach and at the house the night/morning before the wedding. I love you guys! thank you all for coming!!