Tag alongs

Thanks, Jessica. :D

The Rules: 1. Go to your documents/pictures. 2. Go to your 6th file. 3. Go to your 6th picture. 4. Blog about it. 5. Tag 6 people to do the same. 6. So here we go...


This is Kurt and me at our July 4th breakfast on our porch. We had friends--Nick and Deb, Greg and Tiff--over and enjoyed apple pancakes, bacon, sausage, and fruit while watching the Provo July 4th. It was a really fun morning (the beginning to a really fun day!). In case you didn't know, I LOVE throwing parties. I don't do it nearly as often as I'd like, mostly because we always seem to live in small apartments.
And the cute pumpkin spatula is courtesy of Allison. :)

I tag (I haven't tagged anyone in a while!):
1. Jill
2. Mandi
3. Michelle
4. Melanie
5. Deb
6. Tiff

My New Glasses: a Photo Essay

I got new glasses. And I wanted you to see.
Apparently, this should also clear up any confusion as to what I do to entertain myself during my long solitary hours.
Cheers.

In A Perfect World...

I would shop exclusively from J Crew.

And carry only handbags, luggage, wallets, etc., from Vera Bradley.


I guess it's my inner prep.

Luckily, I have an incredibly talented mom who solves one of those dilemmas for me.
Yeah, she made that.

(And yes, you can buy one!)

With A Bold Brush

I have decided I want to have a religious picture in every room of my house (I include the painting of George Washington praying at Valley Forge in that category). I hope to have at least a few prints of Minerva Teichert's beautiful art. I first fell in love with her art when I took out my endowments--they had a copy of Christ with Mary and Martha in the brides' room. I am struck by the beauty of her painting. Here are a few of my favorites.

Cheesecake cookies

I made these the other week and they were divine and so easy. Once again, a product of Recipezaar.com. I promised my sister I'd post these since she loves cheesecake so much.

Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
  
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) packet cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (I didn't have any lemon juice so I used lime juice and they were scrumptious.)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350.

2. In a medium bowl blend thoroughly butter, brown sugar and flour with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Put 1 cup of the mixture aside for topping.

4. Press remaining mixture into an 8x8x2 inch baking dish sprayed lightly with cooking spray; bake for 15 minutes.

5. In another bowl combine sugar and cream cheese, mixing until smooth.

6. Thoroughly beat in egg, milk, lemon juice and vanilla.

7. Spread over the baked crust and sprinkle with remaining brown sugar mixture.

8. Bake for 25 minutes.

9. Let cool, then chill for at least 1 hour.

10. Cut into 16 squares; serve.

Link!

Bananarama

Ummm, so I love to bake. I do it about once a week (and take it to work the next day to remove the temptation!). My favorite website for new recipes is Recipezaar.com. It has thousands of great recipes, all user submitted, and the best part is they're rated and reviewed! That way you know if a recipe is great! Here is the best banana bread recipe I've ever found. It can also double as a cake recipe (just cook it in a bundt pan instead of two small bread pans). Enjoy!!

Cripsy Cinnamon Streusel Banana Nut Cream Cheese Bread
(I left out the nuts.)

Ingredients

Bread

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium)
• 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Streusel

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Beat butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer until creamy.

3. Add sugar, gradually, and beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until blended.

5. Gradually add flour and next three ingredients to butter mixture, beating at low until just blended

6. Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla.

7. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x4 loafpans.

8. Batter will be thick.

9. For streusel: Stir together 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon.

10. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter in pans.

11. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

12. Bread may be shielded with aluminum foil that last 15 minutes to prevent excessive browning of streusel.

13. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes.

14. Remove from pans and cool 30 more minutes before slicing.

15. For perfect slices, cut with a serrated or electric knife after cooling.

Link!

Officially Official

Everyone, the day has finally come that I am an official company employee at Axa Advisors. Long story short, the company went into a hiring freeze just about the day my boss hired me. All this time he's been paying me out of pocket and applying for an exception. It finally came last week and today, after posting the job for 5 days, I filled out my paperwork, had my fingers printed, and was screened for drugs. As of today, Axa Advisors is paying me and I get benefits! Woohoo!

Racist

Today, I couldn't help but notice the race of our new president...

and couldn't help but think that it is really cool that we have our first black president.

I just wish it would've been a different black man, one who is more conservative.

Oh well.

In the meantime, why did they need to spend such an inordinate amount of money on the inauguration?
Didn't Obama state during his campaign that he thought the Constitution was outdated? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
And lastly, WHY did the freaking C-Span people feel the need to analyze everything right after it happened (including the benediction) and talk through the singing and inaugural poem? I really wanted to hear Josh Groban sing, people!!

We have our new president. I sincerely hope he does a good job. I sincerely hopes he comes to the center and practices bi-partisan politics. I sincerely hope we get a Republican in there in 2012. ;)

Jonesin'

Lately, I've been dreaming of this:

With Kurt working 7 days a week, I don't think we'll be able to make it up to the hill again this winter.
Che triste.

There are other things going on right now:
-I just made the best banana bread ever. No kidding. It melts in your mouth.
-Kurt found a nice surprise for me: some Special K with red berries! Turns out, I didn't finish the last bag all the way. Yes!
-I really need to fold laundry...
-So, Denver is really windy. I mean, really windy. So even when it's almost 70 degrees outside, it's too cold to sit in the park with a blanket and read. True story.
-On Sunday, after being in our ward for 4 months, we had a lady ask if we were visitors. Have I mentioned we've already given talks?
-On Saturday, a train carrying molten sulfur derailed right across the street from us. The rotten egg smell has cleared, but the 24/7 sounds of cleaning up the mess continue on...
-After a brief period of uncertainty, I have decided (once again) that I am sure I want a shiba inu. They're so adorable. For a while I thought the standard poodle, finnish spitz, or samoyed might prevail, but nay, the regal Shiba stood firm.
-I am a huge nerd.
-I found out recently that 24 Hour Fitness will indeed pay for me to certify as a class instructor. The question remains: do I want to work at Axa, study to be an editor, write avidly, and teach gym classes? Or should I wait until I quit Axa to work at the gym?
-Kurt got home slightly after 8 today! Hooray!
-I've been reduced to a random list because, with Kurt working 70 hours a week, we do nothing blog worthy.
-That freaking train blowing its horn every 3 seconds is driving me crazy!!!

I am in love.

This little beauty was built in 1911.
I love it.
And I get to see it (and 11 other properties) tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

Update on 1/18: Well, the house had structural damage. That made me very, very sad. None of the other houses we saw caught our eyes, so we will continue our search!

Enhanced Security

Hey everyone,
I've been hearing a lot of reasons for making your blog private lately, and while I'm definitely not going to do that, one of the reasons alarmed me. I guess creeps out there are saving pictures of people and their children and then posting them on websites for perverts. So, I searched for an XML code to disable right-clicks (which give you the ability to save pictures) on your blog. As the developer said, it's not fool proof but it is a start! So here's the instructions and the code.

All Aloney on my Owney

Well, Kurt has officially started busy season. Monday he worked until 6, Tuesday he worked until 7, yesterday till 9, and tonight the estimated time is 8.
This is with him getting to the office at 7:30 each morning.
Poor guy.

So, I've been spending a lot of time alone. I don't mind being alone; in fact, it's quite nice.
I've done a lot of web surfing, a lot of cleaning, some knitting, and yesterday I had a solo dance party.
[Just as fun as with friends.]

The only thing I could really use (other than Kurt being home) is a puppy.
Too bad our landlords suck.
Sigh.

Immagine da qui.

PS--When I did a Google Images search for "Alone," I got a lot of pictures of people curled up in the fetal position. Maybe, since I'm alone, I should go lie down in the hall ...

Christmas 2008

To be honest, I approached Xmas '08 with some trepidation. The reason? It was to be my first Christmas away from my family. I was worried that I'd be missing my family so much that it would make me too miserable to enjoy spending time with Kurt's family.
My fears were unfounded.
We had an unconventional Christmas but it was wonderful nonetheless. Christmas Eve we flew up to Spokane, WA, where Kurt's cousin's in-laws (yup) picked us up. Before the trip, while packing, I asked Kurt whether there would be a lot of snow in Washington. He assured me there would not be. Well, the drive from the airport to Chewelah, where Kurt grew up, normally takes about an hour. It took us at least 2 hours to get home, maybe more (the memory is fuzzy, especially since I slept part of the way) because there was approximately 2 feet of snow on the ground. We spent that night with the Chalmer's (Kurt's cousin's in-laws) and Kurt's cousin's family. Her name is Christine and we'll call her that to dispel future confusion. Christine has three adorable children--ages 4, 2, and 10 months--and it was really fun to watch them open presents. Then, we headed over to Christine's parents--John and Sherrie--to sleep for the night. The next morning, Kurt woke up to this:

He calls this the squid picture. I take offense to that. The reason I was in that position is because Kurt turned on the main light in the room before my eyes had time to adjust. So I was trying to look at him but it was difficult. Anyhow, I went upstairs and saw this:


Lots and lots of snow. Christine and her family came over and we got to watch them open presents again; the second time was just as entertaining as the first. They are really cute kids with lots of energy. For the rest of the day, we ate tons of food with family, built a sweet snowfort with Jacob (Christine's oldest), and finished off the night with a dip in the hot tub. The sky even cleared while we soaked so we could see the stars.
The next day we hung out with Kurt's old friend, Aaron, at his parents' house. They have two mini schnauzers that were incredibly adorable. Did I mention that just about every house we spent time at had dogs? The Chalmers have two labs, John and Sherrie have a lab and a mutt, Kurt's grandma has a shitzu, the Langley's had a dog, their visitors brought two dogs, Aaron's family had schnauzers, and the house we went to for New Year's Eve had 2 dachsunds and a puggle (pug and beagle mix). I was in dog heaven! The mini schnauzers fell asleep on my lap as I stroked their soft little heads and watched Hancock. On Saturday morning, we continued work on the snow fort--the room inside was about ten feet long, 2.5 feet tall, and 3 feet wide. It was massive. Then we headed down to Spokane for the Field Family Christmas party! Woohoo!

This is the the second time I've been around the whole family. It was fun. They're like my family: loud, obnoxious, and totally fun. See that big guy? That's Kurt's brother. He finally made an appearance, graced us with his presence, if you will. And Kurt's mom was there too. We opened gifts, ate more food, and took a giant group photo that we have to get from Kurt's mom.

This is Christine's oldest, Jacob, and his little cousin Dyllin. Dyllin is 1 and Jacob kept trying to talk to him. Their dynamics were pretty cute.
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to head over to Nikkia's house in Coolin, ID. Never heard of it? Yeah, it's pretty small. On the way we saw some nature:

These moose were just the beginning of our natural adventures in Coolin. On this trip we also saw some wild turkeys, but didn't get a picture. The majority of Sunday was spent shoveling snow off Nikkia's roof (so fun) then eating and watching movies as we tried to warm back up. Kurt and I took a brisk (to say the least) ride on Nikkia's four wheeler. Then, Kurt and I snuggled up for bed in Nikkia's spare bed: a twin. It was ... cozy.
On Monday we drove down to Post Falls, ID, to take Kurt's grandma out to dinner. It took us about 5 hours to get down (including a stop at Best Buy during which I totally rocked out on Guitar Hero World Tour) and then we ate some scrumptious Chinese food at a Mongolian buffet. Yep, you heard me right: Chinese food and Mongolian restaurants. Those crazy asians. On the much shorter drive back, we saw an elk! Nature! Goulet!
On Tuesday we borrowed some snowshoes from the Langley's (identities to be revealed later) and went snowshoeing! It was much less tiring to sink only 6 inches into the snow rather than 3 feet!


We really need a new camera because it was actually a beautiful day. The clouds were clearing up and we could finally see the sun!
On the way back we saw some more nature:

A huge woodpecker. It was pretty cool to watch him at work. And he totally knew we were there but didn't care.
Then we got back and saw some more nature:

An adorable little white weasel! I tell you what, based on all of the fauna we saw, Coolin must be the final frontier. Or something like that.
We were starving so we headed over to the closest of the two restaurants in Coolin for some grub. And the boys played with their phones and cameras. Typical.

While I showered, the boys headed out for another snowshoeing adventure.

Ah, what a sunset.
That night we had dinner at the Langley's. Merle and Janet are Kurt's grandparents' best friends and Kurt's pseudo grandparents. They fed us lots of food and had dogs too!
Wednesday we headed to Spokane to drop Nikkia off at the airport. Then we headed for the nearest Mountain Gear store so Kurt could check out the mountaineering gear (for his projected December '09 climb up Aconcagua). While in Spokane we saw a parking lot that was half full with a giant 10 foot pile of snow:

That's a lot of freaking snow!
That night we headed back to Chewelah to hang out with Aaron (see above) and another one of Kurt's boyhood friends, Jason Lane, for New Year's Eve. There was a bonfire and a drunk guy telling all kinds of stories so we had a good time, but the three of us (Aaron, Kurt, and I) were not heavy weights that night and left a little early. Kurt and I got into bed right at midnight, got our New Year's kiss and promptly fell asleep.
The next day we left 20 degree weather and 3 feet of snow to go to Denver, which had 60 degree weather and no snow that day. Not a bad trade.
Once again, we did not take nearly enough pictures as we should've. I always forget! Next trip, I'll chant to myself: "Take more pictures, take more pictures." Unfortunately, chanting is a sign of the devil.

Confessions of the Confused

So, I have a habit of misunderstanding things. Usually, I just don't know what something means and I make up my own meanings. I'm pretty smart, but I do have my blonde moments. In this series, I will dare ridicule to make you laugh at me... which I don't mind doing because I like making people laugh.

I once read a book in which a character killed himself by sticking his head in the oven. This is also how poetess Sylvia Plath committed suicide. Growing up in today's modern society, I naturally assumed this meant that said suicidal person would turn their oven on, lay down next to it, and keep their head on the hot burners until it killed them. "What a miserable way to die!" I thought. "They must be really determined to kill themselves!"
Somehow, this came up in conversation with my mom. I told her that I thought that sounded like the most miserable way to commit suicide. After laughing for 5 minutes, she informed me that these people were putting their heads in old fashioned ovens, which emit a gas that is deadly. This vapor is what kills, not the hot burners.

I'm a classic at misunderstanding song lyrics. In a recent Coldplay song, Chris Martin sings: "Dreaming of the Osaka sun." I always thought (though I did not understand the meaning) that he said, "Dreaming I'll be a circus clown."

Resolutions Schmesolutions

So, I don't like resolutions. I think it's the anticipated failure that comes with them.

I like goals, instead.

I don't have a ton for the year, but mostly for my month. I plan on posting my monthly goals at the beginning of every month.
However, I do have a few for 2009:
-> Buy a house
-> Buy a dog
-> Do volunteer editing work at a high school or college by the end of the year
-> Eat healthier. I mean, I already eat pretty healthily but I seriously need to cut out my sugar intake. :D
-> Be better about my cleaning regimen
-> Edit my posts before posting them
-> Stop picking at my face and nails :(
-> Continue my awesomeness

My January '09 Goals:
-> Finish Kurt's scarf I'm knitting
-> Write, write, write. Specifically, work on my YA fantasy series idea
-> Print my blog into a book (2007-08 posts; I plan on doing it yearly)
-> Read The Ensign cover to cover
-> Read Catch 22. I've decided I'm going to limit myself to one book a month. That way I'll actually live life, rather than just spend all my time reading.
-> Gym it up at least 5 days a week, preferably 6
-> Get half way through my editing text book
-> Make my own custom blog layout

These goals should help get rid of that flat feeling.

Immagine da qui.