Oh Widda Bwudda!

Any of my facebook friends getting sick of that yet? No? Good.

Kurt and I decided it would be really fun to fly Collin out to hang with us for the weekend of the 4th and take him to do all kinds of outdoors stuff. Because he likes that stuff. So we did. He flew in on Wednesday afternoon and showed us that evening his mad, unknown volleyball skills. The next morning, at 3 am, we shoved ourselves and our camping gear into the ole Acura and drove to Moab for some mountain biking! **Warning: TONS of pictures. (Lots of sequence shots.) And videos. Yeehaw!**


Getting in some shut eye. I slept 2 hours, then drove 3 hours, then slept 2 hours, then mountain biked. All. Day.

Kurt took this picture for Alex (they were talking right at this moment).

Getting ready for the Klondike trail.

Kurt got all 3 of us in the pic and was pretty proud of himself.




Dinosaur tracks!

See how it's cloudy and even raining in the distance? Yeah, it was still a stifling 92 degrees. So glad the sun was hidden, though.

Collin biffed it.



At the top of the Klondike trail you hike about 5 minutes into Arches National Park. Unfortunately, not far enough to see any Arches. By the time we were done with biking, a huge storm was blowing in, thus preventing us from taking Collin to see Delicate Arch, etc.

He still had a good time though.



Mmm... helmet hair. Lovely.


Then we ate there. I think it's called Moab Diner. Some girls checked out Collin. We ate lots of food.
Next up, the (in)famous Slick Rock trail!


Here I am starting it... and I didn't go much further. I let the boys play on the actual trail, and came back later (at Kurt's behest) to do the practice loop.










































Note to self: my hiking shorts make my butt look huge.







We had such an awesome time! But the fun didn't stop there, as soon as we dropped off the bikes, showered, and snarfed foot long subs, we headed on to our next adventure...

So Just Let Go... And Fall Into It...

L'ho trovato qui.

Do you ever wish you could live in a song, album, or just artist?
I do.
(And maybe I'm the only one who this particular, and odd, desire.)

One of those artists is Mae.
Oh, they make my heart melt.
The Everglow is seriously one of the happiest albums I have ever listened to.
As my friend Alex says, their music speaks to my soul.

*I'm sitting under falling stars.
Do you miss me where you are?
I'm making plans to be with you.
But have they come unglued?
What am I do to without you?*

*Painted skies--
I've seen so many that cannot compare to your ocean eyes.
The pictures you took,
that cover your room.
And it was just like the sun,
But more like the moon--
A light that can reach it all.
So now I'm branded for taking the fall.*

*Every now and again sometimes,
I get lost on the wind of a dream.
The air gets clean and the seas get wide,
And I can do anything.*

*"It's magic", she says to me.
My hand in her way, she approaches sweetly.
It's enough when I see that look in her eyes,
it's enough for me to paralyze.*

*Say anything, but say what you mean.
When you whisper you want this,
Your eyes tell the same.*

*I’ve got a feeling it’s not the safest place to start.
This heavy breathing--it seems we’re better off breaking hearts.
And at the beginning, dove down, and lost with all his charm.
Just wanna wake up, wake up in someone’s…*

*You come over unannounced,
Silence broken by your voice in the dark.
I need you here tonight, just like the ocean needs the wave.
Fall around me now,
Like stars that shine and brighten the way.
I need you here tonight, just like this night it needs the rain.*

*To float above the world for now,
to lose control is bliss somehow.*

*The nights are getting warm again.
They've let you go; I let you in.
Everything you're saying sounds right tonight.
The waves are crashing on and on.
We're running even if we're wrong.
This force is driving me to test the speed of light.*

*Did you know what you were doing?
Did you know?
Did you know how you would move me?
Well, I don’t really think so.
But the night came down and swept us away.
And the stars they seemed to paint the most elaborate scene today.*

*So when you say forever, can't you see?
You've already captured me.*


Wistful sigh.

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

The other day, on the way home from work Kurt called me:

Kurt: "Hey, can you pick up anything we need to bake cinnamon rolls that we don't have already?"

Me: "Uhh, sure... why?"

Kurt: "My office is having a bake-off and I'm going to make my cinnamon rolls."

Me: "Great! .... I'm going to make something too!"

So I entered Kurt's office bake-of. I got everything Kurt and I needed and headed home to clean the kitchen (we bug bombed the house, so the surfaces needed to be scrubbed before Kurt could roll out his dough). By the end of the night, we had 24 cinnamon rolls and one coconut cream cake ready for the eating.
I'm not sure why I entered, since I don't work there. I just like to bake and it was an excuse to bake. So yesterday, Kurt pipes up, "Everyone's loving the cake.... you might win this one!"

Well, Kurt just sent this to me:


That's right. The "Atkins posse" as his friend Tyler called us, took the 9th floor by storm. I wish I could take credit, but this isn't my recipe. I'm not sure whose it is... I got it from my mom, who got it from my aunt Michelle, who got it from...?

Anyhow, in lieu of this (small) victory, I'm going to share the (now) award-winning recipe. Oh, and I've thought of a cool name for it:

Loco Coco Cake
1 yellow box cake mix and the ingredients it calls for (I prefer butter yellow... butter, mmmm... )
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 bottle/can of Coco Loco, Coco Real, and whatever your region's version is of THICK, CREAMY pina colada mix. Don't get the watery stuff!
1 container of Cool Whip
1 bag of coconut flakes... I prefer the big shavings, but it's up to you, man.

Make the cake according to directions.
While it is baking, mix the sweetened condensed milk and Coco Loco together.
When cake is done, immediately poke DOZENS of holes in it using a fork. Seriously, you can't have too many holes in the cake.
Pour the milk/coco loco mixture on the cake and spread with a spatula.
*Note: you'll want to keep checking on the cake until all of the mixture has soaked into the cake because as it soaks, the remaining goo will have a tendency to pool in the center of the cake but you should spread it out when this happens.
*Note: this cake is best made 24 hours in advance. If you eat it right away, it's like a pudding and it isn't bad, still very tasty, but if you give it 12 to 24 hours, it'll firm back up into cake. :)
Before serving, spread Cool Whip on top. I like to zap the Cool Whip in the microwave so it's soft for spreading.
Toast coconut shavings/flakes/etc., on Hi Broil in the oven on a cookie sheet (spread evenly).
When they are lightly browned, take out and sprinkle over the cake.

Aaaaaaaand, you're done. Mmm... makes me wish I'd gotten a piece of it!
Just to let you know, this cake is a little pricey to make. But it is soooo worth it.

Confessional

1. I really like Linkin Park. I know this puts me on par with high school boys, but whenever I hear a song of theirs on the radio I crank up the volume.

2. I want skinny jeans. There. I said it.

3. I've been listening to a lot of hip hop lately and I'm dying to go dancing.

4. I love marshmallows. I know they're completely unnatural, but they're so tasty.

5. I just misspelled marshmallows as marshmellows. Me, the spelling nut.

6. I have a serious celebrity crush on James McAvoy.

So, what do you want to confess today?

Watch What You Say

Last Thursday, I went in for a hair cut.
I got exactly what I asked for.
I got a very good haircut.
I'll see this stylist again.

I just asked for the wrong thing.

You'd think a linguist would know the difference between "top of my shoulders" and "just above my shoulders." Oh well. At least it's cooler.

I love Kurt.

A recent G chat conversation:
me: So I got a Ferrari F430 today, and a Murcielago and a Viper on Monday

Kurt: nice...

is that a facebook app?

me: by got I mean saw

lol

I'm retarded.

Kurt: wow

Am I crazy?

Remember how, after running only 6 miles, I looked like this:


Apparently that isn't enough to deter me from doing it again. Oh, and upping the mileage.

I am going to try to attempt a Half-Marathon. You heard me. I'm crazy.

Date: September 19, 2009
Race: Autumn Color Run, 5k, 10k, Half Marathon, and 1 mile fun run
Location: Buena Vista, CO (aka, middle of nowhere)

Schedule:

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3	Rest	3	3	Rest	4	Rest	13
2	3	Rest	3	3	Rest	4	Rest	13
3	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	5	Rest	15
4	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	6	Rest	16
5	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
6	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	10	Rest	21
7	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	11	Rest	24
8	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	12	Rest	26
9	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	9	Rest	22
10	3	Rest	3	Walk 2	Rest	13.1	Rest	21.1

I will be tweaking this. For instance, today is the beginning of week uno. I seriously don't think I can run 13 miles this week. I haven't been running for a month. So I'm going to run tomorrow, skip Wednesday, and run Thursday and Saturday. We'll see next week if I'll be able to add that 4th day.
I don't have to register for this race for a little bit, so I may end up doing a 10k again. That's ok. I can recognize my weaknesses. But I think doing two 10k's in one summer still ain't bad.

But yeah, I'm slightly off my rocker. Meh.

July Goals

So I totally missed June. Oh well. I mean, can you blame me? I barely had enough brain capacity beyond house matters to eat, let alone cook meals. But now we're in and things are starting to get close to becoming normal. :\ This would be a lot easier if I wasn't working. Anyhow, enough with the tired pity party!
So, for July my goals are pretty much just house things, but a few that aren't. This is going to be a To-Do list more than goals.
-Do the guest bedroom (scrape wallpaper and paint)
-Refinish all of my garage sale/craigslist finds
-Learn how to coupon and put it into action!
-Get all unpacked and settled in by the end of the month
-Read scriptures daily (can anyone tell me why this is so hard?)
-Weekly writing sessions. I would say daily, or even semi-daily, but I know I'll fail. I need to focus the majority of my energy on getting my house into order, but I do need to write. So I think weekly will keep me going for the time being, without taking time away from more pressing things.
-Resume running training
-Weight lift 3 times a week