Oh Goodie!

Spent the whole day today wanting to do everything I either couldn't or shouldn't. What's the DEAL!? Seriously. Luckily 5:30 FINALLY rolled around and Bryce and Maggie took me to their grandparent's house for dinner. I couldn't have been more relieved. Dinner was awesome and the company was even better!

Greg has been complaining lately that all of his socks have holes in them. Luckily he is resourceful and found another use for his socksPoor Wallace! He just laid down, kind of depressed and then when Greg called his name he started running into furniture. I'll admit, it WAS funny at first, but then I just felt bad for my little bud and took it off.

For one of my classes we did a blood cholesterol analysis. I was "borderline" for many of my values!
Then I realized why. . .

Hellooooo Saturated FAT!
Can we have some more bacon with those green beans? I'm seeing a little too much green.

Renee and I spent a few hours tonight making treats. Not sure why exactly, but I'm glad we did. Minus the fact that they are sugar, calorie, and fat-laden treats, we had such a fun time! I love having my cousins here! The other day I had spent the whole day doing homework and was getting pretty burnt out-to the point that I wasn't even getting anything done anymore, and Renee and Rach came over to watch Knight and Day. Hilarious! That is a funny movie and was such a great way to end my boring homework-filled day.

Break Time!

LOVING the fact that we get a week off for Thanksgiving! The crazy thing is that I somehow have managed to plan a lot more stuff than I originally thought. If I do actually get all the things done that I need to, it wont be much of a break, but whatever.

We are having Thanksgiving dinner with two families here in Rexburg. The Kingstons and the Stevesons. Both families have kids so we should be sufficiently entertained for the day. I'm sad we won't be seeing any family for the holiday so I called and got recipes for my favorite dishes and am planning on making them, and making a LOT so I can have loads of leftovers! SO EXCITED!

Thought these were funny enough to share. . .

A little photo shoot with my little brother

My Mom. . .
Sister. . .
Niece. . .

Welp, time for bed. Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and not going outside if I can help it! It snowed a TON and as always, is super cold and windy.

Yumalicious

So I have posted about German Pancakes before, but not German Pancakes with BUTTERMILK SYRUP! I found the recipe here. I have had buttermilk syrup only one other time in my life, and I loved it then too! Never having made the stuff before, I will issue one warning: It gets super bubbly and frothy as you boil it, so make it in a LARGER saucepan. I only have one (One day I'll graduate to a nice set of pots and pans, when I'm nicer, more mature, etc) smaller saucepan, not sure the proper measurements, but after it boiled over just a couple times, I had the most delicious syrup and even some left over to have on waffles tomorrow!

Now this isn't the healthiest of syrups as it calls for a cube of butter and almost a cup of buttermilk, but its delicious and oh so worth it.

The End

Punkins

I LOVE holidays, especially Christmas and Halloween. So I got really excited when Greg's brother Garrett and his wife Josie wanted to carve pumpkins about two weeks ago! I've been way too busy to actually decorate my front door or anything. So we put our awesome pumpkins, that we carved to look just like Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street (minus Bert's unibrow, we are going to put a piece of black felt there), out on our porch. I am SO happy that we are being festive...Mine's Ernie. On the right.

10/10/10-cool

I get excited when dates line up like today's. I remember how excited I was in junior high about 02/02/02. Its just fun and I'm a dork. Whatever.

ANYWAY...This has been a crazy/fun/tiring/exciting weekend. My cousin Rachael just got married so we had tons of family up here to celebrate. I just love seeing my family, I know I already said that in my last post-but again, whatever. I don't have any pictures yet, but she was a gorgeous bride and Andrew Sparhawk is one lucky man.

*Star it was so good to see you there! I just love you and Becky and Kat.

It is always the weirdest feeling after having a house full of people to suddenly be sitting here alone. Even my little bud seems out of sorts, just wandering around like he has no idea what to do with himself either. Its SO quiet... And kinda lonely. Hence the blogging, I guess. I better enjoy the relaxing that I have left this evening before another crazy week starts. I picked up some extra shifts at work and have a ridiculous amount of volunteer hours to complete for some classes-gonna be busy for like, the next 8 weeks! I guess that should keep me out of trouble though, or just make me pissy enough to cause more trouble than normal. WE SHALL SEE!

We love messing with Wallace, so we took apart his little crate. When he's in trouble or when we are leaving we tell him "CRATE!" and he runs in. So after we took it apart we said, "Wallace, crate!" and he hopped right in and sat there looking a little uncertain.

But even better was when we stopped messing with him and he crawled into the top part on his own and curled up in there. We couldn't get him to come out. Must've embarrassed him...

Mini Vacay

Went down to Utah for the first time in a LONG time. It was such a great weekend. We were able to go down Friday morning and come back Monday night. I just love my family. It is so fun getting everybody together and having big dinners and laughing with them. And what a great little break from work! I needed it.We LOVE floating down the Provo river. In fact, we enjoy it so much that we actually went twice while we were there. About 5 years ago we got a bunch of these little blow up rafts, they have always worked great! . . . except the second trip down. We spent all this time making sure that all the rafts were river-worthy, no leaks, nothin'. but somehow about 2 minutes after we pushed off the bank, the one my mom and I were in started sagging. There was a hole! But with our muscles and mad paddling skills, oh! and super-duper awesomeness, we miraculously made it through. (these photos were from the first trip down on Friday, the second trip down was Saturday)

We went for a little bike ride up to Bridal Veil Falls. Greg had never been, so we hiked the little ways up to the falls and took like thirty photos before we got a good one (the one below with all 3 of us). It sure is pretty up there.

"This killin time is killin me..."

Seems like the last 2 weeks Greg and I have had opposite work schedules. Both of us are working and that's great, don't get me wrong, but I just think it would be IDEAL if we were gone at the same times so that one of us (Me) wasn't sitting at home for forever (not really). Today I only worked until about 1, and then Greg went to work from 3 to 11:30 pm. So here is a list of things I did today in no particular order:

ate lunch

went for a walk

ate handfuls of jelly beans

went for a bike ride

took a nap

read my book

ate 2 packages of fruit snacks

ate second lunch

threw the ball for Wallace

vacuumed

read the Drivers Manual for Idaho

thought about eating more jelly beans

had dinner instead (but still secretly thinking of jelly beans)

I don't usually mind having time to myself, but I guess I just didn't plan well today or something and couldn't wrap my head around actually doing something productive like CLEANING or ORGANIZING or something... I heard the neighbors next door, the kids screaming and scampering all around their house, little feet pounding on the hardwood floor, and I think, "Oh ya, I want kids... right?" Then I hear their baby cry. . . And I'm positive that when its my turn, to have kids I mean, I'll be wishing for all this time that is currently killing me.

Cat Fight

So I've mentioned in a few previous posts that I currently work at Jimmy Johns. Its not what I would have wanted for myself at this point in my life, not the glamorous job I dreamed about, but whatever. . . Well this girl, we'll call her Catface, who just got demoted from a management position, and they promoted me to her position. Unfortunately, since Catface was only demoted and not fired, I have to work with her during many of my shifts. This makes me feel uncomfortable because 1. I am new to the position and don't know everything yet 2. Catface is fine one minute and then incredibly snappy or rude the next and 3. I instantly get in a bad mood every time I see her, whether or not I've even talked to her, right as soon as I see her I get on edge and feel like slapping her. This is so immature and childish - I'll be the first to admit it, but I still don't LIKE IT! I didn't like her before I got

WALLACE

This is what Wallace has been up to lately :)

His new best friend is Grace, our 4 year old neighbor. She comes over and peaks in our window, which makes Wallace bark like crazy, and she's gotten brave enough now to just come knock on our door or ring the bell, which also makes Wallace bark like crazy, to see if Wallace can play.

We showed Grace all the tricks he knows, so now she tries to get him to do them, and when he actually does respond to her commands, she says "thank you" and gives him leaves for treats. The crazy thing is, Wallace actually eats them. She has been coming over regularly now for the last 2 weeks. I have a hard time saying no to her, since she is getting him out to play, exercising him, and well, she's 4. The funny thing is that even as I am writing this, she knocked on the door and I'm finishing up this post outside to keep an eye on them :)


We got him these little tiny tennis balls with squeakers in them. There were three of them, and within about 20 minutes the squeakers were broken and he had torn off all the green fuzz. Worst 4 bucks I ever spent.

So far

Ramblings

Well May has sorta come and gone, flashed right on by. I don't know what happened-well, nothing did really. I finally remembered that we have a library here in Rexburg, checked out a few books, went to return those few books, only to find that my newly remembered library was closed for remodeling. I. was. Devastated. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that I checked out only 3 books, expecting to be able to go back quickly and get some new ones, and it turned out that one of the 3 I have already read and just didn't know it till I sat down to read it again, and it wasn't even that good the first time! The library is supposed to open again by next week, but knowing my luck, it will be postponed. (Sigh).

So anyway, work is fun and I'm getting a few more hours in as people are trying to get time off for vacations, and it just so happens that I have nothing else to do, so I take their shifts. Its definitely nice getting more hours since more hours = more money.

I also started playing on a co-ed rec. soccer team. I played with the same team last fall. I only know about 4 people on the team, even after playing with them previously, but whatever. I have really lost almost all the skill I acquired through the many years I played up to high school, but at least I can remember the rules, and hey, they need girls on the team, so no matter how bad I stink, I get to play :) Bahahaha unless they can track down a better, more skilled girl, but chances are they won't since the short season has already started. We started off the season with a 4-0 win! Nothing beats starting out as winners!!

The Marvelous Month of May

So I was looking at the date of my last post and it was a long time ago, well just a month, but it really didn't seem like it had been that long. I'm shocked at how quickly this month is going by. I started working at Jimmy Johns, thanks to Maggie (I am positive I wouldn't have gotten hired without her) and am really loving it there. Its fast-paced (as long as there are people in the store) and I really like working with Maggie. This is my first time ever working "Fast Food".

I have had some extra time on my hands and remembered the library, so I picked up a few books and had heard somewhere that "The Hunger Games" was good, got that one and loved it! I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. If anyone else has any good recommendations, please let me know.

So here are some pictures of some of the things we've been doing the last couple weeks:

So the following three photos are a result of reading "The Hunger Games", the main character Katniss is this amazing hunter and she goes around the whole book shooting this bow and arrow. So just like a little kid that watches a karate movie likes to do karate afterward, I REALLY wanted to just run through the woods and shoot stuff with a bow and arrow after reading this book. So my cousin Renee taught me how to shoot her bow. I would make a very poor hunter, but I think I killed the target.


These were from our hike up "R Mountain" here in Rexburg. It was a fun little hike, only took about 20-30 minutes, and we got back down just before the rain hit. It was an awesome view from the top, looking back towards Rexburg. And Wallace actually did really well. He surprised all of us with his stamina.

Leanna, Renee, and Rachael


This is supposed to be a quilt one day, but I started it, sewed about 5 blocks together, and got bored. This is gonna be one of those 5 year projects. I am not a quilter.
And below are some cool photos of some German Pancakes we had for dinner a few Sundays back. They got so big I had to keep moving the oven racks up to give them more room. They were delicious, but even better were the biscuits and gravy Renee helped me make. My absolute favorite thing to eat is biscuits and country gravy! mmm...Mmm!

In the summertime when the weather is fine...

So I think its official that we are actually staying in Rexburg this summer. I love Rexburg. I'm super excited that we'll actually be here-which is when everyone says its the most fun in Rexburg. Now we can actually do the things I've always wanted to do during the summer- like spend time together :) Every summer Greg has sold security systems and is usually gone from about 10:30 am to 11:30 pm. Doesn't leave a ton of time to do fun summer-time stuff. So, now that we will be working normal jobs, we can actually go camping and have BBQ on weekdays or weekends-whatever we want! There are so many possibilities-they are endless! Now maybe after living here for almost 5 years, we can explore all the fun things to do in Rexburg that don't involve snow. I've got a big list of craft projects I want to do, camping trips to plan, and a little running to fit it there too. I want to get better at tennis, play soccer and ultimate frisbee, and play outside with the pup. Anyway, that's all really. Just happy :)

Greg Old's Birthday

Thursday was Greg's birthday and I had to keep reminding him that it was coming up. I guess once you get older you just don't care as much about birthdays.

Greg got to go on a scavenger hunt for his birthday. When he found each clue there was an article of clothing that he had to put on. He started getting pretty worried after about 2 clues and he had orange pants and Gold shoes to put on. He called and said "This is terrible. I'm going to look like a clown on my birthday". Little did he know, that we all were dressed up waiting for him to show up at the bowling alley. We had a jello soda pop cake that was delish! And I can say that because I didn't make it :)

A Little Confused

Greg just didn't understand why I needed all these downstairs, and to be honest, I don't really know either. He thought it was funny/annoying, that I was so cluttered.

A list of things Greg doesn't understand:

Me leaving any door in the house cracked-he likes them closed or open, not cracked.

Socks inside out.

PMS

Me wearing shoes in the house. No shoes inside period.

Why I wear his clothes

Why I leave belts in my pants when I put them in the dirty clothes pile

Why girls wear chapstick and lipgloss

How I can be getting dressed and change my shirt 4 or 5 times before settling on one

Why I don't think its necessary to color code my hangers in the closet

Why I need 3 pairs of sunglasses in the car (you never know when one may break, you need backup)

Next week is our 3 year wedding anniversary. Its amazing that its already been 3 years. I'm not sure how to describe it, it seems like we've always been married, but like the time has gone by so fast-I don't know. Anyway, I love being married and can't wait for many, many, many, many more years -oh wait, forever, to come :)

A Random Update

In my sports medicine class we've been practicing taping for various injuries. I had to practice, and since it didn't really work to practice on myself, I recruited some help from my cousins. We are going to be tested on our taping next week, so I had to get lots of practice in.

Below are the lovely legs of Rachael and Renee, they were nice enough to let me practice on them. Rachael lucked out because all the wraps I did on her legs I put pre-wrap down first but poor Renee didn't get pre-wrap on hers so she had to just tear it off like a bandaid-a REALLY BIG Band Aid.
For Jumpers' Knee
Shin Splints
Arch Support above, and Achilles Tendonitis Below
Albertson's had this great sale on fruit snacks! For every 5 boxes you purchased, you got a coupon for $3.50 and since we LOVE fruit snacks. . . we bought 35 boxes! I've been eating about 3 packages a day and loving it! haha!
Greg sent this to me on my phone and I just laughed so hard. I love this picture because it is such a true depiction of cats and their high-and-mighty attitude and how the poor meek dog that is 4 times the size of that stinky cat just gets bossed around and kicked out of his own bed. And he has such a worried little face-the poor thing. So funny
Greg and I had a date night a few weeks ago where we made milkshakes built a little fort and watched a movie. It was so fun just being goofy. We planned on sleeping in it, but about 3 am we both woke up and realized how hard the floor was even with all the layers of blankets underneath us. We ditched the fort and went up to bed. What a relief! There is nothing better than sleeping in your own bed. I'm so grateful to have a comfy bed.

March Wahoo!

February came so fast-and now its gone already! This semester has really flown by. Which is good in some respects and a little scary in others. Its good because that means I'm one semester closer to graduation, but bad because we have no idea what we are doing for sure this summer. I guess I should be used to the spontaneity of our lives, but I'm not really. We are currently watching the movie 2012, well I should say Greg is, I lost interest after about 5 minutes. Good thing it was free with a Redbox code.

It has been in the 40s lately here in Rexburg and I'm LOVING IT! The snow is melting and the awful ice ruts are almost gone in the driveway behind our house. I was chipping away at them with the snow shovel this afternoon until I got a blister on my hand- then it was time to stop.

While doing my internship this semester I've had the opportunity to work with two people with Alzheimer's. I've never met anyone with this disease before, only seen things on TV, and its been pretty eye-opening for me. I just met one guy who moved in last week, introduced myself and then he asked where I'm from. I said, "I'm from Orem, Utah." and he replied that he was from Provo right by the hospital. about 2 minutes later he again asked where I was from. I said, "I'm from Orem." and he said "Oh really? I'm from Provo, right by the hospital" He is such a sweet guy and the other resident with Alzheimer's is also very nice, they are two of my favorite people there at the Assisted Living center. I'm really enjoying planning activities for the residents. I'm planning a big event for the end of the month, a Potluck from Around the World, where missionaries or people who have studied abroad make different dishes from the country they visited. I'm excited to try different foods, but I'm not sure how the residents will react since they don't even like the food they normally eat.

Well I guess its back to the lame-o movie.

Crafty Randomness

For one of the activities at the Teton House, the place I'm doing my internship, we made these little refrigerator magnets. The ladies that came picked out the paper they wanted and we put them together for them to take back to their rooms. I had a lot of fun doing it because I got my cousins Rachael and Leanna to come help. Everything is more fun when you have friends! I liked the magnets so much that I had to make some for my own fridge.
I found all of these wood scraps behind our house, so I went around and picked them all up (got the idea from my friend Brittany when she stilled lived here), and even made Greg hop in some dumpsters behind home construction sites to get other wood pieces. I sanded them down and painted these ones, I plan on covering the front with paper and trying to make them look cute. It will say L-O-V-E or H-O-M-E or something equally cliche ;-)
I got into a card-making frenzy and went nuts with paper and embellishments strewn about the room . I can't believe the HUGE mess I made, right after Greg helped me organize my scrapbook room . It really is a disaster. These are just a few that I actually thought to take pictures of. We also made cards at the Teton House, one lady wanted some for her 19th and 20th great granddaughters that will be born this month. I can hardly imagine having kids let alone 30-something grandkids and almost 21 great grandkids.
This is Wallace playing pool. He was going around knocking all the balls into the pockets. I was surprised he actually held still long enough to take a picture. He's a funny little guy. Tonight its just the two of us. Greg went snowmobiling with Bryce and Maggie and I couldn't go so Wallace and I are cuddling =) Tonight we are watching a movie at the Teton House and I'll be lucky if I can even get any of the residents out to do anything. Its funny because I would think these old people would want to come out to the activities I plan because I think, "What else are you gonna do but sit in your room and watch TV". But during the week only one or two show up. Oh well. Hopefully its fun for those 2 people that come.
For Josie's birthday her mom made this really cute cake shaped like a giant cupcake and I thought it was so cute I wanted to show it. Garrett and Josie are getting married in about a month! I'm so excited for them.

We finished season 5 of 24 and I just started season 6! Pretty sad how much I've gotten into it. Seems like we are always quoting something from it or I even had a dream where Jack Bauer was riding in the car with me and told me to put on my seatbelt. The next morning I got in the car to drive to school and I remembered so I quickly put on my seatbelt. Don't want any more visits from Jack telling me what to do.

February

This has been a great week. Lots of time with friends and family, and topped it off with great church meetings Sunday. Its amazing how easily we forget that the Lord knows us, each person individually, then sends us little reminders. That's just one of the reasons I love going to church Sundays. I feel that the Lord speaks to me and answers prayers through people's comments during lessons and especially while singing hymns. I got a great reminder today about pride. This guy got up during Fast and Testimony meeting and explained that we don't need pride because the Lord loves us SO much, so there is no need to impress anyone else, just Him. That's a very simplified version, but pride is something I've been struggling with lately. Mostly just admitting when I'm wrong - I know, like that ever happens.

On another note, This is Wallace and his girlfriend Juicey. She's a Maltese and we want to bread them. Wallace fallows her around non-stop. Last Thursday we went to Josey's birthday party (Josey is Greg's brother Garrett's financee) and hung out for about 6 hours. Wallace never left Juicey's side and we would tease him by trapping him in a corner while Juicey ran off and Wallace would flip out! Anyway I thought this one was cute since it looks like he's kissing her ;-)

January

This month is going by SO fast! I'm kinda glad though, that means Spring will come that much faster. Greg got a job, I got an internship, and we have been watching season 5 of 24. Life is good.

Greg is all finished with classes, he needs to do an internship (hopefully this summer) and apply for graduation! Woohoo! I have one more semester after this and then I should graduate in December!

We haven't figured out what to do with the rest of our lives after we graduate, but we are just enjoying NOT thinking about it. We have such great friends here in Rexburg and it will be sad to leave them, I'm sure we'll stick around for a while.

Wallace barks a LOT but is still super cute which helps me to not kill him every time he goes on a barking rampage. I wish it was warmer out so that I would actually enjoy taking him for walks. He seems to like the snow though, but I have to clean my floors way more often to get rid of all the paw prints everywhere. Greg's brother Garrett is getting married in March and we are looking forward to his family coming to visit for the wedding. It will be the first time Greg's dad has come to visit in Idaho. We can't wait.