Jaeme + Randy

Brian Regan

2012-01-27T14:05:00.004-07:00

For Christmas my parents gave all of us tickets to the Brian Regan show. We went last night and it was AWESOME. It was so funny and we had such a good time!

We first went and ate at Red Iguana and then went to the show at Abravanel Hall with my parents, my sisters and their husbands. We had a great night!

Waiting for the show to start:

Standing on the balcony of Abravanel Hall with Temple Square in the background:

Living without a toilet

2012-01-07T13:32:00.004-07:00

The other day we had a leak in our wall between the bathroom and the laundry room. Pretty much sucks that the only way to fix it is to cut out the wall. Lame. Now today some worker guys are here fixing the hole in both our laundry room wall and our bathroom wall. That equals no toilet the entire day for us.

Good thing we live close to a 7-11 so we have some type of toilet access...

Not where our toilet should be:

Going to have some cleaning up to do once this is done:

Trying to keep our carpets clean. Darn their dirty shoes:

Christmas 2011

2011-12-28T20:32:00.007-07:00

Wow, how has Christmas come and gone already?

We went over to my parents house on Christmas Eve and slept over for Christmas morning to open presents. Our 2 nephews were there and it was fun to watch them be so excited for Christmas!

Christmas afternoon was spent with Randy's family. We ate good food, caught up with everyone, and watched our nephew play with his new toys. Randy had to go to work at 7pm so once he left, I went over to visit with my Grandparents.

Treats for Santa on Christmas Eve:

So excited about their Christmas Eve jammies:

Lots of presents to open:

Randy and I with our gifts:

I wish I would have taken more pictures throughout the day but it's hard to remember with so much going on! It was a wonderful holiday though and we are so blessed to be able to spend it with our families.

Work Out Challenge

2011-12-12T12:08:00.002-07:00

I am in Phoenix with Randy so that he can interview at University of Phoenix Medical School, more about that later :). But today it is raining here and Randy is actually at his interview so I needed something to do.

I went for a short 2.5 mile run and then I decided to work out here in the hotel room. I found this challenge online and wanted to try it. It pretty much killed me and I only got through 5 out of the 10 rounds for the challenge, but now I have a goal to do all 10 rounds at one time :).

It was a very good workout and it felt great! Here it is:

10 Burbees
10 Squat Jumps (it says to use weight but I didn't since I'm at the hotel)
10 Push Ups
10 Toe Touch Sit Ups
10 Dips
10 Tuck Jumps
10 Plank Jaxs
10 Splint Lunges

I did those 8 exercises for 5 rounds but next time I will try to add these two:

10 Leg Drops
10 Squat Thrusts

The goal is to do all 10 exercise for 10 rounds, in other words, 1000 exercises at one time. CRAZY!

Give it a try! It's actually really fun and I'm excited to keep working at it.

To see a video on what each of these exercises are, go to the website where I found the challenge:
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/11/28/it-will-rain-sweat-1000-rep-workout/

Enjoy!

"Its Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas..."

2011-12-07T22:20:00.006-07:00

It feels so much more like Christmas time when I have decorations up, even if we don't have very many and even though we decided against putting our whole big tree up. It's just nice to have a little bit here and there!

Sorry for the slightly blurry lights picture:

I need to go get some cute little jewly things to fill this vase:

I kind of can't stand listening to Christmas music except maybe on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but I do LOVE Christmas decorations!

Out to See the Lights

2011-12-04T12:29:00.010-07:00

We met up with my family at Temple Square to see the Christmas lights last night. It is always so nice to go see the lights (even though we usually do a quick walk through because its always freezing. I vote for Christmas lights being up in June...) and fun to do something Christmas-y.

We have decided its a no Christmas tree year. Our family room in our new place is smaller than our old one and our tree would take up like half of the room. I still will do some decorating, but no tree. Yep, we are being scrooges I guess!

werewolf or vampire? that is the question

2011-11-18T18:53:00.003-07:00

First off, some exciting news! Randy got accepted to the University of Rochester School of Medicine! He has he interview at the University of Utah School of Medicine the first part of December so we are still crossing our fingers for that, but we are really excited about the acceptance!

I went and saw Breaking Dawn Part 1 with my mom, sisters, and my older sisters two friends. Just to preface this, I LOVED the books until Breaking Dawn, which I thought was incredibly boring and ridiculous, and I have hated all the movies. So cheesy with horrible acting. That being said, I still go see all the movies and lets be honest, any excuse to get out and have a fun laugh with the girls is great :).

I have mixed feelings on the movie. The acting was actually better than it ever was in the past movies and the actress who plays Bella was not nearly as annoying. I think she got some acting lessons finally. My biggest complaint was that the movie was so slow until the last about 30 minutes. There were definitely some stupid cheesy moments but those were worth a few good laughs! Oh, and Jacob definitely wins in the movies for me!

Overall it was okay. Not great and not really something I am excited to see again, but it wasn't horrible and was a huge improvement from the other movies. And of course I'm excited for girls night to see Part 2 :).

By far the best part about it was the preview for The Hunger Games! Can't wait for that one!

NYC 2011. and way more pictures than you care to see.

2011-11-12T12:12:00.039-07:00

I took like a million pictures in New York (might be a slight exaggeration....but still over 200), so here are some of my favorite memories from the trip. I really loved it there. It is such a different lifestyle which is fun and interesting to see. I honestly could not raise a family like that but I think it would have been a fun adventure to live there for a year or two when I was single or just newly married! Honestly, the biggest turn off for me happened when we were on the air train to the JFK airport and I looked back on the city and it looked like a pile of mud was sitting over it. I could not believe I had been breathing that air for a week! It made me appreciate where I live and the beauty of Utah.

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: THE MARATHON
47,000 runners and over 2 million spectators. This was pretty amazing to watch. My dad said this was the coolest thing he has ever done and he can't wait to do it again. I'm not going to complain about a yearly vaca to New York! My dad placed 8,079 out of 47,000 so he was in the top 17%.

My dad is in there somewhere:

The finishers! My dad and Uncle Randy:

The Expo:

WHERE WE STAYED:
We rented an apartment right in the city. It was a perfect location; about 0.6 miles from Times Square. It was small for Utah standards but was pretty big for New York. It was fun and worked perfectly. And my mom, sisters, and I may or may not have stayed up laughing until 2am every night. Slumber parties are still fun.

Just so you think I'm not exaggerating on the size, the door in this room hit the bed when you tried to open it all the way:

The whole crew! My parents, my 2 sisters and I, my Uncle Randy and his 2 daughters:

WHAT WE ATE:
A lot. Seriously. We ate all authentic New York food except we went to Hard Rock the first day because we were starving and didn't know where to go. Best pizza in our opinion? Mariella's. But really, all of the food was good and I don't think we were ever disappointed in where we chose to eat.

Mariella's Pizza:

Crumbs Bakery:
We got PB Cup and Raspberry Swirl. Both great but I think the raspberry won.

Vendor Hot Dogs:

Great Desserts (don't remember the name):

Pick A Bagel:

Aoa Bar and Grill:
Best ribs I have ever had, yum!

Roxy's:
Cheesecake! Plain with Strawberries and Toffee

Shake Shack:

and Sheas own ketup stash at Shake Shack:

OUT AND ABOUT:

OCCUPY WALLSTREET:
I won't bother to give my feelings on this one. Sort of cool to witness a piece of history though!

WE REMEMBER: 9/11 MEMORIAL:

HILARIOUS MOMENTS:

Shea deciding to take a breather and sit down on this "wood block" which ended up to be cardboard and falling right through:

My mom having a guy come up to her and say, "hey there diva lady. You want my CD? Yeah that's right, I know you get down." I didn't have a picture of the exact moment but it was this same day:

A cartoon artist on the street coming up to McKell and saying, "Let me do you. Let me do you. Only take 10 minutes. Only 20 dollar." HAHAHA. Get your mind out of the gutter, he wanted to draw her picture....I made her pretend to take a picture of scenery so we could get a picture of him standing there:

Me making my dad pet his least favorite animal (besides snakes) just to get a picture. He took off running about 2 seconds after the flash from my camera went off:

FOOD TOUR THROUGH GREENWICH VILLAGE:
The food tour was really fun! We tried different pizza's, cheesecake, really good bread with olive oil, cheeses, etc. And Greenwich village is a really awesome neighborhood that we got to explore!

WICKED:
My favorite thing we did. I loved this show! It was absolutely amazing!

All these pictures don't even touch the surface of our trip. It was so much fun! I am so glad we could stay for so long and do so many great things! Until next year :).

NY here I come!

2011-11-03T17:37:00.001-06:00

Leaving in a few short hours for New York! My dad is running the marathon on Sunday and also got invited to represent the USA as an athlete in the parade on Friday. I am so excited! Only thing that would make it better is if the hubby was coming too. I'm sure he will survive without me for a week though :).

An update in pictures

2011-10-21T20:27:00.012-06:00

Pretty drive up Millcreek Canyon to see the fall leaves:

Fun day with the nephews at Gardner Village:

And testing out the massage chairs at Bed Bath & Beyond:

The Capital

2011-10-12T15:26:00.012-06:00

Washington D.C. that is...

Recently I (Randy) had the opportunity to fly out to our nations capital for an interview at George Washington University. It was a good and fun experience and the interview went pretty well. It had been a while since I had used a subway system and it took me a good while (ten minutes or so) just to figure out how to pay for the dumb ticket I needed to get from the airport to my hotel haha.

The city it self was pretty clean, but I was surprised how crapy the metro cars were...It was funny to be in a big city again vs Salt Lake. When I got off of the metro at my stop--at around 11pm on a Thursday night--I was pleasantly surprised to see the streets full of college kids out partying and having fun. If you were to stop off in downtown Salt Lake anytime after 8pm it is probably deserted.

My hotel turned out to be pretty sweet, it had these funky "screen" doors covering up the main door to the room.

The interview itself went really well and I think I did good. So we will see what happens with that. I will find out about their decision 8-10 weeks after the interview. So some time late Nov, or early Dec. Man that is a long time! I knew that DC was super expensive but I was shocked when a medical student told me he was paying 2200 a month for rent for a one bedroom apartment in the city!!! ... That is crazy! I don't know how they afford that, sheesh.

I didn't have much time to explore the city after my interview (only an hour) so I just walked over to the Kennedy center and went on the roof to get a quick overview of the city.

Honestly it was the most shortest, very expensive, un-relaxing vacation I have ever taken haha. Now I have the opportunity of doing it again on the 26-28th at Rochester, NY! Woo... not really. I'm already sick of this whole process, I really just want to start medical school! But I am excited that I got an interview in Phoenix sometime in December and Jaeme is going to come along with me! We are going to road trip it and drive there and then spend a few days there. So that will actually be a fun vacation.

Awesome Giveaway!

2011-10-11T17:29:00.002-06:00

I meant to post this a few days ago, but it's not too late! There is a great giveaway for new running shoes on the Hungry Runner blog (click on the link on the right side of my page). It ends tomorrow so be quick!

If you haven't checked out her blog, you should, it's the best.

getting sucked in

2011-09-27T15:39:00.002-06:00

Remember how Randy works nights and I work days? Well for some reason, I never want to go to bed at night when he isn't here and I get distracted super easily.

After work I knew he wouldn't be home so I went to the gym. Lo and behold, the good ole Kardasians were on the TV while I was on the elliptical. Wow. They are absolute trash. And I was super into the dumb show the entire time. After I left, I was still in "reality TV mode," but since we don't have our TV hooked up to anything except our DVD player and the Wii (for Netflix) I had to find something on Netflix to watch. Welcome to Laguna Beach. Don't worry, I finished the whole first season and went to bed at 2am.

The entire time I was watching it I just kept thinking, "where in the world are these 16 and 17 year olds parents?" I am such an old woman. Then it showed 2 of their dads and they were like, "yeah, the girls will be 18 soon and then they can make their own decisions so we have to let them go." Um hello, they are 16, that sort of makes me sick. In a way, I felt bad for these teenagers that basically have no parents to guide their lives. Maybe I'm just old but I don't really see sleeping around, partying all night, and failing school when you are a teenager making you all that happy in the future.

Anyways, it made me glad we don't have cable because I obviously would waste WAY too much time on reality TV.

the floor is clean, right?

2011-09-21T20:19:00.002-06:00

Hopefully I am not the only person willing to do this before buying a pillow:

I'm sure Target keeps their floor sparkly clean :p

p.s. Randy hated the pillow. We returned it. Haha

I {heart} New York

2011-09-15T16:52:00.004-06:00

I am officially booked to go to New York in November! Yay! I'm so excited, I can't wait! My dad is running the New York Marathon and I didn't think I would be able to go but things changed :). Sadly, Randy isn't going to come with me. Stupid spending like a million dollars to apply to medical school and fly all over the U.S. for interviews that last 30 minutes....j/k it's all worth it, but I still wish he could come. It will be my parents, me, and my little sister than some of my uncles family (he is running too).

This marathon will be something like my dads 18th marathon then he will be going back to Boston for the 4th time next April. He is pretty awesome.

Birthday Girl

2011-09-11T17:54:00.007-06:00

My mom's birthday was on Friday, isn't she beautiful?

We went out to dinner for her birthday on Monday then on Friday we had a doughnut party, did dinner at home, and opened presents.

I am so lucky. I seriously have the most amazing mom in the entire world. I love hanging out with her all the time. I love that we are so close and do so much together. She is the strongest person I know. I truly believe she can get through anything hard in her life and do it with a positive attitude. This year has proved to be a tough one but she is still so positive, happy, and strong. She is such an example to me in more ways than I can even count and she is always so supportive of everything I do. I am so glad we could celebrate her birthday all together! I love you mom.

Crazy Stupid Love

2011-09-06T16:33:00.002-06:00

Randy is now working full time nights at the hospital and I am full time days....That equals the potential to not see each other for quite a few days in a row. Last week, he left for work on Wednesday night and we didn't see each other at all until Saturday afternoon. And by not seeing each other I don't mean like only passing each other at home on the way to/from work. Like I leave for work before he gets home and vice-versa. It was lame. Oh well, its worth it to both have steady jobs! I have gotten used to sleeping at home by myself pretty dang fast.

Once we did finally see each other Saturday, we decided to go to a movie. Not watch a Netflix movie at home but actually go to a theatre. We don't do that very often because we (and by we I mean probably just me) think it is a rip off. But some movies are worth it....Anyways, we saw Crazy, Stupid, Love and loved it! It was so funny! Definitely mostly about sex but it isn't really crude and doesn't show nakedness (well it doesn't show any "bad" body parts) or anything. Pretty much we just love Steve Carrell. I think we would like any movie with him in it. It is a chick flick but mostly a comedy I would say. We highly recommend it and Randy even said he is excited for it to come out to rent so we can see it again.

Last night we went out to dinner with my family to celebrate my mom's birthday which is on Friday. I will post about that and hopefully some pictures later.

our last hoorah's of summer

2011-08-31T19:58:00.009-06:00

I can't believe summer is coming to an end. The days are getting shorter-it is dark now when I leave for work-and it makes me really sad :(. I think I can officially say this was the fastest summer I ever remember. Here are a few last things we were able to fit in before fall officially hits.

1. During the middle of August we made a quick trip to Lake Powell with Randy's parents. It was a nice little getaway even though it was only 3 days long. At least we got to go though! Sadly, my family won't be going this year. It is the first time my family has missed Lake Powell since before I was born so it's a pretty big deal. I'm really glad Randy and I were able to go with his parents though! As always, it was wonderful!

2. We also went on another hike. This time we tried Bell's Canyon which is a hike to a waterfall in Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was a little shorter, it was 4 miles round trip, and definitely overall easier than Lake Blanche. The end, where you are actually hiking up to the top of the waterfall, is pretty difficult, but other than that it is a fairly easy hike. It was really pretty the entire way. A lot more "deserty" feeling on some parts but the ground was all sand and there were huge pretty boulders along the way.

We still have a few more hikes we need to go on before it gets cold!

hide yo kids, hide yo wife

2011-08-24T20:22:00.005-06:00

First off, if you don't know what the title of this post is, you really need a good laugh so watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520 and then watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

Now that you have had a good laugh, time to get serious, but really. We came home last Saturday night after being gone all day to an open front door, every light in our house on, and every door inside open. Not the best feeling. We were smart enough not to go in (although Randy did yell in there and kick his foot against the front door) until the cops got there. While we were waiting, Randy looked through our bedroom window and asked, "Your wedding ring isn't in there right? Because everything is torn apart." I seriously wanted to throw up as I replied to him that yes in fact, it was on our dresser. We had been hiking then went boating so why would I have my ring? I knew it was gone and I was absolutely sick about it.

After the police officer cleared our house and said we could go in we went straight to our bedroom. Our night stand drawers were wide open with all my jewelry from inside it missing. All of my shoes were thrown out of the boxes on the floor of the closet and every drawer from the dresser was emptied onto the floor as well. We looked on top of the dresser and my ring box was sitting there. I knew it was empty and I didn't have the stomach to look. All I wanted to do was break down. Randy opened my ring box and yelled, "Oh my gosh it's still here!" Somehow, after they tore our whole room apart, they missed my wedding ring. Blessing? I would have to say yes because there is no other explanation that I can think of.

As we surveyed the rest of our house we saw that Randy's laptop was missing. This has ALL of his application stuff for medical school on it which he has been working on for months and a ton of personal information like our taxes saved on it. Not good. His watch was also missing and all of my jewelry except my wedding ring, of course. They also stole a bag of mine that I use when I go to the temple (with all my stuff in it).

The police left around 1am and we were sitting in our room changing all of Randy's passwords from my laptop when he asked where he had left his keys that morning. His keys to his car and our house were gone! Saying I freaked out at this point is an understatement. We were both scared to death and didn't know what to do. These people not only violated our personal lives, but they had keys to get back into our house. Locking it was no good. I got online and clicked on the first 24 hour locksmith that came up on google and they told me they would be there in 30 minutes. I felt like we were sitting there waiting for this person to walk back into our house. We decided we needed to have a cop watch our house until the locksmith came so we called the cop and locked ourselves in my car until he got there.

At 3am we finally had the locks changed to our front door. I can't explain the feeling I had every time I walked into our house and especially into our closet, since that is where everything was thrown on the floor. I hated it here. I felt violated and scared. It was not my home anymore, it did not feel safe what-so-ever. I emotionally could not clean up the mess they left. I wanted to throw everything that was on the floor away. It felt like it did not belong to me anymore. We decided we couldn't stay at our house that night (and we had to do something with his car anyways so that it didn't get stolen) so we drove to his parents house and stayed there.

When we came back home on Sunday it didn't feel better until I cleaned everything. It started to feel like home again after that but we were still scared about every noise. Even now we are very aware of everything. I do feel better here and I don't want to move anymore like I did that night, but I still think about it all the time.

Now we are putting everything back together. We have secured our house better (the doors were all locked, they broke in through our sliding door), we have changed locks, recorded all our missing stuff with the police, and talked to all our neighbors. I hope that we never have to experience anything like this again.

Here is a picture of what our closet should look like and then what it looked like when we got home:

I do have good things to post like a Lake Powell trip and another hike, so I will post those soon :).

lake blanche

2011-08-06T16:19:00.010-06:00

This past Saturday we hiked to Lake Blanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was 6.2 miles round trip and it was a lot of fun! There were tons of cool sparkley rocks everywhere and the scenery was amazing. It was actually a little bit steeper than I expected but still a moderate hike, nothing horribly difficult.

>

We are going to try and go on a hike once a week until it gets too cold. Have to make up for only going once the entire summer!

cupcakes and a downpour

2011-08-01T19:38:00.006-06:00

I made Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting for a family reunion and thought I would share the recipe. Perfect for summer. I want to try them with raspberries next time, I think the sour-ness of raspberries would be awesome in these! Sorry, but I don't remember where I got the original recipe.

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes:
(makes 12 cupcakes)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped strawberries (use fresh-frozen have too high of water content)
1-2 tbs milk, if needed

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat butter and sugar together in mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt on low speed, gradually increasing speed. Add in chopped strawberries and beat until strawberries break down. The strawberries most likely have enough liquid but if the batter seems dry (should look like normal cake batter), add milk 1 tbs at a time, beat until incorporated.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until set. Let cool, then frost.

Coconut Frosting:

2 sticks butter, softened (I only used 1 stick of butter. I thought 2 was gross and 1 worked just fine)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, more if needed
1 tbs vanilla
1-2 tbs lite coconut milk
3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Cream butter with mixer until smooth and creamy. Add in powdered sugar slowly. Add vanilla and coconut milk, beat 2-3 minutes. If too thick, add coconut milk, if too thin, add powdered sugar. If more frosting needed, add powdered sugar/coconut milk until amount and consistency is achieved. Fold in shredded coconut.

Try them out!

I got hit with a torrential downpour of rain during my run today. I was just under 1.5 miles into it and without warning, it started absolutely POURING. I stood under a tree for a minute but I was still getting soaked so I ran across the street and stood in the doorway of a church to wait it out. About 15 minutes later I realized it was not only not stopping, but getting worse. So, I turned around and ran home. I was completely soaked head to toe when I got to my house but it was kind of fun!

This is right when I got home. My hair was plastered to my head:

I wish you could tell how much it is raining but the road was completely dry when I started and there were puddles everywhere when I took this when I got home:

my eyes are on fire!

2011-07-19T12:36:00.003-06:00

I got eyelash extensions yesterday for my first time. They were a birthday gift from my husbands best friend. I have wanted to try them out for a long time. Not that I have bad eyelashes or anything, I mean they aren't super long or super thick but they aren't bad, but who doesn't want long thick eyelashes that you don't have to put mascara on?!

So I got them done yesterday. My friend had pre-warned me that it wasn't the most comfortable experience. It wasn't too bad at first. I jumped a lot because it feels weird to have someone touching your eyelashes but as time went on, it got worse.

My eyes were all taped and that started driving me crazy. They tell you to keep your eyes closed and it takes about 2 hours so all I wanted to do was open them for 2 seconds. They started burning like crazy and they have this cold air thing to help with that but that just made my eyes feel dry and burn worse.

By the time I had about 20 minutes left I was SO anxious and all I wanted to do was tell her to stop! It was such a relief when she took all that tape off and told me to open my eyes. When I looked in the mirror to see how they looked my eyelashes were awesome but my eyes were completely bloodshot and it hurt to keep them open. I literally felt like my eyes were on fire.

Needless to say, I'm not sure yet if I will be doing eyelash extensions again but for now they are very pretty :). We will see how long it takes for me to decide it wasn't that bad and that it is worth it haha.

funny memory

2011-07-14T20:50:00.003-06:00

I don't know how I thought of this today but for whatever reason, I think this is sort of a funny memory of the first time I saw Randy.

It was our first day of nursing school and my first time ever being at University of Utah. After getting lost trying to find the parking lot, getting lost trying to find the right building, and getting lost trying to find where to go once inside the building, I finally made it to my first day. I sat in the very back since I was one of the last people to arrive.

For our first "assignment," we started going around introducing ourselves (there were 72 people in our class, this was a long process). After I went I saw the back of a blonde boy and I started thinking he was pretty cute. When he stood up to introduce himself I definitely found him attractive. Then he said, "My name is Randy Bess. I am an ER Tech. I like to BMX bike and play at Walmart." Huh. That last one was a little weird. I definitely thought he was like 19-20 at this point haha. BTW, he was 24.

I called my mom after school and she asked how my day went. I gave a quick overview of it. She then asked, "So, did you meet any cute boys?" I told her there was this one guy that I thought was really cute named Randy but I never actually met him.

As day 2 of nursing school rolled around, I found out I was in the same group for everything as the "blonde boy." As we started going to clinicals and all of our classes with the same group, him and I made a mutual friend and we started getting to know each other. I did not think he was interested in me at all at first (obviously that changed).

Come to find out, I had hung out with one of his best friends when I lived in Provo and he had gone snowboarding with my younger sister. Random. We started becoming better friends after that and we found a few similarities. The biggest one being that we were both in weird messed up non-relationships (long term relationships that had ended but still had drama going on), which is why, I later found out, he didn't seem interested at first.

I hung out quite a lot with him and our mutual friend Sara. Slowly, Randy and I started texting A LOT and it was pretty obvious we were both interested in each other. The day came for him to ask me on our first date and I said no. HAHA there was a lot of old relationship drama going on and I didn't want him in the middle of it. Don't worry, we had a "nap over" when we skipped class one day, made out, then he got his first date....oh the way to a woman's heart (not really but it did work out this time :)).

The rest is pretty much history and 3 years later, he is still just as hot as that first day of nursing school!

free baby stuff!

2011-07-13T21:39:00.002-06:00

Thought I would share a code I got for free baby stuff. One is for a free carrier sling and one is for a nursing cover. I ordered the sling just to keep until I need it since it's free :). You do have to pay shipping though and shipping is $12 for the sling and I looked at the nursing cover and it was $9. Still worth it!

Here are the two websites:
www.sevenslings.com
www.uddercovers.com

The code for both is: HVM

Just go to the website(s), go to "shop now," pick what you want (you have to measure yourself for the sling and pick a size), then order it and put in the code when you order.

Gotta love free stuff!

2 years

2011-07-03T18:10:00.007-06:00

Hubby and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary yesterday the 2nd. We ate dinner at The Pie in Salt Lake, played pool, then went home and watched a movie. We had a great day. It was a perfect day just to spend time together.

My flowers:

Dinner at The Pie:

We also moved into our new place this past week! Once we finish getting it all together I will post pics. We are loving it!

logan to park city and everything in between

2011-06-22T21:01:00.002-06:00

My team completed the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race this past weekend. We did pretty dang good if I must say so myself! It was 192 miles. Started in Logan, ended in Park City. We finished in 29 hours and 44 minutes which placed us 160 out of 823 co-ed teams. This race is basically amazing. It's exhausting physically and mentally. We got a total of about 2.5 hours of sleep. Started at 11:30am on Friday morning and finished around 4:30ish on Saturday evening. Crazy? Absolutely. But so worth it.

If you don't know how the race works, you have 12 runners (a few teams are "ultra teams" and only have 6 though). You split into 2 "vans" and each runner takes a leg of the race. Van 1 starts the race, runs through all 6 runners, then van 2 starts and that goes until each runner runs 3 legs. The legs vary in distance and difficulty with the shortest legs being 3 miles and the longest being 10 miles. Difficulty wise it goes from easy to very hard (the hardest leg gains 1700 feet in 4 miles. That equals out to be straight up a mountain. Literally).

This is my 3rd year and my teams 4th. It is so much fun and I look forward to it every year! It is mostly my family and my uncles family that does it and it is a really awesome tradition!

(I tried to upload pictures but it won't work so I will post those another day)

one hundred and ninty one to go

2011-06-16T22:16:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow me and 11 other people start running and over 24 hours and 191 miles later, we will be done. Ragnar Wasatch Back, you better watch out. We are on our way to fight exhaustion for another year! I can't wait!

the ideal image

2011-06-14T14:46:00.003-06:00

I read this article today about how women perceive beauty:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-liddy-ma-pcc-cpcc/body-image-perception_b_873846.html

It was really interesting and I thought it was a pretty accurate view of how women feel about themselves. I think we all go through periods of time where we feel like we aren't good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, etc. How can we not? It is a part of our society.

I thought it was crazy that 30% of women polled said they would give up a year of their life to have the ideal body type. How sad! There are plenty of things I would like to-and things I try to-change about my body or how I look, but I would never say I want to miss out on a piece of my life to have those things. That makes me feel very blessed to have the life I have.

Not that I will ever not care about feeling good about how I look, I just think it is important to do it so you feel good and confident and not so you can look like a Victoria Secret model. Loving yourself more is something we can all work on!

I thought this was a very strong paragraph from the article and I think it really sums up what I am trying to say:

"People can -- and do -- change their beliefs throughout the course of their lives. The most powerful and healthy belief systems are the ones that influence love of and care for your body. When your body image perception improves and you begin taking better care of yourself, your confidence improves along with your health."

I love to take care of myself. Exercise makes me more confident and makes me feel better in general. I think that finding something you can do to take care of yourself is just as important mentally as it is physically.

That's the end of my rambling for now.

moving!

2011-06-08T11:05:00.003-06:00

Not moving far, but we are still very excited! We have been living on the east side of downtown Salt Lake since we got married (actually, we both lived up there before we got married too), but we have recently decided it's time to move. We have been looking at condo's to rent (although we would LOVE to buy, it's not realistic since we have no idea if we will be staying in Utah for med school next year) for a few weeks now which has been a pain in the butt. Nothing looks like it does in pictures. Everything was dirty or crappy or super old. There were definitely days that I was pretty frustrated by the whole experience. I refuse to move into something dirty or grimy. I can handle old to an extent, but it has to be kept up and not feel like a dungeon.

Through our search, we found a few that we were considering in the Murray and Midvale area, which is exactly where we wanted to be. We felt like it was time to move a little more south so we can be closer to both of our families and we wanted to get away from being right in the city. We weren't completely sold on them, but we were okay with them.

The day we felt like we needed to make a decision on the others, we went and looked at one more place. We absolutely fell in love. It is all completely updated. It feels really nice, clean, and has a lot of light. It is in a nice little area. The only down sides are that it is a little smaller than others we were looking at (still significantly bigger than ours now) and it's in the Millcreek area, so not quite as South as we wanted but it was too perfect to pass up. So we filled out a renters application and paid the fees right then to make sure we were first in line for it. We found out yesterday that we got it! Yay! So excited! We sign the lease this Friday and then we can start moving in. We still have our place until June 30th which is nice because I will have a lot of time to deep clean our new place with nothing in it before we move in.

I will post some pictures of it soon! We can't wait to be in our new place!

bragging rights

2011-06-01T17:33:00.004-06:00

Randy got his MCAT score back today! Yes, very scary. Seriously though, this score could make or break getting into med school. Not even just the school you want, but any school. Just a little pressure, ya think?

Just a little background up to this point. He came out of the test feeling horrible. He "knew he failed". Now I can't even tell you how many times I have heard this and then he gets an A, but he was pretty convinced this time.

Good news is, he got it back today and did awesome! He got a 34 which is in the top 93% of people that take it. Yep. Smarty pants. And yes, I did happen to let an "I told you so" slip a time or two when he told me his score.

In all reality, I am extremely proud of him. He works so hard at everything he does. He is amazing and still makes sure to take out us time everyday no matter what he has going on. I am very lucky!

time to slow things down

2011-05-21T16:00:00.004-06:00

Isn't it weird to get older? How perspectives and ideas change? Even how the way you view life and what you want out of life can change so quickly?

The other day, Randy and I were driving home from my parents house and we had this conversation. Actually, we get on the topic of getting older a lot. Apparently we are starting to notice our age a little more now! Randy will be 27 next month and I will be 26. I know, that's not "old," but it is weird to be getting older and to start feeling like you want to have time slow down a bit.

It seems like you live your whole teenage and early 20's life just waiting for the next thing. The next date. The next boyfriend. When you will get married. When you will have kids. Well we hit a brick wall. We want to stop life moving forward for a while and stay right here for just a little longer.

I really do enjoy every stage of life. I think that getting older and starting new phases in life is wonderful and adventurous. Sometimes it would be nice to stop and enjoy each day a little more though, to look at the amazing blessings that are everywhere around us and just take them in. Pay attention to the journey. Maybe that's my almost-half-way-through-the-year goal :).

sun beach & water=one happy girl

2011-05-15T13:15:00.017-06:00

Last week we went on a 7 day Caribbean Cruise and just got back Saturday night. So. Fun. We went on Carnival Cruise Line and had 3 stops; Cozumel Mexico, Caymen Islands, and Jamaica. I can't say which place or even which part of the cruise was my favorite because all of it was just amazing and so much fun! We went with my entire family and then Randy's parents came with us too.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

*Getting to the port in Miami. We took a red eye flight on Friday night and got to Florida around 8am on Saturday. We were so excited when we got to the port and could get on the ship!

*Days at sea. I don't know why but I think days at sea are so fun. They are relaxing and you do whatever you want. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't go on a 7 day cruise and never get off the boat, but I think they days at sea are a nice change from the ports. We swam, played on the slide, ate 500 lbs of food and a million ice cream cones, laid out, talked, laughed, etc.

*Our first formal night. We got all dolled up and ate (more) yummy food. We were glad every night wasn't formal night though, we like being comfortable haha.

*Our first stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. We went to a gorgeous beach and snorkled and played all day. Randy found 2 shells when he was snorkling. One was a huge conch shell and the other was a really pretty and colorful shell. We left the conch shell in the ocean after taking pictures with it, but I was going to keep the small one. I put it in my sunglasses case to keep it safe. When we went to leave the beach, I opened my case and there was a Hermit Crab sitting there! I started screaming it totally scared me haha. So we took the shell back to the ocean and set him free.

*Our second stop was in the Caymen Islands. They had the most amazing water I have ever seen! It looked like a swimming pool, it was turquoise and completely clear. We took a boat to the middle of the ocean and went to a sandbar that's about 3 feet deep. A ton of wild stingrays hang out there and we got to swim with them. It was so awesome! Hopefully I will post pictures of that soon, my in-laws took all the pictures of it.

*We stopped in Jamaica last. I had been there once before and I thought it was sort of scary but this time it was better. The island is plush green all over and looks like a jungle. It reminded Randy and I a lot of our honeymoon in St. Thomas actually. Just about everything about it looked the same which was cool. In Jamaica, we hiked up a huge waterfall called Dunn's Falls. It was really fun and it was fun to just goof off in the water too!

The entire thing was amazing! This is a very small sample of what we did, we took about 230 pictures just on our camera and everyone else took some too. Everything about it was so fun and the company was great of course! I am going to miss unlimited soft serve ice cream....

just one of those days

2011-05-05T14:26:00.003-06:00

You know those days that you are in a horrible mood and there is no reason for it? That was totally me yesterday. I was fine all day at work but it was a very LONG day. By the time I got off work, went to the gym, washed my makeup off (don't worry, I didn't even bother to shower after the gym), and ate some cereal, I was just in a poopy mood. I hate those days. I didn't even have anything specific that was wrong or bothering me. I just wanted to sit on the couch and basically do nothing but feel bad for myself. Oh geez how lame.

So I went to bed in a crappy mood which means I woke up in a crappy mood. Not good. All day I have been thinking of how much I have to do before we leave on vacation tomorrow. I have worked the past 3 days which means I have done nothing around my house and I still need to go to the store to get stuff. Not that I won't have time to get it all done before we leave (and my husband already did some of it for me today even though I was an onery butt last night), it's just the fact that I have a lot to do and I don't want to do any of it.

Don't worry, my day has gotten better as it has gone on. I guess I snapped myself out of pitty party mode. I think I am very ready for this vacation...

Tomorrow is the day!

2011-04-28T17:07:00.004-06:00

Randy takes the MCAT (test to apply for medical school) tomorrow at 1pm! He has been studying every.single.day for the past 4 months and the day is now here. He has done awesome on his practice tests and I know he will do great. The test is 4 hours long....I know....shoot me....and covers basically every main subject that is covered in college. It's a really big deal.

After he takes the test he doesn't find out his score for 4 weeks because they grade it against everyone else that takes it that month. The high score is 45, which no one has ever gotten, and anything over a 38 is in the top 99% of people that take it.

Once we get his score back we will start applying for medical schools in June. He will apply to anywhere between 8-10 schools. University of Utah is our first choice so we can stay close to our families and because when we start a family we want them to be raised around our parents/siblings/and nephews (hopefully neices too sometime). We do know that there is a high chance that we will have to move for his school, which is okay. It would be an adventure and we would still be able to come back here afterwards. But we would like to stay if we can.

So basically, our life is up in the air right now. It's not at all a bad thing but it's just a fact that nothing is set in stone. Tomorrow is the first step in a very big part of our lives!

YeeHaw!

2011-04-13T10:01:00.011-06:00

A few Sundays ago my family got together for a True Grit party. We all dressed up in our cowboy gear, had a BBQ, and watched the original True Grit with John Wayne.

Of course it was so much fun and everyone had great costumes! And we had the funny air soft gun situation (see post below)....And actually, the original movie isn't too bad either.

My sash says "Rodeo Queen" but you can't really see it in the pictures:

My grandparents:

McKell and Dave:

Old Man Jensen:

Shea, Curtis, and Kaden (Trey was sleeping):

My mom and dad:

p.s. Randy takes the MCAT one week from today! I can't believe it's here already!

Does he like to throw rocks in the lake?

2011-04-11T16:39:00.004-06:00

There have been a few memories that I want to write down from the last few days. I really need to make a note of stuff like this more often because even though at the time I think I will never forget it, sadly, I do.

-My older sister Shea text me the other day to tell me what my nephew Kaden came up to her and said. He said, "I hope Randy comes to see me." Shea then told him Randy is at his house which made Kaden ask where that was. Shea told him, "Randy lives in Salt Lake" to which Kaden replied, "Oh Salt Lake. Does he like to throw rocks in the lake?" Hahaha.

-After I told Randy about the above story, he gave Kaden a call. Kaden was super excited and started rambling off the events from his entire day. After the call ended, Kaden told Shea, "Randy is my best friend." It's true. Randy is Kadens best friend besides me :). And I totally love it. I'm pretty sure Kaden talks about playing with Randy everyday. I can't blame him, Randy is a "cool cat" (as Kaden would say).

-Yesterday we had a True Grit party (don't you worry, I will be posting on that with pictures hopefully later tonight or at least tomorrow). I don't want to ruin the fun but we all dressed up for it. Randy pulled out his tough guy air soft gun as part of his cowboy attire. Of course we had to test it out! We went out to my parents back yard and tried to shot a bucket out of a tree. My brother in law Dave went first, then it was Randy's turn. He pulled the trigger, heard the shot go off, and suddenly heard someone from a yard behind my parents house yell, "ouch!" First of all, we had no idea someone was out there. Second of all, what are the chances that a tiny pellet would hit right where someone was standing when you can't even see them? Sorry to the guy if it really did hurt, but it was hilarious and we were all inside the house cracking up!

movie night

2011-03-28T13:05:00.002-06:00

Randy and I are really picky about what movies we see in "real" theatres (aka, not the dollar kind). Call us cheap if you want, but we are not willing to spend 20 bucks to see a movie if we don't think it really will be worth it. We would much rather spend that money doing something else then later see the movie in dollar theatres or on Netflix.

We went and saw "Limitless" on Saturday night in the real theatres :). The beginning scene made me a little queasy (I get motion sick pretty easily in movies) but that only lasted a few minutes. Otherwise it was very entertaining! It moved fast the entire time and it was actually very interesting. There were a few parts of it that were very unrealistic, but who wants to watch a movie about real life anyway?

The movie is about a guy that starts taking a medication called NZT. The drug makes it so people can use 100% of their brain instead of the 20% that is normal (so the movie says :p). It follows him through the journey of using the medication to get on top and get rich in business. It is actually a very good portrayal of the cycle of drug abuse and they do a really good job of making the drug really appealing at first. We thought the movie was very good and the actors did a good job too.

It was worth the 20 bucks and it made for a fun night out :)!

whats for dinner

2011-03-16T20:15:00.005-06:00

I thought I would share two very tasty dinners we have had recently. It's about time for more recipes to appear on the bloggy blog! Oh yeah, both are pretty dang healthy too :).

This first one is from dinner tonight. Sorry there are no measurements of anything, I made it up from other recipes I found. It's just however much you want of each ingredient! p.s. Randy said this makes his "favorite dinners list."

Balsamic Chicken and Bell Peppers

Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Red and yellow bell peppers
Yellow onion
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Garlic powder
Oregano

Marinate chicken breasts in balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder, and oregano for at least one hour. If desired, sprinkle a little more balsamic vinegar on chicken when placed on grill. Cook chicken on grill until white throughout. While chicken is cooking, cook bell peppers and onions in a frying pan until just barely soft. Sprinkle a small amount of balsamic vinegar over pepper/onion mixture. Serve peppers and onions over cooked chicken.

Oven Roasted Red Potatoes

Red potatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Thyme
Shredded cheese –optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut red potatoes into 1/8 chunks and place in baking dish. Lightly cover potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme over potatoes. Stir potatoes to evenly coat. Cook (stirring occasionally) for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft and edges are slightly browned. If desired, sprinkle shredded cheese over potatoes for last minute or so of cooking.

The second dinner is basically a classic. We had this a week or so ago. I have to admit, they didn't come close to matching my mom's, but they were still very good! Once again, most ingredients are just whatever amount you want to use.

Veggie Omelets

2 Large eggs
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Chives (I used dried chives from my spice rack)
Non-stick spray
Cherry tomatoes, sliced
Yellow onion, chopped
Red and green bell pepper, chopped
Spinach, chopped
Shredded cheese
And of course, anything else you like in your omelet!

Mix eggs in bowl with a small amount of milk, salt, pepper, and chives-set aside. Heat frying pan and spray with non-stick spray. Cook veggies until barely soft. Pour egg mixture over veggies. Tilt pan occasionally to fully cook all parts of egg. Sprinkle cheese on top when almost done cooking and fold in half. Can serve with hot sauce and salsa on top if desired.

to run, or not to run

2011-03-12T12:06:00.005-07:00

I have always said I want to do a half marathon. Now whether I thought I would honestly ever do one or not, that is a whole different matter.

I have been working out a lot and feeling like I am stronger than I have probably ever been, both in physical strength and running. I see a lot of advertisements for the Utah Valley Half Marathon so I looked it up one day and suddenly decided that for whatever crazy reason, that sounded really fun. The more I looked into it, the more I wanted to do it. I even printed off some training schedules for half marathons and they actually looked like something I could do.

I had pretty much convinced myself to train for it and probably sign up (I am too scared to actually say I will for sure sign up haha). Then I realized...Ragnar, the 188 mile relay race I run every year, is only 6 days later. Okay, that's not good. I'm not sure that running my first half and then running Ragnar (which is ridiculously exhasting and awesome) within 6 days is the best idea.

Now I don't know what to do. I really want to do the half. Like really bad. On the other hand, there is no way I am dropping out of Ragnar, I will be doing that no matter what. So basically, I don't know if I should attempt the half or not now. Ah I hate decisions.

Finally back to normal (and hopefully for good)

2011-03-01T13:48:00.004-07:00

The past 2 weeks I have struggled so much when I go running. I have felt super tired, I felt like I was running weird, my ankles were hurting, the list could continue. It was not good news and it was really frustrating to get back from a shorter run and know that I felt horrible the entire time.

Today I forced myself to go even though I kept trying to talk myself out of it. I knew that if I didn't go I would feel tired and poopy all day. So I decided to run to the gym and instead of running home after working out (since I didn't want to go anyways), I would have Randy pick me up. And yes, he does nice things like this for me quite often.

I started my run and I felt GREAT! On this specific run, when I get to the top of the hill I look completely over downtown Salt Lake, its pretty sweet. Well, I decided to just keep going and run into downtown and see where I end up (since Randy was planning on picking me up I figured I could go anywhere and not have to worry about making it back home). I ended up running 2 miles farther than I was planning and it felt so good (total was 5 miles. I know for a lot of people that's a warm up but I haven't gone over 4 this whole winter). Oh yeah, and not to mention it was an incredibly gorgeous day outside :).

I hope my horrible running streak is over because today was so fun!

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

2011-02-23T09:29:00.003-07:00

All Brady Bunch fans out there, remember the episode where Marcia got hit in the face with a football and got a huge fat nose? This one:

That's exactly how I felt last night.

My sister and I were playing with my nephew and she was holding him as he climbed up her. So I went to rescue both of them and somehow in the mix of things he flung his head back and totally smacked my nose. Like really hard. My nose started gushing blood everywhere, which is not an exaggeration at all. So basically, I was certain I was going to wake up this morning with a fat Marcia Brady nose.

Well luckily, its not that bad. Its maybe a little fatter than usual and definitely a little sore but no serious damage!

a night in.

2011-02-17T17:27:00.006-07:00

On Wednesday I made a Valentines/2 year Engagement celebration dinner for us. I made Queso and Chicken Enchiladas. Not the most fancy food, but we like Mexican food so it worked :). I fancied it up a little by setting up the table all nice and having candles. It was lots of fun!

After dinner we watched the new episode of Modern Family. Oh my gosh I love that show so much. If you don't watch it you really need to. You will be addicted and its so worth your time.

We decided we didn't want to do big presents for Valentines, just spend time together and do something small. Its so dang hard to think of presents right after Christmas and we don't want the day turn into that anyways. Randy gave me a really cute flower arrangement and I gave him the book Sapphique, which he has been wanting since it came out.

Here are a few pictures of our celebration:

What a great night!

The beginnings...

2011-02-14T09:24:00.014-07:00

For Jaeme and I, valentines weekend means a tad bit more than just some pseudo-holiday where many feel "obliged" to buy gifts for those they "love". For us, it is a perfect reminder of our love, and a time to reminisce on the past and what has become of our lives together. For us, it marks the anniversary of our engagement. A story which, I personally, think is the best engagement ever =) I went through a lot of planning and scheming to make sure that everything turned out perfectly for my soon to be (at the time hoping to be) wife. I remember how nervous I was and how many times I threatened anyone with spilling some of the details to her... I wanted it to be perfect! I'm just glad you said yes =P

So here we are now, two years later, and honestly everything is still just as perfect as it was that day. And just like that picture of me proposing is blurry, I can't believe how fast time has gone, it really has felt like a blur! I love Jaeme so much and I know how incredibly lucky I am to have a wife like her! I would do everything again and not change a thing.

I wanted to write this to you babe to let you know how much I love you, and how I am always excited that you are my wife. I hope you know how much you mean to me, and how much I appreciate everything you do! I don't know where I would be without you (probably homeless since you are the only working hahaha). But seriously, I love you more each day and can't wait to see what the future brings. I will always be by your side!

I hope that you have a wonderful day babe, can't wait to hang out tonight and also Wednesday =)

HAPPY VALENTINES HONEY, I LOVE YOU!!!

wine and dine

2011-02-13T10:04:00.005-07:00

Okay, maybe a little more dine and a little less wine....

We went to Tucanos to celebrate Valentines Day on Saturday. It was lots of fun and we ate LOTS of food. Like I think I ate half a cow. And I know I ate like 30 cheese rolls. Yum yum. They had their "Valentines Special" going on which basically means they had an excuse to charge 5 extra dollars per person for basically the same food, but it was still worth going :).

I work on Valentines Day and Randy has school until 7 so we won't be doing too much that day, so it was really nice to go out for a nice dinner on Saturday. Then Wednesday marks our 2 year engagement day! I can't believe this summer will be our 2 year wedding anniversary. Time flies by!

Have a very fun and Happy Lovers Day!

being a nurse.

2011-02-06T14:19:00.002-07:00

The other day I was thinking about how I feel now that I have been a nurse for 8 months. I was going over all of the things that I love about the nursing profession. Just to put it out there, I am not one of those people that has wanted to be a nurse "every since I can remember". In fact, I don't remember there ever being a time in my life (other than once I made the decision of course) that I said I want to be a nurse. When I was young I wanted to be a teacher, then in high school I wanted to go to hair school, do interior design, or be in the fashion industry. Still I dream about designing shoes every time I can't find that perfect shoe that I have pictured in my mind (trust me, it happens a lot).

Obviously nursing is very far from being in the fashion industry. I wear colored pajamas and shoes that protect my back to work everyday (the shoes I dream up DEFINITELY wouldn't protect my back haha). But I am happy with my life and although I like to think that someday I will do something more creative even as a side hobby, I am proud to be a nurse.

A few reasons I like my job:

1. I love the knowledge. I love the days that I really feel "smart" and that I can put things together and figure out what is going on. Don't get me wrong, I am a newbie. I am very intimidated by some nurses that have been in the profession for a long time. They have incredible knowledge and a lot of doctors will ask nurses for their opinions on things because the nurses are so experienced and knowledgeable. I hope I can get there one day.

2. If I get bored with what I am doing, there are a million other areas I can go into as a nurse. I heard once that if a nurse is bored with their job, it is their fault. We have a lot of opportunities to change up our job.

3. It is great to go to work and do something you have never done before. Whether this is taking care of a patient with a different diagnoses or problem, taking care of my first patient that isn't doing so hot, admitting my first patient to the ICU, doing a procedure I have never done, giving a medication that I have to research because I have never heard of it, etc. It is amazing to be able to learn something new at work everyday.

4. The fact that when things get scary, there is always someone to step in and help. It really is scary to have your patient start going downhill and luckily you never have to deal with things like this on your own. I am pretty sure I ask a million questions a day to my co-workers and even experienced nurses ask questions to each other everyday.

5. It is empowering to feel like I can care for someone and that I am trusted to do the right thing. I like to be able to look at the situation, assess what is going on, and decide what to do about it.

6. The best part of my day is when a patient or family tells me thanks and that they appreciate what I have done for them. It makes all the hard times worth it.

7. Besides slow days, I love that I don't sit around all day and look at a computer or sit in an office. It is amazing how busy nurses jobs can be. 12 hours sounds like a really long shift and don't get me wrong, sometimes it does feel like a very long shift, but some days it seems like you don't have enough time to get everything done that you need to.

8. I love that I will never stop learning. I can't ever stop learning because medicine is always changing and I have to keep up on it, but I can always learn more if I want to. I can change units, work with a different population, go to an ICU or ER setting, go on in school to be a Nurse Practitioner.....I will never stop learning as a nurse.

9. I know that if I come up onto an accident or if someone needs help when I am around I will know what to do. I am not saying that I would not be scared or that I would know exactly what to do, but I would be able to help them until more help arrived.

10. I love feeling like what I do matters. It makes a difference in someones life and I feel like for the most part, it is a respected profession.

There are definitely some things that are hard about my job and some things that I don't necessarily love or that are very frustrating, but overall I am happy and that is what matters!

couch talks

2011-01-31T13:45:00.008-07:00

Every once in a while we have nights where we sit down on the couch and we end up getting into these big long coversations. Usually about very random topics. But I love them!

On Saturday we went and ate at Blue Iguana and afterwards we were planning on going home and watching a movie. We got home, changed into p.j.'s, (seriously, if we are at our house, we are in p.j.'s no matter what time of day it is. Jeans are just so uncomfortable). Then sat down on the couch. We talked for hours about who knows what. One topic would lead to another and it kept going until about 1am. It was so nice to just hang out and chat without the t.v., computers, or other distractions. I really enjoy when we have our random "couch talks." It was a great night!

Does anyone watch the show Glee? Everyone always says how great it is. We love shows like this. We have seen every episode of The Office, Scrubs, and now our newest show, Modern Family. Since we have heard so much about it, we turned on the pilot episode. I'm not going to lie, we really weren't too interested. I expected it to be different I guess. We ended up turning it off. Apparently something is wrong with us because I don't think I have heard anyone else that doesn't like it. We are weird. Oh well :p.

one HUGE mess

2011-01-18T13:46:00.003-07:00

My mom always tells me that I am a messy cook. And its true. I can't cook without spilling something, having something boil over, getting flour everywhere, etc. Maybe the finished product tastes better after a little mess is made! haha.

Anyways. Randy and I decided to make some breakfast this morning since we both have the day off of life. We made waffles and scrambly eggs with cheese. MMM I love waffles. We decided that we were going to make a few blueberry ones and I thought it would taste the best with nice, big, real blueberries instead of frozen ones. So on we go, making our breakfast.

We did all plain waffles except the last 2. That's when we added our blueberries. I poured the mix on the waffle pan, closed the lid, and began to wait. Suddenly, we heard a big 'POP' and purple blueberry goo came shooting out of the side of the waffle maker! Don't worry, we didn't stop it. It continued to happen probably 5 more times. Our waffle maker was having a blueberry blow out! And being me, I over filled the waffle maker so not only did we have purple goo shooting out, we also had half cooked waffle mix gushing out all sides. HAHA.

Don't worry though, the waffles were AWESOME.

Yummy Minestrone Soup

2011-01-13T12:46:00.002-07:00

Its been so bitter cold lately that I decided soup was the perfect meal to warm our bellies last night. And it definitely hit the spot! Side note: It has two of Randy's most hated food items in it (carrots and celery) and even he said he liked it. Whether he really did or whether he was just trying to be nice doesn't matter, he ate it anyway. With the exception of a few bits of carrot and celery left over in the bowl of course :p.

We also made some yummy bread to go with it. Okay I didn't MAKE the bread, but I put the toppings on it. We got some french bread, cut it into slices, and put butter, shredded Italian Cheese, and just a little Italian Seasoning on top then put in under the broiler until it was melty and the edges were crisp. Oh my. So good.

I got the recipe from The Sisters Cafe blog, which if you have never been there, you should go (its on my sidebar). My older sister introduced me to it and they have tons and tons of great sounding recipes. So this is my very slightly modified version of their soup:

Minestrone Soup

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
5 carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped (I just sprinkled in a little garlic powder instead of this. I am not a huge garlic fan and this many cloves seemed like a lot for me)
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced Italian tomatoes
2 (14 oz) can chicken broth
4 cups water
a couple of handfuls of chopped fresh spinach leaves (I didn't use these)

1.5 tablespoons dried Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups cooked shell pasta (or any other small pasta)

DIRECTIONS:
In a large pot, mix all ingredients except spinach and pasta. Bring to a boil then simmer covered for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add chopped spinach for the last 5 minutes.
Cook pasta in a separate pot until al dente. Stir pasta into soup.

This recipe is HUGE. Like I would guess 8 servings or something along those lines. Very tasty though and will be good to have leftover :).

Happy Thursday!

here's to another great year!

2011-01-02T13:00:00.002-07:00

Dear 2010,
Where did you go? I'm pretty sure we should only be to about September right now. Weird. It was a great year though and I think 2011 will be even better!

We had a great time celebrating the holidays with our families. We are lucky enough to have both families within about 30 minutes of each other, so we get to see everyone on Christmas Day. I don't know why but it has always been really important for me to spend time with family on Christmas. I really dread the years that I will have to work Christmas Day. I think there is something special that is hard to recreate on any other day. Christmas Day has always been busy for me with visiting multiple sets of grandparents and all. I wouldn't have it any other way.

This year for Christmas we slept at my parents on Christmas Eve, opened presents and ate breakfast all together (10 people opening presents=a little hectic) on Christmas morning, then we all went to my grandparents house. That evening we went to Randy's parents house, ate dinner, and opened more presents. It was such a great holiday!

We had a little party at my parents house on New Year's Eve. We had TONS of yummy snack food my mom made like; chicken wings, pepper poppers, cheese ball, chips and salsa, veggies, pizza, etc. After a while my sister put the kids to bed and we started a game of Clue with the whole family. The first game was pretty intense and everyone was really into it. The second game, not so much. It was about 1:30am at this point and everyone was talking and doing other things. Which was still fun, but it made game #2 not too successful haha. And BTW, we didn't even notice when it was midnight. So no watching to ball drop this year! Maybe in 2011...

The start of a new year always brings a lot of exciting things. Here are a few that I am looking forward to in 2011:

1. Randy taking the MCAT in April and applying for Med School in June
2. Going on a cruise in May
3. Celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary
4. Running the Ragnar Relay again in June
5. My dad running the New York marathon
6. Continuing to grow in my roles as a nurse, a wife, a sister, and a daughter
7. Trying to read the New Testament each night with Randy

I am sure there are many other things that will come in the New Year that will be wonderful. Here's to 2011!

our new fav mexican food

2010-12-23T18:16:00.006-07:00

On Tuesday night we took a breather from all the shopping and stopped in to eat some Mexican grub at Tres Hombres in South Salt Lake. This was our first time going there, although we have been talking about trying it for sometime now. The verdict? YUM. We both agree it is the best Mexican Restaurant we have found, and trust me, we are big Mexican food fans so that's saying something.

Randy, from the recommendation of our waiter, got the Carne Asada Burrito. This sucker was big and very full of really good steak. It came with rice, beans, pico, guac, and sour cream on the side. I opted for the steak and chicken fajitas. If you have ever gone to Chili's and ordered fajitas, these babies put them to shame. The plate was covered in steak and chicken (both REALLY good), zucchini, red/green peppers, and onions. Then to top it off there was pico, guac, rice, and beans on the side. Seriously, I made 2 tortillas full of the stuff and I didn't even come close to eating half of it.

Their chips and salsa to start off the meal were really good also. The chips came out warm and the salsa had a great flavor. The table next to us ordered Chicken Nachos and they looked wonderful as well.

Fajitas:

Carne Asada Burrito smoothered in sour cream and guac:

Full and happy:

We would definitely recommend it to everyone!
Tres Hombres
3298 Highland Drive
Salt Lake City
(801)466-0054

Merry Christmas Eve tomorrow and Merry Christmas on Saturday! I hope Santa finds you and brings lots of great presents :).

time is a funny thing

2010-12-14T15:31:00.003-07:00

I don't know if you are anything like me, but I often think, "I can't wait until ____ is over. I will have so much more time." I said this all through nursing school. Now I'm graduated and working full time and guess what? Some days I want nursing school back.

So now I always catch myself saying, once Nurse Residency is over (an extra 4 hours of class per week that I have to go to (on top of working full time) since I am a new nurse at the hospital), I will have time to do all these things I want to do. Or do nothing for that matter.

Not that I don't enjoy work or enjoy being busy. I really hate just sitting around all the time. But it sure would be nice every once in a while!

Oh when will I learn. Life just seems to get busier and time seems to go faster then ever!

Can you believe Christmas is literally just around the corner?! I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't even started my shopping. Yep that's right, its a week and a few days away and I haven't started. Or put my Christmas tree up for that matter.

I think we are going to have to go do some "Christmasy" things once Randy is done with finals. I need to get into the spirit of the season a little more, I'm missing out on it this year!

mmm tasty

2010-12-08T20:30:00.004-07:00

I have to give my apologies for the picture. It was taken on my phone which does not have a good camera at all. But have no fear, these are very good!

Chicken Enchiladas

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup (I used Campbells Healthy Request which is about 1/2 the calories and fat)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup Pace Picante Sauce
2 tsp chili powder
3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or chopped
1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese
6 flour tortillas
1 tomato, chopped
6 green onions, chopped
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
-Stir the soup, sour cream, picante sauce, and chili powder in a bowl
-Add chicken, black beans, 3 chopped green onions, and cheese to mixture
-Divide chicken mixture in tortillas. Roll up tortillas and place seam-side up in glass baking dish. Pour additional picante sauce and cheese over filled tortillas if desired. Cover baking dish.
-Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Enchiladas should be hot and bubbling. Top with tomato and remaining 3 chopped green onions.

The recipe says it makes 6 enchiladas but I still had some filling left over after filling 6 tortillas.

Enjoy!

no boys allowed

2010-12-05T12:47:00.006-07:00

I got to play with my mom and my sisters all day yesterday, it was so much fun! We started off by going to the temple, which was wonderful as always. We basically spent the rest of the day shopping all around town! We went to Kohl's and got some awesome deals (as always), went to a really fun little boutique in Springville, and then made a few more trips to Kohl's (I'm not kidding. We went 3 times in one day haha). We then had a very yummy dinner of Texas Roadhouse rolls and a little bit of real food...I don't know why that happens every time I go there. I swear I could eat 15 of their hot, steamy rolls. I think that is most of the reason why I even like the place! We ended the night by going to my mom's house and making cookies, sitting by the fire, and watching the movie "Eat Pray Love." Just a side note, I have not heard good things about this movie but we liked it. It wasn't action filled or extremely exciting by any means but I thought it was a good story. I want to read the book now :).

I am so lucky to live close by my family. I love them all so much and I am so thankful for all the love and support that they give to me. I could never ask for a better family or for better best friends.

too much turkey and all kinds of fun

2010-11-27T20:31:00.008-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We switch off which family we go to for dinner each year. This year it was with my family. However, we are lucky and get to spend time with Randy's family too because each year, the "off" family does Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before or after. So tomorrow we will be having the Bess family Thanksgiving.

Randy and I slept at my parents house on Thanksgiving Eve (after watching the Jazz game of course). We got up that morning, helped make lots and lots of food, then everyone else came over. After our fabulous dinner we played a few different games on the Wii and then had a boys against girls match of Catch Phrase. Sadly, I think the boys beat us by one game :p.

Since me, Randy, my sister, and my brother-in-law (and now my little sister too!) are all in the health care field, we were very lucky that we all got Thanksgiving off this year (Shea had to go into work at 10pm but that wasn't a big deal). Holidays definitely get a little tricky when that many people work in a hospital.

I am so thankful for my amazing family. I don't know what I would do without them. Each one of them is such an example to me and is incredibly loving and supportive. I truly am so lucky!

My parents Anniversary fell on Thanksgiving Day this year. Love you guys!

I will post some pictures soon. My internet doesn't want to work correctly right now.

p.s. There is only one thing that could have made this Thanksgiving weekend better. If only BYU would have made that last field goal.....or the ref's would have called the game right. HA! And yes, I did graduate from the U but can't help but cheer for my Cougars.

I have nerd pride

2010-11-19T20:00:00.002-07:00

We are going to see the big H.P. number 7 part 1 tomorrow (Harry Potter that is). Oh my gosh I can't wait! Seriously I love these books and I think the movies live up to to them quite good and I keep hearing really awesome feedback on this movie! I love the nerdy wizard world action, I just can't get enough. I'm not even kidding, I have read some of the H.P. books probably 4 times (although only the 7th once but I am working on that. I'm on number 5 and working my way up....again).

What a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving treat!

chinese food

2010-11-15T15:29:00.002-07:00

Q: Whats the best part about Chinese Food?
A: The fortune cookies of course!

Q: And whats the best part about the fortune cookies?
A: Being extremely mature and adding "in bed" to the end of every fortune. Don't knock it until you try it. 80% of the time, its hilarious every time :p.

Just in case you don't believe me, here are our examples from Friday night:

"You will be unusually successful in an entertainment career in bed"
"A fun party is soon to be in your future in bed"

Awesome.

saved!

2010-11-11T20:43:00.002-07:00

As mentioned on my last post, I struggle and totally messed up my blog template. But Randy came to my rescue, as he does with most things, and fixed it :). Much love.

Today was the perfect November day to make some yummy warm dinner. I made White Bean Chicken Chili and it was so good! I took a bunch of recipes I found and came up with something I liked. You should try it!

Jaeme's White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeno, chopped
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 bottle (16 oz) Salsa Verde (I use La Victoria Thick and Chunky)
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
frozen corn (I just estimate how much I want)
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1 (15 oz) can white beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
1. Heat frying pan and cook onion and jalapenos until soft
2. Stir together broth, salsa verde, rotel tomatoes, spices, and onion/jalapenos. Bring to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes (I keep it covered)
3. Add corn, chicken, and beans. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes (again I cover it). Sidenote: I added a little bit of water because it gets pretty thick when you add this stuff. Just personal preference but I like it a little thinner.

Randy likes to stir in sour cream, chips, and cheese and I like it just how it is. You can try whatever you like in it!

It is a pretty big recipe, we have quite a bit left. It will make wonderful left overs though!

**WARNING: I really like spicy food and this is on the spicy side. If you want it more mild you can use half a jalapeno or use canned tomatoes instead or Rotel tomatoes.

Happy weekend yay!

under construction and a little smelly

2010-11-10T17:07:00.006-07:00

I don't know what I did to the bloggity blog. Okay more like I know what I did, I messed around with the template without knowing what the h I was doing, but I didn't know I couldn't go back. Anyways, the layout is struggling and as of now, it is officially under construction. Hopefully it will come out really cute now since I have to put a little effort into it :).

In other news, I am stinky today. Sleep felt SO good and I refused to get up on time this morning. Not even close to on time. Which meant I had to skip a shower. Its not really that bad because I didn't shower until 4pm yesterday, but still. Kinda gross. So I guess the sleep smell has followed me around today. I don't know the last time I skipped a daily shower but I have to say, the sleep was worth it!

I highly recommend this

2010-11-01T17:42:00.003-06:00

Randy and I went to see this movie on Saturday:

LOVED it! I thought it was as good as Toy Story 3, which was completely hilarious. Randy didn't think it was quite as good but still really liked it. Either way, you need to see it and I think kids will love it too :). We loved the little yellow banana looking guys, they made us laugh pretty much every time it showed them. And the story line is easy to watch and just makes you smile.

We went and ate at Estes Pizza before the movie. This is the second time we have been to Estes and they definitely have the best New York Style pizza in Salt Lake (think huge slices, thin crust). Both times we have been it hasn't seemed super greasy and they get a lot of business even though the one we go to (Sugarhouse) is a totally horrible location. To me, that says a lot. It's a fun little place that looks very urban inside. It's very chill and you can see the workers flipping the pizza dough in the air through a hole in the wall that shows the kitchen. It's pretty amazing to watch! We also got their Garlic Knots both times. They are a little more on the greasy side. Honestly, I remember them being better the first time we went but they were still okay. Pizza is definitely their stronger point though.

It's almost here!

2010-10-27T11:40:00.003-06:00

That's right! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 comes out SOON! We can't wait to see it! I have to work on Friday morning so I can't go to the first midnight showing Thursday night :( but don't worry, we will be seeing it ASAP.

Oh how I love me some Harry Potter!

Thought for the day.

2010-10-25T11:21:00.003-06:00

Sorry I have been MIA for a little while. I have been very busy with work, Halloween partying it up, an awesome family reunion, and just life in general. It has been a great but very fast October and I can't believe I am looking at SNOW out my window!

I got this quote in an email and I really liked it. It says, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." I really believe that the right attitude makes all the difference in life. There are times when I am in a bad mood and I know that if I just tweaked my attitude I would have a better day or be happier. Its very hard to do that sometimes but it always makes such a difference when I try to stay positive about things!

Have a great (and cold) day! I think I will get me some hot chocolate to warm my belly :).

raw eggs with other stuff tastes great.

2010-10-06T20:18:00.002-06:00

I made cookies yesterday. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies to be exact. Yum. And just a side note, I make all of this good stuff with my handmixer because I do not have a Kitchen Aide. Someday I will when I have a bigger kitchen and have somewhere to put it. But for now, I have to give props to my Sunbeam Hand Mixer. It is a powerful little guy and honestly, I don't think it's made to mix thick batter like I make it do.

Anyways, I made these cookies and lets be serious just for a minute, what is the best thing about cookies? The dough of course! So I told Randy, "Someday when I get Salmonella from eating cookie dough, it was so worth it." He laughed at me and told me I was crazy because a hot cookie is way better than the dough. That's a good argument, but I still pick the dough.

Now hopefully the food poisoning from my consumption of raw eggs can just hold out until my health insurance kicks in....

p.s. The cookies were good cooked too :)

Hooray!

2010-10-04T19:39:00.000-06:00

My dad finished the St. George marathon this past Saturday in 3 hours & 39 minutes. He told us he knew he wasn't going to have a good run so he put in his ipod and took it easy....yep that is taking it easy for him. I am so proud of my dad. He is amazing!

My entire family got to go down for the weekend. It was a blast!

Randy and I went and saw "The Second City" last Thursday. It is a comedy group from Chicago (their past comedians include Steve Carrell, Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, etc.). It was so funny! We were laughing the entire time. We are always up for a good comedy show and this was probably one of the best I have seen.

Work is going good. I am in my third week of training and I feel pretty comfortable with most things now. We will see how I feel once I am actually put to work on my own though haha. I am enjoying it and I am slowly getting used to working full time. It is definitely a change!

Can you believe its October?! Insane.

one week down, five to go

2010-09-24T22:59:00.003-06:00

Today was the end of my first week of training for my new nursing job. It went good! I felt a little lost on my first day. That surprised me a little because I thought that since I have been a tech for quite some time, I would know what nurses do. But once it was up to me, I had no idea. I felt better for on my second shift on Thursday and then today I felt even more comfortable. Of course, I still have A LOT of learning and will always have more I can learn, but I got a better idea of how to organize my day and what to do.

I also got a really good compliment from my preceptor nurse on Thursday. She told me she was really impressed by how good I did and especially for it only being my second day training. She said I did "fantastic" and then told me she doesn't say that much so I should take it as a compliment haha. That made me feel really good :).

School is going good for Randy. Well, its coming along I guess....he is really ready for a break after going all summer. But I know he will do great as always. He works really hard and I am really proud of how well he does and how he can push through anything.

Randy and I are going to my 4 year old nephews soccer game tomorrow. Man I love that kid! And the other little 16 month one too :). Then my mom and I are going to the Women's General Broadcast. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!

well hello there.

2010-09-16T14:43:00.020-06:00

I have been a blog slacker lately. I blame it mostly on the fact that every time I log onto my blog on my internet, it kicks me off-line. Not sure whats going on there since it works on Randy's computer. Lame. (So Randy has been trying to get me to switch over to Firefox for a while now. Finally I listened and now my blog works....I guess I should give in more often haha :p)

I can't believe we are in mid-September. That freaks me out a little. I was just writing down my work schedule realizing that its going to be October in a few weeks. That means its almost Halloween, Thanksgiving, then Christmas. Holy crap! I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I do however start my job as a nurse tomorrow which I am very excited for. And not just for the pay raise, but you won't catch me complaining about that!

We have done a lot of fun stuff that I have wanted to blog about but haven't be able to. So here are some pictures to update :).

My family hiked Stewart Falls on Labor Day. It is the first waterfall when hiking up the Provo side of Timp. It was a lot of fun and it made me want to hike all the way to the top of the mountain. I am sad we never got to this year but at least we got a little taste of it.

We had a blast in Lake Powell. September is one of the best times to go, the weather was perfect! Sadly, I only took 3 pictures of the entire trip :(. And they were on our way back to the marina to go home. Lame on my part.

Next up Randy and I went to Redfest. It is a free concert that the U puts on every year during Homecoming week. We didn't know any of the bands (Ben Lee, fun, Mates of State) but it was fun anyways!

Last but not least, my mom, my sisters, and I took a girls weekend to Park City. We got pedicures on Saturday then rode the Alpine Coaster, did a little shopping, sat in the hot tub, ate a yummy dinner, then an awesome Apple Pie Carmel Apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and spent the night. On Sunday we did a little more shopping, rode the Alpine Slide, and went to dinner. It was so much fun! And we might have had a little too much fun with the camera at dinner....

Welcome to fall!

The End.

2010-09-07T16:02:00.004-06:00

I just (literally, just now) finished Mockingjay, the third and final book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.

As I have mentioned in the past, I love this series and have been waiting for this book to be released. It did not disappoint. There were surprises around every corner and I never knew what was going to happen. I had about 5 different theories on how I thought it would end and they were all wrong haha(which I think says a lot about her as a writer). These books aren't a "fairy tale" story and this one is no exception. It has a lot of emotion in it and I think that she makes it very real.

If you haven't read the series or haven't read book 3, I would highly recommend it! I have heard that Costco has the hardback book for just over $9. Very worth it.

We are leaving for Lake Powell (again) tomorrow with my family and will be back Sunday. We are very excited!

Our Latest News

2010-08-25T14:40:00.008-06:00

The end of summer went very fast and I feel like a lot of exciting things have happened! So here is an update and a few pictures also :).

1. First and foremost, Randy and I both got jobs as nurses (the SAME day)! Yay! I can't tell you what a relief this is for us. Nursing has always been an easy profession to find jobs in. Until we graduated. It is very hard now because of all the nurses that have gone back to work and because of the economy causing budget cuts. But no more applying and worrying for us! Randy will be a Research Nurse with Lifetree Research and I will continue working at Primary Children's Medical Center but now as an RN. Whew! Huge weight off of our shoulders.

2. I chopped my hair. It is above my shoulders now and I have to admit, at first I was a little freaked out when I saw it. Don't get me wrong, I have an amazing stylist and it was perfect, but it was a little shocking to see it. I love it now though and definitely will be keeping it like this for a while. Such a great change.

3. My dad pretty much rocks. He ran the Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon last Saturday and finished in 1 hour and 34 minutes. He also placed in the top 100 and got a medal that says "Elite 100." Not that this is a huge surprise since he runs marathons all the time and always qualifies for the Boston Marathon, but it just goes to prove once again how cool he is :).

4. Randy started school again. A 2 week break just isn't enough. We both need more time but it must be done and we don't want to put it off, thats for sure. Hopefully this semester is not as bad as his summer semester was (he doesn't think it will be-thankfully).

5. We leave for Lake Powell in 2 weeks for a little 4 day get away with my family. Yes, we just got back and were there for 8 days with Randy's family, but who gets sick of Lake Powell?

6. We took a quick day trip to Park City and rode the Alpine Slide. It was really fun! I think between the slide and the coaster, the coaster is a little more fun but the slide was great also.

Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon
My dad with his grand babies:

My dad, brother in law Dave, Uncle Randy and Cousins Karen and Michelle (not pictured) all ran:

Someday I want to be like him:

All of his cheerleaders:

Park City
Ready to go down the slide:

p.s. I was slightly depressed when I walked outside the other day and it was a little chilly. Then Randy and I went and used some gift cards we had to American Eagle and I bought a cute hoodie for the Fall. I think that made me a little more ready :p.

Just keep swimming....

2010-08-16T19:51:00.002-06:00

While in Lake Powell for the past 8 days (pictures and info about the trip to come soon), I really wanted to get exercise but it was WAY to hot/difficult/basically impossible to go running everyday (we were camping on a beach on the lake). We camped in a little bay and found that it was a pretty good workout to swim across the bay and then back, so my father-in-law and I decided to make that our daily exercise. I loved it. I can't believe how good of an arm AND stomach workout it is and it really increases lung strength. I actually think I am going to miss it a lot.

So I have now decided that my new cross training is going to be swimming. I am going to look into a pass at a rec center around here so I can keep it up. I have been using the elliptical to cross train and it is SO boring. 30 minutes on that thing is all I can handle, but swimming was fun!

It actually makes me a little interested in a sprint triathlon. Now I just need a bike....

Time to get away.

2010-08-05T13:52:00.002-06:00

We leave for Lake Powell tomorrow morning and won't be back until a week from Sunday! Randy also just finished his last final today so it is definitely time for a fun vacation.

Have a great week!

Always a good morning

2010-07-28T12:57:00.003-06:00

I love cereal. If I don't have it for breakfast, I end up craving it all day and most likely will end up eating it for dinner. I feel the need to eat it everyday. I also love fresh fruit so summer is the perfect time for me to combine two of my favorite foods :).

Lately my two favorite cereals are:

1) Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds-this one has been a favorite for years
2) Special K Vanilla Almond-I just discovered this a few months ago. Yum

Honey Bunches goes perfect with fresh cut up strawberries and Special K is great with fresh blueberries.

What a great way to start the day!

Boot Scootin' Boogie

2010-07-26T21:41:00.004-06:00

This 24th of July weekend was so much fun! On Friday, we tubed down the Provo river which was turned out to be quite a dangerous day to do so. A girl we were with got stuck between one of the bridges because her tube flipped, my mom got all bruised up from the same thing, and one of our guy friends ended up getting stitches in his foot. Other than that, it was a blast. As always.

After that little adventure my family ate at Smash Burger then went to the Spanish Fork Rodeo. I'm not a huge rodeo fan but it is always great to be out doing something together. We always have a good time!

Then on Saturday, my mom, Shea, Curtis, and I took my nephews to the Lehi Foam Party. I think Curtis enjoyed it the most...haha. Later that night Randy and I went to dinner and saw the movie Inception. Complete must see and totally worth the money to see in theatres!

It was a great weekend! Happy end of July!

My family (minus McKell and Dave) and our friends Jake and Ginger at the Rodeo.

Curtis and Kaden at the Lehi Foam Party

try it out!

2010-07-19T13:57:00.002-06:00

I may have posted on this in the past but I think it is worth a second mention. There is this text message "daily deal" out there called Skweez. It pretty much rocks. Everyday you get a text message with a restaurant deal and the great thing about it, skweez won't accept a deal that is less than 25% off. So the deals really are awesome. It is also a great way to find and try new places because a lot of local restaurants join in.

All you have to do is get online and sign up your cell phone number and the city you want deals in. And yes, it is for real, we have used the deals. You just have to show the text to the restaurant.

Today my skweez was for Juicy Berry (a frozen yogurt place at Gateway). 5 oz of frozen yogurt free with any purchase of 5 oz or larger. SWEET! We might have to go get some tonight :).

Sign up at: www.skweez.com

can you say RELIEF?!

2010-07-16T19:45:00.002-06:00

Last night I got NO sleep. I had to get up at 5:30am to be at work at 7am and I tossed and turned all night long. I knew my NCLEX (nursing license exam) results would be up today. I was so anxious. I don't think there is a way to know if you passed this test or not after you take it. Its just over. Then you wait. If you don't pass, you pay another $200 and retake it, but the worst part for me was that a lot of people knew I took it. I didn't want to have to admit that I failed.

Well, I got home from work and first things first, I pulled up my results. I am happy to say I PASSED! I am officially a Registered Nurse!

playing domestic.

2010-07-13T12:24:00.002-06:00

Tonight will be the second night in a row that I actually planned what we were going to eat for dinner. I know, amazing right? Haha. Like I have said before, I'm not that great at planning and cooking dinner each night.

Last night we had very yummy fruit pancakes and tonight we are having spaghetti. And that's even in spite of the fact that we got a "Skweez" text message for buy one get one free at Mi Ranchito Mexican Grill. It was tempting, but dinner is planned and money is tight. So the spaghetti still wins and dang it, it will be amazing.

In other news, I have my NCLEX exam tomorrow at 1pm. This is the test that tells me whether I get to be a true licensed Registered Nurse or not. It can be anywhere from 75 to 265 questions and you don't know how many you are going to get. You just keep clicking away until the dreadful thing is over. I am gearing myself up for the 265 just in case. But 75 sure would be nice....

Enjoy the beautiful summer weather! I know I am :)

we made it!

2010-07-06T17:21:00.005-06:00

Well, we officially made it to our first anniversary (not like it was all that hard or anything...haha)! I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone and it has been one of the best years of my life. I love being married and having my best friend with me all the time. He is such a perfect husband. Seriously. I'm spoiled.

I was in charge of our anniversary this year. Since money is a little tight right now I had to make plans that were slightly more conservative than I originally thought up. But we still had a blast. On Friday (actual anniversary), we broke into that year old cake top (it was actually still pretty good, oddly enough), we ate at Tepanyaki, then we came home and watched a movie and made Root Beer Floats. Randy had Monday off of school for the holiday (yay) so we finished celebrating that day. We went up to Park City and rode the Alpine Coaster which was SO FUN then ate at Main Street Pizza and Noodle. It was so wonderful to spend a few days just playing together!

Here's to many more years to come!

one year older and wiser too.

2010-06-29T22:37:00.010-06:00

Today is Randy's birthday! He turned 26 but don't worry, people still mistake him for being 21 :p. We had a lot of fun celebrating his birthday. On Saturday we went with some friends to Tucanos and the Arts Festival here in Salt Lake, on Monday we went to dinner at Sugarhouse BBQ, and on Tuesday we went to a Salt Lake Bees game!

Isn't he a cute birthday boy?

Here are a few pictures of our celebration:

I love you so much honey and I have had so much fun planning your birthday and having a lot of time to play with you. Thank you for all you do for me everyday. You always take time out of your busy schedule to hang out with me and to let me know that I am always your priority. You are the most amazing husband and best friend that I could ever dream of and I couldn't be happier with anyone in the world. I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

xoxo

blah blah blah. and thats all.

2010-06-25T00:10:00.008-06:00

1. I'm not a big fan of the new So You Think You Can Dance. First off, I haven't watched TV for about 2 years so its been a while since I last saw the show. My friends little sister is on as an all-star (Allison), so she is fun to watch, but I still don't like the all-star thing. I think the contestants are always out-done (is that the right word?) by their partner. I'm sure I will still watch it though.

2. Can I just tell you how much I hate the economy right now? I know people are worse off than me. Thank goodness I have a job. But I have not gotten a nursing job yet and I graduated over a month ago. Sucks. I have my NCLEX test (nursing license exam) on July 14th so that will open a few more doors for me to apply for positions. Positive thinking...

3. I love the sun. The heat. The summer. It makes me happy. Period.

4. I miss my husband. School has taken over his life, which is good because he always gets awesome grades, but I'm self fish and want him back. He is a sweetie and always makes sure to set aside some time (that he doesn't have) to play with me. But its just not enough dang it.

5. I have almost been married a year. So weird and totally awesome!

6. We are going to the Arts Festival here in Salt Lake on Saturday. After an always wonderful dinner at Tucanos. So excited!

7. Until I get a nursing job (sorry about the rant on #2)I am switching to day shift at my work. I can't wait to sleep normal hours like a normal person.

8. I think I should start cooking dinner for my husband and I more. Most nights its basically fend for yourself. I just really get sick of big meals and want a sandwich or cereal for dinner. Poor hubby. I think this is my half way through the year resolution.

9. Randy and I are planning on going to the temple tomorrow. It is much needed for both of us right now and I am really looking forward to it. I am so blessed and even though everything is not exactly how I want it to be at the moment, I have an amazing husband, the best family in the world, and the gospel that all keeps me going.

10. I need a hobby. Okay running/exercising is definitely a hobby of mine now but I want a creative hobby. I might need to jump on that band wagon.

Have a wonderful and sunny weekend!

"Run Forest Run!"

2010-06-21T17:27:00.014-06:00

My family (minus Curtis and Dave-we missed you!) and I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay Race this past weekend. It starts in Logan and ends in Park City. 188 miles and 2 days. Sounds pretty crazy right? Yeah it pretty much is.

This is my second year running the race and it is such a blast and one of the most challenging things both mentally and physically that I have done.

How it works: We had 12 people on our team and we were split into two groups of six (van #1 and van #2). Van 1 was my uncle and his family and van 2 was my family. Van 1 started at 6:50am on Friday, they did their first 6 legs of the race, then it was our turn. After we ran it switched back to them. It continues on like that 3 times so each person has 3 legs of the race. All of the legs vary in length, from 3 miles to 9.6, and in difficulty, easy to very hard. There is never a time where someone on your team is not running. It goes all night and into the next day. We finished around 2:30pm on Saturday.

The most challenging run that I had was my second leg which was a 7 mile run. It was slightly downhill most of the way so that was sweet, but I have never ran over 6.2 miles before so I was extremely worried. It was my night run. I started around 11pm on Friday night. I have never felt so good running before! I ran the entire thing in exactly 60 minutes and when I finished, I felt like I had another mile in me. It was a huge accomplishment for me! Only one problem, I felt so good that I never drank anything so I got dehydrated and ended up throwing up about 2 hours later and that continued throughout the night. BUT I felt better for my 3rd and final run on Saturday morning and was able to run all 3 of my legs which was such a relief. I was so disappointed thinking that another one of my team mates would have to run my last leg but luckily, that was not necessary :).

This race is crazy. It is challenging because you run 3 times in about 30 hours and it never stops so it is very hard to get any sleep. Also, you never see a bed, shower, or bathroom other than a porta potty. After my van finished our night runs (around 4am) we drove to our next exchange point, slept for an hour and a half on the sidewalk, and it was back to running. It is amazing to see how hard you can push your body and I think that is one of the most awesome things about it. And it is also a blast to be with your team and cheer each other on the entire time! The van that is running "leap frogs" the runner, meaning we pull about a mile ahead of the runner then cheer them on and give them water when they get to us. It is so fun to support each other.

My dad and sister McKell ran the 2 hardest runs of the race which are the Ragnar runs. McKell gained around 1400 feet in under 4 miles and my dad gained about 1600 in 4 miles. It is straight up a mountain the entire way and each time you turn a corner it is steeper than it was before. They totally killed it. After my dad ran, at least 10 different random runners came up to him and said how amazing it was to watch him and a few asked how they could recruit him for their team next year haha.

Everyone did such a great job!

Decorating our car aka van #2 (all the cars are titled vans by the race no matter what it really is):

We kept track of how many people we each passed while running (kills) and how many passed us (killed). We did pretty good!:

Our cute matching outfits :):

Silly boys...:

So happy to have my hubby there with me this year:

And now for the real stuff:

We ran our little bums off and I can't wait to do it again next year!

my birthday weekend!

2010-06-15T01:43:00.016-06:00

I turned the big 2-5 last Saturday. I don't know how, but that sounds about 10 years older than saying I was 24. I'm not really liking this age so much.

I had a wonderful birthday full of fun with many of my favorite people! On Saturday, Randy took me to Ruth's Diner for dinner (it was our first time going and we loved it), we then went and got one of my favorite things in the world....ice cream, and went and saw the movie Prince of Persia (we were disappointed. It was repetitive and got old about half way through). I love you honey. You always do the most amazing things for me and you are so thoughtful and loving. You make me happier every day.

Then on Sunday, we went to my families house and celebrated for both my birthday and my older sisters which is the day after mine. We had a great dinner of Sausage and Peppers Rustica, opened presents from my lovely family, then we had the most AMAZING birthday cakes ever! Mine was chocolate trifle and my sisters was strawberry trifle. They were huge and tasted as good as they look. Thanks family, I love you all and I always look forward to spending time with you.

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so perfect!

And here are just a few pictures of our trip to Hawaii that I promised on the last post:

The sunset from the airplane when we were flying into Maui:

Big Beach, one of our favorites:

The girls:

Fred's Mexican Grill:

A cove that has some of the best snorkling:

My sisters and nephew Kaden at the beach across from our condo:

My other nephew Trey learning to love the sand:

I have so many fun pictures of our vacation. This is just a small sample of how fun and beautiful Maui is! I can't wait for next time :).

complete paradise.

2010-06-12T16:39:00.003-06:00

Well, my vacation to Maui was here and all the sudden I am back home and don't know where the last 10 days went. Its amazing how vacations always seem so short. Maui is amazing and one of my most favorite vacation spots.

We mostly played on the beach, of course, but we also did other fun stuff like;

-snorkled
-went surfing
-went to a luau
-hiked to a waterfall
-went running every morning on awesome trails around the island
-went body boarding
-ate lots and lots of good BBQ food that my dad made each night for dinner
-got some yummy Mexican food at Fred's Mexican Grill
-had many funny jokes about my sister and her husband being on a family vacation only 1 week after being married (haha still funny...)
-drove up a volcano to 10,000 feet
-and spent lots of great time and laughs with my family

And now I'm ready to go back! I will post pictures of the trip soon :)

leaving on a jet plane

2010-06-01T10:21:00.007-06:00

My family and I leave for Maui, Hawaii for 10 days in a few hours! Yay I'm so excited! Sadly, Randy can't come because he can't miss school. Stupid school in the summer :(.

Before I leave, I know this is about food AGAIN, but its too amazingly good not to share. We made these on Sunday and they were awesome! If you like ribs, you have to try these. The meat literally falls off the bones.

Crockpot Babyback Ribs

We bought a package of baby back ribs that were really good meaty ones. I think they were around 3.5 lbs because it only came in that size.

-Rub salt, pepper, and garlic salt on ribs.
-Layer ribs in crockpot. Turn on high heat for 1 hour.
-After an hour on high, turn heat down to low. On each layer of ribs, sprinkle brown sugar, place cut up yellow onion, and coat with bbq sauce (we used Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ Sauce and I could have licked it straight off my plate. Maybe I did....It was really good)
-Cook on low heat for 4.5 more hours
-Add a little additional BBQ sauce on each rib layer. Turn on high for a half an hour at the end (I don't really know if they needed to be turned up for the last half hour. You probably could just keep it on low for the last half hour but we were experimenting. They would still be done I think if you didn't change the heat.)

Total cooking time: 6 hours
Needed ingredients: Salt, pepper, garlic salt, yellow onion, brown sugar, bbq sauce, ribs.

Thats all! They were really good dipped in BBQ sauce too but they didn't need to be because they weren't dry at all. :) And now we have lots of left overs to make pulled pork sandwiches....yummy!

Be back in 10 days!

tasty and very easy!

2010-05-27T04:04:00.002-06:00

I feel like a lot of my posts have been about food lately. Oh well. I like food so I guess thats probably why.

Cooking doesn't happen very often at my house, but last night I tried a recipe I found on the blog A Spoonful of Sugar. It sounded perfect: we like tacos, check. I like easy food, double check. And I needed to finally try out the crockpot we have, check again. So we made Chicken Tacos.

Easy Crockpot Chicken Tacos
(This is how I made them then I will put their recipe below. They are pretty similar)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can black beans, drained/rinsed
1 cup frozen corn (I just estimated how much I wanted)
1/2 package taco seasoning

Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken and place in crockpot on high for 1 hour. Turn down to low heat and add black beans. Cook for 3 more hours on low heat and add corn when there is 1 hour left.
Chicken is done when it is white through out and shreds easily.
Shred chicken and mix in black beans/corn.
Serve on tortillas (we did both flour and white corn) with any toppings you would like.
For our topping choices we had: homemade fresh salsa, guac, sour cream, shredded cheese, lettuce.

Recipe from A Spoonful of Sugar:

4 chicken breasts
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 package taco seasoning

Mix together and throw in crockpot for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken before serving.

They are both similar but I made less since there was only 2 of us (it made plenty for 2 with leftovers) and I needed a little more direction then they gave. I turned to my mom, aka master cook, and she said first, 6-8 hours is too long. She was right. It was for sure done after 4 (at least for 2 chicken breasts). Second, it had no heat setting for the crockpot so she told me to do the hour on high thing then turn it down. Lastly, I didn't want the black beans and corn to go soggy so I added them later. Good choice.

This is a very easy recipe and it tastes really good! We will defintely make it again and next time I might add a little salsa in the crockpot to mix it up a little :).

her big day!

2010-05-23T12:38:00.003-06:00

Dave + McKell 05.21.10

My little sister got married on Friday! I feel like I just barely got married, it is so crazy that it was her turn now!

To get ready for the big day, my mom, my sisters, and I had a girls day. We went and got pedicures, went to lunch, and went shopping. Always such a good time. I could never ask for a better mom or better sisters-they are all my best friends :).

The family dinner was on Thursday which was put on by Dave's parents. It was at The Gathering Place at Garder Village and was a great night with good food and lots of good family and friends.

Then came the wedding! They were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple and had the reception at Somewhere Inn Time in Lindon. Everything was so nice and the day turned out great.

We love you Dave and McKell! Have a great honeymoon!

a cookie/brownie? YES PLEASE.

2010-05-18T19:32:00.005-06:00

I have posted a few "healthier" treat recipes in the past but trust me, this is not one of those. It is, however, quite amazing and delish.

They are called Congo Bars and I found the recipe on the Bakerella website(www.bakerella.com). I wanted to make them right away, but I was missing about half of the ingredients and since I only bake from scratch when I am with my mom, I had to buy a sifter.

Anyways. Back to the point. I made them just now and had to post about them. Yum. So good.

What is a Congo Bar you might ask? Making them, I thought I was just making a giant chocolate chip cookie but after they are cooked, they are more like a cookie/brownie. A little crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. MMM....

*There are 2 different directions on how to mix these, one by mixer and one by hand. The Bakerella website said they are better by hand but I took the easier way and used a mixer*

Congo Bars:

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened (room temp-not melted)
1 lb. light brown sugar (By my conversion, this is 2 cups but when I later googled it, one website said brown sugar converts from 1 lb to 2 1/2 cups. 2 was great.)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional-I didn't use them but it would probably be good!)

Directions with a mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and brown sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs one at a time to sugar mixture, mix on low between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add dry flour mixture and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

Directions by hand:

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of the spoon to incorporate together.
Add eggs one at a time to sugar mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

The batter should be thick.

Coat a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly in dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (mine took about 32 minutes) or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don't over bake.

Notes on this from the website:
If they aren't done after 30 minutes and the top seems like it is getting too dark, cover with aluminum foil and continue to bake. Check with a toothpick for doneness before taking them out of the oven. Also, sift all the dry ingredients and do not use melted butter, use room temperature.
(Picture and recipe from www.bakerella.com)

Enjoy making and eating these yummies!

Summer Movie Nights

2010-05-13T12:23:00.005-06:00

Randy LOVES movies. Before I married him, I wasn't really too much of a movie watcher but he is converting me and now that its almost summer, we know all the good movies are about to come out! Last night we went and saw Iron Man 2 and Friday we already bought our tickets for the new Robin Hood with Russell Crowe (Randy is super excited about that).

Its been a long time since I saw the first Iron Man movie so I was a little worried that I wouldn't know what was going on. I found out quickly that it really doesn't matter. I think you would catch onto the story quick even without seeing the first one.

They did a good job on this movie. Very full of action and lots of explosions, of course. The acting was really good in it. I liked that the movie was always moving and something was always happening so it kept my interest the whole time. Overall, it was worth seeing in the theatres :).

I also FINALLY watched New Moon. I will admit, it was 100x better than Twilight as far as the overall movie goes. I still hated the acting of Bella and Edward. They are horrible actors and I don't think that anything can fix that. Bella's "stink face" as Randy likes to call it, drives me crazy everytime she is shown on camera. She has no experession and its suppose to be this intense love story. But, like I said, the movie was definitely better than Twilight. Unlike the books, I am definitely a Jacob fan in the movies.

Hopefully tomorrow Robin Hood will be as good as the previews make it look!!

Little side notes:
My little sister went through the temple on Tuesday. It was so amazing to have my entire family there. We are so blessed! And she gets married a week from tomorrow...how crazy!

Also, my brother in law graduates from Medical School on Saturday....good job Curtis!

I'm a big kid now!

2010-05-07T12:32:00.005-06:00

It true....Randy and I graduated yesterday! The ceremony was held at 5pm in Kingsbury Hall here in Salt Lake.

We are almost officially nurses (we have to take the licensing exam called the NCLEX to really be official).

Randy starts school again in 2 weeks, sad news for me. I want to just play all summer. But I know its important to keep going :(. He will now be working towards applying to medical school in a year. Long road!

I am done and that is weird. I am extremely excited but very scared at the same time! My entire life has revolved around school forever and I feel like I don't know what to do now. Its a nice feeling, don't get me wrong, but its really weird. It scares me to know that I am a nurse now and that I have that responsibility. I never understood how much responsibility nurses truely have until I went through nursing school. I can't lie, I have 100 times more respect for nurses now that am trained as one than I did before I got into nursing school and was just working as a nurses assistant. Nurses are very smart and work very hard (okay, I know not all of them but the good ones) and I hope that one day, a student will say that about me.

Randy is now looking for a part time job as a nurse while he goes to school. That is not easy to find. He has gotten 2 job offers, which is a lot in this economy, but they were both full time.

I had an interview on Monday with Primary Childrens that I am waiting to hear back on and I have another one with Intermountain Medical Center next Thursday. Everyone always says that nursing jobs are so easy to come by and nurses are so needed but right now, that is not at all the case. Nursing jobs are very hard to get and its very competitive because of how the economy and everything is going. So I feel very blessed to have some interviews and options!

We are proud to say we are now University of Utah College of Nursing Alumni! Thanks to our families for being there to support us.

They scratch my face...

2010-05-03T16:09:00.002-06:00

So Randy and I got new sheets the other day. We have only had one pair of sheets since we got married and its kind of a pain to not have two. I hate when I have to do the laundry and then wait to make my bed until my sheets are done being washed. Needless to say, I was very excited to have two sets. So excited in fact that I ignored the label on the package that says, "Wash before use." Whoops. I came home and changed my sheets that day without washing the new ones first.

I have to start by saying we bought really nice sheets. We had a Kohls gift card so we bought Vera Wang sheets that have a silk cuff...very cute and very nice. That only added to my excitement to try them out. Well, I should have listened to the package. They are scratchy and starchy. And kind of loud when we roll over. Dang it.

The last few nights I haven't been able to sleep well and the scratchy-ness on my face was not helping. One of the nights, I finally got out of bed, threw the new pillow case on the floor, and switched to my other one. Its much softer and more comfy.

I hope washing them helps. I really like them but I cannot stand them if this is how they will be all the time. Stupid new sheets.

the big number 4

2010-04-29T23:16:00.002-06:00

This cute little stinker (my nephew Kaden) turned 4 last week:

I love him so much. He is my buddy and he absolutely ADORES Randy, which I love. One night, Randy and I slept at my parents house and they only have twin beds in the spare rooms. We have been married for a while now so we would rather sleep in seperate rooms then squeeze onto a twin bed together...so anyways...I took Kaden in to Randy's room to wake him up in the morning. Ever since he saw Randy in that bed, he sleeps in "Wandys room" every night (my sister and her husband are living in the basement of my parents house for right now). They are basically BFF's.

I am amazed at how big he is and at the things he can do. And I can't believe he is 4! I remember being his age, that is so crazy! He loves to read his books, play with his "How to Train Your Dragon" toys, ride his bike, and drive his power wheels truck. And he basically loves to do anything that involves running around like a mad man :).

Happy Birthday Kaden. We love you!

Love "J.J." and "Wandy"

salt lake's finest.

2010-04-27T20:03:00.004-06:00

Last weekend we decided we wanted to try a something a little different. We headed over to Setabellos Pizzeria here in downtown Salt Lake. This is not your average pizza joint. Don't get me wrong...we love to head over to The Pie and get us some greasy, cheese running down your elbows pizza every once in a while, but that is not at all what Setebellos is about. In fact, it is just the opposite.

Setebellos is an Italian Pizzeria which, in my experience, means different toppings and very little cheese. I was very pleased with the pizza, it tasted extremely fresh and much lighter than the regular pizza I am used to. Oh and the crust was AMAZING. I could have eaten just that. They use some kind of spice stuff in their crust and it is sort of a smoked flavor from being baked in the brick oven.

We ordered 2 pizzas (we could have easily shared just one but wanted to try two flavors and what the heck...we like food). Our favorite by far was the Margherita which is: Crushed Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Basil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Extra Virgin Olive Oil ($9.99). It tasted really light and just had a good flavor. We also tried the Pizza Lasagna which is: Crushed Tomatoes, Wood Oven Roasted Fennel Sausage, Roasted Mushrooms, Ricotta Cheese, Mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil ($11.99). That was pretty good also, but I wasn't a big fan of the type of sausage on it.

We also got the Focaccia bread appetizer (don't worry, we didn't finish all of this food, it was a lot haha) which was very good. We would definitely get this again and then just share one pizza.

I would highly recommend it:). The address is: 260 South 200 West in Salt Lake City. There was about a 25 minute wait for 2 on a Saturday night but I hear the wait can get long so be prepared!

We also went and saw the movie Date Night. Hilarious. We laughed the whole time. It has some risque jokes so if you aren't into that it might not be the movie for you (but it does stay true to being PG-13). We liked it a lot. And we love Steve Carell so that doesn't hurt either...

Incarceron.

2010-04-24T13:32:00.005-06:00

I found a new book to recommend....

It is called "Incarceron" by Catherine Fisher. It is really good and pretty intense throughout the entire book. I have to warn you, you are confused through at least half of it about what is going on but thats part of the reason it is so good. The book goes back and forth between two stories that eventually run into one anothers path. It is one of those books that you have to read often or it is really easy to get lost. I usually had to go back and review what I had read before to catch back up with what was going on because there are a lot of characters and a lot of detail.

It is really fun and I highly recommend it! It is fairly new and apparently the author is still working on the second book but I do hear rumors that Fox already bought the rights for a movie.

So if you are looking for a little relaxing entertainment.....

Enjoy!

the blushing bride.

2010-04-19T21:10:00.010-06:00

Shea, my mom, and I got to go watch McKell take her bridal pictures last Thursday. She used my photographer, Dan Hixson (still very highly recommend!) and she looked SO beautiful! She did her pictures in downtown Provo and had a really good mix of the urban feel and the more "fancy" stuff. I haven't seen what he took yet but I took some of my own and she is just adorable no matter what :). I wish I could post the ones I took BUT its bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding and you never know if he would stumble across my blog. So I will resist. I will post them after her wedding though. Until then....

Shea and I (and a lot of my mom) planned a family bridal shower for McKell last Saturday. It was really fun, if I may say so myself. We decided to do it at a church because the weather was too if-y to plan outside ahead of time(turned out beautiful that day...of course)and my mom really didn't want it in her house. It ended up being okay at the church though. We did a Hawaiian theme and we decorated the entire room in Hawaiian decorations. We planned two games: the question game but we modified it to be more fun by making it more of a jeopardy game and included the guests. Each question she missed we dressed her up as a Hawaiian girl (she only got 3 out of 12 right....haha) and then made her do a dance at the end. Mean older sisters.

Our second game was for everyone to decorate "McKell and Dave's wedding cake." Super fun. We had a huge assortment of decorations for the cakes including some cute and some dirty :). She then had to vote for the prettiest and funniest/most inappropriate. I can't believe how good everyone did! It was SO funny! We then ate some extremely yummy food and opened her presents. It was really fun to plan and we were very happy with the end result!

Before being decorated....

And after. I wish I could post a picture of each induvidual one because they were all so funny. I loved this game!

In other blogging news: my dad finished the Boston Marathon today with a time of 3 hours 29 minutes...more on this later :). I also have an awesome book to review that I recommend! More to come...

57 & never been better.

2010-04-13T15:13:00.013-06:00

My dad is turning 57 on Wednesday! We celebrated it on Monday so that we could all get togheter. It was a lot of fun! My sister Shea and I made him a homemade cake that was 3 layers-yellow cake on the bottom, chocolate in the middle, and another layer of yellow on top. It was very good even if our decorating frosting somehow ended up purple instead of red....

My dad is a runner and he always talks about how when he goes trail running, he is afraid of running into a bear or mountian lion. As a joke, we went and bought silly string and Randy made a sign to cover it that said "Bear Mase" and then had all the steps to use it including step 7: "Crap your pants and run." It was really funny and my dad loved it (the second to last picture is him with his "Bear Mase" and the last picture is McKell getting sprayed with it....haha).

It was a great night! Here are a few pictures of the celebration:

(sorry its sideways, I don't know what happened)

My dad is so amazing. He is the youngest 57 year old I have ever met but at the same time he is the hardest working man I've seen. He would do anything for his family and he is so dedicated to everything he sets his mind to. He will be running the Boston Marathon for his 3rd time next Monday with a qualifying time of 3 hours 23minutes!

I love you dad! I hope you have a very Happy Birthday!

Perfect Weekend

2010-04-05T21:34:00.003-06:00

Easter weekend was so much fun! On Saturday night, we went out with Randy's parents to Red Robin, got ice cream at Marble Slab, then went and saw the movie "Clash of the Titans" which ended up crazy because we randomly sat right next to one of Randy's good friends! We had assigned seats in a huge theatre...what are the chances?! It was pretty funny. We really enjoyed our night out with his parents!

As far as "Clash of the Titans" goes, we thought it was okay. Visually it was really good but the story was lacking. It really never had the huge fight scene that the entire movie was based around. There was all of this build up for the scene and then it ended up being 30 seconds long and wasn't really cool at all. Overall it was an okay movie, its not horrible. It is entertaining and like I said, visually it is awesome (not like Avatar but still good). Maybe more worth the dollar theatre or Red Box, but it is worth seeing sometime.

We then spent Saturday night to Sunday morning at my parents house. On Easter Sunday we got up (the Easter bunny had come and left us LOTS of candy) and watched the morning conference session. We then colored Easter eggs and had an Easter egg hunt for my nephew Kaden. Randy also made him a balloon animal dog since he got one in Vegas and it popped. Kaden was SO excited, he started yelling "doggy" and running around barking then he gave it a huge hug and said, "Oh he is so cute." Haha, it was adorable. We then watched the second session of Sunday conference and afterwards, ate a wonderful dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, salad, rolls, and peas....mmm yummy and ate homemade cheesecake (and banana cream pie but none for me...yuck) for dessert. It was such a great holiday with the fam :).

What a great weekend, thanks to our families for playing with us!

A Little Sunshine

2010-04-01T23:14:00.017-06:00

We had an awesome spring break last week. We spent the first half of the week in the wonderful sin city of Las Vegas with my sister, my brother-in-law, and the 2 cutest nephews in the world. We laid in the sun, swam in the pool, went shopping and bowling, ate steak and eggs at 2am, went to a buffet, had some hilarious inside jokes about a balloon animal, lost a little money...ya know, typical Vegas behavior :). Thanks for inviting us Shea and Curtis, we loved it!

Next, we were off to Lake Mead with Randy's parents and friend Jake. We were suppose to go to Lake Powell but seeing as how it was snowing there, we decided Lake Mead was a better option. We stayed in Overton, NV which is the smallest town ever. My family has stayed in Overton every year since I can remember, so I introduced the Bess family to some of our favorites such as the VIP Chinese place (it looks super ghetto but is actually really good Chinese food). It was a little chilly on the lake when the boat was going but it felt so nice when we stopped and could just lay in the sun.

It was such a great break!

a spoonful of sugar.

2010-03-29T17:54:00.004-06:00

Growing up I never had a sweet tooth. Sugar never appealled to me. I was always the first to turn down any candy or desserts (not that I was "healthy," I just preferred salty snacks). Somehow, as I get older, I find that I want sweets more than ever and I don't want that. I still like salty, but now added in liking sweets too. Dang it. Dessert, ice cream, chocolate, its just so yummy!

Anyways, I don't really like that I crave and enjoy sweets but to make myself feel better, I decided to try and find healthier desserts. Don't worry, I know its a complete oxymoron. I actually found a few that I think look great and while they would not be considered good for you, they are a good alternative. I haven't made any of them yet but I definitely plan to (and hopefully plan to go to the gym after too....haha). So I thought I would share the one I think looks the best :). For other yummy stuff that I label as "better for you," go to BettyCrocker.com/recipes and go under low calorie desserts.

Frosty Marbled Yogurt Dessert

Makes 12 servings
1 cup chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
3 tablespoons chocolate ice-cream topping
1 quart strawberry cheesecake nonfat frozen yogurt, slightly softened
1 quart mixed-berry nonfat frozen yogurt, slightly softened
2 cups cut-up fruit

1. Spray bottom and side of springform pan, 9x3 inches, with nonstick cooking spray. Mix chocolate wafer crumbs and ice-cream topping. Press firmly against bottom of springform pan.
2. Scoop frozen yogurts onto crust, alternating colors. Spread yogurts slightly to smooth. Cover and freeze about 3 hours or until firm.
3. Run knife dipped in hot water along side of dessert to loosen; remove dessert from side of pan. Top with fruit.

Purchasing
Look for thin chocolate wafer cookies near other specialty cookies in the grocery store. Or buy a box of chocolate cookie crumbs, found in the baking aisle.
Substitution
For a flavor twist, use chocolate or vanilla fat-free frozen yogurt instead of the mixed-berry yogurt.

Nutrition Information:
1 Serving: Calories 205 (Calories from Fat 20 ); Total Fat 2 g (Saturated Fat 1 g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 125 mg; Total Carbohydrate 44 g (Dietary Fiber 1 g); Protein 4 g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 0%; Vitamin C 18 %; Calcium 12 %; Iron 2 %

Yum!

and we are off...

2010-03-20T21:03:00.001-06:00

Spring break is here! Finally!! We are leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow morning with my sister and her husband and will be there until Wednesday. Then on Friday, we leave for Lake Powell with Randy's parents and his best friend. We are so excited and ready for a break! Hopefully we will have many fun pictures to share of our vacations :).

Have a great week!

aLL tHiNgS gReEn

2010-03-18T10:09:00.005-06:00

To celebrate St. Patty's Day yesterday we went and saw this movie:

We loved it! It jumped back to the old school classic disney movies: it was animated and they would randomly break out in song. It was funny, it had a cute love story and as always with disney, a good inspirational message. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it.

Sorry for the lack of posts, life has been crazy trying to get everything done to graduate in a month and a half! We are getting there though and next week is spring break and we are going to Las Vegas then Lake Powell....can't wait!!

I have to wait until when?!

2010-03-07T22:12:00.002-07:00

Just finished this:

The second book in the "Hunger Games" series.

OH MY GOSH. So good I can't even stand it! Totally left me hanging and I have to wait clear until AUGUST for the next one. That's 5 months too long. I will definitely be re-reading the first two before then!

I would love some more book suggestions if anyone knows of any good ones :).

Awesome burgers and a little disappointment

2010-03-06T12:54:00.006-07:00

Last night we used a gift card to Five Guys Burgers and Fries that we got for Christmas. I don't know why it has taken us so long to use it, but it was worth the wait. I have been there one other time and I remember it being good but last night it was REALLY good. It totally hit the spot. I got a "little hamburger" which is not so little and Randy got a "bacon cheeseburger" which he loved. If you haven't been, they have a bunch of different toppings to choose from so you can make your burger just how you want it. And I love that they toast the bun. And I love that their burgers taste extremely fresh and juicy. MMM yummy. Of course, the fries are amazing too and yes, they have fry sauce :). Randy even went as far as saying the burgers are as good as Red Robin....thats a big statement to make....

After dinner, we rented "Time Traveler's Wife." I have been waiting for this to come to red box because I sort of forgot about it when it was in theatres. I was a little diappointed by it. It wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be; I think I had too high of expectations. It was kind of boring and slow. It felt a lot longer than 1 hour and 47 minutes and I felt like there was no real chemistry in the love story. I wouldn't go as far as saying it sucked, but I am glad I only paid $1 for it because it just wasn't entertaining and didn't hold my interest. I hate when I am so excited to see a movie and then that happens.

p.s. Is anyone elses blogger being really weird when you upload images? Mine just puts in the code until I publish my post instead of showing the picture....weird.

Small thoughts of randomness.

2010-03-04T00:06:00.006-07:00

*I am so excited that tonight is my last night of work until Sunday. I have been at clinicals or work everyday since Saturday and I'm a little sick of the hospital at this point. And of 12 hour shifts. Blah.

*I am still LOVING the Hunger Game series that I blogged about. I am almost done with the second book and I love it as much as the first.

*I have not seen my husband since Sunday night. Very sad.

*On a blog I found this recipe for Healthy Honey Oatmeal Cookies. Only 69 cals per cookie. I am super excited to try them (I will post the recipe below).

*I am going to lunch and shopping tomorrow with my mom and sister Shea (McKell I can't believe you ditched out...). I love it.

*7am today starts my weekend. YAY!

*Diet Dr. Pepper, I love you. You have the potential to stain my teeth (which I am paranoid about everytime I drink you), but you keep me awake and alive during these long shifts. I have weighed the options and you win.

*My exercise routinue has taken a huge hit lately. I want to go work out so badly.

*If you have not signed up for text message food deals at www.skweez.com you need to. At least 25% off and they do different restaurants daily. Love.

*Thanks to skweez (buy one get one free), Randy and I tried this cool new frozen yogurt hang out at gateway called "Juicy Berry." Its really good and their toppings are fresh. Looked like a new awesome high school hang out but everyone thinks we are 16 anyway. We will go back.

*I cannot wait to see the new "Alice in Wonderland." I really like Johnny Depp. I think he throws himself into every role and he always does a good job in movies like this. Also excited to see "Time Travelers Wife." I meant to see it in theatres forever ago but I forgot and now its in red box.

*Still have not seen "New Moon" and don't really care. I will see it eventually (for some reason I feel like I have too...?)but its definitely not a priority. I am planning on not liking it. If you don't know, I hated "Twilight." Because of that movie, I will probably never read the books again. It made me decide they are cheesy and lame. No idea why I have such a strong opinion about this haha.

*No, we are not going to try and get pregnant when we graduate. We get asked a lot so just thought I would add it in. I'm all about the birth control. I {heart} you Yaz.

*Here is the recipe:

Healthy Honey Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 30 cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 TBS butter
1 1/2 TBS unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 egg whites
1 TBS water
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
* you could use raisins, craisins, nuts, or go straight up oatmeal!

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350
2. Mix together butter, applesauce, brown sugar, honey, egg whites, and water.
3. Add in your dry ingredients, and then your oatmeal and chocolate chips.
4. Spoon onto cookie sheet (sprayed with Pam) and bake for 12 minutes.

Nutritional Info:
69.5 calories, 2.1 grams of fat (1.3 sat, .2 poly, .3 mono), 15.1 grams of carbs, 1.4 grams of fiber, 4.3 grams of sugar, and 1.1 grams of protein.

Happy weekend!