100 Miles & Counting

Some of you may know that I participate in a little challenge with my friend Mjillie and her family. I bought a pair of Nike Shox shoes, and an adapter that goes into the sole of the shoe and transmits information to my iPod Nano. It keeps track of distance, speed, calories, and time among other things. (That is what that little counter thing is off the right of my blog).

Anyway, there are all sorts of things you can do through the Nike Plus website and one of them is participating in challenges with others who have the same nifty little device (friends and or strangers). Mjillie and her family are the only ones I know of that actually have this, and they are nice enough to let me play with them! Not much is at stake for the winners of our challenges, other than the satisfaction of knowing you won. Maybe that will change in another challenge, but for now, Mjillie and I are teamed up to be the first team to reach 200 miles from the time the challenge started (almost a month ago). So far we are ahead, but her sissy, and sis-in-law are gaining ground fast too. It will be fun to try and kick some trash if nothing else! The information gets transmitted automatically through iTunes, so there is no way you can cheat and pad your miles!

From the time I bought the shoes and the adapter (in September), the challenges have mainly helped motivate me to get going, my iPod has kept a continuous count of my total miles. I just wanted to brag that I have just reached the 100 Miles mark!!!

Halloween Outfits

Is anyone else but me glad that the elections are over??? I didn't love either candidate, and I don't get too involved with politics but now I hope that we can move on with life! Here's to hoping that Obama does a decent job, and not screw things up too badly!

Anyway, I am actually glad that Halloween is over too. I loved seeing my little nieces and nephews in their outfits, but for some stupid reason, I gorged on freaking candy all day long! Not before, not MUCH since, but on that day, it was like I had been deprived of sugar all my life or something!!!

Below are some pics of my favorite little characters on that crazy day. I made my outfit for the day. I thought it was rather appropriate if you ask me! Not to worry, Boston had a scowl on his face all night because he didn't feel well. Cooper screamed bloody murder anytime anyone wanted to get a picture of him. I think it was because he could!!! I borrowed a couple of pics from the mothers' blogs of Brooklynn, and Boston. Cooper was no where to be found, but I think his bat ears can be seen in one of them!

Happy Halloween & B-Day!

By the way, B-Day does not stand for BIRTHday. It is a different event entirely that has now become a holiday with my sissy and I. This event happened one year ago this past Sunday on the 26th. We decided that from that time forward, Oct. 26th would be known as B-Day! Most of you should know what that event was, so you can figure it out pretty easily! My sissy doesn't want to remember it, but I do, and it was kinda fun to tease her about it! Being that it was on a Sunday, not much celebrating happened, but who says the celebration can't happen a few days later (like five or six even)!

Anyway, to celebrate Halloween, Jamz and I went to get a pedicure. My roommate Nats found this girl out in Spanish Fork, UT that specializes in Nail Art. She is a Certified Esthetician, so she can give you facials, and all that comes with it, but she will draw anything you want on your toes for like $10! It is not a full on pedicure (although for only $28 she will give you a pedicure too), it is more like just a polish change and design. She has all sorts of different designs, for the different holidays in a binder to choose from, or she said that some people bring in scrapbook paper and she will copy it. Amazing this girl is I tell you!


Mine and Jamz's toes all decorated for the season! (Left pic: Witch on broom
w/ghost in corner, bat, jacko-lantern, ghost, googly eyes. Right pic: Dead tree,
bat flying in the night moon, stripes with googly eyes, stitches, Halloween polka dots)

I do have a couple of restaurant reviews to add, but I will wait for another post to do so. Who is doing what to celebrate the holiday this weekend? I am trying to avoid a dumb ward party, so if someone is up for doing something fun...LEMMENO!

Birthdays and Ski Breaks

I had another name for this post when I was first thinking about what I wanted to write about.  The original title was "So Many Birthdays.  So Little Time."  Then Monday happened and I was forced to change my title.

I went on a little road trip by myself to visit my really good friend Mjillie in Boise, Idaho.  Her birthday was on the 16th so I thought I would go up and say hi, maybe take her out for her (late) birthday or something.  Anyway, so the weekend went great, no speeding tickets on the way up (found a friend to tail who liked to go 90 mph the whole way), and none on the way back.  The way home however, was filled with a little bit of drama all on its own.  Keep in mind this is my first time ever DRIVING to Boise.  I always flew because it was cheaper.  Obviously not the case now-a-day!

I was driving along just great, making good time by finding more speed demon friends to tail, and then somehow I started noticing I was on a different interstate than I remember.  I knew I started out on I-84, but then I started noticing signs for I-86 toward Pocatello.  Apparently the road forked and I didn't notice that I went left, instead of veering right toward SLC.  Kinda started freaking out to myself a little and then saw a sign that said x-amount of miles toward SLC.  

I figured by the time I found a way to turn around and go back to figure out what I did wrong, I might as well just keep going since Mjillie di

dn't answer her phone to find out what I did.  When I told her about it, and said I had no idea what I did, all she could tell me was that I went left instead of right!  So I ended up cutting across the great state of Idaho, and then coming down, instead of just staying on the road which would have intersected I-15 and gotten me home in a much faster way.  About 45 min to an hour sooner than I actually did!  My Dad called me and asked where I was, and then told me he was done talking to me when he found out what I did and that I didn't realize how I had done it.  I guess he couldn't believe he had one of those stereotypical blondes for a daughter!!!

Should have turned here!!!

The thing that really sucked is I had to still go into work for an hour when actually made it home, and then turn around and drive back up to SLC for Shameonyou21's birthday!  The things I do for those I love!  Anyway, it was at The Cheesecake Factory and I was very excited, so I am sure that helped my reasoning along with the fact that I do love Shameonyou21 very much also, and she would hate me if I didn't make it to her party!

I was running late (had to leave work, go home and shower, and then pick up SuziQ to head up to dinner.  I have lived in Orem my entire life so you would think I would know how to navigate Geneva Road after all these years.  I was going from my apt. just south of the Pkwy, to just north of Center.  I was yacking on the phone to Mjillie and all the sudden noticed I am almost to 1600 North!!!  

I was apparently a very easily distracted driver yesterday.  It's no wonder I didn't kill myself or someone else!!!  I apologize to anyone who was on the road at all yesterday!  I will be MUCH BETTER...I PROMISE!!!

Anyway, dinner was great!  A great friend's birthday, great food, and a GREAT Cheesecake for dessert!  It was ALMOST a refreshing ending to a hectic and chaotic and very long day for me.  My restaurant luck continued with the computer crashing at the end of dinner last night, so it took them an hour to HAND WRITE our checks.  If someone would have said it would have taken an hour to do that many checks (6), we would have just put it on one tab, have someone pay for it, and settle up in the parking lot for crying out loud!

In the words of Idyllic Ideas, you all really should just "leave me in the car" when we go places!  All in all, it was a fun evening, and just to give you an idea of how FABULOUS their new flavor is in honor of the 30th anniversary...

30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake

Two layers of our Original Cheesecake and Two layers of our Creamy Chocolate Fudge Cake filled with Chocolate Cream and finished with Crunchy Pearls of Chocolate.

NYC PICS!

I am going to post a few pictures of the highlights with descriptions, and then there will be a slide with all of them.

Just like the movie!  Mmm...FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE!!!

NYC had these fountains under a bunch of bridges.  Can't remember why though now!  Cirque Dreams was the first show we saw.  It is in the Broadway Theatre which is the ONLY theatre actually ON Broadway St.

Kinda funny to lump these together, but the Manhattan temple, and Yankee Stadium!

Friends anyone???  It's funny that this little Cafe on the bottom isn't even close to a coffee shop!  Statues of Liberty dressed in robes of all of the MLB teams could be found all over the city.  The All-Star Game took place at Yankee Stadium about a week before we went to the game!

Creepy Statue Men who force us, then charge us to take pics with our own camera!  WICKED!!!  My friend won the ticket lottery and got front row tickets for $26.  I think the cheapest ticket if purchased from the ticket office (which were probably sold out) were around $90.

As promised...here are the rest of the pics!  If there is one you are wondering about...leave me a comment, and I will try to remember...a lot of the random buildings and stuff I don't remember anymore, but most of the other ones I probably will!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Once A Month?

I promise I am not turning into one of those "only once a month" bloggers. Life has been super crazy since returning from NYC. Just as an example, before leaving for NYC, my family went to Las Vegas for some more baseball fun. After returning from NYC a week later, I did enough laundry to pack up and go to Vegas again since Mitch's season is coming to a close very soon. (My family goes through withdrawals if there aren't any baseball games to go to).

Upon returning, Mitch & Tavi had their 3rd child, a little girl!!! They finally got their princess among those two non-stop baseball boys. They are going to be such good brothers, and it is already obvious how much they love their little sister!

Baby Boston, now longer such a little baby, turned 1 the day after Baby Stori was born. Too bad Boston and his parents were still in Texas for it :(

Anyway, if this wasn't enough adventure for one month, let's add moving into the equation! What possessed us to move to a third floor apartment is beyond me. Anyway, it is a nicer area, a nicer apartment, more parking, supposedly a better ward, and best of all, there is NO PIGGY!!! (For now anyway).

Stori Mekai Jones was born Thursday, August 7th!!!

(I stole the pics from Tavi's blog since I can't find my camera right now in all my boxes)

I have been trying to upload pics from my NYC trip, but things are taking a little longer than expected to do so. I will get those uploaded as fast as I can and get you some more posts asap!

NYC Greetings!

Hello my long lost bogger friends! I find myself once again apologizing for my lack of posting behavior. Life has been kinda crazy as of late. Trips to Las Vegas, long working days, and most recently, my NYC trip!

Things kinda snuck up on me with this trip. A bunch of friends and I had talked a long time ago about possibly going to New York to visit some friends we had out here. About a month ago when we decided to get more serious about it, most everyone either bailed out, or couldn't go due to work, and or other obligations. My friend Harper was the only one who turned out to be able to go.

We got looking at tickets, and prices were outragiously expensive. Over $400 roundtrip! We had almost consigned ourselves to not going, and settle on somewhere a little closer to home. My roommate (the cool one, not piggy obviously), Nats said that she might be able to get us buddy pass tickets because her dad works for JetBlue airlines and gives away buddy passes all of the time!

As luck would have it, things worked out, almost last minute even. We had to fly standby, but tickets were only going to be $100 for taxes and fuel and "someone looked at this piece of aper fee" instead of the original $400+ that it could have been! If that wasn't enough, Harper's old roommate, Hungaryrita, had an apartment all to herself for the summer, and said we could come stay with her. She eventually had people move in, right before we got here, and since we've been here, but they didn't seem to mind. Really though, with the way things have gone so far, I am tempted to say if they did mind, who cares!!! (So rude of me)

Initially we were thinking we would come and maybe even drive up to Palmyra, NY to see the Mormon Temple Pageant similar to one you might find in Manti, UT. My uncle is living there on a mission and is in the temple presidency, so we thought we could probably stay with him and my aunt and see a bunch of the sites that follows. As fate would have it, the timing didn't really work out to go to the pageant, but that hasn't stopped us from having an amazing time here in the city!

We fly back home this coming Sunday, July 27th in the evening sometime. I thought I would give you a run-down of some of the highlights until I can get back and post a bunch of pictures and give you all more details! Ready?!

• Open-air tour bus rides around the city (Uptown, Downtown during the day and at night, Brooklynn)
  
• Yankees Game
• Cirque Dreams-Jungle Fantasy (Broadway Play)
• Mariachi band on the subway
• Food (Boy do I got some good ones to post about that)
• Front row Wicked tickets for $26.25 (Broadway Play)
• Last two people on the the plane on the flight here
• Sleeping in until noon almost daily
• Manhattan Temple
• "You're here to meet a friend on the second floor?" (the security guard in the lobby of the Manhattan Temple/Church Offices where Hungaryrita works, said in a very confused tone).
  
• Our day of Murphy's law and riding the trains all day
• NBC Studios Tour
• Free place to stay (and cheap airfare over here)
• HOT policemen that we were too chicken to take pictures of
• Creepy statue of liberty people who grab you and force you to take a picture with them, and then charge $5 for you to take it with your own camera!
• European attitude on the Staten Island Ferry

Stay tuned for more when I get back!

Mini-Van Road Rage

The other day as I was on the freeway headed to my parents house after work, I had an experience that made me both angry and chuckle all at the same time. I was driving along right around the "S Curve" just before the Parkway exit. I was actually going pretty close to the speed limit (maybe like 5 over) and I wanted to get around a diesel I was approaching, so I put on my blinker, looked and went over. Pretty textbook right? You would think!

When I looked behind me I saw a mini-van but it was still a ways away when I decided to change lanes over to the fast lane. As I was moving over the mini-van started to speed up to prevent me from getting in front of him I guess. It wasn't as if I cut him off by any means. HE was the one who sped up. I even hit the gas to get even more speed between us.

I looked in my rear view mirror to see the mini van RIGHT on my butt, and then I see the driver raise both hand and flip me off!!! I was pissed, and had the thought to wave back since he was the one having issues with my lane change. He backed off a little, but still tailgated me until we got to the carpool lane, he swerved over and out of the corner of my eye I see the passenger roll down the window and flip me off with both hands!!! Once again, I was irritated because I did nothing wrong!!!

The urge came again to wave but I had the thought that they would probably pull out a gun and shoot me or something the way they were acting! I just had to laugh that this younger couple were acting all bad A$$ in their beater mini-van. They were probably teenagers borrowing mom's van so they could have some wheels cause they sure didn't act any older!

Cruise Pics '08

At long last, I finally got off my duff and put these together!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Here is THE BEST spinach artichoke dip EVER. This is the original recipe, but instead of buying all of the different cheeses, I bought the six cheese blend that comes already shredded in a bag. One of those small bags is two full cups of cheese, so you will have a little extra to do with whatever you want. I may have cooked it a tiny bit longer than the recipe says to also, but I doubled this. Yield is about 10-12 for the single recipe. I have made it both ways with putting the cheese on the top, and just putting it inside the mixture, and I like the inside way best. On the top makes a cheese layer that is hard to dip the chip through. Let me know if you make it and how it turns out for ya. OR, you can invite me over and we can make it together!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt salt and pepper to taste 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a small baking dish.
2.	In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, garlic, basil, garlic salt, salt and pepper. Gently stir in artichoke hearts and spinach.
3.	Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

At Long Last

OK, so being that it is the last day of the month, I figured I would get a quick post in!!! I know I have fallen off the wagon this month, but I promise, I will try to write more BS posts to keep them coming!!! May just hasn't been very eventful, or very fun.

Anyway, I thought I would post a couple of pics I took of my experiment with my Strawberry Mango Goodness. My roommate Nats was in charge of Bunco this month, and she asked me to make something.

My version of the Strawberry Mango Angel Food Cake Trifle

Key ingredients include:

• Strawberries
• Mangoes
• Angel Food Cake
• Danish Dessert Strawberry Fruit Sauce/Pie Glaze
• Vanilla Pudding (thinned out more than the package directions)

The Funny thing is that is just doesn't look as pretty when it comes OUT of the trifle bowl!


I promise it was really good despite this picture! I also made a freakishly yummy Spinach Artichoke Dip, but I forgot to take a picture, so I will just have to post the recipe or something another time and you'll have to trust me on the delicious-ness of it.

Marshmallow Animal Favors

During my senior year in high school, I had to take a few extra classes to get some fine-arts credit. Being the crafty/artsy fartsy type that I am, I took a crafts class to fulfill this requirement. The class was taught by the AP Art teacher, and he didn't care what we did, as long as we came prepared to stay busy during the entire class working on something crafty/artsy fartsy. Most of the class was either making model cars/airplanes/etc. or actually using their god given talent to actually draw something.

ME??? I made cork animals!!! I went to a craft store, found a how-to book, and would make little animals out of different sizes of corks with googley eyes and lined them up on the top shelf of mine and Shameonyou21's locker! That's right folks, I am sure the AP art teacher was beside himself at this lame idea of mine. I brought my mommy's toll paints, and the hot glue gun, and kept myself busy for an hour+ while secretly laughing on the inside at Shameonyou21's reaction every time she opened the locker door to find yet another googley eyed animal gawking at her!!! LOL!!!

Hey Shameonyou21...this is my next project to line up on your windshield while you are at work!

(Picture found on this website).

More Restaurant Reviews

While my evil Dell was on the fritz, I had the opportunity to sample a few new restaurants:

Paula's Cazuela-During my most recent getaway to St. George with Nats and our upstairs neighbor, Shaniqua. We decided to take a weekend and go golfing while it warm. Nats had heard of this restaurant on a previous trip with some friends of hers who live in St. George. Shaniqua and I were up for trying something new. This quaint little Mexican restaurants is located just off one of the main highways in town up on top of a small hill or ridge, if you will.

We were seated after a brief wait and although the waitress took some sweet time even acknowledging us, or taking our drink order, I thought the food was very good. Homemade chips and salsa, what's not to love about that! I didn't love the dish I ordered, but I wasn't in the mood for a salad...let alone a salad on top of a ranch dressing filled chicken burrito. Normally the ranch thing wouldn't bother me, but I wanted something different. Both Nats and Shaniqua ordered the Chile Verde Burrito (pork burrito with a spicy green sauce...its actually quite on the milder side of spicy). They shared some of their excess sauce with me so I could somewhat enjoy what I ordered. I would go here again, next time I am in town, to try some of their other menu items.

Pizzeria 712-This restaurant is located off of State Street in Orem inside the enormous monstrosity that is the Midtown Village condos (which are still and will forever and always be under construction it seems). Anyway, one of my friends, Harper, suggested we go there one night to try it out. They had just opened and she had heard good things about it. We got about five us together to go, Me, Nats, Harper, Idyllic Ideas, and Messervy.

We weren't sure if it was going to work out the night we went however, because when we arrived, we discovered that the restaurant was SUPER TINY, and there was a lot of people waiting to get in. Luckily for us, we had just the right amount of people, and that size of table just happened to open up!!! Take that all you little gross couples making out in the tiny lobby!!! Anyway, we had no idea how things worked there, and the menu seemed a little intimidating at first. We asked the waiter to explain some of the menu items to us, and kind of the general gist of the "system." All of the pizzas are made with thin crusts so one person can pretty much eat their own pizza. Some people share one also, but I am with Joey Tribbiani when he says: "Joey doesn't share food!"

I allowed myself to however, on this night, so I could see what everything was about. We ordered four pizzas so we could all share. We had to ask about a few of the different sounding toppings, but soon discovered that they are just the real authentically Italian ingredient most commonly used in Italy (Speck=Prosciutto or Cured Ham, Sopressatta=Pepperoni...go figure!). We got one that was just plain cheese with basil like a margarita style, another one of those with the pepperoni added, one with the speck and pepperoni, and another one I could find on their website menu that was more of a white pizza. (Help me out guys if you remember or if you have been there cause I can't remember from a month ago what it all entailed!) I think it had like five cheeses and garlic but it had a different sauce other than just a regular tomato. This one was everyones favorite, although the other ones we got were fabulous in in their own right!!!

The atmosphere of the restaurant is fun, they have a few waiters, and what appeared to be only two guys acting as cooks. The have a big brick style oven, and the two guys are right there behind a counter making it in front of you! Everything out in the open! As I mentioned before, I couldn't believe how small the place was. I can't imagine them not expanding either within the same complex, or franchising to another location. They will be that popular!


La Dolće Vita-I have wanted to try this restaurant for a very long time, but now that I have, I wish I had left it to my imagination and wondering. I went with a big group of friends to celebrate a mass birthday. Three of my friends had birthdays in March, so we decided to all go out to dinner once to celebrate. Some of the guys said it was good, so I was excited to finally try it out. This restaurant is located just around the corner from Ottavio's in Provo off of Center Street, and around the other corner from the big Wells Fargo complex on the side.

At first, I was extra excited because I found another place that made Gnocchi! Pronounced n-yo-kee. For those of you not familiar with this little delight, they are associated a couple of different ways. Potato dumpling, or ricotta dumpling. It is either mashed up potatoes or ricotta cheese and flour and salt...that's it. I LOVE ME some Gnocchis! Anyway, so I found a little combination platter on the menu that came with 1/2 penne alfredo, and 1/2 gnocchi marinara. I like the alfredo sauce the best with gnocchi's, so I figured since the dish already came with alfredo, they couldn't charge me an extra $2 to get a different sauce like some places. When I asked the waiter if I could get it all alfredo with no marinara, his response shocked me to the point where I wanted to get up and leave. He says that the dish is pre-made with the sauces already on the pasta that way, and then it just gets heated up.

Are you kidding me??? What kind of so called Italian Restaurant PRE-MAKES pasta that way, and why would I want to eat something that was made who knows how long ago and possibly frozen and re-heated??? Let's just say that when the food came out, it wasn't as hot as you would think food that's just been cooked/re-heated should be. It pretty much tasted how I anticipated...soggy gnocchi's and luke warm temperature...neither are a good combination. I will not go back to this restaurant...it's over priced for that kind of quality, the service was lousy, and it's just not that good. Stay away, unless you like really bad "Italian Food" if that's what you can even call it!

Friendly Note

I got Dell back tonight and thanks to Queenmeadow and her husband Stuthewise, it is working great!!! Who knew that a little bit of RAM could go such a long way! Thanks again guys. You are awesome!

I think I have mentioned our other roommate before. We affectionately call her Messy, because, well, she IS really messy. Nats and I are tired of leaving the friendly notes to keep the kitchen clean. It doesn't work. She ignores them. We have to clean up after her, and clean up her messes so we can even get in the kitchen to do our thing. Nats has cleaned up their shared bathroom every single week since she moved in last September. On a few occasions, cleaned the entire apartment so that Messy can have friends over without even a thank you. We are flat out tired of her.

Anyway, my roommate Nats and I went to St. George this weekend to go golfing a bit. It was the first time that either of us had actually been out on any course actually golfing yet this year. We have been to the driving range a few times, but let's just say that we both need to do some more serious practicing before this golfing season is up!

We purposely left the apartment a huge mess just to see what Messy would do with it while we were gone. We half expected the same disaster we left. As we arrived home this evening, we noticed that not only was the kitchen clean, but there was a note left. Remember how I said we are tired of her??? Ahem...the full page note reads as follows:

"Hello Natalie and Amber,

I'd really appreciate it if more attention could be paid to what is left in the kitchen. I know I don't always have time to keep things spotless, but I do try to keep my messes contained and out of the way of others so that others can do what they need to. It is sometimes hard to cleanup, do dishes, and access the disposal when the right sink is blocked with dishes. It's is also difficult to do my dishes when the dishwasher is full of clean dishes, as was most of this week. Earlier in the week I'd taken care of all my dishes so nothing was left but a spoon or a knife in the sink. As I used dishes I tried to put them into the dishwasher but found it was full of someone elses dishes. The load stayed there thru the week and into the weekend, causing dirty dishes to pile up. Both the full dishwasher and the piled dishes were left for me over the weekend. I don't think its fair to write a note about cleaning up after yourself or else and then leave the kitchen thrashed while out of town for several days.

I am concerned that stuff is being thrown away without thought. I've had food disappear several times and I've been unable to my cheese grater all week long. Once before my cheese grater was missing for a couple of days and I discovered it was lent out only when the girl returned it. I'd appreciate it if my items weren't lent out or left the apartment.

Along with throwing stuff away, a blue shake was chucked into a cereal box and left next to the garbage. This spilled onto my clothes and the carpet when I was taking care of the overflowing garbage. (Just my luck to be wearing a white shirt). Please dump stuff into the disposal.

Its often too esy to overlook the good things people do and focus on what is irritating. I know we each want things our own way, but there are 3 of us living here and some concessions have to be made in consideration of anothers needs and rights, such as temperature or leaving laundry unattended for hours while out, preventing others from access.

I really have appreciated all that you two have done to keep the apartment nice. Thank you. But we all can make a little more effort to be a little more considerate.

Thanks,

Rachel"

WHAT THE F? OH NO SHE DIDN'T!

Happy Birthday Nats!

Today is my roommate/friend's birthday.  Happy Birthday Nats!  Anyway, Look what the One-Eyed Man in Park City helped me snag!  Another friend of mine and Nats (her name is Harper), went in on this bag together...let's just say it's a good thing that One-Eyed Man gets me stuff at wholesale!  Harper and I stayed up til almost 1 a.m. blowing up balloons and filling them up with helium.  (Harper bought a little helium tank in a party kit at Wally World).

We wanted to surprise Nats when she woke up this morning since today is the actual day, so we waited til she went to bed to start on things.  It was fun though, cause a balloon ended up popping and we totally thought Nats was going to come catch us in the act.  I guess she didn't even hear it!!!  Nats came in my room this morning after seeing everything and was so excited I thought she was going to hyperventilate!  I almost couldn't tell what she was most excited about, the bag or the logo on the bag!!!  Her next response was, "When we going golfing?" Turns out we might take work off and go to St. George next weekend!!!  Hooray!!!

Technical Difficulties

I am sure you have all noticed my lack of blogging, and wonder why I would put myself behind in the great blog-off. Trust me, it is/was not on purpose. Friday I came home from work to a not-so-cute blue screen that says

"Beginning dump of physical memory."
"Physical memory dump complete."

I obviously freaked out...did a hard shut-off of the computer, and tried to boot it up again praying that it will work. Not-so much! I would get a black screen with a little cursor, or just a solid black screen with nothing, or I would get the blue screen with that evil message again.

Just like Shameonyou's evil computer with horns, mine is also called dell, and I REALLY HATE dell now. I never really had that many issues with it, but now is a whole other ballgame!

I had just ran a virus scan on Thursday, realizing I hadn't done it in a while...and nothing came up. Yesterday and today, there were times where dell would boot up...act normal for a few minutes, and then do one of those not nice things I mentioned above. I try to open it in the "safe mode" and it doesn't like that at all. Last night my friend and I got a few extra minutes in a "de-bugging" mode, but it still isn't working.

This week started as any other, and ended very frustrating. I don't have the money or the knowledge to even begin to try to fix this, and to top it all off, after spending $50 to get my car able to pass inspection (tail/stop/head lights and windshield wipers) my driver's side brake light STILL doesn't work!

I barely have enough money to get the stupid taxes paid to get it registered (it expired at the end of December by the way), let alone now have to pay a freaking mechanic to look at the wiring of the stupid light! UGH!

As far as the blog-off is concerned, I am just going to concede the stupid contest since some of the participants think its funny that my computer broke. Work is getting busier, and my dad is getting less and less amused that I have been playing on the blog so much anyway. I will just let Shameonyou21 run-away with the thing, and I just don't care anymore! I have enough stresses going on, I don't want any more, nor do I want to have to run to my parents every day or to work after hours just to blog.

I will still try my best to get you a good amount of posts, so as to keep with my goal. I love you all. Peace out for now!

Interesting Concoctions

So today we printed an interesting shirt. The man who ordered it came in a while ago and wanted us to print all of it. Unfortunately, the front logo was trademarked, so we told him he had to find that shirt and bring it in.  Then we could print the back logo (against our better judgement).

Front

Back

Now, even though the One-Eyed Man in Park City could have printed the front, I don't give out his contact info to just anyone. Only special people get to use that contact!!! (Shameonyou21 the man's artwork made them look like what I told you before, I fixed it to this).

p.s. Just to clarify or clear up any confusion, the One-Eyed Man in Park City is not actually a real person. He just helps give me a source to tell people who ask me where I got my trademarked apparel so as to not get a certain business owner, of a certain print shop, in trouble for printing certain logos!

Baby Girl Jones

Easton called my parents the other day and told my Mom that he was going to have a baby sister! Tavi took the boys to Kanab for a couple of weeks before they go to Japan for the rest of the summer, and Tavi had a friend whose husband who is an Ultrasound Technician. They figured they would give it a go, even though it is still a little bit early to be 100% certain. From what I gather, they got a good shot of the certain region needed to detect the baby's gender, so they are 90% for sure that it is a girl!!! Tavi really wanted to have a girl being that she has the two boys, and they may just stop at three kids. They only wanted three or four to begin with. Cooper will be 2 1/2 when the baby is born, and Easton will be almost 5!

The two babies, Boston, and Brooklynn will be 1 when the baby is born. Mitch and Tavi are still not sure where Tavi will have the baby. If she is having it in America, Mitch can't be here (it's not just a hop, skip and a jump away ya know), and she has to come home in like July (she will only be over in Japan with Mitch for a few months, and he will have to spend the rest of the summer [til like October] alone. If Tavi has the baby in Japan...well that just opens up a whole big can of what ifs. They are going to check out the options, and see if there is some way Tavi and the boys might be able to stay there with him. Mitch and Tavi have heard from some people that there is no such thing as an epidural in Japan. Again, they have a lot of questions and things they need to figure out!!!

Not only has it been shown that the Jones kids can have girls with Ericka having Brooklynn, but so can the Jones boys with Mitch and Tavi now having a girl. Now my label for my posts :niece(s) will actually make sense!

I Finally Got Her To Laugh!

I was putting Brooklynn in her car seat as she was about to go home, and she was being kinda fussy. I mean who wouldn't be upset if you were being strapped into this cramped little seat and shoved into the backseat backwards away from every one and everything getting car sick to boot!

Anyway, as I always do, I make a little jump when the handle "clicks" into place like it scared me. This time though, she thought it was actually funny! Despite all of my previous attempts of making a fool out of myself to make her laugh, it worked when I was least expecting it. Most of the time I get a smile, or some other form of acknowledgement. This was so cute, and so funny I wanted to cry as she laughed harder the more Ericka and I did it! Not to mention as soon as the phone comes out to record the event or take a picture, it is no longer funny, or they are no longer in the mood to even give you the time of day!!!

A Record!

I don't know if any of you out there have noticed but today marks an amazing record being set. What record you ask? How dare you not realize it! As of today, and as of this post, I have posted every day for seven straight days!!! That is more posts than I have done in some months all together!!! Credit the blog-off, credit my new years goal, or credit my own personal determination/stubborn-ness to make sure I get you some good quality posts to read. All of them in some way, shape or form have had a hand in it I am sure!

Even when the blog-off is conceded a victory to me by the "other" participants, I will continue the posts often enough to not keep you stranded with a lack of life from me!

By the way, I just want to also announce that I am officially a current temple recommend holder again. I technically had my old one that didn't expire until April, but since the Church changed them to the barcode system, I slacked in getting the new one. I was supposed to get it taken care of before December, but I am a lazy dork, and didn't get it done until everything was finalized tonight. Yea me!!!

There was a little bit of a process to get the Bishop's portion done. It is a long story but to save you the drama, let's just say that our ward clerks/young boys pretending to do their callings, need to be more on the ball so it is less of a back and forth as to who is in charge of scheduling the appointments, and returning phone calls earlier than one week after the initial call and message was placed! Another thing that bugs is that when the Bishop is clearly more than 30 minutes behind schedule, a courtesy call would be nice to say that it would be best if I came about 30 or so minutes later than originally scheduled. This way one doesn't show up for a two minute interview, but leaves an hour and a half after arriving! Not that hard people, not that hard!!!

Blog-Off/Bunco

Since the whole blog-off war started between Shameonyou21 and I, two more people have jumped on the Blogger Bandwagon (tee hee hee)! Shameonyou21's sissy, and Di Di (our other cruise friend). I hope they both realize that this really does mean war! Shameonyou21 is behind enough, let alone two wanna-be's who just started!!! Just kidding guys!

So we had Bunco tonight at my mammy's house. I begged her to come and play along with three other friends. I knew Shameonyou21 would tell me there is no chance in haites she would even consider playing, so I didn't even bother. To one friend I basically said I was so desperate I really needed her to come.

The way the prize thing works in this group is that we each pay $10 after each get together. There is a $30 prize for the one with the most Bunco's, a $20 prize for the highest score, four $10 prizes (most zeros, lowest score, hostess square, and the red Bunco travel dice). Everyone else gets a $5 prize for just showing up. That's what I always get. I have NEVER gotten any of the above mentioned prizes. Two of my friends who came tonight walked away with the two highest prizes...jerks!!! What is with everyone else's beginners luck, and I can't even get a tiny bit of veterans luck, not to mention I couldn't stop eating the friggin candy on the tables!!!

Bunco Is Not Worth This Much Hassel!

A few months ago I joined a little game group my roommate belonged to called Bunco. I had played this dice game a couple of times before, and thought it might be fun. It is only once a month, and if nothing else you get a stupid $5 prize for just showing up (even though it cost $10 to play)!

Last month while I was in Mexico, three people out of our group quit. This game is pretty dependent upon having all 12 members of the group in attendance, so when the person who is the hostess for the month gets to be in charge of finding the subs. I am the hostess for this particular month. Not only did I struggle finding three subs, but a fourth called today and said she couldn't come either!

My philosophy then, is we are down four members, three subs were hard enough to find, now I had to BEG another friend and my mommy, both of whom didn't want to come in the first place! A stupid dice game is not worth having to find subs for the majority of your group every month. If we can't find people who are willing to commit to this every month, then what is the point of even having the game in the first place???

I understand things come up. I had surgery, went to Las Vegas for the football game, and went on a cruise to Vegas, but I told them an entire month in advance that those things were taking place, let alone the night before the game is supposed to take place!

GAH! I am so tempted to just quit this thing if it is going to be this freaking complicated!

Charlie Bit Me

Why does this keep reminding me of something my two nephews Easton and Cooper would do??? Probably because I really can see them doing it. Not very long ago, my brother and s-i-l were sitting on the couch in their living room when all of a sudden they hear:

"Jump Cooper, I'll catch you!"

Cooper then proceeded to jump off the kitchen counter into his brother's arms. Let's just say that Easton got flattened! Easton is 4, and Cooper is not quite 2. Cooper weighs almost as much as his older brother, so the thought of little chubbers jumping off the kitchen counter to Easton, makes me roll on the ground laughing! That is like adding another 20 pounds on top of the 35 pounds Cooper already has on him. A whopping 55 pounds flying through the air and a slender kid like Easton probably wondering while Cooper was in mid air, what in the crap he got himself into!

I Love The One-Eyed Man

Before you all freak out, I just want to say that it's true. The "One-Eyed Man from Park City" is the one who helps me get all those name brand clothes for real cheap! You have all heard me talk about him over the years I am sure of it!

I forgot to mention in one of my "Pros" from the game the other night that I scored a sweet new t-shirt. I just called up my long time "friend" and luckily he had a cute little white t-shirt (in my size can you believe it) just lying around, and pushed off to the side. The front had the word "Cougars" in navy writing, in a script font with one of those baseball looking tails on it. It also had at the end of the tail an oval "Y" logo which you see on the football helmets. On the high back it had a small little "BYU" just under the neck line--also in navy writing. To top it all off, both logos had a "washed" look to them, so they looked kind of faded and worn! SO CUTE! I have attached a rough sketch at the bottom of this page of what it kinda looks like!

What luck! I never have that kind of luck with clothes. I also forgot to mention that he was passing right by my work when I got the idea that I wanted to wear some "Cougar Gear" to the game. He pulled over right in front, I walked out the door and he found me a shirt. The ONLY one of its kind!

Nats was jealous cause she secretly wanted one too. She hid her excitement by asking if I knew if my "friend" had any Utah apparel. I told her I would ask, but he might charge her more because of the fact that she claims the UofU as her school and he is a long time BYU fan!!!

Do you have any friends that give you the hook-ups like this???

Pros and Cons

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to a very important basketball game last night. Important because it gives one team certain bragging rights until the next meeting. Of course, but not in as dramatic fashion as the football team, BYU prevailed over UTAH 67-59 in what was a close, exciting game that came down to the last minute of play, in what was an extremely loud arena.

I remember when I was little, I used to go to the games with my Dad. Then I would feel all important when I would go with him as he refereed the games too, cause I could go in all the back tunnels, and get a VIP treatment from the staff who were told to just keep an eye on me so I didn't wander off. Some of my favorite memories are going refereeing with him. The early years while sitting in the stands listening to everyone yell bad things at my Dad, I would start to get kind of defensive within myself like, "Hey stop yelling at my Dad!"

Anyway, needless to say it had been a very long time since I had been to the Marriott Center, and therefore didn't remember or realize how loud it really was. My Dad gave us some trivia last night, in that BYU has the 2nd largest basketball arena in the country, with Kentucky being number 1. Who-duh-thunk-it?!

Here are some pros and cons about our experience last night:

CONS:

1. Bench Seats (no chair back)
2. The Creamery's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream only had TWO chunks of cookie dough. What the crap! I gave my dad the cookies and cream one cause I thought the cookie dough sounded better...DOH!
3. Dumb lady behind me kept hitting me with her rally towell, and kept saying jibberish about the game in which she had no clue about.
4. BYU didn't blow out UTAH.
5. Nats wasn't cheering for the right team!
6. Parking too far away for sweet old G-Pa.
7. Having to drive back to my parents to get my car, to drive back to my apt that is five minutes away from the Marriott Center.
   

PROS:

1. Free tickets (Given to us by a member of the Athletic Dept.)
   
2. 10th row free tickets
3. Free Ice Cream and Drink (My Daddy paid for these!)
4. Free Rally Towell (A Blue towell that the gave everyone in the first 20 rows to wave around and cheer with) I told Nats I was going to screen print the score on them and hang em up on our wall in the apt...although I probably wont though, just to be nice.
5. Nats dressed in blue. (She had her UofU t-shirt on underneath her sweatshirt)
6. Nats having to struggle to keep her emotions in check, fearing she would be mauled by the sea of fans dressed in blue on all sides of us. She had a few outbursts that she couldn't control, but I just giggled.
7. The Company (Grandpa Keetch, Dad, Friend)
8. Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup at my Momma's house before the game.
9. The Cougars WON!
10. G-Pa had tons of fun! He doesn't like to get out much, fight crowds of people, and think that he is burdening us who want him to have fun. He is a MAJOR fan, and so it is only natural he had fun.
11. Saw "Church Celebrity" Sheri Dew. Grandpa also thought that was pretty cool. We almost rode the elevator with her, but she changed her mind last minute and took the stairs.
12. BYU didn't blow out their opponent. This made for an exciting game. Probably would have been pretty boring had one team completely dominated the other.
    

Contest

So Shameonyou21 decided that after months of having a blog, and not doing anything with it, that she would issue a challenge to me that she will out-post me. She works 9-7 a lot, and I sit at a computer all day, with not much to do right now. Hmmm...I wonder! Not to mention, I am a stubborn, and competitive fool that some people will not even play Monopoly with me I get into it so much. We'll see how long she lasts!

Anyway, I finally got my last cd of pictures, so expect a big cruise picture fest within a day or so. I am headed to the BYU vs Utah basketball game tonight with my Dad, and Grandpa Keetch. My roommate Nats is coming, and she is a big Utah fan. She invited me to a game a couple of weeks ago, and I was good about cheering for Utah since we were on the third row behind their bench! They weren't playing my Cougars though, so I don't know how she will be tonight. I told her she had to wear blue and cheer for the Cougars. She agreed to that in the form of, she would sheer as much as I did at their game (i.e. accidentally busting out in the "Rise and Shout" fight tune of BYU during the Utah fight song).

GO COUGARS!!!

My Calling In Heaven

Most people say they find their callings in life, and while I am still looking for mine, I've discovered what I want to be when I get to heaven. A Sniper Angel. You might be wondering what the crap, but hang with me, I will explain.

On Sunday during my second church meeting, I had a really hard time concentrating, and focusing on the lesson being taught. We as a ward were all combined into one room. By the time I made it into the room, my roommate and I were near the back of the room. With about a hundred people in this room, and being near the back of one of the dance rooms we met in, voices didn't exactly carry to my neck of the woods.

What makes my rambunctiousness more damnable is that the Stake President was the one teaching the lesson! I figure I will have to settle for being a good girl, but not quite good enough to go all the way. This way I can still have a job, and it in a way, punishes me for being a bad girl and will remind me for eternity what I did wrong.

Not a bad job if I can justify myself a little bit. A Sniper Angel will get to hover around church meetings and strike down those who are being naughty when they probably really need to learn the lesson being taught!

Brian Regan

This guy is so funny. He's my new favorite comedian!

Strawberry Mango Goodness

While I try to get the pictures organized, and uploaded, I thought I would do a little restaurant review. The restaurant is called World Famous and it is located right on the beach in San Diego, California. Their menu changes pretty much daily, or at least they print out a new menu every day...(you know that because the date is printed at the top of each menu). Shameonyou21 and Randoval found this place a couple of years ago when they were staying here, and took a walk on the boardwalk. A short ten minute walk along the beach's boardwalk and you are there. We went there Thursday night for dinner, and then we loved it so much, we went back the night we returned to San Diego a week and a half later!

This, my friends, is my strawberry mango goodness! The actual name is Strawberry Mango Angel Food Trifle! It has giant spears of mango in the glass along the sides, a strawberry and a vanilla custard sauce (creme anglaise), chunks of angel food cake, and whipped cream and strawberries. All I have to say about this is...OH! MY! This made dinner oh so much better!

The best part about this restaurant some would say is the view. While you can't normally beat that, I would have to say that my strawberry mango goodness is almost tied with something else on the menu. What is it you ask??? It is the most rich and yummy lobster bisque (basically a cream of lobster soup) I have had since school! The cruise ship had lobster bisque offered one night, and it didn't even come close to this one. It even had some lobster bits in it! You all know how much I love me some lobster bits!!!

We joked about asking the waitress if the soup comes with free refills, so I actually asked her. She giggled, then leaned down and asked me what is was I said! I repeated my question,

"So the lobster bisque comes with free refills right?!"

She kinda chuckled again, then took my bowl (which I wasn't completely done with cause I wanted to use the bread to lick it clean) and said, "Oh it is so rich you would get sick if you ate another bowl."

As she walked away I felt my eyes welling up with tears because I wasn't done, and because she really never answered my question. I REALLY did want another bowl! It wasn't like there was a full cup of soup. I bet there wasn't even quite a half of a cup in there! JERK WAITRESS!

The second time we went, we couldn't decide what entree we wanted, so we tried all the appetizers, some delectable lobster bisque, and of course some strawberry mango goodness! I think the appetizers, and those other two dishes are the best things on the menu (from what we tried anyway).

What we tried:

• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms--These are better when you squeeze a little lemon on them, rather than eating them plain!
• Crunchy Jumbo Shrimp--Essentially these are a coconut shrimp. The sweet ancho chili sauce was tasty also!
• Lobster Spring Rolls--Lobster bits (mmm lobster bits) in a spring roll with a spicy mango jalapeno sauce...mmm!
• Big Island Ahi Tuna--If you like sushi, this is the appetizer for you! Chunks of tuna on sticky rice with a little sweet/spicy sauce drizzle!
• Peppered Seared Yellow Fish Tuna--A little too peppery in some spots (I know shocker cause I put pepper on EVERYTHING), but overall very good and it was cooked to perfection. The hot mustard sauce went perfectly with it also!
• Shrimp San Miguel--Shameonyou21 said she liked it, but the sherry flavor took over a little bit from the overall taste.
• Capellini California--Di Di didn't have much to say about this because she was too busy eating it! I tasted some and it has a very fresh flavor. No seafood in it, which was perfect for her!
• Steak and Sea Scallops--I don't like scallops very much. To me they are just ooey gooey fish balls. They have a very fishy flavor and the texture is rubbery. Randoval didn't love this, because I think the steak came with carmelized red onions and so it was a little sweeter than he likes his meat.
• Pacific Clam Chowder--I liked this very much, but once you've tasted fresh clam chowder somewhere on the coast, there isn't much you can do to doll it up. I just liked the lobster bisque BETTER!

Anyway, I am only waiting on Di Di and Shameonyou21 to get me CD's with their pictures. Let's face it...we were all going to share pictures, so I let them take the most. Anyway, in the mean time, Shameonyou21 has posted a little synopsis with some pics on her blog, so go check it out while you are waiting for me to get the CD's to give you the whole trip!