My Christmas

Some--not all--of my Christmas Presents...(in no particular order)

All ten seasons in this one little box. It also came with a triva book. My sissy and I quizzed each other all Christmas morning and then died laughing at each question!

The first season. Nats got me addicted to it in like season 5, so I have been recording the old re-runs on the soap channel while I run on the treadmill at my parents house! I was always asking her questions, so she finally figured I needed to start from the beginning. Go Figure!

Both sweats are supposed be black. My sissy Megs gave me these, and I wear them all the time they are so comfy!

I love me some Gap lotions. This is a new kind I guess but I love it!
I have wanted these for a very long time. All it took was me ordering them and telling my Mom and Dad to go get it. If I would have known that, I would have ordered them a couple of years ago!

Hot pads, and towels to match. I guess it's a good idea I start wearing an apron when I cook anyway seeing how I always end up with crap all over myself (among other places as well) in the process!

What is some nice cookware without any utensils to use with it?! I am kinda excited for the potato masher...even though I don't know what I am going to use it for...I usually just use my kitchen aid to make smashers!

Serious food lovers is right! How perfect is the name! Gotta remember that site for next time I need a perfect present for someone!

Again, what good are pans without the essentials to back it up? I am always calling my Mammy for certain recipes out of this book. Guess she got tired of it! I went through it page by page Christmas Day. How sad is that?!

Shamelessly wasn't too thrilled with my blue liner purchase not long after I switched into the bigger room with my own bathroom. I have never been one with the "eye for decorating" like her or most other people. I thought I did a fabulous job of organizing the towels all by myself don't you?!

Digital Picture Frame Keychain...Shamelessly put some very momentous pics on there to start, and then thought I could show off my nieces and nephews in the process since I usually have them all over my phone anyway!

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!