Baking Fever

What was yesterday? Oh, Monday, that's right. Sadly I didn't make anything new, but I made a favorite that I really like. We had a birthday shindig at work today, so I made some treats for that. We were having ice cream sundaes, so I made brownies, and Chelle was in charge of bringing cookie bars. I made two batches of brownies. The first was good for sundaes, just plain brownies, perfect to be paired with ice cream and whatever else you wanted. The second ones were Oreo Brownies, the oldie but goodie. I took a pic of them side by side. I made the plain brownies more fudgey, so they'd be super good, and I made the Oreo ones more plain, so that it wouldn't be too rich or anything with the added sweets.

 Yum! Then after they cooled (it took forever it seemed!) I added the frosting and Oreo's.

And of course, I needed to make something for dinner. I was thinking that I needed to do something with hot dogs - I had a package of them I had opened a week prior, and the package says that they're best by date of: 1 week after you open them, which was yesterday. As I was sitting there, contemplating what to make, I got a text from Chelle, who was asking me some questions about the pizza rolls I made a bit ago. As I was telling her the directions, I realized they sounded delicious, but I didn't have any pepperoni left. You know what I did have, though? Hot dogs and crescent rolls.

So, I did like I did with the pepperoni ones, and just wrapped the hot dogs in the rolls. Some I cut in half, and some I left whole. (and yes, you do spy a rogue pepperoni in there - turns out we had like, 6 pepperoni's in the house, so we made just one, ha.) Cooked them for the same amount of time, and when they were done...

Delicious! I dipped them into some mustard, and some ketchup and they were simply divine. I recommend them to everyone. My bakings took me late into the night (10:10!) but I think it was all worth it in the end - I think everything turned out pretty well.

A Weekend of Birthday-ness

This past weekend was PJ’s birthday, and we set aside a whole weekend for it. The actual birthday was on Sunday, so we did the things that cost money on Saturday and some other things on Sunday. So on Saturday, we kicked things off in the afternoon with a movie – Step Up 4: Revolution. It’s no secret that I enjoy all dance/cheerleady/etc movies. I like all the Step Ups, I enjoy all the Bring it On’s, and all the miscellaneous ones that aren’t part of a series (yet). So of course, I enjoyed this movie. The thing about seeing the sequels to a movie that already won’t be a masterpiece is to realize, the acting is going to suck. The storyline will be practically nonexistent, you’re just there to enjoy the dancing and whatever until the movie is over. Thank goodness I know this, and will always like these movies.

Saturday night, we went to Taggerts for dinner. Haven’t heard of Taggerts, you say? Well that’s ok, not many have. It’s a restaurant up in Morgan, UT. Yes, Morgan, which is north, up past Ogden. To get to this restaurant, you have to drive about 90ish minutes from here in Orem. Needless to say, I don’t go there very often, because I just don’t want to drive that far. So, up we drove, waited for about 45 minutes (the first time EVER in my life I’ve had to wait for a table there) and ate a delicious meal, and took home a whole lot of desserts. Most of the reasons I go there is for the desserts. They are awesome, and I take home at least 2. This time was a brownie, a cookie (that I ate on the way home) and a small cheesecake, for PJ’s birthday cake the following day.

Sunday, we went on a hike. Specifically, the Fort Creek river hike. I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about it before, but it is a fun hike. It’s about 80% you just fording the river, like the game Oregon Trail. When I’ve hiked it previously, I stayed out of the water as often as I could. I would hike in it if needed, but otherwise, I hugged the shore and stayed dry, but this time was different. I think the only time we got out of the water to hike up the mountain was if we couldn’t physically make it up the river at that part, and I think it only happened maybe twice. The weather was nice and warm though, so the river felt pretty good. We finished it in about half the time, not getting out of the water. When we were done and were about to get out back at the beginning, PJ full-on fell in the water. Whole body slam into it, I laughed so hard, checked to make sure she was ok, and laughed again. When we got out of the river finally, we checked ourselves over, and we had a lot of bruises and scrapes from the rocks, trees, etc. I had a bruised shin, a cut heel and a cut leg, with some scrapes on the arm. PJ had a cut in her leg that went almost to the bone (not really, but it seemed like it). We limped back to the car, and went home.

For her birthday dinner, PJ wanted ratatouille. I don’t know who’s seen the movie, Ratatouille, but we’ve liked the dish since we saw that. I’ve made it several times, but this is the first time I did it like the movie’s recipe, when you have everything in slices and you swirl them in a dish. Here’s what it looked like before baking it:

I forgot to get a picture after it came out of the oven. It was delicious though. And the cheesecake from Taggert’s was good as well. And that was it. The birthday weekend came to a close. Good times were had, bodies were beat up, but we continued on, and lived to tell the tale.

A Mission for Softer Feet

A long time ago, I saw a thing on Pinterest (where else?) that promised to heal the cracks in the heels of my feet, and fill them in forever, leaving me with soft feet. Since I wear only flip flops, usually, I have the worst cracked and dry feet, so I've been looking forward to doing this. It took me a long time to finally get to it, but this week, I had some free time on my hands, so I got to do it. It seemed simple enough. In a large bowl or sink, combine equal parts of warm water with Listerine mouthwash. Myself, I used 2 cups of each, seemed to work just fine. Then soak a hand towel in the water mixture, getting it all kinds of soaked. Then coat your feet in shaving cream. With your feet still coated, wrap them in the hand towel. Just hang out there, feet wrapped, for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes is over, use the towel to wipe off all the shaving cream, then dry them completely (I dried and waited for about 5 minutes or so, to allow ample time for them to be dry) then apply a good amount of lotion to your feet. Voila! The end.

Now, before we begin, here’s what my feet looked like before I did anything:

So, I did all this. I coated, I soaked, as evidenced by this,

 I waited, I dried, and I lotioned, and…my feet were almost exactly the same, and here’s what they looked like afterwards: (its a little blurry, oops)

 I can maybe feel a bit of softness that wasn’t there before, but the cracks were still there, and there was still some roughness. Bonus though, my feet now smelled minty fresh (as did entire rest of my house, after letting the Listerine towel sit in the laundry hamper overnight) But, it didn’t work like it promised me at all. I of course, tweeted out what I was doing, and then when it didn’t work, and I got a reply from a friend who had done it before, and she said that it had taken her two times of doing this before it worked. So now, I have to wait a week, and then do it again. Apparently, it takes off layers of your skin, so to do it more than once a week would damage your feet. Good to know, I have no problems waiting a week for this. So now, I know that you guys are on pins and needles, waiting to see what happens, as I am. So in a week’s time, I’ll try again, and let you know if it worked. I also got some tips from people, like, using two washcloths instead of just the one that it asked for, etc. I hope it works, because otherwise, I’ll feel pretty silly soaking my feet in Listerine for no reason.

Sour Patch Fairy

As many know, my kid sister Rory moved to Cali with her husband about 4 months ago. We still keep in touch pretty much every day, via texting. Best thing ever, the invention of texting. A few months ago, I sent her some Sour Patch Kids. She told me that she couldn't find any in her town, and she'd tried pretty much every store near her. So, being a kind soul, I logged onto the ol' Amazon, and sent her 2 1.9 lb bags of them.

It was pretty cheap, plus the 2 day shipping was free, so it was easy on my part, I didn't actually have to do much work. So yesterday, she sent me a picture text, showing me that she was almost out of the Sour Patch Kids and how sad she would be. Well, I already had sent her these bags, so I wasn't really thinking of sending anymore, so I just said "Well, maybe the Sour Patch Fairy will visit you." And she asked if she should put the last Kid under her pillow. I said yes, please do, and take a picture to show me, and then we changed the conversation, and I'll admit, I forgot about it. 

Until this morning, when she sent me the following picture:

I DIED laughing at this. I got it during the day, at work, and I laughed hysterically for like, 30 minutes. Of course, I shared with those around me, who also got a good chuckle, methinks. I could never be this clever, I would never even think of it! So, on points of cleverness, I logged onto the ol' Amazon yet again, and have sent her 2 more bags. I haven't told her, though, they'll be a surprise to her when they just show up on her door, and I think that's one of the greatest things, to be surprised with a treat like that. This just goes to show you, if you're clever enough, I'll buy you things. 

Lemon Bars

Well, it was Monday yesterday, which means it was treat-making day. I picked something really easy and relatively soft, since I will still be without my eating teeth for another few months. (That sounds really weird when you put it like that. Huh.) I found the recipe on Pinterest, naturally, and it’s literally the easiest thing ever.

Recipe:

1 can (15.75 oz) Lemon Pie filling

1 box (18.75ish oz) Angel Food cake mix

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the 2 ingredients by hand until combined. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan, and bake for 20 minutes, until the top is goldeny brown. While the bars are cooling, sprinkle powdered sugar on them. Let cool completely before cutting in and enjoying.

Now, when I first put the pie filling into the bowl with the cake mix, this is what it looked like:

Of course, it concerned me, because I couldn’t figure out how it would work. Then as I started mixing them together, a little poof of white cake powder went up in the air and I inhaled some, which made me pretty sure I would get some kind of lung disease from it. Cake-lungs, that’s gotta be a thing. Luckily, I haven’t felt any ill effects from it as of yet.

That’s it. And it produces these delicious bars of awesomeness that have the texture of angel food cake, but it’s all lemony delicious. This is what they looked like out of the oven:

Mmm so good these were, I recommend them to everyone, especially since they take no time at all to make.

Miscellaneous Monday

If there's anything I can teach you guys, it's that when someone tells you to go to the kitchen to get them a sandwich, you should go to the kitchen and get them a sandwich.

All spousal abuse jokes aside, this bloody nose of mine was actually not a big deal. We were driving home, I was checking something on my phone, and all of a sudden, it just started bleeding. Sadly, we didn't have any tissues...napkins...anything in the car, so I just held my hand up there, and waited for the ride to be over. As we were nearing the house, I realized a golden photo op, and snapped myself. Good news, it was pretty much done by the time we got home.

Usually I do the dishes in my house. It's not that Husband is lazy or anything, its that my threshold of how many dishes can be in the sink is much lower than his, so I get annoyed at a few in there, and he can let both sides of the sink fill up and still not really care. So when I do the dishes, as soon as they're finished, I like to have the dishwasher clean. I know, I'm a weirdo, but it's how I am. So it's kind of fun when Husband does them and puts them away, because he's not really sure where things go, so I find things in wrong places, or just shoved in a place I'm sure he thinks makes sense. This happened tonight, when I was looking for a 9x13 pan, and instead found a pizza pan there. Helpful.

Husband has left me today for a week. He's camping/hiking with the scouts in our ward until Friday/Saturday. (I'm not sure of the actual day back, it seemed to change) I don't really like to be left all alone (who does?!) but so far, I think I have things planned pretty well. Today, I helped Chelle with some organizing and cleaning, but I don't think I helped as much as I wanted, plus I don't know how much good I did. I gave it a go, though. And I made some treats (blog entry to come later!), and cleaned a little, and now, I'm trying to get this all done before my eyes shut out of exhaustedness. I've planned some things for the rest of the week, it's mostly my own to-do list of cleaning and organizing things. Now, this week should be pretty fun, provided I don't die of a stranger breaking in, or a heart attack after thinking that the wind on the door is a stranger breaking in. Hey, it's possible.

Twitter. My Fun Collossal Waste of Time

I'm on Twitter. There, I said it. I love it. It's fun. It's a fun way of communicating with people that you know, or even people that you don't know. That being said, I know Twitter is stupid. It is, it's a stupid waste of time, following people, most of whom I don't know in real life, and wouldn't know who I was if we passed in the street. It's dumb, sending out messages to people who honestly could probably care less, and would most likely not need to know most of what I tweet out. I tweet out ridiculous nonsense, and I know this. I even blogged about Twitter on here, like, forever ago. But I still love it, so there it is.
Anyhoo, this evening, I was sitting here eating dinner, reading my book. (Sometimes I like to read when I eat alone, it makes me feel like I'm doing something). Anyway, I got a text from a friend who told me that she's friends with Chris Wingert on Facebook. In case someone doesn't know who Chris Wingert is:

Anyway, she was telling me that he recently uploaded some fan pics onto his FB page, and one of the pics was the one that he had taken with me and PJ like, 2 years ago. I immediately got on there, and saw it, and of course, it made me smile. Here it is, in case you wanted to see:

So, for funsies, I tweeted about it, and mentioned Chris by his twitter name (which in case you wondered, alerts him to the tweet talking about him.) In my tweet, I said that he had posted a pic of the three of us, and said that because of this, we must be best friends. After 20 minutes or so, after a chuckle, I got a reply tweet from him saying "You know it! :)" and I squealed a little in happiness. I know that he doesn't know who I am. I know that he could care less of what some fan says, but that he took just a few minutes to joke and reply back just made me happy.
Now, will this change anything in my life? No. But is it something cool that happened on an otherwise boring Wednesday? Heck yes.

Miscellaneous Monday

Over my few days of surgery recovery, I had a few things on my to-do list. They were pretty basic things, one of them was to write in my journal, I also wanted to finish all the magazines I had lying around, that sort of thing. One of them was to do repaint my toenails. Since I had painted them for the 4^th of July, I had to change them quicker than usual, because how embarrassing to have red and blue nails when it’s not patriotic! Ha, so I found an amazing color while shopping, and painted them this way on Saturday.

I really wanted to be able to paint a flower on there, but holy cow am I inept at doing so. I tried on my nails, I really did. I even practiced with the paint on paper while the polish dried, but then when I tried to paint on the nail, it ended up looking so dumb, so I had to just choose these polka dots. I know I could just leave the nail plain, but where’s the fun in that? But I will be practicing flowers and one day, I will for sure be able to have awesome nails by my own hand.

With card club being on Saturday, I had an influx of cards, so I needed to get another card box. Ideally, I needed two of them, but I only had one, so the other will wait until I get another box. I need to start giving my cards out more, because the amount of cards I have now is just getting ridiculous! But I like to keep them all, it’s such a conundrum. This time, I made another birthday card box. The next one I need to make is a baby card box, but I didn’t have any cute baby paper, so I chose birthday this time. And here it is:

I chose not to do the CARDS written on there for a few reasons this time. A: I know that its cards in there, people don’t need to know, and B: I run low on letters, usually. I’m ordering some more, but I feel it gives a nice balance, not having to put cards on every single one. But I like this one, I like the balloons. Gives it a good birthday feel.

Yesterday, I went to Husband’s parents’ for dinner, we were celebrating Husband’s birthday a few days late. One of my bro’s-in-law brought a new girl over for the dinner (which I’m getting pretty used to at this point) and now I politely smile when I meet them, but until I see them a few times in a row, I usually don’t make it a point to learn anything about them. (Is this mean? Maybe, but oh well.) So last night, met a new girl, made polite conversation with her for some of the night, and then when we were all saying goodbye, she hugged me. This freaked me out for several reasons. A: If I don’t know you, let’s not hug. There’s no reason to be this familiar with each other. B: Unless I initiate a hug with you, you can bet there’s no reason to be hugging me. If we’re great friends, and have known each other for years, then by all means, let’s hug away all the time. So I gave her a half-hug back, and then nervously laughed and left. I understand that at BYU, girls hug each other all the time, it’s their way of saying hello and goodbye, but that’s just not how I was raised, so I don’t enjoy it when strangers do it to me. I’m sure I’ll get over this, and maybe if I ever see her again, I’ll be ready for it.

Tissue Boxes, or: How I like to Shop

I go to Target every Saturday. Well, a few times a week, if I'm being truthful, but I always go on Saturdays, and it's with PJ for the most part. Husband doesn't really care for it, and I heart it, so I usually don't bring him. While we were shopping today, we were walking down the toothpaste/tissue aisle (I'm still learning where stuff is, after the renovation) and we look over and notice that there are letters on the tissue boxes, and they spell out the name 'Veronica'. Well, of course we had to change them. It took a few minutes, but we found the letters we need to spell out her name and (most of) mine. Of course I had to take a picture, so that I would remember this always.

Ta-Da! I don't know how long it stayed up, could have been 5 minutes, could have been 5 hours, but I know that for the bit it was up, people must have been like, "what's a Vieve?" and really, that makes my life complete.

Foto Friday

Here are the cards we made at Stamp & Chat this week. I had so many issues with these, it seemed! I couldn’t make the spacing between the butterflies paper right, and I was so frustrated with the gems on them! I think mostly I was freaking out about getting my surgery done, and so I was taking it out on the rhinestones. But everyone rallied together and helped me out. I really like the candle one, though, I really want to get the stamp for them. Cute, eh?

It’s Card-Making Time

In 2 days, it’s time for another card club meeting. Now, I don’t want people to think me a slacker, because I am just making the cards today, but I had timed it out this way. I knew I’d be having my surgery this week, so I knew I’d have 2 days of recovery at home, where I’d spend most of my time lying down, watching TV. I decided to add in my card makings, and that way, even though I’d be laid up, I’d still be productive. So I thought I’d share my cards with everyone, as I usually do. One of the cards, I was inspired from Pinterest, but sort of made it my own. I took a whole long time today to make this card, and here it is:

It took a while to make, because these dang candles were so dang hard to get on here. Originally, I was just trying to use tape, but then, they wouldn’t stick, so I had to use liquid glass. Of course, it made the other side of the paper all weird from the glue, but they seem to be sticking on so far. I do like the card, it’s just not exactly as I pictured it in my head. Oh well.

My second card follows the format of the card given to us – each card club, we’re given a card that we need to have our card be like, and this is it for this month. I’m pretty pleased with how my card turned out:

So, there they are. My two cards. I hope that I’m not the only person who likes them, because I often have those worries when I’m making cards. I wish I was more confident in my crafty abilities, and maybe someday, I will be. I hope to be, at least!

Say Aaaaah

Well guys, I had another surgery. We all remember (well, I do) my bone graft that I got done back in March. So now, it’s 4 months later, and I finally get to have my implants put in. I was getting four – one on my right side, and 3 on the left. (jealous, everyone?) So I get to the dentist yesterday, and had 2 x-rays done. One of my whole mouth, and one specifically for my lower jaw, so they can make sure everything down there is good for all these implants. They brought me into a room, and shortly, I was joined by the dentist. He let me know that it wasn’t going to be as easy as originally thought. Apparently, I have 2 really big nerves that run along both sides of my jaw, so if we used too big of an implant there, it would take away the feeling in my mouth/jaw. Oh goodie. So he says we can possibly use a shorter, wider screw, and give that a try. So they put me under, and asleep I went.

I WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF IT GUYS! I don’t know if they didn’t give me enough stuff, or if something happened, but I woke up right in the middle, wondering what the heck was going on. I think they put in another IV or something, because when I awoke completely, I had a bandage on my hand, and I didn’t know where it came from. So then they explained to me that even though I had the bone graft all those months ago, and they made my bone wide enough, the bone isn’t deep enough. So I got one implant on my right, and one on my left, and they did yet another bone graft. So now, my face and mouth are all swollen, and I still have no teeth to eat from. I haven’t been able to open my mouth wide enough to look in there, though, which may be a good thing.

As soon as I came home from the dentist, I laid on the couch and went to sleep. I put Father of the Bride on, and watched maybe 10 minutes, and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour in, rewound it to where I was, and watched again. About 20 minutes later, I fell asleep again, and woke up when the movie was ending. I figured that was good enough, and started another movie, It Takes Two. I mostly stayed awake during this one. After it ended, I was awake for good, which was a good thing, since it was like, 3 in the afternoon at this time. Husband came home from work several hours later, and told me that Target wouldn’t let him pick up my prescriptions, so, I then had to go to Target. It wasn’t until we got there that I looked down and realized I had blood all over my shirt. How awesome I must have looked to other people. But I picked them up, and came home to rest yet again.

I get to go back in in 2 months and see how this bone graft is taking and possibly get the implants put in then. The implant put in on the right side is actually not hurting me at all, which is so great. So now, I have a few days off to recover, and I hope I recover quickly!

Oreo Brownies

Of course, it’s Tuesday, which means I’ll be sharing a recipe that I made last night. I don’t know what it is about Mondays, but I do like to bake on them. I think mostly because it’s one of my only “free” nights nowadays, so I’m like to bake. Plus, with my surgery being tomorrow, I’m trying to get all my chewing stuff done now, while I still can.

I was in a brownie mood last night, so I browsed through Pinterest to see what kind of brownie treats they had, and I found this: Oreo Brownies. It’s literally the easiest thing ever. You just take a brownie mix; follow the directions to make it. After your batter is mixed, you add in about a half a package of Oreo cookies, all smashed. I’m sure you can use a food processor to make them, but I used a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin. Worked pretty well for me. Mix the Oreo’s in pretty well, then pour into a 9x13 pan, and cook according to the directions. When they’re done, take them out, and let them cool for probably an hour or so, you don’t want them to be warm at all.

The recipe that I took these from were way fancier, after they had cooled, she had taken a glass cup and cut the brownies into circles, then frosted them. I just cut them into boring old squares, and frosted them that way. I used a buttercream frosting that was linked into the recipe, here it is:

½ cup shortening

½ cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbs milk

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy.

Then I used a frosting bag and a fancy tip and frosted each cookie. Then I used a few Oreos smashed up, and decorated the tops of the frosting. If you want, you can put a whole Oreo, or a mini Oreo and put it on top, for like, a garnish. Here is my finished product:

So, no muss, no fuss, these were easy and delicious, if I do say so myself.

Foto Friday

Yesterday at the aquarium, I got a new friend.

His name is Colonel Reginald, but I'll just call him the Colonel. In the aquarium gift shop, I had a hard time choosing between this turtle and an otter, but I think I made the best choice. I chose for him to be a ridiculous color, so that he and the Inspector could be alike. I think they'll get along splendidly.

Otterly Adorable!

Today was Husband’s birthday. I had taken the day off because originally, we were going to use this day to go to Lagoon. He’s never been there, and while I really don’t like the place, I figure, this is a good way for him to go, when I do it as a gift and therefore am sort of forced to go. So I planned everything (it was a surprise, of course) and got all ready, and then when I woke up, what the heck, it was raining! We’ve had a billion degree temperatures for weeks now, and the ONE DAY I planned to be outside, doing stuff, it rains. So I got in touch with Lagoon, to see if they were still open in the rain. They are, but they shut down a bunch of the rides, so I didn’t see a point in slogging through the rain, just to not be able to ride everything, so we had to plan something else. We decided to go to the Sandy Aquarium, we’ve been talking about it for a really long time, ever since I’d seen the billboard up there with the otter picture on it, telling me they’re ‘Otterly adorable’. Of course I had to go.

I got to pet a sting ray, which was pretty awesome. When they swim around, they’re pretty calm, not doing anything, but they kept coming up on the sides, which was freaking me right the heck out, I thought it was going to attack. I took this pic of Husband pointing at this eel –

the eel kept opening and shutting his mouth, it looked like it was trying to eat us through the glass. We walked around the whole thing, looked at all the animals. This is a pic of me in a canoe they randomly had there. I tried to pick up the oar next to it, but it was bolted to the ground.

The best exhibits were probably the penguins and the otters, but I couldn’t get good pictures of either animals, they were all moving too fast. I would include them here, but really, it would just look like a garbled picture of brown or water, so I won’t. But believe me when I tell you they were awesome little animals, and I wanted to hug them. I wish I could have snuggled an otter, I bet they’re snuggly little guys.

Independence Day 10k

Happy Independence Day, y’all! I celebrated this morning like I always do; I ran in the Provo City Freedom Run 10k. This is my third year running it, and for the previous 3 years, Stadium of Fire has been on a different day than the race. The race is always on the 4^th, no matter what, but as many of you probably know, the fireworks are somewhat decided by what day of the week the 4^th is, if it’s a Sunday/Monday, the fireworks are on Saturday, that sort of thing. So this being the first year I had to deal with both events, and it made me late for the race! Usually, I drive down University Pkwy (Yes, you’ll be getting great details, deal with it) and park on 9^th East, near the Creamery on BYU Campus. But today, they had closed down many of the roads leading to the race, so we had to crazy detour, and had to park pretty far away from the race, by some sort of building, I don’t actually know which one. Then we (PJ & I, in case I hadn’t specified) were hurrying our fastest to get to the start line. When we were a block or so away, we heard the countdown of the time, and then the gun went off, and before we knew it, the racers all started running past us, a few of them teasing us and telling us we were going the wrong way. We were one of the last people to cross the start line – by several minutes.

This race is always a favorite, because it’s so easy-going. The thing I both dislike and like about it is that you run the parade route; so basically, most of the race is done in front of the people waiting for the parade to start. It sucks running in front of all of these people, but at the same time, you do get a lot of high fives from a lot of strangers that are cheering you on. Plus, Provo city has a lot of music stations randomly placed throughout the race, so you get to have mini dance parties every like, quarter mile for a few miles, its fun. I made a friend on the sidelines who danced with me as I passed them.

The race ended, and they were handing out the water bottles and medals you get for finishing. The thing I HATE about the Provo race is that they don’t really give you any water. Usually, if they do, it’s in a tiny cup, and its hose water. I don’t mind hose water, necessarily, but for some reason, Provo’s hose water tastes gross gross gross. So this year, we had to use the new water bottles we were given to drink our water from. We had to stand in a long line to get our water, and then, they gave me exactly 5 pumps of water, which filled up about a quarter of my bottle. When I looked at the guy, all he said was “Sorry, we’re rationing.” Seriously? I just ran 6.2 miles in the July morning sun, and I get about 3 gulps of water? Awesome. Then I was like, I should put on my medal, it’s time to celebrate my run. I pulled the medal out of the wrapping and…it broke. The medal was broken! I went back to the medal hander-outers, and asked for a replacement. She informed me that they were out. GAH are you kidding me, Provo?! So at this point, I gave up, and we walked back to the car, to go get our own water.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good race. I enjoyed the run, naturally, but the after-events really made me hate it. I almost want to write a survey or something to send back to the race directors, so that my opinion is known, but I doubt they’d even care. I’ve included some pics we took of the race – the first is the ‘before’ picture, when we haven’t run, and we’re still good, and then, the after, back at my house, after we’re sad about the medal, the water, and the general tiredness of running. I can’t wait for next year now!

Pizza Rolls and RB Cookies...a classic combination

These are just a few recipes I’ve made lately. Of course, they all come from Pinterest, as all of mine do now. What did I ever do without Pinterest? I made one of these for dinner the other day, Pizza Rolls. I took a picture of them while I was assembling them, but not of the finished product. These are ridiculously easy to make. Get a tube of crescent rolls, pepperoni, and string cheese. Unroll the rolls, and place 5 pepperoni slices on the larger end, and place a half of string cheese on those, and roll it up. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. You can dip them into marinara sauce if you’d like. I didn’t, I found them delicious on their own.

Next, I made Root Beer Float cookies. Yesterday, at work all day, I really wanted to bake something. I kept thinking all day, but it wasn’t until the end of the day that I figured out what to make. I figured it would be easy, and that I’d have all the ingredients in my house. I came home, looked in the cupboard to make sure I had root beer extract. I have vanilla, almond, mint, but no root beer extracts. Dang it! So I went to my local Target to get it. I looked high and low there, even asked an employee (who kinda refused to help me, that was irritating) and finally, had to give up. I went over to Smiths, and found it there, huzzah! I don’t know how much root beer extract usually goes for, but I bought a small bottle there for 8 freaking dollars. That seems excessive, but what could I do, I now had my heart set on these? So I bought my things and went home to make them.

As I was making them, I was getting my brown sugar, and found that I didn’t even have enough! I had to borrow from my brother, a neighbor. Sheesh, I shouldn’t have been making cookies, it seems! They were really easy to make, which is always a plus in cookies. I let them cool, and put the root beer frosting on top, and holy cow, they are soooo good. So root beery too. I recommend them. Here’s the recipe, in case you want it:

Ingredients:

(Cookie)

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp root beer extract

4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

(Frosting)

4 cups powdered sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

3 Tbsp milk

1 tsp root beer extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in buttermilk and root beer extract. Combine dry ingredients, gradually add to creamed mixture. Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. For frosting, mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Beat until smooth. Frost cooled cookies…enjoy!

Now, the cookies in the photo from the site I got them on showed big, smooth cookies, perfectly frosted, yada yada yada. But when I spooned mine onto my cookie sheets, they were just lumpy little buggers, not really taking a shape. So my cookies are taller than they are wide, really. They still are good, they’re just not very pretty. But they are tasty, I recommend them to everyone

Patriotic!

It's almost Independence Day. The 4th of July. I can't believe it's already July, guys. Time just flies it seems. I run the Provo Freedom Run every 4th of July, with PJ. It's always a blast, it's only a 10k, which is nice, and we go all out with our clothing. We dress in red, white and blue to the nines. Headbands, wristbands, shirts, bandannas, everything. So far this year, I haven't been very lucky in finding stuff, so I'll just wear some repeats from next year, which I don't think will be too bad.
Last night, as I was watching the RSL game (which we lost, we're on a great losing streak right now!) PJ helped me sew a bracelet. She saw it on Pinterest, and we copied it and made it our own. We got some material at JoAnn's, and then worked them to create this braided awesomeness:

Fancy, eh? I'm definitely wearing this all day on Wednesday, especially during the race. And then today, I had a bit of free time this afternoon, and decided to paint my toenails. I really wanted to paint some flowers on here, but holy cow did those not work out. These just look like polka dots on here, dang it.

So, I tried my best, but they really don't look very good. I'm not going to fix or change them, because I can live with it. I haven't yet decided if I'll do anything else to celebrate our Independence Day, but if I do, I'll let you know.