Time to Put My Feet Up

Sometimes, I like to put my feet up. Not all the time, but once in a while, I appreciate taking the pressure off my legs. Not that there’s a lot of pressure going on there, but still, it’s nice. I had a foot rest at the office that was like, 4 inches off the ground, which was nice, but it wasn’t all that much off the ground. I’ve been using my computer tower at work to use as a foot rest, but it’s all hard, so my heel ends up hurting after a little bit. I decided, it was finally time to find something. I searched on Amazon, but all that I found on there was really cute ottoman’s that were about $150 and I was not having that. So finally, it sprang to my mind to check IKEA, because they have stuff. And as soon as I searched for it on their website, I found one within seconds! So today after work, I went over there, found it, brought it home, and made it. I’d like to say I took pics of it, but I’m not a very good blogger, in that I don’t remember to always take pics of stuff I’m doing. But take my word for it, it looks good. Here it is from the website:

See, fancy! Now, tomorrow, I’ll be taking it into work, and seeing how it works for my purposes. I’ll keep you posted!

Miscellaneous Monday

I found yesterday that I am rich. I know, I know, you guys must be as surprised as I am, but its been nice to know this. I found this out as I was walking home from church. As we all know, my former scouts visit me every Wednesday, on the way home from their scouts, and I give them candy. One of the boys’ mom stopped me, and let me know that she knew her son was stopping at my house, but he didn’t know she knew which house it was. As far as she was supposed to know, he stops at a secret house every week. And then she told me what he told her: “They’re so rich, they only finish half of their candy!” Now, we all know, this isn’t necessarily true. What is true, is that with only 2 people in the house, and the obscene amount of candy we buy, we just can’t finish it quickly enough. But I’ll let him think that’s why, and his mom will keep pretending she doesn’t know. It’s a nice arrangement for us all.

The basement is still flooded. Well, maybe not flooded, per se, but the carpet is still soaking wet, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. We’ve had the fans on all night, we threw in some space heaters to try to keep it warm, so hopefully, that gets better. Tonight, as I was down there tending to things, all of a sudden, the light turned off. Of course, I immediately was like, oh I guess the lightbulb is bad, but then I realized, half of the fans were off, and all of the lights weren’t working. I decided to just give up on things, so I took a breather. A bit later, I returned, flipped the breaker, and it all turned back on again. Hopefully things will dry up now!

Yesterday, after I got home from church, I started to make dinner. I was making CrockPot Enchiladas, and I was pretty excited to try them. When we were halfway through making them, Husband took over things, because my visiting teachers came over, so he finished making the dinner. By the time my teachers left, the crockpot was on, and cooking my dinner…or so I thought. About 4 hours later, as I was gearing up to go to my scout meeting, Husband was checking on dinner. After he poked around a minute, he realized that while yes, he did turn the crockpot ON, he didn’t actually plug it IN. So our dinner had just sat there…for hours…doing nothing. We turned it on, switched it to high, and then I had to go to my meeting. An hour and a half later, I returned, and dinner was done. And while we did eat later than anticipated, I still thought it was delicious, and really, that’s all that matters.

And the Floods Came Up

This morning, I woke up feeling pretty dang good. So, after lazing about for about 30 minutes, I was like, I am going to get up, I’m going to work out, I’m going to get ready and be at church early enough to get a good seat. I was ready for this. So after making the bed, and cleaning up various spots on my way down, I turned on the TV, started my movie, (LoveStruck, in case anyone was wondering) and then put away my clothes down there. Before I started running, I thought it might be a good idea to blow my nose, make sure it wasn’t a nuisance. As I was stepping out of the bathroom, I thought it was wet on the ground, but then I realized, I stepped on the metal thing, so of course it was cold. Then, because I’m a loon, I went back and touched the same area, to make sure the thing I felt was really the metal, and not anything else. When I went back, I noticed that actually, the carpet right there was wet. For a second, I was like, oh, I’m sure this is fine, most likely a spill. I checked the carpet around the door frame…down the hall…in the other rooms…and they were really wet. At this point, I was beginning to panic.

I ran upstairs and grabbed Husband. And by grabbed him, I mean, I bounded upstairs, and yelled up to him “Flood! Flood! We have flooding in the basement!” He came downstairs and we tried to investigate. We thought we pinpointed where it had started, but to be honest, we had no idea. It was wetter in some places then others, and there was no indication on the walls that let us know what was going on. So, we decided to bring in some fans (apparently, Husband has many fans at his office, so he was going to get them, and we’d just utilize them for the time being) and then if it happened, again, hopefully we can pinpoint things. So, he went upstairs to put on shoes and the like, and I was going to just…go about my day, I guess. After I was downstairs, I happened to look over to the wall, and I discovered the leak! It somehow came in the window, from the outside, down the wall (or something) and after soaking the carpet, it slowly spread all along the walls.

Pleased with finding where it came from, again, I bounded up the stairs, and told Husband I figured out where it was coming from. He came and looked at it and realized, he was actually the one that caused the leak! He was working outdoors, and after pulling up some old weeds/tree things, he knocked a pipe/sprinkler head, which broke it. Then when the sprinklers went off this morning like usual, they flooded outside, then the water just went anywhere it could, which meant, the basement. After we discovered the reasoning, he went to go get the fans, and I used a whole lotta towels to try to get some of the soakings down. After I went through 6 towels, I had had enough, so I gave up. Husband then returned with the fans, which we set up all over the basement. And now…we wait. Hopefully, this will all work, and the carpet will be fine, and the house won’t be gross, and the sprinklers won’t do this anymore. And if it doesn’t…well, we can always move to another house, probably.

Foto Friday

I found this picture in Hobby Lobby, and I almost died laughing:

Seriously? Now, the only way Jesus knows you're on his team is if you have a foam finger? They also had a Team Jesus frisbee, some hacky sacks that said Team Jesus and some stickers that also expressed your love for all things Jesus. Now, obvs, I believe in Jesus, but to me, this isn't how you show your faith. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

This Sunday, I decided it was time to make a treat. It’s been a while, but now, I’m back to baking. I looked on my Pinterest boards, since that’s the only place I check things out on, and decided on this easy treat. When I made it, I didn’t have any Hershey’s kisses, so I improvised. The recipe:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Chocolate kisses or stars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in the 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookies center. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. The recipe said this was going to make 54, but I barely squeaked out 43.

Now, the thing I did differently: Instead of immediately pressing the Kiss into the center, I used a teaspoon to put a small indent/hole.

After they cooled completely, I piped some chocolate frosting into the center with one of my new frosting tips that I bought to replace my old ruined one.

And, voila. You end up with a delicious cookie, that is only 78 calories. I liked these a lot, and they’re so small you don’t feel bad about eating, like, 5!

Miscellaneous Monday

At the race this past weekend, security was strong. Like...an intense amount of cops were there. And obviously, after the horrifying events at Boston, I can see why they would have extra security, in case some wackjob tries the same thing at our race. But to me, having the bomb squad trucks there, and the helicopters, and the motorcycle cops weaving up and down our race course didn't make me feel any safer. It made me infinitely more aware of how dangerous our world has become. I hate that these bombers have taken a safe place - a race, and turned it into something that we aren't sure we feel safe at anymore. Even though, in my heart, I knew that the race was fine, and we'd have no problems, and nothing would happen, there was also that nagging voice in the back of my head that asked "But what if it does? What if we get to the finish line, and someone decides to bomb it?" I hope that this one-time awful thing doesn't ruin races forever. One of the greatest things is to be able to line up with your fellow runners, and just leave it all behind as you run your heart and legs out.

Tomorrow is, heaven willing, my last trip to the dentist. I'm all done at the oral surgeon, and tomorrow is the day I finally get my teeth put in. What a weird concept to think about. Two weeks ago, I went in and had my mouth fitted for the new teeth, and that hurt considerably more than I thought. When I had the other side done, it was easy-peasy, no probs, but this one was awful, it bled, it was all around a bad experience. Hopefully tomorrow goes smoothly. And speaking of the dentist, today when I got home, I checked the mailbox, and had an envelope from the oral surgeon. Immediately, I thought it was a bill, and I was so mad - I know we paid EVERY CENT they've ever asked us to! So I get inside, and practically rip it open, only to find that while it is a statement from them of everything I've ever done, and the cost thereof, there was also a check in there, of us having over-paid something. Huzzah! Of course, it's Husband's money, since he's paid the bulk of my teeth, but still, it feels nice to be able to get some money from the dentist, instead of forking it all over.

This past Thursday, I didn't have my co-leader for scouts. Of course, that just meant I roped Husband into being the second in command, since we're not allowed to only have one leader, so it wasn't that bad. We earned the ReadyMan badge, which is first aid. With how these boys seem to retain the info taught them, though, I don't know if I trust them to help in an emergency. I think the only things they took away from the activity is that burns are bad, don't throw up poison, and don't try to catch a snake if it bites you. Hopefully, they'll pick up more stuff, and probably from other people, as they grow up, so they won't be totally useless in an emergency.

SLC Half Marathon 2013

Yesterday was the SLC Marathon/Half Marathon of 2013. I won’t lie, I didn’t prepare for this race a whole lot. I meant to, I really did, but the last month has been a blur of sicknesses and issues. As race day neared, I was feeling less and less like I’d do well in it. That’s ok, I pressed on. Friday night, PJ and I were staying up in SLC, that way, we wouldn’t have to get up too early to get to the race. We ate at Buca di Beppo, and after carb loading, ate this delicious dessert:

I had been checking the weather all week, and at first, it was good weather. Then, in went chilly. Then, my app said it would be rainy in the early morning, but then clear by race time. The night before the race, the app changed again, saying rain all day would be coming. UUUGGGHHH why?! So, I put on a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt and shorts, and thought I’d be ok. After waking up and heading to Trax, which would take me to the start line, I noticed it was already pretty cold and rainy. Shoot. As we were riding Trax, we were stopped, and policemen with dogs searched the bus for…bombs I suppose. After the horrible events at the Boston Marathon this week, security was beefed up like crazy. Finally, I made it to the start line. They had a bomb team truck there, that really surprised me. The police force was out strong, and there were several helicopters circling above us. We took a quick sec to take a pic.

After a moment of silence for Boston, the race started, and off we all were. It was rainy, and cold, but I hoped it would change any minute.

It never did.

So, for 13.1 miles, we ran into the rain and wind. By mile 4, I was already soaked. My nose was dripping water, my ponytail was soaked all the way through and dripping onto my back, and my sleeves were dripping. My hands were cold, but not horribly. By mile 7, the rain had let up just a little, so dripping wasn’t a problem anymore. By mille 9, the rain had come down with a vengeance again. I was dripping everywhere, and my hands were freezing. By mile 11, I could no longer move my hands, they were bright red, and FREEZING. It was also so cold that we were just running so slowly. I wanted to sprint at the end, like I usually do, but that wasn’t happening. I picked it up a little, but not that much. The good news is that they changed the race course, so nobody had to run up the giant hill in SLC to get to the end.

After the race, I couldn’t move, I was so cold and wet. I couldn’t move my hands to pick up a water bottle, I had to use both hands, and then I couldn’t open it. Immediately, I found the shuttle bus that would take us back to Trax, and back to the hotel. The bus wasn’t even heated, if you can believe that. Wet, freezing people, with no heat to the bus. Finally, we made it to Trax, and back to the hotel. As we were walking into the hotel, I realized that I didn’t have a bag to put my wet clothes into. So we stopped at the concierge desk to ask for one. He took a look at us, told us he’d get what we needed, then invited us to sit in front of the fire. I didn’t even notice the fire! I happily stood there and dried off and warmed up. I wish I had gotten an after pic, after the race, but shoot, I just couldn’t remember to do it while freezing.

I tried to warm up by getting into my bed without the wet clothes on, but after a few minutes, I didn’t feel any warmer, so I thought I’d try to get into the shower. I put it to warm, and tried to warm up. My hands were tingly the whole time, and my body was goosebumps central, but at least it improved. And when all is said and done, here was my medal I deservedly got:

Foto Friday

Today, I did an important step in preparing for my race:

I made sure my iPod was fully charged, and full of good music. Now I’m ready.

Hurts so Good

Lately, my feet hurt. Not the whole foot, and not even all the time. But there’s one specific place in the arch that just hurts. Mostly when I stretch it weird, or if I happen to just rub my foot weird on my flip flop. But when I push into the spot, or dig like, the leg of my chair into it, I get a feeling that I can describe as “glorious pain”. I finally understand the phrase: Hurts So Good, because it does. It HURTS when I do that, but it feels amazing too. The other day I was like, I should get a small foam roller for my feet, and work on them (Especially with the half marathon this weekend). I went to Sports Authority, and found:

Now, these feel AMAZING. The gray one is awesome (and if you get these, I recommend doing them with socks on, it takes the intensity out a little, and makes it feel just a little better) and the orange one…feels. It’s not good or bad, necessarily, it just feels different. Pokier, for sure, but I am using the heck out of the gray one. I’m close to bringing it to work to do during the day!
I really enjoy them, and if you have feet pain where I’ve described, or probably any, I would recommend these. Now maybe my feet won’t be too bad this weekend!

Miscellaneous Monday

Yesterday, my nephew had his baby blessing. He was adopted 6 months ago, but since you have to wait for 6 months to seal your adopted child to you, they had to wait for this as well. There was a small family shindig afterwards, and I was asked to make a dessert to bring to it. Of course, I pulled out my standard quick dessert, and made my mini chocolate treasures. I think they turned out ok.

They were all snapped up at the lunch, which made me sad because I wanted to take some home with me, I actually only got to eat one. But that’s ok, at least I know they were good.

After I was done making and frosting them, I was cleaning up, putting dishes into the dishwasher, etc. I had just finished putting everything in there, and I was ready to run it. I had just put some stuff down the garbage disposal, and ran it, and it made the most AWFUL noise. It took me about 30 seconds to realize, the thing making the awful noise? Oh, just the decorating tip I had accidentally dropped down the sink and didn’t realize. I waited for the blades to stop, and carefully put my hand down there, and pulled out the tip. Alas, it was ruined, not even usable a little bit. I should have taken a pic, but I was so distraught in the moment that I didn’t think of it. Now, I need to go back to the store (I bought it at Gygi, so of course I have to go to SLC) and hopefully find the same one, because I loved it.

I need a new card box, soon, so while I had a little bit of time yesterday, I made one. Now, I don’t know what cards I’ll be putting in there yet, so I didn’t have a specific decoration in mind, so I made it sort of generic. I like the way it turned out though, and I can’t wait to assign some cards to it.

Foto Friday

Today was team pictures for the little soccer team Chelle and I coach. All the little girls came, hair all cute with ribbons and all, and looked so cute for the pics. Of course, we coaches got in on it too:

The pic is a little blurry, but I wanted to blow up the pic a little, so you can see their tiny cute hair and faces. Go Angels!

Father’s Day Card/Sunshine Card

Of course, being conference weekend, I worked on crafty things all day Sunday. It seems to always be that I have a card club soonish after conference, so usually, I do my cards. This time was no exception. And while it was a good time, I don’t really like one of them. I mean, it’s not that I hate it, but I just wish I could have been done better, and it would have turned out better. I had a really hard time with the template this time. And it was probably self-inflicted, maybe I could have made an easier card or thought of something else, but the way it is, it’s…all right, not great. Here it is, along with my girl card:

So, there they are. I do like my girl card, (I may think it’s just a bit too pink, but I still like it) but the boy card is just…a card. I hope everyone else in the group likes it, but if not, there’s no shame in them throwing them away, and not telling me about it.

Mini Peach FAIL

Last night, I wanted to make a treat. I had been wanting to make these Mini Peach Cobblers for a long time now, so I decided, tonight’s the night.  So I got all ready, got the ingredients, chopped up the peaches, and put it all together EXACTLY as the recipe dictated. And here’s what it looked like, before baking:

Now, I was excited. It smelled delicious, and looked good too. So it gets done cooking, and I rush over to the oven, and find this:

HOLY FAIL BATMAN. These weren’t even remotely close to what it’s supposed to be! So I gave up already, pulled it out, and just didn’t even bother. After it cooled down, I went over and looked at them, and saw that they were still runny raw dough in the cups. So basically, all the baking it did was overflow the cups onto the muffin tin, without doing any baking of the actual cobblers. I was so disappointed. Weirdly enough, Husband was like, it smells delicious! And then PROCEEDED TO EAT THE RAW DOUGH LEFT IN THE CUPCAKE PANS which I just don't understand. I don’t think I’ll ever try this recipe again. Or maybe I will, when the smell of failure isn’t so recent.

Miscellaneous Monday

Yesterday, my brother and his wife invited us to breakfast before Conference started. We provided the hash browns and juice, and they provided pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It was pretty delicious. As we were winding down breakfast, Husband gave their new baby,  (who’s actually like, 6 months old) a piece of his hash browns. Immediately, baby’s face did this:

He did not care for it at all. As we were watching him with humor, my sister-in-law turned around and asked if we had given him food. Husband said yes, since he had, and she was a little apprehensive, since this was his very first solid food ever. We watched him closely to make sure he didn’t choke, and good news, he didn’t! But now I think he’ll not give any food anymore without getting permission from the parents.
I was watching Cupcake Wars this weekend, and every time I watch it, I think the same thing: I could totally be on this. Of course, I know that in real life, I’d be super terrified and not able to do anything, but I’d like to imagine I could do it. I think it’d be cool to have a bakery and do that sort of thing for a living, but I’m not naïve enough to think that I could just open a bakery and hit the ground running, and be successful. There are too many cupcake bakeries around, and really, I’m not offering anything new. But it’s a pipedream I have, that maybe someday, I can use my baking powers for money.
This morning, I finally had a good run. Since my sickness, I haven’t been running all that much. On Saturday, I ran for about 11 minutes before I had to start walking. But this morning, I ran for 40 minutes – which I consider a victory. Sure, it was at a slow pace, but I still feel good about it. I only have less than 2 weeks to be ready for the SLC half marathon, and I’m working really hard to be ready for it!

Crafty Home

Today is General Conference, as we all know. When I watch conference, I have to be doing something. Not reading, or playing on the internet, because then I don’t listen. I need an activity that requires focus, yet doesn’t require too much thinking, or else I won’t listen. Usually, I craft. Mostly cards, but since I’ll be doing my cards tomorrow during the Sunday session, I needed something for today, which would be my First Ever time of sitting down and watching the Saturday session. I was putting away my Easter blocks when I happened to notice that I had some blocks I haven’t painted yet. I got these at Christmas time, in case I wanted to give them away as a gift, then I never got around to it, I gave away others instead, so these are just hanging out in my shed, not doing anything. So, after the first session of Conference, I skedaddled over to Craft Wood Cutouts to look at how theirs was decorated (because I have to copy theirs, they always make them cute, and I hoped they still had it in stock/decorated) and they did! So I bought all the stuff, and returned home to finish it during the second session.

It took me the whole session, plus a bit after to finish it, but finally, I did! Here’s what it looks like

I think it turned out ok – but only because I copied the way they did it. And this is the perfect fill-in until the craft club makes our next craft, which I hope is soon! In case you wanted to know what it looks like up there

You really can’t see it well, and its blurry because I was falling a little when I took it, but at least I got a pic of it.

Foto Friday

I went to Home Depot today. We were looking for curtains, and while we were there, we thought, may as well stop off in the garden department, and see if there’s anything there that looks good enough to put in the yard. As soon as we walked in the department, I saw this sign.

“Parents” Please keep watch of your kids! is what the sign says. I know what you’re thinking, and it’s what I thought…why is parents in quotation marks? Is this for alleged parents? For ones that aren’t parents? Do they know what having a word in quotes means? I don’t know. But it still makes me laugh.

Splinter

Today during work, my knuckle hurt. I looked down, and saw what appeared to be a bluey thing in there. I couldn’t figure it out, and had to ask, and learned it was most likely a splinter in there. I have NO IDEA where it came from. I don’t really hang around wood places, so I don’t know how I got one in there. I tried at work to get it out, with no luck. Of course, I was using a blade normally used to open packages (I put Purel on it to make it sanitary) and tweezers, but couldn’t get it out at all. So finally, I had to admit defeat until I got home.

It wasn’t until I was getting ready for bed that I realized I hadn’t taken the splinter out. So, in my PJ’s, with no glasses on, I poked at it with a needle until my skin loosened, then held the skin up with the needle while I went in with the tweezers to get it out. It was tricky to do, but finally, success!

You can’t really see it that well, but you can kind of see it! I was just glad to get it out, and my finger no longer hurt. A victory all around.

Miscellaneous Monday

This past weekend, I bought some new bed sheets and a comforter. My previous comforter got sliced on my side of the bed…but I have no idea how that happened. I don’t think I have a knife with me in my sleep, and don’t think my hands are sharp enough to do that, so I don’t know where this came from. I didn’t even see it, Husband is the one who pointed it out to me. So since that, we’ve been looking for a new comforter that neither of us hate, isn’t a billion dollars (Seriously, how expensive are these?! I’m blown away!) but finally, in the clearance section of Bed, Bath and Beyond, we found it. Of course, I was too tired to put it on the night we bought it, so finally Friday night, we got it put on.

Ta-daaaa! I like it. Sleeping in is it nice, and its light but warm. I expect to have good night sleeps from now on.

I am writing this while on my death bed. Ok, that may be an overreaction. This past weekend, I started to get sick. On Saturday, my body was incredibly achy and sore, I chalked it up to the long run I had done that morning. Then Sunday, it was getting worse. Standing was a no-go, so after church, I literally laid around the house all day. I put on my pajamas, and didn’t get back up. At some point I ate soup, which was about the only thing I ate. Then I woke up this morning, and I didn’t feel well at all. But its Monday, so I went to work. I was there for about 2 hours, and things were not doing well. Sitting up wasn’t good, so after some promptings from Chelle, I came home. I immediately put on PJ’s again, and laid down. I was FREEZING. After a while of only being wrapped in a blanket, I grabbed a blanket to lay on, a quilt to wrap around myself, and a comforter all around me. It took me 3 hours of being wrapped in that to get warm, and then I got HOT, fast. So now, I’m going back and forth from feeling perfectly ok, to being nearly in tears over the pain and whatnot going on. So right now, I’m ok. My head hurts, my body hurts, but I haven’t moved in like, 2 hours, so I think that may be helping. Whatever this thing is that I have going on better stop, because I have had enough of this.

And to go with being sick, when I’m sick, my emotions are super heightened. I don’t know if its like this for everyone, but I will cry like, instantly. So today when I got home, I turned on a show, Chicago Fire. And at the end of it, this young boy died after falling down a laundry chute. His mom came and visited the fire station and told them the boy wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up. Now, already, I’m having some tears go down my face. Then a few minutes later, they give him a full on firefighter salute of them having a flag at half-mast, they’re all in full uniform, they salute him. I was almost hysterically sobbing at this. Of course, most people would probably not admit this, but I’m ok with admitting it. My name is Vieve, and I cry. A lot.