Foto Friday

I’m sorry, you guys, that I talk about Cookie so often on here, but that’s just because she’s around me all the time. So yesterday, I was in a hurry when I came home from work. I had scouts in just a few minutes, so I needed to hurry and let her out, and then get out of the house. So I put her outside, and run upstairs to change my clothes. I come back down, and she’s still outside. I go over to the door, and call for her, and she’s just sitting there. In the grass, kind of like she’s sunbathing. So I call her and call her, and she just looks at me, but doesn’t move. I go outside, and call her louder, and she still just stays there, like she’s the Queen of England. Finally, as I was walking on the grass to go get her, she finally got up and followed me inside.

What a loony bin this dog is.

Miscellaneous Monday

For my birthday, I got many good gifts, I feel very blessed. Saturday morning when I got home from the race, there was a Sam’s Club box sitting on the couch. I asked Husband what it was, and he said he didn’t know, but it had my name on it. Well, color me surprised! So I rush over and open it, having zero ideas of what it could be, and as I open it, I see a case of Instant Cup o’ Noodles soup. My sister had jokingly told me that she would send me a case, and then I laughed, because I thought it was a joke. Of course, I died laughing, and texted her a thank you, and if anybody needs any soup, I have plenty.

The other day, I was looking over my list of 100 things I want to do before I die, and I’ve done 12! In just 4 short years (oy vey) I’ve completed at least 10% of them! I have many many more things to complete before I’m done, but I’m psyched that I’m at least working on the list. I need to get going on the rest of these – if I have any hope of getting them all done before I’m too old to enjoy them, I should really get to work on all of this. Wish me luck!

Yesterday was Free Get-Out-Of-Church day. I love this day – it’s one of the greatest days of the year. Stake Conference. I know, I know, we’re all supposed to go to all the church that we can, and learn all that we can, but everyone once in a while, you just need a break. It’s like work – they give you vacation days for a reason, because you just need a rest once in a while. So when it’s Stake Conference, I don’t go. I spend the day lounging about, doing things on my list, cleaning, etc. This day was no different, and it was glorious. And maybe the day off helps, because now I’m looking forward to going again next week.

The Color Run

Today, I ran the Color Run. I had never heard of it before this year, but it’s very simple to the Hindi Festival of Colors, just done while you’re running. I lined up at the race chute at 8:00, ready to get going, then off we all went. After about a half mile, I approached what was a GIANT ball of powder. As I got closer, I saw that it was a group of volunteers, with squeeze bottles full of purple powder. After we got done with the race, I had been through the chutes for the following colors: purple, yellow, green, orange, pink, blue. The blue was the lasting color, and this is what I looked like:

Colorful, but not too bad. Then, we went to the Color Party, where basically, they played loud music, got us all pumped up, and then they had us all release packets of color they gave us, and we were drenched in color.

There was soooo much powder that it was actually really hard to breathe for a few minutes, and my body was almost in super panic mode after not being able to breathe. Finally, the air cleared, and we were dancing once again, until a few minutes later, and then we did some more color again, and then, I was needing to get out of there and into the fresh air. This is how I looked then:

We saw that they were doing another color throw, and I wanted to see what it looked like from the outside.

Finally, I had to call it a day. It started to rain, and it was hot, and I was covered in color, so I wanted to get home and shower.

It took me three washings of my hair to get the color out (and I still had some blue in it, when I was running my fingers through it later) and three loofah scrubbings to get all the blue off my body, and I actually still have some on my parts – my armpits, my ankles, and fingernails. When I took my clothes off, I had blue on every inch of my body. Toes, fingers, hands, shins, back, shoulders, everywhere, even where clothes were. But this was a great race, and I hope they do it again next year. I’d love to get everyone I know going in a large group – so prepare, friends!

Birthday Good Times

Today is my 30th birthday. Yup, I’ve made it to 30, I can hardly believe it. When I got to work today, I was greeted with this awesome image:

So awesome, right? Chelle is amazing, and did my desk so great. As I sat down, I noticed the little touches, to make it a Hello Kitty desk:

I was very spoiled this day, starting with a Subway breakfast, some amazing gifts, a lunch at Los Hermanos, a delicious treat of Cookie Dough Brownies (Which I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of) and great times all day. This was delivered to me at the office, courtesy of the Inspector:

That evening, I went bowling with a group of friends, and it was just so much fun. I haven’t been bowling for a long time. I didn’t win (that would be Chelle) but I didn’t lose! (I don’t actually know who lost) After bowling, we got some ice cream, and then I called it a night. I want to say thank you to all my friends and loved ones who made me day awesome – it made me feel loved!

Sushi Night

A while ago, Chelle told me she was taking a mutual friend out for sushi for her birthday, and invited me to come along. Even though I don’t like sushi, at all, neither does Chelle, so I said I would, in a sign of solidarity. So finally, last night was the night. We got all psyched up to it, and went to the place, Wild Ginger. We sat down, and looked at the menu. I was looking for the least fishy item on the menu. Finally, we settled on the California Roll, the Philadelphia Roll, and a Tempura roll. We also ordered (For us non-sushi gals) a sweet and sour chicken, lest we HATE the sushi and needed a backup food. Finally, our food arrived.

Looks ok, right? So we tried them all, and they weren’t too bad, actually. The fishiest one was the California, with that (fake) crabmeat. My favorite, by far, was the Tempura one; it had no fish in it, just chopped up Tempura veggies. Delicious!

And at the end of the day, it wasn’t the worst experience I’ve had ever. Naturally, we left most of the sushi, and ate all of the chicken. I don’t know that I love sushi now, but at least I know, if in a pinch, and needed to eat some (When would this happen?) I could eat some rolls without dying.

Trip to the Vet

Today I had to take tiny Cookie to the vet. She’s not sick or anything, this is more like, a checkup, and to fix just a couple of things. When I put her in the car, she was so psyched, she had no idea what was awaiting her.

So we had a pleasant drive, and then as soon as walked into the building, the jig was up. She knew EXACTLY where we were, and that things were about to get real for her. I tried to be her friend, and tried to assure her that things were ok, but she wouldn’t have any of it. Then we got into a room, and doctor came and weighed her, and she’s 10 pounds, which is apparently perfect for her size, so, yay me for not feeding her too much. The doc examined her, and then took her into the back for a few procedures, and then she came back out and was shaking, of course, even though nothing crazy had been done. For the last thing, the doc had to draw some blood, for a heart worm thing, and she came back out with a tiny bandage on, it was so cute and sad at the same time:

Finally, we were done and we got to go, but she kept trying to tear the bandage off. They then sprayed some kind of thing on it that makes it gross for her to touch, and she gave up. ...Until we got into the car, and she tried again. The car ride home was consisting of me trying to stop her, and her trying to do it. I had to make her wear it for an hour, and then I could take it off, and when I took it off, she limped around for a little while, and it was adorable. I know it was for show, because as soon as I brought food out, she was running around, and totally normal. But now, she’s healthy again, and everything’s fine, until we need to go in to get her vaccines updated. Sheesh, I can’t believe the upkeep on keeping an alive thing in your house.

Miscellaneous Monday

The weekend was filled with a lot of slow walking. The later Saturday got, the more my knees hurt, so going up and down stairs was not a good thing. I had actually changed into my pajamas, and just laid down for the rest of the day. Sunday, things were better, but stairs still presented a bit of a problem, but it’s getting better every passing hour, so soon, I’ll be totally healed. I always forget that after a long race like that, my body takes a long time to recover.

Yesterday, at church, I had set my hymn book down on the chair next to me, and then got my things together, and stood up after the first meeting. After I picked up my bag, I guess I hadn’t realized that I set my book halfway on it, because it fell right off, and landed on my foot. Of course, being in church, I couldn’t cry out, so I just quietly endured my pain. It hurt for the rest of the day, and then today, there’s a bruise on my foot. I can’t believe that I endured a half marathon, and got out with no issues, just to drop a book on it, and hurt myself. I can’t believe my luck sometimes.

Today at work, Chelle and I were sitting there, chatting, and I looked on the wall behind her, as I was talking and I saw what I thought was a giant bug. Then it moved, and I actually saw that IT WAS A FREAKING MOUSE WALKING ON THE WALL!!! Yes, there was a mouse in our building, on the wall, crawling around like nobody’s business. Well, of course we all flipped out, and got people over to get it. After a while, they told us they’d caught one in another person’s office, but until they can guarantee to us that it’s the same one, I’ll assume there are many mice around here, just living in the walls or something. Ughhhhh.

Hobble Creek Half

Today, for the first time, I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. For those who have never heard of it, you get dropped off up in the canyon, and then you run back down. I was told by previous runners, that it was awesome, there are no hills, its straight downhill, so it’s a fast awesome course. This is a lie. A super, super lie. There are hills. There is one at like, mile 11 that is almost straight uphill. It was awful. Anyway, we had to be in Mapleton at 5:00 for the buses to take us up. If you missed the buses, you missed the race. So I set the alarm for 4:00 ON A SATURDAY to wake up. I went to bed at 9:30, on a Friday night, I felt like a 90 year old. We got up there, and wasted the next two hours. You read that right, they dropped us off 2 hours early, and we just had to wait there, for 2 hours. I brought a jacket, I expected the chilliness. Here’s PJ and I before the race:

Then the race started. We were maybe 3 minutes in when I took off my jacket. It wouldn’t sit well on my hips, so I threw it to the side of the road, knowing I would never get it back. I did yell ‘sorry’ as I did so, though. RIP Jacket. Then the race. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. The unexpected hills sucked, then as I got to mile 11, I was hot, I was thirsty, and I had had enough. So at this point, I started to pick up my pace, because I was sick of running and just wanted to be done. As PJ was a little behind me, I just started yelling about how I hated this race, I hated this course, I hated the mountain, I hated the heat, I hated that we woke up so early, and I just about lost it. I just kept going, faster and faster, until I finished the race. I didn’t look super grump coming in, though, and that’s what counts.

I even did a thumbs up! Then I finished, and I had a hard time stopping and walking, it felt so unnatural. I made my way over to the water station, where they were handing out WARM CUPS OF WATER! Yes, to those of us who had run 13.1 miles, we were given warm water. It was awful. I made my way over to the food, and picked up some cold watermelon, and finally found some cold water. We wandered around, cooling down, and finally, felt better about not running anymore. It was glorious. Plus we were really hot and tired at this point. I just wanted to nap in a cool bath of water.

But we survived, and that’s the important thing of the day. Plus, I got my sweet medal.

Toes…Again

Today, for Adam’s grandmother’s birthday, all the girls in the family were going to go and get pedicures done, as she had never done this. Unfortunately, they picked a time that I couldn’t go, since I was at work, but I went after work, because I wanted my toes to be painted, and it was time for them to be cut, with my impending race. So, I went to my usual place after work, and it had a bit of a wait, 25 minutes. I had time to kill, so I said sure, and waited. After that time, we (my sister-in-law was with me) finally got to sit down. And…the pedicure took a whopping 10 minutes. I’ve never had that short a pedicure in my life. We sat down, she took off my polish, cut my two big toes, and then put more polish on there. No massage, no buffering, nothing. Then she drew the flower, which I made sure to ask her for before it was too late, and she applied the topcoat, then she put lotion on my legs. Not the feet that were soaking for 2 whole minutes, but the legs that weren’t. Then, I was done. My SIL had a similar experience, we only took 10 minutes. I was incredibly disappointed in them, and with my bad experience last time, I think now may be the time to look for a new place. I tried to give them another shot, but I was just so let down. Here’s what my toes did look like afterward:

I like the color, I’m pleased with that, but there are some toes that when you look at them (You can’t tell in the pic) you can see the old color peeking through. But luckily, you can’t tell when you’re of average height and you look down, so I’m safe for now.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecakes

This week, I am the hostess for Stamp & Chat. Luckily, all that entails is bringing the treats for it, I don’t have to plan a card, or anything like that. This month, I saw this on Pinterest, and decided it was perfect for this. I really like having individual treats, its way easier than trying to cut into a big cake or something. So I bought the ingredients, and got to work. I made a double recipe, because the box said that it would make 6 mini ones, and while that’s nice, I’d rather have a lot, in case I decide to have seconds or something. So I mixed the dry cheesecake mix with the milk, and while that was mixing together, I unwrapped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and put them in the bottom of the cupcake liners in the pan. Then I scooped the cheesecake filling into each cup, and put them in the fridge to harden up. After an hour (which is what the package said to do) I took them out, made some homemade whip cream (yum!) and piped some whip cream on there, and topped them off with mini chocolate chips. Behold, my creation:

I took a bite of one, after it was finished, and I won’t lie, these are awesome. And they’re super easy to whip up, so that was a plus, too.

Miscellaneous Monday

Yesterday, we were having a family dinner, and Lily (who is 3ish) wanted some juice. Unfortunately, the only juice we had was grapefruit juice, and we tried to warn her off of it, telling her she wouldn’t like it, because as adults, we know what kids like, and since we all think the juice tastes awful, we tried to help. She would have none of it though, and tried the juice. This is her face, after she drank a little, after holding the cup to her lips for about 10 minutes:

It was glorious, this face. But we did try to warn her.

I had a race this weekend, the Lindon 5K. I usually win the first place in my age group, because there are just not that many people that compete in this race, so by process of elimination, I do. But today, was different. I struggled in the race; I had such a hard time with it. And then, there was a Kenyan. I can’t beat a Kenyan. She won the whole race, so of course, she won my category (Plus she was younger than I, but still in my age group) so I took second. I’m not embarrassed; I’m just disappointed in myself for how poorly I did. Never would I have beat this girl, she was way too fast, but I’m mad at slowly I went anyway. I had not prepared for this race at all.

Yesterday, I was taking Cookie on a walk, and we introduced her to some neighbors, and one of the neighbor’s dogs. I was holding her at this point, she had leapt into my arms, and she was terrified and nervous and shaking, so I held her. As we were introducing her, I felt something go down my shirt...and that’s when I realized Cookie was peeing on me. Awesome. What a way to make a first impression, dog. Of course, I laughed at it, but still, I was mad that she had done it. It’s also my fault for picking her up, but it’s her fault for not holding her bladder.

Neighborhood Party

Today, my ward had the summer party BBQ that most wards seem to be having. I had made a last minute decision to go. Mostly because I had forgotten that it even existed until the afternoon of, when the bishop was dropping by people’s houses, letting them know that it started later that evening. Of course, when I saw the bishop walking up the drive, I realized I was wearing only a camisole with my shorts – I hadn’t put my shirt on yet. So I ran to the nearest closet, and pulled out what I think was a shirt that would fit me, and quickly put it on and got the door. It was when I was opening the door that I realize; I’m wearing a shirt WAY too big for me. Oops. Anyway, he told me of the party, and I said we may see them there, which is the standard for when I don’t think I’ll go, but don’t want to be rude. Later in the afternoon, I was like, no, I should go, support the ward. They wanted you to bring either a dessert or a salad, and I think we all know what I brought.

I decided to make it easy, and bring mini vanilla cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting, easy enough to make, and making them mini makes them easier to eat at a BBQ. So I made the batter, and filled up my cupcake cups, and still had tons of batter left over. So I baked the first batch, and then made the second batch. It made way more cupcakes than I was anticipating. I had thought it would make, like 48 or so, but noooo it made 82 mini cupcakes! Here they are, in all their glory:

And they ended up being really delicious if I do say so myself. It took a while, to frost 82 mini one’s, but it was totally worth it, they were gobbled right up by everyone. Luckily, I had left 12 at home for myself, so I could eat those at my leisure. But now, I feel good for socializing with my neighbors, and it makes me seem like I want to be social. Even if I don’t.

Miscellaneous Monday

I’m obsessed. With a game. Candy Crush, have you heard of it? I can’t get enough of it. Basically, it’s just a fancy version of Bejeweled, but for some reason, I just can’t stop playing it. You only get 5 lives at a time, so you can only play until you die and then, it takes another few hours to get your life status back up for you to play. At first, it sucks you in because it’s fun and easy. And then the levels get harder and harder, taking days to get through them, and in my current case, weeks. Yes, I’ve been stuck on a level for over a week now, and while some normal people may give up and do something else, I play it over and over hoping that this is the time that I’ll pass it, this is the day that I win. But usually I don’t. And when I do pass, I get so psyched that I make everyone celebrate with me. I recommend this game.

We have pack meeting this week for scouts, and my boys are going to get a lot of badges. We don’t have pack meetings during the summer, usually, because no one shows up, so all the badges the boys get accumulate, so do the pics we take during the summer. Finally we’re having one tomorrow, we get to show off the boys’ stuff, and I made the poster for the pictures that we’ve taken. This is what I did:

So, it’s not too fancy, but I think its ok. I like how it turned out. I hope the boys like it as well.

I know I probably will post a bunch about Cookie, and I apologize for it, but since we’re still getting to know each other, there will be a bunch of stories. This past week, randomly, she kept emptying out her food and water bowls (Just straight out onto the floor of her cage) and then she drags the now empty bowls into her cage with her, and just has them there, hanging out. Not eating or drinking from them, but just sitting there, like friends she wants to hang out with. What a weirdo this dog is.

Living in the Airport

This morning, we were supposed to fly out of Denver at 12:05. We ate a hearty breakfast, then filled the rental car up with gas, returned it, and we were on our way into the airport on the shuttle bus, but there was a lot of construction going on in the Denver airport lots, so there was a lot of traffic that was just sitting there, waiting our turns to be let in. We sat in the terminal lot, just watching the time tick away, for about 20 minutes. Then we finally get in there, (they dropped us all off in the wrong terminal, and we had to dash across the entire airport to get to the right one) the line to check into flights was the longest line I’d ever seen – and I’m not exaggerating. So we get in the line, and we’re slowly slowly moving, watching the time tick away. We are told by a worker in line that we can check in at the self-check in stations and then just drop off our bags. We left the line to do this, and then learn that we can’t do that, because there’s less than an hour before our flight. So, we get back in line, and slowly make our way to the front. By the time we get to the front of the line, our flight is leaving in 5 minutes. They had to book us onto a different flight, the 9:06 one. There were no seats available in the 2:45 flight, but they put us on the standby, in case some seats opened up. They sent our luggage on the 2:45 flight, though, in case we got on it. So, with the new tickets in hand, we went through security (There was no one in line, so had that line not been long, we would have been golden) and then sat at the gate for the next 2 ½ hours. Finally, they’re boarding the plane, and people are disappearing. Finally, they’re looking at the standby list, and they say my name. I was jazzed, but I had PJ as a traveling companion, so I asked if there were two seats, and there weren’t, so I declined the seat, and we prepared to stay in the airport for the next six hours.

Our first order of business was to eat, since we hadn’t in a while. I had a delicious bacon cheeseburger with onion rings. After eating, we just walked randomly around from terminal to terminal, from concourse to concourse. When we got to concourse C, we found a spa there! So, since I was going to file my nails when I got home (If I had gotten home at a reasonable time), I decided to get a manicure, and PJ decided to as well. I sat in an awesome massage chair, and got my nails painted, whilst charging my phone, because it drains so quickly that I was at 30% already. I got it charged to about 95% while we were there. The end product:

After the manicure, we walked around a little bit more, before finding a toy store. I had hoped to find some card games or board games or something, to pass the time, but the only thing there were some face cards. So I bought a few of those, and we had about 2 ½ hours before our flight was going to leave, so we just found a piece of carpet that wasn’t occupied, and played a few rounds of Grump. Finally, as we were checking on the flights status, we found that the flight out had been delayed by 20 minutes, ARGH! But time was getting closer, so we stopped playing, did the last pre-flight bathroom break (Just in case!) and stood in line. When they announced our section was seating, instead of waiting until the flight is usually almost filled before getting on, immediately I got on to get into my seat. I was taking zero chances with not getting a seat. Finally, we board, and everyone is on, and I’m jazzed. Then we learn, to my great horror, that there was a slight mechanical issue, and we wouldn’t be taking off just yet. GAH! This was just not my day. After about 20 more minutes, finally, we were in the air, and before I knew it, we had landed.

Since they had sent our luggage ahead of us, we had to go specially pick it up. Sadly, there was no one in the office there to help me get it, so I had to wait. And wait. And wait. At 11:30 at night, when I already just wanted to be out of there. Finally, someone came, and I got my luggage, and we drove out of there like a bat out of hell. And thank goodness, finally the day was over. After nearly 12 hours in the airports, I was ready to go home and get some sleep. I finally know what Tom Hanks felt like in The Terminal. I felt like I had been there forever.

Colorado Adventures

I went on a short weekend trip today with PJ, we went on our annual Colorado trip to see RSL play for the Rocky Mountain Cup. We flew in yesterday afternoon, and spent the evening finding a restaurant, and then finding our hotel and getting some rest. This morning, we had a run in a local park, and then we just spent the day visiting local favorite places to go, the park, the cupcake store Big Fat Cupcakes, and then went to a shoe store, I was interested in finding some flip flops, and I found some there. As I was perusing the clearance section, I happened to find a pair of running shoes – my exact running shoes that I get, in my exact size, on clearance. I couldn’t believe my luck! So I snagged them up, and as I was checking out, PJ had a $10 coupon she gave me, so I got my running shoes for half off! Lucky day! After the shopping, we got some dinner at a pizza place, which was so good. Then, off to the game. We got in the car, and looked at the weather, and wouldn’t you know it, there was a tornado warning given. In Denver. Whaaaat? We looked at the sky, and it was BLACK and stormy. We thought it may be a good idea to run back to the hotel and get our jackets. On the way, there was a train passing, and I genuinely could not see the end of it, we sat there forever, getting later and later.

Luckily, we got our jackets, and got to the stadium with minutes to spare. This year, instead of standing in the group of drunken idiots, we bought seats that were the next section over in the front row. It was sprinkling ever so lightly when the game kicked off, and then, 7 minutes into the game, lightning was going on near the field, and they stopped the game. They told us to leave our seats, and go to the safety of the overhangs. We declined, and sat there. And sat there. And sat there, getting rained on. It wasn’t very heavy rain, so we just hung out, but after about 30-40 minutes, it started to POUR and we finally had to admit defeat, and leave. The sky was looking super shady at this point, so it was probably a good idea. We went up to the overpass, and hung out for a while longer, then after a bit, they started the game again. The delay was 62 minutes long. At this point, my shorts were soaked.

The rain was still pouring though, so we didn’t return to our seats, we stayed up in the overpass to watch. We spent the rest of the first half there, halftime, and then about half of the second half up there, trying to dry off. Finally, when there was about 30 minutes left, the rain stopped, so we went down to our seats. The game ended in a tie, 2-2, but we sadly lost the Rocky Mountain Cup. I’m not entirely sure how, something about the point system and all that, but that’s ok. Finally, the game was over, and we ran to our car, cranked up the heat, then went and got our post-game ice cream, then back to the room to take off all my soaking wet clothes. However, we were lucky in that there was no tornado.

Foto Friday

Ok, spoiler alert. Sometimes, I go back, and back-date blog entries. I know, I know, I should get them done in a timely manner, but that doesn’t always work out for me, there’s too much going on some days to get my stuff published in time. Now, at the risk of exposing the time-space continuum, I’m going to post a pic of things that I’ve purchased tomorrow, IN THE FUTURE! but I don’t want anyone’s brains to hurt. Just accept that things happen that we can’t always control.

So, in my recent (future) visit to Colorado, I went to a cupcake place that I love – Big Fat Cupcake. It is sooo good. I bought some, 4 to be exact, to share with peoples on my returns home. Here is what they looked like, in all their glory:

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, the cupcakes weren’t transported back very well (and you’ll hear about that later) and when I finally got them back:

They looked awful and are ruined and I’m so sad about it. Now I can’t enjoy my delicious cupcakes, and basically, I just threw my money in the garbage.