A Baptism

Today my niece and nephew were baptized, and they live in St George, so we made the trip down to see them. I left after work yesterday, and got there at about 10:00. After checking into the hotel, I was getting ready for bed, and was in the middle of washing my face, and I realized, I didn’t pack any underpants. None. So I put on my clothes (since I was already in my pajamas) and went to find a Walmart at 11:30 at night. Luckily, we found one, and I got what I needed. Then, when I was getting dressed the next morning, I realized I also forgot a slip. Sheesh, I’m surprised I had anything, with how many things were going wrong! Luckily, my skirt had a built-in slip, so it wasn’t too bad, but all day I felt weird without it.

Finally, it was time for the baptism, and after going and sitting down, I was handed a program. I scanned it to see when I would be giving the talk, and:

They spelled my name wrong! Dang it! I pointed this out to my parents, and we had a good chuckle, and I wondered out loud if, because my name was spelled wrong, I didn’t have to get up and talk. It was my turn to get up and talk, I was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost. Luckily, Chelle had really hooked me up with both an awesome talk, and a great object lesson. I gave the talk, and was SO NERVOUS during it, I was so glad when it was over.

The day was pretty awesome, and I’m really glad I got to be a part of it. Hopefully the nephew and niece had a day that they’ll never forget!

Foto Friday

On Thanksgiving morning, Husband’s family decided to have family pictures, since we’d never done them. They took many many pictures, and this was a good one of all of us.

There is a really awesome one that was taken that I haven’t gotten a copy of yet, but when I do, I’ll put it on here. Stay tuned…

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has had a lovely Thanksgiving day today. Myself, I ran the Earn Your Turkey 4-miler this morning, and while it was of course cold, it wasn’t freezing – by the end of it, I was really warm. I’ve eaten 2 delicious dinners, and had a lot of fun times, and now that it’s the evening, I feel confidently that my turkey is going to help me get to sleep in about 5 minutes. Happy Turkey Day!

Fall Toes

I got a pedicure last night, I needed one, my nails were getting so long. I finally chose a color that wasn’t the same and that in itself is a victory. I chose brown this time, because I wanted to have fall color nails, which I told the person doing my nails. I went back to my previous place that I haven’t been to in a while, and after he asked why I hadn’t been back in a while, I told him I’d had some crappy experiences the last few times I’d come, I think he made sure to try to make this a good time. It wasn’t too bad, but then I ended up having to wait about 10-15 minutes for the gal to come over and paint a flower on there. She added some pink to the flower, and a red jewel, which I didn’t want, I wanted fall colors, but she put it on there before I noticed what color she had chosen, curse my for reading my book. They are cute, just not exactly what I wanted:

And now they’ll look pretty for the next week or so, until they start to chip and get monster-long.

The Installation of a Door

Last night, we had to install a door at my parent’s house. My little sister is coming to live with us for a while, and with her comes 2 cats and a dog. Since we have Cookie, I told her the dog was ok to live with us (so long as she’s house trained, and won’t make messes) but the cats were a no-go. No matter what. I don’t want cats in my house, I hate cats, and I hate the messes and smell of them. So to compromise, my parents very graciously will take the cats in their place for the next few months, but we needed to install a door leading to the basement, to keep them down there. We ran to the local Home Depot, bought a simple, plain door, and went over to the folks’. We brought the door down there, put it up to compare, and...it wasn’t the right size. It was 1/8 inch too small on the top, the perfect size in the middle, and 1/4 inch too small on the bottom. GRRR! So we went back to the Depot, had them shave a quarter inch off the whole thing (which was a fight in itself, we had to go to a few departments to get the help we needed) and tried again. This time, the door fit, and after chipping off the places for the hinges, we got the door hung, we put in a doorknob, and everything was peachy. The door shut, it opened, and everything was fine, so we left it. Thank goodness everything ended up okay...I’m definitely not having cats in my house.

Miscellaneous Monday

Last night, I was cleaning up our room, and asking Husband to pick some stuff off the ground. As I knelt down to pick up something near his foot, he brought his leg up, to take off his sock, and ended up kneeing me in the face. Hard. In my eye. Immediately, I hit the bed, and just lay there, cradling my face in my hand. I went and looked at my eye, and the area where I was hit was read and puffy, and I thought, this is my chance to have a black eye! No such luck. Today when I woke up, it’s not swollen or discolored, just painful to touch. I never get a bruise, unless it’s on my leg, and then I have no idea where I got it from.

Friday evening, I had a call from an older sister in my ward, asking if we (well, if Husband) could come over and help her move a nightstand that she had bought, but it was too heavy for her to lift. We said yes, of course, and went over. Husband picked it up, and after some struggles (I think he picked it up lengthwise, so it was too wide for him to carry that way, but he wasn’t going to put it down) we got it in the right room, in the right place. She was really grateful, and I was just glad that she called us. It’s kind of nice to do a service, especially for your neighbors. I told her to call any time she needed anything, and I hope she does so.

I’m getting more excited for Christmas by the day. The more Christmas movies I watch, and Christmas songs I hear, and Christmas decorations I see, I just can’t wait for it to happen. And since I mostly know what I’m getting everyone, I feel like I can relax, and maybe enjoy things a little bit more. I’m excited for these next thirty days – Christmas is in 1 month!

It’s Down to the Wire

Tonight was the Western Conference Final for MLS. Real Salt Lake was in this final, with Portland as the other team. We had already played one round at home, and came away victorious in a 4-2 victory. Basically, we just had to play 90 minutes, hold onto the score (or even score more, I’m not picky) and come away the Western Conference Champions. The game kicked off, and it was a hard battle. The other team scored twice, but both goals were taken away, as they were offsides on both of them. What luck! We ended up scoring a goal in the 29^th minute, and for me, that clinched our victory. After a well fought and hard played 90 minutes, RSL is the victor!

Now, there is one more game in the season. The final final final. Since they’ve won, we’ll play Sporting Kansas City (seriously, worst name ever) in Kansas on December 7. I’ll be glued to my TV, and hopefully, RSL will come away with another trophy. Think positive thoughts, friends!

Sale, sale, sale!

A week or so ago at Stamp and Chat, Chelle was telling all of us about a sale that happens once a year, a scrapbooking sale that takes place at different venues and at different times each year. Last week, we had heard about when it was starting, Friday the 22nd. She invited me to go with her, and I readily agreed, as I love myself some sales, and I’m still working on building up my scrapbook supplies. They picked me up at 9:00 this morning, and off we went.
When we walked in, it was just rows and rows of everything! Paper and tape and books and stickers and embellishment, oh my! We started at one end, and slowly made our way around, picking up more and more things. I got loads of new papers, many much tape, a lot of stickers, and embellishments galore. It was pretty awesome. I spent just a hair over 50 dollars, but I got so much stuff, so many deals, that I just kept calculating how much I saved, and didn’t care about what I spent. I’m psyched to have all this stuff, and I’m glad that Chelle asked me along. And maybe we’ll go back…to see what else they’re setting out!

Foto Friday

I saw this picture on Twitter, and I laughed for so long, I thought it was so cute.

Look how happy the stick is! It’s almost like I can hear his tiny voice saying, “Yay I’m a stick!” Let’s all be as happy as this inanimate stick is, everyone!

Vieve’s Videos

I watch the Ellen Degeneres show every day, and I just love it. I love having that laugh every day (or whenever I seem to come around to watching it) and it’s just lovely. I saw this video on there the other day, and I died laughing.

Tap-dancing Seagull

It’s just so funny. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did.

Chocolate Crinkle Kiss Cookies

I found these cookies on Pinterest, and was jazzed to make them. I’ve made a similar one before, but with a completely different recipe, so I was excited to see how these turn out. First, the ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tsp baking powder
½ Tsp salt
2 cups sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 Tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
Assorted Hershey’s kisses (I chose peppermint, like the original pin, but I wanted to make it with mint, but couldn’t find them)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla until smooth. Slowly mix in the flour mixture until just combined. Place plastic wrap over bowl and refrigerate dough for 2 hours. Meanwhile, unwrap Hershey’s kisses and place in a small bowl; freeze until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Put the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Scoop dough into ½ tablespoon balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until cookies crackle and no longer look raw. Remove from oven and immediately press a frozen kiss into each cookie, and then put cookie sheet into the freezer, just until the kiss is set and is no longer shiny. Remove from freezer and allow to cool completely.

Now, let me tell you the variations I did, and not on purpose, but because I didn’t read ahead. I was getting everything ready, and had just mixed the dough together (this was at about 7:30, in case you wondered) and then I read the part about putting the dough in the oven. Well, forget that, I said to myself, and just continued on with the process. The dough was really sticky, but I sprayed my hands with PAM, and just kept on trucking. I did put the kisses in the freezer, though, but maybe they should have been in there longer. Read the recipes first, people, is what I’m saying. So then I rolled them into the balls, and baked the cookies, and then I removed them, and put a kiss in the center, and put them into the freezer. Now, I changed the wording on my recipe here to help you guys out, but in the original recipe, it says: “then put cookie sheet into the freezer, just until the chocolate is set and is no longer shiny” I assumed it meant the chocolate of the cookie, so that was confusing to me. I pulled the cookies out of the freezer, and as they were just chilling on the counter, the kisses kept melting, and I was like, well shoot. So, it wasn’t until I was putting the very last batch of cookies into the freezer that I realized, they meant the chocolate in the kisses is set. Oooops. Its ok, the rest turned out ok, they just had a small amount of meltage. But then finally, I got to eat one and..

*chorus sings*

They’re delicious! Seriously, with how easy these were, everyone should be eating them. Post haste. Make them, eat them, love them.

Shave and a Haircut

It was time again for Cookie to have a haircut, because she was looking super scraggly. And this morning, before work, she got into the garbage and got chocolate all over her face, so she definitely needed the washing. I decided this time to not get the all-over shave; because of how ridiculous she looked, so she got the Yorkie haircut again. Behold:

She was really jazzed when I went to pick her up, I swear, dogs think that once you leave them, you’re never going to return. She spent most of the drive home looking out the window:

And now she’s clean and looks really snazzy. Of course, that’ll last for about a month, and then she’ll look like a homeless mongrel again.

Miscellaneous Monday

For our card swap club, we decided to have both a set of cards, and a neighbor gift. After looking through Pinterest, I found one that was cute and pretty easy. Behold:

I watched 2 episodes of Cupcake Wars this weekend, one on Saturday night, and one on Sunday morning. While I was watching it on Saturday, I knew I wanted a cupcake, so I went to a bakery near my house and picked up a few. I don’t know why, but after I watch the show, I need to have a cupcake. I haven’t eaten cupcakes there, before, so I was interested in finding out if this place was any good. I didn’t get around to it on Saturday, and then Sunday evening, I went for it, and tried all of the cupcakes at once, just eating small pieces of all of them.

And I critiqued them, to myself. End result: the place wasn’t too bad, but I prefer other places more.

It’s coming, you guys. The cold. The snow. The winter. The holidays. I’m jazzed.

Lasagna Soup

I’ve decided that for the duration of the winter that’s just started, I want to have a crockpot meal on Sunday. It warms the house, it makes everything smell delicious, and it’s just so easy to throw everything in a pot and leave it alone for the day. To kick off Crockpot Winter 2013, I made lasagna soup, and it was really easy. Ingredients are:

1 LB ground beef (or, if you want it to be vegetarian, omit this)
3 cups beef broth
1 cup water
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 TB dried parsley
1 TB dried basil
½ cup chopped onion
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 6-oz can tomato paste
1 cup V8
2 cups uncooked shell pasta
¼ Tsp pepper
¼ Tsp salt
Shredded mozzarella cheese, optional

In the crockpot, mix together the tomatoes and can of tomato paste. Add broth, beef, garlic, parsley, basic, onion, V8, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours. When there is 30 minutes left of cooking time, add in the cup of water and noodles. Put lid back on and cook for final 30 minutes.

So, I put ours in at 3:00, and added the pasta in at 6:00. I omitted the water, because I was like, this is runny enough, but then when it was finished, it wasn’t soup at all, just a pasta dish. I may add the water, if I cook this again. But it was really good, and I added some mozzarella cheese when I spooned myself up a dish, which I think made it much better.

Hardest OCD Decision of My Life

Tonight, I was filling my car up with gas, and I just put the nozzle in, put it on automatic, and just hung out, waiting for it to stop. As soon as it stopped, I looked over at it, and it read as such:

What do you do?! I’ve never had the tank read as just 10, and to have it at 29.99, which would usually just have me kick it up to 30, but then I’d lose the evenness of the 10! What do I choose? I really sat there and pondered it for a minute, and finally, I decided to make it go to 30.00, and the gas read 10.003. I was sad not to have them match up, but at least the amount was even.

Foto Friday

For the most part, my cold isn’t really awful anymore, it’s just a nuisance. I don’t feel sick, really, I just have this stupid cough that won’t go away. And I feel really bad for my co-workers, because if it bugs me this much, it must be bugging them like, 50 times more, and I apologize to them for it. I do apologize at work, too, because I hate myself a little bit more every time I cough. But I have been popping cough drops like crazy, and trying to stop it, and trying to end it. Every time I open a drop, I read the pep-talks they’re trying to give you on here, and it makes me angry. They’re not even helpful! They’re just dumb! Here’s one I snapped yesterday:

And it just makes me mad. Pick better sayings, Halls. Pep me up for reals.

I’m a Survivor…Bracelet

Today, for scouts, we had the boys make rescue bracelets. I don’t know if you’ve seen these, I’ve seen them at various sports stores, and they’re pretty cool. They look like this:

And the theory behind them is that if you’re hiking or something and you get into a pickle, you can unravel the bracelet, and it turns into a rope that you can use to get yourself out of your predicament. I didn’t know we were making these until I got to scouts! So I get there, and we all cut our ropes, 8 feet of every rope. These were tricky to make. After you cut the rope, you need to measure it to your wrist, and then tie a note at the place where you want the bracelet to be, size-wise. After you tie the knot, then you follow this weird guide for how to braid it. It’s not quite a braid, but it was really tricky to follow it, and remember which one you had just done, and keep going. We worked for the whole hour on the bracelets, and even went over about 10 minutes. But finally, the braiding was finished, and for the final step, we had to burn the ends that were still over. That was the boy’s favorite part, I think. After we let it cool down, I tried mine on again, and...it didn’t fit. Shoot! After all that work and I can’t even wear it! But that’s ok. Here’s my final product:

I want to make another one, to have it actually fit, but it was so much work, I just don’t know if I want to start that again. But if anyone needs a survival bracelet, I think I can help you out.

Stampin’ & Chattin’

Last night we had another Stamp and Chat, and ended up with some really cute cards. I had some issues trying to ruffle my paper on one of them, but it ended up being ok, I think.

See, adorable!

One Last Thought

Now, I know I’ve said all there is to say on our DLand trip, but I wanted to include this. There were only a few rides that we went on that had cameras for pictures, and of course, we know where they all are. We did the same pose on basically every ride – the duck face peace sign. The reason for this is because after the first ride, we saw a girl that did it, and decided to make fun of that for the rest of the weekend. So, here they all are:

I know they’re tiny, but I thought you may be able to see them still. My favorite one is the one in the bottom right, that I’m not in. The reason behind this is because when the camera was coming up, I shifted in my seat, told Husband what I was doing, and crouched down so that I wouldn’t be seen. I think it ended up being pretty awesome. In case you wanted to see that one better:

Disneyland pictures are really the best.

Miscellaneous Monday

So in August, I started a new running streak. I may have blogged about it, I can’t remember, and I’ll be honest, I’m a little too lazy to go searching for it. But, alas, my running streak has come to an end. After almost 2 months of running every single day, I had to quit. The cold/whatever I have took over completely, so I couldn’t run Sunday, then this morning, when I woke up, I just couldn’t make myself run, so I walked. Really slowly. For 11 minutes. On the treadmill. At 2 miles an hour. So, now, I have to start a new one. Hopefully I can start one soon, but if not, that’s ok.

For scouts, every 2 years, you have to take the Youth Protection Program, or as I like to call it, the Pedophile test. Basically, the test is to ensure that you’re not a pedophile, and you recognize pedo behavior, and that you know how to help the kids without molesting them. It is such a weird thing to do. For 25 minutes, you just hang out, watch weird creepy videos of possible scenarios, and then answer questions about what was wrong there, but I just hate watching the videos, they make me so uncomfortable about it. So, I passed the test, and now I’m good to not be a weirdo to kids for 2 more years.

I got Cookie back tonight, and it feels so good to be reunited. Ok, it’s not actually all that different, but dang it, if I didn’t miss that little rat dog being around. I don’t know if it’s the actual Cookie that I miss, or just because in my brain, she’s my tiny friend that listens to me when I walk around the house, but now she’s back, and this morning, she helped me get ready for work. And by get ready, I mean, scratched my leg a lot while I tried to put on my makeup. What a dumb dog she is.

Coming Home

This morning, I woke up, and I still felt like death. After dragging myself out of bed to meet the family for breakfast in the hotel, I slowly got ready, and we checked out. We had decided to hit up Downtown Disney for a few minutes on the way to the airport, and grab anything we need. We went there, and hurriedly shopped, to make it to the airport on time. We made it there with an hour to spare, so after getting through security, that gave us a good 45-minute cushion, we figured. We got through security (and I got a special pat-down, nice) and then learned that our flight was delayed by about an hour. SHOOT. So we all got comfy, and waited it out. I hooked my kindle into their WiFi, and watched some TV shows on Hulu, and finally, after buying more cough drops to last myself for the flight, and finally finally, we got to get on the airplane.

We landed a little after six, which was fine, because it’s not like I had anything to do besides lay down. We finally got home a little after 7:00, and we started the RSL game that was going on. Since they won on Thursday, they had to play today against Portland for the next leg of the playoffs. We made some chicken soup, and lay down to watch the game. Of course, we also had to do some laundry, because we were out of some things, but otherwise, I just rested, and watched RSL squash Portland, 4-2. Next game is Sunday the 24^th and I am ready for another victory!

Disneyland, More of It

This morning, when I woke up, my throat was hurting worse. It hurt to swallow. It hurt to talk. My whole body hurt. I was not liking this – how would it bode for DLand? Turns out – not well. We got to CA first, and after eating breakfast, and securing fast passes for both World of Color and the new Cars Land, we walked around the park. Lines were a little longer today, being the weekend, but we worked with it. Sadly, I was getting sicker as the day wore on. We rode some rides, and the more the day went on, the more it hurt to talk, so after a while, I just used hand signals to talk, and used words once in a while. Finally, when it was lunch time, I was offering $100 to anyone that could get me some cold medicine. Luckily, younger brother’s wife’s family was coming to meet us, and he could bring me some. Happy day! So a few hours later, after shuffling through lunch, and some Cars Land rides, finally, her dad came, cold medicine in hand. I immediately took some, and popped some cough drops in my mouth. While it helped, and believe me, it did, and I’m eternally grateful that they hooked me up, it wasn’t enough, I was still free-falling into sickness. For the remaining, oh, 9 hours of DLand, I wasn’t doing very well. We rode rides, and then, went to dinner in the park, that had a 30 minute wait. We didn’t know where else to go, so we stayed there, and waited. As we were waiting, I was basically just lying on the ground, having given up, and my SIL came over and told me she thought she just saw a famous person, Henry Czerny, who people here may know better as Conrad Grayson from Revenge.

I told her that was awesome, too bad we couldn’t see for sure if it was him. After like, 10 or 15 minutes later, he came back – he was actually going to eat in the same restaurant we were going to! So SIL parents went up to him, and asked if we could get a picture with him, and he said yes! He came back out, and was actually a really nice guy. He snapped a couple of pics with us, and went on his merry way.

After eating dinner, and continuing my free fall into illness, and shopping a little, finally it was time for World of Color. We hung out for a few minutes beforehand, because we got there a little early, and then it was time to get going. Originally we had planned to shop in Downtown Disney while we were there, but I was so sick at this point, I couldn’t make it. I barely shuffled back home, and went to sleep.

Disneyland!

This morning, we got going bright and early, and got to the park right as it was opening. We decided to do Disneyland on Friday, and then do California Adventure on Saturday, since we had only 2 days, and needed to maximize our time. We immediately got to work, riding rides, eating meals, enjoying treats, and riding more rides. It was also picture-palooza, apparently, these guys like to take pictures a lot. I got in on the action, and got a selfie with everyone.

And then we got someone in the Finding Nemo line to take a picture of all of us:

We still had one more family member to come, but he wouldn’t be landing until about 10:00 that night, he still has school. So after riding every ride that we wanted to in DLand, and watching Captain Eo (that’s right, I love that show), we decided in the afternoon to head over to CA. We immediately got into rides, there were basically no lines all day today, it was awesome! We got the younger girls to ride Tower of Terror for the first time, and they were really scared before we got on it, it was so funny. After we rode them, Bonanza turned to me and asked, “Is that all? I thought it would be scarier.” and I couldn’t help but laugh at how nervous she was before to her being just fine afterwards. That night, Husband and I went to Blue Bayou to eat, and it’s delicious, but we didn’t bring everyone, because it’s just so much money. My throat had started to hurt during dinner, and I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into anything.

After dinner, he went to pick up the final brother from the airport, and I joined up with everyone else for Fantasmic, and it was awesome. I just love this place.

Leaving on a Trip!

So today, we left on a vacation. We are a big group, its Husband and I; his younger brother and his wife, her twin sister, and Husband’s younger sisters. We all flew out of SLC tonight, and landed in Cali a little after 7:00. We got the luggage, and made it to the hotel just in enough time to watch the end of the RSL game. We landed just as it was starting, and made it to the hotel just as overtime was beginning, and I was jazzed to be able to run right up to the room and switch on the TV and catch RSL winning! It was awesome. And now, I look forward to 2 fun-filled days at Disneyland!

Things I Do Alone

This week, I’ve been left alone again by a work-traveling Husband. I gave myself a good to-do list, and then I got to work on it as soon as I got home. I emptied the dishwasher, and I got out my new letters, as I was taking down the WICKED letters, and putting up my GOBBLE. As I pulled my turkey out, I noticed he was missing an eye. Yup, poor guy only has one eye, so my weird cross-eyed turkey is now a weird Cyclops. As I was wrapping up the WICKED letters to put away, I heard a small scratching on the door. At first, it was only for a split second, so I was like, ok is someone there? And then it happened a few seconds later, longer, and I almost died, thinking someone was going to try and break in and kill me, but as I moved the drapes, I saw that it was only Cookie, who had somehow gotten out in my going back and forth from the shed and house, and got locked out. Oops. So I let her back in, and got back to work.

As I was putting up the new letters, I realized, this is usually something that happens when Husband is out of town. It’s not on purpose, but he seems to be gone in the first of the month, which is when I put up the new letters, with the changing season. And I realized this time, that if I was to fall from the ledge as I was doing this, no one would find me, probably, and I could die from the easy fall. I try to be careful always, but accidents are accidents, and happen all the time. So maybe now I should wait until people are home before I try to do dangerous things like that.

Rock the Vote

For Pack Meeting for scouts this month, we’re teaching the boys about voting and being a citizen. So for our activity, we decided to hold mock elections, and have the boys vote. 3 leaders were selected to be the nominees, but instead of selling ourselves, we were selling a food. We had to pick a food (I picked Twinkies) but we weren’t allowed to call it by the real name. So I chose ‘Creamy Dreamy’ for my food, and the other leaders chose apples and M&M’s. I wish I could remember what they’re names were, but it’s escaping me. I think the apples were something with deliciousness and the M&M’s were balls of goodness? It doesn’t matter. So on Monday night, I made my campaign poster, and I think it ended up pretty good.

So armed with my poster, and a cocky attitude (We had been trash talking each other all day, we three scout leaders) I went to scouts tonight. I asked to go last, because to be honest, I didn’t really plan a speech, I was just going to go off of what they said in their speeches. So they get up, and give their speeches, and they’re not bad, the first girl (M&M’s) gets up and talks about how hers are the best (also, we’re not allowed to say what our stuff contains) and they have chocolate and awesomeness, and then the next girl gets up (apples) and her pitch is that my creamy dreamy sounds like it could be toothpaste and balls of goodness could be bouncy balls, for all we know, and then she’s done, and I get up. At this point, keep in mind that I have no idea what to do, so I stand up, and get my poster, and stand in front of everyone, and after a long pause, I say in a loud voice

“You have heard a lot of lies tonight!”

And then, from there, I just attacked their campaigns. I had nothing to say about mine, because I didn’t know how to do it, so I just said that we have no idea what’s in the other people’s foods. Is it good? Is it healthy? We just don’t know! So after I finished up with my, oh, I’m going to say 45 seconds of speech, I just turn my poster around, so they can read it (I had the back to them the whole time) and I shout “Vote for Creamy Dreamy 2013!” and sit down. For some reason, the scouts dug my speech, (I think it’s because I’ve been known to give the kids candy when they come over) and they started a chant of “Creamy Dreamy, Creamy Dreamy” and I was laughing so hard. So we then all voted, and tallied the votes and ... CREAMY DREAM WON! I was so surprised; I really didn’t think that would happen. After a victory dance, we all helped clean up, and then we ate our victory Twinkies. And yes, I know most people think Twinkies are gross, but I love them, and I will eat them. I will fight for your vote to do so.

Miscellaneous Monday

This past Saturday, I went to a new store here in Provo. It’s called Pop N Sweets (Or PopNSweets, I don’t know) and it’s actually a lot of fun. They have hundreds of sodas, many different kinds, from all over the world. And they have candy from all over the world, and a lot of old-school ones that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I got 4 different kinds of soda: (and they all come in a bottle, which is just a fun way to drink something) Sarsaparilla, Hot Ginger Brew, Cream Soda, and Orange Crème Soda. Now, so far, I’ve only drunk the cream soda and the ginger brew, and the ginger brew was AWFUL! I knew going into it that the hot meant spicy and that spicy meant they probably put a whole jar of ginger in there, but I was surprised at the intensity of the ginger. It just burned my throat. It stayed there for a really long time, too, so I don’t recommend that one.

For dinner on Friday night, Husband and I went to Rodizio Grill, which I was told was better than Tucanos. I’m here to say, no it’s not. The meat at Tucanos just tastes better, and it’s brought around a lot quicker, and the pineapple is better, and they also have vegetables, whereas Rodizio did not. But I did branch out, and I tried rattlesnake sausage (very gamey) and I also ate wild boar. It’s not my first time eating the boar, I tried some in Germany last year, and it tasted ok, but here, it didn’t taste good at all. Just FYI guys, avoid rattlesnake and wild boar.

I skipped church yesterday. Now before we all start getting the fire ready to rake me over the coals, it wasn’t necessarily my fault. Yesterday, I was nearly ready for church, and Husband sauntered in, and I told him he should probably get in the shower, if we were to make it on time. He’s like, let’s just be lazy and skip church. I told him that if we did skip church, we’d have to clean. Like major deep-clean clean. I named off a few things that we’d have to do if we stayed home: clean and mop the kitchen, vacuum every room, clean all the bathrooms, (toilets, mirrors, sinks/counters, and mopping) and wash our bedding. He agreed, which I couldn’t believe, because usually, he avoids that stuff like crazy. So, true to my word, I skipped church, and we cleaned all of the aforementioned items. Cleaning everything made the house REEK of cleaning items, but it was pretty awesome. And now, my whole list is checked off, which leaves more time for plays. But I did sing hymns in my head as we cleaned, I figured it was better than nothing.

Brownie Peanut Butter Cups

I need to stop watching Cupcake Wars on Sunday mornings. When I watch it on Sunday mornings, it makes me want to have a cupcake. And it being a Sunday, there are no cupcake bakeries open for me to get my fix. I don’t know how to make just a single cupcake, so I would have to make a whole batch of cupcakes to just eat one cupcake. And then because I don’t want to have to eat them all, I force other people to take them, and then I bet those people are just sick of me making them eat cupcakes. So today, I abstained from eating cupcakes. All day, I had to fight the urge, and I am proud of myself. And then, it got to be about 4:00, and I was like, I am going to make some cookies from this mix I’ve had around here forever. So I went and got the mix, and looked at the expiration date, and it expired 7-2-12.

Did you read that, guys? 7-12-12!! I have a cookie mix in my cupboard that expired a full year ago!

So, I scratched that idea, and went to the old Pinterest boards to find an easy treat. I found one, Brownie Peanut Butter Cups, and I’m pleased with them. They’re ridiculously easy.

Obtain:
Brownie mix (either your own or from a box)
1 cup peanut butter
Peanut butter chips
Chocolate chips

Mix together your brownie batter. Put tiny cupcake cups into tiny muffin pans, and then spoon the batter in those, about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes at 350, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a little bit of batter on it, then when you pull the brownies out, drop the pan, so that the centers cave in. Microwave peanut butter for 30 seconds, or until smooth, and spoon some of the melted peanut butter into the little bowls in the brownies, and top with a couple of peanut butter chips, and a couple chocolate chips. Let them cool until the PB is solid, and you’re good to go!

So, I made these, and they are really good, but word to the wise – the peanut butter will hit you like a sack of bricks. It is an intense amount of peanut butter that comes out of there. Be prepared with some milk or water, or something, or maybe take a smaller bite, and enjoy the peanut butter in two installments. But either way, it is really good, so enjoy!

And So It Begins…

Yesterday was the first day of November, which begins the hardest blogging time ever. With November comes National Blog-Every-Day month, and of course I will take part. And so begins the 6^th annual blogging every day of November! I’m not saying it will always be interesting, and I’m not saying it’s going to be all bad, I think it’ll mostly be boring. But it won’t be too different, because I’ve been blogging every day for a while now, trying to hit my goal of blog posts, that I’m pretty sure I won’t hit. But I will try. I’ll try so hard, and at least I’ll blog every day of this month. Happy reading!

Foto Friday

For Halloween, Husband and I decided to do a couples costume, and sort of match each other. We perused the local Halloween shop and decided on a costume after a while. Then last night, we both got into our costumes, and realized that we had no one to take a picture of us, so we just had to take pictures of each other, and then I put them into the same picture, so behold:

And we dressed Cookie up, because I thought it would be funny to torture her, so I picked for her a chef outfit.

She HATED it! Ha it was hysterical to watch her walk, because for some reason, in her brain, the costume hindered her ability to walk, so she would walk, kicking her back feet in the air, and keeping them in the air for prolonged periods of time, so she was just walking on her front paws for a while, I was dying laughing. Husband spent a while working on pumpkins, and they turned out looking really amazing.

But Halloween was fun, and we handed out loads of candy to the cute kids in the neighborhood. Hopefully everyone had a Happy Halloween!