No More Monkeys Sitting on the Floor!

So about twoish months ago we went shopping with John's sisters Jana and Marja. We went to Ikea and to look for a couch for Jana. She had sold their couches to raise some funds for some new ones and it was time to get some couches purchased. John and I saw two that we fell in love with and decided that we wanted to sell our couch and get new ones too, since ours was starting to look a little sad and was a HUGE sectional (yes, Annie, it was your old couch that I'm talking about). We have the space for a big sectional now, but we have no clue what kind of space we will be moving in to in a year. We put our couch up for sale on KSL and Craigslist a few weeks ago and sold it within a day of having it posted. Uh oh...... now what should we do? We didn't want to just go out a buy a couch without raising funds to buy it, so we put up some other stuff on KSL and Craigslist, John got a freelance logo job, and finally we raised the funds for a new couch. We went out yesterday to go buy some couches from our neighbor who owns Furnish It here in Provo. He has great prices on all types of furniture, and most of it is in stock. So last night he came and delivered these beauties and we no longer have to sit on the floor. Anyone want to come over and watch a movie??? :)

Possibly the Cutest Headbands Ever

Katie at the Blue Eyed Freckle is doing a giveaway of her cute headbands. Thanks to Annie and her blog for letting me know. Here's a link to her headbands and to details about the contest. Click HERE for details and to see her other headbands. Supposedly they are actually comfortable and have made me think about getting contacts next year instead of glasses so I can properly rock accessories like headbands and earrings again.

Happy Harloween

We didn't get many trick or treaters last night. But we did want to post our pumpkins. Be good. And remember: don't take candy from strangers.

Just wanted to share some new favorites

Yesterday I followed a link from Anie's gchat about how babies are loving Beyonce's song and can't stop dancing to it. Kind of hilarious. It led me to the time website, where I saw an ad that caught my eye. It was for what used to be called (up until today) the Cheapskate Blog. For those of you who know me well, I am a cheapskate in many ways and I love to indulge in others. This blog was very interesting and rather enlightening to me. If interested, follow this link the Cheapskate Blog. I found out about these people who are living off $15/person a week in food costs, which sounded intriguing to me. They had a link to a blog from a bakery they love that will give their recipes out. Everything looks sooooo scrumptious, but don't just take my word for it. See for yourself. King Arthur Flour Blog. I found some things that I am dying to try and others that looked interesting, more than anything. AND the best part about this blog is it shows step-by-step pictures of the whole baking process, thus helping anyone like me who always asks at least 10 times while baking, "Is this how it's supposed to look?" Here's to new recipes!

Yes, I am a HUGE dork

So the other day I was looking at a friend's blog that referenced President Obama and his winning of the nobel peace prize (don't worry, not going to discuss that here). BUT... I went to the Nobel Prize site and saw a link to an educational game about blood typing. It looked strangely familiar and as I started playing it, I realized that my Human Biology teacher (who was also a huge dork) played that game with us in class. It was good, clean fun had by all. Then I realized they had a lot of educational games like train Pavlov's dog to drool on command as an unconditioned response, DNA double helix, even an economics game. Of all that I've played, the blood typing one is my favorite. To any of you who are not quite as science dorky as I am, rest assured that even John had fun as he tried to figure out if it was possible to injure anyone past repair. Here is the link: GAMES

Quilt #2

So now that I've been done with my quilt for about a month or so, I finally got around to taking pictures of it and posting them on the blog. This one was quite the feat. I'm about 95% happy with it, I just wish that I would have used some bright pink thread to do some of the quilting, that would have been much more "me". But as my mom tells me, this is one of those things to tuck away and remember for the next one. I do absolutely LOVE the back of it. But then again, bright colors in a funky pattern, what's not to love??

My Friend Evan

In the days of Miller, I met one of my best friends named Evan. He is the kid with the mustache. Really funny. I hope you all enjoy this and have a wonderful day. (Blame any losses on the mix of 5 kids of turf.)

A New Job!!!

Now that it's official (i.e. I've given my 2 weeks notice), I am excited to say that I have officially found a new job. After months of searching and checking craigslist and hotjobs at least twice daily, I finally found someone who wants to hire me. I have been so blessed to be able to leave the situation that I've been in at work and am very grateful for a new start. I will still be doing billing, which I enjoy, but the best part is I will not have to make any phone calls to collect money from patients. HALLELUJAH!!!!

Disney World

For those of you who don't know, we went with my whole family to Disney World and got back a week ago. (We all look about how we felt in this second picture. We had to get up at 3am to catch our flight and travelled most of the day to arrive in Orlando). The trip was SOOOO much fun. It was quite a shock to have to come back to work. :( We rode the teacups a few times and hit all of the other awesome Disney rides and new roller coasters. It was ridiculously hot and we melted quite literally. Luckily the ice cream is plentiful at all of the Disney parks. We woke up at 6:45 am every day to get to the park that was opening early that day and came back to the hotel around 3 to crash for a while every day. It was quite exhausting, but absolutely worth it. I don't know when we'll get the whole family together again, so we enjoyed the time with everyone!

Welcome Home LAURA!!

Laura got home from Portugal about 3 weeks ago. We flew in and surprised her at the airport. Unfortunately, our flight was 2.5 hours late and hers got in 15 minutes early, so we missed her coming in by about 15 minutes. BUT.... she was still surprised and it was great to be there to hear her stories and to hear her talk in church. Welcome home the Foof!!!

Mind your own Bees-ness.

Back by popular demand, a highlight from last summer (July to be exact):

Okay, so a few weeks ago, Jen and I noticed that a hive of wasps were making their home on the back porch. "Who really likes wasps", we thought. They don't even pollinate flowers or make honey. So, we started discussing how we would get rid of our uninvited guests. Then a few days later, we were swinging in the porch swing when we noticed a second hive. Wahoo! Two for the price of none! Okay, so with that preface, a few days ago we decided to finally evict our guests. We decided to run the hose from the garage to the back door and spray the bee-jabbers out of them. Done and done. We sprayed them like nobody's beesness. Then the next day, we returned to see how they were doing. Yep, they were back. So, we fashioned a bee suit made from my clothes and a jacket, gloves and a machete. Yep. A machete. Jen sprayed them and sprayed them, again the bee-jabbers. And then I went out while Jen watched the skies. She would spray them out of the air with the hose while I removed the hive and smashed it (with a hammer). It was tons of fun and very scary.

Victory! Right? No! They came back again. This time, we made the bee suit and improved it with rubber bands around the wrists. We returned at the end of the day and saturated the hive with actual wasp killer. Three wasps fell dramatically to their deaths and then I ran back in the house. We have not seen them since the great spraying of 08. Indeed, they do make sprays for that. Both hives are gone and we are bee free for the time bee-ing. We send our love and hope this post finds you all well. Smile and have a bee-autiful day.

Unfortunately for us, the bees are back again this year. We might just pull out the bee suit again with further added improvements.

The latest bargain

So call me crazy, but sometimes it just feels good to get something for a steal of a deal. Today was one of those instances. John and I went to the grocery store last Saturday. Smith's was doing one of their "buy 10 mega items, get an extra $5 off your purchase" and we just happened to buy 10 mega items, so $5 off the order (makes grocery shopping that much more enjoyable). One of the things we bought was a few bottles of Propel for 50c each, since it's one of my favorite drinks and we both are sick of drinking water. Well.... when we checked out, the coupon machine spit out a coupon for $2 off when you buy 9 bottles of Propel. So..... I went back this morning and because the Propel was still a mega deal, I bought 10 bottles, each for 50c each, then used my $2 coupon, add on the 5% student discount (thank you John!), and I got 10 bottles of Propel for $2.80. Not too bad. Not anything that either of us really need, but for $2.80, I think we can be excited about that.

Photo #2: I didn't know you could run out of those...

John and I try to be good, responsible human beings and make it to the grocery store once a week. For those of you who know me at all, you will remember that I absolutely loathe the grocery store, its crowds, people who are oblivious that anybody else is in the store besides them and their cart full of stuff, screaming children, etc. On one of our weekly trips we found a sign that made us chuckle. Quite a bit, actually. It was right before fall semester started last year and Provo was full of BYU students again back from their summer break. This is what we encountered when we went to get bananas:

I was not aware that it is possible to run out of bananas, but alas, it is. My favorite part, and why I laughed hysterically was the frowney face. wow. Oh Provo..........

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Yesterday John and I went with Jamie and Scott Winkler to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. I haven't been to an open house since mom and dad took us to the Nauvoo open house and John hasn't ever been to one. It was a wonderful experience. We had both heard that it took upwards of 2-3 hours to get through the Draper Temple between parking, watching the intro movie, waiting for a bus, going through the temple, etc. I think we were in and out within an hour and a half at the most. The temple is gorgeous. We both decided that we are assigning Laura that temple to get married in. She will have no choice. We were both reminded of the sweet Spirit of the temple, even one that isn't dedicated yet, and of the sealing power. There was soooo much marble inside, which we were told came from Morocco and Egypt. Anyone who lives in the area and hasn't made it up there yet, it is DEFINITELY worth the trip.

Hey Misthter, Have you seen my pet lobster?

We have decide to start a photo of the week. This is the first one. We took this photo in NH last year and thought it was one of the funniest things in the world. In a little kid voice, I looked at Jen and asked in a little kid voice, "mister, have you seen my lost lobster?" Isn't that what you would find at a Lobster Pound? Or is it Lobster by the pound? Is it that if you eat Lobster with butter, you will gain many pounds? Who knows. Week one. Enjoy.

The Quilting Bee

So since John has been going to school, I have tried to think of "hobbies" that can occupy my time while he's studying/working on projects.. Sometimes reading works, but then other times I just can't seem to find anything to do. During winter semester, I decided I would make a baby quilt so that I had something to do. I really enjoyed making it. I came up with a pattern on my own and just went from there. After I made this quilt, I decided that it would be tons easier having a pattern from a book instead of coming up with dimensions, etc on my own. Mom and dad were out in April and mom helped me set it up on the quilting frames and hand quilt it. It was my first attempt at a quilt without mom's supervision (basically). Here are pictures of the finished quilt:

I enjoyed making this quilt so much, that when we got an email from Jo-Ann's saying their quilting pattern books were on sale, we jumped at the offer and bought a baby quilt book. I'm not ready to take anything on that is larger than a baby quilt, so I think I'll just stick with those for awhile. We bought my fabric for the quilt on Tuesday. I fell in love with a white that would be my main color, so we had to drive down to the creepy store in Spanish Fork to get it (thanks John for being so supportive). Here is my fabric for this next quilt. It's all really bright and colorful. I'm excited to see what it turns into.

Farwell to my Sensei

My dear friend, my Sensei, has left the company. Change is inevitable, and it will be a good change for him, but it was hard to say goodbye. In his last days, he offered to draw a portrait of me. I was excited as I look up to not only his personal skills and abilities, but also his professional ones. He is one of the best people that I know. To honor his abilities and a lot of fun, I have added the image for your enjoyment. Remember to honor your Senseis by your actions, your work and your your life. "Bow to your Sensei!"

Our New Favorite Movie

So John and I rented "New in Town" from the Redbox last night. We have been wanting to watch it basically since we saw a preview for it probably back in November. Really timely in actually making that happen, right? Well, it was worth the wait. It was beyond hilarious. We are both rolling on the ground (quite literally) within the first 10 minutes of the movie. We had to stop and replay several scenes because we couldn't hear the dialogue over our laughter... well, mostly my laughter as it is quite loud. It was well worth the $1.07 we spent to watch it and are looking forward to making this one a permanent addition to our movie collection.

Saturday Morning

So, this Saturday, we went on a little hike up Rock Canyon. It was as beautiful as ever and really amazing. We took some pictures and just enjoyed being outdoors so close to home. As many of you know, normally, I do not get all up in arms about causes or political debate. But, recently I have found that an alleged owner of part of the land of Rock Canyon has applied for a quarry permit for the canyon. The story details are mixed at this point and I think that emotion has clouded some of the details of the intent. But, needless to say, I am a little upset and would like to ask all that have an opinion on the subject write a brief statement to Brent Wilde (Provo City Community Development Assistant Director) or Lewis Billings (Provo Mayor). No matter what happens, we have included some photos of our Rock Canyon outing for you to enjoy.

The First Slurpee

It's officially that time of the year again: SLURPEE TIME! On Memorial Day we celebrated by purchasing our very first slurpees this year. So far the favorite flavor combination is pina colada and wild cherry. I tend to get stuck in a rut with my favorite flavors/foods at any restaurant so we'll see if I ever try anything new, but I imagine John will enjoy some different concoctions as we visit our favorite 7-11s this summer.

TMBG - Triops has 3 eyes

So John and I are really, really into the They Might Be Giants video

podcast for kids, seeing that we are similar in maturity to many 5

year old children. We thought we would share one of our favorites

with you. Kind of silly, but really fun for all ages.

One of the greatest things in the world

So after an evening of playing Rummikub in Boston, we were introduced to one of life's greatest pleasures. Creme Brulee Ben and Jerry's ice cream. You may think this is a joke. Please take this as seriously as a... a barrell of monkeys... bad example, but you get the idea. If you are having a hard day, a good day or anything in between, go and treat yourself and the one you love to some Creme Brulee, you will not be disappointed. How's that to starting a blog? Enjoy.