My Random Life Story

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

2012-01-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the few books I actually read back in high school. I remembered liking it, but didn't recall much more than that, so decided to read it again.

I can tell why this book is a classic. Throughout the entire story there are incredibly deep themes about our society... what is wrong, what is right, why people act the way they do. But it's written from the view of a child in a way that makes the most ethical choice in any given situation seem like a no-brainer. You find yourself just as frustrated and angry as the children who are experiencing these things.

The development of characters in this book is genius. Somehow Harper Lee manages to reveal a great depth of personality for Boo Radley even though for most of the duration of the book nobody actually sees him. I also found that a real love and admiration developed for Atticus as a lawyer and father that I'm sure mimics that of his fictitous children and neighbors. I found myself hoping that there were real people like him during that time in our nation's life. And I mention these two characters beside the obvious star of the book... Scout. Makes me want to bake a cake for the kids in the neighborhood just to see if I can befriend one who is just like her.

I was really glad I decided to read this book again. It has persuaded me to give some of those other high school books a chance that I dismissed so long ago.

Ballet with Mom

2012-01-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, probably about 12 or so, my mom decided to get season tickets to the ballet. I'm sure she thought with three girls on her hands, she'd have no problem getting one to go with her every couple months.

Well, when the first show came around, there wasn't as much interest as she thought there'd be. "Who wants to go to the ballet with me this Saturday?" Mom asked. After a few moments filled only with crickets, I decided, what the heck? "I'll go!"

Late Saturday morning Mom and I got dressed up in our nice clothes and headed up to downtown Salt Lake to see our first ballet at the Capitol Theatre. You can't go see a show on an empty stomach so we decided to hit up a little deli tucked away in the alley next to the theatre. Sitting at a tall round table on a black and white checkered floor, Mom and I ate our cream soup and sandwiches and talked about the upcoming show. I felt so important and grown up. Just me and Mom out on the town.

Once inside the theatre we found our seats. I remember sitting there listening to the orchestra warm up while looking at all the little old ladies with their grey hair perfectly curled and hair sprayed into q-tip-like poofs. I flipped through the program reading the story line and all the names of the dancers and producers. Then the lights went down and the curtains opened.

For an hour or two Mom and I sat and watched while the dancers twirled and leaped on the stage. I admired their costumes-- their flexibility, grace, and strength. My sisters had no idea what they were missing out on.

Lucky for me my sisters never showed an interest in going to the ballet. Of course I never told them how fun it really was. The ballet turned out to be a thing just my mom and I did together. Every couple months we'd head back to that same tucked away deli with the black and white checked floor to eat lunch before the show. The shows ranged from humorous to sad to just plain awe inspiring and I loved each one of them. And who could forget all the little old ladies with their q-tip hair?

I haven't been back to see a ballet since I was a kid. And the little deli is no longer there. But I still remember those great times with just Mom and me. She always made me feel special and I remember that the most.

Week 12: Plum

2012-01-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

So I've missed writing about the last few weeks, but things have been fairly consistent around here. My nausea has really let up a lot and so long as I eat on a regular basis, I feel just fine. There are still a handful of foods that don't sound too appealing, but for the most part, I've been able to eat a much wider variety. Well, except for at night. Breakfast and lunch I feel almost normal. When it comes to dinner time, some switch goes off and the nausea comes back. Which doesn't really work out too well for Seth. He's had a lot of macaroni and cheese and ramen noodles lately. Although, I do try to cook when I can.

The larger pants I bought several weeks ago are already getting too tight. Looks like it's time to start looking for some maternity pants. I can't wait for that elasticy goodness... I'm wishing I could wear my stretchy pajama pants to work!
Now for a couple weird pregnancy symptoms. Starting several weeks ago my legs would itch like crazy, especially when going to bed at night. I put lotion on in the morning and thought it was just due to the dry winter air. But nothing was helping! Like clockwork as soon as I got in bed my legs, especially my shins and calves would just itch like crazy! I finally checked it out and sure enough... it's one of those random things that shows up. Good news is, I found some new lotion (Curel Itch Defense) that seems to be controlling the itchiness way better.

Also rearing it's ugly head this week is a sensitive tooth. I just went to the dentist like two weeks ago and my teeth were fine, but somehow overnight I have this tooth that is ultra sensitive. I'm hoping this is one of those things that doesn't spread and/or get worse. And yes, apparently sensitive teeth during pregnancy are pretty common. Who knows what'll show up next?

Week 8: Raspberry

2012-01-14T08:00:00.001-07:00

Written week of December 18, 2011

Well I'm happy to report that things are starting to feel better around here. I still feel slightly nauseous, but not near as bad as it has been the last couple weeks. I do feel more tired these days but don't have that same lingering disinterest in all things as I did previously.

I forgot to mention this last week, but my pants seemingly got too tight overnight and I had to go spring for a few new pairs. Kind of weird to be wearing a larger size than I ever have in my life. But it's for a good cause. Plus I need to breathe. I'm a little surprised to be able to see a little bump so soon. I thought I wouldn't see anything for a least several more weeks. Also, how come nobody ever mentions the almost instantaneous drastic changes on the digestive system? Probably half this bump is from all the gas stored up in there. Geez. Oh and don't expect to be your "regular" self. Ok I'll stop there.

Week 7: Blueberry

2012-01-13T08:00:00.001-07:00

Written week of December 11, 2011

The mild nausea has continued this week but I'm starting to get used to it. Bad news is, seems like cheeseburgers are one of the few foods that I can eat pretty consistently. At least it contains all the food groups?

The most exciting thing that happened this week was my first ultrasound! Seth came along with me to see how everything is progressing. Surprisingly we were able to hear and see a heartbeat! And our little "peanut"! Such a trippy thing! I think we were both expecting to see a small blurry image of the baby, but weren't quite expecting to hear the heartbeat so soon. Good news is it was a strong 152 beats per minute! We came away with the first 2 pictures of our little peanut and have them proudly displayed on the fridge. Can't wait to tell the family!

We also picked a name already. Ok... not really but here's a conversation Seth and I had the day after the ultrasound:

Me: I found a name for the baby!

Seth: Oh yeah?

Me: Yeah. Mah-NEE.... MAH-nee.... Muh-NEE?

Seth: Money Money Money?

Me: {laughing} No! I don't know exactly how to pronounce it.

Seth: I don't want any weird foreign names.

Me: No it's M-A-N-I..... Spanish for 'peanut'! HA!

So we now refer to our growing child as little "Money Hanson." I think it'd be a good investment, don't you?

Week 6: Small Pea

2012-01-12T08:00:00.005-07:00

Written week of December 4, 2011

All of my week 5 symptoms continue... the sore bewbs, the mild constant nausea, the unending thirstiness... although I'm happy to say my skin is clearing up and looking better.

The hardest thing for me lately is not enjoying food like I used to. These days it's a way to try and control the nausea, though most of it isn't very appealing. I've found I have a particular aversion to chicken (even more so than usual, and especially RAW chicken... yuck) and cooked vegetables (esp. tomatoes) sound horrible. It's hard to plan my weekly menus when nothing sounds very good. The foods that have kept me going are turkey sandwiches, toast, fruit juice (orange in particular), fruit, egg & cheese burritos, and anything dairy, especially cheese & yogurt. Water also doesn't sound very appealing, though I try to drink it as much as I can. I'd much rather have a Sprite or fruit juice, though I try to limit those because of the sugar. It's not that I crave all these foods, they're just the ones that seem least repulsive. The good news is, I don't seem to have the same intense hunger emotions as I did last week... meaning the despair and crazy need to EAT RIGHT NOW. It is a little difficult for me to feel mildly sick all the time though... I'm so used to never having any ailments.

I've also noticed that I don't really feel like doing anything. I've lost interest in blogging and cooking and just being productive in general. I swear I spend about a million hours a day on the internets or watching tv, though I don't really enjoy it all that much. Doing nothing and doing something both sound not fun. I think I need to start forcing myself to do things more often or it'll just get worse.

One note of bad news this week: Seth's grandpa died, so we'll be going to his funeral on Friday. This also means a reschedule of the first ultrasound, so we won't be seeing anything until next week. Nothing like anticipation. I still really worry about our little pea, hoping this one will hang on for the long haul. But so far so good...

Week 5: Appleseed

2012-01-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

Note: I wrote the following entries week by week just to keep track of what was going on with my pregnancy. If you don't like reading about all the gory details of this stuff, feel free to skip it. I just figured any post was better than no post.

Starting to feel more pregnant. My bewbs continue to be sore as they were very early on and my skin has broken out horribly. So much for glowing, awesome skin (I was afraid of this). In addition to those symptoms, there are a few that are a bit more annoying. The most annoying of which is the frequent mild nausea. I'd told myself I didn't want to overeat during pregnancy, but it's getting tough to do this when the only way to stave off the mild nausea is to constantly be eating something. I can't go more than a couple hours or I really start to feel it. And when I get really hungry I have this crazy urgency like I have to eat RIGHT NOW otherwise I just start fading into this mild depression and/or anti-social despair. It's hard to explain. I'm also constantly insatiably thirsty. Which makes for unending trips to the bathroom. Also I've never been so gassy and bloated in my life.

I had my first prenatal exam this week. I decided I really like my doctor. I feel lucky to have found a good one right away without hardly trying. I never thought I'd have a male ob/gyn, but he isn't creepy or weird and does a good job of making me feel comfortable. Anyway, they just did the standard weight measurement, blood pressure, pee in a cup, followed by a pap smear, and a million blood tests. One huge bag of schwag later and I'm home. Excited to go back next week with Seth to get my first ultrasound and hopefully see something in there. Maybe even a heartbeat?

The Big Decision

2012-01-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

It was a day like any other day. I got up, went to work, came home to our little apartment and crashed with Seth on the couch for a little relaxing t.v. time while we talked about our days. We covered the usual topics: coworkers, bosses, the latest gossip and then out of the blue, Seth dropped the bomb.

"I've been thinking about it and I think as soon as your IUD expires (the next month...) we should just have it removed and start trying for a kid."

As soon as I lifted my jaw up from the floor, my mouth started moving a million miles a minute.

"But I thought we were going to wait another year. Do we have enough money? What about your school?"

All questions came up with reasonable answers followed by "We'll make it work, we're in a good position right now and I don't think we should wait. Plus, I really want to be a dad."

That last one: "I want to be a dad". How could I argue with that?

Then came the real reason why I was stalling: "I'm scared. I don't know if I can do it. What if I don't like kids? What if our relationship changes? What if I get fat and ugly and I'm a horrible mom and then you want to leave me?"

The thought of having kids always terrified me. My life had been a certain way for so long, it was hard to imagine it being any different. Things were good. I liked our life. Throwing in this huge change could affect so many things, and I was scared the change would be negative.

This time Seth was the voice of calm and reason. He assured me that it would be impossible for him to love me less and if anything, his love would increase. He assured me that we would work out the financial details and that we wouldn't starve to death. That he would support me and help me. And then I agreed. And then I sobbed for a good 15 minutes all while assuring Seth I was fine and just needed to let all these pent up feelings out. "Yes I know I'm crazy {sobbing} I'm fine I swear {sobbing} just ignore me... this is going to continue for a few more minutes {sobbing}"

Somehow finally getting off the fence about whether we were going to have kids made the idea less scary. We would have kids (so long as we were able) and that was that. While the idea was still scary, I was getting used to it. All of a sudden I was interested in all things pregnancy: checking my temperature and other things to monitor ovulation times, going to the doctor to get an exam and pre-natal vitamins. It was all sort of a trippy dream. Like I was in some alternate universe. A universe where all of a sudden I'm TRYING to get pregnant, not avoiding it like the plague.

About 9 (emotionally exhausting) months later, just about the time I was starting to think my body was rejecting the idea of having children, it happened. I got pregnant. And this time it stuck. That's right people: I'm pregnant! 11 weeks to be exact, with a due date of July 29th. The adventure has begun...

Book Review: Stories I Only Tell My Friends

2011-12-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't encounter Rob Lowe's work until I saw him in Tommy Boy. Lately I've loved him in Parks and Recreation and thought his autobiography would be an interesting read. Imagine my delight when I saw that his book was available in audio form and that he was the one reading it. Score!

Now, Rob Lowe isn't a literary genius by any means, but he's entertaining. I could not believe all the encounters he's had with Hollywood's finest, starting from a very young age. I mean how cool is it to have grown up with close friends like Emilio Estevez & Charlie Sheen, Tom Cruise, & Patrick Swayze? I really admired Rob's drive. He worked hard to get the career he has. He didn't have the doting stage parents and extra help all the other child actors had and he did what he needed to in order to succeed.

This book also made me want to watch all of Rob's movies. I've never seen any of his earlier work like The Outsiders or St. Elmo's Fire. And apparently The West Wing was a huger show than I thought. I don't remember ever watching it, but looks like I'm going to have to work my way through it now.

After listening to this book I find myself liking Rob Lowe even more than I did before. Not only is he a good-looking famous guy, he has a ton of character, talent, and charm not present in many actors today. And I imagine he'd be just as amazing in person.

Book Review: World Without End (Pillars of the Earth Part 2)

2011-12-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

World Without End by Ken Follett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was the sequel to Follett's 'Pillars of the Earth'. It follows a very similar premise to the first book... it takes place in the same towns and follows the ancestors of the Pillars characters a couple hundred years later.

I have to say I wasn't nearly as enthralled by this book as I was by the first. I listened to the audiobook version of this and it took me about 5 cds to really start getting into it. Had it not been the sequel to something I'd already read, I would have given up after cd #2.

While the storyline did improve, I thought Follett fell quite short in the creativity department. Most of his characters sounded like exact replicas of those in Pillars... most having the same problems and trials as well. This book was over 1000 pages and I thought it could have been at least half that. How many times can the plague start up again? How many times can we have the same quarrels between peasants and clergy? How many times will the bully be unfairly rewarded by royalty and continue to rape the defenseless female villagers?

If you've read Pillars of the Earth and loved it, I recommend just stopping there. There isn't anything to be gained by reading World Without End and those 1000 pages could be better spent on reading more original, new ideas.

Book Review: The Book Thief

2011-12-14T13:43:00.002-07:00

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book about a young German girl during the Holocaust told from the point of view of Death. It follows her from the death of her little brother (where Death first encounters her) to her life with her foster parents. All through her tumultuous life, her love of books and reading is one of her few comforts.

This was a fabulous book. One of my favorites, especially for an audiobook. Amazing characters who draw you in and make you really care about them. I highly recommend it.

Book Review: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

2011-12-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a true story about the town of Savannah, GA and a murder (and subsequent trial) that took place there back in the '80s.

I really tried to like this book but it was just so-so. I don't know what it was, but it kept me just interested enough to keep me listening. I think if I'd have had something else more appealing I would've stopped listening altogether. It did make me want to visit Savannah to see all the great old houses, but that's about it.

Christmas is Coming

2011-12-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

So I've been feeling the Christmas spirit this year a lot more than I usually do. I don't think we even so much as got a tree last year. I know. I'm a horrible person. And I generally don't like Christmas music. It makes me instantly irritated. Maybe it's the fact that they redo the same 10 songs over and over. But I digress.

My point is, this year I'm doing much better already. We went and picked out a tree this weekend and actually decorated it! Gracie loves it. She always does love the tree though. And surprisingly she doesn't ever attack the ornaments. And I played Christmas music! I still have a very limited amount of music that I'll listen to, specifically music I remember hearing growing up, but hey, it's the first time I've listened to Christmas music by choice in a really long time!

She looks so introspective...

We also had my company Christmas party this past weekend. It was nice to get dressed up with my super hot husband and hang out with my work buddies. Didn't win another Wii this year, but the trip into the photobooth was a nice consolation prize. I don't think I've ever even been in one!

Now to see if the festive feelings continue!

My Bathroom is Organized!

2011-11-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

For the longest time my bathroom cabinets have been a huge jumbled mess of a disaster. Every morning when I get ready I get more and more pissed off at the avalanche of beauty products that inevitably tumbles out of the cabinets. Not to mention the rats nest of cords from the blow dryer and curling irons and such. This weekend I finally reached my breaking point and decided to do something about it.

Now I really didn't spend much... I bought a few magnets to stick on the back of my eyeshadows and some of those pantry organizer wall thingies used for tin foil and such, but that's it! Everything else I found around the house.

So here's my make-up cabinet. I have a few larger items that I use on a daily basis, so I cut the top off a box and put them all inside. That way I can just put the little box out on the counter, use all the stuff and then put it back. I grabbed a mason jar from the cabinet to keep all my makeup brushes and tools in, and another box was used for refill type things like new bottles of lotion, toothpaste, and razors (close to the shower so I can reach it when I realize I'm out of shampoo!). I already had the metal bucket with dividers in it and used it for all my brushes and combs (more frequently used items towards the front). Good news was, I could stick all my eyeshadow to the front so I find them easily and don't have to clutter up my makeup bag with things that aren't used every day. I used an empty baby wipe container to hold all my little barretts and clips and such.

Moving on to the cabinet under the bathroom sink. This was the real disaster area. Everything was just shoved in and it was a giant mess. First I mounted one of the organizers onto the inside of the door. The fit was pretty tight... it's barely small enough for the door to close and is just wide enough that I could screw it into the fat parts of the cabinet and not have the screws bust through the other side. Whew. This thing works great for my blow dryer and heat tools. Then, if you look inside the cabinet, I've got a shelf: top for tp and bottom for a basket full of awesome "girl stuff" HA! (notice I never painted the inside of my vanity...)

On the other side of the cabinet, I mounted another organizer shelf. This one I filled with all the hair products and lotion that I use frequently. No need to shuffle bottles around to find the one I want or have 50 bottles fall out on my foot! Yeah!

Inside this cabinet I put another shelf. On the top I used a long tin container to hold all the bottles of less frequently used products... shampoos, more lotion, etc., in front of which I put a couple items that get used on a regular basis but didn't have any other spot to go (gotta make sure the spider spray is in easy reach!). On the bottom I put a cutlery tray and used it to hold headbands, travel size shampoo & such, teeth related products, soap, & lesser used make-up.

So there you have it! My newly organized, highly efficient bathroom!

Bedroom Decor on a Budget

2011-11-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I'd been wanting to give our bedroom a little make-over since we moved into our house. I purposely painted all the bedrooms a neutral beigey color so I could add whatever colors I wanted as accents and still have it look good. Since the duvet cover we already had was brown, this didn't exactly make for the most interesting of rooms. Over time I collected ideas of what I wanted to do and found cheap ways to accomplish it. I thought it turned out pretty good! Granted, we still haven't dealt with the closet/storage situation in that room, but we'll get there eventually.

Here's what the room looked like when we first bought the house... two words: GROSS.

After!

Here's the breakdown of the costs:

Lamps: $9 for 2 bases at thrift store + $18 for 2 shades + $6 spray paint= $33

Sconces: $3 for 2 sconces at thrift store + $1.76 for 2 tapered candles + $4 spray paint= $8.76

Headboard: $50 on sale

Bedding: $176 with 20% off coupon (duvet cover, 2 pillow shams, 1 decorative pillow)

Mirror: $20

Total: $287.76

Not too bad, eh? I have a few other projects in the works, mainly decorative items for the surrounding walls, but most of these are super cheap and involve spray painting old bottles and other misc. things. And maybe we'll get some curtains eventually too. But as it is now, it has a much more put-together feel and actually like going in there. Huge difference from where we started!

The Wall

2011-11-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

Remember this big blank wall I mentioned a while back? The one I was clueless as to how I should decorate it? Well, I came up with an amazing idea ( I thought so anyway...) and have finally finished my vision.

BEFORE

Big, boring, and devoid of color (unless you count beige as a color)

AFTER

Look at all the things!

So what is all that stuff? Well I'll tell you. I had this idea to create sort of a family history wall. I wanted to hang up pictures and some objects that represent our ancestors and maps of where me & Seth's families are from. Thing is, my vision sort of had to be tweaked a little bit because of a couple hiccups, but the general idea I had is still there. Turns out old photos don't have the best quality so I couldn't blow them up large enough to fit the frames I had. They are also black and white photos which doesn't really help add color to an already drab wall. So, I used current color family pictures for this wall and put the black and white ones above the piano on the orange wall.

I also would have liked to hang all the pictures on a big tree mural, but that wasn't a very realistic option budget-wise and there's no way I could paint a nice looking tree on that giant wall myself. But, I think it looks nice without it, so no big deal. I also don't have all the frames and shelves filled up yet, but at least they're hung. All that other stuff can be filled in later easily enough.

I got almost all of the shelves and frames on the beige wall from Ross for way cheap. They have a lot of great decorating stuff there. I got all of the old maps and plates from Etsy shops. So fun to look around on there for cool odds and ends. Oh and just in case you're in the mode of hanging pictures, I found a great tip to help hang pictures straight, more specifically, the pictures with dual hooks on the back. Check this out! AWESOME and EASY! So that's it! Pretty cool eh?

Mor LOLS

2011-11-06T07:19:00.001-07:00

Crazy Skin Care Tips

2011-11-04T12:55:00.000-06:00

Lately my face has been driving me crazy. I'm always breaking out and my skin is super oily and well, it just doesn't look very good. So I tried to find something that would help improve my skin.

First up, I tried to find something that would make my make-up last longer and keep my face from looking so oily. I know this is going to sound weird, but I've started using milk of magnesia & chafing gel. HA! I found this video (she's a little blah blah blah but gets around to the point eventually) and was so curious to see if it worked. To my surprise, it did! I've tried several mattefying products and primers and nothing ever works.

Here's what I use:

Phillips Milk of Magnesia ORIGINAL flavor only! This only cost about $2. I shake up the bottle before each use, moisten a cotton pad with it and wipe all over my face. Then...

Monistat Chafing Relief Powder-Gel: This cost about $6-7, but you only need a pea-size amount for your entire face. It makes your skin feel super smooth without being greasy. I love this!

I was really skeptical about this. I did not think it'd work, especially because when products are supposed to work for oily skin, it doesn't mean OILY like mine. I never see any difference, but I have seriously been amazed at how well this works. My make-up looks great pretty much all day. Huge improvement. I've been using these for about a month now and I haven't noticed any bad side-effects like break outs. Woo hoo!

Next up is a new method for washing my face. This is going to sound insane. I did not think it'd work but it totally does. Use oil to clean your face. That's right. OIL. The stuff you want to take off your face. Like dissolves like. Who would have thought? If you want to see all the different kinds of oils and ratios you can use for your skin type, take a look at this site. I'm just going to tell you what I use.

I actually started out with extra virgin olive oil only because it took me a few days to find castor oil (I found it for $2 at Walmart... not at Target or Walgreens. Look by the laxatives. I've been spending a lot of time in that isle lately eh?)

Castor Oil

and...

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Right now I'm using a mixture of about 3 parts olive oil to 1 part castor oil (I put mine in a little travel size plastic bottle). I squeeze about a quarter size amount into my fingertips and massage it all over my dry face in a circular motion. After a minute or so, I get a washcloth, soak it with hot water, wring it out and put it on my face to steam for about 10 seconds. Then I gently wipe all the oil off, rinsing the wash cloth with hot water a couple times as I go. When I'm done, my face feels super smooth and soft and all the dirt and makeup is gone! Even mascara! I was shocked at how much better it cleaned my face! Even more surprising is my skin has improved dramatically. My breakouts cleared up really fast and my skin looked great. And I found I didn't really need the daily exfoliant I'd been using to keep my pores clean. Great thing is, this is quite a bit cheaper than the Cetaphil I'd been using and I always have olive oil around the house!

So there you have it. My new, cheap, amazing skin care routine! It really does work so give it a shot!

Mama's Got a New Pair of Pants

2011-11-04T10:56:00.000-06:00

You ever have that favorite pair of jeans that gets washed and worn so much that the color fades to a weird shade of blue? Yeah me too. I hate that. Everything about the jeans is perfect... they aren't torn, they fit great, they're all broken in... but the color looks crappy.

Have you ever noticed the Rit Dye in the laundry section of the grocery store? Have you ever wondered if it works? Or if it was actually feasible to dye your clothes? Well... so have I. But it's something I always just forgot about. But the other day as I was doing my shopping wearing my faded (and not so cute) pair of jeans I thought, why not? What have I got to lose? I don't like how these jeans look anyway so if the color gets ruined, no big deal. I read the box to see how much dye I needed and ended up getting 4 boxes of dye: 2 Navy Blue and 2 Black. I wanted a dark blue result and thought this would be the best way to achieve the look I wanted.

To my surprise, dying my jeans was not hard or messy. First you need to wash them to make sure there's no dirt or stains. I decided I wanted to dye 2 pairs of jeans and a hoodie and 4 boxes of dye just happened to be the right amount for this quantity. The dye needs to be dissolved in hot water first, along with a cup of salt (for cotton clothing). To avoid a mess, I dumped the salt and dye into an empty gallon jug, added the hot water, and shook it up to mix. I took my freshly washed clothes out of the washing machine, set it to the "Large" load size, and filled it up with hot water. After dunking each item of clothing in the hot water, I took them out and set them aside, dumped the dye into the washer and let it agitate for a few seconds to mix, then added the clothes back to the washer. The clothes need to soak in the dye for 30 minutes, so I set the washer to the longest cycle (18 mins. on my machine), then reset it for another 18 min. cycle before it got to the rinse stage. After the second 18 minute cycle, I let the washer run through the complete rinse and spin. Once the dye cycle was complete, I ran the clothing through a regular cold wash cycle with a little detergent then dried as usual. And that was it!

There is a little clean-up involved... I ran my washer through another hot cycle with bleach to clean out the drum a little more (as suggested on the dye packaging) and wiped off the splatters of dye on the washer lid, but it wasn't bad at all and my washing machine was just fine afterwards! I couldn't believe how well this worked. It's like I got a couple pairs of brand new jeans and my hoodie looks just as it did when I bought it! Woohoo! And the great thing is, this cost under $10!

Sadly, I forgot to take a 'before' picture of my clothes before I got them wet, but my jeans were a medium weird shade of blue, close to this:

BEFORE

AFTER

Front View- Jeans & Hoodie

(Don't you just love my clunky work shoes?)

Side View

Also, you'll notice the stitching on my jeans isn't dyed, which is awesome. That's because generally the stitching on jeans is a different material which doesn't absorb the dye. This also means that this dye will not work with certain types of materials. 100% cotton is best, but there are some blends and other fabrics that will work, you just have to alter the process. Best to check first to see if your article of clothing is dye-worthy though.

So there you have it! A cheap, easy way to bring new life to old clothes. Who'd have thought?

Teh Humanz

2011-10-10T15:57:00.000-06:00

Gracie found a new hangout spot this weekend. Seth walked in the kitchen and looked out the back door to see her up on the gazebo. So, naturally I made an lolcats out of it.

Like a Fish

2011-10-03T12:28:00.001-06:00

Did I happen to mention I started swimming? Well I did. About 2 months ago. I decided I needed to start doing some sort of workout seeing as how the running thing sort of took a nose-dive. Not that I didn't like running. I do. It's just that I found that I made way too many excuses as to why I couldn't do it: too dark outside, too hot/cold, too dangerous, etc. I knew I needed to find something else that I could stick with. Something I could do all year round.

So one day my sister, Annie mentioned something about doing a triathlon next year. That got me thinking... maybe I should try swimming! Like running, I was never very good at swimming. I had to take swimming lessons twice as a kid because I forgot how. But, I figured hey, I got to be pretty good at running, maybe I could get good at swimming too! And thus began my swimming adventures.

Now, had I just been venturing into the swimming realm with no direction, I'm sure I never would have started. Luckily a co-worker friend of mine is a swimmer and he was able to give me some good tips and show me some helpful videos and such to point me in the right direction. And I'm not going to lie. Those first couple weeks I felt like I was drowning. Getting the breathing down was tough. And anytime I swam without my fins it seemed like I wasn't moving. Swimming even one lap (50m) took a ton of energy.

But here I am, a couple months into it, and I'm doing pretty well. I was surprised at how fast I improved. I can now swim 800m no problem... that's 16 laps. And the only reason I have to stop there is so I can leave in time to get ready for work. I'm not fast yet by any means, but I'm getting better everyday. I've even considered taking some actual swim lessons. I know. CRAZY. I've really been surprised at how many different activities I enjoy when I give it a fair chance. Who knew?

Me in all my swim gear glory. That's HOT.

Book Review: Pillars of the Earth

2011-09-29T08:03:00.001-06:00

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me by a co-worker and I have to say I wasn't all that excited to read it. The premise seemed a little boring... a story about a cathedral getting built. I was skeptical at best. However, this book got my attention from the very first page and managed to keep it through 32 audio CDs (983 pages for you readers). In the car. During my commutes. That's saying something.

Now just saying this book is about a cathedral getting built doesn't quite cover what it's about. Sure, there is a lot of talk about a cathedral and the architecture of it. But, there is also a great story to go along with it. The characters all had great depth. I cared about the heroes, I hated the villains. Which may seem like an easy thing to do, but surprisingly it doesn't happen all that often.

To give a little background, Ken Follett was an established, popular writer of mystery/suspense novels. He became interested in the architecture and history of cathedrals and spent a lot of time studying them and learning about them. He decided he wanted to take that knowledge and incorporate it into a book... which is where the idea for The Pillars of the Earth came from. With good reason his publicist was a little wary of Follett deviating from his tried and true standard genre. But, Follett wrote the book anyway and it has become his best selling novel to date. And with good reason. This was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

View all my reviews

I'll Do What I Want!

2011-09-21T14:49:00.000-06:00

There are so many non-fun things that come with adulthood: jobs, bills, responsibilities. But lately I've been enjoying some of the little things that I love about it. When you're a kid it seems like there are so many rules to follow. Don't do this. Don't do that. Why? BECAUSE I SAID SO.

As an adult (at least outside working hours) there are no, "Do it because I said-so's." Pretty much your life is a blank sheet of paper and you can fill it with whatever you like. When I was a kid we had a lot of rules about this and that. No eating after 4:00pm or you'll ruin your dinner. You can't buy Lucky Charms or Cap'n Crunch and only 2 boxes of cereal open at once. Don't walk around outside in your socks. Turn all the lights off when you leave a room. Up by 8:00am on the weekends. Most of those rules were pretty reasonable. But these days I'm throwing caution to the wind. And it's awesome.

Cookies for breakfast? Don't mind if I do! Don't want to put my shoes on to check the mail? Fine! Leave all the lights on in the house? Why not?! Buy 15 different kinds of sugary cereal and open them all at once? Just watch me! Sleep for 12 hours straight? Hells yes! I'm living on the edge over here and loving every minute of it.

You got any rules you like to break?

Book Reviews: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian and The Giver

2011-09-15T09:34:00.001-06:00

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being somewhat familiar with Native American culture, this book was really fun for me to read. It's a great under-dog story that keeps you rooting for Jr. the entire time. While this wasn't a literary great by any means, it was an entertaining, quick read and I really enjoyed it.

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First I have to say I really liked this book. Very interesting concepts. It's intriguing to think how things would be if your life was structured in the same way these people's lives are. Everything laid out for you... who your family is, who you'll marry, what your life's work will be. On one hand it would be great to have someone else do all the thinking for you. Make all the big decisions. But then, human nature lends itself to wanting things it's not supposed to have. Or things that are forbidden. Seems like those urges would be tough to control, even with medication.

Now as a side-note this is the first in a series of 3 books. I was a little confused by the fact that none of social structure or characters carried on to the other two books. So, if you go on to read either of them, keep that in mind.

View all my reviews

Backpacking Gear Reviews

2011-09-13T10:41:00.000-06:00

Before we embarked on our backpacking trips this year, we decided we should invest in some quality gear. Our last trip had involved a leaky tent, uncomfortable packs, and less than desirable sleeping conditions. We tried to remedy those things this time around as well as a few other minor elements. This is what we've found from our testing so far.

Marmot Limelight 3P Tent

I love this tent. There are so many details on it that make it a great piece of equipment. It is meant to be a 3 person tent, but I thought it fit 2 people perfectly with just enough room to spare for small items (3 people would be a bit of a squeeze). The main reason I went with the 3 person tent over the 2 person, was this one has 2 doors, one on either side. Let me tell you how awesome this was. Each person having their own door and vestibule rocked. No more climbing over people in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. No tracking dirty feet across the tent. This tent also comes with it's own footprint tarp and has a small gear loft inside (great for keeping items easily accessible). I also liked that the zippers and tie-down cords were reflective so you could see them in the dark. The tent was incredibly easy to set up and the orange color makes it highly visible when you're trying to find it in a clump of trees. Now as a disclaimer, we haven't seen any adverse weather (no strong winds or rain), but knowing Marmot, that won't be a problem.

Osprey Ariel 65-Litre Backpack

I tried on every single women's pack at REI before I found this one. I couldn't find a pack that didn't put pressure on my hip bones or one that didn't squish my bewbs and make them look weird or rub on my neck. Or that just felt comfortable. This pack met all of those criteria and I'm happy to say it was just as comfortable on the trail. I liked that the hip belt was wider and flatter than the other packs I tried. It also has cutouts that align with your hip bones so there is no pressure on them. I was able to put 100% of the weight on my legs which meant my arms and shoulders never got sore from the weight. It does not come with its own water pack, but the 3 liter water bag from my day pack fit great into it and there were openings and straps for the hose to be easily routed to my shoulder strap. The bag had plenty of room for all my gear and an adequate amount of pockets and exterior straps for things like water bottles, jackets, and my fly rod. This was an incredibly comfortable pack and I am extremely happy with it!

Big Agnes Ethel 0 Degree Sleeping Bag with Big Agnes Insulated Air Core Pad

I was so excited to get this sleeping bag. I always sleep cold when I'm camping and thought this was the solution for sure. Night time temps on the 2 trips I took this on were probably around 35-40 degrees, so not too cold... nowhere near the 0 deg. temp rating of this bag. While I did like that my sleeping pad didn't move around while I slept (or didn't sleep...), it also prevented me from closing my bag in around me, thus making the bag feel drafty and cold. Maybe this would be better if you were a little bigger and filled out the bag more. The pad seemed to let a lot of cold air up from the bottom as well, making me think that the complete lack of down on the bottom of the bag wasn't such a great idea. So, the bag was comfortable, but not warm. The pad was suitable and worked well... I liked that it was extra thick at 2.5", plus it packed down super small. Seth's pad actually leaked however... so not sure if mine will end up with the same problem. Ultimately, I had one of the worst nights out backpacking I can remember. Too bad, I really had high hopes for this combo.

Mountain Hard Wear Yuma Convertible Pants

I have a love/hate relationship with pants. I love wearing them, but hate shopping for them. The junk in my trunk, though quite spectacular, doesn't lend for easy fitting in the pants department. I also have this problem where the length of my legs doesn't quite conform to standard sizing. A "regular" inseam usually measures 32", a little too short. "Long" inseams are typically 34" or longer... too long (if you can actually find long pants...). So as you can imagine, shopping for pants isn't usually a fun activity for me and I usually have to try on at least 10 pair of jeans (usually double that) before I find something that fits, and even then it's not a home run. So when I went to REI to find some new convertible pants (or Adventure Pants as Seth and I call them) I wasn't surprised when after trying on about 10 pairs, I still hadn't found one I was in love with. But, somehow on my way into the dressing room, I'd found another pair of adventure pants and thrown them on top of the pile. This was the last pair I tried on. And I loved them from the moment I put them on.

These Mountain Hard Wear pants are so amazing in so many ways. First of all, they fit me. Like a glove. Ample room for my butt and thighs without being tight. No gaping at the back. And get this... their regular inseam length must be 33" because they were long enough to cover my boots without being slouchy and sloppy. WOOHOO!! They have 2 snaps and a zipper to close as well as a drawstring to give that extra tightness if needed... thus eliminating the need for a belt. The fabric is super light and stretchy so it moves really well while hiking. And as is a common problem with adventure pants, the zipper at the knee doesn't rub when I bend my leg. The pants have 2 zipped cargo pockets, easily unzipped and zipped with one hand. I would like to have had the two hand pockets at the top, but I can overlook that because of all the other amazing traits. I can't recommend these pants enough.

Keen Targhee II Boots

Several years ago Seth and I each bought his and hers Danner 453 GTX boots to wear for our more serious hiking excursions. While Seth has always really liked his, mine just never seemed to cut it. My ankle area/lower calves are not dainty like most women and my feet are really wide. While the Danners were plenty wide enough, the back of the boot was too high and always hurt the back of my leg, especially when walking downhill. The boots were also too stiff, not allowing them to conform to my foot. I could never get them tight enough and when I did, it caused the pain on the back of my leg to worsen. The last straw was when I wore these on our 10 mile backpacking trip. My feet came away sore and blistered. All I wanted to do was take the stupid things off. They made the trip miserable. So when another backpacking trip was on the horizon, I made the demand that I HAD to get new boots beforehand. That's where these Keens come in.

I did a lot of research online before purchasing these. I was pretty sure this was the boot I wanted, but went into my local REI to try them on first, just to make sure they would work. I immediately loved these boots. They were really comfortable and fit my foot really well. The back of the boot didn't put pressure on my leg and there was a ton of room in the toe box for my wide feet. They were a little stiffer than a tennis-shoe type day-hiker boot, but not near as stiff as the hard-core backpacker boots available. The perfect mix. Add all that to the cute factor, and I was sold. But the true test would be in the hiking.

I hiked about 5 miles in these boots without even thinking about them. They provided great traction and my feet felt super comfy the whole time. No hot spots. No blisters. I actually LIKED wearing these and that's saying a lot. Now I haven't tested out the waterproof-ness or durability of these yet, but if all goes well, I'll be using these babies for years to come.

Backpacking the Uintas: Ostler Fork

2011-09-11T13:00:00.002-06:00

Seth and I spent the last couple weekends backpacking up in our local mountains: the Uintas. It had been a couple years since we'd last gone so we were excited to get out and give it another go.

On our first trip we headed for a group of lakes near Christmas Meadows. Here's the route we took:

I'm not going to lie. That was a HARD hike. It was about 5 miles to our camping spot at Ostler Lake. Five STEEP miles. My butt almost fell off. But we made it!

It was a very secluded spot and we were the only ones camping there. It was the quietest night I can ever remember with not so much as a gust of wind.Unfortunately it was a pretty rough night as far as sleeping goes. Neither Seth nor I slept much at all and we were both pretty disappointed with our new sleeping bags.

The next day we fished Ostler Lake. I caught 3 fish: 2 good sized cutthroats and a tiger trout. Somehow Seth managed to get skunked.

After fishing there for a few hours we ate lunch and napped for a little while and thought maybe we should just go back home after the horrible night we'd had. But, after packing up our gear and heading back out onto the trail, we realized we weren't ready to leave yet and made our way up to "No Name Lake"... a little lake just southeast of Ostler. No Name Lake was incredibly beautiful and our camping spot was even better than the one we had the night before.

I managed to catch 2 cutthroats on a beetle at No Name but somehow, Seth got skunked again. The next morning we decided to hike up to Amethyst Lake before heading home. We only got to fish for about 45 minutes before a storm rolled in, but we both caught a few brookies in that amount of time. I believe I caught 3 and Seth caught 9! We wished we had more time to spend there, but we now had about 6 miles to hike to get back and figured we'd better get a move on it.

This was a pretty aggressive trip for our first time out this year, but we had a great time. It was nice to finally get in some fly fishing after going the whole spring and summer without it. Not to mention some camping too!

Final Reveal: The Bathroom

2011-08-31T18:50:00.000-06:00

Well folks, we got another room done over here. Thought you might like to see. It's the ol' can this time. The water closet. The BATHROOM.

Here's what we started with:

BEFORE

I know this doesn't look that bad. But, it was. The paint was the same ugly brown throughout the rest of the house. The counter top was super ugly and the vanity had been painted, but not very well. The tile looked OK (though the floor isn't level so that may have to be fixed later) and there was wainscoting installed on the wall opposite the vanity which was a plus. BUT, all the fixtures were old and crappy (sadly you can't see most of them in this picture) and it was in desperate need of a face lift. So we gave it one.

AFTER

First thing to go was the counter top on the vanity. We replaced it with a granite counter top from Lowe's which had a built-in sink. This was a great way to make a huge change without getting too crazy on the cost. And it was easy to do! So I'm pretty sure everything we replaced came from Lowe's. The towel rack, tp holder, and towel ring were from Moer's 'Sage' collection, and the toilet cabinet, medicine cabinet (we got the 25" wide one and I removed the crown molding on top because it looked weird with our light fixture), light fixture, and faucet were chosen as individual pieces. I also replaced the knobs that came on the toilet cabinet and medicine cabinet as they weren't very high quality.

We wanted to keep this room bright and I really love that light aqua color, so I chose to use Behr's 'Pensive Sky' color on the walls. We stuck with the same white we had throughout the rest of the house for the trim, wainscoting, and vanity. And... did you notice one more thing? Yep. We got new doors and knobs. So much better!

Like I said, there are a couple things that may change down the road (the lumpy tile and the toilet which has the flushing power of spit), but I love the way this room turned out. Now to tackle all my bare walls...

My Favorite Room

2011-08-14T20:23:00.000-06:00

After showing you our newly re-done kitchen, I promised I would show you my most favorite room in our house: The Living Room. But first, I have to show you what it looked like before we got our hands on it...

BEFORE

The floors were in terrible shape and that brown color looks like somebody barfed up a chocolate creamcicle on the walls...

AFTER

TA DA!

So we weren't quite sure what we were going to do with this room, but it kind of came together on its own. We started by refinishing the floors... huge improvement! Then the orange paint and new blinds. The khaki color behind the couch was Seth's idea. He called it a "reverse accent wall." It's the color we used throughout the rest of the house and it's called 'Keratin' by Kwal. As you can see, we don't have much on the walls yet... any ideas??

The first real decorative thing we got for the room was the rug. It's one of my favorite things in the room and it came from Lowe's. Then, we knew we needed to get some furniture as we only had one sectional couch which was definitely going down in the family room with the tv. We didn't have a ton of money to spend on furniture, so we looked around at a lot of different things. I hadn't found anything I was too crazy about until I found this patio furniture set on sale on the Target website. Yep. It's patio furniture! Awesome huh? Now if it gets dirty I can just take it outside and hose it off! I did get new decorative pillows as the ones that came with it didn't match too well. I got the flowered pillows from an Etsy store called Pat's Table (way cute stuff at a great price) and the green leaf-print pillows from Walmart. My "weeds" in the tall glass vase in the corner are an old purchase from Ikea (though I've seen them there recently) and the other vases are old purchases from Ross. I thought we did pretty well with a small budget and I love the way it turned out!

So there you have it! My favorite room. Let me know of any ideas you have for my blank walls. So much space to work with!

The Final Reveal

2011-08-09T10:01:00.000-06:00

It has been a long time coming, but the day has finally arrived: My kitchen is DONE. All the cabinets are painted, the dishes and pantry items have all found their respective places... this place is ready for some action!

Let's take a look back at where it all started, shall we?

BEFORE

Boring brown paint, outdated & damaged cabinets, ugly light fixtures and curtains...

Wasted cabinet space, a small fridge nook, and damaged wood floors... have now turned into...

AFTER

A cheerful orange kitchen with character! Bright lights & newly painted cabinets with knobs & pulls!

A large fridge with custom fit pantry cabinet!

Modern curtains, a cute little dining table, and refinished floors!

This was definitely a huge project... even more time consuming than I'd imagined. Refinishing the cabinets was not a difficult task, but it was tedious. I thought I'd never get it done. Wondering how I did it? Check out my tutorial. Refinishing the floors was another task that was easy, but time consuming. Though we did hit a snag along the way.

I figured I should give a few details on some of the items and paint colors we used in case anybody out there is neurotic like me and has to find just the perfect fit for their kitchen. Did you see my paint color fiasco? It took about 15 different paint samples before we finally found the right one. We stumbled upon our orange color at RCWilley's while looking for furniture. It's called "Brasilwood" by Kwal. Every time I walk into this room I smile. The orange makes me very happy. We used the same white shade throughout the entire house for the ceilings, baseboards, and doors. I also used it as the base color for the cabinets. It's Kwal's Ambassador Semi-Gloss Hi-Hide White. I highly recommend keeping it simple and using the same color throughout because it eliminates confusion and mistakes. I also got the glaze for the cabinets at Kwal. I'm not sure what it was called as they mixed it up for me and it didn't have a label. But if this is something you're interested in, just tell the people at the counter what you want to do and they can help you out. I used almost a full quart of glaze for all the cabinets, so it didn't take much.

Because we have both a Lowe's and Home Depot nearby, we found ourselves bouncing between the two places to find things we needed. I pretty sure we went to these places on a daily basis. I believe we got all the drawer pulls and knobs from Lowe's as well as the curtain rod and curtains. We also ordered the custom pantry cabinets from Lowe's. It wasn't exactly cheap, but we decided the extra cabinet space was worth it, and it was a fraction of the cost of replacing all the cabinets. For us it was a realistic and efficient way to work with what we had by paying only for what was really necessary and important.

Speaking of important, we knew we needed to replace all the light fixtures, not only because they were super ugly, but also because there just wasn't enough light. The rail light made the biggest difference because it has four halogen lights which could be positioned where we needed them. We found it at Lowe's. I believe we found the pendant light at Home Depot, and the chandelier light over the table came from Lighting Design. Just a tip... apparently there are different sized Lowe's around. The one closest to our house was a smaller one with not near as big of a lighting section (and other sections were smaller as well). We found a larger store a few miles away in Roy that had much better selection (surprisingly this was a tip the guy at Lighting Design gave us). It was worth the extra drive to be able to find more of what we needed. Including the floor sander.

So there you have it. Our kitchen. As much as I love it, it's actually my second favorite room. Stay tuned for my favorite...

A Facelift

2011-08-01T10:24:00.000-06:00

This weekend was definitely full of projects. It started out with the one we've been avoiding for a couple weeks: cleaning out the apartment. It took several hours worth of scrubbing, but we finally got that place in shape and turned in our keys. Woohoo!

While waiting for some paint to dry over at the house this weekend, I decided I really hated the flower bed in front of the house and wanted to fix it. So, we went and bought some plants and gave the house a mini-makeover!

BEFORE:

Blah

AFTER:

TA DA!!! And the best part is, they're all perennial, low-water plants!

BEFORE:

Technically this was filled with grass and weeds...

AFTER:

My favorite: Zinnias! The only annuals we planted

It still needs a little work, but it's getting closer!

Fun at the Gateway

2011-07-27T09:40:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago my family met up at the Gateway for one last hang-out before my sister Corinne and her family went back to Arizona. The kids had a great time playing the fountain and there's no better cuisine than found in the food court!

Annie & Eric with their kids, Marshall & Belen

Me & Seth

Bryce & Ella

Reid

The Whole Family (ignore the trash can on the left)

It's always fun to see my family. What an amazing group of people! Love you guys!

Birthday Bowling

2011-07-07T16:31:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in my previous post how we'd gotten together to do some bowling for Corinne's birthday. I thought I'd post some of the pictures I took... those kids were too dang cute.

Belen is already a professional bowler... she could hardly wait for the pins to reset to push another ball down the ramp! Look at that concentration!

Look at those mini bowling shoes! Ha!

Lily and Ella take a break for some apple beer.

I have never seen a cuter bunch of tow-headed kids.

Don't worry Eric, you can be cute too, even though you're a little older than 7.

iFly! Ok, Corinne flies.

2011-07-07T08:31:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon I met up with both my sisters and their families for some bowling and pizza up at the Solomon Center in Ogden. After we were through bowling, J.R. talked Corinne into doing iFly for her birthday. Surprisingly none of the kids (or adults) wanted to do it with her. She was the only one brave enough to give it a shot. She did awesome though!

Ready to fly...

She had a really good time, can you tell? (hehe)

Happy Birthday Corinne!

The Lighthouse

2011-06-21T10:54:00.000-06:00

On the second day of our Oregon trip, Seth and I decided to go check out one of the nearby lighthouses. We ended up at the Coquille River Lighthouse just outside of Bandon. We were going to go to the Cape Arago Lighthouse, but somebody pointed me in the wrong direction. I'm not sure who it was...SETH.

We were able to climb to the top of the lighthouse and check out the view with the tour guide. Apparently there was a family that lived there for a bit and took care of the place. The mother would row her kids across the river/inlet everyday to take them to school. Way cooler than riding the bus.

After the lighthouse tour we walked along the beach and dipped our feet in the freezing cold water.

Seth taking his shoes off...

Awe... look at Seth's cute toes!

After our walk on the beach, Seth showed me the trick to putting your shoes on without getting sand in them.

After our beach trip, per recommendation from the lighthouse lady, we drove into Bandon to check out the town. It was a cute little place with tons of touristy shops and a boardwalk. We bought some fancy chocolates and did a bit of window shopping then headed for home. It was a great day.

Oregon Trip: Tide Pools

2011-06-14T10:46:00.000-06:00

I know you'll all be shocked to know that Seth and I took a break from all of our house junk and went camping on the Oregon coast for a week! It was a much needed vacation and we had such a great time with Seth's family.

On the first morning after our arrival, we decided to do a ranger guided tide pool tour. We were a bit skeptical of the "guided" part as it's usually kind of boring and too structured, but it ended up being our favorite part of the trip! We got to wander around the tide pools looking for different sea creatures and ask all the questions we wanted. The best part was, only four of us showed up so we got a private tour!

Looking at a small crab

We saw tons of these sea stars in all different colors. The white dot in the middle on top is it's butt. See! I learned something!

Group shot of the adventurers

We found one sunflower sea star... much bigger than the other sea stars and tons of legs!

The underside of the sea star with all its sucker feet

Seth with a half-dead crab

More to come!

Learn From My Fail

2011-06-01T09:11:00.000-06:00

Seth and I spent Memorial Day weekend sanding our parquet floor. It was in pretty rough shape after years of neglect. There were scratches and uneven edges covering the entire floor so it required a lot of TLC to get every bit of it smooth and ready for the finish.

We rented a big orbital sander from Lowe's to do the main parts and bought a small hand sander for the edges and such. After sanding the floor with three different grits of sandpaper (36, 50, and 80 for those who are curious), the floor was finally done. It already looked so beautiful. We left for the night to let the dust settle and planned to come back the next day to vacuum and apply the finishing coat.

The floor after it was all sanded

On Tuesday evening just as I was about to leave work, Seth sent me a text. Included in the text was the following picture:

While sanding the floor we'd unplugged the fridge so it wouldn't suck the dust in. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the ice maker was full. After sitting there unplugged for over 24 hours, the ice in the ice maker melted and leaked out onto the floor. With no protection at all, the floor absorbed the water and buckled in several places (you can see the worst of it there in the center of the cabinet). Swears were uttered by both parties.

As of last night the floor was still drying out. We're not sure if we'll be able to get the tiles to lay flat again and/or if they'll be too damaged to use. Here's to hoping. So, in closing, if you're planning on refinishing your floors, make sure the ice maker is empty before unplugging your fridge. Eff.

Ramblings

2011-05-18T10:40:00.002-06:00

This blog sure has been in a funk lately. It originally lost attention because of house hunting (now house fixing up) priorities. Then our main computer broke (still not fixed) and I was left to type on a shared laptop on a TV tray or lap. Not ideal or fun.

Then the writer’s block hit. I swear I’ve been wanting to write something amazing here for a long time but it’s like all my ideas have jumped out of my brain, never to return. So then I thought I’d write about nothing. Turns out that’s hard to do as well… as you can tell from this post.

And there are always things I’d like to write about. But I can’t. Either it’s just not the right time, or I can’t find the words, or I don’t have the courage to do so. So I let those things sit on the backburner and hope that one day maybe they can be shared. Or not. Maybe it doesn’t make a difference if I write them. Or maybe it would make too much of a difference and that’s what I’m scared of. I wonder how many people have the same sort of things they’d like to say but don’t.

Do you think it’s possible that in reality we could say what we wanted to everyone but don’t because of how we think they’d react? I mean hopefully we all have at least one person we can talk to where the filters are always down… where we can say what we think or feel without fear of judgment or anger. Do you think that is possible to achieve in all our personal relationships? Or does there always have to be those people that need the filters? It just seems like there are a lot of relationships that aren’t developed into something deeper because of fear. Fear of offense mainly. We don’t ask questions or talk about certain things because we don’t want to rock the boat… but should we rock the boat? I mean for the greater purpose of deepening relationships and increasing communication and understanding? I wonder sometimes if I’m too robotic in my approach to people. Where there’s not enough giving of who I am and not enough taking. ‘Taking’ in the sense of digging deeper into people… of asking them scary questions. And at what point does that questioning become nosy and intrusive?

Wow this turned out to be a much more serious post than I thought would happen. I guess it’s hard to know what’s in your brain until you let it out. Feel free to comment on my ramblings if you feel so inclined.

How To: Refinishing Cabinets

2011-05-13T12:19:00.001-06:00

Do you have some ugly, worn out cabinets like these?

Would you like new cabinets but don't have thousands of dollars to spend? What if I told you that you could completely transform your kitchen for under $200? It's true. I know because I did it. It's takes a bit of patience and elbow grease, but the results are well worth it. Here's what you do:

1. Disassemble and clean cabinets

Prep work is a huge factor in how your cabinets will turn out. You'll need to use a degreaser of some sort to get rid of oils and grease that may be on the cabinets. I used Simple Green because it works well and doesn't have a harsh chemical odor. Disassembling the cabinets (removing all hardware, hinges, etc.) will make it easier to paint all the nooks and crannies. And if you plan to reuse the hinges, they won't get covered in paint. Trust me, it's impossible to adequately tape over these things.

2. Pre-drill holes for knobs and drawer pulls

If you plan on adding knobs and/or drawer pulls, you will want to drill the holes for them now. Otherwise you stand a big chance of having the paint job damaged later on. I used a template purchased from a home improvement store (found in the kitchen hardware isle) to mark the cabinets. Make sure you check which direction each door is mounted and note whether you want the knob at the top or bottom of the door. You don't want to drill the hole in the wrong place. Also, be careful with any marks you make on the door. I used pen which bled through several coats of paint and ultimately had to be covered with a separate primer.

Knob/Drawer Pull Templates

3. Sand & Prime

This is another huge step. You want your final paint to stick to your cabinets. This will not happen if you don't sand and prime them. Use a fine grit sand paper (I like to use the sanding sponges as they are easier to hold) and quickly scuff up all the surfaces that will be painted, especially those that have been previously finished or are smooth. Wipe off all sanding residue.

Next apply a coat of primer. You may need to use a couple different types. A bottle of food coloring had been spilled in one of my cabinets. Regular primer wouldn't cover this. Same with pen or any other oils or pigments. If you have stains like these that need to be covered, spot treat them using a spray primer such as Sherwin Williams ProBlock Oil Based Spray Primer. This will be followed up with an adhesion primer such as Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer which will make your paint will stick to smooth surfaces. You'll want to paint all surfaces of your cabinets with this.

4. Paint

Now you get to paint the cabinets. I suggest using a small high-density foam roller as it covers better and will make the work go much faster than a brush alone. You will still need a brush to cut-in corners and to get any detail work. If you plan on antiquing the cabinets keep in mind it will darken the color quite a bit, so plan accordingly. I used a bright white as my base. You will most likely need at least two coats of your base color, possibly three. If you like the look of your cabinets after painting alone, you get to stop here!

5. Glaze

If you like the look antiquing gives or you want to cover up some impurities or damage on your cabinets, glaze is a great option. It's a good way to enhance details and wood grain and make dirt less noticeable later on. First you'll want to get some supplies together. You will need some latex gloves. This stuff is messy and will stain your hands. You will also need something to wipe the glaze off the cabinets. Torn up t-shirts work well, but you'll need a lot of them. For this reason I used some rags in a box (like paper towels on steroids). You can find them in the paint section of any home improvement store. You will also need some glaze. I told the guys down at the local Sherwin Williams store what I wanted to do and they mixed me up a quart of dark brown glaze which worked great.

Before you go to town on your cabinets, do a test run first. I used a spare door that I wasn't going to re-hang. This will give you a feel for how much time you have to work with the glaze and how much you can apply at one time. I found that I could do one side of a cabinet door at a time. The longer the glaze stays on the surface the darker it will be so you want to make sure the timing is approximately the same for all your doors. I suggest doing one application, then doing a second if you want it darker.

Start by painting the entire surface with glaze. This will look scary at first because it will be very dark. Don't panic.

When the entire surface is painted, immediately being wiping the glaze off with towels. Make sure to wipe off the glaze in the direction of the wood. The thinner the glaze gets, the faster you need to work as it will dry faster.

Despite all of the precautions here, this is actually very simple to do. Don't worry about ruining your cabinets. If you work in reasonable sized sections you won't have any trouble creating the look you want. And the glaze process is very forgiving. It's supposed to have a rustic look so perfection isn't necessary.

6. Allow to dry thoroughly and reassemble

Yeah! You're done painting! This is the fun part. Now you get to put on all of the new knobs and pulls and rehang the cabinet doors. You will be amazed at how much this process changes the look of your kitchen. It's a lot of hard work to get to this point but it's definitely worth it!

Ta Da! Doesn't it look great? And you get to see a little peek of the finished wall color! More to come!

Update: See the completely finished kitchen HERE!

First Run

2011-04-29T13:29:00.000-06:00

I went running last night for the first time this year. Yes, I suck again, but not as bad as I did when I very first tried it. I love running in this area... isn't it beautiful? So great. It's amazing to get outside in the fresh air and look at those mountains for the whole run.

My favorite trail: Kays Creek

Satan's Rainbow

2011-04-15T09:38:00.000-06:00

If you follow me on Facebook at all, you may have seen my little post about how I'd been stressing out about paint colors for the house and how I'd finally chosen a color. Turns out that color wasn't what I wanted. So we chose a couple more colors to try out. No dice. Then we changed things up and decided to go the orange route. That didn't work either. So we went back to beiges. I picked three new beiges and sorta liked one. So we were gonna go with that. At this point we had purchased 10 different samples and I didn't like any of them. I don't know how this is possible. But it was.

The Carnage

The other night we were walking around in RCWilleys (after purchasing a new fridge... yeah!).They have a lot of small walls throughout the store, all painted a different color. These colors were also labeled with a paint brand and name. So we decided to scout out the store for paint colors. Can I tell you how awesome this was? I can see lots of colors! And they're named! And a WHOLE WALL is painted, not just a 1" square on a card. Who would have known the furniture store would be the perfect place to shop for paint colors?

Well it turns out I saw an orange and a beige I liked. So I ditched the color I'd previously settled on. I pretty much had to do this because the beige color I liked ended up having the best name ever: Smoked Trout. And the orange was just what I was looking for. Seth is picking up samples of these two colors today. If these colors don't look good in our house I quit. Stay tuned.

March Book Reviews: Memoirs of a Geisha and Bonk

2011-04-13T12:48:00.001-06:00

As you may have noticed, these last couple months have been a little slow for me book-wise. There are two reasons for this: #1 I've been busy with house stuff and #2 I've had a hard time finding good books. I actually started at least 4 books that I didn't like enough to read very far. The good news is I found a couple winners after all that digging! Here they are:

Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden
Rating: ***

This is a book that has been on my radar for a while. Although the story itself is fiction, it's historical fiction based on stories and research from real geishas. To be honest I wasn't exactly sure what a geisha was. I was surprised to find that they aren't the American equivalent of a prostitute. They're more like high-class dates for businessmen. Even that explanation is a little too pointed.

This book is about a girl named Sayuri who gets sold as a young girl in order to become a geisha. It follows her through her life as she accepts her future as a geisha and tries to make the most of it.

I actually really liked this book. It was hard for me as a woman to imagine myself in Sayuri's shoes. What if that had happened to me? How would I deal with all the trials she was given? It's hard to imagine a life like that. Anyway, I listened to this on audiobook and thought it was really good. Definitely worth reading.

Bonk

By Mary Roach
Rating: ***

I'm a huge fan of Mary Roach. She's such a great writer. She can seemingly take any subject and make it funny and interesting. After I read "Packing for Mars" I decided I needed to read another one of her books. So I chose this one. I mean who doesn't like to read about science and sex?

I thought this book was a great blend of science and humor. It dealt with the subject of sex in a very professional but interesting way. It's amazing to learn what goes on in the human body that we aren't aware of. While I did think this was a good book, it wasn't quite as good as Packing for Mars. It was, however, definitely worthy of reading.

Spam

2011-04-08T13:20:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what it is about my food blog that attracts the spam comments. But I get them pretty regularly. At first I was sort of angered by them, but then I found them quite entertaining. And then I thought maybe you'd all be entertained by them also. So I've been saving all the spam comments for the last couple months. It's quite a nice collection if I don't say so myself.

Keep in mind these are all in response to recipes, not political issues or brilliant ideas.

p.s. I didn't keep the spam comments laden with gobs of porn site links. I figured you could find those on your own if need be.

"Good I should certainly pronounce, impressed with your website. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs as well as related information ended up being truly easy to do to access. I recently found what I hoped for before you know it at all. Quite unusual. Is likely to appreciate it for those who add forums or anything, website theme . a tones way for your client to communicate. Nice task.."

"thnx bro"

"i love it" (from "Facebook"... I should be honored such a large entity loves my stuff...)

"your good"

"as if!"

"Thanks, its usefully for me."

"It’s interesting to see this point of view. I can’t say fore sure if I agree or not, but it is something I will think about now."

"it seems quite trivial to expect"

"Very informative blog here. I couldn’t have made a better one if my life depended on it." (I was very flattered that "Penis Enlargement Pills" would leave such a nice comment...)

"Once you are done trying to ‘optimize’ this routine."

The Sycamore House

2011-03-18T17:01:00.000-06:00

It was towards the end of January this year when Seth and I decided we should start looking for a house. Our apartment lease wasn't up until the end of July, but we figured we'd get a jump start on looking to see what was available and to give ourselves more opportunity to find a good deal. With all the short-sale homes on the market and the likelihood we'd end up with a fixer-upper, there was a good chance it'd be a while before anything serious happened.

We found an awesome realtor, Heather Higgs, who seemed as excited as we were about house hunting (seriously... she was AWESOME). We spent our evenings looking at homes on Utah Real Estate and planning outings to go look at the treasures we'd found. (By the way, Google Maps is the best tool ever for house hunting!)

Fairly early on we found a cute little house we deemed the "Sycamore House." It was a cute little house in a nice cul-de-sac here in Layton. It seemed to have all the things we were looking for: a semi-private yard, two car garage, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a large kitchen. And it had a huge Sycamore tree in the backyard. I have a small crush on Sycamore trees, so I was immediately enamored with the property. Especially because it was in the lower end of our price range!

For a couple days we mulled over what to do and eventually decided to put our first offer on a house. To our surprise the first bank accepted our offer within a week. And then the second one accepted it a couple weeks later with the stipulation that we had to close on it within a month. AHHH! This was definitely happening way faster than we ever thought it would!

The few weeks that followed were filled with discussions of paint colors and flooring options as well as trips to the hardware store & home shows to price all the different things we would surely need to fix the place up. We wanted to be ready to get to work once all the papers were signed. While the house wasn't a total disaster, it would definitely need a face-lift before moving time came.

And after what seemed like the longest month ever, we finally closed today! Woohoo! The Sycamore House is now ours and the adventure begins!

Which brings us to what you've all been waiting for: THE PICTURES! I wanted to capture the "before" pictures of this house so you could all admire our handywork and excellent taste in tapestries when you see it finished. Actually, I'm begging you to admire it so I don't burst into tears about choosing the wrong color of taupe (you can tell your significant other/friends how much you hate it later).

The Sycamore House (BEFORE)

Back deck... they got a little carried away with the gazebos. There's also an above ground pool. Yippee.

Living Room: The paint and floor aren't in as good of shape as they look.

Kitchen: The cabinets are disgusting. I don't think they've ever been cleaned...

The counter by the fridge space is falling off the wall. And there's really not much cabinet space despite the large size of the kitchen.

The paint job in here pretty much sucks. All the white paint in the house could use another coat. And I hate this brown.

Family Room: There's some missing tiles on the fireplace hearth and the room definitely needs paint, carpet, and new window coverings.

Another view of the family room. See that old furnace? Yeah, it'll probably have to be replaced...

Downstairs Bathroom: Lovely shade of blue, eh?

Downstairs Bedroom: This is a nice large room, but it definitely needs some paint, carpet, and blinds. Oh and probably a new ceiling tile or two.

Master Bedroom: Needs some new carpet, paint, and some curtains!

Master Bedroom: One small closet for the master bedroom, that's a problem!

Upstairs Bedroom/Office: It looks nice but the paint job sucks. As does the carpet.

Downstairs Bedroom #2: Yucky paint and carpet. And those curtains have got to go.

Downstairs Bedroom #2: I don't know why, but there are no closet doors in this whole house. (That flower is a nice touch though...)

Laundry Room: Very laundry roomy. I'll definitely be doing a spider check in here...

So there you have it. The new Hanson home! There are a few other things that may need to be fixed later such as the swamp cooler, garage doors, and aluminum windows, but it's not so bad. Despite all of its many flaws, once we get done with it I think it will be great! We're really looking forward to all the extra space and LIGHT! We'll finally be able to have people over and not eat on t.v. trays! Woohoo!

My Obsession with Trains and Trout Continues...

2011-03-06T20:04:00.001-07:00

This winter has proved to be very busy. Ok mainly just the last month or so. I'm not going to get into details yet, but a house hunting endeavor has been sucking up all my time. I realized how bad it was when I went to write the February book reviews post and realized I'd only finished one book. Sad. And my computer is on the fritz. And then somebody stole Sexyterra's license plate. It's been a mess. Which is why this weekend was so great.

For the first time this winter I actually got in some fly fishing. Yes, I went ice fishing several times, but it's just not the same. This weekend I got to put on my waders TWICE. And I even caught a few browns. Man I've missed those little guys (who may or may not have inspired some decorating ideas...). Plus, have I told you how beautiful it is up on the Weber River? What? I have? A million times you say? Ok I know. I'm obsessed. But look at this... how could I not be?

Posted up at a good spot and caught these guys all day!

Seth fishing on the bridge as a train passes.

I don't think anyone could be more handsome holding a fish. It's unpossible. (Heidi, I stole your word!)

Ok fine I'll stop. Even though you're probably begging for more because I've left you high and dry for so long. It's not my fault. But I promise there is more to come. Some time. Not really sure when, but hopefully soon. Who am I kidding... the craziness is only just beginning...

Mascara Wars

2011-02-20T08:59:00.002-07:00

Warning: This post contains explicit material about make-up and really girly things. Take heed male readers.

Even though I'd pronounced my favorite mascara here, I couldn't help but get sucked into marketing schemes and try a couple new mascaras. I mean, how could you not want to try a mascara called "Falsies." HA! So today we will be pitting the challenger, CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume Mascara against a couple contenders and see how it fares. Can it stay the ultimate mascara champion or will it crumble into a streaky black mess of failure? Let's find out...

CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara

vs.

CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion Mascara

After declaring the CG LashBlast Volume Mascara as my favorite, CoverGirl came out with a new formula that was supposed to be both a volumizing and lengthening mascara. Well that's clearly better than just a volumizing mascara, right?

It took me a couple purchases of the Fusion mascara before I could really compare it to the Volume mascara. I accidentally bought the brown color of the Fusion my first time around, which I couldn't compare equally with the Volume because color can make a big difference in how the mascara looks. Still, the formula felt a little drier than the Volume. I thought it might be a fluke... maybe it'd been sitting on the shelf longer than normal because brown isn't as popular of a color. So I went back for a second tube and this time got my regular color: blackest black.

I immediately noticed the Fusion mascara formula was indeed drier than the Volume formula. I'm sure they did this to increase the length and volume, but it wasn't obviously more so than the Volume mascara. And because it started out drier, the tube didn't last as long. I saw little clumps on my lashes pretty early on. The Fusion mascara used the exact same wand as the Volume which I liked, but the one thing that sealed the deal on Volume being the winner was price. The Fusion mascara was more expensive than the Volume formula, by $.50 I think.

So the winner and remaining champ is.... CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara!

Ready for the next fight? You got it...

Entering the ring we have our continuing champ: CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara

And our new contender is.....Maybelline Volum' Express "the Falsies" Black Drama Mascara

I'll admit I bought this mascara just because of the name. Falsies? That name makes me think of these not these. My immediate opinion of the Falsies mascara was I didn't like the brush. It was too stubby and it looked like there was a lot of mascara loaded on the wand. Surprisingly it applied fairly well, not the gloppy mess I thought it would be. Still, I've come to love the plastic bristle brushes and this one was too bushy and not stiff enough. I also noticed there were a lot of hair-like fibers in the formula. I'm sure this is how they get the dramatic "false lash" look, but to me it just made the formula look dirty.

As far as performance goes, I didn't hate the look the Falsies gave. I did think this made my lashes look longer and fuller than the CG Volume mascara did, but not obviously so. However, the look with the Falsies was a bit clumpier than with the Volume mascara and it was tough to evenly cover my lower lashes without clumps and globs. The staying power of the Falsies mascara was comparable to CG Volume which was nice and I do think if you're looking for a super dramatic look you may like this mascara, but for everyday wear, I'm going to stick with my CoverGirl LashBlast Volume Mascara. Especially because I can add additional coats if I want the dramatic look the Falsies gave me. I have heard the original formula of Falsies (not the Black Drama formula) is a better everyday mascara, so I may end up trying that one in the future, just to see if I like it. But for our purposes today, I officially declare the winner to be:

CoverGirl Lashblast Volume Mascara!!

Have you tried any of these mascaras? Which did you like best and why? Do you use a completely different brand you think I'd like better?

January Book Reviews: West of the Tularosa, The Hunger Games, and Peace Like a River

2011-02-18T09:19:00.002-07:00

To start out the new year I thought I would revamp my book reviewing system. I started using a new website called Good Reads to keep track of the books I've read in the past, books I'm currently reading, books I want to read, and books I've finished. I've posted a couple different book lists on my sidebar: books I'm currently reading and books I've finished this year. This way you can easily see the ratings I've given for any book without having to dig through all my book posts.

Because I started using the Good Reads website, my rating scale will also change. I will now be on a 5 star system instead of 3. Here's the breakdown:

*= Didn't like it; **= It was ok; ***=Liked it; ****=Really liked it; *****=It was amazing

West of the Tularosa

by Louis L'Amour

Rating: **

West of the Tularosa is about... well... let's see. This guy comes into town and finds some dead guys in a cabin. Then the bad guys try to frame him and they gotta figure out who done what.

This was my first attempt at reading a western. I listened to this on audiobook and thought it was entertaining, though maybe not quite my style. I'm typically not big on westerns and this just seemed to be a little too... I don't know. It's a good book to read on the beach. There. I think that says it.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Rating: ****

For those of you who haven't read it yet, The Hunger Games is about a girl named Katniss who is involved in a deadly survivalist reality t.v. show. Every year, two children (a boy and a girl) between the ages of 12-18 are drawn in a lottery from each of 12 districts. These children are then sent into an arena to fight to the death. The winner gets immunity from later games as well as food and a home for the rest of their lives, something that is very valuable in a semi-communistic society where starvation is common.

I didn't want to like this book, what with it being so popular and all, but I couldn't help it. I had it on loan from the library for two weeks, a shorter period than normal because there's such a long waiting list. Seth and I were both able to finish the book in the two week period. It was a very engaging book... I found that I kept reading and reading... something I rarely do. This was a great easy read and I'll definitely be reading the whole series.

Peace Like a River

by Leif Enger

Rating: *****

I know. This book looks like it would be incredibly boring. The title does not do it justice. However, this was one of the best books I've read in a while. It's hard to say what this book is about without giving away too many plot details. Mainly it's about a man named Jeremiah Land who goes through a moral dilemma of whether he should turn his 16 year old son, Davy into "the Feds" after he is charged for murder and escapes from prison. The book is told from Davy's 11 year old asthmatic brother, Reuben's perspective.

I really loved Enger's writing style. He gave each of his characters such an individual personality and voice. You can't help but love each of the characters, even the "evil Fed" who is after Davy. This book is definitely on my Top 5 list for the last year.

p.s. I listened to the audio version of this book and really enjoyed it. Great narrator.

Please Bless the Refreshments

2011-01-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I grew up in a Mormon family. We went to church every week, read our scriptures, and had Family Home Evening. We didn't shop on Sundays, we paid our tithing and we supported our church leaders. We were the epitome of what a Mormon family should be.

One Monday night when I was about 10, my dad said he had something special for the "treat" part of Family Home Evening. We excitedly made our way through the typical program: Opening Song, Prayer, Testimony, Lesson. Then Dad disappeared into the kitchen.

A few minutes later Dad yelled from the kitchen. "Close your eyes, you birds, and don't open them until I say so!" I sat there on the couch with my eyes closed as Dad came in and handed me a cool glass of liquid. "Don't open your eyes yet, just drink it," he said. As I lifted the glass to my lips I immediately smelled something unpleasant. I wasn't about to drink some stinky mystery drink, especially one my prankster dad just gave me, so I opened my eyes.

There in my hand was an ice-cold glass of beer. "Take a drink!" my dad said. "No! It smells gross and it's beer!" "It's just O'Douls, there's no alcohol in it, just drink it!" So I tentatively took a sip. A strong bitter yeasty flavor rolled over my tongue and I thought I was going to barf. "Ew! This is gross!" "Come on! Take a few swallows!" "I can't! It's going to make me throw up!" This went on for several more minutes until Dad finally gave up. We'd tasted beer and hated it. Just as he'd planned.

The remaining bottles of beer sat out in the garage for months before they were finally thrown away. It would be years before I'd have the nerve to try beer again. Dad's plan worked, as unconventional and crazy as it sounds. Although, this story doesn't even compare to the time he gave us hash brownies.

Ok not really. But he probably wanted to.

My Job

2011-01-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Whenever somebody asks me what it is I do for a living, I always hesitate for just a moment. There's not a fast answer like 'I'm a nurse' or 'I'm an accountant,' it's more like 'I'manx-raytechnicianandItestx-rayequipment.' Did you get that? No? Well, don't feel too bad, most of my family members don't really know what it is I do either. I imagine whenever people ask about me (assuming they do...) my parents say something like, "Oh, she does something with x-rays" or "She used to do something with lasers, I'm not really sure what she does now."

Back when I was fresh out of high school, I had no idea what it was I wanted to do. So, I headed over to the community college and spent a year and a half working on an associates degree in "General Studies." I was one semester away from getting my degree when I decided to dump that idea and head over to tech school. Why? I'm not really sure why actually. I'll tell you what happened....

I knew I didn't have much time left to figure out what I wanted to do next so I headed over to the library one day and picked up a book full of career listings. I scanned through the book, flipping pages and reading all the different careers available. Somehow I came upon the "Electrical Engineer" and "Electronics Engineer" listings and thought, Huh... why not? Looks like I could make a decent amount of money doing that.

To tell you the truth I didn't really know what the difference was between the two at the time, but an ill-informed career counselor at the tech school told me the Electrical Engineer was more of a designer/book nerd/work at a desk person, and the Electronics Engineer was more of the hands-on end. Completely wrong, but I figured the hands-on approach sounded better, so I chose to get my degree in Electronics Engineering.

I'd originally planned to go through and get my bachelor's degree, but the tech school I went to was really expensive and I didn't think the quality was that great, so I quit after getting my AAS Degree in Electronics and headed out to get a job. Because I only had an associates degree, this put me into the technician category instead of the engineer category. Which, to tell you the honest truth is completely fine with me. I'm not sure if this is true everywhere, but at my current job, the engineers do all the calculations, solve design problems, and do a lot of the thinking work. After they figure out what needs to be done, they tell me, the technician what tests to run, what equipment to use, and what products to build. So I get to do a lot of hands-on work with tools and test equipment.

So what do I currently do? Well, I'm basically an engineering technician for the "Research and Development (R&D)" group at Varian Medical Systems, which designs, tests, and manufactures x-ray tubes. They use these x-ray tubes in all sorts of areas such as CT scanners, airport baggage scanners, mammography, angiography & cardiology, radiographic imaging, etc. My job is to help test the new tubes and help fix problems with tubes they currently produce. I get to build and test x-ray tubes, write up build procedures for the manufacturing areas, order tools and parts, and write up technical reports.

I really think I lucked out as far as choosing a career that suits me well. I had no idea what I was getting into back when I chose my career, but somehow I managed to pick something that allows me to use my strengths and do things that I enjoy. I have a team of intelligent people I get to work with everyday in the engineering group, but I also get to work with all kinds of people all over the plant. I'm constantly doing new things and every day is different. Some days I'm working on spreadsheets or writing reports at my desk and other days I'm covered in dirt and grime with a wrench in my hand. Plus since this field isn't very popular with the women folk, I pretty much work with men all day. For me that's a huge bonus. All the women may hate me for saying this, but I'd much rather work with men. Less drama, more humor. Plus, they'll eat all the treats I bring in without whining about their hips getting huge. Win/win!

I hope this helped to explain what it is I do. Life sure is interesting in how it turns out. Things have a way of working out for the best sometimes, and I'm glad in this case I was able to find something that makes me happy.

The Four Virgins

2011-01-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

The FourVirgins? Why yes! This post is about four virgins. Let me explain.

Yesterday was my virgin ice fishing trip this winter. It was also my virgin ice fishing trip to Pineview Reservoir. During said trip I caught my first ever crappie AND perch. So there you have it! Four virgins.

My first crappie.

My first perch.

You'd think I'd have spent millions of hours at Pineview Reservoir over the course of my life. I mean, my grandparents have lived in the area for more than my entire life. I've driven by it countless times, but including this weekend, I've only ever been there twice. I've definitely been missing out.

On Saturday Seth and I met up with The Navajos and Eric (that should be a band name), to do some ice fishing. We chose Pineview because of its close proximity to our apartment and the fact that it was completely iced over. Pineview is a little different from most lakes in the area because it's not a trout lake. It's known more for perch, crappie, and tiger muskie. We set out to catch some perch and catch them we did!
We probably showed up later than we should have because the fish were only steadily biting for an hour or so after we got there. The total for the group was 8 perch and 2 crappie. Seth decided he needed more perch so he went out again early Sunday and caught 13 more.

We all had a great time and I'm sure this won't be the last time we ice fish at Pineview this year. It was definitely a beautiful place to be.

Seth was really angry at his fishing poles. Or maybe he was giving them a pep talk. I can't remember.

Eric, Ramona, and Gabe heading out onto the ice.

Woah. That's deep.

Seth showing us the ways of the auger.

Eric tries his hand at drilling.

Seth with his first catch of the day.

If you don't fish, you may be wondering why on Earth you'd want to catch and keep such small fish. I'll tell you why. Those perch are good eatin. Never cleaned a perch? I hadn't either! But we found this great video on YouTube that explained it really well. Also just FYI, these things are like mini catfish in the sense that they DO NOT DIE. Our perch were sitting out on the ice almost frozen solid for several hours after which they were put in a ziplock bag and taken home. I was half way through gutting one when it started flopping around. ALL of them did this. Creepy huh?!

For the record, we took way longer to clean ours than 10 seconds a piece, but this tutorial made it way easier to clean the fish than anything we would have come up with on our own.

Gutting the perch... it takes lots of concentration...

Some finished cleaned perch. That Leatherman Juice knife is the best for gutting fish, especially after being sharpened by Dad Hanson.

Don't know how to cook these guys? Well you're in luck! I've got the best recipe ever for fried fish from the fish cooking master herself.... Mama Hanson. Check it out over at Gravy Training!

Space Garden!

2011-01-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

You may want to sit down for this. I have something very shocking to tell you.

I GREW SOMETHING!

Lots of somethings actually. HERBS to be exact. In this very apartment! The one that has no sunshine ever! How is this possible you ask? Easy...

A SPACE GARDEN!

You know, like outer space. The final frontier.

This is a garden that would fly on a spaceship with astronauts or aliens. Ok fine. It isn't really a space garden. But that's what I call it because it looks so futuristic and it can grow plants in any room even if it's completely devoid of light! IT'S MAGIC. And you don't even have to be good at growing stuff because it tells you what to do! When the blinky light says add more water, ADD MORE WATER. When the blinky light says add plant food, ADD PLANT FOOD. That's it! Amazing huh?!

You can choose from several different types of plants to grow from tomatoes and peppers, to herbs, to flowers. I chose herbs. Because I cook a lot remember? And those fresh herbs are so damned expensive. Want to see what I chose? Too bad! HA!

Cilantro

(Look how huge it is already! And isn't that seed case so cute all hanging on and such?)

Genovese Basil

(This is the tradition basil you find in the grocery store that's used in Italian cooking.)

Italian Parsley

(aka Flatleaf Parsley... this little guy is just barely starting to wake up so you can't really see him yet.)

Mint

(This one is also pretty tiny still, but there's a couple sprouts!)

Oregano

(Look at those cute little leaves!)

Sage

(One strong shoot coming right up!)

Thyme

(I really can't wait for this one! Yum!)

And here it is in all it's wonderful growing glory... the Space Garden!!

And the best part is, I can grow stuff all year long! I even got several more herbs I can plant once these ones are done: Mint, Dill, Globe Basil, Thai Basil, Marjoram, and Lemon Basil. I'm going to have to figure out how to use all that stuff!

I'd always wanted one of these things but they're a little pricey for an everyday spur-of-the-moment purchase. But you know how my genius, wonderful husband is. He makes little notes in his brain about all the weird things his crazy wife likes and extricates them at just the right moment (namely birthdays and CHRISTMAS), filling my world with pure bliss and surprise and loveliness.

Thank you dear. You are quite amazing. And I love you.

I Did Something This Year!

2010-12-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

I made a goal for the 2010 year to read 30 books. This was three times as many as I'd read the year before so I thought it'd be pretty hard to accomplish. I'm happy to report that I didn't read 30 books. I read 45. Yay me!

I kept a running list of all the books I finished and made a note of the ones that were audiobooks. Turns out I finished 23 books just by listening to them during my commutes and road trips. This was a great find for me. Not only was I able to "read" more, but it was a great way to use time that would normally be filled with meaningless chatter. And since I got all the books from the library, it was completely free! The library has a huge selection of audiobooks available and it's so easy to go online, search their collection, and reserve what I want.

I also kept track of books that I started and didn't finish. Most of these books were audiobooks that weren't very well suited to car listening and/or had annoying narrators. I'm always looking for good audiobooks so let me know if you have any favorites!

Another thing I tried to do this year was to broaden my horizons a bit as far as the types of books I read. I typically like non-fiction, usually in the humor realm. This year I managed to read at least one book in each of these genres: biography, autobiography, sci-fi, classic fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, humor, fiction, nature, and science. Pretty good eh?

Ready to see my list? Behold!

My List of Books Read in 2010
*Audiobook

1.Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Retin
2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
3. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost
4. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
5. Last Words by George Carlin
6. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
8. The Brothers K by David James Duncan*
9. Know Your Cat: Understand How Your Cat Thinks and Behaves by Francesca Riccomini
10. Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton*
11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon*
12. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini*
13. My Life in France by Julia Child
14. My Old Man by Amy Sohn
15. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt *

16. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner*
17.I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR's National Story Project by Paul Auster*
18. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers*
19. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin*
20. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer*
21. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank*
22. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
23. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger*
24. Anthem by Ayn Rand
25. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
26.Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore*
27. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
28. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt*
29. Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer
30. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
31. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
32. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson*
33. Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis*
34. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
35. Carrie by Stephen King*
36. Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet*
37. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
38. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway*
39. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
40. Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway*
41.A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway*
42. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah*
43. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
44. In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks: And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy by Adam Carolla
45. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach*

Half-Read

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell*

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton*
Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami*
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley*

The funny thing is, when I started this goal, I made a list of 30 books I wanted to read so I wouldn't ever waste time trying to choose my next book. I actually made it through a lot of the books I wanted to read, but much to my surprise, the more I read, the more books made it onto the list of ones I wanted to read. I find it very frustrating that I can't read as many books as I'd like to. And even if I could read all the time, I'd still have a huge list of books I hadn't read yet. The list just keeps getting bigger and bigger!

So have you read any of these books? What books were your favorites this year? Anything I absolutely need to add to my list?

December Book Reviews: A Long Way Gone, The Brief History of the Dead, In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks, and Packing for Mars

2010-12-31T12:23:00.001-07:00

My Rating System: *OK, **Good, ***Great

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ishmael Beah

Rating: ***

A Long Way Gone is a book about a boy living in Sierra Leone, who ends up being forced into becoming a soldier after the RUF invasion.

I listened to this book on CD which was read by the author. I'm not even sure what to say about this book. I don't know how a person could endure all the things these people go through. First, you're living happily with your family, then you're running for your lives, then you're forced to become one of these evil people, and finally you're subjected to rehab in order to become a regular part of society again? Beah's experiences made me sick to my stomach and brought me to tears on several occasions. It is so scary to me that people can become such monsters. That there are people out there that really delight in making their fellow human beings miserable. In making them suffer. What a cruel tragedy.

Despite all the horrible things Beah did as a soldier, I am amazed at what he's done to turn his life around. What a great example and source of hope to those who came from similar circumstances. If all you've ever heard about the genocide and turmoil going on in these countries was from the t.v., I suggest you read this book. It's a huge eye opener.

The Brief History of the Dead

by Kevin Brockmeier

Rating: **

This book was a suggested read from my good buddy, Paul. I mentioned that I'd never read a sci-fi book before and he suggested this one. It looked very intriguing so I gave it a shot.

The Brief History of the Dead is a book about a woman who goes on a research trip to Antarctica for the Coca-Cola company, during which time a pandemic hits Earth. It follows her trip in conjunction with another world where all people go when they die. It is a world very similar to Earth and the dead people stay there until no one is left on Earth that remembers them.

I thought this was a very interesting concept for a book and it was able to keep my attention. The story flip-flopped between the Antarctica trip and the dead-people world and slowly unfolded details that evenly brought both stories together, without making the plot too confusing. Usually when I think of sci-fi my mind fills with images of space aliens or dinosaur invasions. This book was a pleasant surprise and gave me a different view of what is included in the sci-fi genre.

In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks... And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy

by Adam Carolla

Rating: **+

In case you're unaware, Seth is totally gay for Adam Carolla. You could say he's his man-crush. Seth listens to Carolla's podcast every day and I'm constantly hearing what Adam thinks about this or that or Adam said so and so. I think it's kind of cute. So of course when Seth heard this book was coming out, he PRE-ORDERED it. Now Seth reads a lot, but I've never seen him pre-order anything.

Of course Seth read this as soon as he got it. I'd hear him chuckling almost non-stop while he read. So, because Adam Carolla is Seth's man-crush, and because the cover of the book was so awesome, and because of all the laughter I heard while Seth read, I too read this book.

The book is basically a compilation of Adam's views on everything. And I mean everything. Have you ever wondered if he had a stance on toasters or wallet colors? Well he does! Quite frankly I was in awe at all of his seemingly very passionate opinions on all these things. He even has an opinion on how to press the buttons on my microwave so's I don't waste precious time.

This book was a very enjoyable, entertaining read. I too laughed at Adam's many hilarious one-liners. And I'll never get sick of looking at that cover. As a caution, he swears a lot. He gets pretty controversial and doesn't care if he's politically correct. I thought this was funny. You may not. Read at your own risk!

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

by Mary Roach

Rating: ***

I wasn't sure exactly what this book was about when I picked up the audiobook from the library, but I'd read "Stiff" by Mary Roach and really enjoyed it, so I thought this one had good potential. As usual, I was right!

Packing for Mars is mainly about the NASA space program and all the different things they do to train astronauts and the tests they do in preparation for space missions. Now, that may not sound all that exciting, especially if you're not really into space stuff (like me), but this book was surprisingly really interesting. There are so many things they have to test that you'd never even think about.

This book spans everything from testing g-forces, space potties, and food development. Roach has a great talent for delivering technical and scientific information in an understandable yet, entertaining way without patronizing her readers. As much as I liked "Stiff" (her book about human cadaver uses & history), I liked this one even more. In fact I'm listening to it right now for a second time because Seth wanted to listen to it to. I finally understand what gravity is, how satellites stay in orbit, and how involved space travel really is. This was one of the few audiobooks I've listened to that I was sad when it ended.

If you've ever wanted to learn more about the space program or if you don't, read this book. One of my top picks from this year.

Those Egyptians Sure Loved to Bake

2010-12-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

Seth and I are loading groceries into the car after doing some shopping...

Seth: Parchment paper? I thought that went the way of the ancient Egyptians...

Me: I believe you're thinking of papyrus.

Seth: Oh yeah, right.

Asking Too Much

2010-12-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Remember a few weeks ago when I made my 101 goals in 1001 days list? Yeah, so do I. Sort of. I wrote up a separate post that only I can see so I can keep making updates and such. So, I've realized something already in this endeavor. No, I'm not quitting. Far from it. I think there were some great goals there. However, I have noticed I may have made a few too many goals that are dependent on me completing them on a regular basis.

Here are all the goals I made that I was supposed to do regularly:

Workout 3x per week
Drink at least 40 oz. of water a day
Call at least one family member at least once a week
Have dinner with Mom once a month
Play the piano at least once a week
Play my clarinet at least once a month
Do at least one post per week on my personal blog
Bake bread 1x per month
Bring a treat for co-workers at least once a month
Bring my lunch to work 3x per week
Vacuum & Dust once a week
Clean the bathrooms once a week
Clean out my work e-mail inbox weekly

So mainly the problem is, I can't remember all this stuff! I thought I was doing ok until I started going through trying to list the dates of all the times I did each of these things and realized I've pretty much already failed at all of them. Even the ones I thought I'd remembered to do.

Like I said, I think these are good goals. However, I think feeling like I HAVE to complete each one takes the fun out of it. When playing the piano or calling family becomes a burden, you know something's wrong.

So, I know when you're making goals it's best to narrow them down and be specific, but I think I'm going to do the opposite of that on these. I'm going to replace the "weekly" or "monthly" addendum with "more often." So instead of "play my clarinet once a month" it'll be "play my clarinet more often." And I think just having these items on my goal list at all will help me to think about them more. Doing stuff is hard.

Who Wants a Madball?!

2010-12-05T16:49:00.001-07:00

When I was a kid, we always had one Saturday of Christmas shopping during the holiday season during which we would go to the mall and get presents for each of our family members. My dad would give us $5 to spend on each family member and then we'd split up, half of us going with Mom and half going with Dad.

This shopping excursion usually lasted a couple of hours. The first half was spent trying to find presents for the other group of family members all whilst sneaking around the mall, trying not to let them see what stores we were going into. After the first hour was over, we'd meet up again and switch around the groups in order to get everyone covered. Everybody was always very secretive and tried their best to hide the contents of their shopping bags while handing them to Dad to make a trip to the car to stash them.

Now $5 was worth a little more back then, but not much, so we had to be pretty choosy about what we spent the money on. I'm sure there were a few choice gifts given through the years. Who can forget the "Madball" Annie gave my dad. I'm sure he loved that one. Or the Miss Piggy stickers Corinne gave me one year. And I can't remember who was the giver and who was the receiver, but at one point someone was given underwear. Yippee!

The ever popular 'Madballs'

The hardest part of buying Christmas presents for your siblings is actually keeping them a secret. I think there was once or twice that we divulged to each other what it was we had purchased. It always spoiled the fun on Christmas morning though, so we eventually learned that it was better to keep our mouths shut.

I know the money spent on those gifts probably would have gone to better use in my parents' hands, but I admire them for letting us in on the giving aspect of Christmas and letting us make our own choices. It produced such good memories and I appreciate the time and effort they put into making it a special time for us.

November Book Reviews: First They Killed My Father, Islands in the Stream, and A Moveable Feast

2010-12-02T10:33:00.001-07:00

My Rating System: *OK, **Good, ***Great

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

by Loung Ung
Rating: **+

This book is about the Khmer Rouge invasion of Cambodia back in the early 80s. It is a true story of a girl named Loung Ung and what she and her family went through during the years of the Khmer Rouge's reign.

This was the first book I've ever read about true-life war. I am still completely astonished at the horrific things these people went through. It is unbelievable to me that human beings could treat each other this way. That they could torture and kill innocent people just for being there.

This book was just one heart wrenching scene after another. Loung was very young when the whole ordeal started... just 4 or so. She is very honest about what happened to her and her family and what reactions she had to different situations, good and bad. With all the horrible things that happened to her and her family, it is so sad to think that she was actually one of the lucky ones. One of the few people who didn't starve to death or die from disease or physical abuse. It is amazing to me that Loung could come out of that whole situation and still be a good person. She has every reason not to be.

"First They Killed My Father" was a huge eye opener for me. You hear about these things going on in other parts of the world and barely give them a second thought. People everywhere suffer so much every day and it makes me realize how lucky I am to not have to live my life in fear and to live in a country where I am largely protected from atrocities such as these.

Islands in the Stream

by Ernest Hemingway
Rating: **

Although this wasn't my favorite Hemingway book, I still really liked it. It had a different feel to it than "The Sun Also Rises" or "A Farewell to Arms." "Islands in the Stream" is about a man named Thomas Hudson who in his civilian life is an artist and writer on an island in the Gulf Stream. He is also captain of a ship during World War II and directs a special mission to capture the Germans in the waters around Cuba. Part of the book is also spent talking about the man and his relationship with his sons and their mother.

It took me a little while to get into this book, but ultimately it sucked me in like the others. I can't help but love Hemingway's writing style. Hemingway isn't one to give you a warm and fuzzy happy ending though... so keep that in mind. I've come to prepare myself for the worst, although I'm not sure that helps much as I still get really attached to his characters.

A Moveable Feast

by Ernest Hemingway
Rating: *+

"A Moveable Feast" is actually Hemingway's memoirs of life in Paris in the 1920s. Although he had tidbits of interesting things happen here and there, this just wasn't a really compelling read. Maybe I expected more talk about food and such, but I didn't like this near as much as his novels. There were a couple things that I took interest in, such as his quirky relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway was also very poor in the first years of his marriage, but didn't seem to mind it too much. He mentioned doing things such as wearing old sweaters as underwear. I'm not really sure how that works, but it was amusing nonetheless.

If you really want to learn more about Hemingway's life, this would be a good book to start with. However, If you just want to read a Hemingway book, I'd suggest one of his fictional novels.

A Bunch of Frozen Turkeys

2010-11-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Many years ago when I was oh, twelve or so, Dad thought it would be a fabulous idea to go camping on Thanksgiving. It sounded like a great plan actually. We'd grab the tents, head out to Kodachrome Basin with his extended family and have a Thanksgiving adventure in the outdoors. Complete with dutch oven Thanksgiving dinner, of course.

Truth be told I don't remember a whole lot about the trip. Except for the fact that we all almost died from exposure. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was close.

You see, in November it is not uncommon to see snow. And sometimes it's also windy. On our camping trip we had both of those things. The day we got there we set up our tents and tried to explore the surrounding area. This is a little difficult to do when the only place to hike is up the side of a steep mountain on a trail the size of a walnut which is also soaked with snow and muddy and slippery. So instead we spent the evening melting our socks on the campfire, trying to keep the frostbite away.

That night was the worst night of my life. Mom and Dad were snuggled in their tent and my sisters and I were in another tent. We each had our own separate mummy bag in which it was simultaneously impossible to move and to keep warm. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the zipper on our tent wasn't broken. It only zipped half-way down which meant that the snow was blown into our tent by the hurricane-like wind. I spent the night swapping between a suffocating airtight cocoon with my sleeping bag pulled over my head, and leaving the top of the bag open to breathe while my hair froze to my scalp.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord, at least we'll get some food. Somehow cooking a turkey and Thanksgiving meal in dutch ovens actually worked. I had to put my gloves on in between bites to keep my fingers from freezing off, but that was by far the most delicious Thanksgiving meal of my life.

As soon as we'd eaten everybody decided they'd had enough of cold weather camping and went home. I'm pretty sure the trip was cut short by at least a couple of days. While this was probably the worst Thanksgiving ever, it was also the most fun and memorable. Breaking tradition doesn't always work, but it sure makes things more interesting.

It'll Be Better for All of Us

2010-11-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Any of my loyal readers (thank you!) who have been with me for a while have probably noticed the increase in food/cooking posts over the last year. I'm basically a hopeless Foodie and cannot help but talk about all things food related. The problem is that even though it's a big part of who I am and what I like to do, I feel like it's kind of taking over this blog. It's become a bit of an overbearing monster to the memories and daily happenings that I would like to shine through here.

Because I don't want my food obsession to take over this blog and because I don't want to stop talking about it and because I enjoy it so much, I've decided to start my own food blog. I know there are about a bazillion other food blogs out there but I don't care. So for those of you who love food as much as I do and enjoy all my blah blah blah about cooking, join me over at Gravy Training.

For now I'm going to keep all of my past food posts on this blog, but I've also transferred them over to Gravy Training, so you can find them there too. Keep in mind this new blog is still a work in progress, there are glaring errors and bugs that need to be worked out, but I'm too excited to keep from posting there, so join me, warts and all.

101 in 1001

2010-11-20T21:31:00.014-07:00

My friend Holly over at Snapshots posted about a really cool sounding project called '101 in 1001'. You basically make 101 goals that you want to accomplish over 1001 days. I thought this would be a great way to accomplish some goals and also something that would be fun to track and tell you about.

First of all, here are my important dates:

Start: November 20, 2010

Finish: August 17, 2013

My 101 goals:

Find out my blood type
Buy a Spin Bike
Run 5 5ks
Get a pedicure
Go backpacking
Try dry shampoo
Workout 3x per week
Drink at least 40 oz. of water a day
Have my "vitals" checked once a year (cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.)
Floss everyday for a month
Go in for a complete physical
Be able to do the hard version of my kettlebell workout
Lose 5 pounds and keep it off
Whiten my teeth
Go to dermatologist for skin cancer/mole check
Get a bikini wax
Add at least 10 more accessories (necklace, earrings, scarf, etc.) to my wardrobe
Wear a necklace or earrings everyday for 1 month
Get my eyes checked
Call at least one family member at least once a week
Send Christmas cards
Send birthday cards to all family members
Visit Corinne in Arizona
Have dinner with Mom once a month
Learn how to read French
Learn how to use Photoshop
Learn how to use new Solidworks software
Knit or crochet a scarf
Catch a steelhead
Finish a painting
Take a picture a day for 30 days
Try painting with watercolors
Play the piano at least once a week
Fish Silver Creek in Idaho
Go on a guided fly fishing trip
Catch a big brown on a streamer
Fish the Salmon River
Keep a fishing journal
Ride a horse
Learn a new hard song on the piano
Play my clarinet at least once a month
Start a food blog
Subscribe to 5 new blogs
Do at least one post per week on my personal blog
Write about 5 memories
Write about how I chose my career and what I do
Do a video blog post
Eat 5 things I’ve never tried before
Host a dinner party
Find my signature dish
Go vegetarian for a week
Bake bread 1x per month
Try cooking tofu
Go to an Indian restaurant
Make crème brulee
Bring a treat for co-workers at least once a month
Try 5 new restaurants
Make a Julia Child recipe
Attend a concert
Read a book written by someone I disagree with
Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet
Read 150 Books
Go to a football game
Stay up late and watch a meteor shower
Read a book series
Read a book in one day
Read a Western
Go on a date with Seth where we have to dress up
Go see a comedy show
Watch 10 movies that I should have seen already
Go to an event, festival, or convention
Go to the symphony
Go to a Jazz game
Go to the beach
Visit 2 states I've never been to
Visit Wine Country
Go to the big Farmers Market in Salt Lake and buy something
Start a "car fund"
Save at least $20k for a house
Save up enough for a 3-6 month emergency fund
Bring my lunch to work 3x per week
Plant an herb garden
Learn how to tile
Get a dining table
Buy a House
Update and hang family pictures
Frame and hang one of my photographs
Make my bed everyday for a week
Vacuum & Dust once a week
Clean the bathrooms once a week
Clean out my pantry
Organize my bathroom cabinet
Wax my car
Take my car in to get the recalled thing fixed
Give a handmade gift
Host a giveaway on one (or both) of my blogs
Make an lolcats with Gracie in it
Get a passport
Clean out my work e-mail inbox weekly
Replace the battery in my watch
Replace the battery in my car remote
Compliment a stranger

Today's Special: Turkey Recipes

2010-11-15T20:29:00.001-07:00

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, I'm sure you're all getting your brains and bellies ready for some turkey. Whether you'll be cooking a turkey or just eating it, here are some recipes I've tried out that are definitely worth your time.

Good Eats Roasted Turkey

This was my first real turkey and I have to say it turned out really well! I think the brining made a huge difference in how moist the meat turned out, so don't skip that part! There are a couple changes I think would make this recipe even better. I don't know that I'd spend the money on the candied ginger the brining calls for as I don't think it really affected the flavor. Also, the recipe has you start at 500°F then you cover the whole turkey with tin foil and finish it at 350°F. The only problem with finishing it out this way is the tin foil basically steamed the skin so it wasn't crispy anymore. Next time I would remove the foil maybe 15-20 minutes at the end of cooking and bump the temp back up to 500 deg. to crisp up the skin and give it just a bit more color.

Turkey Stock

This was also the first time I've ever made my own stock. To do this, I picked the turkey carcass clean and saved it in the fridge until the next day when I could make this. I also saved the raw turkey neck from the turkey cavity. This was very simple to do and although it took a while to cook, it was something I didn't have to sit there and watch. For those of you who have never made stock before, it will solidify (unlike the store-bought stuff), so don't be all freaked out thinking you did it wrong. It'll turn back into a liquid as soon as you heat it up again. This made approximately 6 cups, so not a ton, but definitely a great thing to have on hand!

Turkey Soup

I made this soup once before with Seth's wild turkey. It was just as good this time around and maybe even better having used the fresh turkey stock I'd just made. The recipe says to add salt to taste... I added at least 2 tsp. This is one of my favorite soup recipes.

Turkey, Brie, and Apple Grilled Sandwich

Ok I know I probably don't need to say anything about this sandwich given the name of it (and hello, look at the picture.... Mmm) but this was so good! The recipe says to use apricot jam (or a couple other types), and I tried it that way. It was good with the apricot jam, but I thought it was even better using Dijon mustard. And don't be stingy with the apple... cut nice thick slices or you won't be able to taste it.

If you have any turkey left at this point I would be very surprised. If so, lucky you! You can eat more of this stuff! Now some of you are probably like, "Yeah this is great and all, but I don't have to cook a dang turkey. I'm on pie duty." What's that you say? PIES? Pies just happen to be my specialty. Don't believe me? Check these babies out.

Hanson Family Reunion 2010

2010-11-06T16:43:00.000-06:00

After reading my dear sis-in-law Rachel's blog, I realized I had completely forgotten to write about the Hanson family trip up to Island Park in early October. We had a short few days to spend together, but managed to have a great time fishing, checking out Yellowstone, and hanging out together in the cabin.

Instead of a wordy post, I thought I'd just share some of the pictures we took... enjoy!

The first day we went fishing at Island Park Reservoir. This is Mama Hanson driving Soren around like a horse in Seth's hoodie. It's a lot funner than it looks.

Arielle went out fishing in the float tube (she's not sleeping, just concentrating really hard...)

Dad Hanson getting all rigged up.

Me, Marty Jr., and Dad Hanson

Calysta, Marty, and Tessa. Oddly enough, Soren the Hoodie Horse was the only one who caught a fish... with the help of Grandpa of course!

Abe and Liam overlooking the main floor at the Yellowstone Inn.

Collette and Calysta walking around the Old Faithful boardwalk.

Old Faithful

Me and Seth on the boardwalk.

This is my sexy pose.

Scott, Amanda, and little Charlotte

A coyote that wandered into the parking lot at the mud pots.

So there you have it... the Hanson Family Trip! It was definitely a lot of fun and we were all sad to leave. Thanks everyone for all your help and hard work!

Today's Special: Breakfast Edition

2010-11-04T08:42:00.000-06:00

As a pre-cursor to this post, let me say that I do not make breakfast on weekdays. Seth is out the door by 4:30am and he's lucky if I'm half-conscious when says 'goodbye.' My neighbors are lucky if I have my pants on when I rush out the door at 7:15am. However, I do try to make up for my lack of early morning meals by whipping up some good stuff on the weekends. Some of these are faster to make than others, but none of them require much skill. And according to Seth, you have to serve them all with bacon. Otherwise, it's just not breakfast.

German Apple Pancake

A super easy and fairly quick breakfast option. I made this in my cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly. This is one of those breakfasts that seems a little special... I mean, you don't get German Apple Pancakes everyday, right?

Denny's Style French Toast

I love, love, love this French Toast. It's not too eggy and always turns out so delicious. I think it's the addition of flour to the batter that makes it so good. I like to use Texas Toast bread or even better, leftover French bread. Regular bread works too, just not nearly as delicious as the thicker stuff. This is definitely one of my favorite breakfasts.

Crunchy Delicious Waffles

Seriously the best waffles ever. They always turn out wonderful. I typically use 8 tbsp. of butter (the recipe gives an option as to how much you can use). I've also made these with half wheat and half white flour and they were great that way too. For some reason these tend to turn out better on waffle irons with the larger squares (think Belgian waffle) than the traditional smaller squares. But still good either way.

Banana Pancakes

These are a great variation to traditional pancakes. I typically make these when I have a banana or two that are overly ripe. I like these because the banana flavor isn't too overwhelming and the texture of the pancake is always nice and fluffy. Try these with Blueberry Breakfast Sauce (also works well with mixed berries) and you'll probably die. Also, I have to call pancakes "pampcakes" because of this.

Baked Ham and Cheese Omelet

I've never been very good at making omelets, so this is a great alternative to the stove-top method. You can pretty much use any kind of filling you want... I've used cooked diced bacon instead of ham and I'm sure you could add onions, peppers, or mushrooms. This is VERY filling. I usually halve the recipe and there's still leftovers.

(Uh... I made this today but sort of screwed up and even though it still tasted fine, it looked a little odd so imagine a delicious looking omelet... or look at the pictures in the recipe link. See, I mess up sometimes too!)

Eggs On Toast

So the link to this one just goes to a basic white sauce, but that's pretty much all you need for this recipe. I hard-boil about 4 eggs, chop them up and add them to the white sauce. Grind in some fresh pepper and salt then throw the sauce onto a couple slices of toast and you're done!

Shangri La

2010-11-03T08:08:00.000-06:00

Seth and I braved the rainy weather this weekend and headed up to fish on one of my favorite spots on the Weber River (don't look so shocked!). All I can say is, it's near Taggart and it holds the best fishing hole ever... so good in fact that we call it "Shangri La."

The day started out drizzly but pleasant and only got better. It was a great day to be out and as we'd hoped, the fishing was awesome! We fished our way up to the Shangri La hole using streamers. Seth bought a few articulated streamers a while back and wanted to try them out. He was using an orange one called the "Sex Dungeon" (gotta love the fly fisher sense of humor) and ended up catching one medium sized brown and got several strikes. I used a regular cone head olive/black streamer with white rubber legs and didn't get anything. Then Seth let me try his olive colored Sex Dungeon. It looked really good swimming but I didn't get any action with that one either.

Seth's Sex Dungeon (HA!)

A big Rainbow Seth caught on the orange Sex Dungeon on a different fishing trip less than a month ago.

I gave up on the streamers after we got to the Shangri La hole and switched to my tried and true "Horny San Juan" nymphing rig which consists of an orange or two tone red/tan San Juan Worm as the attractor and a Green Hornet as the dropper. I immediately caught a couple nice browns. Shangri La was living up to its name.

So, in order get to the Shangri La hole we had to pass a guy who was fishing a nice riffle (behind me in the picture above). We were fairly close to him, but not so close as to disturb him. He fished that same riffle for at least a half hour... as long as we were fishing our hole, and neither of us saw him catch anything. I assume he was a fairly good fisherman as he was all decked out in Simms gear. Well after he left and went further downstream, I was a little curious to see if I could pick up a fish or two from that same hole. Sure enough I landed a nice brown and a whitey. You know, I hate to be all cocky and such but that sort of stuff really makes my day. Maybe it's because I'm a girl and feel like I have something to prove out there but nothing beats catching a fish out of a hole a guy just left.

Seth and I both caught about 10 fish during this trip which was the best day we've had for a little while. Seth even accidentally foul hooked a big old honking Sucker in the tail. That thing was HUGE! And UGLY! I can't get over how ugly those things are! It looks like they could suck you right up like a vacuum! Yuck!

It's days like these that just make me love fishing. I can't help it. What a great way to spend time getting to know your local water and surroundings. And not only is the fishing great, but the atmosphere is amazing. Maybe some people don't like this sort of thing, but most of the Weber River follows closely along the train tracks. These tracks are heavily used and see at least one train an hour or so. I love trains. They're so beautiful and I love to watch them every time they pass. They're so big and powerful and I love to hear them blow their whistles and listen to the screeching sound of the cars running along the tracks. I always have to stop and stare and listen.

I've vowed not to let bad weather keep me off the rivers. Fishing is one of the few ways I know of that helps me stay centered and happy. Can't imagine how I got along without it. If you fish, you know what I mean. If you don't, you should.

Today's Special: Butternut Squash Apple Soup, Garlic Soup, Beef with Snow Peas, Sausage, Mushroom, & Spinach Lasagna, and Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese

2010-10-31T07:15:00.001-06:00

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

New Recipe. A couple weeks ago I made some butternut squash gnocchi and had a ton of squash left over. So, I froze it. And used it for this recipe! I honestly just made this to use up the extra squash and didn't have super high hopes for it. BUT, I really liked this a lot! The recipe says to use salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg to "season to taste." I HATE IT when recipes say that without giving you a starting point as to recommended amounts. But, I delved in and seasoned and tasted away and the final product was just what I was hoping for... a nicely seasoned soup that didn't taste sweet. I think it's hard to use cinnamon and nutmeg as a savory ingredient... usually they give more of a dessert quality to a dish. So, in order to help you make this, I will give you the amounts I used for the seasonings: 1/8 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and 2 1/2 tsp. salt. You may want to start with 2 tsp. salt, just to be safe. So anyway, this recipe was definitely a winner and it's ORANGE! Perfect for Halloween dinner! (I totally didn't plan that.)

Garlic Soup

New Recipe. I didn't realize how much time this was going to take to make... at least an hour I think. But, the end product was really good. I think I like this more than the garlic soup I've made in the past... more flavor and a thicker consistency. I used half and half instead of the heavy cream and it was still really delicious. This was good as a light dinner with salad and french bread. It didn't make a whole lot... maybe enough for 4 people... maybe. This would also be good in place of a dinner salad... if you are one of those ambitious people who have several courses to a meal (I'm not). Oh, I also used Jarlsberg cheese instead of Gruyere because I couldn't find any of that.

Beef with Snow Peas

New Recipe. If you're looking for a fast recipe this week, this is your winner! It took me maybe a half hour and that included all the prep work and cooking the brown rice (pressure cookers are awesome!). The sauce was perfect and the beef and snow peas were so delicious! The extra addition of crushed red pepper made it that much better. This is the first Asian-y beef recipe I've made that has turned out to my liking. I really haven't had much success with this category of food... it's very rare for me to make something and actually like it as much as the stuff I get at restaurants. It's nice to have found another winner!

Sausage, Mushroom, and Spinach Lasagna

New Recipe. Now, I am really picky with my lasagna. Usually I only like the kind I make with my sauce recipe and my mom's lasagna recipe from when I was a kid. But I thought I'd try this one out because #1 It looked a lot healthier and #2 Who doesn't love sausage, mushrooms, and spinach? I made this exactly as written using the Italian flavored ground turkey, but I also used an oven-ready pasta. I was a little worried about the pasta not getting cooked through and/or the lasagna being too dry. Oh, I also added 2 cloves of garlic to the turkey mixture. So, this actually turned out really good. I didn't think it tasted healthy at all and the oven-ready pasta worked just fine. It wasn't the fastest meal ever because of the hour long bake time, but it was well worth the effort.

Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese

Old Favorite. Have I said how much I love this stuff? Seriously the best homemade mac and cheese I've had by far. Ok wait, I lied. Rachel made some for us once and it rocked too. But other than that... every other homemade mac and cheese I've made or eaten pretty much sucks. The Dijon mustard in this is what gives it an extra punch of flavor. It only calls for 1 tbsp., but I usually double that because I love it so much.

October Book Reviews: Schulz and Peanuts, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Born on a Blue Day, Carrie, A Farewell to Arms, and The Glass Castle

2010-10-30T07:52:00.003-06:00

October turned out to be a great month for reading. I was surprised at how many books I was able to finish and I really enjoyed all of them! You can't lose with any of these.

My Rating System: *OK, **Good, ***Great

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography

by David Michaelis
Rating: **

I had the audiobook version of this one which I noticed was an abridged version of the original, so I'm not sure how much was taken out. I actually really liked this book. It was interesting to find out how Schulz got his start. I admired the fact that he set a goal as a kid to be a cartoonist and just kept plugging away at his dream until it happened. There was a bit of repetition as far as his relationship statuses and such... probably a little more of that could have been omitted without harming the final product, but overall it was an interesting and entertaining read.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

by Benjamin Franklin (duh)
Rating: *+

I really didn't expect to make it through this book. I thought I would get bored and dump it. But, it turned out to be very interesting. Franklin was responsible for so many things of which I'd never heard about. Did you know he actually created a day planner for himself? Yeah, me neither! I thought that was a total marketing ploy! I do think he was a little full of himself... he kept talking about how everyone would come to him to ask for his opinion and advice and thought he was the smartest man alive and also that he was the only one who had printing press skills. So that got a little old. But, he was a smart guy. And had a lot of great ideas. This was a bit difficult to read sometimes just because of the Old English style of speaking from back in the day, but I think I got the overall gist of things. An interesting insight to the life of one of our founding fathers. Also his son's initials are WTF. HA! Old Ben, what a card!

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

by Daniel Tammet
Rating: **+

I was immediately drawn to this book when I saw it was written by an Autistic savant. Basically Daniel Tammet is a high-functioning version of Rain Man. It was incredibly interesting to have a first hand account of how Tammet's brain works and how he processes the world. He covers his entire life up until the point he writes this book, so you get to see what he was like as a baby, how he developed as a child, and how he is able to make it as an adult. Any book written by someone who memorized 22,000 digits of pi has to be awesome, right?

Carrie
by Stephen King
Rating: **+

Seth and I listened to this book on a road trip up to Idaho. First of all, it was read by Sissy Spacek, so you know that's going to be awesome. Ok, actually Seth had no idea who Sissy Spacek was, but we fixed that. Anyway, we both really enjoyed this book a lot. There are a lot of details and extra bits of the story you just don't get with the movie. Oh, and in case you're wondering what this book is about, Carrie is a girl with telekinetic powers who lives with her religiously fanatical mother. She also gets teased a lot. You know that's not going to make for a happy ending... Also, Seth and I rented this movie and watched it that same weekend. Awesome as well. Although "they're all going to laugh at you" does not come from the book. But I think it was a great addition. One more tidbit of info... Stephen King originally threw the manuscript for this book away. His wife was the one who found it in the trash and made him finish it. Good thing. It made him famous.

A Farewell to Arms

by Ernest Hemingway
Rating: **

After reading The Sun Also Rises, I decided to give this book a shot. I honestly wasn't expecting much, except maybe that I wasn't going to like it because it's a war story and I'm not usually into that sort of thing. However, I found myself really liking this one. I think I just like Hemingway in general. I like his simplistic writing style and the way he develops his characters. I was talking to Seth about how he makes the food and drink in his books sound so good, but he doesn't really describe them. For example, he talks about how a guy at the hotel makes him some sandwiches and I just thought... Man! Those sandwiches sound really good! Even though he hadn't described them at all. Seth said it was because he writes in a way that makes your brain fill in all the details and I totally agree. Hemingway makes it easy to use your own imagination instead of spelling it all out for you.

Also, for those of you who are into the audiobooks like I am, you know that the narrator can make or break a book. I thought John Slattery did an amazing job with this one. He provided the correct accents for each of the characters voices without sounding cheesy or overdone. It made me think that I need to keep track of the narrators I like so I can pick out more books that they've read. It's always disappointing to pick up an audiobook that looks good only to have the narrator ruin it.

The Glass Castle

by Jeannette Walls
Rating: **+

This was another book I picked up for cheap at a library sale. It's another one of those books that's very popular at the moment which was one reason I bought it. It's also the reason it sat around for awhile before I read it... I'm usually disappointed by the popular books. I finally decided I was in the mood to read this one and when I picked it up I noticed the caption on the front that compared Walls to Frank McCourt... DING DING DING! We have a winner. I hadn't realized this was a non-fiction book and had I known she'd been compared to McCourt I would've picked it up long ago.

The Glass Castle is a book about the author Jeannette Walls and her life growing up with her siblings in a poor family led by her eccentric parents. Constantly moving around, living off the grid, and fighting to survive are all part of a normal existence.

I was a little skeptical of the McCourt comparision, but I do think it was accurate. Although she had a really rough time of it, Walls doesn't make her parents into villains and actually seems to look back nostalgically at a great part of her childhood. I admire her for this as it would've been very easy for her to paint her parents as monsters and merely seek after sympathy from her readers. Of course, this angle would've been completely justified. I thought The Glass Castle is well deserving of its popularity and I would highly recommend it. A very enjoyable book.