Merry Christmas

The winner is .... Kat!

Congrats!

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A Gift

... For you? Leave a comment. I will pick a winner on Christmas. Tis the season.
Merry Christmas!

Last year I got into using this Black Mountain clay. I love it's rich chocolate brown with just a thin layer of glaze for a touch of color. So fun!
This bowl is 4" tall x 8" wide

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Family Pictures

How do people get a family picture where no one is crying (before, during or after), everyone is smiling, looks nice, is looking at the camera, etc ... ALL in the same picture?

Kat did a great job. I am guessing this is not the easiest group to deal with ... :)

The five siblings.
Good representation of our personalities!?!Such a nice picture of my parents. Don't they look fantastic for being 68!

phew ... let's not do that again for a while!
Oh man ... it's already out of date! Jennie is expecting in May.

Smoothie-licious

Tried and true! This is one of my favorite protein smoothies. 1 c. water
1 scoop protein powder
I have two different protein powders that I use. I like this one because it has chia seeds, flax and hemp in it.

1 c. frozen berries
2 cups spinach
I get the big tub of spinach from Costco. If I am not going through it fast enough I will freeze it. Next best thing to fresh.
This frozen berry mix from Costco is awesome! It is very sweet so there is no need to add any sweetener.

If I am using fresh spinach I don't need more liquid than the 1 c water. If I am using frozen spinach I tend to need a little more liquid. I will use unsweetened almond milk (only 35 calories a cup) or coconut milk. I just add as needed. If you like your smoothie richer you can use this instead of water.

Put it in your Blendtec blender(if you don't know about Blendtec you need to!) in that order. Don't forget a dash of cinnamon. This makes a plenty big smoothie. I can make two servings out of it most of the time.

Deli-sh! Super healthy. It is around 250 calories.
ENJOY!

Tradition

21 Years!
Now THAT is a tradition!
By far my favorite weekend of the year. Kari asked if she could be in charge of the party gifts. She gave each of us these darling bracelets along with a sweet poem about friendship. I will think of my besties every time I wear it. Thanks Kar! Food! Food! Food!
Oh wow! We ate yummy food.
4AM! Yes we can talk and laugh and giggle and eat until 4AM! It took me a week to recover.
I feel that one of the greatest blessings in my life have been my friendships. I treasure and admire each of these girls. I look forward to year 22!

Saturday night ...

... Fleece pj's, a bag of M&M's and Footloose (the original). I am not sure if you should feel sorry for me or be super jealous of me?!?


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"Pain You Enjoy"

Remember how I SWORE I would NEVER do this again ... well I lied.

UV Half, June 9 2012

GirlFriends

A little preview of our 21st Annual Christmas Party!

Commentary by Missy, "This one is funny because MJ looks like she's going to beat Julie up
and Julie is talking her out of it. Sandy is pissed and way too cool
for all of this crap. Sari is going to beat the camera up. Aubree is
disgusted with all of us. Kim isn't sure if she is liking what Julie
is saying. Beckie is talking to herself. Rachel thinks something is
either real funny or real sad. Shan decided to rest her eyes until we
are ready. Kari is telling Jill a funny joke."

HILARIOUS!

One word ..

EXHAUSTED!

Beck was in town for our Annual Friends Christmas Party.
3 Days
13 hours sleep
59 hours talking
1 bogillion calories consumed
15 stores visited
X$ spent (does it really matter?)
2 pedicures
100's oz Diet Coke

We got to the airport and realized we had not gotten a picture together. Haggard as we were, we snapped a quick, in the car picture. I insisted!
I love my BF and instantly missed her as I drove away from the airport. If only life were perfect and we lived next door to each other!

Let's Felt

Tis the season for crafting. Felt flowers for hair bands, a pin for your sweater, and maybe a pillow embellishment. Oh what fun felt can be!


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π

PIE! PIE! PIE! My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the PIE! We start our pie consumption the night before. Pie for breakfast soon follows. pie for a snack and pie for lunch. A pie per person is the rule at our house on Thanksgiving.

Pecan Pie
heat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt a 1/4 c butter, pour over your favorite pie crust. Cover with foil and weigh down with beans. Bake 7 minutes.
1c sugar
1 c corn syrup
1/4 t salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten1 t vanilla
2 c pecan halves
Mix eggs, add sugar, corn syrup, salt, vanilla. Pour in crust add pecans. Bake for one hour or until bubbles in middle. (cover pie crust edges with foil)

Plus One

Maintaining a social life in your 30's can be a challenge. My super hiptastic LA friend K.J. came up with the idea of a PlusOne weekend. The concept is simple. All of us have a great friend of the opposite sex. Someone you love to hang with, but for whatever reason, at this moment in time, you probably are not going to date. It just is what it is. They are great, you are great, it just isn't meant to be, at least for the time being. We all need to meet new people, so why not spend a weekend together, in the mountains meeting each others' friends.. or as we like to call them... your "PlusOne."

I talked a couple of my coolest pals into it and off to Lake Arrowhead we went. Dave, Kim, Brad and I took off early Friday and spent the day in Santa Monica. We walked the beach and the pier. There was sufficient entertainment for an overcast November day. Lunch was on Third St. Promenade before heading for Arrowhead where we met up with Stacy K. I admit that half the incentive was getting to see my LA peeps.
Lake Arrowhead thought it was winter! It was freezing. The wind, fog, rain and cold did not stop us from adventure. We were all over the ropes course, zip line and my new hobby ARCHERY! Kim and I are thinking team archery for the next Olympics. (Please don't miss the "gospel, soul, country, patriotic" street performer in the background. She was fantastic!)
It was one of those weekends of non stop laughing. The kind of laughing where you can't breath ... and tears are rolling down your cheeks. You can't remember why you are even laughing. Awe ... everyone needs a friend that you can laugh with like that! We met lots of cool new people and had a great time. It was another new place for me to check off my list this year(Lake Arrowhead is beautiful ... I highly recommend it!). I totally earned the complete exhaustion that I paying for today!

JOY

Now that I am done with my test I am dieing to get back to some necessities ... making is one of them! I text Hun and got a CRAFTERNOON planned RIGHT away! I have been itching to make something.

With the holidays right around the corner we thought we would get warmed up with a little Christmas banner to add to our decor. I think this JOY ornament banner will be very fun hanging from my window garland.

Lisa joined the fun and whipped this cute one out.

Oh it felt good! It was just what I needed.

Discount

Did you know that Roberts Crafts Stores offers a 25% off teacher discount? I love it when stores have teacher discounts. Thank you Roberts Crafts!

11/11/11

It happens once a century. I hadn't thought much about it until people started posting about it on FB. My sister even had an 11/11/11 11:11 party. Suddenly I was feeling pressure to do something exciting. It felt uncomfortably like New Years Eve (that is another post). I wasn't even at school to do something fun with my kids. So I started texting KimiD, wondering if we should be throwing together a last minute 11/11/11 party. A series of text lead to us attempting to plan a party. It was over before it started. Our excitement waned quickly as the reality of what we were taking on hit us.
I don't remember what I was doing or where I was on 8/8/88 or 9/9/99. I don't even remember anyone making a big deal of those days. Not so for this epic day. So what did I do on 11/11/11? I spent the day at a literacy conference. I went to the mall and did a little shopping with my GAP 40% off card. I visited my parents. Went to Target. I went home, took a bath, read my book. I was totally determined to stay awake until 11:11 pm (I missed 11:11 a.m.) so that I could make a wish on the luckiest minute on the luckiest day of the year. To no avail. I just wasn't able to stay awake. It could have been just another day ... and not a half bad day if I say so myself. And that is what I did on 11/11/11! I will be better prepared for 12/12/12.

Hello World

I'm back!

I am SO excited to be done with my test and have my life back. I am looking forward to reading a book, cleaning my house, exercising, crafternoon and catching up on all that I neglected for the last several months.

A huge thanks for all the support and encouragement given during this endeavor. I was reminded how blessed I am to have so many great people in my life.

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Math?

Fall break + Beautiful Autumn day + Needed study break = BIKE RIDE!

Fall is falling

It was our last chance! The lift will be shutting down until the ski season starts. I grabbed Pete, Hun and the girls for our favorite hike. The weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular. I loved every second of it. It was the much needed destressing that my brain and body needed. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

Welcome Autumn

October OneWe welcomed October in by spending the day by the pool! How fantastic is that!

(unbelievable that it was snowing 5 days later ... only in Utah!) Notice the water feature along the side of the pool added by Peter.

To top off the day ... the McPhie's arrived from AZ . We were so excited to get our hands on that baby!

The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying conference. Some of us got more out of it than others. hehe

Everyone loves visiting Aunt Sari's classroom.

Emily and I have been VERY productive. I took a day off work (a much needed mental health day) for us to bottle our famous spaghetti sauce. We also got a batch of dill green tomatoes and a new salsa. Aren't they pretty?

The best part of the week has been snuggling and kissing and loving this baby boy. I managed to get away from my studies and responsibilities to play this week. It was nice to have an excuse to take some breaks. We love having the McPhie's visit and can't wait for the holidays!

MIA?

Nope ... GRE
Wowzers! I have not been challenged like this in a long time. Math, well it just might do me in. Any good vibes you can send my way will be very appreciated.

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"Haunted" Mansion

One of my oldest (as in longest, we met when we were 3) and dearest friends just so happens to be a Herbert (I know, I am super cool!) For book club ( yes we do read a book and we even spend a few minutes of our night talking about it) Shannon arranged for us to meet at the Governor's mansion. We felt oh so fancy eating at the formal dining room table on the mansions china and silver chargers. Jeanette gave us the official tour along with the unofficial tour (sorry Governor Gary for barging in on you in your sweats watching the US Open) . The mansion has such an interesting history. I had heard that the mansion was haunted and it's true! I loved all the ghost stories! Gary and Jeanette were so gracious. I giggle a little seeing them in their official state, I still just think of them as Shannon's parents. After a very long day the Governor was so kind to change back into real clothes for us to have a little photo opp. Regardless of what you think politically, they are incredibly good people. It was a perfectly delightful evening.

Going Salsa!

It has begun!!! One bunch of salsa down.

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Peaches and Yum

Add a little SPICE to a summer favorite ...
Peaches and cream (or almond milk)

did you know that cinnamon is a great source of fiber, iron and calcium.

Top your favorite summer fruits with a little cinnamon. It adds yummy flavor and is oh so good for you. Instead of cream try almond milk, coconut milk or rice milk.

One of my favorite things about summer is stopping by a stand and getting farm fresh produce. There is nothing like it. Yum!

Summer 2011

It's always sad when the summer ends.

I have big time PTD

(post trip depression at the end of my cruise)I have to say, it was a great summer ...
Full of new places ...

Awesome people ...I am so lucky to have such amazing friends to share these experiences with.

New food ....
(Copenhagen & St. Petersberg)

Family ... lots of family time this summer.
(baby Ewan)

.... Adventure!

... Beauty! (Yosemite was spectacular!)

I can't complain. It was an awesome summer!
Back to real life ... {sigh}Wow ... I have a pretty great life don't I!