Monday Memoirs

FRIDAY:
We went to a birthday party. It was also a costume party. I was lame; I dressed in white and put a single piece of corn on the bill of my white hat. I was a unicorn. Jed wore his ghillie suit again (like he did for Halloween).

It was a really fun party. We played Minute to Win It games and then we sang karaoke. I love when Jed sings karaoke - he is really fun to watch!

SATURDAY:
We went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for one of Jed's scouts, David Seil, and then we went to get Jed's hair cut by my girl Kenna. Lunch at Chipotle, reading for me and 3-hour nap for Jed, then we went over to the Silvas' house to watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. I really liked it.

SUNDAY:
Stake Conference, more reading and naps, Jed went to orchestra practice (he's in the stake orchestra for the Christmas program in December), and I watched movies and baked some banana bread.

Monday Memoirs

I can't even tell you how glad I am that I'm done with last week - it was awful! Every day seemed to bring one more problem or thing I had to get done. Here's how I ended the week:

As I mentioned before, Friday was my Grandpa Busath's 75th birthday. They had a big party for him up in Salt Lake and Jed and I were able to go. This is my grandma roasting my grandpa:

Did I mention I had to sing a song I taught myself in a week?

Blowing out the 75 candles. [Little bit of a fire hazard.]

Us with the handsome birthday boy! He's such a stud! I love my grandpa.

On Saturday morning, I woke up to a snow storm and tried to study a little bit. Then I "played Cupid". My aunt lives in Mexico (her husband is serving as a Mission President) and she has two single kids living out here and going to school. I picked up cookies at a local bakery (that shall remain nameless because they had bad customer service - sorry you don't get the free advertisement, X-Bakery.) and surprised my cousins with them. Jed and I even got our own Valentines cookies (Thanks Deb!)! :D
Of course I had to go back home and study some more for my second midterm of the week. Blah. And then, even worse, I had to go take it. Jed drove me and I broke his windshield wiper motor (it was still storming and I tried to clear off the snow with the wipers instead of waiting for Jed to wipe it off with the brush). And to make matters worse, I got a 77 on the non-written part of the test. Happy Valentine's Day to me... :(

Jed and I went out to lunch at Winger's because he loves that place. I'll have to admit it's really good, and pretty much the only place I'll eat wings... But this time I got a burger. BIG mistake. You know that homemade, off the 10" grill, taste you get with gross hamburgers you make at home? I found where you can get it at a restaurant. :\ So I took the meat out and ate it as a veggie burger.

I'm not rally a winter/snow type of girl, so Jed went sledding with the McDaniels, Heidi, and Nathan while I cleaned up the house and wrapped Jed's present. It was supposed to be a birthday present, but his birthday isn't for 3 more months and I couldn't wait that long to give it to him! We did decide not to make a big deal of Valentine's Day, so I told him it was a 10% Valentine's/90% early birthday present. I wrapped it in plain brown packing paper and left it outside our door when I went to pick him up from sledding.

All of the sledders and I went out to dinner at Beto's (I think that place is nasty - I got chips/salsa) and then we went back to our place to hang out. I didn't anticipate having everyone over when I put the present out - I just thought we'd come home, Jed would find it, and he wouldn't think it was from me. (I love surprises!) Anyways, we get home and Jed finds the present and then opens it right before everyone else comes in. I didn't mean for it to be a show.

Oh, did you want to know what the present was??

Yesterday, we were called in to the bishop's office and asked to speak in church next Sunday. Great... I haven't spoken in church since I graduated from high school, some 5 years ago. I was just telling Jed that morning that if I were asked to speak in church that I would say no; I have anxiety issues. I told the bishop's counselor that I really, really didn't want to, but if he needed me to, I would. He gave Jed the topic he should speak on and told me, thankfully, that I just needed to be prepared to share my testimony of the Church. Phew!! I can do that. I haven't shared my testimony in church for a while, so it'll be good for me. Poor Jed - he has to actually prepare a talk. Sorry, buddy. :( The good news? We finally got a calling, after being in the ward for over 6 months! It's something that I'm really excited for. I'll fill you in next week... ;)

We had Jed's brother, Nathan, over for dinner and then the boys played video games for a few hours (at least it felt like that long) while I read the book the McDaniels gave me for my birthday - The Education of Little Tree.

Monday Memoirs

We went to a white elephant party on Saturday at Seth & Megan's house. Jed ended up with the present he wanted (an electronic key chain that has a bunch of different games on it like Sudoku and others) and I got a book called It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Michael Abrashoff. It's a best-seller and it looked like a good read from what I saw when I flipped through it. If it doesn't turn out so great, I can always try to sell it on craigslist. :) Oh! And we got rid of the shower head! Woo!
After the white elephant game, we played a bunch of games that I had never played before, most of them revolving around names. They were super fun for a while. And then my head started hurting because the games were mentally straining. We played pictionary and my team rocked! We won two out of three rounds!

Yesterday was full of baking! I made rolls from scratch...I had to use the recipe from the cookbook we use for my cooking class, so they were nowhere near as good as my mom's, but they still turned out well. I had never made bread/rolls, by myself, from scratch before. It's really time-consuming! I also made cocoa crispy treats, banana bread, and my (dad's) famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. No, I was not baking for us (even though we are eating the leftovers). We are still trying to be good and lose weight. Jed and I took the goodies around to some of our friends, and I caroled. It was fun to see everyone and catch up with them for a few minutes.

Monday Memoirs

On Friday night, we went to my friend Cornnut's* Christmas party and had so much fun! It was a white elephant party, with fun games and good food. Jed brought a huge candy cane and I brought a foam puzzle that you put together to make a 3-foot T-Rex (it was sweet!). We ended up with a shower head that will get rid of the hard water that we don't have and a chocolate raspberry (like a chocolate orange, but raspberry-flavored). We did have some other cool stuff at one point or another... Maybe we can sell the shower head on ebay? [*Names changed to protect their identity.]

Jed and I went to the BYU Freeze Fest at Seven Peaks on Saturday night. I made a sugar cookie snowman, decorated a family stocking, drank some hot chocolate, and watched Jed play broomball on the ice. He and his team did really well and he had a great time. We left the Freeze Fest and went to the dollar theater with Amanda and Adam to see Dark Knight! So good, even the second time.

Another Update From A Scatter-Brained Crazy Lady

I have been so scatter-brained and here and there and everywhere that I haven't kept you updated. My deepest apologies. I know your weekday doesn't start until you know of the latest happenings in the lives of the Goodells. ;)

Tuesday (Weight Doctor): I went to a doctor's appointment, someone my friend Kim referred me to. This doctor, Dr. D, specializes in weight. I got a body analysis (weight, lean body mass, fat body mass, amount of water retention, etc.) that we will use to track my progress every month, I got a B-6/B-12 shot in the arm (those are hurty!), and a diet analysis. Now I'm eating lots throughout the day, every two hours to be exact (NO mayo or butter, and minimal carbs). I also am supposed to walk 30 minutes a day. None of this is rocket science, or measuring proportions, or counting calories, or overworking myself with exercise. It's simple. Hopefully it will work - of course I'll keep you posted.
---- On a side note, the reason I haven't posted a weigh-in recently is because I was on my mom's scale, then we were at the other Gold's, and now we have our own scale that I've been using this week. I'm going to the original Gold's, with my original scale, on Wednesday. I'll find out what I weigh on that one and then go home and compare it to my new scale, and we'll be up and running again. ----

Wednesday (Gym): After class and dinner, Jed and I went to the 9th East Gold's with Amanda and worked out (Yay!). Watched a little of the tube when we got home, and then went to bed.

Thursday (Concert): After class, Jed and I went to Madeline's Steakhouse for dinner. It was oh-so-yummy! I got a salad with citrus vinaigrette dressing (I wish I could find some at the store, but they don't sell it. I'm going to try some recipes from allrecipes.com and see if I can't get a good one. If not, Brianna's Blush Wine is always a good choice.) and grilled chicken with BBQ sauce and diced tomatoes and onions on top. SO delicious! AND I only cheated my diet with the one roll I ate, but it was swimming in garlic butter... :(The main reason we went to Madeline's was because it was on the way to Jed's favorite band (Streetlight Manifesto)'s concert in SLC, at this crappy, hole-in-the-wall venue called The Avalon Theater. It's an old theater (hence the name) that they turned into a venue. But there are black stadium benches in it and people were tripping all over them. Dumb. Anyways, we got there in time to see the last opening band, Fear Nuttin Band. Jed and I both really liked their style (even though we couldn't make out half of the lyrics because of their strong Jamacian accents) and were even going to buy a CD, but we didn't have any cash. :( Then Streetlight came on and the crowd went wild. We were in the mosh pit with a hundred smelly, sweaty, grungy dudes with long nappy hair, pushing us, jumping up and down, and whipping their long, sweaty hair around. Reminded me of high school all over again and going to loud concerts. Memories. :)Friday (Graduation Party): Our dear friend Kim just graduated from nursing school and we went to her house to celebrate. Her family was in town (such a treat to hang out with them and to see her mom again) and we had a great night. The guys grilled outside while us girls chatted it up inside. The food was yummy and then after most people left, we watched the Office (Jed and I missed it because of the concert, so they let us watch it since they TiVo'd it. Then we played Rock Band into the night. The party was a blast, and we're so proud of Kim. Way to go!! PS- We have LOTS of pictures from this night. They'll make an appearance soon.
Saturday (No Stress): Meals and I got together (I swear it had been a whole month since I had seen her) for breakfast - Kneader's all-you-can-eat french toast. Death by french toast. Actually we did really well, only 2-3 pieces each. But those were definitely the best 2.5 pieces of french toast I've ever had. It was SO good to be with Meals and catch up on everything and have a girls date. :) I love that girl. I'm going to be super sad when they move. Might even spiral into a depression and lie in bed for weeks on end. It could happen, let's not kid ourselves.
I went home and Jed had cleaned the house in the two hours I was gone. It was so refreshing, and such a weight off my shoulders. I have the best hubby. The rest of the day was, as usual, a "no stress Saturday" - we went shopping and bummed around the house. That night we went on a walk by the temple. Exercise and a view. Wonderful.

Sunday (Dinner Guest): After church, where I was introduced in RS for like the fourth time (I've been sick/out of town a bit since we moved here), Jed and I made dinner together (I'm so grateful that Jed helps out). Mexican lasagne and salad, with my famous cookies for dessert. Jed went and picked up his brother, Nathan, who lives pretty close, and he joined us for dinner. It was really yummy if I do say so myself. Then we watched Simpsons and Family Guy and just hung out the rest of the night.

Mexican Lasagne:
1lb. ground beef
lasagne noodles
taco seasoning
1/8c. water
1c. medium salsa
1c. olives
1 sm. can green chiles (opt - will make it a bit hotter)
2c. cheddar cheese
1c. jalapenos (opt - even hotter)

Brown meat and cook noodles while you cut up olives. Drain meat and add taco seasoning and water. Add salsa, olives, and chiles.
Cover bottom of 9x13 pan with meat mixture (it can't be too thick or you'll run out of meat mixture), then a layer of noodles, then cheese. Repeat and then end with a layer of noodles, and cheese on top. Sprinkle jalapenos on top and bake at 400* for 40 minutes. Top layer of noodles may be a bit crispy.
**You can substitute flour tortilla strips for noodles - bake 20 minutes** (I haven't tried this way)