Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that we were able to go to the Provo temple on Tuesday night as a couple (Jed saw Seth there and I saw Amanda - that was fun).
I am thankful that we were able to go to the Jordan River temple with my mom's side of the family to do work for our ancestors.
I am thankful that I had an interview on Monday and two interviews this morning.
I am thankful that I was able to re-register with the temp agency that got me my previous job.
I am thankful that Jed and I were able to go to Adrianna's going away BBQ on Monday. Jed got to play frizz and I got to chat with Adrianna and Amanda.
I am thankful that we have a Costco membership - I got some cheap shampoo/conditioner yesterday with a coupon. ;)
I am thankful that we don't have a risk of swine flu.
I am thankful that all of my family is safe, even my aunt, uncle, and cousins who live in Mexico right now.
I am thankful that Jed was able to get the time off for our vacation! :D
I am thankful that our home teacher was able to come over tonight.
I am thankful that I was able to go shopping today.

Wednesday Weigh-In

240.5
38.66

Monday Memoirs

Friday - We rented Mama Mia because we thought it was the only decent movie at RedBox. Wrong! That movie is terrible. We would have been better off not getting anything. :\

Saturday - We met up with Amanda at the Gateway Mall in SLC and shopped around a bit. Jed got some new Crocs and I got a new purse - it was only $4!! :)

We went to my grandma's 75th birthday party that night. Lots of old people we didn't know, but it was good to get together and honor Grandma. Plus, we snuck away to the duck pond and fed the ducks/fish with my cousins - they had a blast.

When we got home, we watched Uncle Buck because Jed had never seen it and I think it's hilarious. I'm pretty sure Jed liked it a lot, too.

Sunday - Nothing special, just church.

Monday - This morning I got to go to breakfast with Meals and Trent. They are moving this afternoon, so I am so glad that I got to see them one last time and say good-bye. I'm going to miss Meals so much! She's one of my best friends and I always love hanging out with her.

I have an interview this afternoon for a summer nanny position. I can't give out any details because I don't want to jinx it, or get too excited just in case it doesn't work out. Of course I'll post the outcome - let's hope it's good!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my mom's birthday!!
She's 35 today!! :)

These are some random things I love about my mom:

She is good at fixing things and making things and she is so creative!

This is the tattoo she got in Mexico. Mike is my dad.

She comes from a long line of beautiful women, and I think us girls carry that on as well. ;)

She is an incredible cook! I learned a lot of what I know about cooking from her.

She and my dad have created a wonderful family that I am so proud to be a part of.

She knows how to have a good time, and is gorgeous during any time period. ;)

This is an inside joke... Some of my fondest memories of living at home were hanging out with my mom and my sisters in the kitchen, laughing sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.

This was when my mom was the school hottie in high school. Ow Ow!

She is a wonderful example of what a wife should be and I try to be as good of a wife to my husband as she is to my dad.

She is the best Nana that my nephews could ask for. I know that when I have children, I'll be calling her all the time for advice and reassurance. She's great with kids and knows how to diagnose and cure lots of ailments.

I'm so glad that she is my mom. I don't know what I would have done without her in my life. I am who I am because of my mom.

PS - The tattoo was a fake. :)

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that when I got on the scale this morning, it was LESS THAN 240!!!
I am thankful that I was able to walk to campus yesterday - it was a great day.
I am thankful that I am done with this semester.
I am thankful that we were able to go to dinner at the Burkes' on Sunday.
I am thankful that I have an interview on Monday - FUN job for the summer!
I am thankful that I don't use as much gas anymore because I don't go anywhere.
I am thankful that Jed's virus is clearing up. :)
I am thankful for my wonderful parents and the love and support that they give me.
I am thankful for Laurel and her giving nature and hospitable attitude.
I am thankful that Jed can start working full time now.
I am thankful that it's Nathan's birthday today and I get to make desserts! I never make desserts for just the two of us anymore - I hate feeling like we have to eat all of it. :\
I am thankful that I was able to go to the Nielsen's for a BBQ on Monday.
I am thankful that it's finally SUMMER!!

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week I definitely beat anorexia! I barely worked out at all and we went to an all-you-can-eat wing place last night for Jed's brother's birthday... :\

241.4
38.80

Monday Memoirs - A Day Late

Our weekend was pretty uneventful. It was full of helping people move, taking finals, and bumming around. The one fun thing that we did get to do was dinner at the Burkes' house on Sunday night. Steak and mashed potatoes! It was delish! Then they taught us how to play Ticket to Ride and unfortunately, there was no beginners' luck for us - Seth spanked us all. We watched Traitor, too. It was pretty good, but not one that I'd really care to own. Megan made popcorn in their air popper - we need to get ourselves one of those! Thanks again to Seth and Megan for having us over! It's always fun to get together with the Burkes and we don't do it often enough.

Friday Foto Fix

Passover Sedar Service Pictures

After Jed ate the "bitter herbs". :)

Have a great weekend!!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that our other two fish that we got on Saturday are doing well. RIP Jack.
I am thankful that I was able to clean a lot today!
I am thankful that I found some old clothes that had been hiding from me.
I am thankful that some of those clothes FIT!
I am thankful that I have such a strong rock to cling to like Jed.
I am thankful that we went to get insurance today.
I am thankful that we got to see Megan at the Health Center today.
I am thankful that we are going to the Burkes' for dinner on Sunday.
I am thankful that I'm not pregnant - that would just complicate things at this point. One day, one day.
I am thankful that I'm 10 pounds lighter and almost out of the 240s!!
I am thankful that Jed agreed to only play frizz once a week.
I am thankful that Jed already played frizz this week, so I get him all to myself on Saturday!
I am thankful that camping/bonfire season is just around the corner.
I am thankful that we will be done with school for a while after next Wednesday.
I am thankful that geocaching is free - otherwise we wouldn't be able to do it as much.
I am thankful for my Savior and His atoning sacrifice.

Wednesday Weigh-In

240.5!!!
38.60

Love Languages

Ali:

You are a person of services / deeds.. This means you are most touched when people do something for you rather than say something. For you, saying something without doing it, is not right. You enjoy being busy as it makes you feel useful, and your way of showing love to others is by doing something for them. Doing things / deeds are a great way of communicating, but when someone else you love doesn't necessarily do the things for you the way you would do it for them, it doesn't necessarily mean they don't love you. What would be their primary love language? The downside of doing things too much may be that you may be impatient, or stressed. Try to find out what other people's language is, too, and respond to them as how they treat you.

Jed:

You are a person of Physical Touch. This means you are most touched when people give you a hug, or are around you. You can be sensitive to people's presence, and you take up everything in your direct environment. Physical Touch is your emotional tool and you will therefore also use this to connect to other people. This is a great way of communicating, but when someone else you love doesn't necessarily talk the way you do, it doesn't mean they don't love you. What would be their primary love language? The downside of Physical Touch may be that when you are beaten or physically hurt, it can be extra hard for you to deal with. Communication with people on a distance may be hard for you too. Enjoying who you are is important - even taking a pet in your house may help!

Interesting...

Did You Know?

Strong Bad answered one of my emails once? Here's the proof: Ali.

Monday Memoirs

Oh what a weekend!
Friday - Jed played frisbee while I worked on some projects at home. Then we had a movie night.

Saturday - We went geocaching (in the rain - not recommended) in the afternoon. And then we went to the pet store and got two fish and a frog for our fish tank. :D

In the evening we went to a Passover service at BYU. Dr. Ludlow puts together several of these services each year around Passover. He is incredibly knowledgeable and kept interjecting neat comments about certain aspects of the service. It was a really neat experience and I'm glad that we were able to participate in this special Jewish tradition.

We got home pretty late that night and completely forgot about Resurrection Buns and Resurrection Cookies!! Maybe next year. Or next week. ;)

Easter Sunday - I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter Sunday! We had stake conference which was a little bit disappointing because we didn't get the usual Primary program and other things that you associate with Easter Sunday church.

We went to my grandparents' house for Easter dinner and games. There was no egg hunt or anything like that, but we did have ham. That was as close as we got to doing anything really "Easter-like".

We came home, picked up our Wii, and headed over to the Nielsen's house. It was Adam's birthday and we brought our Wii over for his party. We also playing the new Monopoly (with the credit cards!) and that was really fun.

**Frog Story**
When we got the frog, the girl at the pet store dropped it on the floor not once, but twice - I should have taken the hint. Then, Jed gets up the next morning and can't find the frog in the tank - he thought it was just hiding somewhere. Five hours later, he sees something hopping around on the floor. Who knows how long the frog had been out of the tank....he was covered in hair and dust and dirt. :\ So Jed puts him back in the tank and he was doing alright but then we came home after Easter dinner and found this:

We thought he was just chilling by the tower. But no, that's how he died, standing up... :(

Easter Eggs

I just thought this was kinda funny when I saw it. :)

Free Buffalo Wild Wings

Click HERE to get SIX free wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. (PS - There aren't any in Utah. Sorry.)

Click HERE to find a location near you.

Friday Foto Fix

Geocaching
The story of a treasure hunt

You log on to geocaching.com, get the coordinates of a geocache near you and you plug them in to your GPS. You follow the GPS toward your coordinates, which may take you to a place like this:

Where you may have to follow a man who looks like this:

When you get to the exact coordinates, you may find something that looks like this:

And on the other side, it may say something like this:

The geocache could also look something like this:

You will have to open it to see what's inside:

It may look like this:

But it will almost always have one of these (a log of visitors):

Once you have opened the geocache and signed the log, you may take something from the geocache and/or leave something in the geocache:

(In Jed's left hand is another [small] geocache we found, and in his right hand is an LCD blinking light thing that we took from it.)

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for my true friends.
I am thankful that we have pretty flowers in our kitchen.
I am thankful that we had a generous gift left on our doorstep this week.
I am thankful that Easter is coming up.
I am thankful that I was able to watch General Conference this past weekend.
I am thankful that my school project is over with and I don't have to worry about it anymore.
I am thankful that this semester is almost over.
I am thankful that I still have TWO and a half out of three boxes of Thin Mints left. :)
I am thankful that I have lost over 10 pounds so far!
I am thankful that I moved down a notch on my belt.
I am thankful that we don't have extra mouths to feed (except the fish and shark).
I am thankful that we have the opportunity to go to the temple tonight.

Wednesday Weigh-In

Well I started a waist disposal program...a while ago.
It's totally paying off:

241.2
38.76

I've moved down a notch on my belt. :)

No Job #2

Oh, by the way, I didn't get that construction job. You know, that one that was perfect for me? Yeah, didn't get it. :\ The search continues...

Resurrection Buns

This is not my recipe and I have never tried these, but they sound like a great idea!
(For the Resurrection Cookies recipe, go to my food blog)

Resurrection Buns

Yeast Mixture:
2 Tbsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water

The Rest:
3 cups warm water
1 cup oil
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
10 cups white flour
1 bag large marshmallows
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mixture

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 390*.
2. Combine yeast mixture ingredients and let rise while you combine water, oil, eggs, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the yeast mixture to ingredients in mixing bowl and then add flour and mix together until no longer sticky. You will probably need to add more flour as you adjust the texture.
4. Knead until smooth and elastic. (Approx. 8-10 minutes) Let rise in a greased bowl until doubled.
5. To form buns, cut off egg size pieces from the dough. Pop a large marshmallow into the center of each dough piece and pinch securely around the marshmallow.
6. Roll on the the table to smooth the ball of dough into a nice bun shape around the marshmallow.
7. Dip top of ball into melted butter and roll in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon.
8. Place on greased baking sheet and let rise for 90 minutes.
9. Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Makes 40-50 buns.

Monday Memoirs

Friday - We rented some movies and went to Justin and Amanda's house with Nathan. We ended up watching The Haunting of Molly Hartley. It was alright... Not the best.

Saturday - Jed was at work all day because he does satellite support for General Conference. I woke up late and watched a little of the first session of General Conference. I went to a free lunch at Zupas - so yummy!
Then I went over to Amanda's house to watch the second session of General Conference; she was home alone because her husband was on campus all day. She scrapbooked and I was going to work on my Tshirt quilt that I've recently started, but I forgot my scissors. :( Amanda's sister-in-law came over with her daughter and we all ate dinner together. After Jed got off work, I met him at home and we watched Bedtime Stories. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I liked it. Maybe not enough to buy it, but I thought it was pretty cute.

Sunday - Jed had to work most of the day again, so I went back over to Amanda's house to watch General Conference. Adam was there this time, and I remembered my scissors, so I worked on my quilt during the first session.
Amanda's sister and brother came over for lunch and to watch the second session of General Conference. It was good to see them again - I hadn't seen them in a while.
After the second session, I met Jed at home and we decided to do some Gecaching (our new favorite activity) around Provo and up the canyon. We didn't have much success finding any on campus - we think they were placed in areas with too much traffic and random people saw them and took them.


**The talks that stood out to me the most this weekend were:
President Monson's talk, about overcoming [the recession and economic] hardship, during the Sunday morning session
Elder Teixeira's talk, with the analogy of using a GPS, during the Sunday afternoon session
Elder Stevenson's talk about temples and temple attendance, during the Sunday afternoon session

What were your favorite/most inspiring talks?**


Jed wanted me to direct your attention to the post below. He wrote it.

A Letter From Jed

I just wanted our faithful blog readers to have a little peace of mind about our financial situation. While we aren't doing that great, we are going to be ok, and we are not starving to death.

For any noobs reading our blog, Ali was let go from her job a little more than a month ago. Since then, we have been living off of my part time paychecks and Ali's severance pay (we received her last check this week).

For the next two weeks, I will only be working part time (20 hours per week). Then, for the rest of the summer, I will start working full time and will be making twice as much. That will help a lot. So Ali has all summer to find a job, which is much easier to do when all of the students are out of town!

Apart from the doubled income, Ali has been responsible enough to get me to start putting money into my savings account. Over the last 3 months, we have been able to save up some extra money which we can use if we ever get short on our bills (we haven't had to use any of it yet).

Also, we have learned the skill of being frugal. Ali loves finding good deals and clipping coupons. We have also had a lot of fun doing things for free (like Geocaching...which is my new favorite thing to do - google it if you don't know what it is).

Additionally, we have a lot of food storage (once again thanks to Ali, and Grams) so by no means do we ever go without eating, even though I could do without it....

No Job

Well I found out yesterday (finally, after almost a month of waiting) that I did not get the job at the business that my friend works. That still leaves me with the construction job that I interviewed for on Thursday. I really hope I get that job. Thoughts and prayers would still be VERY appreciated. Thank you so much!

Mission Call

My cousin, David, got his mission call yesterday! He's going to the Chile Concepcion Mission!! His dad went to Chile Santiago and Jed went to Chile Osorno. Isn't that interesting?

We walked to David's dorm from our house in the rain. A mile and a half both ways! We were soaked by the time we got there. :\

David, with his unopened mission call.

Getting his parents on the line.

He opened the envelope with a huge knife...

***FYI: As soon as he says Chile Concepcion, it gets RIDICULOUSLY loud. So plug your ears or turn the volume down real quick***

David was shaking, he was so happy and excited!!

We're so proud of you, David! You're going to love Chile and the people down there. And you're going to make an excellent missionary!! You're awesome. We love you so much!












***You can generate your own pretend mission call at this website***

New Quiznos Torpedo

Have you seen the commercials for the new Torpedo sandwiches at Quiznos?? They look SO yummy!!

Go HERE and get a great coupon for a buy one, get one free. :)

Thoughts and Prayers

Normally I don't ask for thoughts and especially prayers, but I really feel like I need/could use them now. I went in for an interview early this morning with a construction company (my last job was in construction) and I feel like it went really well. I also thought that interview three weeks ago went really well, but I still haven't heard anything from that one.

So, if you would send your thoughts (and prayers if you're religious) my way, I would be so grateful. I need to find a job ASAP for the sake of my marriage and our family. We simply cannot live off of the part time money that Jed makes - it just doesn't stretch far enough.

Thank you for your love and support. :)

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful that I had an interview this morning.
I feel like it went well.
I am thankful that I was able to find a job posting that was actually legit and not spam. (You'd be surprised how many are out there...)
I am thankful for Jed and his optimism.
I am thankful that Grams gave us food storage for Christmas. ;)
I am thankful that I was able to talk to my mom this morning.
I am thankful that I only have three more weeks of school.
I am thankful that I have another interview tomorrow. (Not as excited about that one)
I am thankful that we don't have to pay utilities.
I am thankful that my car is paid off.
I am thankful that my flowers are still alive (almost two weeks)!
I am thankful that we have a working computer (and internet).
I am thankful that I haven't gotten a ticket in a while. (knock on wood)
I am thankful that Jed still has his job.
Oh yeah! And I'm thankful that I've lost almost 10 pounds! (Even though I don't feel like I've lost that much...)

Wednesday Weigh-In

242.1!!! YES!!
38.90

I am .3 pounds away from having lost 10 pounds!!

(and this is totally NOT an April Fool's joke!!)

Happy Birthday Laurel!!

Today is my sister's birthday! She's an April Fool's Baby! [I remember one time giving her a box of Ex-Lax for her birthday when I was younger. How hilarious and original... :\ ]

She was so cute when she was little, even when she was a green alien (inside joke - nothing to do with this picture).

Laurel has a really pretty smile that's contagious.

She lives in California and I'm so jealous that she's close enough to the beach to make a day trip out of it. Jed and I visit her more than anyone else, for that reason. (Just kidding) We LOVE visiting Laurel and her family.

She has a great husband who treats her like the princess she deserves to be. He and she work wonderfully together and we're so glad that they found each other.

Laurel is always there when you need her. She's always got an ear and will stop and talk to you, even if things are going crazy for her at the moment.

Laurel is one of the most kind and gentle people I've ever met. She has a very soft spot for those in pain or who have difficult circumstances. She is always looking out for other people and that's something I admire about her.

Laurel has two beautiful little boys. Eli and West are adorable and she is an amazing mom to them both. Watching her interact with her kids gives me a good model for how I want to be when I'm a mom.

Last, but certainly not least, Laurel is an incredible scrapbooker. She even has a job in the field and teaches classes on the subject. I'm so impressed with her talents.

Happy Birthday, Laurel! I love you so much and I'm eternally grateful that you're my sister! I hope you have a great day!! :)