dirty dishes

last night after dinner chris tried to sneak out of the kitchen. "hey! where do you think you're going mr!" i really enjoy it when we do the dishes together because it seems to go by so much faster because i'm not just in there humming to myself. but last night i think i would have rather been alone. i was busy in the soapy water when i heard a loud crash {as loud as can be expected on carpet} i looked at the floor, then up at a frowning chris, then back at the floor. my new "ice cream" bowl from color me mine lay sprawled out in a million little pieces. chris was still frowning and he sat down next to the pile of broken pottery and crossed his legs. he felt so bad and it was so cute i couldn't help but smile. "that was like a $20 bowl!" i'm still not sure if he was mourning the bowl or the loss of the money. but i knew later it was the bowl when he asked me if i wanted him to break his bowl on purpose to be fair. i just told him he had to take me back to color me mine again sometime soon.

love means nothing

chris and i played tennis monday afternoon with some friends. it was a great time. chris pretended {key word here is pretended} he was andre agassi and i was maria sharipova. we played a couple of quick rounds before leaving to watch the jazz game. my favorite part was when i went to backhand the ball really hard and missed it completely...twice! the scoring system in tennis is great...it's one activity where you don't want love.

stewart falls--revisited

sunday after church, chris and i took my family up to stewart falls. what's significant about stewart falls? it's the place where chris and i got engaged. it's a short but pretty little hike {like 1.5 miles} leading to some falls that are pretty neat. it was fun retelling the story when they could see exactly what we were talking about. chris and i saw a moose when we hiked it the first time and we relived that and also showed my dad the EXACT spot chris got down on one knee. it was much greener than when we went last september and there was definitely more water flowing down the falls, but it was still special to be there again...now married.

jazz playoff game

we had the most amazing time at the jazz game saturday night. my parents drove up for the weekend and were able to get us tickets to game #3 of the western conference finals. JAZZ vs. SPURS. even though our seats were in the nosebleeds as you can see by the picture {the ticket price was $70!}, it was a blast. we all got free shirts and we feasted on chicago dogs, soda, kettle korn and candy while the jazz pounded the spurs into the ground for a win. chris yelled his little heart out and was voiceless at the end of the game. mckenzie got her face painted while we waited outside for our tickets to arrive. the stadium was so loud you could barely hear and we screamed and jumped and cheered through the whole thing. even after the game when we went to cold stone for ice cream jazz fans were still yelling and screaming about the win. what a great time!

pulled over

last night my sister danielle got back into the states from her 6-week jaunt around south america. she flew into salt lake around 11:30 pm and had a layover until 6:00 am this morning. she didn't want to leave and go to somebody's house for the night so i offered to take her to "breakfast" when she landed. after picking her up we drove all around the greater salt lake area looking for a restaurant {like IHOP, or village inn} that was open. after trying several places we finally found a village inn in holladay that was open. it was fun chatting with my adventurous little sis and enjoying diner breakfast food at 1:00 am. after i dropped her back off at the airport i was carefully making my way to the freeway when the red and blue lights came on. i looked at my speedometer and i wasn't speeding {for once, and i was actually under the speed limit thank you very much}. i was just really tired and drained and wanted to be in bed {i don't think i've been up past 1 am since i've been married} when the officer got to my window he told me he had pulled me over for a cracked windshield, cracked tail light cover, and expired registration. BUT I WASN'T SPEEDING! he asked me if the car was mine and i told him i had just gotten it as a wedding gift from my parents and that we were getting it registered this weekend {actually next weekend but oh well}. he ended up letting me off with a reminder that i needed to get the repairs done. whew!

catch in the park

yesterday evening chris and i went to play catch in this park with dan and kelli {i'm pretty much a disgrace to the game of catch, but i'm getting better}. while we were tossing the ball around, we couldn't help but notice this couple going at it in the weirdest way possible. looking around the park, we began to notice that they weren't the only couple enjoying the warm weather and the green grass...i don't know if making out at a huge public park in the daytime would be on my top ten list...but i could be wrong :)

man on university avenue

for as long as i've been in utah valley, i have been aware of that "guy on university avenue". if you've been around provo in the past four {or maybe more} years you know who i'm talking about. he's a homeless man, equipped with a backpacking pack stuffed FULL of plastic bags and several other large duffels stuffed full of plastic as well. he spends his days walking back and forth along university avenue. he has straggly long white hair and a matching straggly white beard. he's not really a threatening kind of homeless guy, but he's not friendly either so when i'm running along university avenue, i try to steer clear of him or sprint by if i spot him. since we've moved up to orem, though, i have noticed that around 5:00 in the afternoon, this guy stops walking back and forth to where he's gonna stay for the night. {or at least i think} there's a "highway 89" sign right before a stoplight near the will's pit stop gas station. every single day, never fail, he's there and every single day i make a comment to chris about that guy and how he's stopped to bed down for the night. i can't help but feel bad for him, but then again, is there no one out there who would let him have a job? because i'm pretty sure i would hire him so he could have money to get a haircut and take a shower and maybe stop sleeping on university avenue!

hunter's universe

saturday afternoon, chris and i made the treck to the hunter's mecca: cabela's. the ginormous hunting/fishing/camping/everything store opened recently {well last summer, if that's recent} and i've been wanting to go check it out since it opened. but we never have because it's far enough outside provo that we don't just go to go. but coincidentally we were headed up to kaysville to visit my grandparents so we decided to head up a little early {yeah try 3 hours early} to run into cabela's. i was absolutely amazed. i even heard later that the cabela's here in utah is one of the smaller ones! it was like a little hunting city complete with a restaurant, aquarium, shooting range, not to mention there are a plethora of mounts of about every "mountable" animal on the planet. it was absolutely unreal. i have never seen so many animals {dead or alive} in one small space like that. besides the amazing displays, the merchandise was EVERYWHERE. from guns to cabin decorations and hiking clothing to waterskiis. there was really something for everybody in the store. we spent the majority of 2 hours in the store and left before we caused some serious damage to our wallet {chris was starting to hungrily eye guns, fishing rods and other fancy hunting stuff} we only ended up purchasing some cinnamon cashew nuts and a powerade to munch on while we browsed. if you're ever in the neighborhood of a cabela's and need something to do, go. go to cabela's and be amazed at the universe of the hunting/fishing/outdoor equipment's mecca.

happy birthday blog

today is my little blog's first birthday so i thought i would give a shout out to becca. she introduced me to blogging last summer when i started working full time and explained to her how bored i was at work. after reading her blog, i wanted one and she set it up for me and everything. thanks becca you're great.

scared

i should be running a 5 miler today {the one down the canyon} but i'm too scared of repeating monday's run, so i think i'll spend some quality time at the gym this afternoon instead.

color me mine

i have this favorite place. it's called color me mine and coincidentally we live right by it. basically you go there and pick out a piece of unpainted, unfired ceramic pottery then you design/paint/decorate it however you want with paints, tape, stencils--whatever--leave it there for a few nights and you pick it up and it's all fired and shiny and beautiful. friday night the jazz game was a complete blowout {not in our favor} so kelli and i, well mostly kelli, convinced the boys to take us to color me mine {i think kelli likes color me mine more than i do!} she even threw in some little comment about how we never complain about watching bball games with the guys so they owed it to us...or something like that. kelli and dan decided to make bowls that have built in spots for chop sticks {kelli has a good pad thai recipe} while chris and i painted big cereal/ice cream bowls. we picked the bowls up last night and i was really pleased with the results {i always am}. chris' cereal bowl has his name on it in white with a big blue stripe in the middle of the bowl with the rest of it being yellow. mine is an ice cream bowl. i painted the inside baby blue and did the top rim black and white checkers and did the rest of the bowl red. i puff-painted "ice cream" in yellow puffy paint. now i just need to get some ice cream to enjoy in my new ice cream bowl.

successful dinner, well sort of

yesterday i went home for lunch and put our dinner in the crockpot {as corny as it sounds those things are am-a-zu-zing!} i love love putting everything in raw and just letting it cook on it's own, no watching, stirring it's fantastic! i'll post the recipe below. anyway, after my happy little run i put some rice on the stove before jumping in the shower. chris asked me if he needed to watch it while i showered and i told him not to worry about it. not more than 5 minutes later i hear this obnoxiously loud beeping. my shower wasn't that hot, i was thinking. when i got a towel wrapped around me and made my way out of the bathroom, the whole apartment was filled with smoke. i ran into the kitchen to find the culprit...THE RICE! i forgot to turn the stove to low once i added the rice and the scant amount of water in the pot had absorbed in no time leaving a thick layer of scorched rice to the bottom of the pan. oops. better luck on try number two. once we finally sat down to eat, chris was raving. it's nice to be able to add another recipe to the archives of good ones.

slow cooker chicken with apples (serves 4)

2 cups sliced onions {i used 1 1/2 yellow onions}
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced {i used 3}
2 pounds cut up chicken with or without skin {it's supposed to be bone in chicken, but i used boneless skinless breasts}
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TBS chopped fresh rosemary leaves {fresh herbs are expensive so i used dried but only like 2 teaspoons}
1 cup chicken stock
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups cooked rice

arrange the onion and apple slices in the bottom of the crockpot. season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and place on top of apples and onions. sprinkle rosemary over chicken. wisk chicken stock with soup and pour over chicken and apples and onions. cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. serve over cooked rice.

*my sauce was a little thin so i added like a little milk at the end right before we ate it. also don't forget to turn your rice down to low after you add it to the boiling water!

frisbee golf

last night we were able to head down to the park and play a good round of frisbee golf with dan, kelli, quinn and lex. we had a great time and laughed hard at our short comings {especially mine and lex's} luckily we didn't lose any discs in the thick grass, woods or smelly pond on the course and escaped with only minor injury {massive mosquito bites-everyone, a scraped ear-chris as a result of him skipping into my toss, and a bruised knee-as a result of me falling to duck out of the way of chris' toss} it was a great time and a perfect family home evening activity.

bad run

i had a really bad experience on my run yesterday. i've clocked a 5.2 miler that starts up provo canyon at nunn's park and then i run home {chris drives me up}. i felt pretty good for most of the run {other than the minor aches and pains i always have while i'm running} until i got just out of the canyon. when i trained for the st. george marathon in 2005, i had some....stomach problems that would make themselves especially evident during longer runs. for this reason, i despised eating before or after running because i would just get "sick". well yesterday brought back an all too familiar scene. i thought about stopping and running into the bushes but by the time i was so urgent to actually do this i was out of the forest and running right along a really busy street. i was about a 1/4 of a mile from where i thought the nearest restroom was when i had to stop and walk or waddle. i was starting to freak out. when i finally made it inside the Bajio restaurant by our house i got to the women's restroom to find it locked. i couldn't wait another second so i flew into the men's room...praying no one would be waiting for me when i got out. lucky enought for me i walked out of the restroom alone. too shaky and crampy to run the 1/2 mile home i called chris to come get me, almost in tears. hopefully today it will go a little better.

cute chris

i got home from work yesterday to a hallway full of dirty laundry and a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes {which still reside there by the way}. i threw a load of laundry into the washer and was in the middle of changing into my gym clothes when my husband walked in, trying to be stealth, with not just the gallon of milk i asked him to pick up on his way home but an armful of goodies for me. a beautiful bouquet of orange and yellow flowers {not roses because chris knows i'm not a huge fan of roses}, a card and Bill O'reilly's latest book "culture warrior". chris and i enjoy watching "the o'reilly factor" on foxnews because we love the way he handles his guests. but aside from that i just love how thoughtful chris is and how he takes into account even the smallest things i say in passing. it's great to know how much he cares about me.

geraniums

yesterday, as everyone knows by now {hopefully} was mother's day. we went to church with chris' grandma and grandpa thacker. as is usually tradition on mother's day in the LDS community the ward had gotten a "token of appreciation" as this particular bishop called it, for each mother in the congregation. i'm not a mother by any means, but i somehow still ended up with one of these little guys. now i'm just hoping i can keep it alive in my dark basement!

cowboys, snakes and scooters

since chris and i had not been out to eastern utah to visit his grandparents since we were engaged, we thought mother's day weekend would be a great time. we got up early saturday and drove the 2 hours to altamont, ut where the people talk slow and the grass fields strecth far. we arrived at grandma and grandpa lamb's just in time to start the cattle branding. each year the new calves are vaccinated, castrated {yikes!}, and branded. i'm no stranger to farming...well not a complete stranger at least, but i had never really seen that side of cattle ranching before. i was a little taken back as i watched the calves being forced into this little cage and watching the branding iron burn a big L/L into each one. since this process took up most of the day, grandma lamb and i weeded her flower garden to get it ready for flowers in a couple of weeks. we had spent some of the morning talking about how she had a little problem with garden snakes and was terrified of them. as i was weeding in between these two plants, a little gray garden snake slithered out from where i had just been rummaging. i jumped back and shrieked, probably scaring grandma. i grabbed the shovel and started stirring around in the bushes where i thought i saw it go. after a couple minutes i got him to move and i took a big swing at it with my shovel. i missed. a few more failed attempts at whacking its head off followed until i finally managed to slow him down with a good blow about mid body. yuck. "throw him out into the street, i don't want a dead snake in my garden". we finished weeding the garden but grandma wasn't nearly as into it after i disposed of the snake. after all the cows had been successfully tended to, chris and his uncle glen came speeding into the lamb driveway on two scooters--a pink one and an orange one. i ran outside and admired them both. they were fast scooters that could go up to 75 mph! i have wanted a scooter for as long as i've lived in provo but my chances of ever getting one have been squelched since i was married. chris served his mission in spain and swears he didn't teach or talk to one family on his entire mission {may be a bit of exaggeration in my opinion} who did not have a relative who was killed or brutally injured in a scooter accident. he always says that he doesn't want to be a widower at 26. so i was ecstatic when i saw them. we got to drive them all around for that afternoon and i enjoyed every minute of it. thanks uncle glen for the best time i've had in awhile.

MCAT test day

today is a dreaded and happy day. MCAT test day. we knew it was coming since the day chris got his score from his first attempt back in october. chris has spent the first four months of our marriage studying long hours for this test, which will ultimately determine his future course of life. he has been preparing with a private tutor this go round and his scores have improved dramatically...he just has a little confidence thing going {which i don't blame him for} he goes in to take his test at 11:30 and hopefully when he comes out around 5:30 {i know, yikes a 6 hour test!} he will be feeling good about life and relieved. we have been praying and fasting hard that he will get a good test form and that he will be able to be relaxed and focus and remember all of the things he's been studying. last night i picked up some test treats for him {gatorade and granola bars} and made him a yummy breakfast casserole for this morning. i also bought a pumpkin pie {his favorite} and made a banner with balloons for when he gets home. i'm so nervous for him and just hope he does well. we really appreciate everyone's support and prayers! GOOD LUCK CHRIS!

will bake for cash

i must look pathetic at work or something. last week i made snickerdoodles for the ladies i visit teach and brought the leftovers to work the next day. i have brought cookies to work a few other times but don't do it too often because if the container is sitting on my desk all day i have a hard time not eating cookies all day long. for the past few weeks though, i've been getting hounded by the guys in sales to bring cookies {"what? no cookies today" or "when you gonna bring in some more cookies?"} finally one of the guys said he'd even contribute cookie funds to me if i brought cookies on a regular basis. so i finally succumbed. on monday before i left work for the day i asked the guys in sales what kind of cookies they wanted me to bring. the respond was unanimously pumpkin chocolate chip {i thought those were only good in the fall but i guess i was wrong} so i went home monday night and whipped up a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and brought them to work yesterday. they were all gone by 2:00 and i had $7 cash in my pocket, with the promise of more cash today. i'm pretty sure the ingredients didn't cost more than $4, and i bought enought to make at least another batch... i guess i look like i have nothing else exciting in life outside work so the guys decided if i was making cookies after work i wouldn't be such a loser {they're probably right} anyway, i was asked yesterday how much i would charge for a batch of cookies and i didn't know what to say so any suggestions as to pricing let me know.

mothers day

everyone knows {hopefully by now} that mother's day is on sunday. this mother's day i have a new mom to shop for--my mother-in-law. what do you get a mother-in-law? i definitely don't know her like i know my own mom and i would like to think i have nailed her taste down pretty good. needless to say, i was very apprehensive on saturday when kelli and i walked into Deseret Book. the shelves were lined with books, journals, cds etc. and i was overwhelmed with the task. i found a cute pineboard painted a brick red color with "families are forever" painted on in cream lettering {the one in the picture is backwards}. there was a wire strung through to hang in on the wall. i grabbed one for me and one for LeeAnn. i wrapped it up along with a framed picture of chris and i from the boise reception. what did you get your mother-in-laws for mothers day?

reviewing Moloka'i

i recently finished {finally!} the book moloka'i that i have been reading since march. it really was a charming read and i'm sure i would have finished it much sooner had i had adequate time to devote to reading earlier. anyway. the book follows the life of rachel kalama starting at the end of the nineteenth century when, as five year old girl, she contracts leprosy. she loses everything she holds dear as she is sent away to Kaluapapa on the hawaiian island of moloka'i. she finds though as time goes on and she is softened by a realization that she must accept her new life, that there can still be happiness and joy. she doesn't escape tremendous amounts of loss and hurt though as she watches all her friends and new family succomb to the ravenges of the disease that separates them from the rest of the world. it's beautifully written and i recommend it to anyone looking for a new perspective on their own lives. the copy i bought also had a group reader guide at the back which i assume would be perfect for using as a book club read.

go jazz go

the last time i can remember even being remotely interested in the utah Jazz was back when john stockton and karl malone were the headliners and basketball was fun to watch. but lately, it seems, there may be a new reason to be interested in the Jazz. tonight is game two of the second round of the NBA playoffs and the Jazz are up against san fransisco's golden state Warriors. chris has re-discovered the Jazz this season and finds himself hard-pressed if he has to miss a game. while i have never been a huge fan of watching sports on tv {we never did it growing up} i have come to enjoy the fun we have watching the games with our friends. {it also helps when the Jazz pull off a win} good luck to the Jazz, we hope they can pull off another win at home to give them some momentum as they head to san fransisco for friday's game.

crazy utah weather

because chris and i live in a basement, it's always hard to tell what the weather is like outside. we have windows in our apartment but they face the dirt surrounding the basement, so unless it's really sunny or totally dark you can't even really tell day from night. anyway. it's been really really warm here in orem the past few days and i am lucky enough to work at a job that doesn't care what i wear to work, so i've been enjoying shorts and flip flops. this morning when i tried to look outside to see what the weather was like it looked a little dark. not wanting to miss out on a pair of shorts i decided to pair them with a long-sleeve oxford shirt thinking i would be warm but not too warm {i could roll up my sleeves if it got too hot}. well, needless to say i was running late as usual and when i stepped out our "front" door it was POURING rain. i felt like i didn't have time to run back downstairs and change before getting to work so i ran to my car instead. BAD DECISION. here i am at work, running my space heater because i'm freezing. why can't the weather just make up it's mind as to what season it is?

pride and prejudice

awhile back chris and i bought pride and prejudice with some gift card money we had to best buy {along with some manly movies like bourne identity, bourne supremacy, the fugitive, hardball, saving private ryan, billy madison, etc.} sadly however, pride and prejudice has been sitting on the shelf, unopened. when we go to watch a movie, chris tells me to choose and i always feel bad reaching for the "chick flicks" so i usually choose a manly movie that we both can enjoy {see above list} this is fine. but the other night i was really in the mood for a good romancey type flick and when we decided it was movie time i chose pride and prejudice. and even though there was a killer basketball game on tv, chris sat and watched the entire movie. thanks chris! i thoroughly enjoyed lizzie and mr. darcy and am looking forward to reading the book this summer.