Fall Things

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted! Fall has been a really busy time for us, and it seems like it's just flown by! Here it is the first day of November and I still feel like I should be running around in a tank top an shorts like I was in my last entry. That's total wishful thinking on my behalf though, because if I did that now, I'm pretty sure I'd be fighting some frostbite!

Here's what we've been up to, September and October:

Finally moved into our new house! More pics are coming of the work we put into this place to make it our home--I promise!

But for now, here are some outside shots...
We have a huge yard in the front and back, which I love. But that also means LOTS of leaf raking! It's a good work out though!

We celebrated Christopher's birthday in early October with mini cupcakes and sibling bonding.
I dyed my hair RED
And we went to my first ever Utah Utes football game. I can officially say I am a superfan now since it rained on us the whole time AND the game went into OT.
You can't tell, but I have like four coats on in this picture, plus a blanket, plus a husband to keep me warm. It was necessary.

Hopefully I will be able to squeeze in another post, or several, before I have to do a winter recap! xoxo

First 10k

I did it! I finished my race today in 55:57:4, 53rd out of 376 runners--I can't believe it! Thanks, everyone for your support, especially my hubby and my sister, who was the first to hug me as I reached the end.
It was definitely an amazing feeling to cross the finish line. Now that I've proven to myself that I can run (in front of other people), there may or may not be more races in my future. We'll see :)

Happy Birthday Baby!

Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short, but Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Dustin! Not that he minds either the day or the dollar due to our cheap-skate nature and the fact that he doesn't really love birthdays as much as I do. :)

Anyway, to celebrate my baby's last year in his 20's, there was some of this...

some of these...

(homemade quadruple dark chocolate cupcakes, dubbed the Chocolate Overload by D. Fancy, no?)

dinner at our favorite Mexi place.

and then we went home and went to sleep like the two old farts we are. We just can't keep up with the young whippersnappers these days. 29 is the new 59. Ha Ha. Just kidding Mom!

Rockin St. George

This weekend was ROCKIN......thanks to the hospitality of my brother and sister in law down in hotter than h*ll St. George, Utah. Luckily, we picked the hottest days of the year so far to travel down--the median temperature was 100 degrees with the highs around 115, so when I say that we were a hot mess, I'm not kidding.

We went hiking though Zion National Park and it was gorgeous. Here's my hot mess self and the hubs.

What are we doing in the river, you ask? Well, there's actually a killer hike called The Narrows where you typically walk through a little drizzly stream for a few miles. Evidently the run-off is a tad high this year. We actually waded knee-deep before realizing that we were about to go swimming if we trekked any farther, so we turned around and hiked this instead.

The Emerald Pools

This is us at the end...all dried up, parched and prickly. Just kidding. We survived continued to rock out all weekend. Thanks Kit and Liz!

Letter #8

Dear Peeps at the Gym,
Find the balance. I don't want to smell your BO, but I don't want to smell your cheap-ass vanilla body spray or your knock-off Axe Expressions. Deodorant will suffice. P.S. Note to gym staff: I don't want to smell anyone cooking BACON in your little break room microwave either. That's just cruel. Keep your sodium packed, nitrate laced deliciousness to yourself. I would just wold my breath, but that's impossible while I'm trying to workout for Pete's sake.
Emily

SLC = Compton

Apparently i live in the hood now.
Check out this monkey business.
Yikes.

Adventures in Housesitting

Last week, Dustin and I had the opportunity to house and puppy sit for my good friend and ex-boss. She figured it would be great for us to try out being home and doggy owners for a week, just to make sure we were up to the challenge. I have to say, being in a house with a kitchen (albeit a small one) and backyard and neighborhoods with actual sidewalks THAT YOU CAN WALK ON, did indeed make me want a house even more.

Not to mention that I'm already pining for my little puppy (don't worry, she probably doesn't miss me that much--she goes where the treats are).


Probably the best thing about the house was that we were able to use the barbeque grill. There is nothing Dustin and I like to do more than throw a little flame at our food, so we seriously grilled almost every single day we stayed there. We had to have some non-grill days to eat all our yummy leftovers!

We loved our adventures in housesitting, but for now, we'll have to carry on with the much less glamorous adventures of househunting!

Utah Weather

Utah weather--loves it. And by love, I mean it exasperates.

Yes, this is hail the size of a dime on my husband's poor little tomato plants, and yes, the sun is shining at the same time.


Awesome. But if you'll recall, you just have to expect this sort of thing in June.

Why I'm in love with my husband

Yesterday I had kind of a crummy day. What does Dustin do? Not flowers, not candy. Nope, he takes me to Target. *sigh* Isn't he amazing?

You never know what you'll find...

Browsing offbeat little markets is one of my favorite pastimes, and my husband is indulgent enough to come with me every once in a while like he did this evening. You never know what you'll find there, and tonight I found this:
Ok, maybe I'm just immature, but I thought it was hilarious. I'm not usually one for potty humor, but c'mon! How can you not laugh at this?! Those batty Brits!
P.S. You'll notice, it's also microwaveable...how convenient--and quite the bargain at $5.75!

Adventures in Food Storage

My husband and his family have an odd obsession with food storage. Not that I don't appreciate it--if there's ever a natural disaster, or escalating gas prices force the minimization of food transport to WalMart--we're totally set. If you ever need some canned tomatoes or whole wheat rotini, you just let me know!

So, anyhow, when we went up to Vernal last weekend for D's beautiful sister's graduation, my mother-in-law thought it would be tons of fun to host a little canning party. Well, tons of fun it was, and I have the pictures, as well as 36 cans of assorted grain mix to prove it!

To begin:

Here's Dustin operating the "heavy machinery:"

Our final product:

In case you're wondering, it's an awesome workout to bend and scoop oats out of 6 ginormous bags into little tin cans and then lift them into your car. ;)

I know there's a facetious tone to this post, but we really did have a great time, and we really appreciate all the emergency food supplies. For more interesting adventures in food preparation click here to see what else I got to experiment with!

Grammar

So funny. What's wrong with this picture? Can you tell? Clearly the designer, proofreader and publisher could not. Someone's getting fired for this one!

Requirements

Yesterday I went to get very self-indulgent massage. While I waited, I was asked to fill out the standard information forms. One question asked: "What qualities would you like in a massage therapist?" Well, after a great deal of thought, I wrote down only one thing...not creepy!

I think this is an excellent requirement, and really, it makes all the difference.

Bar Review #4

Clif Nectar Cherry Pomegranate Very chewy! HUGE chunks of roasty-tasting cashews. Definitely tastes like the ingredients listed (all organic-- dates, cashews, sour cherries, pomegranate concentrate)-like eating a handful of dried cherries and nuts. Tart, very cherry flavor. Pleasantly sweet. Not really being a fan of Cliff bars, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this bar. I will for sure buy this kind again and I’m looking forward to trying some of the other flavors. Ingredients: 5 g fat, 7 g fiber, 3 g protein.

Bar Review # 3

Coco Mole Lara Bar
I love lara bars for a lot of reasons. They are so dense, with very minimal processing and ingredients! This one has 6: dates, almonds, walnuts, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon and chili. I actually found a whole almond in this one! This bar is definitely an interesting combo with the chocolate and chili, but I love the spiciness.

Lara bars typically have a lot of fat in them, but it’s all “healthy” from the nuts, so it’s a great source of those omega 3’s! I usually have just a half of one at a time because they are so nutritionally compact, but each full bar contains 9 g fat, 5 g fiber and 4 g protein.

Bar Review #2

Gnu Glavor and Fiber Bar-Cinnamon Raisin Flavor
Gnu (say it like "new") bars are actually some of my favorite bars and I eat them pretty frequently. They have several flavors, but the Cinnamon Raisin one is by far the best tasting. Super chewy with kind of a nutty taste and really cinnamon-y. Whole raisins, whole oats (which is nice if you like to be sure what your eating) and crunchy little millet pieces. Whopping 12 grams of fiber, but not much protein or anything else, really. They sure are yummy, though, and will definitley help you meet your 25 g/day quota--oh yeah, and banish post-workout hunger pangs until lunch time!

Any way you slice it...

Cutting up pineapples is messy business. Ever since Hawaii, though, I am in love with them and have to purchase them every time they're on sale (I got 3 for $5 one time!!!). Anyhow, all this fruit finagling has allowed me to become quite the expert on the most efficient way to prepare this rather prickly thing. Observe:

Pineapple in the raw:First, rip off the top. Trust me, it's not that hard :)

Then, slice off the top and bottom so you have a flat surface
Next, slice off strips of the rind all the way around
You then have all these little eye things, so...
You have to pop 'em out. Sounds violent, I know. But you have to do it unless you enjoy tearing your tongue to shreds while you're eating. Which I do not.

When you are finished de-eyeing your pineapple, cut it into halves
Quarters
And strip the core. You really just have to take off a little bit.

Finally, cut into cubes. Ta-Dah!
The End.