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Thursday, December 10, 2009

turkey fullness O'Thanks

bottom: 2008 top: 2009

so let's explain the funness o'thanksgiving in my family
it all began with boxes, cleaning supplies and finals---you think i was reliving the good ol'days at BYU where they always had cleaning checks/move out right along with finals. I thought I had put those days behind me, but noooo I just had to move again huh ha ha ha.


welcome to my new home---and I LOVE it! there is an amazing view from the kitchen over the fields (yeah farm fields like cows, in Arizona who would've thought) where i get to watch the sunset it's amazing! anywho back to the holidays...after surviving finals, the move (in which the house had to be cleaned TOP to bottom---no more moving 4 x in one year is too much ugh), I went to my new ward for the first time and can sum it up only in one word amazing I absolutely love it! anywho I survived finals, moving, checked out my new ward and then I headed off to freedom in Peoria for a whole week! and lets just say I had a WHOLE room kitchen bathroom the works to myself for 3 days (how on earth did i become this spoiled) and access to a gym, hot tub, pool and family plus NO SCHOOL for a whole week!!! seriously talk about heaven on earth.
this is the proper way to enjoy the holidays

we did our turkey trot again---but it certainly was not the same without my siblings---although my parents dressing like this (impersonating valerie and jonathan) and running 1 mile was certainly a nice distraction from me missing them.

later I got to make some fun dishes---I'm starting to embrace this 'food weirdness' and one day I'll be more confident about it but for now I'm still nervous trying new things around people but I was excited to have a chance to make some "devilish eggs" (with cauliflower instead of egg yolks) and cauliflower mashed potatoes---both of which are sooo so gooood---cauliflower is my new fav (okay only cause i really need to stop eating so many sweet potatoes ha ha)

anyways this little one became my helper

it was the first time i've had a helper in the kitchen. She was lots of fun though and I got to teacher her words like cauliflower and my favorite paprika. ha ha ha. she was so cute when she said it.
later she wanted to sit in my seat with me [now if valerie was here i would've never had this chance valerie is every kids favorite person---and she was abby's nanny, but even then if valerie wasn't there jonathan would be her favorite so I know i was just a lucky substitute]



It was weird having thanksgiving with me and abby representing the girls and just matt and nathan for the boys 4 out of 10 grandkids was just too quiet. although i should probably get used to it now that Luke is out it will be a while before we will all be together again good think we took a bunch of pictures last year ha ha


the week was too short and before i knew it I was back at my unpacked room unready to start a two week module Genitourology and Neurology which was supposed to include finals (i'll have to tell you about that story too) and a whole week of the new sememster before heading to Florida--yeah florida as in Disneyworld--me I GOT TO GO there! i know i'm super lucky

Thursday, November 26, 2009

halloween

oh the excuses we come up with to get together! what a better reason than to carve pumpkins, make caramel apples, celebrate Shelly's birthday and play games! awe good times!

oh and i forgot we cooked food too---we got to grill some meaty goodness

and then eat it all! I think I had a little bit of everything on my apple---oreos, coconut, kit kats, reeses mmm

we have skills

I love how its thanksgiving and i am just now posting this blog. . .on thanksgiving---yeah it was a crazy month!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

state fair arizona style

so the other day---thanks to my pal Erin---i made the voyage over to the state fair! oh how I miss the little town fairs in utah. I mean really where else can you have "Onion day's" really? Here is just ONE HUGE fair complete with the rides, exibits, undigestable food, and peoples. Really there is nothing better than going to the fair and people watching! well that and demolition type car races :) but here's some picutres of my little adventure my gal pal Jill went in on this monstrosity---$19 funnel cake I'm not even kidding you this thing was huge. Between her and the two other girls they barely made a dent in it and they were sick from eating it. here's before ... this is after---that is all they could finish. . . they begged me and a couple of peoples we were with to help finish, needless to say we, uh, politely refused :)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

thursdays are fundays

yup these pictures are awesome! we look ridiculous but hey the things we learn in lab are 'super' important. For example below I am testing shelly's peripheral vision by confrontation (basically i wiggle my fingers and she points when i see them) and basically we look like idiots as we try not to laugh at each other while staring at the persons forehead---awe i love lab days

abbie checking mine
I feel like the brian regan skit at the optomotrist
"Tell me the exact moment point A is directly over point B
"NOW!" NO noW! NOW!! no THEN!! ugh i dunno---I dunno what happened....I'm worried if i'm off by an 8th of a second i'll end up with these big hubble coming attraction glasses some guy'll say "yeah you really messed up on that A B test huh" 'Did I EVER!"


scalp massage? no well not quite...
now i am palpating checking for masses, lesions, swellings, exudates, foreign life, and really truly they list like 30 things we have to say sometimes (especially for the nose whoa)

Goodwin: "worst headache" of your life" = Temporal Arteritis
Every Other teacher: "worst headache of your life" = subarachnoid hemorrhage
us: "worst headache of your life" = PA school

all clear no bruits here--although i love it when we try to imitate the sound a bruit makes ha ha (pshtoooo)


now this was a fun day---'so wait would her pancreas be here or ...? oh wait where does her duodenum go?' ...gives you confidence in your medical personnel don't it ha ha no worries we got it all figured out

and then we listened to each others bowel sounds---fascinating huh


awe sigh good times---oh and we do actually study yeah know every so often (i sure hope the seeping sarcasm came through on that one) but those pictures aren't as fun to look at

more brian
[brian regan ha ha
"i concentrate like crazy on the eye exam. You don't want get a D on that thing and end up with coke bottle lenses. I didn't take it serious. Are you still in here? I'm just seeing shadows and shapes. It's important, they don't call it a quiz"
"I can feel my eye doctor losing his patience with me. "Okay Brian which one do you like better, number one or number two....I don't like either one. "that wasn't the question brian I asked which one you liked better. So why don't you keep that in mind while we try this again." Uh okay umm they are the same "Hm Brian why would I waste your time and mine if they were the same"]

exam party ----sounds like an oxymoron to me!

but let me just tell you this was SO much fun!! i love these girls
so the jist is we basically got together with my girls and their husbands, me and JR, and abbie on a blind date (no worries it was all good--well then again i haven't asked him how he felt about) giving us an excuse to get together, eat some awesome food and practice our Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat physical exams on each other. I'll have to post a link to the full exam so you can read it [which would make this even funnier]


here's the crew----awe i love these girls! notice the awesome pizzas! [natalie and her husband made the dough and cooked it out on the grill]

I made layered bean dip [in which secretly i used butternut squash partial substitute for refried beans and soy hamburger meat---(i know i'm weird)

---I guess it turned out okay enough cause they ate it] and did you see those awesome pizzas they made on the grill
this was my pizza [I love these tofu tortillas i found so so good BBQ chicken, grilled onions red bell peppers and some mozzarella so good]
I don't know how jeanna does it with her food allergies but really wow i'm always amazed at how cheerful she is even when she is around all this food she cannot eat!
after we fully examined each head in the room we decided to help shelly out with a spaghetti squash dilemma (she is so cute--they had some fun times trying to cook one the first time) so we nuked the squash and it turned out great---awe good times

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

happy birthday! mom

so it's not exactly complete but it will be! I hope you have a happy birthday!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

ward funness--is funness a word?

seriously what would i do without the church honestly...i mean really where else can you find a bunch of 20 somethings getting together for a cake competition, some bbq, and throw in the hokey pokey (clean dancing peoples---but yeah i'm not even kidding) and of course you have to include the accordian-playing-human-dressed-as-a-pig. what? yeah really----I read some of my other friends blogs who are married and they talk about vacations to they have planned to Australia or the weekend get away to Newport, RI; or they are discussing milestones their little one is making but really i know they would much rather be where I was friday night---getting sick sampling A BUNCH OF incredible tasting cakes
my method to my madness was this creation---which "allowed" me to uh..'forgo' studying for pretty much an ENTIRE afternoon (this included the grocery store trip, baking about 3 other things at the same time and then oh time for institute)
this is the coconut jelly roll with the layer of chocolate being added (yeah yeah i know i didn't "healthify" this recipe and yes i'm still mad at myself for that)this middle is the combination of raspberry sauce I made plus sugar-free cheesecake pudding and I added toasted coconut....I shouldn't have made a cake that included so many of my favorites) when I rolled it together I knew a lot of the filling would fall out but as a solution I took it with me to serve as an optional garnish et voila c'est jolie!
Oh my good tasting cakes...well the ones I tried. The taller of the fondant cakes was abbies it was fun cause I got to "help" as in all i did was make some fondant, cut out a few circles and roll a few circles but it was awesome looking. The brown thing there was INCREDIBLE it was a gingersnap, cinnamon, pecan, caramel, pumpkin cheesecake not even kidding it was amazing!
the sister missionaries obviously contributed :) this is the rest of the table the cheesecake torte was so good--it had like an oreo crust and chocolate topping. The two white cakes were almond and coconut and really i loved them both! and the long chocolate thing was graham crackers and vanilla pudding and then the circle one was a rich chocolate cake. My favorites I think were the cheesecakes and the one almond cake. this is us 'pre-balloon-hat craze' and then we had to show off the awesome balloon-animal-making talent we have

Sunday, September 13, 2009

things i've been UP to

fun title i know---it took me all of 3 seconds to come up with that one on my own :) [this will make more sense after you read the blog] this week seems like it has flown by but when I was reading about someone's labor day i thought to myself 'why are they writing about that now, Labor Day was forever ago--oh wait...' so that pretty much sums up how i feel about the this week and the fact i haven't written an updated blog in ages here goes
I saw one of the cutest movies! Disney Pixar "Up" way cute! Love it!
and this picture says it all
that is the most adorable animated boy scout i've ever seen! and so funny!
and then i studied a lot, yada yada, wrote my siblings yada yada, study, quiz, study, gym, institute then on friday got lost, but thank goodness by saturday i knew where i was going. I got to participate in the relay triathlon for the special olympics--I ran a
whole half mile :) it was well worth going though
that is Sean he was our little swimmer---and John was the biker too bad i didn't get to train with sean or anything this was acutally the first time i met him. I'm glad i got to go do this it made for a really nice break from the norm.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

...when all is said and done

okay so i spent a good portion of last sunday writing up this lovely blog---only to have it be corrupted and not post so here's attempt #2 :)
august 31, 2009
I may not have done all the things I wanted to do when I was in Utah but now that it's all said and I really had some good times ---I just wished I got to see more peoples like Katie & Reed, Madison & Mike, Rachel & Ryan, and Karen--thank goodness for the internet so I can still stay in touch!
okay lets go over all the funness! and pictures are really worth a thousand words so here goes it. . .

I had to take my peoples to the farmers market
to eat some of the amazingness that is there! this rainy day we decided on the oh so good looking pancakes---with apple-cider maple syrup they taste even better than they look!
the next week when dad came we tried some amazing tart fruit thing that tasted like coconut heaven and these leige waffles from Bruges Waffles
mmm my mouth is watering just thinking about the delicousness of the crystalized sugary yumness!
and of course I had to take a picture of the gorgeous pastries
(*side note have you ever been to flour girl dough boy---oh my I LOVE LOVE LOVE that place check it out!) and lastly the beautiful flowers I really want to have fresh flowers in my house---someday it'll happen
most of my time was spent catching jonathan and his little buddies at the lake! it was great none of the work and all of the relaxing, wakeboarding fun I needed it was perfect!
and hilarious note their faces!
okay so I wasn't there for this one but while I was home I found these photos of the day valerie went into the mtc
and I thought they were cute and entertaining! and this one is so so so adorable! minuse the wedding-photo-esque it has to it and now it was my turn to drop off the sibling at the curb
-we started the day early to visit Emoli at Kneaders for their [in]Famous French Toast ---too bad I think jonathan was kinda nervous since he only ate like 3 slices (instead of a typical 8 or 9). It was so so good to see em! I love that girl! Russ should just apply only to ASU not the U this year! I need em closer!
one of my favorites! all growed-up! and I just like this one of us.
and I just had to put on the jacket to see what it'd be like going to the mtc for reals
...lets put it this way I was glad when I was able to give the jacket back---I have a much more admirable respect to both my siblings! I miss them...
and of course what else would you do in provo when its hot and you've just kicked your last child/sibling to the curb for 2 years---
you'd go hike Stewart Falls, eat lunch and write letters to said children-----and it worked cause mom hardly cried at all (that day) and I got some letter writing time in cause heaven knows those poor kids need as many letters as they can get!
so that was my last wednesday in utah---then saturday back up another hike this time with both parentals. . .
this is me practicing my surprise face for the waterfall and this is the waterfall and this is a rock we found on the way to the waterfall and this was an awe moment dad helping mom down the slippery rock
and now back to reality. back to the reality that all 5 of us are in separate locations. back to the reality that school with its 23 credits and balckhole-esqness of time consuming capabilities begins again. back to the reality that onion days will happen without me [although last years memories will certainly get me through] back to the reality that it will be a very long time til i will be in utah with my entire family and friends. i miss it already...

September 6th and don't even get me started on fall (we'll save that for a later blog)
but I do want to add that despite my slightly unoptimistic views I had about school and life, a week later I am feeling much better. School isn't so bad---time consuming yes, but what else would better be filling my time now? and besides i forget how much I love learning! and I missed my girls more than I thought i did! I love the warmth of arizona! I missed the endorphins from Zumba! and the hollywood-esque feeling i have driving in my convertable, top down, sunglasses on, driving by a row of palm trees and ginormous houses! life is really really good right now and I hope I enjoy the ride!