Eye Candy

The last few months, I have been casually looking around at various dealerships around the area for new vehicles. At first, I had a rough time trying to decide what kind of a new vehicle I wanted. A crossover? A sedan? An SUV? A truck? I thought I widdled it down to a crossover or a sedan. I kept looking and looking, always finding things that looked cute or fun, but not really serious about anything really.

Last week I found a car online that looked to be like a good deal and I thought "why not?". So C and P and I went down to a dealership here and test drove the exact model that I was looking at (the one online for sale was in Ogden). I drove it, and thought it was pretty good, and was going to go up the next day to look at it and test drive the real thing. Friday night D found another option for me, and this one was in SLC instead of way up north. This car was a really good deal, had about 5,000 less miles, and was not 1 + hours away. I decided to go ahead and look at it. C and P were reallly nice and came with me. We got to the dealership, took the car for a test drive and I decided that I really liked it and wanted it. (I was nervous at this time because the sales man said some other people in the office were looking at the same one...it was just a matter of who offered the money first.) So, I said I wanted it and the process began. It all kind of happened pretty fast for me, and it is still kind of amazing to me that I have a new car. Here I am, signing papers for my first "own" car!

All good so far!! (My hands were shaking a bit here trying to fill out the forms. Nervous!!)

Here I am, for the first time, in MY car. I love it!! Nissan Altima, dark blue. Love it!

The next morning. I still like it, don't worry! Its great!

Like I said, it was a pretty fast process I felt like. But I am glad I did it. I love this new car, it is so nice and fun to be in! Its a bit bigger than my old car, and that is taking some getting used to. I will get it down though, don't worry! My first car, bought completely on my own. Its amazing!! Thanks C, P, K, C, M, and D for helping me through the whole process, I couldn't have done it without you guys!!!!!

December already?

I can't believe that not only is it December already, but it is the middle of December! Time is just flying by so quickly. Here is a little catch up of the last month or so....

K and I went to a BYU football game. It was pretty darn hot. I got a pretty nice sunburn - on one arm and one side of my face. It was lovely. Luckily we won, that made it worth it!

A few weeks later, A and I went to a BYU football game. This game was at night, and it was FREEZING. No sunburns here!! Also, notice the lack of people sitting around us. Pretty empty stadium! Luckily, we won this game also. Again, made it worth it. For some reason I love going to football games. They are just fun. I will go with anyone who wants to go with me!

This is from the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. They held it at the top of the Zion's Bank building in Salt Lake. Beautiful view!

This last weekend K, C, J, C, P, and I went to Temple Square to look at the lights. Inside the Grand America hotel they had a little display with this ball maze thing. J sat there for quite a while mezmorized by the balls dropping and rolling. It was pretty funny to watch him just transfixed by this! It was fun to watch his reaction to some of the lights also.
The customary "Emily and the lights" picture. They once again didn't disappoint, the lights are always beautiful there!! There were a lot of people, but I still enjoyed seeing all the lights everywhere.
A week or two ago I went up and babysat J. We played and had quite a fun time. He is starting to become quite the little talker, and its fun being around him. Cute smiling boy!!!
Thanksgiving was also smushed in the middle of all these activities. M and D came up, and we were all able to spend it together. Everything turned out great, we had amazing food, great treats, lots of laughing, and just being together. It was really nice, except for the part where I was sick the entire time. I was pretty down and out of it, taking cold medicine constantly. Luckily I was able to at least enjoy the company and be with the family.

That pretty much wraps up from the end of October till now. Its been very busy, and work continues to be busy busy busy. This week before Christmas break is no exception, trying to wrap things up before the break. Hopefully life after the break will calm down a little bit!! But for now...I am just looking forward to Christmas!!

October/Halloween/Nevada Day

October has had some fun things that I got to do. Pretty much everything occurred at the end of the month, revolving around Halloween. Thanksgiving Point held a "Haunted Symphony" where the Utah Symphony had everyone dress up and they played spooky songs (for example, E.T., Star Wars, Night on Bald Mountain, etc). It was really fun to go and hear them play, they did a really good job!

I got to go to Cornbelly's Corn Maze. For some reason, I find it fun to wander around in corn. I only got "lost" once, and was able to find my way out with little problem. It was pretty fun, although it was a very warm day. Her I am, being one with the corn.

I was able to carve pumpkins with some of C &P's nieces and nephew, and I got to take the seeds back with me. I have been wanting to try making my own pumpkin seeds for a while now, and this was the perfect chance! I gutted the pumpkins, removed the seeds, and the process began, First up: take seeds out of pumpkin.

Next I removed most of the goop surrounding the seeds.

Then soaked them in salt water for ten minutes. Then baked them in the oven. The went from pale....

...to toasty in just a few minutes! They look really pretty and I think they taste pretty good too! It took alot of work to get them out of the goop but it was a fun adventure!

Last year, K, P, C, and I decided to run a 5k. Since then we have done that first one, a second one, and then we decided to do another one this year. Its the Highway to Hale held right around Halloween. I didn't train quite as much for this one as I had for the others, but it was still a fun experience. The atmosphere of a race is so different and much more exciting that training for it is! Here we are, Pre-race.

J came along for the ride this year, but he took the best route: he was pushed in the stroller the whole way. Next year, I am taking his mode!

I finished the race! Wahoo! Went pretty good, and the day was really quite nice for running. I survived!


Here we are, post-race. All showered, fed, and rested up. Thanks for the fun Halloween Run! (this has got to be one of the best pictures of J smiling. Normally he doesn't smile for the camera. Isn't he cute?!)

Today was Halloween and as such everyone at work was dressed up. Can you tell who I was? Minnie Mouse! Turned out pretty cute I think! Happy Halloween and Nevada Day!!!

The big 100!

I made it to post #100! Wow, I didn't even know that till I logged on tonight to post this! Go me! That being said, this one better be good! About a week ago I was really craving cookies, so I made some oatmeal-chocolate chip-craisin cookies. The dough was so good, much better than the actual cookie. Although, thats usually how I feel about all cookies and cookie dough...I prefer the dough. Anyway, it was pretty darn tasty!

I have become slightly addicted to Pinterest lately, and found the inspiration for a new fall wreath. I loved it so much I actually went and got the stuff to make it. For under $8, I made this fantastic wreath that I am loving! The hardest part (okay, so it was more time consuming than hard...) was cutting out the 90 squares of burlap to put onto the wreath. And just fyi, burlap sheds like crazy. It was all over my floor, my couch, and me by the time I was done. But I think it turned out pretty good, don't ya think?

I have gotten in trouble lately for pinning all these ideas on Pinterest and never actually making any of them. Well, here ya go! It was great inspiration!

Life continues onward. Work is going alright, still feeling alot better about things than this time last year, which is a big confidence booster. Hopefully it will continue to get even better as I learn and remember more! The weather...well last week it snowed, and today it was in the 70's. Welcome to fall I suppose, huh? The mountains were all turning very bright red before the snow covered them last week. I am looking forward to fall, wearing hoodies and whatnot. Just not ready for cold....yet. Hopefully it doesn't come on too fast! I am spending this weekend babysitting/playing with J, and I am pretty excited about it! We are going to have a good time!

Adventures

For the anniversary of Sept. 11, Sandy put up a "healing field". Basically they put out one flag for every person that died on Sept. 11. It was pretty amazing to see and walk through. Each flag had a piece of paper on it that had the name and story of a specific person. It was really amazing.
This is just one side of the field that holds the flags.

This is the new memorial that the city built for the anniversary.

The Utah State Fair came to town, and we all went. We have gone the last few years, but this year K, C, and J were able to go with us. It was really alot of fun to see all the booths, animals, food vendors, and rides. J was a little apprehensive about all the people at first, but after the crowds died down a bit he had a good time. Here he is with a bag of popcorn that was as big as him.

We usually try to get some kind of fun treat at the fair. K and C got "healthy fried fresh fruit" for us to share. Healthy and fried...right....It was strawberries and pineapple that they coated in batter and fried, then drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was tasty but probably not health. The other treat we tried was the funnel cake. Those are always a good choice! Here we are with the funnel cake with strawberries. Pretty tasty!

I got a large bag full of peaches and decided to make fruit leather with them. The first batch I added too much water to and it never dried out. For the second batch I used a different recipe, but over baked it and it turned to brittle. It wasn't so tasty.

I had enough peaches left to make one final batch, using the 2nd recipe just baking it a little less. Thankfully that one turned out! I was just bummed that out of a large bag of peaches I only got one pan worth of edible leather....guess I am going to the store to get more peaches this week!

Catching Up

Its been a while, but I was having technical difficulties downloading pictures. But I am back in the game so here we go! These pictures are all from the last couple weeks before school started again for me. I spent some time up with K, C, and J just playing, babysitting, and having fun. One night, J pulled out the Church Stories and wanted to read them with me.

Apparently, J has not been liking the bath lately. Well, that's just because I wasn't around! Look at how much fun we had!

That same night, I made stromboli for dinner. Turned out pretty good looking, huh? It was pretty delish!

Tuesdays in August, Thanksgiving Point does $2 Tuesdays where they offer admission to a few of their venues for $2. They have some gardens that I went to, which were AMAZING. HUGE gardens, they were amazing! These were just a tiny tiny sample of what they had to wander through and see. I loved them!

I was wanting a treat one night and found this recipe for ice cream using only frozen bananas. I was a little skeptical at first, thinking it wouldn't turn that same texture as ice cream. I will admit I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome! It was smooth and creamy like ice cream, and tasted so good!

My dear friend K had a baby the middle of August and I decided to make a quilt for her and the baby. It took me way longer than it should have. IT wasn't a hard project at all, I was just slow in doing it. Overall I think the quilt turned out really cute. Little jungle animals all over the front. It went over pretty well too I think.

That catches me up through...now basically. School started 3 weeks ago, and its been tricky getting back into the swing of things. The only problem I am having is trying to make myself to go bed at a decent "school day" hour. Its still a work in progress. Its amazing how much less stressed I am this year than I was last year at this time, its amazing! So much more enjoyable. Kids start coming next week to see me, let it begin. Hopefully things stay as calm as they are now!

Buttons, beans, and dough

Had a fun day spent in Salt Lake today. First off...cookie decorating!! P's mom enlisted us to help decorate 100+ cookies for some activity. We decided to make cookies that were decorated to look like a button. They didn't turn out quite like the picture we went off of, but they turned out pretty good nonetheless. Here was our assembly line...

These are the final product cookies. They took us about...3 hours to finish them all. Kinda cute, yeah?

After cookie decorating, we were quite hungry. There is a place in SLC called Mo' Bettah Steaks. They serve authentic hawaiian food. So we decided to try it out. The pulled pork was pretty good, as was the chicken. I wasn't a huge fan of the steak, but others liked it. The kicker was dessert - an authentic hawaiian snow-cone. This was the real deal, with the GOOD shaved ice (no big ice crystals). In Hawaii they have this tradition of putting Azuki beans in the bottom of the cup in shaved ice. We decided to try it out, since this was an authentic hawaiian resturant. Here C and I are, eating the beans.

In my opinion, the beans weren't gross. They were sweet just like the snow cone juice. BUT...they were just kinda weird. Out of place. Don't think I will be needing to get Azuki beans in my snowcone any more! They did have an option to have your snow cone "snow capped"....with sweetened condensed milk poured over the top. I know what I am doing next time!


I wanted a little treat tonight, but nothing big. Just something sweet. K found a recipe for a single serving cookie dough recipe that makes just a little bit of dough. You don't bake it, just eat it. Its eggless, don't worry. Turned out pretty good I think!! Makes a good amount to just eat, since I almost am more of a fan of dough than I am of the cooked product. It was a fun, quick treat!

Baseball and Birds

This weekend was Pioneer Day weekend, and I decided to go to the Orem Owlz baseball game. It was really a fun game. It was quite hot when we got there, but the sun went down quickly and it was really nice the entire night.

This was our view of the field. We sat in the 5th row up, and could see really well. The stadium filled up pretty good, and it was fun to go and see. I am not a huge baseball fan, but something about being at the actual game makes it so much more fun!! The Owlz ended up loosing 17-7...but nevertheless it was fun to be there!

After the game, because of the holiday weekend, they shot off fireworks. It was so much fun to see!! You are seriously about 500 yards from where they were shooting them off from. They are right in your face!! I love fireworks, and must admit thats part of the reason I wanted to go to this particular game, for the fireworks afterwords!

A's birthday was last week and so I had to hold a late birthday party. Chicken enchiladas, presents, and these fun things...homemade of course....

Angry bird cupcakes!! I love them! I think they turned out pretty darn good, don't you think? I had been searching and searching for a cool angry birds cake to make, and found these that seemed pretty simple. They were, too! I am so happy with how they turned out, and they were a bit hit. Yay for angry birds!

Added to the wardrobe

This is the latest piece added to my wardrobe. Cute shoes, don't ya think? I love them! I saw them at the store a while ago and just never got up the courage to get them. They come in different colors (yellow-which I loved, pink, teal, and white) but I just decided I would wear the black with more things than the yellow. I was debating all day yesterday whether or not I should just get them. Finally just decided to do it, and I love them!

They are definitely a fun little twist, very not "me", but they are great! So cute!