After A Storm

This spring was so wet! We had lots and lots of storms, which I am usually not a 

fan of {espeically if there is thunder and lightning invovled}. 

But I do love the smell of rain! And the way the sun shines

through the clouds after the rain stops!

And then there are the rainbows! I dont think I will ever get tried

of looking at a rainbow after a storm!! 

Love Ducks

There are these cute ducks that hang out in my parents neighborhood sometimes!

One guy duck and his girlfriend!! They are so cute waddling around together!! 

Gutter

I've never been a very good bowler!! I recently went bowling with my friend Danielle and I was determined to do well. But, as usual.... I pretty much sucked!!
Round two was the worst!! I had a gutter ball almost every time I rolled that stupid ball down the lane.... pretty sure I had at least 13 gutter balls!! Pitiful!! 

Playing Dead

Last summer my family went to Red Butte Gardens for a picnic!! After we

ate we took a walk around to view the beautiful flowers and plants! 

We even saw some wild life, like this little squirrel! 

This little guy didn't even seem to be phased by me as I got

closer and closer with my cell phone!!

He was so dang cute! He even started rolling around in the dirt!! 

I HAD to get a picture of him doing it because it was just so cute!! 

Little did I know that it would look more like a dead squirrel than

a cute, happy squirrel!

Quote Wall Monday

Not So Sweet Sunday

I may or may not have come close to burning my apartment down last Sunday.....
This black mess may or may not have been marshmallows.....
It may or may not have been completely engulfed in flames.....
This should or should not have looked like this.......

I may or may not have served it to the people that came to my house anyway......

And it may or may not have been gross........

Okay.... it was gross!! But people ate it anyway!! Thank goodness for nice people!! I will have to make it up to them soon with a delicious treat that cant catch on fire!!

iBean Inspired

These pictures have been on my phone FoReVeR!! Awhile ago I went to the What A Woman Wants Show with my friend Lacey and there was a very cool booth selling beans with different words on them. The couple that was selling them was very into them and was talking about how you had to carefully pick which bean you wanted to plant and how you put all your hopes into it before you planted it!


 I just thought they looked cool!!


I was kind of skeptical about it really working...... but it did!! And I was pretty excited about my courage bean! I kept it in my office at work for awhile, but it needed natural sunlight! It got huge!! So huge, I had to put it outside!! And then it died........ {remember how I am a plant killer with a purple thumb}!!
Go HERE to get your own word bean!!

Explosion

This is what my finger looked like after I got in a fight with my blow dryer. It literally blew up in my hand!! It had been acting kind of funny for a few days and then one morning it seemed to completely die. I was wiggling the cord around and all the sudden fLaMeS and SpArKs were coming out the bottom of my blow dryer!! Completely freaked me out! So I threw the stupid thing away and went to work with wet hair. It was a bad hair day for sure!! 

Drunk Driving

This was crazy!! I was sitting in my room one right and I could see these red and blue flashing lights outside my window. I live right on a major street so I figured someone had probably just been pulled over and had come to a stop right in front of our street. 

But the lights kept flashing.... and flashing..... and flashing!

So I looked outside and there was one car pulled over right across the street from my house with two police trucks behind it, a truck blocking off our street and a police car in front of our house. 

At first the officers were just talking to the girl in her car, but then they made her get out... and it got pretty crazy from there! First they made her walk a line. One police officer demonstrated what she was supposed to do and the girl proceeded to do it, in kind of a mocking manner. Then they were making her hold one of her legs out in front of her.... and she did it.

Next thing I know they are grabbing the girl by her arm, flinging her around and slamming her against her car!! 

CRAZY!!

They handcuffed her and stuck her in the back of a police truck!! 

Then one of the officers started going through her car and pulling things out and then tossing them back in. And finally, a tow truck showed up a towed her car away!! 

She didn't seem drunk to me..... but I guess I wasn't out there with them! I wonder what ever happened to that girl......

Tree

{Utah Lake boat dock}

Through The Clouds

I think I was sitting in the back seat of my parents car, driving home from my brother and SIL's house in Provo when I took these pictures on my phone! Right before sunset, just after a mini storm! The sky looked beautiful!! 

Quote Wall Monday

Sweet Sunday

I love going to my parents house on Sunday afternoons! It's nice to spend time with everyone, just relaxing! We play games, chat and sometime watch Drop Dead Diva {LOVE that show}! But one of the best things we do is make treats!! Sunday just isn't Sunday without a treat!! A couple Sunday's ago we tried something new. I don't know if there is a technically name for it, but my first thought when I saw it was 'The Ultimate Ultimate Dessert."

I wish I could remember exactly where I found it so I could give you a link, but I cant.... sorry!! Thank goodness  it's nice and simple!!

First, make your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe using slightly less flour than you normally would. Spread it evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

 Second, layer your cookie dough with Oreo's!

Third, make a box brownie mix according to the directions on the package and then pour over the cookie dough and Oreo's!! 

Now bake it at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes!! I think we actually baked ours for a lot longer than that. The edges were done but the middle was still not fully cooked! So I had to put tin foil over it and keep it in the oven until a toothpick came out mostly clean. There were still some spots that were a little gooey, but it made it that much more delicious!! 

And finally, top your Ultimate Ultimate Dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and hot fudge!! Mmmm!!

Speaking of the Uintah's

I hope your not getting sick of Fun Photo September yet {or of my pictures of the Uintah mountains}!! I still have lots of random pictures to get off my phone!!

 I may not be an outdoor girl, but I do love the Uintah mountains!!

Flash Back Friday

Remember THIS post about my family 4-wheeling trip in the beautiful Uintah mountains?
Well, I was at my parents house last weekend and found some pictures they they had taken with their camera and decided I wanted to share!!

This meadow was absolutely beautiful! But the mosquitoes were OuT oF cOnTrOl!! They seriously weren't even fazed by the bug spray that we had!!

I loved all the little streams/rivers/creeks that we passed that day! They were all over the place! And I'm pretty sure most of them were not there the year before!

Vintage

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE this sign?! Ever time I walk past a Fossil store or 

Dillards I think about how fantastic it would be to own one of these!! 

A few months ago I bought a Fossil necklace at Dillards and I was hoping that they'd

let me buy and/or have a mini version on this. But the girl said they cant sell them.

I think I just need to email Fossil directly!! I just love it!! 

Cut The Cheese

I love gnocchi!! Love love LOVE it!! So when I found this recipe online I knew I had to try it!!

Gnocchi Mac n' Cheese

1 lb gnocchi

2 Tbsp butter

2 tsp garlic, finely chopped

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

3/4 c milk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 c shredded Gruyere cheese

1/4 c shredded Fontina cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 c shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano

Basil leaves for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare gnocchi according to package directions. Drain and place gnocchi in a single-layer, in a 1-1/2 quart shallow baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in flour until it thickens and bubbles, then whisk in milk and mustard. Continue to whisk mixture and cook until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes.

Combine Gruyere and Fontina cheeses, then add by the handful to milk mixture, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Once all the cheese is melted, season sauce with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce over gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top. Bake until gnocchi have puffed and cheese is golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Let gnocchi rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

Sounds fantastic right? 
I had almost all of the ingredients so it made the recipe that much better.
The only thing I needed to get was the cheese. Easy enough right?
Ummm, have you ever heard of Gruyere cheese? Apparently it some kind of Swiss {as in made is Switzerland} cheese.I didn't even know if I'd be able to find it at a regular grocery store. I tried a few stores and then final found a block at my local Wal-Mart {yes, I shop there, back off}. Do you want to know how much a small block of Gruyere cheese costs?? SIXTEEN DOLLARS!! 
My first though? You have got to be kidding me? Who pays SIXTEEN DOLLARS for a small block of cheese?!?
So, I didn't even bother to look for the other cheeses because I didn't want to know how much they would cost!! So I grabbed a five cheese blend instead. Probably didn't give the same effect but there was no way I was paying SIXTEEN DOLLARS for cheese!! 
I made a few other, minor, modifications to the recipe the day I made it. First of all I just halfed the recipe. Then, instead of putting it in a shallow dished, I mixed the gnocchi and the cheese sauce together in a bowl and then put the mixture into ramekins. It's just more fun to eat food out of ramekins!!! 

It wasn't quite as fantastic as I was hoping {maybe the SIXTEEN DOLLAR cheese does make a difference} but still a yummy dinner if I do say so myself!! 

Snake

I always love hanging out with my cousin Kandi and her little boy Jayden! 

It doesn't matter what we do, I always have a good time!

A few weeks ago we did some shopping and then headed

to The Mayan for lunch!

Jayden loved sitting inside the snakes mouths! But he didn't

love looking at my so I could take his picture!!

After lunch we all squished into a photo booth! I haven't done one of

those in a long time!! THANKS for spending the afternoon with my Kandi!! 

Quote Wall Monday

Always Remember, Never Forget

I was sitting in Human Development at the back on the classroom and we were coloring file folder games. 
I don't remember exactly who told our teacher, but I do remember her turning on the T.V. 
I remember thinking it was some kind of weird joke or prank. There was no way what I was seeing on the screen was actually happening.

It all just seemed so fake! But then they started showing images of the towers falling and the plane that hit the Pentagon and I knew it was reality. I remember that some teachers wouldn't let us watch what was going on, others were glued to the T.V. 

I remember being really worried about my dad for some reason and called him to make sure he was okay. I remember rumors floating around that planes were headed to Utah to bomb Dugway and that freaked me out. I remember that there was nothing else on T.V. for weeks. 

I remember feeling sick for the people that were trapped at the top of the towers and horrified when they showed images of people jumping from the buildings. I remember feeling so bad for everyone that had lost a loved one and even worse for those that were missing.

And I remember that overwhelming sense of patriotism the next day when everyone started putting out and displaying American flags. I remember that stores everywhere were selling out of them! I remember that feeling of unity that brought our country together even though the circumstances were terrible. I remember hearing about the passengers on flight 93 and how they stood up to the terrorists and sacrificed themselves to bring their plane down. I remember being so proud of them even though I didn't know any of them.

I remember looking at the images of the firefighters raising the flag in the middle of rubble and feeling so grateful for them and their service. 

The National Geographic channel has had some really great specials on for the last week and it's been really interesting and sad to watch them. I think it will always be hard to watch the towers fall and see the people running out of Manhattan as fast as they can. They showed footage that I haven't seen before, like the plane hitting the pentagon and pictures of President Bush doing what he could from Air Force One. They've also had some really great interviews with many different people and audio from dispatcher and people making final phone calls. 


I wish I could have seen the tower before they fell, they were such a beautiful part of the New York skyline! One day very soon I hope to see ground zero and the memorial they are building there!! 
I hope we all remember that day and remember that sense of American pride and unity. We need that more that ever! 

All Kitties Go To Heaven

I've known this day was coming for awhile...... but that doesn't make it any easier!

I'm sure that it may seem over dramatic and lame....... especially if you are not an animal lover or pet person. 

I remember picking my kitty up in December and bringing him home. 

It was dark outside,I was only about 8 or 9 and I held him on my lap. 

He was all white. So the perfect name for him was Snowball. 

As he got bigger he got some light brown coloring on his face!

And his tail had little tan rings.

So I tried to rename is Popcorn.

It didnt work out! He was always my Snowball!

He truly was one of my greatest friends. 

He loved me unconditionally, at all times. 

And I loved him just as much!! 

I loved the way he would drink water out of his paws.

I loved how he would try to sneak into the house any chance he got.

I loved that watch him jump on the cars and get stuck in the rafter of the garage. 

I loved that he kept the mice away. He would bring dead rodents to our door step, 

so proud of himself. 

I loved to watch him roll around of the driveway.

I loved how excited he'd get when we'd feed him special treats!

I loved to brush his fur in the summer. And loved how relaxed he look while I bushed him. 

I loved that he would answer whenever I called.

I loved the way he would let me snuggle him when I had a bad day.

I loved when he would stretch out his front legs up by my ears, almost like he was 

giving me a hug.

I loved the way he'd bump my chin with his head, like he was saying I love you.

It was rough taking him to the vet yesterday and saying goodbye. 

I was truly hoping that he would just go on his own and that I wouldn't have to

make the decision to let him go.  

But I know he's happy now. 

We didn't bring him home and bury him in the backyard. 

It would have been to hard for me!

But, the vet did tell us they after he is cremated, they will sprinkle his ashes

over an orchard in Lehi. And that makes me happy! 

I really believe that animals go to heaven.

And I look forward to the day when I can pet him again. 

P.S. I'm am sorry for the picture over load!!