Coming Soon!!

Lots of stories and pictures from my trip to California and Disneyland!!!

Oh Nuts!

I used to think I hated peanut butter! WHAT was I thinking?!? Haha! Actually, sometime I still wish I didn't like the stuff because it can be WAY to addicting!! Especially when mixed with chocolate!! I am not afraid to dip an Oreo is peanut butter!! And Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (especially the holiday kind).... ummm, FANTASTIC!! But they are SO fattening (probably why they taste so delicious)!!

So one of my new roommates told me about this stuff: It is called almond butter!! Looks pretty gross, huh?!?! She got a container of it out of her cupboard and this first thing I thought was "Oh my gosh that stuff looks nasty!!" Now of course, because she is my new roommate, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings, I told her it looked pretty good! She told me that I was more than welcome to try it and my next thought was "There is NO WAY on earth I am eating that stuff!!" She told me it might be something I had to get used to and that the texture was kind of interesting............ but she is a fellow Reese's lover too and she said she could eat almond butter by the spoonful now! I told her I would have to try some....... sometime........ and NEVER planned on tasting it! Well, I went grocery shopping that day and found a little packet of Justin's Almond Butter for a $1.00 (yeah.... I thought that was a good price too......... until I went to another store and found the same stupid packet for .59) and thought, what the heck, I might as well try it for a dollar!

The next day before I work I was in a big hurry! I needed something fast and easy for breakfast! So I got out my fun little packet of almond butter, grab these from the fridge:

And then I sliced up one of these:

I put it all together to make a little sandwich!! Like I said, I was in a hurry so I didn't even have time to taste it before I left the house! I was still not sure about it even as I was driving to work! I was prepared to taste something truly nasty and was certain I was going to end up throwing the whole thing away!! So I was SHOCKED when I found that I really kind of liked it!! My roommate was right about it having an interesting texture, but it really wasn't that bad (trust me! I am a total texture eater, and if it has a weird texture, I usually will not eat it)!! In fact, I had another almond butter sandwich the next day with sliced up strawberries (another giant food step for me)!!

So, the moral of this story?? You should totally go nuts and try some almond butter the next time you are craving a PB&J sandwich!! You can buy the cute little packet at Harmon's for only .59 (or you could go to Target and pay $1.00)!!! It really is pretty good and will be a decent substitute for the peanut kind!!!

P.S. As good as it is............. I don't think I will be dipping my Oreo's in it any time soon!! Only the real stuff for that indulgence!!

Cooling Off

Can you believe it's the last day of August?? I have been writing down 8/31/2010 all day long and it just seems so weird!!! Where did the month go?!?!

And were you outside at all yesterday?? It was COLD!! I wore a jacket everytime was outside! And today doesnt seem to be a whole lot warmer!! It's just crazy that autumn is almost here!!

I shouldnt complain though!! I LOVE autumn!! It is my most favorite season of them all!! It means hoodies and pumpkins, and apple cider and crisp leaves!!!

But with our crazy Utah weather, the coming of September means that we are not to far from this: I am NOT ready for this!! For the cold, and the snow, and the ice, and the bad roads!!! AHHH! Please let us have a nice fall season this year!! STAY AWAY winter....... until December please!!

Golden

My birthday this year was a special one.... it was my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY which means I turned 25 on the 25th! I didn't even know there was such a thing as golden birthdays until just recently, but I had known for awhile that I wanted to do something great for my quarter of a century birthday! All my birthday wishes came true this year and they are just to fantastic not to share!

My first birthday celebration was actually a surprise. My entire family {grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...} went boating at the beginning of the month at Jordanelle and we planned to spend the day tubing, playing on the wave runners and lounging around on the beach. Around lunch time they brought out a huge Costco cake {I LOVE Costco chocolate cake, mmmmmmm} and sang Happy Birthday to me and Austin {his birthday is the day after mine}. My mom had planned it and had been hiding the cake from me the whole way up! I was so surprised and it was fun to celebrate at the lake and I was SO appreciative of my moms sweet gesture!!

The next part of my birthday celebration was something I have been dreaming out for a long time! I got to visit Disneyland ON my birthday!! My friends Miranda and Stacy agreed to go with me and we spent a week in California.
The first thing we did when we got to the park on Wednesday was get my pin saying it was my birthday! It was fun to wear it around and I was surprised at how my strangers came up to me and said happy birthday! One of the best parts of the day was lunch! Miranda and Stacy were so sweet and took me to The Blue Bayou! We shared Monte Cristo sandwiches and the delicious potatoes that came with it {seriously some of the best potatoes EVER}!! At the end of our meal the waiter brought out a bowl of chocolate mousse covered in Mickey sprinkles with a candle in it and the three of them sang Happy Birthday to me! THANK YOU SOOOO much girls for the wonderful lunch!! I also got a birthday card from my parents which made my day!!

I also got another birthday surprise while we were at Disneyland! At one point we walked back to our hotel to change out of our extremely wet clothes and we had a message saying we had a package waiting for us at the front desk. My AWESOME friend Megan had mailed me the book "Mockingjay" {the third book in the Hunger Games series that had come out the day before my birthday} TO my hotel room IN California!! It is one of the most awesome birthday surprises I have ever received!! THANK YOU so much Megan for such a thoughtful and special gift!!  

But my birthday festivities didn't end there! My family was waiting to help me celebrate when I got home! My wonderful mom got me a Nothing Bundt Cake birthday cake and we had my grandparents over for dinner. It was so fun having my whole family together and I really appreciated their gifts and thoughtfulness. They really are the best! I felt so loved this year on my birthday and I am SO grateful for all of my friends and family that sent me texts and voice messages that day making it extra special!! You guys are THE BEST!!

The View From Where I Sit

I work in a basement..................... I have worked in that basement for almost 5 years. There are no windows.................. the office across the hall in empty and so is the kitchen, so the lights are always off. My office really is not that bad.......... I guess!!

If I got to choose, would I pick that one? Probably not! But I guess it could be worse!!

Any way, I have tried to make my office a little more exciting by hanging things on my wall and bringing in some fun things to put on my desk!!

So, this is the view from where I sit from 8:30 to 6:00 every day..............

I got a really cool book from Barnes and Noble that had information about every single country in the world. It also had some really cool pictures..... so I cut it up and put just a few on my favorites on my wall (I have to admit that I felt pretty guilty taking a pair of scissors to the book)!!!! There are pictures up there from Hawaii, Venezuela, Wales, England, France, Germany, and Italy just to name a few!! I have TONS of pictures so I'm sure I will be rotating them out in a few months!! P.S. my awesome calendar had amazing pictures from the Greek Isles!! I wish I would have taken this picture in August, because the picture for this month is gorgeous!! These flowers are awesome right?!?! They are from my brother and sister-in-laws wedding!! My sister-in-laws, sister was the one that did all of the flowers and she did and amazing job!! Their reception was beautiful!! I was so excited to bring these to work to brighten up my desk!! I think I am going to have to buy myself flowers now............. weekly!! Haha!!

I also have this on my desk: Do you remember that fun contest my work was doing during the month of June?? My AWESOME blue team totally won!! YEAH!!! We rock!!! We won a paid day off and a pizza party! Not to mention these sweet glasses (the cool blue stuff was not included..... but I think it makes it look better)!!

This time of year is nice because I can get out of my cold, dark, basement and eat my lunch outside! I bought myself a sweet picnic blanket and I love to go across the street from my work, spread out the blanket and read a book while eating my lunch! This is the view from where I sit during lunch:

I hope the view from where you sit is wonderful too!!!! =0)

Beat The Chubba Wubba

I have lots of updating to do!! I realized I haven't posted anything for awhile about my weight loss. So here it goes.

July was not that great as far as weight loss goes!! The month was just so busy and I ended up missing about two weeks worth of aerobics classes. That led to not eating so great either! I kept telling myself "I'll just splurge this week" and then that went on for a few weeks.

Between not working out and crappy eating habits, I of course gained some weight. I had stayed off the scale during July because I really didn't want to know what it had to tell me!! I knew I wasn't doing well and I didn't need that dumb thing to tell me so! But when I got on it wasn't quite so bad............ I had gain 3 pounds. Not ideal............. but not bad when I look back and what I ate and how lazy I was!!

So I have been trying to get back on track! It's amazing how easy it is to fall back into old, bad habits! But I tried to start over fresh on August 1st!! Today was my first day getting back on the scale and I was pleasantly surprised!! I had lost 2 pounds!! Wahoo!!

So that puts me at 41 pounds lost!! I still have a ways to go though!! I have about 13 pounds to go and then I will be at my half way point!! I would like to be there by the end of the month....... but we will see how that goes! I have a vacation coming up soon and it might be kind of hard to lose weight that week!!

But I am doing a new thing with my almost roommates! We can up with a thing called "Beat The Chubba Wubba." We are all collectively trying to lose weight and be healthier in general. I think this will be a good thing for me!! Now I have people that I will physically see and need to be accountable too!! Should be interesting!! My goals for the next few weeks are too:


* Get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night (5 times a week)


* Drink 13.5 oz of water a day (recommended for my weight)


* Eat no sweets (5 out of 7 days)


I'll let you know how it goes!!!

Is Busy-ness An Exuse??

Probably not!! It seems like I am constantly starting my blog posts with promises of being more consistent! And then I am lame and totally slack off!! Maybe one day!!! Haha!

This month actually has been really busy!!! I feel like I have been running around, doing things like crazy and haven't had a chance to sit down and type out everything I've been doing!!
So this will be something short..... a preview of posts to come!!!

First of all..... my little brother got married last week!! They are probably one of the cutest and happiest couples I have ever seen!!! I am so happy for them!! Their reception was AWESOME!!! I have a great story to tell you that involves a bunch of bridesmaids, some grooms men and a swimming pool!!!! Pictures coming soon!!! =0)

I will also have to post some pictures of my crazy Eclipse week!! SO much fun!!!

I also have some interesting new to share!!!
On September 1st I will be moving!!! Ahhhh!!! I will be in a house will a few other girls in the Murray area (I'll be one mile closer to work, YES)!! One of my wonderful friends, Gwen, told me about the room opening up, and when I found out all the info on it, it was too good of a deal to pass up!! I went from no intentions to moving out to mailing my new landlord a deposit check within a matter of days!!!
Gwen and her sister Emily are SO awesome and I always love hanging out with them, so I am REALLY excited to be living upstairs!!
I'm also kind of nervous about it! I have only lived away from home one other time...... my freshman year at USU. Oh man............... I cant even begin to tell you how much I HATED it!!
That is not to say that I didn't have some really good times up there or that I didn't learn a lot........ but it was SO hard to get along with some of my roommates!!! So when I think back to those times I wonder WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE I DONE!!!!
But I am trying to be positive about everything!! We are all older now...... I don't think we will have the same stupid problems/fights as freshman girls do!! And this time I will have my own room!! Hooray! I have already met all of the girls that live there and they all seems really great!!!
It will be fun!! And it will be a really good experience for me!!

Well, I think that is it for now!! All of my picture are on my computer at home!! So check
back soon for more fun posts!! I swear I will try and be better from now on!! Hahaha!!