Productive Wednesday!

I sometimes waste a lot of time on my days off..I sleep in late, blog stalk, watch TV, etc. But this week, I decided I wanted/needed to be a bit more productive than that. I cleaned the apartment on Tuesday (with the exception of putting my folded clothes away..Curt's biggest pet peeve), and it felt great to get that done!

I decided Tues that I wanted to make Pizza Sauce, from scratch. So that was my Wednesday project. (Not sure why I decided to do the messy project the day after cleaning the house..wrong order there!) It took a long time to blanch, peel, and chop tomatoes, and chop onions, and mince garlic, but the result was fantastic! We will now have homemade pizza sauce for the next year! I'm not usually the most domestic person, so I felt great about doing something I've never done before. Totally worth it! We had meatball subs last night to test out the pizza sauce and it was delish! I even got extra ambitious and made Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread which was also very good! I would say I had a productive Wednesday! (Even though I left a heap of dishes in the sink...that will have to be Friday's project :)

Recipe:

Pizza Sauce

6 T. Olive oil

2 c. finely chopped onion

2 T. finely chopped garlic

8 c. tomatoes (Blanch, de-skin, chop small)

12 oz can tomato paste

2 T. oregano

2 t. basil

2 bay leaves

3 T sugar

3 t. salt

Pepper to taste

Bring to boil. Simmer hour (or longer!) Remove bay leaves. Put in containers and freeze.

1 pint=2 pizzas. Yield 6-7 cups.

September Spending Spree!

It seems we have coped with the passing of Summer by doing what I do best..Spending Spree! Acutally, it's not that we actually went on a shopping spree or anything, we just chose expensive items to buy. We somehow lost our camera a couple months ago..honestly, it's nowhere to be found. We think we threw it away :( Those who know me know I can't live without a camera, so we had to get a new one! We got this little baby, and so far we're happy with it!

And can I just tell you our next purchase was a more difficult decision for us than buying a car... It was a bit harder to convince ourselves that we "needed" this:

We had been talking about getting a new TV as our Christmas present....So Merry Christmas to us! Now we can invite people over to play the Wii and we'll all actually be able to see what we're doing :)

Perfect Trip to PA

Since I've already ranted and raved about the part of the trip I didn't like, I should probably write about how the rest of the trip was perfect!! I had so much fun! My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough...but I guess that's part of having a real job. Since this is basically a journal for me, this is going to be long and detailed!

I flew into Philly, and after a bit of difficulty figuring out where Alyssa, Spence, Cooper and Sadie were, and where I was, we finally found each other. I was so happy to meet Miss Sadie for the first time! She really is a beautiful baby and she had the cutest dress on! And of course, Cooper was adorable as always. It didn't take him long to warm up to me...possibly because I came packed with snacks (I know how to win over kids!) We were all tired from traveling so we went to our hotel and chilled. The hotel was in a sweet location, with the Phillies baseball stadium in it's backyard, and there was even a game that night so we could hear all the cheering. We ventured for dinner and then came back to the hotel and watched Coop and Spence swim. Cooper was loving it! It was really cute.

The next morning, we hit the sites in downtown Philly...Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin's "house" and his grave, the U.S. mint, and of course had Philly Cheesesteaks. Besides the mint which was super boring, everything else was great! It was really neat to think of all the wonderful American History that happened right there. On the way out of town, we stopped at Valley Forge which was neat (I actually read some signs there :)

And then, my favorite stop of all! Hershey! We went to the Hershey visitor center and took a fun little tour. And then we looked around the gift shops...I have never seen so much chocolate in my life! I was in heaven :) Hopefully next time I go we can visit the Hershey amusement park. It looked fun. After the tour, we headed to the Outlet Malls. We spent most of the time in The Children's Place and can I just say they had SO many cute baby girl clothes?! I just had to buy some for our nieces.

We drove through an awesome storm on the way back to State College! The lightning was huge and so awesome and the thunder super loud! I have never seen a downpour like I saw then. We couldn't even see where we were driving it was coming down so hard, and it lasted longer than the couple minute downpours we have in Utah. It was beautiful!

We got back to State College late and were all exhausted. I do have to say that Alyssa and Spence are very lucky to have two kids that travel so well in the car! I keep telling Alyssa that her kids are little angels to make me wanna have kids, and then mine are going to be little troublemakers...I guess we'll just have to wait and see when that day comes.

We spent the next few days just hanging out and playing. I couldn't get enough of these kiddos! I got to help give Sadie and Cooper baths, and put Cooper to bed one night. He's such a good boy! I read him a story, and then he just cuddled me for a few minutes (my fav!). I put him in his crib, he cuddled his blanket and went right to sleep!

Spence and I wanted to go to a Little League World Series baseball game since it was going down only an hour from their house in Williamsport, PA. We watched Canada vs. Mexico and it was tons of fun! I love baseball! Even Alyssa, who was skeptical about going, had fun. It was free parking, free admission, and free fun! We're glad we went, and I'm thinking they will be going back next year.

I was able to stay home and hold Sadie so Alyssa could go to church. I love how close I feel to heaven when I hold precious newborns. Babies are so wonderful!

Really, the vacation was just such a great time to spend time with Alyssa and Spencer. Spence started school while I was there and Alyssa and I had so much fun just being together as sisters! We really need to live close soon! She has so many talents and things that I want to learn from her. Which reminds me, she taught me how to make jewelry while I was out there, and now I've started jewelry making as a hobby (I'm still in the collection phase as my family calls it :)

Thanks so much Alyssa and Spence for picking me up, taking me back to the airport, and for all the fun in between! I love you guys and can't wait to take another trip out east (with Curtis next time!)

Here are some pics from the trip! My flash drive wouldn't hold the hundreds of pictures taken (imagine that!) so I still have to get some from the James'!

Cougars...We Love You!

#20 BYU beat #3 Oklahoma! We Won!!!

As my brother informed me, this is a game that we will talk about until the day we die...Yes, it is that big of a deal! We are excited for the rest of the football season! It couldn't have started any better!

Oh Happy News!

Yesterday was a good day. My mom is officially done with chemo!!! Yay! She was supposed to have 1 more treatment this coming Friday, but at her Dr. appt yesterday, the doc decided that she was too weak to have the last one, so she is done! Not necessarily the ideal reason for being done, but nevertheless, I'm glad that she will be able to start feeling better sooner. She has been such a trooper for the past 6 months. She really is my hero. Even when she can't get up and down or around without help, she still seems to laugh and keep a good attitude. I know that she has had a really rough go, and it's been hard to not be there to help her as much as I would like, but I'm so extremely grateful for all the family and friends that have been there to help her through this. It has been quite the journey with many lessons learned for all, and I'm grateful for all that I have learned through this process. Life is fragile, but how blessed we are the have the Gospel of Jesus Christ to give us perspective in our lives. I'm grateful for the love of the Savior and that He has helped us through this time.

Mom-I love you so much and can't wait for you to be able to do the things you want to do. You are such an amazing example to me! Thank you for your love and testimony. It's all downhill from here! Love you lots!

And a little shout out to my youngest brother Tate...He wanted to do something for my mom to celebrate the end of chemo so he took on a BIG project. He decided to clean out the garage for my mom so she can park her car in it. (Note: It's been a long time since the car has fit in our garage!) He surprised my mom yesterday and showed her the garage. He texted me some pictures and it look FANTASTIC! Way to go Tate!

Flight Fiasco (Delta, I DESPISE you)

Ok..so this is old news seeing as it happened a week and a half ago, but I just need to vent! And that's what blogs are for every once in a while, right?! (Warning: Long rant!) So I had a fabulous week long vacation to Pennsylvania to see the world's two cutest kiddos, but the ending to my trip left a BAD taste in my mouth for the entire state (I might be exaggerating, but probably not). So my sister, the two kids, and I left their house at 11:15ish am to make the over 3 hour drive to the Philadelphia airport. We stopped in Hershey for a short shopping break and some lunch, then continued on. Tom Tom (GPS) took us on kinda a crazy route to the airport through lots of cities and things. So I started to get a bit nervous that we weren't going to get to the airport on time. My flight was to depart @ 5:29pm. We finally pulled up to the drop off at 4:40, said our tearful goodbyes, and I thought all was well. I went to the stupid Delta electronic check-in thing (if only it had worked faster) to see the heart dropping words, "It is too late to check bags for this flight," or something. I hurry up to the counter to a most unpleasant lady to see what was going on. The current time, 4:45pm. She looks me up and says in oh such a sorry voice, "You can't check bags for this flight. You have to be 45 minutes early to check bags." Are you freaking serious? I'm here 44 minutes early lady...does 1 minute really make that much of a difference? I couldn't even stand to look the heartless lady in the eye I was raging with anger. My bag was too big to carry on so my only other option? Miss my non-stop flight to Salt Lake, pay $50 extra for a flight that changes planes in Atlanta, sit on a plane for over an hour longer than scheduled due to lame weather, get to Salt Lake at 1am (as opposed to my original time of 8:30pm on the non-stop). Awesome right?! All for being 1 stinking minute late...Oh Delta I despise you at the moment. And it will take me a LONG time to get over it. I might feel a little bad for giving the desk lady the evilest glare I could conjure up, and maybe I feel a little bad for chucking my credit card at her to show how thrilled I was to pay the extra fee, but mostly, I feel justified in my actions seeing as "Customer Service" is apparently non-existent in Delta Airlines business. I did save my tears for the security line because I didn't want to give the mean lady the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Let's just say I don't handle changes from my original plans very well. To make matters more fun, I asked my work to put me on-call since I knew I would get home late and only get a couple hours of sleep. So that was the plan...at least until 4:30am when they called me and told me I needed to come in at 6am. The perfect end to the perfect fiasco of a day. But amazingly enough, I survived, with only a SLIGHT distaste for Delta Airlines. Ahh...I feel better already with that off my chest!

Please tell me if I am totally out of line here to have felt/acted this way...but mostly I would just like my behavior validated :)

WE LOVE SHAVED ICE!

Summer CANNOT be over yet! We haven't had enough of our new favorite summer treat! Shaved Ice is sooo good! We like to go all out and get snow cap (sweetened condensed milk on top) and ice cream in the middle! Let's just say that we would go for a snowcone anytime! Yum!

I have lots more to post about but I haven't had the motivation to start yet, but hopefully soon I will catch up!

My man is 24!

Curt turned 24 last Saturday! *I'm a little slow on the update... I love birthday/parties so I loved celebrating his b-day! We spent the day up in Bountiful since his family was in town. It was fun to spend it with his family since that doesn't happen very often. We went to lunch at a delicious burger place (Pace's) in Bountiful, then had snowcones (my fav), then went to Cirque du Soleil, then Grandpa Barnes took us to Olive Garden for dinner (where they sang to Curt against his wishes :), then went to a big family party with Curt's aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandparents (where we had Costco cake..yum!), and the night ended with opening presents. Curt got a couple new outfits, a couple new hats, a bike helmet and a sweet pair of Nike shoes! It was a fun day and I hope Curt had a great b-day!! He's such a wonderful husband and deserved it! (Again, no pics of his b-day...I try not to think about b/c it makes me sad...)

Cirque du Soleil

Last weekend, Curt and I were able to go to see this amazing performance!~It's a really neat acrobatic/musical/circus thing (but since it's in French, I still have no idea on the story line :) ~It came to West Valley and it was so cool!~Unfortunately, we lost our camera and so we don't have any pictures (plus cameras weren't allowed), but we loved seeing the amazing talent that the performers had!

Bittersweet..But mostly sweet!

Happy Birthday Sadie Ann James!!! Our sweet little niece was born August 5th @ 5:39 p.m. She weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and was 21 inches long. Alyssa is my hero! She has had natural deliveries with both her kiddos (I'm pretty sure I won't follow her example but I admire her nonetheless :) She was only at the hospital for just over an hour before little Sadie joined the James family. And you wonder why the bittersweet?? Well Sadie lives in Pennsylvania so I haven't been able to see the precious baby yet. But yes, I am counting down the days till I get to play with my niece and nephew (only 12 days)!!! Even though it was hard to be so far away during Sadie's birth, I'm so happy to have a beautiful, healthy little niece!!

Baby Sadie


Doesn't she look great?!


Cooper loves his little sister


I love this picture! (I need a family picture so Spence doesn't feel left out!)