Christmas Goodies

Ok for those of you out there that know me this will not be a shock for those of you that don't you are probably thinking what a "Dork" to quote a friend of mine when I told him what I got for Christmas.

I was super excited for my new Cookware here's a pic to explain and they are even red for my kitchen someday!
I also got some great lotion, money and gift cards from the family, but was seriously excited about trying a new recipe out in my new pans....... laugh all you want I am really excited!

Quote that Makes you Think

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person recieves without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation."

Dr. Adrian Rogers (Doctorate of theology)

All I Want for Christmas is My Luggage Back

Wow what a vacation, nothing like going on vacation with the clothes on your back. I must first state that aside from all the problems we did have fun to the best we could.

At this point all I have to say is my outlook on checking baggage has changed dramatically. I would love to know how many of you have had the joyous experience of having your luggage lost?

It started out a nice vacation, we were at the airport in plenty of time, had a good flight, got to LAX and had no suitcases... yes that is correct they lost not only my suitcase but my mothers too!

You feel so helpless and well .....victimized. Of course the lady was a "B" sorry but she was not pleasant and she had the nerve to tell us it was in salt lake and would be on the next flight so we felt better. Little did we know they had no idea where our bags were, nor did they care!

We spent every night washing our clothes at the laundry mat in the hotel... lovely just what I want to do on vacation! Plus we had to buy toothbrushes and extra sweaters, my cell phone charger was in my bag and so was my camera charger so there were not many pictures to post. You have no makeup except whatever you drug through security etc. It was not something I recommend trying if you can help it... I felt like I was camping!!!

To top it all off here we are home safe and sound and still they have no idea where our luggage is??? I learned that they do NOT track your bags at all. Once you check them in there is no way to tell where they go or if they get there NOTHING!!!!! It sure made me stop and think how much trust you put into them taking your stuff and they don't even have a tracking system???

As you can tell I am super frustrated! I think it was a hard lesson in not putting things in my checked bag that I would miss, I really do not care about all the stuff other than my jewelry that I cannot replace, rings that have sentimental value etc. That part makes me sick..... Oh well after today we get to file a nice claim about all our crap that was in our suitcase, I don't want MONEY I just want my stuff back!!! Monday we spent buying all the stuff that we needed, like makeup, hair brushes, blow dryers, face wash.... the list goes on and on. The last thing you want to do is spend a couple hundred bucks replacing crap that you already own! I had to buy a phone charger again!

Ok enough venting I just wanted to warn anyone that is traveling DO NOT put anything in your luggage that you could not replace. I am going to fly carry on only even if I have to do wash while on vacation at least my stuff will be with me!!

Holiday Humor

I thought this was cute!!

Kurt Bestor Concert

Last night I had the privilege to attend the Kurt Bestor Celebration of Life concert. My grandfather is a cancer survivor, and is 75 years old. The women in the middle is also a cancer survivor she got her treatments at the same time as my grandfather they got to be friends so she came to say hello to my grandmother.

It was sure neat when you came in all the cancer survivors were given a little light and at one point during a song they turned it on. It had the most amazing feeling knowing that I was in the presence of over 2,500 cancer survivors. What strong amazing individuals that enjoy life one day at a time and are so very grateful for the extra time they get to spend with family and friends. I know I am so thankful for the extra time I have with my grandfather.

Wendover Donation

It's official I donated to the "Keep Wendover Open Fund" but I had a lot of fun doing it so it was well worth it. On the way back we were super hungry so we stopped at the Red Rock Brewery in Salt Lake and I do have to say who knew a brewery had such Yummy food. I don't know much about those but I would definately plan to go back because it was good. I highly recommend it if you are looking to eat somewhere you have never been.

The Forgotten Carols

I was able to attend the Forgotten Carols last night. It has started to become a tradition to me because it is a great way to get into the TRUE spirit of Christmas time. I think now days people tend to forget the real meaning of Christmas and what this time of year is all about.
I have lost my camera so I did not get any pictures but when I find it I plan to take lots of pictures to make up for it.

Avella's Give Away

So for the few of you that read my blog and the even fewer that have little girls I thought I would promote my friend Lacey's giveaway for her store. Just go to the site http://laceyandsam.blogspot.com/2008/12/100th-post-giveaways.html
and it tells you what to do!
Good luck and thanks for the support.

Easy Cinnamon Popcorn

CINNAMON POPCORN

½ cup unpopped popcorn
½ cup butter
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
2 (2.25 ounce) packages cinnamon red hot candies

1. Pop popcorn into a large bowl.

2. Combine the butter, corn syrup and red hot candies in a microwave safe bowl or saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally until the candies have melted. Pour the hot syrup over the popped corn, and stir for 1 minute, until completely coated. Cool, and serve.

Las Vegas & SEMA Auto Show

I had an opportunity with my best friend through her work to attend the SEMA Auto Show in Vegas. For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a HUGE deal and not open to the public. I saw sooooo many nice cars it was crazy!

We had a blast we ate lunch at the top of the stratosphere, gambled a little and played a lot.

Friday night we were able to attend Pink's album release party at "The Bank" club in the Bellagio. I had soo much fun it was good times Jessica and I danced so much we seriously could not walk the next day! (It stinks to get older and out of shape)

The next night we were able to check out the Coyote Ugly we only stayed for a few minutes and then headed over to the Luxor for a party thrown by Ty Murray and Jewel, it was at LAX and it was super fun!

All in all it was a great weekend and I look forward to going again next year hopefully we will find time to make it to the PBR as well, we just could not squeeze it in this year even though we had free tickets.

Homemade Play Clay

I stole this recipe off of my friend Emily's blog but it is soo easy and lots of fun to do with the little ones. We used to make it at the Pre School I taught at and I thought for all of you with little ones it would be a fun thing to do since the weather is turning cold and we will soon be trying to find fun things to do in doors.

Homemade PlayClay
2 C flour
1 C Salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. food coloring
2 C water

Mix ingredients together in a heavy saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until dough leaves sides of the pan. Let it cool completely then knead out any bubbles. Store in plastic bags.

Super Easy Recipes

I am a huge fan of Super Easy recipes and these are some of my favorites.
Give them a try and let me know what you think? I love the fact that you can have everything on hand and not have to worry about going to the store to make dinner.

Taco Chili Soup

2 can Mexican Stewed Tomato
1 can Kidney Beans
1 can Corn
1 can Diced Green Chilies
1 pkg Taco Seasoning (to taste)
1/2 lb Browned Hamburger (to taste)

Mix ingredients and heat until warmed through.
Serve with sour cream and fritos.
Can be put in a crock pot on low as well.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 can Pumpkin (15oz)
1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 bag Chocolate Chips

Mix together and drop spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet.
Bake 350 for 12-18 minutes or until done.
(done when cookies spring back when touched)

Carving Pumpkins

I have had quite the adventure carving pumpkins and painting them, but I would have to say that they turned out alot better then I thought they were going to.
I have to give props for anyone that carves a way cool pumpkin because it requires loads of patience and by the time we all finished we were ready to hack into the pumkins.

Painting them just takes talent as well. We had to bust out the blow dryer to finish our faces. It was so much fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Rain, Rain, and Pine Nuts

Wow you should see the Pine nut treasure I picked... I was sooo proud of myself and I had alot of fun doing it. I'm sure it was about 8 pounds of pine nuts.
We headed south to finish our dedicated hunter projects (yes we procrastinate) and got rained out, so we went elk hunting... but did not see anything in the areas we could shoot.
We gave up and went back out camping at Indian Peaks.... I love it out there! We saw some great wildlife and found a couple trees with pine nuts on them. There really were not many trees at all but we found two good ones and I got a whole bag full of them to give to my grandpa. It was definately an enjoyable weekend.

Summer Catch Up

Campin' & Scoutin'

I had a super great weekend we went down to the Nevada/Utah border straight west of Minersville. I LOVE it out there it is soo pretty. We saw some great elk and deer, even wild horses. We picked some pine nuts, looked for arrowheads, target practiced and even shot at some coyotes it was a blast. Plus the food was wonderful!

There were tons of old mines and cabins... I liked this picture because it looks like I was holding it up. Just call me super woman!!!

Here was our shooting gallery it was kind of sad.

This picture is hard to see but there was a really good looking wild horse by the tree. There were actually three in the picture but they are hard to see.

I never got any pictures of the Elk or Deer because they banned me from having my camera. Every time we went and I had my camera they were way far away, and when I didn't take it they were close.

Sworn In & Upgraded

I'm Official! I have been officially sworn in as the Education Director of the Utah Municipal Clerks Association. I am set to serve a two year term. Here are some pictures of the ceremony.

I am also kind of a nut because we had a mix up with our rooms for the conference and we got upgraded to the Grand America Hotel. I could not resist taking some pictures the room was as big as where I live I swear. It was fun to feel spoiled a bit.

Police/Court Ribbon Cutting

I have had the flu so not much new has happend I did get these pictures of the ribbon cutting ceremony for the police/court building it was nice.

Montana, Chris Cagle & Emerson Drive

This weekend was a Blast!!!

I got to visit my cousins in Dillon Montana and attend their county fair.

Chris Cagle and Emerson Drive came in concert. I took some pictures but they did not turn out.

It was Super COLD I swear it felt like January up there!

The rodeo went well too it was a ton of fun and I got to know the family better so that was nice.

We ate at the best Mexican food place in Idaho Falls called Garcia's. I highly reccomend eating there if you are ever driving through.

This was a statue thing in the middle of a round about in Idaho Falls.....I thought it was kind of a strange place to have it but it sure was neat to look at.

Mesquite and Bad Luck

What a fun weekend! Angie and I went to Mesquite for her birthday and had a really great time.

Of course we hit the spa on Saturday and speaking of hitting.... we ran to Walmart to grab some beach towels because we forgot ours and when we walked out I had a nice big dent in my car.

I was soooo mad I went back inside and asked to review the tapes so I could see what happend and they told me I had to file a police report before they could let me see them.

So there we sat waiting for the officer to come and all he said was that he thought it was a shopping cart.... I swear I find it very hard to believe that a shopping cart could do this much damage to a car, but someone did say the carts were blowing 30 - 40 miles and hour across the parking lot. Lucky me that it picked my poor little car to crash into! It was way stormy though we found this porta-potty tipped over from the storm. I couldn't resist a stupid picture, in fact a couple dumb photos.

School, Martina and Denver

This last week has been crazy I had classes up at the the University of Utah Sandy campus, then Friday I was able to go to the Martina McBride Concert with Jess and I laughed so hard I forgot how much fun it is to make a fool of myself.... I love Jess for helping me to get out of my comfort zone. Then Saturday morning I was off to Denver for my aunts open house.

It was quite an adventure besides getting lost twice we finally made it to the reception, we even got lost that night while we were out and about and found the temple.... by accident.. it was great! Sunday was an adventure I went to check in and was told I had already missed my flight. There was a mishap in booking the flight, and apparently I was supposed to fly out at 4:20 instead of 6:00..... so there I sat at 4:00 still at the baggage check.... I took my stand-by ticket and headed for security. I made it through fast and up to the gate before the flight took off. I boarded ASAP and caught my flight... thank heavens because the next flight was booked full.

Also Monday night Ashley and I were invited to go 4-wheeling up Lake Fork, it was a Blast... so many fun memories from long ago. We even roasted marshmallows and had a fun time talking in front of the fire.

I love the Rodeo

I Love the Fiesta Days Rodeo! This year was soooo much work but sooo much fun. It takes a ton to put the rodeo on and I am proud to say that our city does one heck of a job. This year I had the chance to get to know the bullfighters better and they are a funny bunch. I felt pretty special to be allowed to hang out behind the scenes. Plus an apology to Macey's for buying them out of cookies everyday.... man all those cowboys can eat!!!

Here are a few pictures I took of the City Council and I waiting to get loaded on the trucks, and some of the exciting shots I got.

Oh I also got to wear a recycle shirt and drive an electric chariot in the parade it was pretty funny but alot of fun too.

Wedding Work

I think the wedding turned out nice for my aunt it was alot of work because about a week before my mom and I realized nobody really planned to do much for decorations so within a week we planned, shopped, borrowed and bought bargains for the wedding. My pictures did not turn out very well but I hope you can get the idea, here are just a few of the tables I decorated. My Grandfather made the cake, not too bad for someone that just survived Thyroid cancer if I do say so myself. I took her bridals and engagements and did her makeup. It was alot of work but completely worth it. Plus there was excellent food and you know you can bribe me with yummy food anytime. She looked beautiful and super happy which is all I can ask since she totally deserves to be happy.