Happy Happy Birthday, Julie Dear!

It's Julie's birthday today! Isn't that exciting Julie? Since this day is pretty much the only time that we talk about what a gem Julie is, let's get to it, shall we? Here are some of the things that we love about Julie:

J-oyful: Isn't Julie the definition of this word? Julie does a great job of finding

joy in the journey. She is rarely in a bad mood, and if she is, she hides it really well. I may or may not have a teensy temper, and Julie is great at telling me that the little things I get upset at just don't matter. Our mom was always happy, and Julie is following in her footsteps. When Julie was out of work longer than she was planning to be, she stayed upbeat, and instead of wallowing in her situation, she used the extra time to serve, find cute ways to decorate her home, and meet me for lunch. Job well done!

U-biquitous: Yeah, I didn't know what that meant either. Here's the definition:

• Being present everywhere at once. Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time; omnipresent.

Julie is the ultimate multi-tasker. We have lovingly nicknamed Julie "The Hub." This is because she is the hub of all of our activities. Need to know what time we are meeting for dinner? Call The Hub. Have a question about what to get someone for their birthday? Call The Hub. Want to know the dirt on someone you're interviewing at work? The Hub will produce a whole dossier in under 3 minutes (this actually happened, people). And she can do all this at the same time! With her trusty sidekick/iphone by her side, Julie manages to be The Hub wherever she is.

L-ovely: Julie is lovely inside and out. I know I've mentioned this before, but she can pull pretty much any look off. Today, she was wearing a pair of lovely metallic flats that would have made our Grandma Irene proud, and she was working them! Below is a classic example. Here I am in a standard argyle sweater. Next to me is Julie in a Springy floral cardi that I NEVER would have picked for myself, but that she looks just lovely in. You go, gal!

I-ntuitive: Julie pays attention to others, and is always seems to know what people need. She was recently released from her third tour of duty as the YW President, and I was always in awe watching her take care of those girls as if they were her own. She was constantly thinking of little things to do for them and ways to help them. We joked when she got released that she got a pay raise, because she spent all of her extra time and money on her girls. And did it gladly.

E-arnest: When Julie believes in something, she will support it to the death, and she doesn't care who knows it! She is devout in her affection for her sweet music collection (I'm talking about you, Ti Amo), and has been known to Shazaam the same song 3 times because she loves it so much. She also has a way of being quickly promoted in her Church callings, because when she sees a better way to do something, she does it! She was excited to get her current calling because, "I've been waiting to get my hands on this organization."

Julie is one of the most spectacular people that we know, and we hope that this year is your best yet, and that you give us lots of good material for our post in 2012! Love, your fellow feathered friends.

Shake, shake, shake!

I love Smashburger! Their juicy burgers are by far my favorite of the chains out there. I have tested Tony Burger and Five Guys . . . among others . . . and the Smashburger is by far the best. I am learning that everything on the menu is good here. I am not a huge ice cream lover, but the shakes here are a-mazing. Rich, delicious, Haagen-Dazs ice cream is blended to make a delicious chocolate, vanilla or strawberry shake. We were craving Smashburger the other day and to my surprise they offered a limited edition banana shake. You are speaking my language with something new . . and limited . . . I must have it! And this shake did not disappoint. Natalie and I split the shake and we agreed that it was fantastic. Apparently you can have the shake mixed with the chocolate or strawberry too . . . but we just went with the classic vanilla to really get that fresh banana taste. Delish!

Recipe Mashup

I got a call the other day from someone in my ward trying to make sense of recipes that were submitted over a year ago for a ward cookbook. She called because the ingredients to my Spicy Oven Fries sounded odd. The recipe looks like this . . .

SPICY OVEN FRIES

Peel (if desired) and cut into 1/2" think lengthwise strips 4 large russet or baking potatoes. Spread potatoes in single layer in 15 x 11" shallow baking pan. Drizzle over potatoes, turning to coat evenly 3 Tablespoons oil.

In small bowl, combine:

1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed

1/8 teaspoon onion salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

dash cayenne pepper

Sprinkle half the seasoning mix over the potatoes. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes. Turn the potatoes with spatula and sprinkle with remaining seasoning mixture. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until tender. Makes: 4-6 servings

However it came to her with just the first line about slicing the potatoes and then said to saute' an onion and then combine with red or green salsa and put on top. Crazy! I'm glad she called, because then wouldn't you know, my name would be attached to some weird concoction. And whoever shared the recipe with the salsa would have just an odd mix of spices. I should really stop sharing recipes. It's kind of like the Electricity game. How one thing is shared at the start is not how it ends up. If I like a recipe, then I tend to follow it exactly and buy what I need to make it, but I know that people often make due with what they have and sometimes the substitutions just don't turn out.

My two favorite examples of this are when I shared my Strawberry Spinach Salad recipe and it was brought to a bridal shower where it was just an oily ball in the bottom of the bowl. Someone asked the person who made it where she had gotten this lovely recipe . . . and she was more than happy to say from me . . . right in front of me. I was pretty horrified. The person who made the salad said that they had both made the salad and dressed it the night before - and didn't know why it would turn out that way. I guess I have to mention in the recipe about how oil-based dressings go on the salad just right before serving. There was also the time that I shared a broccoli salad recipe with a mayonnaise based dressing. Apparently not everyone knows that broccoli salad should be served cold, so this person cooked the broccoli first and then tossed it with the sweet mayonnaise dressing . . . yuck!

I've Been Bamboozled!

I always thought that I would never get a tattoo, but apparently, I have this stenciled onto my forehead:

I like to think of myself as a savvy person who can’t be manipulated, but twice in the last little while, I have been totally hoodwinked! So, one of my friends from my ward casually asked me to pick her from the airport on a Monday night. I told her I would be happy to as long as it was after 6:00 when I got home from work. She said that she wasn’t sure what time her flight got in, but she would text me and let me know. On Monday afternoon, I get the text. Which states that her flight gets in at midnight! I’m sorry, what? Now, I will say that I am a total night owl, but on a school night, come on! I mean, I wouldn’t even ask my family to pick me up at the airport at that time! So I roll to the airport, and the flight is of course late. At 12:20 when I pick her up, we are chatting about her trip, it turns out, that she had flown on out Saturday afternoon—which means that her car would have sat in the parking lot for a mere 1.5 days, and at most, she would have had to pay $14 to park her car. When I pushed her out of my rolling car dropped her off, she had quite the spring in her step for 1:00 in the morning. Well played my friend.

One of my co-workers is an older gent, who is the ultimate penny pincher. He constantly tells me that I spend too much money on frivolous things, and nicknamed me Joseph because of all of my coats. He and his wife have a monthly entertainment budget of $8. So on their monthly date night, they split a meal at Wendy’s, and then get a Redbox. As a side note, if I ever get to that point, somebody please wrap me in on of my many coats and shoot me. Anyhoo, my friend and I thought it would be nice to take him to lunch for his birthday since he never goes out to eat. He was very excited by this prospect, and asked if his wife could also come since she had been wanting to meet us. He assured us that they would split a meal, because neither of them can eat very much and they never eat “restaurant food.” We said that was fine, and met her at Café Rio. He and his wife get in front of us in line, and he asks us if it’s okay if they get a drink. We told him that since it was his big day, to go crazy and get whatever he wants. We then watch as he and his wife both order chips and salsa, burritos, drinks and dessert, and tell the cashier that we are all together. His wife heads to get a table, and as we are paying for their two large meals, he asks me if he can have the stamps on his card as he is one away from a free meal. Interesting, Alan, I thought you didn’t eat restaurant food! The best part of the lunch was that they then told us that they couldn’t eat all of that food, and that it would be their dinner for the rest of the week.

Does anyone have any swampland in Florida that they want to sell me? Because apparently, I will buy it!

What's another word for "sucks"?

Dear Microsoft Word's Thesaurus:

1. Let's say I want to look up synonyms for, say, "amazes." Why do you make me change the word to "amaze" before you will tell me the synonyms? Then I have to change it right back to the plural form when I'm done.

2. Do you realize that when I went to look up a synonym for "information" the other day, you gave me the following: in order, in sequence, in a row, in turn, and in rank. What's another word for "unhelpful?"

From,

Kristen

My Favorite Thing About the New Footloose Movie

I love this remake of the Bonnie Tyler classic, "Holding Out for a Hero" . .



That plus the dance sequence and the character of Willard. Loved them.

I Heart Spoilers

I'm a planner. I like to have things pretty much mapped out and I'm not big on surprises. If I am going somewhere I haven't been, I map it out. Something new . . . I do some research ahead of time. It's all about clear expectations with me. It's also a fact that I like to know stuff. I am one of those who will read the ending of a book before I get all the way through to make sure of the ending. So, along with those little factoids about me, I love spoilers . . . which Melinda hates. I like to know what's happening with the shows I watch before it happens. So, I have been watching Dancing with the Stars, where I will forever love Maks, and checking to see who gets voted off before I watch. Or, I'm starting the X-Factor, but want to know who makes it before I finish watching the preliminary episodes. It just makes me feel better while watching the show. And, yes, I still want to watch even when I know what's going to happen. Crazy, I know.

I feel there was respect behind the mocking

Julie, sometimes you wonder how we're related, but here's an area where we are the same. One characteristic of a Bird woman is that we like to be prepared. I don't want to have to rely on other people to get things done. So, in Relief Society, I have been put in charge of the binders that go around the room with our announcements. Even though we have two binders, people often only bring us one sign-up sheet. After our secretary went to make copies of a couple of sheets, I think I shocked them all when I pulled a three-hole punch out of my church bag so we could be ready to put them in the binders right then.

And in case you're wondering...I also come prepared with tape, extra pens, and chalk every week...just in case.

My List

I've made a few changes to my list. Turns out, some of the items on there were, shall we say, overly ambitious? Either that, or I'm like, "why was that even on my list to begin with?" So I've had time to think a few things over and add some items that I really want to do.

What's out:

Do 100 pushups (I'm not in the army!)

Run a half marathon and get a personal best (it just wasn't happening this year...plus I've already done three, so it's not like it was something new)

Stay on top of things...birthdays, finances, cleaning my house (could I have crammed anything more into this one? Also, how do I measure "stay on top of things?")

Brine a chicken (will I die if I don't do this before I'm 30? No)

Organize my existing recipes

What's in:

Weigh ___ by my birthday. I know the number I want, but I'm not telling!

Get rid of a bad habit

Learn to make Grandma Ruth's caramels

Take a glass-blowing class

Start my food storage

A few other changes may be pending, but as a friend told me, "it's your list, so you can make it what you want!" Indeed!

With that said, I've been busy checking stuff off:
#1: Do a session in three temples I've never been - DONE!
Oquirrh, San Diego, and Draper - check!



#5: Try two different styles of eggs - DONE!
Look at these adorable eggs in ham cups and these shirred eggs I made. Both were super easy and I loved the silky texture of the shirred eggs.


#10: Finish my kitchen, spare room, and office. Changed to "Finish my Kitchen" - but, DONE!
Quite simply, I ran out of money. But the kitchen is done, and I absolutely love it. Check out the before and after, and a big thanks to Handy Andy for helping me do it all!

New glass tile backsplash adds some color to the kitchen

New light fixture changes the whole look of my dining area!

#11 - Get rid of a bad habit - DONE! Three facts about me: I am not a morning person. Like, at all. I AM a night person and don't like to go to bed. And, I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Now to the bad habit. I've always read my scriptures at night. But because I don't like to go to bed, I procrastinate, and trick myself into thinking I can TOTALLY read my scriptures while lying in bed! Except, it doesn't work and I fall asleep after a verse or two. Not exactly quality time. So I decided to try - for a week - to see if I could get up (gulp) early and read my scriptures in the morning, before I go to work. And guess what? I did it, and it's awesome! It's been almost four weeks now. It's so weird - I'm more alert in the morning than I am at night, so I get more quality reading in. I haven't been perfect about waking up early - in fact, some mornings I've woken up late - but I've still committed to read the scriptures, and I think I'm getting some divine help because I've still made it out the door no later than I normally would. Seriously, it's been the best thing for me.

So there you go - that's 15/30 done and a little more than a month to go.

Yummy Yogurt

I have been loving this new breakfast treat . . . the yogurt with the granola. Sure, I could add my own granola to yogurt, but why when this comes all ready for me. I've been enjoying the peach and the strawberry.

Slop and Slide

In general, I am a wee bit of a clean freak. I never made mud pies when I was little, I adore fresh laundry, and I hate to camp. One of the many reasons I don't like camping, is that I can't stand not showering every day, and I hate getting dirt under my fingernails. And don't get me started on what happens if I can't brush my teeth every day.

So with that in mind, the Dirty Dash was obviously a perfect fit for me! In my head, it sounded harmless enough: a leisurely run through the lush scenery of Soldier Hollow, sprinkled with a dab of mud at the end when you pose for pictures. Oh no, my friends, the name is dead on. I am not kidding when I tell you that I had mud literally on every part of my body afterward.

The first obstacle should have been a clue to me to turn around and slide back to the starting line, never to look back. We had to scamper up a muddy hill using a rope to continue on our journey. It sounds simple enough, but after slogging through several mud pits to get to the muddy hill, we were like greased pigs, and I could not get my footing. I had better not see this footage in my video in the next life, because it was not pretty. After sliding down on my butt several times, I finally had to step on some guy's back to give me some leverage, and I hoisted myself on top of the hill. I start to run again, and I'm like, "Hey, why is my hand all bloody?" Sure enough, somewhere in the muddy abyss, I sliced my hand open. I thought the mud would make a nice salve to stop the blood, but it didn't work. Luckily, I had thought to wear a bandana that I was planning to use as a mask, and I was able to fashion a rudimentary tourniquet out of that. Seriously, what the crap have I signed up for?

As we neared the end of the race, we got to the giant slip and slide, which should have been a nice relaxing way to clean off before the finish line. If only there had actually been water on the slide. Instead, we got to run, slide for 2 feet, push ourselves up and start again. It is with zero pride that I share this picture of me on that evil slide. It is about as flattering as my driver's license photo. This is what I look like when I'm wondering if a giant slip and slide is sharp enough to impale me and make the mud stop!

Lo and behold, I made it through the rain and crossed that finish line. While most people were doing this:

I gingerly sat down, and slid into the final mud pit. My pride had left an hour ago. Here is what I learned: Mud is real slick, a 40 minute shower was not long enough to remove all of the mud, and I am a delicate flower!

I Heart Conference Weekend

I love Conference Weekend. I have been to the Conference Center before to hear to the Conference Center before to hear the talks in person, but by the time I try to get out of wherever I'm parked and get home, any spirit I had with me is pretty much gone. Instead, I love watching in my own home where I usually have every TV on so wherever I am or whatever I am doing, I can pay attention to what is being said. I read this blog post before Conference which started the inspiration going. So exciting to hear about new temples right at the start. Love hearing from each of the general authorities. Our Grandma Ruth used to keep track of each speaker on a chalkboard she had in her hallway. It was then that I learned that the General Authorities speak every time - it's just a matter of when. I love that our boys go to the Priesthood session together. It's a tradition to meet at my Dad's house where the boys will then head to the session and then to dinner after and the girls get to stay home and hang out. This year included some yummy take out from Cafe Rio, a fun movie together and making delicious oreo cupcakes thanks to Miss Maia. We love supporting our Priesthood this way and so appreciate what strong boys we have. In fact, Jacob can hardly wait until he's 12 so that he can join them. When they come home, we can't wait to hear who the speakers were and their topics so we know who we will or won't hear the next day. The weekend always goes by fast, but it's great. We love the family time together.

Yays and Boos

A big BOO! to the recent cold weather. I swear that we just had snow and after a brief hiatus, the cold is back. I tried to resist turning on my heater, but I just couldn't bear it anymore, and it's on. So, to focus on the positive instead, here are some of my YAY's . . . things that I am loving right now.

Dad and I had a great outing tonight. We started with $5 subs at Subway . . . I love this $5 special when I can try any sandwich. And, Dad has trained me well to get the most bang for the buck, so it's my time to test out the more expensive sandwiches that I wouldn't normally get.

Then we headed to see the movie, Moneyball, which I loved! I am pretty picky about movies - but give me a nice romantic comedy, or in this case, an inspirational true story, and I'm hooked. And, since I don't know much about sports, I was on pins and needles with this one wondering how the movie ended. It was great!

I'm notorious for getting a little too comfy and sleeping on my couch . . . and then waking up when I need to be on my way to work. I've discovered Tresemme's Dry Shampoo which has been a dream for me. With a little of this project, I can re-dry and work my hair without having to start all over.

Recently in Costco, I was giddy that the Christmas items are out. Now, I don't like Christmas music to monopolize the radio early, but I do love when I can start shopping early. The ribbon, the reversible wrapping paper . . . I love it! And, since I am a sucker for nativities and like to collect them, I found this little gem and of course, had to have it. I can't wait to put it out.

And a big YAY to one of my favorite shopping sites, Amazon. I love that I don't have to search stores or fight crowds for things that I want. If my order is at least $25, they will send my items free to my doorstep. Which feeds another one of my loves, fun mail!

TV Comfort Food

The new TV season is upon us, and I have been DVR-ing several shows - but not watching them. I am waiting to see how they do first - do people like them, are they going to be cancelled...I'm playing it safe.

One show I did not wait to start watching, though, was Hart of Dixie. I knew exactly what I was getting with this show, and it has delivered: TV Comfort Food.

You already know the plotline: out-of-towner comes back to small town, is greeted with skepticism, struggles to fit in, but eventually all is well. Small towns! Where everyone knows each others' business, and the men wear a lot of plaid shirts over white tank tops. Also, romantic entanglements ensue.

In fact, Hart of Dixie reminds me of another show I spent two seasons with: October Road.

Swap the female lead with a male lead and the show's prettymuch the same. They even have practically the same poster! Neither show is particularly flashy, or even particularly good, but they're kind of like putting on a favorite sweater for the first time in the winter: it's familiar, comfortable, and you forgot how much you liked it.

What's your TV comfort food?

Lovely Laurels

Look at these cute Laurels . . . I still call them "mine". We usually gather together after church to share what's been going on with school, their friends, and their lives. They were ready for a little get together, so those who could came over last week for dinner and lots of fun conversation. Love these girls!

#27 - See the Bingham Copper Mine - DONE!

When I took my rowing class, we would drive by these mounds of dirt on the way to the Great Salt Lake, and they would always be hosing the dirt down. We wondered what on earth was going on? Are they harvesting salt? Why are they spraying it? Well, folks, thanks to a visit to the Bingham Copper Mine, I have the answer.

All the copper ore they take from the Bingham Copper mine has to be refined because there's a very low percentage of actual copper in it. They put the ore in chutes that take it all the way from the mine to the Great Salt Lake - by gravity! - and they smelt it right there by the Great Salt Lake. The spraying is to minimize the dust and particles that go into the air from the rocks in the chute. Apparently it's one of the cleanest smelting plant in the world. Isn't that nuts?

Anyway, I'd never been to the Bingham Copper Mine before and I was pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly surprised that there were more people there than just me (including the requisite Japanese tourists). Second, their visitors' center is quite nice, and third, I actually learned me some stuff! Did you know that this is the largest open-pit mine in the world? I didn't. That it's one of the only man-made objects to be visible from space?

Look how big their trucks are hauling up the ore. As big as houses, people! Here's a little comparison. Check out the semi on the right-hand side compared to their big truck. Dwarfs it. The tires alone are 12 feet 6 inches high.

Also, it made me a little sad to see that the mine used to be a mountain and how they've cut away so much of it. As they say in their propaganda/historical video, "mining by its very nature disrupts the land." Still, it ain't pretty. Have you been? What did you think?