The Lesser of Two Weevils

Today, I decided to clean out the storage room. I do this occasionally, about every 3-4 months or so, or really when I'm just sick of watching the junk grow and have a desire to minimize. I've been going at it for a couple hours now, but I feel I've made some pretty good progress. I'll post some pictures with "Middle" (I didn't take any before, but they wouldn't have looked bad anyways - it was the small stuff hidden away that I am really de-junking) and "After" when I've completed my task!

It's been a great feeling watching the junk get smaller. I didn't realize how many "mementos" I kept that were just small pieces of paper with random writing on it. I've ended up throwing away a lot of small, random pieces of paper that I thought I wanted to keep 2 years ago and now are completely worthless. I've been able to reduce a lot of things and combine other things together into bigger boxes so I don't have so many smaller boxes. All in all, it's been a really good accomplishment.

However, my greatest regret is having to throw away my oats. I knew they were going to get weevils, and I probably should have taken better care of them, but each time I thought about it, I would push it off and say, "Oh, they'll be ok." Well, I finally decided to just jump in and, sure enough, the whole bag and tote were covered in weevils. That's what I get for not sealing the half open bag properly. I should have just gotten a bucket to put them in. I think I'm going to be throwing away at least 10lbs. At least. Oh well. We learn from our mistakes and move on. I really didn't use the rolled oats enough (quick oats are a little better for baking and even though I love whole oatmeal, I never eat it anymore). I suppose if I want to buy some again, I will. That way I'll actually care about them enough to properly store and seal them (this other bag was given to me).

So, lesson learned. Make sure you are storing your dry goods properly. 5-gallon buckets are great because they seal up really tight. I haven't had any problems with my sugar and flour over the last year. Now it's back to work! Wish me luck and I hope you have a good, windy Saturday!! :D

Baker Man

Oh Wait! That's not my husband. Hehehe....

So ever since we changed church times to 9:00am, my husband man has started baking in the afternoons...a lot. He is starting to become such an accomplished baker - I'm so proud of him!!

Our current project has been the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I don't know what it is about the chocolate chip cookie, but somehow you just can't escape the classicness of what it is...the chocolate chip cookie! Whether it's the smell of childhood and standing in the kitchen with your mother as she bakes, or the bite of salty cookie mixed with sweet chunks of chocolate...

For some reason, strange people have been under the impression that chocolate chip cookies are easy. That, my friends, is a very common misconception. Not after literally a month of failed baking every week did we finally give up and have to go to the expert (a.k.a. Mom - Scott's mom, to be exact). The secrets we will never tell, but I will tell you that there is an art to perfecting this simple cookie.

Oh, and Megamind is hot. I hope my husband doesn't read our blog! Hehe

Here's the pictures of our finally almost perfected cookies. This is with the good recipe that we had to beg for. We still have some finishing touches to work on (mostly with things that we have no control over right now), so those will have to come later. Next on our list...chocolate crack-ups! :D

(He must have thought I was weird or something taking so many pictures of him baking :] )

Smile! You're on candid camera! I love my Baker Man!

Thoughts

- Nail-filing is so theraputic.
- Earthquakes in Japan are sad. And anywhere else in the world.
- Warm weather is nice. Winter has been so long this last year.
- I am grateful to have a job, and I'm grateful Scott has a job, too.
- Nice people are fun to be around!
- It's so great to catch up with old friends!

Our Anniversary!

I said I would post on our anniversary, so here I am! It was a lot of hard work, because uploading pictures is annoying, but I did it!

Our anniversary weekend turned out to be a LOT of fun (even though Scott told me he was almost going to surprise me with a trip to DISNEYLAND! -but didn't). We both had requested the Friday off with the intention of spending the weekend down in St. George and visiting the temple down there to mark off another temple on our list. However, our luck would have it that St. George was closed that weekend. After that we almost decided to go all the way to Las Vegas but decided against it because of cost. We ended up going up to Ogden on Friday (that completed all temples north of Provo! That is, until Brigham City is completed) and ate at Texas Roadhouse (our very, very favorite restaurant!).

Saturday was a busy day. We found out one week before that Scott's cousin Brady was going to be coming down from Boise to do his endowment in Mt. Timpanogos on Saturday. Good thing we didn't book two nights for our little get-away trip! Saturday morning, then, was a session at Mt. Timpanogos, we ate at Chuck-A-Rama with the whole family, and drove down to Manti and did a session down there. What a weekend full of temples! But, you can't really complain, right?

P.S. The Manti temple was beautiful and I think by far my very favorite temple. After sitting through two movie sessions, it gets harder and harder to stay awake. I was so grateful for a live session. It really puts a different take on everything. Oh, and I loved moving from room to room and seeing the beautiful murals on the walls. I really wouldn't mind going back to Manti at all.

And the best part...we got to see the spiral staircases!!! There are two staircases over on the west end of the temple, and you have to ask a worker to see them if you ever get a chance. There are 6 spirals, each stair supports the one above it, and it rises more than 70ft high! There are actually 2 sealing rooms in each tower - one is half way, the other is all the way up. They hardly do any sealings up there, as you can imagine those sweet old workers trying to make their way up to the top every day, but they are still fully functioning. I would love to be able to attend a sealing in one of those rooms, maybe!

After the temple, we were craving pizza (ok, I was craving pizza), so we ate at Lotsa Mottsa and I will put it out now that they are yummy and there is a Lotsa Mottsa in Payson so if you are ever in the area, go there!

And after pizza...we ate our one year anniversay cake!! It was...good. Actually, the cake itself would have been just fine if it weren't for the fact that whoever wrapped up the cake hadn't put the flowers in with it! For ONE year our cake sat in the freezer next to these flowers. You can imagine the smell when we opened it, not to mention the way it affected the taste! It turned out good, though. It was fun to at least be able to say we ate the top of our wedding cake!

And Sunday we slept in and watched some TV and then drove home (and saw bald eagles!). It wasn't a super big get-away, but it was still nice to be able to get out of the house and spend some time alone together. I love my husband so much more and I love being with him and he is my best friend. The End! :D

Ogden Temple!

Texas Roadhouse and our very favorite drink...Strawberry Peach Lemonade slushie thing...it is amazing!!

The rolls are so good! I shouldn't be doing this on fast sunday..oh man!

Beautiful Manti, UT temple!

Cheese!

He's Out!

That's right, y'all...HE'S OUT OF ICU!!!

I don't know what I am more happy for...the cost of the bill or the improvement of his health, but for now we will shout and rejoice for this great, marvelous, MAGNIFICENT improvement. Yay, I am so happy right now!

And now, I really promise, I'll post more later, but I'm at work right now so I gotta go!

Love ya!!

He's Awake!

Yep, that says it. I just got the text. I'm excited, I can't wait to go up and see him again. Hopefully, first though, I will be able to get this chemistry test out of the way today (with at least a decent passing grade). Scott and I have tickets to go see Jimmer tonight, but I'm not really sure if I want to go. Anyways, that's the update for now, but I better get back to work before I get in too much trouble!

Post to ya later!