Hey Hay!

Ben and I are together recovering from ... probably the WORST stomach flu I've ever had. Holy moly... I'll spare you the details.. :)


Earlier this week I came home from work and found this on my counter...
"Ben? What is this on the counter?"
"Um. Hay."
"I'm sorry - .... did you say hay?"
"yeah"
...following the little fuzzy trails ....
AH HA!!! He's up to something...
Some time ago - and some how - Ben got his hands on a raw wool - right off the sheep. I don't know where the heck he got it but it's been camped out in our garage for some time. This week - the barn experiments begin. The ultimate goal is to be able to spin it into something fun.
Gotta shake out the HAY (not on the kitchen counter) and wash it out with super hot water and shampoo. Can't agitate too much or it'll felt

Wash rinse repeat.


it'll take a couple of washing sessions before we can start carting. I'll let you know how that goes....In the mean time, the dogs are confused about what kind of animal is living in the bucket...

Dearest Chinese Wish

Saturday Ben and I went to his work party at very popular Chinese resturant in Bountiful. Very good food. Very crowded. Fun conversation. And! At the end of the evening - as usual for most chinese restaurants - we got our fortune cookies.


How trippy is it to get the same fortune!
QUICK BEN! WISH FOR A MILLION DOLLARS!!!!

Turkey Day

Thursdays are my day off and today I cleaned the house - including kitchen blinds and bathroom shower tiles, paid the bills, and did a little sewing. Now - Ben's orders- I'm chilling with a mud mask, surrounded by my martha magazine stash and blogging.
Very good.

During November Ben is on the hunt for good turkey sales and stores it in our freezer until his wife goes crazy with the lack of space :) Then it's time for turkey day. This turkey he got for 6 bucks - is almost too big for our oven.

It's pretty huh.

Ben cooked us turkey and home made potatoes that were incredible! ...I microwaved the peas.
The best part of the turkey (other then the extra space in my freezer) is how far it goes! A week of dinners - easy. Dogs LOVE turkey day.
Desert are peanut butter love cups. :) Cookies in my heart shaped cup cake holders. Cute huh.

If I didn't have Ben around - I would have Apple Jacks for dinner every night. :)

January Update

This 2010 is going to be a big year. The more I think about it - the more I can add to the list of things that are going on. Mostly Random events.... Promise to keep you updated.

First - last post I mentioned the "Journal Jar" and explanation has been requested. :) I believe this Sunday afternoon tradition started in my mid-later teens and was designed to give my parents a break by sending the kids to the room to 'write in your journal' --- and I don't see anything wrong with that.
Journal Jar was a small mason jar that sat a top the fridge filled with journal writing topics on scraps of paper. Things like 'your favorite vacation', 'your favorite class', '5 things you want to do this year/when you grow up', 'who are your heros?' or even just 'what happened this week'. I think i was the only one who really enjoyed Journal jar.... but I think that it helped me to even more appreciate pouring the thoughts out of my head - regardless how random.


In more current news. We still have the frogs. The Petco guy told us that I don't have to feed them crickets (*shivers*) but we can do meal worms instead (*mild shivers*). So we made up a little worm bowl out of milk lid.... and I guess this is what they think of the new meal plan...

Speaking of meal plans. Don't leave ANYTHING on the floor. Reggie will eat it. WWWHHYY!!?! Yesterday he ate a guitar pick. Earlier this week I found him munching on a banana from Ben's back pack.
Peal and all
Alllllright. That's enough potassium for one day.
I'm caught up on ALL of my knitting projects. I love and hate the moment when I realize I have nothing to do. In taking inventory of my yarn basket - I have several balls of sock yarn but not enough to make a pair of one color. Hum. What if i just made the socks smaller? Then I'd have enough.... don't get overly excited when you see this baby sock. No buns in my oven. Just too many skeins in my basket :)

.... I am incapable of doing a small post.....

Ben's parents got Wii Fit. It has little games designed to keep you moving. The object of this game is to fly from one stand to the next... you can kinda see it on the screen. Ben is the best flyer. "I'm a flyer!"

Finding

Do you have a place where stuff just gets stuck? Mine is the trunk of my car. I know that there are things back there. Not much - but things I haven't touched in YEARS. I guess I don't pull them out because I think - 'Where else would I put them? I will get them out when I have a place to put them".
I was looking for something totally different in the trunk... when I found 3 grocery bags of books. I knew there were books back there.... but which books? Hum.

It turned into a real gold mine of memories.
Some of my favorites are these 3 text from some of my favorite classes: Gender studies, Environmental/social issues, and Asian studies. Maybe I'll try to read them again. ... maybe...
Aw. I found a large pile of church books that I feel close too - these two are just cute.
One of the BEST finds was a journal from 2004. I'm pretty good at keeping up on journal entries (thanks to the Journal jar, Ma!) This journal had stories I forgotten and pictures I didn't know I still had!
This is "Homeless night" on USU campus - Matt and Ben. This picture was taken by Jen who was silly enough to go with them. :) Homeless night - was students sleeping out on the quad with out sleeping bags (the tough ones like ben) .... to raise homelessness awareness? The purpose i'm not clear on. Jen, Matt, and Ben tried to convince me to go. "Uhhhh - I'll be aware from home". It was late fall and freezing.
Jen! 2004 - the first year I was with Ben .... Me, Jen and Anna went to vegas for Valentines Day! That truly was a blast!
Oh goodness - this was my only school dance - college home coming. Not all that exciting but the preparation was way fun. We got ben a tux with tails in Brigham city - and my Mom helped me make the shiny red skirt. I still wear that...
This is one of my favorites. March of 2004 Kim , Ben and Matt took a spring break trip to San Fransisco. There are good fun memories mixed with --- "If I have look at these boys one more day...." :) I was only 20! Ben was only 23! He turns 30 this year!!! Very cute old picture.
Do all findings like this make you feel old. I feel old - but even more attached to my hubby as I remember JUST HOW LONG we've been together and how many fun things we did.

Where are some of your things 'stuck'?

Who's That?

Hey? Who's that? They are really small Can they come play? I'll play nice - promise.


Clean tank. Happy frogs.

Sugar Spun Success

For Christmas I got Martha Stewarts Cupcakes book. Which feels like the next step up in cupcaking. It's more then just decorating - it's lots of good recipes.

Such as.... Sugar-Spun crowns - with Devils food cake. Wow. I won't tell you how many sticks of butter go in the cake and frosting - - just that it's more then 5 STICKS. More.

Ben made this "hazelnut spires of hope" - Really cook huh.
The crowns are bringing sugar, water, and corn syrup - brought to boil at 300 degrees, cooled and then drizzled over spoon handles to create threads of sugar, then gathered up into clusters.

It was super fun adventure with Ben. ... The word now is to create them for Shelby's wedding. Oh boy. ...
How long can those cupcakes stay in the freezer?

Last Hours of 2009

It was weirding me out yesterday that Y2K was a DECADE AGO!! Holy Moses time flies. Ben was in Chile for "Y2K" - and says it wasn't that big of a deal. .... I was at Holly's house - one of the few parties at Holly's. It was the middle of my Jr year - I remember making a toast with my 5 friends... toasting to something long term. So much for that - eh.

Oh well - the present day New Years toast is filled with much more tradition - and no one my age :)

I think for the last 5 years I've been going with Ben to his high school bud's place (Jay) for Ginger bread waffles. They have been doing this New Years tradition for .... wow.... high school? Ben turns 30 this year - so you do the math.
At this shindig are folks Ben's age and the host's little brothers age - 3 yrs older and 3 yrs younger then me (or so)

Anyhow this year - the night starts off with Ben's home made doughnuts. Look out. Fried dough.

Aren't they pretty?This was my job.



At Jays there is OODLES of food, board games, video games, the dick clark count down (that's right ryan seacrest - you'll never replace mr clark)

The majority of the night was spent trying to save the world in Pandemic.
(Andrus's! We must plan another night of gaming. )
(Muffins - We're not convinced that Lt. F would like this because it's not competitive.... we'll have to try it.)

Anyways.... at the final count down I brought out a couple of the left over boxes of our wedding sparklers and it was a total hit. I found it very satisfying to see people I didn't know running down the street with my sparklers :)
Shout out to the Browns :) Happy to hear you're reading about our copacetic life - place put your blog site in the comments! I want to see your scraps quilt and christmas creativeness.

More sparkler fun.... with Jay's little brothers friends? Donno.
Ben and I have a HUGE list of new years goals and realized that it's going to be a HUGE year for us: shelby's wedding :), Ben's last semester of classes, applying and interviewing for out of state residencies, my dad turns 50!, my hubby turns 30!, my brother comes home from his mission....and other things :)
Looking forward to sharing it with you.