Let it snow!

No kidding it freaking snowed here yesterday. It rained all day and then turned into snow. It was 28 last night. I just read Angela's blog and saw it was snowing in Idaho too. Where the heck did fall go????

Zazzle.com

I LOVE this idea. I don't know how much it costs yet, but how cute to print out REAL stamps you can use to send envelopes with your kids on it and send it to grandpa. Or how about a wedding announcement with your engagement pictures on it! Such a cute idea!! I am totally a fan. You can make stuff for your businesses too like stamps, calendars, shirts etc. and then sell them on your site. This reminds me of places like Cafe Press or LuLu.com but still neat! They do other stuff too but I thought that the stamp idea was the coolest.

President Hinckley

I miss my family so much but it has been such a blessing to live here in Utah. On Tuesdays BYU shuts down campus for about an hour and a half so that all students and teachers and staff have the opportunity to go hear a devotional. They have general authorities speak, teachers etc. They always have wonderful topics and it's great if Dusty's gets a chance to go.

Tuesday President Hinckley came to BYU to speak and Dusty and I both got a chance to attend. I work right across the street from BYU and a co-worker and I left for our lunch break to go across the street to hear him speak! What a blessing!! I LOVE to hear him speak. I love to be in his presence and be reminded of what Heavenly Father wants of me. President Hinckley is such a beautiful reminder of what the priesthood, atonement and obeying the commandments can do in your life if you allow it to. Our personal testimony and relationship with Jesus Christ is what really matters and I love to hear our Prophet gently and lovingly remind us of that.

President Hinckley spoke mostly of the 13th Article of Faith and broke it down and expanded on what each section means to him.

13th We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul*We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I would suggest that we all pause and reflect on what this means to you as an individual, a couple, a family and as a Church. I won't take the time to share my personal notes here....they are in my journal...but the Articles of Faith should be studied just as we do our scriptures.

I am grateful to have the Gospel. I am thankful to live here in Utah and take a lunch break to hear the Prophet. I am thankful to know that families are forever. I love you all and miss you even more!

What goes with fried chicken??

OK. I am not kidding. Dusty and I are in charge of the ward activities and we have been asked to serve fried chicken for our party on the 29th of September. We are going to cater that and we can get about 300 pieces of fried chicken for around $150. So that only leaves us about $75 - $100 max to get sides to go with it.

Any suggestions on what else to serve??? I know I've got some resourceful readers?!

Need Royalty Free Photos?

You can search this selection for photos you can use for your website, blog, school presentation etc. Check out the terms but pretty much you can use what you want--just make sure you give photo credit. Flickr Creative Commons

Another low-cost alternative I have used while building my organization site is iStock.com.

Have you guys ever used something like this? Do you know of any others?

Cocomotion

So there have been people at work telling me of this amazing contraption called Cocomotion. It's a machine that makes hot chocolate perfect every time. They say it's foolproof. It's not too hot nor too cold. It's not too chocolaty but just right and full of flavor--EVERY TIME! Especially here in Utah we make a lot of hot chocolate in the winter and I am thinking this might have to be a new addition.

I know I just made a plea for help about eating too much chocolate, but drinking it can't be that bad... :)

Turbo Kick Baby!!

So in my last post I mentioned that I had to get back in the groove of working out. Well, at the end of October I am "auditioning" in a sense to try and get certified to be a Turbo Jam instructor!! They are actually called Turbo Kick instructors. I would get certified and then go around to places like Gold's Gym etc. to teach. The try-outs are at the end of October and I gotta get my butt in shape!! Any encouragement is greatly appreciated. :) I will let you know how it goes. I have all of Chalene Johnson's Turbo Jam videos and I think my favorite is Total Body Blast. 60 minutes of intense workout with the yoga ball. I love it! Here is a video from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PR0072cBJU

Anyway. I have a long way to go before I feel FIT but at least having a goal keeps me motivated on those days where it's hard. I want to be a cute little mom that works out at the gym and teaches classes and has like 10 different pairs of Nike Shox that match every work out outfit. I guess my first step is to stop eating so much dang chocolate and pizza!! Those have been my two things lately. Holy moly I eat a lot of chocolate and we get cheap Pap Murphy's pizza that we love a lot too. Chauntel is a good example going to the gym and being so fit and Angela rides her flippin bike trialing kids all over town for the work out!

What are some ways that any of you guys stay on track with eating or working out?

Update....Finally!!

Well! Here I am! :) We have gotten back from a trip to Kentucky that was so fun and relaxing!!! We had a blast and loved every second of it. I will post some pictures soon. We went to Bernheim Forest, the Louisville Zoo, Gattis with everybody, spent the night at Lissa's, went out to eat...a lot!! (Rally's twice in one day....barf!! I felt so fat but DANG it was good!!). We went crusin with Momma Starr a lot while she rocked out to her Rockafeller Skank song (her new favorite)....we did all kinds of stuff and laughed a ton!! I love getting together with family. All we do is laugh (at each other :)

I can't believe how big by nephews are getting and that Eli can already walk/run at 9 months!! Blake showed us his tractor tippin' technique and Evan is just doing new stuff everyday! I can't get over how much he has grown since the last time I saw him. He and Blake both! I have some really cute pics of them and can't wait to share. I also have a picture of Mike that he didn't know that I took...stay tuned.....you'll know it when you see it....trust me! Gosh I love my family!! I miss them so much.

The very next morning after we got home from KY Dusty flew out to CA to go to a reptile convention to network and visit the largest reptile show in the USA. He had dinner with Nigel Marvin from The Animal Planet :) and lots of other cool stuff. His book is coming to a close. Just last minute updates, picture changes, etc. We won't make the deadline of having it done in October but it will be out soon enough. We are all way excited to see it.

Dad's surgery went as planned. Yay!! I haven't got to talk to him yet but Lissa is keeping me informed. We all sure do wish you a speedy recovery dad!!

Jeremy is flying in tomorrow for a short visit for work but he will spend the night at our place tomorrow and then we will all have dinner at Roundy's place. I love the Roundy's and it's so much fun to hang out with them and Jeremy there is a big bonus! Last time Jeremy came out we all went to Roundy's and Dusty, Rob and Jeremy all jammed out on guitars. It was so fun. Maybe we can teach Jeremy a new song for Makayla ;)

Things have been so fast paced since we have been home. Dusty's now in school and looking for a part-time job. There are a lot of Church activities that have been going on and then Dusty and I are in charge of Ward activities and we have one of those next Saturday. etc. etc. etc. It was so nice to have that break at mom and dad's house before our schedule's picked up!

Last night I did some more freelance photography for someone's family pictures. I brought a friend who has a photography business and she came to help give me pointers and stuff. She wants to train me as her Jr. photographer so that she can take me with her on jobs to help out while I learn. I think that will be great. I will post some of those pictures soon. I will get a CD of them this weekend.

That's all I can think of right now to update everyone on. My thyroid has been giving me problems as of late. I am getting tired WAY to easy lately. I am trying to combat that by working out more. It was hard to get back into the groove of working out after a vacation but I have to do it!