Wanting to shout it at the top of my lungs!

As part of my "lose a few pounds" scheme I purchased a few of the frozen entrees from various companies; Lean Cuisine, South Beach, Weight Watchers, etc. I wanted to sample each brand before I bought massive quantities of any one type. Well, in my first try I found a winner!! It was the Lean Cuisine Panini Chicken Club and it was AWESOME! Maybe my expectations were just super low, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying it! It had tomatoes, chicken, bacon and cheese on a sourdough bread that came out of the microwave crispy and delicious. It only had 9g of fat and 350 calories and was high in protein and fiber. I've never had good feelings towards these frozen "health" foods, but this one may have changed my mind.

Thumbing my nose at the snow

Yesterday as I was terribly depressed because of the yucky weather and my difficult children, I decided to lift my mood by putting the new duvet cover I made on my bed. It fit better than I thought it would and looks great, I think. Samantha stood outside my room when I was finished and just said "Oh momma, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty!". It was cute. Every time I went into my room after putting it on, I smiled. THAT is the sign of a good looking room!

While I was posting on quiona......

While I was writing that last post, my very adorable and very monster-like son and his sister were in the kitchen having a snack of strawberry yogurt. Unbeknownst to me Alex was dipping his spoon in the yogurt and flinging it across the kitchen. Not the spoon, oh no, he realized that would be too much noise. But the yogurt, yes, that flings nice and quiet!!! It was the perfect plan until of course his sister snitched on him. It was a bit of a mess that I was lucky enough to clean up while Alex had his nose in the corner and Samantha sat there very disapproving thinking to herself "I would never do such a thing! No, my stint of rubbing vaseline all over my brother and dolls was not NEAR this bad!".
Only 4 more weeks until I get a 5 day break in New York. I'm going to make a construction paper chain to count the days. THIS is my Christmas!

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa)

Last night Andy found a recipe in Jamie Oliver's cook book for a spicy couscous. I LOVE couscous but we also wanted to try a new grain we've been hearing a lot about lately called quinoa. It's been around forever and it was a staple in the diet of the Inca because it provides more protein than any other grain. It's also very versatile. So Andy substituted the couscous for quinoa and it was delicious!! Samantha chowed down on it as well but did think it was a bit spicy for her. Alex had one bite and shoved it aside. Oh well, gotta give him points for trying! Needless to say, we're going to find a bunch more recipes for this new grain of ours and if you are interested in this recipe we did (I thought you might be Maile since you posted about quinoa as well) then let me know and I'll email it to you.

Blah blah blah

Pretty crappy weekend. Ornery kids who didn't nap. Ornery mom for no reason that anyone can figure out. And snow. Lots of cold snow. Snowed all day today. Looks more like December than the end of March. Of course, we are in Utah so I guess the unexpected is to be expected. On the bright side....it's 6pm and the kids are in bed!!! So I have a full evening of cleaning the kitchen, exercising and watching TV ahead of me! Rock on.

Some recipe help please!

I have decided it would be prudent for me to shed a few pounds for no other reason that I think it would make me feel good. So I am inquiring to all of you if you have any healthy recipes that you enjoy that you could pass along to me. I am going through my cookbooks and finding healthy recipes that sound good that I might actually eat but am finding I'll need A LOT more if I'm going to stick with this for a while. Mostly I'm shooting for leaner meats, no butter but instead use olive oil, more veggies and fruit (easier this time of year than winter) and smaller portions. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't do self-control very well, so this is going to be tricky! Andy is on board with most of it too, so that will help. Of course, he'll be steering clear of the veggies. Wish me luck!!

NYC flashback Friday.

I decided yesterday that every Friday I'm going to post a little story or just a remembrance from our time in New York. It might not being too interesting to most of you, but it's more for me to remember some of the cool stuff we did or the funny stories. Sometimes I forget the things that happened while we were there and I really don't want to forget, so I'm going to get them all written down here. Andy, help me out here if you remember stuff too!

I think I'm going to start all of my entries like I'm talking to myself and Andy......Remember when??

Remember when we went to The Today Show to see Annie Lennox perform for their Summer Concert Series....and it rained......a lot!!?? Then we had to make our way downtown to work and we were soaking wet and I cleaned up in "The Executive" bathroom.
And since I'm thinking of Rockefeller Center already, remember when we went to see the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and it was like -45 degrees and they had lame act after lame act perform and all we wanted to see was the damn Christmas lights, so we gave up and went to Virgil's instead? It was so warm and toasty inside and we ate BBQ and biscuits until we had to roll ourselves home!!
Good times!!!

A few pictures for your entertainment.

After the Easter Bunny visited.
Play-date with sweet cousin Nicole.

Grampy and Samantha being oh so silly.
Alex coloring his egg his favorite color - orange.
Samantha being a princess.
Annual coloring of the eggs.

My hat goes off to this family!

I don't know how many of you have seen the TLC show "Jon and Kate Plus 8", but I am in awe!! This family has a set of twin girls who I think are around 6 or 7 and then sextuplets who are 3. That's right, 8 kids!! Kate is a stay-at-home mom and she is my hero!! I love how REAL she is about all of it. She gets frustrated, and she shows it. She and Jon fight, and they don't hide it. Their life is totally crazy, but they love it and they do it with humor. It is so refreshing to hear parents say what is on their minds and what they really feel about being a parent. It's a tough job! I feel like kind of a wuss complaining about my 2 kids when these people have 8 young ones!! I'm going to try harder not to complain. If you get a chance, check out this show and this hilarious family.

First for the Season!

Last night Andy and I slept with the window to our room open!! We love to do this in the spring and fall when it's nice outside and last night was the first night we noticed how lovely it was. The low for the night was only supposed to be in the 40's so we cranked that puppy open. Hopefully we'll be able to do it for the next few months before it gets too hot.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all! We had a great egg hunt at my mom's house and I forgot to bring my camera. Par for the course, I know. But my sisters had their cameras so I'll mooch pictures from them and post them later. As for now, my friend Gerd sent this to me for Easter and it made me laugh. It's in German but I will translate with my wicked German skillz....
"My butt hurts"
"What?"

Collective Soul

Last night Richele and I got to attend the Novell Brainshare party at the Delta Center. Neither of us work at Novell, but thankfully we know people who do and who could get us tickets to this party. The opening act was Frank Caliendo, the comedian who does impersonations of the President, John Madden, Charles Barkley and Al Pacino. I've never seen his act before so I thought he was hysterical. But we were really there for the band that followed! Collective Soul!! They played for over an hour and were terrific! They are always great in concert and just look good doing it too! Most of their hair was a little long for my taste, but the tight pants made up for that!! I'm terrible, I know. They always seem so happy to be performing and are so energetic that you can't help but like them. Andy and I went to a John Mayer concert in New Jersey a few years back and you could just tell he didn't want to be there (it was the night of the Grammy's). It made the concert awful since the energy just wasn't there. I'd never go to a concert of his again because of that. I would, however, go to a Collective Soul concert any day of the week!!!
It was a great time with laughs and good music so thank you to Wendy for getting us the tickets. The best part of it all was that it was free!! Everything is better when it's free. And of course a big thank you to Kami for babysitting while I was gone. Samantha gave her a bit of trouble but Kami is a professional mom, so she handled it just lovely!

Giving myself a pat on the back!

I had a first this week. I actually attended a Relief Society function....of my own free will.....AND I brought a salad!!! I hope you were sitting down for that because if you know me at all you know that I just don't do Relief Society, so you may be totally shocked. Andy sure was. He immediately stopped what he was doing and turned all his attention to me when I said I was going to this function. He all but felt my forehead to check for a temperature! It actually turned out to be quite fun. All thanks to this lady in the ward that I sat by who has more personality than 10 normal people combined. She is outgoing, funny and a great story-teller. She is getting married in a month.....to her ex-husband! They were married for 35 years, got divorced 11 months ago and are now getting remarried. I thought it was a hilarious story. She is trying to sell her condo so if anyone is looking for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place with a garage, I can hook you up. PLUS, you could live right down the street from me!! What could be better??
I guess I learned a lesson from all of this......Relief Society isn't all that bad. I suppose I just needed to give it a chance. Only took me 10 years to figure that out!

I dare you...

I dare you to have a cooler car name than "The Brentmeister General". Bring it on!!!

Good times

Our neighbors came over the other night and we played Liars Dice. I think it's also known as Pirates Dice. It was shown in the second Pirates of the Carribean movie and so the set that our neighbors have is all decked out in a pirate theme. Barnacles and all! It sounded a bit lame to me at first but it was really fun.....especially because I rocked that game! So, if you ever get the chance to play Liars Dice I highly recommend it. It's also fun to talk like a pirate while you play. I make a great pirate and I think next time I play I'll wear an eye patch. Yeah, that'll be hot.

No real reason to post

Someone made a comment on one of the discussion boards for my Global Political Economy class that made me think of this. In fairness, he was trying to be silly.

Because I'm a moron

I'm a total idiot for forgetting to take my camera with me today as my mom and I took Samantha to Disney Princesses on Ice! She was dressed as Snow White and her hair was pulled up with a cute little red ribbon. She even had red shoes to match! Matching red shoes and me without my camera! Can everyone say "Worst mother in America"??? Thankfully my phone has a camera and I was able to snap a couple of photos with that. I also have a picture of her in the full Snow White outfit from Halloween. I will post those at the bottom.

Samantha was so excited to have a girls day with Grammy and mom and Grammy even bought her a "Princess Day" present---a miniature tea set with, of course, Princesses on them. Samantha held it all the way up to Salt Lake. We had a little trouble with traffic around the Gateway because unbeknownst to us there was a St. Patrick's Day parade going on right down the main street. It wasn't really a big deal and kind of fun to see everyone in green for the parade. I hate parades. Especially in the winter. I mean, who wants to stand on the side of the street, freezing, watching a bunch of people walk and wave?? Not me!! But I digress.
There also seemed to be a "Parade of Princesses" as a ton of adorable little girls dressed as princesses walked toward the Delta Center (oh, excuse me, the EnergySolutions Arena!). Samantha was, of course, the cutest one there and was so pleased to see other princesses like her. She really is the most beautiful girl in the world. I can't say it enough! Again, I digress.

When the show started and Tinkerbell came skating out Samantha let out a huge shriek and started clapping. This is when I began crying. Then when Mickey and Minnie Mouse came out, she jumped 10 feet in the air with excitement. Again, more crying from me. To see your child so happy and excited about something is the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. I felt so content. Like this is what everyday should feel like.
It was a great show and Samantha seemed to enjoy every minute---except of the dragon from Sleeping Beauty. That kind of freaked her out. And Grammy and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Samantha enjoy herself and clap and dance and sing. I wish I could do that everyday with her.

If you're wondering what the little cowboy and his daddy did today, they went to the trampoline place and jumped their little hearts out for 45 minutes! Andy said Alex had a great time and I think they just enjoyed being together. What a lucky gal I am to have such an awesome family! Man we're cute!!

Travelzoo Top 20

I won't lie - I feel a little dirty posting a link to a contest on our site. But I've actually used this site to pick up good deals before, so I guess it's not so bad. Travelzoo has lots of deals, just like everyone else. Every week they send out a Top 20 email, mostly filled with things that I can't do, or are too expensive. But every so often (once every 2 months or so), they'll post great deals on Vegas shows, or hotels. I can't really comment on how a lot of the other deals are priced, but those have been great deals, as have the hotel deals they have had in NYC. So if you want to try to win all 20 of their posted deals, click the flashing banner before Kristi takes out this post and bans me from posting on her site.

What I've been up to!

Andy devotes every night (almost) to studying and reading and taking tests and all that crap that comes with getting your MBA. So in the evenings I have a lot of time to myself. Some nights I laze about watching TV or reading and other nights I sew! Most recently I decided to make myself a duvet cover and a skirt. The duvet cover was originally going to be white, lime green and purple, but when I got to the fabric store I was uninspired by any of the purples they had. I found this pink, aptly named Flamingo, and thought it with the green, white and brown would look lovely. I think I was correct! It turned out just how I had planned and I'm excited to use it. When I asked Andy what he thought he asked if I wanted the truth. I should have said no. He does like it but says it reminds him of Neopolitan ice cream. Now we're going to go to bed hungry every night craving ice cream! Great!My next project was to take an old dress I had for a friend's wedding and turn the skirt into another skirt. I loved the yellow fabric but it was a full skirt on a sleeveless top that I knew I would never wear again. So I cut the skirt portion off, found a cute pattern for a more fitted, shorter skirt and sewed away. I think it turned out pretty well. This picture is of the back since the front isn't too interesting. All of the detail is in the back. I think I have a pretty nice rear end so hopefully this skirt will accentuate that feature!!! "Whatever draws attention away from your face!"
Next project is to make an apron for my sister for her birthday (we still need to go fabric shopping Kami). Then I'm going to attempt to make a purse. I have a shape in mind I want to try, so we'll see how it goes. If it bites I'll just give it to Samantha....she'd love a new play purse I'm sure.

Reality Check

I got a phone call from my old friend Sophie Houser (now Sophie Child) on Friday reminding me that our 10 year high school reunion is this summer! It actually feels like high school was more like 20 years ago. So much has happened in the last 10 years that I barely remember my days as a Red Devil at Springville High School. But still.....go Red Devils!!! I wonder how hard I'd have to club Andy to knock him out and drag him with me?? Do I really even want to go though? I guess I have a few months to think about it.