Espana style!

The flamencos!








Those spanairds totally wanted me... Too bad! Ha.






Going for a dip in the Mediterranean!








A little recap from our futbol game last night!








Doing what we do best.








Cruising the streets








Time to eat! We at a really nostalgic bar. Loved the ambience.








The traditional pealla!








Giving him the time of his life...








(the pics are all blurry because I didn't want to take my phone to the beach so I took pics off the screen of my camera!)

Barcelona

A little glimpse into the first few days of vaca-




A little bit of my old stopping grounds in NYC... Then off to Barcelona!

It's been a fun filled day. Jumped off the airplane; found our hotel; found and went on our bike tour that took us to all of the highlights of barcelona; ate some lunch... Don't know what one of my courses was but I ate it anyway; then after seeing so many soccer fans chanting about the city, we decided finding and getting into the game was a must! Definitely a highlight! US sports dont even come close to that intensity that lasts the whole game!

Food and bikes are on my camera, not my phone, so those may come later...

You better believe-

I had my first lesson with fondant and loved it! The color scheme, wouldn't have been my choice, but all in all, it was great. It was just for fun to learn something new and then we had it for dessert the following day where we got together for lunch with friends.

lately I have...

- enjoyed a lot of family time, as my bro graduated so I spent a lot of his last ptown days w/ him, as well as my fam coming in to town for his graduation!lots of food w/ the fam- pictured- Red Iguana- the AZ'ins gave it the stamp of approval; stopped at about every dessert place possible- we are a sweet tooth family; Italian restaurants- Gloria's and a pizza place; Guru's for a delightful breakfast... and sadly I'm sure there is more!

why is it not clear? oh cause it decided to snow on our y mountain hike... yeah shortsy girl's legs were a little numb and bright red- she took the hottest possible shower after.
who do you represent?
das familia
brother- I missed you the second you left.



I have also...


- received a few threats that if I didn't post, I'd be removed from their blog lists. Uh oh! You can thank them cause without them, this wouldn't be here.


- majorly taken a break from the blogging world- viewing and needless to say, posting.


- been planning a trip to Spain which has taken up a lot of time (I leave next week).

- MADE and TAKEN and EATEN my lunch to work for 2 straight months. Only cheated 1x- Cinco deMayo with the co-workers. Considering I used to buy my lunch EVERY day, this is a huge accomplishment! Be proud cause I obviously am!

- gone through an extremely growing time. I've comtemplated a lot, and have once again risen up for the time being.

- continued to exercise much patience as I wait for a few necessities (according to me :) )to come along in life.


and there you have it!

Why? Well for Easter of course!

J and I are definitely adoptive fams to each other. We partied it up on Easter and had a great time.

A nice Sunday drive after conference turned adventurous as we decided to get out and take some pics... how much more perfect can you get with little bunny foo foo hopping the the forrest on Easter! After it all, I had a very wet bum, legs, back, etc... luckily for Jess having scrubs in her trunk, my car ride home wasn't miserable! {Maybe we had to take a lot of pictures so that we got just the right one} Happy Be-lated Easter!

Co-lon-os-co-py

It was no April fooling when the first rolled around and it was time to get the all amazing colonoscopy. Yipee! Made even harder when my great co-worker left this deliciousness on my desk first thing in the morning the day before. For those of you that don't know, the day before is what they call the clense, where instead, you get to have this:

Clears all day. I have never had plain chicken broth and I never will again.

Then you get to drink this the evening before. You may hit up the bathroom once and think that wasn't that bad!... Then it hits you at midnight like a ton of bricks. Sick... guess you aren't sleeping that night. As if that's not bad enough, you have to drink another full jug of the syrupie nastiness at 4am... much harder to do at 4am than 5pm.

The best part, getting the sleepy medicine. Zonked completely out for what felt like hours, but really only minutes. Woke up to my sweet friend Heidi's voice. I was wide awake and feeling good. Didn't feel a single thing and it didn't feel like a single thing was done to me. On the way home, we stopped at Paradise Cafe... mmm. No more liquid.

Oh... and all results aren't back yet. So far, nothing major. If there's something wrong, you'll probably find out about it one way or the other. If you don't hear anything, no news is good news! :)

Dearest...

random act of love- thanks for brightening my day when I looked down and saw I had eaten my sandwich into a lovely heart and then looked at its matching coke.

mom and dad- thank you for this bundle of a surprise. I love it. Yet, I love you and your thoughfulness more. Happy Easter.

mister rich man- if you have money to spare, would you please leave my dream for me on my driveway? And friends... if you ever buy my dream, don't let me see it... I would be real jealous... but then I'd get over it... eventually.

examples

I've been lucky to have such wonderful examples in my life. I'm surrounded by amazing friends and family that have taught me so much. Lifted me up, sometimes even dragged me through the tough times, just so I could pull through and make it. I thank you all for that. If you are reading this, and you actually know me, I am talking to YOU!

The spotlight this time goes to my dear friend, j/jessa/jess/jessica.

I consider many of my girl friends sisters and j is definitely one of them. I've been lucky enough to know her for the past 7 years of my life. I've also been lucky to live with her for a lot of that time both in UT and NY, as she joined me in an adventure of a lifetime. She has been there for me through thick and thin and has never ceased to amaze me. She has such endearing qualities. She'll make an amazing wife and mother one day, as I have seen her compassion and support through the years. She is selfless and loving without end.

Growth is an amazing thing that all of us go through as we meet the demands of every day life. J continues to embellish life every step of the way.

This past week, she went through the temple. A group of us friends were able to go to St. George to support her in this step in her life. Thank you for being a great example in my life.

double tag... so i must!

tagged once by j, tagged again by syd... guess i'm not getting out of this one! maybe i shouldn't check blogs for an even longer period of time! :) I bet they did it so at least there would be something new on here... it may just work. if i don't fall asleep by the end, i may post a couple more!

4 shows I like to watch
1. Suns
2. Utes football
3. Food Network
4. guilty pleasure- the hills- I don't know why!!!

4 things I'm passionate about
1. kids-- love them.
2. gyming it up
3. close ties to fam and friends
4. gospel

phrases I say a lot
1. a one word phrase- "fun" or "funny" after someone says something
2. for real
3. E
4. is this a joke... j- you know we've been roomies!

4 things I have learned from the past
1. You can plan life, but know there will probably be changes to your plan- self induced or not, and take you in a different direction.
2. parents are right
3. God knows you way better than you know yourself
4. You're never alone. Never.

4 places I would like to go
1. The orient
2. Aruba, Bahamas... come on pretty mama!
3. Northwest
4. Home to see the fam... again.

4 things I did yesterday
1. went to work
2. gym
3. showered/got ready/ate
4. watched a movie with a friend

4 things I'm looking forward to
1. having a family of my own to care for
2. moving up in my career
3. SuMmEr
4. the man of my dreams (does that count as something diff than #1?)

4 things I love about winter
1. It being over
2. A few months closer to spring/summer
3. the stillness during snowfall... as long as I don't have anywhere to be.
4. Christmas

4 things on my wish list
1. best hubbie in the world before I'm 30- I hope the man upstairs agrees... if not, (sigh) i'll keep having patience. (best for me of course... don't get all competitive)
2. to be able to adopt-- if I don't get a husband soon, I may just jump ahead to this one!
3. to be a better example
4. stay grounded for life, head on straight, with an eye towards the ultimate goal of eternal life.

4 people to tag
1. Mel
2. Mom
3. Nicole
4. Lisa

to the Betty Crockers of the World...

I SALUTE YOU!

Today was quite the rough day in the kitchen. It began with me CRAVING homeade rolls at church today. I asked my one friend if his mom would be making any today and if so, if he could steal one away for me, that was a negative on the making part. I asked my other friend if she was going home today for dinner and she said no... dang it! The thought did cross my mind that maybe it wouldn't matter if I went to the store to get some Rhodes rolls at least... well I resisted that temptation (sigh of relief mom). So, I got home and decided to attempt it myself.

Well, it started with the yeast I had being expired by 2 yrs... shows how often I make yeast rising things! So I tested out the one WHOLE packet in the water and it was alive, yet... oops... I was only supposed to use a tsp, not a packet! So I threw it out and had one last packet. It wasn't as active as the other, but I decided to proceed. I put it all together and let the bread maker do the work. Well, so I thought! I went to check on it after it had been going for an hour only to find it was only kneading about half of the mixture together and the rest was around the edges. Boo. So I kneaded it together... didn't really work. I decided to roll up the toughness into balls and see what would happen... well, it's been a few hours and so far... nothing.

So to make myself feel better, I set off to make some cookies. The other day I bought the laxy man's cookie packet, you know the just add water type of a thing, so I thought no mistakes could be done here. I mixed it all up, scooped them all perfectly onto the pan and into the oven they went. 10 minutes later, wabam! Looking good! Looked like perfection. Then, I go to take them off the pan and what the, the bottom looked diseased!!!! Ugh. I put it back in the oven to see if it would fix itself. In this event, a cookie flew off the pan to the bottom of the oven.

Cookies still messed up, hard rolls are not rising, and I am sitting here writing this as a nauseating smell of a burned cookie in the bottom of an oven surrounds me.

And I wonder why I eat out so much!