Hearts and a Haircut!

I can hardly believe that I have been a working woman for an entire year! Actually, now that I think about it, it does feel like it's been a year...

It's really nice going to work and doing my job, and then being free to play the rest of the evening. No homework, tests, presentations, none of it :) For those of you who don't know I work at Hearts for Home Health where I coordinate between clinicians and patients regarding their in-home care. In celebration of my 1 year mark and associated raise, Scott took me to Gandalfo's for a "New Yorker." And the chocolate mousse cake was a total hit! And then I got my haircut: I don't know what happened. I told the girl "Just 1-2 inches off, more layers/volume, and a bang trim please" and then: When she was washing my hair I asked her what she would do if I let her cut my hair any way she wanted. After a quick explanation, I agreed, and the next thing i knew, she had her scissors at the nape of my neck. I like a change and this seems pretty good for a summer cut. But it's still very short.

When Scott saw me he said "I like it." Then I told him that if he doesn't really like it he could just say "Wow, that is a big change and I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it."

He promptly replied, "Wow, that is a big change and I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it!"

Haha, good news, it has been 2 days now, and we're both liking it more every day :)

What do you think?

In Our Kitchen...

We have been doing quite a bit of experimenting in the kitchen lately. Scott usually tells me whether I get a double or triple... I am working toward a HOME RUN! I got REAAALLLLY close on the Itallian sausage soup pictured at the very bottom, but those darn carrots were a little too al dente.

This beef and brocolli was super fast and easy. Scott was a bit horrified that I cut up a perfect piece of meat, but it was a great dish. I am getting more comfortable with garlic and ginger root every day. Scott did a rosemary chicken in our dutch oven the other week. It tasted really great, but honestly, for the same price, Costco does a great job :) ...with zero of the hassle or clean up. I am hoping the Easter bunny brings Scott some cooking twine. He needs it more often than I've ever seen!

Our Valentine's Day breakfast! Chocolate chip pancakes are always a good idea. Especially when the batter is from Lehi Roller Mills :)

Garlic mashed potatoes and steak is a favorite dinner at the Hathaways! Not pictured are the Costco steamed asparagus. Loooove that. Sea Salt and pepper only.

And the closest I've come to a home run: Itallian Sausage Soup! It was DELICIOUS. And, the leftovers are just as good. I had them for lunch every day for a week! By the end of the week, the carrots were the perfect texture :)

So there you have it, a sampling of our "triple" meals. And BTW, we both had dental appointments this week, and we are both cavity FREE :) Hooray!

Church is at 12:30

So what did we do with our morning? Well, Aebleskiver with buttermilk syrup for one thing. Then we prepared our lessons for the day, and spent an hour up AF canyon:

(This is my Marianne pose. Thanks for the lessons girl!)

I really love my camera. Sometimes it just takes getting outside to USE it to remember how much I love photography.

And the drive home:

Nothin like a good Sunday morning!

NZ Crew!

This last weekend was WONDERFUL. It was even better than my birthday. ALL my friends came over!

Kpax (backpacking S. America now) Erin (Hair Stylist in Boise) Jessica (Math teacher in SLC) Megan (RM, Rec major!)

Haeree (who knows... LOVING her life. Massage therapy maybe?) Julia (Rec therapist at and old folks home) and Ramsay (The guy who motivated me to keeeeeep walking when i was very tired in NZ.)

Ashley (Financial planning) Ali (Physical Therapy Aide) and Mark (Our fearless director who took 30 twenty year old girls and 6 boys to New Zealand for 4 months!)

Marcie (our student nominated leader who is ROCK awesome!!!)

Love these ladies Taylor and Lisa (mommies and BYU grads) and Maggie (served in Germany)

After everyone left, Scott was all "I like those people because they are all very down to earth." It is so true, all the people in the picture below are very REAL. It's refreshing and fun to be with them again :) I think we had about 30 people come to the Hathaway House for our big reunion. It was seriously SO much fun to catch up- I cannot believe it's been 3 years since we were biking through Invercargill, bungee jumping off Kuaru bridge and hiking the Routeburn track!

WEEKEND!

WHAT WHAT its the WEEKEND!!!

Bring on the:

haircut

rock climbing

New Zealand Reunion

dinner with friends

prepping primary/EQ lessons

a fabulous dinner in our favorite dutch oven

piano practice

a long run (read mayyybe 3 miles...)

Saturday chores

and who knows what else.

It has been a great week, but I'm excited it's the weekend!

Wee Wee Wigwam :)

I meant to do a full tutorial, but I forgot to take pictures the whole time...

Here is my version of the "Wee Wee Wigwam or "Pee Pee Teepee." These are becoming more and more popular as protection for moms and dads against their little boys.

I used some boyish looking material for the outside, and the softest fleece I could find for the inside!

I started by cutting out my fabric to the template of a bowl from our kitchen. Just use anything you can find with ~6" diameter. Then, cut the circle in half to form a half circle :)

Sew around the curve, right sides together, of course!

Then, iron out the curve.

Finally, sew a single line connecting the two sides to form a teepee shape. I did a second zig zag stitch just to secure it, but you don't have to.

Sewing projects do not get easier than this, and it is a fun thing to give away at baby showers!

Plain Truth

I am VERY excited. I went to Costco to refill my ink cartridges for literally half the price my local copy shop wanted to charge. They told me I could come back tomorrow, or just wait 20 minutes. So, of course, I looked around Costco. I could entertain myself there for a lot longer than 20 minutes :)

And I came home with a new book:

I sat next to this Aussie girl on a sleeper bus in Vietnam. We chatted while Scott slept. She was on her ninth Jodi Picoult novel. I have been pretty intrigued ever since. This is a story about Amish politics and culture. Inside the front cover, Jodi gives all sorts of awknowledgments to people she interviewed before writing the story. I like an author who does their research! And, I am HOOKED after the first chapter.

Facelift

The blog has undergone some changes over the past few days.

Did you notice?

Do you like it?

You should have seen how many options I had floating around for the new title.

Every time I asked Scott what he thought, he would just say, "That sounds great Babe" or "That's really a good idea..." But I never agreed.

I tried to think of something that really encompassed what I believe, who I am, who we (me and Scott) are, how I spend my time, why I blog, and what I want my readers to remember. So for now, "Create, Conserve and Celebrate every day" is fitting :)

I really love the "Pages" at the top because it keeps the blog organized and de-cluttered!

Anyway, I hope you like the facelift, I think it looks a bit fresher and perhaps a bit SPRINGier :)

But don't get too attached, I may do it all over again this weekend. You never know.

Vaughn is Coming!!!

Saturday, we had a shower honoring mom-to-be:

Korine Dellenbach!

We had lots of delicious food:

Friends:

Presents:

and LOTS of fun! It was so fun to get together with just girls for a few hours and talk baby! I think Vaughn will come this week, even though he isn't due until April- can't wait to meet him!

Visit from a Leprechaun!

Our St. Paddy's day was a pretty big success. We had fun and embraced GREEN.

On Thursday morning, we woke up to GREEN milk, and Scott's favorite, doughnuts with sprinkles. Green, of course.

I hear a Leprechaun even left a balloon and bag of gold coins addressed to "Scott O'Hathaway" at work. What a SNEAKY little thing :)

AND, the traditional corned beef and cabbage. Scott said it was the best he's ever tasted, but I know I can do better. I can hardly wait to try again next year. Doing the cabbage on the stove with just butter, salt and pepper worked out really well. Like, I actually LIKED it. And who actually likes cabbage? I always just ate it for tradition, so I'm glad it's actually good now!

And then, our disposal exploded. Too many carrot peels. Scott took the pipe off and it sprayed carrot + many other gross things. He was shouting for help, "TOWEL! BUCKET! IT'S ON ME!!! AHHHH!!!!" And then I showed up with the camera :) Scott says he's never, ever seen anyone get a camera so darn fast. That was one of my proudest moments. Good picture eh?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you didn't celebrate this year, don't worry, only 362 days until we can do it all over again!

Tahp O' Dee Mahrnin Too Ye!

(Hint: Read aloud for understanding, or you can skip to the bottom for a translation...)

Tahp o dee mahrnin too ye! Meesulf's neem is Finn, ahnd mee coozin, Stefanie, 'az been koynd enoof tuh leet me bee deh geest wroyter fahr toodee. Woy? Beecahz seenz hahw meesulf's uh lepprkahn eend toodee's mee feevoorit hahleedee, shee tawt eet'd bee uh noyss treet tuh heer frahm uh geenyooin Oyrush lepperkahn! Oy hahmblee ahgree.

Beefahr wee goo eeny fahrthur, teek uh goowd loowk aht yersuhlf. Ahr ye spartin dee Uffishal Calar o dee Ehmrahld Oyl? Shamruck Green? Eff'n yer nawt, ye better gahw uhnd foynd sumptin kweek! Udderwoyse, yuh'll bee giddin peenched awl dee lung! Peench, peench, peench. Awl duh dee lung. Andehrs nuddin dat breengs ahs moor pleejure dan peenchin dee kewt tooshiz o dee lahds en lahsseez hoo fargoht tuh weer green. So eef yer nawt weerin green, gow und geet some uhrellz dee neeks toym ye see meeself'll be royt ahftar ye feel meeself peenchin yersahlf ahn dee toosh. Translation:

Top of the morning to you! My name is Finn, and my cousin, Stefanie, has been kind enough to let me be the guest writer for today. Why? Because seeing as how I'm a leprechaun and today's my favorite holiday, she though it'd be a nice treat to hear from a genuine Irish leprechaun! I humbly agree. Before we go any further, take a good look at yourself. Are you wearing the official color of the Emerald Isle? Shamrock Green? If you're not, you better go and find something quick! Otherwise, you'll be getting pinched all day long! Pinch, pinch, pinch. All the day long. And there's nothing that brings us more pleasure than pinching the cute tushes of the lads and lassies who forgot to wear green. So if you're not wearing green, go and get some or else the next time you see me will be right after you feel me pinching you in the tush.

Hope you're eating corned beef and cabbage for dinner!

Canyonlands

SOAKING in the rays. Love it.

And then it happened. It had been several hours since my last hot compress. So I insisted that we stop for a break to get the goup out of my eyes. While I was in the bathroom, Scott was re-packing the back of the car. ( I guess it's a guy thing... boys LOVE to pack and re-pack...) So anyway, when i came out of the bathroom, I threw my towel in the back and Scott shut the hatch. Keys locked inside. And that was it. That was the beginning of our 3 hour wait.

AAA failed us.

Without phones, cards, or any snacks, we waited in the desert for what felt like eternity, not knowing if/when anyone was coming. AAA was super elusive and non-committal. Scott had to get a little nasty. Finally the guy in the yellow truck came, but he couldn't get it open. Then his buddy came. Tried, and failed.

AAA told us the next nearest locksmith was in Richfield, 1.5 hours away. It was getting dark and cold, and the shop where we parked was closing. They gave us 1 final call before they closed for the night at 5pm. We called a non-AAA guy in Moab (for the 1,00th time!) who FINALLY answered! So 45 min. later he rolled in, and popped that sucker open in less than 2 minutes. The first 2 guys admitted that they have some practicing to do. Can you imagine if Gary (the lock whiz) hadn't answered his phone. We'd a been camping without a tent! And this is why it is called Canyonlands:
All in all, a GREAT weekend away!