Panda...yummmmm

OK, so i have been SO CRAVING Panda Express. It's a Chinese fast food place i went to all the time in CA. The nearest ones are in Boise (5 hrs approx) or in Utah (3-4 hrs approx). So i emailed Panda telling them to build one in Rexburg or Idaho Falls. I'll see if they respond. LOL.

http://www.pandaexpress.com/

new treats

We had a game night Friday & Saturday. We could have had a third on Sunday, but we decided to stay home. My dessert on Friday was "Cherry Dump Cake" and it was a HUGE hit. Then Saturday i was looking through a magazine and found some cookies that looked really good. Well i noticed i had everything to make them. So i made them for our get together for Saturday night. They were really good. So i thought i'd share them with everyone. I hope the picture opens up big enough for you to see the recipe. Let me know if it doesn't.

Game Night

Tonight is a monthly game night with our new group of friends (people we met through the Larsen's). Every month it changes houses. I'd be interested when it's our time to host. How are we all going to fit?! I am leaving a bit early from work today, because i need to go make a dessert for tonight. Have a great weekend! See you all Monday!

Moving East

My brother-in-law Steve is in the Marine's. He got his new assignment and they are moving out to North Carolina this summer! They are happy about the move. Natalie loves the East Coast. But with this move means another deployment for Steve. He will be heading back out to Iraq late summer/early fall. I am happy I get to see them before they move. And meet my new little nephew Dallin for the first time come this April, even though he will be almost one. My family is coming up for my Aunt & Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party in April. yeah!

Busy Night

Last night was pretty busy for us. I ran to the library and checked out a book before picking Kevin up from work. He has changed his work hours now that we are carpooling. So i get there at 5:25 to give him a 5 min "warning". But alas we didn't leave until 5:50. Then it was run home change into our gym clothes, go to the gym, work out (which i was less then motivated), come home, make dinner, take showers, get dressed, go grocery shopping (Walmart & Broulim's), come home put it all away, seperate the hamburger, put that away. We watched the opening of Jay Leno and i stayed up to watch Jamie Pressly (from "My Name Is Earl") and then went to bed. Kevin was in bed reading already. I feel right to sleep when i got into bed. Kevin was nice and warm so i stuck my cold feet on him and he was not to happy about that. LOL. But hey he does it to me. :-) Is it the weekend yet??? I'm tired. LOL.

too personal?

So my sister called me yesterday and mentioned that i am "too personal" on my blog. I've been racking my brain and reading over things to see how i am too personal. But i guess there is a need to be more careful, you never know who reads these things and what they are capible of doing with information. I think i've watched too many "CSI" type shows. Since there are a billion of those on a week and on the only channel we get clearly.

She also mentioned some other friends sites that were more "generic" and "not too personal". Well mine would probably be that way too if i had kids to post pics of and tell stories about, etc... but as of now it's just Kevin & I so that's what i have to talk about.

24 hrs in Island Park

*HUGE NOVEL AHEAD*

So saturday we decided to call Tina & Jared to see if they wanted to come over for dinner & games. So i left them a message. When they called back they said they were actually in Island Park for the weekend at a friends cabin and invited us up there. Kevin had to work today (Monday) and so we didn't know if we should head up. But i told them that if i could find a sub for our primary class we'd come up. Well after seven calls i found a sub. We got up just after they had finished dinner, but they let us eat leftovers. We only knew Tina & Jared and not the other couples/families up there. They were all SO NICE and made us feel so comfortable. It was the family cabin of Jeff & Andrea. They have a little girl Alexia. Then there was also Aaron & Tiffany with their young boys Porter and Ethan. They too were so nice. Kevin & I both said on our drive home yesterday that they everyone was so nice and made us feel part of the group. Neither of us felt like "the outsiders". They all knew eachother from Dance on campus (BYU-Idaho).

Well Saturday night Jeff got out this puzzle that was harder then hard. They stayed up till 1:30am, and it wasn't even (well maybe) half way done. Then once you get it together than you have to find the answer to some story in the actual puzzle. Well Sunday morning they start working on it. When we left at about 6pm Sunday ngiht, the puzzle wasn't even finished, i hope they got it done today.

Kevin went snowmobile riding with Jared right after breakfast. Then Kevin took me when they got back. We FINALLY got to use our new snowboots and pants. They were FANTASTIC!!! Kept us so warm and comfy. In about 20 years when we can afford it, we will TOTALLY buy some snow machine's. It was Awesome!

Well Kevin took me where him and Jared went early, but we decided to turn around in another riders path in the snow. Well to say the least we both got stuck. We got mine unstuck, then i got it re-stuck while trying to get back out to the path facing the right direction. We unstuck it again and then mine was fine. Kevin's on the other hand was WAY stuck! I think it took us about 45-60 mins to get his out. Those things are HEAVY machines, especially since we were sinking into snow up to our waists! And Kevin has long legs so you know it's deep snow. LOL. Finally after about 2 hours we were back at the cabin and telling our adventure to the others. All in all it was a GREAT time and we'd loved it. Thanks Tina, Jared, Jeff, Andrea, Tiffany & Aaron for a very memorable weekend. You guys are great!

Check out some pictures below...

Island Park 2/18/07

Porter ready to go play in the snow.
Alexia smiling her big beautiful smile.
Tina, Kevin & Jeff at the puzzle table.
Tina, Kevin, Jared, Jeff & Andrea at the puzzle table.
Porter, Tiffany & Aaron doing some family bonding out in the snow.

Tina preparing the nights dessert...cheesecake. yummmm.
Me in my new snow boots and pants. boy do i look fat...but i promise that pants are really puffy.
Me doing a drive by around Kevin so he can get a pic of me.

Island Park 2/18/07

Kevin ready for take off.
Off they go!
The outside of the cabin & the snow.

Island Park 2/18/07

Kevin coming out of the cabin walking towards the snow machines in his new snow pants & boots.
Jared getting on his helmet to go riding.
The boys by the snowmachines.

Long Weekend Ahead

So no big plans for the weekend. Though i do want to do ALOT of cleaning. I was noticing the "fur" growing on the ceiling fan blades and that the window blinds could use a good cleaning/dusting. So those are my plans. LOL. fun fun. 3-day weekend of cleaning. Maybe we'll try to hit a movie or something along the way. Oh yes, we NEED to wash the car i got plastered with bird pooh yesterday. nasty!

TGIF!
* see you Tuesday

Happy "Hallmark" Day

That's what one of our student workers said. It's a day for Hallmark to make LOADS of money with everyone buying cards. So we decided we weren't going to buy ANYTHING this Valentine's day. We hand-made our cards for eachother. That always seems to mean more.

Last night Kevin was feeling TERRIBLE. He is fighting a cold and he was just wiped out! So he went to bed around 8pm and Taryn & I made sugar cookies. They turned out GREAT!!! But we have a ton of cookies. It was a 3 hour process of making the dough, rolling it out, cutting out the hearts, cooking them and frosting them. Most of the time was frosting. It was alot of fun. We watched movies while doing it.

Kevin stayed home today from work. Hopefully he will be feeling better by the time i get home tonight. Just gonna watch a movie probably and cuddle in the beanbag...since we don't own a couch. LOL.

* Eliza -- we put in all our info into the program Quicken. It tells us where we spend our money. And we make the decision of "how much are we willing to not spend or spend" in a certain category. Then we just track our progress and see what we need to "fix". That's how we are doing it. But i'm sure there are better ways. LOL.

Budget Meeting

So last night Kevin & I sat down to look at our finances. Not a fun meeting. We use Quicken and it's really cool because you can see all these graphs, charts, lists, etc... of all your spending and income. Kind of depressing at the same time. So we have set a "budget" and we are going to be really strict and write everything down into their categories in a spreadsheet and see how it all goes. Hopefully this will help us alot to see where the money is going and what we need to adjust. So starting today the budget begins. Wish us luck!

Our Weekend

Well, since the computer was back, "we" did alot on it Saturday...after running to Idaho Falls to get some printer ink, stop at Barnes & Noble, and then a trip to Super Walmart.

I did stuff with our address book, so i could print some labels. Kevin messed with iTunes and backed up all our files and such. So now IF something were to happen we have a more up to date version of our files saved. We need to do that more regularly.

I did finish Sarah's baby gift and another blanket (rag quilt) that had been sitting in my "craft basket" for almost a year. LOL. It's nice knowing its finally done. Too bad i have another waiting to be sewn. Sewing it's fine, it's the cutting the edges that suck!

Oh while on the computer i looked through my files and deleted a few things out, but i also found some things. Like our 2005 New Year Resolutions...well they still apply today! So i printed them off again. We are going to sit down tonight and make up a real budget. Yes we've been married 6.5 years and never had a real budget. That should be fun. NOT! But it's really needed.

Oh yes, looks like we are going to be down to ONE car now. Kevin's car (my old car before i started driving his - which my old car is the 1987 honda i grew up in) decided to finally crap out friday night on his drive home. Luckily he was already in our parking lot. We could have NEVER done this in CA, but it's do-able here in ID, but it's going to take some adjusting. Kevin's gonna need to ask his boss to change his work hours. Right now he is 9-6 and i'm 8-5. So hopefully that won't be too much of a battle. Summer will be fine to move his hours back since Kevin rides his bike anyway. So really it's like he needs "Winter" and "Summer" hours.

Oh yes, we woke up and it was snowing this morning. Still continuing to snow. I bet we got about 2-3 inches in 1.5 hours. What happened to our Spring like weather??

Well that was our weekend in a nutshell. Now for another busy week of work and working out.

HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!

Computer Update (again)

Well, we got the computer back already! Kevin & I went and picked it up this morning at the bookstore and took it to the studio. Kevin plugged it in and it works! So glad that we were able to get it fixed and so quickly!

Well it's almost time for the weekend and i am counting down. No big plans, but it will be nice to have a day or two to stay home.

Computer Update

Ok, so Kevin just called. It is only the power source. YEAH! Which means we won't loose anything and it will be fairly "cheap" to fix it ($130). They have to order the part, but they usually have them in stock, so we should have the computer back in 4-7 days...most likely 4-5 days. I don't know what Kevin will do not having the computer over the weekend. Oh well. Maybe we will go use our snow gear! It's beautiful now, but i think we are supposed to get more snow this weekend.

First work trip

So i've never made a trip for work to any sort of "convention". BUT that will soon change. I will spend my birthday (4/30) in DENVER, CO. I've never been, so i'm really excited. Kathy & I will head out on 4/29 and return on 5/1. Sad to leave Kevin behind, but just think of all the art stuff he could get done while i'm gone. I like to bug him alot while he is working. I don't know why but i do. So Eliza Jane we will be in touch, hopefully we could have dinner together one night. : )

* Kevin's computer is currently at the Apple shop on campus. We should know something by noon today. Please pray that it's an easy (cheap) fix and that we won't loose any data on it.

window down

It was SO beautiful this afternoon that i didn't need my jacket and i had the window rolled down in the car while running an errand. I bet we hit about 42 today. FANTASIC!!!

sad sunday

Well Sunday our computer (at home - kevin's mac) decided it didn't want to work anymore. Sunday kevin tried to start it up, and nothing. We are hoping it's just the power button on it has worn out. We hope we don't loose everything on it. We haven't backed up stuff for a couple of months. There is a place on campus that fixes apple computers. So we are going to call and see if they can take a look at it. I joked with Kevin that this is his way of getting an upgrade. Seeing how the computer is about 5 years old. But alas we can't afford an upgrade. So hopefully it will be an easy fix.

Colonel Sanders Products

So, Kevin & I have an Owl. His name is Colonel Sanders. We found him when we lived in CA. He was a decoy Owl on top of our apartment building. Well one day when i was coming home from work i was walking up to the building and saw something on the ground. I went to see what it was and found a decoy owl that had falling off our building (4 stories down into the Parking lot). Well the body was severly damaged but the head was great except for a small crack near his ear. I picked up the head and brought it up stairs to joke with Kevin about it. We decided to keep it and Kevin named him. We joked about taking him places and taking pictures of him. Well, we've done just that. He now travels everywhere with us. He has even been on a cruise to Mexico. He even has his own website. Well, Kevin found this company on line where you can create products with your own design's on them. So we have created some products with Colonel Sanders on them. This weekend Kevin even uploaded a new design. So check it out.

http://www.cafepress.com/colonelsanders

http://www.kevindbrown.com/theowl.html

Crazy

Work has been crazy this week. I've had meetings everyday and there is just "stuff" to get done. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, i only have one meeting, but it's not on campus, so i can get away with wearing pants. The joys of working for the Church, you have to dress up and wear "appropriate hoseiry". Yeah, it's freaking cold outside, i'm wearing tights!

Today is an All Employee Meeting i get to help out. Joy of joys! I will be a microphone carrier. During the question/answer/comment/etc... time i will be walking around section 4 giving the mic to people. fun fun. I just hope i don't screw up! lol. All i need is for President Clark to think i can't handle something as easy as handing a mic to people. LOL.

Kevin & I have been doing good at working out. It's a little frustrating that we'd be on the same settings on the machines and he burns more calorie's than me. But i guess if you weigh more you burn more. It's been really fun going together. He is enjoying it too, i think mostly because the TV channel's are clear and he can watch ESPN. LOL. I can tell a difference in my energy level since we've been going. It's great.

Any whos. That's what is happening here. I better get some more stuff done before i head to lunch and then the meeting.

OH! if anyone remembers me mentioning i wanted to clean my desk. IT LOOKS GREAT! :)