Monday, March 31, 2008

April Fools!

So today I learned that God celebrates April Fools Day. Yesterday was the most beautiful day, warm, sunny, birds were out! As I mentioned in last night's post, we went on a walk, outside. Calder even wore shorts. Between today and tomorrow morning there is a possibility of 8 inches of snow! I heard on the radio this morning that other than yesterday, there has been only one other day where the temperature rose above 50 degrees since two weeks before Thanksgiving. I find it a little ironic that I was teased with spring the day before one of the biggest snow storms in awhile, which happens to fall on the day before April Fools Day. I was fooled.

So now I'm at work, I'm closing the blinds in my office so I don't have to look at it, and I'm going to pretend that it's still sunny and spring out there.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

A Week in Review

Well, Calder made it home from Honduras, and as shown by my lack of blog updates, we have stayed pretty busy this week. I met him at the airport around midnight on Easter night. I showed up a while before he was supposed to come in, and was so excited I couldn't sit still. I've loved having him back home.

We didn't get to bed until around 3 since I attempted to make him tell me everything about his vacation that very night!
He had such a great time! After the week of scuba diving, all the wanted to talk about was the last day when he had the opportunity to visit with some friends from his mission. Unfortunately, he got to them a lot later than he had originally planned, so his time was cut shorter than he hoped. He stayed with the Duran family. I haven't taught him the importance of taking pictures yet, so I don't have any from his time with the Durans. I did go through some mission pictures to find one.


I couldn't find any with just him and the family. The lady in the center with the brown shirt is Sister Duran, her two daughters are the girl right in front of her with the button up shirt and the girl in the pink shirt with her hand on her hip. Her son is the cute kid in the front. Also, Calder is the goofy missionary on the left. He loved the time he spent with them in Honduras and it meant a lot for him to go back to visit. I can't wait to someday visit Honduras and meet some of the people who helped turn Calder into the man I married. So many people had such a great influence on him, and I love to hear him talk about mission friends and families.


Just for fun, here are some other pictures that I came across, I thought they were funny!





What a great guy!
He's been busy playing catch-up with school for most of the week, but we were able to have some fun this weekend.
Friday we went to see the Kite Runner at the dollar theater. It was an ok movie, but I didn't feel like it did a good job of capturing the emotions of everyone. It does a good job of telling the story from the book, but I was disappointed.
I've been wanting good Indian food since we moved to Minnesota and haven't found a great place yet. Saturday we tried another Indian restaurant in one of the southern suburbs. After a delicious (but still not matching Bombay House in Provo) we went to the Mall of America. I don't ever go there when I want to get actually shopping done, since it's a little overwhelming, but it is really fun to just walk around. Were were there for about an hour and half before it closed and only saw a tiny portion of it. Most of the time was spent in Express where we bought Calder some great dress shirts for $20. I'm going to go back tomorrow and pick up some more for him. They had some solid color bright shirts that I love.
I also made Calder decorate Easter eggs on Saturday. It was a lot of fun for me, and Calder was very patient and tolerant. Now I have a ton of boiled eggs to eat - delicious!
Today my class was in charge of sharing time in primary. I found a great idea online for teaching the kids about putting on the Armor of God, and decided to go for it. I divided the kids into 6 groups, assigning each group one of the pieces of armor to make and put on the youngest group member. My class (The 8-12 year old girls) helped out the groups. It was so cute! I think it went really well and was definitely a lot of fun.
After church we went on a walk! Normally that wouldn't be so exciting, but considering it's the first time I've spent time outside for pleasure was in November, it was a glorious occasion. Apparently I was dressed for the occasion, because at one point Calder told me that I looked like spring vomited to make my outfit. I do get a little carried away sometimes :) It was so nice to spend time outside and spend time with Calder.
More Hounduras pictures coming soon as soon as we get the CD in the mail with Calder's dad's pictures.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Food We Keep...

Everyone does it. We go to the grocery store, something looks really good, so we buy it. Weeks later it is still sitting in the refrigerator untouched. I cleaned out the refrigerator last night and thought I'd share some of the uneaten food I found.
These are some of Calder's purchases. The huge jar of kraut was actually purchased when we first moved here, and I don't think it's even been opened. I distinctly remember when we were shopping for groceries to fill the fridge Calder put it in the buggy and said, "mmm, KRAUT!" He obviously didn't want it as much as he thought. The Artichoke and Jalapeno dip is also completely his, I don't care much for artichoke. I am partly to blame for this not being eaten, since whenever he does have some, I can smell artichoke on his breath until two days later. My imagination? Maybe. But it's really enough to me that I complain enough to probably make it not worth eating. It still has a day or two after Calder gets home before its expiration, so I'll save it for him and let him have one more day to enjoy it. The kraut, also having some time before its expiration, was returned to the refrigerator to sit longer, uneaten, until the date is past.


My weakness is usually produce. Once I buy it and stick it in the produce drawer on the bottom of the fridge, I just completely forget its there. I'll also buy a whole bag of carrots if I need one, and never use the rest. This tomato is actually still fresh, but I am particularly bad about forgetting about tomatoes. I throw them away almost weekly, but I keep buying them because I do love tomatoes. The cauliflower is also still fine, but I've had it for awhile and don't really want it anymore. The celery is definitely past its prime and was thrown our after this picture was taken.



I also did a freezer clean-out. During the winter, we were able to use our balcony as a second freezer and just throw the overflow out there. Now that it's starting to warm up, that doesn't work anymore so it's all back inside. I'm so used to buying food like I have a place to put it, even though I don't. I discovered Smart Ones frozen meals last week as well (DELICIOUS) and stocked up on those. Here's a before and after.

I don't know if I actually accomplished much - organizational speaking, but at least I now know what's hiding in the back. I put the dessert in the back because I figured I'm a lot less likely to forget about that!


Friday, March 21, 2008

I had a nice long post written out, but I accidently erased it all. Don't worry, I'll redo it later :)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

5 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO
1. I fractured my thumb playing kickball in my front yard.
2. My best friends were Marca and Heather, and we loved Winnie the Pooh
3. I loved making boondoggle keychains.
4. I played softball (right field, actually)
5. Started making B’s for the first time in my life


5 THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST
1. Fold laundry
2. Clean bedroom
3. Make Calder an Easter Basket for when he gets home
4. Work on my Physics class
5. Have Fun!


5 SNACKS I ENJOY
1. Fruit
2. Chips & Salsa
3. Sour Patch Kids
4. Yogurt
5. Cheesecake


5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED
1. St. Louis Park, MN
2. Sulphur, LA
3. Provo, UT
4. Ruston, LA
5. Hot Springs, AR


5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE
1. Have some babies!
2. Buy a nice, big house. Not a mansion, but a nice place
3. Set up college funds for my kids and set some aside for other kids I know
4. Go to Africa and help people, travel around on humanitarian aide trips
5. Buy a few good restaurants, so I don’t have to worry about paying when I go eat. Such a hassle.

BAD HABITS1. Leaving clean laundry sitting on the couch for days. (This seems to be a common problem)
2. Not taking the meat I need for dinner out of the freezer to defrost
3. Buying fruit and vegetables that I don’t eat
4. Talk to Calder when he’s studying
5. Forgetting to wear warm clothes.5 JOBS I HAVE HAD1. Subway2. UPS Store3. BYU Veg Prep4. Phone Survey Person (1 week – it was terrible)5. Intern at Civil Engineering Firm


5 THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME
1. I hate chese and dislike chicken
2. I love holiday candy. candy corn at halloween, candy canes at Christmas, Sweethearts for Valentines day, Peeps at Easter, etc.
3. I hate calling people, I never say the right thing
4. I'd rather clean my bathroom than bedroom
5. My fourth toe is longer than my middle one

Monday, March 17, 2008

I'm Dreaming Of A White ... Easter?




No, I'm not, but it looks like I might get one anyway! Some combination of an early Easter and an extra long winter could possibly produce snow on Easter.


Sunday, March 16, 2008

Days 1 and 2 Of My Husband-less Week

  • Calder is on spring break this week, so he headed down to Honduras with his dad, brother, and my dad to spend a week on a live aboard dive trip. Unfortunately, there is no spring break in actual jobs (or internships, for that matter) and I don't dive, so I'm staying here. I dropped him off at the airport at 5:00 Saturday and have been on my own ever since.
  • This is what I have done with myself so far.
  • Saturday I slept until 10:30 (after I came home, found my missing debit card, and fell asleep again)
  • Cleaned the part of the house that guests see (didn't touch the bedrooms!)
  • Decided on what to cook for dinner (chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, and Oreo cheesecake)
  • Went to Target for groceries (I LOVE Target, and absolutely despise the regular grocery store here)
  • Cooked dinner/cleaned some more - my cheesecake was a total failure, enchiladas weren't the best ever, rice was delicious
  • Had two friends over for dinner
  • Saw Jane Eyre at the Guthrie Theater. It was my first time to see the Guthrie and it is a really neat building. There is a balcony on the backside that overlooks a really pretty arch bridge. Hopefully I'll make it back out there and take some pictures. The play was great, I absolutely loved it! And I got half price tickets, so that made it even better.

  • This morning I woke up I managed to wake up on time for church. Calder always wakes me up, so I was worried about falling back into my snooze-button addiction.
  • Bribed my primary class with oreos left over from the failed cheesecake. I've started putting the treat on the chalkboard ledge at the beginning of class, so they have to look at it the whole time. It worked well at first, but I think they've figured out that they'd really have to do something serious for me to not give them the treat. I'm way too nice.
  • Watched some TV
  • Played some Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. I haven't played in awhile, so that was kind of fun.
  • Did some work for the physics class I'm taking online from BYU. I'm now to lesson 4 of 24. I've been averaging about 1 lesson every month, so I plan on hitting that hardcore this week.
  • Got on our elliptical machine. I am so out of shape. Halfway through I figured I could play Wii while on the elliptical. It was a little hard since I kept hitting the handles, but it made the workout go a lot faster having something to concentrate on.
  • Ate dinner at the table, which we hardly ever do. We have so little time together at home during the week, we usually combine dinner with TV time. The table was still set from Saturday and it was so cute I couldn't resist.

So in summary, a very productive and fun Saturday, and a relaxing and unproductive Sunday.