Operation: Flat Tummy

For the most part, I am totally content with my body shape, but there are just a few little nit-picky things that I am very dissatisfied with these days.

Problem: My stomach and lack of a waist, my non-existent calves and my arms. Ok, that just sounded like a lot. I swear I don't obsess over my body on a daily basis though. The weight that appears on the scale means nothing to me. It's how my clothes fit and how I look when I am checkin me out in a mirror :)

Solution: Sugar? No more. Breads? Little amounts. Late night snacking? No more. Adequate sleep? Gonna start gettin that. Exercise? Oh yeah. Like, kick my butt exercise. P90-X. Ever heard of it? You'll hate it. And love it when you start seeing the results. Seriously.

So, there we go. Here's to healthier, happier, more fit, me. I'm so excited about this! Can't wait for my new body to emerge!


Just a side note: I love my body. I am grateful for the health I have been given and for the ability to work out and be fit and active. I just want to show Heavenly Father how grateful I am by making my body the best it can be. Do I feel like it's pretty good right now? Oh yeah. But, who doesn't want to improve? Honestly. Oh, and I want to make my husbands jaw drop too. :) Who doesn't want to do that?? :)

I've Got a Fever and the Only Cure Is. . .

A CLEAN HOUSE!

I was looking at this lovely lady's blog, and I decided it was about time I remember my own home. I have sorely neglected it the last couple of days, and it shows. Today was the perfect day to do it too. The sun was shining brightly outside and the weather was unseasonably warm, so I was able to open all the windows in the house and air out this stuffy place! (Oh, and by unseasonably warm, I mean 39 degrees. Yeah. I know. It's sad that 39 degrees is considered warm here.) The following pictures are my before and after shots. WARNING: Disturbing images ahead. Only those of you with strong constitutions should dare look.

Our poor, poor bedroom. Bed unmade, clothes on the floor. . . ugh. Horrible.

Oh-so-much better! Bed made, carpet vacuumed, window sills and night table dusted. Beautiful!

Laundry, that I am embarrassed to say, has needed washing, drying, folding, ironing and hanging up since Sunday. Sheesh!

Empty Laundry baskets. All clothes washed, dried, folded, ironed and put neatly on the shelves in the closet.

This was the worst area of the house. The front room. Junk everywhere.

Junk taken to the trash, guitars neatly stowed and couch cleaned off!

Like I said, the front room was a disaster!!

Now, all the thank you's (oh yeah, still pluggin away on those babies) are neatly organized, junk picked up off the floor and put in its rightful places.

Shoes, shoes, shoes! Too many shoes!

Still too many, but at least their neatly lined up, right? :)

Oh my kitchen. Dishes from Breakfast, bread still on the cooling racks from last night, crumbs galore and dirty stove top!

Now everything is neatly stowed away on the kitchen counter. . .

. . .The crumbs have been removed, stove top cleaned.

Yep. Griddle from the whole wheat pancakes this morning, bread pans from baking bread last night, and other wonderful dishes piled up in the sink.

Griddle put away, dishes done and loaded into the dishwasher!

Lesson Learned Today? Pretty much, what it all comes down to is, I will never let my home get so disheveled again! (Until I have kids. Then it will be a daily occurrence. :))

I'm. In. Heaven.

Those were the words that entered my mind as I walked into this place. They had everything imaginable to make a house a home. And a very cute home at that. I think I may have been drooling as I looked at price tags as well. I bought these next five items for $19.40. Yes. You read right. $19.40!!! Seriously folks. If you haven't been to a real deals ever in your life, then find the nearest one and get there as quick as you can. You might just fall in love. The ideal place for a poor college student who wants a cute house. Or anyone who wants cute things for cheap. :)

Eggs- $3.15

Home Sign- $6.99

Vase- $4.02
Berries- $2.14

Star- $1.99

Like I said. A. Ma. Zing.


So, remember when we first moved in and this is what our shelves looked like?

The picture was not going to have a permanent home there. So, we finally took it to get framed and replaced the vacant spot with the lovely ducks from Korea.

Needless to say, we love the ducks, but they didn't go with our decor so much. . .


So now, we finally have our winner, thanks to Real Deals! Whaddaya think??

Personally? I love it. And the fact that it cost me less than $10 for those three items makes it even better.


Oh, and our picture that we took to get framed? Here it is. We love it too. :)

(A little close-up of the frame so you can get the full effect :))

Needless to say, today has been a great day.

I don't normally do two posts in one day. . .

But I saw this on this girl's blog and decided I wanted to take a crack at it :)


1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
We don't have cable, but if we did, it would probably be C-Span, CNBC, MSNBC, or any other news station. He's all about being in the know these days about politics.

2. You're out to eat/what kind of dressing on his salad?
Bleu Cheese

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
Does sugar count as a food? :) umm. . . he pretty much likes everything.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order?
Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi (with a lime in it of course)

5. Where did he go to high school?
Ellensburg High School

6. What size shoe does he wear?
Shoot. . . 9 1/2 or 10. . . I think.

7. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Chicken Bacon Ranch from Subway. Yup, we love $5 footlongs! :)

8. What would this person eat every day if he could?
Wingers. Seriously, he could live off wings if he wanted.

9. What is his favorite cereal?
He really likes granola. He also likes Honey Bunches of Oats too.

10. What would he never wear?
Skinny jeans. He mocks anyone who does wear them. It's bad. . . :)

11. What is his favorite sports team?
He doesn't follow sports. He'd rather watch the news. I know. He's married to a Henry and he doesn't like sports. It's almost a crime.

12. Who did he vote for?
I don't think he was registered to vote. But, if he was, he would have voted for McCain/Palin

13. Who is his best friend?
Umm, ME, duh! :) Allen Liebing and Brock Leonardson are probably who he considers his best friends (besides me :))

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
I always slurp water off my toothbrush instead of just leaning my head under the faucet to take a drink of water after brushing my teeth and I think it drives him nuts. That and picking at his back. I can't help it though!

15. What is his heritage?
I'm not sure.

16.U bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?
He doesn't really like cake. If anything it would be an ice cream cake from DQ or ColdStone or a Strawberry Shortcake.

17. Did he play sports in high school?
I don't think he played any. He was in orchestra though.

18. What could he spend hours doing?
Researching all things that will make him more politically savvy.

19. What is one talent he has?
He's got a LOT of talent. He is an AMAZING singer, he plays violin, piano and the guitar. He totally kicks my butt in the music department :)

20. What is his favorite ice cream?
He loves fruity ice cream, so I would go with strawberry/banana rendevous or the cheescake fantasy.

21. Will he read this?
Mmm. . . he might. I'll probably read it to him to see how I did. I think I got 99% :)

Dreaming. . .

Of these two lovely items. . .

I really need to curb my obsession with clothes. . .

I Have the BEST Husband. . . Ever. . .

This weekend, we headed to Yellowstone for the annual Calaway snowmobiling trip. I was feeling alright when we got there, just a bit of a tickle in my throat, but noting to write home about. I was excited to be sledding all weekend, and then I woke up on Thursday morning. With a bad sore throat. And a voice that sounded alarmingly like a man. I decided to sit out for Thursday's adventures, figuring I would feel better Friday. Nope. Wrong-o! I felt WORSE on Friday. Go figure. By the afternoon though, I was feeling a lot better and decided I wanted to go out once the boys came in for their lunch break. But, that didn't happen. They stayed on the Mountain to eat and gas up there. So, I figured Saturday would be my day. Oh. My. Word. Can we say worst cold to ever happen in the history of my life?! Everything that had just been in my throat had moved in a North/South direction. I now had the worst sinus pressure of my life, causing a less than desirable headache to grace me with it's presence and a cough that rivaled a chain smokers. Yeah. Amazing. So, there I sat at the hotel. Thank goodness for Valerie and Janelle, otherwise I would have lost my sanity. Them and my NyQuil/Robitussen mixture made for a much better vacation. So, now I come to my point. About my amazing husband. He told me because I suffered through the weekend being sick in a hotel, today, it was all about me. He said he got his fun in Yellowstone, so now it was all about me. And I must say, I took advantage of this. We went to Craigo's for lunch (the BEST pizza you will ever taste. Seriously.) Then we (by we I mean I) was craving Jamba Juice. So, he treated us to some seriously good Jamba's. And then I dragged him to this movie. Yeah, I know. Mean. I owe him big time. But it didn't end there! We then went to one of our favorite restaraunts, Applebees, for dinner. Everything was my choice today. He spoiled me. Big time. And I owe him. Big time. So, although Valentines Day was on Saturday, he TOTALLY made up for it today. And that is why I have the BEST husband. Ever. i love you.

Kinda Venting Here. . .

You know what frustrates me beyond all get out? Dumb kids with too much money. i.e. Michael Phelps, Alex Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown etc. These dumb celebrities who are supposed "role models" to the nations children who constantly mess up. And not just minor mishaps, but things like pornographic photos, smoking marijuana, taking steroids, beating their girlfriends, just to name a few. Why do people constantly look at these "kids" and think they're so wonderful? Companies beg them to make an appearance on a commercial for them or have a photo shoot with them. And then, they realize their mistake when this kid, with too much money, messes up and has an embarassing public mishap, and they have to retract their sponsorship. It just makes me so mad and sad to see that. And then I have a shining glimmer of hope. Amazing children, who have beat all odds, and do amazing feats. This last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Dallin and I went to Boise. Dallin had a field trip for a trade and policy class and went to the State Capital building to witness how the process of passing a bill worked. Me, being the wimpy wife, didn't want to be home alone for 3 days, so I tagged along. We called up Dallin's aunt and uncle, Corey and Michelle Kent, and they opened their home to us for our time in Boise. They told us it might be a little crowded though, because they were hosting an athlete and a delegate from the Netherlands for the Winter Special Olympics! We were so excited! I had no idea, going into this though, how much exposure I would get to these amazing athletes. These are the true heros of our day. These children with disablities who learn another language, that's right, I said LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE! I have trouble learning another language and I don't have any disablities whatsoever. But not only that, they hold jobs, speed skate, ski, power lift, ride horses, play the Wii, etc. I was in constant awe and amazement as I saw these wonderful people overcoming their disablity and performing these great feats that even I can't do. It was a very emotional experience for me. When I see accomplishment like that, I want to shout it from the roof tops and let everyone know how truly amazing these individuals are. So, there you have it. My vent for the day. The true role models that we and our children should look too. People like Gerben (pronounced: hair-ben with the sound like you're about to hock a lougie :)) and Rick and Natasha and Sarah. These beautiful young men and women from the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, China, Belarus, Iran, Taipei, Hungary, Italy, America, etc. These young men and women who we could stand to learn MANY lessons from. These should be our real role models.

Chinese Taipei Athletes meeting with their coaches before skating a few laps!

Outside of Ice World, in Boise, with all the Special Olympic paraphanelia

Gerben (blue coat and red, white and blue scarf) signing autographs at Corey and Michelle's kids charter school. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He was so excited to do it and the kids thought they were on cloud 9. He was signing papers, arms and shoes. :)

Waiting for the Olympic Torch to be run into it's last destination before the Opening Ceremonies, Eagle High School.

All the Netherlands athletes lining up for the torch to be run through. (They're all in Orange)

Sweden's Floor Hockey Team. They started singing, what I assume, is their National Anthem, and as soon as the Netherlands athletes heard it, they battled. :) They were not to be outdone. They proudly (and loudly) sang their National Anthem. It was really neat.

The Olympic Torch

The Athletes at Eagle High made a tunnel for the Torch and all the Olympic athletes to run through at the end of the assembly.

The HUGE semi truck that followed behind the torch runners.

Me and one of the delegates from the Netherlands. He told me to show this to Dallin and make him jealous. :) If you look closely, you can see some red, white and blue stripes on my cheeks. That's the national Flag for the Netherlands. We all had those painted onto our cheeks to show our support. :)

This is just a video of the speed skaters practicing.




And this is the Olympic Torch being run in to Eagle High. Sorry about all the screaming, it was kind of loud :)