Always Use Rubbers While Screwing

It may be snowing outside my window right now, but that doesn't mean Spring isn't around the corner. And what's so great about Spring?


Spring Cleaning!!


[Insert cheers and applause here.]


Now I've started a little early, just trying to get things organized and get rid of all the junk in my house. My latest project was the cupboard under my kitchen sink. It was organized at one point but then too much crap started accumulating until, well, it looked like this:






So, with Boomhower's help, I took everything out so I could scrub that sucker down.





I don't know what I would do without Boomhower, he made sure there were no spiders or any other deadly creepy crawly things under there. He basically risked his life for me. And he should, I'm the one that gives him his ice water every day for hell's sake.





Most of the crap under there are stains from the last 30 years the house has been in existence. I don't even want to know what that white substance is on the wall or how it found it's permanent home frozen mid drip on the cupboard underneath my sink.


All I know is that it wasn't from me....er....I mean Albert.


And don't worry, I practice safe cleaning, I always use rubbers.


Gloves people.


Rubber GLOVES sickos.


So scrubbing it didn't do much for the aesthetics but at least I know it's clean! (Yes, I cleaned it AFTER Boomhower inspected it.)


My ultimate goal is to store my cleaning supplies in the area that they are used. So I moved all the cleaners that I don't use in the kitchen to their new homes and now I have much more space and can actually find what I'm looking for.


Now, for my favorite part. I was walking through the isles of Bed Bath and Beyond when I came across this under-the-sink shelf. We had a moment when we first laid eyes on each other. All the background noise and people faded away and it was only me and shelf sharing some sort of intangible connection. I'm pretty sure I heard harps and I knew we were meant for each other. And shelf knew he was meant for me, he practically jumped in my cart, I had no choice but to bring him home.


He is expandable and the shelves are adjustable so you can custom fit him under your sink. Very cool and I did it all by myself! I used one of those doo-hickies that turns those other metal thingies into the shelf so they stay together.


Yep, I screwed all by myself!


So lets get on with it already and do a before and after.



Before:








After:




You can't really see it in the picture but now there is storage behind the shelf where I store our flower vases (because we never use them) and other things that I don't use very often. I'm thinking of putting the iron back there so I can avoid any more mishaps in the future.


And because I like things to match, I'm going to buy some mesh steel containers to replace those ugly plastic ones I'm currently using. Something like dis:













I know you're all pumped right now to go home and get to screwing so I won't take up any more of your time.


Just remember, always use your rubbers!

Gettin Serious On Your Ass

Do you ever look back to when you were younger and how you imagined what your life would be like at the age you are now?


I just have to laugh when I do that because I was such a different person way back when. I'm still "me", but my beliefs have changed, my priorities have changed, what I want in life has changed, but I do feel like I am a better person now because of these changes.


(My brother and I a long, long time ago)


I was reading my old journal the other day and just laughed at myself. I had written down a few goals that I wanted to accomplish in the summer between my 7th and 8th grade years in school. Here are just a few:


1. To be in a good and happy mood.

2. To walk Sugar (my dog) everyday.

3. To do good in ballet class.


Those were the most important things to me at that time! They just seem so trivial to me now. To be in a good mood? Who makes that goal?


I'm such a dork. (I guess some things never change.)


(My twelth birthday party. Yes, that is you and you and you in this picture. And you too.)


Have you ever sat down and thought what your ultimate goal is in life? The reason why you are living?


For some people it is to be successful, for others it is to have a family and be a parent, and for some people religion plays a big role in their life and they ultimately want to make it into what their belief of heaven is.


So obviously I've been thinking lately what my ultimate goal is in life. What do I need to accomplish in order to feel happy, to feel satisfied, and it has me curious to see what everyone else's goals are.


What's your ultimate goal? Be a mom or dad? Be happy? Successful?

Has it changed throughout your life?

D'oh!

There's nothing like a fresh loaf of bread. Straight out of the oven, glistening with butter, it's enough to make me swoon.


Homemade bread was my first love you know. I used to make bread all the time growing up but sadly, I haven't even attempted it since I've been married. I love baking.


(And not just for the excuse to wear an apron).


I've been thinking about bread a lot lately and the relationship we once had and last Sunday I thought it was about time I rekindle our flame!


I baked bread.


Everything was going well. The apron, the ingredients, the Kitchen Aid.




Oh yeah,

the Kitchen Aid.


I've never made bread with a Kitchen Aid before. I guess it's not made to hold 9 cups of flour.


That became apparent only after the sheet of flour erupted, covering everything within 2 feet of it's premises.







Just a small set back, but this scene is not unfamiliar to me. My husband knows that when I'm baking in the kitchen it's always best to stay out until I'm finished.


It gets messy.


Real messy.


So I ended up kneading the dough by hand and everything was fine.




After the dough raised, and after Al just HAD to punch it down eleven times, it was time to roll it out.





I divided the dough in two, one for a plain loaf and one for my personal favorite, a cinnamon loaf!


You've always got to make at least one cinnamon loaf.


Always.


For the cinnamon goodness, you brush the dough with butter.





And cover it with cinnamon and sugar.


A ton of cinnamon and sugar. The more the better.




Then, you roll it up and throw it in a loaf pan.




Doesn't that look perfect? Wow, I didn't realize I still had it in me but, as you can see, that is one perfect rolled pile of dough!


I was excited, everything was going great. In the oven it went and filled my house with the smell of warm cinnamon and sugar.


Mmmmmm...


And then out of the oven came the most perfect loaf:






Mwwaaahh!






Okay okay, that's not how mine turned out at all.


More like this lumpy pile if crap:




(As you can see, I'm a little rusty at the whole rolling up and pinching shut thing.)





Oh bread. Why must our love be a one way street? I love you so much yet you still find it necessary to embarrass me.


So now I feel the need to redeem myself. I want to make the most perfect loaf of bread ever, but I need the perfect bread recipe. One that is tried and true.


Tried. And. True.


I know you've got the recipe I'm looking for so com'on,


SPILL IT.

The Blondes vs. The Barbeque

You see this barbeque? It may not look that big in this picture, but I promise you it is a monster in real life and weighs a million pounds. For real.




(No it is not snowing here in Utah, this pic was taken last October. However I wouldn't be surprised if it was snowing in August, Utah sucks like that)


If you look closely, you can see the look of disdain on it's face.




It laughed at me & Lindee when it found out we were going to stuff it into the back of her explorer. But we were resolute and didn't allow the evil monster barbeque to intimidate us.


Although Lindee may have peed a little.


You may be wondering why we didn't just have the big brawny Albert pick it up with his pinkie and toss it in the back, but we wanted to prove to the world (and to ourselves) that "we don't need no big strong man" to save us from such laborious tasks. Well, and Albert wasn't home to help us.


But, as you can see, we did it.


All by ourselves.




We even used tools people! One of those wrench turny thingies and even a tape measurer.




We tore that monster apart before it knew what was coming. It cried and we laughed.





We pushed, we pulled, we let sweat drip into our eyes.


We got down right dirty.










It was the blondes vs. the barbeque and the blondes conquered!






Suck on that Big Al!

The LSAT Can Suck It.

We flew to California last Thursday and after we landed and were exiting the plane, the hubster's phone beeps notifying him that he has an email. Little did I know that this tiny email contained a three digit number which held the fate of our little family in its value.


He looks at me nervously, he isn't sure he wants to open it right then and there, but finally his curiosity gets the best of him.


I'm standing there biting my lip in anticipation while watching his face as he reads the email. I jump in surprise when he yells out an expletive and for a moment, I can't tell if he was happy or angry.


The huge smile that appeared on his face answered my question.




The hubster improved his LSAT score by about 10 points! We were so excited we seriously high fived each other like two kids who just won thier soccer game. Then I squealed and jumped up and down while Alex slapped his forhead and caught his breath. At this point we were still standing in the terminal and everyone was staring at us hugging and laughing like we had just won the lottery.




But we didn't care. We were so excited and so relieved at the same time, Al's hard work finally paid off!


What a great way to start a vacation right? So we spent the weekend in celebration and after we arrived home Alex received what he thought was a sales call. He decided against his initial impulse of hanging up on this guy and found out that he was the Dean of the U of U law school.


Yes, the friggin Dean called my hubster's cell phone. He told him that with an improvement that huge is so impressive that he would like Alex to start law school this fall!


Not only that but Al also got an offer from a law school in Arizona telling him that he could start this fall as well. Of course we were expecting to wait a year and not start law school until fall of 2010 so this was a big surprise.


We are still keeping our options open right now because who knows, he may be able to get accepted to his dream school next fall, but at least we know we've got two offers already just in case.


Who knows, maybe we'll end up in California!

Big Al's Birth. Cheese Included.

It was Big Al's birthday over the weekend! He turned an ancient 29.

Seriously ancient.

I've found 3 grey hairs in his head. Right on top of that bump of knowledge.

We had two days of Albert celebration. Friday night we went to the Melting Pot, oh man how I love that place. If I could have the cheese fondue for every course of my meal, I would be in cheese heaven. That cheese is THE best.



I love cheese.

Normally when we go to the Melting Pot it takes between 2 to 3 hours to eat dinner, but not this time. They were zippin those pots in and out so fast it hardly took an hour for us to eat! I'm thinking maybe someone complained about waiting, or maybe it has something to do with the fact that a dead body was found in a trash can full of ice water in the kitchen last year.

Maybe they figure the faster they serve us, the less time we have to think about that dead body back there in the kitchen right next to the raw lobster we are about to eat. Okay, sorry, didn't mean to bring that up.



I love cheese.

So anyway, back to the Albert celebrations. On Saturday we went to eat at Red Rock with family and friends to further celebrate Al's birth. We love Red Rock too, they've got great food and no dead bodies at all.

After Red Rock we headed back to our house for some funeral cake and ice cream. Yes, I said funeral cake because that's what his cake looked like it was made for, a funeral.



Now I was going to make Al's birthday cake and was planning on making it something cool like a golf club or something but no, Al took it upon himself to order his own cake.

It's actually pretty funny, he didn't mean to order a cake with flowers on it but there was a miscommunication between him and the lady taking his order. Basically Al said "that's fine" to everything the lady asked and this is what he got!




She asked him what his name was so that they could put it on the order form so of course he says "Alex". Then she asks him what he wants the cake to say and this is where he answers "Happy Birthday Alex."

She pauses, looks up at him giving him a weird pitiful look and then continues to write it down. She was probably imagining him sitting alone in an apartment singing happy birthday to himself!

Poor lonely man.




Hardly.




We love having everyone over, my niece and nephews are so much fun!




Ava was mesmerized by Dozer who was stuck outside on the deck. She just kept squealing and laughing at him, it was so dang cute!







Here are our friends Brandon and Telicia just chillin on the couch.




And cute Annie just chillin on the massage chair while NOT getting a massage.




Annie's hub Kev. I couldn't get any pictures of him, they all look like this with his face covered. What a loser.



Just kiddin Kev I love you! And I will never mistake your love of Coke for Mountain Dew ever again!


Below is the back of Rachael's head, Brandon & Sharon.



I just realized I didn't get any pictures of Rachael and Clay, my other bro- and sis-in-law! But at least you get to see Rachaels beautiful hair in the above pic right?

I did however get a picture of the dad-in-law going back for seconds!




I love giving my husband a hard time on my blog. Hell I love giving everyone a hard time on my blog, but I really do have the best hubster! He is always thinking about me and our family first in everything he does. He is so easy to talk to and we love sitting out on the deck together every night talking about our future together.



I am so happy with my life right now with Alex. He keeps me laughing with the little jingles he sings to me every morning. But seriously, why does boob have to rhyme with Poob? He's gone from calling me Grand Pooba, to Pooba to just Poob and I think the whole reason was so that he could sing a song about boobs with my name in it.


Yes folks, my hubster rocks.




Today Al is taking the LSAT! He's been studying for what seems like forever and today is the day he has to sit and take a 4 hour long test so everyone wish him luck!

I know he will do great and if anyone deserves this, it's my Big Al.