all about things I like

My pick of the week this week is my latest favorite treat... 9 grain toast with homemade strawberry freezer jam. Oh my yummy!! I am part of a food co-op group called Bountiful Baskets. Every Saturday I get a huge basket full of fresh fruits and veggies. Last Saturday I ordered lots of extra strawberries so I could make my sister-in-law Danette's Birthday cake. She loves strawberry shortcake. I ended up with WAY more strawberries than I needed. I hated to waste them, so I made freezer jam. The best way to eat yummy strawberry jam is on yummy 9 Grain toast! I get my delicious bread from my food co-op group also. It is the best bread in the whole wide world!!!! All three of us love it! I have never been able to get Quayd to eat wheat bread until now. It makes scrumptious BLT's, grilled cheese sandwiches and turkey sandwiches. It is also delicious when dipped in the yolk of a fried egg, over-medium. Yummy yum yum. :)

the one about some of my friends

It is no secret that I have been blessed with some amazing friends. I am not sure how I find such wonderful people to surround myself with, but I am sure glad I do! :) Part three of my blog challenge is about friends. It says to post a picture of yourself with your friends. I actually have a picture of me with two of my awesome friends that we took last Friday night in St. George. I guess this is a perfect opportunity for me to tell about our super fun night!!! I went to St. George, Utah last Wednesday-Saturday for a 4H Leadership conference. I learned some incredible stuff and I will be sharing more about it in future posts. Anyway, on Friday night we had a nice big banquet. Afterwards, we had free time to do whatever. One of Tara's sisters lives in St. George and she was letting Tara use one of their vehicles while we were there. Tara asked if anyone would like to go for a ride with her. My cute friend Sheri and I hopped right in! The car was a BEAUTIFUL black convertible mustang. Tara is very familiar with the area so she knew just where to take us. We went to a beautiful place that overlooked the city. We had so much fun taking pictures and being silly!



We headed down the mountain, stopped at McDonalds for snacks, then went to the hotel. As we pulled up to the front door, we decided to get a couple more pictures of Sheri with the car since we had better light. (She LOVES Mustangs!!) As Tara and I stepped back with the cameras, two police officers happened to be walking out of the hotel. It was obvious what we were doing, so they wanted to play along! Ther didn't skip a beat and hopped right in the car! It was so funny!! We joked with them for awhile, told them we had stolen the car and that there may or may not be weed in the trunk, laughed our butts off, then finally headed in to bed. Good times!!


Here is a picture with some of the other girls that went to St. George with us. L to R: Me, Tara, Sheri, Danette, Necia

Now since this is a post about friends, and I have talked about my trip to St.George, I have to finish with this picture of my new bestie, Judy! She is da bomb!!! <3

the one about SENDING someone to jail

How ironic that my last post was about spending the night in jail, and after the events of today, I think I am responsible for SENDING someone there. Maybe not jail, but detention anyway. And I guess I am not really responsible since I didn't commit the crime, but.. well... How about I just get to the story?

It was 5:00 and I was just getting ready to close the store where I work. Danette was there helping me close and Brayden, Quayd and Amelia were there because we were getting ready to go to the Rec. Center for a St. Patty's day activity. I had my back to the back door and Danette was facing me so she could see out the back window. All of a sudden she yells, "Those boys just got something out of your car!" Right then I heard my car door slam and I turned around and saw two teenage boys walking away from my car, and they had something with them. I ran right out the back door and started chasing them.

(If you aren't familiar with where I live, I am sorry for the names of businesses and all of the confusion. For those of you who are familiar, this part will help you visualize it all.)

I spotted them behind Curves and I could see they had something.... I couldn't see very well until they turned around when they thought they were being followed. I knew exactly what it was.... MY PURSE!!! I started screaming at them to drop my purse!! (I added a few extra words in there though that I will not repeat... your welcome Grandma Galley!) I was running after them and they crossed Vernal Avenue to the parking lot behind Gale's Office Supply. I made it to Wells Fargo and knew I would never catch them. I didn't have my phone with me so I turned around and ran back to work to get my car, my phone, or something!!! I didn't really know what I was going to do. Before I turned around though, they were getting to that weird little alley way behind Mr.S and The Sage Motel. I got back to the shop and Danette was just getting in her car and yelled for me to get it. We took off towards them, and I called dispatch. We figured they were gonna come out somewhere by the Catholic Church, so we headed that way. Sure enough, we ran right into them. I was on the phone with a very nice man and I was able to tell him a very good description and exact location of me and the kids. He got an officer on the way and we didn't let the two kids out of our sight. We didn't want them to think we were following them though, or we knew they would run. I couldn't see my purse anymore, so I am guessing they ditched it somewhere. Anyway, we followed them to the North Office building of the hospital and they walked into the north entrance. I was still on the phone with dispatch and he advised me to stay outside and wait for an officer. Danette hopped out of the car and ran in after them. They were way fast, and they went up the stairs. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she heard the door shut upstairs. She was worried that they would walk through to the hospital and get away and we would never see them again. So she came back out, got in her car and drove around to the other entrance/exits of the hospital to watch for them. By then, 3 officers had shown up. They asked me for a description and they all took off into the building. I had called Brett and he showed up so he headed in the building too. Danette came back around and said that she had not seen them come out yet and pretty quick, here came the 2 kids in handcuffs!! Yay! They sat them down outside the building and started asking everyone questions. The kids were so mouthy, disrespectful and RUDE! I feel so sorry for them! How sad that they are starting a life of crime at ages 15 and 17. They were saying awful things to Danette and I and calling us liars. Of course, the cops totally believed us but it was still kind of hard to sit through. They searched them and they had nothing of mine. I had $60 cash in my purse, a $25 Maurice's gift card, a debit card (yes, I cancelled it already!) and just other typical odds and ends that we all carry in our purses. I don't know if I will ever get it back. Really, it all could have been much worse. Pretty much everything in my purse is replaceable. It was a new purse, and I loved it!!!! But it was just a purse.

The kids were taken away and will probably get nothing but a slap on the hand. I hope they can learn from it all. I am really not all that mad at the boys, I just feel kind of violated. I can't begin to express my gratitude for my Sister-In-law and her quick thinking, for my husband and Cory who were ready to fight the little punks! And for my brother and Brayden and Quayd who spent ALL NIGHT searching the dark alley ways, bushes, trash cans, dumpsters and everywhere else we could think of to look for my purse. Also to the officers who responded so quickly and who could have NOT done a better job!!! And of course to John at dispatch who helped keep me calm and who got everything set up to find the little punks.

It all could have been SO much worse!!! Tonight, I am home safe with my husband, my beautiful son and our pets. Really, that is all that matters. Nobody is hurt, just a little shaken up.

Crazy.

the one about Halloween (finally!)

Yay!!!! I found my camera tonight! I had almost given up, and then I was helping Quayd in Brett's car tonight, and Ta-Dah!! There it was. I love when that happens! So, I am sorry for the delay, but here are some pictures I had to share!

Pumpkin decorating contest for school.... Quayd & Brennen.




Friday morning before school. I think it is so lame that kids cannot dress up, so I decided to push the boundaries a little bit and give Quayd and Brennen a little Halloween spirit.



Friday night, Danette and I dressed up for "Witches Night Out" in Downtown Vernal. It was pretty fun. I hope they do it again and can expand on it a little bit. Here we are in our costumes that I made. Danette has her cute little dog Izzy.


Later that night, us and our husbands went to a Halloween party.

You have to look closely at Brett's costume....

Halloween morning was busy! Quayd had a soccer game, then he had bowling league. They had a little party at bowling and the kids got to dress up. (By the time I took pictures, Quayd bowling team had already ditched their costumes.) These are his bowling buddies, Payton and Gage.




After bowling, we all had a little nap, then got ready for trick-or-treating. Brett stayed home this year, and Brandon wasn't able to go, so Danette and I loaded up the boys and had a great time. We even decided to wear our witch costumes! We also went to the rec. center for the annual Halloween celebration. It was really cool!!! Around 8:30, we came home, and decided to go to my mother-in-laws. She was fixing her famous tacos! It was really weird... we had not planned on that at all, but all 4 kids and their families ended up at her house and we had the funnest time EVER! We all stayed there for hours and we laughed and laughed. It was so cool. We haven't all been together for the longest time! Here is me and my crazy sister-in-law Brynn, and our cute boys.

All in all, it was a pretty great Halloween. I love Halloween!!! I love my family, my little mummy and my mammogram machine. :)

the one about our anniversary

Brett and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on 9/19/09. We are kind of boring and never really do anything for our anniversary, so I asked Brett to take me on a date. A real one! We never do that! Infact, a few weeks ago, we had a big long talk and decided that we needed to try harder to have our date nights. I can probably count on one hand how many times we haved gone on a date since we had Quayd. I really wanted Brett to take me to Cafe Rio for dinner. We had our favorite.... Pork barbacoa burrito, enchilada style. It was delicious! We wanted to go to a movie, but seriously, there was NOTHING that we wanted to see. We thought about bowling... but that didn't work out either. So we talked to Brandon and Danette and the four of us decided to go out for karaoke and dancing. While we were waiting for Brandon and Danette to get ready, we started playing this silly game on Quayd's Webkins website It is a word search thing and we get super competitive when we play it.
Brandon and Danette were laughing at us when they walked in and saw us sitting at the kitchen table playing a little kid computer game on our anniversary!!

We never do gifts for each other either, so we decided that we would spoil ourselves a little bit and get Rockband for the Wii. We have been wanting it so bad. I also scheduled Brett a massage for Saturday afternoon and he went shopping for me and got a way cute shirt and sweater. He did a good job!!!!

It was a great anniversary. I can't believe it has been 11 years. I have such a great husband and I love him so much. We have so much fun together and I always laugh at him! He gave me a beautiful son and he is a great dad. He supports me in everything I do and I try my best to support him too. Thank you Brett for 11 wonderful years! Lets say we try for 11 more!!

the one about a quickie to the city

On Thursday evening while taking my trash cans to the street, I stopped and chatted with Danette, who was doing the same thing as me. We decided it would be fun to take the kids out to Salt Lake City to the State Fair on Friday and Saturday. Brayden had entered some 4-H projects in the county fair, and some of them went to the state level. We wanted to go see those things as well as have fun playing at the fair. The Brooks' go every year. Quayd and I had never been, but we will be sure to go in the future! We also needed to do some shopping for The Country Bear, so it just worked out perfectly. It was very last minute and impulsive of us, but we went and had a blast! Brett and Brandon were busy with work so it was just the moms and the boys. We drove out on Friday afternoon and went straight to the hotel to check in, then to the fair. We played at the fair until they shut off the lights! We were having so much fun we hated to leave. We slept in on Saturday morning, had breakfast and went shopping. We went to several places for The Country Bear and then we hit the mall. We also had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We were headed for home by 6:00 that night. It was a fast trip, but very well worth it. Here are a few highlights of our trip.

These were at the Division of Wildlife Resources booth at the State Fair.


Check out my little daredevil! He is a ride junkie!!! Just like me. I LOVE RIDES!!! I rode every single ride with the kids. Danette is not a huge ride fan so she just watched, but the boys and I were die hards!!! This ride took you way up high, then just dropped you! I LOVE Brayden's face in this one!
This next ride was called the Moby Dick. It went really high and went around and around. This was probably our favorite ride there. I lost my shoe on it one time though, but the nice carney-workers stopped the ride and got my shoe for me!

Who doesn't love the tilt-a-whirl!?!?

I never could get very good pictures of the big slide... but it sure was fun!
I don't have any pictures from Saturday, because, according to the kids, it was a BORING day. We just shopped. and shopped. and shopped. Of course Danette and I thought it was lots of fun!

I am so glad I have such a fun sister-in-law. We have gotten so close over the last few months and I am so happy for that! Of course, I have the best nephews in the whole world and I am proud to be their favorite aunt. (Ask them... They will tell you I am their fave!! The better, anyway!! ;))Our kids are close and love each other so much. How lucky are we to have some of our best friends/family as next-door-neighbors!?!?!