Quick thought before Christmas

As I get ready to head home for Christmas, I'm thinking of a bunch of different things...and the main one is AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's me screaming in excitement!  We really couldn't afford lots of gifts this year, so it was fun to make most of our gifts.  I hope the people that receive them like them alright.  I guess we'll see in a couple of days!  Woohoo!  And here's the quote from my sister Kristi..."Hey!  It's Christmas!"

This time last year I.....

....fill in the blank. I was in pain about this time last year!  haha!  I had hurt my back in late November, and it was not one of those things where you just go to the chiropractor and he makes you better right there on the spot.  This was a long waiting game of when-will-Ashley's-back-feel-better.  Thankfully I had a wonderful husband and family to help me during that time, and I am still constantly grateful for how mindful they are of me!

We were also having as much fun as possible with family.  It was the first time I had met my sister-in-law, Melinda, since she had just returned from her mission in Croatia; Scott's parents were out here for an extended stay; as were Tyler, Rachel, and Jackson.  It was such fun that I just went back through my camera and found these pictures.  Check 'em out: 

Meeting Melinda for the first time with Karen, Amy, and Becca.  Love you girls!

Scott with his Mom and Dad.  Miss you!

Scott and me at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with David Archuleta!  It was AWESOME!

Reese was having fun helping to make dinner while Teddy was trying to sneak something from the counter!  Such a funny dog!

Bowling with Scott's family for New Year's Fun.

Family Christmas picture 2010.  A good lookin' group if I say so myself.

Jamie and Troy re-enacting one of their old pictures.

The boys re-staging one of our favorite pictures of them as kids.

I got to go to my first Jazz game last year during Christmas time.  It was so fun!

I'm so excited for this holiday season, and can't wait to see what fun times we have!!!  Gotta make sure the camera is ready for all the craziness cause as Dad would say we're going to "have fun stormin' the castle!"

Memories

So first off I wanted to show you some of our cute decorations that we got as a gift from Scott's mom.  They're so cute! Here's a pic:

I love how all the words look like a Christmas Tree! And you can't tell from the pic but it's all sparkly!  Love it! Thanks Marie!

Ok now to tell you what we've been up to this week.  Well, Scott has been really working hard with getting all his stuff done before the end of the semester.  I can't believe how quickly it's gone!  Really, I don't remember ever having a semester fly by that quickly!  Hopefully the rest of them go by this quickly though, because that means Scott will have his degree before I can even think about it.  How nice would that be?!? Haha!

As for me, I've just been holding it down at work and then coming home and making yummy food.  I have been dealing with a craving for oatmeal cookies that I have yet to satisfy. :) If anyone (aka Mom) has a good recipe, please send it to me!  I'm really loving trying out new recipes and baking things.  I don't get to do as much as I'd like, but all that I've tried has been really delicious.  I'll admit to giving myself a few pats on the back.  I never knew how good it would make me feel to hear Scott say that he'd rather have a meal that I've prepared than go out to a restaurant like Texas Roadhouse because my food is better!  haha!  I think he's exaggerating there, but he was completely serious.  Little sweetie!

Other than that, I've been having a lot of memories come to mind that have made me laugh, cry, want to dance, or just feel good.  Like I checked out the soundtrack from the movie "A Little Princess," I absolutely love that movie!  And on the soundtrack there's the music for when we meet Ms. Minchin for the first time and she floats down the stairs while saying, "Captain Crew, how delighted we are to meet you."  My family can testify to how I love to pretend to gently descend any long or short staircase while imitating her.  It's seriously so much fun! Try it!  Seriously!

Then, I also pulled out some old letters that friends and family sent to me while I was in Chile.  It's so great to read thru them again and remember what we were all going through during that time.  My favorite was the letter where my mom recounted a basketball game that my sister played in where she had to shoot a free throw, totally air balled it, and then my brother's making fools out of themselves as they cracked up about it.  Such good times!  Oh and then there are the letters from my brother where everything is "so stinkin' amazing!"  I swear he said that in every letter he wrote home!  I even found a few random ones from my brother-in-law when he was in Zimbabwe that my mom forwarded to me.  It's so much fun to read them all!
It made me really want to speak Spanish though.  Especially around Christmas, I find myself wanting to speak Spanish, sing the Christmas carols in Spanish, just do everything in Spanish.  I think it's because I was in Chile for two Christmases and I remember singing the hymns sooooooo much because everyone there thought we sang so well.  I swear I never felt more confident in my vocal abilities than I did there.  Maybe that was why I was willing to sing in church when Travis came home! haha!

Next memory: family dance parties on the wood floors in Virginia and North Carolina.  We had such a good time with those slick floors!  Oh, and part of this is also the memory of "model walking" to the song found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4i6P7WcbP4 .  Man we could stomp it out!  Kristi and Jamie, we may need to have a challenge when we all are together at Christmas!  We'll see if the sister-in-laws can hold their own! haha!  Just kidding Rachel, Alise, and Tammy; I'm sure you can walk it out. 

So my little walk down memory lane this week has been lots of fun. Hope you guys can have your own memory adventure at some point this holiday season!  Love you all and thanks for contributing to all of my memories!

Mornings

It's always hard going back to work after an extended holiday for me.  I loved the long weekend and being able to sleep in (even if sleeping in for me is just til 7:30)! haha!  Scott always thinks it's funny that I can't sleep longer than that, but my body is just too programmed after years of early rising.  I love having so much time in the day when you get up early.  You can get so much more done.  And then when it's nice outside you can see the sunrise and how gorgeous it is!

There is one memory I always think of when I think about getting up early to watch the sunrise.  My family was at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia for a couple of days during the summer.  We had all stayed up pretty late watching movies, but the next morning I woke up before the sun did just out of habit.  I couldn't fall back to sleep so I grabbed my journal, a blanket, and went out to a porch swing overlooking the lake.  It was just barely starting to get light and the most beautiful pastel pinks, purples, and yellows started to paint the sky.  The mist started to rise up off the lake and as the sun rose higher, it was like the mist was in a race to reach the sky.  It was the most beautiful sunrise I could imagine!  I felt such enormous gratitude for the beauty of nature that Heavenly Father allows us, and it happens every time I see something beautiful in nature.  And I must say Logan provides many opportunities for enjoying the beauties of nature.  I love it up here!

Here's to hard work and gratitude

When I started this blog, I promised myself that it was going to be real.  I wasn't going to brush over things that don't fit into the "ideal" way I'd have my life go if I was in complete control.  Cause heck, if I was in complete control, Scott would be done with school and settling in at his new engineering job with a company in Denver, we'd be living in a cute apartment with plenty of savings getting ready to go towards a down payment on a house, and we'd be preparing to welcome a little baby into our lives.  That would be my ideal I think.  But since life is real and not just my fantasy, things aren't like that right now for us.  And I think before Thanksgiving I had gotten kind of caught up in focusing on things that haven't gone as planned for us, or things that are going to further complicate getting to where we want to be.  I had been feeling quite overwhelmed.  And, ironically, the day before Thanksgiving was probably the worst.  I just couldn't get my head around why some things can be so difficult and was kind of having a pity party for myself.

But then as we were cooking and having a good time working hard to get everything ready in time, I realized how great I really have it and how it is not a bad thing at all to have to work hard for something.  Whether that thing is a Thanksgiving dinner, good grades, fitness, or marriage.  Hard work is what makes anything feel like an accomplishment.  It kind of reminds me of the line in "A League of Their Own" where Geena Davis' character is quitting the league because it just got too hard and Tom Hanks responds with "Of course it's hard! If it wasn't hard everybody would do it!  The hard is what makes it great!"  I kind of want to say of course marriage is hard!  If it wasn't everybody would be able to make it last forever!  The hard is what makes it great!  I can truly say that because Scott and I haven't had everything go our way, I have grown to have a greater love for him.  I know that whatever struggles we may have, he's going to stay with me and love me and support me.  That's a great comfort to have.  And even though I sometimes forget that or take it for granted, this weekend has reminded me of it in a big way!  And as I look back, I knew that marriage with Scott was going to be a challenge, and ya wanna know why I did it?  Not only did I receive personal revelation that it was right, but I also knew that we could help each other become better people as we worked and loved together in this life.  It has been hard, but I can't remember a better feeling than recognizing both of our faults and areas we can improve, and then looking at each other and knowing that even with those things, we love each other.  That type of unconditional love is something that I am so grateful to experience everyday with Scott, even when we have disagreements (which quite honestly happens). 

By the end of yesterday, my difficulties, while still there, seemed small when compared to the blessings I have in my life.  In fact, Scott and I had arrived rather early to see a movie, and we just got to sit there talking about our blessings while we waited.  I realized how much we need to do that instead of remembering what we don't have.  That's easy enough to do! haha!  Once you start counting your blessings though and the great things that have happened to you during this year, that becomes easy enough to do as well.  So here's to hard work and gratitude---which I have determined should go hand in hand instead of thinking of them as opposing forces.  Just something to think about this weekend.

Thanksgiving!!!

I'm watching Beauty and the Beast!  I forgot how much I loved this movie!  It really is a classic. I totally remember when my sister Kristi always got a kick out of saying Cogsworth's joke of "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!"  Haha!  And then Dad loved to sing Gaston's Song in his deepest voice possible.  Ah such good times.


So....Thanksgiving!  The cooking process started at around 9:30 to ensure an eating time about 2:30.  First was to get the turkey in the oven.  Scott did a great job of seasoning and preparing the 18.5 lb turkey (that I got for $10 by the way).  After that was done, He and our friend Brett got to sit and watch some football while I started on a fresh batch of rolls.  While I waited for the dough to rise a bit, I started on the cheese cake so it would have enough time to set in the refrigerator.  Then I got started on the apple crisp so when everything was done in the oven we could stuff that in there while we ate.  By that time the dough was ready to be rolled out and made into the rolls so they could rise.  Let's see...oh then I actually had a minute to get ready for the day so we could just eat once everything was done.  Once we had all gotten ready, it was time to start on the things that needed to be fresh--the mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn.  Scott was such a great helper at being my second pair of hands during crunch time!  And he even got the turkey and gravy done perfectly while setting the table (using for the first time our special china!) and helping me do everything else.  Oh, and once the turkey was resting, we put in the rolls so they could be hot out of the oven when we ate!  So here is the final table:

If you'll notice, I am sitting at the other end of the table so the boys can have a view of the football game while we eat!

We didn't get pictures of dessert, but they turned out wonderfully as well.  And it was so nice just to sit and relax the rest of the day watching football.  Scott and Brett made me aware that even if you don't like the teams that play on Thanksgiving, it is just imperative that every game must be watched on that particular day because it is football!  haha!  They were quite the pair to hear expound the virtues of football and Thanksgiving, I'll tell you that! And I must say, after preparing our first Thanksgiving meal without any assistance from family I am truly grateful for all the efforts of my parents over the years to prepare a meal big enough for all 8 of us at every holiday and birthday!  I knew it was hard work, but now I really do appreciate it!  So excited for years of more Thanksgiving meals like this one!

The finished product

  

So there you have the delicious cinnamon rolls!  So excited that they turned out so well!  We got to share some last night with our friends Laurie and Jared and their kids.  And I got these really cute pictures of Scott with the kids.  I had to share them!

Eli and Sydney are sooooo darn cute and they were loving Scott last night!  He's going to be a great daddy!

Cinnamon Rolls

So my time making cinnamon rolls was supposed to be a nice, relaxing, experience...like making the rolls last week.  Little did I know what a process it would be!  And maybe I was a little bit distracted, but I can't think of what was distracting me.  Let me explain...

I thought I would be all like a baking show and measure out the ingredients before hand and then just mix it together as called for in the recipe.  Somehow I only got the oil and sugar and salt measured, and then I had to focus on scalding my milk properly so it wouldn't burn.  So I started putting everything in my mixer and thought I had put everything in.  I even triple checked the recipe before I had it start rising!  I thought I was good, so I covered it and let it start rising.  I wanted to rest a little bit before I cleaned up, so then after 30 minutes of reading I went back to clean the kitchen.  And as I walked in, I saw the oil sitting out in the container that I had it measured out in!  I had totally missed putting it in!  So frustrated!!! So I had to throw out the dough (that had actually started to rise pretty well) and restart!  This time I made sure I had everything measured out before I started!  And I got all the ingredients in there this time.

So I was all excited to finally get to rolling it out after it had risen enough.  I rolled it out very nicely, I must say, and covered it with butter then started rolling it up.  As I finished rolling it up I realized something.  Can anybody notice what I missed???  The freakin' cinnamon sugar!!!! AHHH!!! I might add that the whole time I'm doing this Scott is watching football all nice and calm.  So when I started busting out not happy phrases at my dough he was very concerned.  I told him what happened and all he could do was just kind of chuckle at my predicament and say that he's sure I could fix it and that I should just laugh about it!  At this point I was very perturbed with my cinnamon roll making process.  But, determined to have my cinnamon rolls, I started unrolling the dough very carefully and eventually got it back to the point where I could put the cinnamon sugar on them.

In the end, I'm very pleased to say that I salvaged the cinnamon rolls and am now anxiously awaiting the first batch out of the oven.  I'll let you know how they turn out, but I just had to share my experience.  Now I can say that it actually was kind of funny that I forgot the cinnamon sugar and I can kind of laugh at it.  I also learned that you can always try to fix a problem rather than just getting upset and giving up.  So the quote for this post comes from Thomas Edison.  He said "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.  The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."  So as we go forward into this next week...try and try again friends!

Slow dancing in a burning room

I kind of love the song "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room", I've been listening to it for probably about the last 30 minutes.  And to make this experience even better I've been watching the dance from "So You Think You Can Dance" that goes along with it...found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuC0vyJuIRw. I just love it!!! I love how it expresses a couple working through a fight and staying together, because I'm not sure about the rest of you, but there are times when Scott and I don't agree on things and I can get pretty worked up.  But then we work through it and it always feels so good to just hug him and say sorry to each other.  Every time, I'm amazed that he still loves me and I'm so grateful for his patience with my more emotional side!  (not that I have one of those! haha!)

But I was just thinking about how so often we're afraid to let people know that our marriages aren't perfect.  I feel like we put this unnecessary pressure on ourselves to portray the image we imagine to be a perfect situation.  Why do we do that?  I just realized the stress I put myself under trying to live up to expectations I set for myself. And there's no reason for us to do that!  I just think that if we all decided to just be real with each other instead of putting on that front, then we would have a lot less stress in our lives.  I don't know if anyone else feels that way, but I'm going to try and be better about being real and not comparing my life to the ideal in my head.  As far as I'm concerned, having a husband that loves me is ideal enough, even without the extra money to throw around, the second car, or the baby...for now. ;) 

As Thanksgiving and Christmas get closer, I'm so grateful for the wonderful blessings in my life.  There's a song from White Christmas that Bing Crosby sings called "Count Your Blessings instead of Sheep."  And I find that to be very good advice when I'm stressed about things.  I'll write more about my amazing blessings on another post, but for now I'll just say thank you to all the wonderful people in my life!  I love you all!

Trucks

I dedicate this post to trucks.  I find it interesting that people can get so much joy out of their trucks (and I guess that can go for their cars as well, but I'm in Logan...trucks are the norm).  A person's truck becomes an outward expression of their inward personality.  For example, there's this one that drives around town that is ridiculously lifted with a huge brush guard and lights on top of the cab.  The paint job is like something you would see on "Pimp My Ride" (I used to love that show, by the way) with flames and bright yellow background.  And the sound system will make you aware of it's approach from a distance of 2 blocks.  It always makes me think of the line from Shrek where Shrek and Donkey arrive at Dulac and the castle is this huge thing and Shrek leans over to Donkey and says "Do you think he's compensating for something?" haha!  Still a great line!

Then we've got the people that basically strip a truck of it's innate purpose of being able to go over any surface and haul any load.  Yeah, I'm talking about those people that get the biggest rims possible for their truck--thereby making their tires even thinner and making the ride even more uncomfortable than if they had the correct tires on the the truck.  And then they put this super nice paint job on it and drive really slow down any patch of gravel so nothing kicks up and dings the truck.  It reminds me of the part in "Cars" at the very end of the credits where they're trying to make some nice trucks go off-roading, and the trucks don't want to get dirty.  Love it!


Oh, oh and then I love it when you've got the wives trying to climb down out of the trucks they're driving around (aka...me).  I imagine it's kind of funny watching me get out of the truck on Sunday trying to look ladylike in heels and a skirt.  And don't forget about the heart attack you have anytime you go to fill up the gas tank.  Like on "Dan in Real Life" when he's filling up and he's teasing the youngest girl by saying "There goes Jane's college education, oh there goes Kara's education..."  But I will say that when I look out my window in the morning and see snow on the ground, I'm very grateful that we've got a truck sitting out in the car port.  And I'm grateful to have a husband that knows how to take care of it so well!

The First Time....

So you guys, this is my first time blogging!!!! Woohoo!!! I'm so excited!!!  Okay so Elaine from Seinfeld would probably say that's way too many exclamation points, but I don't care!  If you're going to be reading my blog, then you'd better get used to exclamation points!!! Okay, I'm just kidding, there won't be that many.  But I am excited.  Thanks to my friend, Jessa, for teaching me about all this fun stuff.  I'm obviously going to be getting used to how I want to write this, but hopefully it will be entertaining for all. 

I thought initially maybe I should call this blog something to do with random quotes since there will probably be movie, TV, music, or inspirational quotes in every post!  Seriously though, I love to quote stuff.  Since I was little I always imagined myself in the movies, whether as Cinderella, Gretel in "Sound of Music," or any other character.  And the best way to put myself in their shoes was to learn their lines...all of them!  haha!  I'm sure I drove my mom crazy!  And so that habit has just kind of stuck. 

But then we couldn't have the title of the blog just refer to me, because Scott is obviously going to factor in to this blog as well.  :)  Now when Scott was a kid I'm pretty sure he drove his mom crazy by his ridiculous desire to stay outside and play.  I've never heard him tell me a story about his childhood where he was inside!  It's actually kind of funny now that I think about it.  Even now I think he would rather be outside than doing anything, besides watching football games that is. 

I don't know how many other wives deal with "weekend widowhood" because of football, but in a way it helps me get a lot done!  Like this weekend, I made these amazing rolls for the first time because I realized I had all this time to learn how to do it.  Now I'm all excited to make them for Thanksgiving dinner!  Holla!  And next weekend, I'm going to try baking cinnamon rolls!  I know that might not seem so impressive to those of you that are bakers and chefs, but for me that is awesome!  So wish me luck as I attempt to conquer a new recipe.  I'll let you know how it goes...