strike that, reverse it

i am stealing this title from my mom . . . and willy wonka. the title to this post is in reference to my mother. in the twitterpated blog i announced her engagement now I am announcing her unengagement. there are far too many details and personal things to mention in a blog. this might help or if you're really wondering about the details ask my mom :)

thanks for all the love and support! everything has a purpose, right?!

fresh

i made this super yummy FRESH salsa/chip dip {not sure exactly what it is} but it is sooo good! it's also perfect for the spring and summer barbecues that will be coming up. i love how colorful and appetizing it looks!


here is the super easy recipe:


1 can of kidney beans
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of black-eyed peas {shout out to fergie}
1 can of corn
1-3 tomatoes {diced}
2-3 avacados {diced}
a few green onions {diced, and just add to taste}
some cilantro {diced, add to taste}
Good Seasons italian dressing packet {prepare the dressing how it says on the packet}

then you mix everything together in a bowl and serve with tortilla chips. you will be a hit at your next get together for sure!

**i got the recipe from lizzy henderson so long ago and this is the first time i've made. thanks lizzy!

twitterpated

Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] Well! What's the matter with them?

Thumper: Why are they acting that way?

Friend Owl: Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated.

Flower, Bambi, Thumper: Twitterpated?

Friend Owl: Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!

Thumper: Gosh, that's awful.

Flower: Gee whiz.

Bambi: Terrible!

Friend Owl: And that ain't all. It could happen to anyone, so you'd better be careful. [points at Bambi]

Friend Owl: It could happen to you… [points at Thumper]

Friend Owl: … or you, or even... [Flower looks at Owl shyly]

Friend Owl: Yes, it could even happen to you!

Thumper: Well, it's not gonna happen to me.

Bambi: Me neither.

Flower: Me neither.

this is perhaps what my mom was saying 3 months ago . . . until she met Jeff Schmutz . . . now she is the epitome of twitterpated. the two are engaged as of february 1st. pretty crazy . . . the wedding will most likely be in May but no date has been set.

for those of you that are wondering: yes, it has been weird and something to get used to for us kids, but i will say that i am in awe at how things have come together and am so happy to see my happy mom! {especially when she is dancing around singing, "i'm in love, i'm in love and i don't care who knows it!" - from the movie Elf :) }

congrats mom! enjoy the twitterpation!

a gouda memory ;)

saw this website on a friends blog today and saw this t-shirt! it reminded me of a summer night like 4 years ago . . . eating gouda cheese and french bread from a grocery store in evanston, wyoming with a friend in my old toyota forerunner . . . i know it is random but that was such a fun night and i just had to take a moment to remember and pay a little tribute! aaahhhh memories!

good reads

i got both of these books for christmas and i read "the kite runner" soon after. while i was on my extended vacation in denver i started and finished "a thousand splendid suns." i wasn't going to even bring it and was so glad i did. they were both good reads, and educational as well. i will admit that they reminded me a little of books i might be required to read in high school. . . but they had great storylines. definitely recommend them :)

izze

i have see this drink on my aunt marie's blog, in fact, she has mentioned it a few times and i always thought the bottle was so cute! so i happened to see it as i was grocery shopping last night and they were buy one pack of 4 get one pack free! so i bought the clementine and black cherry flavor. they are soooo good. not kidding and they are all natural juice and sparkling water ~ totally healthy. their company is pretty cool too . . . check it out! And go down to albertson's now to get the bogo deal :)

**and the bottle caps are way cute . . . i think i am going to collect them and make cute magnets out of them! how about that for a fun "make and take" idea?!

zorb

i just saw this on a commercial and googled it to see what it was . . . it's a zorb!

it looks so fun! check this out! i want to go here and do all of this cool stuff!

snow?

went on a hike today with cody in zion . . . i wore sandles . . . boy did i get a great big surprise when we got to zion and there was snow everywhere! i decided to brave it anyway and am glad i did, the snow made the hike that much more fun. {although there were a lot more stops so i could warm up my toesies}

cody starting the hike off right with some yellow snow {i did not mean to get this close, i swear, i was minding to my frozen feet when i looked up and saw this and had to snap a pic :) }

jumping in the snow!

so much snow!!!!!

we didn't find the arch we were looking for {no trail, just directions}, but we did find this little arch!

it was so gorgeous ~ especially with the snow!

this was our steep hike back down ~ it was a little treacherous at parts and we decided our middle names were adventure {me} and danger {cody} ~ nerds, i know, but sometimes you gotta be to have fun!

fun video of us playing in the snow!

stranded

so last weekend i agreed to go with shane to denver, CO to his aunt's house to haul some stuff back to his other aunt's house in vegas - he, being the nice guy that he is, volunteered to help his aunts out with this. we, being the bright people that we are, chose the weekend with the biggest snow storms to go on this trek through the mountains and back . . . not sure what we were thinking or if we were at all . . .

this is the road in the middle of the rockies as we were driving into the Johnson/Eisenhauer tunnel.

we still had a lot of fun! this is us with our sunglasses from a gas station in vail (which is a very cool ski town - sorta like park city) because we both forgot to bring some. we did pretty good considering they were from a gas station!

one of the reasons i was excited to go to denver, was to see my good friend and ex-roommate, mary ann. she moved to denver last fall and i have missed her!

so instead of going on friday and leaving on sunday, we got completely snowed in . . . we didn't leave to go home til tuesday!!! I missed two extra days of work and missed school tuesday night - lets just say I wasn't completely thrilled about being stranded, but it definitely was not safe to drive home. so we decided to see more of denver than we had planned on and had lots of fun! we also got to watch the superbowl ~ which actually turned out to be a good game. we went shopping at their fun outlet mall, went out to eat with mary ann twice {that is us pictured above in maggianos - a way cool italiam restaurant with great food and a cool atmosphere on 16th street}, went to the 16th street mall and went to the aquariam {pictured below}

this was the picture they take at the entrance and expect you to buy later ~ so i had him just snap one with my camera {i prefer to think of it as being smart and thrifty, not necessarily cheap :) }

shane with the sharks above and the tigers below {weird that they had tigers at the aquariam but they had 4!} and me with nemo and dori {they totally had a finding nemo tank ~ of course!}

the aquarium was actually a lot more fun than i would have thought . . . we saw the sharks getting fed, cool turtles, funny otters, and these awesome fish that spit crickets out of the employee's hand and then ate them!

this is a picture of the temperature when we were nearing salina, UT on our way home late at night! it was sooooo cold outside. it was also the longest drive ever! what should have been 9 hours was 14 hours because of the roads and the load in the back of shane's truck . . . that is when a fun road trip turns bad . . . kidding. the drive wasn't pleasant but overall ~ we had a good time. :)

lesson learned: when planning a trip, especially in the winter, check the weather!!!!

daddy

it's been 2 years . . . i remember thinking "it's been two days, soon it will be 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years . . . " miss him and feel him around me.