Kick Off to Christmas

On December 2nd...

We had a marvelous little Olsen Christmas Party complete with prime rib, presents and the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. 

Presents for our White Elephant/Dirty Santa (whatever you want to call it) game.

The Dinner set up.

Neil reading us How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Christmas Mad-Lib. A tradition.

Sasha was enjoying all of the Christmas stories, too!

 

At the Christmas Devotional.

Temple Square. :)

I was able to get a handful of tickets so the Olsens AND the Andersens got to go. 

 

AS WELL AS some really dear friends of ours.

It was a great second day of the month!

Kick Off to December

Well, December 2012 was quite the month for our little family. 

Travel, parties, shopping, blogging (haha, okay, that didn't really happen) "fun" car problems, no heat...

It was a great month. Really!

On December 1st, however, me and the sisters (all but Michelle) decided it would be fun to hit up City Creek Mall. 

And fun it was! 

Just shopping with them and going out to eat and catching up was a nice little refresher from the norm. Plus, Lauren and Elyse were down from Idaho (for the Devotional the next day) so it was really fun to see them. 

In the car on our way to City Creek!

The fancy drink Julie and Kimberly got. It was tasty.

I would just like to say that each one of those chicken pieces was the size of my face. It was yummy but I took half of that plate home for Neil.

Sisters. :)

New Posts

I have finished the work week. 

I am free now to catch up on blog posts.

I will get on that ASAP! 

I have a new computer now so it can handle new posts. 

NEW POSTS TO COME!!

The Day After Thanksgiving

I struggled for awhile as to what this post should be called...

"The Most Rewarding Act of Service"
"Fabulous Friday"

"Musical Medicine"

"FREAKIN' AWESOME DAY!"

I decided that though those titles represent exactly that the day after Thanksgiving held for Neil and I, it was probably best to stick with something simple. 

The day after Thanksgiving is the beloved by many, though not really myself, "Black Friday". 

Neil and I did our Black Friday shopping earlier, meaning late Thursday night, with Anna and Kyle at the Wal-Mart in Ephraim. (Pandemonium, by the way...)

No crazy day of shopping for us! Nope! We were given an opportunity to serve and I am so grateful for it!

Neil and I were given the opportunity to present a musical program at "Friday Forum" held for the inmates of the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, UT. 

They were respectful, responsible and very kind.

I can't express how absolutely spiritual the experience was. They had their choir sing two songs and it was beautiful. They brought a strong spirit with them to the forum. So much so that it became hard for me to sing, which is rough because I sang two solos.

A few of them bore their testimonies and said how grateful they were to be in prison. To have a place that they can be to work and to learn and to repent. They were grateful for their bonds because they knew someday, those bonds would make them free.

I was uplifted and so grateful that Neil and I agreed to go. Our closing song was hymn #93 Prayer of Thanksgiving the last line of the hymn says: "Thy name ever be praised, Oh Lord make us free."

That line lingered with me. It touched my heart. All of these men in prison singing to the Lord to make them free. Not judges, not the officers of the prison but the Lord.

It was just really cool to be there and experience that. 

Wanderlust Wednesday (The Day Before Thanksgiving)

Do to some "recovery" from the day before, I took Wednesday off. 

I cleaned basically all day and got packed up and ready to leave for a little vacation down to Manti. 

All the preparation for going out of town for a few days really made me miss the old days of moving back and forth (okay, so like two times) between the states and abroad.

I miss traveling and having the opportunity to just up and go somewhere.

I want to live abroad but I digress.

Anyway, I got to ride down to Manti with cousins because Neil was still at work and I wanted to hang out with the family and it was a lot of fun! That evening we made pies and pies and MORE PIES!

Neil's family has this (super awesome) tradition to have a pie breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving. So you eat pie for breakfast because everyone knows that after dinner on Thanksgiving you're too full to eat delicious pie! It's really a very logical tradition and I LOVE it.

Anyway, it was a fun day spending time with family and friends.

But Thursday, Thanksgiving that is, ROCKED. 

 

A Silver Lining

So, this is one of those posts where I open up a little bit and emotionally vent. 

This week has been really rough for me. 

School is coming to a close so of course every professor has assigned a bazillion projects to be completed this week. School just isn't what I want to be doing right now. I'm not a big fan of classes that I "have" to take and yet I learn nothing from them. Yet, I work hard, try to do well and then when I see a grade that is...sub-par, I feel incompetent and stupid. Why does someone else not have to study at all and they ACE everything and I have to study 'til my eyes bleed and I barely pass?

Work is good and I am so grateful that I have a job and that I get paid well and that I can make a difference there but sometimes, when I get all the calls where everyone is mad and it's "all my fault" I just want to cry. Why do people have to be so rude? There is no need to call someone an ignorant *insert swear word* because the transcript was ordered (by the caller, mind you) incorrectly. I don't write or design the BYU pages, I don't even have a say. And really, if you would just calm down, you would know I'm trying to help BUT I still have to follow policies set in place because of FEDERAL LAWS. And just in case you didn't know already, I DON'T WRITE THOSE EITHER. 

Exercise has been almost non-existent these days. Being sick, not having the car or having to work on projects has totally messed up my schedule. For any of you who have followed my running experience, you'll know that I'm not allowed to for one more week and even then I have to get doctor's approval. I just don't feel good about my body. I'm surrounded by family members (both blood and in-law) and friends who have fit and slender bodies and it makes me feel like an elephant. I've been working hard (minus the last couple of weeks) to loose weight, treat my body well and get in shape and yet I still feel like the big balloon in the room. So what happens when I get pregnant? All pregnant women gain weight. I am willing to sacrifice my body to bring children into this world but what happens after? Will I have enough energy to play with my children like I should? To keep up with them while trying to teach them to be healthy? And when I don't look healthy, why would they take me seriously? (I'm not anywhere close to being pregnant and I'm already worried about this.This is definitely premature but here it is, taking space up in my head.)

All of this has just been piling up and piling up on me and today I cracked. (There was a catalyst but we won't discuss professor dummy-pants here.) Anyway, leaving said professor's office I LOST it. Completely. I was even trying to tell myself to calm down, be rational, this is silly, but no. Those good ol' tear ducts just BURST open. 

Here's the silver lining:

I made it to the bathroom, locked myself in a stall for about an hour until I was sure I'd be okay to get out of the building without losing it again. As I was walking down the hall, a young man crossed from his room to the water fountain. I was trying to keep my head down (so my helplessly splotchy red face would be hidden) but I wasn't fooling him. He stopped me, asked if everything was ok and when I told him I'd be okay, BOOM. Tears. Uhg. It's an annoying way my body recuperates but such is life. Anyway, he ushered me into his office and said, "I don't know you, but I know that you need to talk to someone. So here I am. Talk." And so I did. Just about the school stuff but it was a good feeling. When I was done he gave me some advice and asked if he could give me a hug. I left his little office (He was a T.A. named Shaun? Sean? Shawn?...IDK how you spell it) and headed down to my nest class. My face was still blotchy and red and I was trying to calm myself (still...). A girl in my class asked if I was okay and let me play with her baby. She said. "I'm right there with you. I just force myself to remember that my grades, my classes, don't reflect how good of a mother or a wife I am." THEN after class I got a text from my little sister who I hadn't talked to in awhile. She just asked me how I was doing but we texted back and forth for awhile and it made me feel better. Heavenly Father knew what I needed. And three people followed the Spirit and helped me feel my Savior's love. It is nothing short of a miracle.

How have you felt the Savior's love today?

Endoscopic Tuesday

Tuesday morning. 5:15am. Timpanogos Hospital.

That's the day, time and place I have my second endoscopy done. 

It's really not that bad at all. They knock you out, stick a tube down your throat, take pictures of your esophagus and check for any acid erosion.

Then you wake up. I was in an anesthetic hang over stage for only a few minutes this time! Last time, I was in it all day long and couldn't walk around. But this time? I walked out of the hospital on my own. 

They did find some interesting things (tissue) and so they took a biopsy of it. There are pictures but I'm not sure if anyone would want to see them. I should get the results by the end of this week. 

Anyway, after getting home and sleeping for the majority of the day, a friend of mine asked if Neil and I wanted to go see Lincoln. Which we did. BUT when we got to the theater the tickets were sparse so we opted to see Skyfall instead. 

Holy awesomeness. Probably the best Bond movie I've seen! Plus, the song Adele sings at the beginning?

UH-MAZE-ING!!

It was a great way to celebrate 4 months of marriage with Neil! He's so good to me.

Running Update

Well, after two months of training and working hard, I have been told I am not allowed to for 4-6 weeks. 

Grr.

Why? Oh, you know, just a stress reaction in my foot. 

What is a stress reaction? 

Accord to Doc. Foot Man, it is a precursor to a stress fracture. Therefore if I continue to run or do any high impact working out, I will most likely get a stress fracture. Which would mean 6-8 weeks of 

NO RUNNING instead of 4-6.

In fact, Doc Foot Man (not his real name btw) thinks that it's already fractured but that the fracture was too small to show up on the x-ray. Which, according to him, happens all the time. PPppthth. So, he asked me, "How would you like to treat it? Like a stress fracture or a stress reaction?"

Let's see, no running for 6-8 weeks and possibly a "walking" boot, OR no running for 4-6 weeks with no boot. Hmm...that's a hard one doc! NOT.

Anyway, no running unless it's in the pool. Elliptical and spinning is okay. Speed walking is okay too, but I think I'd be too tempted to just run.

Anyway, until then, I'll just be hanging out at the gym hitting the elliptical and the bikes. 

 

Ready, Set...RUN!

Well, Saturday was the big day. 

The day of the 5K!

Our awesome Turkey shirts!

Yes, Neil and I suited up in our "Turkey Trot" shirts and headed to Sandy. 

So ready to run this race!

It was SO COLD!! I thought every part of my body was going to freeze and then fall off!



Funny, how once you start running you get hot. Duh. Anyway, we ran and had a good time. I ran slow and Neil ran fast but we both finished and THAT my friends, is what is important. 

My first ever race number (bib)!

At the finish line-I'm really glad this pic does a good job hiding how red my face was...

The temple! I got to see this for a good portion of the race. The pic is blurry though because I didn't stop running.

So, funny story. A few weeks ago I registered Neil and I for this race. Well, on Friday when Neil picked up the shirts and bibs, I noticed that the tag said, "Women's Race". I immediately thought, "Oh no! It's an all girls race!!" I quickly realized that wasn't the case but I didn't know what was. The next morning, after some further reflection, I realized that I had registered both Neil and myself in the Women's 20-24 age group category. So, there he is, running and what do you know? My mister came in FIRST! In the Women's 20-24 age group that is. BUT he did come in 11th OVERALL! What a stud! He actually finished the race in about the time that I am "supposed" to according to the training app I use but I was just trying to finish. We can work on my time in the next few races. I came in 108th overall (NOT last, might I add) and 10th in the Women's 20-24 age group. 

I'm pretty sure I could walk a mile faster but like I said, I'll work on my time in my next few races.

It was fun, hard, exciting, cold and crazy but I enjoyed myself and the feeling I felt when I crossed the finish line is unbeatable. We'll see what's in store for me next. Who knows, maybe I'll just have to start training for a 10K...we'll see. 

P.S.-One more item has been crossed over my "Bucket List"!!!!! SO EXCITING!!

Cooking Corner: Chicken Noodle Casserole

My (Little) Family Favorite

Ingredients:

•  4 Chicken Breasts
• 1 can-Cream of Chicken
• 1 can-Cream of Mushroom
• 1 cup of Sour Cream 
• 8oz of  Egg noodles (to be boiled)
• Salt-1 tsp
• Pepper- 1 tsp
• Onion Powder- 1 tsp
• Garlic Powder- 1 tsp
• Frozen veggies (I use the "California veggie blend" from Smith's)
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers 
• A cup or two of your favorite cheese (I use Mozzarella)-Optional

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Poach the chicken breasts until they are no linger pink in the middle. It usually takes about 12 minutes. Remove the chicken from the water and put them aside for later.

Step 2:
Bring the "chicken water" to a boil and add the egg noodles. Boil until soft and drain.

Step 3:
In a separate bowl, mix together the cans of cream soup (cream of chicken noodle and cream of mushroom), 1 cup of sour cream and all of your seasonings. *I'll tell you a secret, I add about 1/2 a package of Ranch Mix to add some more flavor to it. Add the chicken pieces to the cream soup mix.

Step 4:
Dump the cream soup/chicken mix into a 9x13 casserole dish. Add the egg noodles on top and mix together thoroughly. Add your desired veggies and mix the entire dish evenly. (I always add my veggies still frozen.)

Step 5:
In a small sauce pan melt the 1/2 cup of butter. Once melted, remove from heat.

Step 6:
Crush the crackers and add to the butter.

Step 7:
Add the buttery cracker mix to the top of the casserole. Sprinkle cheese on top of everything and bake for 30 minutes until it is heated through and slightly golden brown on the top.

I usually try to serve this with some fruit, like peaches and pears! Enjoy!

Halloween Report

Halloween At The Cabin:

A couple weeks ago Julie had a little get together at the Law's Cabin. It was a whole bunch of fun. Scary movies, yummy food, fantastic games and wonderful people made for a most splendid weekend. Never will I forget those seven spiders in the bathtub. Real life, folks! Not a movie...ew.

Breakfast. YUM.

Pumpkin guts! Chocolate pudding and spaghetti noodles.

 Halloween Day:
The office brought about some other joys. One being the fact that a student came into my office dressed like Russell from the movie Up! Totally made my day. It was seriously so awesome. 

Then that night we went to a FABULOUS dinner party with some friends from church. Cafe Rio, blood pressure checks and "Nerts" made it one exciting evening.

It's blurry but it's the only picture I got the entire night!

It was a really fun little holiday and I avoided being terrified through and through.

Two Point One

My running shoes. I love them.

Today for my run, I was supposed to run 2.5 miles/25 minutes. 

Let me tell you a story. 

This morning I got up and got dressed in my running clothes, as per usual. I said a prayer, used my inhaler, grabbed my key and left for my run. I'm not a very fast runner but today? I ran faster than I have before, which is still pretty slow but I knew I was running faster than ever. Even though I was running faster, I knew I wouldn't make the whole 2.5 miles if I stopped when the trainer told me to and where I normally end up stopping. 

So, I paused the trainer and kept running. I ran a few blocks more and was feeling pretty darn good about myself. I was really excited to calculate how far I'd gone when I got home.

Well, I only ran 2.1 miles but the point is that I broke free from something. I kept running when the training would have told me to stop AND I had the energy to do it. I honestly think that if I'd known I needed to run even further, I could have and would have.  

The exciting thing is that this week the training is all the same! So I have two more opportunities to run 2.5 miles and now I know which streets to turn on to make it that far! 

Something else that excites me? A 5K is only 1 mile longer than I ran today.

 And to think, just 6 weeks ago, I could barely run half a mile!

I'll keep you posted. 

Right before I started running I snapped this. It's so Fall-y!

One Wild Weekend

This weekend was absolutely wild but so much fun!

Neil and I drove down to Manti Friday night, after dinner & dessert with two sisters and my parents! (They're out-of-towners so it's always a treat to have them in town.)

Why did we drvie down, you ask?

We drove down for the hunt. Did I go hunting? No. See, waking up at 4:30 in the morning so that I can hike around all day on a mountain hoping to shoot a deer just wasn't my ideal day. But a day of crafting, learning (about crafts) and playing? Sign me up!!

Neil left with his Dad and brothers around 5am and I stayed snuggly and warm and slept in.

After I woke up around 9, I went on my run. Meg came with me. She's really the only running buddy I've felt comfortable having run with me so far.

Later, Cousin Emily and Cousin Debbie came and visited. I got covered in glitter, and Debbie and Emily made some felt flowers for Debbie.

After a trip to Wal-Mart and a quick sew of a blanket, we went to a baby shower and had even more fun there.

I spent the rest of the day over at Aunt Becky's making blankets (pictures and blog post to follow).

After watching Aunt Becky make a blanket, it hit me! I really could do it! And I did.

In fact, I made five. Not all on one day, mind you, but this weekend was very productive. (And I got to use a Bernina. Love.)

We ate a scrumptious dinner and played with their newly hatched butterfly. (Is hatched the right word even? Hmm...)

Part of the scrumptious dinner, tomato pie. Normally, I'd have to pass
(because of tomatoes) but I LOVED this...I only had one piece though,
fear of heartburn and such... It was still tasty!

Debbie with the Butterfly. What was his name again?

By the time dinner was over and some chatting had commenced, Neil texted me and told me they were home! I drove as fast as I could (don't worry big Kyle, I didn't go too fast) to get home because, to be frank, I missed that man!

Neil's mommy's butterfly had hatched too! (There's that word again.) But this one was a girl! She was so pretty!

Butterfly a la on a pumpkin. ;)

The day, however, was far from "over". After Neil ate some dinner, we headed back of to Aunt Becky and Uncle Milton's house to play some games! Well...one game. One game that I really don't have the patience for. The worst part? I chose it. What was I THINKING!?!?! I like to think that it was so late and that I'd had such a busy day that my mind spaced.

I really don't mind Settlers of Catan and, even though I like to win, I don't mind it when I lose. I get anxious with games like this and then get impatient. I'm just a little too all over the place to be focused...Anyway, we had an awesome time

After church on Sunday, I made three blankets! Then Neil and I had to leave for a Sunday evening dinner up in South Jordan with my sisters! We drove a lot but it allowed us time to listen to Harry Potter, chat with each other and read our scriptures (Neil read aloud).

Sheep and Wheat!! 10s were rolled. A LOT.  

I was blue. I hogged that entire side of the island! Go me! Still
didn't have the longest road in the end though...

Finally, we were home! And to my absolute happiness Fluffy was still alive! I really need to consider getting him a sitter while we are away. Any takers?

Crafting

I've recently been bitten by the crafting bug. 

I want to skip classes and work and stay home and make cards and wreaths and blankets and explore new recipes! Of course, this would not work but a girl can dream right?

I think my dream job (one of them) would be to run a blog. You know? Get paid to craft and blog it, cook and blog it, clean and blog it! "Try this, don't do this, substitute this, avoid that..."

Wouldn't that be awesome?

Well, until I get there, I am in school and have to craft when I have the time. 

I have done a couple of things lately and here are some pics. 

Craft #1: Travel Mug

It's getting colder everyday here in Utah and I do love my Herbal Tea (Preferably the Country Peach Passion or Honey Vanilla Chamomile by Celestial Seasonings). The travel mug I had didn't have a lid. No way to close that hole at the top. I've been on the hunt for a cheap but cute travel mug and low and behold I found one at JoAnns! (Of all places...) This was in the bargain section and I bought it for $2.50. I wasn't the biggest fan of the pink/brown paper liner SO I took it out, traced the shape onto a different piece of scrapbook paper that I had on hand (only $0.59 from Hobby Lobby). And voila! I have a cute travel mug with a lid. 

Before:

 

After:

Loverly, no? I love it. And if I get tired of the purple, I can always change it up!

Craft #2: Wreath

I was priveledged to spend sometime with a cousin recently and she was working on an adorable wreath and I thought, "You know I want to make one like this." 

And so I did. With some differences: thinner stripes, less colors, flat felt flowers.

This is foam tubing that I bought at home depot for $0.97. I got six feet of it for that price!

Black and White striped ribbon

Finished Product!

I am pretty sure that Cousin Kara's is cuter but she is much more experienced than I am and I'm not going to lie, I am VERY happy with how this wreath turned out. It took about 5 episodes of Alias to finish (1 episode=45ish minutes) but I refused to go to bed until this wreath was done. 

Not really a poem...

I ran today. 

I forgot to use my inhaler. 

I thought I was going to die. 

But I finished my run without stopping for a breather!

When I got home my lungs felt sticky. 

I used my inhaler. 

I didn't die. 

Just thought you'd like to know. 

It Was Hard

It was a beautiful morning today. 

Then I realized, "My run today is supposed to be two miles/20 minutes without stopping."

I've never run that far in one interval in my life, I'm pretty sure, so the task seemed daunting. But, I got out of bed, put on my running clothes and laced up my shoes. Neil even decided to come with me!

This whole morning I kept saying, "I'll probably have to pause the trainer and walk for a few minutes." and other things along that line but then I started running jogging and found that I wanted to do it. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it without stopping.

And I did. 

And it was HARD.

After getting home and calculating the distance that I jogged in 20 minutes, I found that I had only jogged 1.8 miles instead of the whole 2 miles. But can I tell you a secret?

I'm not too upset about it. 

It was my first time running that far in one go and I am so happy and grateful that I even went that far! 

I have another week of the same intervals and so next Saturday will be another 2 mile day and I actually can't wait! Next time, I'll go the full two miles!

5K HERE I COME!

Just Some Lovely Pictures

Most of these are on Facebook but I wanted to add them here too!

Bridals and Wedding Photos. 

 

HUGE thanks to Lauri (Neil's Mom a.k.a. Mom #2) for taking these for us! They are superb and I love them!