Last Weekend...

I am currently working on a different post where I share some very personal and deep thoughts and feelings, but... you know what??? I do not yet feel ready to hit publish. So, instead I am writing a different post for the day about the highlights from my weekend. Hold on to your seats because there is one thing in particular that you just won't believe. (Trust me on this one!)

This last weekend my sisters Shauna and Amy came up for a visit. I always love having visitors and am consistently asking members of my family to come up for a weekend. We had great plans for the weekend and I was ready to spend time laughing, talking, eating and simply being with family. What brought about the whole visit was a Mindy Gledhill concert that was taking place on BYU-I campus. So when my sisters got here we jumped in the car and headed to the concert. It was a great performance by "Mindy and the band". (Amy that's for you!) And I loved bantering back and forth with Amy about the going ons around us. It reminded of when she and I used to be roommates and do all sorts of fun things together all the time. I loved Mindy's performance. It was the perfect reminder to me of several things: 

1- Do what you love.
2- Do what makes you smile.
3- Make others smile.
4- Don't let yourself or anyone else hold you back from pursuing your goals, plans, and seemingly impossible dreams.  

Her music is such a great reminder for me to continue to love life. I find her inspiring and am falling more in love with her music. If you haven't heard of her or haven't ever listened to some of her music, you should! You can listen to a few of my favorites here, here and here. (Thanks to MDill for purchasing some more of her music!) Following the show, while Mdill and Shauna were waiting to purchase some of her sweet tunes,  Lara and I entertained ourselves for quite a while trying to capture the best version of this picture that we possibly could.

Yeah.... I was laughing so hard I was crying. We aren't weird, we just know how to have fun! 

On Saturday we had plans to go to Yellowstone and visit a few of our favorite places there. Yellowstone is a childhood favorite. I remember going there what seems like every summer. We would all pile into our maroon and silver astro van and stay in West Yellowstone at "The Dude" motel. Over the next few days Mom and Dad would drive us all around Yellowstone showing us all of the beauty to found there. I think the only way they could get us to behave in the car was to tell us to look for animals out the window. I distinctly remember pulling over on more than one occasion because there was an animal in the field only to find out it was a log or rock or something. I think each of us 6 kids was guilty of this at one point in time. Yellowstone was definitely a favorite and continues to be. We had a great time driving through and reminiscing about times we had been there before. We also loved the beautiful weather, each others company, and a lot of laughs. There were several incidents throughout the day that make me laugh every time I think about them. One that I'm going to share includes an older couple with a bumper sticker that read "I'm retired. Go around me." We had been following this car for quite some time when one of us noticed there was a cat... yes A CAT sitting in the back window. I was busting a gut. It just kept getting better. The cat had a harness on. I laughed harder. We began to come discuss the cat in the window, it's owners, and how far they had travelled. (I believe they had South Dakota of Kansas plates?) When I thought we were all done laughing about it I was sorely wrong. I looked up and saw the cat in the window and began laughing all over again. I laughed so hard I snorted. That's how you know something is really funny, if I snort. Well here's a pretty grainy picture that just doesn't do it justice. 

So, we continued to follow this car because we (mostly I) insisted that Shauna didn't pass it. We went on talking about something which I don't remember. All of a sudden Amy yells, "There's two!" that's right folks not only was there 1 car in the car there was 2!!!! Picture evidence below. 

When we finally decided it was ok to pass them one of the cats was in the backseat staring out the window at us as we went by. Soooo funny. I think one of the best quotes from the day was "Even if those are the only two animals we see today, I'll be happy!" Yes the quote came from me, but it was still funny. 

The rest of the day was just as fun and a great way to spend a Saturday. Below are a few pictures from the day. (They are phone pictures, so not the best, but I still need to download real pictures from the day.) 

First time in my life...

Well ladies and gents there is a first time for everything, and today a big first time event happened for me. In my quest to work on and improve myself I have decided that when I just have to have a snack I'm going to do my best to make it a healthy snack. (But I do keep a bag of chocolate chips handy just in case I need to call in reinforcements.) Last night I decided to cut up the celery that somehow made its way to my refrigerator. If you know me, you know I have a more than a dislike for celery, and that I have a fiery hatred for celery. I can't stand the stuff. Anyways, I cut up the celery into smaller pieces thinking that I would sneak it into Mdill's lunches throughout the week and hope that he would either eat it or throw it away and tell me he ate it.

Today as I was working on laundry, lists of to do's, meal planning, etc... I went to the refrigerator and the celery was the only vegetable that was washed, cut up, and ready to eat. So, I grabbed a ziploc of it, got a spoonful or two of some buttermilk ranch, started snacking, and didn't stop until the entire sandwich bag of celery was gone. I found myself enjoying the celery. Even if it was due to the delicious buttermilk ranch then so be it. I ate celery and plan to eat more. Maybe one day I will even be able to celery plain, but for now celery dipped in ranch is a start.

My quest to work on me is well on it's way and I'm getting back into the routine of being me and working on me. More on that later. For now try out this delicious recipe (recipe below) for buttermilk ranch. Courtesy of Ina Garten from the food network. Link to the delicious recipe

Or, if you hate to follow links, here is the recipe: 

Ingredients:
3 scallions white and green parts, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
11/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon good olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
1cup good mayonnaise
1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt, such as Fage Total
1/2 cup buttermilk, shaken

Directions: Place the scallions, basil, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Puree for 15 to 20 seconds to make a smooth mixture. Add the mayonnaise, yogurt, and buttermilk and blend until smooth. Transfer the dressing to a container, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour for the flavors to develop.


This takes about 10 minutes to make and yields about 3 cups of dressing. 


A few things that may be helpful:
1: I don't own a real food processor so I simply used my blender and it worked fabulous. 
2: Do not use any flavored greek yogurt. The first time I made this we only had vanilla flavored greek yogurt in the fridge so we used it. NOT GOOD! Be sure to use plain yogurt. *Blonde Moment for sure* 
3: Eat on top of salad, as a dip, or just lick it off your fingers! (It's really that good.) 

Yet again....

A short post about my lame blogging skills and what I plan to do to improve them!

Here I am yet again looking at my blog and thinking how lame my blogging skills are... Yup! That's right only 4 posts this year. That being said I officially proclaim that in the blogging world I apparently suck, but in the real world where things really count I'm pretty awesome! I have been up to all sorts of shaningans throughout the year and I'll do you and me a favor and not overwhelm you will a billion pictures of my life. Instead I will tell you this, I have revamped the goals I made for myself at the beginning of the year.
So... What does this mean for my blog? I AM going to be better at blogging. It's not for you, (whoever you are) but rather I am doing it for myself. For the next 4 months I am going to be focusing on me and working on improving myself. Part of the way that I am going to do this is by writing about it. I know that I do best when I can write about what I'm feeling, thinking and doing. I've been slacking in this department because it is sometimes easier to not express what I am feeling than to be honest and true with myself.  So, instead of worrying about what I think, you think, or what anyone thinks I'm just express myself the way I know I would like to.

Sooooo.... Look forward to regular postings of where I am at and how my 4 months of self improvement is going.