Welcome to My OCD

Okay, so it's not technically obsessive-compulsive disorder. But it is a little odd. I want to really know how much we spend on food each month and week, and just what we get for our money. More than numbers on my Excel spreadsheet (yes, you know I have one), I want visuals. Really these blog entries are for my own compulsive need for information and organization, so if you find them dull, I won't be offended if you skip over them.

So, here's what I bought today for this week's groceries:

And I spent $65.03. Yes, that's 7 cans of chicken, 10 containers of Yoplait, 5 cans of tomato sauce, 6 cans of mushrooms,3 cans of corn, 2 cans of mandarin oranges, 2 cans each of refried beans, black beans, and green beans, and a can of chickpeas. Plus 3 pounds of unsalted butter, 2 packages of tofu, and 2 dozen cage-free eggs. And all the rest.

To accomplish this, I went to Sunflower Market, WinCo, Smith's, Fresh Market, Dick's, and Target this morning between breakfast and lunch. Our planned meals this week are veggie pot pie, broccoli casserole, vegetable tian, and steamed cauliflower with pesto, with plenty of leftovers the other nights, since there's only two of us. :)

Oh, and I spent $0.94 on bananas on Monday.

March Away!

March has been a full and challenging month. I was sick for the first three or more weeks, and Tyson is just getting over being sick for a week or so. I've done a lot of subbing at work, and the ballet was in the middle of the month (with three dress rehearsals and four performances in one week!). The up-side is that all the extra work for me has brought us extra cash flow. :)

Tyson also launched his new networking website, StudentBill.com. It's designed for people who need help and information for student loans, and for those who are sick and frustrated by them - like us! :D We haven't been able to do much because of the crazy month, but if it sounds like something you'd be interested in, by all means join us! :)

Last weekend Zach, Tyson's best friend's little brother, got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple, had their reception in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and had a luncheon the next day at a Brazilian grill in Provo. Plus, Chris, Tyson's best friend, was in town from Maryland (where he's getting his Ph.D.), and so we drove down to Orem and hung out with his family quite a bit, and kept getting to bed quite late! :P It was a crazy weekend, but it was a lot of fun, too, because everyone was just awesome! :) Plus, even though they already had a paid photographer, Tyson brought his camera and took a few shots on the side to see what he could do, and has posted them on Facebook. :)

Whenever/if we move, I've learned that we can't do another basement apartment. Don't get me wrong, I love this little place, but so do the bugs, We now have ants that are constantly meandering around our kitchen and bathroom. I try to sweep, vacuum, and mop every Saturday, but that hasn't helped. What is most frustrating is that they meander underfoot, so I randomly see ant carcases on the floor - or worse, one that I've injured trying clumsily to move around, which just breaks my heart. Stupid ants! I don't want to hurt you, so just go away!!! No solution yet, but I'm working on it.

Also, I discovered something new about our spiders this month: They are circus spiders! No joke! Once one sat on our counter near my drinking glass, and I wanted to encourage it to run into a dark corner where I couldn't see it (Is that really too much to ask?). I slowly nudged my glass toward it, and once I made contact with it, it jumped into the air, curling into a ball, bounced on its back, bounced on its curled legs, bounced on its back again, landed on its feet, and scurried away! It creeped me out, yet left me in awe. :) LOL.

On the food front, we've made quite a bit of pizza with homemade dough the past two months, and I thought I would try something different. several weeks ago, I took enough dough to make a personal-sized pizza, cut it into fourths and rolled those out. Two I filled with raspberry jam and chocolate chips, and two I filled with strawberry jam and cream cheese (to which I'd added a little sugar and vanilla), and folded them into dessert calzones. The raspberry ones were good, but the strawberry-cream cheese were amazing!


Last night we had Tyson's friend Raylene over for her birthday. Since she didn't have any birthday cake preferences, I decided to bust out my checkerboard cake pan set and see what it could do. I made her a chocolate AND vanilla cake, with strawberry (pie) filling and chocolate frosting. For someone as frosting-impaired as I am, I made the cake look surprisingly pretty. Unfortunately, the cake recipe from the cake pan set was dense and rather dry. Pooh! I'm sorry Raylene! I'll just have to use some better recipes in the future, because it was so pretty!

February Wrap-Up

If you've seen Tyson's recently added Facebook photos, no we haven't had a baby. ;) And if you haven't seen them, you should. :) His cousin Hallie and her husband Mike (who live in Michigan) adopted a baby girl from Utah. We got to spend time with them while they were here, and got to see and hold Eliza when she was just two days old. Tyson was able to work on expanding his photography skills, too, and take some pictures of her and of their son Landon. They are the sweetest kids! (even though Eliza only wanted us to leave her alone during her photo shoots - LOL) And it was so great being able to spend time with them again. :)

Since I last wrote, I saw an orthopedist for my knee, and he said that the MRI looked very similar to a torn meniscus, but that the indicators didn't "go all the way to the bone," like they should. And my symptoms weren't adding up, either. Then he pressed his thumb on the underside of my patella, where I discovered that it's quite inflamed. Ow! Hahaha! So, now I'm in physical therapy for patella femoral syndrome, which is basically unexplained chronic or recurring knee pain. But the physical therapist's observations and recommendations make sense, and I am hopeful for a future with reduced pain. :)

This week I've been struggling with a lot of discomfort in my neck, shoulders and lower back. I can't turn my head much, and I can't lie on my right side. Thankfully, my lower back is about 90% better, and I'll be able to see the chiropractor on Tuesday. Also, I still managed to do my PT exercises four days this week, of which I'm pretty proud! :) Hee, hee.

And, if I start to feel down about it, I think of my awesome visiting teacher who has had a brain tumor her whole life. She randomly falls down sometimes, and doesn't have enough balance to do any real physical activities. She also has to wear a hat and sunglasses all the time to prevent insane light-induced headaches. And she is happy and cheerful and enjoys life! :) (And trying out new recipes! I have a partner in crime! Muahahaha!)

Tyson's website, ArchitectureLinked.com finally received 100,000 unique visitors this month! While I don't understand what that means nearly as well as he does, I know that it will increase our clout with search engines so people can find us more easily, and it helps us make money through advertisers, since we have more potential customers for them coming to our site. Yay!

On the food front, since I last wrote I made Remick a fortress cake for his 25th birthday, complete with gummie bears (both attacking and defending), Tootsie roll weapons and a whipped cream mote filled with Swedish Fish. The cake was devil's food, with whipped cream between its four layers, and finished with a chocolate fudge frosting.

the beginningthe finished masterpiecechocolate catapaultgummie bear catapault
battering ramdefending archerwhat four of us could stuff down

For Valentine's Day I baked a cake recipe that I made into cupcakes, mini cupcakes, and a mini layer cake. I piped strawberry jam into the cupcakes and frosted them with strawberry buttercream frosting. The jam needed to be piped in a lot deeper, and the frosting was either too cold to pipe, or too warm to hold it's shape, but they still tasted really good. :D For the cake, I sliced each layer in half, then used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and cut them each into a heart shape. I then made two mini-cakes, with strawberry frosting between the first two layers, and strawberry jam between the second two. Then I tried coating them with "vanilla melty" that I tinted pink. Not good! LOL! I was trying to imitate Little Debbie cakes, but I didn't have any idea what I was doing, and the stuff was just too thick. The result was more like a Sting song, "Fortress Around Your Heart!" Tyson and I just chipped it off and enjoyed eating the rest of the cake. :D


Oh, and mom, when you come out here (whenever I have a baby), we'll have to make some homemade guacamole for you. We just tried out a recipe for it last night, and it was a keeper! :)

Belated Happy New Year :)

'Ello! Today has been more exciting than usual. Tyson and I served our first day in Primary. We've been called to teach a class of four 8- to 9-year-olds. It was fun, but definitely took effort. :) Straight from teaching, we both spoke in sacrament meeting (Our ward is backwards and has sacrament meeting last). It felt like leaving the frying pan to go into the fire! :) The day went really well, though, and Tyson's parents came up from Spanish Fork to hear us talk and then had lunch at our place. It was great to talk with them, and it was fun to finally have people in our home. :)

The weather today has been beautiful, too. Over the last few days, the snow has melted, and then today has been beautifully sunny. :) The downside to the weather change, though, is that more than a handful of spiders have crept in and wanted to room with us. I'm not one to kill spiders, but I have made a few exceptions since we moved in. I've caught and released a few, too, but they are really fast, and my arachnophobic nerves can't take too much of that! LOL!

Wednesday was the first Relief Society activity since I moved in. The first half hour were some uplifting talks, and then we just ate soup, salad, and breadsticks, and just talked. We have the best people in our ward, and I had a wonderful night getting to know more of the sisters! (AND they had potato, broccoli cheddar, and artichoke mushroom soups, so I actually had vegetarian options. Sweet!)

I've been subbing a lot at work lately, and I'm so grateful for the opportunities. Class is always an adventure. In fact, one my girls in my oldest class had a meltdown Thursday night because I asked her to face the barre for the degage exercise. She began to cry because she would be able to see herself in the mirror, then suddenly claimed that the rest of the class were mean to her and said things about her when she wasn't there. I'd be moved, except that I'm not convinced that she meant any of it! Oy! A few more times during the class she would call out girls for saying things about her. The poor other girls were quite surprised by all this. And now they probably will indeed talk about her this week. Sheesh! What a night! :)

I have a couple pictures I wanted to share from Christmas baking. I made a simple yule log for Christmas. I've wanted to make a jelly roll cake since I was quite young, and I finally did it! It was really fun, and quite tasty. Thanks for letting me take the jelly roll pan, mom!

Playing Catch-Up

So, in the more than a month that has past since I last wrote, we had an awesome Thanksgiving with Tyson's family. Everyone - except me ;) - loved Mike's turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Caleen made delicious green bean casserole, frog-eye salad, and this cranberry compote instead of cranberry sauce. It has dried apricots, golden raisins, and cardamom - yum! I experimented with pear pie and "Hooray for the Pumpkin Pie" from the Lion House Bakery cookbook. The latter was quite large and had to be carefully moved into a casserole dish, hee, hee! (See pictures) It was a wonderful day of gratitude spent with family. :)


Tyson and I then moved up to Bountiful into a four-plex. Our location is phenomenal. We're so close to everything, and yet we feel totally safe. I still can't wrap my head around it! I love our apartment, too. We finally have our own washer and dryer, and we have a second bedroom in the hope that kidlings will come soon. Our neighbors across the hall, and the ones just above them are members of our ward - which, by the way is awesome! And our neighbor above us is a quiet man who works nights. I'm beginning to hang now pictures on the wall now, too, and it feels more like home all the time. :)

Right after we moved, Caleen very kindly arranged things so that I could have my knees MRI-ed at her work at no cost to me. It turns out I have a tear in my right medial meniscus. Ha! Take that doctors! I knew there was something of significance wrong! Okay, so it's not much of a victory, because now I can't dance and have to see and orthopedist and probably undergo physical therapy, but I'm hoping that it will be a victory long-term. :)

Also, I love my job teaching ballet on Thursday nights. I have three classes, and two of them make me want to pull my hair out with frustration (!!!), but I still love my dancers and I love preparing for and teaching my classes! :D

We had a sweet Christmas this week. Tyson's work has kept him for such long hours lately that they gave him Thursday off in addition to Friday. It was so great to spend so much time together! :) We had a quiet Christmas Eve with just the two of us. On Christmas Day we drove down to Orem and visited briefly with his best friend Chris's family, then continued on to his own family in Spanish Fork. Remick and Amelia and her sister Beth joined us there. We opened gifts, ate a large and delicious lunch, then all went to see the latest Narnia movie. We returned home and ate desserts - pumpkin pie, apple pie, my black forest pie, and "ugly duckling cake." When we left last night, we stopped by Chris's home again. We sat and talked for a few delightful hours with Chris and his mom, then went home and collapsed into bed. :)

I hope you all had a sweet and Merry Christmas full of joy and love!

Happy Feet, I've Got Those Happy Feet

On Wednesday I got a call from the owner of the aforementioned dance studio saying she wanted to hire me! Yipee! So I drove up to Bountiful the next day and watched and took notes during the classes I'll be teaching (three instead of four, but I can also make money subbing for other teachers), and got the run down on everything from Diane, the awesome teacher I'm replacing. It's a great studio and I am SOOO excited to teach these classes!!! I also can take the adult ballet class on Thursday nights for free, and yesterday I took the barre portion of a master class taught by a dancer from Ballet West. I am just thrilled to be doing what I love again!!! Woo-hoo!

Late Tuesday night I thought I might be getting sick, and sure enough I've come down with a cold. However, I'd already scheduled a deep-tissue massage for Thursday morning (with a gift certificate from last Christmas, hee, hee), and if I rescheduled less than 24 hours before I'd have to pay an extra fee. So, I got the massage (so nice!) before going up to Bountiful, but the next day the after-effects of the deep bodywork coupled with body aches from the cold were too much! Ow! LOL. (Note to self . . .)

This morning I woke up to snow on the ground, and it made me smile. (It will stop making me smile promptly on January 1st - hee, hee!) Lots of people are sick around here, and I filled in for the teacher in Relief Society today. We have such wonderful sisters in this ward, and the things they shared made it a really sweet and touching meeting. Just another reason for me to feel happy and so blessed! I will, however, stay home from choir tonight. I'm feeling too crummy (physically) and I don't want to get squished between a bunch of people and breathe all over them. :P Additionally, the snow that melted after church was followed by hail that covered the ground in white, which is still being followed by more snow and some crazy wind. Yep, indoors sounds good. And maybe some hot chocolate . . .

15 Minutes of Fame

So, if you've perused the pages of the November Ensign magazine, you just might have recognized a familiar face on page 113. On that page there's a photo of our group of sisters that attended the General Relief Society Meeting in Salt Lake on September 25th. One of the gutsier sisters called the Ensign cameraman over and asked him to take our picture. We thought it was fun, but never thought that anything would come of the solicited photo op. But, ta-da!

Yesterday I drove up to Bountiful for a job interview at a dance studio. They need a teacher for four ballet classes on Thursday evenings. I don't have much experience teaching dance, yet, which makes my chances quite slim. However, the interview went well, and the owner and I liked each other a lot. It seems like a great studio with a nice, healthy approach to dance, yet with high-quality instruction. AND it's 2 MINUTES from the apartment we're moving into. Oooh! Me wants it!! :)

Aside from that, there's really been nothing noteworthy this week. I am SOOO excited about moving into our own apartment - and getting our life out of storage - in three weeks!!! That keeps me pumped during the days. :) I'm also reading The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, which is pretty interesting (and keeps making me think of Tim). The rest is just business (or busyness) as usual. :)