BBQ's

One of my favorite things about summer are the bbq's! Last night we went to one of Josh's friends house and had a bbq with good friends! Too bad I forgot my camera, so here are some highlights!

We had ribs! These aren't the ribs we had, but oh they were SO delicious!!!!

So here's a couple of highlights of the night..

Eating delicious food (IF you hadn't guessed that one already!)

Visiting with girlfriends while the husbands played poker outside

Laughing really hard every time Maren snorted :)

Setting off some pretty lame fireworks, but nonetheless having a blast with the sparklers!

The men came inside to play smash brothers, so the women went outside to play blackjack!

(Just guess who one?!?)

Grooved to ABBA while Jamie and Tasia gave us "I think you've lost it" looks!

Seeing a stray bottle rocket, Maren and I decided to set that off...

turns out you're not supposed to be holding the bottle rocket with your hands..who knew!

I was the one holding it, it shot out of my hands and exploded over the neighbor's shed.

That caused many a snort to escape from Maren

I was laughing so hard I cried, then had the hiccups for a long time after

We finally went home around 1am, it's bee a while since I've been out so late!

So much more happened, but I don't remember all the details..

Fun times!

So much time on my hands..

With Josh working the swing shift, it seems that once I'm finished working for the day, I have all of this time on my hands. There are 2 things that I have noticed so far about this extra time:

#1 It is bringing out OCD tendencies and I'm cleaning a lot or doing laundry

&

#2 I'm going shopping so I'm not stuck by myself at my house

From these 2 things I've concluded that #1 really isn't fun and I would like to spend my time doing something else. And #2- while it is fun, this could be a dangerous habit, seeing as I keep finding things to buy :) For example, I had a $10 shopping card to Kohl's, so last night I went and bought some jewelry. Now this example isn't bad because I only spent $4 of my own money. But I have this list of things I would like to buy or replace now that Josh is working again. Because of this wishlist, I'm sure #2 could become expensive and all over a bad idea to be doing this in my free time...ok well not all of my free time, but a girl does have to shop sometime!

So I need some hobbies. Any ideas? Cooking is one- but it really isn't all that fun to cook for just one person. I want to learn Spanish, but do I want to go back to school at nights since I have the time or teach myself at home? Has anyone ever tried Rosetta Stone? Or there's working out- getting a gym membership which would be good, but on the days where I've had a long, hard work day, do I really want to go and beat myself up after work?

One avenue that I really enjoyed this week: I've been making yummy, mostly vegetarian dinners! Here's on dinner that I actually had twice this week! (It was even yummier the second time!)

Mmmm, bruscetta!

I toasted the french bread

Combines fresh tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil and 

let it soak in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

It was DELICIOUS!!!

Jealous yet? I've decided to make it for a baby shower I'm throwing for my friend Heidi on Monday. I'm a little scared that people won't like it as much as I do, but then I'm kinda hoping they don't so there'll be more leftovers for me!

After this adventurous cooking, I think that's what I'm going to focus on...gourmet cooking! YUM!
If anyone has any other ideas for my spare time to be creative, you're a captive audience!

So proud!

Wow, I'm lame for not being on here in so long! Wow, this summer is going by quick! This weekend, we got to celebrate....wait for it.....Josh's graduation!!! In case you can't read what he's holding, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Western Governor's University.

I'm such a proud wife! Here are some other people that came to celebrate!

Me of course! We rock the sunglasses look quite well...

Josh's family, ok well 7 other siblings are missing, but there's his parent's and his sister Jamie.

Josh with my parents.

He is now officially a college graduate! Like me! I didn't have a blog when I graduated, so here's a picture of me:

This was taken about year ago.

Being back on the University of Utah's campus made me re-discover something about myself. I miss going to college. I am one of those people who love to learn. Not so much learning about things like math or science, but about people. People in history, different cultures, languages, and so on. I'd love to go back to school to learn Spanish, and I know I will once life calms down a bit. Or will I be waiting forever if I wait for that? We'll see what happens..

Flames..

Last night's dream had me in a panic.... There was a fire that was coming for my house. Firemen were trying to evacuate me, but I was panicking about getting all of my valuable things. I remember that in my haste I was trying to grab my wedding photos, clothing for my family, and food that we would need. I woke up feeling so happy that it was just a dream!

In other news, sorry I haven't posted for a while! Summer is in full bloom and I've been spending any moment I can outdoors. I went rollerblading with my sister Karalee this past week. I don't think I have been since I was in high school! Slowly but surely I became more comfortable and by the end it was such a good workout! Maybe this will be the workout I need to sculpt my legs!

On another note, I've been a reading machine lately! I just finished a book called Fallen by Lauren Kate. It's hard to tell you what it's about, but it's SOOOO Good!!! Nothing deep, but definitely entertaining!

Energetic food please?

Maybe it's because I work at a financial institution that is located inside of a grocery store, but all of my dreams last night revolved around grocery shopping and the shopping carts... Just a little weird!

Onto another note...I tried a new smoothie this morning. So to give you a little background, I have somewhat of an energy challenge throughout the day...my challenge being that I lack energy. So I have been trying to find good nutritious foods that a) satisfy my appetite so I'm not hungry 2 hours after and b) that will give me some good energy to burn, since I like to be out and about doing things while I can. I think my biggest frustration with my lack of energy is that I am a person that likes to always be doing something. If I'm not I feel like I'm wasting my day, and then I feel terrible because I feel like I need to 'Go out and seize the day!' See my dilemma???

So, if you have any smoothie recipes, or any nutritious energy packed recipes, PLEASE give them to me!!!! I'm an adventurous eater, so I'm willing to try just about anything...Case in point: My smoothie this morning was called the 'green eyed monster'. It was made with flax, spinach, banana, and milk. It wasn't bad tasting, but I wouldn't necessarily describe it as good tasting either. Kinda of bland. My hardest part was wrapping my mind around the fact that I was drinking instead of eating spinach. It might have been better had I had the ice that needed to go into the recipe, and if I had had a straw to sip it from. I think that would have offered me less time to pause and think about what I was drinking...instead of chewing and eating...

I believe the flax that I used is a good thing to add to any smoothie for added vitamins and fiber. I absolutely love strawberries, so perhaps I'll pick up some strawberries and peaches to make a smoothie? Sounds like an interesting combo, we'll see. Have a great weekend!!! I'll be stuck inside all day tomorrow at work :(

Movies!

I've made the realization lately that I really like movies. That's what my husband and I do for fun, we watch movies (we do other things too, we're not always couch potatoes!) I had this epiphany this week at work. As my employees were talking about movies and movie quotes, I realized that I knew a lot of them and if they were describing a movie or actor I could name the movie and actor. So, it seems whenever they talk about movies, I'm the first person they ask if they have a question..

So, I am excited and anticipating tomorrow to go and see Toy Story 3! I know it's a kids movie, but I grew up with it, so I just HAVE to go and see it right? See it through to the end?? That's what I'm going to tell myself  anyway. I'll give a report on it tomorrow- I'm going to it to celebrate my sister's birthday.

This brings me to another train of thought-how can one person have just one favorite movie? I have a favorite genre on movies, but as for having just one, there isn't one that sticks out in my mind. I LOVE romantic comedies! I know they are predictable, but they are funny, and they make you feel good in the end (most times). I don't know if anyone else reads this blog, but do you have a favorite movie? And if so, how have you narrowed it down to just that 'one'? I have different movies for different phases in my life, but not just one that stands out.

Disturbing..

I had an absolute nightmare last night. It's been quite a while since I've had one, and I can honestly say they scare the crap outta me! Who likes having nightmares anyway? That's the reason that I don't watch horror movies or anything disturbing- because of my insanely vivid imagination.
So onto my dream... Someone was trying to murder me last night. I know you hear about these dreams where you drown or have that falling dream that makes you come awake, but this one beats all of those out of the water..
It was dark and I was in a room with stream and all sorts of pipes- I'm thinking it looked a lot like a boiler room. It was really dark and I was fighting a person hand to hand combat style. I was all sweaty and bloody and so was he. He was choking me and I was gasping for air. At this point I remember the feeling of pure determination that he wasn't going to win. I was going to fight. Fight to survive. If that meant killing him, so be it.
At this point I woke up gasping for air, because I realized that I really hadn't been breathing.
This nightmare provoked other thoughts...should I take a self defense class? I think karate would a fun way to get in shape and learn how to defend myself. Has anyone else out there had a nightmare like mine? any recurring nightmares out there?