I'm obsessed

So those of you who knew my before college probably know how much I love to scrapbook. I used to spend hours and hours scrapbooking with Heidi and Kim. We'd have sleepovers and stay up all night cropping pictures and arranging decorative paper. I am sad to admit that although I have lugged my huge totes of supplies to each and every storage-starved apartment that I've lived in, I haven't really pulled it out and scrapbooked for the last 4 years. I'm a little ashamed! That all changed a few months ago however when I discovered DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING!! It is the best.I have a program that I bought from my mom (Creative Memories Storybook) You only have to buy things once and then you get to use it over and over again. The possibilities are endless because you can take a certain paper and change it into any color imaginable to make it look totally different. It saves me money because I don't have to buy supplies AND print out all those digital pictures. I think the best part is that I can just sit at my laptop for hours scrapbooking and there is no mess on the living room floor for days at a time. I can work on it for a few minutes here and there and don't have to worry about getting everything out and putting everything away. It is so wonderful. It is also really fast. There are predesigned pages that I can just put my pictures into and make little adjustments as needed, or else I can make pages from scratch. Here is a very small sampling of a few different pages. I am so glad that my mom taught me from a young age how important it is to document our lives and families through scrapbooking. I would have killed for just one scrapbook of my ansestors! If anyone is looking for an AWESOME digital scrapbooking program let me know!

Starting the season off right

I have to admit, I was really dreading coming back to wintery Logan after being in 85 degree weather for 4 days. Arizona is a fabulous place to be. Chase's track meet was at University of Arizona in Tuscan and we stayed at the "Inn and Suites" hotel. First off, Chase's track meet went really well. He threw 195 ft. For those less informed on the sport of Javelin throwing, I'll explain. Javelin isn't the kind of sport that you can practice all winter when you live in the North Pole, like we do. For some odd reason they don't let you throw 8 ft long spears indoors either. So honestly, Arizona was the first time he has gotten to throw the Javelin in about 5 months. Last year his first throw of the season he threw 178 ft and by the end of the season he had reached 208. To start the season with his first throw at 195 ft is wonderful! He only has to throw 202 ft in order to qualify for regionals (He'll take care of that at the next meet I'm sure) So as long as he keeps his elbow in good shape we will be on our way to Nationals by June! I'm so proud of my Champion. He works so hard every day to develop this talent and I am glad that I can be apart of it with him. I am lucky to have wonderful in-laws who spoil me. They are going to be traveling with the team to ALL of his track meets for his senior year and they are taking me with them! I really do love them to death and love getting to spend time with the family.

Overall the trip to Arizona was fabulous. I think it was a little stressful for Chase to have to divide his time between the team and family but I totally understood and we tried to go with the team as much as we could. We got to lounge at the pool in the sunshine, shop a bunch, and eat at some delicious restaurants. The one and only complaint is the hotel we stayed at. They had beautiful grounds and pool, but lets just say that sometimes we didn't have water, our toilet didn't flush without lifting off the lid and manually tugging the chain, there were no curtains and our window faced a bright, honking freeway, and numerous times in one night rogue fire alarms rang out for long periods of time. What an adventure!

out of the cold!

This past week was Spring Break and oh how great it was. Logan doesn't feel like Spring at all right now and I am sick and tired of it! We went down to St. George to visit Chase's Grandparents and also to feel the warmth of the sun. It was SO much fun to spend time with them. They really showed us a great time! We went to Zions Park and the beautiful Snow Canyon. We feel so grateful to have such wonderful Grandparents! Chase was also able to go golfing with his Grandpa while Grandma and I went shopping. The worst part of our Spring Break was coming back to snow in Salt Lake and Logan. It is ok though because on Wednesday we leave for Arizona for Chase's first track meet! Good luck Chase, you are going to do awesome!

Nicole tagged me...awhile ago

Six truths about myself: (some embarrassing, all true)

1. One time I went on a date with a boy who I met on the freeway. yes, its true. It was just as you'd imagine. He drove up next to me and waved, I waved back. Lets just say after a series of goofy faces back and forth, trying to throw a pen out my window and into his(it didn't work) and him finally just memorizing my number, we went to a U of U football game together. He had only been home from his mission for 2 weeks and the date went surprisingly well until he kissed me out of the blue at the end of the date. I honestly think it was his first kiss. I don't think I have to count it as a kiss since I didn't have a chance to pull away before it happened.

2. I seriously wish that I could be a flying trapeze artist in a circus or something. My sister bought me a class in NYC and I LOVED it! I was actually not half bad at it either. Here is a video. I forgot to straighten my legs at the end so I was jerked off. I had a really cool nasty bruise for weeks after.





3. I have a really crazy memory. I don't remember every little detail about things and I'm not the best at remembering names and faces-but I can tell you stories about when I was as little as 1 and 2 years old. I remember how sad I was when the Dumbo ride at Disney World was closed. I was only 3. I remember wandering around my front yard with a bottle and looking at the flowers by our tree. Its true, I remember!

4. I LOVE Utah State University SO much. I am happy to be done with school but am NOT ready to leave USU and Logan. I am a True Blooded Aggie through and through forever.

5. I took baton twirling lessons for like 4 years when I was little. When I was twelve I tried to teach lessons in my neighborhood but nobody signed up. I still remember a few things ;)

6. I like vegetables better than sweets. Its kind of weird I know-but I would take a cucumber with some salt any day over a dessert...except maybe ice cream.

Now I will tag Taryn and Nicole Gneiting

What a beautiful place

What an absolutely beautiful place we live in. This past week has been like Spring and then look at what we walked out to this afternoon. You can't tell from the picture but the sky was bright blue and the trees were pink from the sunset. I have always loved sunsets. I cannot resist stopping for a moment and just admiring one of God's greatest creations. Most of the time photos don't even do it justice. Sometimes they at least help you to remember how great it was though!
The Summer that Chase and I fell in love we would go "Sunset Chasing" at least once a week. There were some pretty amazing sunsets. Here are a few of our faves.I am so glad that Chase humors me in my love for sunsets. He never complains when I insist that we find a place to watch it better. This was a couple blocks away from my apartment on an empty lot. There was a really cute old couple who were there watching the sun set also.
This picture is a few days after we first said "I love you" (sometime in June 2006)
This is at the Nauvoo temple right after Chase proposed! July 28, 2006

Whats for dinner?

I guess I'm hooked into this blog stuff. I've gone from posting twice in 6 months to posting 3 times in 3 days. I'm sure it'll slow down... So lately one of my favorite things to do is read cookbooks. Ok fine I'm a dork. I used to do this and realize that I didn't have very many options to cook any of it because I would have had to go out and buy ALL the ingredients/spices, etc. Well it was a triumphant day recently when I realized that I finally have most of the basic ingredients at least. My sister calls it an "Established Kitchen". I don't have the time (or money) to cook these kinds of meals all the time but every now and then I get the itch and I go all out. Tonight was one of those nights. I made "Butternut Ravioli". Homemade pasta, a butternut squash concoction, and homemade alfredo sauce. After almost 2 1/2 hours of being in the kitchen, the meal turned out pretty dang good. Chase loved it! Chase was in charge of the lesson for Family Home Evening tonight and I was in charge of the activity so I had him help me stuff the ravioli. It was actually his idea to fork the edges which made it much cuter to look at. I'll post a few pictures and the recipes.

1 butternut squash
onion
garlic
chicken broth
fresh pasta dough
butter

Microwave a butternut squash for about 10 minutes, then peel and finely dice it. Suate some finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until soft; add teh squash and bit of chicken broth until everything is soft; add the squash and bit of chicken broth until everything is soft and combined. Make ravioli by placing a little bit of this mixture on a circle of fresh pasta dough; top with another pasta circle and press the edges together.

Its worth the calories!

such a happy life...

Ok FIRST of all. I just figured out that you can write comments on other people's blogs when I discovered that there were comments on my few posts. So please don't think I just ignored those of you who wrote! I'll figure all this out sometime.

I guess I will just update everyone on our life lately. I am finishing up my last semester at Utah State and will graduate with a degree in Speech Communication and a Minor in Family and Human Development and Human Resource Management. Chase has one year left after this semester and he will be graduating in Business Entrepreneurship.

For those of you who don't know, Chase is a STAR on the Utah State Track team. He throws the Javelin. (Its the 8 foot long spear that you picture Gladiators throwing) Anyway, he is about to start his senior season and we have really high hopes for qualifying for Nationals this year! We will be sure to keep you updated with how he is doing. His first meet is at U of Arizona on March 19.