Lunch Date

Yesterday, I had the day off. So, I figured I would get some much needed things done, like my visiting teaching. I know how important this is and I made a goal to get 100% this year. But, I reached a desire to do more for them than just come and visit once a month, I want to do the little things too. Like go bring them veggies from my garden, and send them cards in the mail. Then I started thinking about all the friends that I have that I don't see anymore. Not that I don't want to, our lives are just different and for some reason or another our friendships sort of get a little lost. I really don't want this to happen. That is one reason I like facebook, and why I blog, because it really helps me to stay caught up in family and friends lives. But sometimes that just isn't enough, and you just want to talk to and be with your friends or family. Yesterday was one of those kind of days.
I have this really awesome friend, her name is Gina. She and I met in the singles branch before I got married.
She has some really cool roommates that I'm really good friends with too. She and I are very similar. We are both the only girls in our families and have quite a few brothers. We have the same taste in clothes and we can speak our minds to each other. It seemed like we had just met and become really good friends when I met Briant. Even though I loved spending most of my time with Briant after that, I missed Gina. Briant and I were actually really good friends with Gina and her roommates before he met me and so that was kinda nice that we could all hung out together. She was my maid of honor at my wedding, and she helped me out so much.

I hope she knows how much I appreciate her! And her sense of humor.

I was watching my wedding video yesterday and I saw Gina. "How I miss her," I said. Then I suddenly remembered her telling me that she has Fridays off. After a few text messages and a phone call I found out she indeed had the day off and we had a lunch date planned! Yeah!!! We had a nice burger at TGIF s. But, that just wasn't enough time so we went to her house after, and pretty much spent the afternoon together. I found out that we even like the same kind of books. It was good to have a friend to talk to. I'm pretty sure we need to do that again. I had so much fun. Thanks Gina!I love thee Gina-kins!!!

Food, Food, and More Food

Since before Christmas, Briant and I have been increasing our plans for food storage. We know that this is something our leaders tell us to have and can be a huge blessing if you head the council. Now is really the perfect timing. I mean think about it; when you are single it really hard to buy and store all that food. At least it was for me. Right after we were married, I was put into Asst. Preparedness in Enrichment for my calling, so I think about this kind of stuff all the time now. Also, with the economy the way it is right now, I think it smart to be planning ahead. My mom pointed out to me yesterday that, if you have nothing left, what do you need to survive? Food. Nuf said.
So on a day off from work last week, I buckled down and cleaned out where all this was going. We have a perfect location under our stairs, it's kinda cramped but it totally does the job. That really got me pumped and excited to fill it up. Also, I cleaned out the pantry/ linen closet upstairs to make more room too. I did a lot of organizing that day and it felt so good. I think I'm really good at condensing things to make them fit. My Aunt always used to say, "It's like stacking hay." Well, if I were to stack hay... I think I'd be pretty good at it.

Anyway back to what is at hand:

So B and I took a trip to the grocery store yesterday. First we did a little pricing to see where to get the best deals, then we started the buying. Let me just tell you how good it feels to shop for your food storage. I know, I know, that sounds pretty dumb but it really does give you some great piece of mind. In fact when we got done, we had spent less than we had budgeted, so I get to plan and buy some more. We are just starting our Three Month Storage right now, but as time goes on we'll get into all the other stuff too. I think getting water will be first on our list, since it is very important. Go HERE if you want more information on Food Storage. Or let me know, because of my calling, I have plenty on hand right now.
Also, another shout out to my In-Laws! They sent us quit a few buckets full of Rice, Wheat and Oats for our Long Term Food Storage. That was really nice!

Here are some pict of our progress:
The Pantry

The rest under the stairs:

Valentine's Day Fun in Utah

What a great weekend we had. We always make the most of our weekend getaways and this one was no exception. We had planned to go down about a month ago, when we found out what day one of our friends would be blessing their baby. So we decided since we would already be down there we would make a weekend out of it.
It all started Friday after work with making our way to Utah. We are so thankful for the nice clear and dry roads. This always puts my mind at ease. We arranged to babysit our 3 1/2 month old niece Anna, a couple weeks ago, so that the her parents (Devin and Julie) could have a little date night to themselves. What better time for them to do this than Valentine's weekend? And we were happy to watch her... or just listen to her breath on the baby monitor while she slept. She is really cute! We actually got to see her and play with her a lot more the next morning. She is so content and just happy. I don't think I saw her cry once. Briant always has a really good time playing with the kids.
(Yes, I took this picture with my new video camera, but I haven't found out how to put our videos on from it yet)
The plans to start out our Valentines Day were to go to the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We figured what better place to show our eternal love than there. We had never been to this temple and it was absolutely beautiful! It was a really special experience for me!

From there, we went to see Briant's grandpa. He is 95 years strong and always a pleasure to go see. He was very happy to hear that I am starting a garden!
Then, we went to BYU campus because they added onto the Tanner building and Briant wanted to go check it out. But that isn't all we did while we were there! We also went to the BYU bookstore and got some BYU attire for me. Now I won't be out of place at the BYU football games!
The rest of the evening was planned secretly by my wonderful husband who knows and appreciates that I LOVE a good surprise. He took me up Provo canyon to a little town called Midway. We had a really nice meal at the Mountain House Grill, which was so delicious! I would highly recommend it to anyone! Then he really surprised me when he took me to the outdoor skating rink. I love going ice skating and what made it so special was it was just a little rink surrounded by the mountains and it wasn't full of tons of people.

You can see my new BYU hat if you look really hard, I'm so glad I had it with me!

We had so much fun together, as always. See for yourself:

Isn't Briant an amazing skater?

And of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without a routine performed by the both of us.

What a great Valentine's day!

The next morning, we said our good byes to Devin and Julie, they were so nice to let us stay with them while we were there! Then, we headed up to Andy and Katie's ward for their baby's blessing. It was a very nice blessing and it was so good to see them again. Little William is so cute! Briant, his Godfather, is extremely proud!
It's always good to have a nice weekend away once in a while, and this one really hit the spot! Thanks to my husband! He means the world to me, and I just love him so much! Thanks again Briant for the beautiful roses that you sent me at work on Thursday (he sent them early to get a jump start on V-Day), your the best!!! He is always surprising me with fun little things I like. He works so hard and is so patient. I love the openness we share and the good times we always have together. My life wouldn't be complete without him, my forever Valentine!

My Green Thumb

I really don't have much of a green thumb. I only have a few plants around the house. I got my first plant my second year working at GH. A coworker and friend gave me a lucky bamboo for Christmas. I named him Henry (don't ask or make fun, it's a Baldwin thing) and he is still alive.

(This is Potter, on the left, Henry is in the middle, and the Aloe Vera plant is Patrick)

Over the years I have accumulated several more and they are all alive as well.
This is Durwood Kirby, I'm really not sure who he is named after, Kat helped me.

This is Fredrick,

and Quoxzy.

Briant gets a plant every year from Frank for his birthday, but I water them.

Oh, and I can't forget about this little bunch; water cress that my Aunt gave me to grow.
They don't look as good as hers but, what can I say, she's had more experience.

I'm sure that most of you knew my Grandparents. Well, they had a HUGE garden that they spent a good part of their time in. The food that came out of it was by far the best you have ever tasted. Grandma & Grandpa taught my Mom and my Aunt Pam (and all their other kids) how to garden, and they have amazing gardens too. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, now that I am married and have a house with a yard, I am going to start my own garden this year. For a couple years now I have wanted to do this and so I am very excited and can't wait for all the snow to melt!
My Aunt Pam just created a Blog called Gardening Tips and I was reading it the other day. One of the tips she suggested was to start planning now and to prepare ahead of time. This got me really excited. So I began planning.
I'm going to plant; of coarse Tomatoes (big and little), Green Peppers, Onions (I bet you never thought you'd hear me say that, huh?), Carrots, Radishes, Cucumbers, Peas, and Green Beans. I think I might have room to plant something else, but I haven't decided. Any ideas?
I don't plan on making my garden too big because I am making a goal not to waste food. So I'm going to start out small, so I can handle it, and eventually get bigger. I want to spend at least 15 minutes in my garden every day. I'm hoping this will prove to be a relaxing hobby for me where I can go to think and contemplate. But if Briant wants to help me weed, I definitely won't object.
Briant says he doesn't like peas, oh darn... more for me. I plan on harvesting all the veggies (that I don't eat) this fall and I want to learn how to store and freeze them, so I don't have to buy any next winter. My mom can help me with this, she has been doing it all my life, what a good example.
I am so thankful to my Mom, and Aunt who have taught me so much about gardening. I hope I do them and my Grandparents proud, and I'm hoping they gave me all their gardening genes.
So in all reality I don't have much of a green thumb... yet!

My new, totally rad, awesome toy!!

Today was a great day! When Briant got home from work, he was carrying a box. When I asked him what it was he told me it was a SURPRISE! Well, ya'll know how much I love surprises! He let me open it because he already knew what it was (he's known for weeks). Guess what it is?

A VIDEO CAMERA!

A big thanks to Briant's parents, for getting us this fun little toy... or tool depending on how you look at it. They took note (while we were in CR) that I love technology. His dad had just gotten a video camera (just like this one, in fact) and I had a really good time playing with his while we were there. I absolutely love it!
I haven't had it very long, only an hour or two. But because I already dinked around with his dad's I have been able to find my way around it quite well. In fact if it wasn't charging I would be playing with it right now.
It has a lot of fun little features, like it can do videos & pictures! It is a Sony and has 10.2 Mega Pixels. I am sure most of you don't care about most of that but I know that Pam, Devin and Mahon will.
There is a ton to learn about it though, which I don't mind one bit! I'm sure I have friends and family who will be able to help me big time. I'm going to have to learn how to burn DVDs now (I'm sure this is way past due). Pam? Devin? Mahon?