Jar Of Hearts

I love LOVE this song by Christina Perrie. So beautiful. Thought I'd share, because I have a generous heart.

I think the song is beautifl and the video is beautiful. I love the costume and the contemporary dancing. You don't see much contemporary dancing in music videos...it's really very pretty the way it's done. Anyway, check it out. I'm sure you'll love it. If not then I declare you boring.

Panna Cotta Numiness

Look what I was gifted with last night!

Teresa made these for our ward cooking class. I forgot all about it, unfortunately, and I was at home with a friend. Teresa thoughtfully, and thankfully, brought over some for us, my friend included - how great, right?? I know - she's fab! They were sooooo good. I love Panna Cotta and these were made with super yummy pomegranate berry jello...mmm mmmm mmmm! She da bomb!

Katy Perry Apparently Doesn't Know Sesame Street is for Kids

Here's a Thought:

If you were going on a children's television show....don't you think you would wear an outfit that didn't show three square feet of cleavage?? And Katy Perry has at least that much or more to show. I'd probably let down the hem of that dress a few inches, too, but that's just me and my ridiculously old-fashioned values and terribly out-dated morals.

Birthday Fondue

This past weekend one of my dear friends, Teresa the Fabulous, celebrated her birthday! She and I have talked several times of getting together for Fondue and I figured it would be perfect timing to finally have that get together with her birthday coming up!

While trying to decide which of the fabulous fondue recipes we wanted to try (and it was a very hard process!) she had a brilliant idea to take me downtown to see some of her favorite spots. How very Teresa to treat someone else to something on her own birthday!!

Saturday morning the first stop on my 'tour' was....a place that I can't remember...but it has tonz of unique and beautiful things for your home and outdoors. The best part was their garden outside. It was small, peaceful and very beautiful. I want a garden like that of my own to retreat to.

Next on our tour was Tabula Rasa at Trolley Square. She loves fun and unique stationary, invitations, and wax seals, etc. Plus they have so many fun and unique things like glass work and little jeweled statues plus lots of books...I love books!

We stopped by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the way out and I grabbed an Apple Pie Apple (my favorite!!!), a Peanut Butter Bucket (which I didn't even get to try....HUSBAND!!) and we each had some yummy flavored truffles.

Onward to the Salt Lake City Library...which I can't believe that I have never been there before now. I love the architecture and the design and the cool stores inside. The roof has an amazing view of the city and the stair case and fountain/waterfall was pretty inspiring. Loved this stop!

Next she took me to my new favorite place: Gourmandise. Ho. Ly. Hannah!! I couldn't believe all the fantastic french pastries and yummy cakes and cookies. Heaven!! We shared a frittata and each bought some fabulous pastries to take home...they were soooooo good.

Next we hit up Tony Caputo's - I love this place! Unique chocolates and every cheese you can think of. The Primadonna cheese Teresa bought was top notch. We also got to taste test a variety of Balsamic Vinaigrettes and Olive Oils. They were so good and I snatched one up for myself! Tony Caputo's inspired my inner cook...I think I need to sign up for some more cooking classes!

Leaving Tony Caputo's we went next door to Carlucci's Bakery for a Black & White cookie (very good) and some fabulous baguettes for the fondue. They too have some great things to choose from. We walked across the street to check out the Farmer's Market after that...and found ourselves spending most of the time at the booth for The Soap Lady. Her soaps are fantastic! My mom has dabbled in making some of her own soaps and it sure is a fun hobby. This lady's soaps are pretty and smell soooo good!

Alright!! That was my tour! I loved each place we went and felt so happy to go and try something new and unique to Salt Lake. So very fun. And all because of my fab friend!

Later in the evening, the fondue party began! We made two cheese fondues, The Traditional and Feta & Walnut:

Had an entree fondue of broth called Mojo:

Two chocolate fondues, the Flaming Turtle and an Almaretto:

It was definately an experience, right Teresa?? It's going to take a couple of sessions to work out all the kinks but the fun part was being with friends and Teresa is an amazing cook so it was perfect to have her along for the ride :) We had a bit of trouble with both of our cheeses but the important part is that they both tasted really good!!!

The most trouble free part was the entree - easy and delicious. We both made a sauce for the meat, one Horseradish and one called the Green Goddess. We ate chicken, beef and shrimp!

Paul and Teresa enjoying my nummy Mojo:

Did you notice my fondue pot?? I love that thing...I can't wait to do more!!

Lastly came the chocolate. We had a bit of trouble with the white chocolate but we salvaged it and it was delicious anyway!! The Flaming Turtle went much better except I forgot to mix in the cream before we set it on fire. No pictures unfortunately but that's okay. We enjoyed our chocolate fondue outside with the fire and stuffed ourselves on strawberries, bananas, mangos, and marshmallows and good conversation!

Happy Birthday to one of the most interesting and brilliant women that I am priviledged to know!

Ouch!!

This is an egg from one of my co-workers chickens. I wonder how the chicken felt....

Aiden's 1st Day of School

These are a bit old but I forgot to put them up so.....

When Paul and I came home from our vacation, we headed out to my parents house to pick up our dog. It just so happened to be Aiden's first day of school and we got there in just enough time to show them presents from San Fransisco and take pictures of Aiden in his studly new school duds :)

He really likes his poses. His mom got some cute ones of him out front posing away on the porch. Such a character.

I went to a magic shop to buy some fun stuff for the boys while in San Fran. I came away with a magic trick, a Chinese finger trap and two Poo Pens. Yes, I said Poo Pens. The boys loved them, as I knew they would. In your face Paul!!:


I showed the boys how to do their magic trick to other people. Aiden tried it out on Uncle Morgan...with a little help:


Then Aidens's mom came home from work to take Aiden to his first day of Kindergarten! I can't believe how fast time goes by.

The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale is next on the readers list on the BBCE! I usually wait to post on the book until after the book club meeting but I don't want to wait! I just finished it today and I love it. It was a hard start...it took me a chapter to get used to her style of writing and use of words, but it's that very thing that adds a bit of 'magic' to the whole book. It's so descriptive in the most odd ways. I find it fascinating. Also, it can move slow at times but if you bunker down and keep going, it gets so very interesting. It's the first of a series of four called The Books of Bayern. And, fun fact fer ya, the Goose Girl is actually a German fairy-tale collected by the Brothers Grimm...from what I can tell it goes right along with that fairy tale. Fun fact #2, Shannon Hale lives right here in Utah! South Jordan to be exact and she is LDS, attended the U and did I mention she is right in our backyard?? Figuratively speaking? I can't wait to acquire the rest of the books!

I Have A Toddler Now

My only child is now three as of Friday the 10th. Of course, in doggie years he is a little bit older than that ;).

I always post this picture of us bringing him home because I love it...although it is very weird to see me with dark hair and bangs.....look at how cute he is as a puppy!!!!

I love this guy and the goofy sounds he makes when you scratch his ears, and the retarded way he sleeps, and the way he sits and stands so pretty and even the wimpy bark he has. He's my wittle guy....


Equally as weird as my brunette head is seeing this picture of Bacardi in our old backyard cuz it doesn't look anything like that now....but he reminds me of a big white polar bear sometimes because he stands out so white against everything.
All the neighborhood kids love him. When he is out front with me, I have a gang of kids ride their bikes and run down the street to come and toss his ball with him on the front lawn. He is so good-natured with kids and babies - I love it.

I believe that he can tell the difference between good people and 'bad' people. He loves to go greet people at the door and he is super friendly and even hyper with everyone who comes...but there has been two occasions where someone has come to the door and the hair on his back stood up and he growls and barks at that person like he knows something bad about them...and he was right. There are few occasions where that dog sounds mean and then I know something's up...so I am alright with his puppy bark that he has the rest of the time since I can rely on him in a way.

I also love that I can let him go out in the front and not have to worry about him. He stays out front and doesn't leave. He had that ingrained him from the very beginning. He ran after a dog once across the busy street...I cracked my whip (or rather a piece of hose) at that one and scared the living crud right out of him. He never leaves the yard (the exception being that my neighbors wanted to breed him to their female they've had for a while and when she was in heat they brought her over to see him - which made me mad - and then they backed out of it - which made me madder. I didn't need my dog introduced to a female for nothing, especially since he didn't pay her any attention before that. He has run to go see her twice when they had her out front but we now have that fixed). I'm really glad that he doesn't leave the yard because our gate was falling apart and last weekend I told Paul before we left the house that we really needed to get that fixed because pretty soon he was just going to figure out how to jump over it. When we came back two hours later, Bacardi was sitting pretty as can be right next to my 4-runner in the driveway. I had a moment of panic that we could have just lost our dog...but then I just feel proud that he wouldn't run away and he just waited for us to get home :)

And I really didn't mean to go on a story-telling spree, but now that I have written it, it's staying put.

San Francisco - Day #1

Paul and I were up at four in the morning to catch our flight. The dog was at my mom's for the week to play with his new buddy, Ruger. I had my new patch on in hopes that I wouldn't get nausea for once and puke once we landed. I'll spoil the climatic ending to that story right now and say no. No it did not. All you fools who can fly without puking, and fly while reading and watching tv at that, can suck my big toe.

Okay moving forward.

After arriving in San Fran and making our way to all the good stuff, we parked and walked along the Piers. We couldn't check in till four so had lots of time to check out Pier 39 and the Warf

If I had one of these outside my home (free) I would eat fruit a lot more often. It all looks so appetizing...not like fruit in the grocery store...unless of course you shop at Harmons. Which I don't.

Paul at the end of Fisherman's Warf. A few days later we ran the piers, through the warf, along that long dock behind him in the picture and back out, then up a hill to another pier and a park and then back to the hotel. Pretty fun. Except we broke our feet.

Lots of fun things to look at while walking:

We saw this bakery that baked awesome bread that I just knew would be amazing. And not just because they were shaped like Alligators:

And crabs:

And cute turtles riding piggy back:

The street performers were fun. I love this guy and all the shiny 'robotic' dudes, and the pirates. Paul and I saw a circus act on the street by these three siblings that was just amazing but I'll give that one a post of its own. It's seriously fun to watch. At least it was in person:

We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe...a vacation tradition for me. This time I got a Hard Rock martini glass to add to my stash :) We walked tonz and saw tonz and it was after four and we decided to go and check in. We were staying at the Hyatt Regency. It was pretty fancy. These lights were so fun to look at:

And they had old fashioned looking elevators so you could see everything while you were in them, including those lights, that weird sphere thing, and the indoor river. Pretty cool!!!

San Francisco - Day #2

We hit the gym in the morning and worked ourselves sexy! Afterwards we headed to Golden Gate Park...had no idea it was so friggin' gargantuous. To be honest, we kinda gave up after a whole lot of walking and finding nothing but highly expensive museums to attend. Although I am sure they could have been interesting, we weren't in the mood and I don't feel bad that I missed them. I did want to go see the Japanese Tea Gardens...but guess who only accepts cash and guess who was two dollars short?? Such crap.

Anyhoo, there were pretty sites like this one all over:

And it was okay but it definately wasn't the highlight of our trip.

Paul hanging out in the trees like the monkey he is:

Paul and I gettin' our sexy on:

I laughed when I saw this sign in front of the playground. Really?? That is such crap, too!:

Back tracking a little (because I don't want to rearrange my pictures...I'm lazy like that). On the bus out there, we saw this man smokin' an honest-to-goodness friggin' Sherlock Holmes pipe....Ha!!!

We saw plenty of colorful walls....I love that about San Francisco. Makes me happy that Salt Lake Running Co. just did one of their own. I feel all cool now.

This was my favorite. A pair of giant legs sticking out of someone's window. Classic:

Okay, so we walked and walked, got lost, found our way back, got back on the bus, went back and worked out again, ate, came home and got ready for........

Wicked!!!!!

O.M.G.!! I love love love this musical! I want to see it again...and again...and again!!! I seriously had 'Popular' stuck in my head for an entire week and a half...at least! It was so funny. Like all plays/musicals it had some mushy blah blah that went on a little too long for my comfort and some smushy exchange of words that I could have done without but it was really really funny. And the character that makes this play is Glinda (the Ga is silent!). But most importantly Glinda played by Alli Mauzey. Ho. Ly. Cow!! I looked up a bunch of taped 'Popular' scenes on YouTube...and none of them are as funny as Alli Mauzey. She is great! After seeing Wicked, I wanted to go see Peter Pan and Beauty and the Beast super badly...but we didn't really have the time. I think B&B would have been great though. Definately glad we saw this!

San Francisco - Day #3

Heading to Alcatraz Island for a tour of the prison. Uh-oh!!:

I found the prison incredibly fascinating. I didn't think that I would. I loved that on the audio tour, actual prisoners and guards of this old prison talked you through all the rooms and stories. It was interesting to see the actual bullet holes of one of the escape attempts, and the fake heads that some men made to fool the guards while they escaped, and the prison yard, the library, the kitchen, the solitary confinement. This is me in one of those cells:

I took about one bazillion pictures of the prison inside and out. From the outside you could see this:

Which was apparently the worst form of torture for the inmates. One said that is was unbearable because everyday out in the yard they could look out and see the city and 'see what the hell it is that you were missing.'

The youngest guard ever hired at Alcatraz's name is Frank and he was there to sign his little book about Alcatraz and talk about his time there. Again..totally fascinating to me. I bought the book so I could read about the prisoner's there, like Al Capone!! Oooooh!!

After Alcatraz, our boat took us to Angel Island. It's very pretty there and there's lots of pretty views but I won't take the time to post about it cuz it would be time consuming...just like Alcatraz.

This excursion took alllllll day - about six and half hours by the time we got back. By that time, even though we had had a few snacks, we were starving!! We made a mad dash back to the hotel to shower and change and go in search of food! We took a trolley most of the way to Little Italy and then we walked to sight-see as we searched for the restaurant that called to us the most.

That restaurant ended up being Pellegrini. It had the most fantastic Italian food I have ever had in my life! We came upon this restaurant, with it's pretty decor and outside lights, and waited for a seat. I wanted one out front with the heaters blaring down on us cuz it was freezing cold and the inside was reserved. We almost didn't get a good seat but then...tada...a couple finished up and left and we were seated there. I am magic! I had this amazing Gnocchi dish and Paul had a pesto pasta thing...both so good. And their bread and oil dip was the best thing I have ever tasted. We even stuffed ourselves on dessert - fantastic dessert. It continued to get colder and colder and soon that heater was doing nothing for us so we bailed as fast as possible, took a bus to Union Square and then took the trolley back home!

San Francisco - Day #4

We woke up and hit the pavement together. It's always great to run in a new place with new things to see to break up the monotony that is there at times. We ended up going three miles or so and were starving by the time we were done! We grabbed some grub at Subway just outside our hotel and then went and got ready for more sightseeing.

First on the agenda today was China Town! When we were heading other places at night, it was such a pretty sight to look down to this street and see it all lit up and the lanterns going back and forth over the street. It doesn't look quite the same in the day but I would rather shoot myself in the foot than take my chances on that street at night. Anway, there was so much to see in those shops. I wanted to buy several things but I also didn't want to go broke so I controlled myself. I stopped inside this Eastern Bakery and it literally took my ten minutes to decide what I wanted because I wanted to try everything!! It all looked so interesting! I settled on a Chinese doughnut, which is a doughy ball and has a black and red bean filling, and Tapioca Bubble Tea, which is just a flavored drink that has big tapioca 'bubbles' in it that you suck up through a big straw. They both probably sound super weird but I loved them. I wanted a couple more doughnuts!

And we finally found some hoodies that we actually liked enough to buy so we bought those so we wouldn't freeze our butts off for one more night!! We left China Town, and really we could have stayed there so much longer cuz there is tonz to see...but how many China stores do you really need to see??, and we headed toward Lombard Street. Paul was really excited to see this street. He had heard it was pretty cool and I, of course, tagged along for the ride. The walk turned into a hike, as this street literally goes nearly straight up and down. And when we got to the wacky street, I couldn't believe how many people stand around and camp out to take pictures. I mean, hellooooo, people live here!! How weird would it be to walk out of your house and have tourists crawling all over like you were some sort of celebrity?? I would go nuts!

We snapped our pictures and moved along so we could get back to our hotel and get ready for......

The San Francisco 49ers Game!!!!!!!

We were pretty annoyed because we missed nearly the entire first quarter. Not our fault though. They have buses that line up to take people to the game. It just so happens that one we got on had a driver who didn't even know how to get to Candlestick Park!!! Arggh!! Are you freaking kidding me??? Are you really? How does this happen?? Thankfully there were several locals and one guy went up and helped him find his way, which involved tiny streets and almost taking out a small car. Nice. Goosfraba.

Finally we were at Paul's most anticipated event :) And mine too! Paul loves loves loves the 49ers and I was a big time fan back in High School but not so much anymore. It was fun to be at our first NFL game! They played the Minnesota Vikings, in which Brett Favre made one play - 1 - at the very beginning. And thanks to our clueless driver we missed it. It would have been cool to see but seriously, Brett Favre needs to go away. He should have stayed retired oh I dunno...the fiftieth time that he did it??

Moving on - there was this one dude that was so. freaking. plastered!!! He ended up puking all over the place and then passed out drooling all over himself with his grocery bag full of puke leaking all over the place. Everyone one around him had a really good time giving him crap - and several us took video and pics to post on YouTube :) That's what you get for being a douchebag.

While the game itself was fun, let me tell you eight things that I did not appreciate:

1. Dumb bus driver

2. Being late to a game you pay good money for.

3. The guy that stole someone elses seat in front of us...and then when the rightful owner of that seat showed up, he didn't even have the 'courtesy' to move his ars.

4. The very loud guy sitting behind us who's favorite word starts with an F and rhymes with duck. He was also incredibly sweet to his wife...if sweet means talking down to her and yelling at her. Fun times.

5. Said wife dropping her coke on the ground and having said coke splash all over the back of my brand new WHITE hoodie. They left after that to find a better spot (what is with people?) and I wondered why they couldn't have left before she plastered me with coke.
6. Birds eye view of drunk guy's hot dog dinner all over the ground...in which people didn't pay attention to and walked right through it.

7. The fact that the ground was everyone's trash bin. I know that there is always a huge amount of garbage at things like this, but it realllllllly ticked me off that all these fatties eating peanuts didn't even bother to put the shells in a cup. We could have gone swimming in peanut shells.

8. The drunk guy leaving his freaking grocery bag of puke on the ground when he left the game!!!! It was enough to make me want to puke.

Goosfraba.

On a lighter note, here is our very own Alex Smith :)

And us again...cuz we're so cute!:

San Francisco - Day #5

Monday was our day to go home :( We were both way too sore to get up and run or workout so we slept until we wanted to! We had packed up everything the night before so all we had to do was get ready for the day and head out. But before we checked out and hauled our luggage around, we went across the street to a little diner for breakfast. Yummy yummy. Afterwards, we hopped in our car and headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge. Paul was super excited about this...I thought seeing the bridge over the past five days from everywhere you stood in San Francisco was good enough but what do I know?

Again, the view was pretty of the cityscape and the islands. Much prettier than our camera could capture. Me standing at the 'lookout thing' in front of San Fran:

Paul on the GGB, in matching attire even:

Both of us on the GGB!:

It was soooo hot that day - so retarded that it would be hot on the last day we were there and were already all packed up. After we left the Golden Gate Bridge, we went and parked and walked over to the Ghiradelli Square:

I bought a big pack of Ghiradelli chocolate's...my favorite is Peanut Butter, then Caramel, then Mint...in that order. Paul and I grabbed some ice cream, too. Mine is the Cookie Bottom Sundae...really nummy:

Afterward, we walked through Fisherman's Warf again and headed for Pier 39 to do some last minute souvenirs. We walked upstairs cuz I had to find the ladies room and that's when I head the sea lions. I was super excited cuz I couldn't see them the first day we arrived and went to Pier 39...turns out we were right around the corner. How dumb of me. But it was so cool to watch these guys play with each other and fight and stuff. There were two GINORMOUS sea lions and I kept watching for one, that was right on the edge, to fall over and make a big splash. It didn't happen:

I found a fun magic shop and I bought my nephews some magic tricks and 'poo pens' as a prank gift. Ha ha - Paul thought I was sick but what little boys wouldn't think it's hilarious to write with fake poo? Duuuuuh.

We had spent enough time shopping and seeing and it was time to head back to our car and get to the airport. I still wanted to get my niece something and I decided I would get her a pearl from an oyster. There are these little jewelery shops everywhere that have oysters sitting in water and you get to pick an oyster, and if there is a pearl in it, then you get to buy it. So I picked one out and...tada....it had a pearl in it. On a side note, how anyone eats those slimy disgusting innards is a mystery to me. I found it quite fascinating to watch a pearl come out of that gross stuff though.

And then we were off to the airport, waiting around to board the plane, heading home where it was hopefully warmer than where we were.