Re-Motivation

I am getting re-motivated...on my food storage :) I need to get my butt back in gear and put the finishing touches on my 3 month supply recipes and charts. But I've also decided to really focus on finally getting my 72-hour kits done as well as work harder on my water supply. I have ideas floating around my head such as going to the DI for packs, hitting up the dollar stores, and putting together a binder of all instructions and how-to's that I might need during disaster (since this is typically stuff I wouldn't do on a day-to-day basis). Learning how to make bread from scratch - as in grind your own wheat scratch - is still something I have yet to accomplish. I have tonz of organizing I have to get done in the next few months and I've been brainstorming on where to put everything I have (both food storage related and non) and things I still need to acquire. I start feeling pretty overwhelmed with it all BUT!! never fear....I like lists and I am going to make me a MOTHER list and I will get things accomplished one tiny little step at a time. GO ME!!

Go to Safely Gathered In and click on resources at the top for some free printouts. Click on Emergency Preparedness for lists for car kits (done!!) and 72-hour kits. I even gathered supplies for a cardboard oven (so proud of myself!!). Here are some other websites I browsed today:

Safely Gathered In: Water Series

Provident Living: Drinking Water

FEMA: Water Guidlines

EPA

It's Official

• My pants are getting too snug
• My shirts don't stay down and I'm constantly arranging them
• I HATE wearing tank tops under shirts as of now
• I feel like a hippo and I'm not even showing much at all
• AND my husband constantly looks at my tummy and then starts smiling and LAUGHING at me!! Partly because I'm prego with his baby and partly because my middle is pudgy and he knows I HATE IT!!! Gerg. Can I please fast forward two months so I have a reason to feel like a cow??? Because of the fact that I will be a cow!!!

Lost and Found

Last Wednesday I came home and had a heart attack. Or maybe something very similar. But this annoying little stinky dog....

...went missing for the first time EVER!!

I realized something was wrong before I knew it was wrong and then I had a small freak out session, and then, like a light switch, my freak out ended and I was calm. I couldn't figure out why I suddenly stopped freaking out but I was leaning towards the hope that deep down I knew it would be okay. We drove around and the whole time I felt that it was pointless. I kept thinking that somebody had him. I decided to go back home and look up numbers for the local shelters and while I was at it, I had the thought to post my little lost doggie on Facebook. So many of my neighbors are friends with me on Facebook and I figured if he was in this area, that it would be a good chance that somebody I know had seen him.

I spent the rest of the night worrying and then calming down, and then worrying, and then calming down. It was storming pretty badly (which played a roll in how he got out in the first place). I'm so used to my dog just being around and several times I would expect to see him laying on my stairs or come running when he heard the fridge open. Let me tell you it SUCKS when you think things will never be the same.

The next morning, as soon as I arrived at work, I received a phone call from an unknown number. I KNEW that whoever this was, they were calling about my dog and I KNEW it would be good news! It was Cytel, a neighbor of mine. She had taken Bacardi in before the storm and fed him and took care of him all night! And then she graciously took care of him all day until I got off work to go and relieve her of him. But apparently is was a good thing for their two dogs because Bacardi kept them both busy and tuckered them out so she was pretty happy about that.

I was right about the Facebook. I had friends who saw him and let me know, so we had an idea at least of where to look. But somebody I don't know ended up taking him door to door to see who this dog belonged to so that's how one of my FB friends and several of my neighbors put together who the little pooch belonged to and am I EVER grateful to all of them :)

We also had friends who went out looking for him theirselves!! I feel so lucky to have friends that would help us look for our dog, knowing how much he means to us. It is truly aweomse to feel a part of a community family :) I was so happy to see my dog. Paul didn't get home til after midnight. He went straight to Bacardi's 'room' to see him before coming to bed.

And Saturday night, when we came home from The Melting Pot, Bacardi got a lot of attention from Beej and made us laugh so hard:

Mmmmmm....Fonduuuuuuuue

It's that time of year again!!! Every February, Paul and I stuff our faces at The Melting Pot - our #1 favorite place to blow our money. We celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentines. We used to love to go all out for each other on Valentines...when we were dating. But now we see Valentines day for the retail-driven, retarded 'holiday' that it is and we don't like to spend money on stupid little gifts, especially with our birthdays so close. Besides, we can, and do, do cute romantic things for each other all year long and feel that that's the way it supposed to be :) Anyhooselbees, we go out to dinner AFTER the Valentine feeding frenzy is over!

This year we invited B.J. and Hilary to join us:

We enjoyed the Big Night Out flavors of France! However, we had to substitute a very tasty looking French cheese fondue for the Wisconsin (which is still AMAZING!) because Beej is cheese picky - Beej and Paul have some weird food ticks...jus' sayin'. Our entree meat were fab and our White Chocolate Creme Brulee was freaking awe.some.

The waiter brought out our dessert tray with a candle in our cheesecake, again!! I love it :) I love our tradition and I love that Paul and I are exactly 3 weeks apart. It's so fun AND 3 is my lucky number! We were simply meant to be....

PS - did anybody catch that I said do-do up at the top? ha ha ha.

Bowling Madsen Style

Okay....more birthday shinanagins for my hubby!! But on the Madsen side, we were also celebrating this dude's 23rd birthday:

I still can't get over that Gaven, the baby of the family, is that old and is now married. It really sucks to get old. But at the same time, my family is having the best times ever together and we are loving it.

We went to Sandy All Star, where sadly my dad was missing and Morgan and Sam were sick. We ordered up three pizzas and drinks and had an uber good time.

My favorite little boys in the whole wide world:

Gaven and Bronsynn:

Bronsynn had spent the night at my house and we ended up making Snickerdoodles and Coconut Macaroons out of boredom. Since I hate sweets at the moment, I snuck a gallon size ziploc into the bowling alley to share amongst everyone. Since I'm pregnant, I didn't think it would hurt to pretend I'm a liiiiiitle bit further along:

Ashleeeeeeeyyyyyy!! There's my favorite pose just for you!!!

Xannie and Mannie - ha!!! I just made that up...that's gonna be their new nickname:

My hot hubby and I:

My cr-AAAAAA-zy mom and I:

Amber being a redneck:

Amber and I pretended that we were the paparazzi and sang Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' while we paparazzi'd:

Dallin being silly:

And Gaven, who is always being tricksy, managed this spare in a way only he could do!:

After the bowling was done and over with, we had to go to the arcade. It's Aiden's favorite thing to do and he'll ask you every two minutes if bowling is over yet so he can go to the arcade. All Star really upgraded their arcarde and while it is very expensive (certainly not Nickelcade) it is very fun. We found this awesome punching game and everyone took turns seeing how hard they can hit. The high score was around 9200 or so. Well we finally convinced Xannie to take a turn. You get two tries and on her second hit, she barely hit it so it didn't register. When she did it again, she took the new high score. None of us could believe it!! The guys and Amanda were doing everything to beat the high score and Xannie takes it with one tiny little punch!! Hilarious:

This is one of the attempts to take high score:



All the tickets won by the entire group went to Aiden and Dallin who felt like they hit the lottery and came away with six or seven gadgets each:

Since we were bowling the Saturday after both birthdays, it happened to fall on two other birthdays: Judd (Happy Birthday!!!) and my close friend, Rachelle. Rachelle had a party herself - at the bowling alley. So after my family all went their separate ways at about 9, we headed over to the other All Star Lanes and went bowling again. While the friends and company was VERY fun, I've learned that poor pregnant Maghann can't stay up that late anymore.

Nickel Cade

Like I mentioned, Paul really wanted to do something different for a birthday shindig and he decided we were going to Nickelcade for some cheap fun. And it is very cheap...you're dollar can go a really long way there. It's also very grimy...so bring your hand wipes or use their hand sanitizer!!

Paul's favorite arcade game in the whole world is Ski Ball...probably followed by Hoops:

Playing air hockey with his mom, brother, and dad:

Zoyie at some mouse game:


Matt and Hilary at Guitar Hero:

Paul and his dad looked so funny riding these motorcycles. They looked like they were doing a little booty dance, which you can't see just from the picture...obviously:

Paul's mom got all tricked out on the skateboard:

I discovered how addicting those stupid games are that you have to keep dropping coins in and try to get other coins to drop off the edge....anyone know what I am talkin' 'bout?? Anyhooslebees...I won a BUTTLOAD of tickets off them and here I am with my loot...getting ready to go pillage and plunder:

(Please ignore how sickly I look)

To All My Blogger Friends...

....PLEASE POST!!

I TRIPLE DIPLE DOUBLEY WUBBLEY DOG DARE YOU!!

See, I am so very bored. And when I am bored at work I turn to the internet. Facebook is doesn't provide much entertainment because a lot of people are stupid. Yes I said that. But I do look forward to being updated on my friends lives, and seeing funny pictures and reading about your days or what have you. It seems that the blogger world has been so very slooooow for a long time. I was even slow. But now I expect better from all of you. BLOG!!! please??

Birthday Boy!!

My wonderfully athletic, dashingly handsome, stylishly attractive and downright SEXY stud of a husband turns 28 today :) I love this man more today than I did 8 of his birthdays ago and I find more reasons to love him everyday. Like reason #28: he can take such good care of me when I am puking my guts out everyday. He'll run to Walmart at midnight just to get something that 'might' help and he'll happily run to get me whatever food sounds like it 'might' stay down while I'm curled up in a ball on the couch.

I LOVE MY MAN!!

This year, since we are going to the arcade tonight with his family and I can't do much for him at home, I decided to be sneaky and I went to his work while a co-worker took him out to lunch. I tied balloons all over his truck and wrote all over his windows.

Then I decorated up his computer with kisses, spanks, more balloons and Snickers! I have been giving him 'spankings' throughout the day. He'll get 28 of them, of course :)

I thought it was funny that I grabbed this balloon:

It was supposed to be just a 2, like the balloon that was just an 8!!

I also taped more balloons to a heart-shaped, strawberry topped cheesecake and put it in the breakroom for him and his co-workers to enjoy...and gave him 3 more spankings with that!

I was in for a surprise though when I went into his office with a handful of cheesecake, snickers and balloons - HE WAS IN THE OFFICE!! They went to lunch earlier than they were supposed to and they got back too fast!! Lucky for me he was in the back with some guys so I was able to get everything done...but just as I was making an escape, he walked through the door and there I was! At least I got everything done before he found me :)

Baby Stats

Thank you for the comments and congrats!!

(This is the present that Paul's parents opened when we announced that we are pregnant => I used the ribbon idea from my creative friend, Amanda, and then I put on the baby and embossed those cute little feet on there. Very non-gender specific and cute, I think!)

I'd thought I'd put the stats on a post of it's own so that it's easier.

• I am nearly 4 months, I think. 15 weeks to be exact.
  
• My exact due date is Aug. 2 but I really want that sucker to come in July so that's what I say: 'the end of July'.
  
• We don't know what It #1 is yet. I don't feel very rushed to find out even though I probably could right now. I think I'll wait another month and/or see when the doc says to schedule our ultrasound.
  
• We don't have names picked out yet.
  
• My entire 1st trimester (minus the first weeks that I was blissfully unaware of my growing parasite) was the worst experience of my life. It's hard to be excited about a baby when you feel that awful. I was hospitalized once, nearly twice - because I threw up so much that I was throwing up blood, severely dehydrated, and couldn't keep a single thing down for several days at a time. I had to be put on Phengran, which was helpful but still, it was awful and painful and was the longest 2 months of my life and I am seriously, seriously scared to ever do this again!

When I told Paul, it had been a week since I found out. I was waiting for his schedule to die down a bit. When it did, I told Paul it was about time we had a nice evening in together and I made a homemade 'rustic veggie' pizza that was yum yum (but also made me want to puke). Paul lit a fire and then we had a little 'carpet picnic' on a blanket in front of the fire and had mini Bubblies.

When we were done eating, I told him I wanted to give him an early Christmas present. That little hoodrat already suspected what I was going to tell him...not because I had given off any clues, but because the present was wrapped in an old wrapping paper roll so he figured it was the perfect thing to hold a 'pee stick'. No Butthead!! I am not giving you my pee stick!! At least I threw him off a little when he opened it up and a pee stick did NOT come sliding out of the cardboard roll. Instead he had to dig it out because it was this:

I made that! And it says: 'My Dad's HOTTER than your Dad!' Hee hee hee. I got the whole thing on video but when Paul looked at the onesie he dropped a very bad word out of excitement and I feel like keeping my blog at least PG-13 =>

We are about to become parents...HO. LY. S!#T.

Oh, And One More Thing....

On Christmas night, after Paul's parents opened their individual gifts, they opened this:

SURPRISE!!!

Check Out This Post from Go Natural.

Technology can be such a wonderful thing! Months and months ago, I received an invitation from a Facebook friend to "Like" a Facebook page called 'Freebies 2 Deals'. I looked at it and couldn't decide if I wanted to or not and so I left it alone and then forgot all about it. Well I decided it was about time to go and clear out invites I didn't want since they were piling up and I came across that one again. I decided to like it and am I ever glad I did!! I would glance over all the deals that Freebies 2 Deals would post and I either didn't need it or didn't want to go through the trouble. And then, blessedly, I happened upon a deal for Dave's Direct. Check out the website STAT!

Dave's Direct does only ALL-NATURAL, HORMONE-FREE, ANTIBIOTIC-FREE meats!! Ahhhh, now your talkin' my language Freebies 2 Deals! Their piedmontese beef (a double-muscled cattle) interested me immediately and I browsed through all their packages offered. You can even build your own package to meet your own taste. And GREAT prices is the cherry on top!

So, I talked to the Husband about making the purchase and ten minutes later I had a Friends and Family package ordered. They can deliver to your house but I opted for the pickup since it's cheaper. Lucky me they had the pickup just the following morning at the Thanksgiving Point Golf Club House in Lehi, UT and I made my order just in time!

An extremely friendly Christine helped me out and gave me information and even had a ribeye and all natural chicken breast on the grill!! I tried them both and I thought I died and gone to heaven! Why? Because meat that hasn't been pumped full of fillers and dyes and hormones and antibiotics is REALLY tender and flavorful!! Most people have no idea what they are missing. The only seasonings used was a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. The piedmontese rib-eye was FIVE-STAR. Delicious.

I truly wish that we didn't live in a country where an FDA or USDA exists - that there would be no one to outlaw drinking raw milk and squak about those who grow organic crops and meat - something we should be free to do as we please. Everyone would be incredibly healthier without people to decide for us what we take into our bodies. Grow your own gardens, even the smallest bit helps! And try to buy local and organic wherever possible.

I plan on giving Dave's Direct my business...I recommend you try them out and see the difference for yourself!

B.J.'s B.Day

January 21st was B.J.'s birthday. We celebrated with him and Paul's family by going to their family's favorite restaurant, La Frontera. I hadn't been there in forever (in fact, I made it a rule we COULDN'T go there!) but I enjoyed it and the family had fun.

Afterwards we went back to B.J. and Hilary's house for ice cream cake and the boys had never-ending ping pong tournaments.

New Years

I don't have any fun pictures of New Years Eve, unfortunately. But I did just want to jot down a few things we did around that time that were very fun:





1. Paul and I hadn't made any plans to go anywhere to bring in the New Year. I wasn't feeling well and we have spent more NYE's in than we have out so it's kinda just what we do. Becky and Judd joined us last minute - lucky for us that their plans fell through! - and so we had Paul's homemade enchiladas, some random snacks, and Becky and Judd made nummy cookies. We played card games and then ended up having never-ending Tetris competitions. We were so in to it, in fact, that we noticed there was less than a minute left til Midnight! We hurried and switched the tv over to a station to watch the ball drop - just in the nick of time with only 15 seconds left! - and then went right back to Tetris :) It was seriously fun for me!

We also had some fab friends in the hood throw a pre-New Years Party (sans children). They rented out the game room at Noah's and we spent the night playing all sorts of stuff and watching football on the big screen. It was super cool.

2. We went out to dinner with Amanda and Spencer, something that we haven't done in a long time. It was so nice to get out and we went to Tepanyaki and enjoyed fantastic food! I had a lot of fun laughing together and I wish I had ten bowls of that salad with the amazing ginger dressing to take home!





3. The following night after Tepanyaki, all of my siblings met at Bonzai - the exact same food and type of restaurant as Tepanyaki. Our cook was especially funny and with 9 crazy kids we had a blast. I stole my husbands salad so I was able to eat 2 ginger dressing salads!!! We also pretended that it was Amber's birthday. At Bonzai they bring over a gong and - somebody please help me out...what's the name of the little round thing that has bells all along the outside and you smack it while you sing?? I can't remember!!! - to play as obnoxiously as you want and we sang to her in the very same fashion we do at home - ha ha ha....I think people thought we were crazy! - and then they take your group photo, print it out and you get to write on it and hang it up in the restaurant. Oh, and everyone gets a little cup of very good ice cream. It was a fantastic night.





4. We had a fun night with our friends Teresa and Paul and a new couple in our neighborhood. We had cheese fondue, great appetizers, a fantasticly yummy warm drink and Teresa made us little desserts to top it all off. We played a game called Wits and Wagers and had a blast getting to know our new friends...all thanks to Teresa's wonderful planning!

5. As a family, we attended the latest Chronicles of Narnia. The funny part of us going to movies is that when it's over, someone goes and refills their popcorn bucket and we stand around eating it and goofing off for awhile. :) We also sort of make a mess.

My nephews found this poster quite fun and here's Aiden pretending he's Rango:

Christmas Day 2010

Okay...I am almost caught up on my Holiday events!

My side of the family all meets up at my parents house in the morning after we do our own gifts and we fatten ourselves on Sticky Buns, O.J. and fruit.

We also do our sibling gift exchange. This year Paul and I had Morgan and Sam. They were getting ready to move out on their own and since they had a shotgun wedding and no reception...they are short on house supplies. So I made my dollar really stretch and I picked out buttloads of kitchen spatulas, spoons, wisks, misc things like ice cream scoop, peeler, cheese grater and measuring cups, and then a mixing bowl and strainer.

Amber had Paul and I and we got a new toy to add to our home gym - a medicine ball! Yay - she knows us so well!:

My mom, her mom, and my dad enjoying the view:

My dad loves to collect Cabella's gift cards so that he can save up 100's of dollars and go get some really cool gear for hunting or fishing or shooting. So we all added to his collection and I thought it was really funny someone gave him theirs in a pink fru-fru bag:

Grandpa played with the kids and their new toys:

My brother-in-law Kenny looking so pretty:

We listened to new music on new iPod's:

And my nephews helped my put together a gingerbread train that I got from my neighbor:

We spent the entire day there this year because we didn't have to meet Paul's family until 5. When we did, you can bet that Paul taught his family Ninja and we played that for a long time! Then came our gift exchange:

Paul's parents opening their individual gifts before we had them open their 'together gift':

I had B.J. and I got him a tie (cuz he always has to borrow Paul's dress clothes for funerals, weddings and cruises! So now he had a shirt and a tie of his very own) and some gym shorts:

We had a nice Christmas dinner together and played Sorry! and enjoyed the rest of the night. Yay Christmas :)

Christmas Morning

Look how excited my cute dog is for Christmas! You can't tell but his tail is wagging really fast:

Christmas Morning looks like this at our house. I love my tree! And Santa was very generous:

We put on the Christmas tunes, Paul built us a cozy fire while I made mugs of Peanut Butter cup and Cherry Chocolate hot cocoa....yummmmmmm. I love Christmas mornings with this man:

Paul's main gift this year was a subwoofer, amp and box for his Second Lady:

Paul surprised me with an Amazon Kindle. I was quite surprised and it's pretty cool.

This year it was my turn to shop for the 'Family Gift' so Paul opened up this honkin' box to find tennis rackets! Yay!! I am so excited to get on to the court and see how bad we suck. I'm mostly looking forward to feeling new muscle soreness :)