Thanksgiving @ home

I put together a bunch of memories from last week :) Enjoy!

SURPRISE!

So, as some of you know, Ryan, Bailey and I flew home to surprise our parents for Thanksgiving. Ryan and I have had our tickets since APRIL! And pretty much everyone knew except our parents (Neil knew, he had to fly Bailey home). I don't have the video of when we surprised Tamara, I think Bailey has that one. But I do have the ones of when we surprised my parents!

It felt so good to be home. Aaaaand, when we said our goodbyes, it felt good to be able to say "See you in a few weeks!" This was the best surprise ever. I love my family so much and it was wonderful to be with them during Thanksgiving time.

Ryan and I got to go to Marshfield, MA to visit Bev and her boyfriend Ricky. We went to the fresh seafood market right on the shore and picked out live lobsters and went back and made them at Bev's house! Yummmm! Ricky the lobsterman taught us the right way to eat them. So gooooood! Fresh seafood.... one of the best parts of New England!

Gramma and Justin, thank you so much for getting Ryan and I home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Love you!

I know... it's been FOREVER!

hey hey hey!

Sorry I haven't blogged in ages, Ry and I have been so busy. Now, even though our days are crazy busy and we see each other for only a little bit each day, we have found a few hours a week to devote to yoga. I told him this last night while we were at our yoga class: it's wonderful that we have the gym to go to and the yoga class to do together, because that's our thing, and our time to see each other during the week. If you want a firm butt, do yoga! If you want to sleep better at night, do yoga! If you want an intense work out, DO YOGA!
Christmas is coming :) I've decorated our diningroom table already!!! Actually, it's been decorated since the week after Halloween hehe as my mother put it, "I jumped the gun." Oh well! I love Christmas and I won't get sick of the early decorations! I've included some pictures I took of my table :)I know it's kind of random, but Ry and I were walking down the beer aisle at the grocery store the other night and I saw this and thought it was just the funniest thing! And by the way, that is NOT what a Provo girl looks like!

What a beautiful life

I was driving home from work last week. It was around 7:15 at night and the sun made the sky a beautiful watercolor mix of pinks, purples and blues. The radio was on, but not too loud because I had the window down to feel the wind through my hair. The sunset behind the mountains in the west, turning the mountains in the east into tall, salmon-colored giants. A thought passed through my mind: Life is beautiful.

Then, "Chain of Love" by Clay Walker came on, and I turned up the radio to listen. What wonderful words. What a beautiful message.

A slide show of loved ones played in my head. This song made me think of Margie. She is the picture-perfect image of selflessness. I really do believe that all of the wonderful things she has done for me and Ryan have shown me the importance of "the chain of love." Perhaps that was her motive in doing those generous things. Well Margie, you got through to me, and every generous thing will be a continuation of the generosity you have shown to me throughout my entire life. Thank you to all of those who have also helped Ryan and I out. Tamara and Neil, you KNOW that we would be living on the streets, hitch hiking to school if it weren't for you. Mom and Dad, Ryan and I have wonderful memories of our fun and fabulous vacations that we've taken together, and we have you to thank for those. Grandma, other Grandma and Papa, Aunt Carla, Aunt Wendy, Bailey, Jen, and all you others, I don't want this to turn into a huge shout out, and I know probably none of you read this, but most of all, thank you for your gifts of love. This, I will pass on the most.

Just tonight, it was the same scene. Driving home a little after 7, the sky.. not as pink as last week's, but still beautiful. A new song came on the radio. I listened. It was Kenny Chesney and... what? Dave Matthews? What are YOU doing in a country song? It doesn't matter who was in it, but the guitar brought tears to my eyes.

As I listened to "I'm Alive," I began to think about how grateful I am to be alive. Life is precious. Every breath is a gift. And if the day ever comes, I will fight for my life because of the treasures pointed out in this song.

Please, take a few minutes to just listen to the words of these songs. Oh my gosh, they are amazing.

And for those of you who can't stand country... well, frankly, I don't care.

Just so you all have this in writing...

I have stopped biting my nails. Yes, yes, it's true. After 21 years of biting, I've stopped.

...and Ryan continues to bite his...

Beautiful New England

Oh, home sweet home.

It was so nice to be home. Here are some beautiful pictures from my week and a half back East.

My mom, me, Aunt Carla, Gramma, and Margie a.k.a. my lady loves <3

Steve Carell's house in Marshfield, MA

The beach behind Bev's new house in Cohassett, MA

Cape May, NJ

Cape May, NJ

Ocean City, NJ

Exactly HOW messy is Ryan?

This messy:

...so messy I put my apron on him while he ate! He doesn't do well with pasta... I wonder how long until we start using our kitchen table? I just like it as a decoration. My table looks like something out of better home & garden magazine! Too beautiful to move every night.

Today we went to Jersey's first birthday party. Wow, what a beautiful little girl, with absolutely wonderful parents!

The crew, plus Jersey

Little Jersey

Something's up..

Yesterday, Ryan and I hung out with our friends Buddy, Rob, Jen, and little Jersey.

Today, Ryan, Rob and Jersey are all puking their guts out.

...Coincidence??? Jen and I are trying EVERYTHING to not get sick, and we aren't sure if Buddy's sick or not. Needless to say, it is very very sad. Poor little Jersey is throwing up left and right, and Ryan is such a pitiful little sick boy! Obviously, there won't be any pictures on this entry because, well, who wants to see a picture of this!

Aaaaaaand, Ryan got sick at exactly this time last year! I don't know what is going on!

I think people have stopped looking at my blog because I haven't blogged all summer. Hey! Come back! I have surveys I need to do for some of my classes, and I figured that I'll do them on my blog, so people can post their answers to my surveys as themselves or anonymous. Anyways, I need people to read my blog so that I can have enough answers for my surveys to form general statements about "public opinions". So, when you start to see me post questions about education and such, ...tell your friends!!!

Until then, keep Ryan, Rob and baby Jersey in your prayers! Ryan and Rob need to start school/work healthily, and Jersey turns 1 in two days.. hopefully she feels better by then!

Back to blogging

I know the REAL reason I started a blog was so that I could talk about my summer up at Bear Lake since I don't get cell service. Well... my internet access was, what you'd call, limited, AAAAAND I found that if I hiked to the very VERY top of the trailer park, I actually DO get cell service. YA! Sooo, I'll just start up again!

Vegas was a loooong time ago, so I'll just skip on the pictures. They're on facebook, if you care, which I highly doubt you do. ooold news. I've spent the past few days trying to upload the video on here, but I'm giving up. The internet sucks and/or the video's too long. Screw it! Just believe me when I say that it's beautiful.

Oh! I went home to Connecticut where my family, Bev and I went to the Jersey shore for a few days, which was an absolute blast. Thanks again Mom and Dad for taking us! It sure beat camping, even though I'm sure that would have been fun too, of course. But Rocky Neck beach just doesn't have the 6 foot waves like New Jersey did! In the blog entry above, I'll put all the pictures from when I went home because we don't have internet yet here and so I'm mooching off of our neighbor's unsecured wireless. Ya, ya, I can hear my dad now. "That's how you'll get a virus on your computer..." Sorry Daddy! I gotta do what I gotta do to SURVIVE!

Well, as most of you know, while I went home and enjoyed myself to the max, Ryan stayed here and slaved away as the LaBeau's fryboy :( Man, did I miss him! And he missed me! But it feels really nice to be back here in Orem in our cozy condo. We had ZIP food in our place, so I did some healthy grocery shopping today. Oh! I LOVE FARMERS MARKETS! Holy crap, if I was a grocery store, I'd totally be crushin on the one I went to today! Beautiful! And it wasn't expensive at all! Maybe that's the deal with Farmers Markers, but even the organic carrots were like a buck for a bunch of them! I love the organic carrots because they remind me of the kind Bugs Bunny eats, with the greens bushing out at one end :) Yummy! Check it out.. I hardcore cleaned my fridge out today and then put everything in it that I bought. I took a picture because I was so excited with how healthy it looks! And on the third shelf down, those are all veggies still in their bags from the market. It kinda looks like bagels or something, but nope! They're more yummy veggies! And you can see the greens from the carrots hanging out! Am I making your mouth water yet???

And the best part is that I'm going to use ALL of it! All the recipes that I plan to make this weekend to last us into next week call for only fresh veggies, like onions and carrots and eggplant and peppers and cucumbers! Okay, well I'm going to work on making my photo album of when I was home for my next blog post so ALL YOU'S GUYS can check out how much fun I had when I was home!

Park City

Yesterday was our day off, something that every LaBeau's employee looks forward to every week. We really didn't know what to do: lay by the beach, go shopping, or go into Logan (which we shortly canceled out because there's nothing to do there). Well, we can go to the beach whenever, but we just got paid and I said it was time to shop! Besides, I've been very good the past 4 or 5 months with budgeting and Ryan said I get a reward :) Aaaaand, he went to the Laker's game ($$$) so I got to buy some clothes! So, where better to go shopping than PARK CITY! Actually, we were aiming for the Gateway in Salt Lake, but we drove by Park City and decided to stop there, which was where we spent most of the day. When we got to the Gateway, we only bought some chocolates for Renee and that was it.. we were exhausted!

image from here

The only other time I'd seen Park City was on our honeymoon in the winter time, but let me tell you, it's GORGEOUS in the summer time!

Today, Ryan, Bailey and I (that correct grammar's for you, Gramma) work 12-close, so I guess I should go get ready. I've found that if I walk to the very top of the trailer park, I get service! So I made a few phone calls this morning.. I'm so happy I get service SOMEWHERE up here! Gramma and Aunt Carla, don't worry about my weight. I felt bad that I told you guys this morning and I don't want to worry you! I'm not getting any thinner haha it's probably just my jeans that were all stretched out from being washed so many times.

Time to go! Just thought I'd stop and blog about our day off!

Meet Katelyn

I don't have to go to work for another couple of hours, and I'm just sitting here with wet hair because I am trying to gather up the energy to go do something with it.

I went down to the "beach" today and was very disappointed. The lake is so high that there IS NO BEACH! There's a long strip of about 3 feet of wet sand between the lake and a second "smaller lake" that has formed where the parking lot of our favorite beach used to be. To get to it, you need to walk through about 2 feet of water, and then once you get to that small strip of wet sand, you put your towel down and lay on it, and in seconds your towel is soaked! WHAT? Ughhh so here I am.

While I was trudging through the nasty "smaller lake," I was thinking about all the things that people don't know about me. Like, sometimes people might ask, "What's something that nobody else knows about you?" The truth is, there's lots that people don't know about me! Dumb little facts that honestly only Bev knows about me. I talked to Bev about a week ago and we reminisced about some of the really funny things that only she knew about me. Well, seeing as they're harmless and I can't get in trouble for them anymore (right Mom?), I'll share a few on my blog.

1. This one's my favorite and so it has to be the first one. My first high school boyfriend and I went over his house instead of going to track practice one day, and I had my period. (No, it's not going where you think it's going). I had a pantyliner in my pocket because I had put it there while switching classes that day and totally forgot about it! Well, those things make crinkly noises! I didn't realize it was in my pocket until we got out of his car at his house and I was like, crap, he'll think I'm weird if he finds this! So, when we got in his house, I bent down to take my shoes off (because we were supposed to be at track practice, remember?) and I slipped it under this small carpet that is in front of his front door! Well, after we were done "hanging out," we came down stairs and I guess I hadn't slipped the pantyliner all the way under the rug, because it was sticking out! He was like, "Umm, did you put this there?" I was like, nope! Well, the only women he lived with were his mother, and his older sister, who was at college. OBVIOUSLY it was me! But he didn't bring it up again. MORTIFYING!

2. My first "real" kiss was to a guy I really didn't know, and I really didn't want it either. And it tasted like Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Because that was what he was drinking. Eww.

3. I was addicted to hair cuts in, I think maybe my senior year of high school? Maybe Junior? Anyways, for some reason I thought I was like a hair stylist or something since I had had so many haircuts, so Bev let me cut her hair. I was like, "Oh, I've seen it done so many times! I can do it!" And I totally BUTCHERED it! Willa even sent me a picture of it a while ago!

That was after my first cut into her long hair. Don't you love it? My face is saying "I'm really not a hairdresser, I just got too many haircuts." And Bev's face is saying "I can't believe I let her do this." After I was done, It was about shoulder length because I really didn't know what I was doing. I'm lucky we are still best friends!

4. I once had 3 boyfriends at once. I just couldn't say no. Hey, I was young! Needless to say, 2 out of the 3 still won't talk to me to this day.

5. In SPF (which was our high school youth group at Wapping Church), one of the leader's names was Hank. Hank was a creepy old man who had good intentions, but just came off as a total perv. Exhibit A: Jenna got paint all over her legs while working on our trip to Virginia and Hank (in his creepy voice) asked if he could help her get the paint off of her legs. EW HANK! Anyways, my last SPF trip was to Maryland where we camped on the beach. One night it poured so much that our tents leaked (and one of the girls actually woke up crying because she thought it was Noah's Ark again and we were all going to die. Man, some churchy people...) and so Bev and I brought all the girls into one of the huge vans where we turned on the heat because we were all wet, drowned, cold rats. Well, girls sleep in whatever they want when they're with other girls, so most of us were in tank tops and underwear, or t-shirts and underwear. I was so cold because I was one of those half-naked girls, so I found a pair of men's shorts in the front seat of the car, where our friend CJ (one of the cute boys who went on the trip) sat that day. So naturally, I put them on to keep warm and slept in them, thinking they were CJ's. The next morning, I got out of the car and Hank goes, "So I see you found my shorts." ...EW! That was the joke for the rest of the trip.. how Katelyn slept in creepy Hank's shorts.

6. When I was in the 5th grade (this one's a classic Katelyn story and my Mom loves to tell it), I found a dead fly in our house. Well, at the time I only had a plastic cup and a tissue on me, don't ask why. So I picked up the fly with the tissue and flushed it down the toilet. As I watched the fly and tissue circle down into the toilet, I looked at the plastic cup, then the toilet, then back to the plastic cup. I thought to myself, hmmm. If a fly in a tissue could fit down the toilet, I wonder if a plastic cup could. Yes, that's how my mind works, and still does sometimes. So I did it! I flushed the cup down the toilet! And yeah, it clogged the toilet. So my mom and dad had to call up my Sunday School teacher's husband who I think was a plumber, I'm not sure, and he brought his snake or whatever it's called, and tried to fix our toilet! Nope, that didn't work. So now, to this very day, the toilet still clogs because of that darn cup that's still stuck in our toilet.

7. I'm looking at a spider on the ceiling right now. It's moving. Ew. And I plan to do nothing about it in fear that its family members will know I killed it and they'll come for me. This isn't really a fun fact about me.. more of a thought from my head.

8. Confession: The only time I've ever really drank was when Bev and I found a beer in her refrigerator before track practice one day and split it. Then we went to track practice and had it in our heads that we were drunk, so we acted absolutely nuts that track practice and secretly blamed our behavior on that half of a can of beer we had drank. Looking back, yeahhhh we weren't drunk at all. Half a beer? Come on.

Well, that's all I got for now. Time to blow dry my hair because the spider is almost right above my head. Love you all!

McCrappy Food

I've never been much of a reader, but I needed a good summer book to read while at Bear Lake. So, I went to Barnes and Noble and in the "American Culture" section, I found a book that I just can't put down! Have you seen "Supersize Me"? If you haven't, GO WATCH IT! Morgan Spurlock wrote and starred in that movie, and he wrote this wonderful book: "Don't Eat This Book." The cover is very misleading... tacky and colorful. However, I can't put this book down. And that says a lot for a girl who tried to read Harry Potter and quit after 2 chapters. I'm just not one for reading... except if they're funny, informational, and an easy reader, like this book!

The book is sort of the afterward of the movie. He explains why he made the movie and why he made it the way he did. Why did he choose McDonald's to focus on and not Burger King or White Castle? Why did he limit his walking? Why did he ONLY eat McDonald's? How did he come up with the idea of the movie in the first place? All these questions are answered in one chapter alone. I'm only 77 pages into it, but so far he has talked about the following (I've listed the names of the chapters and what they're about):

Ch. 1: Do you want lies with that?-- The lies the fast food industry tells us about how their food is healthy and nutritious... WHAAA?

Ch. 2: Girth of a nation-- How America has become the fattest nation in a short amount of time. He touches upon how we exercise much less and eat much more than we ever have before in the history of the country.

Ch. 3: The light at the end of the taco-- What can we do about this?

Ch. 4: A really great bad idea-- This is the chapter about his major motion picture "Supersize Me".

I am so fascinated by the information Morgan Spurlock has compiled in this funny and eye-opening book. If anyone wants to borrow this book, let me know because I'm almost done with it!

Fun facts from the book:

*Alabama is the fattest state (28.4% obese); Colorado is the thinnest (16% obese)

*"The average American adult is now overeating by a few hundred calories a day. For kids, it's gone up to anywhere from 80 to 230 extra calories a day."..."An extra 10 calories a day translates to the addition of one extra pound of fat a year. If the average American is overeating by about 200 calories a day, that a whopping twenty pounds of flab every year." (Note: Today, the recommended daily calorie intake is 1600 for women and 2200 for men.)

*"In the early days, a soda at Burger King was 12 ounces. That's now called a "small" soda. A medium is 20 ounces, and a large is 32. A super size soda at McDonald's was 42 ounces. The Double Gulp at your local 7-Eleven comes in a bucket the size of a wastepaper basket, which holds 64 ounces of soda--half a gallon!"..."That's 600-800 calories."

*1/5 of American kids are now drinking soda at the ages of one and two.

*A woman sued McDonald's for their coffee being too hot when she spilled it on herself while driving and suffered from third degree burns, requiring skin grafts and a one-week hospital stay... and she WON! (Read to find out why McDonald's lost the lawsuit!)

*On McDonald's website, there's a disclaimer that runs in very small print at the bottom of the nutrition information page that says: No products are certified as vegetarian; all products may contain trace amounts of ingredients derived from animals. Even their salads and fries (especially their fries: it's the beef lard that gives them their unique flavor).

*Chicken McNuggets contain twice as much fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger.

*"For every additional serving per day of soft drink consumed, the risk of becoming obese increases by about 50%." -David Ludwig of Children's Hospital in Boston.

If anyone's read this book or any others that maybe I'd like, let me know! I just got done with "Fast Food Nation" and I also bought "Fat Land" to read the rest of this summer. Health is just so interesting and learning about why America's obesity number is climbing so high so quickly.

...Oh. and I know I haven't put any pictures/videos up from Vegas yet... I'll do that when I get around to it.

Happy Daddy's Day!

I know I'm doing two posts in one day, but the two just didn't seem to go together.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

It's days like today that I wish I was at home with my family, watching my dad open up the gift that I got for him, even though it wasn't very big. I wish that I was there to help him out in the yard, because, even though the weather in Connecticut has been gloomy, I bet he was working in the yard today, and maybe nobody offered to help him, or maybe nobody made him his favorite dessert, or maybe nobody told him they loved him. I wish I was there to do each of these things for him every day. After seeing "my second family" lose their father recently, it makes me try to work extra hard to cherish every day that I have with my dad, even though we are timezones apart. I pray my husband grows to become even half the man my father is. I love you Daddy!

Fabulous fathers to remember today...

Gary Bulkley

7.03.07
Frank Falana

12.23.06

Carl Calabrese

2.9.97

Add any others if you wish :)

Ryan's first cake

Ryan made a cake today ALL by himself .. It's his "Happy Not-Yet Father's Day" cake.

I was sneaky and took a picture of him preparing

Like a pro

Mixing...

He baked it AND decorated it!

Think before you eat

I'm not saying go veggie, but the church says "Eat meat sparingly" for a reason. 18% of the word's greenhosue gas emissions come from cattle. So let's eat all the cows to bring this percentage down! Ummm, no it doesn't work like that. By incraesed meat consumption, that percentage will continue to increase. Supply and demand, people! The more meat we eat, the more cattle they will "create" and slaughter. Cattle are fed corn and soy, which are grown using fossil fuel. It then takes tons of fuel to transport that food TO the cattle. Then, the cows (yes, I'll say it) fart! The methane gas they produce is 23 times WORSE than carbon dioxide! And thennnn more fossil fuel is burned while slaughtering the cows. If we all reduced our meat consumption by 20%, it woud be as though we all switched to hybrid cars. So, want to go green? Don't go out and spend all that money on a hybrid car, just cut down on the meat! Source: Check out this video.

However, if you are in the process of cutting out a good portion of meat out of your diet, start with getting rid of fast food such as Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, and small fast food restaurants. In the fast food industry, the treatment of animals is so inhumane it's disgusting. Before you take a big bite of that chicken sandwich or quarter pounder, think of how that meat got from the factory into your hands. If more people thought about where their food comes from, we would be a much healthier country.

Make a difference. You can fill this out and automatically send a letter to McDonald's to switch to a less cruel way of slaughtering their animals. Now I don't want to be one of those people who preach to everyone "Meat is bad, blah blah blah." To each his own. But I do feel like it couldn't hurt to spread the word about fast food chains and how terrible they are: 1. They are incredibly cruel in killing meat, and 2. They are SO unhealthy!

From the genius movie Supersize Me, here is the intro to it. If you get a chance, rent it, watch it, and actually listen to it.
Come on people, let's get healthy.

*Love* for the fam

I just thought I'd write about how grateful I am for my family. Not just my immediate family, but extended and through marriage. I am so blessed to constantly be reminded of how much love the have for me and my husband, and how much they help us out (financially, emotionally, religiously, all of it). Each and every person who I am related to has touched my life in such a tremendous way; I would be a different person today if even one of those people weren't present.
My parents have always been there. Looking back at how I acted in middle school and high school, I am in awe of how well they handled me, and I dread having a teenager of my own! I don't know what I ever did to deserve the love they show towards me. My mother is so patient, and even when she isn't, she is still more patient than I'd be. She always puts others first, and that is a trait that I am working on developing. If I turn out to be even half the woman my mother is, I will be happy. My father is the sweetest man out there. It is because of him that my heart goes out to working men everywhere. I see how hard my father works to keep our family running, clean, and full of love. I'm truly a "daddy's girl". My parents are the hardest working people I know, and they do so with 110% of their heart in their work. I love both of my parents so much I didn't even know it was possible to love that much. I don't even know where to start with my brother. Oh, Justin. He is a piece of work! Looking past the attitude and the live-in-the-moment behavior, he is a spitting image of my mother in the way that she puts others before herself. He would drop everything to help someone in need; I know, he's done it for me. If I ever need anything, he does it for me, no questions asked. I don't remember when I've ever treated him so kind to deserve this kind of respect and love in return. Justin is the love of my life.My in-laws are amazing people. Tamara will always say something to make you smile. Her heart is so big that you can feel the love she has just by being in her presence. Charitable, giving, understanding, and peaceful are some of the many words to describe this beautiful woman. Once you meet her, trust me, you'll never forget her! Oh, how my heart is warmed when I hear Neil say "Miss Katelyn"! Neil is THE perfect gentleman, husband, person, ...must I go on? He knows just what to say, all the time, and that is a terrific gift to have. Bailey is the most beautiful girl that I know, and I've told her and several of my friends this before because I mean it and I always will. She is so full of light and life that it's unbelievable. When I know that I'm going to get to see her, whether it's over Christmas break or at LaBeau's or just for a short visit, I get so excited to see my sister-in-law. From the very beginning this angel has touched my heart and changed my life. I've never met Britney in person, but she has been in my presence; I feel her more and more in my life as my love for her, her brother, and her family grow.

My grandparents have played a large role in my life. From babysitting me growing up all the way to the huge hugs they give when I come home, every single memory I have of growing up is thanks to them. Riding on papa's tractor with Justin, sneaking up into the garden to eat raspberries and string beans (mmmm so good!), and the summer dinner we'd have out on the patio with the best iced tea in the world, Grandma and Papa Collins are truly sent from heaven. I love them both more than they could ever know. And my Grandma Calabrese. She is a 24 year old in a 70 year old's body! It kills me to think of a time when she won't be around at Christmas Eve parties to grace all of us with her lively presence, or to talk to for hours on the phone about absolutely nothing. She is the constant voice in my head that makes me think before speaking or acting, and thank goodness for that!

And finally, my wonderful husband. I know that if I had moved away from home with anyone else, that person wouldn't have been enough to make me be able to call any other place "home". But Ryan is enough. He is more than enough to make Utah a home for me. I love him so much, and I wish I could tell him that every second of the day.

I love you all -Kate <3

Be Healthy

10 simple things you can do to change our food system:

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages. You can lose 25 lbs. in a year by replacing one 20 oz. soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).
2. Eat at home instead of eating out. Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 years.
5. Meatless Mondays--Go without meat one day a week. An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.
6. Buy organic and sustainable food with little or no pesticides. According to the EPA, over one billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.
7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market. Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spend by the consumer.
8. Make a point to know where your food comes from--READ LABELS. The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections. Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

Source: Food Inc. Movie

The new movie Food Inc. is out, but the closest to Utah it's showing is California! Check out the trailor:
Apparently this movie is supposed to be amazing and life-changing. America does need a change when it comes to food. There is so much crap out there, and we eat it because, honestly, we're all fatties! We just need self control and the truth about our food. The self control needs to come from us, but the truth about our food is in movies such as Supersize Me and Food Inc. Check out the HungryForChange Blog.

Mmmmm chocolate..

Ryan and I have gotten in the habit of baking on Sundays. This past Sunday we made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I asked Ryan, "Do you want chocolate or vanilla cake?" And he said, "Chocolate." [..pause..] "..and never ask me that again."

If your mouth isn't watering just from looking at these pictures, check your pulse.

Ryan says he wants to make something next, because I did most of the work on this one and so he wants to do one by himself. I'll keep ya posted on his creation!

Just an update, my whiplash is all better... but it really sucked!

A new summer read

Summer is coming up (actually it's here, sort of. not officially. anyways..) and I realized that I can't be sitting on my butt for the next few months without picking up a book. It's hard for me to really get into a book unless it's something I can relate to. Recently, this has been books on food, health, and the Earth. Searching on Amazon, I came across this book...

The picture portraying Jesus looked very LDS-like, so I googled the author and found that he is actually LDS! The book is full of quotes from church leaders regarding kindness to animals and loving our planet. Here are some quotes from the book that I found on the author's website:

Man’s dominion is a call to service, not a license to exterminate.

*Hugh Nibley

Nature helps us to see and understand God. . . . Love of nature is akin to the love of God; the two are inseparable.

*Joseph F. Smith

Can any man who has walked beneath the stars at night, can anyone who has seen the touch of spring upon the land doubt the hand of divinity in creation? . . . All of [the] beauty in the earth bears the fingerprint of the Master Creator.

*Gordon B. Hinckley

I love to view the things around me; to gaze upon the sun, moon, and stars; to study the planetary systems, and the world we inhabit . . . I could not help but believe there was a God, if there was no such thing as religion in the world.

*John Taylor

Kindness to animals and to all living things is one good way of expressing true religion.

*Joseph F. Smith

A true Latter-day Saint is kind to animals, is kind to every created thing, for God has created all.

*David O. McKay

If we maltreat our animals, or each other, the spirit within us, our traditions, and the Bible, all agree in declaring it is wrong.

*Brigham Young

Cruelty to animals is always the sign of a weak and little mind, whereas we invariably find really great men distinguished by their humanity.

*George Q. Cannon

What is even more serious than the wrongs inflicted upon dumb animals is the habit of wrong doing, for doing wrong to animals is but a stepping stone to the doing of wrong to our fellowmen.

*Joseph F. Smith

I think this is the book I've been waiting for! I haven't read it yet, but I'll let you know how it is when I do. I'm grateful that finally someone in the church has compiled quotes and teachings about how animals are not here solely for human consumption, and the Earth is not something to destroy or harm.

Ryan cooked for me!

Well, sort of :)

For dinner I made apricot-glazed chicken (vegetarian, of course!) with corn and biscuits. Ryan made the biscuits! It was the 77 cent kind from the baking aisle where you just add water, but they were the best instant biscuits I've ever had! He was such a good helper :)

Before...
...and after!

To get the chicken recipe, check out my recipe blog! It's delish!!!

"Don't call it an accident. It was an incident." -Ryan

The sun was shining, the air smelled of the cut grass and hot asphalt, and for the first time that week, she was going to make it to work on time. She always took the highway to get to work, even though it was only one exit up from her own. Turning left onto the on-ramp, she pushed "1" on her radio and "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem" rang out from the car speakers. Today was going to be a good day.

Naturally, she used the on-ramp to pick up speed, since the on-ramp merged with the highway immediately. 55, 56, 57, she rounded a corner and her exit was in sight: "University Parkway, Exit 274". Something up ahead caught her eye. Brake lights? BRAKE LIGHTS?! They were so sudden, there was no time to think. Her right foot flew from the gas pedal to the brake and put as much force down as it could. The car ahead was getting closer and closer as her car was losing control. It swerved left, right, left, then right again, making its last swerve a forceful 180 degree turn as the tail-end of the car spun around. Suddenly, she was facing oncoming traffic, but only for a millisecond. The car continued off the side of the highway, down onto the steep grass and gravel hill, pressing her up against the car door as it spun around. The right two wheels of the 99 Civic lost contact with the dry earth below. The car went up on its remaining two wheels, and it seemed as though it sat there forever, teeter-tottering, deciding whether or not it would flip over and roll down the rest of the hill. It was on two wheels for only the length of time it takes to blink, but it seemed like eternity. While on two wheels, the car whipped out the weekly newspaper, brewed a cup of coffee and sat down to do that week's crossword puzzle. Then, twice as fast as the wheels went up, they threw themselves at the ground, and all was still. The car was stopped in a pile of dirt and weeds on a 45 degree hill facing the opposite direction it started out in. Was she still alive? What just happened? She couldn't hear herself think over Kenny Chesney still on the radio.

Shaking, she fumbled to turn the car off, but the key wouldn't turn. Amongst the dust pouring in through the open windows, she unlocked the car door and fell out, landing on her hands and knees. Looking up the hill towards the edge of the highway she saw two women running towards her from opposite directions. One came right down to the car and, with outstretched arms, caught her as she lost all function in her legs. Every ounce of her body was shaking, and the deep pit in her stomach fueled the uncontrollable tears that poured from her terrified eyes.

If James Patterson could put the most terrifying four seconds of my life into a very short novel, there you'd have it. Blog readers, that was my morning.

It could have been so much worse. So easily. I could have spun to the left instead of to the right and ended up being hit head-on by a car going 80, because in complete honesty, I in no way turned the wheel to spin off to the right; all I did was brake. I could have hit the cement barrier which I just missed; If I had braked a second earlier, the police said it could have been fatal to hit the barrier at the speed that I spun at. And I could have rolled down the hill. While the car was up on two wheels, I remember feeling like I was in a movie as my purse, CD's, sunglasses, everything was falling from the right side of the car to the left, and I was forced against the door. The officer said that if I was in a car that was higher off the ground than my car, like an SUV, I would have flipped easily and rolled down the hill multiple times.

I'm not dramatizing anything about it; trust me, I wish I was. This morning I was lucky. No, wait. I wasn't lucky: I was blessed. I wasn't issued any kind of ticket or warning because no damage was done to any other car. The officer didn't say anything to me lecture-wise other than "Things like this happen." The car's only damage was the wheels, which by the way are much more expensive than Ryan and I ever imagined! The only thing is that I have whiplash.. ouch!

On a side note: I think I want to learn how to spin pizza dough in the air like the professionals do. It seems like a cool talent to develop!

Will Ferrell on "Man vs. Wild" ..LOVE IT!

Ry and I watched this tonight and OH MY GOSH it was so funny! I am in love with Bear! haha and in it Will Ferrell made fun of Bear Gryll's accent :) how he says vitamins and glaciers ahhhh best hour of my whole WEEK! check this out...

The Rope

This was actually a forward my mom send me a year ago or so, and I'll admit, I don't read all the forwards I get, but I'm glad I read this one. This story is one that I think about every now and then, and I hope that you will too. Here it is!

The Rope

The story is told of a mountain climber who desperately wanted to conquer the Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Argentine Andes. He initiated his climb after years of preparation. Because he wanted the glory all to himself, he went up alone.

As the day passed and it began to get dark, he did not stop to camp for the night but kept going. Night fell. There was no moon. Clouds covered the stars. Visibility was zero. Everything was black.

As the climber neared a ridge at about a hundred meters from the top, he slipped and fell into the total darkness below. In those anguishing moments when he was in free fall, memories flashed through his mind, both good and bad. He was certain he would die.

But then a jolt almost tore him in half. Like any sensible mountain climber, he had used pitons and a long rope tied around his waist to stake himself to the mountain. The top piton held, and the rope broke his fall.

He groped in the darkness for the side of the mountain, but it was out of reach. In the terrifying moments that followed, as he hung suspended, he cried out in desperation, "Help me, God! Help me! " Then he heard a voice from Heaven. "Cut the rope!"

"What?"

"Cut the rope!"

More stillness followed, as the man held all the tighter and swung slowly back and forth, hoping in vain to make contact with the side of the mountain.

Other climbers found him the next day, still hanging from the mountain, frozen to death ... two feet above a wide ledge. Unseen by him, the ledge would have been a safe spot where he could have dropped, recovered, built a small fire for warmth, and camped for the night.

It's a tragic story and hopefully not true, but it illustrates a point. Do you put your confidence in some "rope" ? Or can you trust God with those things that are beyond your control ? Why don't you let go ? God has great and marvelous things in store for you. Cut the rope and simply trust Him.

Let this be a lesson that God knows things that we do not. I've been struggling with dealing with some things lately, and I'm grateful that I can think back to this story and be comforted. He knows why things happen, what things will happen, and how they will happen. All we need to do is listen for his voice :)

So it's getting to the point in the summer where the nights are cool and the days are hot. I grew up without AC and the windows were open all the time in the summer. I guess this comforts me still when I'm inside and can hear the birds or cars. Up until last night, I've kept the windows open and our porch door open. Obviously, we have screens :) BUT we've been finding...

spiders! And for those of you who are familiar with how my husband feels about spiders, you'd know that well, we have a "problem" with spiders now. We never have any screen doors or windows actually open to the inside, so the only reason we can find for the spiders being in our home is that there must be nests in the spaces between the windows/doors and the screens. Now, we are leaving the AC on and the doors/windows closed. It makes me sad because I can't hear the birds or cars or my beautiful wind chime outside :( but at least HOPEFULLY there won't be any more spiders!

I think I'm addicted!

I feel like I can't go a day without blogging! I've never had a journal/diary, so I guess the fact that I find it comforting to reflect on my days should be a red flag that I should keep a journal, huh?! I've worked 12 hours today (9am-9pm) and am exhausted! It's nothing compared to working at LaBeau's haha but still, it's constant talking, standing, and MATH!

Ryan and I are here relaxing after a day of not seeing each other. Starsky and Hutch is on :) LOVE that movie! Right now Starsky and the curly-haired guy is having a dance-off (and Starsky is stoned haha) seriously... best movie ever! I bought hibiscus nectar at the natural food store the other day and LET ME TELL YOU, it is amazing! AND healthy! I'm on a bit of a health kick, which I hope lasts longer than my previous health kicks have lasted. It makes me happy when Ryan says he likes the healthy vegetarian food I make, being as picky has he's been in the past.

So about 3 months till I come home :) I seriously can't wait. I'm going camping with my family at the beach for a few nights, which I am SOOOOOO excited about! AHHHHHH I can't wait to see the beach again, let alone SLEEP there! I think Justin's ready to have me home too.. I get texts often saying he wants me home. It's really hard being away from my family. But hopefully it won't be permanent! And when I say hopefully, I mean HOPEFULLY!

HEY! All you So You Think You Can Dance fans! It's been on for two weeks now! I missed it tonight, but it's on again tomorrow night. I work till 7 tomorrow, so Ry, me, Rob and Jen (oh, and Jersey!) are having a DANCE PARTAYYYYY tomorrow night! So excited! Except I'm not so excited to hear Mary's annoying voice: "ALL ABOARD THE HOT TAMALE TRAIN! WOOO WOOO!" Bailey, you know what I'm talking about.

Check out this amazing popper from last summer: It's crazy! Seriously, don't ignore me! Look at this! It's CRAZYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Soooo much math!

So I'm picking up a few extra hours at work. Actually, one of the guys who works there is being shipped off to Iraq and I get to take all his classes. I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, but between the next two weeks, I'm working 76 hours. 76 HOURS IN 2 WEEKS! Math is driving me crazy! ..which has inspired me to share with you these funny math answers. Enjoy!

...and my personal favorite...

Lazy day today

Today (Memorial Day) I did absolutely nothing. Well, I did, kind of. I cleaned, grocery shopped, made an AMAZING dinner, and watched Jon and Kate Plus 8 (I'll get there in a minute!). You NEED to check out this recipe I found in my Skinny B*tch cookbook :) It's vegetarian meatloaf, which is somewhat of an oxymoron. You can find this recipe on my recipe blog: Check it out! Ryan LOVED it and so did I! And.. a major plus... it's way healthy! Not a single non-healthy thing in it! I served it with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Mmmmmm!

My parents went to the beach today. They sent me a few videos from their cell. I compiled them so I could share them with you!


So. Jon and Kate Plus 8. If you don't watch it, start! If you do, WHAT THE CRAP IS GOING TO HAPPEN?! I honestly want them to just stop the show and work things out. Check out my poll I have on my sidebar and let me know what YOU predict will happen!

Tonight's season premier was not at all how I thought it'd be. They 're usually sitting next to each other on their couch while being interviewed. BUT tonight they didn't sit next to each other EVER! Well, for a second at the end when they gave each other sad looks. Man, it sounds so rough. Those poor kids. Poor Jon and Kate. The media is seriously screwing up their lives! I don't blame Jon or Kate, but I completely blame the media for what's happened to their marriage. I was at the grocery store today standing in line and I looked at the magazines and saw US Weekly that had Kate on the cover that read "Mom to Monster". THAT'S TERRIBLE! Ughhhh the media. I hate the media. With a passion. *cringe*

Sorry about my "rant" for those who complained about it. Oh, and Skinny B*tch is the name of the book; when I talk about it, I'm not mad or sad or anything. Just... talking about a book. We all do it.

Yay Mom!

So, my mom started a blog! She's all new at this whole thing, but check it out: My mom's blog! I'm pretty proud of her, seeing as 1. our computer is extremely messed up at home and 2. she is not very good with computers (sorry mom, but it's true!)

Love you "Mommy"!

Bev texted my this video this morning. It's of the front yard of where she was babysitting... RIGHT on the Rhode Island shore! It made me miss her because she thought of me this morning as she looked out at the shore :( I wish there was a shore like this out here! Oh home, how I miss you. AND I miss Bev!

I know it's undecided right now if I'm working at LaBeau's or not for the summer, but if I don't go I'll probably still keep up on my blog, just not as often. AHHhhh I don't know what to do.. do I stay at Ology and get a second job here in Orem? Or do I suck it up, go to LaBeau's, and make a crapload of money, but maybe not have a job in the fall when I return? Decisions, decisions.

Saturday's Barbeque

So yesterday all 7 of us (the San Diego crew) got together and had a cook out at Rob and Jen's pool!

Jess and her nephew Crew

Splish splash!

Buddy being pregnant haha

Kisses from Mama!

And Jersey can crawl now! Check it out!

Dreaming Big

So I've been thinking about my dream. I'm talking the kind that you think about ever since you were little. The perfect life that's far from realistic. I asked Ryan about his and his and mine are the complete opposites! He's a city boy, I'm a country girl. Anyways, here's mine:

I would have a Victorian home in Cape Cod, MA about a half hour from the shore. The house would have a large front porch and a good amount of land, enough to take care of with a push lawn mower! We would have a pool in the back yard made by Aqua Pool and Patio (the Giannamore's company). Here's what their pools look like:

This would be my backyard, waterfall and all. The inside of the house would be white wood and it would be all happy colors. My kids would not be messy at all and everything would always stay white. (Remember, this is a dream. I realize that what I just said is the least realistic thing about my dream!) When my kids were old enough, I wouldn't go back to work as a school teacher, but I would open my own little candy shop in a touristy part of the Cape. It would be the coolest candy shop EVER! I took time out of my OH so busy Sunday (...me? busy?) to make the floor plans:

Now, you may be asking yourself... there's a pond? and a garden? in a candy shop? Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the COOLEST candy store EVER! It'd have a garden with "grass" with huge fake butterflies and other "pretty bugs" handing from the ceiling and beautiful scenery painted on the wall in that area. In the grass would be lollipops growing like flowers and all sorts of neat candy placed as though it'd belong in a garden! I'd have a small pond with real goldfish in it to make my candy shop more unique and memorable. The shelves would be curvy, and by the register counter there'd be a small round table for free samples. I'd have all flavors of jelly beans and chocolates! Lollipops and gummy candies and it'd be every child's heaven!

No taking my ideas, okay? Get your own dreams.

Anyways, this is what I'll be doing in the future! Wish me luck! And if you're in Cape Cod ever, feel free to stop by and lounge by my fabulous pool or help yourself to some candy from my shop, on the house of course!

Just doing some thinking

I was just looking at some old friends on facebook and was thinking back to my good times at Central. My most favorite place I've ever attended school... New Britain. Miss it more than words can say. I love you CCSU! Wish I was back there with all my friends..

Needless to say, I am very excited to come home in August. It's always a breath of fresh air to get out of Utah and come home. Ryan is sometimes bugged when I call Connecticut "home", because obviously we have a condo here and live here. BUTTTT Connecticut will always be my home and I will do whatever I can (which isn't much) to end up back East and raise my family there. And Ryan knows that and says he wants that too, which makes me happy. He knew what he was getting when he married me!

I'm really happy I've been getting into making jewelry! Since my mom does it too, it makes me feel closer to her since we share a common hobby. Hmmm... except my palms are getting rough spots from working with pliers and wire and tiny beads. They'll adjust!

My tribute to Central.. all the good times.

Home-made bling

Some jewelry I've made this week.. favorites??

^This one's brown beads wrapped around a thick wire with purple Swarovski crystals.

^This one's three wires of beads, all shades of purple, with Swavorski crystals.

^This one is three wires of colorful beads and colorful Swavorski crystals.

They're all bracelets; I thought I'd start simple and then move to earrings and necklaces! This should keep me busy this summer :)