Suckers

After much begging and pleading, my friend Michelle and I FINALLY got our husbands to watch Twilight with us last night. It was my 3rd time watching it since I got it. Don't judge. We BBQ'd hamburgers and ate homemade french fries, and pasta salad and then snuggled in for the movie. Michelle is as pathetic, I mean COOL as I am and we were both still so excited to see it again. As we were watching the movie, they guys got pretty into it and were asking questions and when it got over, they both wished they could watch the second one! ha ha! Next time maybe they will trust their wives :) He still says he won't read the books so I will have to keep working on that one. It was a lot of fun!

Here are some pics of the night we bought Twilight. ha ha

Yes, I really was THAT excited. (I MIGHT be exaggerating a little. But just a little) :) After Eric kindly took this pic, he said, "Now lets take one showing how disgusted I am." ha ha. Little did he know that just a short week later he would be eating his words! Much against his will, Eric went with me to Best Buy at midnight to pick this baby up. I had preordered it so guess who got to go to the front of the line to get her copy first. Thats right. ME! When we got home, Eric went in and went to bed and I followed him. I layed in bed and tossed and turned and finally got up and......yup! I put it in and stayed up until 3:30 watching it. ha ha.

We really are save drivers....this was on the way home from Best Buy and Eric was eating candy and Kai thought she should get some. Don't worry, as soon as I took the pic, I grabbed her.

I am sure some of you think this movie was lame and that I am lame for being so in love with it but that is okay. I can live with it. :) You better believe I am so excited for November 20th when New Moon comes into theaters. And I am pretty sure my husband is too. Gotta love it!

Donate Blood

The first time I donated blood was in high school. I got extra credit for my First Aid class so I was all for it. I had to lie about my weight since back then I didn't weigh much over 100. (Too bad I don't have that problem anymore!!) I felt good after doing it and now try to donate 2 times a year. I need to do it more often. You are able to donate once every 2 months I believe.

Last night was our stake blood drive and Eric and I went up. This was his first time. If he would have let me, I would have taken pics to document the occasion. He did great except at one point I looked over and his face was PALE WHITE!! and they had him in the reclining postition and put ice packs on his neck and chest. Hmmm...... :) He wasn't hungry when I made dinner that night but apparently not eating was not a good idea.

For anyone that has never done it, it really is not bad. The worst part, in my opinion, is getting your finger pricked to make sure you are not anemic. The process of actually filling the little bag with blood is about 5-10 minutes. (I take about 6 if you wanna know:) So once you get all set up, it really is not that long. AND, you get juice and treats when you are done. Eric and I happened to be the last ones of the night so we got extra goodies. We walked out of there with doritos, cheese its, fruit snacks, candy bars, rice krispie treats and swedish fish. Nice right?!

My blood type is 0-. Through doing just a little research I have learned that this is good for everyone else and not so good for me. So I figure, I should donate as often as I can since my blood can be used for any other blood type but O- can only receive O- and who knows, maybe I will need it back one day!

If you want to know more about donating blood, you can go here : www.givelife.org or here: www.utahblood.org

I have donated through both places. ***If anyone else is O-, I just found this article that they are desperately needing O- blood in Utah. Click here to read it!***

I also learned something that was exciting to me......apparently I am "active". When they took my blood pressure it was 96/68 and they said that was too low to donate. They asked if I was active and I said, not really. :) So they sat me down and said we would try again in a few minutes. The supervisor came over and asked if I had kids (No), had an active job (No, I sit at a desk most of the day), and a couple other questions. I said well, I have been doing water aerobics 2 times a week for a couple weeks. That's it! Wow, I had no idea. Sure made me feel good about my self. ha ha My blood pressure has always been pretty average so maybe my aerobics and treadmill routines are paying off. In the blood pressure department maybe but NOT in the "getting rid of flab" department. Ha!

So there you have it. I challenge you all to donate blood, whether you never have or not. Think of it as an oil change for your body!

Stellan

This sweet little guy is in need of our prayers. He is another miracle baby that is back in the hospital struggling. His mom's blog is one of my absolute favorites and they could really use our prayers. Please go visit them and keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks again guys. I know I can count on you all to help! :) Click here. Or click on the picture at the top of my sidebar.

Grills are a girls best friend

What?! That isn't how the saying goes? Well, today it is. What is not to love? No pots/pans to clean afterwards, no messy stove to wipe off and you get to enjoy the fresh air while cooking! Plus, when it gets hot, you don't have to heat up your house with the oven/stove.

Let me just tell you how excited I am that it is finally warming up! I was so happy to clean off the grill and cook us some chicken last night. I made something I had never tried before and we really loved it. It is called:

Grilled Chicken Taco Salad (ours were more like tostadas since I didn't have any lettuce....)


Here is the recipe if you are interested:

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup salsa (I used more)
1 TB fresh lime (or lemon) juice (I used more)
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro, chopped
2 TB chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coriander (I didn't have any and it tasted fine)
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 TB olive oil
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken
8 corn tortillas
4 cups thinly sliced lettuce
lime wedges, avocado slices, and sour cream (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, mix beans, salsa, lime/lemon juice, and half of cilantro;set aside.
2. In cup, stir chili powder, cumin, coriander, sugar, salt, cayenne, and oil until evenly mixed. (I also added some lemon juice) (mixture will be dry)
3. If necessary, pound chicken to 1/4" thickness. With hands, rub chicken with chili powder mixture.
4. Place chicken on hot grill rack over medium-high heat and grill about 8-10 minutes (or until juices in thickest part run clear). Place corn tortillas on grill and cook turning once, until lightly browned, 3-5 minutes. Transfer chicken to cutting board. Place tortillas on plates.
5. Cut chicken into long, think strips. Top tortillas with lettuce, bean mixture and strips. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro. If you want, add lime wedges, avocado, sour cream or grated cheese.

This was really yummy and very easy to put together as well. Eric really liked it. He is not a picky eater but when he says he really likes something, I know it is good :)

So there you have it. The grilling season has started and I plan to use my indoor kitchen as little as possible! This came from grilling recipe book my mom gave me (Good House Keeping Grill It!) and I plan to use it a lot this Spring and Summer. If anyone else has any favorite grilling recipes, I would love to hear about them!

Ladies & Gentlemen

Our lesson this last Sunday was on being a peacemaker. I am sure many of you had this same lesson. It was a good one for me because I can loose my patience very easily. Mainly when driving and dealing with customers :) Eric thinks I have road rage. Eric and I can both work on this in our home. Don't stress the small stuff and all that. Anyways, I have been trying to do much better at remaining calm and having a little more patience and respect with people. One sister in my ward shared a quote that I loved. I hope I get it right.....

"Treat others like ladies and gentlemen. Not because they are, but because you are."

This really made me think. It is so true. Joseph Smith was an excellent example of this. He was a true gentleman. He treated his worst enemies with respect and because of this, earned the respect of some of them. So there you have it. Because I am a "Lady" (hey I even get called Lady Brooke at work sometimes:) I am going to do my best to act like one and treat others like they, too, are ladies (and gentlemen). Will you join me?

Wowsers

That is all I can say about the storm yesterday. I think we only ended up with about a total of 18" but Paradise and Wellsville got closer to 30. Sheesh!! When I got home I had to park in the neighbors driveway because I was pretty sure I would not have made it into mine. I started shoveling and my FABULOUS neighbor came over with his snow blower and kindly asked "Are you doing this for exercise or can I help you?" ha ha I of course said he could help. I still kept shoveling and before you knew it, we were done!! Eric was pleasantly surprised when he came home to find the driveway all cleared. I took pics but my battery died and I have not put new ones in yet. It pretty much looks like we are back in January. I did get a couple pics with my phone so they are not that great but I thought they were cute.

Meet Moose

At least someone likes the snow. :)

He was having a grand old time rolling in the snow, biting at it and obviously sticking his head in it. He is a funny dog and such a friendly and loving boy. He loves to be where ever we are and always stays really close by. We love him. All 100lbs of him. :)

What the?!

Too bad I don't have any pics of what beautiful days we have had! Temps in the 40's. Green (well sort of) grass, tulips starting to poke up. I took Moose on a walk on Saturday (okay, so HE took ME) and the weather was fantastic. Even Sunday afternoon, I wore sandals to church, and short sleeves all day.

Well......this morning, Eric looked outside and said, "Awesome. It snowed like 4 inches." I was surprised but 4 inches is no big deal. So we proceeded to get ready but when I opened the garage to leave, I turned back and said, "Um Eric, I think we got a little more than 4 inches." This is what I saw............

In case you can't tell, there is like 12-14" (a little less on the driveway but that much on the yard) of nice, fluffy snow here. Needless to say, I was late to work. The dumb part, just a few miles down the road, they got half as much snow!! I guess we are just enough higher in elevation that we got lucky. Anyone else that lives in the South end of the valley knows my pain. You Northenders suck. ha ha Just kidding. I still like you. The only good thing is that this late in the year, it will not stay around for long!

Thanks babe for shoveling me out!! You can't tell in the pic, but the it is still snowing and we have a snow warning until the end of tomorrow! Hopefully the worst is over. Isn't it so nice that we get our biggest storm this year in March????? Thank heavens for garages!!

World Wide Ward Cookbook!

So I just happened upon this info while I was looking around at blogs (that is my nice way of saying I was doing the dreaded "stalking") and thought it was too great not to share!! There is already one of these books made and now they are collecting recipes for their Christmas Edition. For those of you that don't know, Ward recipe books are the BEST!! And this is a giant one with recipes from members all over the country.

They want your recipes, stories, traditions, etc and if they choose yours to go in the book, you get a free copy! Yahoo! But hurry, all entries must be submitted by April 7th. You can also purchase the first book now. I don't know if any of my recipes will be good enough but I am sure going to try. Pretty sure I need a copy of the first book though.

Wanna submit? Just Click Here for more info!

Follow me!

So I just added the handy dandy follower thing to my blog. I have started seeing it more on people's blogs and thought, why not! Sure would love it if you would jump on in and follow me! You know, because my blog is so exciting and all :) I will start to pay better attention and "follow" yous as well if I see it on yours. Even though I technically already follow, it is still fun to see. Plus it makes you feel loved. ha ha

Girl's Weekend in Bear Lake!

Thanks to Kiesha and the Baldwin's we were able to go to Bear Lake for the weekend and hang out with the girls! We had a lot of fun, ate way to much and stayed up WAY to late! :)

Mindi, Kiesha, Sheena, and Ashley playing an exciting game of Last Word. You come up with some pretty creative (or lame) ha ha! answers when you play this with sleepy brains. Makes for good laughs though!

This may look like just an ordinary picture but it is not. It took some very special talent! We had to set the timer on 3 cameras and then book it to our places. I think we only had to take 2 or 3 so that is not bad. Keep in mind that it is 2 AM in this pic and I had just recovered from laughing so hard I was bawling, literally!

We ended up staying up until after 4! I think it was almost 4:45 by the time I crawled into bed. We were all up by 8ish. Needless to say I was a zombie the rest of the day but it was worth it. Kiesha made a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, french toast, and hasbrowns. Yum! We had a blast and Sheena didn't go into labor! She is/was (I don't know if she has had him by now) 9 months pregnant. Yeah!

Thanks again Kiesha. We for sure need to do it again and get the rest of the girls to come.

Gracie Gledhill

Please pray for this sweet girls family as they say goodbye to her today. I am crying as I type this. I have "known" this baby and her family since she was born and have followed her story every step of the way. She would have turned 1 on the 20th of this month. I have prayed for her and her AMAZING family numerous times. I have cried with them, celebrated with them and hoped for them. Someone has MUCH bigger plans for this precious little girl. I know many of you have prayed for her as well and I ask now, to pray for her family. That they may have the strength that they need to get through this difficult time.

Last week, family and friends decided to do a Gracie Tree for the Festival of Trees this year. They have set up a donation button on Gracie's Blog. You can click the link on my sidebar or just click here. For those of you who don't know, the trees are auctioned off and all proceeds go to children at Primary Children's Medical Center. I have never been to the Festival of Trees, but I will be going this year for sure. Goodbye Gracie girl. We love you.