Random Thoughts

I haven't had a whole lot of excitement in my life other than the fact that I'm off track for a couple of weeks! Yea! I just wish it would stop raining every day!  I feel like my life hasn't had anything "blog worthy" for a few weeks so  I'm just going to show a few things I've been "in to" lately.  

#1

I am a teacher and I feel lucky that I've only gotten sick a couple of times, well with a cold that is.  The first one was while I was off track one of the times, and now I'm sick again.  I have a raging headache but thank goodness I don't have to work so I can catch up on a little rest!  I feel lucky that I have not been sick more with all the little sickies I hang out with every day.  I will let you in on a little secret though.  I take these "magic pills" and it helps boost my immune system.  I take them quite a bit and if I start to feel sick, I just up the ante on the dosage.  These magic pills are called the Wellness Formula.  They are packed with so many good vitamins and other good ingredients.  

I must say it is a bit pricey, but well worth my health!  I ran out today so I went to whole foods and discovered they had the same stuff but in a liquid form.  I was so excited because the pills are HUGE and super nasty.  The drops have a honey, lemony flavor.  They are pretty good.  So I will continue to down this bottle and nurse myself back to heath.  My head is on the verge of explosion.  These drops are also good for kids above the age of 1.  

#2

My bloom master planter box.  Since we have a house with a very "needy" yard, I have been embracing it quite well.  I'm actually loving this whole gardening thing.  Is it ok to admit that sometimes pulling weeds can be therapeutic as well?  Ok maybe not, but there's nothing like looking at all the pretty flowers I planted.  I walked out of Home Depot the other day and the smile on my face would have made you think I just walked out of the candy shop.  I think gardening is a lot of fun.  I think Jake makes fun of me because every time I come home I check on my planter box to see how much it's grown. 

 

This is what it looks like unplanted.  You can purchase them here. 

Here is mine right after we planted it.  I had my mom come and help me.  It was a little tricky.  You have to fill with dirt, poke the flowers through the holes, then add more soil.  It goes in layers until you get to the top.  It doesn't come with hangers, but that's where the hubs comes in handy.  He figured out a way to hang it.  Eventually the flowers will cover the whole box so you can't see it.  We planted it in a pattern but you can't really tell.  That's the point though I guess? 

Here is the box again about two weeks later.  It's starting to get more full.  It's been raining so much I've only had to water it about two or three times.  You have to make sure you water it every day until it starts dripping, and miracle gro it once a week.  I just buy the spray thing that hooks up to the hose.  I'll post pictures when the box is completely covered.  The best flowers to plant in it are petunias, but you have to make sure you get "wavy" petunias.  They grow long and full, and they are a pretty inexpensive flower, and it takes 42 little plants for the planter.  

#3

Sisters Cafe is one of my favorite cooking websites.  They created a grocery list organizer.  You can get it here.  I also love this.  It gives ideas of things to cook every day.  Deciding what to cook/buy is one of the hardest things for me.  I haven't used it yet, but I can't wait to use some ideas.  I already have some yummy recipes I want to try up my sleeve.  

#4

I know I'm behind the times and this was "so last year" but I have been going to Zumba lately and I love it!  I am such a horrible dancer but it's so fun and my teacher last week said you can burn between 500-1,00 calories a class! Such a great workout with fun music and dancing.  

Last

We are headed to Seattle next week.  Jake's cousins live up there and we are going for a graduation.  I'm excited for a fun little getaway.  I've never been to Seattle so if you have any fun suggestions, send them my way!  We are going to Pike's Market the first day.  Hopefully I can kick this stuffy/runny nose business!  

Ok, I'll admit I am a bit sad it was Oprah's last show!  She had some pretty entertaining shows over the past few years.  Now when we bring up Oprah, our kids are going to be like who is that? What a shame haha.  Adios Oprah! 

~The Last 30 days~

We've had a busy month-and a busy one to come.  I can't believe it's already the 8th of May!  Where does time go?!  Here are a few pics of some exciting events of the past few weeks.

We had Easter at Jake's grandma's house in Bear Lake.  We spent time painting our nails, reading books, and relaxing. 

The boys going to find the mooring in the FREEZING cold water

Relieving a foot of H20 from under the cabin

Lava Hot Springs

Baby Chicks

Mitch and Katie's wedding shower at our house.  Such a fun night!

Rated R presents

Tulips on temple square last Sunday.  It was Freezing! I can't believe the tulips made it through that last little snowstorm last weekend, but they were beyond gorgeous! 

Wait for it...

Wait for it....

Gotcha!

Happy Graduation day Jake!  I love you and I'm so proud of you! (Even though you tell me "Don't let school get in the way of your education" 

Jake and his cute cousin Elizabeth both graduated on the same day

Jake and President Young

Favorite pic of the day

Celebrated with a little lunch at Michelangelos. 

Lots of fun events the past few weeks.  

Since today is Mother's Day, I want to tell my mother how much I love her.  

Mom, thank you for being there when I learned how to talk.

Thank you for being there when I learned how to walk.

You wiped my tears and hugged me when I fell down.

You are always there to change my frown.

You put up with me for all these years,

You comfort me from all my fears.

You helped me through my first heart break, and told me it would be ok.

You helped me make choices, even if it wasn't my way.

Mom, you will always be my best friend all the way to the end.

I love you so much and am so lucky to have a mom like you! You truly are amazing!!

"All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

-Abraham Lincoln

I am also lucky to have an amazing mother-in-law.  Brenda, thank you for being so amazing and a good example to all!  You are a very kind-hearted person and I am grateful to have you as my mother-in-law! 

Happy Mother's Day!!

This n' That

I've had a lot of things I've been wanting to blog about lately, but school, work, and my husband have been getting my attention lately instead.  So, I have a few things I want to talk about...

A few weeks ago, a friend of Jake's passed away from cancer after only a month of finding out he even had it.  A few days later another one of his friends died because he got buried by an avalanche.  His name was Garrett.  Garrett, along with his wife and several other expert skiers were skiing after one of our latest big snowstorms.  They took all the precautions needed to check the avalanche danger of the area.  They decided conditions were too risky to proceed their ski day.  As they were leaving, the ridge broke and caused him to get buried.  He was under for 20 minutes.  He died the next afternoon.  Garrett married a cute girl named Molly just about a month before Jake and me.  I've only met Molly once.  When I first heard of the accident, I thought wow that's too bad.  I felt sad but it's kind of hard to know what she is going through.  We didn't really talk much about it.  Well a few days later Jake and I decided to rent 127 Hours.  If any of you have seen it, it's an emotional roller coaster.  Such an incredible movie, but I think for both Jake and I, it really triggered a lot of emotions.  After the movie I think we were both feeling the same way- a little  lot bit shook up.  (We didn't really sleep that night either so I would recommend NOT watching it on a week night). We began talking about Molly and what she must be going through.  I put myself in her shoes.  Married about the same time as Jake and I to the love of her life, and now he is gone.  As Jake and I went to bed, it really hit us.  We both started crying. (Jake don't kill me for posting this because I know you RARELY cry).  All we could do is think about the hurt Molly is going through.  This was such a humbling experience for both of us.  It made us stop and think about what is really important in our lives.  I felt like lately we had been worried about buying a new lawn mower, what we need to do to spruce up the house, planning our next vacation, wanting a new camera, etc.-all things that aren't important.  We immediately stopped talking about those things and remembered the suffering that Molly is going through and what she is dealing with is incomprehensible.  I barely know Molly, but I want to thank her for humbling me through her trials and helping me remember what is really important in my life.   I have no idea what Molly is going through, but I can't even imagine her hurt and pain.  Life is so precious.  It's important to not let the small stuff get in the way of the big picture.

Ok, sorry if that was a bit on the sad side, but I wanted to share.  Here's a few things we've been up to.
I survived parent teacher conferences.  Always a joyous time in my life.
Last weekend while the boys went to priesthood, the girls went to Color Me Mine to paint dessert plates for Andrea (my future sister-in-law is getting married to Jake's brother Kyle).  If you haven't ever been to this place, you should.  We had a blast painting.  We even got graced with Uncle Jordan's presence.  Jake's hilarious awesome uncle.

Don't read the words on the plate.  This is a small dose of Uncle Jordan.  He is the greatest. 

Jake's cousin Anna, sister Alex, cousin Elizabeth, Me

Our private party room

My "love birds" plate

On Tuesday, Uncle Jordan took all the married cousins to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  Such a fun night, great conversations, and good company!  Thanks for a wonderful night Jordan! 

After months of begging, Jake finally cut his hair.  He hasn't had a full on hair cut since our wedding.  He "trimmed" it in December so it's been a while.  Gross.  Does anyone else have this problem?  A teenage husband who won't cut his hair and all I get is "Babe, I look good and when you look good, you feel good.  He's a jokester. 

And FINALLY, we got a new couch on Tuesday.  It's SOOO comfy.  I love it.  It's dark brown corduroy with leather on the sides and back.  

The cushions are a little disarrayed, but this is the only pic I have.

Yes, I know I just posted a lot of stuff, but now I'm good for a few more days right?  

Oh, one more thing...

This is the funny thought of the day.  Yesterday I was talking to my students about taking chances and taking risks.  If you take a high risk, you get high payoff.  So if I say high risk, they give a little fist pump and say "high payoff".  It's pretty funny.  I was mainly just trying to get them to take bigger chances at answering questions and that it's ok to get it wrong, but if you get it right you feel good about it.  So one of the kids in my class has a broken arm with a cast on it.  He came in from recess excited that he took a "high risk".  He said, "Mrs. Larsen, I took a high risk.  I went on the monkey bars!"  I thought oh no!  What am I teaching them!  Luckily, he didn't get hurt!  I felt so bad haha.  I had a little chat with them that we can take high risks, just not at recess or if it causes us to get hurt.  Hopefully they don't take everything I say into the wrong context?  First grade is the best.  I love my job.  I have the cutest class and I absolutely adore them!

Weekend Highlights

Jake and I had a wonderful weekend of being "parents" to my three nephews while their parents were in Las Vegas for a convention.  We got to play games, ask them for three hours to pick up their toys, and we even got to see the Oscar Meyer wiener in real life on the freeway!

 This little angel also got blessed today. This picture is really small because I stole it from my sister's facebook page.  Cute kids.

Jake and I had fun with the boys for the weekend.  They are adorable.   Anytime I think about having kids though, I'll just go babysit for the weekend.  Good birth control :)

I have to brag about my husband for a minute.  He produced this amazing video for his work.  The Huffington Post wrote a great article on it within just a few hours of being posted.  You can read about it here I watch it over and over and get so mesmerized by the music and the creativity every time I watch it.  Jake is so talented in what he does.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


iPad 2 gets Destroyed in Slow Motion from Jake Larsen on Vimeo.


I hope you all had a great weekend.  My blogging gets a bit skimpy when I go back on track for school, as I am focused on work and don't have as much spare time.  So I apologize for that!  I'll be better!

March came in like a lamb and is leaving like a lion.  I hope April is pure bliss because I am ready for warmth.  The tulips in my yard are starting to bloom.  I love it because I haven't lived here in the spring yet so every day is a surprise to see what pops up.  Every day I come home to a new patch of mini tulips and it's fun to see what colors they are!  I can't wait to see what the big ones bring!

Happy Spring!

Soup to Warm Your Soul...

Last week I made the yummiest soup ever!  I am posting this because I think everyone should make it, and I thought it was pretty easy; not to mention I finally got to use my lovely green pot to cook it in!

You can find the recipe here.  Cut zucchini in bite-size chunks, chop up an onion, and chop up some fresh parsley.  I actually used my scissors to cut up the parsley.  I think it worked better than a knife. :)

Add a little butter and melt it in the bottom of the pot.  Add the zucchini, onions, fresh parsley and basil. (I used dried basil because that's what I had) Saute the veggies...and continue following the recipe.  I also used organic chicken broth because it has about half the sodium than regular and I used a can of fat free milk.  I love this soup because it is broth-based.  Creamy soups are always so yummy, but very fattening.

And here is the finished product!  It was de-lish!!! I ate the left overs for about 3 days after that.  

I also made this very easy "Peasant Bread" from the Ivory "Favorites" cookbook.  You can get the books here.  If you don't have these cookbooks, I HIGHLY recommend them! They are my fav! 

The bread isn't perfect looking (yes, I am a rookie) but it was so yummy right out of the oven.  

I can't wait to make this delicious, hearty soup again!  It was just what the Dr. ordered for these cold, dreary days.  Mels Kitchen Cafe is the best website for cooking.  I have another one of her recipes in the crockpot right now-pineapple salsa chicken.  Can't wait to try it out!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Yesterday, our house was magically transformed into a movie set.  I'm sure you're all wondering how this came about.  I have a good family friend who directs commercials.  He does a lot of work for Coca~Cola (mainly the Lagoon commercials).  He called my dad up looking for a specific house to do a commercial for a mortgage company.  My dad described our house, they came and took a look, and it was just what they were looking for.  They told us there was a location fee, so I thought sure! Sign us up! We got paid to have people film at our house.  It was pretty cool.  The night before I didn't really know what to expect.  I didn't know how many people there would be.  I thought maybe around 7-10.  Well, 7:00 a.m. rolls around, and the masses started to show up.  They had a wardrobe girl who had a giant rack of clothes in my room, then a make-up artist for the actors, the producer, directer, lighting guy, set designer, electrician, project manager, assistant director, assistant camera man, assistant to the producer, two actors...and a couple of neighbors wandering in to see what was going on.  My whole house was being used.  Even the garage where there was a little snack station set up.  I always knew a lot went in to film making and commercials, but yesterday I got a big dose of what goes on to make just a short commercial!  It took the entire day.  7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. last night.  Jake and I had to be somewhere at 6:30 so we left them there.  I was a bit worried at what we'd come home to at the end of the night.  As we pulled in to our driveway, I thought, gosh I hope our house isn't a disaster.  I opened the door, looked around and our house was EXACTLY the way it was before they got there.  Everything perfectly back in its place.  (They had to move all the furniture).  They took pictures of everything before they moved it so that when they were done, they could move it all back to the same place. They even sent cleaning ladies to clean my house today!  They are cleaning as we speak.  I had such a fun time being in on all the action yesterday.  It made me appreciate all the hard work that goes into film-making.  I can't even imagine what a big movie would be like.  Here are a few pics from the day.

The pictures aren't very big.  I took them with my phone, but you get the idea.