Our E! True Hollywood Story

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

2011-01-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

WOW it has been a while since I was on here........ I thought it would be fun to post my New Years Resolutions and then look back at the end of 2011 to see how many I actually did. So here goes.......

Run a 5k (a step towards that marathon on my list)
Get sugar out of my diet. (attempt to eat only natural foods)
Get my class done.
Get most of my CPA examination out of the way.
Get out more (by this I mean outdoor activities) I REALLY miss this.

Hoping to be able to cross everything off the above list on 12/31/2011. Anyone else care to share their resolutions??? I think getting them out here will help me stick to them because I will be held a little more accountable.

On a side note, I have been reading this blog for quite some time now. Now miss Kayla Aimee is a new mom to a micro preemie little angel named Scarlette. She is VERY good about putting updates on her blog. Please get on there and read their story and pray for them every single day. If you are anything like me, once you start reading about Scarlette you will wait anxiously for her daily update to see what the improvements are.

Phenominal Focaccia

2010-10-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

This bread is AWESOME. It only takes 20 minutes to rise and 15 minutes to bake. A few things the card leaves out: I cheated and used the jarred minced garlic to save some time and stinky hands, I used this for the cheese and it worked beautifully:

Here is the printable recipe card:

Shewwww that was a lot of posting. I have not done anything in a while. Now I will spend the weekend trying to make a few sewing requests! Have a great weekend!

Cinnamon Bread Bliss

2010-10-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have been on a homemade kick lately. Since G & I have been trying to use up what we have I have been trying to use up staples in the pantry as sides and snacks. The other day I got a hankering for something sweet so I pulled out this little ditty of a recipe I had stashed away for a rainy day. Below is a printable recipe card:

I would like to say a special thanks to PIONEER WOMAN who was the brilliant creator of this recipe.

Coconut Shrimp

2010-10-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

So.... we have been trying to use up EVERYTHING we have on hand. I happened to have shrimp on hand just sitting in the freezer waiting for me to stomach making it again for Graham. The other night we were going through the pantry and taking stock of what was in it, and what did I find? I found coconut, which is what lead to me making coconut shrimp. Those of you that know me know I dislike all things seafood.... except tune...... and Graham hates everything seafood except shrimp. Anyway without further adieu here is how I made it:

If you click on this the recipe card should be printable.

Tomatoe, Tamatoe

2010-07-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

On a lighter note........ I went out and watered my tomatoes and peppers yesterday to discover these two red ditties! I promptly picked them! They are my first two cherry tomatoes ever grown by me.... they are from the plants Wayne gave me for my birthday!!!!!

I can't bring myself to eat them!

From the Pit in my Stomach

2010-07-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sara modeling how small these plums were!

So today a co-worker brought in some plums she had bought at a market. They were smaller then your normal plum, about the size of a large plum tomato. They were really no bigger then the size of a half dollar. I tell you the size because it will be of some importance later. I bit into it and ate the first side, but the other side was hard to get, as it was small so I bit it, but the pit shot out and went down my throat!!! (You now see why I went on about the size of the plum)

Being the worry wort I am, I immediately Googled it! To my sheer horror I see that there is cyanide in these pits! So I tried to get it out on my own (I will spare you the details) but couldn't, so I panicked and called the poison control center.

My discussion went like this:

Me: "Hello, I just swallowed a plum pit.... (silence) should I be worried?!?!?"

Poison Control Lady: "Well did you do that on purpose?"

Me: "NOOOOOO, implying why in the world would anyone do that on purpose in my tone." (Now I am a little perturbed because I just want to know if I need to be worried)

PCL: "Well, did you look this up on the Internet or something?"

Me: "YES!!!! Should I be worried?!?!?"

PCL: "No, I mean yes there is cyanide in the pits, but you would have to bite it open and chew on the pits..... and you would have to eat several of them. I am more worried it will get stuck in your throat, but you sound fine."

Me: "Ok, thanks."

I am somewhat relieved now, however I now realize what went in must come out! So now the 4th of July weekend should be filled with tons more fun then I was even planning for.

Only me! This kind of thing only happens to me.... well obviously others have had this occur, but still these weird things seem to happen to me! Graham was not amused in the least when I told him what I had done. Anyway, hope you all have a great 4th of July weekend, say a prayer for those serving, their families, and those who have served so we can celebrate our freedom!

Just another one of my "ticks"

2010-04-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

So, our grass has gotten a little long. Mainly because my poor husband has been working early and staying late, and we had family out from CA so mowing the lawn has not been our priority. I tell you this boring tid bit as a preface to yet another spastastic episode in my life.

So, we let Rufus outside to play and he comes back in the house with a friend (maybe more, but I only know of 1) unbeknownst to us. He comes in lays on the couch, lays on my lap, lays all over the house cuz that is what dogs do. Ahhhh to be a dog.... anyway back to the story at hand. I get up from said couch and go back to bed. Before turning in I read my Bible, and just as I go to turn in and I am pulling up the blankets I feel and see something crawling on me. I say, "ohhhhh something is on me, see it sprinting down my arm and immediately flick it off." Which I think is a natural reaction, but Graham is not amused. See he has just turned in for the night as well and needs to get up uber early. He says, ummmm honey that could have been a tick off Rufus.

I immediately hop up and turn on the light to check out the area next to my bed for any ticks. I throw back the covers, check myself, nothing. I now am refusing to turn off the lights and crawl back into a possibly tick infested bed, Graham is again not amused. He just wants to go to sleep. He does not even want to check the bed or anything around him. He perplexes me. See, I think there is anything remotely like that anywhere near me and full on panic sets in. He is just calm, cool, collected, and just peacefully tucked in his blankets. (Man I wish I could be like that) He begs me to turn off the lights and go to bed, but I just can't do that without finding the perpetrator to see if it is in fact a tick or just a cute little lady bug. I cannot find anything and Graham really needs the light out. So.... I convince myself it was a lady bug and crawl back in bed and turn out the light.

Every 30 minutes or so I awake to the feeling of something crawling on my legs. I check to see if there is anything and nothing. So I go back to sleep, again I wake up to the same feeling so I check again.... nothing. Check one more time, go to turn the covers back over and low and behold, the same creature is back on the same arm crawling down it. I get ready to flick then pause..... I get a DO-OVER!!! So I brush it off my arm and onto the bed. I jump up, turn on my light, and check it out. IT IS A TICK!!!! Now I am totally disgusted. Disgusted isn't even the word. I got a chill, then a little convulsion throughout my body and I have this urge to just cling to myself and shriek, but..... I look at Graham. He is snoring and unaware I am freaking out and stuck up against my closet door. He needs to sleep so he can get up early. So I stealthily reach for a Kleenex and pick it up. I am gagging, but trying to silently do so for G's sake. I make a bolt, in the dark to the bathroom and plunge the Kleenex into the toilet.

But, I can't help but wonder, did I really get it? I mean, I didn't feel anything in the tissue. Another full on panic. Is it on me, in my hair, on the bed, or really in that tissue? So I get out the toilet brush and I am trying to unfold the tissue with it to verify the tick is really in there. A few terrifying seconds later..... THERE IT IS floating in the toilet. Not just floating, but swimming! I made sure to drown that sucker and then proceeded to wake Graham up anyway to prove to him that it was in fact a tick and I did have reason to be worried. I disguised that motive by telling him I just wanted him to check himself.... which I did, but I also wanted to prove I had a right to be eeked out earlier in the evening...... then I stop and think.... wait a minute I should have totally woke him up to pick up that nasty thing. Instead he got to quietly sleep through tick meltdown 2010!

Needless to day Graham is mowing the lawn, I am going to Lowe's to purchase stuff to put on said lawn, the dog has been washed and had his flea, tick, & mosquito treatment put on, I have checked every cushion on the couch, washed our sheets, and am currently looking for a steamer to go through the house with for precautionary measures!!! YEEEUCK!!!! I am also purchasing some sulfur, putting it in a sock, and dusting under my couch cushions (just a little) to keep those nasty things out of my couch in the future!!!

On a lighter note Matt went to Prom last weekend and I went with mom to take pictures. So here are a couple of my faves. He went with the Prom Queen and was also a nominee himself!!!! Shelby (his date) is just beautiful and I was happy to get to meet her. They all looked mighty fabulous!!!

Fill me up buttercup.....

2010-04-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

For some time now I have been trying to make the buttercup bag. I finally finished it (after two tries and many seam rips later). Now that I know how to do it, I will probably be making many more. I have not sewn anything since 6th grade home economics, so this was a bit tricky for an extreme novice like me. But after many Google searches to find out what this or that meant, and trial and error I debut miss Julia's buttercup purse.

Yes, the last shot the bag is hanging from my ceiling fan. It is actually the first shot and I thought it would have better lighting. You cannot see it (a little in the first shot), but this bag has a lining with a magnetic snap and a pocket.

Fruit Pizza

2010-04-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

While not neccessarily a "healthy" food item, I still wanted to post this recipe. I know many of you probably already have it, but I just love this in the summer. It is such a tasty little treat!

If you would like a printable version of this recipe card in four different colors go here. (Note: I used some one else's downloadable recipe card so it has a print button on the page, you cannot use that to print you must hit the adobe print button.)

For the receipe card template go here - it is pretty neat you can type all your receipes and print them out so they match!

My Bucket List

2010-03-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

So a little over a year ago I had a blog friend die from cancer. I say blog friend because, while we knew each other in school, we did not know each other well. She was a grade older then I was so we did not hang out much. I had a locker next to her in junior high so we knew each other that way. Anyway I found her on myspace and on her page she had posted a link to her blog. It was a day to day account of her life with her wonderful husband, friends, & family. If you want to read her story here it is. She was incredible. In reading her blog posts I thought she was getting better and would make it. I was really pulling & praying for her. When she lost her battle it took me months to get over it. It just really hit home. It got me thinking about my life and all the things I want to do. I never really wrote any of it down, but this weekend I was listening to my ipod and some of the songs got me to thinking about it again..... so here is a written account of my bucket list (in no particular order):

See a real Broadway show, on Broadway.
Own a VW Convertible Bug - the old one NOT the new ones.
Go in a sharkcage and see a Great White in the wild.
Scuba Dive.
Snorkel or scuba on the Great Barrier Reef.
Swim with a Dolphin.
See the Redwoods.
Camp in the mountains...... in a tent.
Go whitewater rafting.
Ride in a hot air balloon.
Skydive.
Parasail.
Learn to surf.
Go back to China.
Travel Europe and see all the art & churches.
Go to the Louvre.
See the Eiffel Tower.
See Stone Henge.
See the pyramids.
Have a baby.
See a movie in the park.
Show my family and friends I love them, not just say it.
Sing in front of people.
Learn the guitar.
Learn Spanish.
Take a long road trip.
See every National Park in the U.S.
Learn to ski. (always been to affraid of the lifts to try it)
See the Holy Land.
Go to South Africa.
Go whalewatching.
Go to an observatory.
See a meteor shower.
See the northern lights.
Go back to Hawaii.
Change the oil in my own car.
Grow my own veggies.
Ring a set of Church Bells.
Night Dive with the Manta Rays in Hawaii.
Go to Arlington Cemetery.
Go beach camping.
Go swimming here. (Warren Falls)
Sit in the front row at a Nuggest game.
Tour the White House.
Learn Photography.
Get a book published.
See a shuttle launch.
Go to a live UFC event.
See all 50 states.
Make a fancy cake for a special event.
Learn how to make my own noodles.
Cook from scratch.
Learn to sew.
Be in a movie (Wheathford movie) not a lead just a part or an extra ha ha ha.
Sail on a yacht.
Ride in a limo with a hot tub.
Ride in a private jet.
Ice skate at Rockefeller Center.
Get my CPA.
Leave Vegas with more money then I went with.
Visit Thailand.
Visit Fiji
Stay in a hut in either Thailand or Fiji on the ocean.
See Ko Phi Phi Lee.
Go to the Amazon.
See The Blue Whole in Belize.
See Iguaza Falls.
Go to the Galapagos Islands.
Go out in a bathing suit and not care who is looking at what ha ha ha.
Go to Machu Picchu.
Go to Pompeii.
Go to Amsterdam - not for the drugs people.
Participate in a real Octoberfest in Germany.
See Berlin.
See Switerland.
See The Plitvice Lakes - Croatia
See Rome.
See Ireland.
Help build something.
Volunteer at a shelter.
Play in an indoor soccer league.
Stay in a haunted house. (Here or here???)
Go to Carnival.
Go to Mardi Gras.
Go Spelunking.
See a black sand beach.
See a green sand beach.
Go to a sweatlodge.
Hike up a mountain.
Live in Colorado.
Live in Hawaii.
Run a marathon.
Do a Triathlon.
Go ice blocking.
See a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
Own a hot tub.
"Build" a new home.
Donate blood.
Read The Bible from Cover to Cover.
Take as good of care of my parents as they took of me.
Actaully scrapbook all the stuff I have sitting in a box to be scrapbooked.

There will be more added, but I feel this is a good list. I think I will be making another tab, that way I can cross things off and add more.

A lesson from Dad

2010-03-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

I signed into Facebook yesterday and saw this video on my dad's page for his recent mission trip to Panama:

I sat there and cried like a baby.
The beginning Bible verse, Philippians 2:3-4 (I added verse 4):

"3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others," is just awesome.

After reading that and watching the video I just sat at my desk and cried. I cried for many reasons. One being that this is the heart of what my faith means to me. I have had conversations, and read many places, and heard many people on the radio; make fun of Christians for being people that are weak. They say we are weak because we are willing to just take it (turn the other cheek), we are weak because we are people pleasers willing to give anything to anyone; we are weak because we are "followers" instead of leaders.

I wept for those misguided individuals. To them I say, “Would a weak person be able to get over themselves and see that the true value of your possessions is being able to not let those possessions own you.” To be able to give your hard earned money away to help another person, to give up your comforts and go to another continent and work for free, and to do it in a hard time, as my father has, is not weak. It is a strength those misguided people will never know. It is a strength that can only come from being strong enough to surrender yourself to God and listen to His plan. One will never understand what that means fully until they have let themselves actually listen to God and not their own selfish motives.

Being able to turn the other cheek is not weakness either. It is something many people cannot do, therefore they cannot understand it. Being able to forgive is a true gift. Instead of spending your life harboring anger, you can truly let it go and live in peace, which is a bigger gift then winning the lottery if you ask me. Even though people wrong you, maybe they did not set out to do that one thing to you, but in their selfishness they harmed you.

For instance, I have been trying very hard to be the wife Graham deserves. I do not think I am a bad wife, but this year I feel I have been called to surrender my selfishness. I have been doing this in many ways. First, I have been praying. Second, despite calling myself a Christian for years I have never actually read the Bible from cover to cover... NEVER, so I am reading it this year using this Bible.

See, I struggled with what I believed and when I moved out of my parent’s house I just shelved it, putting school and daily life ahead of figuring out what I really believed. Graham has challenged me to figure that out. He has done that by asking questions I did not have answers to and sharing his opinion. In the discussions we would have I would do my best to explain Christianity, but always ended by challenging him to read the Bible for himself and determine what he thought. So he bought the 1 year Bible to read, which further challenged me, in a silent way, to actually read it...... so here I am, reading the Bible after 20 years of God in my life.

I had been feeling myself being very angry inside, so I had started praying that God would help take that away. I felt I had been being very snappy with Graham, and others, when it was not necessary. I mean, he would clean the house and put things away and I would get angry....... ummmmm hello ladies, would any of you get angry if your awesome husband helped clean?????? In praying that prayer I feel like that was the opening God needed for me to see that Bible that had been on the end table for a year, that I was conveniently overlooking.

I have been reading it and have seen so far that the Old Testament is not my favorite to read through, but I find it fascinating because of all the laws they had back then. I have also learned that for me, the key to stop being angry has been to follow God's directions right there on those pages. I have learned that I need to LISTEN to my husband. Not what he is saying verbally, but what he is means when he does things as well.

Now back to that turn the other cheek part of this. You'll remember above I was saying that maybe someone wronged you, but it was not intentionally done to you..... here is what I meant. Graham may have moved my pile of important documents somewhere else, but he was not doing that to me, he was trying to help me. Instead of viewing things people do as being done TO ME, but seeing it as a consequence of an action (positive or negative) is really helping my anger. When I am in traffic I do not assume the person who just cut me off was doing that to me, rather maybe he really had to get over and the consequence was cutting me off. It makes turning the other cheek a little easier. Does this make me a weak person or just an enlightened one?

If some one asks me for help and it is not a convenient time for me to do so, but I do it anyway does that make me a weak people pleaser, or just a good friend? If I say something that I see would have hurt my feelings, and try to smooth it over does that make me weak, or just some one who feels for others? I feel that you get what you give. We have had many instances where we had to rely on strangers to help us last year, and each time those people could have walked on by, but they did not. They had the strength to put themselves aside, stop and help a complete stranger. In the Bible Christians are called to help the lowest of the low when they are in need. I know I am not wording this right, but basically if some one asks for help give it as it is God asking you for help, because he is. He has put this person in front of you for a purpose and whether you can put your selfish desires behind you to help is your choice, but if you do what you receive is far greater then what you had before.

Like my dad, up and leaving for Panama to help others, when he is in a time of need at home as well. I bet it was not perfect timing for him, while in the middle of a job hunt himself, but he went. Now, I have not gotten to ask him about the trip yet, but I bet (after going on a few of these trips myself) that he feels he got more out of that trip then he gave. In my experience, you see that you do have a purpose other than 9-5, and that if you think you have it bad, you are blessed beyond compare. That purpose is to help others in their time of need because you are strong enough to give of yourself, not because you are a weak people pleaser. I only wish more people had these “weaknesses”. I feel these “weak” people are really the leaders, because they are willing to go against the selfish grain.

Dad, if you made it to the end of this long winded post I want you to know that despite the fact that I am 27 (for a few more weeks) and married you are still teaching & inspiring me. You have a HUGE purpose and I am glad to see that you have been able to get out and show that purpose to many others and myself. Thanks for the lesson and reminder.

2010-03-22T13:04:00.001-07:00

Okay well as you know I have decided to run a marathon in October (Lord Willing). Well I am very, very, very, very out of shape. So today is day 1 of my eating overhaul. I am not calling this a diet. Why you ask, because I LOATHE diets. I do not do well when I am restricted from good food. So...... I am keeping a food journal in hopes of catching the "bad stuff" I eat and when I tend to eat those things so I can curb those with other good foods. I will allow myself times to give in, but will NOT let those times be calorie fests either. So far today I have eaten the following:

1 egg (substitute because I am allergic to eggs)
1 Activia Light & 1/4 cup Almonds
1 Chicken Breast, some pop chips ("healthy" chip), 1 apple.

For dinner I believe I will have ribs, green beans, and 2 Hawaiian rolls. Tonight's dinner will be a little calorie heavy, but I still think with portion control it is a healthy dinner.
I am also doing the couch to 5k program to get started before training starts for this marathon training. The couch to 5k program I am doing is located at these 2 sites, this one & this one. I like them both so I downloaded them both. These are hip hop and probably not great for all, but I like hip hop when I am working out it keeps me going. It is nice enough I might get outside and do my run outside instead of on the treadmill. We shall see.
This weekend was crazy. We had a ridiculous snow storm on Saturday. Needless to say G & I stayed hunkered down. I made chili and cornbread and just watched TV. It was a nice and relaxing day. Sunday we both had cabin fever so we went out to Chili's for dinner and stopped by Karen & Wayne's to discuss camping and such. Pretty boring I know, but I am hoping with the weather warming up G & I will have some adventures around the corner to write about.

Decisions

2010-03-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

I was watching t.v. the other night and there was this sign that came up. It said, "To not decide is to decide." So, right there I decided to decide yes or no, instead of just decide to decide........ and I have decided to go for it! I really need the exercise people. So last night I spoke with G about it and he agreed that he would ride his bike while I ran so he could watch out for any boogie men lurking in the bushes. I haven't been able to find a running partner so I am grateful he is willing to do this for me.
This week has been a crazy one. G was sick. VERY SICK. He came down with what I had a couple of weeks ago, and let me tell ya, you do not want any of that! So, needless to say he was down for the count and snoring (and coughing). We also had daylight savings time! YAY..... I know many people dislike it being light so late, and maybe I will once I have children, but for me it means I no longer have to wake up in the dark and go home in the dark. I can actually go outside and enjoy some playtime! I get excited about it..... all but the whole springing forward part. I tell you all of this because I am not so happy when I have a lack of sleep. So this week has been particularly hard with G up, which means I am also up, and the getting up an hour earlier! This has had me hitting the caffeine a lot more then I would like, but what can you do?
We (The Shertz fam and I) went to see the Jimmi Hendrix tribute tour on Tuesday evening. It was pretty awesome. Brandy has the pictures from that. I will share, after I ask her for a copy of them.
We celebrated 8 years of togetherness the following day (St. Patty's Day is our dating anniversary)! Yes we still celebrate the dating anniversary, because we were together for so long before getting married so it is still a milestone for us. We both took the day off and celebrated in our PJ's because Graham was still in bed sick. We did get Chilis and eat it at home on the couch. That was a treat, as we have been trying to not eat out.
We are now all preparing for when Missy, Julia, & Tyler come out. I am giddy with excitement even though it is still a couple weeks out. We will be going camping, celebrating Easter, Mr. Tyler's bday, Karen & Wayne's anniversary, and Andrew's bday while they are out here! We are all praying it stays warm and dry for our camping trip so any additional prayers sent up would be greatly appreciated.
Well, that is all for today. Since we spent Tuesday at a tribute to Jimmi Hendrix I will sign off with a quote from him that goes with a lot of the Proverbs I have been reading in my Bible, "Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." Hopefully one day I will be wise.

Real Motivation

2010-03-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, for a long time I have talked about running a 5k, half marathon, or marathon. The goal is to run one marathon in my life. My friend Amber ran a marathon recently for this excellent cause. I checked on their site and they happen to have an event here in KC in October! This would give me some time to train. I would really like to do this. I have no excuse now, I am finally done with school so I should be able to find the time. So, I think I am going to go for it. What I would like is to find a training partner who wants to give this a whirl with me. This team sets you up with a trainer and running coaches. I cannot think of a better way to try to get this chunky booty in shape. So, anyone out there in KC land want to help out an excellent cause and get into good shape? I will even take some one in Indiana. You could sign up there, or I can send you the training logs we get and you could train there and we can support each other (cough Viki cough).

I still would like a training partner to do this with out here as well. I think it would be easier to stick to it with some one hanging in with me by my side. I have not ran in a few years (never ran this far EVER) so do not be affraid you are in worse shape then me, in fact, you are probably in better shape then I am at this point ha ha ha. Send me an email, call me, or contact me on FB. I would like to get started A.S.A.P. so let me know. L.A., this would be good for the wedding dress...... just saying!!!!! I think you, B, and I should rock this out! Maybe we can drag G into this as well!!! Get a team going?!?!

"New" Car!!!

2010-03-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

Graham's Saturn has served us well through the years but with 161,000 miles on it (and leaking every fluid imaginable, as well as the engine light being on for a year or so) we decided it was time to retire her. So, Graham being a researcher, was on Carmax's website for a few days and then on consumer reports cross referencing cars. We stumbled upon this baby and loved it.

We knew this was coming (having to buy a new car) so we had been saving a while. We went to Carmax and test drove it and loved it. Len was our salesperson and he was the sweetest "salesman" I have ever dealt with. The car only had a little over 15,000 miles and still has new car smell! It has 4 wheel drive, a sunroof (a neccessity if you ask me) enough room for kiddos (SOMEDAY) and lots of fun little features. The price was right and Carmax offers a sweet maintenance package. Their finance department was also wonderful. We got a great rate, but wanted a better payment so the finance guy told us to check out our bank's online site and apply for a car loan directly through them. You have 3 days with Carmax to do this interest free and they will let you bring in your loan and exchange it for your first loan. We ended up saving a little over $80.00 a month on our payment! We now pay less for this car then my little Hyundai Accent! We couldn't believe it. So if you are in the market for a slightly used car go to the folks at Carmax. I have never had such a great experience. They assign a salesman to you, let you walk their lot without being hassled, and the salesman finds you when he is done with his previous client! LOVED THAT! If you are in the KC area PLEASE go in and request LEN at the Merriam store. He is fantastic. Needless to say we are feeling pretty blessed driving around in our new car.

On a different note, I cannot find the spell check on blogger anymore. If anyone reading this knows where it is please enlighten me. I hate posting stuff with spelling errors, but sometimes do not catch everything.

Turning a new leaf

2010-02-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

In an effort to find healthy substitutes for my regular horrible fattening foods, I have been researching options and testing them out on my loving and VERY SUPPORTIVE husband. I will be sharing recipes with you all in case you are interested. At least, you can sympathize with mu husband the next time you see him. Most of the things we have tried we have both liked. One item I tried we both hated. Here is what I made last night that was oh so good. I even took in the chips and shared them with the office, and everyone loved them.

Kale Chips:

I cut off the stems, then to the left and right of the stem, only keeping the "leafy" portion. The first time I tried this I did not do the last step and the extra stuff was chewy. I have found just keeping the leafy part (away from the stem) makes for a much better chip. I then through them in a mixing bowl and lightly coated them with olive oil. Then I coated them with pre-mixed garlic bread seasoning that was in my fridge. Many recipes I have seen call for parmesan or asiago cheese. I recommend any of the above, it adds necessary flavor to the chip. Then LIGHTLY sprinkle with sea salt (or regular salt if you are like me and still need to use up the iodized salt before springing for the course sea salt). Line them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 300 to 350, depending on your oven mine is gas so I cooked it at 300) for about 10-12 minutes. Pull out when crispy. Watch them near the 10 minute mark so they do not burn. This will happen quickly.

Tomorrow I will share a recipe for roasted rutabaga.

HEATHER!!!! WHAT IS THAT????!!!!!??????

2010-02-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

So, around 1:30 this morning I am woken from a deep sleep by Graham. It is pitch black in our room, yet I can see the whites of his eyes. He asks, while punching me in the leg, "HEATHER WHAT IS THAT?" I listen for a minute and hear a very load banging noise! Now, those of you that know me know I watch ALL of those Forensic Files shows, and any crime scene or crime shows. So, my immediate thought, "GRRRREAT, just great, some one is breaking in our house."

So I quickly spring into action. See, because I watch said crime show(s), I have a knife in my bedside nightstand. I have this knife, despite constant teasing from my husband, for reasons such as these. I might not make it, but neither will the guy trying to hurt me, or at least he/she will have a mark left on them.

So, I flick open my nightstand and whip out my knife, thank you Karen. I flick the blade open with lightening speed. I am secretly proud with the speed I have opened this thing, and not cut myself in the process. I then hand it off to Graham, who reluctantly climes out of bed.

He thrusts open the bedroom door, for the element of surprise over the would be caper/murderer. He then proceeds down the hall, and for some reason I follow with one of my dress shoes. I guess I thought Graham could stab him/her and I could club them with my shoe. I honestly cannot believe I got out of bed, but I had to back up my husband. I mean, I was wishing for a bat, or that gun I have been requesting, but the shoe would do....... right?

We check every door, and they are all locked. No one is outside. We check the garage, because maybe some one was trying to break in there...... nothing. I have opened every room door with great speed, in case there was some one in there..... nothing. The whole time we are looking around my mind goes straight to that horror movie where the couple goes to the cabin for the weekend and those people mess with them by knocking on the door, and then later come back and stab them. I know I know can you say paranoid?

Shaking, I go back to the bedroom. Graham decides he must know what that was..... so he does a little more investigating. It only takes him seconds after walking into the office to figure out what/who it was........ it was my graduation balloon. It had drifted over to the ceiling fan and the blades were hitting the balloon and making a noise that sounded like some one banging against the front door or thrashing around in a closet! Anticlimactic????? I think so, but I will take it.

New Year = more blogging

2010-01-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

Ok. So I took a "brief" hiatus on this blog. I was finishing up school. The last half of 2009 was crazy. It started off with my last semester of school beginning. Then a few weeks after school started, we went to Indiana for a visit with the fam (Someday there will be pictures of this I promise). Then we went to Vegas to celebrate Dustin's birthday. (I will also be posting these pics hopefully tonight, but cannot post them here because Dustin is still waiting on them)

Then it was crazy get caught up for school time (for like 4 months cuz once you are behind you are behind for good). Then before we knew it, it was graduation for me and the holidays. I am going to get back at this so everyone can see what we do out here in KC, and so you all can keep me accountable for this crazy list below.

New Years Resolutions:
1. Learn Photography
2. Learn Spanish
3. Learn Photoshop
4. Work on our house.
5. Learn to play the guitar.
6. Learn to sew.
7. Plant a raised bed garden and eat the fruit of our labor!
8. Relax and enjoy life (looks like an impossible task looking at my list of things I want to do!!)
9. Run a 5k. (for awesome couch to 5k, with hip hop and 80's songs go here and here.)
10. Get good enough at tennis to cream my husband.
11. Finally lose some weight. (put it last because that is where is should be)

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions....

2009-07-29T09:54:00.001-07:00

I have 2.5 more weeks of summer vacation left until the semester from hell begins. I have thought about all the stuff I want to do now and all the stuff I should do in the future. I have decided from now on I will do the following:

I WILL take my camera with me EVERYWHERE.... there are so many awesome things to take pictures of and I keep missing them all.
I WILL work out. I was doing well until a visit from some family and got side tracked. I also got off the eating healthy habit I had formed.
I WILL eat healthier. I am sick of feeling sick and fat. I am not obsessed with my weight, but I do not wish to be uncomfortable anymore.
I WILL sew that cute purse pattern I found on the internet. LOVE it. Well.... I will sew it correctly this time.... I sewed it wrong side together instead of right side together.... still cute, but not correct.
I WILL call Missy, Julia, & Tyler once a week to say hello. Man do I miss them.
I WILL get G to pick out paint for our hallway and living room.
I WILL use said paint to paint the hallway and living room, and then paint our bedroom the color our hallway is now.
I WILL get through this last semester with Grace and Dignity and with A's. (I have only gotten 2 grades that weren't A's since I started trying for my degree.)

With all those on the list I should probably get started now. It will be funny to look back at this post and see if I held to ANY of these. If any of you know me well, you know I WILL do a lot of things, but fail to recognize that I have overloaded myself into failure.

Pretty sure I didn't see this coming......

2009-07-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a great day. I got a lot of stuff done at work, which is good because my boss is off for the next couple days so I can get REALLY caught up for when he returns. I hung out with some friends, and came home and did ear candles. I LOVE those things. You light the ends on fire, stick them in your ears, and bam nastiness is sucked right out. My favorite part is cutting them open and looking at all the nasty that came out.
While I was using my ear candles my dad called. Let me back up a little bit. My little brother Chase got in a little trouble with the law last year and got put on probation. I believe he would have been done with said probation at the beginning of October. Well on July 2nd, he violated his probation. So, yesterday he had a hearing to learn his fate. He went in without a lawyer and told the judge he knew he deserved to be punished and did not wish to have a lawyer. They gave him his full punishment of a year in jail. My little brother is spending a year in jail! The thought of that makes me cry. Everytime a sit down to watch tv, eat anything, or enjoy anything all I can think is, Chase doesn't get to do any of this where he is. I am hoping it will teach him a lesson, so he will not continue in the path he was on, but I can't help but be affraid for him as well. Some times when people go to prison they do not come out better, they learn from the others how to be worse. I hope me posting this doesn't offend anyone in my family, but I had to put it out there so I can request prayer for him. Prayer that he learns what he needs to learn, and that he can get out and enjoy the life he has with his son. Really enjoy it, and not just waste it away doing petty stuff.
They DEA and judge were very impressed with how my brother owned up to what he did. The DEA told him if he takes their recommended class and sends him a letter, he would consider letting him out earlier and putting him back on probation. Also, if he is good he could get out of jail in 6 months and be out on January 2nd, 2009. I am hoping he takes the course and gets out of there. I am currently waiting to get the mailing address, so I can write him, but when I do I will write him everyday and send them once a week so he can open them everyday and read them.
With that said, also pray for my parents. They tried so hard to keep him from going to jail, and my mom is pretty upset about it. My dad sounded pretty upset yesterday to. No parent ever wants to let their child go into the justice system. It is like they get sucked in for life at that point. Since he got in trouble, the police have hasseled and hasseled him. My parents are struggling to pay their bills, and he has an OLD car. You know, one of those cars that the seatbelt pulls across the top of the car to you and almost chokes you. Well that broke, so he can't get the top part of the seatbelt on. His tail light went out, and he couldn't afford to buy a new one, because he had to choose between that and tires so he could go to work. Well the police, knowing he was on probation, waited in his work parking lot for him to get off, so he would start his car and not be wearing a seatbelt and his tail light would not be working. This is a violation of probation. How in the world do the police think he can afford to pay that ticket and then go fix the problems they are ticketing him for. I understand it is breaking the law, but they ticketed him at least twice for the seat belt, knowing full well it was not operating properly.
It just seems like they had nothing better to do. So they decided my brother was a criminal and they were going to treat him like dirt. I know it is not right, but I would like to see those policemen lose their jobs, their wives lose their jobs, and then have to figure out how to fix a car on a waitress salary (who by the way busts her butt, but because of the economy people tip less now then ever before and makes $2.65 an hour.)
I am in no way justifying what Chase did, but I am frustrated. I am frustrated, because I know now how the justice system works. You mess up, they keep kicking you, you end up worse then you were when you started. You can't reform because they make it rather difficult to do so. Of course our prisons are over crowded. No one gets freed from the grips of the police once they are in the system. No with out significant changes, and possibly moving from your small IN town, with small town cops at the helm. I know if you do something wrong you should pay for that, but sitting in a parking lot and harassing some one is against the law for most people. Shouldn't law enforcement have the same consequenes?
Chase's initial arrest was upsetting, but even when the cop pulled him over he owned up to the issue. The cop never read him is miranda rights, and initally pulled him over for speeding. I do not remember what else my mom told me the police officer did incorrectly, but even with that Chase still told the officer everything he asked and cooperated fully. The following week, they pulled him over for his seatbelt and his tail light and then wanted to search his vehicle, with absolutely no probable cause. This to me is also harrassment. They even pulled him over in my parents driveway and wanted to search his vehicle. That reaks of harrassment. Each time there was no probable cause and each time they came up with nothing. It was like they were gunning for him, so they could see him in jail. How about this, how about they start arresting the guys who drive drunk, beat their wives, sell drugs, neglect their children, and molest little kids. No, they would rather harrass some one with less then a joint of marijuana and a pipe. Yes haivng any marijuana is wrong, and I am not condoning that in the least, but to harrass them after they have already admitted guilt and cooperated (which is less then most people do) is a bit much.
I am a little upset. No one told me of the violation, so I did not get to say an I love you to my bro over the phone before he was sentenced to a year away from all of us. I am REALLY close to him so this really hurts. I talk to him about 1 a week. Sometimes a little less because we play phone tag, but usually 1 a week. I know no one did that malicously, but I wish I could have told him I loved him, I was proud for his ownership of what he did wrong, and to keep his head up.
I will stop my rant now. Yes violating the law should be punished. No to harrassment after the guilty party has been charged and admitted guilt and is performing his sentence. For those of you that already know, I myself had a problem with an IN cop. He pulled me over for speeding, on a Tuesday, in a silver car, and said I was a male. I was driving on a Thursday, my car was tan, and I AM NOT A MAN. To this I ask, "What was this cop on while 'policing' the streets?" The judge still wouldn't throw it out. I guess IN is still hurting for money 8 years later.

Behind!!!!

2009-07-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I have fallen behind. We had a week of absolute fun with Missy, Julia, and Tyler. I should have been smart and taken the day off today to recoup like Mamma Karen did. I still have to post our pictures from the 4th. The reason I am waiting is because I took pictures with our camera and Wayne's, so I am waiting for all the pictures so I can make one post, but I may just have to post my "creative" shots and then post the other pics later.
Brandy was out photographer for the kids' trip. She documented EVERYTHING and did a fantastic job. She even made each kid a "What I did on my Summer Vacation Book." They are AWESOME!!! There are pictures, captions included, of everything they did. I am getting our pics from her and will do a series of posts, as we did A LOT of stuff last week.
Everyone say some prayers for my Mom as she is receiving treatments for Lyme in Nevada, and is there for 5 more weeks. Man do we miss her. My dad, brothers, and sis-in-law are in IN visiting with the family and Grandpa Rich. Grandpa's cancer came back with, so they are visiting him while he is well enough to enjoy the company. Graham and I are planning a trip at the end of summer.
Well, I had promised my mom a post a day so she would have something to read while she is out of town. I seriously fell behind last week, but plan on catching her up this week. LOVE YOU MOM and cannot wait for you to get home!!!!
974

Down 2 sizes!!!!!

2009-07-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

I posted a while ago about how I was going to start doing Weight Watchers. Well I started, quit, started, quit and then decided to start again. I am eating low carb, but mainly watching portions, eating lots of veggies, and the low carb part is to stop myself from eating that crappy foods like processed yuck!!! I am happy to report I decided this morning would be the day I would try on my jeans (I haven't been able to wear them since the holidays of 08). Today I pulled them on, zipped them, AND could breathe. I am currently wearing them as you read!!!! I cannot tell you how wonderful that is.
I have been running and doing a turbo jam dvd my mom let me borrow. I run one day and do turbo jam the other day. I also allow myself a cheat day were I do the 20 minute cardio workout on the Turbo Jam dvd. By the way if you haven't tried Turbo Jam do. IT IS INCREDIBLE. You see the difference in two of the weightlifting sessions. It is hard, but it is AWESOME. It isn't so hard you cannot stick with it, but she encourages you to challenge yourself and keep going. I am not sore after doing it like I think I will be because you feel the burn while doing the workout for sure.
I have pretty much had those fake eggs (egg beaters, but the cheap version) with sour cream on them for breakfast.
For my snack I have been having a lowfat cheese stick.
For lunch I have chicken salad or tuna salad (chicken breasts from a can, I purchase at Sam's on the cheap, red onion and tons of celery, sometimes green pepper as well, and REAL MAYO. 1 can and all the added veggies and it lasts me all week.) I throw that all in a 3 net carb tortilla and YUMMY SUMMER LUNCH. I also have those sugar free mint patties from Russell Stover. I eat one of those after lunch as a lil treat.
For my pm snack I will have either a cheese stick, or lately I have had jalapeno/jack cream cheese on the low card tortilla, or whole cucumer with some fresh salsa on it, or celery with cream cheese.
For dinner I have had BLT's with one piece of bread, stuffed peppers, steak and broccoli, chicken and veggies, and SALAD!!!!
If I am still hungry at night I eat more cucumbers or celery or peppers.
I am going to start adding in my almonds again for snacks and cutting back on the cheese. I do not want to get a cholesterol problem, but I was trying to follow induction on Atkins as much as possible (without making it unhealthy).
Anyway, this has turned into quite the long post so I am going to get back to work now, but I felt I HAD to share some of my success!!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Rich

2009-06-09T07:47:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to say congrats to Brad & Alyssa. Their wedding was beautiful. I will be posting more pics as soon as I get through them all and fine tune some of them. It was great getting to see all the family. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jerry came to see us on Saturday. They got the "grand tour" of our tiny house and we got to sit and chat. That was wonderful. I wish we lived closer and got to see everyone more often, but I LOVE when we get times like this to spend together. Graham and I are getting excited about the upcoming visit of Missy and the kiddos! We are taking a couple of MUCH NEEDED days off of work to play with everyone. We are going to go to Schlitterbaun and get a tan and play in all the new slides and I am sure the other day will be spent at World's of Fun. Can't wait to see you guys. Other than that, I am taking two summer classes and we are finishing up details on the house so we can get it on the market after graduation in December.

Birthday Camping!!!!

2009-05-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

We went camping for my birthday at Wallace State Park in Cameron, MO. This is our usual campground and spot. We have gone there several times for some rest and relaxation. We always have HUGE fires and lots of great food. This time Wayne made a birthday candle for me by drawing on the log with non-toxic puff paint. Then Karen put her leftover wax from our favorite candles on the top. Then we lit the thing on fire. It was quite a site. Especially since we also through citronella on it. We were in a competition with our neighbors to see who could have the largest fire, we won. It was a great trip and I cannot wait to go again in the fall when the leaves are changing and it is not so hot.

My diet is going to Pieces!!!!!

2009-05-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend will be full of all kinds of get togethers. We are going over to my sis and bro in-law's house to watch UFC Saturday night. Since they have kindly opened up their home, and I do not have to clean to have everyone over at our place, I find it only fair that I make this:

Now that I have posted this, let's see if any of you are reading this blog ha haha. If you do not see this on Saturday evening it means I slept in..... Graham has accused me of trying to tip the scales in my favor, as one of his favorite things is peanut butter cups tee hee. Really all I was trying to do was find a sinfully awesome desert to thank Brandy and Andrew for their hospitality and the burgers and wedges they are making. If anyone wants the receipe leave a comment and I will get it to you or feel free to email me. Mom, if you are reading this I can make two. It isn't to late to put in an order for your birthday cake!!!!

This, That, & the other

2009-05-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Sorry for my hiatus. It was a crazy semester! I have just gotten my grades and I received all A's!!!! I am trying to stay focused and just get done. I have 2 courses this summer and 3 VERY HARD courses next semester and then I am officially a graduate!!!

Now that my semester from heck is over I have gotten back to my diet and exercise. I am trying to loose weight for my little brother's wedding in June, my niece and nephew's arrival in July, my first wedding anniversary in September and so on..... I am going to keep posting on this as I need some accountability. Graham and I have decided we are going to start a little competition. We haven't selected the winner's prize, but it will help me keep to my goals.

In the next couple of days I will post pictures from my birthday weekend spent at Wallace State Park. Missy you will not believe the fire your dad made with his citronellasupernovas.

We are also going to be visiting Darby and Meghan Clymer this evening. They are proud parents to little Lola. I haven't meet her since her birth, but I am sure this will give me super baby fever!!!! I just realized I forgot my camera so there will be no pics of the cutie today, but next time I will snap a crapton for everyone's viewing pleasure.

On the baby note, I would like to congratulate my cousin Viki and her husband Dustin. They will be having twins early next year! I am way excited for them and can't wait to meet the little darlings!!!!!

Cowboy Hat Cake!!!!!

2009-05-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Amber was throwing a Cowboy birthday part for her son. She let me try my hand at making a cowboy hat cake. I had a blast making it, but I know realize I need to head to the local baker's shop and buy professional size pans. I had to make 2 sheet cakes and the hat cake in order to feed her crowd. I definitely want to go get a MUCH bigger sheet cake pan for next time! I had fun dying the fondant to make it brown, my hands are still multi-colored because I did not have gloves either. Well here are a couple of pictures of the creation:

CONGRATULATIONS JULIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-24T14:41:00.001-07:00

My niece Julia made the Honor Roll at her school!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOO very proud of her. She is truly an amazing girl and I feel so so so so lucky to be able to be her Aunt. You never stop amazing us Julia. I know that getting good grades is A LOT of work, but keep it up because it is definitely worth it! The next time we see you we will have to celebrate! Uncle Graham is VERY VERY VERY proud of you also. Pappa Wayne was so proud that he emailed EVERYONE to tell us! He is sooooo proud of you. EVERYONE is proud of you. Lots of love from the crew out here in Kansas.

(P.S. I know you do not love the picture up here, but it is the most recent picture I have of you. Possibly next time I can get another one that you like so I can use it)

Cabin Trip February 2009

2009-03-16T12:27:00.001-07:00

Cabin Trip February 2009 078, originally uploaded by heathermrich.

Here we are at the Nuggets game! We fell in love and will be making the trip back to Denver several more times to catch the games we want to watch. If you click on the picture you can see all our pics that were uploaded on flickr.

Cabin Trip February 2009

2009-03-16T12:12:00.001-07:00

Cabin Trip February 2009 014, originally uploaded by heathermrich.

Graham and I got to spend some quality time together at the cabin in February. It was awesome to get to relax and do nothing. I took some medication that prevented me from getting altitude sickness this time. We had a blast. I took some photos for my collection and for scrapbooking. I hope to clean some of these up and be able to use them as "stock and texture elements" in my graphic designs for the marketing and web design firm I was asked to work for a few months ago. I haven't gotten to crop them all, but you will be able to see how beautiful it was. We spent Friday in Denver and went to a Nuggets game. I will post those pictures next. As Graham said, "We sat so close we could throw our drinks at Kobe!" We couldn't believe how great our seats were. We thought they would be decent, but the Pepsi Center is fairly small and our seats were fantabulous! You can click on the picture nd see all our pics that were posted on flickr.

New DO!!!

2009-01-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

My best friend Elyse is the best hair stylist on the planet and she gave me a new do tonight. She also waxed my brows and my stache to ha ha ha. I tell you this because I am going to put a picture up on here, but my face is a bit red! I couldn't wait to post it and since she styled it I had to take a picture of it while it is styled professionally. I L-O-V-E it!!!!! Graham hasn't seen it yet, but I can't wait for him to get home and tell me what he thinks!

Victory Sweet Victory!!!!

2009-01-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

Graham and I have made plans to go back to the cabin in CO for a few days. We based our dates on going to Denver for our last night and seeing the Nuggets vs. the Lakers! We decided to splurge and get good seats, as we both hadn't been to an NBA game in a long time. So we both sat at the computer and looked at numerous sites to find the best bang for our buck. We ended up choosing StubHub and picked tickets for Section 148 row 21. We were soooooo excited. Graham had them being delivered to our home on the Friday after New Years. We knew we would be home as our employer had given us Thursday and Friday off. We were home watching movies all day and we never received any tickets, but we really didn't realize they were late until Sunday. I called FedEx because the tracker said they were delivered on Friday, but they weren't. To spare you the long story, our neighbors got the package delivered to them, and rather then returning them or walking them down to our home, they called StubHub and tried to bribe them. You know a, "what will you give us to give them their tickets." They did this on Saturday, but StubHub nor the seller told us any of this had happened. So after getting nowhere with FedEx I called StubHub on Monday to report the tickets not being delivered to us. They never said anything about knowing that anyone had our tickets or that they were bribed. That didn't come out until the next call, when the customer service rep tried to say that I was part of the scheme. Needless to say we weren't. I am not going to go into all the details, but if you know me well you know I was relentless with my calls and notes on each individual I spoke with. One rep said one thing, another one said another. So I asked to speak with the manager to let her know that their training staff was lacking and that no one knew what the heck was going on or their own policy. She wasn't helpful either. See we were promised re-prints or replacement tickets at equal or greater value. She, and the customer service rep I was speaking with before I asked to speak with her, tried to tell me we weren't covered and the only thing that could be done was to give us our money back and we could purchase another set of tickets, but to do that we had to file a police report. I politely told her where to stick it and why. See we bought the tickets almost three weeks before when there were seats left and they were cheaper and we had been trying to resolve the dispute with the incompetent customer service reps for weeks. She told me that was all she could do. So I hung up and called Graham to tell him the news. By now it was about 4:50 pm so I resolved I would give it one last shot! I called and told the rep that he could read through all the notes or he could listen to a shortened version and go from there. He let me explain and I told him that I knew they knew that one of the reps had promised us replacement tickets because the last rep had told me he could see where they were sent to that department, but the request was sent back because the vendor hadn't found out if re-prints could be done. See the manager tried to tell me there were no notes for this, but as I was describing to Graham what had happened I remembered the rep telling me he saw where they had sent them off. So I told the new rep I knew he could see that and that was proof we were told we would get new tickets of equal or greater value if re-prints weren't available and that StubHub needed to stand by their promise. Within minutes he came back and said I have replacement tickets for you and we got bumped up 4 rows to row 17!! So I am ecstatic that we have tickets, but I am left wondering why in the heck it took 8 long HORRIBLE calls to get the issue resolved? It also makes me want to move because I have never lived around such white trash! I am sorry if I have offended anyone by that term, but that is the epitome of white trash. Stealing some one's tickets and trying to extort money to do the right thing makes you WHITE TRASH! Either way we finally got tickets and we get to go to the game, which is all we wanted. Silly us for wanting what we paid for.... right?

Dr. Feelgood

2009-01-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the Dr.'s office because it hurt under my jaw (in the area of your thyroid) when I swallowed. She told me I had a clogged saliva gland. YUCK!!! Anyway, there could be a stone that has to be surgically removed or just stuff in there so she prescribed sucking on sour candy like lemonheads! Can you believe it! She prescribed CANDY! I can't tell you what dream come true that was. I mean even as kids when we played Dr. we prescribed pez and such to each other, but now I was really actually being prescribed candy and not nasty amoxicillin that is disguised to taste like nasty bubblegum. It was a dream come true until my mouth became sore and raw from all the sour candy! I am hoping this is over with VERY soon. I am feeling much better then yesterday. Say a prayer everything takes care of itself so I don't have to have surgery to remove anything as that would SUCK sour candy.

First Job Jitters!!!

2009-01-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

For those of you that don't know, I have been asked to be the graphic artist for a local web designer. I submitted my first banner design tonight. I am sure it will need to be tweaked but it is part 1 of the project. I LOVE this stuff! Here is my first try:

Say a little prayer that this is what he and the client are looking for. I am pretty nervous about it as it is my first design. Love to all.

New Year!!!!

2009-01-05T07:24:00.001-08:00

The last couple of weeks have been one giant blur. The holiday season worked out well for us this year. It came so that we got to have two four day weekends in a row!!! Graham and I pretty much watched movies and lounged both weekends. It was very nice to get to spend so much time together where I didn't have to worry about getting homework done or show up to a class. We got each other a treadmill for Christmas and I worked out on it 3 times last week and have vowed that I will run on it in the am M,W, & F's and on T and TR I will do my turbo jam DVD. Graham is going to run in the evenings on my morning runs that way when school starts I have no excuse to not work out. While I am in class he can work out and I will be working out in the morning. I know it will be a bit difficult to get up in the morning because some of my classes aren't even over until 9, which means I am not home until 9:30 or 9:40 and then have to do homework when I get home. So.... I may have to pick up some slack on the weekends.... we will see.

Graham also let me splurge and get a new sewing machine! It has so many stitches and functions I don't know if I will ever learn them all, but I will have fun trying!!! I will post pictures of my first project, but don't want to give anything away just yet. I found some one who makes the prettiest fabrics on the planet and I am excited to use her fabric to jazz up my project.

I also received a couple of books for Christmas from my Uncle Bob. We did a swap this year so we had to tell everyone some ideas for presents and then they could decide what to get you. You didn't know who had you until Christmas morning. The two books were on how to cook meals for 1 day and freeze them so you have meals for 30 days. This is something I have really wanted to start doing. I have been cooking several meals on Sunday to get us through the week so we don't eat out. It is our version of "fast food." This way I feel like Graham gets to have dinner even though I am at school until late! Anyway, I made a couple of the recipes and we have a freezer with at least a week's worth of two different kinds of soups if not more. I froze Texas style chili and hamburger soup. The hamburger soup was frozen in a large bag and then in a couple of smaller bags for lunch portions. I am pretty excited about doing this if you can't tell. I am also anxiously awaiting all the awesome magazines they got me as well. I will keep you all updated on how easy or hard the cooking for 1 day and eating for 30 is. I am going to try it in a couple of weekends before school starts.

We have decided to go to the cabin in CO where Graham proposed! We have it for the last week of February and can't wait to go back and just relax up in the mountains. The last night we are there we are going to go to a Nuggets vs. Lakers game and we got some awesome tickets. That is, we hope we have awesome tickets. See FedEx has lost them! Like I say, if it could happen to us it will. I am getting ready to get on the phone to see if they have found them yet. Say a little prayer they find them cause if they don't....... well I will deal with that if it comes!

I hope 2009 has found you all well and I will pray that it continues to be a great year to all of us!

Weight Watching

2008-12-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

To date all I have been doing is watching my weight climb. I loose weight for a while then watch it all come back. So.... I have decided to go on "Weight Watchers" with a friend at work. She is doing it and it will help both of us to do it together. She gave me her points slider so now I am going to go home and label everything I eat so I can see how much crap I am really putting in my mouth during the day. It isn't stuff I don't already know from years of playing sports, and having an awesome mother who taught me about excellent nutrition, but seeing the load of crap might help me just say no to my food addiction. That is right my name is Heather Shertz and I am a food addict. ....... There I have taken the first step now only a million more and a lifetime to go! We received our treadmill on Friday and I ran on it on Monday morning. I am getting on the treadmill tonight. Keep me and Graham in your prayers as he will be joining me on this journey back to fitness. Not only will he be having to deal with me being grouchy, but he will be a little grouchy as well.

A HUGE Accomplishment

2008-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ok. I am tooting my own horn again. I took 4 classes this semester and got married and went on a honeymoon. I worked VERY hard this semester in what I believe is going to be the hardest semester of my college carreer. Not only because of the wedding, but because the classes I was enrolled in were the hardest ones I have taken to date. There was one "gimmie" class titled using the world wide web, that was supposed to be easy. It turned into papers upon papers with sources upon sources, so don't let the title fool you. Anyway I looked up my final grades and what did I see but this:

Engagement Partay

2008-12-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

We had an engagement soiree for Brad & Alyssa last weekend. They are heading to Colorado with her family to celebrate Christmas today so they also celebrated Christmas. My parents always give us pajamas and when we move out they always give us necessary tools and such. Graham and I will be celebrating Christmas and his birthday with my folks this Sunday. There will be pics posted of that shortly after. We are celebrating Graham's birthday (12/22) all weekend. That is kind of our tradition. You get a birthday weekend. I am taking him to his favorite steakhouse (Jack Stack) tonight and giving him is presents. We are celebrating with his fam on Saturday, and then my fam on Sunday. He has then taken his birthday off so he gets a 3 day weekend, works 1 day and then is off 4 more days. LUCKY MAN!!!!

Brad & Alyssa's Engagement

2008-12-19T07:48:00.001-08:00

My little brother Brad recently proposed to his girlfriend Alyssa. We love her and think she is great! They are planning a wedding in June! I know she has a lot of work a head of her and I am even more happy that it isn't me! Here are a couple of pics of their engagement. He proposed to her at our outdoor skating rink. The pics are courtesy of my mom who brought the ring to him and then hid in the bushes to take the pics. (I only wish she would have called me so I could have hidden with her)

Cookie Extravaganza 2008

2008-12-19T07:40:00.001-08:00

We got together with Karen & Wayne and Brandy & Andrew for a cookie bake to end all cookie bakes last weekend. We made:

201 - Sugar Cookies (which we decorated)
231 - Ginger Snaps
291 - Dark Choc. Chip Oatmeal Cookies
325 - Choc. Chip/M & M Cookies
282 - Snickerdoodles
27 - Mini loaves of Pistachio Bread
Crapton of choc. covered rice krispies
Crapton of choc. covered peanutbutter balls
Crapton of puppy chow
Crapton of choc. covered Oreos

I have included a few pics from the occasion. I will post more once I get my cd of pics from Brandy. She so kindly tried to send them to me via email ( a few times) but I couldn't get them all.

Giving Thanks

2008-12-01T16:26:00.000-08:00

We had an absolutely W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L weekend! We got off early on Wednesday which I used to bake (from scratch) a blueberry crisp, apple crisp, blackberry crisp, and four loaves of pistachio bread. We went over to Brandrew's (Brandy & Andrew). It was a "potluck" turkey day. Everyone brought two or three dishes and man did we have a lot of food! We stuffed ourselves and then went back to Graham's parents and hung out together. We then had everyone out to our home to watch the newly purchased Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the surround sound. I had never seen it and can I just say WOW!!!!! I also spent the first part of Friday out grocery shopping and then cooked several kinds of chicken (maple, apple bacon chicken, pineapple mango chicken, and sun dried tomato chicken.) I then washed and dried blackberries, strawberries and blueberries. I made my salads with the chicken and added dried cranberries. This was me trying to get back on the diet!!! (We are both super committed and even purchasing a new treadmill this weekend!) Sunday we went over to my folks and had lunch and a great visit. I am making Brandy a little book with all the recipes from thanksgiving and our cookie bake we are doing. Once I have that completed I will be posting my scratch crisp recipe and the pistachio bread recipes.

December is going to be a BUSY month. I have finals next week!!!! Yes I am excited because that means I am done with the hardest semester ever!!!! WOOHOO!!!!! We are having a cookie bake at Brandy's on December 13th. We are all pretty excited about that! Then the next day we are going over to the rent's to have an engagement lunch for my little brother Brad. That is right my little brother is engaged! Their wedding date is June 27th 2009. Those of you keeping track Brad graduates (from High school) in May and will be married in June. They have found a great place in a beautiful park. One of my favorites in the area. I have been working on some designs for them for their thank you's as a surprise to them. They will not have to use them of course, but it will be there for them if they want to use them.

We will go to the Rich's Christmas the next weekend. (It is our tradition to have our x-mas the weekend before because I always celebrated x-mas with my momma) We still do this to allow Graham and I to have our own x-mas traditions at our home.

We will also be celebrating Graham's 27th birthday on December 22nd!!!! We also will be celebrating Matt's b-day on New Year's Eve Day. His 16th!!!!!!!! That is right, Matt will be allowed on the road in 2009 without a parent. YIKES!!!!!

There are sure to be many excellent pictures to post up here for you all in the next few months.

Tooting my own horn!!!

2008-11-24T17:06:00.001-08:00

I have been in a DIFFICULT auditing class this semester. It has been VERY time consuming and I have 3 other 3 hour classes as well. To give you an example we had to turn in an audit of a company and write a control evaluation and disaster recovery plan. Mine ended up being 33 pages total (including the questionnaire and appendices I had to create). Well.... we just got the papers back today and I received a 100%!!!! I am pretty sure I am one of VERY FEW that have ever received a 100% from this professor. He is a VERY particular professor (he is an auditing professor) and even creates a seating chart where we sit at least 2 or 3 seats away from each other and have to enter our answers on a separate sheet that is stapled in the center of the exam, that we are only allowed to transfer our answers to when we are done with the exam so anyone around us cannot look at our flipped up page and get our answers. Yes.... that particular and I got a 100%!!!! So thank you Mr. Waegelin for making me earn my grades because this is sooooooo very sweet!

Thank you cards

2008-11-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

I finally sat down and designed our thank you cards. I can't wait to send them out to everyone. I will not pot a picture on here until after we mail them out because I do not want anyone seeing them before they receive them, but I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. I am thinking about making this a side job for some extra green. If anyone likes my design feel free to pass my name and email address along. I would like to start making birth announcements, party invitations, save-the-dates, and thank you cards.

Newlyweds to Yearlyweds

2008-11-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say congratulations to Brandy & Andrew. They are celebrating their 1 year wedding anniversary today!!!! It is hard to believe that is has been a whole year already! It seems like just a few months ago that we were trying on bridesmaids dresses and planning everything! Have a great time tonight you guys and enjoy eating that cake!!!!

Happy Birthday Mamma Karen

2008-11-11T08:49:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Karen's birthday on Saturday. The Shertz family makes the dinner of request for the birthday person and Karen picked: marinated flank steak, broccoli, rolls, and cake. I was in charge of the cake and she gave me three options. I choose the carrot cake. I jumped at the chance because I LOVE to bake and just got the prettiest cake display as a gift for our wedding. So I made my first (I have made one before but it was soooo ugly it doesn't count) double layer cake. While at the store I found these cool food coloring pens so I picked them up. Graham can draw, so I thought maybe he could have some fun decorating the cake. He drew his signature character Mrs. Denstat (I must ask him how to spell this correctly) and then wrote Happy B-Day. We were pretty proud of ourselves so I had to share. There are pics of Karen with the cake, but Wayne has those on his camera so once we get a copy of those I will put them up as well. I will put them up with the recipe to the cake, as we all didn't hesitate to have seconds. Also thanks Leigh Ann for my new spatula it made icing the cake MUCH easier!

Belated Halloween Pics

2008-11-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

So, with the 25 page paper + I just wrote for auditing I have had no time to download pictures. So, as promised here are a couple of pics of Graham's awesome pumpkin! As you can see he let me in on the action, for the nose!

For Kayla

2008-11-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

...who tagged me!--
Tag Directions:
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.--Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog.--Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I am super afraid of fish. That is right fish. Not all fish, but if they are larger them me or have teeth I do not like them. I do like little fish, in fact I used to sit on the edge of my parents Pier and let them nibble on my toes.

2. I want to get fit enough that I can participate in a triathlon or do the New York City Marathon. I just can't seem to get out of bed in the morning to workout, I would much rather dream about being in one, while tucked cozily in my bed.

3. I dream of being able to have a job where I can use my creativity and work from anywhere I want to.

4. I wouldn't mind living in the middle of the woods and being self sustaining. I know that sounds weird, but I REALLY don't like being so reliant on technology to get through the day.

5. I LOVE the smell of cut wood. When I was little my dad would let me come out to his shop. He has every saw and tool imaginable. I would watch him think up an idea and build it. I LOVED doing that and to this day every time some one cuts would I huff the smell in like it is going out of style.

6. I fell through the ice once when I was ice skating. Man was that COLD.

7. I wake up each day thinking how lucky I am to live in this country and how blessed my life has truly been. I have 6 yes 6 wonderful parents and the best family anyone could ask for. My friends would be there in a millisecond and my husband loves me unconditionally. I might not be the richest person monetarily, but my life is VERY RICH.

I am supposed to tag 7 people, but the fact is, I don't have 7 people to tag. No one I know has a blog so I can't tag anyone on here. I thought I would still participate so everyone could see 7 lil' tidbits about me.

Kayla: I know you will appreciate this because you know who this person is, so I am throwing this one out as a total bonus. I used to have the biggest, dorkiest crush on Jordan Bender. Of course he doesn't hold a candle to Graham, but I thought you could laugh hysterically at this and maybe forget about the ribs for a minute or two. Bahahahahaha

Mrs. Misedemeanor no more!!!

2008-11-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

Those of you who don't know, my vehicle tags expired the last day of September. Yes that would be while we were on our honeymoon. With all the hullaballoo of the wedding the mail piled up a bit and Mr. Shertz didn't know we had received them. So, on my way to the Tina Turner show I got pulled over for 8 day expired tags. I politely told the officer that I honestly had no idea and must not have received them in the mail. I apologized ten different ways and felt so bad.

See I had just gotten back from my honeymoon, and had to miss class to see a concert. HAD TO. See it was TINA TURNER! So not only did I already have to do 3 weeks worth of homework in 4 classes and testing early for the wedding, I also had to come back and take a Tax exam on the same night as Tina. So I made arrangements to come into work EARLY, and by early I mean the butt crack of dawn at o' dark 30. Then I left work early and went to school to take my test. Which I received a 95% on!!! It took me half the time I thought it would so I was on my way to Karen & Wayne's for the show. Just as I thought, "awesome I CAN stop for dinner before I get there, I actually have time." The nice officer, who was two lanes over and 5 cars ahead of me, slowed WAY down and got in the middle lane.... and then turned his lights on.

I preceded to explain that I honestly had not idea and hadn't received anything in the mail. He responded rather annoyed, "What did you move recently?" To which I responded, "no sir, I usually get them and pay them online so I am not sure quite what happened this time." He said, "here is your ticket and your court date is on the back." I took a quick glance and signed it as he requested and then flipped it over. As you can see above the fine amount says COURT. As he walked away I asked, "what do I do with this, there is no fine amount." To which he responded, "having expired tags is a misdemeanor in the state of Kansas mam." MAM come on I am 26.... MAM. Anyway, so I said, "REALLY." I actually felt my face get red right to my ears. I almost began to cry and he said, "just call the number on the back and explain what happened. You aren't the first person who didn't receive their notice in the mail and I am sure they will work with you." I must have really looked pitiful because his entire demeanor changed. I went from being that lying girl he was calling a bluff on, to being some one telling the truth. That felt good. I was hoping if he believed me the court would to.

Fast forward to today. I had to go to the district attorney's office. That place is hell on earth. You sign in and then sit in the smallest room possible with about 50 chairs in it. I don't know how they cram all those chairs in that little space. Then all you can do is sit there and stare forward at the lady behind the bulletproof glass and try not to loose your lunch as you wait for some one to decide your fate. Not only that, but then you have all the people who work at the courthouse who are going in and out of that room staring at you probably thinking you are some kind of criminal. After a few horrible minutes and some stares later, she came out and said the 4 best words of the day! "I've dismissed your ticket." YAY!!!! I thanked her 6 ways to Sunday and I think even bowed a little when I got up. I was walking on air all the way out of the building and down to my car.

We are seeing Stills and Nash tonight. I am pretty excited. We have 3rd row orchestra seats!!!! Hopefully Wayne will bring his camera as our battery wasn't charged enough this am.

Mr. President Elect!

2008-11-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

Good morning all! I didn't get a picture of the events last night, but how incredible. Graham and I voted and even have the sticker to prove it. Even with everyone screaming about how bad the polls were, there was still no one wondering who won last night. There was no re-count or anything. I can't believe in such a heated election that it went relatively smoothly. There were some polls here that had issues. They delivered the books with the registered voters to the wrong polls. The books had the right polling places on the cover, but the wrong names in them so people waited for hours to vote and some even left because they could wait no longer for them to get the correct information to allow them to vote. There was even one place downtown that had only 1 that is right 1 machine and when it broke, they turned voters away. That is right, some people showed up to vote and were turned away. Graham and I were ready to stay up until the wee hours to learn who one, because the last couple of elections have been questionable. I went to sleep one year thinking one person won and woke up to a different person as president.

We started out over at Karen and Wayne's house. We got Pappa Johns Pizza and bread sticks. We pigged out and watch the election coverage on all the channels to see who was reporting what. With the time change my body thought it was later then it was so we left around 9:30 and I watched the rest of the coverage and the speeches in bed.

No matter who you voted for, it was a surreal night, and what an acceptance speech by Obama. It was awesome to see the reaction of so many people and even in defeat McCain was very humble. I pray this term will be a healing point for our nation. I pray that we can really all pull together for the greater good and get some things accomplished.

Corn Chowder

2008-11-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

I got this recipe from Curtis Arnold. He used to work with me, but wised up and began working for himself. His wife is a home economics teacher and probably one of the best cooks I know! Their recipe is above. If you are having a hard time reading it just click on the picture it will enlarge it to a readable size.

Eats

2008-11-04T08:18:00.001-08:00

I have decided to post any recipes I have found or tried. I think this will be a good way for those of you far from us to have a little part of us around you. When you see pics of us eating pistachio bread you will know how to make it!

Our Story

2008-11-04T07:46:00.001-08:00

To all of you who may be interested I will tell you how Graham and I met. I had just moved out of my parents house not long before I met him. I had applied for a new job, on account of getting fired (for the 3rd or 4th time) from my current job. I got a cashier position at Lowe's where they quickly put me in outdoor lawn and garden. Which would have been great, except for the fact they didn't tell me so I had no coat.... did I mention it was about 30 something out there (yes dad, I know you told me so and I should have worn a jacket if it was that cold anyway). The only part that made it bareable was this cute guy that worked in the department. I envied him. Mainly because he got to walk around outdoor lawn and garden, drive the forklift and was able to use the restroom whenever he wanted. For those of you who don't know, working as a cashier means you must beg for your break and beg to use the restroom (especially when they have stuck at the furthest end of the store by yourself). Anyway, I was trying to hover as close to the little heater at my station as I could, but I heard some rustling near me so I turned around and there was Graham picking up an area to get it ready for the spring. He was so incredibily cute. He smiled at me and my heart almost stopped. He had the bluest eyes and the most perfect smile. He was wearing a waterway jacket, a beanie, and some dark tight pair of bluejeans. This is funny now because at the time he dressed VERY different from most people see exhibit A. He even went out of his way to have what he called a devil lock in his hair! So we talked for a few minutes as I tried to look calm, cool and collected, but inside my stomach was doing flips! We had a mutual friend in the department his name is Justin. I knew him because he was my roomates boyfriend and Graham new him because he worked in the department. So Graham thought he would ask Justin for information. Which would have been a good idea, but Justin told him I thought another guy that worked in a different department was cute. Once Graham heard that he says he just thought forget it. (Mainly because the other guy was a dork and anyone that would like some one like that.... well maybe he didn't want to date them anyway) So. I see Justin later and ask him about Graham and he procedes to tell me that Graham had asked him about me and that he told him I liked this other guy. I wanted to KILL him. So now I am desperate. Desperate to make sure Graham knows that I only thought the other guy was cute until I layed eyes on him. They had moved me inside now at the last cash register. Graham came into check out, which was done at the closest registers to customer service. So I yell down to him from across the store to come down to my register. (Yes I made the first move) He came down and I asked him to join me at the St. Patty's Day parade. We didn't make it to the parade because my friends left me, so I spent the day trying to get a hold of him hoping he didn't think I ditched him. I finally got a hold of him and met him downtown for our first date and we haven't been apart since.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am just posting up some cool pumpkins I have seen on the web. We carved a pumpkin last night and I will post those pics up for you all to see shortly!