Recipe etiquette

For all my blogging friends, here is a question for you... What is the rule about recipe etiquette in blogs? I know generally you acknowledge who you got the recipe from if you can remember. But I was thinking about starting a recipe blog for my sister and mom who are always asking me for recipes that I've tried and like but I don't want to get in trouble if it's from a recipe book. So does anyone know the etiquette/unwritten rule is there? Thanks in advance!

The happenings

I think busy is not a strong enough word to describe our lives lately. This last month has been pure chaos. We were able to celebrate our 4 year anniversary and the majority of the rest of our lives have been consumed in work. Scott has been really busy at work, and I have been REALLY busy at work. I started a new position with the company I work for. I'm still a trainer but I'm over a new department here in Price called CaptionCall. The product came out about a year ago and they've had a department in the Salt Lake office but they just brought it to Price. It's potentially a huge step for my company and they are looking to open some new offices in the coming 6 months, so it's been fun to be a part of the beginning of something that is going to be huge for the company. The busy-ness hasn't come without it's hardships. I think I've had a break down at least once a week since starting this position and I've been so grateful that Scott has been so understanding. One particular week was really rough. I was working enormous amounts of overtime so the exhaustion was overwhelming and I was having some days where the words kept running through my head "life's not fair." But I have a great husband who let me cry for a very long time on his shoulder and the next day when I got in my car to go home from work I found these...
You can't look at Gerbera daisies and not smile, right? This did make my day and seriously aren't flowers the best? I received 3 sets of flowers in a 3 week period, one set for our anniversary, an arrangement from the VP of the company I work for thanking me for working so hard, and these. Of course the ones from Scott were my favorite, but I just love how flowers can lighten a rough day.

In other news we paid off our Honda, yay! We now have 2 cars bought and paid for. If all goes well we're hoping to be out of debt by May or June (Thanks Dave Ramsey!). Scott got me a gift certificate to get the car detailed so it's all pretty. I'm just hoping the car will last us a long time.
Other than that we are doing pretty good. We're to the point of trying to decide what is next for us and we have a list of options in front of us and the hard part is deciding which is the best. We'll probably be moving from Price in the next year which will be weird. I have grown to love the city and the people but we both know that this isn't our permanent home. This is the part of being an adult I hate, making life altering decisions. But I'm so glad I have Scott by my side through it all.

Family pictures

This is a first for the Westwood family. After four years we made the effort to get some family pictures done (yes the dog is a part of our family). Maybe a little part of me was waiting for an addition to complete the photo, but alas it is not so. We had a great time with these photos and our photographer was great. Cosmo even behaved quite well. Here are some of our favorites...

4 years

Has it really been that long? As I look back it seems so long ago yet it seems that the time has flown by so fast. Does that even make sense? We've had our ups and downs like any married couple has but I feel now that we are closer and stronger than ever. Fortunately bumps in the road and unforeseen obstacles can make you stronger if you let them. We haven't always grown from our trials but I feel that this year we have. Life doesn't always go according to plan but it's a lot easier if you use it to benefit and strengthen the relationships that you have. I was so lucky to find a guy that I could lean on during tough times. That would be the strength I needed when life is hard.

I.AM.LUCKY.

Here's to another year that will hopefully be the best one yet!

Fort Westwood

A few days ago I was asking Scott if as a kid he ever made forts. I know that when I was growing up that was one of my favorite things to do in my basement. Made of blankets, chairs and TV trays we would make different rooms and tunnels to play in. It was something so simple yet so entertaining.

We had made plans this weekend to go camping. We have had something every weekend for probably 3 months and camping seems to get pushed to the back burner because work and family came first. But it rained yesterday. And Scott was pretty bummed. I had told him I'd camp with him in the backyard but it was still poring rain. So we decided to make a fort in the living room. It didn't have any tunnels and only had 1 room, but it was fun to remember what it is like to be a child.

This morning, I started to clean up and asked for Scott's help taking down the fort and he was bummed so we are leaving it up for a few more days. He plans on sleeping in it tonight... I told him I'm sleeping in my bed. But it was fun and this is an activity I can't wait to do with my own children one day. :)

Zero

That's right, it says ZERO. A couple weeks ago we made some really big payments on my students loans and I can now say my education is MINE. I can't tell you what a great feeling it is after paying for4 years and not seeing the amount going down much, and now it's gone! All we have left on our credit report as far as debt is my car and Scott's school loan which we have a plan to pay both off by next May (knock on wood). When we moved here to Price we were swimming, just trying to stay afloat. Someone had given us Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" for our wedding, we read it and it taught us how to best get out of debt as quickly as possible. I would recommend it to anyone, it really has some good advice. Having 2 incomes has been a huge blessing for us. Yay for one less bill!

Comments

I guess some people have tried to make comments on this blog but the access has been denied. I didn't change my settings but I went in and tried to make it so any person could comment. If for some reason it denies you, email me at stephkay82 at hotmail dot com. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows I didn't block anyone from commenting. I love all comments. :)

Top 10

As fall is quickly approaching I decided to make a list of the top 10 things I'm looking forward to this fall...

10. Less yard work.
9. Work slowing down.
8. Evening walks in a perfect temperature.
7. More time spent at home.
6. Anticipating and preparing for the holiday season.
5. Leaves changing colors.
4. General Conference
3. Seeing Mary Poppins at Capital Theater.
2. BYU football
1. Celebrating 4 years as the wife of an amazing man.

It's going to be good.

Summer adventures

My cute niece Makenzie just graduated from High School. She decided that for her senior trip she wanted to come and spend a week in Price with Scott and me. I reminded her of what Price consisted of, and she still decided to come here. I was worried about what I was going to do to make this trip special, because really, you only get one senior trip. Unfortunately I could only take limited time off of work so she got to spend a lot of down time by herself but we tried to find some fun activities to make the trip memorable.

The day after she got here, we went to Scofield Resevoir where they were having "Pleasant Valley Days." Every town in central Utah, at some point in the summer, has an event like this with booths and good (greasy) food, entertainment and lots of other activities that brings everyone together. Being up in the mountains I anticipated the weather to be a little cooler. Boy was I wrong. We lasted for about an hour and a half before we were both miserable. We did stay to watch the "Rubby Ducky Derby" that they have each year. People can sponsor a rubber ducky, by paying $5, and win a price, if they come in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or last. The proceeds are donated to a local charity. I bought one and we watched the race. People line up on the banks of the river to see if their ducky wins a prize. It's a fun tradition for the community. Here we are waiting ever so patiently.
And here they finally came!
On the 4th we didn't have much to do during the day so we took a drive up to Joe's Valley Reservoir. We had never been up there but had heard good things. The weather didn't hold out long enough for us to do much, but it was a pretty drive and an every prettier reservoir. It makes me want a boat.
Playin' on the unstable dock.
The following weekend, my parents came down with Nick and Sydney (Kenzie's brother and sister). The kids had never been to Price in the 3 years that we had lived here and were excited to come down and see what it was all about.

My mom, Kenzie, Nick, Sydney and I went to the USU-CEU Dinosaur Museum. I am embarrassed to say that I had never been there before. I was pretty impressed by the artifacts that they have. They even have an alligator, and we happened to be there during feeding time. Watching an alligator eat live mice is pretty disturbing.

They had some fun activities for kids, including fossil brushing.
We had a great opportunity to take some fun pictures.
The next morning, Kenzie, Nick, Scott, my dad and I left my house at 5:30 and headed for Arches National Park, where we made the hike to Delicate Arch. It was hot, and we got lost, but we had a great time and the reward at the top of the trail is always worth it.

Nick, Dad and Kenz under the Arch.
We had some extra time before we were supposed to meet up with my mom and Syd in Moab, so we ventured over to some other Arches. Kenzie, Nick and I were too sore and hot to do anymore hiking so my dad and Scott made the hike to these Arches called the North and South Windows.
After meeting up with my mom and Syd, we drove 90 minutes south to a town called Bluff, Utah. We were all so exhausted and it was over 100 degrees outside but we were too close to this special little town not to go. Some of my ancestors helped settle this town and 3 years ago my dad, his siblings and some cousins went down and built a small cabin (in 3 days time) as a memorial to these pioneers.
A plaque about my great great grandmother.
It was such a fun and memorable week with Kenzie and some other members of my family. I'm so glad that they were able to come down to Price and spend some time.

Strawberries everyday

Last year we planted 21 small strawberry bushes. Only 2 survived and it's a good thing because they have taken over the area! We only got a couple strawberries last year but this year we are getting quite a bit.

This is the bigger of the 2 bushes.
I usually pick them every other day. This is about how may I get every other day and they are mostly big and super sweet! It's awesome!

We also planted a raspberry bush. It was a scrawny little thing at the beginning of spring and it hasn't stopped growing since.
And my blackberry bush.It's going to be a berry good summer!

Missouri- Part duece

Our trip to Missouri really was more than just dealing with the aftermath of a deadly tornado. I was able to get some girls time in with my 2 sister-in-laws who I ADORE. Seriously, I gained 3 amazing sisters-in-law when I got married and spending girl time with them is always a riot.

We were able to spend some time with friends while there. We had a BBQ at Scott's parents house and were able to visit and have an enjoyable time.

The Friday that we were there, Scott and I decided to be "touristy" and visit Branson. He had been there a few times before, but I never had. I have to say that it is one of the most beautiful cities. We didn't have time to take in any shows, but we drove around, ate some lunch, snapped some pictures, and did some shopping at the Tanger Outlets and Branson Landing.

Below are some pictures taken from the car (thus the low quality)



Branson Landing

On our way home from Branson, we met the fam at Lambert's. We never pass up a chance to go there when we are in Missouri. Great food and an awesome atmosphere. If you are ever in the Branson area, you won't be disappointed by making a stop to this place. It's about 25 minutes north of Branson in Ozark.


One of the highlights of the trip was meeting this little angel, seen below... (Not Scott, I'm talking about the baby!)
This is baby Erin. She is our foster niece. She is such a sweet baby and it was so fun to play with and give loves to.

Well, that was our trip in a nutshell. Besides the tornado and the most horrid allergies I've had in my life, we had a pretty good time!

Happy Birthday Scotty the Hotty!

My man is officially 1 year away from being the big 3-0. (Well, in all reality he's less than a year away since I'm 4 days late in blogging about his birthday.) I had to work up in SLC on his birthday but I was home by evening and we got to spend a nice evening at the "fancy" restaurant here in Price, and then he opened presents and we both fell asleep, super exciting. There was one present that I had to get to him late because it took some time to make, and I couldn't make it while he was at home. He's been talking for some time about a sherbert watermelon. I had no idea what that was, but apparently that was one of his favorite treats as a kid. He explained to me what it consisted of and I figured it couldn't be too hard to make. I used my trusty friend Google and of course it helped me find a way to make this tasty treat.

So here's what I did:

I got a metal 2 qt. metal bowl and wrapped it with plastic wrap. (SUPER important step)

Then I put a layer (about a pints worth) of soft lime sherbert along the bowl and stuck it in the freezer until it was pretty solid.
Then I put a layer of softened pineapple sherbert over the layer of lime sherbert (about a pint) and put it in the freezer to harden.

Then I took some softened raspberry sherbert and put it in a bowl (about 1 1/2- 2 pints worth of sherbert) and mixed some mini chocolate chips in it.

Then I filled up the rest of the bowl with that mixture and stuck it into the freezer til it was rock solid.

After it had set, I turned it upside-down on a plate and put it into the freezer until we were ready to eat it.

You can't tell by the look on his face but he was VERY excited about this. It was well worth the work just to see him so excited.

Here is how we served it, like a slice of watermelon, and it was oh so tasty!

I just have to say that I love this guy more and more everyday, and I've never been so happy. Here to many more birthdays to come!

Missouri- Part 1

I finally found some time to blog, so I'm going to try and portray some of the things that happened on our trip. I keep going through it over and over again in my head, trying to find the best way to describe what we saw, what we experienced, some of it being very personal with no words to explain the impact of seeing some a tragedy first hand. You see pictures of the ruins of what used to be a person's home and town and it is nothing compared to seeing people searching through rubble for anything salvageable that they can find, anything that they can hold on to that will be a remnant from their life that so quickly turned upside down. The site, the smell, the air of despair and then hope, is very hard to express.

This trip was definitely not what we planned. We had decided we wanted to go to Missouri when nothing was going on (i.e. baptisms, weddings, holidays) because we have always gone when there is a reason to and we wanted to just go and spend as much quality time as we could with Scott’s parents. But when planning a vacation, you never say “How will my plans be affected if a natural disaster hits?” So here is part the story:

Let's start at the beginning...

Scott and I left for Missouri on a Friday night around 10 p.m. He had to work until then and we were anxious to leave, so we packed up and left. We drove through the night and after going through Vail, we started up Vail pass. Lo and behold, we hit snow. Bad snow. Scary snow. There were semis stuck in the slow lane, and farther up there was a car stuck in the passing lane. We felt really bad because we didn't feel like we could stop the car to help, not knowing if we could get going again, so we continued on.

Last time we drove to Missouri was in the month of November and we had no problems with snow, go figure.

We were able to stop in Kansas City and see the Kansas City temple which is being constructed. This will really nice for my in-laws who currently have to drive to Oklahoma City or St. Louis to attend the temple which is about 4 hours away from their home. Currently they live about 2 hours south of Kansas City.

The following day was Sunday. This was the day that the tornado tore through Joplin. Many lost their lives, but miracles happened that day. It was a miracle that we were at a fireside (an evening church meeting) an hour north of Joplin, when that fireside could have been in the Joplin Stake Center that demolished. It was a miracle that the 7 people in the Stake Center ran to the woman’s bathroom and it was one of the only rooms still standing. One of Scott’s cousins who lives in Joplin was home alone, her husband was gone, and she got in her bathtub with a mattress over her, I can’t imagine the horror. Scott’s other cousin and his wife gathered their children into the bathroom in their house, the only room without windows and they were lucky enough to be a little bit outside where the tornado hit.

Scott, his brother Matt, and his dad went into Joplin that night. Scott’s dad and mom own some apartments in Joplin and the residents had called to let them know that there was some damage to the buildings. Of course you can imagine the hesitation I had in letting Scott go into the city at this time. The news was telling of the chaos going on in the city. People were trying to get out, there were live electrical wires on the ground, in some places it smelled heavily of gas, and there was debri everywhere. Matt’s wife Christine was trying really hard to talk them out of going down there but I knew whether I fought it or not, nothing could keep Scott from going in to help. Luckily the properties only had minimal structural damage and they were able to board up the windows and get some water and candles to the tenants since the water had been contaminated and the electricity was out.

That week the LDS church came in and had a plan set forth to help the people of Joplin. Saturday we were able to go into Joplin and help people with their yards, and in cutting down limbs that were broken, put tarps on damaged roofs, and anything else that they might need help with. Scott’s aunt and I went door to door and filled out request forms for those that wanted help and a crew of about 30 people came behind us doing the work orders. I can’t even begin to express what an amazing experience this was. The first house that we went to, there was a little old man out in his yard trying to cut down a limb on his tree. (We were in a section of Joplin about 2 blocks away from the part where houses were gone, but most of the people we helped that day still had their homes and were able to live in them.) Anyway… this little old man has a saw in one hand and a pipe in the other, and he was trying really hard to cut this limb down. So we go up and start talking to him and his wife comes out of the house and we tell them who we are and what we would like to do for them, and this little old lady starts telling us that her husband is 95 and he’s trying to do this all by himself but she doesn’t want him to get hurt. She was more than willing to let us help her clean up her yard. After they gave us permission, the little old man came up and gave me this great big hug and told me thank you. His wife was so appreciative, she told us that if we needed a bathroom or water while we were working in that area that we could come on over. When I went back later to use the bathroom, she didn’t recognize me as the one that spoke to her first, but she said “You guys are guardian angels sent to us. I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come.” Nothing can describe what we felt that day. We may have helped that day but the impact of others on us will never be forgotten.

One of my favorite things about this is experience was the sense of unity in the community. We bumped into other religious groups out helping people, and then other religious groups out in golf carts or trucks with food for those working. One truck stopped and fed our whole group hamburgers and drinks. Every corner on Main street had some organization that was giving away free food. I’ve never seen such a unified group with one purpose.

There are so many other stories to tell but the post is long enough. We did get to spent time with family and friends which was great. We did have some good times, and even got away for a day and went to Branson (which was beautiful, and quirky, and fun). But I’ll have to post about that later.

Here is a short video of Joplin that depicts what it was like a whole lot better than pictures. I have another video that's even better but it won't load.

Soon to come, "Missouri part 2" which will show the other parts of our trip.