Project Runway!

September whaaaa?

I can't believe it's already the middle of September. I was opened our blog for the first time in obviously a long time. I don't even know if anyone out there is reading this!!! Hey, I don't want to stop just yet though; so where do I start?!

I'll keep it simple. I'm not done with Isaac's 2nd year pictures yet, so I'll do that later. I really enjoy fashion. One of my favorite shows is Project Runway. I know I know, Lifetime TV right? I've been watching it for a few seasons now, maybe 4 years or so, and I love it. My favorite designer this year is Anya. I like a lot of what Kim has done too, but I love Anya's design style.

I thought this dress was pretty cool. I love the reference to the orient and the print. Her work is always so different but really interesting and I think beautiful.

This is from the HP challenge where they get to design prints themselves. I would wear this dress! I loved it and was really glad the judges chose her as the winner. One of my favorite things about Anya is she is a new sewer. She had only been sewing a few months before coming on the show and the judges weren't sure if she could do it but they let her on and I know they are glad they did. She gives me hope! Maybe there's hope for me as a seamstress still.

Joshua won this week, I think he did a great job, but it wasn't at all his style, which I usually don't like. The dress was gorgeous though and he deserved it. I also really loved Victor's. I don't always agree with the judges but I have to say, this week I agreed with them 100% on the top and bottom scorers. I have to admit, they seem to love Oliver, I really don't care for his work at all.

This is Joshua's dress that won. It was really cute. I like sparkly things, but he really overdoes it sometimes so I was happy to see something so simple and beautiful. I love love the skirt of this one.

And here is Victor's. I have to say, I might have chosen him as a winner. Maybe I did like it even more than Joshua's. Not sure, they were both great though. I love the cool vintage style this has.

una Fiesta en la boca!

I don't think I blog about food too much, I should do it more. I love food. What can I say? A long time ago, Jason got a coupon when he was working in Idaho to get me my ring (ha ha) from one of his customers for Johnny Carino's. We were in the Salt Lake area once and stopped by to use it. We both had amazing meals. Jason had a red/white sauce pasta, I can't remember the name off hand, but it was very good. I had an Italian Wedge Salad. Best Salad Ever. I had never eaten gorgonzala cheese, now I love it. Who doesn't love candied pecans, apples, and bacon... okay, maybe some people, but they are crazies. :) Years after having it, maybe two or so, I had thought about it often and looked on the internet to find a recipe. The closest I got was a girl who just blogged the ingredients, no real specifics. I've made it quite a few times since then and every time, no matter the perportions, I've loved it. I just eyeball it, see what looks good to me and pile it on some lettuce. I've used different kinds of lettuce. A crisp iceberg is tasty, but sometimes I go for the spinach for some extra nutrition.
I also like to use granny smith apples because I love the way the sweet pecans, the sour apples, and the... whatever it is in the gorgonzala, and salty bacon, blend sooooo well together. It's a fiesta in your mouth, but I like fiestas!

Italian Wedge Salad

A hearty wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce topped with our roasted garlic ranch dressing, applewood smoked bacon, candied pecans, gorgonzola cheese, fresh apple slices and roma tomatoes

River to River Relay

Last Saturday I ran the River to River Relay with some friends from the YMCA.

It was a loooong day and a lot of fun. As someone put it, "who would have thought spending all day in a van with 8 sweaty people and running 80 miles together could be so much fun!" I have been running, biking, swimming, playing racquetball, and lifting weights, for a long time, but I haven't participated in an official race for about three or four years, so I was a litter nervous even though physically I was prepared. The race was in Southern Illinois which I've really only driven through on my way to Tennessee. I had no idea how beautiful it is down there! There are very big rolling hills and it is pretty forested.

Where it isn't forested and there are farms and fields it is beautiful. It was a cloudy cool day and reminded me of something you might see in Scotland or something. It was really green.

Jason and Isaac met me down there during my second leg. It was sooo nice of them to drive all that way to come and support me. It also gave us the opportunity to see Shannon and Matt before they move :( which we are VERY sad about. I'm excited for my races this summer that I'm doing and am working on convincing my teammates from the RRR to come join me in Davenport for the Bix in July... yeah! More hills!!! :)

Future River to Riverer?

Isaac speaking Spanish and monkey

Isaac is learning! He still says: bye, shoe, hi, ball in English... but he understands the Spanish, so it's a start.

Winter Summary

We went to the Field Museum on a free day back in January. It was huge, we weren't able to see everything and we were there for 4 or 5 hours. It was fun though. Isaac loved all the animals. I really liked the rocks and stones, brilliant. It was fun to see Sue, that head there in the picture isn't real, the real one is on display on the second floor because it's too heavy to actually be mounted there on her body.

 In the rock and stone exhibit there was an original Tiffany window. I thought it was beautiful!

 It was a very snowy day, even though it was free, the museum wasn't crowded at all thank goodness. Chicago looks beautiful in the snow.

 Isaac and I have been drawing a lot lately. We started out using the washable markers we got him for Christmas.... but as you can see, that didn't work out. We are using crayons now.

 He loves playing peek-a-boo.

Winter wouldn't be complete without a little college basketball. This is last Saturday when we finally got to see the Cougs play! We don't have cable so when we found out the game was on CBS, we were aaaaalllll over that. It was increadible to see Jimmer play live. Wow. wow.

hmmmm like father like son.

It's been a snowy winter and as much as I like it... around Christmas time :) I'm excited for Spring to get here. I'm trying not to be too anxious though.

Some scenes from the Blizzard of 2011.. Don't worry, we weren't one of the cars out on Lakeshore Dr. that you saw on the news. We were in our nice warm cozy apartment!

I'll be home for Christmas

In just a few days we are heading to my parents house for Christmas. Back to Davenport. I always love visiting my home-town. I love driving by my high school and if I'm lucky I even love taking a walk around... you know, reliving my glory days. ha ha ha. I was just at a friends house here in DeKalb and she told me about an awesome popcorn store in Davenport that apparently I never knew about! Hello!? Jason loves popcorn so I'm really excited to go here with him.

Now personally, I'm a bit of an ice cream freak. My roommate and I wanted to start the Ice Cream Club at BYU when we were there. We thought, skip-bo and ice cream parties every week, what could be better. :) So I am as always excited for our "Whitey's run" as we usually call them. mmmm Viking Pride, my new fav flavor. Some say it is the best in the Midwest... I would argue that it is the best ice cream in America.

I love the village of East Davenport during Christmas time, and my favorite place to get a Ruben sandwich and a soda (no not a Sprite or Pepsi, that is called pop, a real "soda" from the soda fountain) is Lagomarcino's. Their chocolates and candies are soooo yummy too. There is nothing like homemade confectioneries. Date Jason?

A Cinderella Story

Four years ago Jason and I went on our first date. Our ward at BYU (in true BYU ward fashion) created an activity called a "shoe date" or Cinderella date. All of the girls who wanted to participate put their shoes in with a time and date they could go out. Jason says he picked mine because it was one of the biggest shoe (I would be tall) and it was a flip flop, so of course he knew I was fun. :) My awesome roommate set up a whole life sized Clue game on campus for all of us in the group date to play. Her brother was the one we'd call to give our guesses as we made our way across campus to different buildings (and potential scenes of the crime). All of the girls, Jessica, Shannon, Ruth, and I were waiting at our apartment at BDA for the boys to arrive. We didn't know who our dates were, it was supposed to remain anonymous while the boys had to do 3 acts of service for us. (Jason made me chocolate peanut butter brownies, brought daisies with him for the date, and left me a hilarious note about how he'd give me a massage after one of my intrumural volleyball or basketball games but that if I didn't want that (since it was kinda creepy getting a note from someone I didn't know yet offering me a massage) he said he would do the dishes for me.
The date was so fun; Jason and I had a lot to talk about. We were both interested in a variety of things from music, to sports, and art. After the game and meeting at DQ with the others for some ice cream, he hung around our apartment and we talked for a few hours more.
I remember after he left and gave me a great hug (he picked me up which meant he was definitely taller than me and a big bonous, cuz I love heels!) and I ran into Shannon's and my bedroom and jumped on Shannon's bed, okay yeah, a little like a giddy school girl. I had so much fun, he was so easy to talk to, smart, he was tall, and athletic. After that day we went on one more date before Thanksgiving break (played tennis at school and shared a free Papa John's pizza). We emailed over Thanksgiving break and then after break we hung out every single day. And here we are four years later. Even though I'm super competitive and don't love losing, we still play racquetball, , basketball, and volleyball, lift weights and runtogether whenever we can. I love it because it always reminds me of when we were dating and we flirt a little while we play. Okay now I'm getting a little off topic :) Story is, I loved our first date! It was so fun and I'm so happy I am where I am now. And I look forward to more dates for YEARS to come!

A little photo op before we left for the date