Guess what we've been doing...

If you guessed shoveling our driveway NONSTOP - you're right!  We may not have had much snow for Christmas, but this last storm has definitely made up for it.  Wednesday morning (before 7 am), Spencer shoveled a few inches of snow off his side of the driveway so he could make it to work.  I left the house around 9 am and got stuck at the bottom of our driveway in the snowplow pile!  After digging around the tires and with a push from my neighbor, I was on my way.

I got home from running my errands around 3 pm, and there was no way my car was going to make it up the driveway and into the garage without some serious snow removal first!  So I "parked" the car on the street and shoveled several inches off my side of the driveway.  I thought about leaving the rest of the driveway for Spencer to do when he got home, but when I looked outside at 5 pm, I knew I had to get to work.  I spent over an hour shoveling snow while Spencer crawled home (he said he was driving 'walking speed' for part of the time!) on the slick roads.  I got the driveway cleared in time for Spencer to pull right in when he finally made it home.

The picture is a little blurry because my camera lens kept fogging up.

Thursday morning (Spencer's dayoff, thank goodness!), we spent the late morning shoveling another foot of snow off the driveway.

We had to shovel again later in the day.  Now today, Friday, we have a couple more inches of fresh powder waiting to be taken care of.  Are you kidding me?!?

Sometime during all the shoveling, I managed to throw a rib out of place, due to the strain and twisting as I tried to throw snow over the ever-growing snowbanks lining our driveway.

Here's a shot of me trying to get a shovel full of snow up and over the snowbank.

Luckily, I happen to know a great chiropractor, and he has taken good care of me and my rib!

So, what do I think of all this snow?  Okay, okay, the shoveling became pretty tedious after a while.

But overall, I LOVE it!  Here are a few reasons why:
1.  Shoveling is great exercise!
2.  The snow is so pretty.  It's a fluffy powder, all sparkly and clean and fresh.
3.  I got to try out my new Christmas present -snowshoes- to check the mail.  They work great!
4.  It's fun to play in!  Just ask Spencer and Jack.

Here, Spencer is coaxing Jack up the driveway pile.  Poor dog kept slipping down again.  Spencer eventually had to pull him up by the scruff of his neck!

Well, enough blogging.  I've got to get busy -- you guessed it! -- shoveling our snowy driveway!

Thanks babe!

I'm having a hard time kicking this cold I got a couple weeks ago, and yesterday I was feeling particularly worn out.  So, while I laid on the couch wrapped up in my snuggly soft comforter, Spencer went to work whipping up a delicious gourmet dinner! 

We were out of town for Christmas and hadn't been shopping for a while, so our cupboards were a little bare.  Still, Super Spencer managed to pull together homemade chicken parmesan and battered fried red potatoes.  Maybe not the typical combination, but he really wanted to use the deep fryer he got for Christmas the day before.  Both dishes were a-m-a-z-ing!  Thanks for taking care of me, husband of mine!

Traditions

Every year around Christmas time I make chocolate truffles.  I've been doing this since before Spencer and I were married, so it's been at least 7 years.  They're delicious, but it takes a lot of time and can be a little tedious.  That's why I only do it once a year. 

Here's the tedious part:

Each little truffle has to be spooned onto a cookie sheet, and then they have to be shaped into round balls.  After that, I dip half of them in a melted chocolate coating.

The other half get coated in chopped pecans.  I didn't get pictures of the pecan-coated truffles.  In total, there are about 75 delicious chocolaty truffles. 

From start to finish, these bad boys take a little over 3 hours to make.  Totally worth it though!

Another tradition that just started last year is taking a trip to Temple Square to see the lights with a couple of my old college friends.  We don't really look too closely at the lights, as we spend most of our time talking.  I did manage to get one picture of the lights.

The night is complete after a quick trip to the nearby Village Inn for some tasty hot cocoa.

I hope these and other traditions continue on for a long time to come.

Christmas Card

I didn't have the time or energy to create, print, and mail Christmas cards last week.  So this year, we're going digital.  Enjoy!

You know you live in an inversion zone when...

... you hear something like this. 

In PE today, the kids were all running around and a boy came up to me, all out of breath.  Huffing and puffing, he said, "I guess the air quality in here is pretty bad.  I can hardly breathe!"

Rock Star

Spencer is a rock star.  

He's in a band with some of his buddies, and just last week they performed at the wedding reception of the band's lead guitarist.  This will be the band's last performance for a while, as the guitarist who just got hitched is moving to Texas.  They all did a great job on their farewell performance.  Spencer sang "Guardian Angel" during the bride and groom's first dance together. 

He then played bass for the remainder of the songs.

 

The reception had an 80's rock theme, so I wore my most rockin' outfit - black skirt, black and grey top, leopard print scarf, fishnet stockings, and my red high heels.  Thank goodness for the stockings and heels because my wardrobe just does not lend itself to rock and roll!  Spencer wore a disheveled white button up shirt, jeans, and a blue swirly-patterned tie. 

Here we are with the rest of the band and all the wives.

 We look pretty good, right?

Now, back to the fishnet stockings. 

While the band was performing, there were lots of little kids dancing around to the music.  A curly-haired three year old boy was dancing past me, then stopped and walked over.  Rubbing his hands on my leg, he said, "You have nets."  

"Yep," I replied. 

Rubbing further up and down my leg, he said, "Why do you have nets?"

"Because they're cool.  Do you like them?"

"Yeah," he answered.  Then, after another rub up and down my leg, he was off to dance the night away.

yummy.

My brother Adam made fried bananas during our trip to Zion National Park a few weeks ago,and they were so good I had to try making them myself. 

These are delicious, and super easy.  Just buy some egg roll wraps.

(These are found in the refrigerated produce section of the grocery store.)

Wrap half or 1/3 of a banana in a wrap and deep fry until brown.  Immediately dip them in a cinnamon sugar mix.  Serve with chocolate sauce.  We happened to have caramel and whipped cream, so we added that to the mix.

Since we had the wraps, we made some cream cheese chicken rolls for dinner.  They were okay.  I just threw some veggies in with shredded chicken, cream cheese, and seasonings. 

Dora? Not quite...

Every year at the beginning of October, I start stressing about what to be for Halloween.  As a first grade teacher, I pretty much have to dress up every year.  This year, my costume ended up being one of the easiest ever - thanks to a dress I purchased for my birthday this summer and a hat I borrowed from my dad.  Throw on some knee-high boots and a pair of binoculars, and VOILA! -

I called myself an explorer, and even thought of wearing a "My name is..." sticker with Dora written on it.  Then I could be Dora the Explorer.  But I decided against that at the last minute.  At school, I was called a variety of fun names - zoologist, ranger, safari-er, Africa hunter, someone who looks for animals, and more.

Spencer and I did not go to any Halloween parties this year, so he didn't have a costume.  If we had gone somewhere, I wanted to wrap him up in a roll of butcher paper and he could be my map.  Maybe next year.

We stayed home on Saturday night to pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters, and I couldn't believe how many kids came by!  Our neighborhood is pretty small, and full of young families.  Also, the ward didn't do a trunk or treat.  So if kids wanted to dress up and get candy, they would have to work for it!  It was nice to know that some of the traditions I remember best about Halloween as a child are still going strong.  Even the rain we got early in the evening did not deter the trick-or-treaters.  We ran out of candy around 6:30 or 7:00, so while Spencer drove down to the store for more I passed out hot cocoa packets.  Whatever works, right?

Zion

Three cheers for fall break!  Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip HOORAY!  Last weekend I did not have school on Thursday or Friday, so I went with my parents, my brother Michael, wife Jessica, and baby Asher, and my uncle David to Zion National Park.  My brother Adam met us there from St. George with his friend Brittany and her son.  Poor Spencer had to stay home and work.  Don't feel too sorry for him though.  The previous weekend he went camping with his buddies for the elk hunt.  But I did miss him a lot.

Michael made a great video compilation of our trip.


Untitled from Michael Jolley on Vimeo.


I took tons of pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Kids Say...

...the darndest things!  Here's a conversation that happened at school a few days ago.

One of my students said, “So, you’re just a mom who comes in and teaches us stuff.” I said no, I wasn’t a mom, I was a teacher. He said, “Yes you are a mom, I saw it.” I was confused about what he meant, then he explained by pointing at my purse by my desk. “You have a purse, so you’re a mom.” Trying not to laugh, I said, yes I had a purse, but that didn’t mean I was a mom. He looked at me for a minute, then said, “So you’re a gramma then.”

And then yesterday a girl in my class wrote the following story:

Translation:  "I know a teacher that teached students.  The students were happy that they were at school."

Too cute.

Head in the clouds?

We live about 1000 feet above the valley, and today on the way home I got to drive through the clouds.  It was nice. 

The end.

Food, Glorious FOOD!

Aww, summer.  I love you so.  But alas, you have come to a sudden end.  Okay, so summer doesn't officially end until later this month, but the start of each school year cuts all my summer spare time down to nothing.  Hence the lack of blogging these last few weeks.

I really had fun this summer.  There always seemed to be something to keep me busy, which is nice.  I also had lots of time to work on my cooking skills.  Many new recipes were tried these last couple of months, and most turned out to be quite tasty! 

The main reason for my new cooking adventures is probably the produce co-op we've been participating in.  We get a good mix of fruits and veggies that we wouldn't normally try.  I love it!

Eggplant parmesan - yum!  Who knew eggplant could be so delicious?

Pluot cake.  (Pluots are a plum/apricot hybrid)

Okay, these pluots sat in our fridge for over a week, until finally I found a recipe to use them in.  Then, as I started preparing the pluots to go in the cake, I realized how tasty they are fresh.  For a minute I worried that I would be ruining them by putting them all in a cake, but the end result was great.

Thanks to my family, I've also done some major bottling lately.  I worked with some of my extended family to bottle 35 jars of pickles at my uncle's house ...

...and my parents, brother and sister-in-law all bottled between 35-40 jars of salsa at our house.

During the big salsa canning party, I whipped up a batch of fresh salsa to enjoy with lunch.

Oh, and Michael and Spencer were a LOT of help that day too, as you can see.

Michael found some FIFA demo for PS3, and apparently it was tons of fun.  I tried to play a game or two with them, but didn't really catch the fever I guess.

Unfortunately, I've fallen back into a bit of a cooking rut now that school has started up again.  It just seems easier after a long day of work to come home and revert back to a quick and easy recipe that I've made a bunch of times before.  Like tonight, it was just chicken and mashed potatoes.  We have some corn on the cob from Spencer's parents which would have gone really well with tonight's dinner, but did I cook them? No.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Baby Shower

I threw a baby shower for my cousin Sarah yesterday.    I went to Zurcher's earlier in the week to find some goodies for the party.  Every time I walk into that wonderful store I think, "if I had tons of spare time and loads of extra money, I think I would host parties all the time!"  If you have never been in that store and you're a girl, you should go.  Just be sure to leave the men at home.  Spencer would be bored out of his mind in about 2 minutes.

Lately I've been really bad at taking pictures, so here are the only shots I have from the shower.  During the shower I didn't even think about pulling out the camera, so these shots were taken right after everyone had left.

Reunion

We drove up to Idaho for a family reunion a couple weekends ago.  My brother Michael, his wife Jessica, and baby rode with us.

Michael had been throwing up earlier that morning and still didn't feel very well.


The reunion was held in Swan Valley at the Pine Basin Lodge.

It's a beautiful area, and we had a lot of fun visiting with family that we hadn't seen in many years.

Here are a few random photos from the trip.  I took barely any photos.  Oh well!

"Fill 'er up!"

driving along the Snake River

view from the lodge (behind me) at our tent after taking it down

AMAZING

Spencer and I took the dog for a walk last night, just in time for this aMaZiNg sunset!  The whole sky, from west to east, was spectacular.

When we finished our walk, Jack and I sat in the backyard watching the colors spill across the sky.