back from the dead!

HELLO! I have been a terrible blogger..... but I am ready to try again. Let me start by following up on the boolish topic. 20 POUNDS of cookie dough was delivered, at my work, and it was the most excited thing EVER!!!!!!!!!! It was so good to be reunited with boolish, and am looking forward to trying other Otis Spunkmeyer flavors.

A lot of exciting things have happened. My work has exploded and is no longer recognizable to me. Now that we have Dr. Feistmann (Vitreo-retinal surgeon) things have been so busy!!! The good news is that we will be hiring someone mighty soon and I will get more training to be an ophthalmic technician, rather then just being stuck as the receptionist/optician/biller woman. I am really excited about this! MAJORLY! Let me tell you an amazing tid-bit about the new doc. I have to start with a little explanation. For like a year or more, me and my co-worker have lunched (on a daily basis) at the Logan Regional Hospital Cafeteria. Don't be confused. We don't work in or near the hospital.... we drive there for lunch. You might be thinking hospital food is pretty much notorious for being nasty, and why would anybody eat there willingly. Uh-uh! There is this like A-MAZ-ING salad bar for super cheap with all of the toppings you could ever want and more! For a long time it has been the most sensible option for me and Chelsey because we aren't rich and we wanted a healthy(er... haha) option. Now you might be wondering what this has to do with Dr. Feistmann. Out of the blue (after finding out how much we loved it) he opened up a tab for us at the hospital so we can eat there for lunch, every day, FOR FREE! Happy day!!! What a freakin' treat!!!! Every day I feel like a high roller (yes, at a cafeteria) when I'm all "put it on my tab" haha, I never get sick of it! Everyday when I am going through the line and I all of the sudden remember IT'S FREE!! yippy. Anyway, that was kind of a long shpeil. Hopefully someone out there appreciates how awesome this is.

Chris E has been working very hard. I want to say, I love him. Even as I type this my eyes get a bit misty, because I just really feel lucky to have him. He has continued being stellar in his classes and is excited about starting the MBA program next month. I'll be honest, I am a bit terrified. He is quiting his job (YES!!). Last day is in about a week!! (YES!!) but we are gunna be REAL tight on the cashola (NO!!) and gunna see each other less (NO!!) and then I'll be angry (UGLY!) and have to hang out with just Jason (HAHA, just kidding Jason... but really... that's gunna suck.) but, I know we can do it!! I know it's the right thing! So here we go. As a part of Chris's program he with get to take a trip somewhere over sea's in the spring! There are 4 incredible choices for the trip.... more on that soon!

Last weekend Chris and I went to a Deer Valley Musical Festival concert (in Park City) of Ben Folds and the Utah Symphony. We kind of went in honor of our anniversary which is on the 25th (three years baby!). We were super stoked about the concert which was held on the base of a ski lift at deer valley resort (beautiful!) at an out door amphitheater (for my sister Kara's sake.... pronounce this word correctly... as if this helps... here ya go: ămˈfə-thēˌə-tər. Due to some unexpected construction, we were running late and it was a bit stressful. Once we got there and found a spot to lay our picnic blanket and busted out our fine cheeses, meats, and crackers, we had a great time! I am sad to say that the music was a bit disappointing :(. The sound quality wasn't good (being out doors has it's downfall) and there was like an annoying reverb thing happening for most of the night. Our bum's got really sore too, haha! Towards the end of the night the sound improved (and the hot sun went down) and a great time was had! Here is a not so great photo:

During the month of June we had a faboo family trip in Park City. Chris enjoyed golfing with my dad, and I enjoyed sister-slash-auntie time. I will NEVER get sick of my nephew Benson calling both me and Chris "krusta" in the most adorable kid voice! We did a lot of fun things but the highlight for me was when Lisa bought an assortment of exotic Vosges Chocolate's and the ladies of my family huddled around the table for a taste testing. Here is a tid-bit from the Vosges mission statement: "The Voseges Haut-Chocolat mission is to create a luxury chocolate experience rooted in a sensory journey of bringing about awareness to indigenous cultures through the exploration of spices, herbs, roots, flowers, fruits, nuts, chocolate and the obscure." Everything about the chocolate was beautiful. The packaging. The description on HOW to taste the chocolate. The TASTE! My favorite flavors included:

Naga Exotic: sweet Indian curry+coconut+deep milk chocolate

Creole Exotic: New Orleans chicory coffee+cocoa nibs+Sao Thome bittersweet chocolate.

Mo's Milk Chocolate Bacon Bar (her most famous): apple wood smoked bacon+alder wood smoked salt+deep milk chocolate.

I did a little reading and learned Katrina Markoff is the owner/chocolatier/woman behind it all. How amazing would it be to create chocolate for a living!!!! I know I could never be at that level, but it has inspired me to get a little more creative in the kitchen. I purchased "Candy Making for Dummies" and who knows maybe soon I'll be making pork chop chocolate (that was a joke...kindof.)

Although I haven't had a chance to dabble much into the chocolate making world just yet I have been getting busy in the kitchen (that sounds weird, haha.) Last Christmas my mom blessed me with the most amazing cook book. America's Test kitchen. Maybe you've heard of the show on food network. The gist is they perfect recipes by making them a bajillion times and figuring how to get the best results. They also explain why it works, like why a certain ingredient works better then another, or certain method won out. It makes super impressive dishes and you learn a lot about how to reach great results in other cooking as well. We have used it like crazy since getting it last december. This last week we made the homemade Margarita pizza, and the Chicken Stir fry on a crunchy noodle cake dish. They both turned out great. I also made the dark chocolate cupcake with vanilla bean buttercream frosting. I swear I have never baked ANYTHING from scratch and it turned out to be a real treat and a good time. All I can say is YUM! My favorite recipe out of the book so far is the chicken tikka masala ( I am a major sucker for Indian food and this dish is ya-ya-ya yummy!) Here are the photo's from the cookbook, and the crazy thing is when you are done cooking your food it actually looks like the picture!!

For the 4th of July we enjoyed having Penni up for the annual Cruise In (car show). I enjoyed watching the viewers of the parade more then the parade itself. Around that same time Chris and I went down to SLC for the art festival and got to meet up with Penni at that time as well. What a gem!

Jason's birthday was a week or two ago and he was out of town for it, so it kinda got passed by un-celebrated.... other then the KICK-A knife set I got him. REALLY. I usually don't boast about gifts that I give (i usually give pretty crappy gifts) but let me just say: YOU ARE WELCOME JASON, and I MUST LOVE YOU. (come to mention it, I really DO love you and I hope you had a great birthday)

Yesterday I was sitting at my desk when in walked what I thought was another patient, but instead it was none other then my darling sister!!!!! Lisa is visiting from Pennsylvania (HOOOORAY!) and we got together last night and chilled while our men went golfing. It was so fun to see her and her cute kiddo's and I am looking forward to our whole family getting together on Saturday.

Well, talk about long winded! Sorry to rattle on. I will be posting more frequently again, thank you for listening.