My true feelings

Call me crazy, 

but I'm actually really enjoying this bitterly cold weather.

I don't even have an explanation as to why, either.

I just like it.

It's refreshingly crisp.

And the view....

At no other time of the year do we see trees that are 

completely FROZEN!

Admit it. It's kind of cool.

 

(What's not cool is having a headlight go out on your only working vehicle and being pulled over twice in 24 hours. Especially since It takes pretty much an entire other 24 hours to recover from the jelly legs and heart attack that come when those menacingly bright lights flash in your rear-view mirror!)

Biggest Loser Competition... are you in?

The competition has begun, yet again...

BIGGEST LOSER FAMILY STYLE

If you want to join in, here are the rules: 

(*This is only the point system... if you seriously want to do this among your own families, let me know and I'll email you the "official rules" with all of the "prize" info and all that...)

 

When does it start?  Monday January 14th

How long will it last?  11 weeks

When is the end date? March 31st (final weigh in April 1st)

 

 - Exercise: 1 point for every 30 minute session of exercise; weekly maximum of 6 points in a week

- Water: drink at least 64 oz of water every day; 1 point each day of compliance, with a maximum of 7 points per week

-No Sweets: no eating sweets allowed (candy, cake, ice-cream… you get the idea) 1 point for every day of compliance, 2 cheat days allowed (because I'm nice and Jared Poulson had a hard time with this rule last time around) weekly maximum 5 points 

- Eat Fruits: 1 point for every 1 cup measurement of fruit you eat each day (daily maximum 2 points, weekly maximum 14 points) - here is a handy little chart to tell you how much fruit constitutes 1 cup:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/fruits_counts_table.html

- Eat Veggies: 1 point for every 1 cup measurement of veggies you eat each day (daily maximum 2 points, weekly maximum 14 points) - here is a handy little chart to tell you how much veggies constitutes 1 cup: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/vegetables_counts_table.html

- No Soda: No drinking carbonation or soda (diet or regular) six days a week (you have 1 cheat day per week); 1 point for each day of compliance, with a maximum of 6 points per week 

- 9pm: No eating food after 9pm six days a week (you have 1 cheat day per week); 1 point for each day of compliance; maximum of 6 points per week

 

 

Let the games begin!

and just because I hate posting things without a picture,

 here are a few snapshots from the (FREEZING COLD) weekend:

 

 

We hit -18 degrees last night,

and since the heat in my car is broken, 

it's been frozen from the inside out!

Let's talk about how fun it is to scrape ice from the

inside of the windshield every time we drive...

Did I mention how much respect I have 

for people who only have 1 car??

Dairy Queen or Bust

Here's a little snippet of a recent evening.

To set up the scene for you, we had just finished doing the rounds at IKEA and thought we should pick up an ice cream treat on the way home. DQ was obviously top on the list, but since McDonalds was straight ahead, we settled. (And you should also understand that Jake loves chocolate anything.)

Driving up to the window...

Jake:  "I have this fear that every time I go to get ice cream, they're going to be out of chocolate. Like the machine is going to be broken or something..."

Steph: "Wow... really? 

You are that concerned about your chocolate?"

Jake: "Yes! This is serious!"

Cashier: "Hi, welcome to McDonalds, what can I get for you?"

Jake: "I"ll just have one small soft serve chocolate cone"

Pause.

Cashier: "Umm.. we don't have chocolate."

CRUSHED!

We totally should've gone with DQ...

Annual expectations.

You know how there's those things that you can anticipate happening every year right around the same time?

Holidays,

taxes, 

birthdays,

the end of summer,

FREEZING COLD winters in Logan...

Generally speaking, 

these are culturally appropriate things to anticipate.

Your car refusing to cooperate is not. 

(Except maybe this is more common than I would like to believe..?)

Every year right around this time, 

our car chooses to throw in the towel.

Year 1:  4 tires in need of replacement. 

(but it was probably 8, since my car rocks, too.)

Year 2: Broken fuel pump

along with about 50 other mandatory repairs

Year 3: Dead battery. 

Like... 'won't even begin to turn over' kind of dead.

Sweet.

And the fact that over the last few days the high in weather has been something like 3 degrees, it's not really helping our case. Especially when it was NEGATIVE ELEVEN yesterday morning as my husband begged me to come out and help him try to push the car into the garage. You can imagine the excitement spilling from my every pore as I tried to keep warm with a sweater and those little one-size-fits-all gloves that never saved anyone's fingers from frostbite. ever!

Needless to say, we didn't get the car into the garage (or else this event would not be deemed worthy of blogging about...) and there it sat, parked halfway into the street for the remainder of the day.

Knowing that we couldn't do much with a dead car stuck at the end of the driveway, this morning the husband decided to venture out into the arctic wasteland to replace the battery. This was really fun, since it required blow drying the frozen car jack until it was useable and then removing one of the car tires in order to switch out the dead battery for another hopefully not dead one. 

(Which was also dead.)

I got some pictures in case you were wondering what it looks like 

to experience this level of excitement.

After some colorful murmurings, we decided to try, 

yet again, 

to get the car into the garage...

except this time I decided that we should 

go at it with a running head start.

(This is one of those times when a husband 

shouldn't let the wife make all the decisions...)

You can imagine what the woman wearing a dress 

standing at the end of the street thought, 

because she came to help us.

From the end of the street.

Wearing a dress.

(Why does this type of thing seem to be a trend?)

Luckily, she really was helpful,

and we now have a car in the garage! 

It's not working, but hey... 

that's one step further than we were yesterday...

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and use 

that blow dryer to thaw my hands and face....

10 things you should know...

1. plasticjungle.com switches your gift cards for cash. 

Why did I not know about this before?

2. From now on, when you buy a gift card, make it a Visa. 

Am I right?

3. KSL rocks! We sold one of our Christmas gifts and made $40. Talk about a win-win.

4. Jake and I booked our flight to Scotland. STOKED.

5. Christmas this year was great!

6. My iPod needs a makeover... suggestions?

7. Paninis rock my world.

8. It was 13 degrees at 10:30 this morning... 

no comment.

9. Les Mis is worth seeing, but not my favorite of all time. 

What ever happened to intermissions 

for productions that are 3 hours long?!

10. I love snow.

San Diego

I have a problem.

It's something along the lines of,

"I feel guilty 

every  

single 

time 

my husband leaves for work and I don't."

The second he leaves, the self-depricating thoughts begin:

Lazy.

Worthless.

Boring.

etc. etc. etc.

BUT. Despite all of this, I have to remind myself 

that this is a time that will never come again 

and although it would be nice to have a job that is more stable,

it is also nice to have time all to myself 

to improve my cooking and baking skills, 

to find and make the perfect gifts for family and friends 

and to sometimes have a clean house. (sometimes.)

It's also nice to have time to do other things like documenting our life together through journaling and blogging. Just like I'm about to do when I tell you that we went to San Diego this last week with my family and had an awesome time 

soaking up the warm rays of the California sun. 

 

(Okay, it was only 60 degrees, but when the high in your home town is like, I dunno, fourteen, 

then 60 degrees feels pretty close to 80.)

We went to the beach

 Hit up Knot's Berry Farm 

(A close cousin to 'Lagoon' 

if any of you are familiar with that guy...)

  Obsessed over one of the cutest babies on planet earth

 And succeeded in going to Vegas no less than 2 times... 

one in which delivered a small lotto prize. (Win.)

 

And the other, a minor heart-attack

 and a quick trip to a pawn shop.

 

All in all, we had a blast.

And now that we've got most of our gifts wrapped...

Let the Christmas traditions begin!

Death by doughnut

Once upon a time, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook.

(Thanks. You rock.)

But this is no ordinary cookbook, 

it's Pioneer Woman's cookbook,

which means 283 pages of finger-lickin', lip-smackin' goodness.

Especially the first page, which involves glaze and doughnuts.

Glaze and doughnuts people... We had to try them.

And try them we did. 

Even before reading the recipe!

The "WHY??" face...

  Seriously though.

We really could have done ourselves a favor had we

read the recipe before throwing together the dough,

seeing as it told us that

 the dough should rise for 8 hours in the fridge.

and 4 hours not in the fridge.

and should be rolled.

and cut.

 and raised.

and deep-fryed.

 and cooled.

and glazed.

 and... 

okay. I'm done now.

Let's just say I probably won't make doughnuts again for a while.

 Unless you say please.

Then maybe we could work something out...