The One with the Crock-Pot

Friday, October 9, 2009

Confession: we received a Crock-Pot as a wedding gift 2.5 years ago and I have NEVER USED IT. There. I said it. I feel much better already.

The Crock-Pot sat in a cupboard for 29 months. Neglected. Alone. All that potential ignored because I was intimidated. Until today! After hearing so many testimonials of how easy a Crock-Pot is to use, I busted it out, dusted it off, and tested it out.

I bought this lovely roast. This was the first time I've ever bought red meat. Not that I'm a vegetarian (although I love animals so much one would think I would be), I just DON'T COOK. However, I feel like a new leaf is being turned in my wifely duties department.

We diced potatoes, chopped an onion (man those things BURN the eyes!), threw in some baby carrots, plopped in the meat, doused it in beef broth, and turned it on to low to let it cook all day long.

The apartment smelled sooooooo good!

I got home from work took the lid off to take a finished picture, but the steam fogged my lens.

I don't want to toot my own horn, but this was the absolute best tasting meal we've ever had in our entire marriage, and that includes eating out. It was so easy too! I am now a believer in the Crock-Pot. The end. Or is it just the beginning? :)

The One with the Blogger Award

Thursday, October 8, 2009

We know a family in the Denver area, the Cox's, they have a fabulous blog: The Cool Cox Clan. I admire people who can write and make me laugh. Gina is one of those people. She so generously awarded us this Kreative Blogger Award. Super duper cute.

Along with the award comes these stipulations:

- Pick up your award - check, there it is up above, so pretty.

- Link the original giver in your post - check, but here it is again

- Regift the award to seven blogs along with their links:

1) Andi

5) Cami & Andy

(How to choose, how to choose? I literally just went down my Google Reader and picked the first 7 people I know (ladies first). So thank your parents if they named you with a letter close to the beginning of the alphabet :)

- Notify your friends that they are winner - Um. I might be too lazy to do this. Chris, you've got that :)

- Lastly, tell us seven things we don't know about you! - I've divulged too much about myself over the years. Chris' turn! Let's see...7 things people don't know about him...

1) Chris is like Belle on Beauty and the Beast: his nose is ALWAYS in a book. Whether it's for school or pleasure, I mostly see the top of his forehead. Good thing it's good lookin' forehead. He even has his own blog where he writes book reviews: [Open Book]

2) He is very meticulous about the way his laundry is folded. Therefore, he folds his own laundry and I fold my own. Well. Let's be honest. He usually folds all of the laundry. I've got him trained well.

3) Chris makes a mean Mac and Cheese. Straight from the box.

4) He has never been in a car accident. (I've been in three, in case you were wondering. But he has been pulled over and I never have.)

5) Chris served a two year mission for the church in the Philippines on the island of Leyte. He learned Cebuano at the Missionary Training Center, but when he got to the Philippines they told him he was speaking Waray Waray (say what?). He keeps up with both languages and still talks to his buddy Carlos in Waray Waray. It all sounds like monkey talk to me!

6) Chris is very self motivated and can do anything he sets his mind on.

7) He wears Chuck Taylors/Converse 9 out of 10 days.

The One with the Halloween Cupcake Toppers

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Back in July I made some 4th of July cupcake toppers after seeing Nichole's amazing cupcake toppers. So I thought, hey, why not make them for every holiday? Halloween? Fo sho.

All products are by American Crafts and I used a Marvy Uchida scalloped circle punch and Martha Stewart Crafts circle cutter to make the shapes.

Marlene, Jen, and I worked on the Halloween line together, which just makes it that much more fun to use papers and products I helped design. Most rewarding job ever, I do miss it so. Not that answering phones isn't fun :)

Is it Halloween yet?

The One with Chandler-Wandler

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

My bunny-wunny is the cutest!

That's all :)

The One with Paige = The New Pam Beasley

Monday, October 5, 2009

I started a new job today. I'm thankful to have even found a job in California. The 12% and growing unemployment rate is no joke. I think I applied to at least 15 different places ranging from Costco to a high school art teacher to a handbag designer. I heard back from zero of them. Then I applied to Target as a fallback option. They denied me! And I've even worked there before! Not gonna lie though, I probably could have called the places I applied to and pushed a little harder, but it's been sooooo nice relaxing at home all day every day... It was good while it lasted. Aaaand it's not like I haven't been doing anything, I still work from home doing Scrapbook Trends stuff.

A few weeks ago the Relief Society President came over to introduce herself and asked if I had a job. Nope, but I'm looking. She knew of something part time and I said perfect. I didn't hear anything between the time she visited until last Friday when I got a phone call for an interview that same morning. A few hours later, I found myself (gratefully) employed. It all happened so fast! I am now the afternoon shift Pam Beasley (in case you don't watch The Office, that means I'm the receptionist) of RBJ software. Not telling you which branch though cuz I don't want no stalkers :)

Here are my legs in the car on the way to my first day of work.

One wall of my "office" is completely made of windows. I get to see pretty views and people watch!

My shared desk. So reminds me of The Office.

I answer phones and try and decipher what the person on the other end is saying to me. I make hasty notes and transfer the call to the correct person.

Plus I get to watch the sun set M-F.

"Thank you for calling RBJ Software, this is Paige, how may I help you?"

The One with the Hollywood Hike from H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

Saturday, October 3, 2009

In-between sessions of General Conference Chris and I decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment hike to the Hollywood sign. It's only 15 minutes away, why not?

Hold the "before" picture smiles, cuz it got nasty.

This was the ONLY sign we saw the entire time we were trail-blazing. And boy did we blaze some trails. There were paths leading this way and that way and upways and downways and sideways and there were NO SIGNS ANYWHERE. Like, don't a lot of people do this hike? Why aren't there any gosh darn signs? Some Eagle Scouts need to get on that.

Top it off with horse-poop covered trails :)

Pause for a minute to admire a pretty tree.

We followed a long trail that was going the opposite direction of the sign, but we figured, it'll switch back eventually. Wrong. So wrong. The trail dead ended at this water tower.

See that radio tower waaaaaay off in the distance? Yeah. That's where we needed to be. So we turned around and headed back up the trail we started going towards in the first place, but had turned around at because it turned into a paved road and that just didn't seem right.

See that green water tower waaaaay off in the distance on the very right edge halfway down? Yeah. That's where we were. (See two pictures above.)

Eventually we got to the paved road which was indeed the right path to the sign. And we made it to the top.

The views were worth all of the trouble. At least I think so.

You can't go down to the Hollywood sign itself, but you get a nice view of the back of it!

I didn't know there's a lake hidden up in the hills, but from the looks of it, it doesn't seem like you can go out and do fun things on it. I think it's really pretty though. A nice touch of nature in an otherwise completely urban sprawl.

Man oh man, some of the houses in Hollywood are MAJOR!

On the way back home we spotted this extra large shoe car. So random.

The One with Our Shiba Inu?

Friday, October 2, 2009

One of these puppies could very well be ours at the end of the month! (They get cuter as they age, I promise.)

Last year Chris and I were at a pet store in Orem, UT. We were looking at the puppies and came across a breed that we had never heard of before: Shiba Inu. We fell in love. I mean, we fell in love with the puppies. We, Chris and Paige, were already in love. Right. So, we had been trying to decide on what kind of dog we wanted for a long time. I always wanted something small and cuddly: Pomeranian, Yorkie, Pekingese, etc. while Chris was holding out for a Poodle. When we both agreed that Shiba Inus are awesome, I started looking around for breeders. The closest one I could find just so happens to live less than one mile from my parent's house in Redmond, WA. When we went out there for Thanksgiving we met with the breeder and saw her dogs. We left a deposit which put us on "the list." We've been communicating back and forth for a year about her available puppies, but Chris and I never felt right about getting one at such an uncertain time in our lives. We didn't know where we'd be living or if we'd have room/time/money, etc. But we're feeling pretty confident in all of the above now so bring on the puppy!

Here's a slightly older litter that will be ready to go in two weeks. See, cuter already.

We're just waiting to see if the male of the litter will be a healthy little guy, then we can seal the deal. We can't wait to get our little Joey! Tee hee!