E or No E

During some after thought spell-checking, I discovered that "Bon Appetit/e" may or may not have an E at the end... Help me find out so I can fix my wall!

Macaroni Taste Test

I read this article today about taste testing boxed macaroni and cheese--and that the generic brand generally wins. I partially believed it, but thought it'd be cool to do it at home and see for ourselves. So I very spontaneously purchased 5 different brands of macaroni and cheese, and made all 5 between my kitchen and Robyn's kitchen (since I only have 3 pans and 4 stove top burners). We rated each brand on color, texture, and taste.

The results: Western Family brand mac'n'cheese was either #1 or close to the top for everyone. I'm not terribly surprised. The thing that I need to decide is whether it won because it's ACTUALLY better, or if it won because we're used to eating it and we like it now. I think I want to retest on people who don't always buy generic brands.

Anyways, the rest of the results were pretty much that:

• Archer Farms (Target's "fancy" brand) was pretty gross to 2/3 of us, Robyn liked it;
  
• Kraft was ... meh, I liked it, Trevor didn't (SHOCKED! He has always claimed it is his favorite), he thought it actaully tasted BAD;


• Velveeta was easily identifiable but still fake tasting--although texturally satisfying while hot;


• Annie's Organic was bland and tough. I don't recommend it, generally. Unless you can't taste very well anyways;


• Western Family, like I said, was buttery and cheesy, and perfectly firm. Generally the most well liked.

P.S. Thank heavens we still have a bagillion disposable fancy plates left over from our wedding reception :)

Cricut Project #1

So I actually got my Cricut! We went to Roberts, picked one up, and purchased. Best feeling ever :) It came in a bundle with a cutting board/apparatus thingy, and a ton of other stuff. Long story short (because Trevor is "patiently" waiting for me to finish), I wanted to put some vinyl words up in my kitchen above the pantry.

I feel like it really spruced things up in there. I can't wait to do some more things with the vinyl!

Robyn, my sister-in-law next door, helped me get them up and we decided to use the negatives to put up in HER kitchen so they wouldn't be wasted. They turned out SO cute too!

Pizza Pizza

Hem hem. I had leftover pizza dough, pesto sauce, pepperoni, and chicken so I decided to mesh it all together and try a crazy pizza...and it turned out to be the best home made pizza I've ever had! (Except for the whole burning the crust thing.) Half was chicken, garlic, pesto, and cheese. The other half was regular pepperoni. So if you ever have pesto sauce--just do it. Make a pizza. You won't regret it.

Heidi's

I wanted to make something totally cute, completely from scratch, for my mom-in-law's birthday, but ended up not being able to find ANYTHING I was looking for. So, I settled for assembling something else--that turned out to fulfill all my crafty desires for that day anyways :) I had a good time picking everything out for what I thought Heidi would like best and making it look the way I wanted.

I decided: I LOVE VINYL. and ribbon too.

Break In

My office got broken into last night. Scary! I got to work this morning at 8 and after unlocking our menagerie of doors to get to the alarm to turn it off, and to get to the time clock to punch my “in” time, I noticed that the back office was all messed up. There were binders and fedex envelopes all over the desk and floor, the phone was off the hook, and everything on the desk was turned over. Then I noticed that the screen on the window above the desk was cut out and another door in our office was open. Then I noticed some blood smeared on the doorframe of another office and pretty much freaked out. I didn’t take a minute to realize that the window itself was shut and locked and that the alarm was set when I got to work, and that the front door was locked—all I could think about was the possibility that there was some guy bleeding in our office somewhere. But after a few seconds, I realized how silly that was, and noticed a note on my desk with the Cottonwood Heights Police Department business card next to it. Obviously they had been here and secured the building during the night. The note was from my boss’s wife who came when the police got notice that our alarm had been set off. She thought they had somehow forced the window open in the back office, unlocked the room’s door from the inside, and then set off the motion detector alarm and ran out thefront door. But here’s the best part:

I opened the window yesterday to let in a breeze since 67 degree weather feels hot compared to the freezing temperatures we’re supposed to have in winter.

I forgot to close it.

Lucky me. But still, I DID do everything else I was supposed to do according to our security policy. I shut and locked all the doors and secured my files and my desk, I set the alarm and locked the front door. And not to mention—it’s not just MY responsibility to secure the entire building—there ARE other people in the office too. But I still feel bad. Maybe they would have still tried to break in even if the window was shut, and maybe we would have had broken glass. That’s what I’ll tell myself so I don’t die of guilt.

My boss’s wife told me that the blood was from one of the police dogs who cut himself on something during the search. That’s sort of a relief—although I feel really bad that a hero dog got hurt instead of a criminal. She also said they did a search of the building and couldn’t find anything missing. Weird; we have a ton of stuff they could have grabbed on the way out; I guess they were put off by the alarm going off.

The other REALLY creepy thing is that yesterday afternoon I was alone in the office from like 3:30 till 5:30 and during that time some random guy came in from walking around outside and said something like, “I’m waiting at the title company right over there. Do you have a restroom I could use?” Um… no? But really, I like being a nice person, so while my brain was deciding whether or not to say no, my body was already pointing down the hall and my mouth was already saying, “Uh, sure, straight back.” Usually we don’t get anyone in our office at all except scheduled appointments and solicitors, so random people is not a common occurrence. But when our clients use the restroom, they usually just go right back, they look at the door the whole time. I was kind of wary of this guy anyways, since I was alone in the office, and I noticed that he looked into both offices as he went back. Creepazoid. He was SUPER fast—not that I know for sure how long it takes a man to pee, but still. At least he washed his hands. Then he left, leaving a black boot print on our new rug. Jerk.

So not thinking about it anymore after he was gone, I excitedly got ready to go pick up my Cricut after work! I guess I was a little too excited since I forgot to shut the window. As I was getting on the freeway after work, I wondered if I’d shut it and wondered if I should go back just in case. Hm, no.

Oh well. Nothing was stolen, and now more people in the office will be a little more aware and not just leave it all up to me all the time. Sucks that one of the ONLY days I’m not really adamant about our security policy is the day I’m excited off my rocker to leave work.

Now I’m just waiting for my boss to get out of an appointment so he can chastise me and have us all review the security policy together. Ugh.

MY FAMILY has TO READ THIS!!

First of all, this is all in good fun. I love you all, and think you can handle a little light-heartedness. I couldn't figure any out for a few of them, so if you have any ideas, oh, please let me know.

Here's where I think some of my family fit in :)

The Good Friend: Heidi, Trevor's mom. She is so comforting to everyone around her. This one's a good fit.

The Slow One: (couldn't match one, unless you count myself)

The Pimp: (I almost put Steve Ross here, just for fun, but it doesn't really have any factual basis; it's just funny.)

The Good Little Church Girl: Liz, um, my...sister in Zion. haha. (I chose this because it was one of the last available, and it was most like being a good mom... sort of.) Liz has always been a pretty good realistic example to me.

The Shy One: Sarah. Oh Sarah :) I'm glad you've opened up a bit. She's been pretty quiet most the time, but she's very independent despite the lack of stating it out loud. I'm very happy she's my sister-in-law

The One That Always Swears: Brett, haha, of late, anyway. Brett is Trevor's oldest brother and has become his own person lately. I just think it's funny every time he swears :)

The Grumpy One: Trevor, of course. No explanation needed.

The One That Always Gets Hurt: Valerie, oh how I still love you :) My mom is the most accident/sickness prone person I know. She's going to kill me for acknowledging it!

The One That's Up To No Good: Steven, my brother. Really, there's nothing else that needs to be said if you know him already. Growing up, Steve was the manipulator--the one who beat you up--the one who told on you--the one who lied to mom about who punched Matthew--the one mom believed. Now, he's a little more grown up, but still has his trickiness about him :) I know your secret ways, Steve, you can't hide from mom forever :) I like him now though, don't worry. He's cool.

The Jock: (hm, no idea. No one in my family likes sports too much. The closest would be Joe, but I have a better one for him.)

The One with the Bad Memory: (I chose to leave this one blank. There were a few people who could fit, including myself, but I found some better ones)

The Geek: Nathan, my other brother. So obvious. Nathan has always been a little... off-beat. He's tall, lanky, wears glasses, has shaggy hear, plays video games like Final Fantasy and WoW, and plays guitar. Okay, the guitar part isn't that geeky. But in highschool, he wore a trench coat. And black army boots. Yeah, Nate, you're a geek. I like you too though :)

The Innocent One: Amber, Trevor's brother's girlfriend. I chose this one mostly because I thought it would make her feel good. One time she got huffy at Brandon for saying something that indicated she might not be completely innocent--I thought it was funny :) Amber, you're great. I love that you're very sincere and honest.

The Goodie Two Shoes: Robyn, who else? Robyn the other sister-in-law on Trevor's side. It took a LONG time to find a dangerous side to Robyn--it's there--for sure (examplified by that one time she wanted to drop off Brett's dog at the shelter, haha), but she's still a little goodie at heart :) So nice, even to the nurse who practically chopped off her arm instead of drawing blood.

The Drama Queen: The only one I could make fit is Constance, my other sister-in-law, married to Joe. She's not a complete drama queen--but when it comes to food... for sure. Constance is the pickiest eater I've ever met in my whole life! But I think she's comfortable with it, so that's a-okay for me. At least her weird dislike of chocolate wasn't hereditary.

The Lazy One: (couldn't think of anyone) maybe me.

The Gangster: haha :) I thought of my brother Steven again when he was a teenager and would wear Jnco (sp?) pants that were HUMONGO. He wasn't really a gangster though. Maybe Jarrett, who used to be my step-brother, is the closest anyone in our family has come.

The Stylish One: oh, sadly, no one. I couldn't think of anyone.

The Flirt: Couldn't think of anyone again.

The Tiny Dangerous One: MATTHEW! My youngest brother--he's 12 and there are 9 years between me and him (I'm the next youngest). He was a little devil as a young child :) He's kind of growing into his skins a little bit, but still, YEESH... the temper tantrums... Ah the glories of being 3 and having a bagillion adults around.

The Tower: Brandon, Trevor's brother. Brandon is gigantic. 'Nough said.

The One With All The Gossip: Couldn't think of anyone I would wish to bestow this upon. Maybe my Grandma Hayes--she always knows the dish on everyone in the family. Good assett to have around.

The Ladies Man: I chose Andrey, Robyn's sister's husband, because I thought it'd be funny--and I felt weird giving Holli a space a not Andrey.

The One You Can Depend On: I chose someone I can't name because it's too mean :) If you really want to know the depths of my evil-ity, you can ask me.

The Annoying One: no one... yet.

The Cutie Pie: Ash, my brother Steve's girlfriend. She's SO energetic and cute and happy about EVERYTHING. I always like sharing new things with her--sometimes when I hear about something new, she pops into my head randomly about someone who would be awesome to see learn that for the first time! I don't often actually get around to sharing it with her, but I know it'd be good.

The Princess: Holli, Robyn's sister :) And her two little girls :) I read their blog all the time and they seem like such a cute bunch of girls. Seems like they know what they want and they know how to get it :) Lots of smiley faces because I love you :)

The Funny Guy: Travis, Trevor's brother. He's surprisingly funny. Funny with jokes as well as just funny about things.

The One That's Always Hungry: JOE! My oldest brother. He can eat SO MUCH! When we were younger, I could watch him eat, like, 10 Weinerschnitzel chili cheese dogs in a row! And he would NEVER share--unless I made my mom make him. I'm not sure if he can still eat that much but he is one person I know will never turn down food :) Have you ever been full?

I love you all for letting me tease and have fun. You should all do it with your friends and family too! I would LOVE to see.

Thank you, Government, for stealing my money all year so I could have a chunk of money I would otherwise never have to get this...

I'm a-gettin' a Cricut! We got part of our tax return today and Trevor said I could finally get one! Woo hoo! So, expect to be seeing some friggin' awesome things soon :)

We're also going to look into getting the Sure Cuts a Lot software so that I can cut out designs we create ourselves on the computer instead of what's just on the cartriges. Then we could do band stickers and vinyl lettering in metal-crushing fonts that Trevor likes.

Yippee!

(Longest title ever.)

Willy Wonka annd Slugworth

"When I was younger I used to believe that God and Satan were like Mr. Willy-Wonka and Mr. Slugworth. That they were really working together to see who was honest and I thought that if I told anyone, and exposed God's plan, that I would be blamed for blasphemy."

I saw this secret on PostSecret (http://postsecret.blogspot.com/) today. Wouldn't it be awesome if this were true?

I've always felt really bad for Satan and sometimes wished that he didn't really mean all the things he has done so that there could be some hope for him.

Create

I have been feeling very creative lately and felt empowered by this video from MormonMessages on YouTube. So go get creative, even if you think you can't. And don't feel stupid for trying. I found a blog (http://poppiesatplay.blogspot.com/) hosted by a woman who creates things all the time and in one of her posts she said something like, she feels urgency to follow the counsel of her religion and become more educated, but with being a mom of 5, she doesn't have the availability or financial freedom. So she's decided to develop her interests and talents at home until a more appropriate time to develop her other educational interests. And to me, it's that, and more; for me, creating new things and improving my home is also a way to develop my spritual growth. Elder Uchtdorf's message really emphasises that, I think.

I made a sign for Trevor's mom for her birthday and this message made me want to share it. I will when I get back home and have the pictures.