Back to School

Today marks the end of summer and the beginning of Rog's senior year of college. Only 2 semesters left! It is going to be a busy and challenging semester for my redhead. 3 of the classes he's taking are ones that I took (Business Law, Money & Banking, and Strategic Management). 2 of them (Business Law and Money & Banking) were very difficult. I remember breathing a huge sigh of relief when I was done with them! He's also taking a Supply Chain class that looks pretty difficult. And he's working... Somewhere. He was just planning on working part time at the APX warehouse, but another opportunity has presented itself. It would pay more and give him valuable experience in the health care industry which is where he ultimately wants to end up, so if he gets offered the job, he'll probably take it. I'll keep you updated.



Rog: "I don't need a back to school picture, I'm a senior in college."

Ah, they grow up so fast!

Signature

You may have noticed that I now have a signature for my posts. Roger's cute cousin-in-law Natalie made one a few months ago and I finally got around to it today. If you would like to make one click here.

Ward Campout

Last night we had our ward campout. It was up Hobble Creek Canyon and it was great. We had s'mores, roasted Starbursts, listened to Daniel Hedlund play his guitar (awesome!), and just enjoyed being with some of our friends from our ward.

Rog with our tent. It looks like a baby compared to the Paulsen's tent.



The fire was HOT! It felt better to cover my face even if I looked silly.

With the Paulsen's - one of our favorite couples in the ward!

Mmmm... Roasted Starburst.

10 Things I Love

I've seen this on a few of my friend's blogs lately and I wanted to do it, so here are 10 things I LOVE (in no particular order).



Autumn - I love the changing colors, the crisp cool air, sweatshirts. I hate that summer is ending because that means Rog has to go back to school, but I love autumn! I can't wait to hear the crunch of autumn leaves.

New York City - There is so much to see and do. I love visiting the Statue of Liberty, riding the Subway, seeing the huge buildings, catching a show on Broadway. I would never live there because it is way too busy and crazy for raising a family, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE visiting New York City! We will definitely be going to visit Ground Zero once the Memorial is done.

Pictures - I am a firm believer that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. On our adventures, if we don't have a picture of it, it didn't happen. I love blogging, scrapbooking, organizing, and framing pictures.

Disneyland - Definitely the Happiest Place on Earth. I've been a million times and I'll go a million more. In fact, we will be there next weekend to run the Disneyland 5K. So. Freaking. Exited!

Games - I love to have people over and play games. I'm not too picky which one. I'll try any game. And I don't even have to win every time. I just like playing games. Currently my favorite is Ticket to Ride.

A Clean House - There is nothing more satisfying to me than having a clean house. I don't like going to bed or leaving for work if my house isn't in order. I don't freak out if it isn't, but I love when it is!

BYU Football - This is probably one of the reasons I love autumn so much. No matter if they are having a good season or a bad season, I still love my cougars. I love going to the stadium on a Saturday afternoon and enjoying a good game. 7 days until the first game of the season!

The Temple - I love to see the temple. I love to go to the temple and feel the peace it brings. I love that I was married and sealed for all eternity to my sweetheart there.

Dance - Although I'm pretty much retired, I still love dance. I can't wait to have little girls and put them in tutu's and take them to ballet class. Dance shaped me and made me who I am today. Good thing there's So You Think You Can Dance to give me my fix.

My Rog - Above all things in life I love being married to my best friend. He takes such good care of me and puts up with my crazy need to constantly be doing things even though he would rather spend his weekends playing video games. We have so much fun together and I can't even imagine my life without him in it!

Recipes

I always love finding new recipes, so I figured I would share a few of my recent finds.

Roger is one of the pickiest eaters I've ever known. It seems like every time I make something he has a suggestion for what I should try next time I make it. He'll say, "I think next time you should use a little less of this or a little more of this or leave this out." When I made these two recipes he had nothing to say, so I knew they were definite keepers.

Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables

I found the original recipe at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/baked-penne-with-roasted-vegetables-recipe/index.html. I made a few revisions before trying it. Here is my recipe.

1 red pepper, cored and cut into 1-inch wide strips
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/2 tablespoon dried Italian herb mix
8 ounces penne pasta
1 cup marinara sauce
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/8 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/6 cup for topping

(You can compare my recipe to the one online. I left out mushrooms because we don't like mushrooms and I left out the butter to make it lower in fat. I used Monterey Jack cheese instead of Fontina cheese because I didn't know what Fontina cheese was and I figured it would be expensive and finally, I used vegetable oil instead of olive oil because we didn't have any olive oil.)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

On a baking sheet, toss the peppers, zucchini, and squash with vegetable oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and dried herbs. Roast until tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes. Since you will be cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, you want to make sure the inside is still hard. Drain in a colander.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce, cheeses, peas, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix, until all the pasta is coated with the sauce and the ingredients are combined.

Pour the pasta into a greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Top with the remaining 1/6 cup Parmesan. Bake at 350 degrees F until top is golden and cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

I almost didn't buy Italian Herb Seasoning, but I am SOOOOOOO glad I did. I'm pretty sure it makes the recipe. Use it generously!



The finished product. Roger doesn't like peas, but he tolerated them in this recipe which is good because I LOVE peas and they are a great source of fiber.



The second recipe is one for Mexican Lasagna. I found it at http://lillyella.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-kitchen-mexican-lasagna.html. I didn't make any revisions to this one. Not only did Rog not comment about anything he would change, he raved about it for days. It made A LOT and the leftovers were just as good as the first time we had it.

The Tale of 3 Cameras

One day during the week after we got home from Alaska, I took out our camera to take a picture of something.... I don't remember what because I didn't get to take the picture. Instead I found this:

It worked perfectly fine other than the fact that I couldn't see anything on the screen - only a minor problem... NOT! I had been thinking that maybe we'd get a new camera for Christmas. We had this one for 2 years... So I texted my mom and she did what she does best - found a great deal on ebay on this:



It was "buy now," so I ordered it. But every time I tried to pay for it using paypal it would give me an error. WEIRD... A few days later I got an email from ebay saying that the ebay account of the person I bought the camera from had been hacked into and basically was invalid. So we found it for the same price on amazon and bought it there. Of course we, being our super cheap selves, picked super saver shipping and it sure took its sweet time getting here.

While I was waiting for my beautiful new advanced camera to come, I remembered that for some reason I had saved my first digital camera (the one I had before the one that died on me). So I pulled that out, dusted off the inch of dust on it, and have been using that one. Apparently it knew I thought it was a second class camera because it took awful pictures. I don't remember it taking such dark pictures when I used it before - I'm pretty sure it was doing it just to spite me. But never fear, beautiful new advanced camera is here now which means, NO MORE CRAPPY PICTURES ON THIS BLOG.

And that my friends is the tale of 3 cameras!

Zion National Park

Last weekend we went to Zion National Park with the Pughs. It was great to have friends on one of our adventures! We drove down to St. George and stayed with my family Friday night. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to hike Angel's Landing. It was a great hike! The last .5 mile you are hiking along a narrow strip with cliffs on either side of you. Pretty intense! We made sure to hold onto the chains on that part!

Next we hiked the Narrows! We didn't have time to do the whole thing, so we just hiked up for awhile and then turned around. It was an incredible experience.

We decided the water looked too inviting to not get completely wet. It was pretty cold, but not anywhere near as cold as the Provo River!

After the Narrows we had dinner with my family at Golden Corral - we were starving! And then we spent the rest of the night relaxing and swimming in my parent's pool. Sunday morning we went to the broadcast of the Oquirrh Temple Dedication and then had a yummy pancake brunch. We headed back to Zion to see the Weeping Rock and the Emerald Pools and then were on our way home. It was a pretty short trip, but a very fun one!

Ahhh... Summer!

On Wednesday we spontaneously decided to head on over to Seven Peaks for the evening. We have been saving 5 Buck Pizza boxes all summer because they have a deal where you can get in for $5 after 5:00 with a 5 Buck Pizza box. We left work a few minutes early, snarfed down some dinner, and by 5:15 we were there!

It was the perfect time to go... No lines, no worrying that my cute red head would get burnt to a crisp, no waiting for complementary tubes (they were in great abundance), and a nice girl even gave us her double tube after she was done with it.

I've been dying to go swimming because the BYU Pool is closed during the break between summer and fall... So I swam around the lazy river and when some people got in my way, I turned around and swam against the current. You didn't know I was a salmon, did you?!

We rounded out the night by sharing a Hawaiian Shaved Ice and watching NCIS. It doesn't get any better than that, my friends!

High School Reunion

Last Saturday was my high school reunion. It seems like these 5 years have flown by, but at the same time it seems like I've been graduated from high school for forever! I'm getting OLD! Unfortunately not that many people came to the reunion (I think lots of people were on vacations), but it was good to see the ones that did come.

We had a good laugh looking at the papers we filled out at our Senior Dinner Dance. Emily and I totally called what we would be doing in 5 years. I wrote, "married, graduated from college, working as an accountant." NO JOKE. Emily was spot on too.

I got to see Bud! That happens a lot during BYU football season, but not a whole lot the rest of the year. He is definitely one of my favorite people from high school.

The reunion was at a park just west of Hillcrest. Although I must have driven past it a million times, I didn't even know it was there. After the reunion, I took Rog to my favorite place from my high school days... the football stadium where I spent many days cheering. Go HUSKIES!

The Dawg Pound is where all the students sit and also where the Varsity Cheerleaders cheer. Because I was on Varsity my junior and senior year, I got to cheer in front of the Dawg Pound for 2 years. Good times!



They read a list of all the changes that have occurred at Hillcrest since we graduated.... surprisingly there were many! In addition to many of the teachers retiring (including my cheer coach/dance company teacher), Hillcrest is now a 4A school (we were a 5A school) and is in a completely different district. I'd say those are pretty big changes to have happen in only 5 years!

Magnets

For August's enrichment craft night we made magnets. Lots and lots of magnets!

The tutorial for the felt fish magnets can be found here: http://purlbee.squarespace.com/felt-aquarium-magnets/. I enlarged the template to 2 times the size they used, so I could use bigger magnets. If you would like to use the enlarged template, feel free to come on by.

Here are the directions for the jewel magnets.

You will need Mod Podge, paint brush, clear glass marbles that are flat on one side (used for floral arrangements), paper scraps, and magnets (the same size as the marbles).

Cut out a circle that is the same size as the magnet and marble. (I used the middle of an "o" cut using my Cricut, but you could just trace the magnet and cut it out with scissors.)

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the back of the paper and place it on the magnet. Then apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the front of the paper and place the marble on top. Let dry. (The Mod Podge will dry clear, I promise.)

And that's all. Go make a bunch to spice up your fridge. :)

.Phillips.Family.Reunion.

Last weekend we went to the Duck Creek Cabin for the Phillips Family Reunion. It was the first time everyone was together since October of 2007 when Taylor got home from his mission, so we took some family photos. (I also got to meet two of Roger's uncles and their wives that I hadn't met before.)

The highlight of the trip for me was four wheeling. I had never been before and I wasn't sure I wanted to go. Everyone said you get really dirty and that didn't sound like fun to me. But I decided to go and I discovered that getting dirty is half the fun! We stopped at the Ice Cave and Duck Creek Pond.

Another highlight was meeting our new nephew Sam and playing with Aiden. They are both such cute boys!

We also visited Navajo Lake and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Roger and I visited Navajo Lake when we were dating, so it was fun to go there again. The dike, which normally divides the lake in two, had a big gap that had been blown out with dynamite. I decided that I wanted to get to the other side, so I set off walking (very slowly) on the rocks that remained. Roger didn't want to come with me because he had a cold (very ironic seeing as how I got one for my family reunion and then he got one for his), so when I was half way there I decided it wasn't worth it and just came back. I would have tried harder, but I was lost without my adventure buddy.

Cedar Breaks was an unexpected addition to our All Things Utah tour this summer. I had no idea it was there and I loved it! It was a lot like Bryce Canyon - definitely worth seeing!



(Yes, we are matching and no, we didn't plan it. Kenzie and Irving were making fun of us all day until Kenzie took off her sweatshirt and we realized they were also matching - both in black shirts, jeans, and sneakers.)

Thanks Kenzie for planning the reunion and getting us all together! And thanks to everyone for taking pictures of us and making sure we got them. (Our camera tragically died after Alaska.)

What was I thinking?

Last week was probably the busiest week of my entire life... Ok, probably not really, but I'm sure it was up there. In addition to getting caught up on everything... SYTYCD, google reader, groceries, mail, the budget, etc... I had to get ready for Thursday which went like this:

8:00 am Ultrasound
12:00 pm Accounting Picnic/Baby Shower
3:00 pm Meeting with the CFO and Controller
7:00 pm Enrichment
8:00 pm SYTYCD Finale

What was I thinking?! A baby shower and enrichment on the same day! Well, originally the baby shower was scheduled for Friday, but it got moved to Thursday because we forgot the manager meeting was Friday. It was absolutely crazy and super stressful getting everything ready for the day, but luckily everything went well.

My ultrasound was really short because there was NOTHING to look at! The cysts that were there last month were gone, including the complex one! So Operation Baby Phillips is a go.

The accounting picnic/baby shower was a hit too. After much debate, we decided to invite the boys and I think they actually really had a good time. Most of them had never been to a baby shower (and probably never will again). I think they appreciated being able to attend one. Oh and the girls had a good time too.

The meeting I had with the CFO and the Controller was to discuss a project I've been working on - the AR Rollforward. I'm not going to try to explain it because I don't even completely understand it. It's a simple concept, but it gets complicated fast! I was nervous about the meeting because the variance was pretty huge, but the financial analyst couldn't figure it out last year, so they didn't blame me for it not working this year. We just threw around some ideas about things we hadn't considered before. The variance has to be zero (or very close to zero) by the end of the year, but luckily they realize it's going to take a lot of work to figure out how to get there.

We made magnets for enrichment and they were a huge success. I'll be posting a tutorial for them soon, so stay tuned.

Finally, the finale of SYTYCD was amazing! Jeanine was the winner, then Brandon, Evan, and Kayla (in that order). After Wednesday's show I was totally rooting for Jeanine. Early in the season she didn't stand out to me at all, but she got better every show and I agree with America - she totally deserved to win! My favorite dance for the week was a Mia Michaels Contemporary performed by Jeanine and Kayla. Love it!

Alaska - Part 2

Monday we took a bus tour of Skagway that went up into the interior of Alaska. It was crazy foggy, so we couldn't see too much, but we had an awesome tour guide. It was very interesting to hear about the history of Skagway. The town was settled because of the Klondike Gold Rush. I guess I didn't pay attention in history because I really didn't even know there was a gold rush up in Alaska!



Tuesday we got up super early to see the Tracy Arm Fjord. It wasn't a port, so you didn't get off. But you could see amazing scenery from the boat. It reminded us of Titanic because of all the icebergs in the water!

The rest of the day we were at sea, so we played more games and all the cousins enjoyed the hot tub.



Wednesday was our final day at sea. Unfortunately I was sick with a NASTY cold, so I stayed in our room most of the day. I had started to feel a sore throat coming on Monday... Tuesday I could tell I was getting sick, but I still was able to enjoy myself. Wednesday and Thursday were absolutely AWFUL! I didn't want to get anyone else sick and I was definitely feeling bad for myself. I just kept thinking, "I saved my PTO all year for this?! BAH!"

Thursday we were in Victoria, BC. Everyone went to the gardens and said they were beautiful. Rog and I will have to go back there someday to see what we missed. He was nice enough to stay on the boat with me... I tell you what, that's true love. I didn't want to do anything, so we read our books pretty much the whole day. Rog was reading Angels and Demons and I was reading the 6th Harry Potter. I hadn't planned on reading it. In fact everyone told me not to read it before seeing the movie. But I brought it just in case and it was a good thing I did! I would have been so bored without it!

Friday we had to get off the boat. Just when I was starting to feel a little better... Our flight didn't leave until that night, so we spent the day seeing the sites of Seattle on the Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour. My favorite part of the day was the Seattle Aquarium. I LOVE sea otters and they had 4! In New York they only have 1, so I was in heaven with 4! They had a nice big tank to swim around in and they looked so happy. They also had river otters which I had never seen before, so that was cool.

Saturday we did our laundry at the Ford’s and then headed back to Provo. We decided to pretend we were still on vacation. We went to Cafe Rio for dinner and then we finally saw Harry Potter. I really enjoyed it, but the differences between the book and the movie were VERY obvious after just reading the book. I think they did a good job capturing the essence of the book, although they really should have got the details right at the end. I couldn't believe how much they deviated from the book at such an important part!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Ririe for an unforgettable vacation! It was so good to have EVERYONE together before we all go in a million directions.

Alaska - Part 1

Our cruise to Alaska was WONDERFUL!

We left SLC bright and early Friday morning. We didn't want to miss the ship, so we booked the early flight to Seattle. Luckily we were able to get on the boat pretty soon after we got there. (We thought we would be hanging out for hours before we could get on.) We explored the ship, rested a bit, did the mandatory safety drill, and enjoyed our first meals on the ship. My mom gave me "non-drowsy" motion sickness medicine, so I wouldn't get sick from the motion of the boat. That was a joke! I was totally out after dinner, so we turned in early.

Saturday was a day at sea. We played games and basically hung out all day.

That night was the first formal night, so we all dressed up.

Sunday was Juneau. First we went whale watching! It was amazing to see those GIANT animals. There were probably 8-10 pretty close to our boat, so we got to see some pretty close up. They handed out juice and bagels with cream cheese. The cream cheese was pink, so we assumed it was strawberry... Boy were we wrong! It was salmon. Although I like salmon, it was not what I was expecting. YUCK!

Next we visited the Mendenhall Glacier which was probably my favorite thing we saw the whole trip. I really wasn't expecting it to be blue! We also saw a momma bear and her two cubs. The cubs were sleeping up in a tree. It was crazy to see them so close out in the wild.