Identity Crisis

My Dad blessed our lives last year by giving us a car for our wedding. It was a wonderful gift and we can never repay him for it.

It is a 2005 Ford Taurus, nothing snazzy, but it runs great and can hold TONS of stuff in its trunk. 

Her name is Tauri (original, I know...).

During the time I had the car up at school before married life it had a California license plate. I was proud of that California license plate. Up here in Idaho you don't see too many and it let people know that I was a California girl! I rocked that license plate.

After our wedding we lived in Utah for a while and needed to get our car registered. It was a sad day for me. I had to rip the California license plates off and stick on the Utah plates. Spence was happy about it. Me, not so much. Tauri went from being a California car to a Utah car.

But we didn't stay long in Utah and now we're back in Idaho going to school.

It's that time of the year again for us to register our car so today we headed down to the DMV to get our car registered. What does that mean??? Idaho license plates! It may not seem like a big deal to all of you, but to me it kinda is. I was sad all over again. Tauri now has gone from California, to Utah, to Idaho plates in about a years length of time. Man, she must be confused!!! Where does she belong???

As we walked out of the DMV, Spence and I looked at each other and Spence said, "Poor Tauri" and at the exact same time (no joke) we said, "She must be going through an identity crisis!" HAHA! It was so funny! We were both thinking the exact same thing.

So Tauri, you are no longer a California car...you are no longer a Utah car...you are now an Idaho car, HOME OF THE FAMOUS POTATOES. Until the next state we move to, that is.

She's been a great car :)

Sorry about the nasty bugs on our dirty car. 

No more Utah car for the Utah boy.

My baby sister is all grown up

Today is my little sister, Niki's, 16th birthday! Where has time gone? I can't believe she's 16 and she'll be driving soon! She'll be going on dates and having so much fun!

Niki and I have always had a great relationship. We always have silly blonde moments together which makes for a LOT of inside jokes. ... This one's for you Niki - "SPOOOOOOPY!!!" (Niki will understand this and be busting up laughing, I know it!)

Niki has turned into such a beautiful young lady. She is such a people person and always has a great big smile on her face.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKI! I love you so much! And am so proud of who you have become. I know we'll always be great sista-friends :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Today was another "Let's practice being a homemaker" day! Hooray! That means...yummy food!

First of all, Spence and I made a trip down to Idaho Falls to go grocery shopping at Winco. It has the best deals on food. Among all our groceries, I found a deal on a package of 2 whole fresh chickens for $7...yes folks, that means each chicken is only $3.50. What a steal! You can't even buy a small package of lunch meat for $3.50.

I needed a good oven roasted chicken recipe. So I went to my trusted Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. You can't go wrong.

Herb-Roasted Chicken

Prep: 20 minutes Roast: 75 minutes Stand: 10 minutes

 

ingredients

• 1
  3-1/2 to 4-pound whole broiler chicken
• 2
  tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• 2
  cloves garlic, minced
• 1
  teaspoon dried basil, crushed
• 1/2
  teaspoon ground sage
• 1/2
  teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
• 1/4
  teaspoon salt
• 1/4
  teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning or ground black pepper

directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Rinse the inside of chicken; pat dry with paper towels. Skewer neck skin of chicken to back (see photo); tie legs to tail. Twist wing tips under back. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Brush with melted butter; rub garlic over chicken.

2.In a small bowl stir together basil, sage, thyme, salt, and lemon-pepper seasoning; rub onto chicken. If desired, insert a meat thermometer into center of an inside thigh muscle (see photo). (The thermometer should not touch bone.)

3.Roast, uncovered, for 75 to 90 minutes or until drumsticks move easily in their sockets and chicken is no longer pink (180 degrees F). Remove chicken from oven. Cover; let stand for 10 minutes before carving. Makes 4 servings.

4.Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables: Before roasting chicken, in a large saucepan bring lightly salted water to boiling. Add 1 pound red potatoes, quartered (or halved, if small); 3 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces; and 1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into 1-1/2-inch pieces. Add to boiling water. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes; drain. Add drained vegetables and 1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch chunks, to the bottom of the roasting pan around chicken. Drizzle vegetables with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Roast as directed above, stirring vegetables once or twice during roasting. To serve, place chicken on serving platter. Arrange vegetables on serving platter around chicken.

I didn't have all the spices the recipe called for. I just used sage, lemon pepper, salt and black pepper. And it was still scrumptious as ever!

I thought it turned out great for my first roasted chicken. I plan on using the bones and left over to make my own chicken broth. Homemade chicken noodle soup here I come!

"What shall we call this place full of stones that are yellow?" ... I know! - YELLOWSTONE!!!

My father-in-law came to stay with us a few nights while he did some home inspections for work in the area. We, last minute, decided to spend a day at Yellowstone while he was visiting. It's pretty pathetic, but living here in Rexburg, Idaho we are about an hour away from Yellowstone, but Spence and I have never been since we've lived here. The last time I was in Yellowstone I was a silly little teenager camping with my family. And it had been many years since Spence had been also. We were excited to go.

We first arrived at the beautiful lodge near Old Faithful. This lodge is so old and so cool inside. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like it is made from tree trunks connecting together forming a very cool tree house look.

Then we headed to lunch at a cute little dinner down the road from the lodge. We sat at the bar watching the cook prepare our food. It turned out to be a bad idea because we were starving and watching your food cook is torture! We had burgers and delicious bbq pulled pork sandwiches! yum!

Then it was time for the show. We waited for about 20 minutes for Old Faithful to blow. Spence took advantage of the nice soft and comfy walk-way to take a little nap.

Old Faithful is always on time.

Then we headed to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. It is breathtakingly beautiful! It was a steep but short hike down. With the sun setting, it was a wonderful sight.

My father-in-law. Jeff.

We had a great day overall. Beautiful scenery. Great company. Life is good! (If only I could find a job...But that's another story)

Fall...Autumn...Whatever you call it...It's practically here!

Fall is just around the corner and I am really excited this year! I am almost to the point where I want the hot summer days to get a little cooler so I can wear my sweaters again. Football is up and running and the nights are getting crisp. I'm already planning on having some sort of Fall dinner party with friends. I have been looking through my cookbooks for yummy Fall recipes.

What I love about the Fall:
-The cool crisp mornings and evenings
-The leaves changing color
-Football games
-Pumpkin treats
-Creating Halloween costumes
-Going on walks and crunching all the leaves I step on
-General Conference
-Sweaters and light scarves
-Picking out pumpkins and carving them
-Spicy candles that perfume the whole house
-Caramel apples
-This fall my family is coming for a visit! :)

The only thing left to do before the Fall officially comes...make some cute decorations! Better get on that!

It's YOGA time!!!

My good friend Lindsay invited me and our friend Jes over to her place to do some P90X Yoga. I hadn't done yoga in years, so I was a little hesitant at first, but then thought to myself, "how hard can it be, it will be easy!" So I headed over in my stretchy pants and was ready for a nice relaxing yoga routine.

YA RIGHT!!!

This yoga routine was CRAZY INTENSE! Oh my goodness. I was in positions and doing moves that I did not know my body could do. I was huffing and puffing and so exhausted! But I kept going. It was a great workout. I didn't know that yoga could be so full of intense endurance.

And even though my legs are really sore today, it was worth it! I feel great!

This is how the positions were suppose to look ...

My legs were pretty much up in the air on this pose.

We did some pretzel twist thing like this...well attempted it.

My favorite...downward dog...we did this pose about a million times in between push ups.

Ok, I lied...THIS was my favorite! It's called the WARRIOR pose.  I felt like a real native warrior.

It was really fun Lindsay! Let's do it again...and next time we'll take pictures :)