Illinois or Bust!!!

At this time tomorrow (so in 24 short hours), Dave and I will be in our car headed to the airport.  From there, we will take a plane to Illinois to spend Christmas at my parents' new home with Mom, Dad, and Jen!!!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!!  :o)  The best Christmas present ever:  being there for Tamara's call home from her mission in AZ!!!!  I can't wait to hear her beautiful voice and her awesome laugh!

So way Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Time Is Here. Already?! What the?!?

Christmas has totally snuck up on me this year!  I guess between lots going on at work, painting the kitchen, being sick for a couple weeks, preparing Sunday School lessons, and normal every-day stuff, time has slipped away.  When I stop to think about it, I get depressed that I haven't even set up my Nativity scene.  Our tree is not up and lit and decorated with our ornaments.  There is no garland or mistletoe hanging.  No red bows.  Nothing.  Zip.  Nada.

I thought Dave was slightly crazy when he came home with a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree that he put on top of our TV.

Complete with the red ball and Linus' blankie!

At first, I was thinking, "That makes everything seem more pathetic!  Why do we seem so grinchy about Christmas decorations this year?!?!!?"  The more I looked at that little tree, the more I loved it!  We can only do as much as we can do.  This year, as much as we could do was this cute little tree with only 1 decoration on it that's even too heavy for it.  But, it's Christmas to the Dave Wheeler Family this year.  :o)  I love it!!!

Plus, since Dave and I are travelling to my parent's new home in Illinois this year (yay!), we will get to enjoy THEIR Christmas decorations.  :o)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Holy cookies, Batman!

I am exhausted!  I just made about 15 dozen cookies.  In a few hours.  My back hurts.  My feet hurt.  However, it's all for a good cause, so I'm ok with it.  Tamara wrote home from her mission last week soliciting for help with a service project.  She and her companion want to give out plates of cookies to people for Christmas, but they don't have time to make all those cookies.  So, she asked for people to send her already-baked cookies that she could plate and pass out, spreading Christmas cheer to the good people of Yuma, Arizona.  :o)

So, I am doing service to help someone else give service.  How cool is that?!  Way to pay it forward!

Here are some of the leftovers that didn't fit in the boxes.

Boxes full of cookies and a few Christmas presents :o)

I decided to make four kinds:  Funfetti, red velvet with white chocolate chips, vanilla cookie with chocolate chips, and dark chocolate fudge cookie with peanut butter chips.  Yum!  They were all fairly easy because they were all made with cake mixes.  My official taste-tester, Dave, selflessly risked his life for the good of everyone who will eat the cookies and has deemed the cookies safe to eat.  ;o)

I'm grateful for the opportunity to do service, but I'm now glad to be headed to my warm bed! 

P.S.  Thanks to everyone else who sent cookies to help Tamara with the Christmas gift she wants to give the people she loves down in Yuma!

pictures don't do it justice. really.

So, here are the long-awaited pictures of my newly-painted kitchen!  These pictures were taken just now (at 10 pm) so there is no natural light, which makes the color so much more beautiful, so I guess to get the real idea of just how amazing my kitchen is now, you have to come visit and see for yourself!  ;o)

The blue looks amazing with the white cabinets Dave painted!

The blue color is a few shades lighter than my wedding color blue.  :o)

Look how perfectly the paint swatch matches the wall. ;o)  (Even though it's more gray in the pic than it is in real life...)

Anyway, I am so grateful it's FINISHED!  Thanks so much to Mom, Dad, Dave, Clyde, and Ginny for their help!

Today.

Today, I'd like my after-work schedule to include the following:

• PJs (changed into immediately upon arrival at home)
• take-out Chinese for dinner
• an amazing fortune in the fortune cookie that's part of aforementioned dinner
• leisurely watching "Ever After"
• snuggle time with my handsome husband
• bedtime around 9:30 for once

What tonight's schedule is most likely going to be in reality:

• a dinner from the freezer that can be baked/cooked quickly
• cleaning and more cleaning
• laundry, laundry, and more laundry
• work stuff that there's not time to do during the day at work
• hopefully bedtime by 11

:o(

Trying to stay positive, though!  I just need to keep counting my blessings while finishing out today and my day will have no choice but to end fabulously because I am so way blessed!!!

Lesson Learned (again...)

So, I learned during college that eating sweet things too close to bedtime ALWAYS gives me nightmares.  Weird, but so way true.

I guess I ate the cheesecake last night far enough from bedtime to avoid super scary dreams, but close enough to dream pretty weird stuff.  Stuff that made perfect sense while I was dreaming.  Of course.

The dream, in a nutshell (at least the part I remember most):

Idina Menzel (a very talented singer/actress who I had the pleasure of seeing in concert in Atlanta last year) was coming back to Atlanta to give a concert.  She asked for me to be her accompanist on the piano.  How awesome is that?!  It was a beautiful, grand piano!  We were half-way through the most amazing concert of my life when Lady Gaga (whom I don't really like or enjoy much of "her" music) waltzes out on stage and crashes the concert.  I was furious!  So was Idina.  lol

Then I woke up.

Ummm....  Ok?

Moral of the story = no cheesecake (or other scrumptious dessert) within 4 hours of bedtime!

P.S.  I have pics of our kitchen "remodel" to post soon!  It looks amazing!!!!!  I'm most grateful for the fact that it's FINISHED!!!  I intend to never, ever remove wallpaper again.  Like so way never, ever!

Ummm... Only in Georgia??

Am I crazy for being shocked to see a teenager (a person of an old enough age to know better) sitting in front of us at church drinking a Dr. Pepper.  In the chapel.  During the most important part of church!  She even spilled and didn't bother to do a great job at cleaning it up.  Really?!?

Whatta man!

This post is dedicated to my amazing, handsome, wonderful husband!  :o)

A couple of Sundays ago, we had a friend over for dinner.  We ate yummy, moist pork roast and mashed potatoes.  :o)  Later that evening, we (well, it might have been mostly "I") decided we ("I") wanted some of the homemade pretzels I had bought the kit for.

Side note:  Dave is from Pennsylvania.  They love fresh pretzels up there.  Cinnamon sugar.  Or salted.  With cheese.  Or marinara sauce.  :o)

Well, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought the kit, but you actually had to make the dough.  Like use the dough hook with the Kitchen Aid.  Add yeast.  Let it rise.  Roll out the dough.  Get messy.  All that junk.  What?!  I thought making pretzels was going to be easier!  It was a kit for goodness sake!  lol

I decided we were not going to have pretzels because I really did not feel like going through all that work and messy-ness.  As I got up to put the kit back in the kitchen, I turned to Dave and jokingly said, "I should make you make these for us."  He said, "I'll make them :o)"  He was being serious!  I told him what was involved and he was like, "It won't be that big of a deal."  And he went to the kitchen and made homemade pretzels.

Whatta man, whatta man, whatta man, whatta mighty good man!

Clyde, demonstrating his awesome pretzel-shaping skills!

Cinnamon sugar on some, and Dave's favorite--the salted ones  :o)

Don't they look scrumptious?!

The pretzels were AMAZINGLY yummy!!!!

Dave's now earned himself the title of Resident Pretzel Maker in the Wheeler home.  :o)  Thanks, my love!

This past Saturday, Dave helped me embark on a task I've wanted to do since before we moved into our new house, but I just hate projects like this and have been dreading it for months and months.  I finally felt motivated and decided to go for it!

This is the ugly wallpaper that was in my kitchen and dining room.  I just do not like it.  At all!

This is another shot of the ugly wallpapered kitchen...

This is the magical steamer we borrowed from a friend who came and helped us take the wallpaper down.  We actually had 2 friends bring steamers.  You know you have a true friend when they are willing to spend 4-5 hours on a Saturday doing really hard, not-fun stuff with you.  :o)  Thanks Ginny and Clyde!!!

The steamer worked wonders!  However, I do not want to ever take down wallpaper again!  EVER!!

Later that evening, Dave came up to me and said, "You're not going to like this..."   I was like, "What??"  He said, "I just realized that the bathroom in the hallway (the non-master bath) has wallpaper."  I marched over to it, looked inside, noticed none of it was peeling off and it kinda matches our decor, so I said, "It stays.  We are NOT redoing it!"

Here's some "after" pictures of our kitchen/dining room.

That's pretty much what it looks like currently, except Dave has spackled so there are white patches that we now must sand.  I think that fun mess starts tomorrow...  Joyful.  Actually, I'm excited because then we are that much closer to painting!  I have narrowed down the paint swatches from about 40 to 2.  Pretty proud of that accomplishment.  :o)

Oh!  And as if all the above wasn't enough, Dave and Clyde also hung our twinkling star lights on the house outside after all that hard work taking down wallpaper.  Thanks, boys!  They look fantastic!

Again, this post is dedicated to my wonderful husband!  Who helps me and loves me no matter what!  :o)  Whatta man!

and I wasn't even trying!

I've lost 6 whole pounds since I last got on the scale a couple of months ago!  Only 6-8 more to go!!!  Maybe the bathroom scale isn't as scary as I thought ;o)

Friends, Guts, and Fun Times!

This past Saturday, our good friends Melissa & Darrell came to spend the day with us.  Unfortunately we don't get to hang out very often, but we always enjoy the time we do get to spend with each other.  We had a blast!  Our morning was spent playing with RC helicopters, breaking RC airplanes, girl time at the craft store, and a few rounds of old school Mario on the Nintendo.

We enjoyed a nice late lunch/early dinner at Cracker Barrel.  I had chicken 'n dumplings for the first time and loved them!  And the veggie of the day was lima beans!  One of my favorites!!!  Mmmmm  mmmmmmm!  After lunch, we wandered through the country store (a must-do after eating at Cracker Barrel) and I found a couple of fun things to put in Tamara's happy birthday package.  I hope she enjoys them!

Our post-eating activity was pumpkin carving.  I had previously asked Dave if he would be willing to carve pumpkins with me this year.  He agreed, even though it wouldn't be at the top of his list of fun things to do.  lol  Again, what a man!  He even picked out a couple of beautiful pumpkins from the fire station on one of his days off.  Since I'm not very good at carving pumpkins (what I see in my head and what my hands create always end up being two very, very different things...) Dave agreed to carve the pumpkin if I took all the guts out.  Melissa got Darrell to agree to the same.  :o)

I hate getting dirty, but I hate failing at carving even more.  So, I agreed to get dirty this once.  lol  It was slimy and gross, as predicted.

Eventually, the inside looked beautiful and nearly gut-free!

We sorted out some pumpkin seeds for roasting.

It was a weird, slimy sensation to run my hands through the seeds in the strainer.  Which lasted about 5 seconds and then I ran to the sink and washed all the pumpkin junk off my hands.  :o)  lol

pre-roasted pumpkin seeds

We weren't 100% sure on the directions for roasting pumpkin seeds, but we did a pretty good job.  :o)

After Melissa and I were done playing with pumpkin guts, we called the guys over and they carved away.

This is the masterpiece Dave came up with:

I had never had a pumpkin like that before!  But,  I wasn't about to be picky since he was willing to carve in the first place.  So, we had a VW pumpkin.  Pretty cool, if you ask me.  :o)  Wonderful job, Dave!

Darrell and Melissa's was a more traditional pumpkin face, but I so way forgot to snap a pic of theirs...  It was Darrell's first time EVER carving a pumpkin, believe it or not!  So glad we helped give him an opportunity to experience the magic!  lol

We ended our fun-filled day with some RC car racing in the street/driveway.  I forget what kind of cars they were, but they were super, duper fast and seemed nearly indestructible!  Kinda (ever so slightly) made me want to have one.  Don't tell Dave!  lol

nose-picked goodness in a box

So, a couple of days before Halloween, I was at a store with my friend, Melissa, and we saw a display with all sorts of Halloween-ish candy.  Like the supposed-to-gross-you-out kind.  Finger lollipops, pooping black cats with edible "poo", etc.  I thought it would be fun to find something to take to Dave and settled on this:

Eeewwwww!  Sick!!  The pictures on the box do resemble some boogers, so I thought it would be a disgusting enough Halloween treat.

Here's what was in the box:

Now, I don't know about you, but my boogers look NOTHING like those.  And they don't feel like those either.  How disappointing...  There is nothing Halloweeny about those gummy things.  Although, the yellow ones actually tasted pretty good; the perfect amount of lemony flavor.

Lesson learned:  don't trust a box of boogers to be accurate.  :o)

My Sneaky Husband

A couple of weeks ago, Dave used up a few of his vacation days.  On his first vacation day, we went to the aquarium.  (I blogged about that already.)  The next day, he told me he planned to spend the morning helping his Dad with a few things and if there was time that afternoon he would work on his Volkswagens.  The third vacation day would be used solely on his Volkswagens.

Well, I pull up into the driveway after working on his 2nd day off and he meets me outside.  While grinning a sly, I'm-up-to-something smile, he says, "How would you feel about going out to dinner tonight?"  Immediately, a few scenarios run through my head.  He's trying to be super romantic.  He is starving and wants dinner fast.  He's done something to the house and it's unfit to make dinner in.

After walking inside, I quickly see that the last scenario is the accurate one this time.  There are kitchen cabinet doors and painting supplies all over the place.  My kitchen was a mess!  (Yes, I can say "my" kitchen because Dave and I agreed before we got married that the garage is HIS and the kitchen is MINE.  Works out nicely! :o)  However, I was so surprised and happy and shocked and angry all at the same time!  Let me explain.

When we moved into this house, the kitchen/dining room wallpaper was one of the first things I noticed that I definitely did not like.  The kitchen cabinets also needed to be repainted because one cupboard door had been painted a different color before we moved in but that's it.  The paint job begun by the previous owner had ended there.  And, they were dirty and stained and Dave and I just didn't like them.

I knew they needed to be painted, I was just putting it off and putting it off.  I don't like painting, especially when it involves removing ALL the cupboard doors and handles, etc.  What a pain!  So, I just hadn't "gotten around to it" yet.

When I realized that my sweet husband had used up part of his day off to start the big, dreaded project, I was so happy and grateful!  He hadn't even hinted that he was going to be doing it so I was totally taken off guard.  At the same time, though, I was upset that he was wasting his day off on a project for MY kitchen that I really should have taken the initiative and done weeks months ago.

He wouldn't let me help, though.  He stayed up super late that night working on it and sent me to bed so I would be rested for work the next day.  He spent his last day off finishing up the kitchen.  I felt bad, but very appreciative for his willingness to do something so nice for me, especially when he has a bazillion other things on his own To-Do list to do with his time off.  What a man!

Anyway, sorry for that long explanation!

Needless to say Dave is a great painter!  Check out these super white kitchen cabinets!!

Now I need to get motivated (and invite my friends who have steamers over) and take down the wallpaper and paint the kitchen.

Thanks, Dave, for your hard work!  You are wonderful!  I owe ya one!  Or two, or three...  ;o)

Dave & Darah Day!

This past Wednesday, Dave and I enjoyed another official "Dave & Darah Day"!  No worries; we did it "legally" and asked for the day off in advance.  :o)

The first Dave and Darah Day was at the end of March 2010.  We were dating and cleared our schedules one Saturday in order to spend the day together, just the two of us.  We chose to go to Helen, GA and enjoy the beautiful "mountains" and scenery there.  One of my favorite parts was the waterfall we found to hike to.  After we got to the waterfall, there was a wooden platform/walkway that we stood at and enjoyed the peacefulness together.  It was beautiful!  And, so way fun to be there together!

One of the beautiful views

My first kissing picture!  ;o)

While we were walking around one of the touristy sections of Helen, we went into a gift shop and Dave searched it 'til he found the charms.  He told me to pick one out while he talked to the owner of the shop about getting a charm bracelet for me.  I told him he didn't have to, etc. but I soon learned that his dad gave his mom a charm bracelet years and years ago.  Whenever they go somewhere new together, she finds a charm to add to it.  It makes a cool memento!

Dave wanted to me to have one, too!  How sweet is that?!?  So, I chose a cute little pine cone charm, signifying the pine cones we saw (and kicked around) during our walks on the trails to and from the waterfalls.

That was also the day that we unofficially got engaged.  :o)  On our way back into town at the end of the day, we looked at engagement rings at a couple of jewelry stores.  What a fun way to end a fabulous day!

Anyway, on to the 2nd Dave & Darah Day!

This is what the skies looked like as we drove into Atlanta that morning...

It was gloomy and cold outside.  However, there was plenty of figurative sunshine because Dave and I had tons of fun being together!

Dave had never been to the GA Aquarium, which surprised me, but he just never had.  So, we got tickets and planned to spend our morning there.  In researching tickets, I discovered that the aquarium has a dolphin show now.  I've never seen one of those, which Dave was surprised about, so we paid extra to see the dolphin show.  It was not like a "typical" dolphin show; it had theatrics, complete with actors and singing and audience singing, etc. which made it slightly weird.  (Honestly, the dolphins are pretty cool by themselves and don't need all the dramatics to make them so way exciting to watch!)  Good thing we didn't know about all that before we got there or it might have been hard to convince Dave to see it.  lol

At the very beginning, are one of my all-time favorites:  the jellyfish!  They are so way awesome-looking!  This is the best picture I could get of them.

While at the aquarium, I took several videos since I couldn't get my camera to take very good pictures.  This first one is of the lion fish, I believe.  It's one of the oddest-looking fish I've ever seen.

One of my favorites at the aquarium is the beluga whales.  I love the beluga whales because Tamara and I used to sing the "Baby Beluga" song that Raffi would sing ever since she could talk/sing.  (Does anyone else remember Raffi??)  So, I was excited to get video of the belugas.  It ended up being more exciting than I thought!

Yeah....  Don't think there's more to say about that one!

Another favorite is the penguins.  Jen loves penguins, so I thought of her while getting them on video.  Aren't they cute?!

The last video I took was of the octopus moving.  Normally when you go to the aquarium (or so it seems), the octopus is always just sitting there.  Rather boring-like.  When we walked up to his tank, however, he was moving and kept moving the entire time we were standing there watching!  Pretty neat to watch all those suction cup thingys on his tentacles do their jobs.  Fun stuff!

We stopped by the gift shop on our way out (oh wait.  They MAKE you walk through in order to get out.  ;o) and found a dolphin charm to add to the other charms on my bracelet.  Awesome!

We went and had lunch and then went home and ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap while trying to get rid of the headaches we both had.  :o(  Didn't plan on napping that long, but at least we were doing it together, right?  lol  For dinner, we ate popcorn while watching a scary movie cuddled on the couch.  What a fun way to end a great day with my handsome man!

Can't wait for the next Dave & Darah Day!!!!

Extreme Makeover: Aquarium Edition

Yesterday, Dave and I renovated our big fish tank.  We got rid of The House of Death (it's where Crush hid before she died....) and replaced it with a cool, considerably larger house.  I took a video of it to show why Dave rated it a 10 out of 10 for coolness factor:  air bubbles move the wheel and bubbles come out of the chimney.  :o)  Dave has been eyeing this "accessory" ever since we went to PetSmart for the first time months and months ago.

It looks ginormous in the tank!  lol  I think we are done adding things to it.  Otherwise, there will be no room for the fishies!

FYI.  The long, black thing on the back of the tank at the right is part of the filter.  The shorter, black thing to the left of that is a heater.  It's gotten colder at nights and our fish were getting to cold.  It was scary because we thought they were going to die.  Now, they are much happier!

Oh, and we moved two of the baby fish over to the big tank to see if they would get eaten or not. They've been there since Friday night and there have been no issues, so that's wonderful!  The baby fish were starting to nip at each other, so we are trying to see if they just needed more room.  They are getting larger and maybe need to be in a bigger tank if there are that many of them.  We shall see!

Anyways, we are happy with the look of our renovated 10-gallon tank.  :o)  And we sure do love our fish, or as I lovingly refer to them, our fish babies!  All 16 of them!!!

Super Saturday

Look what I made!

Aren't I crafty?!  lol

Oh, and I did NOT make the bow.  You could say I am bow-challenged...  I will not tell you how long I TRIED to make the bows.  Pretty embarrasing... 

But, my talents lie elsewhere!

P.S.  That's the Atlanta Temple.  :o)

It's the Simple Things in Life...

...that make Dave happy.  :o)

This is the newest addition to the Wheeler household.

This is one of 2 small helicopters that Dave recently acquired.  He flew the first one (the one shown in the video) into our living room ceiling fan (that of course was on) a few seconds into the 2nd time he played with it.  Not a fun moment!  He ordered the parts to fix it last week and has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the package ever since.  Every day for the past week it's been, "I hope my helicopter parts get here today..."  And today when we pulled up in the driveway after work, sitting on our porch was the box Dave has been waiting to see for days.  :o)  His excitement (well, it really was manly giddiness) was cute to watch.

He was able to get it fixed this evening and I have been "enjoying" the gentle whir/hum of the copter ever since.  :o)

The 2nd helicopter he ordered came broken; he knew that, though, and was sure he could fix it.  Right he was because that one is flying around our living room as I type this.  He's amazing!  And such a kid at heart!  I love to see it!!!

Look!  His and hers helicopters!  ;o)

Dave has been repeating over and over, "These little guys are so awesome!"  :o)

My "Romantic" Husband

On the way to work this morning, we were listening to a radio station that played an ad for Publix, an awesome grocery store (for all my non-Southern friends ;o).  In the ad, a husband goes up to one of the Publix employees and asks for help in creating a menu for a romantic dinner he wants to make for his wife.

At the possibility of a lovey-dovey moment with Dave, I lovingly asked, "So, what would be on the menu if you were to make me a romantic dinner?"

His response:  "Ummm....  Grilled cheese.  And....  Popcorn?"

Seeing as how there is so much romance in that response there's not even room for a candle-lit table set for two, I only hope he was joking.  lol

;o)

Thank goodness he knows how to be romantic in other ways!

For reals?

So, I was making waffles for dinner tonight and noticed this message on the Bisquick box:

Does anyone else refrigerate their Bisquick after opening??

I will NOT be defeated!!!

One of Dave's favorite meals is country fried steak with mashed potatoes and white, country gravy.  He orders it at restaurants that have it (like Cracker Barrel and Ihop) and I found some in the frozen food section at the grocery store that you just throw on a cookie sheet and bake.  Easy.  And Dave likes them.  :o)

Someone at work was eating a homemade country fried steak the other day and I thought, "If his girlfriend can do it, why can't I?!?"  I was researching some recipes online and then it just so happened that the Publix ad last week had a recipe for country fried steak.  No way!  Even better, half of the ingredients were on sale at Publix last week.  Perfect!  I could tell this homemade country fried steak thing was so way meant to be!

So, I decided to make it on Sunday.  This past Sunday.  With recipe in hand and ingredients within reach, I set out to make my husband the meal of his dreams!

Things were going so well, even considering all my efforts to coat the steaks in all three coating mixtures were unsuccessful and required getting my fingers pretty messy.  Eewww!  The things I do for the man I love.  ;o)

I put the first two steaks in the pan and they cooked away while I coated the remaining two steaks.  I must've had the pan too hot because I turned around to turn the steaks in the pan over and they were BURNT.  Like, no saving them burnt.  Everything smelled burnt.  The pan had to be washed before I could cook anything else in it.  Darn it!!!  So, two steaks down.  Two more left.

I looked at the recipe again and decided that when they said to cook the steaks over medium heat, they did not mean medium-but-nearly-high heat....  Oops...  My bad.

I tried again.  This time over MEDIUM heat.  It worked wonderfully!!!  I'm pretty paranoid about meat getting all the way cooked but it was hard to check these steaks.  So, I cooked them for slightly longer than the recipe said without burning them and figured there's always the microwave if necessary.  lol

As the steaks were in their last few minutes of cooking, I started some mashed potatoes.  We use the Idahoan brand of potato flakes.  Yummy!  I went to dump the pouch of potatoes into the microwave-safe bowl and somehow all the flakes ended up on my kitchen floor.  Argh!!!  After all the mess with the steaks and the burnt steaks, etc, dumping the potatoes was the last straw and I was near tears...  Thankfully we had more potatoes, so all was not lost.  It was just frustrating.

I don't normally have issues like that while cooking!!!  Oh well....  I guess it was to keep me humble.  I must say, though, I am so way trying this homemade meal again (maybe even making homemade mashed potatoes, too!).  And I will not burn the steaks!  And I will not dump potatoes on the floor!  And it will be the most perfectly yummy country fried steak meal my handsome husband has ever eaten in his entire life!

Our inexpensive, yet amazing, date night!

It has taken me FOREVER to blog this... And, I forgot to take my camera, so there are no pictures...  :o(  However, we still had a so way enjoyable time together!

A few weeks ago, Dave and I left work a tad early so we could make our reservations at The Melting Pot.  I have mostly only been there with my family, so 6 or more people.  It was fun to go just Dave and I, for once.

When we got there, they led us to a cozy little booth in this quiet little alcove.  It was nice.  :o)  I was most excited for the cheese and salad courses!  We got the spinach artichoke fondue and it was yummy, yummy, yummy!!!  I love their house salad dressing, so the salad was yummy to!  We were able to exchange all the fish that came with the entree for more steak, which Dave loved.  lol

This date made me want to use the wedding gift that has only been pulled out and used one time in our year and a half of marriage and now resides on top of our fridge.  I need to find some good fondue recipes, though!

When making our reservations, I didn't think about the fact that the food would cook faster with only 2 people's skewer thingys in the pot instead of 6. lol  So, we got finished with dinner A LOT faster than I had thought.  Like, a whole HOUR early.  Dave was like, so what are we going to do?!  We drove to the theatre and sat in the car in the parking deck listening to scriptures and then music on my iPod. 

Dave and I were excited to see "Into the Woods"!  It's a story that combines some stories:  Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.  The music is wonderful!!!  The cast and crew and The Alliance Theatre did a wonderful job!  A few of the cast members did better than the cast that is on my CD.  :o)

On the way home, Dave and I rocked out to music on my iPod.  It was a fun ride home with my handsome husband who is a walking mp3 player.  lol  He knows so many song lyrics it's crazy!

All in all, it was a super fun evening with my handsome man!  And, a huge thank you to my parents for giving us the tickets to see "Into the Woods"!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  I'm also grateful I was able to get a $50 Melting Pot gift card for $20.  Made the date even more enjoyable!  lol

An Early-Morning Funeral

My very 1st pet (our orange platy fish named Crush) has passed on from her earthly existence. She will be greatly missed.  Just before we left for work this morning at 6 a.m., we held a brief, yet emotional-filled funeral service.  I think I was the only one in attendance who was emotion-filled, but Dave was kind and took care of the burial at sea.  She hadn't been doing well for the past few days (we think she was just old) so I was more prepared for this loss than the first one, but I still don't like to see our cute fishies die...

The rest of our fish are doing swimmingly well.  :o)  Dave thinks one of them is pregnant, but I'm trying to be optimistic!  lol  The babies are growing and as cute as ever!  I have videos to post sometime.  :o)

Goodbye, until we meet again, my little fishy Crush.  You will always have a special place in my heart!  (even if you did spend your first few weeks with us hiding under the filter...  ;o)

One Craving Satisfied

I have had a craving to bake for weeks!  Yes, a craving.  Haven't had much time, though, lately so it just hasn't happened.  Well, tonight I found myself with a bit of extra time I could spare and so I seized the moment!

7.5 dozen chocolate chip cookies!!!  Wow!  I haven't baked that many from scratch, non-cheater cookies in awhile.  It felt great!  :o)  Baking, for me, is a form of stress-relief.  I love it!  I really wish I could have my own bakery.  That would be one of my top 3 dream jobs to have.

Oh, and in addition to a pile of stress that was baked away this evening, my house smells wonderfully yummy right now!  :o)

Oh. So. Random.

I really wish I took more pictures so this blog would be more visual and exciting!  But, I don't.  So it's just going to be a boring blog, I guess...

I was just walking up some stairs at work and my muscles hurt.  I'm starting an interval workout involving power walking and jogging.  (keep in mind that my name is Darah Saxon Wheeler.  I do not run.  What am I thinking?!)  Based on my health history, I didn't think my lungs were going to be able to take the jogging.  However, to my amazement and absolute gratefulness, I get slightly wheezy but not out of control and I can recover easily!!!!  YAY!!!!  I've plateaued and needed something to get me over this hump and back to losing a little to be where I'd like to be.

I felt great last night after working out, but now I'm achy.  I guess that means it's working!  The saying "No Pain, No Gain" is proving to be true yet again.  :o)

I am super excited for this Thursday.  My parents gave Dave and I a season subscription to the Alliance Theatre as an early Christmas present this year.  :o)  (Super big thank you to the best parents ever!)  Dave and I get to attend the 1st play of the season on Thursday evening!  It's "Into the Woods" and I can't wait!  I saw a high school production of this and own the professional version on DVD and at one point had the entire soundtrack memorized.  :o)

Dave humored me a few months ago and watched it with me one night.  He actually enjoyed it!  So, we are both super excited to see it at the Alliance!

And, before the play, we are enjoying a romantic dinner for 2 at The Melting Pot.  :o)  Yum!  (Thank goodness for 1/2-off $50 gift cards!  lol)

Right now, I am living for Thursday!!!!

True Confessions...

I did it.  I ate the doughnut.  The glazed one.  That was still warm.
 
I shouldn't have.  But I did.

It was still warm!  Who could resist?!  And someone asked me this morning if I've lost weight because it looks like I have.  I haven't, but that's gotta make my giving into warm, doughy, sugary melt-in-your-mouth goodness ok, right?!

HAPPY FRIDAY anyway!!!

Now I remember!

So, I just remembered a couple things from my trip that I was going to blog about in my previous post...  (Well, it's mostly for Mom 'cause I know she'll laugh and she's the main person who reads this silly blog anyway.  And, to be honest, I actually just found the sticky note I'd lost that had all my blog-worthy Utah trip notes on it.  lol

The following conversation occurred driving with Jennifer on I-15 headed south from Logan to Provo.  We saw a John Deere tractor sitting in the middle section of the highway; you know, the strip of grassy nothing that separates north-bound traffic from south-bound traffic.  Anyway, on with the conversation!

Jen:  Look, Darah!  A John Deere!!!  You should go ride it!  Now's your chance!

Me:  I've never had the urge to do that.  Have you??

Jen:  Right then I did!!!

LOL  I love Jennifer so much!  :o)  I really enjoyed my time spent with her a few weeks ago!

While we were on the same car ride as previously mentioned, we saw a rainbow.  The whole arc! Both ends!!!  That doesn't happen often, so it was super cool to see!  Too bad I didn't get a picture of it...  You can picture it in your head, though.  It was magnificently beautiful!

Oh!  When traveling, I normally put my bottle of lotion in a ziploc bag inside a small toiletry bag inside my luggage.  Well, I was in a hurry getting packed for this trip and was too lazy to go get another ziploc baggie, so I just put the lotion bottle in the toiletry bag,  I wasn't worried because in all my traveling (and I have flown on airplanes tons and tons), I have NEVER had a problem with leaks, etc.  The ONE TIME I don't put it in a ziploc bag is the ONE TIME the lotion leaks.  Agh!!!  Figures!  It made such a mess that I ended up throwing the toiletry bag away.  Oh well...  Lesson so way learned!

I must say, while I was in Utah, my hair was super soft!  Like really amazing touchy feely soft!  I like to think I have soft hair in Georgia, too, but for some reason, it was extra soft in Utah.  Is there extra softener in the water or something?

Again, I really enjoyed spending time with all the family and friends that I saw while in Utah.  My most favorite, though, was being with Kami's so way cute kids!  Thanks for sharing them with me for a few days, Kami!  It was great, too, because I could hand them back over each night and I didn't have to wake up with them in the night or anything, but could take them over the next morning well-rested, etc.  How fun!  :o) 

Can't wait to visit again someday!

Five fun-filled days!

I am grateful for the recent opportunity I had to go to Utah for a very long weekend for some girl time mostly with my sister, Jennifer, and my cousin-but-basically-a-sister, Kami!  So fun!!!  Here's a bit of what I did and who I saw while I was there.

I arrived on Friday and spent the day and evening with Kami and her family (she has a husband, two cute girls, and a very handsome little son :o).  This is who helped Kami pick me up from the airport:

Someone needs a nap!

 Jennifer came and spent the night there with me that night as well.  So fun!  One of the first things the girls showed me when I got to their house was a fish aquarium they had made for me, so I wouldn't be too lonely without my fish while I was away from them.  So cute!

The big white fish on the bottom is a sucker fish, complete with a suction cup and everything!  ;o)  They rigged the fish so if you moved the string they were attached to, it looked like they were swimming.  How awesome is that?!  Thank you, girls!

On Saturday I got to visit both of my grandma's with Jen, which was so much fun!  That, of course, meant eating Tiny Spicy Chicken for lunch with Grandma R,

and going on a pie adventure for dinner with Grandma S!

It was so wonderful to see and spend time with them!  I love, love, love my grandmas and am very grateful for the special relationship I have with each one.  :o)

On Saturday night, Jen and I drove back to her house and had a slumber party there.  They next day I went to her Young Single Adult Ward for church.  It was interesting for a couple of reasons:  1)  I haven't been to a YSA Ward for a long time!  2)  They have many deaf people in their ward, which makes it super cool to see how everyone is able to communicate without distracting or taking away from church.  Pretty cool!  They even use sign language to sing the hymns and say prayers.  It was a really neat experience!

On Sunday night Jen and I drove to Kami's brother's home to have dinner with his family.  So nice of them to host dinner!  There were 10 kids and 6 adults present.  It was pretty crazy at times, but so enjoyable!

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was getting to know Kami's youngest!  He is so, so, so cute!  And he smiles all the time and has the cutest laugh!  I held him A LOT!!!  And he so way loves his Auntie Darah ;o)  How can you not resist loving him??

On Monday, Kami and I got to spend time together, just the 2 of us.  Our plan was to see the new movie about Joseph Smith on Temple Square and then get lunch.  However, they kept having technical difficulties and couldn't get the movie to work...  Kinda frustrating...   But we shared 2 really amazing sandwiches and had a very fun time anyway!  It was nice to have Kami-Darah time, no kids, no husbands, etc.  Reminded me of fun times we had living together while going to college.  Fun, fun times!

Tuesday was the girl's first day of school:  one in 1st grade, and the other in Pre-school.  (Can't believe they're as old as they are!)  It wouldn't be the first day without pictures, right??

As much fun as I had, I was very grateful to return home to my handsome husband (who had diverted back to bachelor life and hadn't been getting much sleep, crazy man!).  Dave surprised me with these beautiful homecoming flowers when he picked me up at the airport.  :o)  Thanks, my love!

So grateful to everyone who helped make my trip a most fabulous one!!!

Yo Fohchoon Cookee Say...

This weekend doesn't hold too much excitement for me.  Until now.  ;o)

Here is the fortune from my fortune cookie today:

This weekend will bring you a surprise.

Oh goodie!!  Weekend, hurry up and get here!  ;o)

P.S.  Blog about my Utah trip coming soon!  (Maybe that's my surprise:  time to actually update my blog!  LOL)

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

We went to the Abamonte's home to surprise Bryan with a surprise party to celebrate his 24th birthday.  (My little brother is 24?!?  Twenty-four?!?  When did that happen?!?!)  Ariel did a WONDERFUL job organizing, decorating, cooking, and keeping it a secret from Bryan.  Way to go!!!

In addition to cake balls, I made a german chocolate cake (Bryan's favorite) so we could put 24 candles on it and see if he had the lung-power to blow them ALL out in one breath.  Well, he managed 21.  Better luck next time!  ;o)

I am grateful Dave and I were able to go celebrate with Bryan!  I'm gonna miss him being so close during the coming months...  It's been nice to see he and Ariel often this summer.  :o)