Tricky Little Leprechaun

Unlike everyone else, we did NOT wake up to green milk, eggs, and pancakes on St. Patrick's Day.  Our leprechaun must have slept in because we didn't have green foodies until dinnertime.

I HATE green milk. 

I have since childhood.  I was always disgusted that mom (unlike Santa, I learned the leprechaun hoax early in life) would tamper with my milk.  Traditions are hard to break, so green milk was unavoidable.  Like always I simply chose to avoid looking at my milk and pretended that it was white instead.

Our leprechaun was very tricky because we were left a treasure hunt on Friday, the day AFTER St. Patrick's Day.  There were a series of clues that lead around the place of our livelihood until a treasure was found!

Smarty-pants Luis was ready for the challenge.

I had 3 favorite clues amongst the many:

#1 This magical contraption makes things disappear...

answer: Luis's razor

(a subtle hint that he really needed to cut off his lumberjack beard)

#2  Look at your favorite Disney movie...

answer: Pocahontas. 

Luis was very interested to learn that Pocahontas was his favorite Disney movie.

I'm pretty sure he told me it was his favorite.  He just doesn't remember.

#3 What is Ashley's favorite hoarding place...

answer: the pantry

...which Luis got correct.

After a few more ups & downs...

...Luis found his treasure!

He got some aromatherapy stress relief products which I used to give him a much needed back massage.  It's been a stressful couple of weeks for him.   

HaPpY   sT.   PaTtY's!

Hannukah, Dinosaurs, Frogs

At work, I am assigned a bulletin board theme every month.  As a teacher, I pretty much NEVER did much with my bulletin boards, because I stink at it.  I am definitely NOT artistic.  Remember those puppets I made for a primary lesson when we were in Utah?  Enough said. 

Bulletin Board #1

Theme: Holiday Traditions

(Yay for menorahs, kinaras, and dreidels the size of fireplaces!  In case you were wondering, Luis helped draw items on this board)

Bulletin Board #2

Theme: Martin Luther King Day

Bulletin Board #3

Theme: Endangered & Extinct Creatures

My only idea was a dinosaur.  I kept waiting for Luis to have time to draw one for me.  School Finals = Ashley drew it herself.

Here is a close-up of the tragic dinosaur my students made fun of...in front of me.

Bulletin Board #4

Theme: Spring

(I did this all by myself and am quite proud of my hand-drawn frogs)

Random wall art the students created.



I'll keep you updated on all future bulletin boards.

Lights! CAMERA! Action!

So, one day last week our camera broke.  I don't know what happened.  I pushed the ON button and it basically dissolved in my hand.  Life with no camera has been very sad.  Not that we have life-changing events taking place, but I do like to document the mundane, and there has been plenty of that.

We went shopping for a camera early in the week, but apparently we were a bit picky.  So, we did some research and went out again on Saturday.  We still don't really know much about cameras, so hopefully we got a good one! 

It came down to silver vs plum.  Luis let me get plum.

Opening the box.

Figuring out what to do first.  Chapter one was a life-saver.

The sleek, shiny, PLUM camera.

First Pics.

You may find yourself wondering, how did they take pictures of their new camera when their other camera had disintegrated?  I will tell you.  We borrowed a camera from the Mohlmans.  Thanks, Mohlmans. 

Also, we do have other friends besides the Mohlmans.

Post-also:  We are going to Texas next week!

My First Baby Shower...

No, not MY baby shower.  My first baby shower for someone else.  And, I threw it all by myself, which was a bit intimidating and scary.  (Okay, I did have some phone help from my ma and sistas)  Thankfully, the mommy I threw it for was really chill and a lot like me. 
NO GAMES PLEASE!

Apparantly, I'm still novice when it comes to finding inspiration on the web.  Everyone finds great ideas via google, but I'll tell you what... googling baby shower cupcakes turned up impossibly adorable (professional) creations; googling homemade baby shower cupcakes resulted in impossibly horrid ones. 

However, I finally found one cute, easy idea, which the sister missionaries helped me create. 

Here's the finished look. Can you tell what they are? No, not lollipops - they're BABY RATTLES!

Then, I had some fun trying out some tips in my decorating kit. I'm not trying to toot my own whistle or anything, but for a first timer, I think they look pretty good (toot toot!).

The shower commenced...

...and here are some probably not super interesting pictures of people sitting at the shower.

My Brandi Friend

Congrats, Brandi! 
We can't wait to meet little C!

Click here if you think I did a good job.



(If you just clicked on here, you have my thanks.)

Blogging Video

My camera is broken.  Actually, it's Luis's camera, but it is still broken.  Because of this I can't document anything like is going on around here like giving my first REAL haircut, showing you my incredible bulletin board work at the school, or putting up pictures of our BBQ in the dark.  So, I came across this the other day and thought it was incredible.  Therefore and henceforth, I decided to post it (for lack of anything else to post).  Being a blogger, I especially enjoyed the blogging part.  See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOIhKBXXNbo&feature=relmfu

Home Last Week

Luis had finals last week since two of his classes ended (bizarre right?).  I love finals week because that means he has no classes and gets to stay home ALL DAY studying.  So, even though I can't chat with him much, I still just love that there is another person in the room.  Luis and I find out some strange things about each other when we're together so much.  For example, I found out that Luis is deathly afraid of GRIFFINS (which are entirely fictional eagle-lion monsters)

Me?  Well, Luis found out that I have too much time on my hands.  One day, as he was standing near the kitchen counter, he noticed a little rainbow being reflected upon the wall.  He questioned aloud, "I wonder where that rainbow is coming from?"  Without hesitation I replied, "Oh that's from the PEEPHOLE in our front door."  He thought I was kidding until I stepped in front of the peephole and the rainbow disappeared.  Awed, he asked, "How did you know that was where it came from?"  I then had to inform him the sad truth that I've seen that rainbow many times and have spent some time tracking it down... "This is what I do when you're at school, honey."

And now you know too.

Lately I've also been spending some time being paid to type up a Spanish workbook for a committee Luis is part of at Western.  I have been learning more Spanish than ever!  So, when Luis looks deep in my eyes and says, "Darling...you have the most beautiful eyes," I reply in my rolling hispanic accent, "And I just LOVE your muñecas" (wrists).

Cupid Didn't Disappoint

Tradition in my family means that on Valentine's Day, Cupid comes and leaves a candy trail leading from your bed to your seat at the kitchen table where another special "treat" awaits you.  It was always magical to me as a child...and still is!  Partly, I'm still a child, and partly because Cupid STILL leaves a trail for me (and Luis)!  I don't know how Lu always gets in on the action, but he does.

Cupid snuck this picture of Luis and caught him drifting over to my trail to get all the good stuff.  Luis is S-O-O-O busted!

Cupid was less sneaky with my picture.

For dinner, we made our own YUMMY version of Papa Murphey's chicken, bacon, artichoke pizza.  It was delish!  Now we have a nearly full can of artichoke hearts that I'm sure we won't find a use for.  Anyone need some artichoke hearts?

I didn't really plan a dessert, so after naming off some ingredients with potential, mom helped me come up with this.  It is a combination of oreo cookie filling and brownies.   We then put vanilla ice cream on top because it wasn't quite "hip-loving" enough for me.

For some reason, Cupid forgot to leave special gifts at the end of our trails, but we did find them a day later in a Target sack...strange. 

Isn't this gift perfect?  The best part was when we found this shirt at the store, all the larger sizes were taken.  I guess skinny guys don't love twinkies like they should.  My guy knows how to love a twinkie.  In fact, it's all we've got in our 72-hour kits.  TWINKIES never go bad and I've heard they give you wonderful nutrition.  Even smooshed beyond recognition, you can still lick them off the wrapper and find complete satisfaction.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!