Ta-Da!

My first sewing project! Now that I've given it to her, I can post about this baby quilt I made for a friend. Well, when I say I it means there was a LOT of help from Andrea. She was great at teaching me how to use the sewing machine and how to piece it all together.














All wrapped up and ready to go!

Weekend Review

Friday evening - We headed over to watch BYU's improv comedy group/club putting on a show on campus (it was okay, but just that - I would have been disappointed if we had paid anything to get in.) Afterwards we headed over to Pudding on the Rice and was disapointed to find that it no longer exists in Provo... in fact that entire shopping center that it was in is almost a ghost town- most stores have closed.

Saturday a.m. - I went to a quilting class at Joann Fabric store. There were 10 people in the class and we all stayed for over three hours making a place mat (I think that's what it was supposed to be). The class was just to show how to do a specific kind of quilting, except I think that I had more fun talking to the other ladies than doing the actual project.

Saturday afternoon - Since there weren't any organized 5K's going on this weekend, we went back and re-ran the course from the Rex Lee run the other weekend to try to improve our time. We started off well, but about 2/3 of the way through, I decided that I wasn't really in the mood for running and decided to walk the rest of the way... haha

Saturday evening - Brant cooked us some 'homemade takeout' while we watched a redbox movie.

Sunday - super low key. After church I tried to make the enchiladas that Grandma Harrison had given me the recipe for- along with the exact ingredients that she uses. Of course, whenever you try to make Gma's recipe, its never as good as hers.

4 years ago yesterday

I got back from my mission. Has it really been that long??

Here's a favorite memory that didn't get posted before...

Meet the Buckleys... about 5 months into my mission. (Sugi was taking this picture.)

The Buckleys again 1 week before I was released from being a missionary (I was transferred back into the same area in St. George). Stephanie had wanted to be baptized for awhile, but was conerned about her Catholic family's thoughts. Those are twins- not sure where their other daughter McKensie was for this picture. With Sister Kunzi from Sitzerland.

I've never seen anyone so excited for a baptism- Stephanie's husband, Larry, went out and had "CTR" shaved into the back of his head the day of her baptism!!

Good times.

P.S. Blogger's spacing is driving me nuts. I've got to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

A Tuesday Tip

Last week while during lunch with a friend, the topic of how to respond to nosy/inapporpriate questions came up.

A few Emily Post retorts to these questions:

How much money do you make?

"Not enough to buy the house that's going up down the road."

"My mother told me never to discuss money, except with my accountant."

How much did you pay for that suit?

"Why, does it look expensive?"

Are you feeling okay? You look tired.

"Actually, I feel great!"

What are you two talking about?

"Nothing to write home about."

Response Rescues


Use humor - make a light joke out of the question

Tell it like it is - "I'd rather not say" or "I'm not comfortable answering that question."

Back atcha - When all else fails, turn the tables with "Why do you ask?"

Weekend Road Trip to AZ

Friday pm: After 9 hours in the car, a stop to eat lunch at the scenic view of Lake Powell - and being pulled over for speeding (Brant's 1st ever ticket) we arrived at Brant's Grandma and Grandpa Harrison's in Payson, AZ.

Saturday am: We piled into the car for a outting that Grandma Harrison had planned for the morning... a trip to Roosevelt to visit the nearby Ancient Cliff Dwellings & Indian Ruins.














On the drive out to the national park to see the ruins. How beautiful is that lake??

Grandma and Grandpa Harrison stayed down at the visitor center while we hiked the mile and a half up the trail to see what all the hoop-la was about.














And found a 32 room Indian ruin at the top! I'm sure glad that wasn't me living back in those days on the side of a cliff. They had to hike miles just to bring water back up. After about 20 minutes and some conversation with the park rangers, we headed back down the trail.

Don't pet the cactus!

Saturday pm - Grandma Harrison made an amazing meal of roast and mashed potatoes. Afterwards Brant and I headed out for a drive around the booming metropolis of Payson, AZ. After passing the small airport that back in the day Pops used to fly the fam into to see the grandparents, we passed through this nearby neighborhood.... what a sight!














My sister once told me about these kinds of neighborhoods- where people fly into the small local airport, and then taxi back home and park their private planes in their garage at home!














These people must be some serious high rollers- they've got a plane, a golfcart, AND a mini semi truck/ trailer home in their garage hanger.














And of course, airplanes for mailboxes.














The stop and street signs are even lower to the ground so that the wings of the planes don't clip the signs when they taxi through.














After our tour of Payson, we headed back and had some fun conversation with Grandma Harrison.

My two favorites:

Brant: I'm growing another garden this year, but I'm kind of worried about the varmits (sp?)

Grandma H: Oh yes- we have problems with squirrels with our garden. I stand here at the kitchen window and take care of that.

Brant: What?? You shoot them? With what?

Grandma H (proudly): With my 22 riffle - right here from the kitchen sink!

(Whaaaaaat? Where was I to get a picture of that??)


But the funniest...(after being back home from the hike to the Indian ruins)

Grandma H: I saw a young couple heading up that trail with a baby in the stroller. They didn't have any sun protection for the baby and the only thing they had on was thongs!

Brant (with a disturbed look on his face): Oh wow, Grandma- I'm sorry you had to see that. Some people these days!

Kristen: Uh, Grandma Harrison- are you talking about flip-flops?

HAHAHA!!! I've never seen a Grandma laugh so hard!

Sunday am- stake conference, Grandma Harrison's Enchiladas, then time to hit the road for the trip back to Orem.

Thanks for a fun trip (and excellent food!) Grandma and Grandpa Harrison!

Warm weather is so nice

(From Google Images.I actually had that same pair of flip flops in high school that I wore for Hawaiin Day.)

We're taking advantage of this amazing spring weather and heading out this morning for a weekend road trip. Payson, AZ - here we come!

A Tuesday Tip

Disclaimer: This isn't from Emily Post or an online article, but purely my opinion and may or may not be helpful. Or maybe I'm just slow and you've already thought of it!

Last night we headed to Outback Steakhouse- to spend a gift card that's been burning in our pockets since it was given to us last Christmas. As we were sitting there, I realized a very simple, very objective way to determine the tip for your server (our server last night was- at best- mediocre). Before, I generally used to just always tip 20% (having been a server in a steak resturant one summer, I know I always appreciated it when people did that). But lets be honest. There is some terrible service out there.

If you figure that in general, people tip 15% at restuarants, and then 20% for excellent service, I figure that a way to determine 'excellent service' is by allotting the server the full 20% tip when you first sit down at the table. As the meal progresses, for every detail missed by the server (i.e. no lemon in the H20 when you requested it, having to ask for silverware or straws instead of being offered them, an empty H20 glass, etc.) you dock them 1% (not to fall below 15%). But if the meal is flawless and no detail is missed, then a full 20% is deserved.

Kind of like at the beginning of a semester in school where you start the semester with an A grade.

Weekend 5K Highlight

Brant and I have decided that running 5K's is our new favorite thing to do together. On Saturday we ran the Rex Lee Memorial 5K around BYU campus. This course was a little more tough because of all the inclines around campus- we only shaved about 3 minutes off from last weekend.















Not sure where Scooby came out from on BYU campus, but got a pic with him anyways...It was just a little (a lot!) chilly that morning.

Next up - Provo City 5K on April 4th!

Farewell Elder Harrison

Brant's youngest brother, AK, entered the MTC yesterday and will then be headed to the California San Bernadeno Spanish speaking mission.

I told him my favorite part of the MTC was the underground pool beneath the gym floor and the MTC dances.

(Oops- I've let the secrets out now ; )

P.S. Where do I go to vote for the Called to Serve video that they show to be updated? I cringe every time I see those 80's style sister missionaries on the screen!

Let's Be Honest

How many of us feel this way?

This bumper sticker was a recent topic discussed on The View (one of the two daytime shows I allow myself to watch 30 minutes of).

Weekend Spent: O-Town Style

Friday Afternoon - After a short, 14 hour overnight visit in Atlanta on the way, we arrived in Orlando, got the rental car and found the hotel. After our quick power naps we headed out to Disney's Wide World of Sports to pick up our race packets for the next morning's 5K.

Friday Evening - after taking care of our registering and picking up our packets at the Disney's 'Fit for a Princess' Expo, we headed over to the ball fields at the DWWS and bought lawn side tickets to watch the Braves play in spring training against the Houston Astros (naturally, the Braves won :)


Saturday Morning - up and to Epcot by 6:15am (the race started at 7am and they wanted everyone there EARLY so the race would be done and over by the time the park opened to the public). The course took runners through Epcot's 11 countries World Showcase, the Fountain of Nations, Spaceship Earth, and the Leave a Legacy sculpture.


I'd like to say that this was an intense race; but really- how hard core can it be when your running behind two grown women dressed as fairies in wings and tutus??


And when there are characters along the course to cheer you on (good thing Brant didn't mind running with his camera).

By the end of the second mile, we knew we wouldn't be able to finish in 30 minutes like we first thought (could you blame us with all the dristractions? We literally had to stop running to stand in line behind other runners to take these photos...but its ok- it was worth it :)

As we passed Spaceship Earth (aka the big golf ball)

This one's for Sugi. As we passed by Japan, this cute girl was cheering us on :)

At the finish line... our final time was 38:08- with a slow start stuck in the middle of the pack at the starting line and stopping to take photos througout Epcot, we figure we can shave about 5-8 minutes off our time when we run in the BYU Rex Lee Memorial 5K next Sat. (This one we won't be traveling almost 4,000 miles round trip to run. ha!)

Saturday Afternoon - Since we were done with everything by 8am and our flight back to Salt Lake wasn't until 5:30 that afternoon, we went back to the hotel for naps, got ready, checked out, then cruised down International Drive before heading to Orlando's Premium Outlets. Too bad our adrenaline had run out by that time because we were exhausted (I didn't even care that we were missing out on all the FANTASTIC outlet sales- after a few stores we both just wanted to sit on a bench and rest!)

Saturday Early evening - flight back to Salt Lake with nothing out of the ordinary.

Sunday - church, nap, dinner, then to bed for the night to catch up on sleep.

All it all, it was a pretty magical weekend.

The race begins

We're headed out this afternoon for Disney's Royal Family 5K going on this weekend in Orlando. I'm not a strong runner and haven't ran in a 5K since I was a freshman in college (so I'm definately passing on the 'Princess Half Marathon' that will also be going on while we're there). Hopefully I've built up a little more endurance since my college days.

Have a good weekend :)

Remember Tuesday Tips?

Well, they are making a come back (on a Wednesday evening no less!). When I saw this article on 'The Worst (and Most Common) Etiquette Mistakes' I had to agree- and Mobile Madness definately tops my list of things that make me wish cell phones were never invented.

And here's another insightful top 10 etiquette mistakes that you don't realize your making - you may want to study this (I have unknowingly made mistake #5 when I asked Jenifer of a tour of her beautiful home back last year when she hosted a baby shower. Yikes! Sorry if you weren't prepared for that Jenifer - but your house is still GORGEOUS!!)

HandyGirl Tips

I'm loving this recent tip from Good Things Utah:

Eyebrow/Eyeliner Pencils can be used to fix scratches in wood furniture and flooring...take an eyeliner or eyebrow pencil that closely matches the color of wood and then scribble in the scratch, use your fingers or a soft cloth to buff and blend in to the rest of the wood finish. Then apply clear nail polish to finish.

Once the scratch is repaired, if there is a deep dent left in your wood, use clear nail polish to build up dings in polished wood furniture. Apply several thin coats until even with the rest of the finish.

I tried this on our dark wood bedroom furniture and kitchen table this week (since they had taken a small beating from us moving apartments twice since in the past year and a half) and purcahsed an eyeliner pencil just for this purpose. It definately works well and a great quick fix.

Have you ever noticed...

That since I started this blog last spring that my blog header and design have been extremely plain and boring? (And if you try to use a design from somewhere you found on the web that no doubt someone else will have the same background?)

Cassie over at CG Designs was nice enough to help me spice up the header a little bit (I still prefer the more conservative, simple designs). Go check out her designs if you need a blog lift too :)

Speechless

Do any other Bachelor followers have words for this?

One more

I'm not trying to turn this into a "how you can get free stuff" blog (really, I'm not!) but when I come across good finds, I like to share with friends & family :) And since I'm into layering my tops...

Starting March 3, 2009, (if your brave to buy one) bring a copy of the April 2009 issue of Seventeen and show the page with the featured Aeropostale tank, (or- do what I'm going to do and bring a printout of the seventeen.com homepage), to a participating Aeropostale store to receive 1 (one) tank top from Aeropostale. One tank top per person. While supplies last. There are 30,000 tank tops available nationwide. Promotion ends April 6, 2009. A notice will be posted on seventeen.com when Sponsor has given away all 30,000 tank tops. Official rules here

Weekend Highlight

Friday morning: finished up my last week of Bootcamp (sessions usually last 6 weeks, but I had to cut my session to 3 weeks since they are closing to move the location to a different place). I can't say it enough- I loved fitness bootcamp.

Saturday afternoon: Brant and I went to the BYU vs. Portland baseball game. (Oh, why do I love baseball so much? I don't care for basketball, and I can't stand football- but I could be out on a sunny day watching baseball games all day long!)

Sunday all day: went to church and kept it low key. All day long. It was awesome.