Party Like Its 1991

Yes, my friends. MC Hammer and Vanillia Ice will be performing together tomorrow (Friday) at the McKay Events Center in Orem.

No joke.

Here's to wishing that I'd be willing to pay $32.50 a pop to go. I'd throw my hair up in a side pony, put a slap bracelet on my wrist, a pair of LA Gears on my kicks, some biker shorts under my skirt and tuck a copy of the lattest Baby Sitters club in my purse..... SIKE!!

Free Quiznos & MORE

Quiznos is giving away 1 million coupons for free subs. Go here to register and get yours (You will need photo I.D. to redeem your coupon). We got ours today at 3:30pm (Utah time). There were still around 850,000 coupons left :)

-Or- if you prefer Jack in the Box, go here to print a coupon for 2 free tacos (good for Feb 24 only). Since originally posting this, I've learned that the nearest Jack in the Box to us is in Pocatello, ID. Bummer.

-Or - head here to get a coupon for a FREE Kashi Entree (this is the first I've heard of Kashi)

-Or- if pancakes are more your thing, IHOP is celebrating National Pancake Day with FREE pancakes- and taking donations for the Children's miracle network (also good for Feb 24 only). See details here.

Or - for a FREE cute 1 oz. bottle of Victoria's Secret new lotion, print a coupon here (no purcahse necessary. Coupon expires March 2).

-Or - do all of the above!

Is this a beautiful day or what?

When you know its gotten out of control

A post from Andrea (who found it on another blog).

P.S. We tried the Guiltless Chili's menu over the weekend. I had the salmon and Brant the steak. It really was AMAZING (and under 750 calories for each entree). Next time your trying to decide where to go to eat, I'd defiantely recommend it.

BzzAgents

I was estatic to open my mail yesterday and find 4 coupons - each good for one FREE Guiltless Grill Entree at Chili's!

How did I get these fabulous coupons? Because I'm a BzzAgent. I first learned about BzzAgents in a senior level marketing class at BYUI- which in short, being a BzzAgent means that you are a word of mouth marketer.

How it works: You register (at no cost to you) and enter your demographics here. Based on what demographics you have entered, BzzAgents are invited to participate in certain campaigns. Then, once you have accepted the invitation to participate in a campaign, you will receive free product of some kind (it may not be right away- but Bzz will e-mail you when they have a campaign going on that fits your demographics). All you need to do is share your honest experience about the prodcut (good or bad) with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, etc. and then enter your experience on the Bzz website. For every experience you enter, you build points- which you get to cash in for prizes. (The first campaign I participated in was with Hershey Take 5 bars. I was sent 30 free fun size candy bars to eat and share with my college friends!)

Its a win-win situation. Bzz agents get free stuff; companies get word out about their new products.

So if you like getting free, cool stuff (like coupons for free meals to Chili's) and sharing your honest experiences with others, try signing up to be a BzzAgent yourself.

And in the meantime, we'll be enjoying (and sharing our experience about) the Guiltless Grill entree at Chili's :)

Week Two- Completed

Friday morning- 5am: Three shivering "PT's" (including PT Harrison- ME) met in the dark, 17 degree cold weather for their weekly cardio work out. Today it was on the starting line of Lehi High School's outdoor track (strength training is Mon- Thurs in the studio).

After an hour of single file march/ running laps in military formation (left...left...left, right, left) and chanting bootcamp cadences under Instructor Garrett's direction, running ladders across the football stadium at full sprints, doing lunges, 4 count push ups, sit ups, army crawls, etc- week two is now complete.

Was it easy? No.

Was it worth it? Definately. Yes.

A little evening inspiration

(Google Images)

Julie Beck came down from Salt Lake this evening to host an Enrichment/ FAQ meeting with all the sisters of our stake invited. A few things included in the notes I jotted down:

- We must have a sense of humor (when asked how, exactly, to have 'joy in the journey')

- We have failed if we haven't learned to love (speaking of relationships with those whom we serve in our church callings and other situations)

- This life isn't the dream; its the experience to get you ready for the dream that comes afterwards (when she rhetorically asked the congregation "Doesn't every woman want 'the dream'?")

Did you hear?

Shawn Johnson will be in the upcomming season of Dancing with the Stars (Season premiere March 9).

So fun!

Valentine's Weekend

Friday afternoon - I attempted to make one last batch of jam, this time from the Strawberry Puree that I've had for the past few months. I'm not sure if it was because it was puree and not the actual full strawberry, but it turned out more like strawberry syrup (bummer!)

Friday evening - Brant and I made homemade Valentine's cookies and frosting...which didn't exactly turn out the prettiest (in fact, maybe I'm embarrased to include this photo) but when Brant announced he was done with icing his cookies, I couldn't help but smile when I turned and saw his artwork...Can you tell which cookies he did? Here's a hint- one of them has to do with airplanes.

Saturday afternoon - Mama Harrison was in town from Texas and took us all out to Tucanos for Valentines (yum!). Then we hit up the road to Heber for a nice early evening drive (wish I had taken a pic to show pops the good times he missed).

Sunday morning - Kyle and Amanda were in town from Vegas and came over for breakfast (it was nice to know that I could actually use that strawberry syrup for waffles...) P.S. If you live in the Vegas area and get the chance, pick up a bag of Nutty Guys candy/ nuts- it's what Kyle is up to as a distributor down there.

Sunday evening - My cousins Jenna and Chelsea that are going to BYU dropped by for dinner and brought a surprise visitor- my Aunt Julie from Georgia! Julie's getting ready for an upcomming marathon (I was almost embarrased to bring up that Brant and I will be running in a 5K next month. So puny compared to a marathon!)

Week One - Completed

When I was around high school age, I felt like I needed more general discipline in my life. I even kind of fantazied about enrolling in a bootcamp (I didn't necessarily want to join the military, just wanted to complete the bootcamp. I guess call me crazy).

And then, for the past couple of years, I have heard about various fitness boot camps going on in the area. I loved the idea of them, but didn't really get a chance to enroll.

Until now.

And it rocks.

I actually bid for this bootcamp online (making it a fraction of the price it normally is) and started this past Monday. It's 30 training days - 5 days per week - one hour per day.

After seeing photos on their website, Brant was a little worried about my enthusiam to do such a thing. Rest assured- this bootcamp is a franchise and has a few different locations throughout Salt Lake and Utah County. The location in Utah County (Pleasant Grove) has a female instructor that's a little less intimadating (she doesn't wear the camo and boots at least), but is just as motivating.

During your entire first week you get to wear a 30 pound vest (they call it hell week where they even let you do these really special excercises that leave your muscles tired for a loooong time...and then you graduate at the end of the week and no longer have to wear the vest).

I'll keep you posted on the progess.

Some advice...

Don't fix it unless its broken!!

Last December (about a week before Christmas) I let my dentist convince me to replace three of the silver fillings I had on my upper teeth with white ones. He said that it was probably a good time to do it since in the xrays he could see build up starting to form on the inside of the filling. It had never bothered me before (meaning that I had never had pain in those teeth), but he had been trying to convince me fore a year and a half to do it before I finally took the bait.

Good idea?

I think not.

This morning I got back from having my second root canal done as a result of those fillings (something about the new fillings being too deep and aggravating my tooth). This root canal wasn't on the same tooth as the first root canal, but the one next to it. And just my luck- the Endodontist thinks that I may have one more tooth that will need a root canal just to get back to the original state my just perfectly fine teeth were in before my primary dentist started all the re-doing of the silver fillings nonsense.

So. Don't fix it unless its broken (i.e. causing you pain the first place). AND- if you need a dental procedure (or any medical procedure for that matter) go to a specialist like an Endodontist and not just a general dentist.

Good grief.

One of our favorite things to do

Is to host (or go to) dinner parties- not big fancy ones, but in my defination usually include 4 to 6 people. It gives me the opportunity to work on my culinary skills, as well as catching up and socializing with friends. Last night my old roomate Dene (DuH-nAy) and her husband Mike came over (and stayed for 4 hours!). We had soft shelled tacos (tacos are my fad lately), CremeBrulee courtsey of Dene, and shared lots of thoughts and good discussions (hence the 4 hours- we didn't even get to the dough and baking of the Valentine's cookies we had planned).

Topics we talked about:

(1) Extreme hiking survival stories (like this one)

(2) If our spouse passed away, would we want to die with them (haha- thanks to Dene for that topic. Such a morbid conversation!)

(3) Thoughts on financially supporting children in college

(4) Bridge engineering (Mike is graduating with a masters in Civil Engineering this year).

(5) Working out (I start my fitness bootcamp today and it will last for the next 30 days).

(6) Other fun topics that have slipped my mind at the moment

Ironic

I saw this on DVD for the first time while making a second batch of jam tonight. Did anyone else find that some parts of this movie are extremely similar to the BYU/ BYUI scene (as I remember it)?

It was a cross between making me laugh and wanting to throw something at the TV (from the decisions and commets the characters in the story were making).

Midnight Madness

That's what the Macey's grocery store in Provo called their 4 hour sale this evening. And let me tell you- it was MADNESS. I'm all about making a buck stretch (especially when it comes to groceries) but when pretty much everyone in Utah county is at the same grocery store at once, I want out....I escaped with only 1/3 of the things I had mapped out to get before hand (all the grocery carts were taken and its all I could hold in my arms)- but that was enough for me.

P.S. The next (free) Savvy Shopper class is going to be Tuesday, February 17, 2009 from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM at the North Orem Macey's. I have an extra ticket if there's anyone out there who's ever wanted to go to a class like this (and that lives in the Utah County area- these classes fill fast. Like within 12 hours. And I just want someone to sit next to). This super savvy shopper woman teaches you how to save an average of 50-80% over retail prices using coupons. I went a couple years ago and it was worth it - and they sometimes give away cool free stuff (like a canned food rotator for your cupboard).

Weekend Highlights

Saturday Evening - ate at Chuck-A-Rama. For some reason, I hear people often refer to it as "up-chuck-a-rama" but I don't know what they're talking about. I'll say it loud and proud- I LOVE this place!

Saturday Night - finally went and saw Twilight. It was definately better money spent than on Paul Blart Mall Cop that we watched earlier this week (I think Paul Blart was made for Redbox).

Sunday Evening- had Rissa and John over for dinner. I made pulled pork tacos in the crock pot (Brant helped with the tortillas that we made from scratch). Chalk another one up for this domestic queen :)

(Since everyday is kind of like a weekend for me now, I don't have nearly as many exciting things to post about when the actual weekend does come around...)