Breakfast and other Exciting News

So this morning we decided to get up and go running. (Remember how I'm running a half marathon in 2 months, and I can't even run 10 minutes without dying?) As we were leaving we found a wonderful surprise on our doorstep!

There in the middle of our porch was a loaf of bread and a pan's-worth of cinnamon rolls!

We thought "well, that's weird" but not much besides that. After our run, we both packed ourselves a couple rolls and a torn of piece of bread for breakfast and went on our merry little way.

I actually came home for my lunch break today, because I wasn't stranded at work with no car. While I was home, there was a ding-dong at the door. It was our neighbor Mike. The conversation went something like this:

Hi Sarah, did you guys get some bread on your porch this morning?

Yeah! It was the strangest thing, did you, too!?

Uhm, well, no, but I don't think that the bread was supposed to be on your porch...

Awkward silence...

Well, see I have this friend who works at a bakery right around the corner, and he said he'd drop some off last night, but he can never tell our houses apart.

Oh no! I'm sorry! haha! We've already eaten half of it!

Oh that's ok, what kind of bread is it? Sandwich bread?

No, it's the pull apart braided kind...and cinnamon rolls

Oh cinnamon rolls! cool! Well, you should take some for you guys, too

Yeah, we already ate half of them. Here you go.

So that was a funny experience of the day. Next thing they know we'll be coming into their kitchen and stealing their milk and eggs, too. Better watch out neighbors!

On to more exciting news...

We watered the lawn last night! It was pretty sad looking. As soon as we finished watering, it started raining, and rained throughout the night, and some through the day. Talk about a deep water.

Lost, Broken Peaches

Lost

We went to Ohio a couple weekends ago to go to Cedar Point (yes, I’ll blog about it once I get the pictures off my phone…). On the way there we had a layover in Denver. I don’t know about you, but I love the Denver airport. It’s a big maze of moving sidewalks. Maybe it’s all the times I’ve been delayed there for hours and hours and entertained myself by walking around on the miles of moving sidewalks (could that be why it’s called the mile high city?). As our plane was taxi-ing out to fly to Detroit, they told everyone to turn off their cell phones, so being the obnoxious person I am, I poked Dave and reminded him a ton of times to turn off his cell phone. When we landed in Detroit I realized that…nope, I never turned my cell phone off. In fact…nope. I didn’t even have my cell phone. I left it in the Denver airport! :-( I’ve emailed the airline lost and found and the airport lost and found a billion times, and they don’t have it either. So I’ve been almost 2 weeks without a cell phone, hoping that it will turn up somewhere. I might cave and use Dave’s old one soon.
But today I finally got around to changing my voice mail message. It now says: “Hey, this is Sarah. I lost my phone so that’s why you’re listening to this right now instead of talking to me. If you want to talk to me, please call me at work or on Dave’s phone. I’m at work all day and sometimes with Dave in the evening and weekends. My work number is XXX-XXX-XXXX and Dave’s number is XXX-XXX-XXXX. If you don’t actually want to talk to me, leave me a message, or just hang up. Thanks! Bye!”
Teehee, I’m so clever.

Broken

Our downstairs neighbors had to move out. They’ve been living there for 4+ years. I have mixed feelings. I don’t miss the Mexican polka music coming up through the vents, or the smells of whatever it is they’re cooking, or burning. Dave’s really excited to have the garage for his jeep. It’s awesome to not ever get blocked in by their cars, and great that I don’t have to wonder what all the lint in the washer that gets all over my darks is from. Hopefully the next tenants will speak English.
I do feel bad for them though. They had to move because she lost her job. Stupid economy. And they weren’t terrible to have as basement neighbors.
A few days after they left I went to do some laundry. Our laundry room is downstairs in this creepy room that I have to not think about or I’ll freak out. The whole room is coated with spiderwebs that have lint all over them because the dryer isn’t hooked up to its vent tube—gives me the hibijibies. So I washed a huge load of towels. When I put them in the dryer, the dryer wouldn’t start. Awesome. I hung them to dry, and now they’re all crunchy, like towels get when you don’t dry them in the dryer. We investigated the problem on Memorial day because, well, we were out of clean clothes. Turns out all the electricity downstairs has been turned off. The washer is on our electricity, the dryer is on their electricity. That was very smart planning by the electricians.
So last night I washed a huge load of necessities that we are completely out of, if you know what I mean. Then when Dave got home (remember, I don’t have a phone) he called his parents (this is at like 11pm) to see if we could use their dryer. Fun.

Peaches

To end on a good note, I’ve re-discovered canned peaches. They’re absolutely delicious. We bought a case of them on sale at Smith’s. I usually take a whole can with the can opener to work for my snack, to the great disappointment of Dave when he tries to make Chili-mac for lunch and there’s no can opener! (I chuckle)
Here’s a great secret—canned peaches chopped up to bits by a blender go amazing in pancake mix! Yum! You bite into the pancake and there are little bits of juicy fruity deliciousness. I don’t like blueberry pancakes, but oh man, I think peach pancakes are my favorite ever. They’re even better if you spread some cream cheese on them before pouring syrup on them. In fact I’m eating that right this minute. :-)

Vroom Vroom

Have you ever called your boss to see if she could get someone to give you a ride to work…an hour late? I just did.
Let me start at the beginning. For the next two months, we have the wellness challenge to walk 8,000 steps a day with an average of 40,000 a week. The first week was last week and I quickly realized how much I don’t walk around with a desk job. Dave walked enough every day easy. So this week I decided to ride my bike to work every day to help me get my steps in (there’s a conversion chart). Monday and Tuesday went well. Today I’m going somewhere right after work, so I decided it’d be best if I drove, so I wouldn’t be late.
Let’s back up again. On Monday we went to my niece’s 4th birthday party. Erik made his famous orange chicken. YUM! And then she opened presents. While we were there, Dave had Erik listen to the BMW engine with his special stethoscope, because it was making a strange noise. Turns out the something pulley was wobbling loose. So we decided to park it when we got home, until it’s fixed and sold. Dave is finally as fed up with it as I am. Wait, no, I shouldn’t say as fed up, more like, he is just fed up as well.


On our way home, the engine threw the serpentine belt on the freeway. Yikes! We were hoping we’d make it home on battery instead of alternator. Yeah right. Without the coolant circulating the engine quickly overheated and we had to pull off the road. We left the car there overnight and secretly kinda hoped that it would get stolen. Anyway, turns out it might just need a couple new bolts. I do believe we can afford bolts. Since the BMW is out of order, Dave’s been driving the Nissan, because it had gas in it, and I’ve been riding my bike, because it doesn’t take any gas.


I went out to the Honda to drive to work this morning, and, you guessed it, it didn’t start. I couldn’t call Dave because he’s working in the temple this morning. My neighbors were all gone at work. So I called my boss and said “hey, my car won’t start, can you send someone to pick me up?” So one of my student employees checked out one of the cars and came and got me. Now I just have to figure out how to get to where I’m going after work.
I think broken cars are contagious.

Lost and Found

So this is our new hamster. She has yet to be named. I got her from Dave’s sister, whose hamsters had babies. I of course picked the cutest, and biggest one. I’ve never had a desire to own a hamster because they’re nocturnal, and the only experience I have had with them is keeping me awake during sleepovers at my friend Jamie’s house. Darn thing and it’s squeaky wheel!

However, I love pets, and it was free, so why not!? Why not, indeed! Pets and I don’t get along very well. This little trickster got out of her cage when I accidentally left the lid open. What a space cadet! She got out on Wednesday evening, so I left food out for her that night, including a small stem of broccoli, which she loves, and went to bed. Thursday morning the broccoli was gone, so I knew she was still alive…somewhere. We live in a house built in the ‘20s so she could have really been anywhere: attic crawlspace, heating ducts, under the bathtub, etc. But I found the broccoli at the doorway to our office. Since I was already late for work (as usual) I closed the office door and left for the day.

When I returned home that evening, I attacked the office. The office is the messiest room in our house. It’s our stash room that we never fully unpacked when we moved in. So it gave me good reason to clean it. I threw away all the random trash and started moving stuff gradually into the hallway. Then, there she was! Behind one of the boxes! I moved the box so I could have a better angle to catch her, and…there she wasn’t! I looked around and she was all the way across the room! Silly rodent.

I caught her and put her back in her cage, and that picture is her rehydrating herself after her 24 hour office safari adventure.

I’m thinking of naming her after Houdini in some way.

Sarah and the no good very bad horrible day

It all started this morning at 6am. My alarm went off. Alarms that go off at 6am are never precursors to good days. This morning I had to get up at 6 in order to be on campus by 7:20 to have a triple screening done for the wellness program. Ok, honestly, I didn't get out of bed until 6:30. But we still made it to the screening place by 7:10. What is a triple screening? They draw your blood and test it for good and bad cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels. To prepare, you have to fast for 12 hours. If you know me, you know fasting and I don't get along. That's why I picked the 7:20 am time. That way all the fasting was done while asleep, and I could eat breakfast right after. Well, it's cold and rainy today, so even though I drank a lot of water as soon as I woke up, my veins were tiny. The first lady poked me once in each arm and wiggled the needle around to to get it. Owch! Then she sent me to the more experienced girl who got it on the first try, in a different spot. Hence 3 holes and bruises. Yuck.
Then I've been having some pain in my lower abdomen for about a month and a half. No, I'm not pregnant. So I had an appointment today to get an ultrasound to see if there's a cyst anywhere or anything. If you get an ultrasound, you have to drink a lot of water so that you have a full bladder so they can see. I'm sure there's a bunch of medical terminology that would make that clearer, but oh well. All that matters was that I had to drink a lot of water, and I really had to pee while they took pictures of my insides. Fun stuff.
Then when I got home, I found out that our laundry had been moved into the dryer for us. I want you to know something about me. I'm really picky about how laundry is done. My most favorite dress that I bought in Vienna in 2006 (aka: irreplaceable) does not go in the dryer. It was in the dryer, and now 3 sizes too small. I cried for what seemed like about an hour. I was so absolutely ticked off and frustrated. I don't think I've felt so mad about something in a long time, if ever. SO MAD! But at the same time, I felt rediculous. I couldn't believe I was so upset about a stupid dress. But the more I thought about how rediculous it was, the more I thought about the dress, which made me madder. One downward cycle.
This post is my goodbye to that marvelous, beautiful dress. R.I.P. I wish I had a picture of the whole thing:

Krankheit

It’s been a tough weekend/week.

Let me preface by saying that my husband’s sister and her husband are living with us for a month or two while they save up for the deposit on their next place. I think they also have to wait until the couple that owns the place goes on a mission before they can move in. We have an extra bedroom and bathroom upstairs, so out of the 4 ½ months we’ve lived in this house, we’ve had the upstairs occupied more than half the time. I just wish I were home more to keep it cleaner for our house guests.

Last Thursday Dave started feeling sick. Dave never gets sick. By Friday night he was burning up, shivering, and hadn’t slept in two nights, so Saturday morning instead of listening to conference I took him to the urgent care center (thank goodness for good health insurance).  He had a fever of 101.7, sore throat, cough, runny nose, headache, and his back hurt a LOT, but he tested negative for strep, flu a, and flu b, but his white blood cell count was up, so they prescribed him with an antibiotic and pain killers and ibuprofen and Tylenol to keep the fever down.

Turns out my brother-in-law had the same thing. He got it from one of his coworkers. Also turns out that this comes with throwing up. Dave’s sister also came down with it. All three of them are still sick. As of right now I feel fine, but I’ve been taking airborne, drinking lots of water, eating oranges, washing my hands, sanitizing the kitchen and bathroom regularly (Dave says he should get sick more because I keep the house cleaner when he’s sick LOL). Even though the odds are against me, I am really trying stay healthy through this plague. Wish me luck!

Small Things

So you know how throughout your day little things happen and you think, oh, I could totally blog about that, but then you think some more and realize that, no, that would be a very short post. That is the reason why I haven’t blogged in a while. Nothing eventful enough to devote a whole blog post has happened recently. Therefore, this post is dedicated to all those small things that have happened.

Story of the Pepsi

On Monday, Dave was invited to be a witness in my brother-in-law Kevin’s mock trial in a real courthouse. I was invited to come along, and there was free food involved, so of course I came, even with the daunting time spent sitting on a hard bench. I am hypoglycemic so I feel absolutely horrid if I don’t eat almost constantly all day. I can go about 3 hours after a meal without food before I break down. So not knowing whether the free food was before or after the mock trial, I packed my bag full of goodies, including a pepsi, and 2 pepsis to share. Everyone knows it’s rude to drink a can of pepsi when no one else around you has one. Turns out pregnant Chelsea didn’t want a swimming, kicking baby while she was trying to write her paper, or at all, and Kevin didn’t want one either, and Dave doesn’t drink caffeinated drinks. We also ate dinner before the mock trial, so I was fat and happy. On Tuesday at work I still had a plethora of snacks in my bag. I deposited the crackers, almonds, and granola bars into my desk drawer, then I saw the pepsis. I put one in the freezer and one in the fridge at work so I could drink one cold today, and drink one cold tomorrow. Anyone who knows me probably knows how the story goes from here. I promptly forgot about the pepsi in the freezer for a few hours. Have you ever frozen a carbonated drink? Luckily I remembered early enough to catch it before it got everywhere, but as I was carrying it back to my seat hoping that it wouldn’t actually explode even though the top was convex instead of concave, it began to explode. I found the closest garbage can and threw it in. By then the pepsi in the fridge was cold, so I drank that. Did I learn from my mistake? Of course not. I did the exact same thing the next day, only I remembered about it earlier, and the soda was salvageable.

Story of the Bruise

A bruise is a bruise is a bruise. A bruise by any other name would not be so purple. There are few things less frustrating than a painful bruise doesn’t turn purple. All the pain, no glory. Ok, it’s not even that cool of a story, but if the bruise showed up, it would be a lot cooler. We have a miniscule trap door in one of our kitchen cabinets so that we can hear if the laundry is running (well you better go catch it! Hahaha). I was going to put another load of laundry in, but before I venture into the creepy, dark, cobwebby basement, I like to know if my previous load is done for obvious reasons. I knelt down in the kitchen to check the trap door, and there was no noise, so I stand up and close the kitchen cabinet (did I mention our cabinets are metal? Who puts in metal cabinets in the kitchen!? I feel like I’m cooking on a tool bench.) and as I close it I stand up and start taking my first step towards the door. Recap: I’m closing the cabinet, and stepping. My thigh collides forcefully into the closing metal cabinet and gives me the biggest dead leg ever. Still hurts, no bruise. The end.

Story of the Countdown

do do doo doo… do do do do doooooo...We’re leaving together...

I find it a lot easier to get through tough times when I have something to count down to. Here are some of the things that are getting me through the next few months:

• General Conference Tomorrow!!!
• Monday - I'm taking 3 excel training classes, change of scene will be great.
• Tuesday - Choral Assembly
• April 12th - Easter! 3rd Annual Kiwanis Park Picnic w/ Brianne, Easter egg painting and dying.
• April 17^th – I’m going to Vegas to for Danielle’s baby shower
• May – We’re going to Cedar Point, Ohio all expenses paid!
• May 25^th – Memorial day, paid day off
• July 1^st ish – Annual Lake Tahoe trip
• July ? ish – Chelsea’s baby!
• July 24^th – Manassa, CO Pioneer Days