I'm 25??? WHAT???

On Sunday, I celebrated my 25th birthday. Yes you got it correct...25!! I definitely had mixed feelings about this whole situation. I love my birthday (who doesn't?) but turning 25 was quite a big deal to me. As I have asked around, everyone else has felt the same way. 25 is such a huge mile marker at least to me, age wise, that it is quite strange that I am finally there. As I was sitting there talking to a good friend (thanks Karen!!), she asked if I was excited to be 25. And as I was trying to compile all these thoughts going through my head, I started to think back to when I was younger and what was on my list of what I wanted to accomplish when I turned 25.

This is what it was:

1. Be married and sealed in the temple
2. Graduate college
3. Be a teacher
4. Drive my dream car, a Jeep Grand Cherokee (I know a little materialistic)
5. And mainly be happy.

And as I was sitting there reflecting, I realized that everything I wanted when I was younger has come true.
1. I am a happily married gal to the BEST guy I have EVER MET in my entire life and we were sealed in the Ogden temple
2. I graduated from Weber State University in 2006 with a Bachelor's in Math Education
3. I am just about finishing my 3rd year as a high school teacher
4. I now own a dark grey Jeep Grand Cherokee that is in the shop getting fixed
5. And I could not be any happier than I am right now!
So I guess when it comes down to it, yes, I am excited to be 25. Things in my life are going great, and I couldn't be happier.

Celebrating my birthday was a lot of fun. I don't have a lot of pictures. As you probably can guess, I really don't like my picture being taken so there is only a couple on this post. Sorry! Saturday, we went bowling with Jedd's family. It was a lot of fun, and I did finally break 100 on the 2nd game. I'm not going to mention my score for the first game. Here are a few pictures of the family.

Look at the great form my cute husband has! Mine, not so great! These were of our nieces. They were so excited about bowling.............and the ice cream.

And this is part of the gang. We had so much fun!

Then after bowling, Jedd and I went out to dinner, just the two of us. We went to Texas Roadhouse and I'm not going to lie, it was amazing. If you even wonder what to get at this restaurant, I would highly recommend the Sirloin Kabob. It is amazing! (but be prepared to wait quite a while. Luckily we called ahead, but our total wait time was an hour!) Then on Sunday, we kind of just had a low key day. Went to church, the temple dedication, and then over to Jedd's mom's house for dinner and dessert. The best part about Sunday is Jedd surprised me with a birthday present. I told him to not get me anything more, as he gave me money to go shopping for clothes. But, like he always does, he surprised me with another gift. He got me a long mirror with a black frame. I have always wanted one, but just have never bought one for myself, so he did it for me. He is such a great husband, I couldn't ask for anything more.

All in all, I can say that I had a great 25th birthday, and I am happy and excited to now be 25!

Grocery Savings Extraordinaire

If any of you know my sister, she is big into food storage and saving money like crazy, and she is AWESOME at it. She is what my title is all about for this blog. She has since shared and passed her interest and knowledge on to me and my sister, my sister-in-laws and also my mom. We have each shared these great ideas with other people. My sister has been so great and I don't think she realizes how far her savings have reached and how many people she has effected. I have even shared my knowledge with people I know, and there are many people doing what I have showed them, all because of her! I am grateful that she introduced me to it. I want to publicly thank her for her patience and willingness to help me(I'm sure it hasn't been easy to take the time to explain things over and over again!). I have saved so much money on grocery bills every month, WHILE at the same time, stocking up on my food storage. This first picture is what I bought last night at Smith's.

4 Hungry Man Dinners

6 Lean Cuisine Dinners

3 bags of Frito's

1 tub of butter

4 Nature Valley Granola Bar Boxes

12 bags of assorted pasta

Total Spent: $31.00

Total Saved: $50.00

I also bought at Albertson's 6 cans of Chicken Noodle Soup for $0.65.

Everything I buy is on sale and I use coupons. Thanks again to my amazing sister who shares her coupons with me(and my mom and sister too!). I only get one set of coupons every week and my one sister gets 5, so anything she doesn't use, she shares with me. I couldn't have gotten such great deals if it wasn't for those coupons. These next two pictures are my stocked up pantry. I am lucky enough to have a huge pantry in my apartment. Everyone who knew me when I moved into my 2 bedroom apartment, knew that the selling point for me was the pantry and the linen closet down the hall. It has been so great to actually buy food and have some place to store it, other than my small kitchen cabinet that I was using in my last apartment. This first picture is my top two shelves and the second picture is my bottom two shelves, including my floor where I have my case lot sale finds that I bought last week! It feels so good to have so much food bought and saved. Jedd and I were talking last night, realizing that if we needed to, we could live off our food storage for quite a while, not including meat. I think that is awesome! It has been so great to build this up, and what a great feeling it is to see the total money saved on the receipts from your purchases.

Sis, thanks for everything you have done. I couldn't and still can't do this with out you! You are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

If you are interested in learning more about how to save, my sister has created a blog just for this. It is allprepared.blogspot.com (I have the link under my family and friends list). Check it out, she has done a great job at explaining everything! She even updates it every week with the great deals at the different stores. I am constantly checking it out to see what she has found and what I can save!

It's a Cubbies Hat!

My cute little nephew (yes, I just called him cute!) had his 6th birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday bud! Some of the family went down for a party and I think every one of us had a great time! Zach picked hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner, it was a good choice, they were delicious. We then opened presents and then ate cake and ice cream. My sister is so good to do "themed" parties, so this year was Pirates. It was so fun to see Zach get so excited. As you all know, Jedd and I are huge Chicago Cubs fans (me due to marrying the biggest fan I have ever known!) so we decided to get Zach a Cubbies hat. Ever since Zach has known Jedd, he has been interested in the Cubs and so we thought how fun it would be to get Zach a hat, just like Jedd! Here are just a few pictures a snagged at the party. This is Zach right before opening presents. Can you tell he is excited? This is just a cute picture of the little guy. Isn't he so adorable? This is him opening our present. He wasn't sure what it was until he opened it completely and pulled it out of the paper, but once he did he shouted "It's a Cubbies hat!" It was so cute! And this is him wearing it. I think he looks pretty darn good in that Cubs hat. He didn't take it off the whole night, so I think he liked it!

Zach Attach, thanks for inviting us down for your party! I hope you had a GREAT DAY! We love you!

Demolition Derby Anyone?

So if you read my last post, you kind of knew that I started my week out not so great.  Well after leaving school on Monday and just wanting go home, I forgot that I needed to stop really quick and get some gas.  So I went in to the left turning lane and when the light turned yellow, I decided to make sure all the cars were going to stop before I make my left turn.  Well, with things being out of my hands, a guy that was in oncoming traffic decided to run the red light.  I hit directly into him and hit him so hard that he turned and rotated about 4 times and ended up landing in the bank's parking lot that is on the corner of the intersection.  Shockingly enough, no one was hurt and the only thing damaged were the cars.  I came out with a very sore arm and shoulder and a bruise on my forearm, the guy came out with a red mark on his head from hitting the window on impact.  Here is a picture of where the car landed after I hit it.  If you notice, the white truck in the top left corner of the picture is about where I was sitting before I hit the gold car. 

This is a closer picture of the damage that my jeep made.  The driver of the car was quite lucky.  If I had turned any second earlier, I would have hit right into his door and who knows how bad he would have been hurt.  After I drove my car out of the intersection, I ran over thinking he was seriously injured and when he got up and walked away, my jaw was dropped.  WOW! 

 And this is the damage of my car.  Not much!  I have since realized what a great car I have.  Jedd says he wants to enter me into a demolition derby with my jeep.  It is good to know that I have such a strong car!  Hopefully it can keep me safe if something like this happens again!  

As if that was not enough for us to handle this week, last night my car's rear window was broken with a rock.  A police officer knocked on our door this morning and told Jedd that our Jeep Cherokee was damaged.  He looked at him a little confused as Jedd was thinking he was talking about the front damage due to my accident.  What the officer explained a little later was that our window was broken by teenagers throwing rocks.  We are not sure if the teenagers have been found, but all I can say is HELLO??!!  Here is a picture of my jeep with the window completely broken.  

This picture is the back of my jeep.  You can kind of see the glass, but the light tan "thing" sitting by my frisbee is the rock that was thrown to break my window.  WHO DOES THAT?  Who in their right mind takes this big rock and throws it through a car's window?  Luckily, it just wasn't our car.   These teenagers also broke more windows in our apartment complex and they took an ax to a BMW car door.  (I'll take the window compared to that!)

This last picture is the mess that the broken shattered window made.  Jedd cleaned up a lot of it, what a great husband!  (If you also notice, we still have parts of the front of my car from my accident still in there.)  What a mess!

All I can say that it has been quite the week.  Jedd and I have had it rough!  Every one knows that things happen in 3's.  SO....with Jedd's truck bumper being hit last month (yes, the culprits didn't leave any information), my accident on Monday and my window being broken on Wednesday, WE ARE DONE!  Jedd has been on the phone daily with insurance companies and window companies and repair shop companies.  He has been so great to deal with a lot of the stuff for me.  Lastly, I'm SO GLAD that the weekend is here.  I don't think I could handle a whole lot more happening this week.  

Not too much going on....

Well at our house not a lot has gone on so that is one reason why I haven't posted anything. The other main reason why I haven't posted anything is that I have been horribly sick. I have been in bed for 5 straight days and wish I could be in bed for another 5. It all started out Wednesday when I woke up not feeling great, but thought I could handle the day. By 11:00 I was running a high fever and could barely walk without feeling dizzy. Thursday was about the same. Fever, headache, and chills. Friday my fever finally went away but still had the headache so I decided to play it real easy. At this point still not feeling the best, but hoping that 3 days in bed would cure what I had. Saturday rolled around and I thought I was feeling ok in the morning, come to find out that was the calm before the storm. I ended up having a huge headache with the fever coming back and horrible sinus pressure and pain along with a stuffed up nose where I could barely breathe. It was not good. Sunday woke up with so much pressure in my sinuses that I could barely open my eyes and could barely breathe I was so clogged up. I had my headache again for the 5th day in a row and just layed in bed all day. Monday (today) came and I am up and am at least able to open my eyes and walk around. It has been a horrible 5 days and I hope NO ONE will ever get what I had. To tell you the truth, I don't even know what I would call what I had/have, but it is the worst. I still am clogged up and have a headache, but able to do a few things. The biggest part is that I am exhausted. After 5 days of laying in bed all day long, coming to work and being expected to be up for 8 hours teaching and running around is a lot. I am sitting at my desk wondering how I'm going to have the energy to finish out the day! So sorry for the graphic post, just hope none of you get this AWFUL HORRIBLE sickness. Stay healthy everyone! I'll try and recoup and post after I feel better.

P.S. And to clear up everyone's suspisions, no I am NOT pregnant. This is me really sick.

Big Snow Fall

As some of you might have heard, South Ogden got a ton of snow this last Tuesday.....A TON! I was lucky enough to be in school all day and not have to drive in it. Jedd had a big presentation in Salt Lake that he had give so on his way home from that, he stopped and picked me up from school so I didn't have to drive. What a great husband I have! He knows how stressed I am when I have to drive in the snow! After we got home, Jedd had quite a few things to bring in from the car so we both bundled up and went outside. Since most of you didn't get as much snow as we did, I thought I would take a picture of what it looked like outside our apartment at 4:00 in the afternoon. This first picture is shocking to me, only because the day before, there was maybe 1 inch on the ground, maybe? Now look at it. I snagged a picture of Jedd before we made our first trip in. He wasn't really happy to pose for the picture, but he did it anyway to humor me. What a great hubby! And here I am posing for the camera. If you notice, the snow we received came up to my knees. I know my pants look funny being tucked into my jeans, but I didn't want my pants soaked by the time we walked in and out!

Babysitting Extravaganza

On Friday night, Jedd and I were able to go babysit for my sister and husband so they could go out to dinner, just the two of them, for Valentine's Day. Jedd and I went down and were there at about 5:50, thanks to the crazy traffic. We fed them dinner (Jerilyn had it cooked for us...THANKS!) and then we just got to play for the rest of the time. During dinner, I wish someone was there to take a picture because it was hilarious! If any of you know Zach and Hailey, they talk non-stop. At some point, Zach was talking to Jedd and Hailey was talking to me and Jedd and I looked at each other and busted out laughing because we realized we weren't even paying attention to what they were saying at the moment. It was so funny! (I guess had to be there moment!) Zach and Hailey just went on as if nothing had happened and kept telling us their stories.

After that, we went our separate ways. Hailey and I painted toenails and Zach and Jedd went and played XBOX. This is us painting toes. Yes, paper towels so the paint didn't get on the floor.It was so hard for Hailey to wait for them to dry. I tried to keep her occupied with candy and taking pictures for as long as possible. Look at that smile!!

And the finished product. Hailey wouldn't let me get away with not painting my toes too, so of course we had to get a picture of our matching toes. While the girls painted, the boys were a little less interested in that so they had their own fun playing Golf and basketball. Hailey was so excited to show the boys her toes, and ketp running back and forth. Jedd acted a little more excited than her brother, but she didn't care! And then after everything was over, Hailey just HAD to play XBOX with Jedd and Zach. If you notice, her controller isn't really plugged in. Jedd was so good with her and made her feel like she was playing with the boys. Jedd kept telling her good shot while playing basketball, and she would just jump up and down saying I did it! IT WAS JUST TOO CUTE! It was such a fun night. After playing for a little while, we fed them popcorn and ice cream and sugared them all up for when their parents came home to put them in bed. (OH, THE JOYS OF BEING AN AUNT AND UNCLE!) It was such a fun night. Thanks, Hailey and Zach, for all the laughs and fun!

Our Own Movie Theater

On Saturday night, Jedd wasn't feeling too great so we decided to just hang out at our house. The wind was just ripping through where we live (which it normally does most nights), but it was so bad that it was affecting our cable and we couldn't watch our tv. Jedd had some movies on his ipod and so we decided to hook his projector up to his ipod and watch movies on that. It was so much fun, it was like our own little movie theater, except for it was clean! We had to rearrange my whole living room, which was quite interesting, but it turned out to be such a fun date night. This is a picture of the set up.And this is just a cheesy picture of us getting ready to watch the movie!

Superbowl or Barbies?

Yesterday, which I'm sure you all know was the Superbowl. Last year Jedd and I spent it with Jedd's family, so this year we spent it with mine. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone! We missed those of you who weren't there. We had a great meal, and even better treats and snacks! After dinner and talking with my sister and mom at the dinner table about grocery shopping, I had the biggest decision of the day. Go watch the kick-off for the game or go play Barbie's. (it was an easy day for me I guess, if that was my hardest decision right?) Well of course I decided to head in with my niece to play Barbie's with her. I'm not going to lie, it was so much fun to go back in my memory to those days of playing dress up and Barbie's with my sister. This was Jerilyn's, Michelle's and my collection plus a few things from my mom's barbie collection.

And even after playing and cleaning up everything, I still made it in to watch the kick-off. I missed nothing, lucky me! Ha ha. Thanks, Hailey-Bailey, for playing with me! Next year I might choose Barbie's again instead of watching the game.

Recipe

Ok due to a few asking for the recipe of my amazing meal, here it is....

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups multigrain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz.) fresh spinach leaves*
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 jar (14-1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

*Advice: I used a frozen 9 oz. package of Spinach and it was way too much. When I make it again, I'll use about half of the frozen package.

Directions:
1. HEAT oven to 375ºF. Cook pasta as directed on package, adding spinach to the boiling water for the last 1 min.
2. COOK and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 3 min. Add spaghetti sauce and tomatoes; bring to boil. Simmer 3 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in Neufchatel cheese.
3. DRAIN pasta mixture; return to pan. Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Spoon into 2-qt. or 8-inch square baking dish.
4. BAKE 20 min. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 min.


Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:
4 squares BAKER'S Semi Sweet Chocolate
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

Directions:
1. MICROWAVE chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min., stirring with whisk every 45 sec. until melted.
2. ADD 1 cup COOL WHIP; stir until blended. Stir in remaining COOL WHIP.
3. SPOON into dessert dishes

*By the way, be prepared. That chocolate mousse is richer than rich. For me one small tiny serving was plenty!

And of course the last step to all of this..... is to ENJOY!