Happy Holidays!

May this holiday season be one of the best yet!

Merry Christmas!

Kitchen Makeover, Part I

Time for updates. I haven't really posted anything other than quick holiday greetings since we got back from Belize. And lately we've been up to well... everything. So rather than post one HUGE post about everything that's happened in the last few months I'll just give the short versions in separate posts. It will be like reading the AP Wire... you can pick and choose which stories interest you instead of having wade through my ramblings.

So the kitchen makeover, part I.

One day we got the idea that we should do some projects around our apartment while both of us weren't working full-time. That said, the hardware store quickly became our second home and we had quite a bit of fun. Here's a peek at the first of many projects.

Here's the kitchen before:

And here's the kitchen after:

Kind of amazing what 2 coats of paint and new drawer pulls can do right? We love it, and we also painted a bookcase (of of those you can pick up at Target in their dorm room stuff sale), white as well. It's in the kitchen sporting our ever-growing cookbook collection and providing a home for my baking sheets and large mixing bowls. Next up, Kitchen Makeover Part II & III!

Happy Holidays!

So it might be  a little early for sending Season's Greetings just yet...but I wanted to let you know of a little project I've been working on of late. Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween!

So we put our artistic pumpkin carving abilities to the test. Can you guess which one of us carved which pumpkin? Benj's carving skills are far superior; however, I think my pumpkin is a little friendlier looking with it's fang-filled grin.

Here's wishing you a frightfully spooky Halloween and may it be filled with lots of candy!

Its been forever...and now it's Fall!

There has been a ton going on around our house, but I'll save all that's happened since July for another time. It's rainy today and I'm loving the fall leaves. The mountains are on fire with the colors and it's starting to turn down here in the valley as well.

In honor of fall, and one of my favorite fall foods - pumpkin... I've decided to make a favorite recipe around here for dinner and thought I'd share because you might like it as well!

 

via Taste of Home

You can grab the recipe here.

I'm not a huge chili fan and we both dislike the tomatoes... so we leave those out. And, for some reason I'm opposed to anything being cubed, especially things like turkey. So we go sans cubed turkey and just used ground turkey instead (I brown it before I toss it in the slow cooker as well). 

Happy fall!

A Little Positive Affirmation...

never hurt anybody!

While reading a blog of a good friend of mine, I happened on this short video. I couldn't help but laugh... and to be honest, maybe I'd get more done during the day if I started my mornings like that!

365 Days of Total Bliss

That's right, today we celebrated our first anniversary. Hard to believe that a year has gone by...and at the same time, what a wonderful and incredibly exciting first year it has been.

It has been a year full of decisions, firsts for all kinds of things, graduations, changing jobs, international adventures, celebrating with family, and yes really... 365 days of total bliss! Nothing makes me more excited, and more grateful, than knowing that I've spent the past year with the love of my life and very best friend.

We've spent the day celebrating and remembering so many "firsts"... the first date, the first kiss, the first time we said "I love you", and so on. We went to the temple and remembered what we promised, how excited we were, and how normal we felt as we left the temple "married".  There's not a day that goes by that I'm not reminded how lucky I am to have this wonderful man in my life. I love his smiles, his subtle winks, & how I still get butterflies any time he enters the room. It has been a wonderful year & I'm even more excited to spend so many more with my very best friend!

Project: Green Thumbs

Back when we moved into our new apartment Benj had quite a few plants. I was impressed. They were real honest to goodness living things. A far cry from what I had... a couple of silk plants that I purchased after moving away to college because for some reason my attempt at growing anything seemed to fail miserably. I don't necessarily think I have a knack for killing living things, I think it's just that college kept me busy, and roommates and other fun things didn't really foster my responsibility for taking care of house plants. Therefore, I gave in and went for the fake kind that you could only really damage by 1) getting them to close to an open flame, or 2) sucking them up with the vacuum. Both which have happened at least once during my college years.

While we were in Belize, Benj had a chance to read the Square Foot Gardening book. A gardening concept which I completely adore because it seems basically fool proof and it practically eliminates weeds. Growing up in Arizona, eliminating weeds would be like saying that it was 68 degrees at high noon in the middle of July... which is a nice thought, but isn't going to happen anytime soon. So, when Benj suggested that we give it a try and that we grow some herbs that seem to be cooking staples around our house I was all for it.

He got his power drill, which is awesome and worked like a champ. And we both got 8 square feet of garden space and some cool flowers to boot!

It took the better part of two days to gather up the stuff, build the boxes, and plant but we had fun. And as you can see above we had helpers too! And now for a look at the final product, which is currently still alive... yeah, I just checked it's still there and growing!

Feel The Power

Lately it seems like we haven't been up to much; and at the same time, it seems like we've been up to everything.  That said, we finally got around to doing something that we've been talking about for quite a while.

One of our wedding presents was a gift certificate to Sears for tools (thanks Jeff & Julie!). It was the perfect gift. Benj loved it, and so did I because who doesn't need a hammer, screwdriver, measuring tape, level and so on? We did saunter down the power tool row, but decided we'd better buy the basics first and save the power tool purchase for later.

We've gone to the hardware store a bunch of times since then, and we always look at the power tools. I'm surprised we haven't caved to the need to own one before now, but the day finally came.

Behold, the power tool!

Benj loves it. And I love watching him use it. Plus, it was a huge bonus when it came to one of our most recent projects... square foot garden boxes, but that's for another post! At this point though, bring on the home improvement projects & never, ever get between a man and his power tools!

Back from Belize, a Battery & Hot Dogs!

So we're back and recovering from our adventures in Belize. Lots of fun & lots of funny stories to tell as well as a chance to let our lives settle for a minute before we start the next craziness.

That said, I went to start my car when we got home and it was dead, dead, dead. It took us a few days to get around to jumping it because we were to busy recovering from our trip. When we did get around to jumping it though it was still...dead, dead, dead.

So we did some more recovering and just used Benj's car. We were a little sad on the 4th of July. Other than watching the fireworks from the street corner by our house we laid pretty low. And because of our stomach issues, we stayed far away from any type of celebratory food such as hot dogs, hamburgers, or other 4th of July type of foods.

But after resting up a little more and taking a trip to the doctor...where we found out that we're definitely on the mend... we decided to get back to that car battery. And you know what? Benjamin saved the day!

I was worried it was the starter or something else terrible that would cost a bit but, Benjamin took out the battery, and we took a trip to Costco. And less than a hundred dollars later... Benj had put in the new battery and the car started!

Plus, while we were at Costco we decided we were both in the mood for and that our stomachs could handle... hot dogs! A little late on celebrating the holiday, but better late than never! Dates that include trips to Costco and fixing cars are definitely good in my book!

"You Need A Steetch!"

For any that may already know about my little adventure at the Belizian hospital... never fear. Despite the fact that my war wound is cool, I'm not going to post pictures of it to the blog. I believe the story is better if you just use your imagination. And I'll be honest, I told Benj that I didn't want to take pictures of it... mainly because every time I get a glimpse of it my stomach starts to turn and the thought of documenting that for history's sake makes me cringe a little. I'm a pansy when it comes to injuries like this! :)

But the story goes like this.

Benj and I were planning to go to the Cornerstone Foundation with one of our teammates Cydnee. It was a great plan we had for that day. We all got up and got dressed in business casual. Which doesn't really seem like that big of a deal, but with how hot and humid it is here, looking put together and wearing business casual is almost more effort than it's worth. We were going to teach a typing class at Cornerstone and then catch a bus to Belmopan for a meeting about our business class.

Cornerstone is literally about a block away from where we live here in Belize. It's just down a hill and right around the corner. So off we went, down the rocky path, talking about our plans for the day and remarking about the weather or something of the sort. I wasn't being a crazy walker, I wasn't trying to multi-task, I honestly was just walking down the road. But my foot hit a loose rock, I slid and ended up going down on my knee along a pretty rocky part of the road. Benj had my hand and pulled me back up in seconds, but the damage was done. When I looked down at my leg I knew it wasn't going to be a good day anymore.

The graphic details of my injury are as follows (skip this if you get woosey like I do). It's a puncture wound, about a little bit bigger than a dime, and just about an inch away from my knee cap. By the time we walked the 3 houses back to our apartment I had blood running down my leg and onto my Chacos.

Benj was a total hero. He grabbed me a chair, then took one look at my face and agreed that I should probably lay down on the floor. Within seconds he'd looked at the wound, cleaned up the blood, and flushed the wound out the best he could. But he couldn't avoid breaking the news that we were going to have to go to the hospital for some stitches. I hate hospitals... funny I know, seeing that I used to work at Utah Valley Regional.

But we caught a cab, I tried to maintain the shock I was in over the amount of blood and the looming hospital visit that lay ahead. We made it to Loma Lus, a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in the neighboring town of Santa Elena. There was no wait, and I was eeen by a doctor within just a few minutes. And here's where the story gets really good.


I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I dislike being sick or hurt and don't like doctors or hospitals. Additionally, when I get in that intense state that comes with a little bit of shock and a minor to major injury... I unlike other people, get a little sassy and end up cracking jokes about whatever is going on. Other people break into a sweat and clam up, and I... well, I jump up on stage ready for a performance.

The doctor was this incredibly cute Guatemalan lady. She spoke some English but had a nurse who also acted as a translator. Her hair was all done in ringlets and she looked like a  little doll in her 2 shades of pink scrubs. We went through the consultation and in broken English she asked me the usual doctor stuff. What had happened, how bad it hurt and so on. I was enjoying the air conditioned room. The procedure room however didn't have any AC. And of course we all piled in and shut the door. The whole thought of stitches makes me a little light headed, so cutting off the air circulation didn't help any. I was trying to keep the crazy comments going on in my head to a minimum and Benj was great to make sure there was no passing out and that the doctor was doing a good job. But 2 comments did make me laugh out loud.

The shots of local anesthetic were the worst and Benj knew I was close to losing it so he grabbed my hand and said "Talk to me Goose..." to which I had to just laugh and reply "What do you want me to say? Ouch?"

But our favorite was from our cute little Guatemalan doctor while looking at the wound.... "Oh Mareesa... you need a steetch." I wanted to sit up and say... "I think I need more than one steetch lady..." but I just looked at Benj and then said, "okay" instead.

Anyway... 4 stitches. That's all I got. I go back on Friday to get them out, but I'll say this for Belize and Loma Lus... "steetches" have definitely made our trip a lot more exciting thus far!

Update--Belize!

We've been super busy, but here's a short update. We're trying to finish the Soilet, find some corporate sponsors, and start up a business class teaching basic money management skills.

So first of all the most exciting...

So the site where we are building the Soilet is a little resort along the river. For those of you planning to visit the Cayo this would be a fun place to stay. It's called the Parrot's Nest, and in addition to it's namesake, a pet parrot, there are a ton of these running around and climbing in the trees.




We're in the final stages of finishing the Soilet. We are the hardcore Soileteers!


In this picture are Marissa, me, Mary, and Wendy(in the front --standing in the drain hole!) We spent our Saturday out filling in putting the final touches on the drainfield (lots of picking and digging), placing the pipe, and filling it in with gravel.


I say we're hardcore because the rest of our group were either off at Key Caulker or in Guatemala visiting Tikal! of course, we would have been in the Tikal group, but as many of you know Marissa hurt her knee, and it's no fun to climb ancient Mayan temples with four stitches and a swollen knee. (More on that later!)

Cahal Pech

So Saturday we went to a Mayan ruin that's just about half a mile from where we live. It's called Cahal Pech, which means "Place of Ticks". Archaeologists have dated the site from around 1000 B.C. - 1100 A.D. It sits at the crest of a large hill, and although not very fun to hike up to the top, it offers a great view of the valley. In fact, that's why archeologists believe it served for some time as a military guard post (around 600 A.D.)

It consists of seven plazas and a large temple-like structure at the center. It was fun to walk around and see the impressive construction. Blocks/cut stones cemented into place. rooms with ventilation shafts, and cut channels in the stone to divert and collect rainfall.

One of the smaller plazas was the royal residence. This was our favorite part--with lots of rooms to explore and evidence of smart engineering.

Although one of the smaller sites in Belize/Guatemala, it was still impressive. There was even a ball court. In which they played a game where you had to get a ball through a hoop. contrary to popular belief, the ball was made of rubber (an Olmec discovery) not cement. And you didn't want to be the loosing team, as it is believed that the team captain would be killed--talk about sudden death!

So it was a fun experience. Although we don't know where the Nephite civilization was, it is good to have a better mental picture of what it was like in Book of Mormon times. These people may not have been Nephites or Lamanites, but they most likely lived like them. An interesting thing to consider--on a time line posted at the vistor's center there was something that caught my attention. Between 600 B.C. - 400 B.C. several cultures merged and the first temple structures started to appear. Now although it doesn't prove anything, I doubt that it was a mere coincidence.

The Royal Plaza - the royal family residence was in this area

A rain gutter

A main spillway off the back of the structure

Steep set of stairways leading between 2 different plazas

Stairway leading up to the Main Plaza

San Ignacio

Just a little more about the town that we live in - San Ignacio. San Ignacio is a bout 2 hours from the airport in Belize City. The city/town is set on a hillside full of fairly dense foliage. Our beautiful coral-colored house is uptown and literally sits at the midpoint of a fairly steep hill, just up from the bust stop and city market place.

There are 2 major bridges that lead into San Ignacio - the Lower & Upper. Sometimes the natives refer to it merely as "Cayo", which is actually the name of the region San Ignacio is in. "Cayo" means "island", and San Ignacio is essentially just that, situated between two of Belize's major rivers the Macal and the Mopan. So the two bridges connect San Ignacio to the areas across both of these rivers. The Lower bridge is basic - no fancy structure here and sits at the bottom of town. It rises only several feet above the current water level and is quickly covered during flooding season. The Upper bridge has a pedestrian passageway (we walk along it to go to the English Branch in Santa Elena for Church), large pillars and large metal cables suspending the bridge at least 90 feet above the water. The pedestrian footpath is small metal grate - just large enough to catch a great view of the water moving below. Raymon, one of the country directors, told us that the last time it flooded in San Ignacio (something that's fairly common here during the rainy season) the river rose up to the bottom of the Upper bridge.

Like any small town, San Ignacio has a Saturday market, held downtown where local farmers come to sell produce, handmade items, and other products. We went yesterday, purchased a tupperware to put our beans/salsa in so we could have it for lunches with tortilla chips. The market provided plenty of options for produce - the most interesting we found yesterday was smoked sea weed... not sure I'll ever be up for trying that one!

Architecture is varied around the city. There's not really a distinction in standard of living between neighborhoods. Our home is one of the nicer ones for the natives (excluding some of the ex-pats homes) but are all inter-mixed with those homes that are much more humble. For example, our next door neighbor's live in a cement box of sorts. No stucco or paint and only lace curtains for the windows and doors. Our house has a nice wrought-iron fence surrounding it and a few dogs, where as our neighbors have none of these added securities. It makes us both grateful for the types of homes we grew up and currently live in and for all the blessings we have.

That said, our neighbors and many of the people here are extremely friendly and grateful despite their circumstances. The little girl that lives next door often plays outside with her little puppy - they're both tiny and she watches for us and waves as we come and go.

The foliage is fairly dense - as you can see in the picture above. In fact, men wander around with weed wackers trimming along the sides of roads to keep the green down. We've also seen several people out in their yards with lawn mowers - attempting to cut grass/foliage that is closer in height to their knees than their ankles. I have to laugh, because I think I'd give up at that point and just accept that my front yard was a jungle, which in this case it actually is.

Some of the people are incredibly hardworking, while others hardly work at all. The branch members tells us this is a problem among members and new converts as well, causing issues with church attendance and activity, but at church today we were so impressed with the number of faithful members and their passion and love for the gospel.

Regardless of the culture differences though, we're loving our time here and our interaction with the Belizians we've met so far. Some of our favorites include our cook, Sister Kay. She's a Creole, a lot of fun, and one of the best cooks ever. There's much more to say about her and her family, but we'll save that as well as a glimpse of her best dishes for a later post!

The Soilet

As some of you know, one of the projects that we're working on in Belize it the Soilet. What is the Soilet? I'm glad you asked.

The Soilet is a hybrid of a pit latrine, a septic tank, and a composting toilet. It is made of inexpensive materials, and requires minimal technical skills to construct.

The Soilet was designed by a man in Ghana, where sanitation is questionable. The Soilet is eco-friendly and allows sewage to be treated and not dumped into the ocean.

We are bringing the Soilet to Belize. We are helping with the construction and marketing of the project. Mostly, it's a proof of concept project. We're seeing if the Soilet will work in a different climate. In addition a film crew from BYU broadcasting is coming to Belize to do a documentary on the Soilet (and to scuba dive.)

We're building the Soilet at a riverside resort in Bullet Tree...a small village outside of San Ignacio. The manager of the place is really excited about having a Soilet because it will be a big selling point for all of his eco-tourist clientele.

The main comoponet of the Soilet is a concrete box made of porous cement and filled with layers of dirt and other things. We are putting this box mostly below ground and so there had to be a hole to put it in...




So then we had to dig a drain field.




Yes, that's me that's with the pick ax.

On Monday we're going to pour concrete for the floor of the box. Let's just hope it doesn't rain...

Housemates

So after 4 absolutely crazy days in Belize we've had the chance to learn a ton about our housemates. All together there are 17 people (we've got quite a group of varied personalities which leads to a lot of great laughing moments) in a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom house. It's quite a stylish place. Stucco walls inside, dark wood panel doors, and linoleum floors that have just been rolled out and tacked down with duct tape seams. The houses in Belize are fairly colorful, for example:

We live on the bottom floor and we have some neighbors that live above us, but they're currently visiting the US. However, they left 3 glorious dogs at home with us, who tend to bark the majority of the night. Added security though is a definite bonus.

In addition to the dogs, we've got geckos and my personal favorite:

 Tarantulas! We've seen 3 so far, but this one was by far the biggest. Now I'm ok with these because they keep the bugs down (which goes for the geckos as well). However, we were moving things around in our room and we found one of these beauties by our stuff. Squishing it wasn't an option. So Benj went to get a cup and I stayed on the lookout until he got back.

Our little friend kept heading towards a pile of clothes near the bed, so I decided to stomp my foot on the floor in front of the clothes. Bad idea! Tarantulas love confrontation and he charged! I ended up on the bed telling Benj that he better hurry.

We've been down to the market, bought a laundry basket for our constantly growing pile of dirty clothes, eaten an entire pineapple between the 2 of us in just one sitting, and walked up and down a lot of hills. The streets here in Belize are either pavement (well the larger, busier streets) or white dirt and rocky. The latter, is almost blinding when the sun is out.

We'll post more later, but are headed off to catch the end of the USA/England soccer game!

On the ground in Belize

Well, this is my inaugural blog post! Hopefully I can be at least half as entertaining as Marissa.

We got into Belize about 5:00 local time (although it's central time--the Belizians, like the Arizonans, don't believe in daylight savings--so it's the same time zone as in Provo).

The airport is not very large..in fact we had to flip a u-turn at the end of the runway because there is only one taxiway in the center of the one runway. One way in. One way out.

Now for those of you that travel a lot this may not seem unusual, but we climbed out of the plane onto the tarmac. Not something I've ever done--deplane from a 737 onto the tarmac.

First impression. Humid. Very, very humid. And warm. Very, very warm.

We went through customs and met up with Raymon, our county director and about 10 other volunteers that arrived today. We piled our bags into a trailer, and then climbed into a 15 passenger van and headed west towards San Ignacio.

The roads here are bumpy, to say the least. Mostly two lane affairs winding through the country side. Our Belizian driver whistled and hummed most of the way the there, and he honked and gave shout outs to almost everyone we encountered at the side of the roads along the way. He would say...that's my cousin, or nephew, etc. Quite fun!

We had dinner at Sister Kay's. She a member in the English branch. She cooks for us every night. She's a Creole who speaks heavily accented English. She made us a traditional Creole chicken dish, that was delish! She kind of taken on the role of our Belezian mom while we're here.

We luckily get our own room in our rented house. However it's hot. We managed to make it through the night by stripping down 'til we're barely decent and have a fan blowing on us. Not to mention our guard dogs ( a beautiful german shepherd and a doberman) who keep up a constant cacophony of barking throughout the night. So we feel safe, but are going to have to adjust a little so we can get some good sleep!

No hot water this morning for the showers, but we were okay with that...it felt really good.

So we didn't see a lot of mosquito's--we have screened windows, but I saw a fist-size tarantula up in the corner of the hallway ceiling (which I didn't point out to Maris). And then this morning we had a fist sized cockroach in our kitchen which Calvin (another country director) took off after with a sandal.

So yeah, we're getting exposed to the wonders of Belize!

We'll post more soon with pictures, but for now we're headed off for a team meeting and to work this afternoon!

On To Our Next Adventure

Jury duty and our trip down to AZ was a blast. And we returned to UT just in time to visit with Benj's family, take a trip down to Manti for a family wedding, celebrate the arrival of a brand new nephew, & spend what seems like a lifetime packing.

That said, I think we're ready to go. So it's off to our next adventure.

Just in case you wonder what exactly we're doing there...

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Yep... we made the 6 'o clock news. Thank heaven it was for something like this!

The next time you hear from us... it'll be live... from Belize!

There's No Business, Like Show Business...

Or in my case... there's no duty, like jury duty.

So to fulfill my civic duty, I returned to my homeland (AZ) and went to the Arizona Superior Court last Monday. Good times and strange people, but it started off fun...kind of like when you go to the airport and you have enough time before getting on the plane to just sit and people watch.

So there I was sitting and people watching and my name was called. No problem there... what are the odds of me getting picked to be on the jury anyway? Slim to none. So I got my juror number, got in line, and marched upstairs with 75 other crazies to a court room.

I was towards the front of the line, so I got to sit in the juror box. I felt pretty cool, and kind of sad for the other jurors as they filed in and had to take a seat on one of the hard benches at the back of the courtroom. Not many of us would get to sit in the juror box, so I was enjoying my moment there because I knew for sure it would be short-lived. Again, what are the odds of me getting picked to be on the jury right? (I do know the statistics of this... however, I'm going to spare us all of the detailed explanation that would demand).

We all sat and answered a bunch of questions. I raised my juror number a couple of times and then judge kicked out the first round of potential jurors. Yes! I wasn't kicked off yet. I was still good enough. At that point, I couldn't see a good reason for wanting to be kicked off on the very first round. That means that you're not even fit for this kind of thing right? Obviously, I was reverting back to the idea of trying out for a music group or sports team at school. My skill set was validated, but I didn't stop to think at that point about the fact that this wasn't really a team that I wanted to be on. I was too busy enjoying my cushy chair and what I thought to be 5 minutes of fame in the jury box.

Made it through round 2; and then  round 3 - the juror pool was getting smaller. And I started to get worried. But only for a second. There were still plenty of us out here and they only need a few of us.

Then the judge asked us to all go outside while they worked towards making the final selections.

Despite my little bit of worry, I was still fairly confident as I thought again, what are the odds of me getting picked to be on the jury?

We were summoned back into the court room by the bailiff (who is hilarious, but we'll save that for another post). I was demoted from my cushy chair and all of the potential jurors that remained had to sit on the hard benches now. The judge then informed us that the trial was of medium length. Which means, that the standard 3-5 days in court thing was out the window and this trial was 3-5 weeks!

Yikes! Get me out of here...I have things to do, people to see. I don't have time to sit on a jury for 3-5 weeks!

 I really started to worry, because my mind was running through the detailed explanation of the statistical outcome that I spared us all of earlier. Long story short on that one... I was in a bad spot and statistically, my odds of being picked to be on that jury were pretty dang good.

Then my number was called.

So now I'm on a jury. And Benj, is somewhat of a prisoner here in AZ, while I'm stuck in court all day. He was a saint for putting up with grad school, but now it's set in stone while he puts up with me being in court for this long...and this whole trip was supposed to be a short vacation. 

 Anyway, I can't talk about the case or the specifics or anything with anyone, because it's part of the "Admonition" (which is also fairly entertaining, and which I'll save for another post).

So my temporary employment is now with a:

However, the judge I see every day doesn't really look like this. Too bad. If he did... maybe I really would get that chance to be in show business.

Passports

We just put in our paperwork for 2 of these beauties - I needed my name changed and Benj needed a new one.

And "why," you ask, "do we need passports?"

Well, because we're going here:

To live in this:

 For 6 weeks. 

Just kidding on where we're staying. Although I'm sure it will be beautiful, I'm positive that it won't be quite that exotic or resort-like. But hey, Belize for 6 weeks. Sounds pretty good to me. Other MBAs are packing millions of moving boxes; moving to exotic parts of the country, like Ohio; and starting new jobs. I on the other hand am packing my bag and jumping on a plane to Belize for 6 weeks. Spreadsheets, marketing strategies, bottom lines... or sunshine, tans, and a humanitarian project. I'm taking the second, thank you!

A few years ago I went to Costa Rica with friends for a few weeks. It was a lot of fun, but I loved the newness of the experience, the people, the places, and so on, the most. That's probably what I'm most excited about this time too--it's an adventure, and I'm ready for a good one!

Of course, there will be some business. We have to have some reason to go and spend that long. As part of the humanitarian project, we're working on implementing a waste management system that is both good for the environment and affordable for the community. The main part of the project will be to implement the system, but we're also looking to convert it into a micro-franchise that the locals can sustain and use to not only benefit their standard of living, but they're pocket books as well. It's not millions of dollars by any means, but if we can help a few people and make life a little better then we'll count it as a success. 

Benj really has the coolest and most important job in the project too. He's working on the business side of it with me, but he's also the microbiologist that will help in building the system and then testing the affluence that comes from the system for harmful bacteria and diseases. With his work, we'll be able to help those that use the system,how to safely take care of it, protect their environment, and keep themselves healthy. He's such a smart guy... but that's what you get when you marry a microbiologist/biochemist right? 

So, here's to looking forward to 6 weeks of fun. 6 weeks of work. And 6 weeks of helping others, learning about a new culture, living in a new part of the world, and exploring all that's out there. 

The End is Near...

That's all I really have to say at the moment. But life as we know it... grad school, that is... is drawing to a close. Graduation is at the end of the week. And finally, I'm feeling a little bittersweet about it. But not enough to get all weepy... it's time to party! I'm finally free!

I'll write more later on this one... lots of pics and fun things in the works this week!

Fridge Surprise

So I love it when I get a few extra minutes and my mind starts to think about things other than grad school, what's for dinner, or how much laundry is piling up and what is a good and reasonable excuse for avoiding it one more day. (Thanks to my creativity on that last one... I avoid it quite often, and Benj usually encourages it as well...that is, until we both start running out of things to wear.)

But on this specific occasion, I didn't need an excuse about laundry & I happened to be wandering around in the grocery store (it was a no list trip) wondering what else I may need. I ended up on the soda & chip aisle. I saw a pack of Benj's favorite rootbeer. It was on sale!

And the the next thing I knew I was headed home and it ended up in the fridge looking like this:

*Note: Our fridge doesn't look this trendy & cool in real life. That would be me and my crazy antics in Photoshop. I've taken up a new hobby and am still in that "totally in love" phase with it. So, is the pic true to life? Not really. But "hecka cool"? (yeah, learned that one from my nieces over Conference weekend) The answer to that would be... most definitely yes.

Anyway, by the time Benj got home from work, I'd been focused on probably 40-50 other projects (chronic multi-tasker, sick I know). I had forgotten that I'd even bought the stuff, let alone dressed it all up and stuck it in the fridge for him to find as a surprise. But it worked its magic... when he found it, I got that big grin...and it was "hecka cool".

Eggs To Dye For

I know. Nothing says Happy Easter like a Storm Trooper, right? We splurged, and after perusing the Target Easter aisles we decided that typical egg dyes would not be enough this year. Hence, we picked out the ultimate Star Wars-themed egg dying kit, complete with those egg wrapper things (which I thought were super cool as a kid, and still, to this day, think the shrink effect that you get when you put the egg & wrapper in hot water totally rocks). And hence, the Storm Trooper egg was born.

Now although the Storm Trooper is cool, it doesn't even compare with:

Yoda. I'm not sure it's really right to have one favorite Easter Egg, but I'm pretty sure if it was, this would be it. (*Tangent: If it wasn't for my dumb camera, I'd have some great shots of us dying the eggs and of Benj and I. I love technology, but when it doesn't give you what you thought you had access to... it makes me a little frustrated.) The coolness didn't stop there though. As I was picking up the Easter prize I was looking for a few plastic eggs to fill with candy for Benj. Why is it the boy stuff is always ultimately more cool than the girl stuff? I mean, when you have these...

Hello Kitty eggs just pale in comparison. I mean Kitty and the flowers & hearts are cool and all but, Transformers take the plastic egg to a whole new level.

Our Easter weekend was packed full. In fact, we had planned to do the egg dying earlier, but ended up doing it late Sunday night before we went to bed. That said, the amount of stuff we got done over the weekend was amazing. We had a chance to visit with my brother's family who came for Conference weekend. So that meant a ton of fun with 5 nieces as well as 4 sessions of General Conference. Additionally, the week leading up to the holiday weekend was a pretty big deal as well.

The Business Plan Competition Final event was on Friday, with the Semi-Final being an all day event on Thursday. Thursday night, Benj and I went to the Founders Dinner, got an entrepreneurial leadership award and some overall inspiration, and Wednesday night I spoke on a Women in Business Panel for an undergrad dinner in the Marriott School and then stayed up most of the night working on a case for my Change Management class and commiserating with some of my best friends who also were being punished with this assignment for Peter's class. Grad school really does have a lot of perks! And just to prove my point on this one...

During my little late night stint on the change case project, I got an email from a good friend with the following link and an explanation that she had a mini dance party for one just to wake herself up. I was pretty groggy myself when I got the email, but promptly gave it go...and of course the song of the night was...

You've got to love a dance party with teeny bopper hits.

Despite the busy'ness, the weekend was a great one! Now to just get caught up on all the other fun stuff that we've been up to, but I've been to busy to post up!

Under Construction

Ok. I've caught a little design bug and despite the fact that I should be studying for school (yeah, 16 class days left of my formal education) I've decided to put the blog under construction. Yeah I know... I'm ridiculous and getting sidetracked... but it's fun.

That said, it's a work in progress. Don't judge me based on the unsightly hodge-podge design that's currently present. And, I'll make sure that I catch up with posting what's been going on as well.

Update: Valentine's Day Eve Idea

So if you're wondering if I followed through with my idea. I did. I'm not sure why I didn't think to snap a picture of my super cute sugar cookies, but I didn't. Oh well, there's always next year right?

The cookies were cute... for some reason my darling mother has sent me lots of different Valentine Day themed cookie cutters. I think I have a heart cookie cutter of almost every size possible. But my favorite is was the set she sent me several years back... it has an X, O, and lips!

Anyway, the new recipe worked great and I recommend it completely. Definitely cook them the shorter time stated if you're looking for super soft. In my recipe digging of late I found another sugar cookie recipe that I might just have to try. I'm not the biggest sugar cookie fan, but the picture of this looks oh so good and to be honest, the cookbook that it comes from I'm simply loving right now... you can check out some of the other recipes she has by visiting here, so I'll have to let you know what happens when I give it a whirl.

Valentine's Day & Fire Drills

So what exactly do Valentine's Day & Fire Drills have in common?

Nothing. Unless you're me, and then you have the odd ability to make crazy things happen when you least expect or desire them to. My skill set here is amazing, but that's a story for another day.

So here's how it all went down.

We decided not to do anything fancy-schmancy for Valentine's Day this year; so instead, we planned to go to dinner and agreed that anything we did do would just be simple and heart felt. We were stoked about going to dinner, mainly because on special occasions we consider going outside the typical "spending zone" meaning we got to go to one of our favorite restaurants in the world I think...

We avoided the craziness of Utah restaurants and their no reservation policy and decided to go on Thursday before Valentine's Day weekend. I love this idea and would apply it to almost any holiday because it means that you get to spread out the celebration and have more fun than if you agreed to only do things on the specified day.  Anyway, dinner was super yummy and we enjoyed the evening out. 

I still wanted to do something sweet for Benj, so I decided to get up and make breakfast for him on V-Day. He had to work that morning, but that was ok with me... I could definitely get up and have breakfast ready for him to eat before 6AM right? 

What was I thinking!? Do you know how early a 6AM deadline feels like when you've spent the majority of the last week pulling late nights and early mornings and stressing over what appears to be the craziest 2 weeks of the last semester of your MBA program thus far? Despite my exhaustion, I was determined to succeed on this, so I planned the breakfast and told Benj about my idea so he could anticipate the moment rather than just be rushed that morning on his way to work. 

5AM came early as usual, and I jumped out of bed as my alarm went off and hustled to the kitchen to quietly fix breakfast while Benj caught a few more zzzz's. This was definitely a breakfast I was capable of... pink heart pancakes with strawberries & cream, bacon, and fresh squeezed orange juice. The pancakes were turning out super cute, the bacon was crisping up nicely on the broiler pan in the oven (I had just opened the over door to check on it) and was working on snapping a quick picture of these little beauties, when I was greeted with the shrill sound of our smoke detector...ahhhhhh!

Somewhere in all the multi-tasking that was occurring in my exhausted state and in the wee hours of the morning, I had forgotten that ventilation was a necessity in our basement apartment when cooking such things as... well, bacon. My opening the oven door had produced just enough smoke that our smoke detector thought it was time to tell the world of its capabilities. I grabbed a dish towel and started waving it furiously to get the smoke away from the little beast. Then it dawned on me that our incredibly great upstairs neighbors had sleeping children and probably thought their house was burning down because they could hear our smoke detector. It was only a matter of seconds that the darn thing had been going off, but I panicked at that thought & opened our bedroom door to call Benjamin to the rescue. 

Poor prince charming leapt from his bed, but the gush of air that came from me pushing our bedroom door open silenced the smoke detector almost instantly. So there we both stood, me in my panic and Benj looking half asleep yet ready save the day once he figured out exactly what I was chattering on about. 

I just smiled, gave him a peck on the cheek and told him to go back to sleep for the next 5 minutes before his alarm went off. 

The picture of the pancakes is terrible, but you can take the poor lighting as proof that it really was snapped just as that beastly smoke detector went off. I guess I could have taken another one, but then Prince Charming woke up, smothered his pancakes with strawberries & cream and devoured them. He was also kind enough to laugh at the early morning wake up call and just shook his head as I acted out the whole thing while he ate breakfast. Sometimes I think he wonders about his crazy wife, but at least I keep his life exciting!

Valentine's Day Eve

So with Valentine's Day almost upon us, I've decided that I'm going to stick with tradition. Growing up we'd make a treat and write up our little dinky school-kid valentine cards and then go to the farm. Despite the fact that Grandma and Grandpa knew we were coming, it was always fun to drop our treats and run. When we got older, we really got creative. First we'd hit the back door and run to the front of the house, and then we'd drop another set of treats at the front door (which my grandma says is the more "formal" side of the house) and then run to the back.

Seeing that we're in Utah and a drop and run to the farm in Gilbert, AZ might be a little bit out of our reach I suggested to Benj that we drop and run to his sisters & their families - who both live nearby here in Provo. He agreed and I'm excited to try out a new recipe for sugar cookies.  Also, because I'm new to the blog thing, or actually just because I didn't think about it when I posted about it previously... the awesome recipes for orange rolls and Cafe Rio pork that I mentioned can be found on her site as well.  So far, everything I've tried here turns out amazing, then again...she is from Arizona so what else would you expect.

Life in the Tanner

Lately I've felt like life outside the Tanner building has been pretty limited. The last 2 weeks have been pretty jammed packed with meetings, classes, homework, and more meetings. Busy, busy, busy!

Often, when I'm outside the Tanner - say when I'm at church, or with family and friends - people ask me "so how's the grad program going?" And I usually make my response as short as possible. Not because I'm trying to put people off really, but because I'm trying to have my time outside be as "Tanner-free" as possible. 
But here I am, almost done with my 2 year program, and beyond Benj (who I move to sainthood for putting up with my antics, crazy schedule, and vent sessions; & my amazing parents who have been incredibly supportive despite the fact that they know for sure now that I'm completely nuts) people don't really know what it is I do everyday. So, here's just some of what keeps me on the move.

This year I've spent quite a bit of time with this:

I was recruited to be the Events Director because somehow people heard that I used to "do that for a living".  I laughed when I heard that, mainly because my days event planning were surreal - oh the stories from that job! Despite the craziness, its been a good time because 1) I get to work with some pretty talented people; and 2) I've had fun working with the marketing director on the logo redesign (the new one is above) and creating this years theme for the event. 

This semester's classes are all electives, which has been nice for a change. I have a couple of HR classes - Talent Management is by far my favorite, probably because it seems the most applicable. If I'm not in class I'm probably studying or reading for class in "the office".  Michelle (an MBA buddy) and I study on a specific set of couches on the fourth floor of the new wing. I guess we're there so often that the administration (who's offices are also on the 4th floor) have taken noticed and have talked about getting us name plaques for those couches. I guess it's true that we do spend quite a bit of time there, the other day I was there by 6:45am, left for a class, then returned and stayed until my next class at 2pm. 

When I'm not in "the office",  I'm working. Yes, that's right... "working". I'm a coach for an undergrad field study. When I agreed to this I was excited about the estimated hours, 2 -2.5, that were to be clocked each week. I adore the team of undergrads that I mentor, the project isn't too hard, and grad pay is pretty nice, but a more truthful time estimate would be 5-6 hours. I'm not opposed to that, but there's that issue about budget and being able to compensate me. So I'm desperately trying to still do a good job but scale it back.

And finally, I'm researching this semester - women in business. I started the project last semester but we're finishing up with our qualitative research this semester, which means focus groups! So evenings are filled with MBA women and treats with the topic of discussion being focused on personal experiences in the program and how we can recruit more women into the program. The saga that I could tell on this one is lengthy, so if you really want the full beef about how to get more women in BYU's MBA program ask... otherwise, just take my word for it - it's more complicated than it sounds!

So there you have it. My life in the Tanner. 

BYU B-Ball: That's Where it's At!

We're definitely Cougars & we bleed blue! That said, we wouldn't have missed last night's basketball game against the Utes for anything. Who doesn't love a good, long-standing rivalry and a chance to sit in a packed house & anticipate a really good game?

We had a blast, and even though our seats were closer to the rafters than the floor, the excitement & energy in the Marriott Center was awesome! There were plenty of dunks, fast breaks, 3-pointers, amazing plays, good fakes, some really lousy fouls, & plenty of banter between fans. Oh the joys of basketball, especially between the Cougars & the Utes!


So let the record show:

It's time to Rise & Shout...'cause the Cougars are Out!

Thanksgiving Feast

Somehow, I forgot to post about Thanksgiving. So instead of going back & trying to figure out how to put this in order with the rest of the posts we're just going to take a moment right now and recap our Thankfulness rather than skip over it completely.

It was a great holiday - we spent it here in Provo together and had pie with some of Benjamin's family in the evening, which was incredibly fun & delicious all at the same time.

Benjamin had to work that morning, but we took on the whole Thanksgiving feast between the two of us.

He took care of the turkey:

And I took care of side dishes & somehow we ended up with all of this for 2 of us (we ate Thanksgiving at least once each day until it was all gone too)!

We were both happy with how everything turned out (even if making the pomegranate jello took me 3 trys and 2 phone calls to my mom to say "it's not setting up, so tell me again". I'll be honest, it was almost more fun that way because I got to chat with my family in AZ throughout the morning while they were making dinner too). But most important it was a day filled with things to be thankful for - we're extremely lucky to have so much & after talking about it for a bit, we decided to get with it, and sit down & eat!

Going Gourmet

So Benjamin is an amazing cook. I'm not all that bad either, but I definitely stick to what I know - Mexican food and the basic "What My Mama Taught Me" fare. But Benjamin, he can whip up a mean Red Pepper Pasta and when you sit down...well, you feel like you've got your own little Italian Mama, a great meal complete with a crisp green salad, warm bread with that oil/vinegar combo to dip it in, & of course, that heavenly pasta as the main course. 


I on the other hand, am definitely the baker. I love making pies, breads, cakes & anything that comes out all warm and/or gooey after resting in the oven for a bit. **This is a total side note: Before I started dating Benjamin, there was only one thing that never seemed to turn out right for me when it came to baking - chocolate chip cookies. A total outrage I know, but I tried every recipe, asked my mom what her best kept secrets were one too, but it never seemed to turn out. They were too greasy, too hard, too flat, too everything...the only thing they weren't was good/perfect. (And yes, my mom has told me over and over again that those two words, good and perfect, are not the same thing.) Here's what I was aspiring to (it wasn't like I was asking to be Julia Child or anything, I just wanted a good cookie):

Now here's the catch about my cookie-making problem - every boy loves cookies. It's the staple treat a girl takes to a guy when she's interested right? Well with that said, you can see my problem...I needed amazing cookies and instead I was turning out something that could double as clay pigeons for target practice rather than something I could woo gentlemen with. Even though I had previously stayed away from the cookie disaster, I decided that I better give it one more shot after meeting Benjamin. He didn't know about my problem & that was a good thing too - that kid loves cookies & if I couldn't deliver I figured I better come up with a good alternative quick. 


So I tried one more time, using all the tricks I'd ever heard and hoping that maybe, just maybe something decent would magically appear when I opened the oven door. I don't know what it was, but it was definitely magic or I'd finally found the right special ingredient that I'd been missing... the right man. I'm kidding here, but I'm glad that I have a captive audience for my cookies now & even more grateful that my cooking making disaster days appear to be over.


So now that we're back from my cookie tangent - Benjamin is a gourmet. It's not just great pastas that this kid whips up. I feel like I've travelled the world since I met him. Indian, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Thai - and the list goes on & on. I've learned to like fish (mostly), and have tried a bunch of things I probably wouldn't have without him around. 


I've even picked up the cooking fetish myself and have found some favorite new recipes (amazing orange rolls & "Cafe Rio-like" Sweet Pork) & great blogs to follow if you're looking for great cooking ideas for healthy eating. But to showcase the type of talent we've got hanging around our house, take a look at these beauties. 

The Salmon/ Sweet Potato/Broccoli Combo

Indian: Chickpeas & Rice/ Cucumber Salad

Lets go Greek: Souvlaki/ Pita & Tzatziki Sauce/Spinch Salad with Sun-dried Tomato Dressing

Yeah, he's even willing to grill in the snow

Thai Basil Chicken with Vegetables  

And this is only a small taste of what we've got going around here. Now that I think about it, this is probably the wrong post to finish up while trying to decide what to make for dinner tonight - there's just too many good options.