{Ali}

{The Most Wonderful Time of the Year}

Well, it's finally here!  The most wonderful time of the year!

I bet you thought I was going to say Christmas, right?

Well, I do LOVE Christmas!  But today is the first day of college football, and the first day of Utah Football Tailgating!  I couldn't be more excited!  We have such a fun group, and we always have a FABULOUS time!

Here's to College Football and the UNIVERSITY OF UTAH UTES!

Do you love college football?  If so, what team is your favorite? 

Do you tailgate? 

Happy Thursday Friends!

 

 

 

{Summer Bucket List Progress}

 Good Morning and Happy Friday!

Yesterday, I took a look at my 2013 Summer Bucket List and realized I was seriously slacking!  It's the end of summer, kids are going back to school, the night's are getting cooler, and football games are on the horizon!  And I still have a bunch of items on my Summer Bucket List to check off!  Let's see what kind of progress I have made:

 

I was able to check a few items off my list back in July when I scheduled a weekend away at The Canyons in Park City.  We discovered a new hike, rented bikes, and dined out al fresco on the patio.  What a fun weekend!  But since then, I haven't done too much!  I did attend an outdoor concert with some friends.  We saw Kenny Loggins at Red Butte Gardens, which was a great night!

My company has a night at the Salt Lake Bees, (our local Triple-A baseball team) which was last Saturday night.  Summer + Baseball + Fireworks = FUN!

Not sure what I am looking at?

Anyway, we've also had dinner out on our patio quite a bit, as well as outdoor restaurants.  My favorite thing in the summer!  And I've gone to he Bountiful Farmer's Market, but not the Salt Lake Farmer's Market.  Still so many items left to check off! 

I think we will do an outdoor movie night soon, which may also involve making s'mores over the fire pit.  Boating is out of the question, due to my ACDF surgery.  Too much jarring for my neck, riding in a boat.  Bummer.  We may still get to a Drive In Movie, and the Utah State Fair is still about a month away.  So, I guess I might get more than half of my list done!  :)

Oh, and I did finally pick a summer theme song!  Well, I actually picked two.  I love them both, and they are both songs that we do in Zumba, and they make me happy and just feel like summer to me. 

One Direction - The Best Song Ever

Katy Perry - ROAR

Yes, it's true.  I am a One Direction fan!  :)  Well, I guess I better go get busy on my bucket list!  Have a great Friday and a fabulous weekend!

Do you have a Summer Bucket List?

What is the funnest thing you have done this summer?

I'd love to hear from you!

 

{26 Years! We Made It!}

{26 Years}

26 years ago today, I said "I Do" to my best friend.  I don't know where the time has gone, but I swear it doesn't seem like it's been 26 years.  I've been with Carl longer that I've been without him.  The years haven't always been easy, but they have been so worth it.  I can't imagne holding anyone else's hand through this crazy thing called life. 

• We've raised two pretty fabulous kids
• Lived in countless apartments and two houses
• Had 3 dogs and 1 cat
• Way too many cars and jobs (me!)
• Spent countless hours in the car together on road trips to baseball, basketball, football, softball games and cheerleading competitions
• Argued and made up
• Survived huge windstorms and house floods
• Been through tough times and good times
• Laughed and cried together

Every single thing has been worth it.  You've been by my side every step of the way, and I love you evern more now, than I did 26 years ago!

Happy Anniversary!  Here's to 26 more years together!

 

 

{8 Years}

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Happy Friday!  I am so glad that Friday is finally here.  What a long week! 

So this month is my 8th Anniversary.  Anniversary of what, you might ask?  Well, this little blog of mine turned 8 years old just about a week ago.  Crazy! 

Eight years ago, I didn't know anything about blogging (I still don't), but I decided to start documenting what was going on in my life.  I was an avid scrapbooker at the time, and my son was getting ready to start high school.  I felt like I wanted another way to document everything.  My very first post can be found HERE.  Totally cracks me up!  My blog has taken many twists and turns over the years, focusing mostly on scrapbooking and my kids, moving to crafting a bit, taking an almost two year break (very sporadic posts), and ending up back to where it is now.  Pretty much where it began.  Just me and my thoughts and my life.  Still documenting things, both big and small, exciting (to me) and non-eventful (to you), happy and sad. 

It's been fun to look back on some of the posts and remember a specific time in my life.  I'm so glad I decided to start a blog 8 years ago.  Even if I am the only one still reading it!

Some favorite posts:

A Scrapbook Layout (Madi looks so young!)

5 Random Things

My Cutie Patootie Niece Erin (This girl is now a sophomore in high school!)

Congrats Madi!

Happy 2007

Twinkle Toes Tyson

The End of a Chapter

Some Mad Dog Love

First Day of School

Tyson's College Choice

Sweet Cheyenne Boo

Softball Football and Chloe

Master Bathroom Reveal

The End of an Era

DIY Chalkboard

Steak & Arugula Sandwich

Weightloss and GPP

Universty of Redlands Graduation

My Favorite Things Party

Christmas 2012

 My Dad

Valentines Day Cookie Exchange

Blend Retreat 2013

Pretty crazy to go back and look at some of the posts!  So much has happened in the last 8 years!  So much that I didn't even blog about! 

All in all, I'm really glad I started this blog!  It's nice to be able to look back on the years! And it is always nice to connect with others via the internet!  Thanks for coming along on this ride with me!

HAPPY FRIDAY! 

And now, I have a couple of questions for you:

Do you blog?  If so, for how long?

Do you like reading blogs?  What are some of your favorites?

Thanks for stopping by!  I'd love to hear from you!  Leave me a comment!

 

{12 weeks post ACDF Surgery}

WOW!  I can't believe it's already been twelve weeks since my ACDF Surgery in May! On the one hand it seems like it's been longer than that, but when I look at how far I have come in a short time, it is crazy!

I mentiond that I had been in pain since last November, and it was hard to even imagine what being pain-free would feel like.....well, it feels pretty freaking FABULOUS!  Although, I'm not 100% pain-free yet, I'm pretty close!  And being able to get back to being active is the BEST part!

My x-ray from my first follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon, showing the plates and screws that now reside in my neck:

According to my neurosurgeon, my neck is stronger than ever now.  The part that takes time, is the fusion part, which can take up to a year to complete.  It involves making sure that my new discs (cadaver discs + my bone shavings) fust together with my spinal cord, etc.  I will be going in for follow up x-rays every few months, in fact I go in tomorrow.

I'm hoping to be released to up my exercise a bit, which includes running more.  I have been walking like crazy and slowly jogging a bit, while trying to keep my neck somewhat stable.  No hard core running yet.  I'm not able to go boating, or mountainbiking yet.  Nor am I able to play golf, go on rollercoasters, etc.  What I have been doing is "light" zumba (what is that?), yoga and walking.  Baby steps!  I'm just thrilled to be able to get those endorphines going a bit!  It makes all the difference in the world to me!

I've had such wonderful support through all of this!  My husband and daughter have been willing to go walking with me anytime I wanted and my Zumba friends all kept me and my family fed during the first few days of post surgery, as well as keeping me motivated to heal and get back to class.  And to those that have sent emails/comments/messages to keep my spirits up...THANK YOU! I am very blessed!

One day at a time!  It's all good!

Happy Thursday friends!  We are so close to Friday and the weekend!

 

Have you ever had a major surgery that put you out for weeks/months?

What is your favorite way to get fit in the summer months?

For me it's Zumba for sure!

 

 

 

 

{New Rug in the House}

Hello, hello!  Happy Tuesday!

I am super excited to finally show you the new rug I received from Rugs Direct!  I mentioned in a post HERE that I was given the opportunity to review a rug, and let you know about a fabulous sweepstakes that Rugs Direct was hosting.

The original rug I chose, was on back order until October (popular rug!), so I chose a different one.  Same colors, but a different pattern.

My rug was delivered super fast (within a week) and the quality of the rug was FABULOUS!  I love it!

 

 

It's so hard to take photos in front of a huge window!  The colors of things get skewed a bit! The photo above gives you an idea of what the rug looks like under our dining nook table.  Love it!

The photo above is more realistic as to the colors of the rug. 

 And the photo above is a closer view of the texture. 

We have some changes planned in the kitchen over the next few months, that involve painting the cabinets white, the island a dark gray and doing something with the countertops.  I think this rug will be the perfect starting point for us!  What do you think? 

Have you ever purchased a rug from Rugs Direct?  They are having a huge August Clearance Sale right now, and when you use the code AUG15X, you will receive and extra 15% off your rug.

Here are THREE reason to buy a rug from Rugs Direct (from their website):

Rugs Direct offers the largest online selection of name-brand area rugs in the nation. But if that's not enough to convince you this is the best place to shop for rugs, Rugs Direct offers three important reasons why you should always buy your area rugs from us. First, we offer truly free shipping to any address in the contiguous USA. Seriously, free shipping. So the price you see advertised is the price you pay for the rug you are buying. Next, we offer a risk-free, in-home trial on every rug we sell. If you buy a rug from Rugs Direct and decide you don't want to keep it, we'll take it back - no questions asked. The return must be made within 30 days of purchase and you are responsible for return shipping charges. Lastly, we offer a 110% price match policy. It guarantees you absolutely cannot pay more for anyting you buy from Rugs Direct. Not only will we match any price offered by any competitor - online or a local store - but we will beat it by an additional 10% of the difference. Take a look at our frequently asked questions for complete information on our price match policy and all the advantages for buying area rugs from Rugs Direct. It should be clear, you can't make a mistake when you buy rugs from the nation's leading source, Rugs Direct.

I hope you are having a FABULOUS Tuesday!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

{Favorite Pizza on the Grill}

 
Well, hello there!  It's been a while since I posted last.  Life got busy, and I was also under the weather a few days, which is never fun!  But, I'm feeling better now and I have so much I want to post about.  There just never seems to be enough hours in the day :)

Today, I want to tell you about what has become our new favorite summer meal!  I originally posted about the Best Pizza Evah! last year HERE.  We normally just use our oven and a pizza stone to cook the pizza, but earlier this summer I was craving homemade pizza and didn't want to heat the house up, by turning on the oven (we have had a HOT HOT HOT summer here). Soooo, I thought it might be fun to try cooking the pizza on the grill, and I was right!  It was fun and super yummy!

 

1.  Gather all of your ingredients.  We LOVE tomatoes, fresh  mozarella cheese and red onions on our pizza along with pesto (the pizza dough I used was Trader Joe's Garlic and Herb dough).

2.  We recently found Grandma Sandinos Vegetarian Garlic Sauce at our local farmer's market and fell in love with it!  And Trader Joe's Pesto is always a good choice!

3.  Roll or shape your dough to the desired shape and brush one side with olive oil (I used the Vegetarian Garlic Sauce).

4.  Place the dough, olive oil side down on a MED/HIGH grill.  Now brush the top side with olive oil.

5.  It should only take a few minutes to get some nice grill marks on the dough.  Go ahead and flip the dough over (be careful, it's HOT)!

6.  Now you are ready to spread on Pesto, or whatever sauce you like on your pizza. 

7.  Add the rest of your ingredients and close the lid on the grill, to allow the pizza toppings to melt.

8.  Take a quick peek and  admire all the melty goodness!  *NOTE: if the bottom of your pizza is cooking quicker than the cheese is melting, you can slid a pizza stone or baking sheet under the dough.  We've had to do this a few times.

9.  ENJOY your pizza!  Soooo quick and easy!  And sooo GOOD!  We love to eat this out on the patio with a cold beer or glass of wine!

What is your favorite type of pizza?

Have you ever tried to make pizza on the gill? 

I'd love to hear from you!  And be sure to share the recipe!

Have a great Thursday!