Friends who DO stuff

Life changes. When that happens, you have to change with it. Sitting back and complaining about it really doesn't do anything but make you more upset about the situation. When I saw friendships in my life changing, it was sad. I definitely moped about it for longer than needed, but then I thought to myself "Cathy, you have loads of friends. Your problem is that you don't DO anything with them". That's one thing I really want out of friendships in life. I want to actually DO stuff. Not just say hi when I see you at church. (I do have other friends, with whom I do things, as seen in Cowboy month with Denae, Camille and Sarah. Thank goodness for mission friends.) ANYWAY instead of just waiting for some friend to decide they wanted to do something with me, I took some initiative, looked at all my friends and decided to ask them to DO something.
You may remember my post Cowboy Month begins. That was my first attempt to consciously initiate DOing something with a friend. Deb is a girl in my ward who I just adore. She is incredible. I invited her to be my "date" to see Juanito Bandito with Denae and David. We had a lovely time.
And guess what!? Deb invited me to go rafting this last weekend!
My one step out of my comfort zone has turned into "Friends who DO things" and I love it. We really had a great time. Made a few more friends and strengthened my testimony of acting instead of waiting to be acted upon. I may not have succeeded in my marathon training or my ride a horse for cowboy month goal, but I had a great time with great people and that is worth the 8 or so other things I had to forgo for the weekend. It was awesome!

Getting ready to hit the river

That's right. We're friends who do things.

Who knew that Wyoming could actually be beautiful?

So the July challenge (which we have established wasn't really a challenge at all) wasn't quite up to par since I missed riding the horse, but it was still fun. Kevin took me out shooting and that was really fun.

I shot four different guns and it wasn't as awful as I imagined it was going to be. I don't know why I thought it would be super awful . . . but now I don't. 

August will be a real challenge. I'll probably post on here a bit more since facebook is off limits and I'll be bored out of my mind. It will be good for me I suppose, but I'm already dreading it.

July is just great

Cowboy month continues. I found some new things to add to the festivities in the most unlikely place. Yesterday I ran a half marathon in Mona, Utah. It was Lavender Days and they do a run through the lavender fields. It was a tough course, mostly flat with a few gradual inclines, but I finished.
After the race they had lots of things to go and see. I wish that I had people there with me, but I went and did stuff by myself and asked random people to take pictures for me (except at the very end when I ran into my friend Erin).
So what kind of "cowboy" things are there at Lavender Days?

Of course you need to ride a moose

And what Cowboy is anything without an Indian?

Do a little Indian dance.

cute little baby miniature pony

Bison, a staple of any good cowboys life . . .  maybe?

and ride a bull. I was actually going to get on this and ride it, but I was tired and there were lots of people around.

I also went on a wagon ride, but I didn't get a picture. It was a good day at Lavender Days and then an excellent afternoon filled with a 4 hour nap. I did manage to be a bit social and went to Battle of the Bands with some people from the ward. It was super fun, even if I was ridiculously tired. I also saw the man I'm going to marry. . .  maybe I should work on actually talking to him next time. Camille where's that book? ;)

Cowboy month begins

June was a crazy month with all the running around and just running in general for my June goal. I'm excited for this July "Challenge" which is really no challenge at all. It's just a fun month of all things Cowboy. I started off the month with a rodeo on the 4th of July. I had never been to a real rodeo before so it was a bucket list thing to do as well as an activity for Cowboy month. My friend Sarah went with me and we had a lovely time. There were a few times during those bull rides when I was sure someone was going to die and I'd never go to another rodeo again. But no one died and it was so much fun! The fireworks afterward were awesome as well and it was an overall great day.

The 4th also provided the annual Provo Freedom Run which I did alone this year. It was a good run and it's always fun to get out and run with so many people. In the afternoon there was a huge BBQ at the park by my house which was fun and that was followed by a nap. Then the above mentioned rodeo. 

Provo has some great summer activities. One of them is the Provo Rooftop Concert Series the first Friday night of every month. This month I went with my roommate Stephanie and a friend from the ward, Lauren. We had a great time dancing and people watching. I just love the great girls I get to associate with!

Saturday morning I headed up to West Valley to go to breakfast with my friend Camille. Her birthday was on the 27th of June and for her birthday her husband gave her lunch dates with her friends every day of the week. I live a bit farther than is convenient for lunch, so we did breakfast on Saturday. I just love that girl and it was fun to see her and catch up. Happy Birthday Camille!

After breakfast with Camille I headed up to Logan. For my birthday back in February, my friends Denae and David gave me tickets to the Pickleville Playhouse in Bear Lake, The Hanging of Juanito Bandito. They got me two tickets so I could bring a friend and they came as well. I asked my friend Deb to come with me. It worked out that she was going home that weekend for a wedding and would be in Logan, so I stopped and hung out with her and her family for a while and then we headed to Bear Lake. We had a delicious dinner and then went and played at a park for a while. We grabbed some "famous" raspberry milkshakes real quick before heading to the play. The play itself was worth the trip. The company, dinner, and general lounging was awesome, but the play was FANTASTIC!

Of course I had to get my picture taken with cowboy, Sheriff Jackson.

 

We just loved it! We laughed so hard, and as Deb and I were driving back to Logan, we decided we would definitely see it again. It was just SO good. I recommend it to EVERYONE! You may have to wait til next year, but you should definitely check out Pickleville Playhouse. They do a fantastic job. Best birthday present EVER!

And the night would not have been complete without a picture with Juanito Bandito!

June report

June. I guess in January I thought June would be a GREAT month to run lots of miles. Originally the goal was to run 75 miles, but when I ran 73 miles in April preparing for my half marathon I upped the goal to 100 miles. June proved to be a SUPER BUSY month. My dad had his half Ironman in Boise second weekend in June. My sister also got her mission call that weekend. That week I was doing two a day runs a few days to make up for the runs I would miss while I was in Boise. The next weekend Julie got her endowment in Rexburg so I was home again for that. That week I just didn't run as much. Luckily I had run those first two days in June so I had some fudge room. The third weekend we were off to Moab for skydiving so I was running 6 miles a day for 4 days. That made me super tired. :/ This last week was great though. With the extra miles from the first two days I was able to skip a couple days of running this last week, which was very helpful since I needed to take some tests at BYU in the mornings. Friday night I ended up going with my roommate Megan and some other people from the ward up Spanish Fork Canyon to the hot pots. It was loads of fun, but we got home at 1:30. That doesn't work so well when you need to get up early-ish to be able to run before it's too hot. There was no way I wasn't going to go. With only 2.8 miles left of my June goal, I dragged my sorry self out of bed and made the last run. My 5 hours of sleep won't be the greatest idea for my day today and I'm sure I'll pay for it tomorrow, but I did it!!

And I love that this tells me how many donuts I burned. I'm pretty sure I'd want to die if I had eaten 70 donuts.

Best Calling Ever!!

As I have mentioned before, I am the compassionate service coordinator in my ward. I really like this calling! I've found it to be a little bit tricky in a single's ward. There aren't people having babies, people having hospital stays or funerals to help with. I wrote about service "without the casserole" in this post here if you want to read it.
This time it was different and there actually was a "casserole" so to speak. I've been trying to think of something to do for the girls on their birthdays. I tend to think big when I should be thinking much smaller so I asked my roommates. Megan was inspired when she said, "Maybe just a cupcake?" So that's what I did.
When my May challenge of no treats was finally over I made a bunch of cupcakes. Now they are NOTHING fancy. Not even close. They're from a box, frosting from the store and some sprinkles. I did try to make them cute with the packaging. I got the idea on pinterest and set to work to find some cute cellophane bags. GO TO THE DOLLAR STORE!!! I went to craft stores and Wal-Mart and they had NOTHING!! The dollar store (Honks) was a success. I spent last night frosting cupcakes and then wrapping them up.

I should have taken a close up of one of them. Maybe I'll do that tonight when I get home. But here is what my counter looked like when I was all finished. Then it was time to deliver them. Who knew that a cupcake could bring so much happiness!? I did cupcakes for May and June birthdays so some of them were a bit late and others were early. One girl, whose birthday was May 7 was so HAPPY! She said I made her night! There were similar reactions throughout the night. By the time I was done I was feeling really happy too! I finished up the night with a run (2 a day runs. Gross) and then watched the end of Goofy Movie with some friends. I need to find some more service to do! My calling is the best ever!! I get to do nice things for people and feel great and the girls get a little boost in their day as well. Hurray for service!!

Hello June

Maybe I'm the only one who sometimes really has a hard time being happy for people who are getting married. And maybe it's not that I'm not happy for them, but that my own disappointment for my lack of relationship overshadows any happiness I have for the happy little lovebirds. You may recall from my birthday month of dating that I had a third date who bailed on me because he got a girlfriend. That was a hard one to take and then they broke up after 2 weeks. By then I was knee deep in April Fools and "obviously unavailable". Not that I really think anything would have happened with him, but there's that tiny little voice that says "what if?" Honestly I don't think it would have worked and I'm okay with the fact that he's engaged. My favorite part is that he gave me SUCH a hard time about not knowing "Jordan" for very long. According to my story we had been dating for 2 months-ish. Now here he is, engaged after only 2.5 months. smh. Hypocrite. :) Oh well. I hope they will be very happy. I really honestly do. And more than that, I hope I will be very happy. Oh man.
On a different note, I started out June in style. No treat month is over and this was my breakfast.

That's right. A smoothie and a cupcake. I did make some eggs as well. My roommate made cupcakes last night and she decorated this one especially for me. Earlier in May she made brownies and one pan didn't turn out how she wanted so she put them on a plate on the counter with a sign that said "Eat me" and then in tiny letters below "except Cathy". My roommates were very supportive of me in my May challenge.

May is over!!!

I have made it through my May challenge!!! Hallelujah May is over. I miss me some cookies and cake and stuff. Especially with the awesome Betty Crocker's I have living at my house! I only had one slip on day 2 when I ate some pudding because I completely forgot about the challenge. After that I was back on track and I've stayed strong. I give myself an A. Now on to June. This running thing could prove to be tricky since June keeps getting busier and busier. Here we go!

Final results for April

Final week of April. I get another A for my challenge. Yesterday I did two recipes. The foil pack chicken dinner was very yummy.

I had to cook mine longer than the recipe said. I think my chicken was bigger than what the recipe called for. It was still delicious. The coconut bars didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. They definitely don't taste like Girl Scout Samoa cookies, but they're okay. Oh well.

More April

What a week. Somehow I got tricked talked into running a half marathon in May. I have NOT been training, so this week began my training. I'll probably die, but I said that last time too. This week I ran 22 miles. Yuck.
I feel like a lot happened and now that I'm sitting down to write it I can't think of anything. Friday night I had a date with Jay (my fake fiance). Sadly I killed all his plans by going to plasma. Poor Julia hit a tendon and I almost hit her. It hurt so bad and my arm was pretty much out of commission for the rest of the night. We ended up going to dinner and watching a movie. We had talked about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang earlier this month and decided we needed to watch it, so my arm gave us an excuse to sit and watch a movie instead of going out and doing some other date thing.
Saturday morning was my long run. 8 miles. The actually running wasn't bad, it was the after that wasn't much fun. So tired and not feeling well aren't really my favorite things. I had Aubrey and Rick over for pancakes since it was the end of the week and I hadn't done my 2 recipes.
Ricotta Souffle Pancakes were pretty tasty.
My friend Tammy does a food blog and I got it from there. Mine definitely didn't turn out as pretty as hers, but they tasted okay. I should just get a pancake griddle. I think it'd help.
After pancakes I made these beauties.
Thin Mint gooey cake bars Seriously they were so easy and SO good. You could just substitute any mint cookie, keebler grasshopper or the like for the thin mints since they are seasonal. Really good. Yum.
I took them to the Sister Reunion we had for my mission and they were a hit.
The reunion was SO fun. I love seeing the sisters from the mission. Elders are great, but we really had such a great time together as sisters and I was always with sisters so we did fun stuff together on p-day. It was a "Sevilla Seis" reunion with everyone else invited to attend as well. I love the mission and I LOVE these girls.
Thanks Camille for letting us use your house and for not hating me (anymore)for my "mean" joke. I love you!
Sunday I got up and started on my 2 recipes for this week. That's right I decided to not be a slacker and Aubrey volunteered me to make dinner on Sunday. I decided to go with Chilean Empanadas which I love.
They weren't too difficult but did take some time. My dough didn't chill as long as it was suppose to . . . woops. They still turned out. I also made pretzel jello salad.
I love this, but hadn't ever made it myself. It turned out okay.
For dinner I invited Aubrey, Jay, Rick and Emma.
We had a lovely time. We played "Have you ever Smurfed?" Which can be very funny.
Dinner was followed by an Easter Musical Fireside in my stake and then Disney movie night where we watched Sleeping Beauty. I did manage to get a nap in before dinner, but it seems my body didn't take it as well as it use to since I was up until 1 unable to sleep. Oh well.

April Awareness?

So we had March Madness and my home teacher asked me what I'd be doing for April Awareness. What the heck is April Awareness? Aware of what? I guess aware of new foods for me. Week one of my April challenge is a go.

I started off the week by crossing something off the bucket list.

That's right I hiked the Y. It's definitely something to do just to say you've done it. It wasn't very exciting. Anyway.

For week one I made Butter Chicken and Cream Cheese rolls. Thank you pinterest.

My review for the chicken was that it was a bit bland. Jay ate with me and he said it was fine.

The Cream Cheese rolls were tasty, but I should have cooked them a little bit longer I think.

(I cooked them for 11 minutes)They just didn't turn out as pretty as the picture with the recipe.

March Madness

Good thing I hadn't gotten far since everything I had just got erased. Oh computers. I did two things for March Madness other than the normal basketball thing. My April Fools joke was a whole new kind of madness for me, but that's another story. You can read about it here.

The second one has to do with my New Year's challenge. If you missed the results for February you can read about it here. I didn't post it until recently since it had to do with dating and I was working on the aforementioned April Fools joke.

So March Madness. Deb, one of the greatest people ever, invited me and a whole bunch of other girls from our Relief Society to do her version of March Madness. Read The Book of Mormon in a month.

I was very hesitant to take on this challenge. I love to read, but what a daunting task. 531 pages of scripture. That's 18 pages a day! This isn't Harry Potter, where you just can't put it down and can read for hours and hours. This is scripture. For those who have read The Book of Mormon you know what I'm talking about. In the end I decided that I could do it. That is, afterall, what a challenge is about. Pushing yourself.

The beginning was amazing! I found it very easy to keep up with the reading schedule and I was really getting a lot out of it. As time went on, it got more difficult and I'm ashamed to say, it may not have been the quality reading it should have been. After a week of always being 2 days behind I finally caught up.

I would have made it if I hadn't decided to go to the movies on Saturday night. We Bought a Zoo. See it. So good. Anyway, when I got home from the movie at 12:15. I sat down and finished the last 6 pages. April 1, 2012 12:30 a.m. I finished The Book of Mormon.

What an amazing book that truly testifies of Christ, gives us answers to our questions and guidance for our lives. I know it is a book of God. What a great blessing to have it in my life.

I give myself an A on this challenge. I'd give myself an A+ but I missed it by 30 minutes.

February follow-up

In case you missed it, this month was my birthday. My friend Katie decided she wanted to put me on her own version of the dating game.
I didn't really like that idea too much. HOW EMBARRASSING!
So she compromised and just gave me 3 dates. She planned and paid for them and my friend Aubrey found the guys to go on these dates. Since I was getting 3 dates with no effort on my part, I decided to switch February and March as far as challenges go. We'll be cooking in March and I did the dating in February.
Week 1. The play date with Ryan.
There was a plastic baggy with slips of paper containing different activities, you drew one out, did it, then picked another. We modified this, pulled out all the slips and decided what we wanted to do. We ended up going to the Bean Museum on BYU campus (for all you non-BYU people, it is not a museum of beans like I thought, it's a wildlife museum named after some dude named Bean). We then got ice cream at the creamery and finished up the afternoon with a modified version of a game out of the bag. It was fun.

Week 2. Pick a letter with Ben.
We picked letters out of a bag and then had to think of a restaurant, dessert, or activity that had that letter. We ended up going to dinner at Los Hermanos and then we were going to get cake, but never actually did. While we waited to get in for dinner we walked around Provo and played the modified game from week 1. After dinner we played some more games and had a lovely time.

Week 3. Progressive dinner with David ???
Pull a different restaurant out of a bag for an appetizer, dinner, and dessert. Sadly this one didn't happen. 3 days before the date, he cancelled. Why did he cancel, because he got a girlfriend. How do I know this? Because I figured out who it was going to be and we're facebook friends. Facebook tells all. (at least in this case). I saw him recently and he asked me how my last date went. I told him it didn't happen. You could just catch a smirk on his face (but only if you had been watching for it. Maybe it was my imagination) He doesn't know that I know it was suppose to be him. It's been having an internal battle for me to not say something like, "yeah, he bailed on me because he got a girlfriend". Just so he knows, that I know. I suppose since I haven't actually done that I get some points. Too bad I'm not on a little higher plain to not even think it. Oh well.
So instead of going on said date, I went shopping with Pam. I don't especially like shopping, but we had a good time. For my week 3 I'm going to count my trip to Zion with Wes and Aaron. We were in the car together for A LONG TIME!! Longer than any normal date should be. We played the game from the previous 2 dates and I had a great time. Call me a cheater if you want, but I'm totally counting it.
Date 4. Miniature golf with Ryan.
That's right, Katie's plot seems to have worked since Ryan (week 1) asked me out for a second date. We went a played black light miniature golf. It was really fun and I won! He might argue that point, but I was the only one who got a hole in one on one of the hardest holes of the course. He said that himself. I took my camera but I forgot to take a picture. Oops.

January results

Can I just say I'm really glad January is over? This whole no spending thing is the pits. I need some real food. Tortillas just aren't going to cut it anymore. My cute visiting teacher felt so bad for me she sent me home with oranges and fruit leather just so I wouldn't have to live on tortillas alone. (I'm not really living on only tortillas, but from the looks of my fridge you wouldn't know that).
So the results for January's challenge. I'm going to give myself a B+. I had 5 cheats I guess you could call them. The first one was when chicken was on sale. Those marque board things outside the grocery store work. I wouldn't have even known chicken was on sale. Dang you advertising!
Second, I'm a mentor for 4-h and I went rollerskating one week with my girl Clara. It was only $3, but still . . . whatever, I didn't fall and we had fun.
Third, I went out to eat with a friend. She has been in Florida for the last 8 months and is leaving for Guatemala like yesterday or today or something. I wasn't going to tell her that I'd just have to pass when I hadn't seen her in FOREVER. Relationships are way more important.
Fourth, I had to put gas in my car. I'm not a fan of walking everywhere. Especially when my ward activities are 4 miles away (one way) and at night.
Fifth, probably the lamest one, I bought the new Star Trek on amazon for a total of 5.78 (includes shipping). 2 disc set! I know, so lame. Whatever, I'm gonna watch me some Chris Pine and love every minute.
Not a complete success but not a complete fail either. Grocery store, I'll be seeing you tomorrow. February, I'm ready for you. Let's try some new food!!!!!