Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

I spent all Wednesday Night baking this sugar bars to cut out hearts, and woke up Thursday morning to make the icing and frost them to deliver them to my family, Josh's family, and some of my friends.

Well I ran out of time so I did one for Mom & Dad to drop it off at there office.

This is what my counter looked like, I am messy.

I iced them quick, the icing tasted nice :)

All wrapped up in cellaphane with a pretty pink ribbon, Mom told me later very pretty, but also very doughy :(  so I just threw away what was left when I got home from work.

Josh was great he text me first thing in the morning and we Skyped when I was home from work.  He sent me a very, very sweet card.  And this year I got a personality test to take, last year it was love languages, this year a personality test and a leadership quiz.  

I've taken the personality quiz already as a senior at ASU, it will be fun to see how much I have changed. 

Brian goes through the temple this Saturday, very excited for him :)  

Susie Homaker

I've decided once a week to make all my meals.  So far so good.  Still have left over shredded beef from the burritos I made and tonight I made cream cheese chicken crescents and spaghetti with sauteed green peppers and pan cooked jalepeno & cheese sausage. 

You are supposed to notice how amazing this looks, I even made my own bread crumbs, but some bread in the little food processor I have and added some of the Italian seasoning in it, voila :)

And the end result, I am very proud of myself, I haven't taken to baking like I thought I would but I HAVE taken to cooking. 

I am going to make is a personal goal to start baking more too. 

Anyway, the only issue is I cook late, so I am eating late and from what I hear it is hard to digest food so late, you should eat like 3 hours before you go to bed. . . details.

I will try to not make this not become a cooking blog, but mostly I will try and add little posts about my prouder moments in the kitchen. 

South Mountain - Javelina Trail

This morning I went out to South Mountain with my friend Kayla, & met up with two of my co-workers.  A guy I work with is on a similar quest I am, we both want to practice wearing our packs, and especially wearing packs while hiking.  

We did a few different trails but I believe the main one was Javelina Trail at South Mountain.  It was really good, the weather was perfect, the trail not busy and it was fun :)

Good incline so we got a view but not an aggressive hike where I am dying, good gradual incline with ups and downs, and the ridge line was pretty cool.

The girl co-worker brought her dog Bella, and she did SO good.  I can't remember the breed but not a big dog, short little legs that really held up.  

Calculated we did about 5.4 miles at 2.5 miles and hour.  

There are some good trails I saw that I want to come back and check out for my bike, something really easy and not a lot of ups & downs, you know - flat :)

At Night I went to a bacherolette party, didn't stay long, it was at Cadillac Ranch and if I drank maybe it would have been more fun.  

There was a card game & I was supposed to get a guy there to ask me to marry him, and my girlfriend I went with was supposed to get a guys phone & call the last number dialed & talk to the person. 

We didn't win. . . 

Anyway good week :)  Crazy to think it is already February!!  

Peralta Trail

 I've decided to try hiking again, need to get in better shape so my girlfriend Kayla took me out to the Peralta Trail this past Saturday.  Thankfully she let me pick the time so I opted for 10 a.m. so I could get some sleep  and let the sun rise a bit so it wouldn't be as cold.  We had a chill spell the last few days.  

This is at the beginning of the trail, BUT even at this point I was HOT, suddenly it is 70 degrees out & I was dying.  Right after this pick I asked my friend if she would be offended if I hiked in my cami, thank heavens she was okay because WOW was the MUCH better.  

She was very smart I didn't tell me much about the hike except that it is one of her favorites...

You go UP A LOT!!!  I honestly don't know how I did it, because you are constantly at an incline, but we ran into a ton of people that made it interesting.  A few that stick out are the boyscouts :)  On a trail people going down the trail are supposed to yield to those going up, but most people don't follow this so Kayla & I moved over for everybody.  So we hear people coming down & move over when suddenly we hear a boys voice yell, "To the SIDE," and was so sweet, TONS of boyscouts all got over to the side for us to keep going, I didn't notice at first so he was even waving me through.  And as we passed them they gave us high fives.  My coordination isn't that great so I almost tripped trying to hike up and give high fives at the same time.  But it was amazing.  There had to have been 4 different "packs" maybe don't know the correct verbage but 4 groups.  

Another Fun moment was when I really wanted to die and my pace was slowing and I hear people coming up behind so I move over bc their pace was faster than mine.  Turns out to be 3 maybe 4 guys and after they pass us my friend was like WOW they were good looking, and I was like Ok lets catch up with them.  

My friend didn't tell me till later but she knew we were never going to catch up.  THEY MOVED FAST!  AND DIDN'T TAKE BREAKS.  Good Grief, I tried but we never did catch up to them.  She told me she thought it was sweet of me to try though bc she said my pace did quicken in an obvious attempt to catch up. 

Unfortunately my pace is more with the elderly which there was a surprising amount up there, a kind older couple took this photo of us.  The view was gorgeous and the weather without a warm long sleeved shirt on, perfect :)

BUT for my friend there is still more to the trail, there is an even higher point she said that is great, and there you can chill and enjoy the view.  So up we go, this is picture of me next to the Horse Rock.

This picture is a little deceiving.  I had a mild panic attack coming down the narrow ledge to the right.  And even when I was on it my friend wanted me to go further and straddle two boulders to get up and I said, NO.  And stayed stuck on that narrow ledge having a panic attack.  It took almost 10 minutes of coaxing to get me off.  And the ONLY reason I even tried is because this father and his son wanted to go up to where my friend was and they could go over or around me.  

Maybe I'm smiling because I survived. I was very confident I would die so maybe this is a triumphant moment, not sure. 

So we got down and stayed here, which is my opinion was AMAZING!  We chilled here and I was very happy.  Beautiful view and gorgeous weather, no near death moments but the hike was still strenuous so I felt accomplished still.  PERFECT!

Awww the outdoors.  

p.s. you can see my BEAUTIFUL purple gregory hydration pack.  LOVE it :)

My friend would honestly carry whatever I need and probably does pack extra for me but I am trying to hike with a pack so I get more comfortable with it.  

Added a pack even a hydration pack makes a difference.  

Can't wait till I move up to my bigger packs :/

The REAL sense of accomplishment was on the way down when I could see how much I climbed up.  Every 10 minutes or so, I'd say something like, "wow I am amazing, I managed to go up this!" and "check me out, I went up over that!"  My friend said it is very different hiking with me than her guy friends.  

New Years Day

New Years Eve I was supposed to work normal shift 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. but it died down after 6 so I worked till 6:30 p.m.

Josh & I visited a friend of his who just had a baby which was fun, they had a brand new baby for Josh to play BUT they also had a PUPPY for ME to play with.  

We had a small toast back at my apartment because we had to get up early to go climbing New Years Day.  I tried to text my friend to come a little later but she came right on time so I had to hurry to get ready & have Josh distract her.  

We went up to Superior AZ again and it was COLD!!! Snow on the ground, have you tried to climb with numb fingers & toes!!!  

Josh made me take his Jacket off :(  

But he was sweet to tie me in bc I was shaking too bad.

I had stopped and cried a few times before I got to this point, it was super scary not being able to feel my fingers and trying to grip the rock.

Josh belayed me and was very encouraging, very sweet, very patient and without him & Kayla's support I wouldn't have made it to the top.

Me coming down...

Kayla belayed Josh so he could clean the route.  We left after this, they kind of figured I couldn't climb anymore, I'd like to think they were cold too. 

I was so happy to spend New Years Eve & New Years Day with my boyfriend, we don't normally get to spend holidays together so I was happy to have these special memories... even if these memories include me freezing my tail off in Superior AZ.

Mountain Biking

Josh took me & my friend Kayla Mountain Biking & I was pretty grumpy through the first half.  I probably start most of trips with Josh like that.  

I really DON'T like going down!!!!

It is SUPER SCARY :(

Josh had to walk me down most of them in the beginning.  It takes me a little bit but eventually through our trips I accept that Josh isn't trying to end my life & I do much better.

I still don't care for going down but I was able to do most by myself. 

A few girlfriends of mine have bikes so it will be have fun to have girlfriends to go biking with.  Also they are as bad as me so I won't feel like I'm slowing them down which is will take the stress of too.  

Rock Climbing with the Girls :)

A Saturday Josh had a class I decided to take a girls weekend of fun & asked two girlfriends to go in-door rock climbing :)  

We went to Climb Max in Chandler & met up with two people I work with & it was a ton of fun!  I haven't been in-door in a little bit & I am always more comfortable in-doors than out-doors so I went on my more routes & worked my new shoes in more.  

My friend Kayla has recently been cleared from her doctor to climb so it was an exciting afternoon.         

Me belaying Raila, she did really well, it is fun to see all of us climb and work hard.  

Me about to begin a tough starting route, this is my scared face. . . 

You have to go over the bulldog face with an overhang right by your head.   A bit of upper-body to get up and over to the correct holds.  

I LOVE in-door I can climb for like 3 or 4 hours here, and boulder a little bit and be tired but happy.  Love it, out-doors is harder for me, you have to HIKE to the routes, AND HIKE down.  Jeez... tons more work, I don't even lead the climbs or clean them... I suck at out-door BUT in-door is AWESOME :)

All of us worked from the 5.5 routes up to 5.9 & few unlabeled ones.  My friends from work came after their shift was over & they were fun, I saw them on the top & thought how good they were doing on a 5.11 but realized they were doing whatever holds they wanted... really fun to explain to them how the routes worked.  They went down to 5.7's :) 

Me belayed down :) Raila has gotten so good as belaying & climbing I am really excited to have girlfriends to go out with!!!

The ONLY thing that I don't like is how unflattering harnesses are.