2 DAYS!

Yay for work trips! Friday night, we're heading to Anaheim for CHA! It's going to be a crazy few days, but I'm excited to escape the cold weather for a few days, enjoy a little sunshine and catch up with some friends! Forecast for the next several days in Orange County: sunny skies and 60 - 70 degrees! Can't complain! I'm thinking I might need a camera for this trip...your thoughts?

Welcome to our doorstep!

Picture on the left: view of handrail when leaving our house. Picture on the right: what you see when you approach our doorstep. What does this equal? Death trap. Pure ice. Disaster waiting to happen! It almost got me last night, but I managed to not go down! I think all my walking-on-ice practice in Rexburg is paying off! Yes, we salt it every day, but the gigantic icicles keep coming back! So, visitors beware...

Random thoughts!

My goodness...it's hard to believe that January is almost over! February will be here this week! Soo much has happened in the last few weeks, and I feel like I've been slacking in the blogging department, but I feel like I have to have atleast one picture with every post...and not having a camera makes that a little more difficult!


First, it's been kind of a sad/interesting/weird night after hearing of the passing of our sweet prophet, President Hinckley. Weird in the sense that President Hinckley has been the prophet most of my growing up, and it's going to be weird to not see him at Conference and other Church meetings. I was up in Rexburg this past weekend for the temple open house, and President Hinckley was scheduled to be there this coming weekend for the dedication. After I got home from Rexburg this afternoon, I was reading one of President Faust's last talks he gave before he passed away and was thinking about how President Hinckley isn't going to be with us much longer, and then about an hour later found out he had passed away. Interesting how things like that happen. I'm grateful for the opportunities I have had to be in attendance at meetings where he was present. What an incredible leader he has been!


I mentioned I was up in Rexburg this weekend...it was soo fun to get away for the weekend after a busy week at work! It was amazing to be able to go to the temple open house after having watched that beautiful temple be built! Rexburg has changed soo much in the last 5 years...part of me is excited for all the new changes, but part of me wants it to stay the same! I stayed with Erin and Spencer in Sugar City...who would have guessed that Erin would end up in Sugar??!! I think it's kinda funny and Erin and Spencer are so funny together! Erin and I stayed up til atleast 1 in the morning both nights just talking and talking and talking...so much fun! I think I secretly still wish I was in Rexburg! :) Oh...one other thing...I have NEVER seen Rexburg with as much snow as they have right now! It was incredible!

The next couple weeks are going to be pretty busy...I'll be down in Anaheim from February 8-13 for a trade show with work. I'm excited to go down there and hopefully catch up with some friends! Hopefully sooner than later I'll have a camera...I'm going crazy without one! Cell phone pics might have to work as a temporary fix!

Dear Camera...

I'd really like to find you. It'd be nice to update the blog with pics, but I can't find you! You've been gone since Christmas eve. For now, check Katie's blog to see what's been going on. Thanks, Lindsay

Happy Birthday, Beth!!

Just wanted to say, "Happy Birthday!" to my friend, Beth! We were nearly inseparable during Summer 2006...we did everything together! One night at Institute, I wrote Beth a little song...it's not my best work, but I think it turned out pretty good. Or not...but here it is:

Bethy-Lou...I love you.
You brighten my day when the sky is blue!

There is no getting over you,
You are a dream come true!
My heart swells at the thought of you,
I love you, my Bethy-Lou!

I really wrote this because she hates being called Bethy-Lou, so it's really in honor of the nick name that she hates!

Happy Birthday, Beth!

ps...The picture above is the paper I wrote the song down on. You can see that it starts on the left side and then the chorus is along the bottom! I found this as I was cleaning my room in preparation for the upcoming move!

Cookie Exchange!

Tomorrow at work we're having a cookie exchange! This required making 9 dozen cookies (plus a few extras for testing as the cookies were being made for quality control purposes, of course)...that's a LOT of cookies! I knew what cookie I wanted to make as soon as I heard we were doing this little exchange thing...Ginger Crisps! These are quite possibly my *favorite* cookie! Yes, I even had my mom make some and ship them to me freshman year when I was living in Nauvoo (I think she did this for me not once, but twice! She really loves me!)...they're seriously THAT good!! So last night, I spent nearly 5 hours cooking, baking and cleaning up my mess...the counter had flour all over it! Oops! Tonight I put all the cookies in bags and attached the recipe to them...super simple. They're all ready to go for tomorrow!

And because I'm soo nice, I'm going to post the recipe. And if you ask me to, I might even be nice enough to send some to you! We'll see though...it's kind of a crazy week. No promises...but ask and see what happens! Here's the recipe:

3/4 C butter flavor Crisco
1 C flour
1/4 C molasses
2 C flour
1 egg
2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and molasses. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to sugar mixture. Roll in balls, then in sugar. Bakd at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely and pull out when barely done! (They're best when you pull them out before they start to crack on top!)

Enjoy!!

PS...yes, that's our sweet little 3 foot Christmas tree in the background that just chills on our kitchen table!

Park City with the Best Friend!!!

Erin and Spencer came down from Rexy for the weekend!! It was soo fun seeing her and Spency-baby! (Sorry Erin...I hope I have permission to call him that!) We braved the storm this weekend and went up to the outlets in Park City and got some Christmas shopping in and enjoyed a little Panda Express for lunch! Erin and I now officially have matching Fossil wallets...I bought mine a while back and talked her into getting the same one! I can't wait to see Erin again...next month I'm going to Rexburg for the temple open house! It's such a beautiful temple and it's been fun to watch it be built from the start! I can't wait!!

Haas Brothers!

Last weekend I went with my friend, John Hoyt, up to Primary Children's again to see our friend Tyler's baby who is still in the NICU. On the drive up there, John told me that Tyler's brother, Shane was also going to be there! Shane recently got home from his mission, so it's been a while since last seen him! I miss having the Haas family across the street from us...good times! It's been fun seeing friends "grow up"...as in get married, return from missions, have children, and so on!

Pictures from Thanksgiving!

I've been bad about downloading all the pictures from my camera to my computer lately, therefore all these little mini updates! We had Thanksgiving dinner the day after Thanksgiving at my aunt's home with her three children and all of their kids...10 all together!! The Otis clan keeps growing! After dinner, all the kids dressed up as pilgrims...so funny!
Here's Nat with her cheesy smile...this is what you get when you ask her to smile!The twins! They're so funny and so busy!!The Drewster dressed up as Batman!Love these kids!!

Little Beaner Update!

A few months ago, I introduced you to our Little Beaner. Well, a couple Sundays ago, we came home from church and it kinda smelled funny in our apartment (which, by the way, it not all that uncommon...and it's not our fault), so, Jac went over to the window in front of the sink and pulled the cord down that draws the blinds up so she could open the window. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but Little Beaner decided to wrap it's vine around that cord, so when Jac opened the blinds, the vine totally snapped off! Jac didn't notice what had happened and continued on her way doing whatever she was doing. A few minutes later, I went to wash my hands and had seen what had happened and started laughing...and then Jac came in and then realized what had happened and started laughing, too...both of us had tears streaming from laughing! I'm not sure why this was funny, but it was at the time! So...needless to say...Little Beaner is gone.

(The above picture is of Jac looking up at Little Beaner's vine wrapped around the blinds!)

Go See This Movie!!

What a crazy busy weekend, but tons of fun! On Friday night, I went with my friend, Heather, to see THIS movie...you have GOT to go see it! I was totally hesitant about seeing it after seeing a commercial for it and thought, "Can't Disney come up with new characters instead of recycling old ones?!" Heather and I were laughing the whole time and so was everyone else in the theater! Enchanted was soo worth the $8.50 to see it (ok...it was a bit much...I have a hard time paying that much for movies these days!)...and I came home and downloaded a few of the songs from iTunes from the soundtrack! For those who have already seen the movie will remember this dialog between Princess Giselle and 6 year old Morgan (everyone was laughing!):

Morgan: Remember not to put on too much makeup or the boys may get the wrong idea. They are only after one thing.
Giselle: What's that?
Morgan: I don't know. They won't tell me.

Go see it!! :)

I. Love. Craigslist.

Craigslist. It's really a beautiful thing! I first learned about Craigslist several years ago when it was first starting and remember thinking it was kind of odd, but I am now a believer! We posted our apartment on Craigslist on Monday night, and within 24 hours, had over 30 responses to our posting with people "very interested" in our apartment! Unbelievable! I was a little nervous when we were getting emails from people named "Bones" and "Princess Leia"...but it has all worked out and we'll be outta here on the 15th!!