2012 Catch-Up

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted anything. I decided to do a quick summary of the rest of 2012 since we actually had  quite a bit happen.

August - After Robert finished his summer session at BYU we drove down to spend a week in San Diego. Of course that was full of fun. My mom and Kristine decided to come up and visit us in Utah so we brought Gabe back up with us and my mom and Kristine joined us a day or two later. It was great to have them up here. An added bonus was we got to see Heather and Ball and her girls who stayed at our place because they were brining Brianna down for school. With only being in a two bedroom condo our house was definitely full!!

September was a fairly quiet month. Robert started his fall semester and I did alot of canning. Other than that it was peaceful. We were able to go to Washington to see Grandma Faulkner which was a great blessing. I had to go to Seattle for a work conference and Robert came afterwards and we drove to Shelton and spent a few days with Grandma. We hadn't been able to come back since we went there on our honeymoon. It was great to see Grandma.


Robert with Grandma Trudy and the dogs (Millie, Daisy and Chester)

October a bit more hectic but full of great experiences. Robert was taking a Honors Doctrine and Covenants class that required a week long Field Study Trip to see select church history sites. (I will do a seperate post for that since there is some great pictures from that trip.

Nauvoo Temple

Before we left for the Church History Trip we had a Clue Party with some of our friends. It was a potluck dinner and then I supplied a dessert buffet. We played Clue in the apartment with each person dressed up as a character.

The cast of clue (we have such great friends)

November - Robert experienced his first snow fall on the 9th of November. It was a pretty light snow, but exciting for me all the same.

Robert in his first snow fall

We weren't able to go down to San Diego for Thanksgiving so instead the family came to us. It was great having the family up here. While we had everyone together we had decided to take family pictures (the first ones since I've been married).

One of our family pictures (taken in Provo Canyon)

Robert carving the turkey

December - Robert finished his first full semester at BYU and then we headed down to San Diego for a few weeks. The best part was that our friends, Kaylie and Nate Burgi, were joining us on our trip. They had decided to come down and visit San Diego and of course go to Disneyland!! They were down for 8 fun filled days! We spent two days at Disneyland, a day at SeaWorld (courtesy of Jessica Snodgrass...the best sister ever!), a day at the beach and Birch Aquarium (Kaylie had never been to the beach), two days relaxing, and a few days site seeing. It was fun playing tour guide.

Robert, Heather, Kaylie, Nate in front of the castle

Us at the Mormon Battalion

We left San Diego on January 31st and headed back to Utah wondering what 2013 will hold for us.

And that my friends is a VERY brief summary of the remaining months in 2012.

Rainstorm and Ward Campout

On July 16th we had a great rainstorm come to us in Provo. It started with lovely thunder and lightning (mainly we saw flashes occassionally with lots of rolling thunder). Suddenly it began to pour. Only 2 hours ago it had been 94 degrees outside. Now there was a nice breeze coming through. The rain was mingled with some bits of hail.

The view of the sky from our front door

The pic is not blurry...its the rain

It was a great break from the heat, but it didn't last very long. Within the hour the rain was gone and skies were clearing up.

That weekend, the 20th, was the annual ward campout. Robert and I were excited, but a little nervous because the skies we beginning to darken and lightning was seen to the south of us. We decided to carpool with friends of ours since the parking at the campsite was very limited.
It took us awhile to get up to the campsite and people forgot to inform us that half of the road was unpaved and through the mountains...literally. Our friend's car was a Geo Prism and I don't think it liked the off-roading very much. On the way it started to rain. Finally we got there, and thankfully after a few minutes the rain cleared up. Time to setup our tents.

We realized our tent was facing downhill so decided to rotate our tent. This was the final position.

After we setup our tents we joined everyone for dinner. It was delicious. We had chili dogs, potato salad, BBQ ribs, chicken kabobs and watermelon.
After dinner groups started breaking up and playing games. Our group ended up playing Classic Uno, Speed Uno, some other game with the Uno cards (I can't remember the name) and then "what's yours like". It was alot of fun getting to know different couples in the ward. We ended up playing games for hours. And I am glad Robert and I brought snacks up because they were a big hit with everyone. (Gotta love the bins at Sunflower market (aka. Sprouts)
Finally it was off to bed for me. Woke up to a light rain during the night but nothing major. And then woke up in the morning to breakfast of bagels, cream cheese and Costco muffins (yum yum).
After breakfast we decided to take down our tents and get a fairly early start home (ok 8:30am start, but still fairly early).

Robert "cleaning out the tent"

Our friends Kaylie and Nate. I didn't realize Nate was making a face until later. Silly guy.

This was the view of our drive coming back to Provo.

It was so pretty. The lake looked like mist instead of water.
It was a great time with great people. I look forward to the ward campout next year.

Anniversary (3 Years)

On July 18th it was mine and Robert's 3rd wedding anniversary. How quickly time has flown by. Since we had a ward campout the weekend of our anniversary we decided to do soemthing on our actually anniversary (Wed.)...imagine that!!

Since Robert was a tad bit impatient we decided to exchange gifts when he got home from school.


This is a sign I made for Robert
(Pride and Prejudice is one of our fav movies to watch



A game Robert wanted, and received



From Robert: My new office buddy.
To scare away all the mean contractors



Robert gave me the pressure canner I wanted. Love It!!!

I love giving Robert presents...now only if we could stay on budget :-)


Me ready for dinner and waiting for Robert

For dinner we went to Goodwood BBQ. It has been quite a few years since I have been there, but it was still really good. We started with the Onion Rings appetizer. Oh my, I am in love! They were huge and extremely delicious served with amazing Buttermilk Ranch. Then we had side salads. For the main course we both had the two meat meall. I got BBQ chicken and baby back ribs, Robert got baby back ribs and the sausage. We were so full we could barely touch our main dishes. But they made great leftovers the next day for lunch.

After dinner we went to Best Buy to buy another 3DS game. (We have issues). This is Robert with his new game.

I don't know why I am so bad at taking pictures, but here is one of Robert and I before we are leaving the BestBuy parking lot.

Overall it was a wonderful day with my wonderful husband who loves and spoils me...but its ok...I spoil him too.

Domesticity (continues)

Is Domesticity really a word? I could be intelligent and look it up, but decided whether it was a word or not, I like it and would continue to use it.
My determination to save a few pennies has continued to grow. We have started making our own bread products. Not just wheat bread for sandwiches, but hamburger buns, fun breads (like the jalapeno cheese bread), english muffins, banana bread, and etc. This Sunday we are having shredded BBQ beef sandwiches and I will be trying my hand at making French Rolls for the sandwiches. It has been fun learning how to make different types of bread and even better...saving money. And yes, it does save money.

Wheat Bread: Don't pay attention to the poor cut lines,
I am still working on it.

Homemade English Muffins. I leave a few out and keep the
rest in the freezer.

Another way we have been saving money is by making our own dishwasher detergent. I got the idea from my sister-in-law, Christine. She had posted about making her own laundry detergent (which I plan on doing once ours gets close to running out). So I was looking online and found a recipe for dishwater detergent for hard water (which we have). Everytime we would do dishes everything would come out with a film on it and we would have to rinse and wipe down just about everything before we put it away. Kind of defeated the point of the dishwasher.  So I thought I would take a chance and make the detergent. What a wonderful day it was when I first used the detergent. The dishes came out squeaky clean with no residue on anything. Needles to say, I have been converted.

Detergent. The mixer on the left is just borax,
washing soda and kosher salt.
The Citric Acid is added for the hard water.

I still have other ideas for penny pinching that I will post later. Like reusable paper towels, more canning, putting together our own emergency mylar meals for food storage, household cleaning products (which won't happen til we get close to running out), and any other possible things I can find.

My wonderful friend Katie made this for me
before we left. I had to include it as it has
become part of my baking uniform.

Full weekend in Page, AZ

This past weekend (July 6th - 8th) Robert and I went down to Page, AZ because his nephew, Milton, was turning 8 and being baptized. Friday night we celebrated Milton's birthday with a party and some of his friends.


Milton and his awesome birthday cake



Milton and John before the Baptism

Saturday morning Milton Victor Owens was baptized by his dad John Thomas Owens II. Robert was asked to give a talk on baptism and I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. It was such a wonderful day. And I am honored to have been a part of Milton's special day.

Picture of the family that was able to make it: L to R
Ken (Dad), Dennise (Mom), Christine, Pierce, John, Milton,
Quentin, Robert and Heather

After the baptism Christine (Robert's sister), made us all delicious sack lunches and we piled into two cars and took a trip out to the Grand Canyon, North Rim. It is a trek of about 2-2 1/2 hours, but totally worth it!!

View from the bridge over the Colorado River

Robert and Milton at the North Rim, Grand Canyon

The North Rim, Grand Canyon

After being at the Grand Canyon for a bit we drove back to Page, AZ, went to the Canyon King Pizzeria for dinner and then to bed.

On Sunday we went to church, then went back to Christine's house for delicious German Apple Pancakes, and then Robert and I left for the drive back home.

It was a great weekend and so glad that we were able to go down and spend time with Christine and her family (especially since they will be moving to Ohio in a few weeks).

The Domestic Bug

So lately I have had the "Domestic Bug". At least in the kitchen. I have become obsessed with canning, baking, and looking for ways to save money and eat less processed foods. This started a few weekends ago when I went on a canning and baking frenzy.
Canning was my first task. The local Mexican Market was having an AMAZING sale on pineapple, limes, tomatillos, jalapenos, and other veggies and fruits. So we stocked up. I wanted to make some tomatillo salsa I had made in the past. Robert got the pineapple to eat, but it was a little too ripe so I decided to turn I decided to turn it into jam.

My canning efforts

I made a double batch of tomatillo salsa, but still had a few tomatillos left, so I just canned those. I also wanted to try canning tomato sauce. And then the most beloved item ended up being the pineapple-lime jam. Robert says it is like sunshine is a jar. It is really good. I ended up giving one of our jars to some friends in our ward.

On Sunday (the day after canning) I wanted to bake some bread so I decided to go for a jalapeno cheese bread. I only had a recipe for cheese bread so I just added some diced and slightly blended jalapenos.

Braided Jalapeno-Cheese Bread

I added a little extra cheese since Robert loves cheese. The recipe made two loaves, but we had pretty much eaten the first loaf before I took pictures. The bread is excellent warmed with a little bit of cream cheese.

Monday I made whole wheat bread for our sandwich bread. I forgot to take pictures so you will just have to trust me on it. The bread was delicious and will be our new sandwich bread instead of store bought. The recipe I have is for two loaves but was a bit on the light side so I think next time I will try doing a batch and a half but still make only two loaves, that way it the bread is a bit more dense.

I plan on trying out more bread, canning and other recipes to help save money and to eat less peservatives and processed foods.

San Francisco @ Art and Wine Festival

Every year I have a work training the first weekend of June in San Francisco (San Mateo to be more exact). Every year the Foster City Art and Wine Festival is the same weekend. I had been there a few years ago with my friends and co-workers Jessica, Katie and Aimee. But since we had been married, Robert had never been so this year we decided to stay on Saturday so he could go. It is a fun festival with booths selling everything from food to purses to chinese pottery.


Robert and I walking to the fesitval
(it is located on the Bay in Foster City)

The food was awesome! Robert and I got 
BBQ chicken and BBQ Pork kabobs to share



Jessie and Robert on the slide



Nathan (my friend Jessie's son)
One of the cutest kids you will ever meet