Give a Day. Get a Disney day.

I've found myself with some free time lately, and I decided I need to get out there and do some volunteer work! I've applied for a few part-time jobs, but until I hear anything back from them I feel like I need to get out there and do some good.

I thought about Big Brothers Big Sisters but they require a year long commitment. Which is understandable. I'm not 100% sure that I can devote that much time to something yet.

I'd LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. to do some volunteering at an animal shelter, or the humane society. BUT...I know myself well enough that I know I'd end up coming home with another "little buddy".

Riley would absolutely die.

So if anyone knows of any good opportunities, or if you volunteer somewhere yourself and you could use a tag-along friend call me!

Wanna know what another HUGE incentive is behind volunteering?! Not only do you get the satisfaction that comes with it, but right now Disney is offering a free park day pass to anyone who goes out and does a day of service.

Give a day. Get a Disney day.

There are designated places they've chosen to sponsor, but you can check out all of your options HERE.

We'd love to get a group of friends together to do the volunteer work with, and then maybe even plan a big trip to Cali this summer to use the park passes!

How much fun would that be?! Let me know if you're interested!!

The Office Poll

As I mentioned in a previous post, Riley bought me a copy of The Office Season 5 for Valentine's Day. May I just say that that's the best. gift. ever. We own every season and watch like 3 0r 4 episodes a night before we go to bed...Probably shouldn't admit our addiction, but whatever.

Anyways, I decided to mix things up a bit with my blog. I feel like it's mainly just me keeping a journal for myself, which is what I started it for at first...but I thought I'd make it a bit more interactive for anyone that reads it. So if it gets a good enough response, I'm going to start taking weekly/monthly polls from readers!

That being said, I've decided to take a poll from all those Office lovers out there. I KNOW there's gotta be people out there that watch it as religiously as Riley and I do!

Riley thinks that Creed is just the funniest guy ever. With all his random sayings and such, he's just a creep. Maybe Riley relates to him on a level? Dunno... I on the other hand absolutely love Jim. Along with probably every other girl out there. I think he has gotten a lot less funny in the most recent season, but in the "Conflict Resolution" episode, I almost pee my pants every time. This is the episode where Dwight lists all of the pranks that Jim has ever played on him.

Favorite quote being:
"This morning, I found a bloody glove in my desk drawer, and Jim Halpert tried to convince me that I had committed murder. I think he may be the real murderer."

So here's what I wanna know: What episode/character/lines are your hands down favorite and WHY? I'm really looking forward to hearing all about other people's opinions on this matter. I hold it very close to my heart...HA!

Finished Master Bedroom!

So for all of you that have read this blog since the beginning, you may have noticed that I left out pictures of our master bedroom. This was purely because it wasn't finished yet. I still had decorative pillows that matched my old bedroom, and the walls were pretty bare.

I'd been keeping my eyes peeled for a good long time for some art of some sort to complete the room. Well, today on a spontaneous trip to Bed Bath and Beyond we finally found it! "It" being the cool wrought iron tree thing on the left hand side of the first picture.

Riley REALLY likes the wall sconces above the night stand. They had some like it in the "Twilight Room" of the Anniversary Inn which was one of the rooms we stayed in before we left for Lake Tahoe on our honeymoon. So that's where we got the idea. The candle sconces aren't real candles, but rather a tea light sort of thing with little lightbulbs in the center. They even have a dim feature and flicker like real candles. Pretty cool invention!

So here ya go. After nearly 4 months, here are some pictures of our master bedroom. Now all that's left is our second bedroom...darn offices are had to decorate... If you look close enough in the second picture you may be able to see our beta fish. His name is Gamma. I'm the best fish keeper ever. I've had him AND my goldfish for over a year now!

Jazz vs. Hawks+Meeting CJ Miles!!

Monday I was doing some of my usual browsing around on KSL and found a bunch of tickets for the Jazz game that night for 10 bucks! Couldn't really beat the price considering we needed eight tickets and probably wouldn't have any luck with ticket scalpers...so Riley and I, my family, and Jordan and Alyssa went! They played the Atlanta Hawks and after a four away game winning streak, they lost...but we still had a fun time anyway. EVEN if our seats were in the nosebleeds. But the good news is there WERE rows behind us :)

Riley and I watching the game

Riley caught this free bullhorn type thing. Enjoyed messing around with it the whole game.

Tuesday night for Carter's "Good Sportsmanship Award" the players and their families got invited to come meet a Jazz player. So we went down to the Energy Solutions Arena and met CJ Miles! He seemed really nice and down to earth. And at 22, I'm sure he's pretttttty wealthy. We also got to watch the Jazz Bear perform a bunch of random stunts. It was a lot of fun!!



PS-Even though I didn't get to meet Kyle Korver (insert very sad face here) I still got a 2010-2011 Jazz "Yearbook" type thing that has a few pages with big pictures of him. I'll take it.

My First Shooting Experience

This afternoon Riley, my dad, and I drove a little ways up Farmington Canyon and took my dad's .22 and his Ruger 10/22. It was my first ever shooting experience. I'd better have some practice before I get my concealed permit, eh? It was snowing pretty big flakes, and it was freezing...but....

It wasn't as scary as I thought, but it was still pretty intimidating. I wasn't really raised in a house where anyone shot guns, whereas Riley has had them his whole life. Here's some pictures as proof...because I'm pretty sure there will be a few people that wouldn't believe I did it otherwise. You know who you are.

Crock Pot Week!

So as I mentioned before in an earlier post, I planned out our meals for this week using only crock pot recipes. I had them assigned to specific days based on cooking time vs. our schedules, etc etc. I ended up switching a few of them, but I've stuck to my plan so far.

Monday- Creamy Cheese & Broccoli Soup. We ate this before we did our strawberry dipping. I ended up doubling the amount of cheese! It was good though!

Tuesday-Swiss Chicken. That night Riley offered to help me cut up the potatoes before they could be boiled and mashed. He felt that using a huge knife would be the most productive. And it was...until he sliced almost his entire fingerprint off his pinky finger. Yikes...

Wednesday- Tater Tot Casserole All this is made up of, is hamburger, cream of chicken soup, a bag of mixed veggies, and a bag of frozen tater tots. Easy, and really yummy. Apparently they make this type of dish in Iowa all the time, so Riley really enjoyed it

Thursday- I left this cooking while I'm at work, but when we both get off we'll have Pulled Pork Barbecue Sandwiches. I bought some rolls, so it'll go nicely with those.

I have yet to make the slowcooker Chili recipe yet, but I'll make that either tomorrow or Saturday. If anyone is interested in any of these recipes, let me know. They all have like 6 ingredients or less...which is fabulous if you're like me and you're lazy.


Last night Carter played his second to last Jr. Jazz game. They lost unfortunately, but their team won some kind of good sportsmanship award. They gave each member a special T-Shirt, AND they get the chance to meet a Jazz player!!! That's even better than winning their game, right?! I told Carter that if they get to meet Kyle Korver, I'm the teams new coach ;) He also made 2 GREAT shots! As my dad would say, he "Made them from the parking lot!!" Pictures are coming!!

Valentine's Day 2010

So since Valentine's day this year was on a Sunday, we decided to celebrate on Saturday night. I came home from work that afternoon to my present from Riley. He gave me flowers, a cute handwritten note, and The Office Season 5!!!!

We went with Jordan and Alyssa to Thaifoon at the Gateway for dinner. We initially called to make a reservation but they were all booked up till about 9:30. Jordan said, "Alright. Let's make a reservation for 9:30 then. Last name Locks. First name Goldy." Needless to say, they probably didn't take him seriously. So we ended up just driving down and put our name on a list and waited. We got in in like 15 minutes! Good decision on our part not to stick with the 9:30 reservation.

After a yummy dinner of Lo Mein, Surf 'n' Turf, Beef & Broccoli, and our FAVORITE Coconut Shrimp, we came back to our house and watched "The Time Traveler's Wife". Good show. Perfect for Valentine's Day.

Since I kind of slacked and didn't get him his whole present on Saturday, I gave Riley his Valentine's Day gift on Monday. A bottle of Pepsi, some chocolates, a big thing of his favorite Orbit gum, and (drum roll, please) his own copy of "Zombieland". We love that movie, and I think he was pretty pleased with it. We went to Pottery Barn with my parents, and had lunch at Desert Edge at Trolley Square.

Monday night we had FHE at our house with Jordan, Alyssa, Jared, and Sammie. We made chocolate dipped strawberries, bananas, and pretzel rods. Along with some cheesy broccoli soup I made. This week I planned out all our meals (all crock pot recipes) and bought the stuff I needed at the grocery store. I'm hoping having the meals all planned out will minimize the amount of food that goes unused at our house... time will tell!

On a random tangent I have a funny story about Benny. Riley wasn't home one day and I was in the shower. I wasn't paying much attention to anything, but was scared out of my mind when I saw Benny sitting outside the tub area, in between the two layers of the shower curtain. He was just chillin, waiting for me to get out. He doesn't dare come any closer, because he's probably afraid I'll make him have a bath, but it was pretty funny....

Relief Society-Crock Pot Social Night

On Tuesday evening I went up to my home ward for Relief Society. I haven't been great about putting myself out there and getting to know anyone from my own ward, so I've been going with my mom the last little bit. This last event was a night specifically designed around food storage awareness. A couple of the lady's talked about the importance of dry-packing, what containers are acceptable, expiration dates, meal planning, etc etc. My mom was assigned to give a presentation on crock pots and recipes. Along with this assignment, she was asked to make a few taste samples of recipes she likes. She made a crock pot full of the yummy Grape Jelly Meatballs and another one of Cashew Chicken. The chicken was a hit! Everyone loved it. I may have been responsible for being a bit too generous with portions, so there was nothing left to take home, but that's alright.

She suggested that people take a look at 365daysofcrockpot.blogspot.com

This site is done by a lady who is doing a challenge similar to the movie Julie and Julia. She's trying out a different slow cooker recipe every day of the week for an entire year, and then she'll give them honest ratings. We've only made recipes that she rated at least a 4, but mostly just the 5's. The cashew chicken is on there, and it sure is tasty. That blog comes highly recommended by us!

I did my own little cooking experiment yesterday. I made lime chicken, mashed potatoes, home made rolls, and EVEN key lime pie cheesecake (A Cheesecake Factory recipe, by the way!). We invited Jared and Sammie over for dinner...which may have been a mistake. I prepared the chicken in our crock pot., and the recipe said "Cook for 4-6 hours on high, or for 6-8 hours on low". I started the chicken at 4:30 (On the LOW setting, mind you), and left for class at 6. Got back at 8:30, and the chicken was BLACK. BURNED. DEAD.

FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

Really, crock pot?! I rant and rave about the good things you do for other people, and THIS HAPPENS?! Jared and Sammie were nice about my pathetic cooking attempt. Everyone sorta picked around the bad spots...I felt horrible!!! I tell them not to eat dinner because I'm preparing something fabulous, and then this??!

Anyways the cheesecake turned out really good. Which was really the most important part, right? If this keeps happening my domestic self will start fading away...and Riley may have to live off of cereal.

Which I'm sure he's fine with... :S

Hair Dyeing 101,

So...I'll be the first one to admit that my hair took a turn for the worst once I got married. I was used to having it professionally colored every 4 to 6 weeks, and had the nice shampoo between cuts, etc etc. But when I got married I decided that my hair coloring was an unecessary expense. It was costing me like 90 bucks for every cut and color! That's more than my monthly car payment! YIKES!

I've had it cut a few times but haven't had it colored since a week or so before I got married. Pathetic! My roots were growing out to the point that it was really starting to get on my nerves. Despite my better judgement, I went and bought a couple $2.99 dyeing kits and planned to do it myself. Luckily Sammie stepped in and offered to help. She's done it for her other people before, so I trusted her. I borrowed a few junk towels and a shirt from Riley's mom and our process started. It took awhile, but in the end it turned out really well!! I'm pretty impressed with the job she did. Didn't miss ANY spots, and the color turned out great. May not be the greatest for my hair, but hey, there's no denying it's most cost effective for me!

The joys of being young, married, and poor!!

Yay for Stake Parties!!

Wednesday.

Interview.

Philosophy class.

Carter's basketball game!

They played at 9, so both Riley and I made it!

First half? Score 4 to 0

Luckily the second half was a bit more exciting.

They pulled out for the win.

Even if they had to deal with a few body checks,

and learning it's not ok to tackle people.

Wrong sport.

Yesterday.

Work meeting at 8 in the am. Yuck.

Shopping at the Gateway with my mom. Great!

Lunch at Happy Sumo.

I found Riley a cute sweater at Abercrombie. Usually 80 bucks? Spent 15. Go me and winter clearances.

Victoria's Secret had some great sales, too!

While I was shopping Riley was hard at work.

He replaced ALL the door knobs and hinges in the house!

The old ones had paint on them that wouldn't come off.

AAAAND they were brass. Gag.

Brushed nickel looks MUCH better.

So thankful for such a handy husband.

Stake party at the Bountiful Rec Center!

Swam in the pool, soaked in the hot tub.

Ate some donuts, and played some bingo.

Even went down the slide a time or two.

Riley & Carter stayed in the pool till the absolute last minute.

Lifeguard probably had to kick 'em out.

Sammie spent the night, and we stayed up waaaay too late talking.

Had to be up at 7:30 to get to work.

And you know what? I don't even mind it.

What I've been reading lately:

Just finished True Believer, and At First Sight. Both by Nicholas Sparks.

The second one was sad...but now I'm onto new things. A few ladies at work recommended Message in a Bottle, and The Wedding. So those are both sitting at my parents house waiting. My mom found them at the library for me. Can't wait to start reading one when I get some more free time. For now, my time will be spent studying for my first psychology test of the semester....

Weekend in St.George

Friday night I went over to Alyssa Killen's apartment to hang out for a few hours while Riley was at work. We chatted, made cinnamon rolls, and mosied around her house doing pretty much nothing. It was great! I hadn't seen her in awhile, and when we get together there's definitely going to be some laughs.

Anyways, after returning home my left eye was really bothering me. I washed it out quite a few times thinking I had just gotten a chunk of mascara stuck or something. After it bothering me the entire night, and costing me a trip to Jordan and Alyssa's house, we came to the conclusion I probably had pink eye. It looked terrible on Saturday morning and was all goopy and red. I seriously considered taking a rain check on the trip, but I'm ssooooo glad I didn't!

We left around 9'ish in the morning and made our way down to St. Geezy. We made good time and got to the condo in one piece. After checking it out a little, we went and picked up Jessie and did some shopping. Riley and I neglected to bring shampoo and conditioner. I'm surprised this is all we forgot, seeing as we started packing about 20 minutes before our ride arrived. Jessie got some groceries and headed back to her apartment. We went to Golden Corral for dinner with Jessie, Breanne, and Kaylin (her two cute roommates) and had a fun time being loud and annoying in the restaurant. Pretty sure nobody wanted to sit close to us because we were so obnoxious. We went swimming later that night at the pool our condo has. The temperature outside wasn't quite ideal, but the pool was heated so it was just right.

Woke up and my eye was much better. Still a bit red, but no one was calling me Quasimodo anymore.... We went to Jessie's student ward. It was an interesting block. Riley was so overwhelmed with the couple "lovey dovey"ness that he was almost sick. We went to Jessie's apartment to meet her home teachers, and ended up talking with those guys for awhile. One of them served in the same mission as my cousin Alex! Seoul, Korea! Later, we drove to Hurricane to see Riley's Grandpa Gold and his wife Roma. They made us dinner and took us for a tour around the pool and other facilities in their community. We finished watching the first season of the Amazing Race we bought for Christmas. Our favorites won again! The lawyer/best friend team Rob and Brennan! Yay!!! The season couldn't have ended more perfectly.

Monday we went to Zion National Park! We had a great time driving through the tunnels made in 1930 that went right through the center of the mountains! We did a mile long hike up to the top of a big plateau, and had fun throwing snowballs off the huge drop-off. We had a picnic out of the trunk of the Cadillac, and headed back home. Riley and I also found a Christmas tree ornament from Zion's to add to our collection!! Went swimming again that night and enjoyed the hot tub one more time.

Tuesday we drove home and stopped in Beaver for ice cream. Yummy! All-in-all, it was a successful trip. We had such a good time just being in the warm weather!! It was a reality check to be home and back in the cold weather but it was so worth it.

Main funny conversations:

"She doesn't stuff with tissue, she stuffs with grenades. What can I say? My wife has an explosive rack!"

"Ok ok, onto a new subject."

"Well, looks like she's going to pull the pin. Hahahahaha."

"You? Yes.
You? Yes.
You?.....Maybe.

You? NO!"

-Grandpa Gold