i think i have an addictive personality.

i use to frequent tony burgers often. dare i say almost weekly. i am no longer close to tony burgers so i don't frequent them near as often...i've only been their twice this year. well it would seem that i am replacing my love for a mouthwatering hamburger for my love of an adorably sweet cupcake. sweet tooth fairy bakery is my new tony burgers. some of you may not be able to compare a cupcake and hamburger, but for me they satisfy the same thing: my need for good food. and although i don't frequent this bakery weekly (okay, maybe this month i did only because their monthly flavors were chai tea and salted caramel) i go there often enough for the lady behind the register to no longer ask to see my id when i pay with my debit card. it would seem i am a regular at all the "wrong" places...


wait, i'm a regular at my gym. they know me there too. that makes up for all of this right? and the fact that my addicted behavior doesn't only go along with my love of good food. it goes along with my love for physical activity. i'm addicted to pilates too. you can catch me twice a week at 6:00am in my in-laws basement sweating it out Jodi on her pilates machine. our pilates pass ran out a couple of weeks ago and because i loved it so much (i have visible muscles people!) i'm sticking to my morning routine.

around here, birthdays never last just a day.

last thursday was gordon's birthday.  he's a quarter of a century.  we celebrated all week long.


sunday: my family's sunday dinner, gordon's birthday dinner.  complete with french dips and twice baked potatoes.  and a salad of course.  and it wouldn't have been a birthday without homemade ice cream.  white oreos in vanilla ice cream...just the way gordon requested it.

thursday: his actual birthday.  went to dinner at ogden pizzeria, his choice, then hung out the rest of the evening.

friday: snowboarding at powder mountain.  this was the first time i had been all season.  gordon said it was one of the best days of season.  i couldn't have agreed more.  i'm usually a fair weathered boarder, but the snow that was falling was powder.  i've never boarded in anything like it.  it changed me forever.  oh, and i've improved significantly from last year.  one of these days i'm gonna keep up with gordon.  i've just gotta let go of my fear to fly down the mountain.

saturday: my dad threw gordon a birthday party.  we karaoked, which is something gordon doesn't really do, but he surprised us all and sang!  i have photos to prove it, but they will never appear on this blog.  i promised him they wouldn't.  dang promises.

and sunday: gordon's family birthday dinner.  his sister, melanie, cooked up a delicious indian entree.  we loved it!  and we had ice cream cake.  pretty much every year of his life he has had ice cream cake.  this year was no exception.  my favorite part of the day was when the little man sang happy birthday to gordon.  he had been practicing.  it was the sweetest happy birthday song my ears have ever heard.

cat killer, or at least she thinks she is.

oh my sweet little abbi.  you make me not want to have kids.  especially when you find the smallest holes to sneak out of our backyard to go attacked homeless cats that live in the thorny bushes behind our fence.  you make me worried when i come outside to see why briggs is barking only to find you no where in sight, only i can hear you barking.  you make me angry when i stand outside the bushes for a half hour calling your name, telling you i'll give you treats, we'll go to grandma's, go on a walk, anything to get you out of the bushes, but nothing works.  i could hear the homeless cat hiss at you, and you cry.  i had to hold it all together because gordon was gone snowboarding and i was left alone to get you out safe and sound.  and the only reason you came out was because the cat decided to hop the fence and you came following after it.  you seemed relieved to see me and came right to me when you saw me.  like you were wiped out and a bit scared.  you made me cry as we walked home, you in my arms, because i was so scared you were going to get hurt and so mad that you didn't listen to me.  please don't do that again.

love, mom

dessert pizza

gordon is involved in the scouts.  tonight they had an activity.  gordon signed up to bring the dessert for this activity.  he asked me probably a month ago if i would make root beer cupcakes for him.  i said i would. 

on sunday i was waiting for all the youth in my sunday school class to arrive.  it was just me and one of the youth in our ward named ben.  ben is a ninth grader.  is a kind of a shy kid.  and very sweet.  i have told gordon often how much i like ben.  i think he's a cute kid.  we got to talking about this activity they had planned and how gordon was bringing the dessert.  i told him gordon signed up to bring the dessert and had asked me to make cupcakes.  as i said this ben perked up a bit.  then offered to help me come up with some more "creative ideas" for a dessert.  said he made up recipe for dessert pizza.  and everyone that tries it loves it.  i was a little surprised.  first, this was the longest conversation we had had.  second, that he loved to bake.  and third, that he had just offered to give me suggestions on what i should bring.  i told him the dessert pizza sounded like a good idea.  he then shocked me when he offered to come over after church and help me make it.  i could not pass him up on such a sweet offer.  he even offered to bring all the ingredients (which wasn't necessary, but how cute is that).  so on sunday afternoon, ben and i baked his famous dessert pizza.  i just can't get over how adorable it was that he offered to help me bake up something more creative.  although when he found out i was going to make root beer cupcakes he said "you can still make those too.  i'm sure no one will mind if we have two desserts."  see, what a cute kid.

you know you've been somewhere too much when they welcome you back

this past weekend we went out with gordon's sister and her husband to celebrate her birthday. we went out for sushi and saw a movie. after the movie gordon and i decided since we were in the area we would stop by one of our new favorite ice cream places, subzero. as we proceeded to order the gal said to us "welcome back". apparently she remembers us from the previous weekend's ice cream outing. i've always wanted to be a regular somewhere and have them yell my name as i walk through the doors (i'm imagining the scene from cheers when norm walks in...). welcome back is close enough.

try the rice milk option...it's a different consistency but taste delicious.

can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday than with a walk and chocolate covered cookies

well at least i can't think of a better way to celebrate brigg's birthday then with those things. i guess if i would have taken the day off work so he wouldn't have been alone all day would have been the icing on the cake. and sent abbi away for the day, too, since she plays the part of annoying little sister perfectly. maybe next year bub.

baby making music.

apparently that's how joshua radin describes some of his songs. i know this because i went to his concert wednesday night. it was a completely different concert experience than i'm use to. no pushing, shoving, ear ringing afterwards. it was calm. just him and his guitar (and a few band members). somewhat acoustic. i enjoyed it. and instead of jumping up and down, i swayed to the rhythms and beats.

am i getting old?

my safety net. gone.

this past weekend i had lunch with my girlfriends from high school. i hadn't seen some of them for over a year. we spent a lot of time catching up talking about what's going on in our lives these days. half of the group have or are going to have kids this year. others are going to begin trying for a family this year. and then there's me. these girls were my safety net. none of them had kids. it was just us (and our husbands). but now they're taking the leap. a leap i'm more afraid to take than anything i could possibly think of. and yet i think about it all the time. more often than not. and i know it's coming. just not sure if i'm ready to take the leap quite yet.

although someone else thinks otherwise and has been sending me signs since october of last year.

no, it's not gordon.

when 6:45am is sleeping in.

well i've crossed the line. a line i thought i would never cross, well until i had chilin' (aka children). three times a week i am waking up in the 5 o'clock hour to brush my teeth, braid my hair, throw on exercise clothes, and head out the door carrying my work-life in a duffel bag on my way to pilates. for the next month my sister in law, jodi, and i are pilate-ing it up at a local pilates studio. and even though there have been days that getting up that early is a battle, once i'm there i love it. i even love it afterwards, in the evening, when i'm at the gym running. i don't love it the next day when my muscles are so sore it's hard to move. but yoga is helping with that. i will be sad when our month pass expires. because i'm addicted. from day one i was hooked. our instructor told me today that we might be able to get another sweet deal so we can continue once our pass is done. if the deal is at least half off the regular price ($130/month) i'll think about. okay, i'll probably think about it if it's not. that's how much i love it.

summertime body here i come! cupcakes, please stay out of my life. i find it too hard to pass you up.

sang karoke this weekend. turns out i'm kind of a microphone hog.

over the weekend my dad had us (this us includes my best friend and my dad's "other daughter" mystie, and her husband, dave, and our friend zach) out for dinner and hanging out. he purchased some new wii games, including glee karaoke and karaoke revolution. he knows how much my sister and i love karaoking. we sang until 2 o'clock in the morning. it was a blast. i sang so much that my throat was raw the next day. and i don't even have a great voice. just ask gordon.

gordon and my dad never karaoked. instead they played golf once we were all done singing. 

singing isn't their forte (although i beg to differ).