Uneventful

 So, it's been pretty uneventful here. Gary's been gone for a week, but he'll be back this afternoon. He'll leave again tomorrow morning and return the evening of my birthday.

 What have I done all by myself? I wish I could say I did a ton of things, but it's not true. I did get a lot of time to workout, so I posted an update on my fitness blog with some motivating tips.

 Tuesday afternoon, I headed to Bakersfield to visit family. Since I'm a genius, I brought my camera but took no pictures. You can probably catch a few unflattering ones on my Facebook, haha. Anyway, I brought my Wii for some entertainment. I had a pretty good time there that evening playing games with the family and enjoying a delicious chicken dinner. Quinn played Harry Potter for a bit and then a group of us played Mario Party 8- you know, the game that destroys relationships. Okay, not really. But kind of. My mom was in the lead with everything until Quinn not only stole her star, but most of her coins, putting her in last place. Pretty stinking funny.

Early the next morning, around 6, I headed out for an hour of walking. I chose walking over running because I brought the dogs with me. They're a bit out of shape, so I didn't want to push them. Sam might have made it since she was totally eager and going all directions, but Katrina was out of breath after a block. So I took it easier with her (I traded off...took Katrina out for a half hour then immediately Sammie for a half hour). After showering and getting ready, a few of us headed out to see Andrew (my nephew) receive his student of the month award. He was so adorable about it, too (kindergarten).

I stayed a bit longer, did a little shopping, and unfortunately had to run home earlier than planned. FedEx had shipped a package a little sooner than expected, and I learned they had dropped it on our doorstep. When I called the apartment management, I was told nothing was on my doorstep, not even a note. I had no choice but to return home and figure out what happened. It's still missing- and probably stolen. I left notes on everyone's doors (on our floor and the 3rd floor), but no response. The person above us mentioned he did remember seeing it on our doorstep for a long time. Shortly after, maintenance came through to clean the stairs and hallways, and it disappeared after that. Management, all staff and maintenance were notified and I had to keep bugging them until I made my point. Getting a package stolen from your front door doesn't look good to them, so they said they would keep a lookout and figure out what happened. I'm sure it's long gone.

It was shipped from Walmart.com. I called Walmart, explained my package went missing, and surprisingly, they immediately refunded my money. It was the first time I received great customer service from them. Pretty shocking, huh?  The item was a special order that only Walmart.com carried. However, they sold out online so they were unable to ship a new one. BUT, after reading a few forums, I discovered they shipped limited editions to the stores. So, quickly, I called around nearby Walmarts until I found a store that carried it. I rushed and bought it. This was good luck.

Anyway, not much else to update. Be sure to check out my fitness blog for more Emilee update stuff.

Football, Chicken, and Gifts

  Gary and I had a fantastic weekend. It's always nice spending such great time with him.

     Friday night, we went to our gym. I finally convinced him to go.

It's been upgraded just a bit with newer features (a towel system so you don't have to bring your own towels, newer machines, etc) so it was a little more fun. Gary spent time in the weight area (behind the photo taker, so you can't see it) while I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill at a pretty decent pace (over 2 miles). I noticed I run more miles when I'm running outside and couldn't figure out why I ran a shorter distance on the treadmill in that time. But then I read something about stride and it made more sense. I take bigger strides outside, therefore I cover more distance.

 Anyway, it was a good and excellent workout. Gary did about 20 minutes on the treadmill as well, so he got some cardio in, and I lifted some weights so I got some strength training it.

The next morning, Gary requested biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Okay, not the healthiest meal, but I used fat-free and wheat ingredients, so the meal was still under 500 calories per person; so better than the norm at least.

We spent the morning doing some chores, making the place look nice, making ourselves look nice, then headed out for some light shopping. For lunch, we headed over to try a new Sushi place called Mononoke.

Not only was the sushi delicious, it was insanely affordable. $2.99 for a regular roll and $5.99 for a special? Incredible. We ate a spicy tuna roll and some sort of beef roll.

After a light yet delicious lunch, we did a little more shopping at TJ Maxx where Gary was able to buy himself a nice carry-on from Hilfiger for his upcoming business trip. He'll be leaving me for a week by going to Houston. When he comes home, he'll be back for a day, then he'll head back out again to Costa Mesa for a few more days. He's definitely looking forward to it and I'm excited for him. He'll be going with a colleague who has experience traveling, so I know he'll have a good time.

A few more stores later, we decided we wanted to have a nice healthy dinner that evening. So, we stopped at our local Whole Foods Market and ordered a couple of fresh sandwiches from their deli department. We came home and began watching the 3rd season of Merlin (which we were so excited to realize the 3rd season was released). Merlin is a BBC show you can find on Netflix. It butchers the King Arthur story a bit, but the show is so awesome and revolves around the wizard Merlin. I totally recommend it.

One of the many discussions we had while we were out shopping revolved around football. Gary used to be a football fan and even played a bit in high school. He mentioned how he missed playing and was also kind enough to go over all the rules for me since I asked (football was never my sport). So, after a few Merlin episodes, we watched some football on TV, as well as played some football on the PS3. While we were out, we also purchased a football so we could go out and play more. It was quite fun. I think he's looking forward to getting into this football season thing, and I'm kind of excited to tag along.

We also had a fantastic day today. Church was wonderful and we enjoyed our Marriage and Family Relations class which just recently opened up for the 2nd hour (this is the 4th week I believe). It's so wonderful, nice, and always brings us closer together.

After church, we had a light lunch, then pulled out the special dinner we wanted to try out and prepare together. You see, when we were first married almost 5 years ago, one of the wedding gifts we received was a Baby George Foreman Roaster-rotisserie. However, we had never opened it nor used it and I always assumed rotisserie's were always for large-portion cooking. However, I decided a few days ago I wanted to try it out. Today was the day. I pulled it out of storage and the first thing I asked myself, seeing the features, was "why did I wait this long??" Silly me.

Anyway, we pulled out our thawed young chicken and got to work. Trussing, as I assumed was a very easy task, proved different. This was mostly because we couldn't find the cooking string. So, Gary tried dental floss at first and just couldn't get it because it was so thin and slippery; and he couldn't find satisfaction with his work. Luckily before we tried anything else I was able to find the cooking string. Much better. So, we tied that sucker up and I went to town with seasoning. I stuffed the inside (after taking out the gizzards, of course...not our thing) with garlic cloves and freshly squeezed lemon juice and decorated the outside with rosemary, thyme, crushed red peppers, and a little salt and pepper. I suppose I should put the recipe on the cooking blog, but that thing is so badly neglected. Anyway, here are some photos of our first time roasting a chicken.

Gary's first attempt with the floss.

After the  real tie down. We totally left the sticker on the front.

     We set the timer then headed out and walked to the Promenade park to play catch with the football. I wish I brought my camera-we had so much fun laughing at ourselves. Hey, I had a pretty good throw if I do say so myself.

    By the time we got back, the chicken was nearly done.

 We were actually impressed- it turned out fabulously. We were expecting some error our first time around, but there was none. The meat was fully cooked and juicy in every part and nothing was undercooked at all. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this rotisserie. For real.

 This is when we pulled out another wedding gift untouched- our electric carving knife. We unwrapped it and Gary did a marvelous job carving off the meat. A delicious and successful dinner indeed. Yes, we do have leftover chicken. We sealed it away and hope to use it in our meals throughout the week. Anyway, that was our new adventure.

In other quick news, we had a super-rainy couple of days here. It. was. cold! The rain wouldn't stop. I loved it. But hated the cold. But it was beautiful.

 Okay, so I suppose it's time to end this blog. Happy October everyone!

I Love My Family

   I am so blessed to have been raised in the family I was raised in. I was able to learn morals, values, respect, and many other important things which made me a responsible adult. I'm definitely not perfect, but I am so glad I have the family I have.

   I came across a profile on Facebook earlier of a childhood best friend. Some of you already know who I am speaking of. We lived only a few houses down from each other and became best friends in 2nd grade. Looking at her profile and seeing her life now just saddens me. Growing up, she was daddy's perfect princess. She got to wear whatever she wanted, do whatever she wanted, stay up as late as she wanted; pretty much anything she wanted she got. Often times she was a sweet girl and a great friend... but she wasn't always a great friend (and I admit, I probably wasn't the best either); thus the reason our friendship lasted until Jr. high. She had a habit of gossiping and spreading false rumors about people. She was desperate to be in the center of attention at all times. It was something I could never understand. Her parents loved her- so why was she so desperate for attention? She would easily drop friendships if it gave her the opportunity to fit in with the popular crowd.

  I couldn't understand her behavior until I was older. It's because she had no rules to follow. She got away with whatever she wanted. As a child, I was jealous of that. My parents made me go to bed at a certain time, do certain things, follow certain rules. She thoroughly like to rub it in my face and tease me about being Mormon and living with strict parents. At one point, while back-talking my mom, my dad sent me to my room as punishment- and because she was never disciplined in her life, she was appalled and told several people in the school I was being beaten and abused by my father. This caused phone calls to my parents, teachers and counselors approaching me to "talk about it", students coming to me and telling me they knew somebody who could help me. I was shocked. Luckily the whole situation worked out in the end when there was no evidence of my abuse and my friend admitted she went overboard.

 In high school, because of her rumor-spreading habit, she lost a majority of her friends and was far from popular. This is when she decided to get pregnant. At age 15. I could tell you it was an accident, but she fully admitted it was a planned pregnancy because she wanted to prove to everyone she was sexually active- therefore cool and popular. What a tragedy.

Fast forward to years later. Divorced with 3-4 kids (can't remember) and parents who provide for her.  Seeing her profile, I couldn't feel anything but sadness.  She bleached her already blonde hair, got a massive boob job, got tattooed up and trashier than the norm, changed her name to a stripper-sounding name, and ran off and married a woman.

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for being strict with me. Thank you for setting rules. Thank you for punishing me and disciplining me for my actions. Thank you for always "being on my back" about pretty much anything and snooping at the appropriate times.  We never really understand when we're younger why our parents are so "mean", but as we get older, it completely makes sense. I met a wonderful man. I married in the temple. I understood the true power of forgiveness and repentance and because of it, was able to wipe clean of the mistakes I made in the past and move forward (and I committed some pretty serious sins). I was able to always recognize the Holy Ghost. Sure, sometimes it's tough being raised in an LDS church. Kids can be mean. But look at my life now. Totally worth it. Totally and completely worth it. I'm hoping someday those in my family who don't see it now in their lives will see it later- so they can get a full understanding as well and be able to live in happiness and harmony. All in God's timing.

I don't care if I was labeled weird or strange. Luckily I had many friends in the church who understood and I'm sure most of you experienced that as well. And while there were moments when I was ashamed and embarrassed, I am far from it. YES, I AM Mormon and I'm happy to be. No, I don't drink or take drugs. No, I don't drink coffee or tea. No, I don't cuss or swear. Yes, I do dress modestly. Oh, but why all the rules? Rules are what people don't understand about Mormons. What rules? Oh, you mean respecting yourself and taking care of your body? Having morals and values? Being happy? Forgiving others? Sounds horrifying, right? :)

Anyway, that was my ramble for the day. I'll just end by saying I love my parents and family with all my heart. I am glad I had a protective (and often mean) older brother who just wanted to make sure I turned out okay and didn't run off and marry a criminal. I'm glad I had siblings I fought with constantly (even though I'm sure we stressed our parents out more than anything) and a childhood I wish I could re-live over and over because it was so spectacular despite the trials. You guys are the best!

PS- Fitness blog updated! If you haven't been there in awhile, there may be a few posts you missed.