This Fall...

Utah has the most beautiful fall seasons I have ever seen, granted I have not been too many places... But the colors the leaves change, the red mountains, everything is so pretty. My favorite fall color is yellow, because their are so many different shades of yellow here, the leaves range from golden yellow all the way to neon yellow.

I don't enjoy the cold very much, it requires so much bundling up and layering. My house is about 1,000 yrs. old and made of cement or something that traps all the cold in it, so I am constantly cold, especially my feet. In my anthropology class last year I learned about eskimos, and how their bodies adapted to the cold by improving their blood circulation over time. Well, my mom and I both have really poor circulation, seriously my feet feel like ice blocks most of the time. I hate it!

We can't really tell yet how Harley will do in the cold weather, he loves the snow and seems to like being outside in it, as long as we are out there with him...he likes to run along the ground with his mouth open and scoop it up, it's so funny!

We are excited for Thanksgiving, and the chance we get to spend it with Family, YAY!

Scott and I are both still busy, he is working hard in all his classes,and I am still desperately trying to find a job, as my part time job is about to end! YIKES! We are about to celebrate 1 1/2 of marriage, it has flown by and I love him so much :) We have had so many challenges throughout the last few years, and our relationship has grown so much. I feel very thankful and blessed for all that we have and all the support we have from loving family members. The Holidays are really a time when I feel really grateful for the life I have been given.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY TREATS IS:

57 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Smoothie time!

As my family knows, I love making smoothies. I told Scott the other day that I am going to open up a smoothie shop someday...lol. Actually I just want to come up with the smoothies, the running my own store thing would not go so well. But I actually am really talented at coming up with delicious flavors, lol.... but I guess it is not that hard. I try to make them every day, and Scott and I usually have them with dinner, they are great because you can get a few servings of fruit in them, and they taste so good. You can basically throw together any fruit, some juice, a little yogurt, ice, and BAM! Smoothie time. One of my favorites goes like this, and I never measure things so I am guessing for a lot of the ingredients.

1 Banana

1 cup strawberries (or pineapple)

1 cup blueberries

1/4 cup any flavor yogurt

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk (or regular milk)

1/4 cup pomergranate juice

1/2 cup orange juice

3 tbs sugar( I like things very sweet)

3 cups of ice (more or less depending on the consistency you like)

-if it turns out too thick, add 1/2 cup of water.

* I put in a few tsp. of orange benefiber, it adds flavor and fiber!-but if you put it only put in 1 tbs. of sugar, because it is very sweet.

...BLEND!!...

Something that is also great to do is if you have a juicer, you can juice apples, carrots, oranges, anything, and put that in too. And if you have watermelon, try it out in a smoothie sometime. Don't make it the main fruit, just add a cup in to whatever you are making, it makes it so creamy and yummy!

My recipies usually make enough for two big glasses and a little leftover. Sometimes I freeze the extra and eat it the next day, use it as a replacement for sorbet!!

Enjoy :)

Isn't it Ironic?

For the last two months I have had knee problems. It started out with a little pain in my right knee and got progressively worse. I thought it was because I had been going to this weight-lifting class, because it involved tons of lunges and squats. Good for the butt, hard on the knees. Anyway, I stopped doing pretty much all physical activity, apart from a little swimming, cycling, and walking. It has been so hard because it takes me so long to get in shape, and I had no choice but to stop running, which I have been doing since high school.
Anyway long story short, I went to a Sports Med Doctor, he took a look at me, and of course my knee is just rubbing the wrong way, it happens to a lot of women, you just have to live with it. My hips are a little misaligned, bla bla bla. I absolutely hate when it ends up being something I "just have to manage and live with." Anyway some advice for everyone, women especially, it is really important to do things like yoga and pilates, because it helps to align your hips and helps your knees to work properly as well. I had not been doing pilates, and I think that plus not enough stretching plus bad knees and bad back = knee problems. Now I am doing physical therapy every day, which is basically pilates. It is so hard!! I am sore every day.

The ironic part of this story, is that, throughout all this, I have gotten smaller... But it is just because I have lost muscle, so I can't say I am thrilled about it. Plus, when you have a bum as large as mine, running and weight-lifting are what defies gravity, so that sucks..for now anyway. Hopefully I can gradually start running again. But it does feel nice to be a little smaller, I am not going to lie :)

Life Lately

Love is in the air.......

he still loves to snuggle!!

devil child!!!

he looks like and old man here...

Harley:

We can't believe how grown up he is now!! As you could see in one of the pictures, he is still getting into trouble sometimes, but we are hoping that phase will be over..SOON! We thought at the rate he was growing that he would get to be at least 80 lbs, but he has not gained any weight lately, so we are thinking maybe he will stay at 60, hopefully...

Scott and I: Busy Busy..Scott is going to school and working, I am working, graduated, and looking for full time work. When we are not doing those things we like to play, and spend time with each other and Harley.

I am a horrible blogger, I can't even separate the pictures the way I want, but o-well... at least I put up some pictures!

Too Healthy= YUCK!

This morning in an effort to be sweet I made breakfast for Scott. He loves pancakes, waffles, all of that. So I made waffles, or at least I tried to....The problem with me is that I can't follow a recipe to save my life, just can't. I always try to make improvements, usually to make things healthier. But this morning I went wayyyy overboard! Instead of using only 1/2 cup of wheat flour I used 1 1/2, and I also added flaxseed or whatever that nutty tasting stuff is called. Needless to say, they tasted, and resembled, cardboard.. :( Pools of syrup could not even save them, it was sad. But from now on I am going to deviate much less from recipes, after all no one wants to eat cardboard, even someone as loving and sweet as Scott. :)

Side note: Today Harley managed to (in under 2 minutes), pull a bag of trash out of our trash bin outside, rip it open, and happily scatter it across our entire yard. When Scott finally went out there, Harley ran for cover, knowing the crime he had committed. Can you say bad puppy???
I was not there so unfortunately... I missed the cleaning up process. Don't worry though, their are many more to come.

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

Scott and I have both been so busy lately, it is so hard to only see each other for a few hours a day. I miss him when he is gone, and think about him throughout the day. I love him so much, life with him is one of a kind, and his smile is my favorite thing to picture when I am happy or sad, or feeling any emotion. He is so loving and supportive, and I am so blessed to have him in my life. When you love someone so much, and you realize how short this life is, it seems impossible to comprehend being without them. But I know we will always be together, no matter what, and I look forward to our forever together. Each day we have the opportunity to grow and mature in so many ways, and it is one of my goals to end each day knowing that I have grown in some way, as small as it may be.
I love you Scott, I love your blue eyes(and the creases around them), I love your smile and your laugh, I love your hair and your kisses. I love your unconditional love that you give me each day, I love the hard work you put in to our family and our goals. I love the way we started and the way we still are. You are my best friend. I love you Scott.

Happy Labor Day!

Today we took Harley to the dog park for the first time! He had sooooo much fun. Combine his love for people with his love for dogs, and he was in absolute heaven. He did really well too, we are going to try to make it a weekly thing, too bad it is 20 minutes away!
today was probably one of the happiest days of Harley's life. :)

FINALLY!!

We think that Harley may have gotten past his -waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to play- phase. When we first got him he was three months old and we expected it, but then he grew out of it around six months, then it came back... and it lasted for several weeks....the long nights included:
-Scott sleeping through Harley whining (Scott is an incredibally deep sleeper, I am an incredibally light sleeper, I can see that hurting me and only benefiting him in the future.......)
-me shoving Scott until he woke up:) (only when it was his turn to watch him)
-me waking up pretty much every morning to find my husband sleeping on the couch(sad)
-absolutely no snuggle time-(that is also partly because it is so HOT in our house)

So overall we are very happy, this morning I actually woke up before him! There is nothing cuter than a sleepy puppy!
I have taken quite a few pictures of him lately so I will be sure to put them up, he is growing like a weed!!!


REMINISCE
These last 8 months of having Harley have really shown me the importance of being ready for things, and all the work that it takes when you are responsible for a living breathing life form!
When we got him I was soooo ready (I thought), I had been waiting to take him home for two weeks and I just wanted to get him out of that shelter. I loved him the moment I saw him and picked him up.
The first 3 days were soo hard!!! I had a bit of a breakdown, I have a hard time with adjustments and it all hit me at once. He was sad and in pain and it hurt me to see him in pain.
Also, the sleep deprivation did not help. From the moment we brought him home he was ours, everthing we did from that point on had to include him. Our schedules had to be cooridnated so he would never be alone too long. Our house had to be puppr proof-ed, and still does every day before we leave the house! "Did you feed him, did you walk him, did you on and on......) Every time I go somewhere my thoughts are never far from him, if he is okay, if he misses us, if he is getting into mischeif...... the best part of the day is coming home and seeing him come around the corner of our house. He crouches down and waits to spring up and chase me, he is always happy to see us. If he is sad or bored he comes in our room at night and cries until I get out of bed, he never wants to be too far from us.
One of the cutest things about Harley is his willingness to please and his need for us to be together. He is most happy when Scott and I are together. If one of us is in the bedroom and the other in the living room, he will first bring the toy to one of us, then the other. He has never favored one of us more, and when Scott is gone I can always tell that Harley is just waiting for him to be home.
Harley loves us unconditionally, so even when he annoys me, I will remember that he would never get tired of me, leave me, hurt me, or talk bad about me. He is our little baby all grown up now and we sure do love him!

I love all the joy and happiness Harley has brought to Scott and I, and we have grown up a lot. I have realized that if a puppy is a ton of work, what will a child be like!! Yikes!
But I have learned that when you embark on something new, like getting a puppy, you have to take the good and bad and the responsibility. The bills, the time, the energy. It is worth it when I see him sleeping contently having his puppy dreams. He is so inncoent and he has already had a really rough life, I can't believe that there are people out there who are so horrible that they abandon helpless puppies, but their are.
Being able to give one animal a happy healthy life is more rewarding than most people realize. :)