U2 360

Last night was AMAZING!  About two years ago I heard that U2 would be coming to SLC on their 360 tour.  U2 is my all-time favorite band and I have always dreamed of attending one of their concerts.  Anyway, I bought tickets and was excited about it for months.  A few months before the concert I got an email from SmithTix saying that the concert was cancelled because Bono was having back surgery.  I was extremely disappointed, but they said the concert would be rescheduled and to hang on to our tickets.  I did, and the concert was rescheduled for May 2011.  

Last night John and I had the BEST time!  The concert was absolutely amazing.  The Fray opened which was fun.  Rice Eccles Stadium was completely packed with people of all ages.  Remember the footage of the Beatles fans crying when John, Paul, George and Ringo walked on stage?  Well...that was me.  I was seriously blown away seeing Adam, The Edge, Larry and Bono in real life!  So cool!  The concert was unbelievable.  The technology was amazing and we had perfect seats.  It was such a high energy concert.  It was by far the funnest thing John and I have done since we got married and I was really glad that the concert was postponed to a time in our lives that we needed a little pick me up!  :)

 

Ester's Birthday and Other Events

Ok, my blog has been super lame lately.  When I got married I had this picture in my mind of being a cute little married couple who does cute little married couple things and always has a camera on hand to capture each moment.  Well, as you've noticed the last time I took a picture of myself was when we went to Vegas in March.  But...I did take some pictures of what I've been doing the last two days.  (Pardon the amateur pictures, they are from my iPhone)

Tuesday I made 150 cupcakes and 18 cups of frosting for my mom's preschool graduation.

Though I made them from mixes, it still took a while.  Yesterday I frosted them for the two classes graduating that day.

Yesterday was also Ester's birthday so I made her a cake.  It turned into a slight fiasco because when I took the two cakes out of the oven they had hardly risen AT ALL.  So, my mom suggested making my great grandma's wedding cake recipe (since we were out of mixes).  Here is a copy of the directions...

Sift dry ingredients (less sugar) 4 times.  Mix sugar with milk; add flour.  Fold in whites.  Bake in very slow oven in ungreased tin sprinkled with flour.

That's it.  Well...I consider myself a pretty good cook, but I am NOT good with recipes like this.  First of all, I read "Sift dry ingredients" before I read "(less sugar) so, I sifted the sugar in with the flour.  Now the "Fold in whites" sounds simple enough.  Except that, as my mom told me later, the whites needed to be beaten.  Nowhere on the recipe does it say that, but I guess Grandma Glenna thought it was common knowledge.  "Bake in very slow oven".  What is a very slow oven?  I guessed.  Guessed wrong.  How long?  Doesn't say.  This just goes to show that I am not as experienced in baking as my great grandma.  Anyway, the cake turned into some sort of souflee that burned on the outside and was like whipped yogurt on the inside (Ever had one of those?  Gross)   So, I opted to keep my two Funfetti layers and make it a short cake.  This is how it turned out.

It was a fun day.  Ester, Scott, John and I went to dinner at Calloways and then returned to my mom's where all of us (Mom, Ben, Scott, Ester, Liv and John) played Words With Friends for 2 hours.  I love my family!

Fun Weekend

John and I had a fun weekend visiting family this week.  After a week out of school, with John working every day, I was bored out of my mind.  We started off the weekend driving through a crazy thunderstorm on the way to Highland.  I spent the day running errands with my brother's family which was really fun for me.  I always love seeing my niece and nephews and it was especially fun this weekend to see my new nephew, baby Kade again.  I also had a lesson in Pokemon from my oldest nephew, Zack which was fun.  I totally didn't understand how to play, all I know is that he beat me. :) During this time John was golfing with his dad and brother so he met up with me when he was done.  We then drove to Layton and ate some delicious food at Famous Dave's BBQ with John's dad.  Holy cow, so good.  Some of the best BBQ I've ever had for sure!  It was fun to hang out with John's dad, just the three of us.  We were going to go to a movie after that but there was nothing John wanted to see so we just headed back to Centerville and called it a night.  On Sunday it was Forrest's birthday so after church we had a fun little get together with the Blair's.  It was fun to relax and enjoy myself and not worry about going back to school.  Today was John's first day at his new job so we woke up early!  I'm still bored out of my mind, but getting some fun party ideas from Martha Stewart :)

Cute!

Yippee!  After many hours of research, I figured out how to fix my blog problem and reset my background.  I also figured out how to change the font and font color so you can all actually read this blog!  Yay me.  Looks like my 3 years of college really paid off! :)  Hopefully I will have time to post something worthwhile soon (since I spent all night trying to figure out how to change my background and completely neglected the mountain of clean laundry that needed to be folded on my floor)

Ugly

As you may have noticed, something happened to my blog and now it is...ugly.  I'm not sure what I did, but somehow I was trying to add a different layout to my blog and made the "Design" tab disappear so now I cannot change anything.  If anyone knows anything about that please let me know.  Otherwise, you will be forced to look at this lame background every time you read my blog.  Thanks!

Positive Thinking

I've been working on thinking more positively this semester in school.  After finding out I can't graduate for an EXTRA semester than I had planned...it's been tough.  Once finals are over I should have a more positive outlook and will resume blogging then.

Persistence

Ok confession... I am one of those annoying people who doesn't have kids but loves their dog like a baby and likes to share cute stories about her.  And really, I did not need to confess that, since you would all soon find out that I am that person after reading this post.  Anyway, this post is not only about my dog, but also about my dad.


I grew up always wanting a little dog.  My family was blessed with the world's best dog, Tennessee when I was in third grade but it just wasn't the same.  I needed my OWN, SMALL dog.  I begged and begged.  My parents always told me no.  Finally, after my first year of college they caved.  We started searching for a dog and my uncle actually found her for us.  The night I picked her up she was a demon.  Seriously.  The devil.  She snarled and growled and barked and shrieked at me.  I was advised to give her treats and after handing her a couple successfully, she decided I was getting to close and bit me hard on the hand.  I was distraught but we took her home anyway.  All I kept thinking was "My dad is going to hate this dog!".  Not only did she bark at anyone who came to the door, she barked at all of us unless we were sitting down and petting her with our feet.  A little background on my dad:  he hates barking dogs!  So...after a few days I was preparing for the news from my parents that she had to go.  But it never came.  I mentioned it to my mom a few weeks later and she said "He does not like the barking.  But he knows you love the dog and wants you to be happy."


Fast forward 1.5 years.  I still have the dog but she lives with me now in my apartment.  She is the sweetest thing and the joy of my life.  (Yes, joy)  I visit my parents a lot to do laundry and eat their food and this is what happens when I arrive in their home.  I walk in, set down my bag, sit in the recliner, sometimes receiving a short "hey" from a family member.  Then, in trots Izzy and I hear a squeal and "IZZY!  Oh my little sweetheart!  You little angel!  Did you come to visit grandma and grandpa?" said in babytalk.  They can seriously hear her breathing from across the house and come running.  When my dad walks in the room Izzy jumps up and down licking his pants and smiling. (Yes, she smiles).  She scratches on the door when he is in his room and cries til he lets her in so she can snuggle in his bed.   Seriously people, she loves my dad.  How did this all happen you ask?


After having this dog for about a year I began asking that same question.  Izzy does not do well with strangers, and it has taken a year and a half for her to warm up to many of my family members.  So why did she warm up to him?  I found the answer one night when I was chatting with my mom in her bedroom.  There on my dad's nightstand was a ziplock bag full of dog treats.  When I asked her about it she said "Oh yeah, he gives those to Izzy at night".  I also found that he sometimes carried them in his suit pocket so he was always prepared.  I caught him numerous times sitting on the kitchen floor talking to her in babytalk as he fed her Life cereal or Cheerios.  :)  All to make a little yappy dog like him.  That is dedication!


They are best pals now.  Izzy recognizes his footsteps and is thrilled when he comes home.  She sits at his feet for hours as he works on the computer, and when he is out of town she will find a pair of his shoes to lay on.  Hopefully when I have children they will have a close bond with my dad like my dog does :)