Once there was a Snowman, Snjowman, Snowman...

We had our first snow today. It was great. Nothing really stuck, but it was still fun to watch it come down. It made me think of the following story.

My last year of BYU, I lived in an apartment complex that gave me my very own assigned parking spot. I was pretty thrilled to not have to worry about having to fight the craziness that is BYU approved housing area parking. There were only a few downsides of this pre-assigned spot. It was on the top level of the parking garage, and thus not covered (sad day, especially since I paid so much to get that spot) and on top of that, for whatever reason, mine and my roommate's spot always had more snow than anyone elses (i think it was something to do with shadows and where the wind blew, but what do I know?).

Well, one day, I woke up and looked out to about a foot of snow. I planned accordingly and left with plenty of time to get to the library to meet my study group. I went out and turned my defrosters on full blast and got to the job of scraping the snow off my windows. In a few minutes, (remember, I'm from Utah, I have a lot of experience) I was ready to go. I got in my new jeep (pertinent fact in a minute), put the car in reverse and tried to drive out. That's right, TRIED to drive out. I was stuck! I pulled forward a bit and tried again, but nothing. I told myself to stay calm and not panic. I thought to myself "good thing I have a jeep, no big deal, I'll just turn on the 4-wheel drive and be on my way."

I started fiddling with the thing that said 4-wheel drive, but nothing was changing/happening. Talk about feeling like a dumb girl. I was in a stinkin' jeep and I was stuck in my parking stall. Not, some exotic, cool offroading place, but my little parking spot in my parking garage. Next I did what most people in my predicament would do (or I've been informed not really, apparently, i'm a weirdo in this regard), and pulled out my owners manual. Sadly, turning on your 4-wheel drive must not be that difficult because I couldn't find it in there at all.

So, I called my dad, he gave me a few ideas and wished me luck. I went back to the dumb lever I was originally playing with and started playing with it again, but still, nothing would happen.

At this point, I had watched multiple, small non-snow cars drive away just fine and was getting a little frustrated (it had been close to 30 minutes at this point). I was in a freakin' SUV, why was this happening to me? Our manager was out shoveling snow, so I finally swallowed my pride and asked him for help. His response was, "huh? but you have a jeep, just turn your 4-wheel drive on!" I sheepishly explained that I didn't know how to do that, so he climbed in, pulled the lever (yes, the same one I had kept playing with), and in less than a minute said, "there you go!" Seriously?!! Apparently I wasn't pulling hard enough... I thanked him and completed my drive of shame out of the parking lot.

The next day at church, a group of people were talking about the storm, and a kid (who I didn't really know well at all) started laughing and said that I had a good story. My spot was right below his bedroom window and apparently he sat and watched me in my all of my stuck glory and laughed and laughed. So much so that one by one his roommates came in to see what the ruckus was about where they too joined in. I couldn't believe the jerk just sat and laughed at my pain and didn't come and help me! Talk about feeling dumb! Good thing I am such a forgiving person though because he did eventually become a good friend.

Oh good memories!

Then Comes Baby in the Baby Carriage...

No, no, no, not mine, but I did offer to throw a baby shower for one of my good friends. I'm happy to do it for her, but i'm not going to lie, i'm feeling a little over my head. This is definitely not my forte. Does anyone have any fun activities/food ideas for me?

As Requested

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. vanilla extract
3/4 c. miniature chocolate morsels
3/4 c. finely chopped pecans, divided
Graham crakers, butter cookies, pretzels (we had vanilla wafers, which were delicious)

In a bowl, combine cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, butter, brown sugar and vanilla, beating with an electric mixer until smooth. Add chocolate morsels and 1/2 c. pecans. Refrigerate until firm about 2 hours (i just stuck mine in the freezer about 40 minutes, it worked fine). Shape mixture into a ball (or football) and roll in remaining 1/4 c. pecans. Serve with graham crackers, butter cookies or pretzels. MAkes 8-12 servings.

Here Comes the Sun (or Not)

I'm not sure what happened to Fall this year. It seems like we had about 3 great days of crisp, cool Fall weather, but then it suddenly turned into Winter. While this means great things like first day of cute coats, boots and sweaters, we're still in denial (ok, maybe it's just me) and have yet to turn on our heater (minus a few hours when we had guests). Matt seems to think its time though...

So after the great decorations debacle, I had to redeem my title of "Domestic Diva" somehow. We had a BYU game that night, so I decided to make a game treat. It was my first time making anything that like, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Chocolate chip dessert cheeseball

Me and Martha

Last weekend, we finally purchased our final piece of necessary furniture for the new apartment. I was happy inside, but also a little sad because it meant I could no longer hold off on the decorating process. As I've mentioned before, being creative and making things look good is definitely not a forte of mine. I have been trying to be upbeat and positive about the situation and even thought of a few things I thought would spruce our place up.

I like coupons and pretty dutifully go through all the ads each week. I was excited when I came across a Customer Appreciation Sale at one of the local craft stores featuring 60% off home decor, 50% one item and an additional 30% of your total purchase; they were even giving away gift certificates to the first 50 people through the doors. I'll admit, my find made a little tiny bit of excitement creep into me, and this morning, I jumped out of bed, hurriedly dressed and headed out the door.

I was excited because I made it to the store even earlier than I had planned, but quickly began to doubt my plan when I saw the number of cars in the parking lot. It was 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday, who would of thought so many people would be at a craft store?! I couldn't believe it when I walked to the end of the 80-100 people line and took my place about 1/2 mile away from the doors. I tried to stay optimistic and upbeat by telling myself that the people were just big families (it was only 1 per household), but deep-down inside, I knew I had lost my chance at the gift card.

Thirty minutes later, the line made its way into the store. I grabbed a cart and started shopping. I definitely felt WAY out of my element among the women running around filling their carts with items and assembling wreaths and centerpieces as they went and did my best to imagine/pretend I knew what ribbon would go well with this fake grass and fruit topped off with that colored candle all the while kicking myself for not dragging along one of my more "cutsey" inclined acquaintances that early morning.

After 45 minutes of wandering, I felt pretty good about my purchases. I excitedly loaded up the car and headed home to make my living the next show room of Martha Stewart's magazine. Much to my dismay, I had underestimated my shelf height and NOTHING would fit! Talk about dashing all my hopes. Sadly, Operation Martha was definitely a bust. My poor house...

Who??

So my office has an information and referral call center that when you dial a certain 3-digit phone number (no, it's not 911, I don't work at the jail), it connects you with one of our "specialists" who can then tell you where you can get help with human services meaning things like paying your utility bill, how to get a ride to the doctors when you're too old to drive yourself or where to go if your kid has a drug problem. Well, the other day my coworker received a phone call that went like this.

CoWorker: "Thanks for calling UW *11, how can I help you?"
Caller: "Yes, I need the number for O'Reilly."
CW: "O'Reilly? I'm sorry I'm not sure what you're looking for. Is that a name of an organization?"
C: "You know, O'Reilly. I want to call O'Reilly"
CW: "Is O'Reilly a person?"
C: "Haven't you ever heard of the show? I want to call into the Bill O'Reilly show!"

Needless to say, although we have a pretty high rate of keeping our "customers" happy, this was one number we were unable to refer.