I'm whooped.

This is our freezer.

It is currently the only orderly part of our kitchen [and maybe our house. maybe.]

What is that IN our freezer?

Well, it just so happens to be 37 meals. 

All made today. 

*beaming*

I did this last month too, but didn't post about it because I was so dang tired that I didn't know if I'd actually do it again. The pros definitely outweighed the cons, though, so here I am after month two of 

"OAMC" or

once-a-month-cooking.

[The milk is there because there were tons of sales this month and if you can get 4 gallons of milk for a buck a piece, you'd freeze it too. According to the internet, skim milk freezes best, so it's lucky that's all we eat anyway!]

And for those of you who are wondering, the food is delicious! (and nutritious) And makes for great leftovers the next day. I honestly don't know how people live without OAMC. I can't count how many times I've come home from work with absolutely no desire to cook anything. In the past we'd just go out. However, now when I come home and have no desire to cook anything, I don't have to. I grab a meal, throw it in the oven and put a batch of rice in the rice maker. 5 minute dinner that tastes like you've been in the kitchen all day. 

Perk #2: you do dishes ONCE. wow. [that should really read Cameron does dishes once, let's not kid ourselves.] The rest of the month, the most there is to wash is 2 [or 4 if there's company] plates, cups and silverware. Awesome. 

A lot of people have hang-ups about how much it costs to do this or how making multiples of meals gets old after a while, or how long it takes. To clear that up, we spent $130 yesterday shopping for today. We got 37 dinners, lunch meat, tons of snack food [including star wars fruit snacks...they were on sale and when you marry a jedi, he stays a jedi.], new ink cartridges, and stuff for root beer floats. It's not like we're impoverished.  Also, here's the calendar for our meals: 

 

 You can see that most of the time, we have 2 of each meal: tops! And in all honesty, they don't get old. We've got mexican to italian to american to chinese. It's gonna be a yummy month! Quite often, we're excited for each meal to come back around. 

Also, the how long it takes... welp, I've found that it takes approximately 90 seconds longer to make 2 lasagnas than it does 1. Personally, I think the 90 seconds is worth it. It's totally your call though. :) It also depends on what kind of meals you're doing. Last month, I was able to go shopping and make all our meals in the same day. I was exhausted, but the actual cooking time was 3 hours. A few of the recipes are chopping chicken and throwing it in a ziploc bag with it's marinade. 5 minutes and you have tender juicy chicken for 3 different nights that month.

I've decided that instead of baby shower gifts, I'd much rather come do this for my friends right around their due date. I figure 30 meals is better than 1, even if they're in charge of throwing it in the oven. So, that was my saturday in a nut shell. :) I'm off to shower, write a talk, and hit the temple with my man. 

And somewhere in there I'm making dinner. 

Cameron's favorite: poppyseed chicken : isn't a freezer recipe, so we have to have it on the big cooking day when I'm in the kitchen anyway. I figure at only having it once a month, it'll stay a favorite for quite a while. 

O! and if you want any of the recipes, let me know! I'll be happy to post the ones people are interested in! 

And, in other news. I'm opening my digi scrap shops on Thursday. I just finished a kit inspired by none else than my gorgeous sister Jessica. While I'm sharing, I might as well post this too. :) 

 

Happy Saturday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Since our office went from 102 employees to 38 almost 2 weeks ago, I've taken on a lot more responsibility than I was in the past. I've also spent a lot of time getting my stuff together to start selling digital scraps in my shop. It's definitely taken some getting used to. It mostly means that I'm exhausted and barely have the energy to pull myself out of bed in the mornings. Thus, this blog is text based and not picture based. I don't know where the camera is, nor do I have the motivation to edit or scrap the pictures. However, we did have a fabulous Valentine's Day weekend.

Friday, we went up to West Valley to babysit Emilee and Adam's 4 adorable kids. For those of you who don't know about my amazing sister-in-law, she has a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and twin 3 month old boys. Every single time I go over to her house it is spotless, she's showered and looking wonderful, the kids are happy, etc. I have no idea how she does it and I admire everything about her. One time I went over, the 3 youngest were taking naps and she was sitting in the kitchen teaching her 4-year-old to write her letters. I honestly love spending every minute I can at their house. She's so inspiring to me. :) [love you, em!]

Me and Cam spent a few hours keeping the kids happy and teaching the girls about the Olympics while watching the opening ceremonies. It was awesome to teach the girls about where each team was from and hear their excitement when they understood that this big "party" with "dancers" was where their Uncle Jared is on his mission. [Well...Canada. :)] I love those kids, and love playing house, and love giving Adam & Em some time to themselves.  [Call us any time!!]

We spent the night at Adam & Em's house and enjoyed a yummy late pancake breakfast. I love sleeping in. [Happy Valentine's Day to Me!] We got ready and did sealings at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. My sister, Lindsay, has been incredible at family history and had prepared a few sealings for us to do. I love that temple. There is nothing like being there with the man I love. I feel at home. I feel safe. And I believe in the truth of the work that goes on there with all of my heart.

We went home and Cameron sent me upstairs to get ready to go out while he made dinner. I took my sweet time and came down to roses, candles and a tablecloth made out of the blanket we ate on at the picnic where Cam proposed to me. It was beautiful. We had sun chips, pastrami sandwiches with cranberry mustard, and spinach salad with candied walnuts and poppyseed dressing. Y-U-M. The man knows me way too well. To make it even better, he started a playlist with songs from when we got engaged: including...Michael Buble singing "I'm Beginning to See the Light" which was performed at the Mo-Tab concert we went to that night. And which concert he will be taking me to on March 31st. I love that man.

At dinner we exchanged gifts. Cameron quickly explained to me that he got "completely suckered into buying" mine. Lol. He's so cute. However, he was right. It was exactly what I wanted. I really hate my hands. They're just not very pretty. I also hate nail polish [unless it's on my toes!] and Cameron got me a manicure set with the buffer, hand cream, cuticle oil, etc. To make it even better he got me the most luxurious body butter, EVER. It's incredible. And that's saying something coming from the girl whose bathroom cupboard looks like Bath & Body Works. I got him a shirt made by one of my favorite etsy shops ever. He really likes windmills. In fact, he acts like a toddler whenever we drive by one. It was one of the first times I felt myself falling in love with him. The shirt is dark grey with this distressed image of three windmills across it. I love it. :)

We left dinner for Divine Comedy and laughed to the point of tears. They did a comedy show on Harry Potter 6 and it was absolutely hilarious. :)

Sunday was my turn. I made a lemon pepper pork roast [thank you, Hormel] with candied carrots [thank you, Mom] and potatoes. I gained wife of the year status when I pulled a reese's peanut butter dessert out of the fridge. :) We shamelessly ate the entire thing and played Milles Borne. If you haven't played it, look it up! I highly recommend it.

Hope you all had a wonderful V-Day. :)

Here's to a relaxing weekend. [Tomorrow's Friday!]

:::::::::Drumroll Please:::::::::

I've been accepted to set up shop at 

 

2
stores!

As soon as I finish filling out the forms and apps,

you'll be able to get my fresh, new, serendipitous designs at

Misses Bee Haven

&

Groovy Scraps

I'm so excited to show you my new stuff!

[a little bird told me there's a kit called "humble pie" that's almost done!]

 

The little telephone button over there on the right will get you to my design blog. :) 

Humble Pie with 2 extra scoops of blessings

Where to start. . . . .

Today was a doozey. We flew to Denver on Thursday to meet our cute new niece. The weekend was wonderful & really helped me get over the fact that me and Lindsay are so far apart. We headed to the airport to catch our 7:20 flight and found out that the snow was going to delay our flight 2 hours. yuck. We found a quiet corner in the airport and watched Office re-runs until our flight was ready for boarding.

After we landed and Adam Beck the saint came to pick us up, Cameron's phone goes off. It says that I'm calling him. I've been known to pocket dial once or twice, so I started scrambling through my purse. He picks up and says hello, and a flight attendant notifies him that I've left my plane on the phone. awesome.

Cam ran back to get it and off we went, later and later. After a nice needed chat with Adam and Emilee we headed home. We got to bed a little after 1 am.

This morning we were exhausted. bleh. Cam left for school and I dragged myself out of bed for work. I got there and sat down to check my e-mail. The CFO walks straight up to my desk and asks if he can have a minute to speak with me. I follow him back to his office and he asks me if I've talked to anyone since Friday. I hadn't [Denver]. He then starts into this explanation of how on Friday, 60% of the company was fired and how the company is going a new direction. [Start to panic]. He explains that in the course of the day, even my boss was fired and my entire department. Then, he asks me if he can see a list of what I plan to work on this week. [I STILL HAVE A JOB!]

The office was eerily empty. I'm now 1 of 2 women working there. The other is a sales manager. I sat in on meetings about how to get into other people's e-mail accounts who were once in my division so I could pull information off. I was visited by the CEO and asked how I felt about becoming an executive. And then I texted Cameron in a panic.

It was so sad. The guy that worked right next to me doesn't know he's been fired yet, because he's on paternity leave. His wife just quit her job to have the baby. I just feel terrible. and grateful. and shocked. I've only worked there for 2 months and they keep me and fire my superior of 6 years?? Throughout the day I would be working on projects and need some information from someone else, I'd then ask someone around if so-and-so were still with us. Most of the time it was "no." Every "no" meant I picked up more responsibility.

I don't know if or how I'll be able to do everyone's work on my own, but the execs are willing to take a chance on me, so I'm going at it full force!

And that was the first slice of humble pie.

Then, I came home and did Plyometrics P90X with Cam, for the first time. I made it 40 minutes in [with severely modified versions of most exercises].

And that was the second slice of humble pie.

Finally, I found out today that I'm going to be a contributor for simplescrapper.com and a designer for missesbeehaven.com

I don't understand why God sees fit to bless me so much in a time of struggle. It humbles me and reminds me that I am not in control of my own life. I know I definitely didn't do anything to secure my job at Marketecture. I wasn't even there the day they made the cuts! I'm still in my 3 months of probationary employment. But the CEO assured me today that I'd be there until we move to Iowa. I've applied to design for a lot of different shops and been rejected quite a bit. Today, of all days, I get an e-mail saying I'd "be a delight" to work with and that they're impressed with my "eye for design" and one of my favorite blogs wants me to contribute content for them?

I am sufficiently humbled. [and so grateful!]

And Cam beat me soundly at every stinking game we played over the weekend.

humble.

grateful.

& blessed.

cute cute. :)