A Few of My Favorite Things...

Alright, so I saw this on Lindsay's blog and thought it was totally cute, and I wanted to do it...but I couldn't think of anything when it came down to it. Here is what I got. I'm pre-warning you. It's late, and I'm, well...wired, to say the least. Greg finally had to kick me out of the house. (I think he was sick of my dancing in front of him while he played his game...teehehe...) Seriously..it's late. These pics aren't the greatest, but it was fun. ENJOY!

Oh...the point of this...10 of your favorite ITEMS. (Nothing seriously important, like family, gospel, etc.) 

#1: MY COMPUTER! I have had this computer since my junior year of HS, and I absolutely LOVE IT! I will cry when it dies. It has been such a good computer, and when it crashes (which I hope doesn't happen anytime soon (knock on wood)) I am for sure getting another mac. okay, crossing my fingers on that one. They're so expensive! :(

#2: MY CAMERA. So obviously this is just the lens cap. I attempted a self-portrait in the mirror, but it didn't turn out, so you get to see the lens cap. I LOVE my camera! It has taken so many wonderful pictures. I love getting it out and learning how to actually use it...(STILL LEARNING!)

#4: MY IPOD! What would I do all day at school without my iPod? I would go nuts, I think...I love listening to music. I got this as an early birthday present because my sweet husband didn't want the mean kids to make fun of me when I showed up to school with an old school CD Player..
(This is still the iPod. I am just trying different angles...etc... :)

#3: (Yes these are out of order) MY PHONE! I would go crazy if I didn't have a cell. Text message is the greatest invention EVER! So much easier than having to actually TALK on the phone. Geeze....(notice the peace sign?)
I wanted to pretend it was a baby wrapped in a furry white blanket. I think it works... (did I mention it's LATE?!)

#5: TV! Seriously...What would I have to listen to all day while I sat on my computer? I have to have the TV turned on while I am at my computer. I hate the silence. I suppose I could listen to music though...hmm..there's a thought...I love watching movies with Greg and playing XBOX on this TV...($100 for anyone who can name the exact game Greg is playing!!)

#6: POST ITS! I absolutely have an obsession with post-its, or any small papers. I probably go through 20 pieces of paper (about that size) each day. I just write random things on them and doodle when my computer is taking forever to load something...LOVE THEM!

#7: PENS! I have had this obsession forever! I bought this AWESOME thing of pens when I was younger. There were about 50 different colored pens. Gel pens were my FAVE. Aubs, do you remember our obsession in like 7th grade? I still love them...I also love this picture...total depth of field shot (for any of you photographers out there!)

#8: ICE CREAM!! (this should be ranked higher) Umm...hello. How can you not love ice cream! It's the greatest invention ever, next to texting! Mint Chocolate chip all the way baby!! (This is about the time Greg kicked me out. He thought it was weird I was taking pictures of food...hmm...really? I think that combined with  my dancing got to him...haha)

#9: FLOWERS! I love flowers. I love getting roses, though I always seem to kill them. Anyone know how to keep them alive? Are you not supposed to cut them at all? I always cut mine so they don't stick out so far out of the vase...Any suggestions? So this picture, I love it. It's totally over-exposed, but I think it works for this. I did it by accident...

#10: (do I really have this many? I didn't think I did...) MY BED! and yes, it is not made, and no, I do not ever make it! But I LOVE IT! It's so comfty...and the sheets, though orange, are egyptian cotton (I think?) so they're super soft. Yeah. I love it, and I think it's calling me...)

I challenge everyone else (mom & dad included) to do this same thing...Post pictures of your 10 favorite things...You don't have to take the pics yourself. See Lindsay's blog for the super cute original idea. 

Tyson & Lauren

So, my cousin (in-law) Lauren asked me if I would edit some of her wedding photos. Of course I would say yes to any opportunity to mess around with pictures, especially wedding pictures. I asked her if I could post some of my favorite ones, and she said I could, so here are a few of my favorites. Can I just tell you how much I LOVE photoshop?!? Just even the littlest tweaking can add so much. Tyson and Lauren are such a stinkin' cute couple, I just had to share...So, thanks Lauren for letting me share these. I had so much fun with them!

This is by far my most favorite! LOVE IT!
The originals weren't too bad, but it was fun to tweak them and enhance the colors and such. Ummm, I got a little carried away trying different things.
This one is a little dark but I thought it was pretty cool.

I really like my vintage action...
So, obviously I have one favorite texture. I haven't been able to find another one I REALLY like, so if you know of any good places to get some really good textures, feel free to share!! But this one below is a new texture I found that I kinda liked. But still, I really like texture now, but need new ones...

Thanks again Lauren! ENJOY!!

Photography by: Lou Crandall Photo

Silly High School Boys...

So, I'm at sophomore/freshman practice today, and three of my juniors walk in just laughing, and Heidi says, "Bre, come here, I have something funny to tell you." So I went over there and she told me how this boy had called her and asked her if she was at the school about 20 minutes before. She said no, she had been home for about an hour. He got all quiet and she asked why. He asked her if she was sure, because he had some window paint in his car and he had written on her windows with it. He told her that it was a white car just like hers that had tape on the front right side from where her dad hit a deer...So, Heidi has a white oldsmobile, I have a white buick century. Both our cars have tape on the front right side from hitting a deer. He thought MY car was hers, so he decorated the windows...She knew right away it was my car, cuz if they aren't right next to each other, they do look similar, until you get close and hers is crappier than mine...(HAHA, sorry Heidi, it's true. You even admitted it today! :) Lol, so not TOO crappy, but you get what i'm saying. But yeah, Heidi, Michelle, Rakelle and I all got a kick out of it, but the boy felt a lot stupid! He didn't even come clean it off, so I am driving a car around that says "I love Heidi Jo." I thought it was way funny, so I took some pictures! haha, silly high school boys....







Speaking of this sexy car, so you know how I told you we took it in to get inspected and had 3 things fail on it, and it would've cost about $500? Well, thanks to the good work of my wonderful husband and our good friend Steve, we were able to get it fixed OURSELVES for about $50. (Would've been less, but we accidentally bought the wrong doorhandle.) But the one part that was going to cost about $200+ (a leaky hose or something) well..I think the Greg and Steve just cleaned it up really...so we told them that, and they said it didn't look like anything was leaking. Weird huh? It's a good thing we didn't pay to have them fix it. Anyway, I thought that was some good news, that, and you can now open the passenger side door from the inside and the out!! YAHOO!!

PPS...Can you see how green our lawn and trees are in the background! Pretty sweet huh? I love how green they are..though it cost a FORTUNE to keep it that green. We had to lower how long we set our sprinkler system to run because our last water bill was OUTRAGEOUS! Oh well...it made everything super green and I love it!

Yummy Recipe #1

So, Greg and I have made this recipe before, but last night it turned out SO GOOD, I just had to share it with everyone! It's so easy to make...

Clam Chowder

3/4 c. butter

3/4 c. flour

3 1/2 c. milk

2 c. potatos

1 c. onion

1 c. celery

2 cans clams (tuna fish size cans. I'm too lazy to go look at the size)

(I don't have the actual recipe for this part, so I'm going off of how I do it. Bare with me! :)

Cut up potatos, onion and celery. Put enough water in to barely cover the vegetables. Too much will make it runny. Open the clams and add JUST the juice. Put on the stove to boil until vegetables are soft.

Melt the butter and add flour. Whisk it until it is all mixed together. Add milk and whisk  until smooth. Leave on hot stove, whisking often so it doesn't get lumpy. Sauce will thicken as it stands.

When vegetables are soft, and sauce is thick, add the sauce to the vegetables (DON'T strain the vegetables of the water) and mix together. Add the clams and voila! Clam chowder. It's delicious with saltine crackers too...

Now, I always thought that clam chowder was gross...it had onions in it..YUCK!! (I'm one of those people who if it sounds or looks gross, it IS gross!) But once I tried it, SO GOOD! I always add more potatos than it calls for. Well, I should say first that it makes a LOT! Greg and I always HALF it, and we sometimes have some left over. (not last night though, cuz it was SO GOOD!) But I like more potatos, so I put in about 2 cups or more when i HALF it. For you onion haters out there, if you cook them long enough, you can't taste them...SERIOUSLY! I put in about a cup last night when we halfed it, which is what it usually calls for, and I was a bit worried, because although i LOVE THE SMELL of onions, i HATE THE TASTE. (okay, not the taste, but the texture? maybe?!?) But anyway...that may have been the difference. It adds flavor. But yeah, I like more potatos, but you can put as many as you want in. I do not like clams still.  The texture is too weird for me, so you can pick those out. I honestly don't know if adding the juice in when you boil the vegetables adds flavor, so you could try it without clams if you're not a clam fan, but I don't know. You can always pick them out! :) Anyway...so that's my delicious recipe for now! If I think of more, I will let you know. 

So yeah...I had some thoughts for you earlier when I was thinking about thoughts to share...but I don't remember them now. Oh, our first volleyball game is this Thursday at home against Bountiful at 4:00. Should be fun to see how that goes...

What's been happening...

So, it's been FOREVER since I last blogged..(yeah, I get annoyed when people go more than a day to blog..) so I decided I would give you all an update on what's been going on this past week...

Saturday I went to the fair with Greg. He volunteers at CAPSA (an abuse center) and they asked him to sit at their booth. We were there for about 4 hours just sitting, watching people. Can I just tell you that there are some INTERESTING people in this world. Wow..yeah...anyway, so while we're sitting there, I see a friend that I haven't seen since December when she quit kmart to have her baby. I haven't seen her baby yet either so I get up and give her a hug and I'm just talking to her for a while...well, I'm saying goodbye and Shay suddenly yells, "BREANNE!" I of course had no idea what she was yelling for, and it kinda freaked me out, so I asked her what...and she said, "You have two different shoes on." Sure enough. I had one black flip-flop and one BRIGHT blue-green flip-flop on. Somewhat embarassing.....

Monday we had volleyball tryouts. We actually had a lot more girls try out than I was expecting. It was a really good day, but can I just tell you that I am SO GLAD we never had tryouts...for the coach's sakes...I mean, granted, there were times when I wished that we had cuts...lol, that's kinda mean, I know, but admit it, all of you are agreeing with me on that one. Anyway, it was really tough to cut some of the girls. but it had to be done, and I'm over it now..lol...kinda, but I have to tell you about this one girl. So, there's this girl who is really little, and she doesn't speak English. Well, I wasn't expecting much from her, cuz she was a sophomore and didn't play freshman year. So we start out with passing, and I kinda overlook her, and I made the rounds and was talking to the sophomore coach Julie about some of them. She pointed to this girl and said, "She's got pretty good ball control." So I looked over, and holy cows, she was getting perfect passes. She didn't have the "correct" form, but I wasn't gonna try and fix it for her, cuz it was working. Well, so I was happy about that, and even in butterfly drills she did good. So then we move onto setting...again..this girl was pretty good. onto serving...WOW.. She had some power for a little girl. I swear she is Brazilian...she most definitely isn't white!!! I've decided I'm going to learn Spanish just for her...So that was good. Practices the past few days have been pretty good. We've had a bit of drama, and I am ready to pull my hair out already...but I won't get into that, cuz I don't know who actually reads my blogs! Ugh...seriously though, I am about to go nuts. Good thing I don't have to play everyone....

Let's see...oh yeah...I FINALLY got my new website up and running! It's so much easier than the last one I did, and I personally think it looks better. So be sure to check it out.... www.btadesigns.com I guarantee it won't be the last time I change it. I'm constantly learning new tricks to web design. I want to make it look as professional as possible. We'll see how it goes...

So, I think that's about it for the past week. Not to exciting, huh? yeah, I didn't think so...but it's all good. Life is great, couldn't ask for anything more!