Moolah in Da Poolah

Oh my sweet friends I wish I was so much better at blogging..

We have had so many dang cool things happening 

[admist the hard work and long hours we've been putting in] 

& This summer has definitely been a roller coaster of emotion and has hardly seemed real..

I promise I have fun stories for you coming soon..

But as for this morning...

Our boss woke up everyone this morning by getting 

100 gold coins

& letting everyone DIVE for them!

Can you say.. oh GOOD MORNING..

:)

They were put into teams and Blake and his friend Alex won the chance to dive first.. 

They had the snorkeling gear we brought on our Honeymoon.. & my personal opinion is that they looked like a couple of Squidwards from Sponge Bob..

SO I couldn't help myself from cheering after them as Team Squidwards... I'm sure they appreciated it.

Funny Men.

But we definitely had a great time starting our day with a little extra moolah..

I hope everyone else's Tuesday has been going just wonderfully!

Miss you all.

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. -Tenneva Jordan

Happy Birthday My Sweet Beautiful Momma!

Since you are SO busy partying

[Yes.. I know what you are thinking.. how could my family.. my own flesh and blood.. party without ME. I thought the same thing naturally..

But it's okay friends.. I have decided.. although it's probably hard to.. they may have a little bit of fun without me sometimes]

& Saving poor women on the side of the road today that I have hardly got to speak with you..

So I thought I would just blog to you..

I know that everyone will tell you that their mom is the best..

But I'm telling you.. Mine really is.

She is the most selfless person in the world. I think this blog quote is perfect for her.

She always has put me and my brother and sister before everything.

She has taught me how to love, to serve, and how to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father.

She has taught me how to be creative and love reading and learning.

[She is always making cute things for others and.. it may come as no surprise that my roommates and friends have always loved her]

She has sacrificed everything for me to give me the life that I've wanted.. & for that I wish I could give her the world.

 

[If you can hear her thoughts saying.. "oh Haillleyyy" like I can.. then yes this is a good depiction of our life.. haha] 

She is the poor mom that always heard about the treats that I needed in class the night before and made them anyway..

She was the sweet woman who would speed back to the school because I forgot my lunch money.. or my homework and it was due.. NOW.

When I had nightmares or was sick.. she was always up with me praying and making me feel better.

 
She holds me when I cried and makes me feel like everything will be okay..

She selflessly sacrificed her time and drove me [oh yeah and all of my friends and everyone.. I ever met..] around everywhere before I could drive... 

& I can't remember one Holiday that she doesn't have a surprise or fun celebration for us..

Now if you know me now.. you probably wouldn't believe that I could ever be over dramatic..

But this story gives you an idea of what a joy it was to raise me..

[oh yeah.. and probably how life still may be..] 

& always makes me feel bad for my poor mother..

I hated/hate shots [blood, needles, doctors, pain,.. blood]

& one time when I had to get my shots I after screamed and announced 

that I surely could no longer walk.

After some convincing me that  I could walk..

I yelled on the floor.. and then.. dramatically [and loudly] drug my "dead leg" out to the car for the whole office to hear.

My poor poor.. poor patient mom.

You have to love those children who are not afraid to make a scene..

This is one good woman.. that I am so grateful puts up with me, loves me, and gives me everything..

& I am sure proud to call her mom.

I hope you had the best birthday Mommy..

I wish I could have been there.

I love you more than anything.

:)

One Proud Moment

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight." --M.F.K. Fisher

So if you really understood how truly ecstatically proud I am of this moment.. 

You may just possibly be a little embarrassed for me..

But this summer while Blake works about 72 hours a week & I work any where from 25-45.. 

I have some time that I get a little lonely & depressed if I am not doing anything..

So I decided I wanted to take advantage of the extra time & be a good home making wife and save us some money and learn a new talent..

So I looked up how to knead bread on You Tube.. 

researched a significant amount of recipes..

Miserably Failed a couple of times..

& Finally..

 I made a beautiful yummmy yummy loaf of bread!

& I couldn't be more grateful that it finally came out right..

 Blake and I think this recipe tastes perfect!

[& We had a friend tell me it was better than Great Harvest!]

So if you've been wanting to learn how to make bread

 [& want to feel as dang happy as I do about this accomplishment.. haha]

I dare you to try it!

& Then share your excitement with me when it comes out right!

 Honey Whole Wheat Bread

yields 3 loaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 5 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
  
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not over bake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely 

  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/

Good luck!

I hope it turns out just perfect..

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

:)

Once Upon a Time in New York City..

So this past weekend was wonderful, 

& I can't even believe how lucky I was..
I got to have a little piece of home with me in 
New York City..

My beautiful sweet friend Kayla came to visit New York City this weekend & definitely made my whole summer!

I lovve being out here don't get me wrong..

But there is of course no place like home..

[& no one like your best friends to make your day]

Kay and I have always been the best of friends growing up..

& Through our elementary school years her family surprised us and we got to live just a couple of houses down from each other!

And luckily through out everything we have always stayed close.

So you can imagine how exciting it was to see each other on the east coast and hang out in NYC!

She had already been here once before so we decided to just explore a little bit..

 

& Thanks to Kayla's good ideas we got to experience lunch in China Town!

And boy.. was it an experience. haha

Luckily after we got over the slight language barrier 

[Oh yeah.. and just the fact that we were the only people that weren't Chinese in the whole restaurant.. when they say China Town.. they mean China Town. ]

The food was absolutely normal.. delicious. 

 

[This same day another one of our friends bought this from China Town.. If you want a little bit of a laugh go ahead and read it :) ]

Then we got to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.. 

and it was SO cool!

 

I forgot to mention that the husband was a wonderful sport.. 

 Even when given the option to hang out with our friends and avoid all the girl talk.. he wanted to hang out with us.

[What a good man.] 

 

I think he even ended up having a great time..

[We are both still SO awestruck with this city every time we are here.. love it.]

 

& If he didn't at least we got to show Kayla how professional we are at taking pictures!

I felt like you could see so many cool things from up there..

 

 & We definitely soaked it all in.

& I don't think I ever got over how HAPPY I was to be able to spend the day with these two...

Not even taking account of how crazy it was that we were on the east coast in the city.

Our next stop was Wall Street..

And seeing as all of us have Finance as parts of our majors this was something that we had all been learning a lot about and 

we all really wanted to see..

& As we helped ourselves to the guided tour that was going on next to us.. it was really interesting to learn how it all began.

[& yes.. the street was really named after a Dutch Wall if anyone was wondering]

We got to see [in my opinion] the most famous Bull in the world..

But it was soo famous that it had people lined up down the street to take pictures with it!

[A little too famous for our taste.. so we just admired it in all of it's glory from a distance..]

& Then because we couldn't help ourselves we had to stop at the free Native American museum!

Haha.. It's all we girls from New Mexico have grown up knowing.. 

I guess it's embedded in our culture forever.

& This is more the kind of Statue of Liberty we are used to!

:)

Then we took the scenic route taking Kayla to the 9/11 Memorial where we were so sad to say goodbye..

[Oh yeah.. I obviously thought I was special enough to just be in all of the pictures or something.. holy cow.. picture hog]

Kay thanks so much for letting us see you!

Blake and I both love you SO much & I am so grateful everyday to have such a good friend.

Thanks for the perfect day.

Then Blake and I had one more stop to make before our exciting hot day got the best of us..

The oldest Toy Store in the United States..

The famous Fifth Avenue New York City Toy Store!

This cute mouth watering toy store has been in the movie Big with Tom Hanks, the new Smurfs movie, then in some older movies Mighty Aphrodite, Big Business, Baby Boom..

[& yeah.. I know I haven't watched those either.. but trust me.. it's cool]

We found some GIANT candy! 

 

That beauty right there is the World's LARGEST gummy bear.

 

& We got to play on the GIANT piano!

[Which is only $250,000 if you want to buy it at this store, so if you want to live in a tent but have a cool piano... this is the purchase for you!]

& Even though we will unquestionably never be able to afford one of our own..

We had a BLAST figuring out how to play this giant one at the store.

What a fun idea.

 

We love New York City and FAO Shwartz!

Then after ice cream and NYC hot dogs and  

literally falling asleep in Central Park..

We decided we should maybe call it a day.

I'm so grateful for time with friends and loved ones that help you forget the stresses of everything else in life.

This weekend was such a blessing.

Especially while my sweet family was vacationing in Denver.. I sure missed them & was grateful to my Heavenly Father for cheering me up.

I hope everyone else is doing great, enjoying summer, and finding time to rest!

Happy Wednesday, love you all.