I just love upcycling for decorating

This is a collection of things I've used or someone else has used and I've turned them into my Christmas decor.

1. The flowers in the vase on the left are the silk bouquets from my dear friend Lindsay's wedding where I was a bridesmaid.
2. In between those flowers (you can't see it very well) is my dried bouquet from my wedding.
3. The thanks bottle are old beer bottles my friend brought home from work. I posted these in my previous post from my Thanksgiving decor...but it's still the season to give thanks so I went to the dollar store and got the red and gold berry stem thingys to add to my backyard branches. I love how dressed up they look now!
4. The shelf is something my husband brought home from a demolition job where it was going in the trash. I painted it red and I LOVE it!
5. I made the Savior picture myself. A little paint, mode podge and that clear lacquer stuff to make it look like tile.
6. The hanging sign was a gift.
7. The stockings came from a store. No mantle or fireplace so this was the perfect place to hang them!

And it's also December 3rd!!
That means in two weeks I'll be home for Christmas....and not if only in my dreams...this is the real deal. In the flesh, home!!! I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!
Happy December folks!

Oh yes, on a side note, I was frustrated with my hair at work on Thursday, so on my lunch hour I tried this "waterfall braid" that i've seen all over the internet.  It was suprisingly easier than it looks. I didn't even have to youtube it, I just starred at some pictures others had posted and tried it.  I really loved it!  Very fun new look.

Tis the season

So we had a "No Hurry Christmas" craft day last week

THIS was my project:

but wait....

It lights up too!

It is sooo cute in person.  I totally love it.

I'm so excited for Christmas time!  Tomorrow we will bust out our Fake tree that I purchased from a yard sale when we got here to ND.  An awesome $10 find! It's like a 7 foot nice tree.  I'm so excited! I love yard sale steals!

Oh yeah, and we are watching ELF right now.

Seriously LOVE that movie!

AND my Thanksgiving meal today was amazing.  I'm so glad it went well.  Nine happy people were fed! I was worried it wouldn't turn out on time, etc etc etc.  BUT no worries.  It did!

I was told over and over again that my rolls were SO good! 

Thanks to Our Best Bites recipe here.  I will say they were delish!

Oh and I won a BLOG give away from this cute site.
Literally THANKS to Vivian for what I won:
I won the vinyl letters from a craft she did similar to this one.  It required that I get beer bottles for the letters to go on....so what does any good mormon do when she needs beer bottles?
Ask a friend who works at a bar to bring some home from work!  I know, I'm a genius right!?
She was so great to bring them home for me.  I found the twigs in my yard and jazzed up my Halloween jars by turning them around and adding the Thanks bottles!
So fun! I love it!

And in the spirit of Thanksgiving. 

My top ten list of Thanks

1. Having the most incredible husband

2. Having a sweet daughter

3. A loving family

4. Actually owning a house in Williston (it's very rare here)

5. Knowing how to cook

6. Loving the food I make..and when others love it too

7. My job and the amazing staff I work with

8. The beautiful weather

9. My wonderful friends who I "catch up" with here and there

10. The amazing gospel of Jesus Christ

Pirates...arrrgh!

The Pirate Family....AAARRGGH!!

This was our Ward Party costume.

Autumn was amazed that we could actually come up with costumes from stuff we had AT HOME!

Shocker, but it must be born into us, we are pretty good at costuming from home!

It's gotta be a Millar thing.

Or maybe its a Lex thing (I know Abe and the Utah Millars are good at it too)

Exhibits A-D

(I have more, but I'll spare you)

This was..."White trash". We had a White Trash Bash party. (back in my single days...oh dear)

This was a Rodeo Clown

 A preppy Golfer (not even halloween, just a min golf night for FHE)



We were the 3 Amigos, of course.

So I like dressing up and I'm an adult.

Thank you, thank you very much!

Oh! and...I won the cornbread contest for the Chili and Cornbread cookoff!

All that was left of it was the 9x13 pans, so no pics of the cornbread!

But...Yah.

We are pretty much Awesome! 

Next year we are thinking Adams Family

Want to WOW your family?

Make your very own granola!!

Yes that's right. I bought some yogurt a week ago and I was eating it at work, thinking how it would taste so much better with granola.

So.... I searched several sites looking for easy granola recipes. And.... I found one 

HERE

I was amazed. What's better is I didn't have to spend a fortune on granola from the store. I mean, really, does your store have simple, cheap, tasty granola?? If it does, count yourself very lucky!! My stores have fancy schmancy organic granola with weird seeds I've never even heard of. Or I have to buy the granola cereals which taste more like cereal and less like granola. All I wanted was the granola like you get from McDonalds with your fruit and yogurt parfait. But here, going to McDonalds is an all day adventure. It's the busiest MickeyDee's in the country!

My husband was a little hesitant, you see, "granola" to him has negative connotation. No offense to you Subaru driving folks! ;) just kidding! I love you all!! So to Wow him, I grabbed our last yogurt and put it in a bowl with granola and..... he was wowed!! I love surprising my hubby. He gave me a bite and Autumn a bite, then he wouldn't let us eat anymore...he was kinda being selfish (but I liked it because it meant he REALLY liked it! Success!)

Well my ramblings are finally coming to an end now folks. Go grab your oats, honey, oil, brown sugar, little cinnamon, little salt and you've got yourself some super easy and DELISH granola!

Sidenote: somehow when I was measuring out my cinnamon, and I seriously don't know how this happened, I dumped WAY more than it called for in the recipe.  It was very cinnamony, but not too bad. I would actually just put the 1/2 t. or t. that it calls for...not the 1/4 a cup I accidentally dumped in. :(  haha.

Well, I'm off to get my 9:45 snack...guess what it is???

Raspberry yogurt with...GRANOLA!

YUM!

Do you have a PUWYLO friend?

This is El Arco in Cabo, Mexico. It is where the Pacific ocean and the Sea of Cortez connect through land.  Keep that in mind as you read this post.

 

(I actually took this picture when I went there with one of my PUWYLO friends.)

Have I intrigued you yet?  Well, I must say, I just came up with this acronym last night as I lay in bed at 8:30 to go to sleep.  Yes, 8:30!  It's a regular occurence at our home, but it's because my sweetheart wakes up at 4:45am to go to work, to get a head start on the day!  Bless his soul! That's early.  So sometimes, it is hard for me to go to sleep that early and I think a lot as I lay and listen to him snooze.  (some nights his snooze is louder than others...ugh, I don't like snoring).  But last night was quiet and I thought about what I might post on my blog today. 

And this is what I came up with:

a PUWYLO friend

This stands for Pick Up Where You Left Off friend. 

I have to just say, I'm am SOOO thanful for all my PUWYLO friends out there.  You probably know who you are!  I have friends from years and years ago that I don't regularly keep in touch with, BUT we have such an awesome friendship that we can just...pick up right where we left off however many years ago it was.  I can't fully express in words how sweet it is to have friends like that.  They don't get mad at you because you never call or you never visit.  They just understand that life gets crazy busy and then about 4 years later, you randomly email them and then call them the next day and talk for like 2 hours and it is so great!  It literally feels like we had been hanging out and talking the whole time, but obviously it had been awhile.

I just want to say if you have some PUWYLO friends out there, pick up the phone, facebook message them, shoot them a text (or in my case, I didn't even have one's number because it had been so long) or email them saying your thinking about them (even if you only began to think about them because you read this blog).

I can seriously count several friends, I would need more than my two hands to count them all, that are my PUWYLO friends.  Okay okay, I'll stop using that acronym, but they are exactly that.  I miss them all dearly but love to just catch up with them when both our crazy lives meet in the middle somehow and we find an hour in our lives to visit.  Even if it takes 10 years.  Which is what I did this last winter, I met a friend for hot chocolate that I have literally not seen since we were walking out the high school door of our all night after graduation party.  I just LOVE re-connecting with old friends.  It's sure fun.  Makes me feel all good inside.

Kind of like this picture made me feel, I took this picture at a stoplight in Provo years ago.

You know what else makes me feel all good inside??

THESE donuts or THESE BAKED donuts

But it's a different feel good...it's the kind that makes my tummy feel good inside me and then makes me gain a few pounds!  I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I sure would like to! Mmmmm

Fall!! YAY!

THESE babies are the REASON for the SEASON.  Oh my YUM!

This is the View from my                        This is the view today!
window a few weeks ago.                      Getting a little more yellow
     

I made these! Cool huh!?! 

 I somehow forgot all my Halloween Decor at my mom's in Idaho. Boo! (pun intended!)
So I had to make something Halloweeny.  I love them!

Driving Home...I know shouldn't be Taking pics and driving...but I LOVE the trees changing colors!

This is what "having a cough at work" looks like.

I got a cold last Friday that lasted a short time but now I'm dealing with this wretched Cough!! I have been living off cough drops to settle down the coughing fits. You know when you get a tickle in your throat and you can't stop coughing??? Yup, that's how it's been for five days straight. I try numbing it with the spray. I try breathing the vapor rub. I suck on the strongest, grossest cough drops known to man. And I drink water like crazy. The Nasty fisherman's friend cough drops help a little. I'm just annoyed with it now. It's to the point where everyone in my office knows when I'm here and they come to see if I'm okay. On the up side, one coworker did come in and now I think, after talking to her, that I need to be sipping on warm stuff. Off to get honey and lemon juice for my hot water.

Well, after writing this post...I went down to the mail room (on my way to get the honey and lemon juice) and one of our nurses was there.  She diagnosed me with "take a day off, your sick" sickness.

So...I went home, after going to the pharmacy and having the nice pharmacist load me up on the goods.

I took Nyquil, Extra strength Mucinex and Vitamin C and slept from 10:30am-1:30pm, ate a banana and went back to sleep till 4pm. 

Just what I needed! 

Today I'm at work with JUST cough drops, took a Claritin D, have gatorade and water...I'm feeling good.

Much better day.

Although it was raining today and I SO just wanted to stay in bed.  I took Autumn to school right after a crazy DOWNPOUR.  And we were literally driving in a foot of water.  She was kinda freaking out and kept saying, "are we going to SINK??"  It was funny.  But the road was a river, one of the houses had the water flowing up onto the front lawn and there were wakes in the water hitting my car and the passing minivans.  It was a little wild.  So I pulled up to the curb and told Autumn to jump!  She stood in the car and lept for the sidewalk.  :) 

Good times in ND!

And thankful that I am not coughing my brains out today!

You break it, you buy it.

My husband's been wanting something to hold his "cards" in, but did NOT want a bulky wallet. I don't blame him, those big wallets are annoying. So instead he grabs his driver's license, credit card, cash and his CDL something or other card and puts them in his pocket....a loss waiting to happen.

Well, I found some front pocket, slim wallets online but didn't want to hassle with shipping and waiting....not as patient as I used to be. Then I was at the evil walmart ( I say evil, because we usually try to avoid it like we avoid sin....it's dirty, poor service and overall a bad experience when we go, stand ye in holy places right?) and I was looking for men's front wallets/card holder thingies. Of course they have NO men's accessories except ties. Those won't work.

I head to look at the ladies wallets. I was trying to be resourceful, which I feel I'm pretty good at, and I opened the wallet you see below. Now, in the picture there are two pieces, in the store they were one. Oopsy.

I thought that the middle flap was not connected and being of the determined type....I yanked that thing right out thinking it was just stuck in there real good. In fact it was in there good, sewn in actually. But walmart quality=easy for me to rip out. And I've gotta be honest with you, I put it back together and slipped it back on the shelf thinking "whoops" then circled the men's clothing only to come right back, guilt stricken, pick it up and think "well, $7 is cheaper than the $17 I was going to pay AND I broke it so I need to buy it".

So I'm hoping Wade likes his new front wallet. And I feel good knowing I didn't damage merchandise then leave it for some girl to buy. Conscience is clear. Guilt is gone. Phew. :)

Popcorn perks at work

Why do I love the Old Maids so much?? Someone would make a killin if they just sold these yummy, crunchy, half popped Old women! ;)
Although I love those old maids, I love the popcorn just the same. Definitely a perk of working on the 3rd floor is having this glorious machine in our break-room!
Nothing quite like movie theatre popcorn at work! Yummy!

My bathroom REMODEL is done!

My favorite bathroom accessory: the toilet paper holder! Thanks to hobby Lobby for all the cute decor on the walls. My awesome husband did the tile in the shower and the floor. Check out this post for the before pics of the bathroom, it was tiny and cramped and yucky. This is 100 times better in my opinion. I just love it so much, the new white paneling/wanescoat/whatever it's called. And the grecian ivory paint (chosen by Wade...I couldn't for the life of me decide on a color and this is what he got...I LOVE IT). Basically it's all new with a cute new vanity that Wade brought home with him from Idaho (home depot special). Thanks to the hubs...he did it again! Made the old new again! Love him!!

 

 

 

Our 9 days...on VACATION!!!

Well of course we went to...Mt. Rushmore! (with a Sturgis dude next to us). love it.

 So this is a run down of our trip.  We drove to Rapid City, SD.  Crossed through the Badlands and drove and drove.  Wade is a great, enthusuastic driver!  Love him!  (actually Wyoming was LONGER drive and I got to do a lot of it too).

 We went to the OTHER face on the Mountain monument: Crazy Horse.  This is what it WILL look like when completed.

 This is what it looks like now...see the face and the hole for where the arm will be.  Yeah,  its a long process carving this guy and his horse in the mountain....because they won't use government funding to do so.  It is all based on donations and people coming to visit the place.  Crazy....horse..? 

We REALLY liked how we saw THOUSANDS (literally) of motorcycles while we were there.  Yup, we like that crowd, accidentally picked STURGIS week to go on our vacation to Rapid City.  It was actually pretty cool seeing all the motorcycles.  Pretty sure Wade wants a motorcycle now....but I kinda want one too. (to ride on the back of course, but I'm not sure I can look as tough as those chicks we saw riding on the backs...I can try). But seriously, the lady at the hotel said they average 500,000 bikers ride through during this week.  That's a lot of leather!

We went to a cute little park in Rapid City called Story Book park.  It had all these cool toys with giant replica's from stories (you name it, they had it...even three men in a tub? I don't remember that story growing up) Autumn loved them all...she wanted us to take her picture on everything, I made Wade sit on the Monkey swing with Autumn. What a trooper!

Then we made our way to North Salt Lake.  Drove ALL day across Wyoming, dang that's a wide state.  We played with my neices: Harley, Mylie and Quinn all week.  Then my mom and dad and Noah came and we had a blast.  The day after we got there was Quinn's 1st birthday!  She was so cute.  Wade and her had fun chatting!

 We went to Lagoon (regretfully, these are the only pics...) it was the 2nd ride and it was the Kiddie version of the Re-Entry or as it is called Egg drop.  It's where they take you up and then drop you like you are free falling.  Well, the kids wanted to go on it, so I got in line.  Wade wouldn't go with us.  this is me trying to telling him to "get over here...Now (with the pointer finger).  Didn't work.  So I stepped out and watched with Wade.  Good thing because it was by far the funniest ride to watch the screaming, bawling child that freaked out when the ride "dropped".  Oh wait....that was OUR screaming, bawling child.  Yup our 9 year old freaked out. We tried not to laugh but it was so dang funny.  Mylie who is 5 was looking at Autumn like "what is wrong with you?" not scared at all.

Then to the Hogle Zoo.  They are all Tigers?  or something...then with the Giraffe.  Then Quinn enjoying an ice cream cone! She's got this thing figured out!

Then before we left, I took Wade to Crown Burger in SLC.  You see, I love watching food channels.  And we enjoy Man Vs. Food on the Travel Channel.  Well this was on one day in ND and I told myself I am going to eat at this place when I go...and I did!  He made it look so good on TV.  It was a Pastrami Cheeseburger.  Pretty good, but Wade didn't think it blew his socks off.  I was just excited to go where the Man Vs. Food guy went.  :)

Then we went to Idaho Falls.  While we were there, we of course had to stop and check out Wade's handy log work at the Famous Dave's.  Look at those logs he coped!  Nice!! 

Sweet little Kallie Rae's blessing was on Sunday.  It was wonderful, I think someboday said there were 17 guys in the circle.  How blessed that little girl is to have so many priesthood holders hold HER in their arms!  It was fun to see the Hanson Family too!

 We also got to visit my Grandma Donna's grave in Shelley, man do I miss her bad!  She was one AMAZING woman!  My mom and dad pulled in right after we had left, so I didn't get a picture but they did! Love these two parents!

Then I cried driving back to ND thinking how much I love our Families!  What a good vacation.  Much needed and loved!  See you all at Christmas guys!