Save the Date

FEBRUARY 3rd is the National Wear Red day!
 The #1 leading cause of death among women is heart disease, not cancer.  Help me and other women around you learn more about this great organization: The American Heart Association. 

You can go here to learn more about what people are doing to help fight this disease. 

Also, you can support the cause HERE or just simply wear Red on Feb. 3rd.  Every little bit counts!  Thanks!

GO RED FOR WOMEN!

Valentine's day craft

I love a little taste of each Holiday at my office.

I had a Christmas Tree that I made and I just wasn't quite ready to let it go into storage.

So...I made these little cuties!

I snapped some how to pictures (for those of you who are like me and can't just look at a craft and automatically know how it works...I know how you feel)

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I just printed off some "Vintage sheet music" that I found on google

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Then I cut little sections up like below.

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Made little according folds. Then folded them in half and glued them.

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Then glued them to each other.

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Then glued them all the way into a circle.
Cute, huh!?
I then put some glitter glue around the edges for some cuteness effect.
Then I glued little red cut out hearts onto the top of them.

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I stuck paper clips through the paper and hung them on my Christmas tree.
They are strategically placed over the candy canes (which are hot glued on).

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I'm pretty much in love with these little cute Valentine's Ornaments.

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Then my door was looking a little naked so I used some more sheet music and made this.
The paper clips were due to lack of resources at my office. 
I guess we just don't keep string on hand. Go figure.

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Some more glitter glue.
What's the saying... Everything's better with glitter?
Or something like that.

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(Happy Valentine's Day)

Feel the love...

From the Kitchen of Lex

What a lovely dinner at PF Chang's

Just kidding, you think North Dakota would EVER have a PF Chang's?

Not in this life. So when Lettuce wraps sounded SO good and I pinned them on Pinterest, I decided to try them. Oh yes, they were so good.  I haven't had lettuce wraps in so long, so I can't be positive if they were the same or not, but I sure loved them!

 Go HERE for the Lettuce Wraps recipe. 

I made my own dipping sauce.

Soy Sauce

Hoison Sauce

Sesame Oil

Water

Amounts: To taste

I also made a family Fav and at the request of my Mother from another Mother

(My best friend's Mom, in case I am confusing anyone)

Here is the famous Banana Bars (compliments of my Mother-in-law)

1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

3 med. ripe bananas

1 t. vanilla

2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

pinch salt

Cream butter sugar. Beat in eggs, banans and vanilla.  Combine flour, soda and salt.  Add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Pour into greased 15x10x1 inch jellyroll pan.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Cool. 

Frosting

1/2 c. softened butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1 (8oz) pkg. cream cheese

2 tsp. vanilla

Mix together well and spread over cooled bars.

Enjoy the deliciousness that we enjoy in the middle of nowhere, ND.

Until next time...

Of course, I made these yesterday and Yes, they are almost all gone. Too good to last two days!~

My new years resolution chair

Happy New Year's Folks

Let's roll into the New Year!

(I tried lots of "ball" phrases, they were all about as dumb as this one! haha)

So my new office chair is this exercise ball.  I LOVE IT! Thanks Wade for getting it for me for Christmas. 

It keeps me moving all day, especially when I have long days that result in sitting at my desk for awhile.

And sometimes, when my door is closed, I may or may not be doing sit ups of some sort or just bouncing.

Here are a few other of my New Year's goals:

1. Climb Mount Everest

2. Eat less processed sugary foods (like little debbie's snacks)

3. Grow my hair long and NOT get annoyed and cut it

4. Pay off student loans

5. STOP biting my nails

6. Pass off Personal Progress goals with my YW this year

7. Sew stuff (blanket, dress, skirt)

8. Bake my hubby a Costco Cake for his bday, yeah, wish me luck (I think Everest will be easier)

9. Stop drinking Soda

10. Be nice to my family (not like I'm mean or anything, but I've learned the true meaning of "irritable")

(In case you were curious, I will not be traveling to China any time soon to ACTUALLY climb Everest, but at work we are doing a "take the stairs" challenge and I only have to climb 3,111 flights of stairs to reach the peak of Mount Everest!  I'm totally going to do it, it might be December before I reach the peak, but by golly I will reach it!

Happy New Year to all! Don't stress, it is a lovely time of the year! Refreshing and a clean slate!

Follow the prophet

I think people thought because it was New Year's Day that we didn't have church today...But indeed we did, and all 3 hours, not like last week's 1 hour.  So when I went to teach my YW's combined lesson, there was only 1 girl...then 3 more showed up (Sunday School ran late).  So in honor of the topic being a Challenge from our prophet for the new year, I will share the highlights of his lesson. Plus it is part of my New Year's goals is to follow the direct challenges we receive from church every week/month.
(can be found in January 2012 Ensign, First Presidency Message)

ABC's of an Abundant Life:

A-is for Attitude!

It is important to have a positive attitude and to know that WE can choose how we see things and how we react to them.  It is our choice to have a good attitude or not.  May we choose to have a good attitude about the circumstances in our life. 

Like having a good attitude about living in a very cold, far away land.  I am actually surprised about how well I'm adjusting and feel like I am doing well about having a good attitude about it.  (My family is good about it too).

B- is for Believe in yourself, in others and in eternal principles.

What a beautiful reminder.  We need to have faith in ourselves and believe we can accomplish what we put our minds to.  For me it is about confidence in yourself too.  I feel like that makes a world of difference in a person.

C- is for Courage.

Yes, sometimes it just takes some serious courage to trust in the Lord and in the direction we head.  As President Monson states, "Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live decently".  I love that!  Courage is in our everday life!

Thank you President Monson for your love and counsel!

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