Our bunny's cuter than your bunny

Now, in no means am I trying to brag here... But I'm just saying we've got some pretty cute little animals living in our home congesting my sinuses- and I cannot tell you how happy I am about them! What is it about small innocent creatures covered in fur that make them sooo irresistable?

I'm not sure what the answer is to that one, but all I know is that I want any kind of baby fuzz ball shipped to my house pronto.

How grateful my husband is for that fact that you can't have a lot of bunnies together at one time. (Unless you want to gain multiples... it can happen in just 30 days according to my research.) If that wasn't true, I'm not sure we would want to know how many bunnies I would try to fit in one cage. But it's not, phew, Jory lucked out.

So now, we're setting such a fashion statement in our kitchen. I just could not bear the thought of putting the poor little guys out side in their hutches because it's too cold, and the garage would just be so boring of a life wouldn't it? So now, yes they are in our kitchen. But I can assure you that our house has not turned into one of those "white-trash animal homes" who's couches have so much fur they could be animals themselves. We just have rabbits in our kitchen. No big deal? They live in a 70 degree heated home in the winter, and both get a perfect view of our tv to watch Prison Break whenever they please. What a fabulous life.

release the man inside of you

Now this won't be the most appitizing blog post you've ever seen... I was feeling rugged and I wanted to make my own beef jerky. It turned out so great and I wanted to share!

Now you start with this...
(HA- I had to show off this picture Jory took of one of our neighbors.)

...A couple pounds of a LEAN cut of meat. It can really be any type, just make sure it doesn't have a lot of fat in it. The meat above happens to be a "London Broil" cut. I don't know a lot about meat, and I feel funny throwing these words around like I know what I'm talking about-- but when I was googling away about Jerky, I came up with round roasts and eye round roasts are pretty great for jerky. You can even make turkey jerky... really any type so be creative.

Cut off all the fat that you can see and stick your hunk o' meat in the freezer for a few hours to firm up and make it easier to cut. Slice it however you like, but keep in mind that the pieces of meat will shrink when you dry it, so don't slice them too small. I sliced mine 1 quarter inch thick.

Now you marinate the meat.

Mix together...

2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup worcheseshriereetiree sauce aka (worchestire)
2 Tbls liquid smoke
1 Tbls Honey
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes



Then mix your meat


Me and the meat got down and dirty- then I stuck the cow in the fridge over night.

Follow your instructions on your dehydrator manual and dry accordingly.
It took mine about 6 hours.

What I learned from this experience: I'd rather eat meat than prepare it.
I also couldn't get over the fact that all you did was dry the meat and NOT cook it, that's a little weird right?

I hope I haven't turned any of you readers vegetarian.

you've gotta feel it

The other night, in lump of frustration and negativity -I fell on the couch upset about anything and everything and not really quite sure why. You know those days, where the world just isn't going your way and you hate the world for it.
...
Then you feel stupid for not knowing why you're feeling so self absorbed- so you feel bad about that and this vicious circle just traps you.

My sweetie not knowing how to help my distressed soul knew what always seems puts me in a different place, and turned some music on. The good stuff. The stuff that you can feel through your bones. While staring me right in the eyes he grabbed those tunes and danced for me until I cracked a smile.

Nothing is really that terrible. : )

And if you think it is... A little Bon Iver can cure that for you.


I feel like I haven't really ever felt so much as I have felt through music. Through church hymns, the rush of running to good song, crying to a sad one, or being in a concert where the music flows right through you. Music is wonderful.

SUGA

There are many perks to being married to a hunky school teacher.

During the holidays my favorite benefits of this occupation include :
1. Jor's 2 FULL weeks off of work. (That is a little disgusting when you think about it. and it's PAID. But i'm happy for him- and I have a clean garage as of this moment because of it.)
2. Generous student's parents who donate gingerbread making supplies for the last day of school before the Christmas break, and all of the leftovers of candy and other wonderful things- because of these parents- that we so gratefully get to use for our GINGERBREAD HOUSES!

Donations to the cause.

Jay's house. Honestly, this was a miracle and we are still in shock he made such a good house. He's never been able to handle the pressure me and Jor bring. (jk, but really..)
My favorite are the little gingerbread man stacked on each other putting the lights on. Oh, and the farm animals on the left side of the roof.

Claire wins the award for best gluing skills. And icicle skills. And best hair skills.

My house. The snowman was my favorite part!


Jor decided to make a replica of our house.

Jor's one of those people who just happens to be incredible at whatever he does. Not just sports, and school, but crafty things. What? Yes, crafty things. That's what the wifey is supposed to be good at. But, I've come to terms, and I'm okay with it.

What do you think? Close to looking like the Schmidtty home?

nice buns, where you from?

; )

Ow ow! Yes! This is a tush and yes, it is a cake- an edible cake. It was Jenn's bachelorette party, I made this in honor of Jenns booty.

It was my very first time working with fondant and at 4:00 pm (the party started at 6:30) dripping with sweat from pounding the cold fondant that had been setting in the fridge, into a flat smooth dough- let's just say I was a wreck. Halleluia for a cute hubby who knows how to shape a good cleav when he needs to!

By 6:30 no, I hadn't showerd, but I dosed my hair is dry shampoo, the floors were clean, the food ready and set out, and the cakes were DONE. Yeah the tush looks a little cottage cheesy and the bubbas are a little lumpy and siliconey.. (yes, both at the same time) but you know, we could just say I was trying to make it look realistic.

P.S. My whole back is sore from rolling and pouding out that fondant! I should most definitely do this more often.

Oh, and you can't forget the hippo that dances and sings "Lookin for some HOT STUFF baby this evenin' ...." . Jenn had it at my bachelorette party and I thought it would be totally appropriate.

So with Mike on the door (fiance)

and the cake cut

We were ready for games.

We played Jenn feels four gentlemens legs (which was actually 3) and guess who's her man. Bahaha! Watching her feel around on random guys she had no idea who she was touching, was priceless! Jory had to improvise and went twice, and my neighbor ben (who was totally awesome for playing along) and mike did a super job donating there hairy limbs.

So... DING, DING, DING! JORY WAS THE WINNER! Jenn said she remembered Mike saying that he had big ankles, and apparently now, I guess Jor's new nick name is cankles.

Ben

mike

Jor

The playas


SOO much fun!

I'm so happy for Jenn to get some HOT STUFF ;). Just kidding. What I meant to say... was that I am so happy for my best friend and I know her and Mike will be perfect together.

Getting married was the number one best thing that's ever happend to me.

Love you JENN

TIMBER!!

A short video with a LONG explanation

Fudge, christmas lights, gingerbread houses, wrapping paper and maverick's hot chocolate! All of these are things I look forward to during this time of year.

Now that we are in our in home that can actually fit a normal sized tree we decided to get a bigger tree than our 3 foot, prelit lovely that we had in our last apartment. We wanted to cut down our own tree! Sometimes we seem to bite off more than we can chew, Jor and I, but this didn't seem like something like that. My Aunt does it all the time and it always sounds so fun and festive.


So last week Jor drove his buns to Salt Lake to pick up a Christmas tree permit! Emily, my friend at work was talking about her 25$ Christmas tree from Smiths and how her whole house was smelling piney and delish, I couldn't WAIT for that.

SOO, Saturday rolled around and Jor, Scotty and I were off on our way to Vernon, Utah. We passed through Elberta and Eureka and I swear they are ghost towns. It was actually a little creepy, we wanted to stop and get a drink but it I felt like a movie scene would play out like we were intruding on this small town setting and all the people would come strolling out of their houses and accuse us for trespassing or something. Needless to say we didn't stop.

After what seemed like forever we got to the dirt road that was to lead us to our destination, loads and loads of perfect Christmas trees! The dirt road was muddy and slippery and we slid and fish tailed all over the road, me being the worry wart that I am felt like I couldn't breathe 79% of that driving time. We parked and got on the four wheeler and had a BLAST driving around. Scotty was smashed inbetween Jor and I while just cruised around looking for the perfect Christmas tree. Which, wake up call, there really aren't any "perfect" christmas trees out in the wild. There, you are warned.



All of them were too big, too thin or totally lopsided. So Jor and I meandered while Scotty was fighting with any stump or dead tree limb he could find. My phone had died, Jor's phone had died and we really didn't know where we were, we had been driving on the 4 wheeler for quite a while. I was getting worried that it was going to get dark soon, so we decided to go find the truck and then pick our tree and figure out how the heck we were going to cut it down and all that jazz. But, a minor problem occured when we pushed the idoling 4 wheelers gas and it died. REALLY? It wouldn't start. At all. We were in the middle of a BIG hill, no phones, no idea where the truck was, and it was getting dark, well almost. I was trying to think back of what I knew about fire making in the wilderness and I couldn't remember anything, I was totally panicking.



SOOO to make this long story shorter, we eventually found the truck, which took us closer to the 4 wheeler and then we were able to find a tree that we thought would work for us. A little fat and gappy, but we liked it, it even had real pine cones in it! So Jory topped the top of the tree off (we're hoping that's not illegal or something?) and my lumber jack had to carry the huge thing literally down this hill, which, was very funny and sad at the same time. I got the task of pushing the dead 4 wheeler down the hill while my 8 year old brother steered it. WOW. Atleast I got a bit of a work out right?

10$- christmas tree permit 50$- for 3 hours of gas money for driving (we o u Allan) ? $- to fix the 4 wheeler - and a 25 $ copay for a Cardiologist appointment for a check up on my heart after that little outing ; ) = Priceless

tired.

PS our christmas tree is still not decorated, we've been to lazy to put the decor on it. But soon, I will post a picture. It is now drinking 7-up and leaking sap all over our carpet and not smelling piney.
I keep thinking maybe I should have gone to Smiths like Em suggested and bought a 25$ piney smelling christmas tree. : )
But then we wouldn't have this awesome story?!

"The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." - Vincent Van Gogh