THANKSGIVING...

I'm a major slacker with updating my blog, and I would say I'm sorry except that saying you're sorry means that you'll never do it again. And....I can't promise that I'll never be a slacker again. Perhaps I should try to clue you in on what's been going on in our lives since I last blogged...but that would result in a very long, and yes, BORING post that most (if not all) of you would just pass up.

So, I've decided to just post about our Thanksgiving. This year we spent Thanksgiving in Caldwell, Idaho with Austin's side of the family. We had a GREAT time and ate LOTS of yummy food. In fact, this was the first time in about 3 years that I've actually let myself have seconds of anything....choice of food for seconds: frog-eye salad! It's soooo good and I couldn't stop at one serving.

Austin and I before the feast.

The feast!

Markie in her turkey-induced coma.....

Austin in his turkey-induced coma...

Mom, Alexa, and Sadie with grandkids of the family we ate with.

Friday, we went to IOU Sushi. It's our favorite restraunt and has THE BEST sushi I've ever had! This is also the restraunt Austin proposed to me in. Brings back great memories! We ate sooo much sushi and had some really great laughs. It was so fun to be with family!

After sushi, we went to the movie "The Blind Side." We tried to go on Thanksgiving day but it was sold out. We went ahead of time to get our tickets on Friday and then showed up 45 minutes early and STILL barely got a seat! It was such a great movie. I laughed, then cried, the laughed, then cried. It was such an appropriate movie for this time of year. The generosity, love, and kind hearts of the characters really inspired me to want to be better and do better.

I have so many blessings! I live a "charmed life" as my Dad would say. I am so thankful for all of you and hope you have a wonderful Holiday season!

My Mother

I know it's not Mother's Day, and her birthday is in late September, but I did a few things the other day that totally made me think of my mom. Okay, I think of her everyday, but this made me think about her skills, and all the incredible things she does. Since I hadn't updated my blog in a long time, and the last few blogs were rather boring, judging by the responses that I got (or didn't get for that matter), I thought this would be blog worthy and PERHAPS not so boring.

Now, I'm pretty proud of the fact that my mom is my mom....it's a righteous pride, if there is such a thing. But anytime someone asks if I'm Briant and Clyda's daughter I'm proud to say, "YES!" My parents are AMAZING in every sense of the word. I'm just going to touch on a few of the things that my mom can do.

My mom is an INCREDIBLE gardener, and grows rediculously beautiful gardens every summer. People are constantly calling or stopping by to ask her advice on how to do this or that in their yard and vegetable gardens and if she doesn't already know the answer, which she usually does, she will find it and let them know. The constant calling and stopping by gets annoying to us kids sometimes because she has such an amazing heart and the kindest spirit that she would do anything for anyone, putting all of her wants and sometimes needs (like food during the day for sustaining life and energy) aside just to help them. When we were kids, the garden was the learning center for working hard and managing money. Each of us planted our own section of garden, we weeded it, and when it was harvest time we harvested for her whatever vegetable she needed and she would pay us by the pound, plus our work. She and my dad would then sit down with us and help us divide our money: Tithing first, savings second, and spending money third.

That leads to another thing that I love about my mom. She is so kind, and sweet, and FUN! When I was a kid I never realized how much she gave up to be a mother of 7 BUSY BUSY kids and the wife of a teacher, coach, Bishop, and a father of 7 BUSY kids. She gave up so many things for us and spent her time teaching us and helping us learn essentials for being successful people. She taught us the Gospel by example and helped us learn simple but important principles that I'm sure were hard for her to get through to us sometimes. She never gave up...even on Tyson! (I'm kind of kidding, Tyson) I should say, even on me!

My mom is FIT! I don't know very many moms of 8 kids that look as incredible as she does. Much to my own dismay, she looks like she could be my sister instead of my mom, but she is healthy! I'm grateful for that because she will be around for a LONG time. One day we were hiking Big Hill together and she told me that she wants to hike Big Hill on her 80th birthday. I can't put it past her...I'm sure she'll do it!!

The last thing I wanted to brag about my mom on is her incredible home-making skills. My mom can make bread with her eyes closed, she can stir a pot on the stove with her foot while she's washing dishes at the sink. She can keep laundry going and vacuum the house, dust the furniture, and wash the windows all in one morning. She sewed all of our school clothes when I was a little girl and spend countless hours making doll clothes for my Cabbage-Patch doll, Janet Colleen, all while I was hovering over her and begging her to paint my finger nails at the same time! My mom can change the oil on all of our vehicles and still be CLEAN when she's done! She can work all day and look just as beautiful as she did when she got out of the shower that morning. Okay maybe some of those things are an exaggeration (I've never seen her stir a pot on the stove with one foot while she washed the dishes) but what I'm trying to say is that my mom is amazing!!

I was making home-made pizza the other day--dough and everything--when I had a thought "my mom could do this with her eyes closed and she could do all this WAY before she got married" and here I am, just getting if figured out. But, the pizza turned out wonderfully, as did the Peach Delight I made, and our dinner guests were huge fans so I dubbed it a complete success! Maybe, someday, I can be just like my mom!! Thanks, Mom! I love you!

Picture Overload

This first picture is for Taffy! When we were kids, Dad and Mom took us on a LONG road-trip to see all the church sites. Taffy was a HUGE PACERS fan and Dad told her we would go to down-town Indianapolis and she could see the stadium and take her picture there and go into the fan-club store. So we ventured into down-town and Taffy got to live one of her dreams. It was sooo much fun!! It looks a little different now than it did back then, but I still think of you, Taffy, every time I drive by it!

This is the beginning of our two-day food adventure!

They had buzzers at every table that you would press when you were ready to order your food.

Mom and I waiting for the bill to get paid so we can hit up our next adventure.....

the DIVE!! Mann's Grill......I tell you what, I have never seen so many "white-trash" people in one place! Everyone that worked there had at least one tooth missing. Nobody was in uniform, infact 90% of them were wairing flip-flops and sleevless/cut-off shirts that had some kind of Harley-Davidson decal on it. Honestly, I would have turned around and walked right out of this place, had I been there alone! The food was AMAZING! The macaroni and cheese was so creamy and definately worth the food-poisioning scare in the back of your mind as you watched the sweaty cook hover over the pot.

We decided to get some exercise inbetween eating sessions and went down to the White River National Park and rented a 4-seater surry bike. We rode around the canal and the river for about an hour and had a BLAST! Austin was the driver, so we also had a few scares, but we survived and had a great time together.

The baseball game.....we saw the AAA Indians play the Ironhogs. We loved it!!

I loved the old factory behind the stadium with the moon shining in the background. It just seemed to bring the 'majesty' of the game to life. I'm not a big baseball fan and I don't really know anything about it. But I do love history and I have quite an imagination and I imagined being there back in the day when baseball was America's favorite game and most-loved past time. I imagined the men coming out of the factory from a long day's work to relieve some stress and have some fun playing the game. It was really cool.

We drove to Lafayette, IN to go to the Diner, XXX Diner....sounds like a porn-shop or something, I know. But It isn't, I PROMISE!! In fact, most all the food there is named after Purdue University athletes. There are tonz of cool pictures in the restraunt of the Purdue football team eating there, as well as basketball players and just regular old student-body. It was a really neat place. I thought I had a picture of the diner, but I don't. After eating there, we decided to go walk around Purdue's campus and I took a few pictures of that. But here is just one, the old bell-tower. It's an awesome campus!

Our time with Mom and Dad Clift ended Sunday afternoon at Maggiano's Little Italy Restraunt. AMAZING FOOD!!!! I don't have any pictures of that, either. But Austin and I will go again and I will get pictures of that and post those.....tomorrow!!

Time Together

I'm the biggest procrastinator! I've been going to do this blog "tomorrow" for like 10 tomorrows and I'm finally doing it!! It will just be full of fun pictures with not much commentary. There are random pictures of Austin and I at the Indianapolis Zoo and pictures of us with Mom and Dad Clift when they came to visit us for a few days.

At the Zoo!!!

At the Dolphin Show! It was really cool! They have 8 dolphins there.

I thought this was a cool picture of the elephant eating. These animals are huge!!!

I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination and I didn't get ANY good pictures of the cool animals at the zoo. So, I'll skip the stuff I did get some fun pictures of....Mom and Dad Clift's visit to Indy! We started their visit off by meeting in down-town Indianapolis for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We walked around down-town and went to a huge monument they have in memory of all the soldiers who have fought in the wars. It is a beautiful monument!

The rest of the trip revolved around family, fun, and food....LOTS of food. Austin's family loves great-tasting food and the show on FOOD NETWORK called "Diners, Drive-In's and Dives." We went to one diner, one drive-in, and one dive. It was great fun!!!

Reasons I LOVE Indiana

Can I just tell you that I really do love living in Indianapolis?! It has seriously been one awesome adventure for Austin and I. Aside from living so far from our families, it is by far one of the coolest places I have been. The West is so "new" compared to the east. I mean, we went walking in downtown Indianapolis and saw buildings that had been restored and kept in working condition since the early-mid 1800's. AMAZING! Of course, I am so much like my mother and I really love and appreciate old things. Austin thinks it's weird--this passion I have for old things and for history--mainly Church History. But, I do love it and we are living in such an awesome place for it!

Besides all the old things here, I LOVE green, humidity, sunshine, and having things to do on my days off besides laundry and homework. I have a few pictures of the green that I love so much and I will do another post of the other things I love...tomorrow! Chao!

This first one is a picture of the "lake" behind my apartment building.

This is the same lake, just the opposite end.

The nest two are pictures of the forest that is on both sides of the road to the apartments.

This is part of the road leading to the apartments.

Pictures

I wanted to post pics of the green drink and answer a few questions....

This is the green drink before being blended and of course, after being blended. Looks gross, I know, but it is SOOOO good!

I did this three times a week in place of breakfast cereal, but I would still have something healthy such ACTIVA yogurt or something like that, which is also quite reasonable at Costco. Alos, I made sure I was eathing healthy snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner, keeping my metabolism alive all day. It was certainly an aquired taste, but I promise you, you will like it if you just keep with it! It's much easier and more affordable if you decide to do it with a friend. I have most of my friends here in Indiana hooked on it, so we buy the produce in bulk and then divide it, and the cost, after the trip to COSTCO. It's awesome! And summer is the perfect time to do it!! Yummy fresh produce is easy to find, and your swimming suit is great motivation!! Good luck to all you who decide to go for it!

My Little Green Secret

When I was on my mission, I gained like 50 pounds, maybe a little more...weighing in at a whopping....you thought I was actually going to tell you!? Not a chance in the world. Let's just say....as I came down the escalator at the airport in SLC, I'm sure there were thoughts of "Wow, I hope she can lose all that weight." I was a cream-puff...sweet, fluffly, and filled with great-tasting, but not so great for you--stuff :-)

Also on my mission, I lived in Sedona, AZ for 6 WONDERFUL weeks and learned a LOT about myself and, believe it or not, nutrition. I lived with a family, the Reader's, who only ate whole foods, organic fruits and veggies, and meat only in the winter. It was their interpretation of the word of wisdom, which I thought was a great lifestyle for them. Sister Reader had been taking nearly 10 pills or more a day and had all sorts of health problems which left her overweight and quite unhappy with herself. Her husband supported her as she decided it was time for some life-changes and when she found the "Green Drink" he also jumped on board.

By the time my companion and I came to live with them, they had housed somewhere around 10 different companionships and had shared this delightful secret with all of them. I'm sure when she saw our plump bodies and sweet smiles walk up to her front door she knew we were also perfect candidates and also knew that we wanted something healthy!!

Every morning for six weeks, Sister Reader invited us over for green-drink/breakfast and I dropped 15 pounds during that 6 weeks and felt better than I had in MONTHS!! So, I wanted to share it with all of you! It's tasty, satisfying, and very very good for you. One quart a day gives you all the fruits and veggie servings you need for a day!

Things you will need:

Baby Spinach

Baby Spring Mix (I go organic with both of these because I can get it SUPER cheap at COSTCO)

You could use turnip leaves, Arugala, pretty much anything green EXCEPT romaine, leaf, or iceburg lettuce. Trust me, it's NASTY.

Fruit...and LOTS of it!

I prefer these:

1 banana is a MUST

1 apple, not cored, but chopped up so your blender can handle it

strawberries

raspberries

pears, also not cored, but chopped up

peaches are delightful when they're in season, but...take the pit out :-)

a peeled orange during the winter is great but you can add orange-flavored vita water if you prefer.

Fill up your blender about 1/3 full with the greens and 2/3 full of fruit. Put water in it until it comes above the line of the greens and blend for about 2-3 minutes!

Green Drink wasn't made up by the Readers, they actually read a book about it, studied it, and then decided to go for it. The book they read, they actually gave a copy of to me. It's called "Green for Life" and if you googled it you could find out more about it.

I came home from my mission and went to college. I did green drink 3 days a week for the next 8 months and managed to drop 50+ pounds and feel better than I have in years! Trust me, it's delightful, I LOVE IT! I wish I had some before/after pictures but all my before pictures are tucked away in Rexburg. Again, having a hard time retrieving pictures from my camera so maybe next time!