Rise & Shout!

I am a BYU cougar. My parents both attended BYU. My sister, her husband, me and my husband all attend(ed) BYU. I was actually born while my parents were living in BYU married housing. My entire family is able to sing the BYU fight song start to finish at a ridiculously young age. We bleed blue.

It starts out "Rise & shout! The Cougars are out!" My parents used this as a mechanism to get us out of bed in the mornings. The end of the fight song is a series of "Rah rah rahs" followed by "GooooooooOOOO Cougars!" [For getting us out of bed, they'd replace Cougars, with Kristin, Lindsay, Jessica, etc.]

Here's where my dilemma comes in. I no longer have a zealous parent to get me out of bed in the mornings. I've been doing alright getting my fanny to work in the mornings by 9, but I received an e-mail today explaining that our office hours are now 8:30 to 5:30 or [in my case, to avoid cutting into my "wife time"] 8:00 to 5:00.

Also, this comic accurately describes my outlook on the entire "early-to-bed; early-to-rise" mentality. So all of you morning people can just keep your condescending comments to yourself.



So, the question is: how do you convince yourself to get out of bed in the morning?

Just to give you an idea of the severity of the situation....my first thought is generally: "No. Way. I won't get to sleep again for [x] hours." Yep. I'm in trouble.

Back On the Horse

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1506/86/36218/too-few-women-get-enough-exercise-during-pregnancy.html

Free Multi-tasking Mom Telesummit

I'm not a mom, yet. [<--no. not an announcement.] But, someday I will be. And I'm at a time of life where starting our family legacy is in the forefront of my mind. Funny enough, General Conference was this past weekend. I always write down a few questions I want to have answered during the conference and one of my main ones was: "How do I balance all the directions I'm being pulled without being overwhelmed & feeling like a failure?" Julie B. Beck summed it up nicely in the second talk of the entire conference by saying, your heart will desire to do a lot more than your body can physically do. That was one of the best talks I've ever heard. To supplement that material, I'll be listening to the telesummit: [See Maruxa Murphy's & Stacy Julian's topics below.]

Other questions were: "What can I do to get more fulfillment out of the stage of life I'm in right now?" [See Stacy Julian's topic below.]

Do you remember my walrus post a while back? [See Scott Tousignant's topic.]

Another question was: "How can I better show C I love him?" [See Jennifer Louden's topic.]

Needless to say, I'm going to be listening in!

The All-Star Lineup Includes:

Debbye Cannon
Finding More Time in the Day
The Business Mom Mentor, Debbye Cannon, professional organizer and mom, is an expert at helping time-starved women create more effective processes for their families. She'll speak on the topic of streamlining your family's systems to find more time in the day, with specific hints and tips as to how to get chores and responsibilities finished quickly and efficiently, so you all have more time to play!

Stacy Julian
Celebrating Life: Bringing Color to the Everyday
Scrapbooking superstar Stacy Julian has founded a magazine, launched an online business, and traveled the world, teaching women the joy of creativity. Stacy, mom to five, will talk about celebrating your family's everyday life in order to make each moment a fantastic adventure -- within the four walls of your own home.

Carrie Wilkerson

Turning Passion into Profits

Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, is a busy entrepreneur with more business ventures than kids (four little Barefoot kiddos, to be exact!). Carrie, who makes an executive-level salary from home, while dealing with all the regular mom duties, will talk on tips for turning your passion into a paycheck -- without going back to the office.

Maruxa Murphy

Juggling Priorities - When It's All on the Critical List

Maruxa Murphy isn't just a mom, she's a MOMPRENAIRE! As the founder of online community Momprenaire.com, Maruxa knows first-hand how difficult it can be to juggle work and home life. She'll be sharing her wisdom on how to balance work and home life, particularly when crises on either front arise.

Scott Tousignant

Move It AND Lose It!

Scott Tousignant may not be a multitasking mom, but he knows plenty of them -- and has helped them get fit without spending hours at the gym. Certified Trainer and dad to two children, Scott specializes in helping work-at-home moms lose fat and get back in shape. Scott will be talking about how moms can get fit quickly at home, with a minimum of time and equipment.

Jennifer Louden
Loving Your Family, Loving Yourself
The queen of self-care, professional speaker and author Jennifer Louden helps women find moments of peace amidst their busy days. Mom of one, Jennifer will answer your questions about self-care and how to find time in your schedule to take care of yourself.

Lenore Skenazy
Free-Range or Deranged?
Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids, was dubbed "America's Worst Mom" when she let her pre-teen son ride the subway home alone. The resulting maelstrom of press attention led Lenore to write a hilarious and revealing book on over-parenting in the 21st century (Note: Halloween candy won't kill you). In this call, Lenore will share tips and suggestions for letting go of your kids and letting them fly on their own -- before they're eligible for AARP status.

Linsey Knerl
Saving Dollars, not Cents
Let's face it -- no matter what your tax bracket, all moms are trying to save money. But there's saving money and there's SAVING MONEY. And Linsey Knerl, blogger with top-ranked personal finance blog Wisebread.com and soon-to-be-mom of five, can tell us the difference. Linsey will share her thoughts on couponing, the biggest savings bang for your buck, and more.

Jeanne Muchnick

Sanity-Saving Dinner Solutions

Mom and writer Jeanne Muchnick knows what it's like to face "the witching hour" with no idea what's for dinner. But she also knows how important it is to eat together, at home. She'll share secrets for getting dinner on the table and the kids in their seats.

Lain Ehmann
Multitasking Is Not a Dirty Word
As appealing as a constant state of Zen might be, the reality is that most parents' lives are more like the circus than the monastery -- and we wouldn't have it any other way! Queen multitasker Lain Ehmann will share how she raises three kids, started several business, moved across the country, and keeps all the balls in the air (hint: It has to do with lowering your expectations!).

**Schedule of times/days coming soon!

Don't Miss a Thing!

Schedule too busy to make all the calls? While your free registration gives you an all-access pass to each of our teleconferences, you can get MP3 downloads and written transcripts of all TEN of the calls to listen to over and over again for only $39! More info coming soon!

Haven't registered yet? Click HERE!
If you're going, let me know! I'd love to swap notes. :)

Guilty as Charged: OAMC April 2010

I know I said this OAMC day was going to have to wait until next weekend, but I was so excited to try out some of my new recipes that I dragged [drug?] C to the grocery store until 1 am on on Thursday night/Friday morning and got my A game on for Saturday. Here's the final product:



I'm kind of glad I didn't do too much research before I started doing OAMC. It never occurred to me that I might need an extra freezer, or that going all out and doing 30 meals in one shot might be harder than I thought, or that there are so many different ways to organize and plan your cooking day they'll make your head spin.

I kind of just went for it. And I'm so grateful I did! Since then, I've stumbled upon blog after blog of ways to get past the "Major OAMC Hang-ups." I guess if you don't think about the hang-ups to begin with and just decide you're going to make it work, it will!

Try it. You'll never go back.

This month was the first time I tried doing anything other than the main dish for dinners. It took just as long, but I got 32 crescent rolls out of the deal too!



I've also received some questions as to what my mixes look like. To clarify, I don't open the cans and pour them in. I just keep everything together [and measure out spices/rice/etc.] so it takes about a minute to get the meal in the oven. This also saves space in the freezer and makes for a great solution for those "oh my gosh I totally forgot to thaw out dinner" days.



Final tally: 28 dinners. 2 potato casseroles. 32 dinner rolls.

Still to make: Strawberry Jam. Artichoke Dip. Bagels. Instant Oatmeal. C's also planning to do his famous, incredible refried beans so we can make some brown bag burros.

For not planning on doing this at all this weekend, I'm pretty thrilled with the results.

Have any of you tried OAMC yet? I'm happy to answer your questions!

Colossians 1:3 [Look it up!]

I found this note made out of play-doh on the counter a while back. Love that man!

For General Conference/Easter weekend, we spent some time with the Becks. Good food. Good people. Cute kids. What's not to love?

C & I drove up right after the Saturday Afternoon session of conference. C scored some tickets to the Priesthood session, so him and Adam took off for temple square, while me and Emilee held down the fort. with 4 kids 4 and under, it's a blast! We made an upside down German Chocolate cake [recipe coming, I promise!] and sliced strawberries for a yummy Easter breakfast.

The guys came back all uplifted, apparently, because after we went to bed, I woke up to C praying in his sleep. No joke. Start to finish, full-out prayer. He must've been dreaming about food because he blessed "the hands that prepared it" and asked that it would "nourish and strengthen our bodies." He asked that his younger brother would be protected while serving a mission in Canada. He was grateful for the day, the chance we had to watch conference, etc. It was a crack up. After "amen" he was completely silent again, fast asleep. and I burst into a fit of giggles.

We've had a few funny sleeping adventures. Yep, that's the kind of guy I married. The first sleeping adventure, he was quoting scripture. Now, he's praying. Ha. I'll take it.

Make Ahead Chicken Tortilla Soup

One of my favorite ways to knock out three meals for the month in about 10 minutes is to make my own mixes. This also saves freezer space, but takes the same amount of time [or less!] to prepare on cooking day.

Make Ahead Chicken Tortilla Soup

Snack Baggie 1:

• 1 cup of rice [white or brown, you pick! In an effort to be healthier, we'll be opting for brown]

Snack Baggie 2:

• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules


• 2 teaspoons sugar


• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper


• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro leaves


• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 cup dried minced onion

Gallon Sized Bag:

• 1 can of chicken


• 1 can of corn (15.5 oz)


• 1 can of tomatoes and green chilis (10 oz)


• tortilla chips

The How-to:

1. Label Ziploc Bag


2. Place Can of Corn & Can of Tomatoes & Green Chilis in bottom of Gallon-Sized Ziploc


3. Put snack bags next to cans vertically-nice & snug


4. Put Can of Chicken sideways in top of bag.


5. Stuff remainder of bag with tortilla chips. Slightly crush them and zip tight!

On Cooking Day

1. Pour everything except tortilla chips into a pot with 10 cups of water. [Drain the chicken & the corn first!]


2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, & simmer for 20 minutes.


3. Throw half the chips in, remove from heat, cover for 5 minutes.


4. Serve with remaining chips.

Making this soup from scratch takes forever because you have all the spices to measure out, but if you make 3 at once... catch my drift?

Enjoy!

"Always Treat Your Woman Like a Lady"

There's a song called Love Like Crazy by Lee Brice. Does it ever shock you how much a song can sound like it was written just for you? The line that hit home last night was "Always treat your woman like a lady."

I am 100% spoiled rotten. C bought us tickets to go see Michael Buble back in December for my graduation present. I don't know how he pulled it off, but we were on the floor, in the 7th row. We paid $85 per ticket, and seats right by us were selling for $400 a piece. That's my man.

To make it even better, C told me to go buy something new to wear, which resulted in these babies:

The best part of marrying a 6'5" babe is that I, in my entire 6'0" glory can wear as big of heels as I want. I absolutely love being his girl!

I got ready before work [lots of hairspray] and no make-up, then changed and did make-up at work because in order to be on time, he had to pick me up at work. When C got there, this is what I saw:

He got a tux! And a corsage for me/boutonniere for him. So handsome.

We listened to Michael Buble all the way up to dinner at an amazing, cute little place called "Kobe." It was the best sushi I have ever had. If you're in the Salt Lake area, go. And make sure you order the Yumyum roll. We were treated so well by the waitress and chefs. Quick service and a gift certificate from here made the entire thing less than $50. I didn't have the foresight to take a picture of the Yumyum roll [our new favorite!] but take a look at these other beauties. [Executive roll-Right & Playboy roll-Left]

We got caught in a freak snow storm and had a little time to kill before the concert, so we drove around for about 20 minutes looking for a fun dessert shop. C almost willingly ran into a stop sign in a parking lot. I can't believe I was articulate enough to scream "stop sign" in my panic. I think that's the first time C has thanked me for screaming during his driving. It was time to get out of the car so we just stopped at a nearby Starbucks for Dark Cherry hot chocolate and biscotti.

At the concert, we found parking real quick and walked into the arena. When finding our seat, we just kept getting closer and closer to the stage. We got to the floor and an usher showed us to our seats...in the 7th row!

The opening act was a group called Naturally 7. I've always been a fan of Vocal Point [BYU's a cappella group], but these guys knocked them out of the park. I could've sworn there was a full orchestra accompanying them until they broke down each voice and showed us where each sound was coming from. My favorite was the bass "player." This was their opening number. I highly recommend listening to it.

Michael Buble definitely did not disappoint. He is such a performer! The opening number was Cry Me a River. It has this wild instrumental part at the beginning and he had shadow effects on this huge curtain that coordinated with the music. It reminded me of the orchestra silhouettes on Fantasia. He was charming, personable, and extremely talented. We'll be looking for ways to attend his performances every chance we get!

He even did a little Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. [Just so happens to be my favorite Michael Jackson song. Yes, I know it's about a prostitute. The opening line is "She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene." Who writes stuff like that? Geniuses.] Perfection was definitely achieved.

I enjoyed his interaction with the audience just as much as his singing! When he was speaking, I couldn't wait to hear what he was going to sing next. When he was singing, I was excited to learn more about him and know what he was going to talk about next.

His performance of "The Best of Me" [originally by David Foster] made me cry. It hit me hard that C is proud of me. He's proud of me. And he planned this night to show me that.

Michael sang the song "Everything," which me and C danced to at our wedding. He sang the song "Home" that got me through my freshman year of college. And then, we listened to him sing "I'm Beginning to See the Light" in the car while we made out, waiting for the parking lots to clear up [the song performed at a concert we attended the night C proposed.] Acting like teenagers isn't always bad. heh.

Thanks, babe, for an incredible evening. You make me feel so beautiful and special and loved. I hope everyone in the world can get the chance to feel the way we do. Thank you for always treating me like a lady and not being "too cool" for the sappy stuff. I love you.

-K