We make grocery shopping fun

This is our favorite smoothie mix. Mainly because it makes us laugh. We've never actually bought it so we can't say for sure if its even good. We're just constantly speculating about what could actually be in that bag.

You see according to almost every basic strawberry smoothie recipe the only thing that can be in this bag is either lemon zest, sugar, ice cream, or yogurt. It's clearly not ice cream or yogurt so some smart person is basically selling sugar for $2 a bag? We don't get it. If you're going to add strawberries, milk AND ice, why don't you just make the whole smoothie.

b-b-b-bowling

I come from a family of bowlers. Everyone loves bowling. I, however, am missing that gene. Which has always been ok. I tag along, sometimes I play, sometimes I don't. Never an issue.

Then, I married a bowler. He never made me go bowling with him, but he owns his own bowling shoes, so that qualifies him as a bowler right?

Well I bit the bullet last weekend. I am proud to announce that I, Alex Non-bowler Treanor, went bowling. Not only that,  but I scored over 100. Thank you. Thank you.

And now to brag a bit...

Check out bowler husband's form

I'm sure the lady on the right would love to know this picture is now in the Internet. Sorry lady on the right. 

Some notes on Pizza

Wednesday night is Pizza night in the Treanor household. We used to Papa Murphy's it up every week but since we're trying to be healthier, I've started making homemade pizza. This week I decided to take things to an even higher level...healthy homemade pizza.

First of all, healthy pizza is a dumb idea.

I found a whole wheat pizza dough recipe...which didn't turn out like something you want to eat while enjoying the craziness of Phillip on Survivor.

Yes, I did take this picture this morning after the dough sat out all night. However, the photograph makes it especially unappetizing yeah?

We tried rolling it out but Troy Boy smased his finger under the rolling pin (not a fun thing, I'm sure) and then the thing wouldn't get bigger than 6 inches without ripping so we gave up.

Luckily, we had some left over whole wheat pitas from an earlier meal (which is wonderful and you should get the recipe from me because it will change your life). So we put on some ingredients and made ourselves some "healthy" pita pizzas. Now I'm not really sure where we went wrong from here. 

We cooked them on our pizza stone. But I'm thinking it was just the type of cheese we used. You see, the healthy recipe wanted healthy cheese. But, healthy cheese does not a pizza make. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Lets just say I felt like a dog eating peanut butter when I ate this pizza.  I took a picture with my phone but I'm not sure it accurately portrays the oddness of this cheese. 

In the end, I ended up just peeling off the cheese and eatting a pita with sauce...that should tell you how crazy this cheese was because I am not one to deny the cheese. 

Needless to say, there was a quick In n Out run last night. 

So lesson learned: Don't even bother with healthy pizza. Just splurge one night a week and go for the real thing. 

Mother Nature: 2342452345 Alex: 1

Here is a lesson I have learned quite well over the past year.

Any time you plan on doing laundry (which in our lovely apartment, requires walking down 3 flights of stairs and across the complex to the laundry room) it WILL rain or snow. Guaranteed. 

However, this week I knew it was supposed to rain so I hurried and got the laundry in first thing in the morning. While I was bring down the first load, I saw a couple of snow flakes. I groaned audibly because I foresaw me writing this blog post about having to carry 3 loads of laundry through the rain/snow. It appears someone was on my side this time though and things miraculously held off.

Fast forward two hours....I'm safely sitting on my [lumpy] bed, folding completely dry laundry when I notice this lovely view.

So in your face Mother Nature! You may have gotten me every other time I've done laundry. But today was my success!

The Tale of the Lumpy Mattress

So let's go back in time together. Close your eyes for a second because this is going to be an epic field trip...

For the first few weeks of our marriage we slept on a queen sized air mattress. Now it was actually a pretty good mattress for us. We purchased a memory foam topper figuring we we throw that on top of the real mattress that we would eventually get.

In the meantime we were shopping. We went just about everywhere looking for a good mattress that would suit us perfectly, but also in the

hopes that it would not break the bank.

We finally found one that we liked at Macy's and got all set up to purchase it and have it delivered. The only down side to it was that it was a little pricey.

The following day at work I was talking with some co-workers about the purchase we had made the previous day. One guy mentioned that he had recently purchased a mattress for about half of the price that we had found ours for. So we cancelled the order. Looking back, I would say BIG MISTAKE.

It was almost as if the signs were warning us against switching our minds from the get go.

First of the name of the place to get the cheaper mattress is Furnish It. Yes, you got that right, Furnish It. It's really a place, here's the link to prove it.

Anyways did you get it yet?! Just think about the name a few times if you feel like you are missing out on something, I have faith that you'll catch on.

Anyways, we showed up to this place at mid day and walked in. it's a huge warehouse in the location of an old snuggle bag factory or something. We were walking around the place and realized there was nobody there. We could have walked out with thousands of dollars worth of furniture (well, as least thousands according to the prices marked...I'm not sure anything is actually worth what they have it marked down as there. I'll remind you that the name is FurniSh it).

We tried out all the mattresses that they had, and still nobody showed up. We even yelled at the top of our lungs for people, and didn't

get an answer. Finally after about 15-20 minutes this guy came from some back room that I swear I had checked. We ended up getting the mattress and it was delivered that same day.

Now let's flash forward to today.

Now we used the ironing board to illustrate how lumpy the bed has become. You can see the two distinct areas where we sleep and the high area in the middle. Yes, I know that I am overweight, but I also know that my wife is itty-bitty, so there is no way that you can blame her side on weight. This mattress is just crappy. Try snuggling on something like that. It's pretty hard having to get over the hump in the middle.

Anyways, I am about ready to get rid of it because even though it doesn't look like much of a dent in the picture, let me remind you that there is no body there to weigh it down further, because it goes down a lot further than that.

Moral of the story, just buy from a legit place. You can still find bargains at big name chains.

My Thursday evenings for the next month

Let me tell you about Charlotte. While I was finishing up my senior thesis, this girl saved me. She is an anthropology genius and was always willing to bounce around ideas with me. We spent several hours in the computer lab together endlessly working on posters and rewriting our theses. She became one of my best friends as we bonded over the stress of trying to finish everything.

After the semester was over, I was sad that I wouldn't get to see her as often. We kept in touch and decided that we should sign up for a cooking class or something since we both enjoy that. Somehow our idea morphed though. And that is the story of how I got enrolled in a cake decorating class.

Yesterday was our second class and we actually got to make a cake and ice it. I'll be honest, I am fairly awful at these types of things. I got all the different tools now though so hopefully I'll get better at it. Here is how my cake turned out...

Trust me, I'm fully aware that its not beautiful...BUT, I at least got icing to cover most of the cake so thats an improvement for me. And the icing on the edges isn't a complete disaster. Thus, I am happy with it.  (P.S. It may not be pretty on the outside, but the actual cake inside is bomb. The cake leveler will soon by my new best friend if it provides me with excess cake every time I use it. Oh yum.)

In the end, I'm so glad I'm taking this class! It's nice to have something to do, even if it is just decorating a cake. (I never thought I'd say this, but I was so excited to have a syllabus in my life again too). Also, I'm extremely glad to be taking this class with Charlotte. We basically just laugh at how lost we are the entire time. Who knew cake decorating could be such a science. 

The Small Things

Please take a look at my kitchen. Notice the cute tea kettle and bright yellow Kitchenaid. There are also cookies on a cooling rack on the microwave. Don't you just love being able to see all these things. I'm writing about this because for the last 6 months or so, our kitchen has looked like this...

Our light bulb went out and we just kept forgetting to get a new one. Lets face it, it's not very often that we are browsing through the light bulb aisle. Thus, we used all these small lights instead. Thankfully, our kitchen has these small lights throughout or else we would have been in big trouble. 

So wonderful to be able to see again. Aren't the small things in life the greatest?

A normal conversation

While climbing into bed last night:

          Me: Do you know how much I love you?

          Troy: Your hair is like spider webs. 

He always makes me smile. Love you, Monk. 

Love me some dogs

Considering I seem to have plenty of excessive free time lately, I decided to start volunteering at the Humane Society of Utah. I've done the orientations and such but yesterday was my first official day volunteering. Can I just say, most fun volunteering experience ever.

They wanted us to start of walking the small dogs just to get a feel for it. I ended up walking 4 of them. One of which was this little joy, Frankie.

Frankie is a character. We were racing to the park bench and I was winning. He decided to be a sore loser and stopped dead in his tracks. Then right after stopping, he took the opportunity to empty his bowels. So I looked like an idiot running around then to add insult to injury, I then had to pick up his crap. Thanks Frankie. You should have seen the smile he had on his face though. He was quite proud of himself. 

After playing with the small dogs, I looked around at the big dogs. They had all been walked already but I asked about it just in case. They said that since they have all been walked, they can get a second round. One dog stood out to me so I took him out. 

Meet Bucky. 

Cute face right? He took some time running around, playing with other dogs, barking, exploring, and then we played some ball. After a few minutes he jumped up on the bench with me and just sat there. Who knew the energy crazed pup was actually a lap dog too. Love it. 

The other dogs I played with were Mojo, Landi, and Bruiser. You can see them here. I'm excited to keep going back and getting to know the other beautiful dogs there. 

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.  ~Robert Benchley

Thank you Universe

Lets just get this one out in the open...I get attached to inanimate objects.

The day we sold Rita, everyone was in a hurry and in all the rush I realized I never got to say goodbye to her. I didn't have that last moment where I watched her drive off into the distance with her new family. I got pretty sad whenever I thought about it. What if she didn't know how much I loved having her in our lives for a few years? That would be horrible.

Well the universe likes me and the other day I was driving to Michaels when I got stopped at a red light.

I looked to my left a bit and guess who I saw...

RITA!!!!

They happened to be going the same way that I was for quite some time (don't worry, I didn't stalk them) so I had some time to catch up with her. She seems to be doing quite well. 

Thank you universe. Best. Gift. Ever. 

My Next Project(s)

This year for Christmas Troy got me a sewing machine. I've had a lot of fun playing around on it the last couple months. I've made some pillowcases and a simple quilt. However, I wanted to start trying to make clothes. I went to JoAnn's just to look around.

Well apparently its my lucky day. Sewing patterns were on super sale. Actually they were just on normal sale but by my standards it could've been called a super sale.

Check out my loot.

I spent about $25 and ended up getting 5 different patterns plus some fabric to make a skirt with. It'll be cute I promise. 

Here is the best part of my trip though...

I'm a savings genius. End of story.

A Friendly Reminder

Troy and I don't plan on living in Utah forever but occasionally we have those days where we're reminded that we definitely should not permanently reside in here. Yesterday was that kind of day.

For starters, I spent the morning looking up beignet, gumbo, and jambalaya recipes. I finally decided on a Cajun Crawfish and Shrimp Etouffe recipe for dinner. I knew crawfish would be tough around here so I was already set on just doing shirmp. However, apparently grocery stores in Utah are not sufficiently stocked for about half the ingredients in a Cajun recipe. Strike one.

Next, Troy wore his "Mardi Gras" shoes to work.

Go figure that all the big bosses who run his company decided to show up yesterday as well. He spent the whole day trying to hide his feet so as not to confuse people into thinking he always dresses that way.  Strike two.

Finally, I made cupcakes since I couldn't make a festive dinner.

While they may look like your average cupcakes, don't be fooled. These are special cupcakes. 

Special Mardi Gras  cupcakes. We brought some down to Neen and Jon who thankfully understand Troy and I. However, we also brought some to another couple in our ward.  They looked at us like we were crazy. Strike three. 

Apparently while Troy and I were busy incorporating some Louisiana into our day, the rest of Utah was completely oblivious to the fact that yesterday was supposed to be the greatest party day of the year. The ward may think we're odd but at least they got free cupcakes out of the deal right?

How to spend a perfect Saturday

Well within the last week I both scored my dream job and got laid off from my dream job. Curse you budget cuts. Thats life when you work for a nonprofit organization though huh? We decided to make this weekend extra fun to make up for the huge bummer.

Saturday morning I had an orientation at the Humane Society of Utah. Since I can't own a dog, I figured I would at least go play with dogs that are looking for homes to make their day a little better. I'm so excited to start volunteering there. I already can tell I'll have a couple favorites. (I may or may not have started looking at different apartments just so we could add a four-legged friend to our family.)

This is my new buddy. Her name is Paula and she is about a year old. I want her to be ours but as long as she gets a happy home I'll be loving life. She is a super smiler and so happy. Just try to tell me you aren't falling in love.

After our adventures there we headed up to Salt Lake and walked around the Gateway. Apple store...check. Sports store...check. Forever 21...no check...how did that happen? I do not know. 

We did stop at Z Gallerie though. Love that store. We had a particularly good time playing with these. Probably spent a good ten minutes bonding with the magnifying glasses. We're mature adults. 

After a quick nap on the side of the road we went to...The Melting Pot. Words cannot even describe. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, not that you're surprised by that fact. It was probably one of the best meals of my life. I'm sold on the fondue idea. We had a cheese sauce with bread, apples, and veggies. Salad. Lobster. Chicken. Steak. Duck. Shrimp. Ravioli. More Steak. And then there was the chocolate....oh boy the chocolate. 

We stopped at REI on the way home and spent a good hour and a half just wandering around. We are big fans of that store. We'll see if I'm still a fan when we have to wake up super early for the garage sale they have though. 

It was honestly a perfect day. No lie.

El Presidents Day

We're behind on the blog again. My bad. Brace yourself for some updates though.

Through some tricky planning, Troy happened to get President's Day off from work. Miracle yeah? We decided to take advantage of the situation and went down to Vegas for some time.

Friday, Olivia came down to Provo so we got to eat dinner with her and chat a while before heading off. Hopefully next time she comes we are able to see her for more than a few hours. We ended up leaving pretty late and the drive was cah-raaaazy. It was pouring rain...in the desert. Of course the second we got to the city the rain stopped though. We got to Vegas around 4:30 am Utah time. That was fun.

Saturday we took advantage of some warmer weather. First we went out to Valley of Fire to look around. We did a hike called Mouse Tank. Its the classic Valley of Fire hike.

Kritter apparently turned into a mountain goat some time over the last few months.

The hike has lots of heiroglyphs along the way. My personal fave...the snake dance glyph. I made Troy Boy go touch it so I could take a picture. Such a good husband. 

At the end of the hike you get to the actual "tank". The story goes that an outlaw used this area as a hideout because he knew there was water there. I've been here tons of times and never seen water but luckily due to the impressive rain storm the night before, there was actually water! You can kind of see it here. We threw some rocks in the water and it sounded pretty deep. Nice little swimming pool if you ask me. That Mouse was a smart man. 

After we left Valley of Fire we headed to St. Thomas. If you haven't heard of it before, its definitely worth your time to google this bad boy. Be sure its the one in Nevada and not the island though...although I wish we had gone to the island. I think this picture accurately describes our journey through St. Thomas...

The rain made things nice and muddy so we all had about 8 inches of mud on our shoes at all time. Nothing like journeying through the wilderness on 8 inch mud-platform shoes. 

We had so much fun just hanging out with family. Lately our visits to Vegas had been a bit hectic so it was nice to get to relax and do some fun things. 

I didn't have my camera with me but we also went to Bass Pro Shops and ate at this awesome new burger place. It was definitely a keeper. 

Don't be too jealous but also visited this little gem. Don't let the sign fool you though, they aren't really open 24 hours. 

 

Overall it was a great escape from the cold and snow. So grateful for my family! Especially family that lives in the sunshine. Thanks for letting us come visit!