Live.Love.Laugh

19 November 2009

Catch up!

So I keep hoping to figure this whole blog thing out! I want it to be more creative with the pics and posts to be more zig zagged I guess you could say. If anyone could help me figure this all out it would be greatly appreciated!

Chris and Katie-good friends-welcomed their newest member of the family another baby boy named Asher Lance Westcott all little 6lbs 9oz and 18 1/4 in. with a full head of hair at that! Congrats guys he's adorable!

I am currently still looking around for a job but as I don't need one now to get by can take my time and not settle for anything less than what I would like to be earning. We have decided to get rid of our truck as sad as we are to see it go it's a large payment we can no longer afford in these times(without me working). We are hoping to find something very similar but are going through a great friend connection to get something at wholesale. Don't worry we're not going to get ripped off or screwed we know these guys very well and are very close and they are making sure all our needs are taken care of. Trust me we have gone through and looked at all our options over everything and we know this is our best decision and know we will be fine and things will work out for the best.

On another note; we have fixed up our backyard-ruined by J & B's dogs again, so needs to be fixed again! Once it looks to be snow for good we'll be fixing it up again and laying seed. So we will FINALLY have grass in our backyard come spring!!! YAY!!!!SOOO STOKED!!!! It only took 3 1/2 years!
We can also finally get a couch in the basement: Matt cut out about a foot from the wall downstairs so it's not just the three small doorways so I no longer have such a cluttered front room upstairs with three couches!! YAY!!!

Cookie Recipe cost $250!!

A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a very expensive store; they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00.> Let's let them have it! THIS IS A TRUE STORY!> My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe In Dallas, and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to Neiman-Marcus cookie.' It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe, and the waitress said with a small frown, 'I'm afraid not, but you can buy The Recipe.' Well, I asked how much, and she responded, ' Only two fifty - it's a Great deal!' I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my Tab. Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus Charge was $285.00 I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00". That was outrageous! I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it was 'two-fifty', whichclearly does not mean 'two hundred and fiftydollars' by any reasonableinterpretation of the phrase.Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money because, according to them, 'What the waitress told you is notour problem. You have already seen the Recipe. We absolutely will notrefund your money at this point..'I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the State of Texas . I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's officefor engaging in fraud. I was basically told, 'Do whatyou want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to getany of your money back.' I just said, Okay, youfolks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every Cookie Lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus...for free. She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do this.' Isaid, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me off and slammed down the phone.> So here it is!> Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of.> I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER makeanother penny off of this recipe!>

NEIMAN-MARCUS
COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)

2 cups butter
24 oz. Chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. Soda (baking)
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder.Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour,oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda . Add chocolate chips, hershey bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.Makes 112 cookies.

10 September 2009

Happy Anniversary!

"Then and Now"

Exciting!

Well we got some family pictures done thanks to our friend Wendy! Enjoy!

Yesterday 9-9-09 Matt's cousin Rebecca got married in Aspen unfortunately we could not attend but I'm sure it was great! We however did not miss a beat-Jessica and Burke's dog had her puppies in the afternoon evening. There were a total of 8 but sadly enough one was stillborn :( . so there are 4 blues and 3 reds-two seem to be more chesnut than red and we can't wait to see if that coloring sticks. We would however love LOVE to sell them ASAP so once they can be separated from mother they can leave. This house is much too small for this many dogs! So please if you're interested or can get the word out to anyone who's looking for a puppy please let us or Jessica and Burke know or give them our information!

26 August 2009

BLAH!

Matt has been in the academy now for almost a month and loves it even more each time he goes to class. This is definitely his path in life and it's about time he found a direction! They are working on making an EMT class during his wildland class which is a saturday only class then the EMT class will be during the week. This will save us on even more time. We are both actually looking at taking the class, so he has better chances of getting a job and me as well-a way to pay my way through nursing school if I can ever get there!?!

My cousin Pat and his wife Julie had their 3rd baby last week! YAY finally a girl after two beautiful boys! Congrats to them and their cute little addition.

We are only a few weeks away from our 4th anniversary! I can't believe it's only been 4 years, it seems like so much more than that!

10 August 2009

Update on US

Well Matt is starting the fire academy tonight! We're so excited to finally have a direction to get us out of dead end jobs and hopping around!
My oldest sister Jessica and her husband Burke are living in our basement after she was transferred back to Utah for two years as head of Recruiting for northern Utah idaho and wyoming for the Army. She is about 5-6 months pregnant with her first baby and they are having a boy named Hayden.
While my husband is finally returning to school, I alas am still trying to get back but yet again am awaiting my financial aid to actually process. Everything happens for a reason and looking at the big picture this time next summer there is a large possibility that we will be moving out of state, so maybe I'm not destined to start my nursing degree until we know what's going on and where we are going. Though it is very hard and I am not a stay at home type, I guess I'm stuck until things get figured out. :(
Kaiya is coming up on her third birthday and is going on a teenager! She has started throwing the worst attitude tantrums since her little brother came home.
Rykley is hard to believe it almost 5 months old now. He is just shy of crawling, if he would stop chewing on his hands he would probably be there. It's hard to believe but if anyone remembers what an easy baby Kaiya was-Rykley is even easier! He only cries when he's hungry and sometimes when he wants to be held. He is always smiling and if you try hard enough you can listen to him laugh though he's pretty stubborn about actually laughing with sound :)