Happy late thanksgiving

Hope all you blockheads had a great thanksgiving! I'm still sad cause forgot to set the tivo to record the charlie brown thanksgiving special.....guess I'll have to make sure we get the xmas one! Plan to a little holiday decorating this weekend if I stay motivated, so I'll post some pics once I get that done! This is the first year I've worked on the day after thanksgiving and haven't gone shopping....keep telling myself that is good cause this will end up being a profitable day this way!

Photoshop 101 continued

So I haven't had much time to continue practicing with photoshop, but plan to do so this weekend. This again probably isn't that great, but just goes to show what you can do with some color enhancement here to make the colors a little more vivid- notice his shoes, shirt, and the water. I also then deleted out some of those smokestacks and people in the background. I also then tried to straighten it out some since the skyline was a little crooked originally. Since these are really slow to upload, this is all I have the patience to share right now!

Photoshop 101

So we had a lazy day on Saturday and I spent it learning how to try to use Photoshop. I'd been doing some research on the internet and spent Saturday doing a lot of tutorials and practice. I downloaded a trial of Photoshop Elements which is a cheaper, stripped down version of Photoshop....so it's been fun, but am thinking I'll also evaluate the full Photoshop cause am thinking there are some things in there that would be worth the money. I'm going to try to share some of my photoshop adventures and creations...no laughing cause I've spent ONE DAY trying to learn this!

Here's example where I feel like I drastically improved the color of the picture to make it much brighter and more colorful.

Here is me using my skills to delete our that pipe on the left and just make the picture look a little more artistic:

More to come, but these are taking FOREVER to load and it's time for bed!

Yum-O!

So I've been to the gym like 3 times since back from the honeymoon and just been eating like crap...and I know it's only going to get worse with the holidays. So I've decided to make an effort to make some better food choices and try to start exercising again. I've been trying to cook some dinners with healthy, fresh ingredients and then bring my lunch. I feel like just avoiding eating my lunch and lots of dinners out we'll be healthier. I just love greek food lately, so created this recipe tonight that was fabulous! Basically I took all the ingredients I love in a chicken gyro and threw them together to make a pizza with a salad mixture on top.

Bought a Boboli pizza crust and spread some garlic hummus over it (like you would do with pizza sauce). I then topped it with some artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted sweet peppers. I then added some pre-cooked italian chicken pieces and topped it with feta cheese. (I threw on a little provel also just to make it cheesier). I then baked in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. While that was cooking I made a tzatziki sauce. I combined 1 container of plain yogurt with a couple shakes of lemon juice, 3 garlic cloves grated in, 1/6 of a cucumber grated in, and then a sprinkle of dill. Stir together and set aside. I then chopped some red onion, cucumber (sprinkled dill over it), and kalamata olives. Take the pizza out of the onion and cut into 8 pieces. Top with half a bag of shredded lettuce. Sprinkle your red onion, cucumber, and olives on top. then take your sauce and put in a ziploc bag and cut the corner to make a small opening. you can then squeeze the sauce out of the bag and drizzle over your pizza salad. ENJOY! Only downside was it probably cost me $20 in ingredients :(

5-Bagger in da house!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't planning on bowling last Thurs, but had to fill-in at the last minute. Bowled 101 first game and 91 second game....so not too shabby, but not great. In my last game, I bowl 3 strikes in a row and got my first Turkey!!!!! I was SO excited and everyone is high-fiving me and such. So I toss the ball on my next turn....and another strike!!!!!! That is called a Ham-Bone, so I set history again by getting my first ham-bone! Then next turn comes, and what do you know....another strike! Now there are no more fun terms left, so is just called a 5-bagger, 6-bagger, etc. So everyone is just freaking out that I did this....I don't even know that anyone on our team has got a turkey, let alone this! So it is my 10th frame, so i get 2 more balls to throw....first one- gutter.....second one- gutter. Bleh. I think I was too nervous with everyone watching me and pressure just got to me. So I only bowled a 166, which was 6 better than my previous best....but is killing me cause my score could have been so much better had I just hit somethings on those last turns! Here is pic of our scoreboard just so I have proof...I'm on the top row and the X's are all those strikes!

Sick of feeling sick

So I can't re-iterate enough....wash your hands constantly! SO many people have been getting sick, but I thought for sure I'd avoid it....wrong! I'm blaming keanan cause we baby-sit him Saturday night and he was coughing and just germy like most kids are and then I wake up the next morning with a sore throat and it all begins! He was so cute and so much fun though, so it was worth it! My sore throat is now gone, but now just have a cough and stuffy/runny nose. I feel bad cause i'm sniffling constantly and sneezing and coughing, so I know my hands are disgusting and then I have to do things like touch the elevator button and door handles and such and figure I'm just spreading my germs to everyone else! Oh well, here's a pic of the cutie (one on the left) and bum baby-sitter:By the way, he is just talking up a storm now so it made it VERY entertaining! I'm really not so sure he really likes Dustin cause all Dustin does is just pester him or sat on the couch watching sports....not a fun baby-sitter in my terms! We worked puzzles, read a book, and then played lotsa cars and trains. Brought me back to days of my cousin Jeremy cause he is all about thomas the tank engine! The funniest thing he said was when I had told Dustin I wanted a soda, but there wasn't any in the fridge...so I ran downstairs to check for soda. I come back upstairs and said to dustin, no soda downstairs. So Keanan looks at me and says- "we have beers...you want beers?" I laughed and was like no, i don't like that. He then says, "my dad likes beers." Then he says, "me find you soda" and sure enough he did! I told dustin some high school kid will love baby-sitting there if he's offering up "beers!"

Despite being sick I've managed to make some good food this week cause I think some good homecooked food will help! On Sunday night I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup and man, was it yummy and have tons leftover! Another night we had steak (well, dustin had it), corn on the cob, and then made some awesome horsey smashed potatoes. I cooked 2-3 pounds of red potatoes in boiling water, then drained. Added a small container of sour cream and 2 spoonfuls of prepared horseradish and then a lot of chopped fresh chives...and of course s&p. I forgot I was going to add some bacon in there too, so maybe next time! And then last night I made some semi-risotto stuff I made up with red wine and parsley and then made a chicken casserole my mom used to make that I loved growing up...probably cause it has crushed potato chips on top! Dustin loved it and it tasted okay to me, but not as good as I remember.

In other news, dustin hurt his thumb playing softball this summer. It's been really bothering him but he refused to go to the Dr. before the wedding. So he finally went and they confirmed what he thought- he needs surgery and will be in a cast. So that all happens next week. So I'm sure we'll be doing even more movie watching than normal if that is possible!

Hideous Etsy Seller

So there's a website called http://www.etsy.com/ where people sell handmade items. You can find some really cool things out there and is great when you need unique gifts! Many brides use the site and I got a couple things from here that I was really pleased with. There's a poor girl on a brides forum that I go to where she paid this seller almost $200 to make a custom clutch. The result is SO amusing so I had to share.

So here is the pic she provided to the seller except she wanted it to be in brown and pink. The seller assured her she could duplicate and create something very similar.

This is what the seller sent her! I would have thought this was some joke and her 3 year old daughter made it!

So needless to say she sent it back and wanted her money back. It's been a long battle but the seller won't give the money back and wants to keep trying to get it right. So this is her other attempt. And there are 2 other attempts just as horrific!

Pro Wedding Pics

No, I don't have all my wedding pics back yet, but hopefully soon! I realized I got so far behind with writing about the wedding that I had never posted the link to some of our professional photos! This is what he put up on his blog....I just keep looking at these over and over and over and over....and I am SUPER anxious for the rest! Just hope I have them before xmas!!

http://jeremylawsonphoto.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post.html

Oh, and so I had all these crazy dreams before the wedding about all sorts of just random stuff...well, it's still continuing after the wedding! Last week I woke up in a complete tizzy and panic and was surprised I wasn't crying out loud in my sleep! I had a dream we got the pro pics back from our wedding and there were only like 50 photos from the entire day, so first I was upset there wasn't more....but before I complained I told myself to just look through them. So I look through the whole stack and there were 3 pictures of me in it-- and one of them was super blurry! Another was a pic of me in shorts and a tank top not even from my wedding day! The rest were a bunch of random people I didn't know and some scenery! So I try to be polite and just ask the photographer who these people are and he tells me those were the guests at the wedding. So now i'm just completely puzzled cause I don't know any of these people and know they were not at our wedding. So then he tells me that he lost the disc with all the wedding photos and he had no backup or anything, so they are all gone. So I just start crying uncontrollably and freaking out and was so mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then I woke up and had a sigh of relief that it was all fake! Stupid dreams.

Read my blog, you BLOCKHEAD

So we were just flipping through the channels last week and stumbled upon some Charlie Brown Halloween special, so we just left it on for a few minutes and both realized that it was actually entertaining! So we watched the whole thing. We were laughing at a lot of the comments and now I'm thinking I want to read more Peanuts comics and watch more of the shows. One of the funniest things was how they call each other "blockheads" as an insult. So, according to the internet you can term someone a blockhead when they do something dumb or a clumsy act. Some examples of how to use the term would be:

• Dustin is such a blockhead, he tripped over his shoes laying in the middle of the hallway.
• You wore a brown belt with black shoes today, you blockhead!
• That blockhead dustin bought stale bread at the grocery store.

The other term that was really funny was that they say "tricks or treats." I found this comic clip then that had both my fave expressions. now just can't wait for hopefully a thanksgiving special that will be on....you blockhead

Organization Progress!

So we've been busy after the wedding trying to just get all situated in the loft....and we are close to being finished! I worked ALL DAY on Sunday to get things organized. Basically I emptied out all the kitchen cabinets, cleaned them, re-did the shelving heights, and put things back in where they best fit. Once I was done, it looked great and I actually have some spare room on some shelves! I unpacked a lot of our fun kitchen items from the boxes and am itching to try so many of them out...think we'll definitely have to have a xmas party soon! I then re-organized our closet that contains our laundry area and that looks great too! Then I started on our bedroom closet, but didn't get too far, so that is in progress. Basically instead of just having the one pole to hang clothes from, we created a lower second one underneath it to double our size. I sold all my candy buffet jars from the wedding last night so that also emptied out some crap...now just gotta sell my candles and will have most wedding decorations outta here!

Since my other past time is tv, I was bummed to find out that Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is leaving Melrose Place...and even more sad that the rumor was that she acted like such a diva on set. We started watching a new show called Modern Family on Wed nights and LOVE it! This last week they even watched the Illini football game on the show and the fat gay dude was dressed up in orange and blue!

SYTYCD???

So Saturday night we didn't really have any halloween plans, so missy and I decided to go see the So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) show here at Chaifetz Arena. We were just going to buy our tickets at the box office when we got there, but Missy decided to check that afternoon and see if new good seats became available and they were.......8th row floor seats, dead center on the aisle! And acutally the first 3 rows were only on the sides, so essentially were 5th row. IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!!! Well worth paying the extra money for these then sitting up high. At the end of the show they came back and did a halloween medley and finished it off with thriller...great way to end the show! Here's some pics, but I took over 100 so it was hard to decide what to post...considering most people don't watch the show and won't appreciate them:

This was Kupono in a ridiculous outfit, but sad part was this is typically the kind of stuff he wears so I didn't even know if it was a joke at first....the next saddest part was that missy had requested the library to order the SYTYCD workout videos and knew the dance moves he was mocking!

This was one of my favorites of the season-- a dance to Battlefield by Jordin Sparks.


So Jeannine and Phillip kept coming out in their russian dance outfits, which was one of the most horrible performances of the season, and so eventually everyone came out and did a russian dance.

THRILLER!