honey whole wheat bread

My favorite activity lately is making bread. I get home early enough each day to make bread each week. I should learn to use my bread machine, but making it myself is so much fun. I love using my KitchenAid, kneading the dough, watching it rise, shaping into loaves, and having my house smell like bread. The best part, of course, is getting to eat it. I don't measure my bread intake by slices anymore, but rather by inches. Yesterday, I had 4 inches of bread. It was amazing.

I love summer deals!

My favorite fruits don't go on sale very often. So this week, when they both did, I stocked up. Fresh raspberries and strawberries!!

A 6 oz container of raspberries was down to $.99 from $3.99! And strawberries were the same price. I got 7 containers of raspberries and 6 lbs of strawberries . A few weeks back, blackberries were this cheap as well, but I am not as partial to blackberries, so I only bought a few containers of those. My freezer is now well-stocked with enough fruit for a while, and I love it.

my bucket list

a list of things i would love to do while still alive:

- master the organ
- go to culinary school & become a chef
- learn to swim (i know, pathetic right? i have never liked the water. understatement: i hate getting my hair wet, having water in my ears, and having to take out my contacts and then not being able to see but 8 inches in front of me, but i should just buckle down and at least learn how to survive in it.)
- take some of the personal enrichment courses BYU offers (a lot of them are free, too!)
- go to cosmetology school
- run a 5K (watching the Biggest Loser almost makes me want to run a marathon, but not quite)
- work from home running my own small business

i think that's a good list for starters. and 24/7 access to this is pretty good incentive to complete one of them:

Harvey, our little visitor

Will and I had a little visitor last week. We named him Harvey. He was found on the side of the road with no collar, and eventually made it to our house through family members. He is such a sweet little dog and can't be more than a few months old.
Isn't he so cute?


Well, we found something that we were wondering about and before going to bed, decided to do a little bit of inspecting. We soon learned what a tick looked like fully engorged to about the size of a small pea. Then we learned how to remove ticks - 7 of them. After removing 2 of them from his little behind, we made him a bed on the floor. It was then that I found another tick crawling on his blanket. We checked him all over and found the other 4 in his ears. The poor little guy didn't whimper too much, and he let Will hold him down while I removed the nasty creatures and drowned them in acetone. It was so disgusting and definitely gave us the willies, but we succeeded finally at 2:30am.

I am now tick certified for rumps and ears.

We debated and eventually decided not to keep him, but we gave him to our great friends. The best part is we can visit whenever we want!

Day 7 - Wednesday

4:20am - get up. {side note: lately, i've been having weird dreams where, in my dream, i wake up & get ready for work, then go & almost finish my day, when my real alarm goes off & i have to get up & do it all again for real. ugh.} today, i dreamt that i was straightening my hair at work (because, you know, we all do that all the time). anyway, i clamped down on two of my fingers holding the hair & my skin started melting to the flat iron so i couldn't open it & get free, so i kept burning myself. finally i got loose & of course it hurt, & then i still had to stay at work. so vivid. then my alarm went for real & i woke up & got ready for the day; however, i did not straighten my hair today. my fingers still hurt from my dream.
- calls are good when i get to work. short & easy before my 1st break.
- lunch was a free sample of cream of wheat i got in the mail - disgusting. oh well, it was free.
- calls continued to be fine. could have gone home early again, but didn't.
- after work, got gas because i was almost empty. definitely would NOT have made it home.
- ate quiche, chips & salsa, & carrots for lunch when i got home.
- watched some Rachael Ray.
- went to Dazzle with patty. bought a new necklace for $5.99! (shown below)- picked up will from work.
- watched American Idol.
- mom took us to Carl's Jr for dinner.
- drove past the young women combined activity to see how dad was doing. said a quick 'hello' to kenna & madi.
- relaxed in the hot tub.
- went to bed.


Now that my week is over, I'm glad that I was able to document everything. It was fun seeing how I actually spend my time. If I could change anything, I would have taken more pictures. I hope some of you try this and have fun, too.

Day 6 - Tuesday

4:30am - i slept in today because i went to bed late the night before. put on the most comfy business-casual clothes i have.
- head off to work.
- calls are fine today too.
- will went to work today. i told him to take it easy & come home if he needed to.
- calls continue to go really well, and i get an offer to go home early, but i stick it out. stay strong, bri!
- got home & will was there.
- nap time for both of us. we were both sleepy.
- after an hour, we got up & started watching Castle, a new detective series. very cool and fun.
- one of will's study buddies came over & he helped her study for a test.
- i blogged, checked email, and did other computer stuff to pass the time.
- oh ya, & remember that 3rd load of laundry from day 1? well i decided to fold it finally. good thing it was just sheets & towels. i can handle wrinkly sheets & towels.
- ate dinner while we finished Castle.
- went to bed after a quick shower.

Day 5 - Monday

Sorry, no pics today. Forgot the camera. There wasn't much to take a picture of anyway. Notice how my posts are getting shorter and shorter? It's exhausting to try to remember every detail about everyday. I'm doing good just to remember what happened.


4:20am - get up & get ready for work.
- at work, calls were good. not one angry person!
- at lunch, i had the last of my breakfast casserole. now what am i going to take for lunch?!
- calls still go well, & there are a couple minutes between each one, thankfully.
- left at 2:30 after checking on information about my benefits.
- get home & make eggs & toast since i'm STARVING, for some odd reason.
- oh ya, my favorite pen died at work, too. darn blast it. {goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend} (i don't even like that song, but it seemed so fitting)
- we showered.
- started Just Like Heaven, which is such a cute show.
- barbie & ricky came over to visit.
- opened the mail, which had our tickets for the phoenix nascar race on april 18. will was stoked. i surprised him.
- will & i went to Wendy's for dinner again. we had a great conversation about our plans for the upcoming months and ended up staying there for over an hour.
- came home & finished the movie.
- went to sleep & slept really hard.

Day 4 - Saturday

Each day's activities

7:35 - wake up rested, but decide to sleep in more because i can :)
8:15 - get up & shower & get ready for the day.
- find something with which to plug up the tub. 'necessity is the mother of all invention.' washcloth works well.
- fill the tub for will's first cleaning since his surgery.
- it feels good to soak in the water, & he enjoys his loofa bath.
- start blog post located here.
- Lark & kids come over for conference & bring breakfast: Danish & fruit.- we watch conference & then they leave.
- Will & i finish the blog post & then start the next conference session.
- after Elder Bednar's talk, we pause it & take a short nap. then we finished conference.
- make dinner: quiche & salad.
- mom & dad come over with holly. we eat & watch holly play.
- we call home to Utah & chat with my family for an hour. it was so much fun, as it always is. one of the highlights of every week.
- finish blog post for day 3.
- go to bed at 9 because I'm sleepy already and have to get up early.
- will comes to bed a little later after watching the Nascar race.