Gretchen the Goat

I woke up to find out that around 5 am I sleepily informed Colton we would be buying a baby goat named Gretchen and that she would have spots. I rolled out of bed, still smiling, in time to kiss my sweetheart goodbye before he headed off to campus.

Spent the morning getting distracted on the internet/studying medications.

Digoxin...Pinterest...Spotify...Lasix...

Feeling grateful for sweet dreams, a sweet husband and medication.

He is the Gift

With the Christmas Season in full swing, I've been thinking about what Christmas means to me, what it REALLY means. As I've thought about it, it turns out that it means a lot of things. The birth of a baby in a manger long ago means so much today. 

It means that families do not end on earth. Thank goodness! This time of year is constantly reminding me that family is everything, and not just on earth. Christmas means that I'll see my Grandma Haymond and Grandma Anne again. It means that any separation is temporary. I know that because of Him, my family relationships will exist after death. 

It means that I am never alone. The Savior's life and death provide me with a constant companion and friend. This year has been a year of decisions, and they were not made alone or by coincidence. 

His birth means that I have great reason to have great joy. I am so thankful that God knows I'm not perfect, but that He sent His Son so that I could still learn and love on earth and return to live with Him. 

Christmas means that everything works out. No wonder we feel happier during the holidays. I think that something within us knows that the coming of Christ means that even if we do not find peace on earth, we will find it one day. 

Christmas only comes once a year, but it is the reason that I have peace and happiness throughout the weeks and months. Christ's birth is a thing to be celebrated, because it is the greatest gift ever given. A gift in the truest sense, something we could not obtain ourselves. A gift from a Heavenly Father to His literal children, a gift of pure love. 

Merry Christmas!

Questions about my Christmas beliefs? Ask me!

Health Kick

After a couple years of college-style eating, Colton and I both felt like it was time to start eating well again. We weren't eating unhealthy meals, but we were having plenty of the sweet stuff afterwards and in between. One of the reasons I married that man is that he loves good food. I love good food. We LOVE good food. And I don't mean good-for-you food. Anyways, that explains why it's taken us a while to want to eat better. 

Despite our common love for anything scrumptious and sugary, we got a gym membership and stocked up on spinach. Lo and behold, magical things started to happen.

Since I've started college, nay since high school, I've just accepted the fact that I am a chronically sleepy person. No matter how much sleep I get, I usually wake up wanting to take a nap. But since we started our health kick, we both feel so awake! Even after getting up at 5:30 to work out, we can go go go all day and still keep our eyes open through scripture-reading.

We've both dieted before. He was a wrestler in high school, so cutting weight was almost his specialty (let's not talk about the time we basically weighed the same junior year...never happened). I've mainly dieted in the past by counting/cutting calories and it works, but I'm usually even more tired and grumpy, not to mention hungry and I usually got discouraged and gave up before coming anywhere near my goal.

This time we both wanted to do something different. We eat when we're hungry and we still have dessert, only more like once week instead of once a day. We work out more, but we do it together at least half of the time and mix cardio with weight lifting to hopefully add some tone instead of just becoming smaller flabby people.

We haven't eliminated any foods, but we try not to eat bread for breakfast or lunch. Obviously we still have sandwiches here and there, but it's a lot less often.

And the best part...smoothies! We have them all the time! We were totally terrified to drink something green at first, but it tastes the same with or without it, so why not get some vitamins?

Here's how we make our Mix n' Match Green Smoothies:

Base: use all

1/2 c. almond milk

1/2 a banana

about 1 1/2 c. ice

Fruity Goodness: pick 2 or more

1 peach/nectarine

1 apple

1/2 c. pineapple

1 c. strawberries

handful of raspberries

Greens: 

2 c. spinach

Extras: optional

1 T. flax seed

1/4 c. oatmeal

Put the liquid in first, then go from the softest ingredients to the hardest ingredients (example: milk, bananas, peach, spinach, apple, ice). 

One of these babies will fill me up until lunch time, plus I feel like I had dessert for breakfast. Bonus points.

Bad Hair Day

As I vowed to do for months prior to getting married, I chopped my hair off the second we got back from our honeymoon. And it was great. Freedom at last! 

But two months later it's grown out kind of funny and I've been meaning to get it evened out. Well, today I had this genius idea to go down to Great Clips because you know, what could go wrong?! Save a little money, walk right in...sounded amazing. I mean, they did a fabulous job when I was 12 and I got my hair cut like that girl from Bridge to Terabithia! How was today any different?

8 years. That's how. And doesn't the girl in Bridge to Terabithia die? Yeah, how's that for foreshadowing?!

I walked out looking like a 12-year-old boy with a mullet gone wrong.

Hey kids, sometimes when you're basically a grown-up and you have your own job and everything, it's still okay to call you mom and cry like a baby because you hair looks ridiculous.

See, these girls get it.

No hats were to be found in the closet so French Braid it was. 

Also, looking up pictures of the worst haircut ever really helps:

 

4th of July Weekend

We had a fun-filled weekend! Colton had to work both Friday and Saturday (so sad!) but we still found time to goof off. 

On the 4th we had hot dogs and Nacho Libre corn for dinner and then I passed out until after the fireworks started...oops. After I woke up from my beauty sleep at...ehem...10:30 at night, we hurried into the jeep and headed towards fireworks at the stadium. Lucky for us, we saw 1 firework and got ourselves into 1 hour of traffic! Worth it.

On Saturday we went on the long-anticipated surprise date. Colton asked me out earlier in the week and I'd been excited to know what we were going to do ever since! He came home from work with a couple bags of groceries and surprised me with homemade gyros! So yummy. He is quite the little chef.

After dinner he announced that we were going GEOCACHING!!!

It's basically treasure hunting in real life. You navigate to hidden compartments and then you take something out and put something back in. We got the app and hopped in the car with some doo-dads we wanted to get off of our counter and went on the best date I've ever been on. And it was free! Even better.

 

Hidden under light posts and inside bushes we found pennies, notes, glow sticks and a bouncy ball. The bouncy ball was definitely the score of the night. Turns out they bounce way higher outside.

I can't wait to pull out the app on family vacations, etc. and see what else we can find!

Emma

Bragnar

  

We completed the long-anticipated Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay!

12 of us from my dad's side of the family (Brague Family = Bragnar) got together and ran 196 miles in 2 days and it was awesome. Uphill running doesn't even cover it. There were parts of that race that were hard if you were just plain hiking.

Colton ran a total of 22 miles and I ran 12. Yeah, I married a stud. He was Runner #11 and I was Runner #12 so we got to pass the super sweet slap bracelet to each other (aw!). We also passed his ipod because let's be honest, his music collection is way better than mine. 

Lot's of car time, lot's of running, but we got a medal at the end so all is well.

After nursing ourselves back to health via hot tub and waddling to the car, we experienced the most guilt-free drive-thru trip possibly ever. I'm pretty sure we ate at least half of the Wendy's dollar menu...and it was glorious.

So glad we did it!

Emma

                             

Musings of a Newlywed

Marriage is awesome. There's nothing better! And one of the things that makes it so great is that living with the person I love more than anyone else in the world makes me want to be a better me. Even though I've only been married a little over a month, there have been quite a few times when I've had to stop and take a good hard look at myself.

Sometimes I'm happy with what I find, others not so much.

But since I now live with a dude, we don't sit and analyze why I feel that way for hours on end. Nope! It's more like, "Okay, well, you're awesome, but if you think you can be better, just be better."

So much better than playing psychotherapy, so why did this concept blow my female mind out of the water the first time it came up?

It was when I went for a run one night and was down-right grumpy the entire time, partially due to the muggy heat but also for no reason at all. Eventually I called Colton to come pick me up because the whole running back thing just wasn't happening. The drive back was kind of quiet as I swam in self-pity, but he asked me what was wrong and I removed my frowny-floaties long enough to explain my not-so-fun run.

I don't even remember his expression changing at all, he just said "Well, have a better run tomorrow." It wasn't said with a lack of concern, just as though that was the only possible solution.

And he's right.

At the end of the day, what else can be done? So my run was crappy, or dinner tasted like cardboard or I lost my temper. All that I can really do is do better.

I'm so grateful to be married to a man who knows that.

Emma

Peaches & Cream

I L O V E peaches and cream. They taste like a summer sunset. Peaches were on sale at the grocery store and I already had cream in the fridge so I couldn't help myself.

I let the slices sit in brown sugar for half an hour and then warmed them up in a pan with some cinnamon. (A grill would be best, because who doesn't love grilled fruit?!) but the pan works better for instant gratification and clean-up. I topped it off with some cream and we had one of my most favorite desserts.

Mmmm.

So glad it's summer!

Emma

Mom & Pops

Guess who's been married 23 years?

These two. Aren't they just adorable?

They look just as happy when they're together now as they did when Mom had a perm and Dad had non-prescription sunglasses.

My parents' marriage has taught me so much, but if I could pick one thing, it would be that marriage is best when you're in it with your best friend.

Because even though they have to put up with these four 24/7...

 ...They still have smiles on.

Claps for Steve and Shannon.

Love you both!

Emma

Ms. Hannah

So this woman turns 18 this month! What?! 

Hannah, you're wonderful.

We go way back.

 Like back to girls camp when you wore a swimsuit over your clothes and I thought dressing like that was okay way back.

And then there was that second of my life when I was taller than you. BAM.

And then there was this. Why do I like this picture so much?

Oh and there is this shining moment in our lives. I'm 99% positive that we started the bathroom selfie thing. What babes.

And even a couple years later, we were still bomb. Check out that tin foil grill!

And now you've graduated high school! And we don't live close to each other and it's awful! BUT I get to see you in a little over a week. Counting down.

Sorry James, this is a sister pic. I am so proud of us for making it out of the phases pictured above...they were awesome, but at some point we needed to actually do something with our hair.

Stay Sweet Sis,

Emma

Food Processor Salsa

Since this is my first real recipe post, I should preface this by saying that Google taught me how to cook. Well, that's a bit unfair. I Google almost every recipe I make, but Mom taught me how to make things taste good. As a teenager in the kitchen (sooo long ago) I watched my mom. I helped too, but with her bomb cooking skills it was better for everyone if I just watched most of the time.

Shout out to Mom for using spices, olive oil and lemons. Lots of lemons. And kudos for not measuring things. With cookies or cake or a new recipe or whatever yeah, sure, but when you have to get dinner on the table?

Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

Somewhere in two years of cooking on my own I became a non-measuring monster. Sometimes it gets me, well the food, into trouble. But most of the time it's worth it. TRY IT! Plus, when everything turns out and hubby walks in the door as you just happen to be pulling dinner out of the oven, you will have the guilty pleasure of knowing that you hardly measured anything. What a pro.

On that note, here's a recipe I found online (don't ask me where) a few weeks ago that I've made three times now. Yummers! I've included the measurements, but I usually tweak it.

Tweaking is the key to making food that tastes good to you.

Food Processor Salsa

1 can (28 oz) Whole Tomatoes With Juice

2 cans (10oz) Dice Tomatoes and Green Chilies

1/4 cup chopped onion (I've left this out on accident and it still tasted great)

1 clove Garlic, minced (But if you're using a food processor, you only need to chop it into chunks)

1 whole Jalapeno, quartered and sliced thin (This matters or you get random huge bites of jalapeno...ah!)

1/4 teaspoon Sugar (flexible, this helps balance the acidity of all those tomatoes)

1/4 teaspoon Salt (flexible, really to taste)

1/4 teaspoon Cumin (I usually add in more)

1/2 cup Cilantro (I usually just lop off half of the bunch and throw it in there)

Juice of 1 lime 

Combine all of the ingredients in your food processor/blender, then pulse about 10-15 times. AND THAT'S IT! Doesn't that just make you want to make salsa allll the time? It's a great snack and it's a cheap recipe, so nothin's stopping you now! 

Throw it in the fridge and it keeps for quite a while. One batch only ever lasts my husband and I about a week, but it tastes just as good at the end of the week as it did at the beginning. We eat it with scrambled eggs, chips, or mexican food...or a spoon (shhh). 

***NOTE: This is a BIG batch. A 12-cup food processor would be ideal, but I use my 9-cup one and just spoon a bunch out before I take the container off of the base so that it doesn't spill everywhere (am I even making sense?). I'm guessing a blender would work just fine for this recipe too, but I haven't tried it yet. 

Have fun NOT measuring!

XO,

Emma

Meet the Robinsons

Meet Mr. & Mrs. Robinson (aka my husband and I).

We've been married exactly one month now and it has easily been the best month of my life.

We've had quite the month! Vacations, birthdays, graduations, jobs, training for a Ragnar and -- oh yeah-- unpacking have kept us busy little bees. I'm beginning to think that I should start a blog called "The Adventures of Living in a Basement". Let me tell you, the discoveries are endless. Coming soon: How to bake a birthday cake in a slanted oven!

         

That being said, I'm sort of in love with our *tiny* apartment.

Is it due to the fact that I can touch the ceiling without going on my tippy toes? Maybe. But mostly it's because it "ours". Because my husband hung the picture frames and I made the bed like a true Haymond/nursing student. Because WE DON'T HAVE TO SHARE THE FRIDGE.

So married life is fantastic! We're both just chugging along at our jobs: Colton at PepBoys and me at the clinic. Thank goodness there is still time to attend the occasional demolition derby and smashball it up at the park.

XO,

Emma