The Gift that Keeps on Giving

 And No.  I'm NOT talking about the "Jelly of the Month Club" (from Christmas Vacation).  :)

About 10 days ago, Matt & I finished our "Year of Dates".   I gave this to Matt as a gift for Christmas 2011.  I tried to think of all the things that we have always talked about doing, "We should do THAT sometime!" BUT never have.  Our "date bucket list" so to speak.

He was nice and told me it was "The Best present EVER!" (In his opinion, even better than the iPad HE gave to ME last year!) There were 12 pre-planned, [mostly] pre-paid dates in the basket, one for each month of the year. Shortly after Christmas, we sat down with our new 2012 calendar and decided all the dates and WROTE IT IN PEN (that makes if official, ya know! :) We really looked forward to it all year. Here's what we did.....

JANUARY

Utah State University Basketball Game.

We went back to our Alma Mater dressed in our Aggie fan duds for a basketball game and went to some of our old stompin' grounds: dinner at The Factory Pizzeria & ice cream at Charlie's.  (We're so sentimental.)  We were a bit disappointed that our names we had carved into one of the tables [Matt + Suz w/ a heart around it] all those years ago wasn't even detectable anymore - too many more carvings on top of it, I guess.  :(

FEBRUARY

A horse 'n' carriage ride around downtown Salt Lake City.  

It just so happened that the city was celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the SLC 2002 Olympics that night (with Mitt Romney present) so fireworks started going off while we were on our ride.....COOL!  Except, the downside to that was that it scared the horse and our driver had to turn it around and take a detour.  (but we scored a coupon for a future ride due to the unusual circumstances!)  We dined at P.F. Changs afterwards.

MARCH

A Spa Date Night

Massages, pedicures, hot wax treatments, and spa treats.

APRIL

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Session

We had never been to this temple before.  It's a cute, small one.  Then I got to experience Lamb's Grill - somewhere Matt has gone with work a lot and had talked about, saying he'd have to take me sometime, but it hadn't happened yet.  (He says it's better for breakfast than lunch.)

MAY

Brian Regan concert at Tuacahn

What an enjoyable time.  We laughed so hard!   The opening act was great, too.

JUNE

Picnic in the Park

We went to Sugarhouse Park in SLC and had Subway on a blanket and played cards -- until the breeze blew them away.  This was really relaxing and was kind of in honor of our college days when we hung out at the park quite a bit...to escape homework, roommates, or to just soak in the sun & fresh air.

JULY

Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City

We had tickets to "The Merry Wives of Windsor".  We had to concentrate SO HARD to understand/translate the lines they were saying.  How many years has it been since we studied Shakespeare in school?!?  We were kinda rusty on those language skills.  ;) haha.

AUGUST

I had a date planned to go to Snowbird and ride the tram, then go hiking around.......BUT on the day we had it on the calendar was the day we were moving OUT of our old house, so we postponed it to the next weekend.....BUT on that day, we were moving IN to our new house, so we rescheduled it to the next week...BUT on that day, we were still unpacking....you get the picture.  Snowbird never happened, but the last week of August we.....

Took a trip to San Diego instead - just the 2 of us!  

That counts as a substitute August date, right?  We got to finally relax after several weeks of WORK!  We (among other things) rode in a cycle rickshaw, took in a Padres game, lots of good restaurants, and attended a "60's Party."  (can you see the "SF {heart's} MB" I wrote on the VW bug?)    :)

SEPTEMBER

Cooking School

I was the "chef's assistant" during the demo portion of the class.  The class was "Mainland Chinese" themed.  We made Spring Rolls, Egg Drop Soup, Lemongrass Chicken, and Ham-Fried Rice with Bok Choy.  It also happened to be my birthday that day, so afterwards, the chef let me keep the apron (as a gift) and then took us downstairs to the bakery and let us each pick out any dessert we wanted!  woo hoo!

OCTOBER

We went to the Draper Temple and did sealings.....

then to dinner at Kobe Restaurant.  Doesn't the sight of this Udon bowl make you feel like saying,  

"FEE-FI-FO-FUM!"?  :)  

If you ever go there, Remember this:  SUNSHINE ROLL.  yum.

NOVEMBER

A "Slumber Party" at The Eliza Court Inn....sans children, of course.

DECEMBER

Holiday POPS Concert with Paul Cardall 

Hosted by KUTV ch. 2 Newsanchors, Mark Koelbel & Shauna Lake & directed by meteorologist, Sterling Poulsen (who knew?  a man of many talents).  We wished we could've heard from Paul Cardall even more - Matt really likes his music.

And now the "Year of Dates" is over.  (boo hoo)  Don't ya think Matt should reciprocate the idea for me in 2013, now?  Christmas is in a week, I guess we'll find out then......  :)

It's the Day After Palm Sunday

Do you know what that means?
It means Lent is over.

I made it 40 days - and was 100% on my "No Candy" resolve.

Did I notice a difference? you ask?

Why Yes! (thanks for asking!) I got on the scale this morning......

AND it had changed by 5 pounds.....in the upward direction!

What the ???????????

So, if it doesn't even matter anyway..... I just went ahead and helped myself to a couple of Caramacs my in-laws just brought us back from Hawaii.

Lent Update

I'M STILL ON THE WAGON!!!

I've made it without candy for two weeks!
OH MY WORD - has it ONLY been 2 [lousy, slow] weeks?!?

Let's see... February 22nd to March 7th...
Yes, it has.

Now I'm eating SALAD for lunch [since Starburst isn't an option anymore]. Imagine that!

This morning, Haylee rubbed it in my face informed me that she STILL has candy from Valentine's Day.

And from Christmas. AND from Halloween!

Now wasn't that cruel of her?

But, I guess the "bright side" to that fact is:
with the current tornado-aftermath-like conditions of her bedroom,
I'd never be able to find it!

It's the Day Before Ash Wednesday

Do you know what that means?

It means I better enjoy THESE today while I can! Tomorrow it's SAYONARA!!!

It all started a couple of days ago when Kyle was looking at a calendar and stumped me with a question.
"Mom, what's 'Ash Wednesday?'"
"It's...uhh....uhh...something that means...uhh...something." (Don't let my intelligence make you too jealous!) :)
"The calendar says 'Ash Wednesday' is on February 22nd, same as Washington's birthday, what's it for?"
"I...uhh...think it has a relation to...uhh...Palm Sunday...maybe? But, Ash Wednesday comes before that day. I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with...uhh...a religion? Like...uhh...the Catholics observe 'Ash Wednesday' for...uhh....something?
{silence}
(This is most likely the moments when my son was pondering [and marveling] on the remarkable wealth of information his Mom has!)
[In an effort to redeem myself] "Here. Let's Google it!"

Enter Wikipedia.

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday are burned.

This practice is celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.

-------

OK - so I DID have some pieces of info correct - in those random ideas floating around in this head of mine. And for the record, people of a different religion than myself probably don't know what Fast Sunday or Dry Council Sunday or Tithing Settlement meeting is either! :)

Then I started telling Kyle about what I've heard about Lent - and all the things that I've heard people give up during that time. I told him people try to give up one of their "vices" because it has to be kind of a challenge. If it were easy, then it wouldn't be hard. For example: wine, cigarettes, cheese, T.V., swearing, porn, fast cars, bread, loose women, meat, texting, coffee, tea, desserts, salt, sugar, drugs, Barbies, American Idol, blue eye shadow, etc., etc.

Then I started thinking of some people I know who don't even belong to one of the religions that practice Lent, but they still try to give up something. (I told Kyle about someone we both know who gave of making baked goods during Lent.) They figure it's a good time to jump start better habits. It simply gives them a start date to actually DO what they've been saying they NEED to do for so long. PLUS, if it's too miserable, it just lasts 40 days. :)

Then my brother walked into the room, and upon hearing what we were talking about, he added to our riveting conversation by saying he thought 'Ash Wednesday' was also related to Mardi Gras - that it happened either after of before the 40 days. (We're all real fuzzy on our facts around here!)

So, we referenced Wikipedia again.

Sure enough - a nickname for Mardi Gras is "Fat Tuesday." (Which would be TODAY!) It's your LAST CHANCE to indulge in your vices before the fast!

Just look at this education I'm getting off the www!

{Kyle sat there taking it all in. Thinking, I just wanted a simple answer!}

And then I started thinking some more....

What would be difficult for me to give up?

It wasn't difficult at all for me to come up with my answer.

C.A.N.D.Y.

It's all about the candy!

And that's how I got to where I'm at right now. There's no time like the present! Right?!?

I'm giving up candy for Lent.

***Now, not to be confused with giving up sugar - I didn't say that. I said candy.***

Giving up sugar completely would be suicide! I gotta have such things as my Teriyaki Chicken, Honey Nut Cheerios, & Pimento spread.....(because those are the only other types of things I eat that have sugar in them. Yep. Uh huh!!) wink ;) wink ;)

But still......It's 40 whole days.

AAAUUUUUGH!

It's gonna be ugly.

{I'll understand if you don't want to even come near me!}

But, what's my mantra again? "I CAN DO HARD THINGS."

{dang!}

Happy Fat Tuesday, Y'all!!