TW and I left for the temple late last night but before we completely left we have to stop by and congratulate Dawn and PJ on their new son Maxwell Perry Turnbull!  I’m so happy for them!  Dawn and PJ were one of my first wedding couples so it was really exciting to watch them go through such a huge change in life!  And Maxwell is adorable by the way.  We drove through the night and arrive in Oklahoma City around 4am.  We stopped at a McDonalds parking lot to rest for a few hours, woke up at 6:30am and we were in the temple doing some work at 7:15am.  I realize that we drove a really long way just to work for 3 hours but it’s totally worth it, there truly isn’t a place on earth that I feel closer to heavenly father than right there.  My picture today was really fast, not super creative, and not too exciting to look at, but it served it’s purpose, which was showing me and my husband at the OKC Temple.

Enjoy!

-erika

I went on another run today and afterwards I was pretty hungry, as I am right now.  We are heading out to the Oklahoma City Temple tonight.  TW and I are pretty cheap so we just plan on driving up there and sleeping in our car until the temple opens and we can do some temple work.  Anyways back to my post……I wanted to look very manly in my post today about eating chips and guacamole and this is what I came up with.  If you haven’t tried these 100 calorie guacamole snack packs they are pretty good, not quite as good as Uncle Robert’s, but pretty good.  Anyways I took pictures of the best combo, which by the way I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to Ellie eating the bag of chips, so looks like I’ll have to go to the store for more chips before I can enjoy this snack again……  Bad Dog!!!!

Enjoy!

-erika

First you need to make sure you have a pathetic looking puppy who is very very dirty…..

Next be sure to have some treats handy so that you can reward her.  This makes it a delightful experience rather than something she’ll never want to do.  It helps if they are small and easy to chew.

Next you’ll need to make sure you’ve gotten your OLD towels before you give her a bath so they are handy and the experience goes by much more smoothly.  Make sure they are old, especially if you have a wife or you still live with your parents!!!!  Otherwise be prepared for one really super mad woman.  Don’t mess with the good towels……fair warning.

Another thing to make sure you have ready and in reach is the dog wash.  Please don’t use regular people shampoo for your dog, it really isn’t nice on their skin, it can be itchy for them.

Next try to avoid getting wet!  I told you she was a very very dirty dog!

Ellie just hates the whole bath part but as soon as I tell her to shake (it’s a huge help if you can teach them this!!!) and she knows she’s done…….here comes her favorite part!!!!  I got Ellie very used to a blow dryer at a young age so she just loves it!  It’s a big help in the drying process as well.

And your final product will be a very happy and excited CLEAN puppy!!!

Enjoy!

-erika

I’m not one to really go out and tell everyone that I’m religious.  In fact I usually avoid writing anything about it, since I feel it’s not really a good business plan.  But tonight I realized that this is truly something I do every night before I go to bed.  I have a calling in my church (and by calling I mean I have been asked to do this on a voluntary basis), to teach young adults.  I have a class in Huntsville that consists of 6 high schoolkids that are super amazing and come to their church building at 6:40am, when most other kids are still asleep, to early morning seminary.  Personally I think they are all amazing!  On the other hand if you know me and the hour of 6am you know those two don’t mix well.  Honestly though I wouldn’t change anything, it really is a great start to my day, especially when we have a good lesson and everyone is interacting.  This calling has been really helpful in helping me grow spiritually, which I think is just as important as mentally and physically.  I taught the New Testament last year and this year we’ve been studying the Book of Mormon, yep I’m “Mormon” or as they also say LDS (Latter Day Saints).  So with that said I’m pretty open about a whole lot of things so I want to make sure everyone that reads my blog knows that they can ask me any questions about my religion and I will do my best to answer or find an answer.  With that said this is my belief system so please respect my choices and don’t make any rude or unnecessary comments.  I hope everyone has a wonderful night!

Those flowers are from TW’s dad for Valentine’s Day……how sweet!  Thank you Tom!

PS> Just realized the PRAY sign behind me…..how ironic.

Enjoy!

-erika

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I looked outside and noticed a blizzard.  Now I’m really ready for some warmer weather around here, but I just can’t get over how beautiful the snow looks either!  I must admit the little kid in me has always loved the snow!!!  I wanted to capture the snow in my portrait today, and I did just that.  By the time I left for work at 8am the entire ground was covered in a light dusting of snow!  It was beautiful!

Dear Weather Woman…….please bring us some warmer weather…….. thank you.

PS> Aunt Janet……do I look 12 in this picture too?  :)

Enjoy!

-erika

I was playing fetch with Ellie outside when TW came out and rushed me to go to his mom’s house.  If you know TW you know he has very little patience……which is why this post is about his horse.  I was standing my the fence with Ellie and he said why don’t you just take one with my horse, so that I did.  This horse is a baby and she’s really fluffy right now too!  She’s super cute, but she’s also a pain in the butt.  Everyday when I let Ellie out of her cage, she always talks to me as if to say “hey I’m over here and there isn’t much grass so please feed me”  so usually I go and get her some feed and try to make friends.  One day I did this but that bucket was too far from the fence line for me to get the feed into so I ducked under the fence, on my way back under she tried to kick me!!!  What a punk.  I don’t feed her anymore.

Enjoy!

-erika

I was telling TW that all day I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of my self portrait post for the day as I sat down in his chair and folded my arms.  He looked at me and said why don’t you take that picture then?  I said what picture…..feeling uninspired?  Yep.  So this is exactly it folks, I feel totally unmotivated and uncreative right now.  I don’t want to clean my house, I am getting a cold, and I’ve been working like crazy.  But who cares, I’m happy, healthy, and enjoying my life.  So what I know I’ll have some days where I’m uncreative and that is ok, some people live their whole lives without a creative bone in their body and it doesn’t bother them any!  :)

Enjoy!

-erika

I write a lot about food I realize that, but then again I love food and I even have a degree in food and human nutrition so there ya go!  That’s like some legal pass for me to talk about food all the time, right?  :)  Anyways tonight I ate at Pesto Cafe with my parents.  I love that little place.  I ordered spaghetti, if you don’t already know this, I claim to love pasta but everytime we go and eat I always order spaghetti.  I just love it.  Anyways I was telling my mom that I loved eating angel hair spaghetti because it was “elegant”.  She burst out in laughter.  I explained that the spaghetti you eat at home is like normal and then when you go out and eat it (if it is angel hair pasta) then that makes it elegant.  Her response was “Well you could cook angel hair pasta at home right?”  I replied, “well yes I could, but then it would’t be as elegant would it?”   So I’m going to stick to my guns and say that angel hair = elegant.

Just a quick self portrait eating my pasta in the restaurant, sorry it’s a phone image.

Enjoy!

-erika