Last Dinner Group

For the past year or so, Geoff and I have been in a dinner group with 2 other couples. All six of us met in the same singles ward and we were all friends before we all got married. We all went to each other's weddings and have been a great support system to each other. It has been so fun to get together once a month at each other's houses and eat dinner and play games. We will miss these four greatly when we move but plan on lots of visits down in Texas from them!

Deliciously Delicious!

I normally would post this on my recipe blog but this is just too good not to share on here! So yummy and healthy but also a great bread to make to give away for the holidays. I made 2 loaves to give away to two couples we are having over for a dinner group/christmas party tonight. Yum!

Spiced Applesauce bread (makes 2 loaves)

2 1/2 cups of applesauce

2 cups splenda

1 cup brown sugar splenda

2 eggs & 2 additional egg whites

6 TBSP skim milk

4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix all ingredients except for flour until a nice creamy texture. Add flour & stir until all mixed. Sprinkle brown sugar splenda on top. Bake @ 350 for about 45-50 minutes or until knife comes out clean. So delicious and nutritious!

cabin weekend

We had the best time this weekend at Kellee's cabin near Park City. We did a lot of shopping, went to dinner, watched movies and played fun games. These two are probably our closest couple we hang out with & Zak is by far Geoff's best friend (besides me of course) and we are going to miss them SO much. I think we like vacationing with these two so much that we are going to make it a tradition! Here's to great friends & great weekends!

Looking forward

I am having some anxiety about leaving all that we love about Logan behind as we soon approach moving (2 1/2 weeks!). I love it here. I really do. Yes, I am a complete wuss when it comes to winter time. I hate the snow/cold/ice. But there is so much about it here I love and adore. It is crazy to think I have lived in Logan for the past 7 years (on and off). Logan really is a quaint, beautiful little town. I met and fell in love with Geoff here. Our first kiss was on Old Main hill. I recieved a top notch education here. I made my best friends here. I will miss the small town rodeos in the summer time. I will miss the springtime in Logan. It is so nice when the snow all melts and it is just so lush and green here. It is breath-taking. More than anything I will miss the 29 clients that I have grown a deep love for. That will be hard to leave behind.

With all that said, I am so excited to start a new chapter in our lives. Houston is a great, enormousness city with so much to offer to Geoff and I. The city is rich in culture, museums, art and music. I am so excited for all the missionary opportunities that will come our way. I am so excited to be near my sweet niece and my niece that will be born in early January. I am looking forward to being actual adults with real jobs that require our degrees. I am SO excited to be near the ocean and beach. Nothing comes close to camping on the beach and waking up to the sunrise over the ocean.

While I will miss Logan dearly, I feel like it is the right thing to move to Houston. I am so thankful for all that I have experienced here and be even more thankful for the blessings that are to come.

The Perfect Weekend.

Going here for dinner:

and eating this:

and then watching this:

The rest of the weekend we will be spending with these 2 awesome people, Zak & Kellee at a quaint cabin, shopping in Park City, playing games and watching movies.

Life does NOT get much better than this (:

Hope everyone has a great of a weekend that we will be having!

Deal of the WEEK!

Yessss.... this just in... Cami got this for Christmas for a whopping $19 plus shipping!!

Style Secrets

I love to shop. Not only that, but I have really expensive taste. I can't help but love pretty things. And sparkly things! Unfortunately with Geoff and I being full time students, that leaves us with very little moo-la to spend! So I have found some really interesting ways to still buy nice clothes without spending so much money.

Just recently I have been emailed twice to blog about where I shop for clothes, how I find such good deals and such. So here is a quick run-down of how I find cool stuff. I sign up on email mailing lists for just about every place I shop from. I get all these emails from them at least every other day it seems. In those emails are promo codes and I save them. Sometimes it will be a free shipping code, a 25% off code, a $5 towards your total order code or whatever. A lot of places will allow you to combine these promo codes which can make things incredibly inexpensive. For example, I got that JCREW dress for just $36 dollars (originally $200) because I waited and waited for it to be on sale and saved all my emails from jcrew. Patience is a virtue. Also, I love LOVE LOVE shabby apple dresses but they are pretty expensive. I got my latest dress from there for only $32 compared to the original price of $98. It pays to sign up for all those obnoxious emails that take up space in your inbox-- trust me!

Someone else also wanted to know where I got these headbands from

I ordered them from this sweet little boutique from back East somewhere called Andrea's Beau. They are actually on the more expensive side (for a headband) but they are such good quality and very unique that I couldn't help buying it!
Anyways, hope that answered a few questions and can help everyone find some good deals on some cute clothes!

Holiday Photo Shoot

Here is a preview of our holiday pictures for 2009. No worries, this is not the one we will be putting in our card so it will be a surprise (: I got the idea of this picture from my good friend Sara & I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Starting the day off right

Besides reading scriptures and saying your morning prayers, one of the most important things you can do is get a healthy breakfast to start the day off right! Just a couple of days ago, there was a segment on the today show about how type 2 diabetes is no longer referred to as "adult onset diabetes" because so many children are being diagnosed with it now. Reason why? They are obese. This makes me so sad that so many people in our country are careless when it comes to taking care of their bodies and also educating their children about how our bodies are a gift. We must set the example of how to do this by eating right and getting regular exercise. I could go on and on about this (as you can probably tell)but it is something I am so passionate about because I have lived both lifestyles. And the sweets and junk food are just NOT worth it!

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, tastes as good as being healthy feels. Nothing!

I have added quite a few recipes to my healthy living blog and some good tips that I have learned the past few years to enhance a healthy life-style. So if you wanna know more, go check out my healthy living blog

An amazing painting

Please go to this website to see this amazing painting about being "one nation under God". It will touch your heart. Scroll over each person to see the significance that person has had on our country. I especially liked how the painting shows certain types of people who are disregarding our inspired constitution. Makes me proud to be an American!

Click here to see it

How could I NOT be happy?

I am truly blessed.

I may not have everything perfect
but i have a family that loves me,
a husband who rubs my feet at night & does the dishes every. single. day.
friends who make me laugh,
a testimony which has saved me many many times,
an education that fufills me,
a hope that lifts me,
a tiny, yet very cozy home,
dreams that uplift me,
a job that warms my heart,
a bed to keep me warm at night
and a crisp diet coke that quenches my thirst,
and I get to look at this view each day as I drive to work.

So the way I see it...

Life is good.

Much needed day off

Today was supposed to be another normal day. But it turned out to be a really hard one. The fertility medications we have been taking did not work this month. I was 2 1/2 weeks late so we were really starting to get excited. Then the dreaded monthly visitor came.

Today, I am thankful for my Boss. She saw I was in distress, gave me a hug and she sent me home immediately to take care of myself. Geoff's mentor teacher did the same thing. So today we cried together, we watched a lame chick flick together, and we are just taking care of each other. I am actually thankful for crummy days like these. They always make tomorrow a better and brighter day.

A reason to my insanity.

I put up my Christmas tree & decor today.

And yes I realize what day it is. I did it for 2 simple reasons.

1. I love Christmas more than anything in this world.

2. We are moving at the beginning of December and I wanted a chance to enjoy my Christmas decorations.

So there ya have it!

New blog

So I started the new blog about healthy living which I am very very passionate about. I am deeply concerned about our nation and how little we care for our health despite the rise in obesity and weight-related diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. I am not a size 2 but I am very healthy and want to share my story with others and help others who may be trying to change but do not know where to start.

I am not too big on how the blog looks right now, but I will be making changes to that shortly. I mostly wanted to share some of the things I have learned over the years as I made a huge life-style change that may help others who are trying to do the same thing. I am including lots of recipes, and lots of tips on weight loss. I would love feedback or even anything to add to the blog as it is obviously new and a work in progress! I am going to try and post a few recipes each week, I already have up a few right now so please take a look and let me know what you think!

This blog is NOT about how to get skinny... it's about living a healthy life and how to be the best you! (Sounds, so Oprah, I know).

www.healthylivingbycami.blogspot.com

Addicted to dresses

Ordered this dress for my Christmas dress. (Again very cheap because I save up on all those promo codes-- I swear it's the best way to online shop!)

Addicted to Dresses? Yes, yes I am. Don't judge me! At least I get super good deals on all of them.. (and I am talking about dresses that normally range from $75-200 for like $15-30). Online shopping is the best!

**Major Sidenote--- I am thinking of starting a blog on healthy cooking and some of the recipe alterations I have done to make them low-cal. Whadaythink?

A day in the life of Geoff Brown...

I was out with a good friend today and she was asking me how Geoff was doing and we ended up talking about how I never ever see him and she looked kind of puzzles as to why so I quickly explained his daily schedule (see below)

3:30 AM (yes you're reading that right) ALARM GOES OFF
4:00AM-8:00 AM-- AT WORK
8:30AM-3:30PM--- AT PRACTICUM IN AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASS
4:00-7:00--- NIGHT CLASS
7:15-8:15--- WORKS OUT AT THE GYM
8:30-9:30--- HOMEWORK
10:00--- BED TIME

After saying it out loud I was kind of taken back just how crazy amazing my husband is. He literally get no time to just relax, like ever! Even though I work full time and go to school full time, having 2 of my classes be online certainly lightens my load!

One of my very first impressions of Geoff was how hard of a worker he is. Back in our single days we lived in the same apartment complex. Well sort of. He lived in a basement of a house right next to our apartment complex. Make sense?

Well, each summer all the residents in our complex had to move to a different complex so we could make room for the senior citizens who come from AZ to get away from the super hot summers down there. All the apartments were included in this move, except for Geoff's. So you can imagine the chaos of about 40 plus apartments all moving at the same time. Did Geoff hibernate in his apartment after working a 12 hour construction day? Certainly not. He was out helping all the other apartments lift, carry, pull and clean their apartments. At the time we were "just friends" and really had no romantic feelings for each other. But I vividly and distinctly remember how amazed I was at not only his incredible work ethic, but also his concern for other's.

I really did marry up. And I am okay with that. It gives me something to work for each day to be half as good as Geoff. Super cheezy, I know. But it's the cheese that keeps the spice in marriage, right? (:

Guilty Pleasure

Let's be honest, working full time and going to school full time leave you with very little time to watch TV. But I will admit, I make time each week for two shows and shows only. Usually having to watch them on hulu.com but I still find time to see them. First is of course the office and second (and I am scared to admit it) is the show GLEE! Does anyone else out there LOVE this show? I know it's over the top, but I live for the musical numbers. Maybe it's the choir/theater nerd in me that loves it, I don't know but I look forward to it each week. Check out this awesome song from the show! The video quality isn't very good but you get the idea.

And on a side note, just out of curiosity, has anyone ever seen Mariah Carey on TV with more than just a short dress on? Just wondering...

Motivation to keep on keepin on!

Recently I have started a new thing that has been pretty successful in losing that last 20-30 lbs I have been wanting to lose since I lost about 75 lbs 4 1/2 years ago... I cut out ALL sugar, starch and most carbs. I eat lots and lots of vegetables, lean protein (lots of grilled chicken, fish and even very very lean 96/4 ground beef ) and lower sugar fruits and eat around 1100 calories a day, and exercise every single day minus Sunday and guess what?! It's been working! I have lost 10 lbs already! My motivation to keep this up is that when I reach my goal weight, I am getting this custom made dress for me... either in the color shown or in a dark chocolate brown. I am so excited that finally after tons and tons of working out and eating healthy I have found what my body is asking for!! I am not going to lie-- it is TOUGH!! The first couple of days I wanted to die from having no bread and stuff like that, but now I am used to it and I love getting on the scale to see my success! I plan on keeping it up through the holidays even, I will relax a little-- not a lot-- on Thanksgiving but I will be sure to go running for a long time that morning! Keep your fingers crossed that I keep getting great results from this! I love hearing about what is working for others so tell me what has been working for you to live a healthier life!

Picture ideas in Logan, Utah

Okay all you Logan-ites (if that's what you are even called)...

I am trying to get ideas for our Holiday Photo for our greeting card this year and I need some good locations to take outdoor pictures. We need to take them soon as we are moving in just SIX weeks (crazy, i know!)

I appreciate ANY help for those of you who have taken awesome family photos here in Logan!