Put your Shoulder to the Wheel Push Along

We're going to be a Ma and Pa!  Yay :)  Ha did I fool you again?  Hopefully not.  Actually we're going to be a Ma and Pa for Trek, and boy are we excited.  

You're probably wondering why they picked such a young Ma and Pa.  Simple... I pretty much volunteered us.  You see being in the young women's presidency you get to talk with the Bishop a lot more than you normally would.  Well one day I had mentioned to Megan our YW president, before that I would love to be a Ma and Pa one day.  So while during a meeting our Bishop brought up the fact that the stake is doing Trek next year.  Megan quickly informed him that I would love to be a Ma and Pa and of course I couldn't deny the fact.  A couple weeks later wa la we were called to be the Ma and Pa from our ward. Wohoo! 

Now you're probably wondering why in the heck I wanted us to be a Ma and Pa so bad.  The answer to that takes me back to my trek experience.  I absolutely loved trek!  I loved the entire experience and I loved my Ma and Pa.  It probably helped the matter that I was a favorite trek child of theirs, haha.  Anyway, my entire trek experience made me want to be involved when I got older and I decided that being a Ma and Pa would be the best way to experience it again.  Boy do I hope I'm right.  However, you see Chase didn't enjoy his trek as much and I did, so it took just a little convincing on my part to make him believe he would love it too.  Luckily he wasn't hard to convince :)  What a sweetheart.  

So let's be honest I can't wait for Trek to come!  Obviously right, since I am doing a whole post about.  However I hope our stake starts being more fun, because if it's anything like our kick off fireside, I'm afraid it's going to be hard to get the kids wheels spinning so that they can make it fun experience.  No need to worry though because they'll have me as a Ma and Chase as a Pa and we're load's of fun as it is ;)  

This is me on trek.  My Pa was a germ-a-phob so I started a mud fight, chased him down and got him a little muddy.

Come July we will become a Ma and Pa to a handful of teenagers and I hope they love us.  I actually have a lot of expectations for trek and I hope I don't end up disappointing myself.  I tend to do that a lot.  All I can say though is that I truly hope that we will be able to help give our "kids" an enjoyable, spiritual and uplifting experience.  I really hope I'm as good of a Ma as mine was to me.  I guess the experience of it all will only tell.  So here's to reenacting what the pioneers did, to pushing and pulling handcarts, to feeling the spirit of our pioneer ancestors, to being on a spiritual high, to doing hard things, and to enjoying our journey along the way.  We will have a great time and it will be memorable enough that we are all going to be talking about it for years to come. :) So bring it on, we're ready to put our shoulder's to the wheel.

Oh and if anybody has any advice, we would love it :)

Asparagus

Do you like asparagus?  Because I do!

Growing up I wanted nothing to do with asparagus.  I had heard that it makes your pee stink so therefore I hated it and wouldn't eat it.  Once I got older and wiser I realized that asparagus is really yummy!  I think of it as kind of having a slight mint flavor.  Everybody has their own opinions though.  So you might think differently.  Well the reason why I'm bringing this vegetable up is because Chase and I tried a recipe the other day and it was to die for.  Not literally, but kind of.  The soup takes about an hour and a half to make so I was really happy to have Chase's help.  However a lot of the time is simmering :) so I'm sure I could do it on my own next time.  When Chase and I went to do a taste check, to make sure we didn't need to add anything else we about passed out.  Ok ok I exaggerated a little.  I tasted it first and immediately told him it was soooo good.  Chase then took a bite and I started thinking he thought I was crazy from the expression on his face, but I was wrong!  He said "oh my gosh this is the best soup I've ever had".  I then started giggling because it really was the best soup and I couldn't believe that we actually made it on our own stove top, from a recipe of course but still you can mess up a recipe.

So instead of reading about my new found fetish with this soup, I have provided it on the blog so you can try it yourself.  Here's the recipe, it's from the foodnetwork.com and has five stars, but we would give it 10 stars if we could ;)

This is our picture (not the food network's)

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

• 3 pounds fresh asparagus, rinsed
• 8 cups chicken stock
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup minced shallots
• 1 cup minced leeks, whites only, well rinsed
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan, garnish
• 
  

Directions

Trim the attractive top tips from the asparagus, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in length. Cut the woody stem ends from each spear and reserve. Cut the remaining tender stalks into 1/2-inch pieces.

In a medium pot, bring the stock to a boil. Add the tough woody stems, lower the heat and simmer to infuse with asparagus flavor, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and discard, reserving the stock.

Add the decorative tips to the stock and blanch until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Remove with a strainer andrefresh in an ice water bath. Drain on paper towels and reserve for the garnish. Reserve the stock.

In a medium stockpot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When foamy, add the shallots and leeks and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chopped asparagus stalks, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the reserved broth and simmer until the asparagus are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.

With a hand-immersion blender or in batches in a food processor, puree the soup until smooth. Adjust the seasoning, to taste. If serving right away, return to medium heat and add the cream and reserved asparagustips. Cook, stirring, until the soup is warmed through, about 3 minutes.

Alternatively, if serving the soup later, do not add the cream and let cool at room temperature (or in an ice water bath). Cover and refrigerate. Before serving, add the cream and asparagus tips, and warm the soup gently over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

To serve, place the soup in a soup tureen and sprinkle with cheese. Ladle into demi-tasse cups or small coffeeor tea cups, and serve.

Trust me you need to try this.  You wont regret it I promise.  If you do regret it, then I'm sorry that your taste buds don't like delicious-ness.  Anyway there's my little rave about the best soup Chase and I have ever had.  I hope you enjoy! :D

A Review About Porcelain Bowl's

This is a review about porcelain bowl's.

Image found at http://downestreamstudio.blogspot.com/

Haha got you this is not a review about the above type of porcelain bowl.  This review is about the following.

Can you imagine drinking from this kind of cup?  Yuck is all I can say!  However I can see this being a very popular Christmas present at the Larsen family get togethers ;)

So my real review starts like this.....  Have you ever thrown up in a public/work bathroom?  Well I am so lucky and got to experience that today.  It was AMAAAAZING!  Ok let's be honest, it sucked!  To the poor lady who had to listen to me puke I'm sorry.  I bet it was just as fun for you as it was for me ;)  Anyway it stinks because who wants to get down on that dirty public floor and lean over a dirty public toilet.  Not me, but I did anyway.  Maybe next time I'll just use the garbage can, ha.  So yeah throwing up is not fun, not even at your own house, and I hope you all don't have to puke into a public toilet any time soon :)

P.S. No, I'm not pregnant. I think I may have just given myself food poisoning.

Houston We Have a Problem

Let's jump all the way back to memorial day :)  We had a lot of fun!  My parents, grandma and sister Jamie were in Oklahoma visiting the Johnson's, so it was just Adam, Chase and I holding down the fort.  Chase and I made sure that Adam wasn't too bored since his memorial weekend plans fell through.  So we had steaks at grandma's house, went out to dinner one night and then on memorial day we went to the Salt Lake airport.  Airport number 2 that is.  We decided that since dad was out of town that it was a great opportunity to take dad's father's day picture.  

After taking pictures Adam took me up to go flying since I hadn't been flying in the plane yet.  I was nervous because I've never been in such a small plane before and I was thinking of the worst.  Of course I would be doing that.  Adam first started off with doing a touch and go and then we were really off on our flight.  We were headed up towards Herriman area and had just flown over Oquirrh Mnt. Temple and Herriman High School when Adam turned the plane around.  I didn't know what he was doing I was just along for the ride, taking pictures, watching the little house's go by, and thinking about how cool it was to see the area from a birds perspective, well sort of ;)  As Adam turned the plane around he calmly mentioned to me that the oil pressure was concerning him.  Oh boy all of the worst case scenarios started running through my head. Just get us safely on the ground, is what I kept saying to myself.  We got back to the airport safely but by the time we landed the oil pressure was around 5 (I think it is supposed to be around 20).  I'm so glad that Adam is a very intuitive and safe pilot.  It made me very happy to know that he takes things seriously and doesn't try to push the limits.  Come to find out it was just the gauge that was broken and the plane was working just fine, but better safe than sorry. :)

 Since our flight was cut short we ended up going to lunch and then wasted some time at Barnes and Noble before heading to the airport to pick up my mom and dad.  P.S. the whole day we had been driving the bugs.  It was so much fun.  I loved the noise of the engines, the looks from people seeing two bugs in a row, and the pure joy of a fun little car.  We had fun over the weekend and I'm glad that I got to spend it with my love and with Adam.   

Thanks for the fun boys I really enjoyed myself :)  Let's do it again!

A Little Late

This post is a little late, like 3 months late.  Anyway I wanted to introduce you to our newest member of the family.
Chase and I decided that it was time to get rid of my Alero and upgrade to a new car.  I've always wanted a Subaru, so low and behold that's what we ended up getting.  It was a really hard decision to make and by the end of our car searching we became pros at finding damage on cars.  Nothing was getting past us.  The process of searching and leaving annoyed or disappointed was getting very tiring and I was ending up really grumpy.  I never felt excited about the cars and never felt like it was the right decision.  So on to the next car we would go.  As soon as I saw our car and looked it over I finally told Chase that I was getting excited about it and feeling how I thought I should feel.

We ended up finding this 05 Subaru Legacy GT for sale at a small car dealership :/ which we weren't too excited about dealing with them, but decided to test drive it anyway.  Well that was a mistake, as soon we stepped on the gas and the turbo kicked in we were both sold.  We had to wipe the grins off of our faces when we got back to the dealership so they didn't know that we were too excited about it.
When looking at Subaru's Chase and I had different opinions on what we wanted, so I'm glad that we were able to get something that we both were able to agree on and be excited for.  The car is really fun and I love knowing that I'm in a safe car.  Chase is really jealous that I get to drive it and that he has to drive his Honda.  Luckily his car gets really good gas mileage with the amount of driving he does.  So one day when his car bites the dust he can get a new/used car of his own.
Oh I forgot to mention that when we sold my Alero I was really sad to see it go :(  That was my car my entire driving life until recently and I will say that I loved that car.  I'm a very lucky girl that my parents got me such a nice car for my first car, and I'm a very lucky girl that Chase likes Subaru's and was willing to get me one.
So here's to many many more years of driving my new car :D

My New Profession Cutting Hair, Well Maybe Not!

Well after 2 years I guess it was bound to happen.

Before Chase and I got married I convinced him to let me cut his hair.  I was pretty dang surprised at how well I did.  That first time I used scissors, I then learned that clippers were much quicker and easier.  So for the last 2 years I have been using clippers.  Well the reason why I'm telling all of you this is because tonight was the first time I've made a mistake :(  

As you can see from the picture above it was a bad mistake!

As soon as my clippers cut out the left hole I started laughing because I was so nervous about my mistake.  I wanted to give up right then and there and let Chase finish, but he wouldn't let me.  Instead he made me finish.  I now know that I can't blend the way I was trying to, oops. 

Let's just say that I won't be cutting hair for a living!  Oh and p.s. the other hole on the right at the bottom is a scar so I didn't do that one too, phew.  Who knows though I might have made it look worse too. 

So after we finished cleaning up Chase told me I had to take pictures and blog about it.  I'm so glad that he was laughing about it instead of being mad at me.  After telling him sorry a bunch of times, he decided to remind me that he has to sit in the front of his class tomorrow, and everyone is going to see it.  

So I think it's safe to say that the next time he says he needs a hair cut I'm going to pass.  I don't ever want to make that mistake again.  I just hope his hair will grow really fast.  Anybody know any tricks for that? 

Chase's little sister has been begging to cut Chase's hair, he said he would let her one day, but after today we will see if he does.  Sorry Carissa, maybe you'll have to wait to convince your husband ;)

Extra Extra Read All About It

I've got some news to share......  I have a calling in church :)  I am now the secretary of the Young Women.  Woot woot.  I'm so excited to be with the Young Women.  Ever since Chase and I got married I would always tell him I wanted to be in the Young Women's.  I wanted to go to camp, work on personal progress now that I'm older, ha, and hang out with the girls every Tuesday night.  That should keep me busy enough while Chase is busy busy with school right?  I've had a lot of callings that I've enjoyed and I'm so happy that I can add this one to the list.  So let the adventures begin.  


Also because this goes along with the theme of Young Women's watch this deep beauty movie.  It has a really good message to it and I love Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talks.   

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Last night we got to go to a bees game thanks to my work.  Now when I won these tickets to the game I'll be honest and say that I wasn't too thrilled.  However we decided that it would be a fun date night, even though were both not into baseball.  

To start off the night we headed to the bank.  We were both reluctant to change banks but decided that heading over to America First Credit Union was a good idea.  So yay for money and banks to keep it "safe."

We then headed up to beautiful Salt Lake City, even though where we were wasn't very beautiful, we could still see the mountains.  Can I just say how much I love Utah?  Our scenery is to die for.  I looove it!

Stole this from mom's blog bookofleakes.blogspot.com

Anywho after finding the stadium we decided we needed dinner because who wants to pay $6 for a hot dog?  Not us.  Haha we settled on Sonic because it was the first fast food restaurant that we found.  

Then to the game we went.  Thank you work for the awesome seats!  We were right above the bees dug out on the 8th row.  So we were pretty dang close.  Now for all of you baseball fans, where is the best seat?  I liked our seat because we could watch the whole field pretty well and we weren't looking through the net.  Now every time a foul ball happened all I could picture was getting hit in the head like Drew Barrymore on Fever Pitch.

Well because were not much of baseball fans we only lasted for six innings.  Which by the way took 2 hours to get to.  Even though we left early we still enjoyed our night and had fun doing something different than just watching a movie.

Pitcher in motion

Batter in motion 

We love date nights and I'm so happy that we had this opportunity :)

Bodyrock= Body Pain

Ok so awhile back Chase and I found this website.  So we decided to start one of the 30 day programs.  We even took before pictures, ha.  But we ended up pretty much failing and not finishing.  I had a half marathon to run the end of March so I didn't really put much effort into working out on top of my sparse running.  Well I am ashamed to say that I haven't done anything since March 31st.

March 31st: Right before the race started

So I am going to put this on here so you all have to hold us to our goal.  Chase and I plan to work out Monday-Friday and then do our fun activities on Saturday and rest on Sunday.

Which means I have to drag my tired lazy bum out of bed (well Chase has to drag me out of bed) every morning so that we can work out.  We started on Thursday and did two different workouts from the website.  Needless to say I haven't been able to use my core muscles at all the whole weekend.  My abs hurt so bad!  While in my pain I just have to keep reminding myself that pain is just weakness leaving the body.  Pretty much I'm hoping for some definition, or if a 6 pack wants to show up then I wont say no, haha.

P.S. I wanted to mention, we don't really like the way bodyrock girl looks now, but we like the way her workouts kick our butts.   It's nice to feel the burn and be out of breath :)

This is the goal.... Well kinda

And Chase's goal ;)

The Monkey's Having a Birthday

So today part of my family (not saying who, since anyone in the world could read this, and I don't want them knowing who's not home) left to go visit these three in Oklahoma.

Well I'm going to be honest and tell you I'm jealous! I really wish i could be there too and I wish I had all the money in the world to visit them anytime I wanted. It's tough living so far away and on a budget. 

The reason my family is in Ok is because they went out to be with this special little lady.

 Who IS TURNING 2!

I can't believe she is already two. It's crazy how time flies when you're having fun :) and Cadence is always having fun. She is one busy little girl. Just ask Tiff.

So with these three, soon to be four, living in Oklahoma we don't get to see each other very much. So I treasure every moment we get together. I've loved watching Cadence grow up and she knows how to steal our hearts.

So here's a few photo from her two years, and mind you that these are only the pics that Chase and I have.  I'm sure Tiffany, my mom and Jamie have plenty more.

She loves her babies :)

 When we were in OK for Thanksgiving, she loved to play mono (monkey) on the bed. Which was mostly on our air mattress. Needless to say it had to be blown back up often :)

We love you Cadence and Happy Birthday!


Ps. Just so you all know most of these pictures were taken by non other than yours truly, haha just kidding my talented hubby took them!