Busy Bee gets a new Mazda three

Just a half an hour before I was headed to work on Friday night, I received a call from my dad saying he had sold his car and needed to come up this weekend to buy my car from me.  Naturally I started to panic because I hadn't really been looking for a new car and now I needed to find one in a matter of 24 hours.  I went to work were I worked the night shift and during my break and down time I searched through THOUSANDS of cars on ksl and carmax only to find this beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

Black Mazda 3 Hatchback

After work (at 7:30am) I drove home, took a nap, cleaned out the basement, and Lance and I headed up to Woods Cross to test drive this beauty.  However, on the way we got a call from the salesmen telling us the mazda3 we wanted was already SOLD.  Lance and I drove around all of Woods Cross and Bountiful looking at car dealerships to see is something could live up to the expectation the mazda3 has already embedded itself into my mind.  As Lance drove I began to search ksl again except entered in "wagon" instead of hatchback... my search criteria only had 1 result...this beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

It might seem like deja vu, but we found ANOTHER mazda3 that was black and the same year except this one had LESS miles. We then rushed to West Valley to see if the mazda3 was as pretty in real life as it was made out to be on the internet.  We got to the dealership, jumped out of the Corolla and jumped into the Mazda.  I test drove it and was pleasantly surprised by its peppiness and loved the controls and interior.  When we pulled back into the parking lot I looked on the keys only to see a button that said "start."  With two little clicks the mazda which was once off, roared without anyone inside!!  REMOTE START!  I jumped (literally) and squealed and thought "oh mazda, you had me at start.  The idea of having remote start in my car is something I've wanted for a really long time.  Lance even looked into installing it in the Corolla that way I could heat up the car on those cold snowy days without having to run outside and stick my keys in the ignition.  

This mazda, well, it seemed like the perfect car for me.  We walked inside and began the grueling and tedious process of filling out the paper work and of course the waiting game that is associated with any dealership.  A few hours later, the keys were in my hand and I was ready to hit the roads.  

I'm super excited to be driving in style in my new cute little MAZDA 3. 

Sporty. <3

AUX input = wonderful.

In addition: 

I loved having my dad here for the day.  Because I was able to buy the Mazda, my dad was able to fly up last night, stay the night, and hang out until this afternoon when he had to return to Las Vegas.  What a pleasure it was to see him and catch up with him.  I love how the older I get the more and more I appreciate my parents and all that they do and have done for me.  They are both amazing individuals who I know love me tons and tons.  Since my dad works in construction, he was also able to help us a ton with figuring out the best way to remodel our basement.  We even spray painted the cement ground where Lance has to cut out and planned a lot of the material we needed to buy.  Someday soon we will post a few BEFORE pictures and soon after will hopefully have the AFTER pictures up. 

New New New

A lot of new things have happened since... well January. :) 

Basketball

Lance has been extremely busy with coaching the Jordan basketball team.  Each and every year the little freshmen and sophomores show up all shy and timid, and won't speak a word to me when I show up at games, but by the end of the season each and every one of them have some smart comment to make to me.  It seems a little tedious to show up at all basketball games (Every Wednesday and Friday for 3 months from 3-9pm!!), but this season I have enjoyed spending countless hours in the high school gym.  I even experienced something completely new- riding the school bus with a team of sweaty and smelly boys. Although this season wasn't the best winning wise, it was quite the treat to get to know these boys more and to watch them grow up.  Lance has even gotten closer to his players spending countless hours texting over their girl problems.  Let's just say we are both extremely happy to be out of the dating world and especially happy to be free from the high school drama that seems to important but is really quite trivial.

Some new TREATS I even learned to make this season and the boys were so EXCITED to see me walk into the gym carrying a pan.

 Reese's Brownie BITES
these have become Lance's new FAVORITE treat. 

Makes approx. 40 brownie bites
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
40 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped from the brown paper
 ***or if you are in a hurry and want things to be easier just make a brownie mix according to the box. Preheat oven to 350 and place in mini-cupcake pan (SPRAY PAN WELL) and cook for 15 minutes.  Pull out of oven and immediately insert the Reese's.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray mini cupcake pan with non stick spray.  In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, sugars and vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually add flour, cocoa, and salt and mix until combined.  Fill each cupcake slot slightly more than halfway but not more than 2/3 full.  Place a peanut butter cup in each slot pressing it down until it is almost level with the batter.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until done.  Allow the brownie bites to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the cupcake tin.  Enjoy!
*Notes: Be sure to remove brownie bites 5 minutes after coming out of the oven.  Otherwise they might cool and stick to the sides making it difficult to get out.  If baking these in a pan, your baking time will increase to 25-30 minutes.  You can be sure they are close to being done when you can smell them from your oven.

CAKE BALLS

 I stole this from my friend Brook Green (who makes delicious cake balls), but also from bakerella.com 
These take a little bit more time because you have to bake the cake and then ball and chocolate dip them individually, but they are SO GOOD it is definitely worth it. 

You can use any kind of cake mix and any kind of frosting, but here is the recipe for red velvet cake balls off of bakerella.com


Red Velvet Cake Balls
1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.


 ...back to basketball
Now that basketball season is over, its definitely weird to have my husband home for dinner and to spend a Friday night on a date rather than in a gym, but I am really grateful for the relationships and fun that comes from high school basketball.


RIVERTON HOSPITAL

 

So I have been searching for another job for the last couple of months and haven't been too successful in finding anything.  I've applied for countless positions with Intermountain for over a YEAR and a HALF, and finally 3 weeks ago I received a call to come in for an interview for a position in the medical/surgical unit of Riverton Hospital.  I was so happy, but really didn't think I would get the job since there was probably tons of other people more qualified than me. For the interview we had to give a 5 minute presentation on How Riverton Hospital could be the best hospital in Utah and how my presence there would help achieve this goal.  Now that's a pretty loaded statement and I didn't quite know how to answer it until I began researching the IHC website and seeing what Intermountain was all about.  After my interview I waited 8 days before receiving my phone call telling me I had been OFFERED the position!  This week was my first week working FULL-TIME, 12 hour shifts as a Patient Care Tech at Riverton.  It's been quite the adjustment trying to get used to working so many hours in one day, but the perks of FULL benefits and only working 3 days a week definitely offsets the long days.  This Friday I will work my very first night shift of 7pm to 7:30am. Hopefully I can stay awake!!

 

BASEMENT

Over the last couple of months we have been getting plans together to remodel our basement, and now the time has finally come to begin working.  This past weekend lance and I went downstairs with hammers and gloves and teared out all the existing drywall and broke down some of the things that had been left from the previous owners.  It was a lot of manual labor, but actually a lot of fun.  We are now just waiting on the plumbing to get all situated and it should be up and livable in no time... we hope!!!

Sledding

While Lance and I typically spent our winter inside away from the snow as shown, this random February day we decided to mix it up a little bit. As we were driving to the grocery store we drove past an elementary school off of Wasatch and saw tons and tons of people sledding!  We quickly bought our groceries and returned home to get our gear to go sledding. 

I haven't personally been sledding in years, and I had SO much fun.  Lance and I went down the hill probably over twenty times and sometimes would crash into one another flip over.  

 Lets just say I love Sledding!!