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!!!