Pictures to go along with posts

lovely breadmaker

Flour Line up

Aggie game!

So here are the photos as promised. And the adapter that we got works great! So much easier then trying to use the tweezers to get it in and out of the computer!
And I made another loaf of bread that seems to be holding together much better then the last one! It's pretty tasty too and makes great toast! Really, that's all you need in bread right?

Crumbly Bread

I don't know if it's the fact that I'm hungry and don't know what sounds good, or if I'm just irritated at the people stomping around upstairs, but I'm dwelling a bit on the sucky parts of Celiacs.

So sucky part numbero uno: snack time. In my non gluten free days, no big deal. Grab some cheese and crackers, grab some toast, grab a quick PB&J. No crackers for me though and my bread is frozen so i'm being a bit lazy about toasting it - and it is crumbly...that needs to be fixed. And then the PB&J like i just said, crumbly bread! Don't get me wrong that bread is mighty tasty! But for whatever reason it does not want to stay together! I will try it again though, I WILL find a good gluten free bread to make a sandwich with! So my snack options with what I've got in the cupboard is rice cakes. While I love rice cakes, I think the taste and texture are great! But if any of you have ever had a rice cake you know it is not a high satiety food (doesn't get you full). Seriously I could eat like 6 rice cakes in one sitting! Luckily I just remembered my cheese sticks in the fridge! That will help! Thanks cheese. 

So sucky part numbero dos: lunch time. So today we decided to take the easy way out and get Jimmy Johns for dinner - they have a great unwich (no bread wrapped in lettuce). Then I am sitting here watching The Voice and thinking "well crap, what am I going to eat for lunch tomorrow?" It's not like I can just get something from the cafeteria at work because I'm never sure what they are having and I don't know what goes in it. And I can't just make a sandwich, back to my crumbly bread. So now I am making a piece of chicken for lunch tomorrow. 

Being Gluten Free just takes so much planning sometimes. While still in the transition getting used to things phase I am missing being able to just grab simple things sometimes. Most gluten free things are not simple. Thanks for letting me have a little vent session. I can do this. 

I know I can! One day at a time.   

Aggie Football and Gluten Free Bread

 I am trying to be a better blogger. As you can see I am not any good at it! Really I'm not doing it to get a ton of readers, obviously.  Mostly it's just a nice outlet. Putting my feelings and such in writing.
So I took pictures of my new gluten free flour line up and my lovely bread maker but they are on Brady's camera and his camera card doesn't fit into the slot on the computer so we have to buy an adapter. So there are pictures coming, I promise!
This weekend was great! A little exhausting but great! Friday we had a nice quiet evening complete with pizza! I had a pizza craving, which can be a little tricky with the gluten free life style. But, alas, Domino's has a gluten free crust! So we decided to try it out. Unfortunately, it only comes in a small so we had to buy two pizzas. I will tell you though, the crust is tasty!! Thin, but tasty! Good thing I don't mind thin crust pizza. It was delicious. Hit the spot!
So Saturday morning we went to Ogden to get Brady some new retro Air Jordan's we were first in line and Brady got the only pair in his size! Score! Christmas for Brady-done! (pictures of the beloved shoes to come)
Then it was Aggie football time!!  It was such a beautiful day for a football game! I am not a huge football fan but I am always up for a good Aggie game! Maybe if it was freezing I would stay home and watch it from the coziness of my couch but it was such a nice day! And even better the Aggies won!!! 38-7. GO AGGIES! There was an Aggie basketball game that night but we were both exhausted!!! So we stayed in and watched Avengers. (pictures of the game also to come)
So now for the gluten free successes from this weekend! First and I would think most important-a good loaf of Gluten Free bread! Which if you ask me is kind of hard to come by. But thanks to my go to gluten free blog (glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com) I found a great recipe - it's the one for multi-grain sandwich bread if you're wondering. But it was surprisingly light for gluten free bread and it has cornmeal in it which I think helps with the tastiness!
The second success- Pancakes! The other night breakfast for dinner sounded great! I figured "oh I can just use the all purpose gluten free flour for it" I was dead wrong! they were crepe-thin and didn't taste so great. So we just had bacon eggs and toast instead. So I was determined to find a good recipe, an what did I find? A recipe for Buckwheat pancakes! Super simple but pretty tasty! The batter looks like you have dirt in it-because the flour is dark. Tasted like whole wheat pancakes pretty much if you're interested in the recipe let me know.
The third success- Breadcrumbs! I forgot when i made my first loaf of bread that it keeps best in the freezer so it went dry pretty fast. So I dried the rest of it out and planned to make bread crumbs, then I wondered how I was going to do it without a food processor. But low and behold my blender came to the rescue! I plan on using those crumbs tonight!
My next endeavor-pumpkin cookies!
Until next time

Gluten Free....again

So those of you who know me know that a few years ago, with a positive blood test, I was diagnosed with Celiacs Disease. My mom knows that this was not an easy diagnosis. We went to the grocery store to see what I could eat now that was gluten free. My first thought was "I can't eat anything!" What was I going to do!!?? No bread, no pasta, gluten, my dear friends, is in A LOT of stuff. Well needless to say there were tears involved and I felt so overwhelmed. My mom and I went home and started researching. Luckily I found an amazing blog! Gluten Free Goddess glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com. Her blog was a life saver! Tips, tricks, recipes she's got it all! So we made a plan, we bought all the flours, and we even bought me a brand new bread maker. Well for those who don't know the diagnosis of Celiacs isn't "official" until you've had a biopsy done of your intestines. Well I was eating gluten free and feeling better so I decided I didn't need a biopsy because not eating gluten was obviously doing something good for me.
Well after a few months of being Gluten free I can't remember what events exactly led up to me getting an Endoscopy but I was scheduled to have one so we figured what the heck while you're in there let's do a biopsy! So they did it and it came back negative! Great I don't have celiacs! Bring on the bread, donuts, and Kneader's french toast!! WOO HOO!
All was well until a few weeks ago. I was not feeling well.. at all. So while at my in-laws house I was texting my mom and she suggested trying to avoid some gluten to see if it would help. So I thought great I'll give it a go, it wasn't so hard last time. Then I looked in my mother in law's pantry and staring me in the face from every corner - Gluten. And my dear sweet husband reminded me, "last time you prepared for it."
We got back from Payson and I thought "sweet let's do this!"
I was ready... I thought. Then I remembered, now i cook for two, did I really want to start making two meals, and buying two sets of groceries. So again my dear sweet husband said "I don't need gluten" I don't think at that moment he realized what a huge adjustment it is to go gluten free. So we started here and there to try to cut it out. I was frustrated and discouraged. I was thinking ya know what maybe this gluten free thing isn't going to work out, I'll just live with a stomach ache. Then again in talking to my husband he reminded me that my health is important! And he wants me to feel good! So I started planning again. And then I remembered "Gluten free stuff is so expensive!" So I had a discouraged, defeated moment again. I called my mom and shed a few tears "how did we do this before?" And then she reminded me to start planning and take it one day at a time.  And it takes some adjusting. My mom was even kind enough to bring me my bread maker and supply me with some flours to start out with.
This has been overwhelming, again. But I am so grateful to have family that supports me. Especially a husband that is willing to go gluten free with me! So this is it, Kailey is Gluten free.... for good.

Vegas tomorrow.... why not?

So Thursday night Brady and I were decided what day we wanted to go to St. George for our anniversary. Brady got the great idea.. why don't we go to vegas instead? It's only 2 hours away and the shopping is like a million times better! So we hopped on kayak.com and found a great deal on a hotel room for the night!! So we woke up the next day got ready and away we went! :) 

Drivin to Vegas .. and it just kept getting hotter... and hotter! 

What is that you ask? Are we next to the pool fully clothed? why yes, yes we are! We had to check out our hotel then we went shopping! Little did we know the pool was closed at 7:30 when we went back to actually swim! dang happy hour and live entertainment! (no one knew who the entertainer was) But we watched  for a bit then hit the strip!

In front of the Venetian ...and guess how much those waters cost? 3.50 ... EACH! ... wait just kidding those ones didn't because we got them at Walgreen's, the smaller 20 oz. bottles at our hotel were 3.50! They were robbing us blind! Because with that heat and the length of the strip you HAVE to drink water .. and the fact we shopped for like 3 hours before .. holy walking! 

I will tell you what this Mickey d's was like manna from heaven! SOO hungry we needed this!

Don't quite know how we don't look DEAD in this photo because we were!! We walked almost the entire strip and we were BEAT! we didn't make it much farther than the Bellagio! My personal feelings of the strip? Overrated.

Have any of you lovely people watched Pawn Stars? Well Brady and I enjoy watching it, and this my friends is the pawn shop. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the guys on the show but we did see some of the items that they've bought on the show and Brady got a sweet Chumlee is my homeboy shirt. 

Well that's it, our spontaneous trip to Vegas. And my advice to you: 

1. Don't go to Vegas in the middle of the summer .. it's freaking hot! 

2. Don't try to squeeze it all into a slightly longer than 24 hr period... way too much stuff and then when you get home and try to relax you see Vegas lights every time you close your eyes as your brain tries to process it all. 

3. Go to the pool, it feels nice

4. If you're not a fan of booze, smoke, and porn don't walk the whole strip, go to a few iconic places and peace outta there! 

until next time

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

Look how pretty!! :) 

So first of all yesterday was the first day I rode my bike to work. The way to work was a piece of cake! It is pretty much all down hill, which means the way home is uphill. And it's not like a huge hill to climb just a gradual incline for 2.65 miles..... oh boy. So needless to say the ride home about killed me! I had to make a couple rest stops to drink some water and rest my legs. Then I finally couldn't take it anymore and stopped and waited for Brady to come get me. When he pulled up he had these lovely flowers with him :) I was ready to pass out but I love them and was so excited to see them! What a great hubby! 

I can't believe it has already been one year and at the same time I can't believe it's only been a year. A little hard to think of my life without Brady, simply because life is so much better with him! I definitely scored big when it came to picking husbands! :) He is so good to me and loves me so much! I am so grateful for him I love him SO MUCH and can't wait to spend many more years together. 

praying that this bike riding doesn't kill me! until next time. 

peace

Weekend Festivities

There they are! 2 of the 3 amigos! The top one at the fence had just got done growling at me and turned his head so I couldn't capture the full effect of his viciousness. But there they are as promised.
So we did it, we made it through our first full week in Cedar City! And all is well. We had a pretty good 3 day weekend but nothing too exciting. Just your usual grocery shopping and running errands. I ended up working a bit on Friday since Thursday I was sick and stayed home so Brady did a little golfing. I should have sent him with the camera. I decided that this blog is going to be a good way to get me to take more pictures. I've done that but now I need to take more pictures with Brady and me in them!
So as per our usual Friday was date night! We went to a nice little Mexican restaurant called Lupita's! It was pretty tasty! I would recommend it. The service, however, was not great. I actually think we got better service after Brady talked to the waitress in Spanish. But still tasty food if you're in Cedar City and want some Mexican deliciousness.
Saturday we picked up my bike from the bike shop! I now have a fully functional bike! I am pretty excited about it was going to take a picture but that was a fail. Now I can ride my bike to work and Brady can take the car, hopefully that will save us a bit on gas!

My baking adventure this weekend: Lemon Crinkle Cookies! YUMMMM They are very tasty! They are great if you want something sweet but aren't really in the mood for something chocolatey or carmely. They are really tasty right off the pan and if anyone wants the recipe I will gladly share! Or it's on my pinterest board.

So our Sunday, it was a good day. I'm not really sure where to start with my Sunday story. So I woke up and started some ribs in the crock pot which turned out so super tasty if someone wants that recipe as well :) again it's on pinterest. Ours were spicy too so if you like a little kick I would HIGHLY recommend them to you and tell you that we used Siracha Hot Chili Sauce for the chili sauce in the recipe and I added a little more ketchup and brown sugar to tame it a bit. :) But after church I grabbed some potatoes to peel and was SHOCKED at how tiny they were!! We usually don't buy potatoes at the store, we get them from my dad who gets them from Craig Larsen (a farmer in Burley) and I am used to them being this size:

Now THAT, my dear friends, is an Idaho potato!! But even without a bread loaf sized potato our lunch was delicious. :)
So last night I had a horrible dream that Brady and I were dating again and he decided he didn't want to get married and wanted to break up and it turned into a screaming fight. When I woke up I felt horrible! I was upset and sad and it was just not good. So I started unwrapping the ribs to get them in the crockpot and decided I needed to listen to something to get me out of this mood. So I grabbed Brady's ipod and turned on a conference talk. Nothing specific I was looking for, I just wanted to listen to the prophet's voice. It's amazing to me how doing that has such a calming effect on me. I am so grateful to have a prophet on the earth today and have the technology that I can listen to him speak whenever I want to, or need to.
So this lead to us going to church. Today in church we got sustained and set apart as Primary teachers.... oh boy get ready for an adventure. We're actually very excited for this calling! I will be sure to post any fun candid moments we have in class with them :) It will be the 5/6 year old kiddos. Hopefully it is a great experience!
So right before we were about to go into the bishop's office to get set apart we got cornered by brother Goodman. And guess what he asked? That's right.... he asked if we would speak in church. Of course we said yes, but immediately even before the words came out of his mouth my stomach started to knot up and my heart started pounding. I hate public speaking, hate it. Especially public speaking about something so close to my heart as the gospel. So needless to say I will be worrying about it until July 8th when I sit down from sharing what I have to say with the ward. I know it will give me a chance to grow and learn, but still... I have escaped speaking in church my whole adult life!! This should be interesting. Pray for me.
until next time.

Waffle Sandwiches


We'll get to the title in a minute. First of all, I'm getting a little bit hysterical today from getting up so early! No so funny things are suddenly hilarious, that's how I know. I will know I'm SUPER tired when Brady tries to scare me and it makes me start crying ( i know this because it has happened before - that's right i was so tired Brady was teasing and scared me and i started crying and before this happened i could not stop laughing long enough to read scriptures). Anyhow getting up early is going to take some time to get used to. Let's all pray my bike isn't a fortune to fix and that can get done this weekend so Brady can just take the car and I can sleep in a bit longer :) I will miss all the nature driving out there though we always see cows and usually at least one antelope and this morning we saw a fox and I saw deer on the way back home! That's a lot of neature :) "wow, that's pretty neat"
On a bit more serious note, for any of my ER friends at Utah Valley that read this I hope you are all doing well with the loss of Dr. Hooker. Reading all the posts about it makes me sad I'm not there and really makes me miss you guys! I LOVED the ER there and I think you guys are the greatest.
I am hoping that I have something a little more exciting to post after our first weekend in Cedar City! But my exciting note of today is that we made waffle sandwiches for dinner! YUM!! eggs, sausage, and bacon sandwiched between waffles with a little drizzle of syrup! (ok so 2 types of meat was maybe a little much but it was tasty!) I welcome you all to try this deliciousness. And guess what is on Monday? Our 1 year anniversary!! Can you believe Brady and I have been married for almost a year, I can't either :) It has gone by so fast and has been such a great year! I love Brady so much and I am so glad to have spent the last year with him, best year of my life ... so far :)
quote to end on "Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, 'I will try again tomorrow'" - thanks Hailey for posting that on facebook it was uplifting :)

 5 AM

5 AM is so early!! But I think that is going to be our routine from now on. That's when we got up this morning to get Brady to work then I came home and got ready and had to drive to St George for my first day at work. I am so glad that I don't have to make that drive everyday, it seems a lot longer then it really is! But work was great! I am so glad I could work it out to work down here. Thanks to Eric Allen my awesome boss in Logan (there Eric I mentioned you). But really it's a huge blessing! I'd go CRAZY if I wasn't working this summer. I would have to take up something like indoor scuba diving or something (thanks for the suggestion meg) :)
Now I am home from work and I am beat! Brady and I are going to be so dead on workdays!! But we both have 3 day weekends WOO HOO! pretty awesome if you ask me!
Well I don't have much else to talk about today and I haven't been able to snap a picture of the 3 amigos dogs next door yet so I guess that's all today.
here's a quote to end with " Another thing I would do is invade a neighboring country, and force my own ideology on them, even if they didn't want it." -King Julien

We're HERE!

So after a VERY long drive (ok so it was like 6 hours but still) We made it to our summer home! The picture is the view from our back porch and there is a GREAT walking trail along there! I love our new apartment! It's twice the size of our apartment in Logan and we have AC and a dishwasher! We are so spoiled! And we don't have near enough stuff to fill this apartment! But we have 2 empty rooms if anyone wants to visit :) We are all unpacked and settled in! The people that live next door have 3 little boston terriers that like to act real tough and growl at us, I like to call them the three amigos! There are so many dogs up here! I want one!! Too bad we can't take one back to Logan with us! I will be sure to post a picture of the 3 amigos next door though :)

So after a 2 hour drive, coming home to re-evaluate our route, then trying again we finally found American Pacific where Brady is going to work! Good thing we found it yesterday so he wouldn't be late today! Here he is before heading out for his first day of work! and now I'm home, bored, starting a blog! :) I start tomorrow!

Cedar City Adventure
So I did it, I decided to join the blogging world. Not real sure how it will work out but I'll give it a go anyway. Most of the reason I decided to start a blog is because we're on an adventure this summer and we're a bit farther away from family then we have been since we got married.

So Brady has to do an internship for his major at Utah State. He applied for a few and none of them were working out, the end of the semester was getting close and we were thinking that we would just stay in Logan for the summer and work and try for an internship next summer. Brady got a job at a call center and had a job offer for a youth center in Logan. As soon as all this was getting set up Brady got a call from American Pacific in Cedar City to do an internship for the summer. We decided let's go for it! A couple days later he called AmPac to accept and they told him they needed to think about it for a couple days! What a let down, we were getting so excited for this opportunity and trying to get everything worked out and then it came to a halt! So we went back to thinking we would just stay in Logan for the summer. Then about four days later Brady got a call for another job interview and got a call from AmPac saying the internship was a go!! And they wanted him to start in a week! So we went for it. I found an apartment online that was willing to let us rent for just the summer, I talked to my bosses at work and they got me set up to work in Cedar City for the summer, and we rented a Uhaul. The week before moving was crazy, but it made me realize that we are so blessed! We have amazing family members who were so willing to help us in any way possible and Brady's brother Zach came to help with the heavy lifting. On the long drive down here by myself (brady was driving the truck) I was able to reflect and see the Lord's hand in our lives. I know that this did't all happen by chance and that this is all part of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. We could not have done it without Him and it would've been so much more stressful without His help. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and that this is where we need to be for the summer. I am so excited to start on this adventure with my wonderful husband! I know it's going to be great!