Grateful

So I know I don't post much on this blog of mine but today I feel like I need to express myself. I am watching The Biggest Loser this evening and it really is inspirational. I realize it's a reality show but I think it's a reality show that is actually worth while and teaching a good principle of being healthy and fit. Why The Biggest Loser is making me feel grateful is a mystery to me, but it is.
I have so many things in my life to be grateful for, first of all, my husband. My husband is the greatest. I know you think your husband is the greatest but mine is the greatest for me! Brady is such a wonderful person and I love him so much! I even told my mom tonight while I was talking to her on the phone that the only useful thing that came out of my humanities class my freshman year was meeting Brady. :)  And really, it's true. That class was dumb, but I met my husband, the love of my life. Brady does so much for me and is such a great support and rock for the hard times in my life. I can't imagine facing life's hardships with anyone else. He is amazing plain and simple.
I am also grateful for my wonderful family. My parents and siblings are the best! I am so glad that we are close and that I talk to them often. I can't imagine not being close. I love them and I love their kids! And my parents! They are amazing. When the ladies at work talk about "kids these days" and them not wanting to spend time with their parents I can proudly say that I enjoyed spending time with my parents while I lived at home. The relationship I have with my parents is like nothing else. It's priceless and I love them so much.
I am thankful for friends. I have come in contact with so many people in my short 23 years of life so far. I know that I am not good and keeping in touch with old friends but I still love them all the same. They have all touched my life in a very special way. To my Disney friends, you are the most unique and diverse group of people that I have ever met and I can't imagine my life without you. Disney was one of the best experiences of my life and I learned so much about myself while being in that magical place. High school friends, and college friends have all played a role in some way in my life. I don't keep in close contact with them all but I am still grateful to have them in my life.
I hate to single anyone out but, Michael and Betsy Lybbert- you two.... I love you so much. These two people were my second family living in Provo and they have done so much for me! Thank you for being awesome! And thank you for filling in when I was missing my family! You two are the best!
And finally I am so grateful for the gospel of  Jesus Christ in my life. This is one thing that I could not live without. The gospel is my life. I am a follower of Christ and I hope that I live my life everyday in a way that reflects that. I am grateful for the gift of the atonement and the role it plays. I can't imagine going through life without the light and love of Christ in my life. Words cannot express how thankful I am everyday for the knowledge and comfort that the gospel brings. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I am proud and grateful to say it.
I am filled with love and joy and I am overflowing with the Spirit of the Lord.
Have a wonderful day/night whatever time it is that you are reading this.
much love!

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