This and That

I pulled out our camera to see if there were any new pictures taken from the last couple of weeks....there weren't any :(   So instead of blogging about nothing these were my thoughts as I looked through the old pictures.

"This was a fun night"

{Jordan and I had a Chinese night and this picture was our only evidence. Jordan made sweet and sour chicken from scratch! Isn't he so talented? We put pillows on the floor and ate Japanese style all while watching our special movie: Kung Fu Panda. So fun....and delicious!!}

"I can't believe I didn't blog about this already!"

{I made my newest niece Leslie (as if you couldn't tell what her name was) a baby name collage. I absolutely loved how it turned out. I hope everything is still intacted and nothing has fallen down - if so Silvia, just blame the glue ;) }


"What tha!? This looks scary! When was this taken? Why wasn't I there?"

{I think this was from a rock climbing trip Jordan took with his sister Riley. I don't know any details, I guess everything went ok?}

Colorado Springs

Last Friday Jordan and I drove down to Colorado Springs. Jordan's parents live in Colorado and his grandparents were going to be there for the week so we decided to drive down.

Saturday I finished up a scrapbook for my mother-in-law Heidi. She wanted a little scrapbook of her new grandchild and I offered to make her one if she bought all the supplies. Here is a few samples of the many pages.







Monday morning at 4am Jordan and I woke up to go hiking with his sister and brother-in-law. We drove for 30 minutes to start hiking Pikes Peak which is about 14,100ft. We started hiking the "Incline" at 5am. The incline is basically old railroad which look like steps going straight up the mountain. It was a mile of pretty much walking up stairs.



After the incline we headed towards Pike's Peak with about 10.5 miles left. It was a long hike. With about 3 miles to go Jordan got altitude sickness. So the last 2 miles we took a lot of breaks and made it to the top around 1pm.



Overall the hike was just long (13 miles), however, it was really cool at parts.



Wednesday Jordan and I went to the park with his dad and sister. Jordan started teaching me how to play tennis then he played a soccer game with his sister Riley while I practiced with his dad.





After playing tennis the whole family went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Jordan's Birthday. His birthday is the 10th but we decided to celebrate it on Wednesday. I made sure to tell his dad Randy to tell the waiter that it's Jordan's birthday because they bring out a saddle and make you sit on it. We got a picture, but I currently don't have a copy. Later that evening we ate the cake I made for Jordan. I bought a few of the cake supplies that I have been wanting and decided to use them to bake Jordan's cake. I didn't have any of my other decorating tools with me so I did my best with a ziplock bag.



We had originally planned to drive back Thursday, but we decided to stay a few extra days. Thursday I spent a lot of time learning how to sew. Heidi had cut out squares of Jordan's old t-shirts and blankets from when he was a child all the way up to college. I then took the t-shirt squares and sewed them together and made my first sewing project...a t-shirt quilt. I learned how to straight stitch, back stitch, and aplicae (spelling?) items onto other materials. After all the squares were sewn together, Heidi taught me how to put badding and the back of the quilt on. It was a great teaching project.



Today I spent most of the day on another project. Riley asked if I could make a shadow box of a picture of Braeyln and her. Again she bought the paper and I did the project. I think it turned out great, but the picture doesn't show the depth. There are a lot of things popping out.



Later in the afternoon we all went rock climbing at The Garden of the Gods. We were only able to do two routes until it started raining. The picture of Jordan below is from a few days earlier and we had it blown up and framed. We are going to climb again tomorrow and hopefully I can get a similar picture of myself to frame along side his.

My Life

Instead of homework, and track, my days are now spent working, reading, baking, cooking, scrapbooking, and soon sewing. I started cake decorating classes last Thursday. I have them once a week for two hours for a month. I'm taking the basic course and love it! My first class was full of tips and tricks on how to bake a great cake to decorate. I left the class wanting way more baking supplies then I would have liked. Everything individually isn't that expensive, but when you want everything it all adds up quick. I'm excited to soon try out what I am learning.

In the cupcake department I am still baking over a dozen of cupcakes every Sunday. Jordan takes the majority to work to share, but makes sure there is enough left at home for him to enjoy too. Here is just a sample of some of the ones I have made:

Coca-Cola

Peanut Butter Cup (I wish I got a picture of the inside - they had whole peanut butter cups)

Cookies'n'Cream
I am going to post the recipe for this cupcake when I blog next because I feel everyone needs to try them. :)

My other projects have been making cards for my coaches at school. Thanks to my cricut machine they turned out great. I wanted to say thanks for all they have done to help me achieve my goals. I have posted two of the cards....one is for my track coach and the other is for my strength coach.

Presenting....Hair Bow Holder

Now that I don't have track practice, what have I been doing with my time? This last week I needed to get my mind on other things beside track (because I already miss it so much), so I made a hair bow holder for my new niece Braelyn. My sister-in-law Jodi asked if I could come make one and she showed a picture of one she liked. I must say that I believe the one I made looks way better.

Jumping and crafts

This last weekend I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico competing in the 2010 Outdoor Track and Field Mountain West Conference Championships. I performed really well. I was a little nervous, but I have learned to love nerves; they make me jump higher. I came in jumping at 5'4.5''. I cleared that and 5'6'' on my first attempt. 5'8'' I have noticed has been a transition height for me. In practice and in a meet I seem to have trouble clearing it on my first try. I did clear the height, but on my second attempt. Next was 5'9.5'' then 5'10.5'', which I cleared both on my first attempt. At 5'11.5'' I cleared it, but my calves hit it off. Because I was already in second place with my teammate in first and no other girls were in, my coach told me to pass the 5'11.5'' and try to go for the win at 6'1'' because my teammate already cleared the 5'11.5''. I was semi-close at 6'1'', but my bottom needs to be just a hair higher. I am excited though because I made it over 5'11.5''... if it weren't for my dang calves. So I like to consider that I basically cleared 6'0''!

About a week to two weeks ago I started on a project. I was blog hopping...my favorite past time, and came across a lady's blog where she created baby name collages. I instantly fell in love with the idea. She used her cricut machine to help her out which I now know how to work mine. Because Jodi (my sister-in-law) was having a baby I decided that I would give it a try and it turned out great! It has the baby's name and a spot to put her picture. The pictures I took aren't great, but everything is in 3-D and put in a shadow box. So now I know what I can do for all the little babies that are on their way.