Life = Good

Life as of late has been great. Maddening at times, but the good outweighs the bad, I think. The bad being life's general problems of money, family, PARENTS(should have stuck that one in first place), school stress, migraines(surprise, surprise), and more, but I won't bore you with a list. (ha, too late)

Now, the GOOD has been GOOD. (You know it's good with me when it's my favorite color & bolded :) )

Orchestra has started up again at school and I'm loving being able to play decent music again. We had our first concert last week and it went pretty dang good. For the violas anyway :) The Magna orchestra started as well. Ms. Eyre (Yes, the one from Granite youth people!)is the director, and although the music is a tad (ok, a TON) easy, I love her conducting. She makes it fun and is superb at interpreting music.

And now to the real reason life has been good.

I'm not one of those people who flaunts their joy to the world. For example, facebook people going mushy/disgusting for the general public to endure:

"I have the best husband/wife/sister/dog (etc.) in the world!!! They are amazing and every human in the universe should be jealous of me!!!!"

I can see someone posting this, maybe once. But on a daily frickin' basis?!?
WE GET THE POINT!! We know you love them, we know you are utterly and disgustingly happy, WE KNOW!! You've posted it 10 times today!

Sheesh. Ok, now to the point of my rant..............ah yes, the reason life has been good. (Sorry, when I get going on a rant, I get going)

His name is Steven. Yes, I'm going against everything I believe in the posting of my joy flaunting, but I reason:

1. This is MY blog, I blog about whatever the heck I want
2. You all come here and read it voluntarily, so you can leave if it's too much for ya (but you won't because you love me)
3. This will not be forcibly posted on the feeds of 200 of my facebook friends. Just my little ol' blog

So yes, I have an (here goes) amazing, generous, genius, gorgeous, hilarious, awesome, loving, boyfriend named Steven. And THAT is why life is good. And yes, you should all be jealous :D We've been together closer to 2 months, and I've loved every minute of it. Why did no one tell me having a boyfriend is so worth while? I would have gone man huntin' a lot earlier in life.

There, I've flaunted my joy, you can all go back to your normal lives now.

Speaking of normal lives. Mine is becoming a procrastination train. For example, take photo #1. These are the quizzes I need to take for my A + certification class. Yes, the BOLDED ones. Behind? yes I am, thank you. Thank heavens it's an online class!

Why I took an actual picture of my screen, I'm still trying to figure out. Print screen would have been 100 times faster in this situation. That's what I get for blogging at 5am I suppose.

Photo #2 We have edible pearl dust with accompanying food specific paint brush. I originally bought these little glories to make cookies for a friend's anniversary & another friend's birthday. But I hopped on the train once again and fell behind. I'm still going to make them though. How cool is edible pearl dust?

Photo #3 Here is the steering wheel for the procrastination train. This beauty is on lend from Steven in attemps to have me learned in the ways of the video game, his favorite hobby (which I couldn't possibly be worse at). This has a USB connection, so I can play the games on an emulator on my computer. If you ever want to know what an addiction feels like without going the way of drugs, just pick up this sucker, play for an hour and you'll find out.


This is my attempt at drinking more water to be healthier and lower my blood pressure (Oh, I have high blood pressure by the way) And I've read in several places that I don't have to give up the salt(my one true love) entirely if I am drinking more water to keep my body from retaining it. I chose an insulated mug because I love water, but I really love COLD water. So no, I'm not switching to coffee all day long, it's water people. And it's pink. Need I say more.


These two were my dinner dilema. (I take random pictures, I know) I thought upon grabbing the bag, that these were english muffins, which I love. Turns out, they are blueberry bagels. Much sweeter than an english muffin. Bleh. But I hadn't eaten for about 9 hours and needed something. I grabbed the cream cheese from the fridge, opened it, and there was a fuzzy little animal inside. *chucks in garbage*. I was stuck with overly sweet strawberry cream cheese. Upon returning to the fridge, I found a second unopened plain cream cheese and couldn't just leave it, so I spread it on the top part of the bagel. After eating the plain, I couldn't bring myself to eat the strawberry. You just can't have sweet after salty. It breaks all the rules. So, the puppies got a treat tonight.


You see the salt problem.

Ah, the green-ness of it all

This weekend we planted plants, pulled weeds, played with dogs, and planted a tree. This is one of the bulbs out front. I think it has chicken pox.


This is the first bloom in my garden this season. Oddly enough the plant it grew from didn't have flowers last year. The bees are messing with my plants' DNA. Also this picture is my entry for The Creative Wall photo blog that you should all join!


This one is actually a weed. But a pretty weed. A pretty weed that was promptly killed after the shot.


About a week ago I planted some dahlia bulbs in a section of dirt that had no other plants in it. Fast forward to yesterday. I go outside and find this specimen. Wondering what the heck they could be seeing how I didn't plant anything else, I decided to pull them out.


Answer to the mystery? My mom and another one of ther practical jokes. Last year she put a full grown store bought radish in the ground where I had planted seeds a week before. She's an odd one :)


Me and my bountiful harvest. Actually, they were full of that powder candy. My mom saw them at All a Dollar with my sister Michelle, and they schemed in on it together.


Why so much green you ask? St. Patty's day!!! here we have green jello, green punch, green koolaid, and green sour cream.



Wouldn't be the green day without corned beef and cabbage (or as we make it, New England Boiled Dinner)


Always cook the cabbage last or in a seperate bowl, because it takes half as long to cook as the other veggies. Secret ingredient? Caraway seed in the veggies and meat.


Oh, another green thing. Green rolls.





All the veggies. Carrots, red potatoes, turnip, parsnip, rutabega & onions. I totally forgot to take a picture of the meat. We always get flat cut corned beef. never buy point cut, it's covered in fat and hard to eat. Pay extra, it's worth it.


And of course, my holiday sugar cookies!! Ok, they flattened out a bit because the butter was too soft, but you get the idea.


MMMmmm, sugar............




Oh, random note, karly Spencer is married! I had no clue until I saw her new name on facebook. She was in so many of my classes all through elementary school. we also went to the same singles ward for a while. Isn't she a beautiful bride? Marriage is definitely the IN thing to do right now.


Photo & all other wedding phtos from here. Her new hubby is an amazing phtographer as well over at
Craig Tovey Photography.

It's now snowing and will be raining most of the week. Sadness.

Adios Amigos!

I've been no place but home for the holidays

Christmas has kicked in at the Hodgson house! I spent half a day at Shell's house this week helping (eating mostly) make cookies for her family party the day after. First off she made corn salsa that's made with white corn and a bunch of other tasty ingredients. It was SO good. I'm getting all the ingredients on Tuesday and making it for my family. I can't wait!!!

After the salsa we did sugar cookies and coconut macaroons. Michelle was genius and made half the batch into chocolate sugar cookies by adding cocoa. Actually, they were pinwheels to be technical.


Michelle ghave me a plate full to take home for helping her. Even though I pretty much talke to her sister the whole time and tested evrything while stealing all her recipes. But that's what friends are for, right? :D The joke of the day was teeth cookies. We were cracking up like no other. While crushing the candy canes, Kim noted it sounded like crushing bone. Then MIchelle piped up, "Actually they look like teeth when they are freshly pulled with the blood still in the root." After examination of the candy canes, we realized she was right. Does it not look like little teeth in the cookies? makes you want to go out and a eat a dozen or so! But they turned out good and we ate them anyway. She needs to re-write the recipe down with the title of Teeth Cookies.


This upcoming wednesday is our cooking day for the girls in my family. We'll have about 8 different things cooking at once. Should be interesting, and hopefully we survive it without killing eachother.

Oh side note, I'm starting up a new blog (yes me, beckstreet who is constant end never changing) I'm keeping this one as my personal blog, but this new one called "She Hints" is going to be all stuff I love and stuff I want. I'll also have an etsy shop linked to it where my family and I will be selling random stuff. So look for that ina couple of days. It's gonna be BIG!!!

Massive Picture post!

I found my ever disappearing camera cord today. Thought I would update via picture post. So here goes:

Oh wait, here is a video of our lame singing for Michelle's birthday. I didn't sing because then all you would hear is me. :D


Saturday we celebrated Michelle's 26th B-day after conference. It's a tradition to get her grapefruit because she's nuts over them. Optional juicy glasses if you prefer.
Can't have a Hodgson birthday without the essential angel food cake, fresh strawberries and whip cream. Optional overdose of cream if you like. Don't worry, it was "light".

Lema tired. Can't see why, he slept through most of conference. (who cares if I did too)
Michael was sleepy as well. I think he just woke after conference. Yes, he is a self proclaimed vampire.
Randy leerves whip cream.
Michelle got her scrapbooking book by Becky Higgins. I. want. it.

So I found this cake online. yes, it's a cake. I think I want to make it.
Old Volleyball team pic after we won region. Woot.
Is this not the coolest thing ever? No need for an ugly flat screen mounted to the wall. I pull MINE out of a shelf. Get with the times people!
Michelle 8 months along. She's about to pop!
The cookies I made for the WesTech baby shower. took FOREVER, but I loved how they turned out and got lots of compliments. This is the favor for the family shower on saturday.

Closeup of my amazing goodness.
Michelle and her loot from the Westech party. She got SO much stuff she doesn't really need the family shower now! Such nice people at WesTech!
Ace in his pool. It was clear water about 30 minutes before the video, but he loves to roll in the dirt. End result, very muddy water and filthy dog

Joey the fatcat in her window. This is how she always sleeps. Randy decided his phone would make her look more entertaining.

I only took three photo's at MIchelle's B-day dinner. I am terrible at taking one of everyone. Sorry Joe and Tony!

Bekah and her messy face. So adorable!
Michelle mid-blow.

We like-a chinese food. Chinatown wok to be exact. YUM!!!!

Rachel prefers wood.

Well people's, hope you enjoyed the pictures & videos. Must be off to bed!

Bec

Boo!

Yesterday was the loverly celebration of dead people day, more commonly known as Halloween.
Shell's party was great and I had a fun time. We watched 1408, carved pumpkins(which were surprisingly easy to cut through. Yay old pumpkins!) decorated cookies, had too much junk food and made fun of eachother's costumes. Genious men in the group were clueless as to what we all dressed up as.

Figures.

I spent the whole day before the party making sugar cookies. My sister michelle actually complimented me on them and said they were better than store bought! It's quite the compliment as she is quite the picky eater and master cook herself. I didn't realize until after the party that I only got a few pictures. None of Tony in his costume or joe in his (as lame joe) Trash.

I guess my parents didn't get many trick-or-treaters. They used one bag of candy. Now we have 4 bags of candy floating around the house that we are using as a meal replacement. Kind of sad really. Adults desereve the next day candy gorging too right? I think I've overdosed on KitKats and am getting a canker sore from shock tarts.

Here we have Shell as Lizzie Borden(did I spell that right?) bloody axe and all. Seeing how Michelle is the morbid dead-liking-person we all know her to be, I guess this costume isn't too surprising. It rocked. you know it.


Karin as a mind reading gypsy-fortune teller. She sounded like santa when she walked. Cool shtuff. The flash was way too bright on my camera so she looks like a zombie as well. perfect for halloween!


The cookies I decorated at the party. Love the Madonna ghost no? How bout the headless ghost with a pumkin?


My costume as Queen Amidala. For all those people who don't remember, it's from the 1st episode of star wars at the end when they have the victorious parade. Just watch the movie. Rachel helped me tremedously with the costume. Shweet if i do say so myself. Oh, I'm not bucked-teeth or biting my lip here. I had the white lips and hadn't done the lipstick yet.

Tony's puking pumpkin. gross

Karin's pumpkin. Ahh how cute.

My scary pumpkin with fangs and M & M's for eyes. Cool eh?
Here are his rockin earsAnd the grand finale, Michelle's pumkin, thus murdered. I guess killing her parents wasn't enough she kills plants too.