Chaos Organized

As a hygienist I wear my hair up every day. So yes I have a plethora of hair ties and as I held all of them in my hand, I was so glad that Adrienne gave me the best thing EVER!!!No longer do I have to search and untangle the mess!! Being this organized actually brings a smile to my face every day when I open my bag of hair ties :)THANK YOU ADRIENNE!!!!

RUN FORREST RUN!!

So remember that new years resolution list, well... it was race day today and it was AWESOME!! It was such a beautiful morning, perfect for a run. Elaina and I were 2 of 18,000 people; that's right I said 18 THOUSAND! It's amazing Alex and Jacob even found us in the sea of people. Good thing we wore those pink shirts to stand out. Just after the 2 mile mark, we were still running strong.We finished the race of 3.1 miles in 35 minutes!! Our best time yet. I think those people exude so much energy around you that you just can't help trying your best. This picture was just after Elaina and I had crossed the finish line.

Of course they have refreshments of water, apples and bananas. I definitely needed to refuel after my early morning oatmeal. A banana has never tasted so rewarding :)

Elaina and I had trained so much, this was one of the most satisfying experiences. I didn't know you could get emotional about running but it was more than that. It was proving to myself that I cold do it, accomplishing something I told myself I was going to do, and realizing that I can do more. Thats right, I said MORE! Elaina and I have discussed running a 10K as our next goal, hoping to get to a half marathon by the end of the year.... Maybe that was just the adrenaline talking after the race. We'll see how our minds and bodies feel tomorrow ;)

We chose this race to run not just for ourselves but for family. My mom's two sisters have had a type of breast cancer and we ran this race for them. So Elaina and I made shirts in their honor. They say "4 the Randall Ladies U R my inspiration" I think that made it a little easier to push myself, it was for them.

Thank you ELAINA for being my motivation and my support, you are the constant companion that helps push me to do better than I think I can. I look forward to many more runs together. Thank you ALEX for cooking dinner for me and waiting for dinner to be made while I was running and for being there at the finish line! Thank you mom and dad HOFFMANN for your excitement and thoughtfulness while I ran today. Thank you mom and dad MARTIN for your encouragement and appreciation of all the hard work. Thank you JENNY for your words of inspiration and understanding of how big of an accomplishment this small race was and thank you to the other Martin sisters, RAYNE & ADRIENNE who have also inspired me to run this race as well as try for something bigger!
I LOVE YOU ALL and appreciate, in thoughts only expressed by tears of gratitude, all that you mean to me!!

I LOVE FHE

Sometimes the biggest events for us throughout the week are during FHE and this week is no exception. We decided as part of our lesson and activity to put together a puzzle. Sometimes puzzles aren't completed in one sitting.... we again, were no exception, but here's our journey which we've associated as to being a lot like the journey of life.

And the reward at the end... I had made skookies for dessert. THANKS MAMMA MARTIN!! We absolutely love skookies. I've found new recipes and we love trying them. Our current favorite is the chocolate with chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips. Warm right out of the oven this is perfectly topped off with vanilla ice cream!

Look at that face.... pure bliss

Spring Cleaning

The picture explains it all. I do laundry on my day off and I'm sure I'm not the only one to experience this but since I take my hangers to my parents in a bag, every once in a while they get so tangled up it feels like I'm playing that old game of pick-up-stix.

Alex and I had Wednesday off together and on our Spring Cleaning list was to rearrange our shoe rack. Which by SOME opinions seems to be filled with more of my shoes than his.... I'm a girl, and my shoe size hasn't changed since 8th grade.

So these are our shoes - Alex's are the top row and mine are the rest, minus THREE pairs of mine and ONE of Alex's that we'd decided to get rid of, and we had to fit them all back into our closet.... Our shoe rack started to lean and Alex's genius mind found a way to jimmy-rig a device to help it lean back upright. Well we've got to tweek it a little more before the final shot.
Surprisingly with our tiny space there are many more things on our list... when will it actually feel like spring?

Spring...

A Time to Try New Things

Conference weekend was spent trying new things. Dad Hoffmann decided to hand over his carving knife and let Alex take a wack at carving his first turkey. We all thought he did a pretty good job.

I was surprised to see how well he did his first time.
Then I decided to try a new recipe. Alex had let me get a new dessert cook book and I found a combination both of us would love. Oatmeal chocolate chip Waffle cookies!! His favorite cookie and my favorite breakfast.

Who knows with things like this how they'll turn out, but they were a surprise hit.
With the waffle iron they had just the right crunch!

Now for some people Conference Weekend reminds them that Easter is close, but there's something else that helps me feel like it's Easter.

Would you guess anything else?... ;) Ok so really We get m&m's for pretty much every holiday. But Easter ones are some of my favorite.

I like these ones especially because they have pictures on them that cleverly incorporate the M in them - sheep, ducks and the peanut butter ones are speckled!! We have containers to put them in for every Holiday. You'd be surprised if you ever didn't see them on our coffee table.
Happy Easter

Green Thumb?

For FHE this week Alex and I decided to use the lesson of "Faith being like a little seed," and decided to see how green our thumbs can be. I had a bonsai kit and we put it to use.... the seeds are tiny, and you put it in a small bonsai soil and pot.
Alex decided to get some extra dirt from our patio to add to the pot and fill in the space (suggested by the directions) We're supposed to leave it outside facing north, however our apartment patio faces south. So we've put it in our bedroom window. Alex checks on it daily and waters it if necessary.
I'm pretty confident that we'll end up having fake plants in our house, or a bamboo cause they're the only things I can keep up with.
I'll definitely have to rely on faith for this little seed to spring forth anything. We'll keep you up-to-date on our little window garden.

If it can't be New York.... Let it be Vegas!

Alex's siblings were taking a trip to New York and since we couldn't go, we decided on the next best thing.... Las Vegas. Can you believe I've never been in an FAO Schwarz? It was amazing. They have almost everything. I say almost because as Jacob and Elaina informed us, we only get the big floor piano from the movie "BIG" if we go to the one in Seattle. But it was close they have a lot of stuff.
So as many of you know I am a HUGE classic coke memorabilia fan. The title is important because I don't actually drink Coke, or any carbinated drink for that matter (except the occasional Dr. Pepper) and distinguishing the difference is important. Well they have the Coca-Cola factory on the strip so we stopped by....
Red is not a number one favotire color on it's own, but when it's Coke - I dig it!!
Connected to Coca-Cola Factory is a world full of one of my FAVORITE candies!! M&M's World was another stop we had to make. We both really like peanut m&m's.
They have a movie you can watch about chocolate red loosing his "M" in Vegas.... it was an adjustment to see a 3D movie, but by the end it was pretty cheap entertainment for Free.

M&M sponsors a race team and they have a model car on the 4th floor.... all things m&m!!
So it may not have been New York, but we did get a glimpse of Paris. It took us a few shots to get this one right, this isn't the "right" one, but it's a funny one. Elaina and I wanted our picture in front of the Bellagio so while Jacob was trying to take our pic, Alex thought he'd try to move out of the way. ha ha good try Al, a little more to the right. :)

We walked so much on Friday that my Tivas gave me a blister on my heel. I've worn these shoes everywhere, but I guess it has been a while since we've had warm enough weather to wear them. Good thing I'd brought some flip flops to wear the next day. But Sunday it was gone! Thanks for the band aids!

I never miss a Hard Rock. It's usually just a hamburger, but for some reason I've become hooked. I've found everyone of them wherever I've gone and Las Vegas for the third time was no exception.


Saturday we used our amazing mapquest skills to find the Las Vegas temple. It was awesome. I've been to different temples in Utah, but every experience is the same but different. I just absolutely loved the weather.... something about Palm trees just makes you feel warm and happy, like you have to relax.

After the temple we used our same skills to find a Cici's Pizza. We had seen commercials for it and when we looked them up, found there were none in Utah. However, there are some in Vegas. So we made the stop and ate to our stomach's content. Alex thougth he'd try to show you how full he was, but I think it looks more like he's pregnant or something. It was ok and a pretty good deal for $5.
This is how excited we were to be driving home to Utah. Leaving 82 degree weather to come back to a snow storm.... What a bummer. Where will we go next? ...... As long as we plan is 6 months in advance it could be anywhere.