Pictures...

Pictures from when Andy surprised me with tickets to watch the U.S. Figure Skating Championship.



Pictures from our Chinese New Year Party..

~Valentine's Day~

Valentine's Day was so nice! Unfortunately, it was a Thursday so I did have to work, but I've listed a few reasons of why I enjoyed it.

• No cooking - I have been very busy with school so it was nice to not have to cook. We went to Pho Hoa (Vietnamese Restaurant) and had Pho and Spring Rolls.
• Walked Puppies - No we do not have any pets. But our friends Craig and Jaclyn have 2 cute little puppies (Oslo and Ingrid). They are currently out of town and we said we could help walk their dogs. They are soo cute! it was fun walking them around the block. In fact, Andy enjoyed walking them too. He was nervous at first but he liked it.
• Movie - We watched the movie "No Reservations." It was really cute. I had a free movie rental coupon for Hollywood Videos so we rented it. In fact, it was the last one. I had to ask the front desk if anyone had returned one. It was my lucky day because they did have one. :)
• My Husband - The best part was just spending the evening with my husband. I just want to let everyone know that I LOVE and APPRECIATE him so much. He doesn't give me flowers very often but I got a dozen white roses and a balloon from him. In fact, he had gotten off work early to buy it from Wal-mart. He told me he was on the 4:40 pm bus so I went to pick him up. As usual, I called him to see where he was. He said the bus was just exiting the ramp. As I was watching for the bus, next thing I knew is I see Andy running up to the car with the flowers and balloon in hand. It was soo cute! It is definitely hard for him to give me surprises since we only have one car and I am usually the one with the car.

Balloon and Flowers Andy gave me....

My gift to Andy...I made "roses" with hershey kisses and put it on his pillow the night before. It was fun to surprise him early. :)

Chinese New Year

So, to celebrate Chinese New Year, Andy and I decided to have a potluck party at our house Saturday night. It was tons of fun!! I made Chicken Lo Mein and our friends brought veggies, curry, and cake for dessert.

After we were done eating, we played 3 games. Andy worked very hard in putting it all together. We played Taboo with pictures, a price game (had to list 3 items from most to least expensive), and then the coach game. We started of with 10 people then the Whetten's joined us later. So, we played the coach game with 6 couples. It was very difficult but tons of fun. We played twice and the girls won! :) Unfortunately, the guys won the other 2 games.

Oh well. Anyway, it had been a while since we had a big party at our place like that so it was fun. We all had a great time. :) I'll have to post pics later.

Early Birthday Surprise

So, on Friday, Andy and I planned to go watch National Treasure 2 at the theatre on Saturday. After we got home from work, Andy started asking me if it were possible that he didn't give me a gift on my actual birthday. I started playing around and saying it wasn't but of course told him that it was okay.

Anyway, Saturday morning we woke up to go to the gym and Andy said he wanted to go up to the cities. I said that I thought he wanted to go to see the movie. He said that he didn't feel like seeing the movie. So, I agreed to go to the city. After going to the gym, Andy was talking about how it was a long drive and he wanted to go up just to eat good Chinese food....also, we had to go up the following week for his biometrics. So, I said that we could just wait then. Andy said it was up to me but that I would really regret it. I knew something was up. We got home and I cut Andy's hair..then we started talking more about what we do in the cities. Finally, I asked him to tell me what we were doing. To my surprise, Andy had learned that the U.S. Figure Skating championships was being held in the cities. He knew I loved to watch figure skating so he bought tickets for Saturday night.

I was sooo excited!! Off to the cities we went. We stopped by the USCIS building to cancel his appointment for the next week since we were expecting his green card to come. However, the guy suggested we still do it since it was already paid for. Plus, we didn't know exactly when the card would come. Luckily, they were nice enough to let him do it right then and there.

The figure skating championship was a ton of fun! We watched the Senior Couple Dance and the Ladies Free Skate. I'm so happy that Andy bought the tickets for an early birthday gift. It was definitely a fun surprise for me! :) I'll have to post some pics later.

Gourmet Club

I had mentioned long ago that Andy and i were participating in the ward's gourmet club. Well, this month we were assigned to be the host. This meant that we were in charge of the main dish and it would be at our home. There were 2 things that made me a bit nervous.

#1 - I was a bit apprehensive because our place is on not very big and we only had a table and 4 chairs. Our group consisted of 4 other couples. How in the world could we have a nice dinner with that many people? Whenever we have friends over for potlucks, we just sit on the floor. Anyway, gourmet club was tonight so to solve the issue, Andy went to Wal-mart and bought a small table that came with 4 chairs. We figured it would come in handy and we needed to replace our other plastic table anyways because it got damaged during the summer rain storms. We then used our couch to fit the 10th couple.

#2 - Cooking the main dish. The main dish was a pork roast. I had never really roasted anything and I was concerned about it being really dry. I had some cooking tips from the cooking demos that I had been going too but i still wasn't sure if it would turn out good.

In the end, everything turned out great! The pork roast was very tender!! If it weren't for the tips I had learned, who knows if it would have been as tender as it was. The flavoring was really yummy too. Also, everyone didn't mind that we were a little cozy. It was basically all about eating good food and being in good company. After we ate, we we played a quick game of fluxx. I had a lot of fun and it was great getting to know more people.

Cooking with alcohol?

I have always heard that it was okay to cook with wines and other alcoholic beverages because the alcohol will cook out. I have been attending some cooking demonstrations at Mayo and learned that this isn't true. The chef mentioned that there is still some alcohol that doesn't cook out. So, the question remains....is it okay? I figured everyone will have their different opinions on this but the one thing I learned at the demo was you could substitute the alcoholic content with other items. For example, for red wines you could use red grape juice.

Anyways, I didn't know what type of substitutions would be good for the different alochols so I was excited when I found this information. It's fairly long so if your not interested, you won't need to read any further. :)

Alcohol Substitutions in Cooking (http://whatscookingamerica.net/alcoholsub.htm)
Following is a general list of non-alcoholic substitutes that can be used in cooking. choose the option that best matches the flavor of the dish you are making:

• Amaretto - Almond extract. (Substitute 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon almond extract for 2 tablespoons Amaretto.)
• Anisette - Anise Italian soda syrup or fennel.
• Beer - Chicken broth, beef broth, mushroom broth, white grape juice, ginger ale.
• Bourbon - 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of non-alcoholic vanilla extract.
• Brandy - Water, white grape juice, apple cider or apple juice, diluted peach or apricot syrups. (Substitute equal amounts of liquid.)
• Champagne - Ginger ale, sparkling apple cider, sparkling cranberry juice, or sparkling white grape juice.
• Cointreau - Orange juice or frozen orange juice concentrate.
• Coffee Liqueur - To replace 2 tablespoons of liqueur, use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of chocolate extract mixed with 1 teaspoon of instant coffee, which has been mixed in 2 tablespoons of water. Can also substitute expresso, non-alcoholic coffee extract or coffee syrup.
• Cognac - Juice from peaches, apricots, or pears.
• Creme de menthe - Spearmint extract or oil of spearmint diluted with a little water or grapefruit juice.
• Grand Marnier or Orange-Flavored Liqueur - Unsweetened orange juice concentrate or orange juice. (Substitute 2 tablespoons unsweetened orange juice concentrate or 2 tablespoons orange juice and 1/2 teaspoon orange extract for 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier.)
• Kahlua - Coffee or chocolate-flavored liqueur. (Substitute 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chocolate extract or substitute 1/2 to 1 teaspoon instant coffee in 2 tablespoons water for 2 tablespoons Kahlua.)
• Kirsch - Syrup or juices from cherries, raspberries, boysenberries, currants, or cider. (Substitute equal amounts of liquid.)
• Peppermint Schnapps - Non-alcoholic mint or peppermint extract, mint Italian soda syrup, or mint leaves.
• Port Wine, Sweet Sherry, or Fruit-Flavored Liqueur - Orange juice or apple juice. (Substitute equal amount of liquid.)
• Rum (light or dark) - Water, white grape juice, pineapple juice, apple juice or apple cider, or syrup flavored with almond extract. (Substitute equal amounts of liquid.)
• Sake - Rice vinegar.
• Sherry or Bourbon - Orange or pineapple juices, peach syrup, or non-alcoholic vanilla extract. (Substitute equal amount of liquid 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.)
• Southern Comfort - Peach flavored nectar combined with a small amount of cider vinegar.
• Tequila - Cactus juice or nectar.
• Triple Sec - Orange juice concentrate, orange juice, orange zest or orange marmalade.
• Vermouth, Dry - White grape juice, white wine vinegar, or non-alcoholic white wine.
• Vermouth, Sweet - Apple juice, grape juice, balsamic vinegar, non-alcoholic sweet wine, or water with lemon juice.
• Whiskey - If a small amount is called for, it can be eliminated.
• Vodka - White grape juice or apple cider combined with lime juice or use plain water in place of the vodka.

Wines:

• Gewurztraminer - White grape juice combined with lemon juice.
• Grappa - Grape juice.
• Port Wine - Concord grape juice with some lime zest added, cranberry juice with some lemon juice added, or grape juice concentrate. Substitute orange juice or apple juice for lighter ports
• Red Wine - Red grape juice, cranberry juice, chicken broth, beef broth, vegetable broth, clam juice, fruit juices, flavored vinegar. (Substitute equal amount of liquid.)
• White Wine - Water, chicken broth, vegetable broth, white grape juice, ginger ale, white grape juice.
• Sweet White Wine - White grape juice plus 1 tablespoons Karo corn syrup. (Substitute equal amount of liquid.)
  

Andy and Tanya

I've been wanting to get a nice picture taken but Andy thought it was funny to actually go to a studio since it was just the two of us. I didn't think it was a big deal since I had found a coupon for a free sitting and free 8X10 at JcPennys. Anyway, luckily, my younger sister was kind enough to help us take a picture. I think it turned out really nice. :)

Family Picture

My whole family was finally able to take a really nice family picture...thanks to Stacy's dad and some editing by Julia.


Top: Tim, Aaron, Mike, Cassidy, Dad, Adam, Ted, Andy
Middle: Julia, Allison, Tanner, Dorothy, Mikenna, Mom, Stacy, Kyle, Tanya
Bottom: Ashton, Dallin, Kiera, Kaylee, James, Emma

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

So, I finally got my Christmas letter written and emailed off last night. I'm sure I missed a few of my friends so I decided to post it here as well. Hopefully, next year I'll get our letter done earlier and actually mail it.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year!!

Tradition Continues

We didn't think we would participate in Black Friday this year, but we had to keep up with the tradition. However, this year we went to Staples because they had 2 items that we thought would be nice to have...a shredder and an executive chair (Andy's chair is broken and we've been thinking about getting a new one). Anyway, the items were well priced so we decided to go for it. We decided we weren't going to camp out too early so we woke up at 5 am and got there around 5:30 am. Luckily, the line wasn't too long and we didn't think our items would be too popular.

Everything was going pretty smoothly until we got inside. Staples had ticketed all items on the front and back page so that meant we needed to get tickets. Well, apparently they didn't start early enough because they stopped handing them out about 15 people before us. So, we all assumed it would be first come first serve for the rest of the items. We get into the store and the manager says to follow the line. It would wrap around the store to the front again and they'd finish handing out the tickets. So, I stand in line while Andy is out looking at stuff. Probably about 20 minutes later, we hear that the line was going the other way. Boy did that get people upset. So, I'm talking to the lady next to me in line and I decide to go figure out what's going on. Apparently, an employee had miscommunicated information and started another line. So the manager then tries to fix it by starting a new line. Well, the line we were in was also a cashier line so it was moving very very slow. So, I go up to the front again just to see if I could get tickets for the items we wanted. Luckily, the manager was nice enough and gave me the tickets. So, I just had to wait in line to grab my stuff. I also helped the lady I was with to get 2 of her items. Luckily I did because they ran out of the item she really wanted about 5 minutes after I got the ticket.

Anyway, about another 30 minutes goes by and I'm still waiting. The line hasn't moved much. I was talking to another girl and she really wanted the garmin gps system. We heard they were out but thought maybe it was just certain brands. The annoucement wasn't very clear. I guess she didn't want to go ask because of the angry customers so I said I would go ask for her. One guy was getting upset so I ended up asking him the question -- hoping he would have heard the annoucement better than we did. Well, it ended up that there was one left so I grabbed it. The girl was pretty happy. It was fun to be able to help those people out. :)

A few minutes later, there's another line that's formed to just grab your items. So I grab the stuff and join Andy in the cashier's line. We finally leave the store around 7:25 am. Then our next challenge....getting the chair into our little civic. The box was too big and it just wasn't going in. Finally, I suggesst opening the box and just take the items out. Luckily it worked and we finally leave. I dropped Andy off at the bus stop and dropped our stuff off at home before heading to work.

Overall, it was a very crazy morning but it was still fun. Luckily we weren't out in the cold for too long.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving day was a lot of fun! It was nice to not have to wake up early and go to work. Andy and I just relaxed at home. :) We did invite a chinese family to come over to have lunch with us. Andy has started to become really good friends with the husband. They talk all the time on the bus. So, I made a turkey, luo mai fahn, sweet potatoes, and rolls. It was pretty good. Then for dinner, we went over to the Chan's house. The food was really good and then we just played a few games.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Turkey day!!

Perspective

Last night we had our quarterly enrichement meeting and it was one of the best meetings I have ever been too. The night started off with speakers who spoke on the subject of Joy. One of the speakers shared her life changing experience. She was involved in a serious car accident where she almost died. She was in the hospitals for several days and doctors didn't expect her to make it. She had to re-learn to talk, write, walk, and breath. She shared how she was grateful for everything and how some things we get upset about isn't worth getting upset about. She really made me think about how silly it is to get upset over trivial things. Everything we have is such a blessing.

The last speaker was also a real eye opener. She started off by having us answer a question on a piece of paper: "What are your burdens? What are your worries?" When we were done, we placed the paper into a bucket. Then, she began sharing the scripture 'Adam fell that we might be and men are that we might have JOY." After we discussed what the word BE means, she shared a story about her roomate. Her roomate had come across a scripture saying we were here to be "inflicted upon." What? We hare here to be toyed with? As she shared her rommate's experience, she then shared the scripture about how we are to be perfect and that Christ, through trials, learned line upon line until he became perfected. There's no way we can be perfect, but we are in the process of being perfected. She then read what everyone wrote on the piece of paper, but instead of saying "What are your burdens, What are your fears?" She changed it into "What are you being perfected by?" People were being perfected by struggling with self esteem, worrying about their children, and dealing with health problems. Talk about perspective!! I had never thought of our burdens and worries that way. If we could all think of our burdens and worries as things that are perfecting us, how much easier is it to endure those things. I was definitely grateful for her lesson. Hopefully it will be one that will stick with me forever.

I've been Tagged!

Oh oh...I've been tagged by my sister-in-law Allison. :) ..so here it goes.

Rules:
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
_____________________________________________

1. I love to cook. Often times, I'll branch out and try new recipes and the lucky guniea pig is Andy. :)

2. I enjoy going to the gym. The new employee gym at Mayo Clinic opened September and I LOVE going to the classes. Step Class, Muscletoning, Ballroom Dancing, Salsa, and Water aerobics are a few that I enjoy doing.

3. I'm in a lazy mood. Lately, I've been in a mood where all I want to do is just bum around. I will still cook and make sure the house is clean, but as far as working on my own projects, just don't feel like doing it. However, I'm slowly getting out of this lazy mood.

4. I like my house to be clean and organized. In general, our house stays pretty clean. But, there are still a few areas that can be better organized. It bugs me because I haven't figured out how to better organize it yet. One day I'll get it though. I just hope it doesn't take too long. :)

5. I love spending time with Andy and with friends. I hate being away from my husband and having friends around is always nice. We haven't been able to spend too much time with friends this year because we've all been pretty busy. Recently, we went to Lion King together. Hopefully, we'll be able to do other things before the year is up.

6. My favorite sports to watch is football, figure skating, swimming, and gymnastics. I also like to watch ballroom dancing.

Yippee! That's it for me. Now I get to tag 6 other people. Stacy, Dorothy, Julia, Craig/Jaclyn, Pauline, and Andy.....you're it!

I Love Broadway!

So this past weekend, Andy and I got to watch the Lion King broadway show with our friends, the Whettens, Voights, and Massens. I saw Lion King for the first time a few years ago when I went to New York for a hair show. I really enjoyed the production so when I learned that it was going to be playing in Minneapolis, I was really excited! I love getting a group of friends together to have fun so I asked our friends if they wanted to go and they did. We all had a great time and it was fun to be able to hang out with everyone. It seems like we haven't had a big group together for awhile...everyone has been really busy this year! Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see the Lion King broadway show, it is definitely worth it!

General Conference

I thoroughly enjoyed watching conference on Sunday. The talks were excellent and I'm definitely looking forward to being able to read them again...especially read the talks from the session on Saturday. I was only able to catch part of the Saturday morning session. Anyway, as I was listening to conference, I reflected back to the times when I was younger...when I was younger, I was not good at listening to conference and didn't fully understand the importance of it. In fact, Julia and I would pretend to sleep walk out of the room and go play for a bit. We were silly to think that our parents would actually think we were sleep walking. :)

Anyway, it was nice to be able to relax at home and feel the spirit and to not worry about things that are going on in our daily lives.

Europe Pictures

I finally got the chance to post some pictures from our trip. :) I hope you enjoy them. We took a ton of pictures! If you want to see all of them, you can check out Andy's blog (zerostudios.blogspot.com)

Random Paris pictures

Chateau De Versailles

Eiffel Tower, Musee D'Orsay, and Saint Chappelle

Notre Dame