Iron Chef Date Night

This is seriously the best date idea I have ever had!
I've done it twice before; previous secret ingredients were cranberries and walnuts... or was it pecans??? One of the two anyway. Saturday nights ingredient was...
...as chosen by my former roommate Jared Brady! After we found out what we all had to include in our dish we hopped on our computers to find a recipe to use. Then we gathered what we could from our respective apartments and went to the grocery store for the rest. Once we got back all of us went crazy getting everything ready. It's a good thing my kitchen is a pretty big room, however, there is basically NO counter space. We were all on top of each other. Hahaha! It was fun!

I was with Liese Rodger from my ward
We were in charge of the main dish so both of us were slightly terrified when we heard what the secret ingredient was. We found this super yummy recipe from Rachel Ray: Coconut-Crusted Shrimp with Peanut Butter / Curry Sauce. OH MY HEAVENS it was so good! And it was pretty easy to make too. We made did one pot of shrimp and one pot of chicken bits. They were totally different from each other but both were super good! We served it over rice.

Ben was with Kaitlin Westergauard - also from the ward.
They were in charge of the appetizer so they did the timeless classics of Muddy Buddies as well as Celery Sticks & Apple Slices with Peanut Butter.

And I set my little sister Kristin up with Nathan Bunch who is also in our ward. He just happens to be BYU's starting pitcher! He seriously is going Pro someday! Fun guy though!
The were in charge of the dessert. They made Layered Peanut Butter Dessert. It was SO good! Here's a link to the recipe.

I gotta say, it was some GOOD FOOD.

We're So funny! Hahaha!

After eating we just sat and talked on the couch telling stories and stuff for a while. It was fun and nice to relax after frantically trying to get everything ready!

Peace out ya little piecer!

Ok, maybe I shouldn't call that bike a little piecer. It did last for a really long time and was pretty faithful until the end. However, after two major breakages in the frame I decided it was time to go. So on Saturday during the BYU game I stripped off all the useful components and tried to make it as flat as possible so no one would really notice it in the dumpster. Hahaha!
If you look closely you can see the two break points. 1) The little white area right by the yellow rear shock is where I had the first one welded back together. And 2) you can see a little bit of silver right by that red reflector on the seat post. It's between those two blue parts. Yeah, those two blue parts are supposed to be one part. Rats.
See ya!

PS - I LOVE SNOW! I can't WAIT to go skiing again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(times infinity!)

I'm a phelbotomist!

So a friend found this add on Craigslist about a phlebotomy training program. It was $500-700 cheaper than any other program I looked at over the summer. I was a bit skeptical at first but it turns out it was legit. SWEET!
I really liked it! The instructor was great. He'll even let us come to any of his future classes to practice doing blood draws. Now if I can only get a job! Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday To ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a very relaxing and low key birthday this year. Never done that before but I kinda liked it! I slept in, skipped my one class and didn't do any homework at all! It was great!

On the day before my birthday Kimberlee and I went out to breakfast at:
We did this last year too! Our birthdays are only 4 days apart so we've always been pretty close. Too bad she's graduating in April - next year who knows where she'll be! Thanks Kimberlee!

Ok, back to my real birthday. That evening Lisa & Max, Brittany, Brent & Jason and I all went out to eat at this new restaurant in town
It was SOOOO good! And great prices too! I will definitely be going back! My favorite was the raspberry dessert pizza! Heaven! Kristin was MIA because she had lacrosse AND a flag football game AND.... you get the idea. She's crazy!

After dinner with the fam I headed home where my good friend Liz was hosting a waffle party. She's the chair of our ward's friendship council so there were lots of people there. Liz even made a Cake for Tae and I - her birthday was on the 9th. we had to improvise a bit because we didn't have any candles. So we used the pumpkin candles Brad bought a few weeks ago. Perf!
I love how Lee looks like a serious creeper in the background there. Hahaha!

It was a great day!

Apparently I talk in my sleep!

The other night I must have been really chattering it up because I managed to wake my roommate up! He somehow had the presence of mind to grab his cell phone and type down what I said;
"Why do you THINK I ate that sparrow in my living room!? I ate the rest of it!"
Said in kind of an impatient / why-are-you-asking-me-this-you-should-already-know-the-answer tone.
I guess it made him laugh out loud. What in the heck do I dream about anyway? Sheesh.

Bon Fire Date

After Jason's b-day party my roommates and I took dates out to The Clifton's house in Mapleton to have a bon fire. It was great! The zip line was a hit, but I forgot to get a few pictures of everyone on it!

I was with Liz

Brad was with Tiffany - our FHE mom from last year

Ben was with Kellie Pursee

and Spencer was with Erica

I love watching fire! It's so mezmerizing!

And so are the coals!

After the fire died down we went inside where Aunt Joice had hot water all ready for us to make hot chocolate. She is SUCH a great host! It was a super fun night!

The Little Monster is ONE!!!!!

Brittany and Brent threw a B-day part for Jason yesterday. It was super fun! We had baked potatoes and then watched him open his presents:
He enjoyed them once Brittany pulled the wrapping paper off for him. I don't think he understood at all. Mostly he just liked throwing the cards and stuff on the floor.

So in my family we have this tradition.... On all of our 1st Birthdays mom took all our clothes off and let us have at the cake. WE LOVED IT!! We all made a huge mess of the cake, entertained all the older people and all that good stuff. Well, poor Jason... he did NOT so much love it. In fact I think he hated it! I guess the poor guy just doesn't like to have stuff on his hands. Here he is freaking out, trying to run away from the cake and in the process get frosting all over Brittany:
Hahaha! So they put him into his high-chair - more familiar environment and all that - and gave him a small piece. Once he tasted the cake he REALLY liked it and got all happy. Then he'd realize he had frosting on his hands and he'd have a little bit of a melt down. Then he'd manage to put more cake in his mouth - followed by another mini melt down. We were all laughing SO hard!
What a cutie! He sure is fun!

MOAB - Oct 17th 2009

So there's this crazy awesome guy (Ian Beaty) in my previous ward who is probably the best networker I have ever met. He knows just about everyone at BYU and LOVES to organize mountain biking trips. We had 17 people all together - most of us didn't even know each other! There was randomly a guy from Eagle there! Josh Gilman - who just graduated and knows my little sister Danielle.
ANYWAY.... We all met at like 6:00 AM to load up. Ian of course was up all night getting bikes ready for everyone else and then BUILDING his own bike! He got the frame the day before! He's crazy!
Amazingly enough we managed to get on the road by 7, but we had to meat Andy Kerlin in Spanish Fork Canyon. He joined us after camping up there with friends. So really we were REALLY on the road by like 8:00. I had Tyler Newton, Andy and Majid Abbasi (from Iraq!!!!) in my car with me. Majid immediately conked out pretty good on the way there. Come to think of it... everyone did for a while! But we got a really good picture of Majid:

We rolled into Moab sometime around 11:00 and stopped at a bike shop to get a few last parts for Ian's new bike. (I can't believe he put a whole bike together in one night!)
The first trail of the day was Slick Rock. Somehow I managed to get put into the advanced group of riders! It was nice of them to let me come with them. :-) I hope I didn't slow them down too much. About 1/2 mile into the ride Tyler's deruailler snapped off. Total bummer, but at least we weren't super far away from the car. He took my keys and headed back to town to get it fixed while the rest of us rode the trail. About a mile late Josh's chain broke, but one of the bikers passing by had a tool and we got it fixed. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. For those of you who don't know much about Moab; its in the middle of red rock country. Absolutely beautiful. Slick Rock trail is just rolling hills of solid sandstone. It's a pretty unique ride because you get the steep descents and hills of mountain biking combined with the kind of traction you can get on sold concrete! That means you can have a pretty controlled ride which = SUPER fun!
Breaking for lunch. Me on the left, Josh in the back and Majid in the white. I should've taken a picture but from where we were sitting we could see people going up and over this crazy steep / tall ridge in their jeeps and hummers etc. It was pretty cool. I wouldn't be caught dead taking my own car over stuff like that. We were pretty sure they were all rental cars though because they all looked brand new!

Me on the left, Josh in the middle and Majid on the right.

Me on the left, Andy in the middle and Josh on the right. That's Moab down in the valley behind us. Check the great yellow fall leaves!

PS - I bought a new bike! A few months ago my mountain bike frame snapped in half. Booo! So I got it welded back together. Yay!!! Then, 2 days before this trip I took it out for a test drive and it broke in a different spot - where it really can't be welded so it was totalled! BOOOO / PANIC! I was supposed to go to Moab in less than 2 days. So what did I do? I jumped on KSL.com and found this steal of a deal. A 2 year old K2 that runs for $900 new. I think the guy only used it like 3 times EVER! It looks like it's right out of the box. AND I talked the guy down to $400! YAY! I was shocked at how much better the ride feels on a higher end bike. It is great! And to make the story better, I got clipless pedals and shoes for 60% off! WOW those make a huge difference. I love 'em!

Just a little way further along the loop was this great view up the canyon. Left to Right: me, Josh, Majid, Andi. You can see the road way down there on the right of the river. The resort Dad and Deb and the other adult Viehwegs were staying at was up this canyon.

One more for good measure.

At the end of this 12-ish mile loop I was totally beat! But the other guys - and Tyler with his fixed bike wanted to ride Porcupine Rim (the trail we did last year - see that post here). I would've loved to do it again, but I knew I would get about 1/2 way down and just die of fatigue. So I played shuttle / taxi and even managed to meet up with the parents etc. up at their resort to chat for a bit b/c their resort was just up the road from where Porcupine Rim ends. PERF! Anyway, that place is BEAUTIFUL! See Deb's pics here.
I couldn't stay for long, and once I was headed back to the end of the trail I got real nervous that they'd be waiting for me for a real long time. It was DARK by the time I got to the parking lot. I pulled up and sure enough they were all there - and they were all giving me this weird look! I thought it meant, "where the heck have you been - we've been here forever already!" But once I got out and appologized they just started laughing. I guess they had JUST pulled up, hopped off their bikes, saw a car coming and said, "that would be cool if that's Macsen." The timing couldn't have been better.
Needless to say they were all beat! I'm glad I didn't go. I would've died. We were all starving so off we went to Wendy's and then we headed for home. Majid immediately fell asleep across the back bench. He didn't flinch until we got to Spanish Fork. I thought I'd be super tired for the drive home but it really wasn't that bad. Tyler was great company and kept me talking the whole way.
What a fun trip! Next time I go I want to actually stay for a few days and get a few more trails in. I think 1 trail a day is enough. I guess their's a HUGE trail called "The Whole Enchilada" where you pay a shuttle to take you to the peak of the mountain - which is like 9000 feet and you ride the WHOLE way down. Apparently it takes ALL DAY LONG. Sounds super fun! Maybe next year....

The other night....

OK, so this really happened like a week and a half ago, but I gotta get it down before I forget any more details.
As a preface:
My roommates hosted a birthday party for someone in the ward which involved a wild tourney of Dance Dance Revolution. Unfortunately I was directly underneath them in my basement room trying to study. I seriously feared for my life as I watched the ceiling bounce up and down - fluctuating about 6 inches! I swear this old house I'm living in is going to come tumbling down around us someday.
On to the story...
At 3 AM I bolt out of bed convinced that the house actually IS caving in around us. I think some random noise outside triggered it or something. Anyway, you know how you're usually paralyzed for your dreams?? Well in this case my "paralyzer" was definitely broken so I acted everything out in full.
Of course the first thought to rush into my mind is, "oh shoot I have to save my roommate Brad!" So what did I do? I jumped out of bed and in one motion bounded across the room, grabbed Brad's legs and flung them around like rag dolls so they ended up somewhere up by his head. I also vaguely remember was asking Brad where our third roommate was, but I was super frustrated because I couldn't remember his name! **We don't even have a third roommate!** I'm sure I was just repeating, "Where's?....Where's??..... Have you seen.....???" And Brad was like, "Have I seen WHO?!?"
By then I was 1/2 way awake and 100% confused as to why in the heck I was standing over Brad holding him in such an odd position. *I guess Brad could see in my eyes when I went from dreaming to awake* Then I remembered the dream I was having. Brad just looked at me and was like, "what in the heck is going on??"
For the life of me I couldn't formulate a coherent thought - let alone voice it! It was SUPER weird! Finally I managed to say, "hang on..... I can't even think....." Or something like that.
At this point we both start to chuckle a little bit. I mean, come on. What a ridiculous position to be in!
I finally manage to explain the dream I was having which only made us laugh harder. After a few minutes I stumbled back over to my bed and fell right back to sleep. Poor brad was WIDE awake for the next 1/2 hour because of the adrenaline rush that came with me practically throwing him across the room. Hahahaha!
Poor Brad. What's the deal with all these crazy dreams I'm having? I NEVER remember my dreams!

Questions:

First of all, this took me FOREVER to figure out how in the heck to upload a document onto my blog. And now that it is uploaded it doesn't fit. Bummer. Does anyone out there know how to make the body of my posts wider??? I know it has something to do with editing the HTML in the Layout tab, but I have no idea how any of that works. There's just so much wasted space on the outsides and I think that's silly. I think I remember Nicole posting about stuff like that a long time ago but I couldn't find that post on her blog. :-(

Anyway, for now you can just click on the blue "fullscreen" link to be able to read my proposal.

So this is what has been eating my life lately:

For the last few months a former roommate and I have been trying to get a research project going with one of our professors. Both of us are going into medical professions so research is really going to make us look good as we apply to different schools. We decided to apply for an ORCA grant because, hey! Ya might as well make some money off the deal right?
Here's our proposal:
Proposal FINAL