44 and Feelin' Fine

44. I guess I'm getting old.  It's my aching back that reminds me of that.  It hurts for no reason! Yeah, I literally have no idea why it hurts- I did nothing that I know of, there was no pop, no painful event, no new or strenuous activity. Just started gradually hurting, then would feel better, then would feel worse.  A painful mobility roller coaster of sorts.  GRRR! It's aging! I'm aging! (deep breathing. . . in . . .  and . . .  out . . .). 

ah.. thanks for letting me get that off my back ;)

I really didn't mean to start my birthday blogpost with a complaint session.  Let's dive into a happier space! I am so loved and I'm grateful to get to celebrate my birthday with my loved ones!  They kept asking me what I wanted to do the entire week previous.  I really couldn't think of anything.  I was just coming off of celebrating Christmas with Lily being home just barely.  

Well, when I awoke on my birthday it was clear to me what I wanted to do.  I was still in bed with Steve, just taking a lazy morning, then Amara and Lily came in and wished me a happy birthday. I told them my birthday plans of eating and thrifting, then grabbing snacks at the store and coming home for a movie together.  We watched the story of Alma Richards "Raise the Bar." Everyone was game, and the day went off without a hitch.  So much fun!  Great memories.  My favorites!

When I finally got up and walked out into the living room, it was decorated for my birthday amongst all the Christmas.  And Amara threw confetti on me.  :) I know one day I won't get a birthday confetti shower but I sure LOVE that she does that to me each year.

God also confetti'd the world... I woke up to some snow dusting the ground.  We haven't had much snow all winter.  I felt so special.  I love snow and I love God sending me that little treat.

At night, my loving family sang to me. I got an Italian Cream Bar Cake with Cream Cheese frosting from Walmart.

We ate at Plaza Mexicana in Vernal.  Lots of delicious food! When you start eating, you can tell it fills in the cracks.

Veggie enchiladas

Crispy rellenos and ground beef enchilada

soft chile rellenos

Love this place and love these crazy peeps

Thought we'd get another pic in front to include the red Dino and get the whole family in there.

When I woke up I had an idea to go thrifting and creating an upcycled gift to give each other.  Then Lily shared a fun date idea of buying an ugly shirt for each other and wearing them to the store. That idea resonated with me! So it was a plan! We assigned names to everyone and went thrifting at Neighborhood Thrift.  This little activity was fun.

Found a soda I actually like!  This one is so good!

We tried all kinds of fancier sodas.  Uhm.  I didn't like any except the culture POP.  I really hated the prickly pear.  It was so spicy it tasted like someone opened 5 bottles of various spices and dumped them in there.  The olipop tasted so artificial and candy-like instead of fruity.

Look at the gift Steve got me!  A new foot massager!

One Week Later...

My mom took me on a birthday date.  We went to Duchesne and ate Mexican food and went thrifting there!  It was awesome.  The place we went to was a cute cafe called Fely's.  I love places like that.  The food was delicious! 

We stopped by 2 thrift shops.  Amara bought me an insulated water bottle carrier which I love. 

2 mixed tacos and a chicken Gordita.  I love all the sauces.

My mom got Chile rellenos and rice and beans.

It came with fresh tortillas.  Amara gladly ate them.

Amara loves horchata and this place has the real deal.  Very good!

Things I've loved about my previous year:

~Going to the gym classes and getting stronger with my mom and Amara and even Steve sometimes.

~Early morning Monday P-day calls with my missionary daughter

~Learning/practicing chair yoga and mindfulness with Whitney

~Duo Lingo Portuguese... It's not that I love the daily practice, but I do love that I'm going after a hard goal.

~Retiring from our photography business

~Dropping teaching the academic classes (creative writing and geography) to make room for the other classes I really wanted to pursue teaching... Teams for Teens, Social dance, Folk and Line Dance, and Creative teen leadership. I love working with teens in this space.  It's my goal to have them experience love, caring, and seeing their value.

~Getting closer to my weight loss goals.

~Volunteering at Family Search Center

~My callings of Primary Music Leader and then after that Just Serve Assistant Coordinator with Steve.

~Daily Journaling and seeing God's love in this reflective time

~A beautiful garden

~Help from sister missionaries in my yard

~ Our landscaping rocks project finished

~ Our front porch lifted

~ Family reunions

~My first car camping trips to Whiterocks and Heber Valley

~I'm sure lots of other things I can't think of right now, but I truly am blessed.  God is good to us!

January Date: Hideout and More Lyrics

It was my turn to plan our monthly anniversary-date.  Since it fell on Saturday, we got to go to lunch.  I knew I wanted to go out to eat somewhere where we could share a really yummy dessert.  I also didn't want to drive very far, so that limited us. I jumped onto Facebook and looked at the desserts at a few local restaurants and landed on the Hideout Steakhouse because they had some dessert reels that SOLD me.  And it was about as far as I wanted to travel, about 15 min drive...which ended up being great because some of our best conversations are during the car ride.

So, we got there, and it was pretty slow, just a few other people in the restaurant.  We perused the menu and honestly I was so hungry everything looked so good.  Steve knew what he wanted almost right away- the hamburger.  Classic.  Basic.  I wanted the half- cranberry-pecan salad, then I wanted toasted green beans, then I wanted pulled pork sandwich, then I wanted brisket... Pretty soon the waitress was right there and I had to just choose or I'd never eat. So, I went with the brisket dinner since I've never had it there and I never make it at home.  It felt special and sounded delicious.  Actually typing this right now is making my mouth water being reminded of the savory memory.

Channelling Our Inner-Lyricist

I had brought along my kindle scribe and planned for us to write another verse to the song we started a couple months ago. So, we got to work.  Steve is a natural word-smith and we pulled together a second chorus just before our food arrived.  Since the first chorus we wrote 2 months ago was all about razzing Steve, we chose to razz me for the second chorus.  The song we hijacked was Blinding Lights.

The FOOD!

As I said before, Steve got the burger and fries.  That comes with fry sauce might I add!  That's a good sign if a restaurant offers fry sauce without having to ask for mayo to make our own.  Anyway, Steve really enjoyed fry sauce on his burger, and after about halfway through eating it, he said that it's the best burger in the basin.  5 out of 5.  The fries he gave a 2.5 out of 5.  Average, though the fry sauce probably brings that up to a 3.

My meal was 8 oz of brisket with mashed potatoes n gravy and coleslaw. Nineteen bucks.  Better be good.  I went straight for the coleslaw, and found it to be average 3 out of 5.  But then I salted it and it was 3.5. Went into the brisket next and... drop my jaw off my face! That meat was so tender, so flavorful, so mouthwateringly magnificent. 5 out of 5! The bbq sauce was also good.  Thank you to the souls who discovered how to slow smoke the meat and the chefs who skillfully crafted that amazing food.  I write that now but I literally thought those words when I was eating the meat.  Each bite was so good!  And if you're wondering, the potatoes and gravy were 3 out of 5, average.

DESSERT!

I've been nutritious-conscious eating lately, and a good dessert has been calling my name.  There were lots of options, but I let Steve pick and he went with warm peach cobbler and a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.  It was perfect to share, and we both decided it needed a touch of salt to bring out the flavor.  We were being such food critics, but that was kinda fun to talk about our food experience.  The ice cream was really good.  I think with the salted cobbler, we gave this dessert a 4 out of 5. 

 The company was great, the food was great, our little lyric activity was fun and funny.  Another fantastic date in the books.  PS- I love the foggy January world right now.  

December Date: Mi Casa

It was Steve's turn to plan our date, which was on a Wednesday.  By the time he got home, it was almost dark, and we were both ready to eat.  He chose to give me a choice of Mexican or pizza place- I wanted to eat ASAP, so I opted for Mexican where I knew chips and salsa would be immediately served to us.  So we were off to Mi Casa, a quick drive down the road.  

They have some great murals painted in their restaurant, which I did a terrible job of getting a selfie with, but I love the atmosphere of this place.  

Indeed as we were seated, my dreams came true and chips and salsa accompanied our waitress.  I'm a lots of salsa + little chips type of eater, in case you were wondering. Steve also likes more salsa to chip ratio, but not as heavy as me.  

We've been here before and know some things we like, so the order went in fast, and before you knew it, we had two hot plates of Mexican magic awaiting to delight our tastebuds.  Steve went with the ground beef chimichanga with no sour cream.  I got the chile relleno with chile verde smother.

Guys... these smiles on our faces in the pics below were taken before we ate.  We look extra excited, right? Well, this food did not disappoint. We ate every. single. bite. It really was soooooo gooooood!

Can I just say how much I love our new tradition?  Going on dates with Steve feeds my soul.  He's such a wonderful man and I'm so lucky to be his wife and get to spend time with him.  

 

Merry Christmas to All~

 Our 2025 Christmas Newsletter

Enjoy!

Our November Date: Try New Food Truck and HiJack a Song

 

It was Monday and my turn to plan our date.  I knew our energy would be waning by the time Steve got home from work, so I wanted to keep things close by.  I had been scrolling on Facebook and saw a new food truck in our area called The Breeze. They serve gourmet burgers and a variety of seasoned fries.  I knew Steve liked seasoned fries, so I opted to give it a go.

When Steve got home we hopped in the car and headed out.  When I told him my plan he took a deep breath in and let out a disappointed groan.  

"What was that?" I asked. 

"Nothing." he said. "Your choice.  It's fine."  

"Well, why did you make that sound?" I pried. 

He admitted, "I just get nervous trying new places. Have you heard good things?"  A flood of thoughts started to fill my mind...Have I heard good things? Are you serious? Are you seriously questioning my date plans all because it's a new experience? Psh!

Feeling somewhat dejected I responded matter-of-factly, "Nope.  Just wanted to try something new and thought you might like to try the seasoned fries."  

Trying to keep the mood light, he said, "It's fine. We'll give it a try." I sensed him trying to be accommodating so I also tried to push past my hurt and move on.

You know, side note, I hate disappointing people especially when I've put a lot of thought into trying to please them, and Steve can't help his anxiety of trying new things- so we were both in a place of insecurity.  But guess what? Going through hard things together is good for us.  Facing our fears- it's important in developing resilience and strengthening our relationship. Right?  This too is an important part of dating. 

This reminds me of when Steve and I went on our first single date.  He took me to the Pizza Factory.  I ordered a caesar salad and so Steve decided to do the same.  Then he asked me, "What is a caesar salad?" I was sorta surprised he didn't know, but told him the dressing is made with a little anchovy, lemon, egg yolk... and he got visibly nervous.  When I questioned him about it he said that he's normally strictly a ranch dressing kind of guy.  We could've changed the order, but he decided to try it anyway.  Luckily, caesar dressing wasn't as horrifying as he thought and although he didn't really like it, he ate it.  

And while I'm reminiscing let me add one more memory.  My family took Steve to eat at an Asian buffet when we were first married.  He had never tried octopus and there was a dish with little mini octopus tentacles in it.  He went for it and only dry heaved twice trying to get it down.  We were all laughing.  He had a harder time when he tried raw fish.  Just the thought caused him to gag multiple times before even eating it.  It was funny.

Now back to our date...

Since the food truck didn't post their precise location, we had to drive around and look for it, but luckily we live in a small town and we found it within 5 minutes, parked at a car parts store across from Burger King.

We parked and walked up to the menu.

After perusing the options, I decided on the Breeze burger made with berry jalapeño jam, cream cheese, sautéed bell peppers, jalapeños and pepper jack.  I chose chipotle pineapple fries.  Steve then surprised me and made me a little nervous for him- he ordered the strangest burger on the menu- the Black Pearl.  Go big or go home, I guess.  His burger advertised blackberries, bacon, cheesecake spread and pepper jack cheese.  Cheesecake spread on a burger?  That's right folks.  With a side of garlic parm fries.

While we waited for our food to arrive, I introduced our activity- hijacking a song we both agree on and changing the lyrics to create a parody about our first date and how we fell in love.  We scrolled through some songs and decided to go with Blinding Lights by The Weeknd.  Then our food was ready so we picked it up and drove up the street.  By this time the sun was beginning to set, so we parked at the nature park and watched the deer in the field while eating our food.

The drive wasn't that long, maybe 5 minutes, but the steam from the fries and the moist burger toppings totally sogged up the bottom bun.  Nevertheless, we both thought flavor-wise, our burgers and fries were  really good. Practicality though- the cream cheese fillings were slippery and causing everything to slide out.  These were MESSY burgers. I think the food truck owners must've known that because they included hand wipes in our take out containers.

I know it kinda looks like a murder scene, but it was tasty.

Steve's burger was really sweet and we were both relieved that the cheesecake and berries actually paired nicely with the burger. He said he'd order it again.  WIN!! Yay! Trying a new place didn't bite us back.  We enjoyed our food and they gave us each enough fries to feed a family!  And may I say I appreciate a place that includes fry sauce.  I love the stuff!  Their fry sauce has a little smokiness to it as well.

  

If I get the Breeze again, I'll request light on the cream cheese.

If I go back I wanna try the cowboy burger- pineapple on a burger sounds yummy.  I only say "if" because the prices were on the higher end of what we normally pay when we go out to eat.  It cost us nearly $50 after tax and tip for these burgers and fries we had to eat in our car.  That's steep considering I just paid the same price for 4 of us to eat at China Star.

After we ate, we sure enjoyed laughing at our creative song lyrics.  We started with the chorus and it fit well, then we created the 1st verse and it was funny (probably only to us) and also a bit rough on the rhythm.  And since my posterity is sure to be curious and want an eye-raising (and possibly eye-rolling) experience reading what we wrote, here it is:

VERSE 1

I've been tryna call

We've been playin' phone tag long enough

Ain't got no-o cell phone or Facebook 

aiding me

 

Now I get to pick you up

We'll have a good night out on the town

Smoothies, bowling, rando-tennis courts, baby!

I look around and

His cardigan's an heirloom

It's from his dead grandfather

But in the end it's from D-I-I-I

CHORUS

I said oooooh I'm blinded by your legs

The brightness of the sun couldn't do as much

I said oooooh I'm drowning in the white

Oh now I see why pants are things you trust

(Hey Hey Hey)

Alright, that song is a crack up to me, it's full of inside quirks of our first date and getting to know each other. Yes, I remember what Steve wore, his grandpa's old grey cardigan.  My first thoughts were, "I like a guy who doesn't seem to be overly-occupied with how he looks and is confident enough to sport his own style." He wore that cardigan several times and told me that it was his grandpa's.  Then his sister DoraLee set him straight one day, "That wasn't grandpa's!  I bought it for a high school dance from D.I.!" (D.I. is a local thrift store.) After that, Steve was less attached to the cardigan and it found it's way back to D.I..

So, when I video called with Lily who is currently on a mission in Maine, she couldn't stop laughing, especially at the last line- now I see why pants are things you trust.  And take note- Steve still trusts his pants to protect his white legs.

We both agreed that the song kinda grilled Steve so the next verse needs to be about me.  So hopefully that means we'll continue this later.

Anyway, I really love our dates together.  By the time we went home, we had been writing in the dark for about an hour in a practically empty parking lot.  We laughed a lot and reminisced.  I'm glad we included this creative activity for our November date. I just love spending time with Steve!

October Date: High Country Pizza

 Steve's turn to plan our date and it was a Friday night.  Friday has often meant pizza night for our family through the years, so isn't it fitting that Steve chose a pizza place to take me to?  I love High Country Pizza. We sat right next to the front window where the sun could gently warm my back while we ate.  

Steve got a personal pizza and I got a calzone. Steve also got an ice cream and we bought a big cookie to take home to Amara.  Our date was fantastic. The food was good and the convo was better. We answered some fun couples questions I had received in an email from romance expert, Hunter something. Seriously, Steve is the best to talk to.  Another great date in the books.

I forgot to take any pics, so here's a photo taken a few days later at the eye doctor's where Steve and Amara got their eyes dilated.

New Dating Tradition! Ebike and Frisbee at the Park

I approached Steve smiling a hopeful smile, "Hey hon.  I...am... wanting to ask you something but I hesitate because I really want you to say yes, and I don't know how you'll feel about it."

"Uh oh!" was the immediate response I heard from both him and Amara who was also in the room.  

I was a bit taken back by their unianimous reaction.  "Before I ask you, I want to know what you guys think I'm going say."

They both thought it was something to do with big chores. 

"Well, it's not that, so you can relax a little. I was reading an email and it mentioned a dating idea- you go on a date with your spouse each month on the day you were married. So for us it would be the 3rd of every month.  And we alternate who plans the date."

"Oh. Yeah.  We should do that!" Steve said.  "I'll plan the first one." He was actually really positive and on board without any persuasion on my part.  AWESOME! And so our new dating tradition was born.  

"Plus, that will probably help me remember the actual date of our anniversary." He added.  Which is true.  He often thinks we were married on the 6th for some reason.

First Date

August 3rd was our first date.  A Sunday.  He had it in his calendar and gave it some good thought.  I wish I had some pictures to document the date, but I was just enjoying it.  He planned for us to go on an ebike ride to the park.  He brought a frisbee and we just enjoyed the park to ourselves, threw the disc to eachother and chatted.  It was a really great first date!  I love talking to Steve.  He's the best and I am blessed to be married to him.  

Date Two

I got to plan the next date which was on a Wednesday, and I wanted to be all special and creative, but the more thought I gave to it the more I thought it was best to just keep it simple since we were both going to be busy and tired.  

Well tired was an understatement.  More on that later.  But, I landed on us going out to eat at the brand new steakhouse in town, Swains.  I've been wanting to try it for awhile.  

So, Steve looked at the menu and ordered an appetizer, fried pickles and fried green beans.  He said he wasn't feeling very hungry.  I went with the cowboy chicken cordon bleu.  The waitress brought us warm rolls and cinnamon honey butter.  That was actually my favorite thing.  I ended up taking most of my food home because it was WAY too rich.  It was chicken with bacon on it and mashed potatoes drowning in a very cheesy thick gravy.  

While we waited for our food I tried to make conversation but Steve's answers were delayed.  He was so drowsy and you could tell.  He had taken benedryl right before our date to help with the horrid reaction to a yellow-jacket wasp sting he got.  It was super itchy.  I think that stuff put his brain to sleep.  On a positive note, he was a really warm body to cuddle up next to on the restaurant bench since it was sorta cold in there.  We just snuggled, ate rolls, and took our food home.  

PS. Steve's sting/itchiness/pain took longer than you'd think to calm down, but it eventually did go away. 

In the Future

I love our new tradition and I'm looking forward to our future dates.  I love that Steve takes a turn planning! I've definitely dominated that aspect of our dating in the past and not really by choice. I've already been thinking what I might plan for my next turn, and I'm sure it will be a good one, no matter how it turns out. After all, the best part isn't the date—it's the person you're with."