Gingerbread Houses

On Friday my sister invited us over for our annual gingerbread house making contest. (We actually use graham cracker because they’re more convenient, but you get what I’m saying.) We had a few newbies this year and they always make a couple of rookie mistakes. I have been making gingerbread house for quite some years and if I can be so bold, I would like to share my lessons learned in the art of gingerbread (well graham cracker) house making. First lesson, never make your house to big. A couple of years back my brother attempted to make a very sophisticated house, it turned out looking like a cathedral it was so big, however the problem with making big houses is that you get burnt out to quickly. You spend all your time making the house that when the real important time comes, putting the candy on, you are too tired to finish. So, all your house consist of is graham crackers and frosting. (And really, if there isn’t lots of candy, what is the point of making one at all.) Second lesson and this is the most important one, make sure to get to the candy part as soon as possible. (Hence a small house, you can get to this part faster.) The reason you want to get to the candy part as soon as possible, is because if you wait too long all the good candy is gone. I mean everyone wants to put starburst and peanut butter cups on their house but who really wants to put those gum drop thingies on, not me. Hope this information helps. :-) Happy house making.


The finished product. Mike made a fort and I made a piece of cake.

Santa's Little Helper

My mom used to be a great helper to Santa when it came to the gift giving/receiving part of Christmas. Since she has passed away Christmas has never been quite the same at the Beesley home. This year I get to be Santa’s little helper and I hope to do Santa and my mom proud.

At first it seemed like a daunting task, but the more I prepare for it, the more fun it is becoming. I am also excited that everyone gets to come over to our house. This will be the first time Mike and I have had Christmas with the family here. I made a list and checked it twice and yesterday I went out and did some shopping. I’ve bought gift cards, clothes, some electronics and some great stocking stuffer. I’m going to have brunch too, after we open the presents. For me Christmas is such a special, magical time of year and I hope I can help everyone feel that.

Christmas Concert

I have wanted to go to a Christmas concert this season, so when I got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert featuring The King Singers, I was really excited. I asked some ladies in my neighborhood to come with me and we made a whole night of it with dinner too. We left ourselves plenty of time (so we thought) to drive up town, park and get to our seats. However, when we arrived at the entrance designated on our tickets, they told us it was full and we would have to try to get some seats on the upper level. We rushed upstairs and were the next in line to go in (seriously the next in line) when we were told that there was no more seats available. We were kind of bummed. See, the problem with the tickets were that there were no seat assignments only a section assignment and then you could sit wherever you wanted within that section. The other problem was that they over booked the tickets by a few hundred people, so a bunch of people got turned away. The tickets were free or else I would have been super ticked, but I was with friends and found the situation only semi-annoying. I was a little bugged that we drove all the way up to Salt Lake, just to turn around again, but what do you do. After our rejection at the Conference center we debated upon shopping, bowling or a movie. We ended up at the movie theater. Guess there is always next year for the Christmas Concert.

A Story with a Moral

On Friday I decided to clean my shower. I sprayed it down with Limelite, which is supposed to be good for removing soap scum, and started scrubbing. Well the Limelite wasn’t doing quite the job I wanted, so I poured some Comet with Bleach on it. When I did this it made a hissing sound and some fumes rose up, (which should have been a clue to stop) but I just kept on cleaning. About an hour and a half later, I started having trouble breathing and a pain in my chest. I was home alone and wasn’t planning on going into work that day, but because I didn’t want to die all alone where no one would know what happened to me, I decided to go in. When I got there I told Mike about it and he said if I was worried then I should go into Instacare. That seemed a little much, so I just called Poison Control instead. I told the guy my story and asked him if I was going to die. He said yes I was going to die, but not because of this. :-) He told me in the future, I shouldn’t mix Clorox with anything. The nice thing about it was he told me Poison Control was going to call me the next day, which they did, just to make sure I was ok. Isn’t that nice. So… the moral of this story is: Don’t mix Clorox with other cleaning detergents. However, I’m sure most of you already knew that.

A little about me...

1. What time did you get up this morning? Oh about 10:30 and it isn’t even the weekend...That is my life with no job and no kids. (This is actually turning into a really bad habit.)
2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls are my birthstone, so I should like them better, but I’m going to have to go with Diamonds, there is just something about how they sparkle.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Beowulf. I didn’t really think it was that good, but the guys seemed to love it.
4. What is your favorite TV show? I love anything reality, as you may know from previous posts, but I also like The Office, 30 Rock and Criminal Minds.
5. What did you have for breakfast? Kashi cereal. High in protein and fiber. Yum-Yum
6. What is your middle name? Jane
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican or American
8. What foods do you dislike? Onions. (I like them mixed in foods, but not on sandwiches or hamburgers.)
9. Favorite chips? Lays crinkle potato chips.
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I don’t know if I have a favorite CD right now, but what’s in my CD player is a book called Hattie Big Sky, which I am really enjoying.
11. What kind of car do you drive? A 2005 Honda Pilot.
12. What is your favorite sandwich? The Caputo from Tony Caputo’s. The Deli is located on 3rd West and 3rd South. If you are every in Salt Lake, you need to stop by and try it. It’s delicious.
13. What characteristics do you despise? Well despise is a strong word, but a characteristics I don’t like is when people don’t RSVP and when people are more than 15 minutes late. (I don’t like being late, but more than 15 minutes is just rude.)
14. What are your favorite clothes? Long shirts and Capri pants. For as long as I live, I will never let these go out of style.
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Fiji or Tahiti, one of those cool islands where the water is crystal clear and you can stay in those cool huts over the ocean.
16. Favorite brand of clothing? I don't mind any brand, as long as it fits and looks good.
17. Where would you want to retire? Utah for the summer, maybe Arizona for the winter. I’ll be snow bird.
18. Favorite time of day? I really like the hours between 7:00pm and when I go to bed.
19. Where were you born? Murray, Utah
20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Not a big sports fan. Unless I get invited to a live game I don’t watch sports.
21. Pepsi or Coke? I don’t like Pepsi or Coke, but I prefer Coke products to Pepsi products.
22. Beavers or duck? What???
23. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night Owl
24. Pedicure or manicure? Pedicure. I love having cute toes.
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I saved a lot on car insurance…Ha-Ha. Just kidding, no nothing new.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? I don’t remember, probably a mom. 27. What is your best childhood memory? Not having a care in the world.
28. Piercing? Two in each ear, but I only wear earrings in one.
29. Ever been to Africa? No, but it would be cool to go on a safari.
30. Ever been toilet papering? Yes. Good times.
31. Ever been in a car accident? Yes, but it wasn't too bad. I was making a left turn to get on the freeway to go to St. George and I got hit on the front passenger’s side. Everyone was ok, so we just went and got a different car and headed to St. George a couple of hours latter.
32. Favorite day of the week? Our date night, which is Saturday, or any day I get to do something fun.
33. Favorite restaurant? Café Rio
34. Favorite Flower? Roses
35. Favorite ice cream? Mint mixed with oreos and caramel.
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Apollo Burger
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Twice, can you believe it? I promise I’m a really good driver now. :-)
38. From whom did you get your last e-mail? Michelle (my dear friend)
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? I would never max out my credit card. I’m too frugal to do that. If someone was holding a gun to my head and told me to max out my credit card it would probably be at Target.
40. Bedtime? Usually around midnight.
41. Last person you went to dinner with? Mike
42. What are you listening to right now? The humming of the computer.
43. What is your favorite color? Green or Blue
44. Last movie you watched: Invisible. I usually just ignore flaws in movies, but this one had too many to count. I give it two thumbs down.

Christmas Lights

At the beginning of December my aunt and cousins invited me to go with them to see the lights at Temple Square. We had a fun filled night of shopping at Ikea, dinner at the Olive Garden and seeing the lights. We froze our buns off, but had lots of fun together.