Well isn't that awkward....

I was at the grocery store yesterday when I came across a flyer advertising the grand opening of Trochu Fitness. I was SUPER excited. Maybe now, I thought, I could be motivated enough to get into shape.

I was terribly surprised and disappointed when I learned WHERE the new fitness place was. It was the PARK!! What? How weird is that? Tell me, who has ever heard of an outdoor gym?

Now obviously, I will not start working out there. It is right in front the water park and swimming pool and right off Main Street. Awkward...to say the least!!!

That isn't to say we couldn't go there for a laugh though. This morning, Maeggan and I decided to head out to the "gym" for a bit of a mock work out. SO FUNNY! It really was too much fun.

Aren't you jealous. I mean, a work out for free! Although, you will have to pay with the embarrassment you will feel by working your buns off in front of anyone who wants to watch!

Who would've thunk. Definitely NOT me. It never would've occurred to me to have fitness equipment in the park. It is funny though. I can't wait to see who frequents it. ;)

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the heck this wheelie thingy is? Maeggan and I were super confused!

Life waits for no one....especially me.

For anyone who knows me, I love a good deal. I was raised by a coupon-clipping, flyer-reading, hit-every-store-before-buying-to-compare-prices kind of mom. I love my mom and the lessons that she taught me about being thrifty.

That is why I was so thrilled when I came upon this little number. Now, I probably wouldn't have picked this couch out as my favorite couch of all time, but that's okay. As I said, I love a good deal and this couch was only $300!! How could you say no to that? I totally LOVE Costco.

Totally on a different line of thought....I would love to be able to have one of those lives where you wake up in the morning and know just what is going to happen for that day and then, miraculously, it happens. I DO NOT have that kind of life. My darling husband has made sure that things are always changing. Case in point:

At the beginning of the week, I got a phone call from Kaye again. He had another great idea that I just had to say yes to. What was that idea? We had a Japanese man come to live with us....yesterday. Kaye really doesn't like to waste any time. We have been feverishly moving, cleaning, and reorganizing to be ready for the arrival of Shogo (I have no idea how to spell it but it sounds like show-go).

I have to admit, he is SUPER nice. He even got out his little electronic translater to tell me that my food was nice, tasty, and delicious, and gave Marcus and Colby adorable little boxes of candy (which won them over instantly) and us a box of....well, I have no idea what they are but they look nice. What a sweetie. What a night we had last night. Shogo doesn't speak more than about 10 English words. It was interesting trying to talk to him. We did get out of him that he has a 19 year old and 17 year old, which thoroughly surprised me. He doesn't look any older than Kaye!

This is the stuff that Shogo gave Kaye and I. I tried it, but Kaye was chicken and left it up to me. It is sort of jelly-like, but not very sweet. There were bean sort of things in it too. ?? Who knows, it was interesting but sweet of him to give us something.

I loved the cute little candy box that the kids got and the candies were cute too! Colby has already eaten half the box and I had to hide it.

I love the pattern on the boxes. :)

So, now we have a new couch and a man who we cannot understand sitting on it! Maybe one day life will calm down for me.

How much do you love your husband?

I really really love my husband. He is loving, kind, makes me laugh, is a total goof, extremely generous, and hard working. We have a great marriage. He is just so lucky that I feel this way!!!!!

This morning, this darling man called me asking for a favour. Not just a run of the mill "can you bring me something to eat" sort of favour...no that would be too easy. The favour for this morning was washing work gloves! Kaye, as you may know, works for Sunterra Meats, a PIG processing plant. I have to admit, I wasn't too worried about it. I've done my share of laundry. BUT, I was not prepared for the task that met me.

Kaye had one of his supervisors come give me the gloves and....a GAS MASK!! I was shocked. Was it that bad??? Apparently, yes. Even with the gas mask they stunk...AND...they were so bad it made my eyes water. WOW! Really, really not prepared for that. I deserve something special for this one.

* Mmmm...pig blood.

* I was really not looking forward to lugging this into the house. Please note the blood stains on the bottom of the bag.

* Me suiting up for the job....

About 45 minutes ago, I was happily sitting at my computer...having a good day might I add, when I heard a GLUG, GLUG, GLUG. What did I find making that GLUG, GLUG, GLUG, all over my carpet? A 3L jug of bubbles! That's right...BUBBLES! Thanks to my lovely toddler Elijah, I think that I have now lost my earlier enthusiasm for blowing bubbles for my children. I've just spent the last 45 minutes sucking soap out of my carpet...with no end in sight! To make it worse, I just realized that my little green machine that I was so grateful to have...is leaking all over my carpet!!! Now, I get to clean up the HUGE bubble puddle on my carpet AND the mess from my leaking piece of crap shampooer. I LOVE being a mom.

Grade Three....How did he get so old?

This morning, I dropped Marcus off in front of his school to a crowd of 'Marcus fans'. It was so cute. A group of about 6 kids came running to my van screaming their heads off. As he got out they came around giving him pats on the back and pulling him to the basketball court. It made me so happy to see him do well and enjoy his new school.
If only Colby was old enough for kindergarten. He is just so jealous of Marcus getting to play with kids every day. I feel bad that he has to stay home with boring old mommy all the time without fun things to do.

Now, I realize that my blog is named Cookies Anyone? but I'm not going to share a cookie recipe just yet. First, I'm going to share a recipe for muffins. Why, you might ask? Because that's what I just baked. So there you have it. Muffins it is.

I love to bake, as my fluffy physique can attest to. I find great joy in creating something warm and comforting.....maybe I should take up quilting :)

Generally, I am a Martha girl. I usually turn to her first when I am in need (or want) of a good recipe, but recently I took my chances on a website called www.joyofbaking.com and it paid off! Every recipe that I have tried from there (with the exception of the chocolate cupcakes) has turned out magnificently. Try it, I know you will love it too!

Now, without further delay.....Strawberry Banana Muffins. Mmmmm!

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup diced fresh strawberries

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin (I like to grease it because it makes the muffins a tad crispy and that's good!)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and banana. Set aside.

In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gently fold in the strawberries and make sure that they are well coated with flour. Coating them prevents your muffins from turning pink from the strawberries.

Add your wet ingredients to the flour/strawberry mixture and stir until just combined.

Spoon batter into muffin tin about 2/3 full. It says that it makes 12 muffins but mine usually makes more like 18. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden in the preheated oven. Enjoy!

*These are best the day you make them. They tend to get a bit dense and not as nice to eat after that.

Hope you get a chance to check out the website...and try the muffins. They are super yummy. Happy eating!

Okay, so I'm going to need some time to get the hang of this blogging thing. Hopefully, they will look a bit better in the future!

It's official! I am totally crazy now. I am living in a town of 1500 and don't know anyone! I needed to reach out via the world wide web and find some people I do know...to try and curb the craziness.

This summer has been super busy. Right at the beginning of the summer, Kaye was called to be the new young men's president and got to go on scout camp, which he thoroughly loved. He went on an overnight hike with a boy from our branch, Zach Kerr. I think they had fun. I was a little worried, Kaye is SO out of shape, but he did it with flying colours. Those two were up at the front of the group and made it back down the mountain first.
After the camp, Kaye finally got around to building our MUCH needed fence. I am so glad that I can now punt the kids into the backyard and they can go crazy with me at ease about their wellbeing.

In the beginning of August, we attended the Zander/Kronebusch/Balay reunion and had a ton of fun. The kids loved seeing their cousins and it was great to play catch up with all the family.

On August 10th Marcus officially became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I am so proud of my not-so-little-anymore boy.
We also took a trip to Calaway with Kurt and Jen. It was fun to take the kids out there, it was just SO hot! Kaye looked so silly in that tiny boat. :)

This summer has just flown by. Now it's back to school (for Marcus as well as myself) and cold weather. I woke up to frost this morning. It's only September 2nd!