What do you get?

What do you get when you take....


Raspberries


and


MCP


You get Raspberry Jam.

As you may know Adam and I have a raspberry bush at our house, so for the past TWO weeks we saved everyone and froze them so we could make jam. After we got from the Spanish Fork parade we had time to kill till we went to the Rodeo. The jam tastes wonderful, I'm so happy I have a husband that loves to cook as much as I do.

The countdown is now on....Only 3 days left til our first anniversary.

Hiking, and my new calling.

Yesterday, Saturday July 18, 2009.
Adam and I decided to hike Timp. I have never hiked it before and the last time Adam did it was when he was in high school, which was a little while ago. Adam's brother Jon, and two of Jon's buddies came with us. So what do we do?...we wake up at 5:00AM and get ready so we can be at Jon's house at 6:00. Well we woke up a little late, and got there 15 minutes late. Adam and I were hoping to be up and hiking between 6:30 or 7, but we didn't start the hike til 7:30. Now if any of you have hike up Timp before you know it takes about 3-4 hours to get up to the top, most people go up there so the can slide down the glacier. Which means you have to hike to the summit, well we didn't hike to the summit. First reason is because we had to be back home by 6 so we could get ready for our friends to come at 7. Second reason is because we were too tired, and Adam was not feeling well when we reached the pond(which is just below the summit). Adam and I did better than we though we only took us 3 1/2 hours to reach it, and yes we were dieing.

Me and the beautiful valley.

Coming down the the mountain took less time and went by a lot faster. I love hiking, there are so many beautiful things to look at. Nature really is a beautiful site.

The pond, and yes that is indeed ice. They look like clouds to me just looking at the picture. There was a group of younger kids there and they were jumping into the pond. I could never do that, that water is freezing!

Really cool waterfall. walking behind this waterfall felt so good, because I was really hot and the water help to cool me down.

The glacier that everyone slides down at the top

Oh and just a little not to anyone who wants to hike up here one day. Start early in the morning, it's much better to do it that way. It's a ton cooler in the morning.

MY NEW CALLING

So last week in church the called me to be a primary worker, and in our ward they wait til after you're called to be a primary worker to actually call you to a position in primary. So I waited all week for the primary president to call me and tell me what class I was to teach. Nothing all week, no call, no nothing. I was getting a little worried and then yesterday I got a knock on the door...and what do you know, it was the primary president....and my new calling is.....

NURSERY!

How much more awesome can it get. I love little kids. She told me just to come down to nursery this Sunday and she would show me around. Well after Adam and I went hiking on Saturday, I was burnt on my neck, forehead, and ears. My knees hurt, my legs, and my hips kind of hurt too. I didn't think much of it til I TRIED to get out of bed this morning. Haha, now that was a challenge, but I did make it to nursery, just not sacrament meeting. The one thing I will miss now that I do having a calling is getting to sit with Adam in Sunday school. :( now I just get to sit with him in sacrament meeting.

GARDEN

When Adam and I moved into our house we set a goal to grow a garden in the spring, and after much cold and thinking that spring would never come we finally got our garden in. Our garden has been such a joy for both of us, neither of us had ever done a garden by ourselves before. We planted: tomatoes, jalapenos, green peppers, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, radishes, garlic, onions, celery, a watermelon(sadly the cats ate it we think), chives, and cucumbers.

Our garden!

Well now that our garden has grown we finally get to eat some of it! So dinner tonight we had baked potatoes with ham, broccoli, and chives. When you grown your own broccoli it taste so much better than the store bought stuff.

Yummy broccoli

The chives I cut up for our potatoes

When Adam and I moved into our house we found out that we had a raspberry bush on the side of our yard, since we moved into our house in the fall we had to wait til the summer til we got to eat them. Well it turned out that they started to come on while we were in Arizona, and my sister Megan was eating them all(as my mom called and told us). Even though we got home around 10 at night we still went outside in the dark with a flashlight and got some to eat. For a while now we have been wanting to make homemade jam with them. So today while dinner was cooking I took the adventure of going out and picking them, to make the jam you have to have 2 cups smashed raspberries. Adam and I decided that we would pick them and freeze them until we have enough, and I tell you what we are almost there after one day of picking.

Don't they look soooo good!

I can't wait till we get enough and we can make jam with them.

The 4th of July weekend

Since Grandma's funeral was on Monday July 6, we had everyone from Arizona up for the 4th of July weekend. It was really busy and full of fun, it was so much fun to see everyone and get to do stuff with them. Adam's cousin Amber and her husband Karl stayed with us, I felt so bad because all we had for them to stay on is an air mattress, but they were good sports about it. To make up for it we made them breakfast everyday that they were here, from waffles, pancakes, and one of my favorites...french toast. Adam's cousin and her husband live in Mesa, Arizona and have never been to the Manti Temple, so on Friday we drove down and did an endowment session with them.Adam and I at the Manti, Utah Temple.

For the 4th we went to BYU to watch the fireworks outside the stadium, Adam and I had the funnest time with our niece Brielle. Brielle was so funny, she has never had a glow stick before and I happened to have some with me that I got for free from the movie we went and saw earlier that day. She had about five different glow sticks. She was one of the happiest kids ever, to add to it Adam would throw her in the air, she would come up to him every 5 seconds saying, "JUMP, JUMP" Adam was a good sport and did this for a couple hours.

Adam and Brielle at during the fireworks, and Aunt Mar watching. It happens to been her birthday on the 4th, so we had fun celebrating it by going to Pizza Factory on Friday night.

Getting ready to throw her up in the air.

Come Sunday night at the Viewing Brielle and and said, "JUMP, I want to JUMP" and Adam did it during the viewing. I got really excited and happy that night because Brielle can finally say my name! This is one of my niece Brielle, she is so cute!

At one point that night my brother in law was holding her and I walked passed and she said, "I want Crystal" so Jon handed her to me and a couple seconds later Jon asked,"Brielle you want to come back to me?", Brielle said, "No way Jon, I want Crystal". It was so cute! At the funeral Monday morning Brielle sat on my lap almost the whole time, and she was really good too. She would play with my necklace and put on herself, around her wrist like a bracelet, and on her ankle too. I love being an Aunt, it is so much fun to play with little kids. Brielle made everyone laugh before the funeral even started, she kept pulling up her dress to show everyone that she was wearing underwear that were pink over her diaper. Another thing she loved to do was carry my purse for me.

Adam, Brielle and I waiting for the family prayer to start

Brielle making funny faces for me, she was so excited to get her picture taken

One of my other niece wanted to sit my me too, and take a picture. This is Brielle and Melanie(Mel)

The bathroom is DONE!!!!!

I can't say enough how excited I am that our bathroom counter is finally done! It all started with an idea back in December. Finally in June when our plans for going camping got ruined by the rain, we went to Home Depot and started it. Now it should have only taken about a weekend to do it. But of course it turned into a couple of weeks thing. Here are some pictures of it before and after.

The before picture, can you see our lovely stars on the counter? Oh don't forget the pink sink either.

In our bathroom the door looks as if it is going to hit the counter when you shut it, but it is perfectly shaped to not hit it. Adam got the fun job of trimming the counter, so the door would shut once we got the tile on. Getting the sink to come out was a different story and was a lot harder that we ever though it would be.

My husband hard at work getting the side of the counter done. He did such a great job at it. We ended up calling is Aunt Mar in Arizona a couple times to ask her about tile (she owns a tile/flooring business, and does it for really expensive houses down there).

Believe it or not I actually help this time with the tile, and I did a pretty good job I thought

Finally the finished project! We replaced the handles on the draws so that they would match the rest of the bathroom.

Temple-Arizona-Hot Weather!

June 20, 2009-
Jason(my older brother) got to come home for a week before he get shipped off to the middle east. So we all went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. All the temples I have been to have been so beautiful inside and out.

As some of you may have heard Adam and I went down to Arizona yet again this past weekend. Let me tell you.....IT'S SOOOO HOTTT!.....it was a good thing there was a pool at his aunt's house. The main reason we down was to see Adam's Grandma Partridge, she has been in and out of the hospital for 9 months. We all thought she was doing better, and then we found out that whatever she had was not going to get better, but just get worse until it finally kills her. Since I had the week off we ventured on down to Mesa. (The cactus that fell, and hit the house)

In front of Adam's Grandma's house she has this huge cactus in her front yard, and two weeks ago it fell...when it fell it hit the roof, and part of it broke off and rolled down the roof, hit the cement driveway and bounced to hit Adam's uncle's Jetta(it left a pretty good dent in it). Now for the amazing part of this little story....also located in the front yard is a 150 year old wagon, now my first thought would have been,"the wagon is no longer"...Boy was I WRONG! (The wagon wheel and the cactus)

The cactus did hit the wagon but just on the wheel and the wheel did not break, but left a wedge in the cactus. My mind goes crazy thinking that a cactus did more damage to a Jetta that is only a couple years old, then a 150 year old wooden wagon.

(The Jetta)

Now while we were down there Adam's Grandma could hear everything we said, and squeeze our hand and blink, and open her eyes. She couldn't talk though, so we knew the time was coming when we would no longer have this sweet, sweet lady with us. Come Friday we were able to get Adam's little brother and Dad down, and Saturday morning around 8 o'clock Adam's brother came into our room to tell us that Grandma had just died. We will always miss Grandma, I only got to know her for just over a year, she will always hold a place in my heart. The first time I went down to Arizona, she got up every morning to make us breakfast. I love her pancakes, they are so so good. I remember one morning she made a LOT! She made enough to feed an army, and there was only Adam, Chunk, and me. So after I have eaten about 4 I was full and couldn't eat anymore. Same thing happen to Chunk after a couple more, and Grandma being Grandma kept telling us to eat more and more. Adam got stuck eating close to 20 pancakes and a big stomach ache after. We will always have many memories of Grandma with us and she will always be remembered. Good thing about this Grandma's funeral is up here in Spanish Fork! So that means we get to have everyone from Arizona up here for the 4th of July! Ya for Family!

Sorry! I know, I should post more.

So I know I have not been posting lately, but we have been really busy that last couple of weeks. Right now we are laying tile down on our bathroom counter(pictures to come). We have been putting it off the last month and then one Friday we had nothing to do, so we went to Home Depot and got everything we needed. It's making me sad that it is taking so long to finish, we keep running into problems, so now I still don't have a sink in my bathroom! :( We are hoping to have it done by tomorrow! (cross your fingers)

Another thing that has come into play is Adam's Grandma Partridge. She is such a sweet, sweet lady. Who always speaks her mind about everything, so if you want something straight forward, just go talk to her. Over the past year her health has been declining, and nothing ever seems to work. On Friday while we were getting tile Adam called his aunt that lives down there to talk to her about what we should use for our tile(she owns a floor busy in Arizona). Adam was really happy because he got to talk to Grandma, but that's when we got the bad new that almost put Adam to tears. His aunt told us that whatever Grandma has is not going to get better, she will just continue to get worse until it kills her. I almost started crying just thinking about it. So here to yet another trip to the sunny state of Arizona! Since I have work off next week, Adam and I are leaving to go see his Grandma. This will most likely be the last time we get to see his Grandma.

Oh, one last thing....if anyone wants a kitten or knows someone that does....PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Our two cats just had their babies, We have 5 kittens ready to go and then 5 more will be ready in about a month. They are super super cute too.