I've been training all summer for the pull-ups because I knew they'd be my greatest challenge...and they were. I was happy with my 8 but had been able to do more in my practices. Next year!

I don't like push-ups. I was able to meet my goal but geese it was tough.

No pictures of me doing sit-ups. Jarom was holding my feet for me. Jarom was my own personal cheer leader throughout the summer and on the compitition day. Thanks Jarom, I love ya!

Sit-ups were also difficult. For those of you who know me well, you know I have a weird tailbone. It sticks out funny. It is genetics, not my BMI. I think I took the skin off my tailbone at least 4 times during training. Fun times!

Jarom wasn't able to get a running shot of my finish cause my camera isn't as fast as me! Haha. I finished at the time I had practiced. I have no idea why but I absolutely don't have the ability to sprint at the end of a run like other people can. I was happy with my run.

I was surprised I placed at this Summer of Seals event. It was so fun! I enjoyed the challenge this summer. It gave me something to focus on other than work.

Here I am with my awesome sister's and my mom. I am so grateful I live closer to my sisters so I can get to know them and their families a little better. It was fun to have a goal to work towards with part of my family.

I just liked this picture.

Dinner and a Movie

For our date night we checked out this dinner and a movie place. They have long tables in front of every chair. It's set up so no one is trapped in. You order your food before the movie starts and they bring it during the movie. We heard the food is gross so our expectations weren't high. I ordered a greasy pizza. I liked it. It was something different to try. Jarom saw that they have a cold cereal day where they play old school cartoons. I'd go if they had lucky charms.
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Nothing to do

Fun at Toys R Us. As Jarom said we took ourselves on a self guided tour. We had a good time.
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When there is no flour in the house.

It's a bad habit but Sunday are all about going to church, spending quality time with my husband and..... eating everything I don't let myself eat during the week. What this creates is a crazy sugar/ carb overload day. Well one Sunday I really wanted cookies, but no flour. This meant no to several other options. I remember at Christmas time Stephenie taught me how to make yummy easy toffee. I also saw we had pretzels and a little melting chocolate. This is what Jarom and I came up with. Yum! I'll eat better next week. ;-)
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Smoker/ Grill

Jarom has been talking about getting a smoker since Memorial Day weekend when my brother, Robbie, smoked some brisket. Jarom wasn't sure what kind he wanted. He just bought a bottom of the line smoker/ grill. It works okay. We'll invest in something better down the road. This is Jarom's first attempt. Ribs! I love ribs!! Not these ribs. For some reason they tasted like a big ham steak with bones. Once I told Jarom he realized they were not good unless they were coated with BBQ sauce. Do you like BBQ sauce on your ham steak? Try again babe, love ya!
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Jarom turns 31!

My niece, Camie, sent Jarom on a treasure hunt to find his birthday banner. She was so excited. It was so sweet how she took the time to be creative and give Jarom a nice birthday gift. Every time we go to my sisters Jarom is always playing games on my phone. Camie is very observant and drew all the characters from the games on the birthday banner. Thanks Camie!


Jarom loves confetti cake. The top layer of our wedding cake was also confetti cake. He was worried that we wouldn't have enough cake for 15 people at his birthday dinner. We did! He was a little embarrassed he made so much when it was all put together. We actually did eat most of it. So good.


Happy Birthday Jarom! Love ya! :-)

Now...which one would you buy?

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Salsa Bowl

Jarom has been eyeing this salsa or guacamole or whatever bowl sold a Kroger for a while. Not sure why. It went on sale for 0.79 cents so he bought it. I took this creepy picture of myself just to show him that I was the first to get to eat out of it. I text him this picture while he was at work to rub it in.





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Astros Baseball Game

Jarom and I feel like we need to get a better feel of what goes on here in Houston. We are not sure if we like it. So to figure this out we probably need to get out of our house occasionally. With his busy work schedule it kind of makes in a challenge. Here we are at our 1st Astros game. We really went for the food. I actually enjoyed the whole game without getting board. The Astros lost in the end. I had fun and it was a great date night with my husband.



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The Bell Family...Everyone

It was a quick crazy weekend and I loved being around all the family. I wish we could visit more often.

The originals. What's up with my hair?

This is all the grand kids including Autumn. Actually Evangeline (Robbie's dog) is missing and 2 are still in the oven. Not in my oven. :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial weekend a few of us snuck off for some ice cream. We did stay crammed in this booth just like you see. So much fun to see family.
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My cute Autumn

Last of it

Back in December we bought $80 dollars worth of pork. I chopped it up and put it in our freezer. We have been trying to really save and stick to our budget. I hate budgets but I do believe they are good. This is the last of the pork. We are glad! For some reason we have been doing better about our grocery bill and wont have to eat pork and pork left overs everyday. :-)

Not quite ready for another puppy

My friend had the cutest Shih Tzu puppy and really wanted us to take him. I wasn't sure if I wanted another dog. She talked me into "trying him out". Autumn liked him for about 1 hour, then she was over him. He was potty trained and very cute and cuddly. By the end of the day I knew it wasn't meant to be. I am still not sure why but we gave him back. Autumn is still a spoiled only child. My friend's daughter approached Jarom at church and said "no one loves our little puppy". Jarom said he felt bad. The dog did find a great home 1 week later.

Nice Weather

The evening weather has been so nice. It is only a matter of time before its gone. Jarom and I have been taking our Texas flag blanket and going to the park. Autumn loves it. I thought a momma duck was going to attack her. Autumn had no idea. She'd never make it in the wild. Autumn has always layed on our backs. In this picture something caught her attention.

We are just doing our facebook pose. I don't think we have it down yet. We will keep trying.

We found this little pond or stream. Not sure what it was. It didn't have moss on the surface of the water. It was almost like it was small leaves or pollen. If you look closely you can see a turtle on the rock. It was pretty cool. We also saw eyes looking at us but couldn't tell what it was. Maybe an alligator, a frog, a turtle....it disappeared before it ate us.

Jarom in the kitchen

Jarom was washing the dishes and he dropped a butter knife. We were both impress with his luck. Crazy how it landed.

Not my healthiest breakfast. :-)

Lately I have been buying this cereal to eat on Sundays. Sunday is the one day of the week I eat whatever I absolutely want and as much as I want. Jarom makes fun of me cause I dig through all the bags to find the one with the most marshmallows. There is a big difference. It will be good when Easter is over so I quit indulging in those dang Reese's peanut butter eggs. Amazing!

Coheed and Cambria

Jarom loves this band. Somehow he always takes me to concerts that I am not interested in. Yes I like some of their songs but I don't love them. When we drove past the line that was waiting to go inside, I thought I was going to die...literally. We didn't dress appropriately for this crowd. We forgot to wear all black. Jarom forgot to let his beard grow. He also forgot to wear his black eyeliner. He accidentally put deodorant on that day. I didn't buy any magnetic piercings for where ever my imagination could take me. All the girls had black or red hair. I only saw 1 other girl with blond hair. I was a party pooper for sure. I felt bad that I wasn't better for Jarom. I did get beer spilt on me 3 times. Did Jarom? Nope. I always say never again but end up going again and again.

Surgery Center

I picked up a second job because my 1st job isn't giving me enough hours of work. Most nursing jobs you have to work 2 weekends a month. I was super spoiled in Vegas and had no idea. No idea. This has been so hard on me. A big adjustment. I've never had a hard time keeping the sabbath day holy but its almost like I had no choice here. Luckily I have enough experience as a nurse I was able to get 2 part time jobs. If a nurse is part time they don't have the same weekend requirements. Luckily! I would only been going to church 6 months out of the year. With my calling it would be impossible. Plus I really feel its important to attend church and spend the day with my husband. In this picture I had to gown up because we had to drain chemo medication from a patient's bladder that is toxic to the skin. This is not normal attire, so we had fun playing dress up.

Blue Bell Factory

Jarom loves going to factories. He still talks about the time he went to the marshmallow factory in Vegas. We went with Stephenie's family. It was cool to learn a little bit about the process of how they make ice cream.

Look how cool we look!

Stephenie is sitting on the cow's tail. Just kidding! It was fun to go with her kids. I think they loved missing school for ice cream. Of course Jarom, Taneal and I had seconds.

Food Storage

Jarom has always been pretty good about working on our food storage. For some reason he has wanted to try and actually see if we could make edible bread with it. The bread above I think was our 3rd attempt. It is edible but that was it.

4th attempt did it. We figured out we can't use a hand grinder to grind the red hard wheat. This successful loaf of bread was the hard white wheat. It tasted good too! I wouldn't say so so good but good.

My Birthday Weekend

Jarom surprised me and bought me roses. He knew my gift would be late. It still hasn't arrived. My roses still look beautiful so I am happy. My mom surprised me also by driving from Weatherford to spend my birthday with me. I kind of knew she was coming. I am glad she did. It was good to see her.

Jarom made my favorite cake for me. We celebrated at my sister's house. Jarom and I have so much fun hanging out at my sister's house with her children. Taneal is crazy. Fun crazy!

On my actual birthday we ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory. My mom whispered to the manager that it was my birthday. Not only did we get a sundae free but they sent us home with a wheat baguette. Yummy! Happy Birthday to me. Thanks everyone!

Tornado

We also went to the movies on my birthday. Jarom made me get inside of this tornado simulator. I knew it would just tangle and break my hair...which it did. It was still fun. I'm glad he made me get in with him. I really think he just wanted to get inside but needed an excuse. Love ya babe!

My new skirt that my mom made me. Thanks mom. :)

Grinding Wheat

Jarom is really into food storage right now. Hopefully he is just doing it out of obedience and not for any reason other than that. Jarom wanted to see if we could actually use our wheat.........

NOPE!!! This is loaf #3. The only successful loaf of bread we've had so far was mixed with white flour at my sister's house. As Jarom says "we would have just eat 3 inch wheat tortillas". Gross. We have had fun kneading our whole wheat bread even without success. It just wont raise. No hope for us. Jarom has to speak in church on food storage. He is hoping to have a successful loaf of bread by Sunday. It's not looking so good.

Jarom having too much fun with food storage!

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Valentines Day

We decided to make sugar cookies and frost them for Valentines Day. We didn't have the right ingredients to make the high gloss frosting. The cookies still tasted great.

Camping in Texas

My husband bought a very small but light tent. It weighs 5.5 lbs. It is a 3 man but I'd say 2. Everyone around us slept in their RVs. The low was 27 and it was freezing! One man offered us a starter log when he saw me using my flint and steel to start my fire. I politely refused because I was determined to get this down. And I did! I had never seen a fire started with just flint and steel. My husband taught me how and I did it all by myself. No blisters.

Success!

This is Jarom trying before he failed (haha). It was exciting.

Jarom froze all night while I stayed pretty warm. My pants were amazingly warm. Here I am cooking my toaster strudel. It is a camping tradition to cook them for breakfast on camp outs. Its the only time we eat them. One time we forgot to bring any means to cook them so we just cooked them on a flat rock. So worth it.

Do you smell that?

Our campfire conversation.
Me: Do you smell that?
Jarom: No.
Me: You don't smell that? I smell a chemical. What kind of wood did you buy?
3 min later...
Me: How can you not smell that. It really smells like a chemical is burning.
2 min later...
Me: My feet are finally warm.
Jarom: Why are your shoes smoking?
Me: I did smell a chemical.
We shined the flashlight on my $6 Ross shoes and all the glue had separated. This created the opening to my toes letting in that toasty heat inside. Jarom trying to make me feel better told me the same experiance happened to him when he was 6.