the last 8 months...

OK, so I am a horrible Blogger. I may blame it on the fact that everybody seems to always update their blogs on their children, crazy travels, and other way seemingly important stuff, while our lives are just normal and boring as can be. Whatever it may be, let's be honest, Matt and I ARE pretty interesting people and I could at least make something amazing up to put in here. I think I'll just put in some highlights of the last, you know, 8 months....

 May and June were the months to have babies in our family. Although we opted out of participating in the having of babies this year, we welcomed two nieces and one nephew into our family. They are the cutest things and are probably cuter than all other babies (that is until we produce a few of our own who will, of course, be the cutest out of them all).

On July 17th 2 of my sisters, my best friend Tamara, Matt and I all ran in the Bryce Canyon 1/2 Marathon. Amazingly enough we finished! I think my favorite part was that it was down hill almost the whole way, not to mention beautiful scenery. Shauna's girls Riley and Blake came along to support us, along with my mom and Brad. It was such a fun time.

 the crew

 the runners (ps. that was not our time)

the beauty of bryce canyon

In August we made a trip down to SoCal to visit the fam. My sister Carly came in from Texas and so it was a great time having all my family together. We topped it off with a drive up the coast (we took PCH almost the whole way!) to Matt's brother's house in Sunnyvale, near San Francisco. We went into the city and fell in love.

 I went to Knott's with my sister Carly and her family. Here we are on the ferris wheel. I tried to make these pictures bigger but they got all fuzzy...

 China town

 My friend's Tamara and Kassandra met up with us for a day in the city. Here we are at Alcatraz

 San Francisco Bay

Monterey

In September school started back up. This is where our life starts to get really boring. I'm doing nursing pre-reqs at Salt Lake Community College while Matt is studying computer science up at the University of Utah. Matt's brother got married in September and his whole family got together here in Utah. We staid in a house up in Park city for the weekend and had a blast!  I recently got a new job at the Intermountian Medical center working as a professional poop wiper (aka CNA). The job isn't the most glamorous but the exposer to the nursing world and experience is priceless. I really enjoy being in a hospital setting!

Now it's almost Christmas and we will be having a whirlwind of  family coming into town. This will be our first time not being in California for Christmas so it will be nice to have a ton of family coming to us. I love this time of year so much! It's always so wonderful to think about what a great gift the Lord has given us through our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm grateful we are able to celebrate His birth and hopefully try hard to better our lives through Him. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Back to School

This whole blog thing is a bit intimidating to me, to be honest. I set it up because I was bored and wanted to see what Matt would do... Now we know. I just wonder if he will ever post again (and I mean after the initial post he will put up in response to this statement just to prove that he can). Another problem I seem to have is that I'm not sure what to write about, I mean how interesting, really, are our lives? I guess we're about to find out!

Life has thrown me some pretty crazy surprises lately. About a month ago I decided that my work environment was just not for me and so I quit. Being unemployed brought some interesting things into perspective for me. I realized as I searched for new jobs that I didn't want to be making $12 / hour for the rest of my life. It also became evident that working in an office (where most of the jobs are with my experience) just isn't the right place for me. I mean filing papers and getting someone coffee could have it's benefits, but it's the whole dressing up and looking girly thing that would really get to me ;) So I've decided to go back to school!!!!!

Matt still has another 4, yes 4, years left in school at the U. I figured what better time than now to go and get another degree, but this time I'm going to get one that I can actually do something with. Like my mom and grandma, I want to be a nurse. I am so excited for school to start up in a month! I'll be doing my pre-reqs at SLLC this summer and fall and then hopefully joining Matt at the U next summer in their accelerated bachelors in nursing program. I try not to think about the fact that I will be a Ute for 4 semesters, if I get into the program. I somewhat cringe at this thought but am able to sleep easy knowing I'm blue to the core and nothing could change that!!

Here is a pic of me and Matt right after snowboarding, just for your viewing enjoyment...

Matt's experimental Orange Chicken recipe: please try this at home.

Sauce:

I have never measured this out before, so most of these measurements are guesswork. You may have to play around with it before getting the flavor right. Try these and give me some feedback.

-squeezed juice from 3 juicy oranges.
-2 tbs corn starch
-1 tsp ginger... See More
-1 tbs lemon juice
-3 tbs brown sugar
-1 tsp salt
-1 clove garlic, pressed
-3 cups water

1. Bring water to boil. Add orange juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt, ginger, and garlic. You may also want to add a little orange food coloring to give it that bright color. In a small bowl, thoroughly dissolve cornstarch in a few tablespoons of cold water.

2. Add dissolved cornstarch to boiling water and begin to stir thoroughly. The sauce should thicken very quickly.

NOTE: once the cornstarch is in, you cant really add more ingredients (they don't dissolve well after that point).

Chicken:
-Frozen popcorn chicken nuggets from Costco (Perdu brand is good).
OR bite sized, boneless fried chicken nuggets.
-1-2 tbs cooking oil
-stir fry vegetables (I like onions, carrots, snap peas, and water chestnuts)
-1 tsp ginger
- salt to taste

-Bring oil to medium-high heat in a large frying pan. Add chicken nuggets.
-When the chicken is ready add veggies and 1/4 cup water (to steam veggies).
-The veggies should be ready in only a couple minutes.
-Stir in Orange Sauce. Serve with your choice of rice (fried, steamed, whatevs...)

let me know how it turns out! feedback will make it better!

Enter: the Murdocks

Matt: So I know what you're thinking, finally you'll be able to get all the Matt and Kristen that you could ever want or need!

Personally I find the idea of a blog a little narcissistic, but what do I know? A lot of families have blogs to help spread the news and keep in touch with each other. And I'm sure it will be a fabulous place to post pictures and stuff (I feel like a lot of things get lost in the enormity of Facebook, so this could be good).

The ironic thing about this though is that i was watching an episode of House when Kristen set this up where the patient was addicted to blogging. She (who was played by the same actress who played Donna in "that 70's show") literally blogged EVERYTHING in her life, multiple times a day, including what she ate, what she was thinking, and all the juicy details from her relationship. She even blogged about the fights she and her boyfriend got into. Majorly intense.

This is not one of those kinds of blogs.

Hope y'all enjoy,

Matt