Just So We're Clear

I figure its about time for an update.

This was on the floor of the bathroom stall I was using this afternoon. I'm not one of those queasy girls that can't handle spiders or anything, but it was a little disturbing. It was a HUGE spider. A smart spider too, since it found it's way inside. Today the temerature is about 20 degrees colder than last week. Survival of the fittest, I guess.

Yesterday Rob and I cleaned out all the heels of bread (16 of them) from our fridge and went to the nature park to feed the ducks. It was awesome. Those of you that know how much Rob loves ducks will understand that we had a great time. I used to use the heels of bread for french toast, until I realized how many calories syrup has. The ducks need the calories more than us!

I, with the other flower center girls made 200 corsages and bouttineers each this weekend for BYU-I's Presidents Club. I then spent the better part of my Saturday afternoon pinning said flowers on people. It was fun, but I should have not worn heels.

Rob and I went to see Buckets and Tap Shoes preform Saturday night. It was pretty good.

I ended up dropping my weightlifting class. I signed up for it initally to get a routine going and keep me motivated to keep up with the gym, but decided afterall that since Rob and I already have a good thing going, why mess with it? The teacher also had me paired up with a girl that could barely bench the bar--but made a big deal about "pairing up Ponies with Clydesdales". He refused to pair me with a guy--which would be a better lifting partner for me. Honestly, he kinda rubbed me the wrong way just because I'm a *girl* and it got my blood boiling. Oh well. Rob and I will keep up with our routine and I've got the best lifting partner of all. :)

Weightlifting

As readers of my blog you might have been able to tell that I have recently taken up weightlifting. I started in June and have been doing a specific routine, Starting Strength the last month or so. Looking back at my past experiences with weight rooms I can remember myself walking into the Snow College weight room seven years ago, and barely being able to bench press the bar, weighing in at 45 pounds.

The last few months of working with the weights have paid off though. In June I maxed out the bench press at 105; meaning that I couldn't do one rep at my weight higher than 105.

So to make sure I continue progressing and getting my butt to the gym I signed up for a weightlifting class this semester. Today we were maxing out our bench press and squat weights so that [I'm assuming] the teacher will be able to pair us up with partners who can lift about the same amount of weight.

I maxed out my bench press today at 125, and my squat at 205. I must say that I am indeed very pleased with these numbers. I've gone up 20 pounds in the bench, and although I've never maxed my squat before, as a girl 205 has got to mean something pretty good, right? I listened in to the other six girls report their numbers, and I was way above any of the rest of them, even ones that had taken the class before. So, strength wise I'm feeling great today. Heath wise however, I have a cold. :(

School's in! YEah!

Today was the first day back and it went considerably well. I arrived on campus about 7:15, spent 7.5 hours in class, bought my books, ate only an apple from the school orchard and a banana and peanut butter I'd brought with me, and finally left campus at 5:45. I then walked the 1.2 miles home.

I am exhausted and can't wait to go to sleep.

And The Verdict?

For those of you who contributed on the Ideas? blog a few days ago, I thank you. I would have to agree with Lisa in that it was probably a Buttercup squash. According to a site that I found buttercup squash can be subsititued for sweet potatoes in many recipes, which got me thinking . . . I just found a recipe for sweet potato curry that I'd been wanting to try . . . I could use the squash in it since it's unlikely Rob will EVER eat any of it without it being involved in something delicious like a curry . . . So I bought some orange juice and broke in the crock pot we were given for our wedding--almost 17 months ago. :) This is what it looked like inside:

Looks perfectly respectable as a squash goes, right?

Here she is hollowed out. Still perfectly acceptable.

I decided to peel it with my potato-peeler instead of trying to shave the skin off with my santoku knife because the skin was quite tender. I was a bit surprised at how "squashy" it smelled. I was still a bit hesitant to try out a new recipe on it, so I sliced off a bit and nuked it for a few minutes. It tasted okay so I was ready to give it a shot.

The outcome was DELICIOUS! I did add in the one sweet potato we had in the house so I could see what that would be like, and it turned out great. Next time I make it I'll use only sweet potatoes, as they were sweeter than the squash; but what is the likelyhood I'll ever come upon a buttercup squash again, really?

So thanks for the votes people! I'm glad it wasn't a watermelon that ate another watermelon or anything having to do with a cucumber. Also, you should try out the recipe! I'm a curry LOVER and like it HOT, but this was really mild. Next time I'll be using more curry for sure!

R "Mountain"

Since Rob and I had no real plans for our Labor Day weekend besides doing some laundry and having our home teachers over, we decided that we actually needed to get OUT of the apartment for awhile. It took a few hours of brainstorming and being lazy to actually come up with a solution, but we finally got out. We decided we'd like to go hiking, but since it was a bit stormy and cold we didn't want to go too far; so we ended up at Menan Buttes, a short drive from Rexburg.


The last time we'd hiked up the "mountain" was July 2007. Rob was going for a field trip with one of his geology classes and I tagged along. For me it ended up being a disaster. It was a hot and sticky summer day, and I was an out of shape sack of chub. It took me almost 40 minutes to get up to the caldera rim with four stops of at least five minutes each with me huffing and puffing and downing water. I felt bad that I'd come because I was just holding Rob up and we were the tail end of the expedition.

Thankfully with the last few months of me trying to "get fit" yesterdays experience was SOOO much better! It was a cold, overcast day and that could have made a difference, but we reached the caldera rim this time in only 21 minutes with only one short water break. It was like night and day in comparison.

Here I am at the highest point on the south side of the caldera. It was SUPER windy and we even got sprinkled on for a few minutes, but it was so refreshing.

This is a view to the East of the Butte.

This is my amazing hubby Rob. He inspires me so much! I'm really glad he convinced me to give the hike another try. I was hesitant of course at first, scared that it would be a crappy experience again; thankfully he convinced me and we had a GREAT hike. Thanks babe.

Here we are at the highest point on the south rim. Windblown and chilly--but happy. :) After reaching the top we decided to hike all the way around the caldera. It was really nice.

This is a shot of the Snake River Plain west of the caldera. Can you say desolate?

This shot is from the same place, only facing East looking across the caldera and out into the productive farmland of Eastern Idaho.

All in all, we hiked just over 2.5 miles up and around the caldera then back down. At our highest point, we estimate that we elevated about 550 feet. I'd almost like to go back again next weekend for a repeat hike before school starts up again. Anyone else want to come?