The 12 pounds of Christmas

At Hill Air Force Base, where I work, we don't celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. We celebrate the 12 POUNDS of Christmas. Each work day in December, except Friday, one person in the office brings something for the rest of the office to snack on. Well today was my turn. I took my sister-in-law's chocolate fountain and tons of good food. I couldn't decide on healthy, salty or chocolaty type foods so I took a little of each. We had grapes, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, oranges and clementines from the fruit department. Then for the dessert department we had cinnamon bears, cream puffs, rice crispy treats, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies and pretzels. Many of my co-workers commented on how nice it looked and how great it tasted so I took a photo and I thought I'd share.

But as you can see...if you eat like this for a month you'll gain 12 pounds just like I am on my way to achieving the 12 and probably then some. Today I actually skipped lunch because I ate too much junk food all morning long. Unfortunately, my boss is TDY to Virginia so he wasn't there to taste the goodness. But don't worry I texted him this picture just so he knew what he was missing out on!

TDY

For those that might not know TDY means Temporary Duty Yonder. That means I am in the city of California Maryland attending a class and not at my regular desk at Hill AFB. I left last Sunday morning which was hectic because Saturday was graduation and Kayla had a wedding shower for Anna Parker at our house so we were rushing to et the house clean and food cooked in between all of the festivities of the graduation. I didn’t get my bag packed until about 11 pm and had to be at the airport by 6:30 am. Wyatt wasn't much of a helper to get my bags packed because he would unpack everything I packed. Then he'd jump in there and play around. I didn’t forget anything but I hate being rushed. Well I made it to the Baltimore airport but my luggage didn’t. So my options were to drive the hour and a half to the airport and have them bring it out in two days or wait in the airport for two hours and take it with me because it was on the next flight. I chose to wait and they gave me a voucher for food, so I went and ate dinner free…then they gave me a $150 travel voucher because of my willingness to stay and not be so mean. I didn’t really have anything to do. My suitcase came in on the next flight, I picked up my rental car (a dodge caliber – sparkly blue) and made my way to my hotel. I am so glad I had my GPS. I would recommend it to anybody because it is a life and time saver!! Such a great invention and well worth the investment!!! My hotel room was a smoking room with two double beds but on Wednesday I got to switch to a king suite! It is twice the size, a huge jetted tub (Kayla loved it) and a couch, chair, table and non smoking!

Miss Utah 2007

For work i am involved in a group called National Contract Management Association (NCMA)and we had a luncheon last Thursday with Jill Stevens, Miss Utah 2007. Aside from being beautiful she was an excellent speaker, a diverse person, and very friendly. She shared her experiences as she was in Afghanistan as a medic and she also shared her experiences as a pageant Queen. Both sides of her stories were excellent. She said she was the most tom-boyish person she knew and she wore boots not high heels. But thanks to a friend she was coerced into running for Miss SUU and she won. That is how she got involved in the pageant thing. She was part of the top 16 in the US and was voted "Americas Choice." She was just a really great person to talk with and had a great view on life as she related it to her military experience. Keep focused on your target, set new goals, try new things and you'll be able to hit your target most of the time. The experiences you gain will be invaluable and life's lessons just for you.

Pumkin cake

So any time Kayla or I make a cake for a work function or party, about this time of year, we always bake a cake that looks like a pumpkin. Well today for my class I make one of these cakes and it turned out to be a hit with everybody in my class. We made a process flow chart on how I made this cake. It was actually quite funny so we had a person take a picture of it so we could put it on our PowerPoint presentation. This cake is generally hit with everyone because it is so festive. All you do is bake two bundt cakes, trim off the tops to make them flat and then frost them. We usually spray it with Orange spray food coloring because our orange frosting generally turns out peach colored. Then we just use an ice cream cone for the stem. It is probably a tradition to make at least two of these per year. We are pretty much pros now. Just a tip if you want to try it: 1. use Duncan Hines spice cake mix, 2. substitute milk for water and this will make the cake much denser and easier to work with...if you don't then it will just fall apart and will not look like a pumpkin.