Freezer Burn

Warning: Boring blog post ahead

Yes, it's boring, but it was a lot of work so I decided to blog about it!  I've had a full-size freezer in my garage now for almost 7 years... and I recently decided defrosting my freezer (for the first time) was way overdue.  The ice had built up pretty thick on a couple of the shelves.  Plus, as I was going through the freezer, I realized some of the meat had been in there for almost as long as I've had the freezer... freezer burned top sirloin steak anyone?  Good thing it's cold outside because my garbage can is full of food that I deemed inedible and garbage day isn't until Monday.

Anyway, it was quite the chore emptying my freezer of the frozen food.  The worst part was how cold my hands got.  I even wore gloves, but the cold pierced right through them.  Once the freezer was mostly empty (I say mostly because of the two items encased in ice that I couldn't wrench free), I heaved the freezer out of my garage, sliding it as well as possible across the garage floor.  I then dragged the hose over to the freezer and began spraying the shelves to melt the ice.  It didn't take long for me to turn into a popsicle, the cold water from the hose and the freezer splashing up on me.  The water/ice from the freezer covered my driveway, making it look (and feel) like a skating rink.  I was so happy when all the ice was gone, I could dry off the freezer, haul it back into the garage, and refill it with the food that I kept.  By this point, I thought my fingers might fall off.  They hurt so bad because of the cold.  I swear it took hours for them to warm up!

Glad I won't have to do that again for a while, at least I hope!  Wonder how long it will take until the ice starts forming on the shelves again?  My freezer sure does look pretty for the time being, though!

Running

I have been trying to enjoy running now for a few years.  In fact, my very first blog post ever was about running.  I was hoping it would get easier and that I would start enjoying it more... but neither is really the case.  I know people that can just go out and run forever and talk about their runner's high and how much they love running.  Maybe I've never run far enough to get a runner's high because I cannot relate to that AT ALL.  I huff and puff and am sweaty and tired at the end of each of my runs.  I was just reading my friend Liz's blog and she wrote about how she runs around 30 miles a week - amazing woman!

Anyway, I know running is good exercise, so I just keep trying, hoping that one day it might just click.  So I decided at the beginning of the year that I would set a goal to run a 5k distance each week this year.  I got on MapMyRun.com so I can keep track each time I run.  I've been successful so far, even running two 5ks one week!  One month down, 11 to go...

Boise Bedroom

I have been meaning to post pictures of my Boise bedroom for a little while now.  It's a lot of Boise State and a little bit of Boise.  This room makes me happy :-)  Mandy gave me the two BSU Ward Hooper prints for Christmas.  She also tipped me off to the fact that Ward would be speaking on behalf of the BSU Alumni Association at December's Commencement, so I took my prints in and he signed them!  I also got them matted and framed and I love how they turned out.  I hung them on the walls, along with my signed Ward Hooper Boise Rec Fest poster.  Here are a few more shots of the room.

Living Legends

Tonight a group of us went to the Morrison Center to watch a performance by BYU's Living Legends group.  It is a cultural explosion of Native American, Latin American, and Polynesian dance and music.  The Living Legends group travels all over the country and even the world performing.  I remember watching them at BYU, so I was excited to buy tickets to watch them tonight.  Anyway, the performance tonight was wonderful.  The costumes were beautiful and I loved how the dance told a story.  In case you've never seen them perform, here's a quick video I found online:

Afterwards, we grabbed dessert at Marie Calendars... mmmmm, chocolate satin pie.  It satisfied my sweet craving for the week :-)

Vintage!

I have always loved reading, and have definitely been in one of my reading zones lately.  I've been plowing through books, and only wanting to read more.  I especially love getting book suggestions from others - I think that's why I like Goodreads.  As a side note, I would love more friends on Goodreads if you are already on that site or if you'd like to join!  Anyway, a few weeks ago, Sharon from work was reading a book called A Vintage Affair, and the book is centered around a vintage clothing shop and some of the stories behind the clothes.  Brooke also read it and enjoyed it, so I picked up a copy and read it too.  It was a fun, fast read (I read it in 3 days), and it really made me want to go to a vintage clothing shop!  I have visions of beautiful clothing from the 30's through the 70's, and am looking forward to checking out a shop I found here in Boise.

In the mean time, Brooke found this great online site with an amazing selection of clothing, purses, and accessories - poshgirlvintage.com.  I think I could spend hours looking through the site.  So. Much. Fun.  Anyway, I fell in love with this purse, and made my first vintage purchase!  I think the pictures are protected somehow because I wasn't able to paste the picture in here, so the link will have to do.

I also loved a lot of the dresses and hats.  I'm nervous to buy online without trying things on first, but I may break down and do it when something truly speaks to me :-)

Making Friends

My cousin recently posted about how it is hard to make friends.  I've been feeling that way a bit in my new ward.  It's difficult because I have such a good group of friends outside my ward that I can hang out with in the evenings and on weekends (see my recent post about Garden Valley!) so I wonder if it's worth the effort to really reach out and make myself vulnerable and be friendly and try and make new friends.  The fact is, I know it would be worth it, because we all need friends wherever we are.  I know that I would enjoy going to church more if I had a friend to sit with or talk to.  I just need to have a good attitude about it and put forth the necessary effort in order to make that happen.  I decided to end this post with a quote I really like that my cousin posted on her blog about friends.  It's by Marjorie P. Hinckley:

"We are all in this together. We need each other. Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young. And, hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old. It is a sociological fact that women need women. We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance..."

Do You Ever Google Yourself?

Do you ever google yourself?  I admit, I do occasionally, just to see what comes up.  There must not be very many Kimberly Woodings in the world, because I would say at least 90% of the results from a "Kimberly Woodings" google search are about me.  I also subscribe to google alerts so when they pick up a new site with my name, I get an email.  You know that other people (friends, future employers, etc.) google you, so I figure it's good to know what they'll find!

Not sure if you've ever seen this video, but I think it's pretty cool when you google the name Matt, that his site is the first result.  If I googled the name Kimberly, I'm guessing I would never even be able to find a single link that was referring to me.  I got to thinking, though, what if I googled Kimberly Boise, ya know, just to narrow it down a bit.  I wonder how many pages I would have to click through until I found a site that referred to me?  Or how many pages until my blog displayed as a result?  I know there are a ton of Kimberlys in or around Boise (let alone a city in Idaho named Kimberly!)  Well, I tried it... and found sites referring to me on both pages 3 and 4, and then my blog appeared on page 5.  Crazy, but kinda cool, right?  Okay, maybe I'm a dork, but google is such a powerful tool, and I like to see what it can do :-)

UPDATE 1/24/11: I just tried googling Kimberly Boise again this morning to show somebody, and my blog has made it to the first page :-)

Cosmic Bowling

As I've mentioned before, I'm not the best bowler, but I really enjoy it!  Tonight we went cosmic bowling... and let me tell you, the black light and laser beams don't help my game at all!  We bowled at Emerald Lanes.  It was my first time there, and it's a really nice bowling alley!  I was impressed.  Anyway, I ended up bowling a 99 the first game (ugh, seriously - I couldn't knock down one more pin?) and a 110 the second game.  Sure beat sitting on my couch watching the movie I rented :-)

Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa

Both my grandma and brother had foot surgery last week... kinda weird timing, huh?  They are both on crutches and have been given orders from the doctors to stay off their feet and rest up.  My afternoon plans fell through today, so I took the chance to have lunch with my grandma and grandpa.  I picked us up some Costa Vida salads (lucky for me, they love Costa too!) and we enjoyed a nice meal together.  I'm lucky to have grandparents that live so close!

Pottery Class - Week 3

Well, we're getting better!  Jen and I went once in between week #1 and week #2 to practice, and that really helped.  Last week I was no longer the worst one in the class - I had definitely improved.  It's getting a little easier each week, although we've still got a long way to go.  Today we actually made some bowls that we felt looked enough like bowls that we are keeping them!  They need to dry a bit, and next week we'll carve the foot of the bowls and then they'll be fired & we can glaze them.  Exciting!!!

Here's a little video of Jen working on her bowl:

And here's a picture of her finished bowl - it's beautiful!

Here I am - still working on my bowl.  In this picture I'm pulling the clay to give it height before I attempt to shape it into a bowl.  We didn't get a finished shot, but I'll definitely post one once it's all glazed and fired!

I need your PENNIES!

A couple weeks ago, Mandy and I got into a mini penny war.  She wanted to borrow a dime and said she would give me 10 pennies.  I told her all I had was a quarter, but that she could just have it because I didn't want her pennies.  She came into my office and handed me a dime and nickel, and then proceeded to drop 10 pennies on my desk and run out of my office.  Well, I went down to her desk when she wasn't there and placed the 10 pennies all around - on top of here monitor, balancing on her purse, etc.  After lunch, a mysterious mini altoid tin was on my computer... I looked at it for a minute, trying to remember if I had left it there, and then realized what it was - I opened it and sure enough, 10 pennies.  To finish the day off, I went out to her car in the parking lot and placed the pennies in a row on the rubber of the drivers side window.

Okay, I know that was a long intro, but because of this, a couple co-workers and I came up with the idea of an office penny war.  We broke the office into four teams and for the entire Spring semester, we will be collecting pennies.  Each team came up with and decorated a "penny jar" to store all of our pennies.  The catch is that you can put nickels, dimes, and quarters in the other teams' jars to negate that number of pennies (i.e. a dime negates 10 of their pennies).  At the end of the semester, the winning team (team with the most pennies after the silver coin deductions) gets a pizza party, and all the rest of the money goes to the employee GoodWill program on campus (a program where lunches are subsidized for those employees under a certain salary threshold who can't necessarily afford to have lunch).

SOOOO, I need your pennies!  If you have a penny jar and you are wondering what the heck to do with them because it is way too much work to count them, and because pennies aren't really worth much anyway, I will take them off your hands!  If you live here in the Boise area, I am even willing to come pick them up from your house - just let me know :-)  I would appreciate all and any pennies... the contest runs through the first week of May!

Weekend Getaway

I know I've said this before, but I love Garden Valley.  I really hope to have a cabin there one day.  It is so close to home, and so easy to travel to, yet when you're there it feels like you're a million miles away... no cell service, no city traffic, lots of nature.  Perfect.

Back in November, Jen, Andrea, and I decided we needed to plan another trip to Garden Valley.  We rented a cabin this same weekend a couple years ago and had a blast.  We originally reserved a cabin through the same rental company we used before, but then Lance mentioned his uncle had a cabin up there that we could use for free!  Sweet - that saved us about $50 each!  There were 13 of us total, and we spent the weekend chatting, playing games, eating, and snowmobiling.

Merrilee in the original snuggie!

Hey - we were on vacation, right?

Carsten on breakfast duty

The boys were pretty serious about their foosball game

Jen and I weren't so serious and preferred the air hockey!

View from the loft... this is how we spent a lot of the weekend - sitting around talking.

I had never been snowmobiling before, so that was pretty exciting :-)  With four snowmobiles, we split into two groups and each spent half of the day on the trails.  My group spent half of our time off the snowmobiles having a snowball fight, making a snow cave, and digging out the stuck snowmobiles when we got into some snow that was a little too deep:-)

The first group of snowmobilers - Jared, Carsten, Brad, Kirsten, Jen, David, & Andrea

The second group - Chris, me, Brooke, Meiken, Merrilee, Lance, & Jared

Whoops - this is right after we got Jared's snowmobile unstuck... He took off saying "see ya later suckers" and then went off into the snow bank on the side of the trail!

Digging, digging, and digging some more - that will teach us for trying to turn around on the trail!

Brooke and Meiken made this snow cave - if we couldn't dig ourselves out at least we had somewhere to sleep that night!

We also celebrated Carsten's 25th birthday at the cabin.  His birthday is officially Thursday, but why not celebrate all week long?

We all had a great time, and are already planning a couple future trips... another one back up in Garden Valley with four wheelers, and one to go boating in Bear Lake.

Honored

Each year, the Idaho Business Review recognizes 50 "leading women" in Idaho based on professional and personal accomplishments, as well as leadership and community involvement...  and I was recently selected as one of the 2011 Women of the Year!  I thank those who nominated me and wrote letters of recommendation supporting that nomination.  I feel so honored for having even been nominated, yet alone selected for this award.  Looking at the list of other women who have been selected humbles me, as they have really done some amazing things in their professions and in the community.

I have to admit, I've felt almost like a little celebrity at work lately :-) The online campus newsletter contained an article about the three of us from Boise State being recognized with this award, and President Kustra even mentioned us by name in his Spring Address speech yesterday!  Today, I received the following letter from President Kustra:

I had an interview with the IBR on Monday (they are creating a pull-out magazine in an upcoming issue of the IBR) and had a professional photo shoot.  Hopefully the photographer got a good picture of me.  We took pictures in a couple different spots, and he had me try different things like smile without showing my teeth (impossible) and look serious without looking mad (wasn't going to happen).  I hope he picks one where I was actually smiling like normal!  I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out in the publication and am kind of excited for the awards dinner (even though I'll be there with a bunch of people I don't know!!!)  Lance has already said he would come with me, so that makes me a little less nervous, and I've got my hair and makeup appointment set for that afternoon.  I'll post pictures in February after the awards dinner!

Flat on my Face

I am always a little nervous when it is wet outside and I wear heels to work - I don't want to hit that slick patch on the ground where my feet slip right out from underneath me.  Well, today I wasn't so lucky.  I was walking back from lunch and had just entered my building - I was inside, I should have been safe, right?  I had dried my feet off on the rug at the entrance and began walking toward my office when BAM - it was like slow motion as at first I started falling backwards and then overcompensated and fell forward pretty much flat on my face.  I must have not been paying attention and stepped on a spot of floor that was slightly wet (it was right by the drinking fountain)... unfortunately that also happened to be right outside the Financial Aid office where there was a line of about 10 students waiting to get in to talk with someone.  I wasn't hurt at all, and stood right up to hurry to my office, but the damage was done.  ALL THOSE PEOPLE saw me fall!  SO embarrassing!  Why couldn't I have fallen last week when campus seemed almost empty?  I hid in my office for the next hour, not wanting to venture into the hallway in case one of those students still happened to be out there.  Just one more thing to add to my list of embarrassing moments I guess!

Pottery Class - Week 1

 

For Christmas, Jen got me a month of pottery classes.  I was so excited for our first class last night!  The instructor sure makes it look a lot easier than it is!!  I am just hoping by week four that I will be able to make something that is recognizable :-)  Last night we learned about the pottery wheel, how to create a ball of clay, how to get the clay to stick on the wheel, how to center the clay, and we practiced creating an opening in the middle of the clay and "pulling" the clay upward.  Jen looked like a pro, but I think I was the worst one in the class of 6!  I will definitely need to practice.  I'm glad we get to go to open practice time four times throughout the month... I'm hoping next Thursday to impress my instructor with how much I've improved.

So Far So Good!

My friend Brooke asked me yesterday if I had a productive week off work... and I am happy to say yes!  I went skiing, saw two movies in the theater, painted my spare bedroom, had lunch with the fam one day and had a BYP lunch another day, put together a puzzle that I framed for my new Boise-themed bedroom (with plenty of blue & orange), listened to two books on tape and started a third, went to the gym a couple times, took down the Christmas decorations and put up the "winter" decorations, etc.

I wanted to start off the year right, so I got up this morning and ran a 5k on the treadmill at the gym.  I decided it is much easier to run while I'm watching hockey and college football on tv!  I also cleaned my bedroom (including dusting and vacuuming!), cleaned the kitchen, and cleaned both bathrooms... Now if I had only had time to organize my office :-)  I grabbed lunch with Jen, ran errands, went grocery shopping, and finished off the night by watching the Idaho Steelheads with Brad - such a fun evening!  Now I'll spend the rest of the night reading and relaxing.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but am not really excited to get back to real life on Monday with a whole week of work!

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year!  I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to 2011.  I had a great 2010, and I know that 2011 will be even better!  I am excited for some great adventures.  Guess I should also sit down and make some resolutions :-)

We rang in the new year with dinner at Chapalas, games at Jen's (there was a 2 1/2 hour wait at the bowling alley!), sparkling cider and PF Changs great wall of chocolate... totally delish.  Thanks everyone for the fun night.  I'm off to bed now so I can make it to the gym in the morning :-)