Gary and I are so proud to announce that Gary accepted a job with Hy-Vee in their Mason City Pharmacy! So we are going to be living in the Mason City area, (north Central Iowa or in the middle of Des Monies and Minneapolis on I35) our move have already started as we are going to move back to Des Monies after Chloe is born which we will stay until Gary Graduates in May at which point we will then move to the Mason City area!

Just thought I would put this on our blog... more info to come!

I love this time of year, Christmas is such a magical time and it's amazing to me that we get to have the magic of Christmas each year.

I don't want to say to much about Christmas, as I usually do not publish my testomony or thoughts about my faith however I can't help it this time...

one of the hymns we sung in church really made me think about Christ's birth the song is Once in Royal David City, the lyrics to the second and third verse got my attention this season as I prepare to be a mother it reads:

2. He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

3. And our eyes at last shall see him,
Through his own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heav’n above,
And he leads his children on
To the place where he is gone.

What amazed me the most, (this song reminding me) is that through Christ we are able to have joy in our live that we can't find on earth. Christ came into the world with the nothing but a loving mother and father. Today Gary and I are able to buy a bassinet for Chloe and it's hard for me to think that Mary was able to go to a stable and have a child knowing that she is caring for the future savior of the world. I don't know if I would be all right with that thought, when I am surrounded by baby stuff and knowing that I want the best for her.

I know that this season is a wonderful time to give and receive presents and I am grateful for the many people that love me and have, and will give Gary and I Christmas presents, I believe that is a special part of Christmas. I just want to share my thoughts on the true meaning of Christmas and to say that I know that Christ lives, that Christmas is a time for the pure love of Christ which is charity and that We have joy this time of year because Christ is the savior of this world.

Have a Merry Christmas

Week 31

What a wonderful time to be pregnant! I can truly say that I love it! All of her kicks and twists. I love watching my tummy move.

Pumpkin Roll and Happy Thanksgiving

We wish all of our family and friends a happy Thanksgiving. This is the middle of the best part of the year for our family, between the NFL, Collage Football and the holidays it's a great time to look back and be grateful for all of the many blessings our Heavenly Father has provides us and all the loving support and blessings our family and friends have done for us through the year.

A great recipe that is perfect for the season is the pumpkin roll, it really is delicious and there isn't that much work involved just some time to refrigerate. I hope you enjoy it! I made it at shower and all the guests loved it and wanted the recipe so I figured I should share this with every one else that loves pumpkin this time of year!

Happy Thanksgiving! Drive safe and eats lots of turkey gobble gobble till you wobble!

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese filling

Powdered Sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 tsp apple pie spice

1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin (such as Libby's 100% pure pumpkin)
1 cup chopped Pecans (optional)

Filling:

1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla
powdered sugar
1 container cool whip

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a Stoneware bar pan with Parchment paper, up sides and pinched and pushed in corners.

In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Beat eggs and sugar with mixer in large bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into Stoneware bar pan. Sprinkle with nuts if desired.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen from paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar with a Flour/Sugar shaker, and turn cake onto another parchment paper and sprinkle other side with powdered sugar. Roll cake up with the parchment paper inside of it and let cool completely in refrigerator.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla with a mixer until smooth. Fold in entire small container of cool whip. Carefully unroll cake; remove parchment paper. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Serves 10-15 generous servings.

My thoughts about my pregnancy and time of year

Wow only about 11 more weeks give or take until Chloe is born! Wow. Gary, My self and family members have been saying her name since we told them what we were going to name her, and it's like she is already part of the family! I can't wait to see her and to know what she will be like, is she going to be fussy or easy going? Is she going to have blond hair like Gary and myself when we were little with green eyes? Who is she going to look like most, Gary or myself, I am betting she will look more like Gary sine that seems to be the trend in the family, but who knows. Chloe has been kicking me at night and waking me up, She pushes on my belly if my jeans are not in the right spot, according to her right spot J she seems to only want me to eat Apple Cider lately in fact I had about 36-40 oz. of apple cider in a day… at least I am getting my servings of fruit it right?

As the weather is getting colder I am wearing Gary's coats, and they fit me! I look like a black marshmallow since they are big and baggy but they are comfortable and that is all that matters. Gary and I have our birthing classes coming up, I am not sure if I want to think about labor yet, it frightens me and I am such a big baby when it comes to pain, but hopefully 4 - 2 hour classes will help me!

I am so happy that Christmas is almost here! Its such a great time of year! There are so many fun things, traditions, and memories that come about, I thought I would share some off my favorite parts to the holidays with my family and friends: Gary and I have had a Tradition since we moved to Iowa City is to have a Christmas kick off night, I hope to keep this night private to "our family" Gary me and our Children. It starts when we start thinking about Christmas and start quoting Elf ( the movie with Will Ferrell in it) with our favorite quotes like:

you like sugar don't you?

I don't know, is there sugar in syrup? Then YES

We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

The night includes, pop corn and yummy treats, hot chocolate or in my case this year hot apple cider. I am sure that through the years we will build upon this tradition but now it's a fun thing we do. This is also the time that "we" slowly introduce our selves to Christmas music. I already have a whole mp3 cd full of our Christmas music in my car! Right now Gary will only listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, but after thanksgiving then it's free range. I will listen to any and all Christmas music. I figure we have like 7-10 Christmas cds that we only get to listen 2 months out of the year, why not start listening to Christmas Music before Thanks Giving?

My other fun tradition that started last year and will have to do it again is a cookie/ treat swap before finals, so husbands can have treats while it's finals week, and you can send them to friends. I am hoping to have it on December 10^th this year at my place, more info to come.

Lots and Lots of fun coming our way, it's so crazy to think in my little mind that I have a cheek list this is what is going though my mind:

Thanksgiving (Cheek)

Christmas parties and fun things (cheek)

Baby shower (awesome Cheek)

Christmas (cheek)

New Years Eve in Iowa city (we will deal with it, I shouldn't travel after Christmas, Cheek)

BABY (oh my gosh it's coming this fast? When did this happen and what on earth are we going to do…. Maybe we can think about checking this off our list of things we are doing in the next 11 weeks)

So there are all of my crazy thoughts. For both of us this is such an exciting time of year and period in our lives, Gary is also deciding what he wants to do after graduation, job or residency? We will see in about a month to 4 months what will happen… for now I can just keep dreaming of that house some where we will be living in someday with a nursery room for Chloe, and my Kitchen Aid Pro Mixer I will someday get… ahhh good times!

Dutch Letters and Tag Blanket

I amaze my self when ever I can make new things and they turn out... This Friday was my day off and I made Dutch Letters for the first time and I made a Tag Blanket for Chloe.

I started with the Dutch letters, or what I thought would become such. The filling was amazing so yummy and almond-y and good but the dough yah not so much. So when the recipe gives you instruction on how to make the dough you should follow it and not go with something else entirely different like I did. Dutch Letters have this really yummy light pastry dough that is soft and perfect. However to get the yummy goodness of the dough you need to spend an hour to make the dough. My thought was who in their right mind would spend an hour on the dough when you could get almost the same thing if you buy the dough right? WRONG! I bought Fillo Dough you know the thin pastry dough by the pie crust dough at the store? I never worked with Fillo Dough but hearing about it made me think that ok, it's not going to be exactly like Dutch letters but close enough, I mean the filling is what really counts, NO. The crust took me almost 2 hours since I had to put butter in between each layer and they would fall apart easily so that made a mess, anyways what I thought would be a huge time saver and taste fine turned into is a time waster and a completely different take on Dutch Letters. Grrr. they have a crunchy crust and a yummy center so I have yet to give it (my concoction) a name but next time I will know to follow the recipe even if it's seems like it's going to take a long time. So this time I did not amaze myself with my baking abilities, oh well there is always next time.

Chloe is due in 3 months! Wow I never thought I would be saying this and now that its 12ish weeks away I have been starting to say I have 12 weeks left instead of I am on week 28! So since time will fly by I have started to prepare for her by making things and getting things ready for her arrival. I made the cutest Tag Blanket. I haven't used a sowing machine for 6 years, and thought this would be a great project to make as an introduction to the wonderful fabric world. So here is proof that I can indeed sow and I can make something super cute! I think I did a great job of picking out the fabric and ribbon and can't wait to take pictures of her with her pink girly girl tag blanket! I amazed my self that it had to be posted with a picture!

Twilight info

Fall is Annual Report Time!

This picture was taken after a storm when it was still foggy outside... It's fall!

Fall is a great time for me to work on my Annual Report, A what you ask... Well in my crazy mind it's the only time I am not busy with random things, So I can work on my scrapbook, it also seems to be the time of year that I get a diffrent job... It seems to be a trend that in the fall I get "new job fever" I don't recommend getting it, as it's not great unless you are pregnant and need a stress free job. So I am back at Hobby Lobby, I enjoy doing the very basic cashier jobs and helping customers with their crafting needs, oh and the discount is great!

My annual Report is my scrapbook. I have decided to call it that because the only time I get to work on my scrapbook is in the fall, it is like an annual report that I can do once a year of all the pictures that I have took and put a scrapbook together with journaling and other random things. I have our Iowa City scrapbook that is 3/4 of the way done! yay I am so excited! and an 8x8 scrapbook I Call my Favorite Things,it includes the pictures I have gotten over the years with a story but I don't want to scrapbook them in a annual report Scrapbook sothey get's to go in this book. The idea behind it is one picture per page and a short story or paragraph that describes why I love it. There is a lot of random pictures... It should be fun to journal!

So if you need inspiration to work on your scrapbook, take a month or two and do it when you are not to busy. make a mess and don't worry to much about it, it's a temporary thing. It has worked for me the pass two years.

Go Hawks

So this is not the year for us to go to a Bowl Game but oh well... It's still a great time to go to Kinnick and enjoy in some Hawkeye Football. I love this picture and hope to be able to enlarge it and frame it someday....

It's a Girl

Gary and I are having a cute little girl! yay,


Baby and mom are healthy and doing great. our girly girl weighs 1 pound and is 10 inches long! the due date is still right on, Jan. 30 2009!

On Iowa! Go Hawks!

Go Cubs Go!

The Short Sawyer Wedding

Our little Kiddo

I am so excited to show you our first couple of pictures of our baby! Gary and were both amazed at the ultra sound and it's truly a miracle to see our baby for the first time.

I am so excited to know that our child is doing just fine, I have been feeling really good lately, I think the 2 trimester will be great!

So a lot can happen in two months, or less. Gary and I are back in our apartment from the Iowa City flooding, and we are doing good. After finding out that we had to evacuate our apartment and be out of our home in less then 24 hours we had two choices, stay at a dorm room on campus, or find another place to stay for 2 weeks! I was completely horrified as to where we were going to go in such little time, when the whole city was evacuating. We were extremely lucky that we have some amazing friends that would let us live in their apartment and that with in 2-3 hours we had friends call us to make sure that we didn't need any help! We found a place to stay in West Liberty about 2o miles East of Iowa City, at "Stu's House" Stu is a good friend of Gary's from School, His wife Becky was leaving for California the next day and wouldn't be back in to town for a week or so, and Stu was living with Gary's parents because of a rotation in Des Moines. They were needing some one to house sit that week as they have two cats and a house. So it worked out better than any one could have planned!

Lessons I have learned from the flood and evacuating your apartment:
1.) I will never complain about getting a top floor apartment ( I was sad when I found out that I couldn't take our awesome water bed with us when we moved in, and wanted a bottom floor apartment.)
2.) Be ready for anything! We literally had 3 hours to pack everything up before we had no electricity to help us pack! From the time we realized that we had to pack up and leave for two weeks, got home and started packing the electricity shut off at 9:00 pm giving us about 3 hours of light. Luckily we had a cell phone and a ton of tea light candles to help us see.
3.) Always have your medicines stocked up. I didn't have a problem but it's one less thing I had to worry about.
4.) Always have enough gas in your tank to get out of town in you need to.
5.) Don't be 5 weeks pregnant and go with out comfort food, aka: strawberries, chips and salsa, yogurt, and other yummy foods.

Opps did I slip on the 5th lesson? Yes, Gary and I are so excited we are expecting our first little bundle of joy in January! Yay, I am so excited and always tiered or hungry and sometimes I have to pick which one I need more, usually it's sleep! Although If I am not tired, I am wanting strawberries.

So since poor Gary has to deal with grumpy tired hungry Lisa, he has been letting me sleep a lot and doing more house work and he's been letting me decide what to eat for supper, luckily it's been quick and easy and lots of pizza (yum yum), although I am pretty sure that the baby will want pizza as soon as he can eat real food, I do eat a lot of strawberries smoothies for supper, in that case Gary eats whatever. The other fun thing that Gary lets Lisa do is decide what I want to do on our free time... Which has involved going to see movies.

We have seen two movies since I became pregnant, I love movie Popcorn and since we only get it when we go to a movie, it seemed reasonable enough to curb my craving. We saw Indiana Jones and Get Smart, both great movies and well worth eating popcorn! the next movie we will have to see will have to be Batman, I am not a huge Batman fan although Gary is, but I can see it for the popcorn and the really awesome reason why I will go see Batman is because Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince will have a trailer, that is enough to but all crazy hormones and fear of the joker to rest as long as I can see the Harry Potter trailer and mmmmmm Pop Corn!

Now that I am feeling better I hope to update our blog weekly; and sometimes daily.... with recipes and what ever.

My Hair Donation

I decided this week that it would be a great time to cut my hair! I love getting a haircut, I usually only get one about every one to one and half years, so It was due, I haven't cut me hair since last January! So it was time. I found this awesome place that take hair donations and make wigs out of the donated hair for women that have lost their hair to Chemotherapy! It is sponsored by Pantien Pro-V. I am so proud to be part of that and hope to spread the word around, for any one else that has been thinking about cutting their hair, Beautiful Lengths only requires that you donate 8 inches instead of the usual 10 inches that most places need. go to www.beautifullengths.com and see if you can donate if your hair is long and you want a cute summer hair cut.

So it usual takes me to grow 8 inches of extra hair in a year and a half, so next time I donate will be in November of 2010!

new pictures of me coming soon!

Pharmacy Ball and our perfect weekend!

This weekend is one of those fun weekends that Gary and I are able to spend the entire weekend together just the two of us! those are hard to come by! I think we both needed this weekend, with my family troubles and knowing that my mom has surgery this coming Thursday in Rochester Mn, and Gary, wrapping up his last semester in class work and having some crazy crazy weeks when we hardly saw each other now we can finally relax and enjoy each others company! We started out with our first BBQ of the season, with another couple joining us, completed with Bag toss and Settlers! Then we had two completely different parts to this weekend, one is fun and the other part is uplifting, both needed in our lives right now.

Gary has finally reached one of the best part in his Pharmacy Profession NO MORE CLASS! (well soon to be, only 6 more weeks and counting) Anyways to celebrate having little class work and then soon to be no class work we went to the Pharmacy Ball that is held annually every year! I have never been to real "Ball" I was hoping and wanting it to be like the fairytale Balls you see in Cinderella, however this was not the case it was neater than that! I mean who knows how to walts anyways right?

The Pharmacy Ball was really simple and yet very entertaining, It's so neat to see all of the dresses and accessories on us Girly Girls and to eat a yummy dinner and to look so good that your husband can't keep his eyes off of you, it's just fun. During the dance the dean of the College of Pharmacy dressed up as Elvis as a Hawkeye fan with a Tiger Hawk on the back of the suite and sang an Elvis song. I was stunned that Pharmacists can have fun and be silly! It was a great time and I am so glad that we were able to go out and party beacuse my husband deserves it and it's great to know that there is an end in sight! Next steps: rotations and on to applying for a residency! Yay

The uplifting part to the weekend: Earlier in the day on Saturday Gary and I witnessed something truly special and near and dear to our hearts. We sustained a new prophet of our Heavenly Father, Thomas S. Monson, and the First Presidency of our church and our Apostles! I think it's amazing that we have true apostles and a prophet of god on this earth today! hearing the messages they gave us in the Saturday Morning Session confirmed my testimony of the true gospel here on earth, It was all on helping and loving your family! What a neat and wonderful experience that Gary and I were able to do together, It was neat to see Gary sustain the new Presidency of the Church by himself and then as a couple or as a family. I love the Gospel and I love this church, what a wonderful world we live in when we are able to hear read and listen to a prophet when ever we want!

Jessica's Baby Shower Cake

So this cake was supper easy to make and it looks awesome I just thought I would share you the cake that I made for Jessica's baby shower.

you take a yellow cake mix and make a two layer cake. use chocolate frosting, I like butter cream frosting but you can use store bought too. Frost the cake and then add the petals (peeps) around the cake in threes, so separate the peeps into 4 strips, place around the cake and then add the chocolate chips in the middle, the chocolate chips handles better when they are frozen. and enjoy!

Rotations!

Sorry it has taken so long to update, Lisa and I have been crazy busy the last few weeks. Lisa can go into the details better than I can, but one of the bigger news items of late is the fact that they released the Rotation Schedule for next year! The fourth (and final) year of Pharmacy School is divided into 10 four-five week blocks. Each student must complete at least 9 rotations, with the tenth block available as a 'bye-cycle' or another rotation. So, without further ado, here is my list of rotations.

Cycle 1 (5/19 - 6/20): Hy-Vee Coralville (General Community Pharmacy)
Cycle 2 (6/23 - 7/25): Bye (free time here I come!)
Cycle 3 (7/28 - 8/29): UIHC (General Hospital Pharmacy)
Cycle 4 (9/1 - 10/3): Hy-Vee Corporate Elective (West Des Moines, IA)
Cycle 5 (10/6 - 11/5): VA Iowa City (Acute Care Medicine)
Cycle 6 (11/10 - 12/19): Neurology Elective (UIHC)
Cycle 7 (1/5 - 2/6) CVS Iowa City (Community Pharmaceutical Care)
Cycle 8 (2/9 - 3/13) Family Medicine (Mason City, IA)
Cycle 9 (3/16 - 4/10) Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care Elective (Des Moines, IA)
Cycle 10 (4/13 - 5/8) Iowa Pharmacy Association (Des Moines, IA)

Following the end of Cycle 10, I graduate on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 10am in Iowa City. Then it is studying for boards and (hopefully) getting ready to start my residency.

The fun never stops....

Gary

I'm so excited to try this recipe!

So as a Pampered Chef Consultant we get lots of fun recipes to try, this one is one, I hope to be a favorite. All you have to do is mix a cake mix with chocolate and strawberry jelly and put it in the microwave for 12 minutes and it's done! !f you love new easy recipes you will have to cheek out my blog often, I hope to post recipes often! I am excited for this recipe because I have been wanting a fluted stoneware pan forever and I finally got it ordered! What can I say, I am addicted to chocolate!

Chocolate Velvet Cake with Strawberries

Strawberry jam and chocolate morsels are blended into devil’s food cake batter for
extremely moist and tender results in the microwave oven.
Cake

1 cup milk chocolate morsels
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 pkg (18.25 oz) devil’s food cake mix
3 eggs
¾ cup water
1 jar (12 oz) seedless strawberry jam,
divided

Glaze and Garnish
⅓ cup melted vanilla ice cream
1 cup milk chocolate morsels
1 qt. fresh strawberries, divided
Additional ice cream (optional)

Brush Stoneware Fluted Pan with vegetable oil using Chef’s Silicone Basting Brush. For cake, combine chocolate morsels and oil in Small Batter Bowl. Microwave on HIGH 30-60 seconds or until melted and smooth, whisking after 30 seconds. In Stainless (4-qt.) Mixing Bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, water, ½ cup of the jam and chocolate mixture; whisk until well blended. Pour batter into pan.

Microwave cake on HIGH 9-12 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Remove cake from microwave. Wipe rim of pan clean using paper towel, if necessary. Center Simple Additions® Large Round Platter over pan and carefully invert. Without removing pan, let stand 10 minutes. Remove pan.

For glaze, combine ice cream and chocolate morsels in Small Micro-Cooker®. Microwave on HIGH 20-60 seconds, stirring after each 20-second interval, until melted and smooth.
To finish cake, place remaining jam into Prep Bowl and microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until melted; brush evenly over cake. Holding by stems, dip 16 of the strawberries into glaze; arrange around bottom edge of cake. Drizzle top of cake with remaining glaze. Slice remaining strawberries using Egg Slicer Plus®; place into center well of cake. Serve
with additional ice cream, if desired.

Yield: 16 servings
Nutrients per serving: Calories 360, Total Fat 14 g, Saturated Fat 6 g, Cholesterol 45 mg, Carbohydrate 57 g, Protein 3 g,
Sodium 290 mg, Fiber less than 1 g

Cook’s Tips: For best results, bake this cake in a 1000-watt microwave with a built-in turntable.
This cake can be baked in a conventional oven, if desired. Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes. Proceed as recipe directs.
©The Pampered Chef, Ltd., 2008

Gary Playing the Sax

The story of Us through pictures

Happy Valentines Day

So this is my first real entry I am excited and I promise that I wont have a ton of those slide shows on here but I had to start some where. Is it me or has Valentines day arrived so slow this year? I am not saying that my life is dragging on and on, it the opposite but when we get snow storm after snow storm it is so nice to have a day dedicated to love, and what better time to do it then in the middle of old yukky winter? Maybe after Valentines day winter will seem shorter and warmer weather will start coming.

Gary and I do have plans for Valentines day I am excited! We are going to a Bed and Breakfast in Keokuk IA. it's right off of the Mississippi river where you are able to watch Bald Eagles, I am excited to try and photograph these awesome subjects because it's a challenge that I hope to conquer!

I have decided that Valentines day should be the National Cup Cake day, what better way to let people know you love or care for them with a yummy cup cake? So maybe I am weird, I get that a lot, but for the last 3 years I have made at least 4 dozen cup cakes for others, usually for work and for gar's class but it's still really fun to do. It will be one of our family tradition, even if I am not working I will still make them and then deliver them to families that will enjoy them. So if you need a easy and fun Valentine's day idea do cup cakes.


Happy Valentines Day, stay warm do something fun with or for your Sweat Heart and eat some chocolate or have some cup cakes!