mom is always right.

i've been stressing this weekend because i need to buy

warm-weather clothes. by the looks of it (online), snow pants

and other accessories were not going to come cheap.

i called my mom. she told me to look at walmart and the boy clothes would be less expensive than the girl clothes. and guess what?

^ pants on the left are girl pants. pants on the right are boy pants. made by the same company, essentially the same thing, right?

^ only the pants in the girl section cost $10 more!!

what's up with that??

i ended up getting the girl pair (since there were only L's and XL's in the boy department) but it was still funny to see how the exact same pants (and even smaller ones that would require less fabric) could be more expensive just because they are marketed towards girls.

and BOTH pairs are exponentially cheaper than

the ones i found online, which were $100+. eesh.

anyways. mom is always right.

also, if you didn't know, my parents and daniel came to visit me for a few days, bringing with them some nice furniture for my apartment (that will surely remind me of ohio) and a few other gifts...

^ like these SHARP KNIVES for cooking.

my mom even cut off the top (before giving them to me)

since they're so hard to open.

^ so i cooked them lots of things for thanksgiving to say thanks ( :

turkey, stuffing, gravy, roasted rosemary garlic potatoes, homemade honey wheat bread, salad, green beans, crackers and grapes.

(plus pumpkin pie from scratch and chocolate brownies for dessert)

a pretty good dinner, yeah?

also we made ginger bread houses.

can you tell which one was mine + DK's and which one was m&d's?

gingerbread house #1:

gingerbread house #2:

anyways...that was our thanksgiving.

plus we watched "a charlie brown thanksgiving," explored wausau, went black friday shopping and ate lots of waffles for breakfast.

pumpkin time.

pumpkin creation #1:

pie!!

^ i covered it in foil when i drove to church

(to feed it to my SS class). some of it got stuck to the top. oops.

but check out that awesome homemade crust ( :

pumpkin creation #2:

pancakes!!

^ because what else are you supposed to do when you have extra pumpkin pie batter + flour + baking soda + milk?

these were yummy and super-easy to make.

also i made some roasted red potatoes (another test-run before the fam gets here on WEDS) and they were good but i ate them before i took pictures. get excited to see all the awesome food i'm going to be cooking over the next few days for thanksgiving!

victory lap.

if you haven't been keeping up, my life has been all over the place. since i started working, my schedule's been different from week to week. but as of last week, i'm officially a daytime M-F reporter. so i thought, hey. now i can get in some sort of rhythm. this week...i did.

every day, i woke up around 6, grabbed something small to eat and then fell back asleep for 20 minutes. then i woke up and ran a few miles (between 4-5 on a NOT-empty stomach, since that's bad for you) before showering and getting ready for work at 9:30. after work, i'd come home, make myself dinner, catch up on news and emails and be in bed between 11 and 11:30. CRAZY. i don't remember the last time i've been on a regular schedule like that in my entire life.

last night was a bit of an exception, since i went out to dinner with some friends from work and stayed out a bit later, but i surprised myself by being awake this morning before eight.

i REALLY don't remember the last time i've seen 8 AM on a saturday morning but it was awesome. i got my oil changed (for FREE), went grocery shopping, bought birthday presents / stuff for when m + d + daniel come to visit for thanksgiving next week (!!!), got a sweater at kohl's with a $10 off coupon and ran four miles before being back home for the ohio state game at 2:30 PM. holy productive, batman.

still on the agenda for tonight: baking a pumpkin pie from scratch for my sunday school class, preparing my lesson, watching the OSU game (hopefully they can make a comeback -- they're down 3-7 at the half) and reading "dispatches from the edge" (anderson cooper's book that i started reading during my oil change).

life isn't perfect, but sometimes it's not bad at all.

counting to 300.

i have a confession -- i have an obsession.

it's all about numbers. and as far as i can tell, there are two parts.

1. the most important challenge i tackle everyday is time. i am constantly battling the clock -- driving from one place to another, shooting video, interviewing people, finding information --all before coming back to the station with enough time to put it all together for the news at 5, 6 and 10. because of this, i am constantly asking myself what time it is and how much longer i have before i need to book it back to home base. all of this...NUMBERS.

2. while i am shooting video, i set a shot and let the tape roll for ten seconds...and i count it out in my head. usually i only need three solid seconds of video for my stories, but ten makes sure i have enough for editing purposes. this is a great habit...until it starts to seep into my personal life. lately i've caught myself counting the seconds during everyday tasks: brushing my teeth, shampooing my hair, stirring my pasta -- pretty much everything. NUMBERS.

anyways, all this -- just to let you know this is my 300th post.

and it only took two years, one month and eleven days.

back to baking ( :

i haven't been doing much baking since i moved to wisconsin

(due to lack of materials, people to cook for, etc) but this weekend i decided to jump back in. here's proof:

^ one of the two loaves of honey wheat bread i baked (from scratch)

then i made brownies for my

(high school aged) sunday school class --

^ i told them opening a bakery was my plan "b" and one of them told me i should change my game plan to make it plan "a."

did i mention i love my SS class?

i put applesauce in it instead of oil which makes it healthy!

did you know i have been collecting these lately?

^ they are pink yogurt lids.

for each one i send in, 10 cents is donated to breast cancer research.

ALSO...i've eaten 40+ yogurts since moving to WI (about 2 months).

AND if you haven't heard about my new blog -- every day is awesome -- check it out. my sisters and some of our friends all post on it once a week and my day is "spontaneous sunday."

PLUS if you didn't know that i have the coolest, most talented roommate / best friend ever, look at this video she made. i love her.

ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low...

i've been in wisconsin for about two months now.

(crazy, right?)

so let's talk about one of the main differences between UT and WI:

MOUNTAINS.

this is a picture i took from the top of the highest

point in north-central wisconsin: granite peak.

(about 700 feet up)

i hiked the mountain with one of the boys from work last month. the trail was pretty much straight up -- crazy steep. but it was a nice hike and a pretty view with all the autumn leaves changing.

for the sake of comparison, here's the view

from the top of "Y" mountain in provo:

how high is the "Y?"

oh you know...about 8,520 feet.

another fun fact:

the cement "Y" itself is about 380 feet high...

a little more than half the height of my new highest mountain ( :

spontaneous sunday - #2.

so when you move to wausau, you get this giant packet full of coupons and sweet deals on things all over the city.

this week, i checked to see what sort of freebies i could get.

and guess what was on the list?

a decorated quarter-sheet cake!!

(actual retail price: $17.99)

...did i need a cake? no.

but it was FREE! so why not, right?

don't worry, mom. i will save it until you (and daniel and dad) come to visit so you can share my delicious free cake with me.

two days left.

if you didn't know, this week was a big election so work has been crazy and i haven't been blogging. but hopefully things will be calming down now and we can all go back to normal (maybe).

also if you didn't know, there are only two open days in the blogosphere if you want to claim them for your own. so far, we have --

* spontaneous sunday (me)

* musical monday (daniel)

* wordless wednesday (mrs. d)

* tickle me thursday (surrah)

* frank friday (micae)

so...does anyone want tuesday or saturday? it's not a big commitment -- you just have to post SOMETHING on your day and think of a cute name for it. any takers?

day one.

yes, i'm also doing a DayZeroProject list and it was actually MY idea that sparked this entire thing, despite being the last one to blog about it / put it on facebook. if you want to look at my list, click here.

i'm really excited to do all of these goals. some will be a challenge, but i thought about what i really wanted to accomplish and i'm happy with the things i decided to choose.

today is day one. so here goes nothing...