Please VOTE for my Sister!

Hey everyone,

So I really need your help! My sister is in a contest called the Summer Music Showcase sponsored by mormontimes.com. She is incredibly talented and really deserves this opportunity. If she places as one of the top four artists, she will perform in a semi-final and hopefully she will move on to the finals. The top three winners will win a cash prize. Although she could really use this money as a poor college student, this would provide her the opportunity to perform and get her name/music out there. Currently she is in 5th place... let's make it #1. You can vote once everyday during July. Please vote for her at:

http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=3533&nocache=1

** To vote you need to provide your e-mail address... you won't be sent any mail from this site... I haven't received any mail from them. They just use your e-mail because you can only do one vote per day per e-mail address. Please, please, vote!

Little One on the Way...

Well, many of you already know, but for those of you who haven't heard...

we are having a BABY!

Since we don't know if it's a boy or a girl we call the baby "little bug"...

I am 12 weeks along & looking forward to the end of the first trimester in about a week. I hear that pregnancy gets a lot better at about that time. I've had a bad case of what I call "evening sickness." I actually feel pretty good in the morning and by the end of the day (about 5:00) I get really nauseated. Luckily, I had about 2 "good days" this week and I think all of this will ease up soon. I'm not as exhausted eithernow... I can do with 8-9 hrs. of sleep instead of 10 or 11.

I'm not really showing, but Steve and I are going to take pictures of my belly profile every couple weeks and make a flip book in the end.

We are so excited to welcome a new little one. My due date is January 2nd. It's funny because many people have reminded me (mostly guys) that if the baby comes before the new year we get a nice tax credit :)

Lots of Happenings

So, it's been an entire month since my last post... I'm so sorry for the lack of updates. This past month has been quite eventful. About 2 weeks ago we had the first Lake Powell Paulsen Family Reunion... it was a blast!!! (Thanks mom & dad). All of my nieces and nephews were there. My sister and her family even flew all the way from North Carolina to be there.

Lake Powell

The whole fam at Rainbow Bridge. Each time I see it, I always wonder how much longer until that thing collapses. Steve testing his wake-boarding skills after a hard year of med school.I love to ski on glass... what a treat!My brother Isaac... the pro wake-boarder in the family. He always gives us a show.

Isaac and the wicked back-flip...

Steve and I showing off our fair Arizona skin.Miss Makayla enjoying the water.

This is a silly video of Makayla. She is very good at saying names, but she loves to call me by the wrong name (I've realized this is on purpose). I'm know she thinks it's pretty funny because I always get a good laugh out of it.

Emma with her favorite uncle Steve... what a silly pose.My brother Josh just being himself :)Jane loving the wind in her hair.Emma and my sister Abby showing off her cool shades ("I got them for only a dollar!").Audrey making sure the sun stays out of her eyes.Emma is always ready to set sail!Isaac with his lovely girl Megan along with my two sisters. It was so fun to have Megan there!Bryce Canyon

So our trip was supposed to end at Lake Powell, but our plans changed. My grandmother, Bestamor, passed away on the last day of our vacation. We extended our trip a couple days more so we could attend the funeral. Luckily we weren't too far from home and we were very grateful to spend more time with the family. We first made a detour by stopping in Bryce Canyon with my sister's family. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and did some fun hiking with the kids. After spending one night there, we headed up to SLC. Salt Lake Trip

Once we arrived in SLC, we were busy making plans for Bestamor's funeral. Many of these plans were already written in detail by Bestamor before she passed. She knew exactly how her funeral should be... a celebration with lots of "fun"... she always emphasized the "fun" part of fun-eral. Abby and I worked on putting together all of her favorite songs, many of which she had written, into an organ hymnal arrangement for the prelude music... it was amazing... Abby is so talented. I know that Bestamor loved the music and hearing her children speak. She was an amazing woman and I am so grateful for her influence in my life.

Bestamor always said that if something ever goes wrong, " just put it up in a balloon, and let it go." I thought it would be very appropriate to emphasize this simple, but powerful phrase buy sending off some balloons at the cemetery. Bestamor was 80 when she passed, so with the help of my siblings we brought 80 yellow balloons to let go. It was a beautiful day... just the way it should be.
When we arrived someone else in the family had purchased 80 white balloons. So after a countdown everyone let go of the balloons... it was an unforgettable moment.
We'll miss you Bestamor!

Ever since Wicked came out in 2003, I've been wanting to see this Tony Award winning musical. After six years of it playing on Broadway, I finally have the opportunity to see it!!! Steve and I are going on July 4th and our tickets arrived in the mail today. Although I've never seen the show, I already know every lyric to every song by heart. I feel like I've seen the show many times already in my head. We traded fireworks for a musical instead on the 4th of July, but I wouldn't have it any other way! ** note: For those of you who are not familiar with this show, Wicked is about everything that happened before Dorothy arrives in Oz. You primarily see how the Wicked Witch became wicked.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one...

So this is my adorable little niece Mikayla ( a.k.a, "kayla-bee"). Last weekend I was able to go home to S.L.C. for a very quick trip. My sister was in town with her girls and I just didn't want to miss the opportunity. After a very long day at work last Friday, I flew out that evening to find the little kiddos sound asleep.

We played all day on Saturday and Sunday.

I bought these adorable sunglasses for Kayla-bee at Children's place.I got Audrey sunglasses as well, but....she seemed to prefer Kayla's.Mom, Abby, and I went on a little hike Sunday afternoon. We still had our dresses on from church along with our tennis shoes. I refused to go home without doing a hike... I miss the mountains soooo much (the hikes in Arizona just don't compare).

My brother, Isaac, with the caramel popcorn tower. He made his special "mixed drinks" (non-alcoholic of course).After a fun-filled weekend, I flew back very early Monday morning and drove straight from the airport to work (I made it there by 9:00 and worked 10 hrs... let's just say I was sooooo exhausted).

Calling All Recipes

Steve and I love to eat out. This could really be considered one of our hobbies. Over the past few months we've tried to cut back and limit ourselves to only once or twice a week, but it just didn't seem to work. Luckily we are both active and the effects haven't shown up on the scale, but it really isn't the best thing when you are trying to be health conscious. Eating out also isn't the best when you are trying to budget (although, you can find some really good deals out there).

A couple weeks ago, I decided to start planning meals for the week and then make a grocery list according to the menu.... it totally worked! Steve and I didn't eat out at all that week, and I actually liked the things that I cooked. It was nice to come home from work and know immediately what we were having for dinner and not having to worry about missing ingredients. We then made the goal to do this for an entire month. So far things have gone pretty well. We went to Olive Garden last week because we had a gift card. Interestingly, we both kind of felt sick after because we ate too much and the food was really rich. I guess our bodies are getting used to the healthy home cooked meals.

Since I am still working on my domestic side with all this cooking, I would love to get any of your favorite recipes (hopefully they aren't too complicated, I am still a beginner). So, my challenge to you is to write a post or leave a comment with your favorite recipe to share. I know many of you are awesome cooks!

Here is mine:

Macaroni Lasagna

Ingredients:

*2 1/2 cups of macaroni/elbow noodles

*1 lb of lean ground beef or ground turkey

*1 cup low fat cottage cheese

*1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese (I like to use cheddar).

* 26 oz can of spaghetti sauce (about 3 cups)

*1 tbs of dehydrated onion

Directions:

1. pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. cook noodles until tender, set aside.

3. cook ground beef/turkey with dehydrated onion (I like to use seasoning salt as well for more flavor).

4. spray/grease a 9x12 baking pan (I use a stone one, but glass works as well).

5. place a small layer of noodles in the bottom of the pan (about 1/3 of the noodles)

6. next layer some meat, continued by the shredded cheese, cottage cheese, and then some sauce.

7. add another layer of noodles. Repeat above step 6 above.

8. add one more layer (as said in steps 6 & 7) ending with the shredded cheese so it is on top.

** all of the ingredients should be divided into 3rds so you can layer each ingredient 3 times (the layers should be small).

9. cook at 400 degrees for about 30-45 min.