Interview

Marcel had his interview today with the South Salt Lake Fire Department. There were 3 guys in the room to do the interview (a Captain, Medic and a firefighter) and he said that they only asked him 9 questions (and some of them were weird ?'s). I asked him how he felt it went and he said he wasn't sure but we'll find out I guess. They didn't say how long it would be until they get back to him so I guess we are just going to have to play the waiting game (I being the impatient person that I am, do not like this game very much). Here we go....tick tock tick tock....!

Welcome Home Elders!

So two of my dear friends, who also happen to be twins, just got back from serving their missions. Davis (right) served the Santiago East mission in Chile and Dalin (left) served the Rancagua mission in Chile. I can't believe how fast those 2 years flew by! They are 2 awesome guys so I know that they were even better missionaries! I've known these guys since early on in elementary so we have many great and fun memories from playing house in a mud fort in their backyard to bonfires and study groups in high school! Good times!
They got home on Tuesday, 6/15/10, and it was their homecoming this last Sunday, 6/22/10, in Moroni. They each did a spectacular job with their talks and it was funny because they each had an accent when they were up talking but when we went to talk to them after sacrament, the accent was gone! Not sure exactly what that's about! I was told that it's because when they go into Gospel mode the "gift of tongues" comes back!

Other than being a little taller and more mature these two haven't changed a bit! They are still the same 2 crazy kids I grew up with! I wish them the best of luck with each of their lives and the adjustments to come with being back home!

W.o.N.d.E.r.L.a.N.d Contest

They announced the 25 finalists for the "Picture Yourself in Wonderland" contest on deviantart.com and mine didn't make the cut. The art that was chosen was amazing and extremely well done! I wasn't really expecting to win so it's okay. I had fun doing it and now I have some silly pictures and possibly my Halloween costume! The announcement also said that there were over 9,000 entries! I can't believe they were able to narrow it down to only 25 and from there they have to choose the final 3. Good luck to them and congrats to the finalists!

1st Camping Trip of 2010

We had planned on going camping with some of our friends last weekend months in advance and were very excited to go. We cleaned and loaded the camper, bought all the food/goodies, got everything ready and wouldn't you know it, it rained....all weekend. We didn't let that stop us though! We all met up Nebo Loop and camped until Sunday afternoon. We played cards and board games in each others campers and the rain even let up long enough for us to make our delicious tinfoil dinners and for all of us to go fishing for a little while (yep you guessed it, we didn't catch anything... ;)). Over all we ended up having a pretty good time regardless of the rain! Even Toby enjoyed himself and he even made a little friend (one of our friends has an adorable female Maltese, I wish I would've got a picture of them playing together. It was hilarious!)!




Marcel browning the hamburger for our tinfoil dinner!

Toby LOVES giving people kisses! The good timing of this picture proves it! Haha!

Yet another fishless fishing experience!

The traditional picture of just us!

RiNg-A-LiNg

Today Marcel got a very good call! It was South Salt Lake Fire Department asking him to come in for an interview this next Wednesday (6/23/10)! WoOhOo!!! Things are looking up! We'll see how he does (I know he'll do Gr-8!)!

He also has a test with Murray Fire Dept. after his interview and he just took the BPad test (2nd test phase of 4; written test, BPad test, physical test, interview) for Salt Lake Fire Dept. on Monday (6/14/10) (the BPad test is a psychological test where they watch different scenarios that they may encounter in life on a screen and then they have to respond and are judged accourdingly). He has his foot in the door in a few different places so now he's just working his way in!

On our Way!

Today Marcel did the physical test for the South Salt Lake Fire Department. He said that they weren't timing the test because this is the first year they've done this so they're going to use the times from this year to determine time requirements for future testing. They had to go through a course where they were blind folded and had to find their way out following a hose, they had to crawl through some confined spaces that required some creativity in squeezing through (such as holding the hose with your foot while removing your pack, etc.), they climbed up the fire engine ladder that was raised to a 45 degree angle about 60 feet off the ground where they had to raise and lower the fire hose with a rope, and finally they had to lift a big ground ladder to the side of a building (each person had to complete all of this alone). When I asked Marcel how he did he said that other than about passing out from the heat he did about average (which is good)! The people over the testing told them that since this was the first time the physical test had been done that they were all going to move on to interviews! This is such great news! We are so excited! Since there were only 40 of them to move on and take the physical test that means Marcel has a fairly good chance of being hired (we're not exactly sure how many they plan on hiring but we still have high hopes)! Keep your fingers crossed :) !

Goodies

Here are some random treats I've made. They are fun and I had a blast making them. I love being creative with desserts, as you will see, so I'm always coming up with new ideas or mimicking ideas I find online! They usually taste as good as they look too ;)! Now my regular food cooking skills are a whole different story....! Enjoy!

This is a doughnut bouquet we made for Dani for her birthday last year. She LOVES doughnuts so this was the perfect gift! We just bought the doughnuts from the store and placed them on scewers that we'd already put paper leafs on. There's also crinkled paper and skittles in the bottom to make it a little more colorful!

This is the cake I made for Marcel's 24th b-day (no mold was used). The tires are little doughnuts, the lights are DOTS, and the buttons are mini M&M's. This one took a while but it was worth his reaction when he saw it!
This was a cake I made for a treat for work from a recipe found online. There's melting chocolate coated on the top layer for a little crunch, chocolate shavings on top, and the middle is a cream cheese, whipped cream and Oreo combination. It was a whole lot of sugar but it was definitely worth one piece!
I dipped and drizzled these strawberry's for a Valentine's Day treat. Marcel loved them so they didn't last long!
I made these caramel apples for a Halloween snack (obviously!). The cobwebs were made with chocolate frosting piped on with a plastic sandwich bag.

These were fun little Thanksgiving cupcakes. The heads are tootsie pops and the beaks are tips from the candy corn that was used to make the tail feathers. Needless to say they were "gobbled" up pretty quickly! ;)

Stuck in the snow....in June!

It was a beautiful Saturday and we were headed up the canyon to set up Marcel's Trail camera.

Me, Manuel, and Marcel just enjoying the ride and the gorgeous views.

About half way to our destination we came to some snow in the road. We tried to drive through it once with no success so Marcel backed out to the dirt. "Maybe if we keep driving through it and backing up we can gradually plow our way through", I said. Bad idea. Marcel stepped on the gas and we got a little farther into the snow, but we couldn't back out. We were stuck.



Luckily there was a family on 4-wheelers we had passed on our way up that caught up to us and helped us. The man was extremely helpful and even had a handy dandy shovel to help dig us out! We found out that he actually works with my grandma Westenskow and taught my little brother in school (what a small world)! We are SO very grateful for his kindness and patience in helping us out!



Manuel and this kind stranger first tried pushing the truck to no avail so they had to dig around the tires. After digging for a bit they tried pushing again and like before, the truck didn't move.

So they gathered up sticks to put behind the tires to help get some traction and dug a little more.

Finally after all their hard work we all tried pushing the truck one more time and.....it worked!

We thanked the kind stranger and said our goodbyes, and I apologized to Marcel for my not-so-bright idea the whole way home (he wasn't mad but I felt pretty bad). He was pretty bummed out that he didn't get to put up his Trail camera but we still got a fun story out of the trip! We'll try again in a few weeks and hopefully by then all the snow will be gone ;)!

Toothless Toby!

Okay I know you can't really tell what this is but it's a picture of Toby's mouth! Marcel noticed today that he lost 2 of his front teeth! I can't believe he's already losing his puppy teeth! Hopefully the new ones that come in won't be razor sharp like these!

Since I have no kids of my own yet you all get to enjoy me bragging about my pets as if they are my kids! They keep life pretty interesting for us and you'll get to read all about it!

Good things to come!

So we found out today that Marcel passed the first phase of another Fire Dept. test (that's 2 now)! That means we're one step closer to him possibly getting on a full time dept.! We're very excited! I know he'll do great!