New Blog!

It was an eventful Christmas break! And my favorite event was the day I became Mrs. Rost! Rob and I are so happy, and to share our happiness with everyone else, we have created a new blog together. Well, Rob created it and put my name on it..:)I will be deleting this blog, so make sure you add our new blog to YOUR blog!

www.rostlikefrost.blogspot.com

or just click HERE!

4 things

Well, Drew didn't tag me, but what can I say, I am sick of studying and have nothing better to do. so....

4 things

4 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Highland dancing
2. Being a typical 12 year old and cared about what I wore and what other people thought of me
3. Making my mom drive me and my friends everywhere
4. Being a royal pain in the butt to all my teachers. loved being the class clown.



4 things on my list to do today:
1. Study for all my finals next week.
2. laundry and housework
3. study
4. oh... and study. (just a smidgen stressed out with school)



4 Things I love about my husband(soon to be..):
1. He leaves me little notes around the house every time he leaves des moines
2. He is always looking for ways to make me happy.
3. That I can sit and talk to him for hours. And that he sits and listens to all my ramblings about all the interesting things I have read in my textbooks or learned at school or clinicals.
4. He is incredibly smart and people respect his opinion because he knows so much.



4 Jobs I have had:
1. 1st job was when I was 14 and I worked in the school cafeteria as a credit when I was in 8th grade. Got paid to go to school...
2. Worked for the city in high school and did summer camps and coached 7th grade boys basketball.
3. clerical work for a general contractor
4. clerk at Banner Good Sam. aka: question answerer, person to complain to, and girl that hospital staff and patients hit on
5. have to add a 5th because this was my favorite. In the winter my sister and I would pick the oranges off our tree and sell them. We made bank for little kids.



4 movies I have seen more than once:
1. Almost all Adam Sandler movies
2. The Island
3. Hitched
4. Legally blonde



4 Places I have lived:
1. Salt Lake city
2. mesa
3. Des moines
4. soon to be Phoenix!



4 Places I have visited:
1. Scotland
2. Jamaica, haiti, grand cayman island, and cozumel (cruise)
3. Rocky Pointe, mexico
4. New York City



4 T.V. Shows I watch:
1. House
2. The doctors
3. Grey's anatomy (starting to see a theme??!?)
4. anything on the food network



4 Things you may not know about me:
1. I am not very daring at trying new foods. I pretty much stick to what I know I like and don't venture outside of that. But, I have to say, I have a big range of what I do eat already.
2. I read every chapter in my anatomy and physiology books 3 times in a 2.5 month time span.
3. Well, my family knows this, but I am freak about having a super clean bed. Sheets, mattress, comforter, pillows, everything. Dust mites are the ugliest things alive. AND YOU CAN'T SEE THEM! ewww
4. I hate reading fiction books.

I finally got our wedding invitations out. Sorry for those that started freaking out (I got quite a few phone calls and texts...) wondering if we were still getting married and if they were invited....
So since the wedding invitations have arrived in people's mail boxes, I thought it is okay to post some of our engagement photos; complements to Ryan Hoffman Photography.

December 19th!!!!

Only 19 more days!!

I AM A SURVIVOR

I survived my first SINGLE DIGIT day. On Friday it was 8 degrees when I left for school at 8:30 in the morning.

Yes, I toughed it out. And counted the many minutes I spent shivering as my exercise for the day.

Chex Mix, Harrison style

My mom has been making this for us since we were little and it is still one of my favorite snacks/desserts. It is addicting, once you start eating it, you find yourself still eating it hours later.

And, Rob loves it too, so I will be making it after I write this post.

I know it has corn syrup, and I am sorry, because I know that corn syrup is in EVERYTHING and isn't good for you in high quantities, but trust me, this stuff is so good that you will hope that it is the first thing you get to shove in your mouth when you walk into heaven. and this is how I think: raisins=healthy. nuts=healthy. seeds=healthy. rice chex=healthy. so... Chex mix=healthy

So here it is... feel free to add as much mixed nuts, sunflower seeds, and raisins as you like. or omit them if you don't like some of them. Also, craisins are delicious in this too.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Karo syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 box chex cereal (I suggest rice or corn. wheat isn't so good in this)
mixed nuts
sunflower seeds (salted are best)
raisins

Mix cereal, nuts, seeds, and raisins together in a large bowl. set aside.

Bring butter, sugar and karo syrup to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes only. DO NOT GO OVER THE 3 MINUTES!!!! If you do, your chex mix will cool down and be hard and crunchy instead of chewy like it is supposed to be. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. (it will kind of foam up a bit, take a deep breath, this is normal)

Pour syrup mixture over cereal mixture and fold in.

Put in a tupperware container for storage.

The fall trees and colors are absolutely GORGEOUS! I'm going to be sad when all the leaves fall off and I have to look at bare trees.

What girls can do and guys can't...

Multitask

Pella, Iowa; AKA Dutch country

This past week Rob was here and on Saturday we decided to take a short little trip to Pella, Iowa. It is about 45 minutes East of Des Moines, so I could handle this type of roadtrip (I hate roadtrips...)

Rob lived in Holland for the first 8 years of his life and so Pella was somewhere that we were looking foward to seeing. This little town is committed to keeping close ties with dutch heritage. Downtown is really cute with red-brick roads, a canal, gorgeous flowers everywhere, and dutch style buildings. It also has the nation's largest working windmill. We had a lovely (greek) lunch, looked at the dutch shops, bakeries, and meat markets. And, suprisingly, we had a lot of fun.
Rob was just happy that he found some dutch mayonaise:)





And my sweetheart was sweet enough to let me practice scanning on him. It is funny to look at this picture because almost all the ultrasound pictures you see couples post are either of the baby or of the mom getting the scan. I think it is funny to have the guy getting the scan. You just don't see pictures of it on peoples blogs... that's why Rob and I are just so cool. One day I scanned his abdominal aorta and in this picture we are looking at his liver. super fun!

It TASTES like Fall!

After all the years of my family making fun of me because I lack cooking skills, I now have Rob to prove that I CAN COOK! With the help of my mom, enrichment night, emily's delicious recipes, and a cookbook that my mom gave me, I have to say, I am a pretty darn cook.

Right now there are so many yummy fall/summer foods in season and I think food just tastes better when it is in season. So... here are some of my favorite recipes that I have made recently that just taste like fall!

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Now, I am fortunate enough to live just blocks away from a large farmer's market AND an apple orchard. So Rob and I picked up some fresh picked, local Honey Crisp apples for this recipe. And in my opinion (Rob disagrees), the cookies are pretty healthy. Even though we don't agree on that, we agree that they are yummy and so moist.



1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter (melt & cool)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups apples (peel and chop in little chunks)

Mix everything together
Bake at 375 for 12 minutes


Freezer Jam

Berries are just going out of season right now, so get them while you can! Rob and I made strawberry-rasberry jam, and at enrichment night, I made strawberry-rasperry-blueberry jam. IT IS SUPER EASY TO MAKE! AND INCREDIBLY GOOD, especially on fresh baked bread.

Just make sure you follow the recipe exactly or you might get jam that doesn't set up very well. And whatever you do, resist sticking a spoon or finger that you already licked back in the jam. Not only is this tasting method unsanitary, but the enzymes in your saliva break down the gelatin, which results in jam that doesn't set.





**** I am only posting how to make strawberry jam. If you use a different fruit, you need to follow the ratios that are in the insert for your pectin****

EXACTLY 2 cups mashed berries(about 1 lb whole berries)
- wash, destem, and mash with a potatoe masher.

Add EXACTLY 4 cups of sugar to the berries and stir well. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Add Certo brand premium liquid fruit pectin to fruit mixture. Stir for about 3 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy. It's okay if there are still a few sugar crystals.

Pour into small 1-2 cups size containers. Let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. It will then be ready to eat or to freeze.

Freezes for a year. Once taken out and put into fridge, it will last for about a month.

Everything just... Fits

I don't know if everyone has gone through a period in their life similar to what I am feeling right now, but I just feel like everything has worked out perfectly for me and that everything I am doing is in every shape and form what I am supposed to be doing. Well, except for being away from Rob. But, that isn't included.

I am absolutely LOVING the sonography program. There are 6 other girls in my program and then like 7ish girls in the cardiac program. Everyone is from a different walk of life, but we have such a blast in our classes and labs.

If anyone knows me, they know I have a passion for anatomy and physiology and all that goes with it. Oh my heavens, I have been in heaven. Sweet, blessed, heaven full of diseases, arteries, veins, muscles, organs, and anomalies. Sorry, that may sound sick, but it is SO AMAZING! Our body is AMAZING! I have no idea how someone could have a body and not believe in God.

What I am trying to get at is that it feels so good to know that I am going into a profession that is right for me. It feels so good to know that I am marrying a wonderful, sweet, loving, gentleman and that he is the guy destined to be with me. It feels so great to feel like the sonography program I am in is right for me. (minus the living in des moines part... ) Life is great!

Oh... but I do have a little complaint because well, I don't really enjoy too much about Des Moines, IA. So, everyone that finds out that I am from Arizona makes a comment about how I am going to hate the winter here. I swear, EVERYONE. Comments like these make me want to be back in my backyard floating in the pool with the hot arizona sun beating on my skin:

"When my kids graduate, I am getting out of here. I do not want to stay for another winter"
"Last winter I thought I was going to die. Not just once, a couple of times."
"It gets to -20 degrees here."
"Its not so much the snow that sucks, it is the ice storms."
and the farmers almanac, which is better than the weather forecasters said that last year was the worst winter in like 30 years and that this winter is going to be worse than last year. And that we should be expecting snow by mid-late October.

OCTOBER.

You. have. to. be. kidding. me

never thought I would miss the Arizona sun, but I would take it about now.

Missin Rob and...

Arizona and my family and good mexican food and stinky (nickname for our dog) and everyone that I know in Arizona.

But mostly, Rob.











I was watching TV with my roommate's dog, Charlie, and the dish wasn't getting any signal, so I opened the blinds to see if the weather was bad and it is pouring rain. Luckily the rain doesn't screw up my computer or else I would have probably resulted in reading more of my ultrasound physics book. Not the most interesting of books...

But it is really nice to just look out the window and enjoy watching the rain. Something Arizonans don't get to see very often.

But... I wish Rob was here to watch it with me.

I am officially an Iowan

Well, it was a really long drive (23 hours to be exact) but I made it to Des Moines with my back seat driver, Rob. I have one word to describe the scenery: CORN!!!! I swear that from the very beginning of Nebraska all the way until I pulled into my new driveway, there was CORN on both sides of the highway, THE WHOLE WAY!

We have pretty much spent most of our time getting settled in, buying everything that I need and enjoying the beautiful weather. It is so funny when I hear people say "it is soooooo hot!" When I was just thinking to myself, man, it sure feels good out here!

Moving in Des Moines weather was absolutely wonderful compared to Mesa. I wasn't drenched in sweat after the first box...

Let's see... what else could I tell you about...

I have really enjoyed cooking dinners and lunches for us. Emily's cooking website has came in handy and we have LOVED all the recipes we have tried from there.
We also went to the farmer's market and picked up a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies and had a scrumptious dinner with them. Of course we had to try the Iowa sweet corn, which was delicious. You should be jealous. mmmmm....





For Labor Day, we kayaked the Raccoon River. Well, part of it. 6 miles to be exact. If anyone visits or moves to Iowa, I do not recommend this. If I wasn't paddleing, I was moving backwards. The water was so low and it was pretty windy. For about the last 45 minutes, I did not want to paddle one more time. But... that's the awful thing about it, I mean, the GREAT thing about it. You can't just stop paddleing when you want to quit, there is no where to get off and quit.... you just have to keep paddleing. But we did it!

Um... I think that is about it for now. Rob has to go back home to Phoenix tomorrow, so I better spend as much time with him as I can.

Our new entertainment

As I have said like a million times, I know these pictures suck, but have sympathy on me, my camera is a gonner, I have to get a new one, so you will have to put up with cell phone pics for now.

But... if you can't tell, this is Rob playing one of our new favorite things.

THE Wii

While we were in Des Moines, my mother bought a Wii. yes... my mother. If you don't know my mom, let me tell you a little bit about her. She RARELY watches t.v., she would rather read a book. We have owned:
the atari
nintendo
nintendo 64
sega
playstation
playstation 2

never have I seen my mother play ANY of the games. So, it was a BIG suprise to find out that my mom bought a nintendo system. But, we are happy she bought it because it has been a total blast.

We have been playing tennis, baseball, boxing, and then doing yoga, aerobics, and strength training. And, I am a yoga master according to the Wii :) :) :) :) Who would have thoght.

I really want one for when I move to Iowa, but I am not sure I want to dish out the $400 for a game... we'll see.

More pictures from Des Moines

Here are the cell phone pictures that Rob took while we are in Des Moines. I know... they are all of me, and it may look like I am in love with my self, when really it is that Rob is in love with me and took all the pictures.


This is one of the many tornado shelters signs that are posted. Something you NEVER see in Arizona.


I am standing in line at YOUNKERS. It is a department store kind of like Dillards that they have all over the place in Iowa.


Rob and I ate at this Greek restaurant on Friday night and they had our favorite... GREEK FRIES! mmm.... If you want to try them, there is this delicious place in Mesa at the AMC 24 on stapley called Cyprus pita grill that serves them. You will fall in love. But as we were waiting for our food, Rob took pictures of me posing as a model and making weird faces.


And this is the hat off of a manican at younkers that Rob made me wear while he took a picture. You can tell I really liked the hat by my facial expression.


Talking to my momma while Rob got some white hot chocolate.


We spent a little bit of time finding a mattress. I think this is the one I chose. Pretty comfy....

Update on LIFE

I had a short conversation with Rob's brother on Sunday evening in the Des Moines airport where I was chastened for not updating my blog. Might I add that I had the hardest time understanding Rob's brother with his really thick accent. So to spare myself from another embarassing conversation where I am chastened for not updating my blog... I will list 5 things that have happened recently in our lives.

1. We had a birthday BBQ for my little sister, Chantel. Chantel whined at my brother, Jayson's birthday because Rob and I got a pinata for Jayson. I guess Chantel always wanted a pinata when she was little and she never got one. So... Rob and I headed over to the Ranch Market in Phoenix and got her this HUMONGOUS spongebob squarepants pinata. It took her like 5 minutes to find where the pinata was, and a good 5 minutes of getting the crap beat out of it before it broke.






2. Rob was baptized! I can't find the pictures from his baptism, but when I find them, I will put them on here. It was a WONDERFUL experience for me (and him:)) Words cannot describe what a wonderful experience it was.

3. We went to Des Moines!

We got back Sunday night. We found a place for me to live while I am going to school and I went to orientation. We loved driving with the windows down and enjoying the CLEAN, COOL air. This is a picture of the state capitol. There was a little concert going on down the street from it one of the nights that we went and listened to for a bit.

4. We went to the Des Moines Farmer's Market Saturday morning. It was a HUGE event and it happens every Saturday from 7am-noon. It seemed like it was about 2 miles long and it was PACKED with people, and YUMMY food:)
We first enjoyed a delicious (probably the best I have ever had) piece of watermelon.






And then we came across this little tent serving some breakfast and it had pofferjies. Pofferjies are kind of like little itty bitty pancakes served with powdered sugar. It is a Dutch dish (Rob is dutch...) and Rob was in HEAVEN when he ate them.



5. We went to a piano bar. Where we drank non-alcoholic fruity drinks:) The pianists were amazing and one of the guys had an AMAZING voice. It was pretty cool. I know the picture is pretty bad... but we were trying not to have a flash go off while they were playing.