Story Time

This is happening-- So grab some popcorn and pop and enjoy a short story from Kristen.

I ask again...is Suzy Garrett in the house??

Man that Bruschetta was Good.

There's a thing with tomatoes.  I know that isn't a complete sentence but I really wanted it to stand out like a sore thumb.  I used to HATE tomatoes.  I thought it was a vile weed growing from the depths of the earths crust....okay not that bad.  The thing is, I have always loved tomato products i.e. ketchup, tomato sauce (includes all spaghetti and pizza products), even tomato juice, and cooked tomatoes.  However, if one seed of a fresh tomato was found in my salad--ruined.  I came to a point in my life when I decided "I am going to try liking fresh tomatoes."  This was a serious turn point in my life....I even wrote it in my journal.  My dad grows tomatoes every year in his garden and he is always eating them like apples.  I think they look so good but alas I am fooled every time.  I want to like tomatoes.  So I began to eat tomatoes on cheese burgers and I really had to convince my mind that I liked this.  On one of the first tries of this feat after taking a bite of burger, one of the tomato skins was too thick and I proceeded to pull the rest of the tomato off.  I kept it dangling from my mouth and started running in place while waving my arms in a "I'm about to puke" dance before spitting the dang thing out. Set back.  It took me a while before trying again but you know what they say--the ones who truly fail never try. (I might have just made that up)  I got back on the wagon (what does that even mean) and I began to try tomatoes on burgers again.  It took me a little bit of time and convincing my mind that I was more powerful than this tomato, but I began to like tomatoes on cheese burgers.  For real!

Can you start to see the progression?  Cheese burgers turn to regular burgers, regular burgers turn to chicken burgers, chicken burgers (everything sounds better with burger after it) turn to chicken burger wraps and so on and so on.  My taste buds were beginning to change and I was on my way to enjoying tomatoes.  One unseasonably warm St. Patrick's Day in Boise, I went with my dearest friend Holly to Bittercreek--one of the best restaurants in B-Town.  She proceeded to order Bruschetta and since she knows way more about fashion, food, and happenings than me, I just went with it.  I was suprised to say the least when I found out that Bruschetta was a plate full of bread with tomatoes covering them.  Now these tomatoes weren't just lightly place upon the bread...no, no they were suffocating it.  The true test was about to begin.  My palms began to sweat as I watched Holly basically make out with this appetizer and told me how ridiculously delicious it was.  I went to my happy place in my mind and told myself that a)I could do anything b) they weren't tomatoes, but they were burgers and c) I trust Holly.

So I grasped one of those crusty breads with little burgers on top and shoved it in my mouth.  To my utmost surprise, I actually liked it.  I took the fork from my hand that I was ready to shove into Holly's leg if I projectile vomited in the restaurant (it was going to be her fault and she needed to pay) and I proceeded to eat two more.  Now  I tell this story to show how far I have come.  

This is Natalie and Dave Todd or as I like to call them "the Todds."  They are some of the BEST people around and we have heaps of fun together.  Natalie was the first person here in the AZ to reach out and befriend me.  I had pretty much forgotten how to make friends so I appreciate you doing all of the work Natalie! You're the best. We decided to go to Oregano's for dinner since I had never been there yet and I heard great things.  We proceeded to order the whole menu since there were so many things we wanted to try and I eat like a man.  One of those blessed things Natalie insisted we order was the pesto Bruschetta.  Mind you, I have come a long way since the burger disaster but my mind for a split second said 'tomatoes ew, tomatoes ew' so I punched myself in the head to shut it up.  I played it off like a bug flew in my hair so the Todds didn't think I was mental.  So the food started to arrive and I took one look at that Bruschetta and said to myself "this is what Italy must be like."  And then I ate it.  HOLY CRAP!!!!  That was one of the best dang things I have ever had in my life.  I have come a long way when I can say that the tomato is not my enemy anymore but my ally instead.

Natalie is one of the most sincere people around AND she has good taste in music.  She is also in young women's with me so we get to see a lot of each other.  Dave and Natalie are such a good match!  I never know how serious to take Dave because he is alway kidding which is great!

And here is the other part of the pair.....you can see who would be more socially accepted can't you.  I am so glad that we have such good friends who are willing to eat way to much food and talk about the WEIRDEST subjects (the girl that lost her feet on the amusement park in Kentucky) for hours on end!  All in all, it was a great night.

Suzy Garrett in the house??

And The Public Apology Goes To...

In the last blog posting I may or may not have called out a dear friend of mine.  You see, instead of just getting a wicked sprain with sick purple bruising all over, I did in fact break my leg.  No this is no joke, no silly april fools joke that I am milking for 2 weeks.  In fact I did break my leg from the below story (please see previous blog entry for story of how the break happened).  I have been walking around on it for a week now with it being broken.  It turns out I tore two ligaments in my ankle completely and possibly tore the ligament that goes in between the bones in my legs.  While doing this, a spiral fracture occurred in my fibula from the stress of the 'biff'.  I possibly have a small fracture in my ankle (or it could be a previous injury that hasn't healed correctly) and a small fracture in my pinkie toe area.  Basically I messed myself up pretty good.  I am in a soft cast/boot thing for 4-6 weeks with crutches and then 4 weeks more in the boot w/o crutches.  My pits hurt real bad already.

So the public apology part....Well it is quite good because my bud Michelle (who happens to be a nurse) said it could be broken even though I was walking around on it.  I shrugged her off since I am a doctor in my spare time and bluntly told her 'no way did I break it.' I even put that same shrug off in the previous blog post!  So on Friday after a day and a half of worsening pain, I went to a minor emergency place.  Yes they told me it was broken and I giggled and giggled (I am not sure why but I did giggle).  So there I was stranded at the doc in the box with a fatty splint on my foot making driving impossible.  So who do I decide to call?  I ate a piece of humble pie-which is sick- and called Michelle asking her if she could come pick me up because I was unable to drive.  I was expecting a good ol' 'told you so' and I was bracing to take the verbal beating.  Instead she says to me 'you must be tough or have a high pain tolerance, and I will be right there.'  So dear dear Michelle.  I am sorry I didn't believe you when you said it could be broken.  I am sorry that I blogged that I didn't believe you.  And thank you for taking care of me!

For my boys out there that don't know who Michelle is, this is my beautiful friend.  She is one of the kindest people around, soooo hilarious, and we have had the church giggles a couple times already.  Story: the other day in church Michelle was eating a jolly rancher.  During the prayer she decided to straight up chomp it which sounded like a tooth fell out.  I popped one eye open to see if someone lost a molar and at the same time she popped her eye open to see if anyone heard her and our eyes met during the middle of the prayer.  BIG MISTAKE.  I was shaking so hard in my seat that I began to scoot off of it and was heading for the floor.  She was crying whilst trying to stifle the giggles.  The bad thing is that we are the leaders in young women's (she is the president) and we couldn't control ourselves.  It was great. She thinks we moved to Arizona for the simple fact that I am here to entertain her.  I have already accidently texted her phone line probably ten times and then accidently invited her to dinner (not to mention the above apology) but for some reason she still wants to be my friend! We are going to be the YCL leaders for stake camp this year and I am pumped. So there you go. I think I should make you a mix CD now Michelle.  Thanks for being my buddy. 

 

Don't mind flat stanley.  And if you don't know who flat stanley is, ask any third grader.  This is my splint right after I found out it was broken.  

These two gems were taken just the other night.  My nephew Garrett will be getting a copy of these pictures for his class in a few days (because of the flat Stanley assignment).  I got to ride around in one of the rider carts at the grocery store.  They had an Idaho potato balloon so I made Zac get a picture with it.  NICE!  Richelle (my sis) is going to be pumped because I am basically stuck inside because we live on the third floor and it is a clinic to get down those stairs.  Anyway she is pumped because I will probably be blogging a little more so I don't lose my mind.  Love you sister!

This is what happens when.....

So I thought it would be a good thing to train for a half marathon....why?  I answer thee why not!  I have been having a really good time with my two sprint triathlons so I figured why not a half marathon.  I came to this decision when on a "cool" December day when the crisp not so winter wind was blowing and I just got out of the swimming pool and shivered all the way to my locker (yes the pool is outside) and decided "I do not like to swim or bike when there is a chilled southern wind about".  So making this decision was somewhat easy because I do not mind running in the chilled air.  So I have begun to "train" (train is in quotes because I hope everyone who reads this...the three of you...will put your two fingered dance fingers in the air and pump them up and down and say train with a sarcastic look on your face).  So like I was saying I have been "train"ing and decided I needed to go farther than my farthest run which up to that point had been seven miles (since I will be running 13.1).  On Thursday I had a bit of time between my activities and decided I was going to go farther than 7 miles.  So I began....

Now any one of my three followers that happen to run might know what 'runner's trots' are.  I say this because 50% of runners get the runner trots so 1.5 of you will know what I mean.  In no way am I trying to be disgusting but basically and very suddenly you feel as though you might poop your pants.  This happens to me occasionally and I have to sit and breath deeply, possibly pass some gas, and punch myself in the stomach.  So needless to say I get the trots about 1.5 miles into my 8 or so mile run and have to do the above mentioned.  Now I have never proceeded  farther after having an episode.  I usually head straight back home and mad because I had to sit for 5-10 minutes and my running time sucks.  So I decided to do an experiment and see if they would simply just disappear after resting for a bit-- I should have just ran home. Don't worry, I did not poop my pants--I didn't even come close.  

So there I go....I pass the 3rd mile turn around (that meaning I would be running 6 miles--3 there, 3 back)  I just keep on going past the 4th mile.  Now I am in uncharted territory.  I have only ridden my bike this far never on foot.  I keep on going past the 5th and to towards the 6th mile!  I am clear by ASU campus and Tempe Town Lake at this point.  I stop and take a few minutes to get me pumped to run 6 miles back home to make it a 12 miler!  It has been about an hour now--Mind you-- all this time  I have been listening to my ipod with Jimmy Eat World and Thursday in my ears not to mention my brain talking to me.  I am starting my seffanth (7th) mile when above my head from Sky Harbor, a Southwest jet is taking off and is still accenting into the sky.  It is still low and my brain begins to wonder "I wonder where these people are goi......" and that is when it happened.

I stepped just right on the side walk to cause my right foot to crumble beneath me and rolled it real nice like on both sides of my foot.  Now this happened in a split second so I couldn't continue my though about where all those people in the airplane were going which would have killed at least three minutes on the run.  I landed in a heap scraping up my left knee and arm and scratching up my ipod.  I thought it was broken at first because I obviously didn't hear, but I felt some nasty nasty stuff happen in my foot.  I am not ashamed to say I cried and I did not swear although I thought it would be allowed if I did.  So I rolled around on the sidewalk/sand and looked around to see if anyone saw that magnificent sight, but neigh there was no one really close.  So I picked myself up and did the test of standing on it which in my book means it's not broken (I still don't believe you Michelle).  So I hobbled to the shade and wiped my tears away along with the sand/dirt and then thought "What the crap am I to do.  I am as FAR away from home as possible and I don't have my cell phone"  I did have my mace though just in case someone wanted to steal my camel back.  So I hobbled up the trail to a group of girls that were playing sand volleyball by the "lake" (remember to see above about the quotes).  One girl let me borrow the phone and I called Zac.  Thank HEAVENS he answered because I don't know anyone else's number by heart here in the AZ.  I would have called my mom but well......  I freaked him out by saying "I got hurt real bad" as the first words out of my mouth on a cell phone number he didn't recognize.  So he got real worked up and was ready to kill someone until I explained the above.  So he rushed out of work and I hobbled another 1/2 mile to the road and sat and waited for him.  He was so sweet.  He bought me a lunch and then carried me out of the car and up the third floor.  (I felt like I was ten)

Here it is again.  It puffed up real bad and I have been a MR.F (arrested development anyone??) since the experience happened.  I am walking better now though.

This is my sad face.

This is Jaitz's sad face.......We were scolding him until he looked sad so we could take this picture.  I think he was just feeling sorry for me though.

So to tie back in to my posting header....This is what happens when you.... look at an airplane in the sky while running on a sidewalk that slowly curves to the left.  I should have just learned from the past and ran back home after those blasted trots.  But I guess the trots never came back so take that science!

Serbians get all the glory

I know I haven't posted in a while...mostly because nothing too exciting has been happening. Plus I have not taken any pictures for quite sometime.  I love the digital age, don't get me wrong, but I have a few qualms with it (is qualm the word I was looking for?)  Number one-our digital camera eats batteries like Jaitz eats boiled beef--fast and without breathing.  It seems I take three pictures with a fresh set of batteries and they are already dead.  Number two-I miss taking my film into lets say Walmart to drop it off, wait for an hour, and then sit there on the Walmart wire metal benches and look at them, laugh out loud, get a strange look from the dude who doesn't speak English, and then hand them out to my friends.  You guys remember when I would put pictures in a little envelope and put your name on the front and then give them to you at some function we were all at.  It doesn't happen now in the digital age.  I don't print out pictures anymore.  Number thrice- I miss pictures books.  I still have a whole boat load of pictures books don't get me wrong but they just kinda stop at about age 22.  If I ever start to look in these picture books I end up getting SUCKED in.  I will no doubt be looking for one picture for some reason and then I end up looking at all of my pictures from when I was born to about the age of 22.  Lets  just say that the world explodes and all that makes it through are my pictures.  The monkey scientists who discover them will only think I lived to 22.  But nay, I had lived much longer.  They will never know.  Anyways, you can see my debacle with the digital era.  But I'm not changing now--its too easy (And I can't tell you how many stupid pictures of the sky or unfocused faces I have had developed)  In the end, we should all just dance.

So on January 7th we as Drzayich's celebrate Serbian Christmas.  It's nothing too crazy.  I baked pogacha (bread) and baked a quarter into one of them.  We all rip a piece of bread off and the one who gets the quarter is lucky for a year.  We made Jaitz do it with us....he just licked the bread for about 2 minutes and then nibbled at it.  That is pretty much what we do for Serbian Christmas.  And then we eat the bread.

He didn't know what to do with us giving him people food so freely.

Zac got bread

I got the quarter!  Hooray!

So I am  going to be lucky this year so if any of you are betters just send the money my way and I will win you something...It might only be an animal from one of those claw machines but I will do it!

So that was Christmas

Christmas was a good one this year.  I never thought I would be one of those crazies traveling on Christmas Eve but hence, I was.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Plus being married to Zac we were two hours early and it only took about 30 minutes to get to our gate.  We were safer than sorrier.  We took Jaitz with us and he travels like a champion. We spent Christmas Eve with my family doing our usual traditions and this year I had to cook the steak.  Talk about pressure.  They turned out great and all was well (or medium well)-tee hee hee.  We spent Christmas day with Zac's family and had the usual brunch when all the relatives gather.  It was good and I gained a good five pounds.  LAME!  So we hardly took any pictures but here are the ones we got.

Every year the card table is pulled out with about three puzzles to be accomplished before everyone goes home.  This is me rocking the puzzle and looking like an old lady except for the great fashion sense-sweats and a long sleeve t-shirt. Do old lady's wear that??

Jaitz got his first encounter with snow and cold weather.  He was shivering like a fool when we first took him out.  He absolutely loved the snow though.  He pranced around in it and ate it like the snow was some sort of dog drug.  He kept shivering so I wrapped him up in a blanket and sung him to sleep (just kidding about the singing).

This was on our flight home and I thought it was a pretty picture.  

All in all I was happy to be in Idaho for Christmas. I was also pumped because we FINALLY got a white Christmas (even though it did start to rain Christmas Eve)  I miss my family and had a great time hanging with them while I was there.  Welp, peace out.

Mmmmm Turkey

So Thanksgiving has come and gone just like that!   I was so pumped for it because Zac's mom Peggy and brother Jake got to come down here to AZ for the holiday.  It was REALLY fun and I was so glad we were able to have some family with us.  I also didn't have to worry about screwing up my first Thanksgiving dinner because I had Peggy's help.  It turned out great and I think I have gained 5 pounds over this week.   We were able to see some of the sights here in the Phoenix area and we had a ball.  We got to go to one of my FAVORITE pizza places called Grimaldi's and I ate about my weight so that was good.  I said it was in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner...I was stretching my stomach.  Anyhoo......

What a bunch of weirdo's.  

I really liked this picture.  Jake had some sort of setting on his camera that only allowed certain colors to show and I thought this one was neat.  Zac's not posing either...he is just deep in thought about how he loves pizza.

We went to the D-backs stadium and ate lunch inside by the field.  That's Jake holding a giant bat.

I'm on top of the world.

Proof. Thats all I'm gonna say.

We also got the chance to tour Zac's job site.  All I can say is how the crap do humans do what we do.  The job site was absolutely INSANE!!!  It is a 280,000 sq ft research facility.  The creepiest part is that they have two floors of 'animal rooms' which is exactly what you think it is.  They are rooms to test animals with stuff.  I kept thinking around every corner there would be a frothing dog with red eyes just waiting.....waiting.

We were also able to go to the Mesa temple which was really nice.  The Christmas lights are all up.  It is weird/different having it be sunny and 75 degrees with Christmas decorations and music being played all over the place.  It's all good though.  I like not having to scrap my car windows every morning.