Happy Birthday!

Elizabeth Ann Lewis
Born 13 March 1982 at 1:45 a.m. Weight: 8 lbs. 8 oz. Length: 22"
Disclaimer: These were just off the top of my mom's head, and I'm #5 so who knows how accurate it is :)

So according to Lisa 26 is almost 30....ahhh! But shoot it's always fun to have a reason to party...what's wrong with almost being 30, haha?! My birthday was full of smiles and love, thanks to all my family and friends :) I didn't have anything too exciting planned...work from 9 to 5, then study in the evening for the exam I had in pathophys the next morning. But it was still a wonderful day and I have to give special props to my George. He brought me some beautiful spring flowers to work. They smelled SO good at my desk I had trouble concentrating.

Then Sara, Mair, and George made me enchiladas for dinner, mmmm! And for dessert my favorite ice cream - Ben & Jerry's Phish Food and The Cake...which is absolutely to die for. Here is the recipe (you have to follow it precisely to get the right results):

The Cake

Melt in double boilder: 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 c. butter - cut in chunks.

Mix until turns lighter color: 5 eggs, 1/2 c. sugar

Mix thoroughly into eggs: 1 T. cocoa

Then mix in slowly melted chocolate mixture;

Add 2 t. vanilla

Bake at 325F for 40-50 min in a bain marie

Works best if you use a spring form pan that is greased and sugared.

Enjoy...it's delightful!

One of George and my recent activities has been putting together 72-hour kits. We have most of the items gathered, but the problem was that I had mine stored in plastic bags on the floor. So for my birthday present he got me an awesome backpack for my 72-hour kit. Now I'm ready!

And this was probably more of a birthday present for Sara...but it was so sweet. Sadie was being fussy and wouldn't sleep unless someone was holding her, so George stayed up holding her til 4 a.m. Auh :)

Canyonlands Half Marathon

My little sister, Alethea, is my hero. Although slightly illegal, last Saturday she ran the half marathon for me. She not only ran it, but ROCKED it. Her time was 2:00:59 which is a 9:23 minute mile for 13.1 miles!! I'd been training to run this half marathon for a few months now. From my last post you noticed that I got the flu (which I just can't seem to kick STILL). So the morning of the race I asked Alethea if she wanted to run it for me since I was still sick. She said SURE. Who runs a half marathon with no training and just an hours notice, haha! Even though it was hard on my pride to wuss out I think it was the wise thing to do considering I was getting out of breath just walking around. It was a great weekend...I love red rocks!

The star herself cruising along...

FINISH LINE after 2:00:59 and 13.1 miles!!

George, Lisa, & Shena on a morning hike near our campsite

Lisa & icicles!

Desert Princess? Red Rock Princess?

Beautiful desert sunset

George and Shena at Landscape Arch

Alethea enjoying the campfire while the taco soup boils over.

It was wonderful to wake up to the sun shining on the red rocks...

I LOVE camping!

To health and euphoria!

"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world...happiness isn't good enough for me, I demand euphoria!" -Calvin

Friday's are the best...right? They're supposed to be...you know right before the big weekend your itching to get outta the office and have some fun! That's why it was so depressing to go home after work not feeling so hot. By 7 p.m. I could tell the bug was trying to get me. So I put the humidifier in my room and crawled under my down comforter to see if I could outsleep the bug before it caught me. It was to no avail...I got a fever of 103F and couldn't sleep and couldn't breathe very well with my sore throat. I'm not one that usually takes drugs, but I finally gave in at midnight and took some tylenol for the fever hoping I could get some sleep. The drugs helped with the fever, but not the sleeping. Saturday was similar...instead of in bed I spent most of the day in the recliner in the sunshine. The blessed sunshine. Of course that was the day it was 65F out, sigh. I'm sooo excited for spring...I can feel it in the air some days. By Saturday night I'd lost 5 lbs. Perfect weight loss program...NOT RECOMMENDED! Besides I'm sure it was all water weight anyway. Saturday night I got in a fight with my bed. We're still mad at each other. I woke up every 20 minutes...no exaggerating! It was awful...I'd feel like I slept for a good while and would check the clock and just a few minutes had gone by...this kept happening all night. I just couldn't get comfortable. So by Sunday morning I'd had it. My fever was still running high and my throat was worse. I downed some nyquil and had the most heavenly 2-hour sleep. Needless to say I lounged around all day Sunday. I even missed Melanie's enchilada dinner, sadness :( I knew I had to go to work Monday to do payroll to keep the employees happy (me included :) So being somewhat "fuzzy" I drove to work and puttered around there for a couple of hours. That wore me out and so I went back home and slept til this morning! Today I'm feeling great...I have a barking cough and my ears won't pop, but there's not fever or achy muscles, and energy levels seem to be on the rise, woot woot! This whole weekend made me so thankful for my health, and friends. I feel so blessed. George and Sara were so good, taking care of me...making me drinks and rubbing my back. To health and euphoria!

Auntiehood

07 Jan 2008 at 10:27 a.m. Sadie Wayne Melling was born to my brother-in-law, Joe, and sister, Sara Melling. She weighed in at 9.1 lbs and was 20" long! She was SO cute with the chubbiest cheeks. We said she had a case of the "cheek flow" where you couldn't tell where her cheeks end and her shoulders begin :) The delivery went well, but there were complications afterwards with the Rh factor of Sara and Sadie's blood. After a week under the "bili lamp" Sadie was healthy and got to come home. My 2-year-old nephew Kaden has just begun the adventure of potty training. This is one thing I do NOT look forward to with my own kids. There have been a couple accidents, but for the most part he does great and LOVES getting a chocolate after everytime he goes in the potty. I love my two nephews, Kyson & Kaden, and now I have an adorable niece as well. I absolutely LOVE being an auntie :)

Back at it!

Thanks to Aly's help I'm starting the "blog" back up after a long break. I've been checking out eveyone else's blogs and I don't know how you make them so cool...different layouts and formats. I can't seem to get my photos to line up correctly. I still have a lot learn, so please be patient! I did notice that I can add posts and date them whatever I want, so maybe I'll play a little catch up on here. Does a blog count for keeping a journal?

It's been a great year...so much has happened. It's so nice to be done with school. I finally graduated spring '07 with my BS in exercise physiology. After graduation I moved to Cedar City, UT to work for my brother-in-law at Superior Lending. I guess I fall into the statistic that over 50% of college graduates don't work in their field of study (I just made that up, just like 50% of statistics are made up on the spot). I've always wanted to learn about investing and mortgages b/c hopefully I'll have some of both one day! It was the perfect opportunity to work for Joe especially because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Now I'm getting the itch to go back for more schooling...this time to get my BSN and RN, it'd only be 4 more semesters, hmmm.