Tag--you are it!

I've been tagged by my sister Joey! The name of this game is to answer the following 10 questions and then tag 4 other friends to do the same on their blog pages...

Best thing you cooked last week...Joey's potpie. It is sooo good. Consider this recipe an early Christmas gift!

To make it for your family, simply start out with a frozen Marie Callendar's double pie crust. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Thaw one crust while you get the other stuff together. You will need: a rotisserie chicken (shred all the meat off of it), one can of cream of potato, one can of cream of chicken, 1/4 cup milk,small bag of frozen peas, small bag of frozen corn, salt and pepper. Mix it all together and dump in the frozen shell. Shape the thawed shell on top, cut a few lines in the crust with a knife, and cook for 40 minutes. Broil for five minutes until the crust is lightly browned. Let sit for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who...1. Disneyland(I am so addicted to it lately for some reason:) with all of my family 2. Orange County with just girlfriends to go shopping in Costa Mesa and to visit Sprinkles 3. Western Europe to tour all of the museums and sites. Probably would have to do this one alone as I don't know anyone that loves art history as much as I do 4. St George with Amanda and her family 5. Puerto Rico by myself with a huge stack of books on the beach

When was the last time you cried? Yesterday when I felt like I worked a thousand hours and didn't get that much done

Five things you were doing 10 years ago: 1. Enjoying being a newlywed and really getting to know Shane 2. Living at University Village 3. Working at my first HR job after graduating from the U 4. Making dinner every night and taking my lunch everyday to work (never even considering grabbing takeout!) 5. Totally being into tole painting:)

Five things you were doing 5 years ago: 1. Being a mom to my sweet little 3 year old 2. Really starting to move where I wanted to go in my career 3. Shane going into the K-9 unit and having Paco the German Shepherd move in with us 4. Living in our first little house I never thought we would have 5. Buying my Jeep

Five things you were doing 1 year ago: 1. Getting ready for Mack to be baptized and move into scouts 2. Getting called to be the Primary secretary 3. Still adjusting to our new ward and our move into our second house 4. Traveling and working like crazy to staff Intermountain Medical Center 5. Buying my first Mac

Seven of your favorite hobbies: reading, crafting, shopping, blogging, watching my TIVO, my church calling, playing with Mack

Five favorite foods: Navajo sandwich from Cheesecake Factory, Chicken Tostada Salad from Cafe Rio, homemade waffles, grilled salmon, Spaghetti Mama's Chicken Alfredo

Five places you've been: Mexico City, Cancun, Hawaii, Niagara Falls, Phoenix

Five Favorite Memories: Seeing Mack for the first time, moving into our first house, Shane getting Officer of the Year last year, vacations, just spending time with Shane

So, I am tagging Amanda, Tifani (I need to catch up on your life!), Amber and Shanna (I want to learn more about you than just biking:).

Happy Birthday Amber!

Just wanted to give a little shout out to my friend Amber who had a birthday over the weekend. I remember when I first met Amber, I was totally stunned that someone could be that tall, thin and perfect! I thought for sure she would be totally self absorbed, but she is truly one of the most down to earth, fun and interesting people I know. I miss not seeing her everyday anymore--and wanted to wish her all the best this year with her cute family and new baby in a few months. Love ya Amber!

Travels

I spent the better part of last week living out of a suitcase. I had a presentation at our hospital in St George, so flew down last Monday to get ready for it. It was just kind of one of those perfect days of solitude. The airport was a little quiet, my phone wasn't ringing off the hook (that was this week!@*#), and I just sat and relaxed. The ride down was smooth, and I stepped off the plane to 70 degrees. I rented a little Kia and drove into Snow Canyon to take in the red rocks. I then went to dinner on my own to the Pasta Factory and had a totally silent meal. No Mack demanding anything from me. No Shane. No TV or Wii. It was utter and pure bliss. I went back to the hotel and worked for a while and took in some good Project Runway reruns. Sigh. It was the nicest day I have had in a while. I love St George so much:)



I went to Kansas City the next day for a student nursing convention. I went with a few of our nurse managers and the other recruiter from Provo. We had some amazing meals and tons of laughs. I also scored an incredible cashmere sweater for a steal at Banana. That was a definite highlight. I also visited my Mecca, the Paper Source. Made me feel happy just going there and seeing and breathing in all that creativity. I also started going to bed sooo early there. We stayed at the Hyatt (which was the same one I stayed at five years ago when I went to Kansas City and I don't remember it being so nice) and I vegged in this huge, perfect, white bed that had like three thousand pillows. It was so good for me as I have been up at 6:00 am every day this week.

Just a couple shouts out to my family for their birthday gifts I so enjoyed on my trips:

To Joey: The travel iron ROCKED!!!! I love it so much. Thank you:)
To Ashley: I bought this really cute Photoshop magazine with your gift card I loved reading on the plane. Love you!
To Ian: I downloaded the new Killers CD for my trip to Kansas City. Thank you for the iTunes gift card. Am loving it a ton!
To Mom: Worked on my Christmas cards that you got me. Thank you so much!

Love ya Jack!

This political season has been an exciting one for us as my father-in-law ran for the City Council at Large seat in West Valley City. We had so much fun as a family going to the debates, meet the candidates nights, and folding brochures. In the end, my sweet father in law did not win, but he did such an amazing job! I was so proud of him and am so honored to carry the last name of Matheson. This little adventure taught me to become more involved in the political process and study the issues and candidates. Would encourage you all to to the same! We had a great time at an election party on Tuesday night(we hobnobbed with Peter Caroon!) We had the chance to meet Shanna (my sister in law's) new guy too which was great.

The Cheesecake Factory Saga--and Happy Birthday Keith!

I have been excitedly anticipating the opening of the Cheesecake Factory in SLC. It is a requisite to go there whenever I travel somewhere that has one. Love everything on the menu. Keith (my brother-in-law's) birthday was the same weekend, so we had planned to go on Saturday afternoon to celebrate both events. The plan was to meet at 2:30 and hopefully miss the lunch crowd and beat dinner service. We met at Fashion Place to a melee of cars, police cars and fire trucks in the parking lot. There had been a pedestrian hit and run in the parking lot. I think the guy was okay. We got a pager with a 3 and a half hour wait time. We debated whether to stay or go, but collectively thought maybe it wouldn't be that long of a wait. We shopped at Banana, Ann Taylor, and Mom and I went to get our brows waxed. Two and a half hours later we were dining on yumminess! Can't say for sure if it was worth the wait, but we had a great time hanging out and it was a super enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Had to include too my favorite things about my brother in law to say Happy Birthday!

1. He is just as in to pop culture and the finer things in life as I am!
2. Want to know where the best Indian, Thai, etc. place is? Keith is your guy.
3. He is super smart! Blows me away!
4. He is an awesome husband to Ashley and fun uncle to Mack and the other kids
5. You never have to question where you stand with Keith. If he is in a bad mood, he doesn't try to conceal it and fake being happy. A good quality! We are both Scorpios, so I tend to identify with his moods as I am usually the same way!

Happy Halloween

A quick recap of the last few weeks

I like keeping this little blog to keep you all posted on my fascinating life (as if:), but also as an electronic journal as well. Just wanted to let you know (and remind me!) what has been going on the last few weeks.

Halloween party
I got really lucky (this part I am serious on!), and was somehow selected to be the Room Mother for Mack's class. I guess that helped validate I can work and still be involved in Mack's school life too. Anyway, I had some great moms help me do little Halloween mini games. We did pumpkin bowling (the pumpkin totally split open. Seeds everywhere!), Halloween Bingo, Scary Musical Chairs and Pumpkin Cookie Decorating. It was lots of noisy fun, but made me really glad for my quiet little office job.

Rexburg trip
Every spring and fall I take a trip up to BYU Idaho to do campus recruiting. Their nursing program is super competitive, so every student is just so employable. Would love to take all of them home and put them to work. My fun friends from Utah Valley and Primary Childrens came with me. Really fun road trip in this horrible little Ford Taurus full of laughs, gossip and business talk. We usually stay at this incredible little bed and breakfast right outside Rexburg in a little town called Rigby. Unfortunately, the innkeepers were on vacation, so we stayed in Idaho Falls.

My birthday
I am sad to admit with every passing year, my birthday holds less and less magic. I don't mind getting older--love where I am at in life right now more than any other time--but the anticipation of gifts, birthday cake, all that stuff you couldn't get enough of when you were little is just not what it used to be:) I did get a darling little Kitchen Fairy from Amanda, a very generous gift card to Best Buy from my in-laws (we are buyng Guitar Hero III this week for our Wii if anyone wants to come over!), an iPod thing for my car from Shaner and Macker, a fun lunch to Chili's from Joey, a gift card to Rod Works from my work, and some really sweet phone calls and cards from my family and friends. So, thanks to all for making 32 such an enjoyable day!

Reading
Okay, so I am about to start Eclipse in the Stephenie Meyer series. Amanda told me books 4 and 5 will not be out for another year, so I am saving this little treat. Don't want to rush it:) I am also reading Alan Greenspan's new book. Just dipped into it, so will keep you posted on this one.

Music
Downloaded a few new tracks off the new Killers CD that will be released in the next few weeks. Love them. Love the free download on iTunes last week from Metro Station. Found an old Fray EP that I picked up as well.

Park City
Shane and I went to Park City the night of my birthday. We went sans Mack, and I was feeling a little guilty for leaving him out of our celebrations. The drive up was perfect. The trees were turning colors, the moon was hanging low, and the temperature was so nice we opened the sunroof. When we got out of the car, a wall of pine (visually as well as the scent) hit us. We went to Main Street Pizza and Noodle--a favorite of ours--and shared a heaping plate of spinach pasta with mushrooms and cream. The first game of the World Series was on, so we just relaxed, ate slowly, talked and watched the game. I was instantly grateful we didn't bring Mack. Loved that quiet time with Shane just to talk and take more than 10 minutes to eat dinner. After our meal, we wandered over to my favorite bookstore on Main Street. Cats just walk around everywhere (Mack swears the last time we went there a cat was helping check people out). It adds this relaxed, homey, something to the store. We browsed all the interesting corners of the store, and I drooled over all their amazing Crane stationary. They had this great sample book you could order custom made Christmas cards from. Can't ever imagine spending upwards of $400 on a dozen cards, but a girl can dream:) The trip back down the mountain was just as pleasant as the ride up. Love ya hon!