Private Blog!

Just a warning i will be making this blog private the beginning of January so if you want to keep reading let me know in a comment or you can e-mail me and i will add you to the list of people that can read!

The List

Today i found my name on a list and this is what it said!

Heather Hanson Federal Way, Auburn,
Allyson Barton Enumclaw, Buckley

Well there you have it! I now know where the suitcase shall be going!
PS i still need a mary poppins bag!

The Journey of Making a Suitcase my Home! :)

The last few months and weeks have been spent trying to fit my life into a suitcase. I've been getting ride of stuff that i thought i couldn't live without but that would just be taking up space in a suitcase that has no space. I've gone through my closet at least 4 times and cut down the amounts of clothing by at least half each time and i suspect that i still have too much! :) I'm still searching for the "perfect" suitcase, if anyone knows where to find a Mary Poppins bag and could tell me where to get one i'd be ever so grateful! What i've discovered really helps is lots of little containers to hold all my clothes and then place those in the suitcase, it keeps things organized and compact, so i'm pretty sure i'll be investing in more of those soon.

A few weeks ago i took my bags to Montana to help out some dear friends of mine with their cute little kids. I get to hold a 8 week old little guy, and play with the sweetest 2 and 3 year old girls. Then mid January i'm moving to a yet unknown location!

Today i'm in Seattle shopping and hanging out with my dear friend Madi! I'm sitting in Starbucks people watching while she works, and when she's done we get to shop at what looks like one of the cutest outdoor malls that i've seen in a long time.It's going to be fun!

positive thinking! :)

Well it's finally happened the whole town of Moscow has left for the summer and i'm stuck here all alone! My roommates are gone, there is no furniture left in the apartment except for the table, one folding chair, and the stuff in my room. I was pretty sad and depressed about this, until i realized that i now have the entire living room to scrapbook in with no couches or book shelves to get in my way! The extra bedroom, well that can be my sewing room!!! By next week i'll have moved out too so i guess i'd better go get sewing and use all the extra space while i can! :) next weekend i get to go home to Oregon! that is pretty much happiness! Just for a visit, i'm just moving to a different apartment here.

10 random facts about me

My roommate and me!
I should be cleaning but i'm not.
I should be working out but i don't want to.
I could be sewing a quilt but i know that if i start i'll never stop.
So i decided to blog a few random things about me. Enjoy! :)

1. I absolutely LOVE to clean my house....it's just getting started that's hard!

2. When i was younger i used to pull on my chin hoping that i could grow a double chin to be like my grandma. so now that i have one i can't hate it even when i see it in pictures!

3. I used to not get along with my roommie but now i dearly love her and will miss her so much when she moves away.

4. I'm a dental assistant and i didn't even have to go to college!!!!

5. I love to find crazy sounding recipes on allrecipes.com and cook them just to see if they're good.

6. I want to travel the world before i settle down and get married.

7. I love quilting, sewing, decorating, baking, pretty much everything homey i love, but i never find time for it.

8. I have to keep my doors and windows locked anytime i'm not home to guard my apartment because of the prank war we have going on (i'll post pictures of the latest happening soon...oh man did we get Kendal!)

9. I love living in an area surrounded by farmland and quietness.

10. I'm horrible at keeping in touch with the people i care about but i want to get better at it.

11. Now i'm going to bed i have a long day of work and no play ahead of me tomorrow!

Losing the bet

The best decision i have made in a long time was the one where i finally bought the jacket I've been wanting for the last few months! Yes, buying the jacket does mean that i lost the bet, but i don't regret it at all! By making the bet i didn't get the jacket when it was $60.00 instead i got it on clearance for $30, along with a super cute jean skirt that i'd been admiring for some time that was also on clearance. Over all the only thing i passed up that i am sad i didn't get was a pair of Guess shoes from Ross that were so very springy and cute. The bet did teach me to shop with restraint, i can now see something super cute and admire it and then walk away. It used to be if something was even semi cute i would buy it and then it would sit in my closet for months and i'd never wear it. Now it has to be perfect, in every way, and on sale before i will get it. Oh and Joel won't let me buy him dinner, that was what the loser was supposed to do so i lost nothing by losing the bet....except my new nickname from joel is loserpants.
Oh and here is a recipe that sounds insane and weird but it is so good! You should all try it!

Chicken and Pasta in a Mango Cream Sauce *

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked rigatoni pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1 onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 mango - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
4 sprigs fresh parsley, for garnish
Directions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add rigatoni pasta, cook for 8 minutes, until almost done, and drain.
Heat 1/2 the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken in the skillet, and cook 10 minutes, or until juices run clear. Remove from heat, and set aside.
Heat the remaining olive oil in the skillet, and cook the onion and green pepper until tender. Mix in the garlic, ginger, and mango, and continue to cook and stir 5 minutes, or until mango is soft. Gradually mix the heavy cream into the skillet, and cook 5 minutes, until thickened.
Return the chicken to the skillet. Stir in the partially cooked pasta, and season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir 2 minutes, until ingredients are well blended and pasta is al dente. Mix in the cheese. Garnish with parsley to serve.

*this recipe was found on allrecipes.com and was posted by SHAGGYDEE, i take no credit for it.

scarf wall

In our living room we have a wall. On this wall is a shelf. This shelf has 19 pegs on it. During the winter these pegs held hats and scarves. It's not winter anymore. We have a problem. I'm at a loss for what to hang on these pegs now that i'm tired of seeing my super cute, but very wintery scarves! Anyone have ideas?!?!?

House cleaning

Why is it that when the apartment is a disaster of a mess (the hurricane came back for a visit) that i have no desire to do anything?
I got home from work today and sat down in the comfy chair and thought to myself i need to clean the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, and my bedroom. You'd think with a list that long i'd get started right away (or you might know me well enough to know my mind does not like to focus on cleaning) or find a fun excuse to get out of cleaning. Instead i'm on the computer once again. In fact with a messy house i have no desire to even start sewing. i've had my new sewing machine for a week now and i haven't even turned it on! i think i should be concerned. It's also the most beautiful day ever outside but the mess that is my house has me so grumpy that i don't want to go do anything! So why am i not cleaning it????
I have this list of projects that i need to get to work on soon...
*Finish the gift for Mark and Kyla (they got married in January)
*Start on the gift for Tina's little boy (i only have a few months until that has to be done)
*mom's day gift for mom and both grandma's
*curtains for my bedroom
there is so much to get done!
I'm signing off, wish me luck, hopefully i'll get at least the kitchen and living room clean within the next hour then i can go to bed so i'm awake for another insane crazy day at work tomorrow! If anyone is looking for a job the place i work is hiring. Who quits their job with no notice anyways? don't they realize how much extra stress it gives their coworkers...but that's a story for another day!

My new favorite thing!

I have found a new love! Ever since shopping was so abruptly removed from my life i have been looking for something else fun and addicting and that is not nearly so expensive as clothes shopping can be. My new love is decorating and craft blogs! They are soooo much fun to look at and to get ideas from. I'm so looking forward to moving in a few months so i can get started on decorating my room. Actually i'm almost tempted to just decorate my room in the apartment for now because some of the ideas i've seen are so cool. Yesterday i went to Ross to look for cheap stuff that can be changed into amazing home decor and i got an awesome square vase that i plan to use as a flower pot and plant tulips in it, i'll post a picture once the flowers are blooming!

On a side note i do still want that cute jacket and a pair of cowboy boots but those things i can live without for now...poor Joel is about to lose the bet anyways so soon i'll be shopping again! :D

The Bet

the creeper i made a bet with...who else thinks he need some new clothes!

Sometimes i make very very stupid decisions. Sometimes i speak before i think, a prime example of this would be making "the bet" with a certain Mr. Joel Andrew Doland. This bet has been going for exactly two months now and has ten more months to go. This bet means i save a ton of money, and i won't be accused of being a shopaholic anymore. It also means that the super amazing, beautiful, cuter than words can express spring clothes won't be hanging in my closet anytime soon. This bet means that come convention time i will be the ONLY girl, and possibly only person, without new clothes. This bet means that when i go shopping and find the CUTEST jacket in the world i can't buy it. This bet has rules. Rules that say I can't buy any clothes or accessories for a year! Joel can't either! Losing this bet has consequences. Losing this bet means i have to buy Joel dinner, and listen to him brag about how he won the entire dinner long. If it were just dinner i wouldn't mind losing but i guess i have a little bit of something called pride and i'm not about to have to listen to him brag about winning for more than 30 seconds. So i guess beautiful jacket at maurices this means that we can never be more than friends, the timing just wasn't right for us. If only you could have shown your face in town about a year ago, or next year i'm pretty sure this admiration i have for you could have gone somewhere but as it is we must go our separate ways. Sad i knew but it must be done! Good bye beautiful jacket!

Today's Project!

My bedroom has been a disaster ever since i switched rooms with my roommates and i'm so tired of it looking like Hurricane Allyson lives there! Hurricane Allyson is no longer an active hurricane, she suddenly grew up and figured out why everyone loves to have things organized and clean and so this disaster has been driving me crazy! My bedroom has been in different stages of clean off and on for a while now it gets cleaner and it was almost done about two weeks ago but then i got really sick with the flu and then as soon as that passed i got one of the worst colds ever so i'd go to work come home and crash because i had no energy. So today i'm locking myself in my bedroom and i'm not allowed to go do anything fun until my room is spotless, the pictures that i have are hanging on the wall, and i'm happy in my little room! So i guess i should go eat breakfast and get started because i have a feeling this will take me a while and there is a hymn sing tonight that i don't want to miss! Happy Saturday to everyone!

Snow!

Dear Snow!

It has been a very long time since we've had a good chat. In fact i think the last time we did i was asking you to "go away and ruin someone elses day." I have different feelings about you right now, i would really like it if you would come visit and make my day! When i moved to Moscow i was told that it would snow all winter and the snow would just pile up and we could go sledding and make snow angels in the middle of the road and that i would get tired of the snow. Guess what it's snowed like four times and never more than a few inches, and i'm very disappointed. I spent my gift card from christmas on a really nice pair of snow pants and would like to use them so please snow come visit for about a week! If you stay longer than that you may wear out your welcome but a short visit a few times a year would be wonderful!

Sincerely your friend,

Allyson

I'm Back!

I haven't blogged in months sorry my faithful readers, if there are any out there! So i live in Moscow now, maybe i should just start a new blog. No, that's too much work, spending hours trying to come up with the perfect title and then hours more picking the perfect background (I don't like the one i have now very much...i'll have to fix that) So i guess that means i'll just update this one so you all know where i live and what i am doing.

As you know I'm no longer a nanny, and while i miss Micah more than words can express i'm very thankful that that chapter in my life is over. I will always look back on that time with fond memories and can't wait to make new memories here in Moscow. I love, love, love living in a place where there are people my age to hang out with! It's so great to get home from work and run upstairs and play games with the guys, or call up a bunch of the other kids and go to the rec and play hockey, or wallyball! I love being a young person with time to do things i want to do again!

My new job is amazing i'm a hygienist assistant and look forward to going to work everyday! I look forward to coming home after each day too. Pretty much i'm just looking forward to whatever comes my way right now!

So to start off the "new" blog and the new year i'll post a few of the New Year Resolutions that i fail at every year, except this year i don't want to fail!

*Put God first each and everyday

*Live a health concious lifestyle

*Get over my crazy fear of talking on the telephone

*Open up more to new ideas, meeting new people, and trying new things

*Stop running from things that might be good for me because i'm afraid that the outcome won't be picture perfect.

Well i think that's probably a nice list to start with we'll see how many of them i manage to keep by the end of the year! I have already got started on one of them i went shopping and got only healthy food, and then went and threw out anything that wasn't!