A Visit to the Chop Shop

I recently decided that it was time to cut my hair. I have been sporting long hair for quite a few years now and I knew it was time for a change. Just thought some of you may be interested to see what the new me looks like. Let me know what you think!

Late Birthday Shout-Out!

First of all let me apologize to my brother-in-law for posting his birthday shout-out late. Neil had a birthday on Dec. 22nd and we hope that it was a very happy one! Sorry again about the late post. It's great to have you as a part of the family. We hope you had a great day Neil!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Happy Birthday Beckett!

Just wanting to wish my nephew Beckett a very happy birthday. I can hardly believe that he is already 3 years old today. We love you B! We hope that you have a very special day.

"Prison Break" (Homer Style)

A few days ago I was in the computer room (also Homer's room) and I heard a noise under my chair. When I checked to see what it was I saw that it was Homer. Somehow, earlier that day, he had escaped from his habitat (a.k.a his plastic pool). This happed not once, but twice in the same day! I have seen him try to get out before, but I never thought he would actually be able to do it. Jeremy and I wanted to see for ourselves how he was able to do this, so we let the camera roll to to try and catch him. Sure enough, he was able to get out again! He was pretty smart to figure out his escape, but as you will see in the video he still hasn't quite mastered the landing. All I have to say is he must have had one heck of a turtle headache after this fall. Luckily he didn't suffer any permanent damage...on the surface anyway.

Christmas Music

One of my favorite things about this time of year is listening to Christmas music. I love it! I have to admit that I like to start listening in early November so that I'm not tempted to keep listening well past Christmas. Celine Dion's, These are the Special Times has always been a favorite of all the girls in my family. Every song on this album is amazing, and I'm not even a big Celine Dion fan. One of my favorite tracks from this album is Happy Christmas. Now for other holiday music, let's not forget about Wham's Last Christmas. I love this song! And, it doesn't really feel like Christmas until you have a little O Holy Night, by Mariah Carey. Finally, one of my favorite Christmas tunes is sung by the one and only Alvin and the Chipmunks. It is titled The Christmas Song. Since we are already talking music, can I just say that I love Alicia Keys new song, No One. Shazam! Girlfriends got some pipes!

Ho Ho Homer

Happy Holidays everyone! I have some breaking news. We got word at the Hansen household that Santa needed a little extra help this year pulling his sled. As soon as Homer heard he was the first to volunteer. He makes a pretty good reindeer doesn't he?? I'd like to stress once again for all of you animal crazies out there that Homer was in no way harmed during this costume mascaraed. I think he kind of likes it. You see, this is what women do to their pets when they don't have kids. OK, maybe not....I'm sure it's just me. Anyway, we would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!

Happy Birthday To You!!!

This one goes out to big daddy. Happy birthday dad! We miss you, we love you and we hope that you have a great day! Also, we sure hope that the San Diego Chargers can make you proud on this very special day of yours. I know it's been a rough season but let's keep the dream alive!

The Curse of Reality T.V.

I just have to start by saying that for some strange reason I am a reality t.v. addict. One of my favorite reality t.v. shows on right now is The Biggest Loser. I love this show! I know I am a cheese ball but I think it is so inspiring. Didn't Kae look amazing! You go girl! I hate to admit it but the tears were welling up as I was watching on Tuesday. It was pretty heart wrenching stuff. It's a good thing that Jeremy was sleeping when I was watching because he never would have let me live down the fact that reality t.v. makes me cry. So why am I admitting this pathetic and embarrassing truth?? I guess it's because I need some reassurance that I'm not the only one out there who is touched by this kind of stuff. I know that many of you watch the show (including my sisters), so what are your thoughts? Oh and don't even get me started on The Bachelor. I'm glad that show is over because I swear I was an emotional wreck. I mean how could he do that to Deanna?? She really wore her heart on her sleeve and Brad just trampled all over it. Nothing makes sense anymore!

Is That Thing On???

This is a video clip taken the day before Jeremy and I moved to Louisiana. It's just the fam sitting around shootin' the breeze. Actually it's mostly video of the grandkids....particularly Beckett. I sure do miss them! Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny when Corey asked Jeremy "is that thing on"? So I hope you enjoy! I love you guys!

Curbing the Craving

This next post goes out to my weight watcher girls. Unfortunately the life long battle of me trying to control what I put in my mouth on a daily basis continues. Lately Jeremy has been bringing home these amazing, giant chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. They are always serving food to the pilots on the oil rigs, and I made the mistake of telling Jeremy to bring home some Louisiana cookin' so that I could see what it tastes like. Well he brought home the cookies instead. I must confess that I have a huge sweet tooth! I have never been one to turn down a cookie, especially the ones that have been coming home with Jeremy. Each time the cookies come home my heart is telling me to go for it but my thighs are telling me to hold back.....the heart wins every time. So basically I decided that I needed to find a guiltless alternative to this temptation. I am happy to say that I think I've done it! If you love snickerdoodles half as much as I do you will definitely enjoy this recipe. Each cookie is only 2 points! Holla!

Ultimate Maple Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons real maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup maple sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup of white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and maple syrup. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until just mixed. In a small dish, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup white sugar and the maple sugar. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and roll the balls in the sugar mixture. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will be crackly on top and look wet in the middle. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Happy Birthday Little Sister!

I know I've done a lot of these birthday shout-outs but this is definitely the month of birthdays in my family. I want to be sure to send the fam my love, especially on their special day. So this one's for my favorite little sister Corey. Happy Birthday girlfriend! I really wish I could be there to give you a big hug and to celebrate with you. I have a bunch of pictures of you but our scanner isn't working so I couldn't post them. Luckily I do have one already on our computer. Ryan is a pretty lucky guy because he gets to share some of the love with you. I hope you have an amazing birthday girl! Love you!

Birthday Shout-Out

I'd like to take this moment to give a birthday shout-out to my brother Brian. Happy birthday man! You know you're my number one bro. Sadly I do not have a picture to post, but hey that's the way these shout-outs go sometimes. Hope you have a great birthday big brother.

Louisiana swamp

This is a short clip of some alligators swimming around in the Louisiana swamp at the zoo. I'm pretty sure it was feeding time because they don't look very happy. Yikes!

Elephant heads

Here are a couple of me and Jeremy posing as elephants. This was kind of embarrassing because there was a line of kids waiting to stick their heads through so they were all watching us. I got a good laugh at Jeremy's picture though so it was all worth it.

Relaxing on the bayou

All of that walking really took it out of us so Jeremy thought he'd take a load off by relaxing in this rocking chair. Check out the view of the bayou. This is the life!

Giant turtle

This turtle is enormous! I wanted to kneel down next to it so you could get a feel for how big it was. I'm pretty sure it will blow your mind!

Audubon Zoo

So yesterday Jeremy and I decided that we were going to celebrate the wonders of nature by heading to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. The day began with Jeremy making me breakfast in bed, (how sweet) then we got ready and we were off. We were a little worried at first about the weather but it ended up being perfect! The humidity was low and it was around 72 degrees with very little wind. The only downside to our day was that the schools were having some kind of a field trip, so as you can imagine there were kids everywhere. But all-in-all we had a really fun time. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

Happy Birthday Jakob!

Today is a very special day, so I'd like to give a birthday shout out to my nephew Jake. He is 9 years old today! He may not remember but this picture was taken by him with my camera a while back. I didn't even know he was taking self portraits until I reviewed the pictures some time later. What a prankster! Anyway, hope you have a very happy birthday Jake. We love you (I know...ewe!)

Happy Halloween!

Well this is the moment so many have been waiting for. Homer finally gets to show you his Halloween costume. Now to all of you who think it's mean to dress up your pets, I promise that he only had to wear this for like 5 minutes and to tell you the truth I think he kind of liked it. So does anyone know what he is?? Well, he's an Ancient Roman Tortoise. I couldn't convince him to let me put the crown on his head so I just placed it on his shell. Yes I know that this is a bit of a stretch but I dare any of you to find a costume for a turtle. Unfortunately they are very few in numbers. In fact I'm not sure they make them at all, so instead we decided to go the home made route. We hope you like it! Actually I hope you like it! Jeremy just laughed at me and thought I was a big dork. Well guess what....I am!

The Fam

I've Been Tagged!

I've been "tagged" a few times by different people to fill these questions so here goes...

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. - In my senior year of high school and looking forward to graduating
   
2. - Trying to figure out what to do with my life and career (yikes... guess I'm still working on this one)
   
3. - Working at Pizza Hut as a server
   
4. - Doing high school stuff...going to football games and hanging out with my friends
   
5. - Trying to convince my parents to let me go to Dixie College when I graduated. I promised I'd pay for everything...ha ha!
   

5 Things on my To-Do List Today:

1. - Answer these questions
   
2. - Continue my job hunt
   
3. - Figure out when I can register for school
   
4. - Look for flight reservations so we can come home for Christmas
   
5. - Try to figure out what to do with Homer when we come home for Christmas
   

5 Songs I know the Lyrics To:

1. - Hotel California by The Eagles
   
2. - Thriller by Michael Jackson
   
3. - Lucky to Know you by Blue Merle
   
4. - Bend and not Break by Dashboard Confessional
   
5. - Belief by Gavin DeGraw
   

5 Things I Would Do if I Had One Million Dollars:

1. - Go on a vacation to Chili with Jeremy (that's where he served his mission and I know he'd really like to go back)
   
2. - Pay off all of our debts
   
3. - Buy a house
   
4. - Put some in savings for our kids and our retirement
   
5. - Give some to someone who really needs it
   

5 Things I Will Never Wear Again:

1. - Tight jeans that are rolled at the ankles
   
2. - Leg warmers
   
3. - Over sized t-shirts tied in a knot on the side
   
4. - Stretchy pants (worn with my last answer)
   
5. - Socks with pom pom balls on the back
   

5 Favorite Toys:

1. - Video ipod
2. - My cell phone
   
3. - The computer
   
4. - Our portable DVD player (It saved my life on our 30 hour car ride to Louisiana)
   
5. - Direct T.V. (after living with the parents we realized we can't live w/o Tivo)
6. - Our exercise bike (don't want everyone thinking I'm a couch potato)
   

Mimes

This is a picture of a guy on the street posing as a mime. I had to take a picture because it reminded me of the trip we took to San Francisco with mom and the girls. It's a little hard to see but he's a cowboy. When anyone would walk by he would make sounds like he was calling the birds or something. Needless to say I didn't want to get a whole lot closer.

New Orleans

Since Jeremy has been off work this week we decided that we wanted to go explore a little bit. We thought it would be fun to go to New Orleans since I've never been there. We wanted to go on Monday but the weather here has been very windy and stormy the past few days. It rained several inches on Monday and they even issued a tornado watch in our area. New Orleans got so much rain on Monday that the streets were completely flooded. They said on the news that is was the most flooding they've seen since Katrina. I tried to talk Jeremy into going sight seeing down there on Monday and I assured him that the weather would clear up. Well it didn't! It only got worse as the day progressed. It's a good thing he doesn't listen to me very much because we would have probably been stuck down there if we had gone. Not to mention we would have done no sight seeing because the weather was so bad. Anyway we made the trip to New Orleans today so here are some pictures.

Home Made Root Beer

Jeremy and I decided that we wanted to make our own root beer and bottle it. I've never tried home made root beer made with yeast so it was definitely a new experience for me. It tasted a little too funky for me so Jeremy is going to have to drink all 5 liters by himself. He loves it though so I guess that's not such a bad thing.

The happy couple

Well just to give you a quick rundown, Jeremy and I have been in Louisiana for just over a week now. We are finally moved in, except for a few boxes that we aren't sure what to do with. The weather here has been hot, humid and stormy, but Jeremy keeps telling me that I have no clue what humid is yet. I'm sure I'll experience that next summer. I'm just glad I missed the worst of it for this year. Jeremy had to work the first week we were here but he has next week off so we will probably do some exploring, and hopefully find more picture opportunities for the blog. My plans for the next little while include finding a job and getting registered for school. I will be starting school in January and the goal is to finish once and for all. It's sometimes hard for me to believe that we are really in Louisiana and that we are so far away. We already miss you all so much! It's definitely going to be different being out on our own without family close by, but we are so excited about this new adventure and we think that it is going to bring us many great experiences.

Luv you all!

Brooke and Jer