Crack

Yup that's right, I'm addicted to crack. I'm not afraid to say it because it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. See these cookies I'm pretty sure they have crack in them because when I'm not eating them I think about them and when I am eating them I think how I shouldn't be on my 4th cookie already. These are Courtney's cookies and I don't know how she gets them so perfect every time. She doesn't even measure anything and they come out flawless. She made me some for my birthday the other week, which was the best gift ever, and I am ashamed to say that after my 5th cookie right before bed I told Joe he had to take them to work. A couple days later I told Joe I wish he didn't take them to work and he said that was like 3 days ago. I told him I know and I have been thinking about them ever since. These cookies right here I want to be the last thing I eat before I fall asleep forever, I want them buried with my so my casket smells like fresh cookies and I really hope Courtney you bring the recipe to heaven because you should make them when we're there. I bet you wouldn't even have to make them. I bet just thinking about them and they would appear, that would be amazing. So yes I do have a crack problem and it is these cookies. Even though I always say just one I always end up with at least 4 and love every bite of them.

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa-
As I get older I find fewer things I want for Christmas. This year I can only think of one thing and if I could get it then I won't ask for anything else ever again... well maybe we'll just keep it to one thing a year because lets be honest it's Christmas you always want at least one gift. This year I want to be sick. I want to wake up feeling like I have to throw up but never really do because that would just make me have to throw up more. I want to gain some weight but only in the belly because I don't want to look like an umpa lumpa. I promise i won't name the gift any weird names, like system quatro ( which is really what my dad wanted to name me, true story). And I want you to tell the Mr. this is what I want because I think he listens to you more then he does to me, especially around Christmas time. Let him know I haven't asked for 2 years so he should be grateful and now I am asking. In fact Santa, if you could just have a stork or your reindeer drop it off at the front door and skip the being sick and fat part that would be an even better gift. I just want that gift to hold and kiss and squeeze and when I'm sad and Joe is at work I want that gift to make me happy. I kinda lied in the beginning and I'm sorry for that but I actually want 2 gifts. I know I always said I just wanted 1 but I think having 2 would be amazing. So this is all I want for Christmas so if you could give that to me Santa I'll be good all year long. Thank you so very much!

Sincerely-

Tori Beth Coccimiglio

Oh How I Love California

Yup it's true I do love California.
1. 80 degrees in November
2. No dry skin only soft uncracky skin
3. My Family
4. Jacque Mendenhall and Becky and Casey too if they still lived there
5. Stonefire Grill
6. BJ's Pazookies
7. The smell of the air
8. Sunny days means sun and warmth not just sun
9. Sitting in the hot tub not because it's cold outside but because you can any time
10. wear sandals all year long without getting frost bite

Why I don't love but just like Utah:
because today the news lady said it is going to be a nice sunny day and then said the high is going to be 29 degrees. Really you can't put nice and 29 degrees in the same sentence. Luckily my husband lives here otherwise I would have to move right back home and get soft skin.

What the Cuss

Being home with my family means lots of movies. So far haven't been to impressed with any of the twilights that I have seen but this movie I was way impressed with... Fantastic Mr. Fox saw it, liked it, loved it, I'd watch it again. Many more movies to see with the fam since I well be seeing them next weekend too. So we'll see how next weekend goes.

That's whats up

So I live in Utah and it's cold, and snowy and I get sick more than I ever have, and there are only 2 months ( if lucky) of really nice weather and there isn't a beach but we are the 2nd healthiest state in the US. That's right we're number 2 in being healthy. I feel healthier just knowing that. Some say 2 is the number 1 loser but I say 2 is way more accomplished than 1. Anybody ( besides the South) can get number 1 in healthy states, but to be able to squeeze yourself into the middle of 1 and 3 now that's an accomplishment. Even though times I do miss California for warmth and family and friends I am glad to live in the 2nd healthiest state. Living here I think you get a freebie and you get to say you're healthy so that's always plus. and That's whats up

Skinny Cow equals Fat Girl

What does skinny cow, tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough, banana cream snack pack and chocolate vanilla snack pack have in common? If you guessed my shopping list I'm impressed. That's right Wednesday night at 9:30 I went to walmart and bought only those 4 items. You have to understand though I was craving a treat like I've never craved before. I haven't eaten candy in a month and I usually eat candy every day or at least some chocolate chips to satisfy my sweet tooth ( curse you Dad for giving me that sweet tooth). So what I really wanted was Courtney's chocolate chip cookies because those complete me for at least a couple of days but I didn't have Courtney's chocolate chip cookies. So I went to the store a lone ( I didn't even have Joe there to blame all the treats on as the cashier just smiled at me) and thought I'll just get a healthier snack, skinny cow ice cream only 2 points on weight watchers, but that didn't seem like it would satisfy me all the way. I then went and got some cookie dough knowing I wasn't going to make the cookies and I was going to just eat 1 little square of dough and the snack packs were for Joe because those are really lames treats if you ask me I wouldn't even call that a treat. When I got home, after a couple of smiles from the grocery store and a good laugh by me, I sat down and ate a skinny cow and 1 cookie square like I planned. Still didn't satisfy me so I ate 2 more cookie squares which totally cancel out the skinny cow. Yes I am a fat girl inside wanting treats all day long, good thing tollhouse has 24 cookie dough squares that could last me at least a week.

Cruise Highlights

Welcome to our cruise. I'm just going to do some highlights of our cruise (mostly for the parentals to see it). Joe and I and Tyler and Jeff were able to go on a 10 day cruise down to the Panama Canal and it was amazing. 10 days of relaxing, eating, playing games, seeing new sites and eating was the perfect vacation. Joe and I got this lovely ice cream you see in Costa Rica. What you can't see is the fresh pineapple, mango and banana underneath all that ice cream, it was amazing. Even though this time we had to pay for the ice cream it was 3 dollars well spent. Our stops on the cruise were Aruba, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica and Jamaica. And here we go...

First to start off with is of course our desserts. You probably can't see how many desserts we have but yes we got about 3-5 desserts a night and loved every bite of them.

On the ship was a shuffle board court and Joe and I spent much of our days at sea playing. I of course won every time. I pretty much smoked Joe in every game we played; board games, running up the stairs, racing to our rooms, chipping competitions and shuffle board. Ok to be honest I only beat Joe once in Shuffle board but it was a really good win, but for reals I beat him in everything else.

First stop Aruba. There wasn't too much to do in Aruba but go to the beach. SO we rented these awesome scooters and scoot scooted us all the way to the Marriott and their nice beach. We all 4 didn't fit on one scooter but I just wanted to show you the awesome license plate... it's cardboard.

Next we stopped in Columbia. Columbia was really cool we some some old fort that protected the city from pirates and some old plaza where all the shops were. But really it's just cool that we can say we've been to Columbia because really who goes to Columbia. This little guy played a song for us and what you can't see on the other side of the camera is a shy pirate. Yup an old man dressed up like a pirate but seriously he was hiding behind a pole.

In Panama we didn't really have a stop to go site see around but we did go into the Panama canal which was really awesome. I took this awesome first picture showing the 3 different levels of the water and Joe took the decent on below. Just Joking I mean I really did take the first picture but Joe disappeared the whole day because he took pictures of the canal for about3 hours.

After the Panama Canal we cruised on over to Costa Rica. This was probably my favorite spot because we did so much. We went on a little jungle cruise and saw this sloth up close and awake. You may think that isn't too amazing but sloths stay up in the tree and only come down once a week to go to the bathroom. We just got lucky and got to see him on his bathroom break.

Here we went to a banana plantation. Though it was really hot for us just walking around it would suck to actually work there. They all work outside, no real machines, the physical pull the banana bunches into the cleaning areas themselves.

We went zip lining in Costa Rica and it was beautiful. I could do this again and again because I couldn't believe how high we were and how green everything is.

Tyler swinging on down

Me

Joe- couldn't do anything normal had to do something every platform we went down.

Jeff

The last stop was in Jamaica. This was my second favorite, he hiked the Dunn's River Fall. It is about a 40 minute hike and there isn't really a trail you just go in the waterfall and start climbing up. We were the first ones on the fall so we got to take our time and take lots of pictures and enjoy it. By the time we started going up the second time everyone was on the cruise ship and it was just too crowded so good thing we got up nice and early for this.

Yup they're really falling off I was just lucky in stand by picture mode at all times.

This is the beginning of the fall and you can't even see the top so we had a long way to go.

Now we may wonder, what the crap why do we have this picture? Well you see on the cruise people are taking pictures at all times and these people for reals got in this pose and took this picture. Jeff and Tyler saw it with their own eyes and is probably the favorite part of our trip. Tyler just had to take a picture of the picture because really, what 40 year olds (or older) climb on each others backs. Just some ideas for next family pictures...

So of course Tyler and I had to take a picture. We thought it was really funny but would have been way cooler if Joe and Jeff were on our backs.

And that my friends was our cruise in a very small nut shell. Can't wait for January for cruise number 2!

Just Because

I was looking through pictures and found these 2 that made me laugh. You'd laugh too if you knew Joe. SO during winnie wars in Lake Powell it was down to Joe and Corb. Joe of course tried talking Corb into doing something, much like he always tries to talk his way out of a pickle...

And then once he got his attention he attacks....

Lesson to be learned: when competing against Joe don't let him talk his way out of losing just plug your ears and attack.

4 for 1

We really like our Happenings book. Each year we get a new book full of coupons for restaurants or different activities. Well this year we discovered, with Brett and Heather, instead of eating 2 for 1 ( 2 meals for 1 price) if we eat Mexican we can eat 4 for 1. Nothing better than eating for 10 bucks at a nice restaurant. On Thursday we went to Blue Iguana. I finally gave in and went to Blue Iguana. I feel bad like I cheated on Red Iguana but just so Red knows, you're still my favorite tacos. Well at Blue we got fajitas and some macho burrito. The description on the burrito says if you can eat it all you get a free dessert, so for sure we thought we could split it between the 2 of us. Well if you look at the picture the burrito was the size of a baby. Really it was as long and as wide as the plate. It had 3 different kinds of meat and smothered in goodness. No way could 1 person eat that whole thing because between the 4 of us we didn't even finish it. Joe had left overs for lunch the next day and it made 2 more burritos. We love 4 for 1.

Not the best aim

Remember when your husband was so sweet and he would carry you to bed after being to lazy and tired from your nightly shows. Remember when he so sweetly tossed you on the bed with no lights on just so you wouldn't have to do anything yourself. Remember how instead of tossing you in the middle of the bed he tossed you on the edge so you rolled off and hit the wall with knees and arms. Ahhhh those are the good days. Yup I got the hint, he tried saying it was a accident but for now on I well walk to bed no matter how lazy I am. Don't get me wrong I loved falling( more like bounced off) off the bed and hitting corners of closets with body parts, but something about laying your head down on a nice pillow is just more comforting. In marriage you learn so many lessons more than I ever knew there were to be taught.

Sweat, Dirt and Vegas

Last weekend Joe and I and Brett and Heather went to Vegas for a AVP tournament. Even though we had fun I just got reminded how uncool Vegas is. It's hot and slutty and dirty and hot. I don't think I have ever been that dirty in my life. All day we sat outside to watch volleyball and I just had sweat built upon sweat and my feet looked like they were from another mother. So after a long day of volleyball in the sun we decided to go see KA. I'm pretty sure we were the dirtiest people in that place. Everyone always gets all dressed up for shows but not us, nope we went straight there sweat, dirt and all and enjoyed the show just as much as the fancy people. I love our little weekend trips because we get to leave Work Joe at home. Only 2 more weeks and I get Vacation Joe for 12 days cruising down the Panama Canal!

Thursday

I love Thursday nights during fall. And no it's not because there are football games on sometimes it's because of all the great TV shows. Last night was a success. Community was a success end of story.

Sometimes

Sometimes men and women just don't make sense. How can 2 beings compliment each other on most days and on others be complete opposites? How can a women worry about a man if they are 5 minutes late but a man not even worry about it if a women is 1 hour late? Maybe men are just more trusting and know everything is going to be ok. Sometimes I wish I were a man so I didn't worry so much but I think without worrying comes loss of common sense. Women and men are just different and I think that is the bottom line. If a women wants her man to be more sensitive and worried and miserable without her then maybe she should marry a women. If a man wants his women to have sex without the talking, let lose or not cry then maybe he should marry a man. Bottom line is we need each other no matter how different we are. Having differences in marriage, relationships and life makes it that much more exciting. Sometimes women need girlfriends to let them know they're normal. Men... well men just have an easy life and women are thrown into the mix to make it more exciting I think. Sometimes we have good weeks and sometimes we have bad weeks but in the end men and women usually end up happy. I mean who wants a peanut butter and peanut butter sandwich?

Remember...

when last week all I had to do was relax on the houseboat, swim, play games, go to Dodger games and relax?

Well now school has started, my digital scrapbook of last year has been deleted, I'm back to cold calling and have to exercise. Real life isn't nearly as much fun as vacation... until last night. This was the conversation Joe and I had while going to bed.

Joe: " If you think Work Joe isn't fun, Father Joe is going to just be pissed, and angry and mad because he is going to have to beat up Vacation Joe."

2 minutes later

Joe: " lets just have kids until they are 5 because they're only cute until 5 and then give them up for adoption. I mean think about past Tori, you don't want our kids to be teenagers and yelling out us. Once they mature at 22 they can come back and then we could just tell them to move out. "

What great parents we well be. I can already feel the love from Father Joe.

Work Joe

* WARNING: this may get sappy but just a little bit

Joe, Joe, Joe has so many different sides to our relationship. Sometimes people date or marry someone thinking this is it I just get this one person. Lucky for me I have married someone who always keeps me guessing what type of personality Joe may be this week. It sounds like he just has multiple personalities but he stays the same personality just changes to the time in his life.

Lets start with when we were dating, you may think that's easy you get dating Joe...nope we started with Peru Joe. After about a month of us dating or hanging out ( depends on who you ask) Joe left for Peru for 2 months. Joe did warn me the first night we met that every time he goes on vacation if he is seeing someone he usually just brakes up with them. I guess lucky for me Joe wanted to keep dating once he got back. So this led to Peru Joe; he wrote me letters everyday, sent packages, surprise flowers on my birthday and even some random phone calls every couple of weeks. Even though I didn't get to see him everyday i loved Peru Joe because that's when we learned the most about each other, through letters and phone calls( now he hates talking on the phone).

Once Joe got back from Peru you'd think we would just be a normal couple , wrong again we went from Peru Joe to Election Joe. Joe ran for the president at the U. I didn't really love Election Joe, he is overly dedicated, at school from 6am to 11pm, super sleepy, goes to every social event (while I hang out in the bathroom) and friendly. Election Joe was from December to March and though it was great seeing him at night time he was always to tired and worried about the next day. Election Joe taught me how important my friends are and his friends and I'm sure glad they were there to entertain me while Election Joe shook hands and kissed babies. I do love Election Joe though because he made me a very patient person.

Finally we're married and the 2 years I get Golf Joe. Golf Joe is interested in as many sports as he can do a week, works short hours, takes long lunch brakes, vacations more than works and loves sleeping. I love Golf Joe because he isn't home late and we get to spend the whole night together. Golf Joe still got his work done but knew he still wanted to enjoy life. Golf Joe made me think I could put off kids a little longer because we had so much fun together and I think i became a little selfish.

Now Joe was in Ohio for 2 weeks and came back as Work Joe. Work Joe reminds me of Election Joe but doesn't get as home late. Work Joe gets up at 6, works 12 hour days, rarely a lunch brake, and wears a tie to work every day. At first I did not really like Work Joe, still made me laugh everyday but I didn't get to spend as much time with him. He is more tired now and he actually said one night he was glad he didn't have soccer that night. I thought I would be the first to say that. Work Joe is super dedicated and hasn't missed a beat since he's been back. I'm even going on vacation next week with my family and he said he shouldn't go (not sure if that is Work Joe talking or just doesn't want to go with my family...JK family). Unlike Golf Joe, Work Joe makes me want to have babies because I need someone to hang out with now. Some people say maybe I should get a job, but that doesn't make any sense. Plus it would be perfect, Joe works all the time and would totally miss the 9 months of pregnancy it's a win win. But I really do love Work Joe and all his hard work he does for us. I know some days he is tired and just wants to go to bed but well sit and talk with me anyways. He still takes the time to write me random notes every now and then just to remind me how much he loves me.

I'm glad I had so many Joe's because each one taught me something and am excited to see what comes after Work Joe...

Catching up with Ohio

So I've been busy since I have gotten back from Ohio but I thought I'd do a little update. Ohio wasn't as bad as I thought. I saw a lot of movies by myself but that was much better than waiting in the hotel room by myself. It's funny cause people in Ohio don't think it's that great. A couple of times our shuttle driver would tell us that nothing in Ohio is life changing. Well I want to tell you some life changing things that we did in Ohio.

1. Franklin Conservatory: Chihuly art exhibit. This was amazing! Chihuly is an artist that blows glass and this picture is all glass. They had huge chandeliers, clear ceilings with all sorts of glass inside; it was awesome. We sat and just watched the video on how he makes them and it's unbelievable how people can just handle that hot glass and make it into any shape they want to. I suggest that if he has an exhibit that comes to where ever you live you should defiantly see it.

2. If you blow up the picture the sign Joe and I are pointing out says " Please check yourselves for hitch hiking butterflies". Enough said... Life Changing.








3. Luckily Real Salt Lake was playing against Columbus so we were able to make it to a soccer game on Saturday. It was weird rooting for the away team but still fun. When Real scored we were the only ones that jumped up and cheered. In fact it was so quite in the stadium that I thought we didn't make it. Good thing we did otherwise I would have felt even more awkward then I already did...defiantly Life Changing.

4. OK this picture for some reason wouldn't flip, but I ate at Bostons like 3 times in 5 days. And they have the best ever Flying Buffalo Chicken Pizza. It was really the best pizza ever! I even found out they have one in Layton so I may need to take a drive up to Layton.

5. The last but best of all Life Changing events in Ohio was the zoo. Columbus zoo was rated
number 1 zoo in the nation. This picture is Joe's all time favorite picture. We for reals so these monkeys just relaxing and helping each other out. Besides these awesome monkeys we saw a baby elephant that was the cutest thing ever, a couple baby monkeys and Joe got bit by a bird. Apparently birds don't like it even you try to hold them without actually have food in your hands. Joe can usually talk anyone into anything but I guess animals are a little different.

* Life changing not literally meaning life changing just fun things to do.

Tyler's selling Chairs

chairs for sale

They retailed at 800 a piece and i will sale them for 250 a piece they are really nice come see them if you are interested. dark wood and wicker with leather. If your interested leave a comment on her blog to get a hold of her... http://tjkettle.blogspot.com/

So Far....

so good. I made it to Columbus after a long day of flying. It took 4 1/2 hours to Philadelphia and then I had to back track to Ohio but that was only an hour. And what is up with US Airways showing no movies on such a long flight, that sucked real bad. As for Ohio though it was been real pleasant. My cousin's wife Liz told me how Ohio has the nicest people ever and she was totally right. Last night Joe and I made our first stop to eat at Potbelly's. We go there every day we visit DC and Columbus has one not far from the hotel so we of course went. And the manager there was so nice he was telling us what to go see and on top of that gave us a free milkshake! You may think of course he did because Joe always gets free stuff, but Joe doesn't get everything every time. Usually he gets more when I'm not with him because I get to embarrassed but this time the manager gave us a yummy free Oreo milkshake and it was the perfect ending to a yummy sandwich. Today it's a toss up between a movie and the Afro-American museum hmmmm?
P.S. I love the dream bars from Potbelly's and have always wanted to make them but I could never find the secret recipe. Well now on the back of the package it gives all the ingredients so all I have to figure out is how to put them together to make a little piece of heaven.

Really... Ohio?

So the next 2 weeks are gunna suck. Joe is in Ohio for some training and I have to visit him in Ohio. Visiting him well be great because we haven't seen each other in like a week, but really? in Ohio. What am I going to do while Joe is in meetings all day. Good news though they do have a pool, bad news is it's inside, good news Potbelly's well be eaten everyday! So I am going to have to use my creative juices to figure out something to do the 4 days I am there. Right now however I am in beautiful California with my family. I just think my family is the oddest bunch of people. Each one of us are different but some how when we all get together there is a lot of laughing. I'd say the only similarities are that the girls have about just as big as a sweet tooth as my dad, we could eat sweets all night long even if it made us sick the next day. The first night here we played dominoes for about 4 hours and it was quit funny. I am really really good at that game ( if getting 114 points in one round is good). Playing games though with the fam is always a good time with laughter and lots and lots of teasing. The reason I came down was for my sister-in-laws baptism. It was a great day on Sunday with all the family and we are so happy for Emily and Jakob. I don't get to see the family that often, but am glad I was able to come down for a couple days while Joe was away. Plus laying by the pool in 90 degree weather and reading is way better than not doing that at all. So I'm off to Ohio in the morning can't wait for all the hot sunny days there to just lay by the pool... except not lay by the pool because indoor pools suck really really bad. Can't wait to see the hubby!

Cancun gone so Soon

We just got back from Cancun and it was amazing! I just love those vacations that all you have to do is relax. It was nice not doing homework or worrying about having to catch up on school work. All we had to do was relax by the ocean, sleep and eat life couldn't get much better. We visited Isla Mujeres and went snorkeling and rode a scooter all over town. Without having that scooter I think I might have melted away. Luckily we got some speed on that hog so the wind was nice and refreshing. I have now been disappointed twice by Cancun snorkeling, I guess I was just hoping for the best. We did find a little taco hut that had delicious shrimp tacos plus it was like 5 bucks for 3 so we couldn't go wrong. Oh how we love vacations and love that we go on them quit often. Can't wait until October for a little cruising time!

Our little taco shop ( don't know the name), but check out the picture behind us... you know it's good if they have decorations like that.

Our 1st picture in Cancun. We're at our hotel with the beach 10 steps away, it was a great place for naps.

Scooting right along on Isla Mujeres

Just relaxing at the beach on some hammocks. What you can't see is some awesome dogs that I think were getting ready to die at any minute.

Our first Cancun sunset

We woke up nice and early for this sunrise

Drinking some coconut milk, not the greatest thing. But eating the fresh coconut afterwards is way better than that store bought stuff.

Our last meal in Cancun and by far our best! if you ever go you should eat at Sisal it was DELICIOUS

I'm not sure what is going on here, should I be jealous?