Day 41 - May 6, 2008

Scrapbook Project

I always told myself that I would never "scrapbook." I didn't want to spend as much time as it appeared to require, and I realized that this hobby can quickly add up $. I also felt I didn't have the knack for this as I would try to assist in projects of this nature at work, and it just didn't turn out like the others pages did. Last time I was in Arizona, my mom handed me a bag full of pictures of me growing up, some I don't remember ever seeing before. I didn't know what to do with them, as they were of different sizes, and also included all papers and colors I had done. I decided that it would be nice to put them in a nice book, and in a sense "scrapbook." I found a nice book to place them in, and Costco had adorable floral scrapbook paper on clearance. So today, I began my task of putting the book together. I'm not doing the fancy lettering, or cutting things out. But it's a good start to the whole scrapbooking concept.

Yeah, my family room is being taken over by this project...

Day 40 - May 5, 2008

Cinco De Mayo - Phase 2

So besides struggling to stay awake today. I was able to work on phase 2 of my Spring wreath. it was nice to be able to work on this when Spring weather is being experienced.... yea!!!!!

Day 39 - May 4, 2008

Sunday Sight Seeing

I went with Jen, and my mom to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast in the morning. After we did some sight seeing all over Temple Square. I seem to learn something new about that place every time I go.

One thing I learned about was where Brigham Young's graveside is. It was really close. We drove around and eventually were able to locate it. Wow... I won't go into much detail on this, but if you really want to practice you car stick shifting skills on hills, this is the area to do it. Luckily no one was behind me on some hills. We were able to quote the line in Princess Diaries when she was going up steep hills with her stick shift car. *FYI - I didn't jerk my car like her, or run into a trolley or bus or trax train.

We had dinner at my other grandparent's home. Jen and I were in charge of cooking it. We decided to just cook EVERYTHING we brought. This turned out to be A LOT of food for all of us. It was a really FABULOUS dinner though.

After we drove Jen to stay with her sister in law's home that night. As we drove we counted how many LDS churches you see from 6200 South to 7800 South. This is about a 1 mile stretch. We counted 5 churches. If we had traveled just 1/2 a block more we would have been able to count the 6th one.

Day 38 - May 3, 2008

Bridal Falls, Dunford, Pizza

Why is it that I tend to not get much sleep when I am visiting others, or others are visiting me. After getting... oh about 3 hours of sleep, my sister and I decided that we should go get some exercise. We ended up going on a small hike up to see Bridal Falls up Provo Canyon. I've been on this hike make times. Actually it's not really hike but a nice walk up a trail. But Jen was in an adventurous mood, so we decided to walk past it as well. I've never been past it before. It's really beautiful at this time of year. In another month it will be even better with all the greenery fully out.

Yeah, here is just another testament that we haven't been able to get much sleep. I've also realized as we took, I don't know how many pictures of us and the fall, that I need longer arms to really be able to do this well.

After we went to have lunch with my Grandma and Uncle Dave and Aunt Becky with their family. It's always fun to meet up with family and just talk.
I was informed as we were taking this picture that I just don't "fit" in it. So I don't know how, but I was elected to be the one to sit in the middle. I felt weird about this, but they were right, we had too many people to make it work. (side note... doesn't my sister, Jen look really cute! I helped her get cute that morning. Just check out the other pictures that will be posted of how good she looks.)

Jen and my fun Aunt Becky

Now my grandma was known as "the bakery lady" for many years. A tradition when I was little living in Utah, was to visit her bakery and be able to get whatever we wanted... donuts, cookies, mmmmmm......

We moved when I was 3, so I vaguely remember this. But my mom and sister remember this well. Her bakery would get "Dunford Donuts." They were talking about how good these donuts were and were wondering if they were still good. We found out that there was a bakery outlet nearby. We went to it after lunch and got a few chocolate donuts (if you get a Dunford donut it needs to be their signature chocolate). Yes, I tried this as well... because "I am on vacation!" Wow, a whole lot of memories that I hadn't thought of came back when I ate the donut. I definetly remember eating this, and was wondering why chocolate donuts were not as good as I had remembered them.

My mom and Jen savoring the chocolate Dunford donuts.
Jen showing how happy she is to have been able to eat a Dunford donut!

After we ventured to other stores, that I have been to, but Jen has not. But this blog is not about Jen's new experiences. You will have to check out her blog. One place we went to though was an Asian market I recently discovered in Salt Lake City. My mom wanted to buy some sweet rice for a dinner I was supposed to make tomorrow for my family. This was a huge place! We found the coolest things. One was packaged duck eggs. I tried to talk Jen into getting this for her food storage. She wasn't as keen with this idea as I thought she would be. Maybe it was because of the picture on the package. It showed the egg being black inside.

My mom and I outside the "Super China Market."

We didn't get home till 10 that night. On the way home we stopped at a grocery store and while there Jen found this Kashi frozen pizza. We were looking at it and saw that it contained only 3 servings, which means that we could each get 2 pieces since I cut it in 6ths. But it also had 14 grams of protein! Plus a lot of other good things. In addition to that, it was only $5!
When we opened it up though, there were not as many vegetable toppings as we had hoped. So we took a bag of my stir fry vegetables and just POURED it on top. We also added some red roasted peppers I had in my fridge. That is really good to add to pizza.
Here is a picture of it after it was baked. This has to have been one of the most FANTASTIC pizza's ever had. But I haven't had pizza in over 2 years as well. But this was really good.

Day 37 - May 2, 2008

Women's Conference 1st's

I tried a lot of new things on Friday. One was eating chocolate cinnamon bears. I know, I shouldn't really be eating chocolate. But I rationalized with my sister saying "this is vacation." Can I just tell you they were REALLY good. Everything I thought they would be.

I was also able to see and hear our Prophet, Thomas S Monson. He spoke to us at the closing session. It was the most incredible experience. When he walked in the entire Marriot Center became instantly silent. There was this amazing calmness and peace come over me. He spoke on how the tapestries in life are sewn together. With this he listed three things specifically.

1. Each living life has much to do. We should find joy in the journey now. There will be nothing to remember tomorrow if you don't do something today. We should not put off important things TODAY!

2. Adversity. We all will face adversity of one kind or another. Scraped knees, bruises and heartache are needed in this life. This life was never meant to be easy. He quoted one of my favorite quotes:

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer … builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven …"Elder Orson F. Whitney

He also reminded us that the stronger the wind is.... the stronger the trees become.

3. We should thread together service, love and kindness to others.

Here are the girl's after the Conference: Jen, me, Lindsay, and mom

Day 36 - May 1, 2008

Women's Conference Concert

My mom, sister and I attended Women's Conference at BYU, Thursday and Friday. This was a lot of fun. At night they have a big concert. We were able to see performances by Hilary Weeks, Michael McLean, Kenneth Cope, Mercy River, Eclipse, and Jenny Jordan Frogley. It was such a grand experience. I know that this was a good concert as my throat was a bit scratchy at the end of the night. Here are pictures I attempted to take:

Here is what the stage looked like as we waited for the concert to begin.
The several glowing people is the accapella group "Eclipse." They put on a a fabulous and fun performance.
The white glow in the back, behind the piano, is Hilary Weeks. She played and sang some beautiful songs. She also MC'd the show.
The really white glow in the background is Michael McLean, singing the final song that he was attempting to teach us. We were kinda able to get it by the end.
Here is Jen and I posing for a picture after the concert. FYI... I failed miserably at trying to take the picture by ourselves. Luckily Jen's sister in law was coherent enough to take the picture for us. Yea, we are REALLY tired. You should see us at the end of the weekend.

Day 35 - April 30, 2008

Car Wash

My mom and I went to Walmart in the evening... where for some reason I had the desire to buy food for my food storage. I don't know why, my mom didn't mention anything regarding it. So I stocked up on more canned goods that I generally eat. This was nice though, as I really won't need to go shopping for awhile now :)

After we got gas, and I decided that it has been WAAAAAYYYY to long since I had my car wash. It began to snow though as I was thinking this. But decided that it REALLY needed to be washed. So my car was washed for the first time while it was snowing. Luckily it wasn't really dirty snow. So the car still looks good.