The Karate Kid

Also, we went and saw the Karate Kid recently. Some people may think that they shouldn't have made another Karate Kid, but I thought it was flipping awesome! The kung fu in that movie is so crazy cool! After I watched it I was like, "Man, I need to learn me some kung fu cool moves." For real. It was a very entertaining movie... for me anyways:)

Yay Movies!

Isaac and I went with his family last night to see Toy Story 3. At first I was affraid that it wouldn't be as good compared to the old ones, but it turned out to be hilarious!! I really really liked it! We had a great time being with Isaac's family:)

This past weekend my fiance's family ran in the Ragnar Relay, a 188 mile race, and there are twelve people on the team. Yeah, 188 miles... crazy! The race starts in Logan and ends in Park City, Utah. Isaac and I didn't run, but we went up to Park City on Saturday to see the team finish the race! It was SO awesome to see them finally cross the finish line! It would actually be really neat to participate in a race like that... what an accomplishment! Isaac's mom wants the whole family to train for it next year, and I'm game. I mean, I might have to start training like now in order to be able to run that much, but ya know:) I think it really would be an awesome experience though. I had family in town this weekend! My aunt and uncle and cousins brought their daughter out to college. So Isaac and I met up with them and had dinner and just hung out for a while... it was great!! Anytime I see family, it's like a little piece of home for me, and I love it! I have such a wonderful family including my future in-laws and their family!!

San Francisco Trip

A couple weekends ago, my roommate and I took a trip to California to go to a friends wedding reception. It was quite a last minute trip:) We decided pretty much the day before that we were going to go. My roommate's awesome dad found us some good deals on plane tickets and then we were off to California! We flew into San Francisco airport. It was so awesome to see the ocean as we were flying in! We took the bart from San Francisco to Oakland where our hotel was. We got ready to go to the reception when we got to our hotel, but there was one problem: the reception was in Danville, and we were in Oakland, and we didn't have a clue how we were going to get there, us being carless and everything. So we decided to take a taxi--we won't even talk about how much THAT cost. Well, we got to the reception fine, and we REALLY surprised our friend who had NO idea that we were coming!

The next day, my roommates dad came to the rescue by renting us a car! I tell ya, this trip was a huge present from my roommate's parents! So now we have this car. It's Sunday, but the ward we were going to attend didn't start until 2:50pm. So we had some time to kill that morning. We just drove around and explored and . . . got lost . . . alot. I think we pulled mored U turns on this one trip than I have ever pulled in my life! My roommate was the driver, and I was the navigator. And my lack of sense of direction equals getting lost. So mapquest told us the church building was about an eight minute drive from our hotel. Well, about two hours later, we finally made it to church. Yeah that's how lost we got. But all was well because we started heading to church a couple hours early because by this time we had learned about our lack of getting directions right the first time. So we were only a little late to church:)

Monday was our trip to the city of San Fran! Holy cow! Some of the roads there are SUPER steep! On some of them, going up felt like I was ascending to the peek of a roller coaster! It was crazy! We went and saw Coit tower, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Fisherman's Wharf, got some chocolate at Ghirardelli's, played in the sand and water, went to Chinatown, and more!! It was a really fun trip! After a fun day in San Francisco, we headed back to Oakland, packed up our bags, and were off to the airport once again, this time homebound! It was a fun trip and quite a new experience!

Today is a beautiful day! I LOVE all the sunshine, especially after that cold rain. Although I do like a storm every so often. But Utah rain doesn't compare to Tennesse thunderstorms. Back home when it would storm, sometimes I would sit in front of my screen door and just watch and listen to the rain pounding and the thunder ROARING. Yes, I do mean ROARING. Sometime the thunder is so intense that it will rattle the whole house! I am usually a light sleeper, which is funny because I have slept through some very violent thunderstorms in my day. haha. Wedding plans are going great! Number one goal this week is still to get invitations mailed:) But we're on track so we should get them out soon. I've decided I'm going to wear my cousin's wedding dress... it's SO beautiful, and I tried it on and it fit perfectly!! She called me not too long ago to tell me she would love it if I wore it! I'm so excited! It's such a gorgeous dress! I went wedding dress shopping but couldn't find anything that I would bring myself to pay a junk load of money for. So I'm SO thankful to my cousin for letting me borrow her beautiful dress. Things are all falling into place. The Lord is sure helping me alot:)

Also, I ordered a movie off of ebay... Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! Such a classic! I used to watch it with my cousins growing up. Ah, good memories:) I'm so excited to watch it again!

Holy cow it's been a LONG time since I've blogged, But life is crazy busy planning a wedding... YES I AM ENGAGED!!! Me and Isaac are getting married on July 31st!! I'm SO excited! Yesterday we went and met with someone about getting announcements made. Isaac and I went to xpedx and bought paper that we wanted the announcements to be printed on, so that cut down the cost, which made us very happy:) The goal is to get the announcements out by next week... hopefully it will actually happen:) We'll see. Things are rolling smoothly. My mom and Isaac's mom have been a HUGE help in planning everything. And Isaac's mom and Cheryl are planning a bridal shower! How exciting! And Isaac's brother took our engagement pictures, and he did such a great job! I love them! And his wife is going to edit and photoshop them for us! I'm so thankful for wonderful family and friends who are SO willing to help. The Lord has greatly blessed me in all aspects of my life, and I know He is aware of me. Life is great!

Oh my goodness! It feels so good to be done with finals FINALLY!! I took my last final on Wednesday. I could have done better on it that's for sure. But actually, I thought I was going to do worse on it than I actually did... so I'll take it:) It's just good to have it over with! Now I need to pack my little bags for Tennessee! whoohoo!! Isaac is coming to TN to meet my family! We're gonna have some real southern fun:) I'm SO excited!


Anyways, I was looking online and found these random church Bulletin Bloopers. They made me laugh:

*Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles, and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
*The outreach committee has enlisted 25 visitors to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.
*Evening massage - 6 p.m.
*The Pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday morning.
*The audience is asked to remain seated until the end of the recession.
*Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.
*Ushers will eat latecomers.
*The third verse of Blessed Assurance will be sung without musical accomplishment.
*For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
*The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.
*The pastor will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, "Break Forth Into Joy."
*During the absence of our pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.
*Next Sunday Mrs. Vinson will be soloist for the morning service. The pastor will then speak on "It's a Terrible Experience."
*Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.
*The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the church basement on *Friday at 7 p.m. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
*The concert held in Fellowship Hall was a great success. Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.
*Potluck supper: prayer and medication to follow.
*Don't let worry kill you off - let the church help.
*Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to church secretary.
*Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.
*The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
*Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again", giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
*The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.

My Southern terms...

So just for the record, I looked up the word toboggan online in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, cuz people though it was so wierd that I would call a winter hat a toboggan. Okay, so I will give it to all you non-Southern folk who think that a toboggan is a sled, for it did include that definition... HOWEVER, it also included MY definition of what a tobbogan is. Uh hum... "chiefly Southern & Midland : stocking cap: a long knitted cone-shaped cap with a tassel or pom-pom worn especially for winter sports or play." So I'm not a wierd person for calling it what it is:)

Okee dokee... so I haven't blogged in a while, but here's what been goin down:

On Saturday, I went to Salt Lake to the Family History Library to search for one of my ancestors. It was for an assignment for my Family History Class. It was pretty cool because I found my great Granddaddy and his family on a cencus record! My journey up to Salt Lake was interesting though. So I got to Salt Lake just fine, but somehow I got lost IN Salt Lake. I didn't know where the heck I was or how to find Temple Square (even though I've been there quite a few times and have no clue how I got so lost). So I drove around for almost an HOUR in Salt Lake, and only until I asked two different people for directions did I find my way. So all was well!

SO after I got done at the library, I went to Isaac's football practice in the stadium!! It was really fun to watch! He did so well, and I was so proud of him:) He was livin' the dream!! YAY Isaac!

Later on Saturday, me and Isaac went SWIMMING! I couldn't believe it was hot enough! But Saturday was such a perfect sunny and beautiful day! We went swimming in my apartment complex's pool. It was so fun! I hadn't been swimming in forever! And if we got cold in the pool, we would just jump out and hop in the hot tub.... ahhhh:)

After that we went and ate at Bajios. YUM! It was amazing! I love Bajios! I got nachos with all the fixins! Mmmmm:)

Then we headed over to babysit our friend's little kiddies:) We watched Star Wars and had a merry old time!

Okay so lately I've been doing Jillian Michaels exercise video with Cheryl, and it is kicking my behind for sure! It's such an awesome workout though because it works ALL the different muscles in your body. It combines cardio with strength training.... I'm definitely breathing in like twenty times the amount of normal oxygen when I'm through with that beast of a workout. But it's good for me, and I feel very accomplished afterwards:) Jillian keeps telling me that if I want a twenty minute workout that's gonna produce results, then there's no fooling around. She says, "I want you to feel like you're gonna die!" No worries Jillian... I do.

Now, I'm going to go study for my finals... everyone should be jealous.

Today was a great day!!!! School was, well ya know... School:) Work was pretty good. I then I went to Isaac's house:) That was GRRReat!!! I gave him a haircut. He's such a handsome man:) well now I am here at school helping with makeup for a play. In reality I'm just sitting around until someone tells me they need help. It looks like most of the actors do their own makeup anyway, so I just kinda sit around. I mean, I'm not complaining or anything. More time for homework (AKA blogging)... well anyways, I'm wearing my hair in pig tails right now:) bringing out the little kid in me so to speak, so great!

Oh, okay so I have to do character makeup for my final class project. It can be a character from a play or movie. And it has to be pretty intense. So I was thinking either the wicked witch from snow white or the wicked queen from Sleeping Beauty. I'm not sure which one yet.

Last night I recorded a song with my friend! It was super fun! The song is called "So Far" and half of it is in Hebrew. It's a fun song! When I get the cd, I'll try to post the song on my blog:) Tonight I have to go and see a play for my Makeup and Theater class... whoohoo. haha but It'll be fun because Isaac's gonna come with me:) and Right now I have to quit wasting my time and start studying for my test that I should take this afternoon... we'll see if that happens:) whelp, HAPPY DAY!

a FABULOUS weekend!!

Yesterday was so GREAT! I spent the day with Isaac! We went goony golfing (more commonly know as miniature golfing... at least that's what everyone tells me it's called) and we went to see Alice in wonderland and then we went to Salt Lake and ate dinner in The Garden Restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building! It was such good food! Then we walked around and enjoyed Temple Square. I love Temple square, it sooooo beautiful! I had such a fun time! Well, all I have to say is today was also A GREAT DAY! We had wonderful church meetings today. And I went over to Isaac's house and ate a wonderful dinner!! His family is awesome! I love spending time with them:) Now I'm home with my roommates watching Anne of Green Gables! What can I say... it's just been a GREAT DAY. THE END.

FuN pLaCeS to ViSiT in TENNESSEE

These are only a few of the fun place to visit in TENNESSEE!

Of Course Nashville has lots of fun places to visit: the Parthenon, the Grand ole Opry, the Opry Mills Mall and Hotel, and lots more!




The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, TN is America's biggest underground lake! WOW!

Gatlinburg is a beautiful place to visit and there are alot of fun things to do for entertainment!

The Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge is SO much fun! The horse stunts are amazing! and the serve you alot of food! The best part, you eat with yer hands. . . this is the South y'all. . . You ain't gonna need utinsils:)

Ruby Falls is the nation's largest

underground waterfall located

over 1120 ft below the earths surface!

The Tennessee Aquarium is a super fun place to visit, especially if you have little kids cuz they love it!

Dollywood is a super fun theme park! My family loves going there for vacation! They have awesome rides and lots of entertaining shows!

Today was our bread lab in my cooking class and these were my favorite recipes. The cinnamon rolls were sooooo good! And the cinnamon apple crumble was amazing!

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons yeast
½ cup oil
1 ¼ cup warm water
2 beaten eggs
1 ½ teaspoon salt
4 ¾ - 5 ¼ cups bread flour
¼ cup melted butter or margarine
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup sugar
½ cup walnuts, optional
¾ cup raisins, optional

1. In KitchenAid bowl, using flat beater, mix 1/3 cup sugar, yeast, oil and warm water until dissolved.
2. Cover and let stand in proofing oven for 15 minutes.
3. Blend eggs into yeast mixture.
4. Combine flour and salt in separate bowl.
5. Gradually add flour/salt mixture to yeast mixture. Mix well, switching to kneading hook when dough gets stiff. Knead for 5 minutes.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll into rectangle shape (18 inches x 24 inches), about ¼ inch thick. Brush with melted butter or margarine, then sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, nuts and raisins.
7. Roll rectangle tightly, beginning on long side and pinching edge of dough to seal. Stretch and push the roll to make sure that the all sweet rolls will be the same diameter.
8. Cut into 1-inch slices with dental floss. Place the dental floss under the roll, then wrap up and over to cut the dough. Place slightly apart on two un-greased jelly roll pans and let rest in 2 proofing ovens for 10 minutes. Use top oven from the whole wheat batter bread kitchen in addition to your top oven.
9. Bake at 400 degrees on convection bake (lower oven) for 10-15 minutes. On the convection bake setting, you can bake all pans in the same oven at the same time; just put them on separate racks. Allow to cool slightly then frost.

Frosting:

½ cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
2-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream butter, vanilla and milk.
2. Add powdered sugar until desired thickness is reached.
3. Beat until light and fluffy.




Quick Whole Wheat Bread and Honey Butter

2 ½ cups hot water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
4 ½ to 5 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon butter to use on the top of the baked bread

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in hot water.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
3. Add oil, honey, salt, and half of flour to yeast and water. Mix with flat beater attachment.
4. Add enough of remaining flour to make a thick, sticky batter. Yes, the dough is really sticky.
5. Knead well (at least 5 minutes in your KitchenAid mixer).
6. Place dough in two well-greased loaf pans. Put pans in warm oven. TURN OVEN OFF.
7. Let loaves sit in warm oven for 20 minutes.
8. With loaves still in oven, turn oven to 350 degrees.
9. Set timer for 30 minutes. Remove bread from oven when timer goes off. If loaves aren’t nicely browned, bake for an additional 3-5 minutes.
10. Brush with butter and remove from pans to cool. Makes 2 loaves.
11. Slice on a cutting board with electric knife to serve.

Honey Butter
½ cup butter (not margarine), softened
½ cup honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla

1. Using wire beater on KitchenAid mixer, whip butter until light, up to 10 minutes.
2. Gradually add honey and vanilla.
3. Serve with warm bread.






Pretzels

4 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ cups warm water
3 ½-4 ½ cups bread flour
½ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 cups water
½ cup baking soda
kosher salt for sprinkling


1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes.

2. In your KitchenAid bowl, combine 3 ½ cups flour, ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp. salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix with dough hook. Add more flour if dough is too sticky. Knead 3-4 minutes.

3. Cover dough with plastic wrap, and set in on a greased plate in proofing oven to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 30 minutes.

4. Gently punch down dough. Before shaping, start preheating the oven to 425 degrees, using convection bake setting.

5. Cut the dough into 12 pieces. Roll each one until it’s about 15-inches long and the thickness of your finger. Twist each into a pretzel.

6. Mix water and baking soda in your largest stock pot. Bring to a boil.

7. Dip each pretzel in boiling soda water for 5 seconds. Place on greased baking sheet, lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cut each pretzel in half before serving. Serve with mustard (optional).






Foccacia Bread

2 ½ to 3 cups bread flour
1 tbsp dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp)
5 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup very warm water (120° F to 130° F)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
Cornmeal
2 tsp. olive oil for dipping in each kitchen
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar for dipping in each kitchen
Preheat large oven to 400 degrees.

1. In KitchenAid bowl and with flat beater, mix 1 cup of the flour, the rosemary, sugar, salt, and yeast. Add 3 tbsp oil and the warm water. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft and leaves sides of bowl, switching to dough hook near the end.


2. Using dough hook, knead 5 to 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy. Grease large plate with shortening. Place dough on plate, turning to grease all sides. Cover plate loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in proofing oven about 20 minutes or until dough has almost doubled in size. Dough is ready if indentations remain when touched.


3. Generously sprinkle a cookie sheet with cornmeal.


4. Gently push fist into dough to deflate. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 6- to 8-inch round (about 1” thick) piece on the cookie sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap lightly sprayed with cooking spray and let rise in proofing oven about 10 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.


5. Gently make ½-inch deep depressions about 2 inches apart in dough with fingers. This is done to add a decorative surface to the top of your bread. Carefully brush with 2 tbsp oil; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Have each kitchen set out a small ramekin on their table to serve with a 2 tsp. of olive oil and 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar for dipping.

I'm taking a cooking class this semester, and I love it!! It's so much fun! I definitely have a ton of delicious recipes to choose from now:) Here are some of my favorites:

Pineapple Muffins

3/4 C. sliced almonds. Divide in half.

1 ½ cans (30 oz. total) crushed pineapple. Drain and reserve juice for glaze.

3 C. flour 4 oz. cream cheese

1 ½ tsp. baking soda 1 ½ C. sugar

1 ½ tsp. salt 1 Tbsp vanilla

¾ C. sour cream 1 ½ egg

1. Measure and combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

2. Cream sugar, vanilla and cream cheese.

3. Add egg and beat.

4. Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream.

5. Fold in drained pineapple.

6. Prepare muffin tin by inserting paper liners. Spray paper liners with cooking spray. ***TIP –When using non-stick cooking spray on muffin tins, wipe the top surface clean before baking.***Distribute half of sliced almonds in the bottom of the cups.

7. Spoon muffin batter over the almonds.

8. Sprinkle the remaining almonds on top of the batter.

9. Bake at 350°

for 30 minutes or until golden.

Glaze

2 C. powdered sugar 3 Tbsp. pineapple juice

2 Tbsp. soft margarine

1. Beat until smooth. Drizzle over warm muffins.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Filling

1/2 C. brown sugar 1

/2 C. finely chopped nuts (walnuts)

2 Tbs. margarine 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cake

3 C. flour 3/4 C. margarine, softened

1 ½ tsp. baking powder 1 ½ tsp. vanilla

1 ½ tsp. baking soda 3 large eggs

3/4 tsp. salt 1 ½ C. sour cream

1 ½ C. sugar

Glaze

1 C. powdered sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 to 4 Tbsp. milk

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour one 12 cup tube pan.

2. Combine filling ingredients and mix until crumbly. Set aside.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

4. In a large bowl, cream margarine, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Continue to beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

5. Add flour and sour cream alternately, 1/3 at a time, beating on low speed until ingredients are combined.

6. Pour 1/3 of the batter (about 2 cups) into the well-greased tube pan. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the filling. Repeat to create 3 layers.

7. Bake for 1 hour (may take longer with some ovens), until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack, cool 20 minutes.

9. Combine glaze ingredients. Beat until smooth. Drizzle over coffee cake. Serve warm or cool.

I've never had a blog before, but I thought it might be fun . . . we'll see how long it lasts:) So here goes. . .

Well, my birthday was yesterday! I love having a St. Patrick's Day Birthday. And actually when I was born, my nurse was Irish and she even had an accent!! What are the odds, huh? Yesterday, I went and saw Princess and the Frog for the second time, and it was just as hilarious. I think my favorite character is the little redneck firefly. And I love that it takes place in the South because that's where my roots are:) It was an amazing day and I'm glad I got to spend it with people I love!