Christmas 2008

This year we had Christmas in Arizona with my side of the family. We figured this could be our last chance for a while due to our fuzzy future. Since we graduate this year, we have absolutely no idea where we will be the next five or so years. We have aspirations to move back east, but have also toyed with visiting Saipan for a few months or living in Salt Lake after we graduate. Lots of possibilities! Anyways, we had a great time in Arizona. Thanks again family for partying with us while we were there. These pictures are all from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

  

Our Niece Lexi acting goofy, Christmas Eve. 

So this is a funny story. We decided to go Christmas Caroling to some of my parent's neighbors. We had this pineapple we wanted to give away to someone, the question is, will anyone open up their door and accept the fruit? We went to four different doors, I think two weren't home, but the other two blatantly rejected us! I'm not just talking about neglecting the sound of Christmas Carolers on your doorstep, I'm talking about coming to the door and seeing us through the window and closing the blinds, turning off the lights, and leaving us hanging! Yes, this truly happened. We had a good laugh. We just wanted to give someone this blasted pineapple!

Kylie and Lexi were pretty scared of this illuminated bear. I think they are paranoid of bears because everyone reminds them that there are wild bears up at my parent's cabin. 

Mallory, Tiff holding Said, and Shannon, having a good laugh caroling.

Sam, a little unsure about the illuminated bear.

Sadie playing with toys at my parent's house. I used to play with those very toys!

Mal playing piano with Sadie. 

Christmas morning and matching pajamas. 

Christmas morning. 

Mal explaining something. 

Mike & nieces and nephews

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Confessions of a Cookie Fan

An article Mallory wrote for a magazine in her English 450 class, sans works cited.

What makes cookies comfort food?
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the term "comfort food" as "food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking." Other definitions bring up nostalgic and sentimental significance, along with a sense of familiarity. According to these definitions, cookies of all sorts - particularly those that are more traditional - are the epitome of comfort foods.

Let's take a classic comfort cookie: chocolate chip. One of my personal favorites. The cookie recipe I use, which I consider fairly typical, is choc-full of carbohydrates: flour, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and of course, chocolate chips. The only other ingredients are baking soda, salt, butter, and eggs! All these carbs add significantly to the virtual high we get from gorging ourselves on these delightful little sweets. Working alongside familiarity and nostalgia, carbohydrates give us a subconscious, very temporary emotional comfort from our woes.

In a study run by Judith Wurtman, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, women especially are comforted by the effects of carbohydrates. This is probably because of the fact that carbs boost levels of serotonin - a neurotransmitter found extensively in the human body. Serotonin has been shown to have a calming effect on the brain and to restore mental energy. So, we are in fact justified physically for our love affair with cookies. All those carbs just brighten our day! At least when that day is more of a mad dash...

So, I'm like, a college student. What's this have to do with me?
Definition of a mad dash: Wake up at 7:50; late, of course. There's no possible way for me to get from point A to point B in time for my 8 a.m. class ten minutes away and be dressed decently. Then, classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., promptly followed by work, then gym, then home with family/roommates. Did I eat lunch? When is lunch again? What is it? Nevermind that. I've got to move on. Dinner. It's already six. What is there that I can take to the couch and will be relatively time-efficient, tasty, and make me feel like I can push through the last few hours of this never-ending day? (Scrounge through the rather pathetic-looking cabinets); EUREKA! Oreos.

Yeah? So? What's wrong with that?
Look, I like cookies and their 72-hour-kit-worthy stash of carbs just as much as the next girl. But let's face it: they're not exactly what should pop into mind simultaneous with "dinner." What exactly goes into a balanced meal? According to FamilyEducation.com, a site dedicated to providing relevant resources to parents, teachers, and kids, a balanced day in terms of food for a 19-30 year-old female should include 1 cup of grains, 3 cups of beggies, 2 cups of fruit, 3 cups of milk product, 4/5 cup of meat, nuts, and beans, and only 7 teaspoons of oil. Let us reminisce about our beloved chocolate chip cookies again. According to allrecipes.com, the nutritional information for a typical chocolate chip cookies - one serving - is the following: 122 calories, 6.2 grams of fat, 19 miligrams of cholesterol, 70 miligrams of sodium, 16.4 grams of carbohydrates, and 1.3 grams of protein.

What about that information looks scary? Could it possibly be the whopping calorie count? Or maybe the ridiculous amount of sodium and carbohydrates (most of which are simple, by the way)? To me, it's the fact that this is all contained in one cookie. ONE COOKIE! In one cookie, I have already thrown one of my daily meals off balance. I have way too many oils, way too many simple carbs, and no where near the amount of protein or complex carbs I need.

Okay, point taken. So, what am I supposed to do?
There are a few options for lowering a comfort food dependency. Limit how much you eat of it for starters. That is definitely one of the harder ones for me, just because once I get the taste of cookie/dough in my mouth, I really have no interest in stopping. Ergo, I try to seek out something that has a little less effect in my death-by-way-of-blocked-arteries but still gives me the necessary feel-good serotonin high I'm craving.

According to Wurtman, fruits don't give me that boost. To that I must say I agree to an extent. Fruit do have carbohydrates; the problem is that they have complex carbs rather than simple. Complex carbs are healthier but take longer to go through your system, and therefore take longer to work. I need something and I need it NOW! So, combine a nutritional, quickly-filling fruit (pick your favorite - I use apples) with a small amount of fast-acting simple carbs, like sweetened condensed milk, or cool whip. Personally, I like to alternate dipping apple slices in peanut butter and a sweet element. Other combinations:

Straberries and chocolate
Bananas and chocolate
Topping a (as in one) scoop of ice cream with your favorite fruit.

If you've just got to stay with the cookie, choose one that is higher in nutritional value, such as oatmeal raisin. Just try to avoid cookies with names like "death by chocolate." They're only half-joking.

A Piece of Watkins History

My ancestor John Watkins, who immigrated from England to Midway, Utah in the 1850's, was recognized at a gingerbread-house display. He was an architect, and built this amazing house back in the 1800's. This house is still in great condition and is still inhabited today. The gingerbread house was so close to the real thing thing! Anyways...just something interesting to share. 

Dorm Fire

If that headline doesn't catch your eye, I don't know what will! I'm actually reporting on something that happened a couple of weeks ago. As I have mentioned before, I work at the BYU-Idaho Safety Office. We work on the preventative side of things, and decided to promote fire safety. It's kind of funny, because we had a grease fire this last Summer in one of the girls dorms on campus. Surprisingly, not too many people evacuated the area during the episode. There were actually videos on YouTube before the newspapers could print out the next days newspaper covering the event! So, with those ideas in mind, we decided to build a mock dorm room. The room was 8'x4'x8', with one side of dry wall missing for demonstration purposes. The small room was equipped with a desk, fabric chair, blankets, clothes on the floor, empty pizza boxes, computer, etc (sound familiar to anyone?). We promoted this thing with posters, booths, and word of mouth. One of the more effective methods was spray painting the outside walls of the dorm room "Watch me burn at 12:30", that really gets people curious. I mean, who doesn't want to see something get lit on fire?? We had it set up to start burning right when people got out of classes, and it was strategically located in a high-traffic area for maximum exposure. There were about 200 people in attendance, and many others just watching from a distance. Everyone really enjoyed the blazing flames! Considering how cold it was outside, the huge flames actually were quite warm and refreshing even though we were about 50+ feet away. We got the fire department to attend as well, just in-case. The smoke detector stopped working after two minutes, and the whole thing was fully engulfed within three minutes (despite missing an entire wall). Anyways, enough babbling. Here are the pictures.

We simulated a candle fire, candle falling into the trash can.

If you look at the top portion of the dorm room, you can see a sheet of plastic entrapping the smoke. That thing actually melted and splattered all over the asphalt in-front of the dorm room. In the next picture, you can see the asphalt on-fire.

Those flames were so intense!

The smoke eventually began to funnel...

Then the fire fighters put it out. I was actually disappointed, along with everyone else, about how soon they put it out. It would have been cool if they let it burn to the ground. It certainly would have been easier to clean up.

Rammifications of a four and a half minute fire

In this picture is what's left of the computer, and the smoke alarm.

A Couple Pictures

So, I had my final project in pastry last Monday. My project did not go AT ALL how I wanted - the chocolate garnishes kept crumbling - but luckily he scored me more on effort. Besides, he saw that my garnishes were good, the kitchen was just too hot to let them harden.

Here's a pate a choux swan with white chocolate mousse sitting on a glassy blue simple syrup. You can see my broken Boston on the back of the plate. I also had a chocolate tree garnish - again, they kept breaking.

This picture was sent to me by my Eng. 450 teacher, Bro. Keller. He took it Saturday evening and just wanted to share it with his students. I was pretty impressed.

Mike's Birthday!

I know I'm a week late. I know I didn't post any small little "Happy Birthday Michael!" on his birthday, which I didn't know I was supposed to do. Let's move on.

Mike is 24 now, which means one more year until rental cars are much cheaper! (Hey, after 21, which Mormons don't even get to really celebrate, what is there to look forward to?)

Mike asked about a week ahead for chicken curry on his birthday. He loves it! In fact, the night before we got together with some friends for dinner and he requested Hawaiian haystacks, which are pretty much the same thing. I reminded him that's what he wanted on his birthday also, and he said, "Yeah, I know." I looked at him and said, "That means that's what we're eating tomorrow." He stared back at me for a second and replied, "Look, I like it, okay?! I just really like it!" I was like, okay, whatever. As long as you know, that's okay with me. So, that's what our friends made. His other food request was french toast for breakfast. (Which I was so happy about! He usually requests omelets or crepes, so this was really easy!)

Mike only asked for one present: a chin-up bar. I found one for $99 and asked the manager if they had anything else. This one wasn't the cheapest, but it certainly wasn't $99, and I actually like it better. It doesn't screw into the door frame, it just hooks on, so when we move, we don't have any screw-holes we have to cover up.

He knew he was getting it, so I asked him if he just wanted to open it a day early. He replied, "No, I want something to open on my birthday." Look, I may not be the best wife - late on pictures and such - but I got him more than one gift. So, he opened it.

Now he can get a bit of a work out even if he doesn't have time to go to the gym.

This is the only gift I have picture of, but he also got a harmonica, which we will put a video up of as soon as he learns a song, he says. I also got him a cd by Ray LaMontagne. Levi introduced me to him in May and as I was listening I thought, "wow, this is exactly the kind of music Mike loves!"

Later Monday night, we had some friends over. We listened to music, chatted, and ate cheesecake with blueberry topping - his last food request.

So true.

"The Hotness Menace" - a very good point. You should check it out. The last paragraph is the best. I love it! "Hotness is stuck idling in the 'what.'" Enjoy!

A day on the job

Well, Mal and I are on break right now. We have an entire week off of school! For some that translates to sleeping in, lots of movies, and lots of football. For Mal and I, that means no school work and extra time to earn money at work. Mal said she can work between 20-30 hrs this week, I can work up to 40 at my job. Today I got rewarded for working during the week long break. We got the opportunity to drive up to Teton County to check some fire extinguishers at some of the lodges that the school/church owns. We own three properties with many lodges on each! It's pretty amazing actually. Here is a photo album of some of what I saw today.

Here is one of the barns owned by the school that we checked. There are a few cabins, or 'camps' as they say back east (new terminology I learned this last summer), right near here.

A 'vintage' covered wagon...they actually manufacture them at this warehouse for some reason.

Buddy decided to spend some time with us today. He is a nice looking Collie, owned by the care takers of one of the lodges we checked. Looks like he is just trying to stay warm on top of a hay stack.

Peering through the aspen trees.

A funny little "Java the Hut" cafe in Driggs.

A closer look at the Grand Teton, standing almost 14,000 ft. above sea level

Here is a great picture of the mighty Tetons.

A bit of good news

This isn't a huge deal, but I was able to find my camera again! I thought I had lost it about a month ago while printing some pictures at Walmart. I had no idea where it was, I thought maybe I had left it somewhere in the store and someone picked it up and decided to take it home with them. It's a nice camera, and takes great shots. AND I had just taken on the "Picture Spouse" role (the one who takes it upon themselves to take pictures at certain events)! So a month passed, and we were on our way to a BYU football game party (they handed the victory to Utah btw), and I glanced down by Malie's feet and saw it peeking from underneath her seat. I reached down and picked it up...I honestly felt like Charlie when he discovered he had found the last golden ticket! I was so happy I probably could have jumped out of the car and pranced around our parking lot singing "I've got a golden ticket!". Anyways, more pictures are coming your way. I'm sure Mallory is absolutely thrilled that I have my camera back...as you can see on her facial expression in the picture below. 

Martian Child? Seriously?

So Mike and I rented a movie last week called "Martian Child" with John Cusack, Joan Cusack, and Amanda Pete. I remember when it came out, and although I love John and Joan Cusack, and Amanda Pete's not bad, I was kind of like, "Martian Child? Are you kidding me?" But a friend of mine (studying sociology, go figure) assured me it was very good and that she would recommend it to everyone. I said I was sure she was right, but I never did actually go out and watch it.

Last weekend, too tired to plan anything with friends, Mike and I hit up the video store. I saw it and told him what Aileen (the friend) said about it. He was like, "Seriously?" I said I'd only watch it if he was interested, and that I could honestly take it or leave it, but I had heard it was really good. After another couple of minutes, we finally concluded there was nothing else really worth renting anyway, so we got it.

She was so right. It is so good! The whole time it has you thinking that the story could really go two ways, right up until the end, and when it decides it's just like, "Ooooh! I see! I like that!" I really liked it, the whole way through. It's been out for a while, so I know some of you have probably seen it, but it didn't have a huge opening - it was only in theaters here for a week or so. So yeah, I just figured I'd suggest it to you all in case you haven't seen it.

It's rated PG for "thematic elements and mild language." (No language sticks out to me specifically, unless you count "stupid." They do say "stupid" a couple of times. Other than that, I really can't think of anything.)

The computer's working! Yay!

OKay, so I got my computer back a few days ago, and now I have time to actually tell everyone... not that it's a crucial piece of knowledge, but hey, we all scrounge around for something half-way interesting to blog about from time to time.

Luckily we have most of our wedding pictures on backup and Mum is going to see if she has any from the Maine reception saved on her computer. I also have all my important essays, short stories, and poems I've kept and re-written since high school on my jumpdrive or in hard copy, so we've got those. However, all my recipes - gone. All the pictures of old friends, roommates, parties, and Mike and me dating - gone. Every system converter I've downloaded so I can read .docx files, etc, - gone. The list of Latin words in their different declensions I'm supposed to have been keeping throughout the semester - gone. All the music I've been given by Mike, Jym, Josh, Angela, Celeste, and Levi, along with all the music I have purchased myself - gone. Worst of all, the video Alexa put together for our wedding - GONE!

Anyway, you get the picture.

Slowly, partly-surely, I will rebuild what I've lost. If anyone has the wedding video - AHEM, ALEXA! - I'd sure like to have a copy. Frankly I feel a little entitled to it, considering it's is my wedding video.

Winter has arrived

Winter is finally here! Our weather has been holding off for so long, these past two weeks we have been enjoying 65 degree days with cold nights and lots of sun. It has been raining lately, and last night...the rain turned to snow. It was beautiful.

The Latest and Greatest

Here are some of the latest pictures. Since my computer broke last summer, and Mal's just broke on Sunday, we have been having a lot of issues getting assignments and blogging done. Anyways, here we go.

On Saturday we went to Jackson Hole. It was really fun. We didn't really plan it out, otherwise we probably would have seen more. We just kind of woke up and decided to go. Jackson is famous for the wood-plank sidewalks and overly expensive shops.

Here is Teton Pass, 8,441 ft. above sea level.

We decided to get out at the pass to walk around. It had just rained, and there was a little bit of snow around. It smelt so good.

Here is a quilt Mal made for one of her projects for her Robert Frost class. Each square has an element from a Robert Frost poem, which includes quotes, pictures, symbolism, etc.

A few days before Halloween, we went to the Haunted Mill. It was really fun! All of the "monsters" in there really just targeted the women. I won't lie though, I even jumped a few times. We invited a lot more people, but we had so many couples turned us down because the wife had some traumatic experience last time she went (wet her pants, ran back to the car crying...I couldnt' believe it!!).

Obama and the Partial-Birth Abortion

Okay, so I took the advice of one of Calandria's readers and researched Obama's vote on the Partial-Birth Abortion issue.

**The description is taken from a reliable source, but it is also graphic. If you get queasy easily, you may want to stop reading here.

According to HealthAtoZ.com, the procedure for partial-birth abortion, also called intact dilation and extraction, is as follows:
- The body is given a series of medications to force the cervix to dilate, usually over a matter of days.
- The fetus is rotated to a footling breech position.
- The fetus is drawn out of the body until only the head remains inside the birth canal.
- Using an instrument, the physician punctures the base of the fetus' skull, causing the head to collapse.
- Often, the contents of the fetus' head are suctioned out, causing the head to reduce enough for the dead fetus to be pulled out of the birth canal completely.

The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was a movement to, as it says, ban this practice. It was passed in Congress in 2003. The law says that "Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both" (Wikipedia.com).

Senator Obama, while still in the Illinois Legistlature voted "Present" on this Act in 1997. In the IL Legislature, a vote of "present" is equivalent to a vote of "no" because there is a required majority of "yes" votes to pass a bill. Congressmen use a vote of "present" usually to avoid a vote of "no" on an unpopular bill. This means he was against banning partial-birth abortion. In my opinion, although it is not worded the same as voting for the practice of partial-birth abortion, he is in every essence seeking the same result.

To read the blog entry and comments that inspired this entry, go here. To read more of the article in HealthAtoZ.com about partial-birth abortions go here. To read the Wikipedia entry on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 go here. To read the Act itself, go here. To read more on Barack Obama's opinions on abortion, go here. To view Senator Obama's voting record in his current office, go here. These links are the exact sources I used in writing this entry.

Although I included my own opinion, it certainly doesn't mean I am not open to the views of others. So, any thoughts?

The Weekend

Our ward's Halloween party was on Friday night. They were having jack-o-lantern, costume, and doughnut-on-a-string contests. (Mike and I both would have gone out for the doughnut contest except that by the time it started we were all sugared out!)

Families with last names starting with A-L brought healthy snacks, while the rest brought sweet treats. I made a family classic: hoot owl cookies. For the recipe, go here.

Mike starting on the jack-o-lantern (above) and the finished product (below). I think he did a great job! The mouth is kind of narrow, so the light doesn't shine through it very well, but that's how the character's mouth is. Any guesses?

This wasn't the winning pumpkin which was very cool. (Only now do I realize I should have taken a shot of it.) But we really liked this one. It's just so funny!

We went as mimes. Hahahaha! It think the lips are just the funniest things! All the little kids that saw us would just stare wide-eyed at us for a bit. They usually didn't even run away, I think they were just too freaked out. We certainly weren't the scariest things there, but we were probably the creepiest.

The next morning the Elder's Quorum put together a service project (that included wives, hence, I was there). Some of us raked up the leaves at a church building in town while the rest headed down the street doing the same for the residents. I don't think there are any trespassing lawsuits pending, but if one arises, I'll let you know.

Right now we're heading up to a stake meeting to see if we stay in our current ward or if our complex is part of the split. It'd be nice to go to a building a little closer to us (we drive across town right now, about 10 minutes away, and it's the farthest Mike has EVER lived from church before!) but we don't want to give up our nice 9 a.m. time. 10 or 10:30 wouldn't be too bad, but church at 11 or later is just no fun.

During the Test

In my Exceptional Students 6-12 class on Tuesday, we were studying ADHD and Learning Disorders. At one point during his PowerPoint, Bro. K. popped this picture up:
After letting the shock of what middle pictures sink in, he asked, "Would you ever want to put your kid through that?" We all asked what the "test" was that the kids were put through. He said they were first-graders on a 20 oz Coke. Some of us were a little surprised, others were shocked. I knew sodas, especially caffeinated ones, weren't good for anyone, especially smaller frames, but I had no idea they would have this drastic of an effect on a child's brain.

You think you know....but you have no idea

Since Mal already stated the rules of the tagging (previous post), I will just put down my seven random facts about myself.

1. I am a very prompt person. I love to be on time. It absolutely drives me crazy to be late to something.
2. I love to smell things. Ever since I was a little guy, I used to smell everything! I still remember waking up in the morning and smelling my Mom's bathrobe when she would be working in the kitchen.
3. I have to keep my hair short. Going bald might play some factor in this (okay, let's be honest. A big factor), but I love having short hair! I always have had short hair, even when I had thick, wavy hair.
4. Grey is my favorite color. I know, some of you are already saying "Grey isn't a color, it's a shade!" Believe me, I have heard it before.
5. I'm passionate about the San Francisco 49ers football team. Malie can testify to this. I check their online newsroom multiple times a day. I grew up in the Bay Area of California, and on healthy doses of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young. The past six years have definately not been glorious by any means, but I still love and want them to succeed. I'm part of the 49er faithful. I think a lot of fans died off after Steve retired.
6. I'm a health freak. So much that I'm graduating in Health Science (Environmental Health and Safety). I love to work out, eat right, feel healthy, read about being healthy, how to prevent bad health, etc. It really grabs my attention.
7. I really dislike the word moist. I don't want to hear about anything being moist. Enough said.

I really don't know how to tag people...even if I did I think Mal tagged most of the people I know that have a blog...so let's just go with that!

And You Thought You Knew Me... Pah!

Mum tagged both me and Mike... we'll get him later though. So, here are the rules, in case you can't read them off to the side there:
1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random (and my I add "and/or weird") people at the end of the post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I can say "hello!" in 8 different languages, and "goodnight" in 6.
2. I'm picky about the feet I let near me - not to mention TOUCH me! They need to be clean, at least mostly free of callouses, have short nails, be scentless, and, with the exception of Mike's, cannot have any funky shapes to them. (His aren't so bad; he's just got really short pinky toes, which is a little weird.)
3. If I were going to be reincarnated I would choose to be a cat, and yet, I cannot say they are necessarily my favorite animal.
4. I want to live near the ocean; preferably the Atlantic, but I'd take certain parts of the Pacific too.
5. I don't care much for the classic movie version of Pirates of Penzance. The acting is good, the music is also, but I dislike the way they did the stage set.
6. I am something of an online quiz junkie. I don't go looking for them usually, but only because I know that if I do, I'll spend hours on that and not get anything done. I do indulge myself when someone forwards one to me or when I see a really good one on the sidebar of Facebook.
7. I once told Sister Dauk that Mum was pregnant and got scolded for it.

There, if those aren't random enough, I'm not sure what else I could do.

I tag: Shannon & BJ, McKenzie, Calandria, Ave, Taylor, and Lilliput.

Weekend in Utah

This weekend, Malie and I had a chance to head down to Utah to meet up with her brother Sam, and father Casey. Sam was endowed in the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday, it was cool to be a part of it. We even got a little bit of snow while we were there!

Here is the Tabernacle. I havn't seen it since it's renovation. They managed to maintain that vintage feel to it.

Leaving the temple entrance. Weird how the temple entrance is so far away from the actual temple.

Some pictures of Sam walking next to Justin, Casey trailing behind.

Justin and Sam in Temple square.

Sister Benson, the Wildens, and Mallory on Temple square with the Conference Center in the background.

Same picture as above, only Sam and Justin are included.

Going out to dinner later that night with the Pratts. Macaroni Grill (despite the name), is quite the Italian restuarant. The bread is amazing.

We woke up to a little bit of snow! Sam hadn't seen snow in eight years or so. I thought it would be appropriate to take it because it would be at least another two years until he saw snow again. He is only in the MTC for three weeks and then heads to Hawaii.

Doesn't it look like cotton or something?

Sunday afternoon, leaving Grandma Clark's house to head North. We had to head back to Rexburg....this means goodbye!

Casey took this one.

Awww.....saying goodbye to her little brother.....

And begins to surpruse attack him one last time....

The final wave adios!