A Little While Later...

So it's been a really long time. I spent the summer in WV with my grandma and it was awesome. I'm glad to be back in Idaho though and starting in on my fifth semester. It seems so crazy to me since I only started school last summer! This semester is shaping up to be the best yet! Kristen and I have plans for a little weekly something so keep a look out for that. My new roommates are awesome! And it looks like there will be weekly Latin dancing. My classes should be fairly awesome and I'm hoping to keep busy.

Tomorrows plans are few. They include sleeping in, unpacking, and watching Fried Green Tomatoes with some friends. Awesome, I know.

Mother's Weekend

This past weekend my birth mom came to see me for Mother's Weekend. I am so glad she came and we got to spend some time together. She arrived in Salt Lake City Thursday night at midnight and the drove up to Rexburg so we had a car while she was here. Friday after my early morning class mom and I went shopping in Rexburg. It was a fun and I got some new clothes too!

Then I took her on a tour of the campus before we went to class. It was New Testament and mom seemed to enjoy it a lot. I think she was a bit nervous at first because she thought it was going to be really mormon-y, but then she found out that it's not all that different from what she learned growing up Lutheran. She even knew more than the students because of her religious background.


After class we went to Idaho Falls. We took a ton of pictures at the falls and the park before going to the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center. While we were there we did the kiosk on temples, saw the Books of Mormon in different languages, listened to the Christus, watched some of the testimonies of new members, and watched the Joseph Smith movie. She really enjoyed the movie and learned a lot.

On Saturday we got up bright and early (4am) to go to Yellowstone. We got there so early it was free! We had a blast driving through Yellowstone and the Grand Teton park. Though we were a little disappointed with Old Faithful it was still beautiful.


When we got home we rushed to get ready for dinner with Shane and his mom at Applebees. It was a lot of fun and Shane and I were both glad to be able to meet each other's mom's. (I don't really like the picture but I'll put it up anyway)


Sunday we went to church and had dinner with my roommates. Then she left at 1am to drive back down to Salt lake to catch her plane. It was a really good weekend. I'm glad she decided to come.

Pawpaw

My Pawpaw (grandfather) has been sick since February. His mouth cancer came back and he decided he didn't want to do treatment anymore. At the beginning of April they started him on Hospice. I was able to fly home over the week break between semesters and see him one last time. I am really glad I got to see him, but I will never get used to watching someone die. I've done it more times than I care to remember and it does not get easier. I cannot imagine anything as painful as holding his hand and saying goodbye and knowing that's it.

As a Latter-Day Saint I believe in eternal life and in eternal families. I know what happens to me when I die, what happens to Miriam, Shane, my bishop. But what I didn't really understand was what happened to my pawpaw, my family. I knew part of the gospel was being able to be together forever, but so many people had told me that those who do not recieve the gospel in this life cannot reach the celestial kingdom. This past Sunday I finally asked my Bishop about it. He told me this, "Why would we do temple work if it's not possible for them to be exahalted? You need baptism to enter into the kingdom of God. That's all. To get the celestial kingdom you need to be sealed for eternity. If it wasn't possible for them to reach the celestial kingdom why would we do sealings for the dead? Why not just stop at baptism and confirmation? I have full faith that your grandfather can be exahalted and become a god."

It's amazing to me that seeing how much faith Bishop had could put my fears to rest and give me the faith I needed. It's amazing how someone elses testimony can affect your own. I think that's one of the reasons in everything we do we should emulate Christ because you never know who needs help in their testimony, who feels almost out of faith. We're not supposed to make it alone. We're supposed to hel each other. A testimony isn't meant to be kept hidden, it's meant to be shared.

"Oh, if I could teach you this one principle: a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it!" - Elder Boyd K. Packer

So today my mom texted me to tell me that they had taken pawpaw to the emergency room and it had something to do with his heart. He asked to go home and he's back home now. They've stopped giving him medicine, food, and water, but they upped his pain medication and he can up it as needed. That means it's only a matter of days now. So I texted my mom back and told her to tell him I love him and that he's the best man I know. She did, and I'm really glad he knows now. I really wanted to tell him when I saw him, but I just couldn't. It was too hard.

Since I thought I'd never be able to tell him in person I tried writing him a letter and a poem. I kind of feel like the poem is incomplete, but Miriam said she thought it was just fine and she liked it a lot. So here it is.

You taught me how to fish,
But all the while it was patience.
You taught me how to sit in silence,
But all the while it was thinking for myself.
You taught me how to pick and peel apples,
But all the while it was being self-sufficient.
You built me a cardboard playhouse;
You taught me to laugh.
You built me a green swing that hung from a tree;
You taught me to be free.

Weekend Procrastination

So I had my whole Saturday planned out and it involved lots of quality time at the library doing homework. Too bad that didn't happen.

I woke up took a shower and was getting ready to go to the gym (yes I showered before going to the gym) when Shane texted me. We ended up going to the gym together. Or, well, I went to the gym and he went swimming. I saw Kristen there and we talked the whole time and it was really nice. Then Shane and i came back to the apartment and we were going to have breakfast. I figured we'd call it a day after that and I would go the library and do my homework. But no, Shane had a brilliant plan.

So we rented the first 8 episodes of Prison Break, got pizza, went back to Shane's place, and watched five episodes on the projector.

Absolutely no homework was completed on Saturday. I figured I would just have to do a little bit on Sunday. Not all of it, but like my religion homework and maybe some reading. I got up, went to church, had a meeting with the bishop, went to our FHE brothers' place for lunch, went to Elder Bednar's talk, and came home. Then Shane came over and we made dinner and watched Beauty and the Beast. Then it was time to go to bed.

I got absolutely nothing done this weekend! Now I'm going to feel behind all week and I hate that. I know I have time to do the homework that needs to be done, but I like feeling ahead and not so overwhelemed. It'll be okay though. Maybe instead of reserving Saturday's for homework I should do it Friday during the day since I have so much time in between my two classes and before anything usually going on at night.

Hot Springs

Yesterday I only had one class, American Government, and New Testament was cancelled. I'm trying to go to the temple once a week because our bishop challenged us to and I thought going after my early morning class would be perfect and it was. I think it's the slowest I have ever seen the Rexburg temple. I got there around 9 and then I waited for Shane and we went in around 9:30. We only had to wait a few minutes before we could get dressed. Then it wasn't very long before they called Shane back to help with confirmations. They let him confirm me and then baptize me so I wasn't as scared as I normally am when I get in the water, but I was still pretty scared.

When we were walking back to the car Shane saw an old mission companion and he was getting married so we went over to say hi. Shane had been planning on going to his reception that night, but while we were at the wedding he got asked to go to the luncheon too so he was trying to decide what to get them as a wedding gift. I had one that I hadn't been able to afford shipping and so I said he could have it. We went back to the apartment and I gave it to him and then he left to get ready for the luncheon.


I took a nice long nap and then my roommates, Bekah and Katy, invited me to go to the hot springs with them and a few other people. We had a blast. I am so glad I decided to go. Plus it was a really good workout. When we got home we put in a movie, but I ended up going to bed before it was over. And that was my Friday night.

Schooling

So I have been to all but two classes by now. One because it's only on Thursdays and one because I just added it.

This semester I am taking:

Eng 218 - Creative Writing
Eng 370R - Women Writers on Writing
Rel 211 - New Testament
HFED 140 - Intro to Architecture and Interior Design
POLSC 110 - American Government

I dropped my French class today because I am just not ready for 201 so I am planning on auditing 102 so that I can keep practising and reviewing and then take 201 in the fall when I feel more comfortable in the class. So because I dropped it I had to scramble to find a 3 credit class because I have to have 15 credits for fast grad. Thus, I added American government. Shane said I'm going to have a lot of fun in that class, but I am going to have to study a lot because the tests are hard.

I love my New Testament class! I have Bro. Hammond again and I feel like I've come full circle because he was my first religion teacher when I got here last summer semester. He is such an amazing teacher.

My interior design class is going to be interesting and I am looking forward to it a lot. I know I'm going to learn so much.

I'm excited about my Creative Writing class as well. Today in class we all had to write a line of poetry on a piece of paper and we handed them to Bro. Stewart and he picked 16 and the class constructed a poem from them. I like it a lot. Plus the activity was a lot of fun. Here's the poem. I bolded my line.

Stone-cold Love

There’s a million ways for me to say this

Sands of time are wasteland only in my mind
In a world of allusion, I long to be
In the wily minds of men
The places where we hide

The blonde-headed duck dressed elegantly in plaid
Tickling curls under his lips
“Curses!” she cries as he drives out of sight

Jumping off the bottom stair, I fell among the clouds
Eyes, unpenetrated by darkness, light the way in a vast expanse
The snow gently powdered the flowers
Pastel shades of pink and yellow color the sky
Yesterday will come tomorrow after sunlight fades
Of this I am certain: I will not be mistaking love for anything else

My pet rock died today

Twinsies

So I got to talk to Miri today for almost an hour. I really miss her being here all the time. It's going to be quite an adjustment getting used to it I think. I'm definitely not as sad about it as I thought I would be. Before the end of winter semester every time I thought about Miri leaving I wanted to cry and when we said goodbye I almost got weepy, but I contained myself because I was on a bus. Now that I'm back at school though I just miss her, but I know that we're both doing what we need to be doing. I am so excited for her to go on a mission and I know she's going to be the best missionary ever!




My new roommates are really nice. I think I most click with Cassie (her home life was a lot like mine) and Orchid (she's a convert too!) My room roommate is named Hannah and it's her second semester and she's turning 19 soon. That makes me feel really old.

I've only been to one class so far, most of mine are on Tuesdays and Thursdays so once I've been to all of them I'll post about them.

Dallas

So currently I am sitting at gate C37 in the Dallas airport. It's dark and dreary outside, but I like the rain so it's not all the bothersome.

I was supposed to catch a flight from Dallas to Denver and then on to Salt Lake. However, the plane was delayed an hour, which meant I would miss my connection in Denver. Apparently though, all flights in Denver are being cancelled because of snow. So I talked to the ticket counter lady and she said there was a non-stop flight from Dallas to Salt Lake leaving at 12:35 and arriving at 2:25 so she put me on it. That means I'm still able to make the shuttle to Rexburg, which leaves at 3.

Allow me a moment to complain about flaky people. I had a ride back from Salt Lake and even a place to stay Friday night because they wanted to leave Saturday. All of these plans fell through however when they changed their mind leaving me to find not only a way home for myself, but for another firend who had been guaranteed a ride as well. It proceeded to get worse from there trying to find a ride home. I suppose it's okay now because I have a ticket for the worst ride in the world, the shuttle, and I was able to find my friend a ride, but still people suck.

My mom (Martha) has all the pictures from this week so I don't have any to post, but we did go out to The Cheesecake Factory last night and had a blast. I even bought my mom a drink. It was a lot of fun. We just ordered cheesecake and drinks. I got some sort of virgin mango thingy and mom got the georgia peach. As for cheesecake mom got the new blueberry one and I got the lemon raspberry creme. They were both amazing.

Anyway I need to go because we should be board soon.

Sunday Dinner

So in our apartment one of us always cooks Sunday dinner for everyone. Usually we make it a big thing and invite some of our FHE brothers and Shane. This past Sunday was no different except that it was my turn to cook the meal. It was my first time being in charge of the whole thing because last time Kristen did most of the work and I just made the key lime pie. I really wanted to do French dishes so I looked up recipes online. Since I live in Rexburg that automatically got rid of 3/4 of the recipes because of exotic ingredients. I ended up making french onion soup.

This isn't the soup I made, but it looked almost exactly like this. I know! I'm surprised too!

Miriam made french bread so everything was made fresh and from scratch. I think that always makes everything better.

For dessert we had flan. Or at least that's what the website said it was the full title of the dish is Traditional Medieval French Custard Tarte, or in French, Tarte Médiévale.

Mine looked like this too! I was really freaking out though when I pulled it out of the oven because I thought I had burnt and ruined it. Apparently I hadn't and it's supposed to look like that.

It was a really good Sunday and I even got to take a nap on the floor while the others watched The Emperor's New Groove. Then we had a deep, meaningful discussion on marriage because somehow we always end up talking about that. Hmm, I wonder why.

Anyway, here are the recipes for Sunday's luncheon/dinner thing.

French Onion Soup
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 large onions (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced*
- 2-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine**
- 8 cups chicken or beef broth
- 2 tbsp brandy (optional)
- 6-8 thick slices French bread, toasted
- 1 garlic clove
- 12 ounces of Swiss cheese, grated

*I bought four we used like one and a half. The onions I got were HUGE thought.
**I found this great website that lists non-alcoholic substituions whenever a recipe calls for alcohol. In this case 1/2 c of white wine equals a 1/2 c of chicken broth and 1 tbsp lemon juice.

In a large heavy saucepan or flameproof casserole, heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 10-12 minutes until they are softened and beginning to brown. Add the garlic, sugar and thyme and continue cooking over medium hear for 30-35 minutes until the onions are well browned, stirring frequently.
Sprinkle over the flour and stir until well blended. Stir in the white wine and broth and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 45 minutes. Stir in the brandy, if using.
Preheat the broiler. Rub each slice of toasted French bread with the garlic clove. Place six or eight ovenproof bowls on a baking sheet and fill about three-quarters full with the onion soup.
Float a piece of toast in each bowl. Top with grated cheese dividing it evenly, and broil about 6 inches from the heat for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese begins to melt and bubble.

Tarte Médiévale
- 4 cups Milk
- 4 Eggs
- 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup Cornstarch (optional)
- Pinch of Nutmeg
- 1 - 2 tsp. Cinnamon
- Butter and flour for Pie dish
- 1 Pie or Tarte Crust

Preheat oven to 450°F
1. Combine milk and sugar in a pot and gently bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Mix cornstarch with 3/4 cup of water and then stir into warm milk. Put milk back on a low heat, and stirring constantly bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
3. Beat the eggs well, and then gently stir into the milk until homogenous.
4. Butter and flour pie dish. Roll out pie crust and place in dish. Pour in milk mixture and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool off before serving.

Crust Recipe
- 1 1/3 cup Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 4 oz. Butter (chilled!)
- 1 tbsp. Granulated Sugar
- Pinch of Salt

1. Mix salt, sugar, and flour.
2. Cut chilled butter into small pieces and mix into flour with finger tips. Stop working batter once it looks like "sand".
3. Make a well and pour in eggs. Incorporate into flour using your fingers and a spatula.
4. Once homogenous, form a ball, place on a floured surface and knead for 10 seconds. Reshape into a ball, roll out with a rolling pin, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling out.*

* So since this direction is almost cryptic we chilled it in the shape of a ball and then rolled it out.

The Air She Breathes

This is going to be a long one. Just a warning.

So Brother Harrell, he's a creative writing teacher here at BYU-I, suggested some things to do to help get ideas for stories when writing on a deadline or when things seem to have just come to a hault. One of these suggestions was to write a story to a set of pictures. Well I took a whole bunch of pictures in San Diego with a story in mind. I got all the pictures I could ever want and still I could not write it. Everytime I sat down to do it another story inspired by one of the pictures popped into my head. So I wrote it.

This is one of the millions of pictures taken at Carlsbad Beach. I know it's blurry, but that's Shane.


The only reason she knows she's still alive is because of the steady rise and fall of her chest beneath her hand. It's too quiet, too still, too calm. She thinks about where she might be; how far a scream might carry, if there's even anyone to hear it. She closes her eyes and it looks the same as if they were open. She tries to remember what happened.

“Dang it!” She hits the steering wheel with the palm of her hand, too angry to even wince at the stinging red welt it leaves behind. Smoke billows out from underneath the hood of the car and she feels like she is driving through fog. Kayla decides it's probably time to pull the car over. Once in the emergency pull off lane she turns the car off and takes a moment to lay her forehead on the steering wheel. “This is not happening.” Letting go of a deep sigh she opens the car door and steps out. She doesn't bother looking for any cars that might be barreling down the highway, she already knows there aren't any. Struggling to open the hood of the car, she's finally able to prop it up. If it was possible even more smoke puffed up once released from the constraints of the hood. She takes a step back, waving her hand in front of her face and coughing. Reaching into her pocket she pulls out her cell phone hoping there is the tiniest bit of service in this waste land. She dials a number from memory and waits for her brother to answer.

“Hello, Kayla.” He says and his slow, southern drawl makes it sound like yellow. It makes her long for her home in Alabama instead of being stuck somewhere between Arizona and California.

“Hey, so there's smoke.”

“Smoke.” He repeats and she can almost see his bright smile and one raised, dark brown eyebrow.

“As in my car is smoking and no longer running.” she expounds.

“Where are you?” Kayla looks around at the vast expanse of desert and sighs.

“Earth.” Her brother lets out a bark of laughter.

“Okay, well you're going to have to wait for the engine to cool down before you can do anything. So just chill out in your car for a little bit. No opening the hood, no pouring water anywhere yet. Just sit tight.”

“No opening the hood?” Kayla questions, biting her lip.

“You already did.”

“Well there was smoke and any logical person would figure it shouldn't be all trapped inside where it's obviously freaking hot so I opened the hood Adam.”

“Okay, calm down. You opened the hood. Did you burn yourself?'

“No.”

“Good. Now get back in the car and don't touch anything.” There's a brief pause. “I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I love you too.” Kayla goes back to the driver's side of the car and slides back in. She closes the door and proceeds to roll down all of the windows. “It's so hot Adam. How long am I going to have to wait?” She leans back into the seat and closes her eyes. She can already feel the sweltering heat suffocating her. She wonders how anyone can breathe in this heat. It's not even humid, it's just hot.

“Well if you had kept an eye on the temperature gauge like I told you to then I'm sure you wouldn't be in this mess.”

“I was keeping an eye on it. I watched it go all the way up to the red zone.” Kayla tells him truthfully.

“What are you, four? Red means bad. Red means turn off the air conditioning and roll down the windows. Red means pull over. Red means call your brother and ask what to do.” Adam scolds.

“Hey, don't you give me a lecture. It's not my fault I'm the one having to drive all the way to California. You're the one that's supposed to be doing this. I was just doing my kid brother a favor so don't go all 'holier than thou' on me Adam. I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere all by myself and the last thing I need is for my little brother to lecture me.”

“Kayla,” Adam says and sighs, “Kayla calm down. I'm sorry. Here I'm going to give you something to do to try and help with cooling down the engine. Just go get one of the gallon jugs out of the trunk and go to the hood of the car.” Without saying a word to Adam, Kayla does what he asked her to do. When she's standing at the hood of the car, gallon jug of water in hand, she tells him.

“Okay now what?” she asks trying to keep as much sarcasm from her voice as possible.

“You're going to check the coolant reservoir tank. It looks like a plastic milk jug with a hose going to the radiator.” Kayla looks under the hood for something resembling what Adam is talking about. When she finds it she smiles. Not as hard as she thought it was going to be.

“Found it.” she says happily.

“Good. Now carefully unscrew the cap and then pour in the water until it's full. Be careful.” Kayla unscrews the cap and sets it down on the edge of the car. Balancing the jug of water between her leg and the car she unscrews the cap and places it next to the coolant reservoir tank cap. A little hesitantly at first she begins to pour the water into the tank. The first splash of water in the tank lets her know that it was empty.

“Adam,” she says, “it's not good if it was empty, huh?”

“No, not really.” he says laughing. “It'll be okay. We'll just take care of this and you'll be back on the road in no time.” He assures her.

“Okay good.” She fills the tank and then sets the jug down on the dirt and gravel that makes up the emergency pull off lane. “Alright I did that, now what?”

“Go and try turning on the car. Maybe that will have fixed it.” Adam says, but he doesn't sound all that convinced. Kayla gets back into the car and turns the key in the ignition.

“Nothing.” she tells him.

“Then you're just going to have to wait for the engine to cool down some more. Wait about thirty minutes and then see if the engine is still hot. Don't touch it or anything. Just grab a rag and get it wet. Use that to see if the engine is hot. Call me when you've done that. Okay?”

“You're hanging up?” Kayla asks and she's pretty proud of herself for keeping the panic she's feeling out of her voice.

“I'm at work. I can't stay on the phone with you for an hour. You'll be fine. Like you said no one else is out there so it's not like anything is going to happen.”

“Funny Adam.”

“Yeah, I try to be. Anyway I've gotta go.”

“Alright. Love you.” Kayla tells him a little begrudgingly.

“Love you too.” Adam says before hanging up. Kayla sighs and puts the cell phone in the cup holder next to her. Laying her head back against the head rest she closes her eyes. She thinks she'll take a little bit of a nap and the engine will have cooled off by the time she wakes up.

She doesn't know how long she's been asleep. At first she figured the sound of a motor was part of a dream, but when she opens her eyes, squinting against the brightness of the desert sun, she sees a motorcycle. When the motorcycle flies on past she grumbles under her breath about missing southern hospitality. She figures now would be as good a time as any to see if the engine has cooled off. She's getting out of the car when she hears the motorcycle again. They turned around, she thinks happily. Kayla walks back to the trunk to grab a rag and the other jug of water. She stops and waits as the man climbs off his bike and takes off his helmet.

“Car trouble?” he asks, smiling.

“My engine just overheated. Nothing too serious.” She answers and returns the smile.

“Well here let me help you.” He offers putting his helmet down on the seat of his bike. He walks over and takes the water jug and rag from her before heading toward the front of the car. Kayla follows. “What are you doing all the way out here?” he asks, having taken note of her Alabama plates.

“I'm doing a favor for my little brother. He used to live in San Diego.” She thinks about giving him a call to let him know someone stopped to help her. She reaches into her pocket only to remember she left the phone in the car. She decides not to worry about it. She'll call him when she's back on the road.

“How long have you had the engine off?” he asks.

“Um,” she says thinking about it, “probably a little over a half an hour now. I filled the reservoir tank, but the car still wouldn't start so I've just been waiting for the engine to cool down.” He looks impressed with her knowledge and she smiles. He goes to work fiddling with things and then pouring water in. She stands just off to the side watching. “I'm Kayla by the way.” she informs him.

“Thomas.” he replies looking at her over his shoulder.

“Do you live around here?” she asks looking around as if expecting to suddenly see some form of life. “Wherever here is.” she adds. He laughs and nods his head.

“You're just about twenty miles from Peach Springs. It's true though. Not too many people live around here.”

“Well thank you for coming back to help me. I really appreciate it.”

“It's no problem.” he says finishing up. “There, I think you should be fine now. Your brother's awfully lucky to have you around.”

“I guess. He's not half bad himself.” she picks up the two discarded jugs while he's screwing all the caps back on everything.

“You look hot,” he tells her and her eyes widen for a brief moment before he finishes his sentence, “I've got some water if you want some.”

“Oh, yeah sure. That'd be great.” She rolls her eyes at herself and bites back a laugh when she thinks about recounting all of this to her brother when she's back on the road. She follows him back around the car and tosses the jugs in the near empty trunk before shutting it. He already has a water bottle in hand, cap off, when she turns around. She accepts the drink and takes a sip. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” she leans against the trunk of the car and the hot metal almost burns right through the seat of her jeans, but she doesn't move. There's a bit of an awkward silence and Kayla takes a few more sips of water.

“Where are you headed?” she finally asks to break the silence.

“Just out for a drive.” Kayla nods and it feels strange, her head is heavy. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She figures it's just the heat getting to her or she's just more tired than she originally thought. She has been driving for quite some time.

“Are you feeling alright?” she hears him ask. His voice sounds far away. She opens her eyes and it's a more difficult task than it should be. Kayla knows something is wrong.

“I'm fine.” The sentence makes sense in her head, but she doesn't think it quite made it past her lips. She drops the water bottle and leans against the car for more support. “Thanks for your help. I think I'll just lay down in my car.” Her words are slurring together and it takes all her concentration to walk toward the driver's side door.

“Would you like some help?” She's scared now and wishing she had never left her phone in the car. She can't form words so she tries shaking her head. It makes the dizziness worse. She reaches for the handle of the car door and loses her balance in the process of opening it. From the ground she can see her phone laying in the car. She struggles to scoot back toward the door in order to use it for support. Hearing the crunch of dirt and gravel she turns to see him walking toward her, his white shirt being blown in the hot desert breeze. Her vision blurs and she loses the battle of keeping her heavy eyes open.

Kayla opens her eyes and gasps, the memory flooding back in bits and pieces. She moves her hand from off her stomach and places it beside her where she feels some sort of wood wall. She puts it a few inches above her face and feels the same wood wall. Heart racing, she tries not to panic. Hearing movement outside of the box she's in she closes her eyes and tries to still her breathing. She feels the entire box move to one side and then light and fresh air pour in. She tries not to take big gulping breaths and she keeps her eyes shut. She feels hands on her side and she's being shoved further into the box. There's a thud beside her and she feels the warmth of another body.

Rock Climbing and IHOP

So last night Sojin, Kristen, Miriam, and I went rock climbing. We usually go on Thursday nights because it's only $5, but last Thursday it was so busy that told us we could come back on another day and still only pay $5. Since I'm sick with some sort of cold or whatever I let Sojin use my $5 thing and I watched and took pictures.

Sojin is super quick going up the wall and she looked like a monkey.


Miriam going up the wall like a spider.


Kristen very intent on not letting Sojin fall.


After rock climbing we went to IHOP for free pancakes. They were more like mini pancakes though. We convinced Shane to go, but he said only on the condition that we made him do his homework. We did. He even finished it. :)


Miriam and Shane doing homework while we wait for a table.


Kristen, Miriam, Shane, and Derek (Shane's roomie).


Tiffany (Marissa's sister), Marissa, and me.

No-Bake Cookies

This recipe is from a book we got here at school called Family Favorites: Recipes from BYU-Idaho Students and Faculty.

- 2 c sugar
- 1/2 c margarine
- 3 T cocoa
- 1/2 c milk
- 1/2 c peanut butter
- 1 t vanilla
- 3 c quick oats

Mix sugar, margarine, cocoa, and milk. Cook until it comes to a boil, stirring it to keep the milk from scalding.


Remove from heat. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and quick oats. Spoon onto wax paper.

Girls' Night Out

Last night we (meaning me, Kristen, Miriam, Hannah, and Sojin) decided to have a girls' night out because guys were being lame and turning us down left and right. Pfft their loss. We left at about 8:30 pm and we were going to go to DI and pick out outfits for each other, but when we got there it was closed. So we went to the next best place, Big 5. It's a sporting goods store. We put on crazy sunglasses and hats and hunter's vests and took pictures. One of the girls working thought we were hilarious. After that we went to Dairy Queen and got peanut butter parfaits while rocking out to some fantastical music supplied by the radio.

When we got home we made no-bake cookies. It was my first time making this kind of cookie and it was so much fun. it's a really quick and easy thing to make when you're in a bind and need a treat. I think I might whip this recipe out when my kids tell me they need a bajillion treats for their class...tomorrow. Haha.

We made the cookies so we could doorbell ditch some of our guy friends. We decided on four different apartments to doorbell ditch: Shane, Elder Lewis, Leo, and our FHE brothers.

I'll post the recipe in a follow up blog. For now I just want to talk about the difficulty of doorbell ditching in Rexburg!

So since Shane lives the furthest away we decided to doorbell ditch his apartment first. He lives in Brighton Townhouses which is just behind Shelbourne Apartments. Us being the bright group of girls we are thought of course we'll park at Shelbourne walk around behind it drop the cookies off and then run back.

Really, it sounded perfect.

So Miriam, Hannah, and I get the cookies and we're walking around the side of Shelbourne. The snow is about knew deep, but packed pretty well. We make it around to the back and there's a whole lot of yard between Shane's apartment and Shelbourne. Hannah and I think we should keep going, Miriam has her doubts but follows anyway. We should have listened to Miriam.

The snow is waist deep and for the most part packed pretty tight, but every now and then I'd fall in. I cannot even begin to describe the hilarity that ensued. We were laughing so loud and I kept telling Miriam to just go on without me. It was also ridiculously cold.

We finally make it to the side of the Brighton Townhouses. Good thing Shane lives in the very last one. So Miriam and I walk back behind the townhouses and hide under his kitchen window while Hannah leaves the cookies and rings the doorbell. It's sad because while running back to us Hannah fell. Okay actually it was pretty funny. Then we actually had to get out from behind the apartments and thank goodness Kristen was waiting in the parking lot of Brighton because I was freezing!

The other doorbell ditches were a lot less eventful, but still fun. The next apartment we hit was Elder Lewis's, and then #208, and finally our FHE brothers. It really was quite the night.

Valentine's Day Baking

So on Valentine's Day I made chocolate chip cookies for my FHE brothers.

The last time I made chocolate chip cookies (which was for Shane's swim meet) they turned out awful. At least I thought so. It's not all that hard to please guys when it comes to handing them cookies. I used the recipe off the back of the chocolate chip bag, which used to be a safe, easy, and delicious recipe. But no more. I will never trust the back of the bag again!

Anyway so I was going to use Mom Andrews' recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but Miriam forgot to email it to me. Oh Miriam. :) So I googled a recipe and came across one that seemed fairly decent. It turned out pretty awesome I think. I didn't follow it exactly...when do I ever? But I think that's half the fun of baking. Anyway here's the recipe.

- 1 c butter
- 1 c sugar
- 1 c brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 t vanilla extract (I put in just a dash more because I like the way it taste.)
- 3 c flour
- 1 t baking soda
- 2 t hot water
- 1/2 t salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips (I never listen to this. I always just put in however many I want at the time.)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Beat together. Hand stir in flour one cup at a time. Add chocolate chips. Drop by the spoonful onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

I made quite a few cookies and then one great big one. Here's the result.

P.S.

The music and quote have been updated. The quotes are from Criminal Minds. At the beginning and end of each episode one of the characters recites a quote. This one is from Season One Episode Four, Plain Sight.

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Tonight I made Key Lime Pie from scratch for tomorrow's luncheon at our apartment. I found a good recipe online and decided to give it a shot. I'm sick of making cookies and lemon bars and needed something new. I really like the recipe, but I made a few changes to it, which of course only makes it better. :)

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Crust
- Graham Crackers (the original recipe calls for 16, but I used about 8)
- 3 T sugar (I left this out because I think between the filling and the graham crackers there's plenty of sugar)
- 1/2 c butter (I didn't use this much. I just guesstimated)

Pre-heat over to 350. Crush graham crackers. Mix with butter. Spread in 9" pie pan. Bake for 8 minutes.

Filling
- 4 large eggs; yolk only
- 1 14 oz can sweetned condensed milk*
- 1/2 c key lime juice (It calls for freshly squeezed key lime juice. I live in Rexburg, we don't have that. I bought Key West Lime Juice at Broulims and it worked just fine.)
- 2 t grated lime peel, green portion only (Didn't use this due to the fact I didn't have any key limes.)

Use an electric mixer and beat the egg yolks until they are thick and turn to a light yellow, don't over mix. Turn the mixer off and add the sweetened condensed milk. Turn speed to low and mix in half of the lime juice. Once the juice is incorporated add the other half of the juice, continue to mix until blended (just a few seconds). Pour the mixture into the pie shell. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Meringue
- Egg whites from egg yolks used in pie filling
- Sugar

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time until it begins to stiffen, then add according to taste. Spread over pie. Served chilled.

*Did you know you can make sweetened condensed milk from scratch? Here's the recipe. I use splenda because of Miriam's allergy to sugar. It's a great way to make recipes diabetic friendly. :)

- 3/4 c sugar
- 1/2 c water
- 1 c 2 T powdered milk

Combine all ingredients. Heat to boiling. Cook until thick. this will take 15-20 minutes. Equals 1 can of regular sweetened condensed milk.

Computer Background

So I've been meaning to make a fantastical background for my laptop so that I can have pictures of all of my loved ones to look at instead of having to settled for changing the picture all the time. So today because I had no class and didn't have to leave the apartment until 1pm I decided to make it. I've had an idea in my head for quite some time of what I wanted it to look like, which made it both simpler and more complicated going in. First I had to find all the brushes I wanted and download them and then import them into photoshop. After I did that I spent quite a bit of time looking for a corkboard background, but to no avail so I improvised by using a cardboard brush and enlarging it to cover the entire background. You can't even tell it's supposed to be cardboard.

The other thing that took quite a while was fitting the pictures on the polaroid brushed and I'm still not quite happy with two of them. I'm a perfectionist what can I say. But I grew frustrated and just figured I'd go back and fiddle around with it some other time. But for now here's the 'finished' product.

I also wanted to make Valentine's Day cards for both Ruth and Tiffany of their kids, but I kept thinking about it and never did it and now it's probably too late. Maybe I'll have time to make them anyway, but they may be after Valentine's Day...maybe I should just shoot for St. Patrick's Day instead.

Criminal Minds

So I'm pretty ecstatic right now because I might have a chance to get an internship at CBS working on the set of their primetime television shows. There's also a writer's mentoring program and I would be able to work on Criminal Minds and sit in on script writing. How cool is that? That could actually be my job one day! I might just die from the excitement.

It's crazy how one simple decision can change your life so much. If I had never requested that Book of Mormon the doors that are opened to me now would have never been opened. I wouldn't have so many of the opportunities I have now. I'm in place I never thought I'd be in because of some of the crappy decisions I had made. I am so thankful for the gospel in my life. All I can say is that it really is worth it.

Executive Decisions

Thanks to Yahoo! News, because here at BYU-Idaho we don't believe in cable or MSNBC, I've been able to closely follow President Obama's first few days in office. I'm glad to see he's not wasting time and getting down to business and keeping his campaign promises. I really do hope and pray that he will be a good President for our country in this very difficult time. I am always of the opinion that even if you did not vote for the current President or if you don't even like him you should still support him. He is the President afterall and I always try to keep in mind that it's not possible to make every person happy with the decisions made. Obviously though the majority are content with Obama as President (me being one of them, take that for what you will).

I don't claim to be a political extrodinaire, but I do my best to keep current on the news and follow what is going on. This was a lot easier when I was in Virginia because my dad almost always has MSNBC on and I can always ask him to explain things I don't understand. Now I pretty much have to figure it out on my own, but I try to know both sides before forming an opinion.

As of right now I do not know that I am exactly for closing down Quantanimo Bay, but I am certainly for reforming interrogation techniques and I agree with what President Obama is quoting with saying in the article. I'll wait for a later date to form an entire and concrete opinion. But for now I'm just glad some sort of action is being taken, that President Obama is getting down to business and at least so far keeping to his campaign promises.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, shut down secret overseas CIA prisons, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

To read the full article just click here.

Christmas Card Tutorial

So over the break I made my own Christmas card to send to my family using adobe photoshop. I told Ruth and Tiffany that I would post on the blog how I did that so here's a quick little tutorial on the basic steps of creating your own Christmas card, or any kind of graphic really. (I made the pictures small since it's such a huge post. To view them better just click on the picture.)

For this tutorial I'll be using this picture. And the program I'll be using is Adobe Photoshop 7.0.

First I'm going to crop out the date stamp on the bottom of the photo. The crop tool is on the toolbar on the left. It is the third button down in the first column. Click on it and then move the mouse over to the picture. Crop your desired photo.

Next we'll create a duplicate layer to work with. The last toolbar on the right shows the layers. Right now all that should be showing is the background layer. Right click on that layer and click on duplicate layer. Click okay and a new layer will be formed.

One of my favorite effects is the dream-like effect. It looks like this.

It's a very subtle effect, but I like it. On my Christmas card I did a color overlay as well using red, but you can pick whatever color you think is best.

The first step will be to create a new blank layer. To do this click on layer, new, and then layer. Like this.

Now that you have a new layer go over to the toolbar on the left and click on the top color square near the bottom of the toolbar. It will bring up a color picker. Choose whatever color you want and you can continue to play with the color until you find the perfect one. I'm going to be using green this time because it's my favorite color.

Once you have selected a color click okay. Now go back to the left side toolbar and click on the brush tool. It's the fourth one down in the second column. The brush will probably be small and it will take forever to color in the entire picture so go up to the main toolbar. Under the image button is one that says brush. Click on the button that says brush. At the very top of the box that appears is a bar with a slider that says master diameter. Move it up. Like this.

In this picture you can also see the end result of the color overlay.

Now that you have a color picked out and a decent sized brush begin coloring on the blank new layer. It will paint over your picture, but don't worry that's okay. Once you're satisfied with your color choice and the entire photo is covered move over to the right side toolbar. On the layers toolbar there are two very important buttons for making amazing effects on pictures. One will say normal and the other will say Opacity: 100%. First we'll click on the Opacity button. I usually begin by setting it at 50%. Now click on the drop down bar that says normal. I used the soft light setting, but have fun and try out different ones until you find one you like. I then moved my opacity setting up to 80% because I felt the color showed more at that setting. Play around until you like the end result.

When you're happy with the results of that it's time to add the text. I use the website dafonts.com to download new fonts for free. My favorite one that I've downloaded is called Jane Austen and that's what I'll be using. (I'll make another post explaining how to download fonts.)

First we'll go to the left side toolbar and click on the arrow button at the top in the second column so the mouse goes back to normal from its brush phase. Now create a new layer. Then again on the left side toolbar click on the T button. It's the eighth one down in the second column. Make a text box wherever you like on the picture. The toolbar under the main toolbar at the top of the page should be text related now. Select your font and text size. The text size goes up to 72 if this is not big enough simply click on the box and type in a number until you're happy with the size. Type your desired text. The color is going to be the same one that you just used for the color overlay, but don't worry you can change that later.

Now to make effects on your text there are many different things you can do and you don't have to do all of them. To do any effect on the text first you must go click on the arrow button again on the left side toolbar. I did an overlay effect first by going over to the layer toolbar and selecting overlay from the drop down bar that usually says normal. I then did an embossing effect.

To make this effect click layer and then layer style and then bevel and emboss. The style I selected is emboss and the technique I selected is soft. Like this.

This picture also shows my finished text.

Now for the final step I like to add a simple border. First create a new layer. Then on the main toolbar click on select and then all. It will put a dotted line around the entire image. Now go to edit, stroke. Like this.

I selected black as the color and I made it 15px. Click okay. I then went over to the layer toolbar and selected overlay. After that go back to select and click deselect. If you want a larger border simply reselect all again and go through the same process only make the pixel size larger.

Your picture is now finished. Now if you would like to make a card that looks like this simply do the following.

We're going to create an entirely new background. To do this go to file and click new. Make sure the width and height are set to pixels. Then type in a desired width and height. I did 600x600. Click okay. Now that you have that go back to your other project. make sure you click on it so that it's selected. Go to the main tool bar and click on image and then image size. Again make sure it's set to pixels and make sure at the bottom of the box that constrained proportions is checked. Then change the width to match whatever you selected for your other background. I typed in 600 of course.

Next go back to the main tool bar and click on layer and then flatten image. Make sure you have the arrow selected on the left side toolbar and drag the image to your blank background. I put my picture at the top, but you can put it wherever you like. When that is done I simply clicked on the T so i could make a text box and picked a font I liked (it's called Angelina) and typed in my desired text. The hearts are a special brush I downloaded and that's a bit more complicated and I can discuss in another tutorial if anyone wants it.

You now have a completed Christmas card, or in my case a wish you were here card.

If you need something explained more fully just ask and if you like this tutorial and would like to learn more advanced techniques let me know and I'll do another one, but only if it's wanted :)

Rexburg

Miriam and I are safely back and Rexburg and are currently unpacking in our new apartment. It's pretty sweet and way bigger than Normandy. We will both be posting longer, more detailed posts later :)