Car Wreck

You may have seen this on the news. Adam is a friend from church. His family is in our ward and I like to help his mom with serving lunch at Friday Forum (Institute). Adam picked us up last night to go to the ward choir party at the Dangerfield's, and on the way told us about his car accident. It's funny...I've been hanging out with Adam's mom and spent some time at their house, and somehow did know this news that went international before the cops arrived on the scene. Haha. Adam said the other cars on the highway stopped to get pictures and video and put it up online with their phones right then. I just can't believe what a close call that was! I think he was ok because of the faith and prayers of his parents. Sometimes I wonder if they were angelic messengers who were sent to earth and got stuck here. I think living a life of complete service to others has really paid off for their family.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Nativity

We went to see the Nativity display at the Stake Center. It was fun to see all the different kinds of nativity sets that were displayed in the gym. I think there were about 450 sets, and they were from all different kinds of cultures and places: Mexico, Africa, China, Native American, Poland...etc. They had another room where you could dress up and get your picture taken. My friend, Hadra, and I are angels and Greg is a wise man. The family before us had a lot of kids, so they had Mary and Joseph, Wise Men and Shepherds, an angel, a cow, and a donkey. Hahaha!

If your church doesn't do this, you should suggest it. It's a neat experience! The nativity sets came from people in the church and the community who let us use them to display. Lots of people came throughout the last week to help set up and make it beautiful. There were people singing, playing the flute and piano, and the harp to make beautiful background music. It was wonderful!

Beautiful Savior

This is sung by a BYU Men's Choir. So beautiful.

Money!

We had a lesson about money management in Young Women's today. We talked about why God would want us to learn to use our money wisely, and how the qualities we develop as good stewards of our money will translate to other parts of our lives. For instance, you have to learn self-control and discipline to manage your money. When you can do that, you will be able to master many other things in your life. And why would we have a lesson about money management in church on Sunday? Because God wants us to be successful and happy, and these things that seem temporal to us affect us spiritually as well. The whole point of life is to learn to master yourself and become more like God.

The teacher read a quote from Dave Ramsey's book during the lesson. It may not be word for word because I wrote it down after she said it.

"Money will only make you more of what you already are. If you are a jerk, wealth with make you become the King of Jerks. If you are generous, wealth with make you most generous, and if you are kind, wealth will make you more kind than any."

That is so true! Money is not evil. Evil people are evil, and their evilness is magnified when they have money/power. And when good people have money/power, their goodness is magnified as well. (Think of Esther and the position she was in. And they said she came to the kingdom "for such a time as this." She was able to use her position of power for good in a way she could not have done were she a simple citizen of no consequence.)

The teacher also read a quote that said something to the effect of, "Money will pave the road from good intentions to good deeds."

Money isn't everything, but if you have it you can use it and be an instrument in God's hands. I have met several people who are doing very well financially, and they all had this in common: They were hard-working, unselfish people who wanted to serve God and their fellow men. Matthew 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." One of those people told me they believed God blessed them because they gave when they did not have much to give. Now they are blessed in many ways and it is easier for them to give freely to help those around them. I admire their good examples and hope that I can be an instrument in God's hands as well.

That's been on my mind now that we're headed into Christmas and the season of giving. I hope you have a meaningful Christmas and look for ways you can help the people around you, as Christ would. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

My Young Women leaders showed this video with the song for a Wednesday night activity close to Christmas when I was 17. I thought it was so beautiful and it really touched me. That night, after watching the video, we all took turns expressing our feelings about the Savior and our faith in him. I think of that special night every year when Christmas comes. I hope it touches you too.

Merry Christmas.

Roasting a Turkey, Part 2

Ok ok, it wasn't that bad I guess. It was about 15 minutes of horrible miserable grossness, and then a few hours later it was 15 minutes of wonderful delicious dinner. And, there's tons of meat there that will go in freezer bags and be enjoyed in the coming months. It really is cool that I got that whole thing for $7. I probably will do it again next year.

...And if I can do it, YOU can do it!

How to roast a turkey....(not really)

So, I bought a turkey for the first time. All the grocery stores in the area have been competing a lot since that giant Walmart came to Pullman. I think the best deal was at Safeway: Buy $25 worth of junk and get a turkey for 25 cents a pound. It's pretty easy to spend $25 on groceries, so I decided to get a turkey to bake and then freeze the extra meat. My turkey was 23 pounds and cost about $7. Cool. I went back today to get another turkey for my sister to stick in her freezer.

I knew that getting a real turkey would be a disgusting experience, but I put off thinking about it while it thawed in the fridge. I even managed to forget about it while it thawed in the sink with water this morning. But this afternoon I couldn't deny it anymore. I really had to take the plastic off that raw turkey and pull the guts out. Ick! My friend suggested I get some gloves, and that significantly helped. Oh, but it was so gross even with gloves!


I put on a Harry Potter book and tried to just listen to the story and not look at the turkey as I reached inside and pulled the neck out. Who eats the neck anyway? And then I pulled out the bag of guts....does anybody really want that? I felt like throwing up, but somehow I managed to get that turkey in the bag and into the oven.

After that, I changed all of my clothes and washed up to my elbows. (I felt like taking a shower, but didn't.) I also sprayed down the kitchen with disinfectant and cleaned the sink. I think I might mop the floor, just in case something splattered on the floor without my notice.

I sure hope this turkey turns out good! I think I'm starting to understand why some members of my family never get whole turkeys anymore...

Maybe in a couple hours when I've gotten my appetite back and the turkey smells good I will be glad. What do you do for Thanksgiving? Do you cook whole turkeys or little turkey roasts?

Merry Christmas

This happened at Macy's in Philadelphia. They have the world's largest pipe organ. The entire Philadelphia Opera Company along with more than 20 other choirs in the area went to the mall and just hung out all around the 7 story building. Somebody was playing the organ already, but when they started playing the Hallelujah Chorus the choirs all began singing. They chose that day and time because there were some awesome sales and they knew the mall would be packed with people. As you can see, all the shoppers stopped what they were doing to listen to the music. What an amazing experience! Wish I could sing with them!

What a storm!

Last night the wind blew and blew! It was so loud that it kept me up for the first half of the night. And the thunder and lightening came! The lightening was so bright that it hurt my eyes when it flashed and lit up the room through the closed curtains. The thunder rumbled and roared like a freight train coming through my bedroom.

Lots of people and businesses in the area lost power. Luckily we didn't. I heard that the wind was going 70 miles per hour! When we left the apartment this morning we saw our neighbor's moped bike had fallen over. We also drove by a construction site that had most of the roofing progress ruined. Tar paper and shingles were all over the ground that had been torn from the roof. And most exciting, one of the schools in Moscow closed! When I went shopping I saw lots of kids happily hanging out with their moms at the store. I bet they were happy!

And on a bigger scale, here is a picture my dad sent to me. It was on the Komo News website.



Dominoes!

Greg's Costume

This is what Greg wore to work on Friday. Don't ask me what he's supposed to be...I don't think he knows either. But the mask is cool, and he made the fuzzy part of the costume a few years ago.


...maybe some kind of mexican wrestling viking warrior?

Pumpkin Pie!

(It's kind of puffed up when you first pull it out of the oven...it sinks as it cools.)


This is the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. My mom would make it for us every year, and now I love to make it too! It's super easy, and there's no dry icky crust. (Sorry, I'm not a fan of pie crusts.)

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bisquick
2 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz can pumpkin (I found 15 oz can, worked fine)
2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp vanilla

(If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, use 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie pan. Beat all ingredients until smooth. Pour into pie pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream. Yum!

Pumpkin Carving!

We carved pumpkins Thursday before Halloween so Greg could bring his in for the contest at work.


This is the start of my pumpkin. (I didn't get to finish it that night because I had to hurry off to a meeting at church.)



This is Greg's again. Notice the earrings on the finished product.


This is a fierce pumpkin indeed! Unfortunately it didn't win the contest, but we still like it.

Blood Clots and Puss

Tapioca Pudding + Mushed Strawberries =


Blood Clots and Puss! Yum!




This is what I made for Greg to bring to work for the treats contest. I got the idea from my mom who made it years ago for a Halloween party. Everybody was as disgusted as you probably are, but it really does taste good!

Weezer

I forgot how much I liked Weezer when I was a teenager until it came up on a Pandora station. I wish I was so cool that people paid me tons of money to play music. That looks like fun.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Here's the recipe for those sugar cookies. They are excellent! And by the way, I never make only one batch...Two batches is just right for a family or if you want to share any.

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
4 tsp milk
2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Mix together dry ingredients in small bowl and then add to creamed mixture. Blend well. Divide dough in half and chill one hour. (I never do that, and my cookies turn out fine.)

On lightly floured surface roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. (Too thin means crunchy cookies--no good. It has to be thick!) Cut out shapes and bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Do not allow to brown. Bottom of cookies may be slightly golden. The cookies will still be soft when you take them out of the oven, but they will firm up as they set on the cookie sheet and cool. Remove to cooling racks after about 5 or 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

I love making and decorating sugar cookies!


It really is an art...especially if you have these cool stencils to use. (Wendy gave me those a year or two ago.)



And thanks to Teri--I used the sprinkles you gave me for Christmas last year! The purple looked really good on the green or orange background. My favorite is the purple sparkly spider on the green cookie.

LIBERA

I posted one of their songs a little while ago, and here is another that I love. It sounds like Debussy's Clair de Lune.



In case you were wondering, you did hear a little bit of English:

"Star of heaven, send your light on me
Star of day, shine through the dark"

I had to look up the lyrics because it was bothering me that I thought I could understand some words, but then I'd listen hard and the rest seemed to be in latin.

Homemade Oreos

Yum. That's all there is to say.


(Sister's Blog)

For the Cookies:
1 package devil's food cake mix (or chocolate of any kind)
2 eggs
1/2 - cup oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil and eggs to cake mix and blend together. Roll dough into balls (a little larger than a quarter). Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet (until warm). Remove cookies from sheet and place on cooling rack. To assemble the cookies, add about a tablespoon of filling into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie similar in size on top of the filling. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.


Cream Cheese Filling Recipe:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 block of cream cheese (8 oz)
3-4 cups - powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1 - tsp vanilla extract

(By the way, this made about 3 times as much filling as I needed. I would recommend cutting the filling recipe in half at least, or making more cookies. I will have to put the left over filling in the freezer for another time.)

Cream butter and add cream cheese and mix well. Add powdered sugar slowly until you reach your desired consistency.

These are easy and fast to make, and delicious! I love how soft they are. Oh, and I used my cookie scooper so they are all perfectly the same size.

Also, I decided to just frost the top of each cookie and not make it oreo style...that way they last a little longer, and I didn't really like eating two cookies at once.


PS. I tried making Fudge Crinkles using a strawberry cake mix instead, but they aren't that great. Well, Greg and all his friends at work liked them, but they just don't compare to chocolate. They are pretty though.

Chewy White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

I believe in the healing power of chocolate. Since I have been home from about 3 1/2 weeks of visiting various family members, I felt bla and sad. I missed my family, I had a cold, and my house was a mess from partially moving in and then going on vacation. So I gathered my strength and made a pan of brownies, and it made all the difference in the world! Suddenly I had a new energy and motivation to work on my house, and I got over my cold. After that first bite of chewy chocolate, I became a new woman.


Today I dedicate this post to another recipe I found on the Sister's Cafe Blog: Chewy White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies. A recipe that has the word, "Chocolate" in it twice has GOT to be good!



1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
2 cup white chocolate chips

(I would reduce the amount of chips to maybe one cup, or one and a half cups...it was hard to keep them all mixed in the dough because there were too many.)


Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and salt.

Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda, then gently mix into creamed ingredients. Fold in white chocolate chips.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Plant Video

I finally got around to fixing up my plant video. I took all the pictures over a year ago and then forgot about it. It looks like it was made by a 5-year-old, but I think I learned a lot from it and now I have ideas to make a better one. Hope you don't feel motion-sick from watching it. Ta Da.

I love Pandora

This song just came up on my Pandora station this morning. I love the pure sweet voices of the boys choir. It's amazing that they can be so talented at such a young age. It's beautiful.

Oops!

We came upon this the other day. The semi truck was trying to make it around the circle round-about at the only entrance to our apartment complex, but he didn't make it. It looked like he was planning to jump the curb and drive over the island, but the tires just sunk deep into the mud instead...and he didn't jump the curb--he plowed through it instead. The maintenance guy that was standing around told me the total weight of the machinery and the trailer was 80,000 pounds, and the truck driver got fired. I don't know how you get another job after getting fired for messing up like that.

It's times like this that I'm glad I'm not a truck driver.

We Moved!

We moved a little over a week ago from our Cougar's Closet apartment above the storage units to a regular apartment down the street.


It has been so nice to be home and not worry about the phone ringing or customers coming to my door! And I'm glad we could stay in the same ward at church. A major part of Pullman that I love is the friends who feel like family at church. I also love my calling of working with the young women. It is one of the great joys in my life right now.

Welcome to our home!


This shows the signs I made to help our friends help us. We put colored stickers on all the boxes to tell them which room they go to. (Put an orange sticker on the boxes for storage, and a green sticker on the bedroom boxes...etc)


Even though there are boxes everywhere and things are not organized yet, it does feel like home. We're making progress, and I think it will be really nice when I've finished working on it.


Oh, and by the way Mom, the bathroom stuff matches nicely with the green counter top.


This is the view I used to have of my flowers...


Oh, and I wanted to get a picture of this satellite dish...they are taking it down and I thought it looked like they are going to shoot a missile into space.


And this is the view we have out our bedroom window now. It's not too bad actually. If you look out the sliding glass door you see the edge of the parking lot and then it's just wheat fields. It will be really pretty in the spring when everything is green!

French Twist

I finally figured out how to do the french twist in my hair! It's fun to play with new things and do something different than my regular boring ponytail. The flower is from Wendy. I think it looks so cute when I can add a flower or a bow.




This hair-do always makes me think of the Thatcher girls--especially Shauna. They always had their hair done nice and neat as teenagers.

Greg found a job!

My husband graduated in May this year as a mechanical engineer. I've been wondering, more seriously as time passed, where in the world he would find a job and where we would live, if there would be a university nearby for me to finish school, and if we would be at all close to our families. As the summer passed and Greg didn't get any serious offers, we decided we would have to move back to Gig Harbor and stay with Greg's parents until we found a job. We cried as we thought of leaving Pullman and our friends, and felt excited when we thought of the time we could spend with our families after being far away for the last 3-4 years. We found a replacement to take our place as manager at the storage facility, and reserved a U-haul so we could move at the end of this month.

Then! At the very last minute possible, Greg got a call from Decagon Devices: a local company where many of our friends work in Pullman. They wanted him to come in for an interview! The interview went great and Greg got the job! (Of course, we didn't know if he would get the job for about two weeks, so that whole time I was just wondering at the possibilities and trying to think of what to do. The date for us to move was coming upon us quickly!)

So now, we are still packing up and moving, but we're moving down the street instead of across the state. I'm so happy Greg can work for a good company with a fabulous work environment, and that we can stay in Pullman. Of course, it took a little adjusting when we realized that suddenly all our plans with family were not going to happen, and we were sad for the loss of time we would have spent with our families. The job doesn't start for a few weeks though, so we'll have time to go visit before we have to start real life again.

Here is a short video about Decagon. The company was actually founded by the Campbell family in our ward at church. Tamsin is their oldest daughter, and she is currently the president of the company.



Greg is excited about the job he will be doing. He is going to work with SolidWorks--the program he's been using for several years now for school and personal projects.

Everything has come together so well for us. Haha, I kept telling my friends at church that I knew God had a plan for us and we would be taken care of, but I just wished that He would tell me what that plan was! Maybe He was trying my patience and faith, and I finally passed the test. Hooray!

Young Women Recognition

This is actually what I earned last year in December, but the lady who was putting this together was having difficulty (those pendants wouldn't stick to the black background no matter what kind of glue she used). Various other life situations prevented her from finishing it until a few weeks ago. She gave this to me at the end of Girl's Camp. It's so pretty, and I love having all the pendants and the old medallion to display. (You may recall that they made a new medallion when I was about 17,

and then just last year they changed it a little again.)



I'm excited to have this pretty display--it's like a tribute to the Young Women's Program. If I have a girl I will hang it in her room. I hope my daughters love Young Women's and Personal Progress as much as I do!

Multi-Stake Youth Conference!

After Girl's Camp I got a little breather and then got ready for the Multi-Stake Youth Conference. President Monson first met with some of the stake presidents in the area and told them his idea for this big youth conference. They said, "Great, I think we can pull something together for 2012." And he said that wasn't good enough--it needed to be this year, so they put this event together in 6 months. There were about 2,000 people who attended, 300 of which were adult leaders and the rest were youth. 11 stakes participated from the surrounding areas. They said that everybody was within a 2-hour radius of the Spokane Stake Center. I was surprised that there were so many LDS youth! And these were just the kids that were able to come. (Less than half of our kids were able to go.)

The first day (Friday) was mostly a fun day of playing games, get-to-know-you activities, and a dance and more games in the evening. They played a number of field games that were directed by a man with a mic and he stood on a lift so everybody could see him. I was amazed that he could entertain 1,700 kids for a few hours! He did a great job and had watching/joining the games too.




After the field games we went to dinner, and then straight into the dance. There were three large rooms in the conference center that we used. The one was for the dance with a regular DJ and music.


The next was a game room with lots of little odd games like:
Put the lamp shade on your head with the fishing pole while your blind-folded. I think that was more fun to watch than to do.


Stack 3 golf balls, flick the raisin boxes out from under the water bottles, and much more!


The second day was a little more serious. We met at a different conference center and had a presentation about some of the soldiers serving our country. There were a few soldiers of various rank who told their own stories, and then others who told the stories of fallen soldiers they knew. The mother of one soldier in particular came to tell us the story of her son who had died in combat, and it was very moving. At the end of the presentation we made Christmas and Thanksgiving cards to give to the Red Cross for the soldiers serving abroad.




We had lunch at the park and then headed back to the auditorium for the closing ceremonies. In the months leading up to this conference we all learned some songs so we could sing them here to each other. Every two stakes combined and sang a song, and then the entire conference learned a second song that we all sang together. It was neat to hear so many voices combining and singing those beautiful songs about Christ and being strong and pure.




I'm excited for future events like this. One of the stake presidents told me he thought they would probably be doing this about every other year now. It was a great success and I know the kids had a lot of good experiences. I hope I still get to serve with the youth when we move!