Great Inspiring Video

This is my new favorite video. Adam and I taught Sunday School last week on having courage in our faith and knowing that as long as we do what's right, we will be blessed. We showed this video to those in our class. I just love Elder Holland. It's a very inspiring video that makes me tear up.

Bountiful Basket

Adam had been excited about something all week and Monday he told me that he had a surprise that he couldn't tell me about until Saturday. Well, today Adam continued to be excited and he was out the door with a laundry basket at 9:55 am. I was so confused at what he was doing and what the big surprise was. I was laying on the couch working on this weeks Sunday School lesson that we were going to teach, and I see the front door slowly open and Adam brought in a basket full of fruit and vegetables! It was so exciting. We also just got a dehydrater machine, so for the next hour we worked on cutting up apples, pears, and bananas to dehyrate them. It was a fun morning.

All this for $15, and the grapes are beautiful and amazing!

Things in the basket:

Potatoes
Celery
Black Pumpkin thing (I don't know what it is..)
Lettuce
Pears
Bananas
Corn
Grapes
Persimmons
Apples
Clemintines
Brusle Sprouts

Flowers and More Flowers!

I came home from a hard and long day of school last night and on the table was this beautiful arrangement of star gazer lilies and orchids which happen to be the same type of flowers that we had at our wedding. Adam is always spoiling me with surprises and he knows just how to cheer me up when I'm having a hard time.

Bajio Sweet Pork Burritos

Meat

3 lbs Pork Roast
1 can Dr. Pepper
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup salsa
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground mustard
salt and pepper

Place pork in the crock pot. Then add all ingredients. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred pork with about an hour left to cook.

Sweet Rice

*1/2-1 tablespoon vegetable oil
*1/2 of a white onion, chopped (add more or less to your taste)
*1/2 bunch fresh cilantro
*1 1/3 cups white rice
*3 cups chicken broth
*1/4-1/2 cup white sugar

Put a little oil in bottom of pan (maybe about 1/2-1 tablespoon).
Saute chopped onion until translucent. Add the chopped cilantro (no big stems) and saute a minute more.
Add the rice, cooking until it is light brown (being careful not to burn).
Combine the chicken broth and sugar, letting sugar dissolve. Then stir into rice until combined. Bring to a boil.
Cover and let cook on low, med-low until rice is done, about 25-30 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Homemade Bread

My new thing is to make yummy homemade bread rather than buying store bought bread. I try to make two loaves every week because Adam and I go through it so fast. But it saves us a little money and it tastes a lot better than the store bought stuff. It does take a little time, but I actually really enjoy baking and the end result always makes it worth it. :) It's just something we can do to save our pennies.

They may not look the prettiest, but they taste amazing!

Happy Halloween??

So today is Halloween, but it's really not at the same time. Rexburg along with a lot of other places made yesterday Halloween because no one wanted to trick or treat on Sunday. I even have a teacher training meeting tonight from 7-8. If it were really Halloween, I wouldn't be going to that meeting probably. So today at church, I didn't know whether I should say Happy Halloween to people or not. So I just didn't. It was just like another day.

Adam and I got to teach our first Sunday school lesson today in church. We just got called to be Sunday school teachers and I was nervous about this new calling at first, but it has turned out to be not too bad. Our lesson today was on strengthening our stakes and it was pretty fun to work with Adam to prepare this lesson. We are learning a lot from each other and it's nice to have that scripture study and preperation time together.

Thore

This massive water bug has been Adam and I's pet for several weeks now. He just chills in this large baking bowl during the day, then we can hear him swimming around at night and splashing in the water. His favorite thing is to just hang out on his rocks. I think he likes living with us. I personally think that he is too big to be a bug. We are good to Thore. We fed him a fish about a week and a half ago and we are going to get him another one for family night tomorrow. I can't watch him eat the cute, 28 cent, gold fish, but Adam thinks that it's pretty cool. Thore has this long needle/stinger thing by his mouth that he stabs into the fish. The stinger makes all the insides of his food turn into a liquid and then he sucks it all out. It's pretty gross and kinda alienish, I think. But we like Thore, and hopefully he'll live for a long time. We should have probably gotten a tank for him by now. Oh well. I will just never use that baking bowl ever again.  

Thore

Thore's food

Fresh, Homemade Apple Pie... Mmmm...

When we went down to Utah last weekend, we visited my Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell. They let us pick some apples on their apple trees and we brought them back with us to Idaho. I wanted to make something with them and I thought, what is better than fresh apple pie? Nothing. So I slaved for about three hours last week and I whipped up a yummy apple pie. Everything was from scratch, and as you can see it was made with lots of love. It was a fat and heavy pie, but it sure is yummy.

Pastry

2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Filling

1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine


1.In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

2.Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.

3.Heat oven to 425°F. With floured rolling pin, roll one pastry round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

4.In large bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir in apples until well mixed. Spoon into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1/2 inch from rim of plate.

5.Roll other round of pastry into 10-inch round. Fold into fourths and cut slits so steam can escape. Unfold top pastry over filling; trim overhanging edge 1 inch from rim of plate. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal; flute as desired. Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.

6.Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking. Serve warm if desired.

Makes 8 servings

I love Fall :)

I just thought this was a cute picture of Adam and I from our trip down to Utah last weekend to visit family.

We fed some ducks too.

Our Fall Apartment

I had so much fun decorating our apartment this year for my favorite season. I love fall and I love Halloween. It's nice to finally have a place that I can decorate the way that I want. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. And those are flowers that Adam got me by the window. I'm sad Halloween in over and that my decorations need to come down.

Salt Lake City Vacation

Adam and I decided to go on a little weekend vacation before the semester started in September. Salt Lake City was the coolest and closest place that we could think of going. We stayed in a hotel and everything. It was the first time either one of us have gone there and not had it be a family trip. On our way down from Idaho, we stopped off at Snow Basin to take a chair lift and get some lunch.

We also went to the Mayan restaurant and watched the divers. That was pretty neat and we ate the best jalapeno poppers we have ever had.

Random Pictures

I don't have time these days to update my blog but I thought I would just quickly post some cute pictures before they become too old.

Happy Birthday Adam

Adam left me yesterday to go to Tennessee for a month and he will be there over his birthday on July 31st. So Adam and I celebrated his 24th birthday on Saturday before he left. We went out to Out Back stake house then we went to Best Buy so that he could pick out a new blue ray movie. When we got home, we made one of our favorite desserts, the molten caramel, chocolate cake dessert from warm delights. Then we watched the movie 'UP'. I won't be able to celebrate his real birthday with him, but it was a good little early party.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Last Semester

I signed up for my last semester of college today. It was a wonderful feeling. I'm taking a toddler lab, creative writing, a English seminar, and Adolescent development. Only four classes left. Woohoo!

Family Visit!

On Friday, Aaron, Joylyn, Landon, and Lena came to visit Adam and I for a few hours. It was so much fun! I wish I had pictures. They got to see our apartment which they are pretty much the first ones to see it. We hung out for a little bit, at our place, then we made sandwiches for a picnic and went to the duck pond and had lunch. Landon had a lot of fun feeding the ducks and we went through nearly a whole loaf of bread. We fed those ducks well. Then we went to the park where we played for a while and Landon rode the carousel. And we had ice cream afterward at our favorite place Twizle Berry. It was a fun day. I was happy they were able to come and visit.

Falling Apart

Last week I had a lot of trouble sleeping. Everytime I would lay down there would be this terrible pain in my upper chest and my throat, which obviously kept me awake. I went to the doctor on Monday where I puzzled my doctor. But after they had me drink some numbing liquid, they figured out that I had a sinus infection which ran down my throat causing an infection in my throat, which ran down my esophagus causing it to go raw, which caused acid in my stomach and the acid would come up into the top of my chest and throat causing lots of pain. Anyway, it just sounded like a lot of chain of reaction things, so basically I'm falling apart. I'm on an anti-biotic and a medicine that they give to people to treat ulsers. And then the next day after I was at the doctors, I got 2 huge and extremely painful canker sores in my mouth, right next to each other. I have gone to walgreens twice to find the solution. It's amazing to me that these darn canker sores are causing me more pain and sorrow than my 2 infections and my raw esophagus. Weird. But I am slowly healing! It's a good think I had this long break to help me get better.

New Job!

I just got a new job a few weeks ago. I work at a fast food restaurant called Pickett's Bambino. It is a lot of fun and excellent food. When I found out that a restarurant was opening up just down the street from our apartment I got so excited and Adam suggested that I apply for a job. So I did. They called me one day and asked if they could interview me. I was really nervous, but then I became very scared when I saw how many people were lined up to have an interview too. It was my first offical interview ever and I had no idea what to expect. But I got the job! I work as a front person, meaning that I work on the cashiers or at drive thru. It is so much fun! I love it. I love working with the people of Rexburg. I haven't run into a grumpy person yet and hopefully that won't change. Everyone has been really nice. I worked the drive thru the past two days and it is my favorite. I love wearing the head set and taking peoples orders. Hopefully that doesn't change and I still love it after a few months. The people I work with are great too and my managers are great. And the food is delicious. It's a stuffed scone that is deep fried. It is soooo good! So if you get a chance, come to Rexburg and try one of these things and hopefully I can take your order!

Goodbye OC season 4

The OC show may have ended in February of 2007, but for me, it has taken me a lot longer than that to finish watching all the episodes. I started watching them in 2005 and it has taken me 5 more years to finally complete only 4 years of heiring. But it was a pretty emotional  day last week when Adam and I watched the last episode together before we went to bed. It felt like I was saying goodbye to a family that I had known for so long and when I couldn't sleep at night, would keep me entertained until I finally did. Not only that, but that was the thing that got Adam and I dating. Or should I say, that was his excuse that he used to come over and see me so we could hang out. That was his little crutch that he would use. I would get these texts from him like "Do you want to watch the OC tonight and get some ice cream too?" or "I need to watch the OC! When can we watch it?!" He was really smooth... He knew I liked the OC, and I thought he did too, but I guess he just liked me :). Although he did get pretty attached to the show as well, or so he says. I can't tell anymore if he is just saying he likes things to make me happy and agree with me or if he says he likes them because he actually does. He's so good about making me happy.

So now, instead of the OC, we are starting to watch the show Friends which I happen to have all seasons 1-10 except for season 9 (my favorite season) which happened to have disappeared while living with roommates. Yeah, I'll never see that one again. But we are on the third episode and we are enjoying it pretty well. Although it has been on hold for a few days since I have started to work late and Adam is out of town for the next few days. We like popping popcorn and watching movies. We have a pretty good time together. :)

1 Month!

Adam and I have been married for one month now from yesterday! I can't believe how fast things have gone. We are still working on our apartment and getting it all together and settled. It's a different experience trying to take care of a whole apartment rather than just having to worry about your bedroom and occasionally cleaning the kitchen or bathroom when it gets messy or if your roommates aren't cleaning it up. Adam and I have had a lot of fun trying out things that we got for our wedding. We have found that we really love using our popcorn popper machine thing and then putting seasoning on it. It is a delight! I love popcorn so much more now. I want to try other seasonings now to put on it. We bought white cheddar and it is so so good.

 Our other thing that we like to do is to watch the OC season 4 that I got for my birthday. I've had a lot of things to do around the apartment and with thank you's from the wedding and things like that. I usually do those when Adam is off at work or in class and the place is just too quiet and lonely, so I've been hauling through all the seasons of the Office. I normally don't watch that many shows, but it keeps my mind occupied while I do things. I think I got that from my mom. 

But things have just been bliss for the past month. Adam and I have been pretty good about staying happy and keeping things functioning like doing the laundry once a week, getting groceries we need, keeping the place tidy, and other things like that. Hopefully we can keep this up. Married life is great!

Mother's Day

Mother's day was a good one for me. Adam made me breakfast, well, we both kinda made it. I made pancakes and Adam made his famous scrambled eggs. Then for dinner Adam made me a chicken dressing dish on pasta. That is one of his specialties too. But at church, after sacrament meeting, the men passed out petunias to all the mothers and wives in the ward so I got one! It was quite exciting. Adam is getting me a pot to stick it in. It's not as pretty of a flower as Adam usually brings home to me sometimes, but it's still really nice and brings nice life and color to our apartment. 

Honeymoon in San Fran

Wedding Day Pictures!

April 10, 2010 was the best day of my life so far, and maybe Adam can agree to that too. It was the most perfect day ever. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful wedding. I know it has taken forever for me to add pictures, but here are some of my favorites. Sharlie took them for us and she did a wonderful job. I will cherish these pictures for the rest of my life. There are seriously no words for how wonderful everything was. Marriage is the best and I married the best man ever. He is better than the man of my dreams. :)