Two Takes on Gravity

Gravity 1:
The one that jumps up at you when you least expect it.
Gravity 2:
Song that is great for chillaxin' on a lazy summer morning.

I'm a Contributor

I know some of you question my value as a friend. (I don't really think this, but I did think that it would be a funny way to start this post...) Just to set the record straight I do things for people that I love. The last few weeks of my life were devoted to making Darcie's wedding experience complete. This involved me expanding my sewing skills and getting up the nerve to cut into really expensive lace. This is what came out the other end of my sewing adventure.

I did learn a lot through that particular experience. There are a few things I would do differently if I were to make this exact same dress again, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It did consume my life for several days. It took roughly 24 episodes of "Angel" (All of season 3 and a bit of season 4), 2 episodes of "The Soup" (The 2009 "clip-down") and 3 episodes of "NCIS" for the non-sewing parts of making this dress. But I did get it done in time. whew...
I also had the less nerve-racking task of making the cake. I've made lots of cakes, and Darcie and Spencer are pretty chill, so I just got to do whatever I wanted with this one. It was fun, and turned out really well. It also tasted fantastic. Nothing says wedding like a huge, tasty cake!
Just so you know, this is not me advertising. I am not looking to get into the wedding dress business. In fact, there are very few people I love enough to make a wedding dress for. Sorry if this offends most of you, but it's a very stressful kind of process, and I value my own sanity too much to do that more often than once every 5 years or so. So the memory will have dimmed enough for me to think about attempting this again in 2015 or so...

Now Introducing Darcer Snones!

So I managed to get yet another roommate married off. Last Thursday, Spencer Snow married Darcie Jones. I know. Crazy that Darcie got married. I'm sure the people that know Spencer better than I do think that its crazy that he got married. Those crazy kids! Doing crazy things like marry-ing...
The Pastor's wife had the room decorated so cute! The color scheme was pink and black, and they managed to pull off a kind of retro look with the whole thing.
Darcie walked down to the aisle to "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles. She was just stunning in her custom-made dress and birdcage veil!
Darcie had her grandma, parents, brother, cousin, niece and nephew there, and Spencer had too much family for me to keep track of. Mom, brothers, etc...
Darcie's grandma even brought her wedding cake topper purchased for her own wedding in 1952! Darcie and Spencer were allowed to use it on the condition that they played nice when feeding each other cake. Face cake-shoving was not allowed. After taking an unusually long time to figure out how to cut the cake (I have no why this was a challenge, but it was. It was kind of entertaining to watch, actually...) they fed each other delicate little bits of scrumptious chocolate cake.It was the first wedding I have been to where the newlyweds were the last to leave rather than the first. Most people left around 7ish. Luckily for those of us who stuck around a little bit longer, Darcie's cake-topper-toting grandma was there to regale us with stories. Stories of such things as the origin of the word "Testify," and why women are "unequipped" to do so. Think about it. I was unable to confirm the veracity of this story via Wikipedia, but it makes a great story so I'm going to believe Granny. Good times... I can't wait until I'm old enough to wantonly corrupt the rising generation with stories of unsubstantiated, somewhat inappropriate, "facts."

All I have left to say is, Good Job and Good Luck to Darcie and Spencer!

I Are Gradiated!

Now that December has passed its 100% official that I am graduated. Even though I defended last March, and walked in April, I still missed some of the deadlines with paperwork to have officially graduated back then. My diploma will say "December 2009" on it. Here's a photo montage of the day that I walked to commemorate the occasion:

Rest in Peep

To commemorate the 2009 Easter season, my FHE group decided that it would be fun to play Chubby Bunny with marshmallow peeps. It was fun, but messy. If you decide to do this, just know that the sugar coating on peeps makes you salivate much more than if you were to use normal white marshmallows. It was a bit icky...

Even after playing Chubby bunny with 8 or 9 people, they still had a dozen or so trays of bunny peeps left over. Everyone else split, so I was privileged with figuring out what to do with all of them. I gave most of them to a friend that REALLY loves peeps, but even he didn't want quite as many as I had. I decided to get creative with them and this is what I came up with:

To make peep-krispy treats you'll need:

4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) of butter or Margerine
10 oz (35-40) peeps
6 Cups Rice Krispies

Melt butter in a medium-sized pan. Add peeps and cook over medium heat until peeps are dissolved, stirring constantly. Rempoe pan from heat. Add Rice Krispies and stir until coated. Press mixture into a greased pan. Will firm up as they cool

Topping the mixture with severed peep heads is optional :-)















And Just in case you were wondering, here's a video that shows how peeps are made:

Blue-ish-Berries...

Sometimes I wish I had the time to become better at everything. I love learning new things, but I only have the time to do so much. This was a time when I wished that my photography skills were a lot better, because the pictures I took didn't do these little berries justice. They were fresh, they were sweet, they were juicy and I enjoyed them in so many ways. After days of eating them plain I made a berries 'n' cream variation sprinkled with a little bit of powdered sugar. Delicioso!!

I had a flash of inspiration and decided to slice a few open to see what the inside of a blueberry looks like. I kinda thought it would be blue all the way to the middle. Imagine my surprise when I found a beautiful white interior with cute little brown seeds! So Pretty!!

Those Canaan Days

My auntie Robin came up to St. George after Christmas to spend some time with us and to celebrate her 50th Birthday. While attending church, she noticed in the program that John Canaan (pronounced Can-Ann) was scheduled to give a free concert at the historic St. George Tabernacle. Since he was a bit of a superstar within the greater Utah-Idaho area in the 80's, my aunt was pretty excited to go and see him. This particular concert was focused on the holidays, though he is most well know for his song "What If I Loved You". Listening to this song, his voice may or may not sound familiar to you. He was the one that sung Michael McLean's song "You're Not Alone." Here's a video montage someone put together featuring this song. Such a great Tenor voice!



He was such a great guy and so happy to greet everyone after the concert. After we met the star of the show, my Mom gave us a Barbara-guided tour all around the Tabernacle. Here's some pictures of us in the balcony of the Tabernacle and on the "Historic Steep Steps."While I was typing this post I had a flashback to when a friend took me to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Here's what popped into my head: