Bet your bottom dollar...

Last night we went to see my little cousin Kristi in her elementary school play. They were doing the show Annie, but called it Annie Jr. because it was the "mini" version of it. I had pretty low expectations of an elementary school play, but these little kids completely blew my mind. The play was AMAZING! First of all, they were able to use the Junior High set of Canyon View that had been used when they did the play. Daddy Warbucks' house was amazing! I was blown away by how professional everything was. Second of all, those little kids were great! They remembered their lines and were great little actors and singers. Of course, my favorite was my little cousin Kristi. She was cast as the orphan Molly (the little one who is small and scared) and in my completely biased, yet realistic opinion, she totally stole the show. She was so cute! Here is a picture of me with Kristi after the play. The sun will come out tomorrow...:)

American Idol Ridiculousness

Ok, so American Idol totally ruined my life this week. Two hours on Tuesday, two hours Wednesday and an hour Thursday. Seriously? Can I really take 5 hours to watch a reality TV show? I'm so mad at myself, yet...addicted. Luckily we recorded them and so I could fast forward through all the commercials and about half of the judges comments and whatever else I found boring. Let me just say that the one kid that looks like Zac Efron CANNOT sing and needs to be kicked off ASAP and I loved the little Munoz kid that got kicked off. Sad day...I'm over it. I was not very impressed with a lot of them, mainly the girls. (This coming from someone who can hardly carry a tune. But that is why I am sitting on my couch watching other people, because I will be the first to acknowledge my lack of talent:) I also think that Haley Vaughn, the one who played the guitar to a Beatle's song (I don't remember which one) needs to get kicked off too. I'm sorry, she is cute and all, but lisps and pitchiness just is not a good combination. Isn't there a way to text or call in to vote for people you don't like, instead of like? I think dislike calls should be added that would erase votes.

Olympics at the Bright White Halfpipe

I have loved watching the Olympics this year, especially skiing and snowboarding. I have to admit I have been a super fan of the halfpipe competition ever since the Salt Lake City Olympics. We got tickets to the men's half pipe and pairs figure skating and both events have since been some of my favorites. Of course, Shaun White definitely makes it worth watching. I couldn't believe how amazing he is. But then, hearing about the LDS Australian Torah Bright winning gold in the halfpipe as well just added to my excitement of the halfpipe. I think that is awesome that her parents came and surprised her, and I think it is amazing that as incredible as winning a gold medal at the Olympics is, she said in interviews that she would rather have had them come to her temple sealing in June (since they can only make it here once). It makes me so happy to see successful athletes with gospel priorities.

Texas Roadhouse Bliss

So a few years ago when I was in high school, I saw an advertisement for Texas Roadhouse when it was opening. This was when I was living in Idaho. My family decided to check it out and fell in love with the delicious hot rolls and honey butter. I am not a big fan of steak, but I think that is because once you have tasted deliciousness, nothing short of tender, juicy, and flavorful will suffice. That is definitely what Texas Roadhouse has to offer. Every time I go, I get a house salad with bleu cheese dressing, a loaded baked potato, and some juicy and delicious slab of meat (usually sirloin or Dallas filet). Mmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

When I found out that a Texas Roadhouse had opened in Lehi, we were all over it. But it wasn't until the other day that we took advantage of the amazing benefits of call ahead seating. The other night we went there, but called about an hour before we got there, when the wait was only 40 minutes. There were so many people waiting, but we told them our code and went straight to the top of the waiting list. We were seated within 10 minutes of arrival, and as we left after eating there were people STILL waiting that were waiting when we got there! I don't know why anyone doesn't call ahead! Either way, the point of this post is to do a little word of mouth advertising of my own. 1) If you have never eaten at Texas Roadhouse, you are missing out and you should definitely check it out ASAP. It will be your new favorite steakhouse. 2) If you have eaten there and have never taken advantage of call ahead seating (it's not a reservation, but pretty close!) then don't waste time waiting there for an hour and a half like everyone else. Call ahead!

Valentine's Day: Can too many stars spoil a movie?

So my husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day like every other couple this weekend, but our 6 month anniversary falls on the 15th so we decided we just wanted to celebrate the whole weekend as our Valentine's/Anniversary extravaganza and make a weekend out of it. We unfortunately couldn't get out of work during the weekend so a getaway wasn't an option. But we definitely made the most of it anyway.

On Friday night we went and saw the new movie Valentine's Day and thought that it would be worth seeing since there were so many stars in one movie. But we left and it wasn't that we hated it, but we didn't love it or even like it for that matter. I almost felt like there were too many stars all over the place with their love stories that there was no main focus. I see that the point was to have a lot of relationship stories and what not, but you kind of get lost in it, even though some connect. One review said it nicely when they said that it seemed like they all got together for 3 weeks to shoot some footage, and decided to make a movie out of it, or something like that. It definitely had some funny moments, but it wasn't a must see. I maybe would have waited until the dollar theater or rented it, then it may be worth it. Either way it had funny moments and the Julia Roberts moment with her son sent a tear dripping down my face. When did I get so sentimental? I definitely liked it a little more than my husband did, but my advice is wait to get it on DVD to see it.

Childhood Favorites

As a child I had a favorite series of books. I was really into the American Girl Dolls and each girl had a series of books about her. Samantha was my favorite because she looked the most like me. I remember her book called Samantha Saves the Day was one of my favorites. There were different girls from different time periods of American history, and each one had a serious of five or six books about them. I loved reading about their adventures. Now that I am older, my taste in books has changed, but I still cherish the American Girl books.

My childhood favorites from the American Girl series really helped me feel like I had a place in the world, even though I was just a young girl. These girls from the books were helpful in many ways, and always had adventurous lives. I wanted to be and feel like they did as they went on their many adventures. It also taught me a lot about the time periods that they were living in. It was a great way to learn through their fictitious, yet realistic experiences.

MTC Media

So we sometimes talk about the negative effects of the media and how destructive it can be. This week I was thinking about some of the positive effects, namely with what the church can do with media. General Conference broadcasts throughout the world, pass-a-long cards, mormon and lds.org, LDS commercials promoting the family, and family history websites that are amazing like new.familysearch.org are just a few awesome ways the church uses the media.

Another way that I have appreciated media is at the MTC. I teach spanish speaking missionaries and even being isolated in the MTC bubble they are surrounded by it. On Sunday nights the missionaries look forward to watching a church movie (i.e. The Testaments, Legacy, the new Joseph Smith movie, or other church movies). Their spanish learning is assisted by the TALL lab (Technology Assisted Language Learning) and we as teachers have access to a library of previous devotionals and church movies that we can show the missionaries, as well as missionary training videos like The District and other Preach My Gospel Videos. I have been teaching for a while now and I think I have shown every single district a devotional by Elder Holland called "The Miracle of a Mission". I just showed my missionaries recently this devo and they always say it changes their perspective of the mission for the better. It is such an inspiring devotional that he gave way back in 2000. But the missionaries can still enjoy it and learn from his powerful testimony and wonderful advice. It makes me so grateful that the media can have such a positive impact on the strength and growth of the church.

Confessions of An Aspiring Chef

Ok, I have a confession to make: during some point in almost all my classes (except for Dr. Coyne's of course!) I find myself with my laptop looking up some new recipe I want to try during the week for dinner. I remember the days when you had to purchase a cookbook in order to get a good recipe, but now all you have to do is google what you want to make, or go to a recipe website for good ideas. I have discovered recently that I am addicted to allrecipes.com and will shamelessly admit it. Last week I found this amazing recipe for white chicken and spinach cheesy lasagna and it was DELICIOUS. I can't even take credit because I just followed the recipe exactly. We've also recently tried carrot rice, broiled tomatoes, honey balsamic chicken (copycat recipe from macaroni grill) and tonight we experimented with paninis and sweet potato fries (the best part is our version of Guru's fry sauce. The secrets: BBQ sauce and cumin!) I don't know that I will ever buy a cookbook again. My husband loves it of course because he gets to eat the food and let his mouth water at work as I email him recipes we can try. I definitely recommend it for all those looking for a specific recipe or who just want to try something new. Bon appetit!