Loganites

On April 24th it was my friend Jennifer's birthday! We've been good friends for a long time and it's fun to catch up. I don't get to see her very often because she goes to USU and lives in Logan. But for her birthday she invited her family and a few friends to come up and visit her!

Jennifer, Lauren, Me.

The day started off with James and me driving one of Jennifer's friends, Travis, from Provo to West Jordan at 7am. Yikes. Then I dropped James off at my family's house, and met up with Jennifer's parents who would carpool us to Logan. It was quite a long drive. Especially because of a giant long box in the car that had to fit between all the seats and blocked our view of each other. But eventually we made it.

After we talked to Jennifer and saw the place where she works, her apartment, and some friends, the whole group went to a park in the canyon and cooked brunch.

It was delicious! Jennifer and Lauren are cutting up tomatoes for the breakfast burritos.








After that we drove up the canyon some more and went on a short little hike. We found a tree swing near a visitor cabin and a river. It was fun to be in the canyon, but gosh it is cold in Logan. Jennifer has grown skin of leather to be able to live up there in a T-shirt.

Then went back for a tour of USU. It was pretty fun! Especially with Jennifer. She would be a great tour guide. Then we found a little picnic spot on campus and sang to Jennifer and ate the cake and she opened presents.

After that we went to a park nearby and played games till it got dark. And swung on swings.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Annie's, apparently known for their "sink" of ice cream which they actually bring to you in a dish that looks like a kitchen sink. If you eat it all then you win a bumper sticker that says, "I cleaned the sink at Annie's." But you can also win it as a group if you collectively eat it. Which is silly because I ate like one spoonful. And nobody wanted the bumper sticker except Jennifer and she already has one. :)

All in all it was a pretty fun day! It was fun to see Jennifer and Lauren again. They surely are the never-let-go-of type of friends. Hooray for friends!

More Midday Munching Marker Art

Brought to you by James.

Monday 4/13, Freedom Academy with 7th and 8th grade math.

This is a magical dragon symbol from a computer game James really likes, Skyrim.

Friday 4/17, American Leadership Academy observing a math class that I was going to take over for 4 weeks.

This lunch bag may look very strange and slightly disturbing, which is a normal reaction to the Saucy Daikon and Huggable Eggplant. It's kind of a long story and the internet is to blame.

Tuesday 4/21, ALA being a long term substitute with math classes.

Isn't this giraffe just so, so, so, so adorable!??

Wednesday 4/22, same school as above. This lion was a request by me after receiving such a cute giraffe. I should make a zoo collection.

Monday 4/27. Yet again we have the last but NOT least!! James and his mad artistic genius have created "American Slothic," which was inspired from an internet guy who paints people as sloths.

The Pretzel Surprise

So one of Miranda's favorite foods is pretzels. When ever we are at the mall or somewhere where pretzels are sold/can be smelled I have to push Miranda away. I was recently going through recipes that I have bookmarked over the past few years and came across one for pretzels. I decided at about midnight that it would be a good idea to make pretzels for Miranda's lunch. I made them which made for a happy wife.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons soften butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 cup warm water ( 115ish degree F)
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• coarse salt

Baking Soda Boil

• 5 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 cups water

Directions

1. Put yeast, sugar and water in bowl and stir. Let sit for 5 minutes and add salt, butter and 1 cup flour. Stir till smooth.
2. Add rest of flour and stir till mixed well. When mixture is too stiff to stir with a spoon (or you can use an electric mixer with dough hook like I do), begin kneading. Knead dough till smooth and the dough no longer sticks to your hands.
3. Place dough back in bowl and cover to rise to double it's size.
4. While dough is rising, grease cookie sheet and preheat oven to 475°F Prepare baking soda boil by combining the 4 cups of water and 5 teaspoons baking soda in a non-aluminum pot and bring to a boil on stove.
5. When dough has risen, punch down and knead a minute or so. Divide and roll into 6 inch sticks to about 1/2 inch diameter with your hands, or 12 inch long rolls to make into the pretzel shape.
6. Allow pretzels to sit for 2-3 minutes. Place 1-2 at a time into the boiling baking soda water.
7. Let pretzels boil for 1 minute and 10 seconds on one side, then flip them over and boil 1 minute and 10 seconds on the other side
8. This boiling step is the secret to firm skin and adds that definite pretzel flavor. Not boiling them long enough leaves them too soft and allows them to rise too much. Boiling too long makes them tough. Err on the side of not too long if unsure.
9. Using a large slotted spoon, lift them out the of water, let them drip off and place on the greased cookie sheet. When all are done, sprinkle with course salt (Parmesan is good too!).
10. Bake 12-15 minutes until the are a medium to dark golden brown.
11. Makes 3 dozen 6 inch sticks or 1 dozen pretzels

We've Gone Bananas

Playing Bananagrams and eating banana bread!

We love each other a bunch.

Spring is in the Air

Photography of James.

Books Read (Feb, Mar)

The latest and greatest books. James has been super busy with the second half of the semester and calculus, so there aren't any that he read this time. Unless you count textbooks. But here are the ones I've read!

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. This was actually for my relief society book club from January, I have no idea why I didn't include it with the other books. I had already read it before, but reading it again was really fun and there was a lot that I didn't remember. It's a great classic-fairytale-with-a-twist story.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. James and I borrowed it from my parents. I think dystopia stories are interesting to think about, and compare the world with what the author thought the future would be like. This one is kind of dark. If you buy into the idea it's pretty frightening, but if you don't then it's just kind of ridiculous and weird. It also isn't very realistic, but I think the author was more trying to convey certain political ideas rather than psychological feelings. Overall I'd say it was pretty okay.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was honestly kind of boring...definitely not as good as The Great Gatsby. You basically follow a guy through his childhood, adolescent and young adult life during the early 1900s. It's supposed to be like a "self discovery" type of journey but he doesn't actually discover much by the end. In fact it's really just a biography of an average Joe who thinks he's special but doesn't really do anything with his life. Ah well.

The Big Four by Agatha Christie. Although great as usual, it was different from other Agatha Christie mysteries because the mystery was so big that when the detective solved it, he also saved the world. So it wasn't as much finding little clues that turn out to be brilliant, as it was being amazing enough to outsmart the secretly world-controlling, all-powerful gang of bad guys. Like Avengers. I think she wrote this one to introduce a Moriarty-like arch nemesis for the detective.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is probably the most excellent book on the list! It is so well written and the story is so "fresh," which is a word that I'm hoping means "ingenious, creative, and unlike any other that I've read," but also SO CLASSIC in how everybody who reads it can identify with it, like Shakespeare. There is truth in this book! It could be made into a parable for so many things in life. Love love love!

The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit. This book is set in World War 2, and is about the wives of the scientists who created the atomic bomb. I actually really liked this book, but for some reason I liked it a tiny bit less when I realized it was published in 2014 and was not a first person account (it's written in first-person). Probably just my prideful self saying "I am NOT a feminist!" Because the book was great. I really liked the detached expository writing style and descriptions.

Hard-Boiled Traditions

The longer we are married, the more I realize that holiday traditions are for families with kids. I still really like doing things like opening stockings, carving pumpkins, and coloring eggs, but it's just less of an event when there are no children. So our egg coloring, while fun, was also pretty quick and somewhat quiet.

Still fun though.

Happy Easter!

Surprise!

Well, I've been busy busy busy. Now it's time to catch up again. So even though it's the end of April I'm going back a few weeks.

So anyway. The last Friday in March after I got home, James said, "Wanna come up to campus with me? I forgot something at work." I truly honestly didn't even think anything of it. I didn't even ask WHAT he forgot. We just left toward campus, and right as we were passing by the Brick Oven, he opened the door and we went inside! It was then that I realized he actually didn't forget anything at work.

It was really delicious and fun. I was slightly confused why he was splurging on Brick Oven, but he finally revealed this!

That's right. James' Dad, out of the blue, had sent a gift card in the mail! Thanks Moore Dad!!!!

Also while we were there we happened to see our friends Ross and Mariah. It's weird how often we happen to run into those two. It seems to always happen at places we've never been before. Anyway, Mariah saw us trying to take a selfie and offered to take a picture for us!

I've never been to the Brick Oven before, so I was excited to finally get the chance! James and I always walk or drive past it because it's right next to campus. Evidently their root beer is of very fine quality. Also they have amazing artichoke dip which is almost as good as my mom's.

Mostly, we both just really liked having a fun spontaneous date together. Life is so much fun with this guy. I honestly don't know what I'd do without him.