The Trick

The trick to feeding a man is to not ask him what he wants or tell him what's for dinner. The trick is to just make it. Set it in front of him. Let him eat. He'll enjoy it if you don't give him a choice. Mark has always told me that it would work, but he's usually around when I'm cooking (which means he will disagree with what I'm about to cook, and we end up eating mac and cheese). Last night he was around, but on the phone. So I made a dinner of potato and cheese soup (thanks to Wendy's great gift). And he liked it.

And that, my friends, is the trick.

Sigh of Relief

Well, I feel pretty good about my final. As I've talked over it with some of the other students, I've felt more and more confident. When I think about the midterm and it's results I feel even better about this exam.

The rest of this week will be filled with relaxing, cooking, laundering, cleaning, bass playing, performing, sleeping, researching, proctoring and grading. And all of these things will be done with A LOT less stress.

It's going to be a good week.

Ketchup

Since the last time I wrote, two big events have happened. First, Thanksgiving. Since Mark had gone to Bryce Canyon and Escalante with his brothers, I found a ride to Salt Lake to spend time with my sister and mom. It was great! We had fun making noodles for homemade chicken noodle soup, laughing and chatting, and making jello "shots" and trifle "shots" for the Sweet family Thanksgiving. It was awesome to have time to just chill with the fam. It was also awesome that Gramma Sweet was at my mom's house for a few hours making the noodles for Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't spent time with her in a very long time, and it's just good to be around Gramma. Just to be able to hug her when I wanted was wonderful. I love you, Gramma!!
After spending time with my family, the plan was that Mark would pick me up and we'd head back to Logan on Wednesday night. Or so everybody else thought. Mark and I had planned to stay for Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday, and I decided to keep it a surprise. The look on Gramma's face was priceless when she saw me Thanksgiving morning. I hope I never forget that face. She's beautiful. Anyway, it was wonderful to spend time with the aunts, uncles and cousins who were at the dinner. I miss those folks.
We left Salt Lake on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Logan around 6 or 7. Mark and I got bored and fell asleep at 7:30. Lame, I know, but it was awesome. We woke up at 6:30 the next morning, and we didn't go shopping. Weird, right? But we didn't feel we needed anything. So we just had a nice long morning together. Later in the day on Friday, Mark's family held their Thanksgiving dinner. That was also a blast. 4 of the 6 brothers were there (one was in Ireland and the other in Georgia). It was fun to be with all of the nieces and nephews.
I love holidays!

The second big event that happened was that I finished my grading of assignments and quizzes for the semester. You know what that means? This semester is just about over. Not only am I done grading, but I am done with assignments and projects for my classes. Just one final on Monday, then I'm basically done. How awesome is that?!

What's your favorite part of the holidays? Is it the sweets and treats? Is it the hot chocolate by the fireplace? Or is it just having the heat on in your house so that it's a nice cozy place to come to after playing in the (non-existent) snow?

For the Love

Mark left tonight to go to Bryce Canyon with a couple of his brothers for a few days. I don't know what to do with myself. It's quite boring living alone, and I've only been home without him for 20 minutes. Lame. Any ideas on things I can do to keep myself entertained? Or, rather than that, how do I motivate myself to clean the house and get my homework and other things done?

On a different note (no pun intended), I played in an orchestra concert tonight. Have I ever told you what a release music is for me? Sure, the practices at night in the middle of the week are sometimes inconvenient. But when I sit on stage with the lights warming my skin, and the conductor walks on stage and everyone claps, then the house lights go dim and the conductor raises his baton... Then music. From a bunch of people using their talents and working together to provide something beautiful to a willing audience. I get chills just thinking about it. I'm so grateful that my parents instilled deep within me a great love of music. I'm grateful for such supportive parents, who drove through a snowstorm for an hour and a half (one way) so that they could listen to the orchestra play for an hour and a half. I'm grateful that they encouraged (and sometimes bribed) me to try different types of music and instruments. I declare that I have the best parents in the world. I love you Mom and Dad. Thank you for coming tonight. It meant the world to me.

Guest Post

A friend of mine wrote down this story about a recent family home evening in her singles ward because she thought I would enjoy it. And I did. So I got permission to post it here. You're welcome.

"Lap Tag" or "How I Spent the Creepiest Monday Night Ever" by Jill Warnock

In lap tag, you have a group of people (>7) and it must be an odd number. Half the people sit in a circle and then the other people sit on the first groups laps. For notation purposes, the people in the first group are denoted (1), the people in the second group as (2) and the person by himself as (3). 3 is also in the circle. 3 points at two 2s, who have to crawl over to 3 and tag his foot. The 1s hold on to their 2s and don't let them get to 3. The 1 whose 2 gets to 3 first becomes the new 3 and the other 1 and 2 switch.
So then they made me play. And I get stuck sitting on the lap of some guy who came with another girl, meaning I had NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE. When I got pointed at he wrapped both arms around my stomach and one leg around my knees and we had to wrestle. And I am done with singles wards.

Because I Said I Would

I know you have all been waiting for the pictures of me and Casey. So, here they are!

This last picture I think is best, except the lighting isn't great. But did you see in the second picture how intense our conversation was? Man, it was great. I just love that woman.

Also, do you like the blog makeover? It's kind of fall-ish.. Since it's fall now, I figured it would be appropriate..

Awesome Week = Really Tired

Wednesday was a very good day for me. First, let me just tell you...

I got an A- on that midterm that I dreaded and complained about for over a week and that took me 16 hours! Oh, I just can't describe to you how good it felt to get it back without having a big F on it...

Ahh.. I'm glad I got that off my chest. Now, on to equally exciting and fun news!

Wednesday afternoon I headed down to the big city for a teeth cleaning and a book signing. It doesn't sound very exciting, but wait! The book signing was actually for a cookbook written by The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Before the actual signing took place, there was a question-answer session where we could ask her anything we wanted. Naturally, I thought of my question the next morning... I want to know if she's ever had fry sauce.. It's not an extremely common condiment outside of Utah, but how could she come to Utah without even trying it?!

Before the question-answer thing started I was people watching (a favorite past-time of mine) when I realized that I was sitting about 7 feet from where Casey from mooshinindy.com was standing with her little moosh! I was ecstatic! I mean, not only did I get to revel in the beauty and glory of my favorite online recipe provider, but I got to see the owner of one of my favorite "real life" blogs! You can ask my mom, aunt, or sister-in-law. They'll tell you that I was excited. I couldn't stop the little squeals of delight from escaping from my heart. Just thinking about it now gives me the chills. And that was just from seeing her. Then it happened. She looked in my direction and saw me looking at her. And I mouthed (because it was loud and she wouldn't have heard me if I spoke it out loud) "Are you Casey?" She looked at me, somewhat bewildered, and responded with a nod. I motioned that I was going to come talk to her (and she didn't run away!) and away I went. It's interesting how sometimes I feel shy in leaving a comment on someone's blog, yet in real life I am as forward and outgoing as the girl next door (or something like that). Anyhow, I introduced myself and talked for a minute (and got a couple of pictures with her - to be posted later) then returned to my seat. Seriously, a highlight of my night.

After the question-answer thing we (mom, aunt, sister-in-law, me) went to Arby's. I got an order of jalapeno poppers, and the nice gent gave me a couple extra cups of Bronco Berry Sauce. I decided to ask PW if she would use them in a recipe in a future post. She said she would. So now you know my claim to fame.

More about this good week to come...

Someone Explain This..

This morning when I went outside, there was snow on the grass and not on the sidewalk. I understand that. What I don't understand is that it's been snowing all day, and the snow on the grass is melting...


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