Happy Conference!

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One of my favorite times of the year!

I hope you all are able to snuggle up in your PJs all weekend and enjoy hearing the words of our current church leaders!

When we were talking with Owen's family about the upcoming conference, they told us about a family in their ward who after reading about King Benjamin in Mosiah, decided that for conference they would set up tents in their living room, with the door open towards the TV where the church leaders would be speaking! I thought that was such a fun(ny) idea, and if I ever have a living room that is actually big enough to fit a tent in, I might just have to try it!

Literature Find

I know this was a while ago, but for Devynne's birthday, I wanted to take her somewhere fun in Salt Lake. And if you know Devynne, fun = books. While we were dining at Eva a few weeks ago, I noticed a rare and used books shop. Perfect!

Or so I thought...

We drove up there, only to find out that the specific rare bookstore that we had remembered actually was under construction and wasn't open! I was so mad! But fortunately I am kind of dumb with directions, so I actually had looked up directions for another rare books store in Salt Lake, a couple blocks up from where we already were. How lucky!

We walked up to Ken Sanders Rare Books, and decided to look around for a little while. They had a fantastic collection! They had a children's book that Devynne had been searching for, so many books with really low prices, and a huge collection of the prettiest leather bound books you've ever seen. Seriously. It made me want to go right then and there to buy a new fancy house with a library in it, just so I could buy those books and stare at them all day. But who has that kind of money? There were some classics (including the three from The Music Man -- Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac!) and some fun ones, including ones about gastric anatomy and rare diseases which looked fun to me of course.

Here was our final purchase:

Yeah, Owen was kind of going crazy in the science fiction section...

And that book on the bottom -- that is ALL of the Chronicles of Narnia books, and the cashier decided to give it to us half-price because she forgot to ring it up right away, so it was only $5!! The whole purchase was around $26 -- that's like four dollars a book! Not to mention the bottom book actually contains 7 books. What a great deal! 

You should definitely check this place out. 

Dear J. Crew

Dear J. Crew,


Why do you have to make the perfect shirt that I have been looking everywhere for?

And why do you have to make it $40? I mean, who really pays forty dollars for a shirt?


Sincerely,


Chelsey

I Made a Pie

As you may or may not know, I am taking a cooking class this semester. Yeah. It's pretty sweet. I've learned a few new things (like that homemade pasta is totally not worth the effort!), made a few new things (including some Utah specialties like broccoli and "Waldorf" salad), and have had a ton of fun. Last week was pastry week, so we each got to make and bring home our own apple pie!

Here's mine.

Yeah baby. Look at that intricate lattice crust. It took forever, so you better appreciate it.

So it looked freaking amazing, but how did it taste? The crust was better than I expected. The bottom was a little soggy, but that is probably because I didn't get to bake it until the day after I prepared it. But the filling -- boo! It was too liquidy and didn't set up :( Next time I am going to keep my crust recipe, but go with this tried and true favorite apple pie filling recipe of ours. It is SO good. Also I learned that it is SO important to keep the crust cold! I think I would let it chill for a couple hours next time before rolling it out, but other than that, it worked out pretty well! Also, to keep things fancy, I made some crème fraîche instead of whipped cream to go on top. I followed this recipe, and was surprised at how easy it was to prepare! And it was infinitely better than just plain old whipped cream!

Of course, apple pie also wouldn't be my top choice of pie. It's Owen's favorite, but I think my favorite is a tie between blackberry + peach or strawberry + rhubarb. Mmmm... What is your favorite kind of pie?

Happy Birthday to the Greatest Mom Ever!

You're the greatest. Honestly, you are the strongest, most loyal, most organized, most helpful, most inspiring, and most loving person that I know. There is no way we would be who we are or have accomplished the things we have without your encouragement and support. Thank you for sticking with it and never giving up. I love you so much!

Hunger Games

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What is the huge deal about these books? I had kind of heard about them before, but ever since the movie came out on Friday, everyone has been going nuts about them! Even my own husband went to the midnight premiere of the movie. 

But I graciously declined the midnight invitation - A) Because it's supposed to get down to 41 degrees tonight, and I've been adjusting to the warm weather way to quickly to handle that, and B) I just feel kind of morally opposed to the concepts in the books.

So as far as I know, the Hunger Games are set up so that the general public can watch two kids kill each other for entertainment. At first this of course sounded like an interpretation of those gladiator fights back in the days of Rome, but with children. I was shocked! Of course I'm totally naïve because I've never actually read any of the books, but I was still a little freaked out that something so violent was considered to be young adult/juvenile literature. Are they having kids read this stuff in school?

What do you think? Are the Hunger Games books too violent for someone like me who cried while watching Dark Knight? Or am I overreacting to these kids books?

Where'd You Go?

Well, I've been here, just doing the same old day-to-day routine, feeling like I don't have anything that interesting to post about. It's so funny - I totally thought that I would be able to handle doing the whole two blogs thing, since I always feel like I have a lot of opinions and I have more spare time, but it's like the whole blog vs. journal thing. It seems like I can only keep up one at a time.

Plus I've been a little intimidated by some of the blogs out there in the Internet sphere. People who post every day, have original and mind-blowing photos for every day, or cute outfits or extravagant recipes. It's all a little insane, if you ask me.

But then again, why do I need to compare my posts to any other blog?

I don't.

So I am back!

But I may not post every day. And I may not have something super hilarious or creative to say. And I certainly won't have a unique and inspiring original photograph every day. Can we all agree that this will be alright and I can keep blogging even though I may not do those things?

Good.

And if you have a problem with this, then let me know. And I can like block you from my blog or something.

Because this is my blog. And I'm gonna do what I want.

take a break

I remember a talk from President Uchtdorf (not going to look up the reference right now because I should be studying) where he talked about how too many of us put off our happiness until some future event occurs. I feel like that could be me right now -- I'll just be happy once I'm done with this horrible Developmental Bio midterm/I hear back from the U/I get ANY sort of mail/Owen's done with bug-blitzing at work/it's summertime/etc. But yesterday I tried to take a step back from all of that and just enjoy the day. It was sunny, which is always helpful, so I sat outside, enjoyed the warmth, and tried to just focus on the positive. And you know what, I think it worked. 

Yay for spring-time nails. Yellow with white polka dots.  I love them. 

And now I have to take that test...

Happy 25!

I know I'm a little behind, but last Thursday, Owen turned 25! Man, he is SO old. Closer to 30 now! Sheesh. Anyway, even though he didn't want to stress me out since I had my interview at the U the day after, I still had to plan some birthday fun for him!

On Thursday after my yoga class, I walked home as fast as I could and made some hot wings for his birthday.

I didn't realize when we bought the wings that I would have to cut them up into the wings and drumsticks...what a pain! They turned out pretty delicious in the end, but from now on, I have decided that it is absolutely worth the cost of going out and buying wings!

Then we laughed as Owen and Tim danced their tushies off to Zumba Fitness on the Kinect. They were surprisingly good!

And we decided that it was time for Owen to get a haircut...

Then for dinner on Friday night to celebrate his birthday and me being done with all pharmacy school interviews, we went to dinner at Benihana. Even though it is outlandishly expensive, neither of us had been there before, and you have to at least go there once, right? We lucked out and our chef, Cornelio was super fun. He kept making all these little jokes and Owen and I would crack up the whole time while everyone else was too busy eating. I don't understand why some people go there and don't watch them cook the whole time, it's so fun! He would do all these weird funny things like flip shrimp tails into his hat and coat pocket, and then bounce an egg on the edge of his spatula. It was crazy! But we were highly entertained, and had a great time. 

He shaped the food into fun shapes, including a sweet little message, and a good friend of ours...

All in all, a fun birthday experience. And I got his all 6 Star Wars movies for his birthday (which I haven't seen before), so guess what we've been doing the past couple of days!

May the force be with you.