Last night I went visiting teaching and the message I gave was on serving others. In General Conference one of the brethren spoke on service (I can't remember which brother) and he said that we needed to go out of our way to help people. For instance when visiting teaching, you aren't just supposed to ask if they need something but to do acts of service.
I park my car at my parents house instead of parking at UVSC because I don't want to pay for a parking permit. Anyways... I was going down the hill by the Majors house and I drove past a little girl (about 11 years old) walking up the hill, in shorts! I was taken back, shocked. I didn't really know what to think so as I drove past her I slowed down just in case she gave off any sign that she needed help. I passed her and another car was going up the hill and also passed her, I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw her kind of give a little "help me" wave. I turned around and headed back toward her. She was walking up the side of the road that doesn't have a sidewalk (the left side) and I pulled up on the right side, rolled down my window and asked if she needed help, or if she was going to Lakeridge and if she wanted a ride, of course she said yes. She was wearing shorts and a little windbreaker jacket type thing, her lips were extremely chapped and her skin was bright red from the cold. I would have said yes too. Before she got in the car I told her she shouldn't normally get in the car with strangers. (This world isn't very safe anymore, and it sucks). She got in and I asked her why she was walking to school, she told me her mom was making her walk. I asked her why she was wearing shorts then, and she told me it was because she didn't have any pants. I didn't really know what to say. As I took her to Lakeridge she told me that she lived across the street from the church and that her dad was in Iraq. I told her that I used to play nightgames at that church and she told me that she still does (in the spring and summer) and her mom lets her go play night games to "get her out of her hair". We got to Lakeridge and I dropped her off in front. I asked her if that was alright and she said she had to call her mom as soon as she got to school so it was good to be in the front. I was still in shock that the girl was wearing shorts and walking in the freezing cold weather this morning. I wasn't really sure if I should call someone or who to even call. I decided to call my mom and tell her the story. The girl had told me where she lived and I asked my mom if she knew anyone who lived there. She told me she thought it was the house that has foster children but she wasn't sure. I also told the story to Tanner and he said I should have gone inside Lakeridge and told them what happened, and maybe I still should... I'm not really sure. I just thought it was crazy. Some of the things she said and again, being outside in that cold of weather, IN SHORTS!!!!! How could any mother do that, and not drive your kid. I understand that she may not have been able to take her to school, and she may not be able to afford pants, but there are ways to take care of your children without that much money. I just kind of needed to share this story.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Black Friday.
We drove past Best Buy in Orem and there were tents and cars parked right in front of the store as if they were in the line. It was ridiculous. We changed our minds and decided to go home to sleep and go in the morning to see if they had anything good. We woke up at around 8 and went over to Best Buy. They were completely out of the cheap laptops and desktops. We found a digital camera that was 7.1 megapixels with a 12x optical zoom, not digital, OPTICAL! It was only 189.99 and they had quite a few left. We called Tanner and told him they still had them and we would hold onto it until he got there. So I guess there was a reason we went. Haha. It was still fun. Jason went and played basketball with cousin Davey, and Tan Tan... So I had about two hours to go to Target to see if they had some movies my mom wanted. While I was there I found that they still had ClearPlay dvd players and they were one sale! Ours had just stopped working about a week ago. What I mean is, when we would put a dvd in the player it wouldn't recognize that there was a dvd in it. It was very annoying. We tried cleaning it but it wouldn't recognize the cleaning dvd in it. Long story short I bought the new clearplay dvd player. It is very nice. It works better than the old one. It's smaller and it lights up a really cool blue color when you turn it on.
Thanksgiving weekend...
This Thanksgiving... We ate dinner at the Jaynes, we were asked to bring rolls, and if I had the time we were to bring a chocolate pie. We got a ride with my family and played some games before dinner. Jason and I had gone to the Thanksgiving morning sale at K-mart. We were going to see if they had any wii's and they gave out vouchers at four in the morning! We got there at six because the store was supposed to open at seven. Anyways... Long story short, they were out of wii vouchers when we got there so we decided to stay in line and get some of the board games that they had buy one get one free. We got Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, and Candy Land. So we brought them with us to the Jaynes. Dinner was great. The potatoes were amazing, the Turkey was actually pretty moist, and so many rolls!!!! After dinner we played some more games took naps, and then had dessert. There were so many pies, there had to be about 10 of them. After we had eaten pie and played scrabble (Jason, aunt Elaine, and I) the David Howell family came over and their children. We sat and talked and talked. We talked pretty much about everything. We drove back to Orem to pick up the car and go home to Provo. We had been planning on going to the black Friday sale in the morning so we decided to check and see how long the line for best buy was. (We were going to wait in line all night to get a laptop for 399 and also a desktop for 199). (more in next post)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Oh the Joys of Baking.
I have been meaning to make bread for a while now and I finally got the opportunity to make some today. I didn't have school this morning and I didn't have work until 1. (Leisy, are you still looking for a bread recipe? Because I am going to post this one just in case.) This recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.
Whole Wheat Bread:
3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 pkg of active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, margarine, or shorting
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1. In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour and the yeast; set aside. In a medium size saucepan heat and stir water, brown sugar, butter and salt just until warm (120-130 degrees F) and butter almost melts. Add water mixture to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour and as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as you can.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining all purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours).
3. Punch dough down (punch down the dough by pushing your fist into its center, then using your fingers to pull the dough edges to the center). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2in pans.
4. Shape dough halves into loaves by patting or rolling. To shape by patting, gently pat and pinch, tucking edges underneath. To shape by rolling, on a lightly floured surface roll each dough half into a 12x8 in rectangle. Roll up each rectangle, starting from a short side. Seal seams with your fingertips. ( When shaping it with the rolling technique, I like to put a little honey on it while it is flat and then roll the honey in)
5. Place shaped dough halves in pans. Cover, let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30-45 minutes)
6. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes to prevent overbrowning). Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks.
Whole Wheat Bread:
3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 pkg of active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, margarine, or shorting
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1. In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour and the yeast; set aside. In a medium size saucepan heat and stir water, brown sugar, butter and salt just until warm (120-130 degrees F) and butter almost melts. Add water mixture to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour and as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as you can.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining all purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double in size (1 to 1 1/2 hours).
3. Punch dough down (punch down the dough by pushing your fist into its center, then using your fingers to pull the dough edges to the center). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2in pans.
4. Shape dough halves into loaves by patting or rolling. To shape by patting, gently pat and pinch, tucking edges underneath. To shape by rolling, on a lightly floured surface roll each dough half into a 12x8 in rectangle. Roll up each rectangle, starting from a short side. Seal seams with your fingertips. ( When shaping it with the rolling technique, I like to put a little honey on it while it is flat and then roll the honey in)
5. Place shaped dough halves in pans. Cover, let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30-45 minutes)
6. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes to prevent overbrowning). Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Movies
Last night we went and borrowed Ratatouille, and Meet the Robinsons from my mom, and we also went and bought Oceans 13. We then came home and watched all three of them. We had seen Oceans 13 before but not the other two. We watched Ratatouille first and loved it! It is probably one of the funniest Disney movies I've seen in a while. It was very original and great for anyone. The only thing I found fishy about the movie is that the two main characters didn't have French accents, yes they could be from other places, but, at least for the Rat, he is probably from England or somewhere over in Europe so he should have some kind of European accent... After that we watched Meet the Robinsons, which was also pretty darn good, although pretty predictable. It was a very cute movie with a good moral. Then of course we watched Oceans 13, too bad I fell asleep but I do like that movie.
Also, we went and saw Beowulf on Friday... I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone. It was pretty interesting. We saw it in 3-d which made it really cool. Other than that, the movie was pretty predictable. I looked on yahoo to see what other people though of the movie and users said that the movie was not like the poem, and if you wanted to know the real version of the story then read the poem. I did just that. They veered from the poem. I am disturbed that our society is so disgusting these days and perverted that they would change the story just so they could put a pretty much naked Angelina Jolie in the movie. The woman isn't even supposed to be beautiful. Other than the Angelina parts, and how Beowulf is married and has a mistress that his wife, the queen, knows about. Other than that the movie was pretty entertaining. At least it was better than that HORRIBLE movie Rush Hour 3. (my advice, don't waste your time or money watching it.)
Also, we went and saw Beowulf on Friday... I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone. It was pretty interesting. We saw it in 3-d which made it really cool. Other than that, the movie was pretty predictable. I looked on yahoo to see what other people though of the movie and users said that the movie was not like the poem, and if you wanted to know the real version of the story then read the poem. I did just that. They veered from the poem. I am disturbed that our society is so disgusting these days and perverted that they would change the story just so they could put a pretty much naked Angelina Jolie in the movie. The woman isn't even supposed to be beautiful. Other than the Angelina parts, and how Beowulf is married and has a mistress that his wife, the queen, knows about. Other than that the movie was pretty entertaining. At least it was better than that HORRIBLE movie Rush Hour 3. (my advice, don't waste your time or money watching it.)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Tagged
Wow, I just got tagged. So... I guess it's time for me to figure out some little known facts about me... Well this certainly is harder than it looks.
1. I love learning about new things. I really mean it, the only thing I don't like is actually doing homework. I guess I just don't like being told I have to do something, or I'll fail. Sometimes I wish teachers would give a description of what they wanted us to learn out of the class and then say there were a certain amount of assignments and you could pick a way that you wanted to express your understanding or knowledge of a subject.
2. I like going to bed early. I enjoy being in bed by 10, even though it doesn't always happen that way. I love being able to go to bed early and be able to wake up at a decent time and feel refreshed. I like to get at least 8 hours of sleep because your body actually needs it! You can't really make up sleep, and you can't really understand anything completely if you are half asleep.
3.I just barely decided upon a major. It has taken me a long time and I have finally picked one. I am going to major in English and I plan to be done sometime in 09... Hopefully. I previously wanted to go into; psychology/nutrition working especially with eating disorder patients, a computer programmer, and also thought about being a nurse.
4. I love riding in the car. I do enjoy driving, but not as much as going on car rides.
5. I am taking a womens self defense class this semester... The first half of the semester we didn't really do much, the teacher didn't come half of the time and when he would show up he would come in 15-30 minutes late... We now have a new teacher and he is always on time and we practiced so hard on last Thursday, kicking, that my legs were sore until the next class the following Tuesday.
6. I love baking. I love sugar. One of my favorite things to do is to just bake something from scratch... Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, bread, rolls, cake, and a lot of other things. I'm a very picky eater when it comes to my sweets. If the recipe calls for some sort of nuts I'll keep them out. If it calls for something like coconut, I'll keep it out. We got a few cook books for our wedding and then Jason had this huge cook book from before it has 1000+ pages. Apparently it is the book culinary arts schools use as their text book. It has the most complex recipes in it and it gives tons of tips and directions on how to make things. The only problem is that the sweets recipes make a lot of food. Some recipes make 6 or 7 cakes.
1. I love learning about new things. I really mean it, the only thing I don't like is actually doing homework. I guess I just don't like being told I have to do something, or I'll fail. Sometimes I wish teachers would give a description of what they wanted us to learn out of the class and then say there were a certain amount of assignments and you could pick a way that you wanted to express your understanding or knowledge of a subject.
2. I like going to bed early. I enjoy being in bed by 10, even though it doesn't always happen that way. I love being able to go to bed early and be able to wake up at a decent time and feel refreshed. I like to get at least 8 hours of sleep because your body actually needs it! You can't really make up sleep, and you can't really understand anything completely if you are half asleep.
3.I just barely decided upon a major. It has taken me a long time and I have finally picked one. I am going to major in English and I plan to be done sometime in 09... Hopefully. I previously wanted to go into; psychology/nutrition working especially with eating disorder patients, a computer programmer, and also thought about being a nurse.
4. I love riding in the car. I do enjoy driving, but not as much as going on car rides.
5. I am taking a womens self defense class this semester... The first half of the semester we didn't really do much, the teacher didn't come half of the time and when he would show up he would come in 15-30 minutes late... We now have a new teacher and he is always on time and we practiced so hard on last Thursday, kicking, that my legs were sore until the next class the following Tuesday.
6. I love baking. I love sugar. One of my favorite things to do is to just bake something from scratch... Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, bread, rolls, cake, and a lot of other things. I'm a very picky eater when it comes to my sweets. If the recipe calls for some sort of nuts I'll keep them out. If it calls for something like coconut, I'll keep it out. We got a few cook books for our wedding and then Jason had this huge cook book from before it has 1000+ pages. Apparently it is the book culinary arts schools use as their text book. It has the most complex recipes in it and it gives tons of tips and directions on how to make things. The only problem is that the sweets recipes make a lot of food. Some recipes make 6 or 7 cakes.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Family video
A few weeks ago I started to upload some old family videos onto the laptop to edit them and use my birthday gift. I stumbled upon this clip from a family vacation to McCaul, ID (I don't know how to spell the city) We went up there sometime in October in either 2003 or 2004. (I'll update later when I know for sure) I just love this clip. It was such a fun family vacation. Everyone was so young. Tanner is pre-miss, I think it shows how much he changed on his mission. That cabin is the David Howell family cabin, I'm not sure if they named it or not. Anyways, I am going to get back to studying and then actually editing that little family video.
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