Once Upon A Mattress.

I watched the movie "Once Upon A Mattress" yesterday. It's one of my favorites. (How I usually decide what movie to watch is whatever song I wake up with in my head. Random, but anyway). As I was watching the movie I was reminded of a college experience...

"Once Upon A Mattress" is about a princess having to sleep under a pea, or not sleep, whichever. A single pea, in fact the smallest pea in the kingdom, underneath twenty downy mattresses. It was to test the princesses 'sensitivity'.

Last semester, when all the classes were over and everyone was packing up to leave my roommate and I moved my mattress (it's a new and very nice one) onto the opposite bed. As we moved it, we discovered something. There was a shoe, a high-heeled shoe, in fact, that I had apparently slept on all four months of the semester. Come to find out that my first semester of being in that apartment, my roommates had played a trick on one of the girls and hid a lot of her things. They put the shoe under her mattress which later became my mattress.

I guess one thing is for sure: I'm no princess. ;)

Breakfast in 5 Minutes!

These are waffles (or pancakes) so the first thing you'll want to do is plug in the waffle iron or get the pancake pan heating up.

1 cup of milk and
1 cup of whole wheat (Yes, whole wheat. Trust me, it will be okay)
Blend this for 2 minutes, then add
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of oil
3 eggs
4 tsp. baking powder and
1/2 tsp salt.
Blend this for 2 more minutes (that makes 4 minutes total thus far).
And then cook it! (That's the last minute)
And there you have it. Breakfast in five minutes! Grandma and I just had some this morning and it was really good. Usually I'm the modern type who doesn't like whole wheat and just sticks with store bought white bread but I actually really like this.

Now, my problem would be getting a hold of the whole wheat. You can get it from the Bishop's storehouse (25 lbs for $5.90) or from any health food store, but they charge a lot! Grandpa always preferred the hard wheat because it gives the waffles a nutty texture, but if you like it soft you can just get the soft wheat. And here's a note of wisdom from Grandma: if the wheat is made into wheat flower and it's not frozen don't buy it. It has no food value left. Just buy the wheat and grind it or use it when you're ready. It lasts a whole lot longer.

Star Wars

I found this the other day as I was looking up videos on YouTube. I guess you'd have to be a Star Wars fan in order to fully appreciate this song. I think it's really funny!

Improvising.

I had a sub today in nursery for my companion teacher and I haven't caught on to the full swing of things so I was mostly just improvising. I played the "Who's behind me!" game. It was very fun! The kids would pile behind me and I would turn my head around "trying" to find them and whoever was standing in front of me I'd ask, "Who's behind me?" And I was surprised to find that the kids knew each other's names. They'd point and yell giving their classmates away. It was cool! And they were so reverent today in class! My favorite part was when one of my students stood up during the lesson, pressed his nose into the Manuel and stated "That's quite interesting!" And this is coming from a three year old! Anyway, have I mentioned that I love my calling? Kids are so funny!

My Thoughts on Raisins.

I believe that raisins are one of the strangest foods in existence. My reasons are simple enough and I'll gladly tell you what they are. One of the first things I notice about a raisin is how ugly it is, not at all attractive to eat. Second, if I'm brave enough to put one in my mouth, I find I am experiencing a most disgusting taste. My final reason is that if I continue eating raisins I realize that they are not filling.

I suppose it all depends on what you think of as alluring, but for me, I can not see how a raisin could be anything but ugly. Their dried insides, covered with a shriveled coat remind me only of old age. To me, raisins seem to suffer greatly from their variety of color. A raisins color is usually dark and morbid; however, there are the occasional yellows and reds. These gloomy colors tend to drive my interest away to something much less blatant, say M&M's for example. M&M's hold a wide variety in color choices, far beyond that of a raisin. Not that being green will make the thing easier to eat.

At least once a year I find myself chewing hopelessly on a raisin, while holding back tears as the most repulsive taste fills my mouth. After much research I have come to the conclusion that a raisin can be one of several things; good, disgusting, or tolerable. As I have stated, I believe that the raisin is purely disgusting. Perhaps it's the leathery feel in my mouth that causes me to feel this way. Then the idea of not having any delicious juice inside to wash it down only backs the disgust further. Unlike the orange that is filled with a savory juice, the raisin sits empty and dry.

When I eat a raisin the last dislike I discover is how unfilling it is. (Is that even a word? Oh well, just pretend that it is.) I have always had the opinion that a raisin makes for a poor snack when hunger comes to call. A grape, to me, looks like something to be eaten, whereas a raisin... well, there's nothing really there. It's too small. When I'm hungry I want to stuff myself just past satisfaction to rid myself of it's murderous growl, but a raisin?? What can that satisfy?

At this point I hope I've made quite clear my opinion of raisins. On my scale of beauty, raisins fall short of everything else. Concerning tastes, I admit I find raisins to be among the most disgusting. Then finally, I believe that raisins, no matter how many you eat, will never fill you up. In my opinion the raisins is the most unusual food discovered by man. Yuck!

Nursery by the Dozen.

No matter what I do, no matter how inconspicuous I try to be, I can never seem to stay out of Nursery.

I've been called to be an assistant in the nursery and there are TWELVE kids! To be honest the first week I was in the nursery I was sure that I had my hands full for the rest of these five months! However, the following Sunday we had a few absentees. Sure, the class was still fairly large, but it was manageable. It's like my family, we're big, but even when one person is gone the family seems to shrink by a long shot. That's how it felt on Sunday, that there were only a couple of kids rather than eight.

I don't have all of their names memorized yet. I'm still working on that one. (Nelson, Elizabeth, Sunny, Bowdy, Anne Marie, Stephen, Ginger, Carly... and "God bless what's-his-name!") Despite the odd feeling I get when I go to church, play with kids and come home, I really like my calling!

Any ideas on how to teach a lesson to a bunch of three year olds?

Chapter.

I love writing! In fact, I love it so much that I've been working on a sort of story. And for some spontaneous reason I feel the desire to post a bit of it. It is by no means finished, this would-be chapter, but I felt that it was enough to give some amount of entertainment to you and perhaps a proper input for me from whomever reads it. I've posted it in my google-docs so naturally it looks ...wide. Anyway, I apologize for any grammatical errors and I would like to know what you think -even if you laugh your head off! ;) Just click here.

Julie and Julia.

I'm really in the mood to blog! Mostly it's because of a movie I just watched. "Julie and Julia." I watched it with my sister in an expensive theater and in a town where traffic is totally crazy! Anyway. "Julie and Julia" is directed by Nora Ephron, who also directed my favorite "You've got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle." The stars of the movie are "Mama Mia"'s Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"'s Stanley Tucci, and "Enchanted"'s Amy Adams! (It was so hard watching the movie without imagining her with a big puffy dress and I expected her in nearly every scene to just suddenly break out into song. But she didn't. Oh well.) The movie is rated PG-13 for brief STRONG language (they completely, unnecessarily dropped the f-bomb once -it made me so mad!) and some sensuality (it's about two married couples, so yeah, sensuality).

"Julie and Julia" is a movie based on two true stories. One story is about how Julia Child becomes a famous cook and the other story is about how one woman blogged her way through all 524 recipes of Julia Child's in only 365 days. Throughout the entire movie Julie is blogging and it made me anxious to blog again. My blog certainly isn't as entertaining as Julie's is but I have just as much fun with it. Maybe if I set a goal like hers ...ha. Never mind.

Other than the STRONG language and sensuality -all the bad stuff -it was a really good movie. There was also a piece in Julie's story that I didn't like, but I guess that's something that's just part of life. I won't say what it was, I don't want to spoil anything, but anyway. I'd say overall I'd give it a... hmm... a C+. I liked it, but I'd have liked it better if it was PG. Oh! I got to ride on a motorcycle today! I didn't drive it, but I was on it going 60 mph! How cool is that!?

Of Mice and Girls.

The unfortunate thing about living in an old house in the country is that somehow mice always seem to find a way in. Now, I am not writing this post to gross you out or to make you squirm at the very thought of coming to visit my parents (though reading this might do just that) I am merely telling you this story to... No, I have to be honest, it's pretty much just to gross you out.

I was in the kitchen a while back with my sisters Heather and Jessica. We were looking up videos on my computer and carrying on some random conversation. In the midst of all the voices I could hear a constant sound. It's pitch was high and I was certain I had heard it before...but never in a kitchen. Again and again I heard the sound. Again and again until I could stand it no more.

"Why is there a chicken in the house??" I demanded out loud for anyone to answer. My sisters were stunned with confusion at my question and they proceeded to tell me that it was actually not a chicken but a mouse. I looked over in time to see a small gray blur rush along the white counter tops and dive behind the large oven.

Many years ago my family raised chickens in a coop quite far from the house. I use to feed and tend them as best as any ten year old could. I loved the chickens! I liked feeding them and gathering eggs. Once in a while my family would leave a few eggs and let them hatch and watch the chicks grow up into hens. That's why the sound was familiar to me. It sounded like baby chicks. On this occasion, however, it was not a chicken.

As my sisters and I continued our conversations I kept watch on the mouse. It seemed to have a pattern. Run out from behind the oven, race along the counter, and then run back. It did this a few times until I had had enough. I made up my mind that if it came out again, there was no way it was going to go back. So, when it decided to race out from behind the oven and run along the counter, I grabbed the broom. I watched the ugly rodent dive under the stereo and push itself farther and farther through our kitchen appliances in hope of escape. I took the broom and laid it across the counter, blocking it's path back to the oven. (And yes, I do realize that having a broom on the counter isn't exactly the most sanitary thing, but neither is having a mouse running around and pooping wherever it pleases, so I thought this was an exception.)

Once the path was blocked I began pushing the appliances and stereo and everything n the counter toward one corner, hoping to unsettle the little vermin and have it come out of it's hiding spot. As I pushed, my little sister watched from over my shoulder. As we stood there waiting, we could see nothing. No movement at all. Well, that was unusual. When I realized this I changed tactics and began moving everything away from the corner. I moved the stereo first and what my sister and I saw was so horrible, so disgusting, so positively despicable that we both turned away and groaned. The mouse had been squished under the stereo when I had pushed it into the corner. It's body was now flattened to the counter, it's tongue sticking out and it's eyes closed for an even greater effect. It was so gross! We ran downstairs to our dad and asked him to get ride of the thing. Neither of us were about to even get near it. I hate mice!

The Crash.

My first schooless week was a little crazy. I went from sleeping on my apartment floor (all of my things were on my bed and I was too lazy to move them) to sleeping on my cousin's couch, to sleeping in the car, to sleeping on my new bed (which is humongous by the way) in my grandma's house, and then to sleeping in my sister's bed the night before our Nauvoo trip (which I'll have to blog about later). Anyway, the night that I was with my sister -we both managed to squish ourselves next to each other on her rather smallish bed -I woke up in the middle of the night to a rather large crash! I tensed, every limb in my body frozen. I had no idea where I was and I had on idea what had caused the crash. I was afraid that someone had come in and was robbing us. And I didn't even know where I was! So, as I sat there, scared out of my mind, I felt something next to me. My sister rolled over in her sleep. Oh. I was with my sister. In her room. I then came up with a reason for the crash. It must have been one of her shelves. They often times like to come undone and fall randomly whenever guests are over.

When we woke up the following morning I remember looking out over the room and seeing the shelf, hanging from it's bolts with it's contents sprawled out all over the floor. My sister leaned up over me to look at her room. Her eyes grew wide and she made a face. "What the crap happened to my room!" I laughed and told her the story. When I asked if she had heard the crash -for how could anyone have missed it?? -she said that she had but that she thought she had only dreamed it up. But no. Obviously she hadn't.

Isn't it fun when you're house wakes you up in the middle of the night and plays tricks on you?

Belgian Cookies

My Grandma and I made Belgian cookies today. I remember eating them as a kid. They make the yummiest ice-cream sandwiches! And they're super easy to make, so long as you have the Cookie Iron. The ingredients are as follows:

4 sticks of butter
5 eggs
4 tablespoons of vanilla
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
6 cups of flower, and
1 teaspoon of salt.

Now, the cookie iron is pretty much essential for these cookies. I suppose it might work with a regular waffle iron, but I can't imagine they'd turn out quite the same. What you'd need is an Electric Belgian Cookie and Waffle Iron. You can order it for like $60 or $70 on Amazon. So, I guess if for some crazy reason you have $70 burning a whole in your pocket and you just HAVE to spend it, I'd recommend blowing it on this. It's pretty much amazing! It's electric, but it doesn't have a timer on it so you just have to keep checking if the cookies are done or not.

Once the dough is made you freeze it for about an hour. Not so that it's rock hard, but enough that it keeps its shape better. After it's "chilled" you roll it into little balls and then place them in the center of the greased cookie iron (which should already be hot by time you get to that point, you should just plug it in and let it heat up). When the cookies are slightly 'browned' or however you like, you just take a fork and flip it into your hands. They'll, of course, be hot so you'll want a cookie rack ready to put the cookies on. Once they've cooled you can stick some ice cream in the middle and freeze them or just eat them plain. Either way, they're are very good!