Girls Night Brownies

For tonight's girls' night in I decided to make some brownies for my lovely roommates. I decided to put the chocolate chips on top, adds a nice crunchy layer to the gooyness underneath :D 

The Best Brownies

New Obsession

 This semester so far I have definitely become obsessed with making fruit smoothies for myself and for my roommates. So, I decided to honor all of you with some steps that I take in my making of the smoothies. :D

This is how mine look before blending it all.
I love the layers that you can see.

You want one fully tray of fish ice.
Or the equivalent of about 4-5 regular sized ice.

I love my shakes with lots of fruit.
I get these bags of Wyman's frozen fruit because
they are super cheap and are frozen, so they last longer. 

Great way to add some liquid is with some juice either frozen concentrate
or from a jog like this.
I used lemonade this time because we need to get rid of this stuff.
I prefer frozen orange juice (no pulp), get some Vitamin C in there :)

To get my calcium I add some yogurt.
The best choice for this is Vanilla,
it's a simple flavor and will add lots of cream to the smoothie.

Like I said, I love my smoothies with lots of fruit,
I tend to put the entire apple in it, I prefer green.
Make sure you cut the core out, the blender can't get every bit,
you'll be stuck with bits of apple core in your teeth (true story)

Blending...duh.

You might need to move things around a bit.

And of course right after I took the last picture,
an air pocket hit and exploded on me.
I had a good laugh.

After blending, ready to pour. 

And Voila!
Enjoy a nice Summer Mixed Berry Smoothie :D

4th at the Dunes

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

This week for 4 days, it was only my roommate Katherine, and myself! Everyone else ditched and went to Utah! Oh well, there loss, kinda.haha. Alright, so for the BIG holiday we decided to just relax the entire day and then end it at the dunes nearby. From the dunes we were able to see the fireworks from the nearby city, Idaho Falls. Surrounding us at the dunes were quite a few little bonfire parties going on, we may or may not have crashed a couple of them. At the end of the crashing however we found the highest dune for the greatest view and set up camp. For our holiday dinner we had cherries, the kind with the pits in the them...I can't remember the actual name, but they were delicious! At the end of the night it was a really amazing time with one of my closest friends out here. 

Drew a scary face in the sand.
We were thinking Day of the Dead, what do you think?

 Spent the 4th of July with my roommate Katherine

The moon was BEAUTIFUL that night!

Flash was just a wee bit too bright for the dead of night.

Monkey Rock

For FHE my friends and I went to a place called Monkey Rock to swim and go waterfall jumping! It was a lot of fun, not all of us jumped, especially me, but still it was pretty awesome! 

Literary Project-Poem

Waves Crashing in a Stream

The waves crash against her heavy body

no, not waves, this is just a stream.

Yet still they crash, over, and over,

why won't they stop?

Does no one else see that I am drowning?

Perhaps they are in the same stream,

waves crashing against them.

We will struggle, there is no denial,

the how is what will save us.

In this small stream there are waves,

waves that can take us off course,

take us under the water where we lose our way completely.

Did she allow it to happen, was there a struggle?

He had lied about his feelings,

telling her there was nothing in him for her.

Crash goes another wave.

Her father had been killed in cold blood,

by the hand of the man who didn't love her.

Another wave crashes into her heavy body.

Soothing, will be the current,

and so she will allow the waves to carry her off,

in this little stream where there are no waves.

Ingrid Michealson-Jewish, Indie Artist, Lover of Ukuleles

Alright, time for another music post. This time however, it'll be only one artist, and it won't be country. Although I am still very much listening to that! Ingrid Michaelson is the kind of artist that you could call Indie-Pop (Indie meaning Independent). 

Miss Michaelson is one of my favorite artists from this genre of music, always making her listeners feel calm or relaxed. Course there are always those songs that are more for the broken-hearted, but those aren't the usual tears all over the place, let's eat tons of ice cream. Her message for women with a broken heart is more of strength and that with time you can bounce back even better than you ever were with that guy.

Now Ingrid wasn't always the singer that she is today. She actually started out as being a director of film! A degree in theater was her education and it was what she had always focused on. However in high school a teacher of hers had seen the potential of her as a singer. Training her throughout high school, singing then became a part of her life to remain with her for forever, obviously. After college she tried her hand at directing professionally, but soon gave that up, and returned to her love for singing. Thank Goodness!

Something that sets her apart from other artists, she has a group called Army of 3. However this band isn't quite the same as others, it's only Ingrid, playing every part of every song. She doesn't always perform songs like this, only when doing covers of other artists. I mean, she can't possibly do this kind of performance on a stage of one of her own songs! Let's just say that'd be a lot of running....yeah I know, bad joke. One of my recent favorites of her covers as the Army of 3 is Gotye's over played song, "Somebody that I used to Know". There's the link if you would like to see the original, but fair warning, the singer is....semi naked. Yeah let's go with that term. 

One of my Favorite Songs: The Way I am

I actually learned this song on guitar, but it's been over a year now, so I don't quite remember all of the chords, and finger placements. If I remember it again, I'll make a video and post it on here, maybe. Anyway, in this song she sings about how she's an average looking girl with average qualities. She can't really give anything to him, but the things she can give are special, she can love him unconditionally. Because he is about as average as she is :) I just love this song for its simplicity and funny lyrics. 

I hope that you have enjoyed what you have learned and maybe even gained a new favorite artist to play on your ipod. If you're not quite sure about Ingrid Michaelson, other similar artists are Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, She and Him, and many others that are just as amazing as her. 

~Cliches in Mormon Dating~

Most of us have experienced these moments in our lives; the oreos on our car, balloons covering the bed, and many other so called original, and creative ideas for asking a person out on a date. Now, a lot of these activities are really cute, and almost romantic. But when it's the first date.....? Come on people, let's all be mature adults and go up to a stranger and ask them to their face. That's all I'm asking! Wouldn't you be a little freaked out if a kind of stranger came and asked you out on a date with a bunch of roses and a card with a poem with them? Usually these poems can lead a person to a secret location where they will find out who the date is with or something else. What if you're going to your death because you're thinking it might be that cute guy from your science class?? But you are so wrong....Now, as I said before, these kind of special treats can be well, special! But ya'll need to know the limits:

Asking by freezing cotton balls on car....

1. actually know the person.
2. know that they're into that kind of stuff.
3. be somewhat original, don't take ideas from a movie (trust me, the girl will know!).
4. don't invade the person's privacy in any way whatsoever! you will come off as a creep and remain thus, always being an inside joke with her girlfriends. 

Now, if you are blessed to have the person accept your offer of a date, Congratulations! You have just finished the first step of a hard process. Now it's time for the most difficult part of all, the actual date! Hopefully you didn't spend a lot of money on the asking part, cause you just laid a big impression on the person, they'll be expecting the best on the actual date! Cheap or not though, you have got to make a good impression dude. Look at what you've done already, you put tortillas on the woman's car! (true story). Now I'm warning you, I don't want to see any brownies night with a cute Disney movie to top it off. That's more for a fourth date, or something, when you're actually comfortable with each other. For goodness sakes be creative brethren!

How excited do they look huh??

I recently went on a first date with a young man that I have known for a while now, 5 years in Mormon time. We went latin dancing! Of all things for a first date, latin dancing, now don't get me wrong, it was a great time! It was something that took us both our of our comfort zones. It was a good place for us to be able to talk while at the same time having fun. Also everyone was on the same level, so comfort zone was broken, but we weren't surrounded by pros making us look like Napoleon Dynamite when he was first learning his sweet moves. After the dancing we went for a walk through the park close by. This gave us an even better chance to talk with each other. This is what I'm talking about people! I don't want to see the brownies, going to devotional (mini Mormon conferences), the all time cliche of a movie, and dinner, or anything even close to that. Be creative! This is your first impression of the person, unless you have a dynamite personality, you might need a boost in the activities department.

My Final Thought

These are a few of the many cliches of dating in the Mormon culture, some people are really into this kind of stuff. But when wanting something to be real, and last for a long time, you need to act real with the person, and do things that will allow you to see the side of that person that will be a part of your life for quite some time. Now, not every date has to be serious, have some fun, but don't waste the person's time either. One great way to see a side of someone is to make a dinner with them, in this you'll be able to see their cooking skills, and if the two of you work well as a team. This will also give you a chance to talk about each other and hopefully easy topics are brought up in your conversations. Dating at this time of our lives should be a time of learning of others but most importantly yourself. I have learned I don't want to date hicks or gawky geeks. Who knew?? Along with those realizations however, I know that in a husband for me there should be a sense of security, kindness, dorkiness, sense of humor, passion for all music, a strong testimony of the Church, strong love for his family, easy to talk to, and many other things! However if I had not gone on those dates that were memorable and the ones that even now put goosebumps on my arms from thinking of them, I would not know the things I know now. To go along with my cliche theme, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince!" So let's be serious about this guys, have some fun, but for goodness' sake, put the brownies away!