Becky's Blog

Chuck Wendig's Butternut Squash Soup

2012-01-28T17:56:00.002-07:00

Mmm mmm :) It was hard to wait to eat it even to take this picture!

Hi goobers!

Trevor and I tried another of Chuck Wendig's recipes. He has a blog called TerribleMinds and occasionally fills the world in on these earth shattering recipes he makes up.

We've made his pork butt, and his pasta, which I've named Autumn Pasta, and you can check out that recipe here.

Anywho, I like to share with all you, my friends, the clean versions of these recipes, although, I kinda do still recommend you read through Chuck's because he's just hilarious. My version actually has measurements though. So there's always that.

We LOVED this soup; both of us. And that's pretty amazing since Trevor doesn't really do soup. But leave it to Chuck to convince Trevor to eat squash when I've been trying for 5 years.

I'm not bitter though.

This was a smooth, creamy, warm, chunky, and perfectly spicy soup. One of the things I love about all of Chuck's recipes is that most of the ingredients and amounts are up to you. If you don't like something, don't include it; if you don't have something, don't use it; if you want more carrot, use more carrot. So feel free to adjust these measurements to your own taste.

Try it, and enjoy!

You need (lots o' stuff):

1 butternut squash
1 medium onion
olive oil (approx 1/4 cup)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
ground pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
herbs de provence OR 1-2 teaspoons of other herbs like: italian seasoning, sage, rosemary, parsley
2 carrots
2 celery sticks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup water, optional
2 cups chicken broth (plus another cup if you like it thinner)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup heavy cream (plus another cup if you like it creamier)
1 pound ground country sausage
1 leek
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Start by peeling the squash with a vegetable peeler. Cut it in half and scoop out the seedy parts.
Dice the squash into 1/2 inch pieces and layer onto a baking sheet or roasting pan lined with foil.
Largely chop the onion and combine with the squash on the pan.
Coat the squash and onion with olive oil; make sure it's all covered.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and spices. Mix to coat.
Bake in the oven for approximately 1 hour, or until the vegetables start to caramelize.
While your squash is baking, you can start the other ingredients: The stock, sausage, and leeks.
Peel and dice the carrots and celery, and begin cooking with minced garlic and oil over medium heat in a large pot. Saute for 10-15 minutes while they get softer, adding water as needed.
Fry the ground sausage in a skillet and set aside.
Wash and slice the leek into rings. "Melt" the leeks in butter over medium heat in a skillet with red wine vinegar. Cook for approximately 5-10 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
When the squash is baked, combine it with the carrot and celery in the pot. Add broth and apple cider vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes.
Blend the contents of the pot. Chuck recommends using a blender, but I don't have one, so I used an immersion blender. Blend it until it is as smooth as you like.
Return to medium heat and add cream. This is where you add more broth or cream until the soup is the consistency you like.
Add the sausage to the soup, and make sure it's all warm.
Serve with leeks.

Trevor thinks he might like it better without the sausage--the whole dish is VERY flavorful. But I personally think the sausage makes the soup. We will probably be doing variations with shredded chicken or mushrooms. Mmm, can you imagine halved mushrooms in this??

Let me know what you think!

Go here to read Chuck's full recipe for "Butternut Squash that will kick you in the butternuts."

[Shrimp & Pineapple Tikka] + [Spinach & Paneer]

2012-01-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

I've just taken my first 10 bites of Spinach and Paneer, and it is kind of exciting in my mouth!

I traveled, literally, all over the valley trying to find an Indian market. I got turned away so many times :( But after visiting two Asian markets, finding the largest Indian market in Salt Lake recently closed, and finding one store completely invisible, I FINALLY found one open and CLOSE TO MY HOUSE! (Why I didn't go there first, we'll never know.)

My new favorite place is called Qaderi Sweetz N Spicez. Yeah, crazy name. But whatevs. It's on 3546 South Redwood in the middle of a pretty Mexican gangster strip mall. The second I walked in, the clerk was super helpful and nice. So go!

As a follow up to my last Indian food post, I found ghee! It was at my local Fresh Market; whodathunk? Not me, that's for sure. You know that teensy section of Indian food most grocery stores have next to all the Asian food? It's right there (not in the dairy section), jarred, and waiting for you.

Here's my initial take on ghee. I'm going to give it another shot, but I'm not entirely sure I love the flavor. I don't know enough words to describe it any differently than you'd describe butter, but it's different.

On to the food!

This week I made two dishes, a shrimp dish and a spinach dish. Here goes:

SHRIMP + PINEAPPLE TIKKA

If you've ever wondered what an Indian restaurant smells like, this is it.

India is HUGE, guys. There are so many different areas and cultures within cultures, especially when it comes to cuisine. And a lot of the people on the coasts eat tons of seafood (so my cookbook tells me). So I thought I'd try my hand at a dry fish dish. Lots of Indian food is saucy, so I was interested to try this recipe. It turned out to smell very Indian, and taste very Indian, but I wasn't ecstatic over it. I don't think I'll make it again. I think it was just a little TOO much for me. It's made with a bunch of brown and yellow seeds, and none of the sweeter red powders and chiles. That's not to say someone out there won't like it when they try it.

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp nigella seeds
pinch of chili powder
2 tbsp pineapple juice from the can
about 3/4 pound of medium size shrimp, peeled, deveined, and tails left in-tact
an equal amount of pineapple chunks from a can or fresh
salt
chopped cilantro

I didn't use fenugreek seeds, but fenugreek powder instead (about half the amount it calls for in seeds). I also didn't use nigella seeds because I couldn't find them, or cilantro because Trevor doesn't really like it.

Dry roast all the seeds together in a pan. This means you put them over medium high heat in a pan with NO oil for a few minutes until they start to get warm and aromatic. Stir them constantly and take them out of the pan quickly before they burn.

Now, this is where you have to get tricky. You're supposed to mash all those seeds up with salt and chili powder in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Idunno about you, but I don't have either of those. So I just used an old pepper grinder; worked like a charm. Just get it as fine as you can.

Stir in pineapple (or lemon) juice to the ground up seeds. Add your shrimp to the mixture and let it marinate for at least 10 minutes.

Preheat the broiler, stick your shrimpies and your pineapplies on your skewers, and broil for 2-3 minutes on each side.

SPINACH + PANEER

Like I was saying before, India's got a lot of character! In some places, practically everyone is vegetarian. I read that they use a homemade cheese called paneer to get a lot of their protein they'd normally get from meat. Cheese? Um, yes, please. I was sad when I couldn't find paneer at the regular grocery store or at the Asian stores, but I found it at Qaderi's! You can make your own, which is probably what real Indians do, but I'm not that dedicated :) It tastes like cheese, and it's harder than cream cheese, but softer than cheddar. It tastes like strong milk, with a pretty warm flavor.

I liked this dish a lot more than the shrimp one. Who doesn't love creamy spinach and cheese?

6 tbsp ghee (or vegetable oil)
12 ounces paneer, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 tbsp garlic and ginger paste (just make your own)
1 fresh green chile
4 tbsp water
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, stem removed
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garam masala
4 tbsp heavy cream
lemon wedges

I didn't use lemon wedges. But take a look, really the only crazy thing in this recipe is garam masala, which is really just a blend of a bunch of spices like pepper, cloves, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, anise, cinnamon, ginger, fennel and whatever else they decide to through in. It's serious business, but I have no idea how they do it.

Heat the ghee over medium high in a large skillet or casserole and add the paneer pieces in a single layer. Pan fry for about 5 minutes till all the sides are browned. Paneer isn't like cheddar; it won't all melt and it says pretty intact. Remove the cheese to a paper towel covered plate.

To make a garlic and ginger paste, just chop up equal parts (or whatever ratio you want) ginger and garlic. Then start smooshing it with your knife, spreading it across the cutting board while you pulverize. You can add a little salt to make it easier. Add your paste, onion, and finely diced chile to your hot ghee in the pan and cook until the onions are soft but not brown. Add water if necessary.

Wash the spinach and add it to the pan without removing too much of the water from the leaves. Add salt. Cover and let the spinach wilt, stirring occasionally. Add cream and garam masala. Serve with lemon.

This will be yummy!

One Month of Church

2012-01-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

I figured it's about time for an update on that horrible post I had to write about going back to church a few weeks back. Exposing my gigantic flaws to the interwebs is indeed horrible, however motivating and liberating.

I guess my first goal with this whole thing has been to simply get back in the habit of GOING to church. That involves going to bed at a reasonable hour on Saturday night, getting up on time Sunday morning, driving in the cold, and deciding which of my church paraphernalia to tote along with me. The latter wasn't as hard as it used to be, given that I don't exactly have any responsibilities at church yet that require carrying a bunch of crap. Allowing my mind to be okay with giving up one of the only two nights I'm allowed to stay up late, and one of the only two mornings I'm allowed to sleep in, is a bit of a struggle. People who don't care about the hours of 10 PM to 2 AM on Saturday nights probably have no idea what it means to be sleeping during this time instead of doing whatever the heck you want. Watching back to back episodes of Monk, or that Stephen Hawking mini-series is so much more fun than going to bed at 11:00. Reading an extra 50 pages in my book club book is so much more satisfying; being awake for a midnight snack is something I look forward to on the weekends! And at this point, the only reason it's worth it isn't because being at church is so much more interesting or immediately fulfilling. Honestly, it's more worth it because I know how I feel when I'm not doing it. I assure you, going to sleep while your husband plays is less than thrilling.

My second goal has been to actually pay attention in my meetings and focus on as many good things as I can. By default, this means that doing the opposite is to be minimized. For example, making it to Sunday School, but texting Trevor or checking facebook on my phone while I'm there probably isn't the best use of my time. Why did I go to bed early just to waste being here? Also, letting myself get distracted by all the things there are to be distracted: the universal smell that fills a room when too many people are crammed in and they're breathing; the sound of twenty babies under nursery age crying; people going off on tangents, giving advice about other churches they've gone to that turned out to be cults, or talking about the Jazz or democrats in Utah; you know, that kind of thing. I just have to take a deep breath and let it roll off me. Everyone is a person too, no matter how annoying I let them seem. Besides, they're obviously doing better at life than I am since they're always at church no matter when I decide to randomly go. BUT--focusing on as many GOOD things as I can; that's the real goal. I read along. I search for lessons I can apply to myself, and answers to questions I have. I try to feel the spirit that the teachers or speakers obviously feel. I usually find it and feel it when I'm being patient and open to those around me.

They say you make a habit out of something after 21 days... How long when you do it once a week? Longer? I feel my habit forming after accomplishing the routine 4 consecutive times. Though, I'm worried about adding more layers before I'm ready to carry more. I've been surprised at my feelings toward Relief Society. At 18 when I first joined Relief Society, and even for a few years after that, it was a great source of support and comfort for me. A few years ago when I stopped attending, my responsibilities in Relief Society and the atmosphere were actually the brunt of a lot of my anxiety. I'm trying to slowly but steadily remind myself of the TRUE purpose behind callings and the fellowshipping that goes on in Relief Society between women. A few years ago I began to feel like my calling was too much for me to handle on my own. That I wasn't known or valued as myself, but only as my calling. I began to feel distanced from the sisters around me--I felt alone in a room full of women my age. I didn't feel like any fellowship I GAVE was genuine, and I didn't feel what I RECEIVED was genuine either. I didn't want it to be genuine, on the one hand; I just want to be left alone to feel the spirit sometimes. But on the other, I wanted to be loved. I know the majority of what I was feeling was caused by my own lack of effort and a dependence on others around me to keep me spiritual. But it's a scary thought to go back to that world where I was feeling so torn. I'm worried that a calling will bring too much pressure; I'm worried that I'll be reminded over and over of all that I still need to do.

Next week is Stake Conference, so I guess I have almost two weeks to prepare myself for going to Relief Society when normal church resumes. I just need to keep reminding myself of my first impressions of Relief Society, and not those I created later on during a hard time in my own life. Why am I dedicating so much effort and time to becoming an active member, but ignoring a third of church? Doesn't make sense.

The reintroduction of prayer in my life is an uncomfortable step. Never before in my entire life have I felt uncomfortable praying to my Heavenly Father. In a way, though, I've felt my sporadic prayers have been more honest because I have to think extra hard about what I'm saying. My mind isn't used to easily recalling what I'm supposed to pray about, so I'm forced to really think about what I actually want to say to God. I have the feeling this is going to be a long term goal, but I'm going to be finding ways to remind myself to pray. Communication with God is one thing that keeps me from ignoring what I'm avoiding.

Most of all, I want to reaffirm to myself that what I'm doing isn't out of guilt. Guilt is an important part of repentance. But guilt is also a false motivator. It's a distraction. I don't want such a huge factor in my life to be motivated by feelings of remorse for something I haven't done. I AM still motivated by the lack of spirituality my life has contained at various points; but it's not healthy to constantly feel the need to be at church or else God will bring his wrath down upon you. Or to be bogged down by remorse for weaknesses. Remorse needs its day in the sun, but reminders of hope, love, compassion, and redemption are much more motivating.

I'm looking for ways to personalize all those phrases we hear all the time about the Savior. He died for us. He redeemed the world. He atoned for our sins. He saved us. I know why we say these things--because as Christians, we do believe he literally did them. It's difficult for me to remember how I used to feel when I thought of it though. Sometimes I feel like there's a blank in my mind when I try to recall. Like the rug is being pulled out from under my brain when I try to remember the spirit I used to feel. THIS is the largest reason I am going to church, why I'm part of religion. I have a Father, and a purpose. And a big part of that purpose hinges on understanding Christ's sacrifices for me.

Good luck to me! Haha :) I HOPE I have luck. And good luck to all of YOU this month. Be grateful for what you have.

Chicken Tikka Masala

2012-01-16T12:25:00.003-07:00

Trevor got me an Indian cook book for Christmas and I've finally prepared enough to actually make something from it! It's kind of intimidating looking at all the steps and ingredients it takes to make an Indian dish. But for my first, I chose a pretty mild and simple dish. It was insanely good! I'll definitely be making it again, and trying out some others. So keep an eye out, if you're interested in cooking Indian food.

This recipe is for Chicken Tikka Masala. And I'd say, it's a great beginner's place to start, if you've never had Indian food. We're by no means experts. In fact, we're still relatively new at eating Indian food. But this is a great place to start if you're not sure you'd like Indian or are nervous about not being able to sleep after :) There are plenty of variations of this recipe, ranging in complexity. Feel free to explore your options of different spices you can add (like tumeric, garam masala, and ginger.

Here's what you need:

2 Tablespoons ghee (or vegetable oil)
1 red or green chili, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
pepper
3 cooked chicken breasts, cut into pieces (or a whole chicken)
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
14 ounce can diced tomatoes
cilantro

For coconut rice:
1 1/4 cup basmati (or jasmine) rice
2 1/4 cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

To be more authentic, you should use tandoori cooked chicken instead of plain chicken. I'm going to make that soon, and I'll share the recipe later. But for this version, I used regular chicken so I wouldn't be too terrified to make it or eat it.

Also, ghee is clarified butter. Indian cooking uses a lot of this, because it's had the cream boiled off. You can make it yourself, or buy it (although, I haven't been able to find it yet). Using clarified butter in Indian cooking is important because you'll be cooking with high heat a lot, and the cream in butter smokes and burns at high temperatures. You can use vegetable oil as an alternative. I used regular butter in my dish and was careful to not let it burn but it's not incredibly authentic to do so.

I went to Ocean Mart on 115 West 9000 South to find spices and coconut milk (although you can find expensive coconut milk at regular grocery stores).

Begin your rice by rinsing it until the water runs clear. Soak the rice in water for 20-30 minutes.

Begin cooking your chicken in a separate pan if it's not cooked already; I cooked with salt and pepper.

In a large saute pan, mince up your chili and garlic, and stir fry in hot ghee for a couple of minutes until aromatic and tender. The chili that you use will determine how spicy your dish is. Stir in spices, salt and pepper, and cook for a minute or so to allow the flavors to mingle. Add the cream and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or so until thickened. Add the chicken, and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

While your sauce and chicken are cooking, start cooking your rice. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium pot, and add rice. Cook on medium high, stirring, until the rice is coated. Add the coconut milk and stir; bring it to a low boil. Reduce heat to very low and cover. Do not remove the lid until all the liquid is absorbed, about 10-15 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and cover for a couple minutes after it's cooked.

Garnish your chicken with chopped cilantro if desired, and serve with rice.

Your house will smell like Indian food for a few days. Your belly will be thankful.

Sale Info

2012-01-16T10:55:00.004-07:00

Hi Friends! I'm having a sale and it's really good; just thought you might want to know!

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/just-because-40-off-sale.html

cake, chocolate: chocolatey cake

2012-01-09T15:03:00.002-07:00

I've been craving chocolate cake for weeks. So we finally have an occasion to make a cake (and not have mounds of leftovers to ourselves). But it was probably the ugliest cake I've ever made. I'm being completely serious. I wish I'd taken a picture, because this thing was messed up.

We have two round cake pans, but one is 8 inches and the other is 9. I thought I could trim the larger one to fit the smaller layers... Not so easy. It was made of vanilla cake and chocolate cake (to appease Trevor), and both were new recipes. The vanilla cake stuck to the pan and tore completely in half. And I totally cut the chocolate layers all skiwampus. Needless to say, it looked terrible. The frosting got all infested with cake crumbs, my layers were all crazy, and we couldn't even cut it without it falling over. Oh, and before all of that happened, in the oven the chocolate cake boiled over onto the vanilla cake below it, and onto my oven, thus creating the second oven fire we've had since October.

But it was really tasty. I liked the chocolate cake recipe, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

http://www.foodess.com/2011/03/moist-chocolate-cake/

Next time I'm just gonna make it the way this lady says, and I'm gonna love it. In fact, I'm deeming this exact cake my birthday cake in five weeks.

Going back to church...

2012-01-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to briefly write about a specific topic for a couple of reasons. I've been, like, 99% inactive at church for a couple years. My heart has been active, but my body has not, if that makes sense. I've usually kept this private, for probably obvious reasons, but after a lot of thinking, I decided I want to talk about it. It will be good for me to vocalize some of the things I've been feeling, as well as, maybe, hopefully, help others who may be in the same boat as me not feel alone. I've tried hiding my feelings so I would always have an out if things got too hard. I don't want that out anymore.

I've always felt fairly responsible and independent when it comes to my spirituality. I developed a real testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints over a period of time from age 12-18, which I firmly maintained. I held strongly to my testimony through thick and thin. I learned what I still believe is truth. I believe I received confirmation to my questions and doubts through the Spirit, and I don't think I'll ever be able to doubt what I've felt, even if I want to. I was endowed and sealed to my husband in the temple, and I'll always be thankful for the knowledge I gained and spirit I felt there. I believe it is what has kept me from lazily turning my back completely on everything I know is true.

I gradually became less active at church after a couple of years of marriage when there were less people to be accountable to, and when my husband became less active. Trevor's journey is his; this is mine. So I won't go much into his.

If you've ever gone to church, any church, you know what it's like to be faced with the task of being patient and kind to those who annoy you. This bothersome task, coupled with always being alone at church, is what initially started to keep me away. I continued to have a testimony in the gospel and knew what was right and wrong but I chose to ignore it and believed I could go back any time me and my husband were ready to go together. I gave up my callings. To avoid the pain of sitting through countless lessons and talks about eternal families, spiritual homes, and going to the temple with a spouse, I started to compartmentalize my priorities. In my mind, church became more painful than helpful. I knew I was letting it, but it wasn't worth not letting it.

Life goes on, surprisingly, when you don't go to church. Family still hangs out with you, work still happens, you still have goals, priorities, and standards to live by. We lead a life fairly close to that of a lot of Mormons--we don't drink or smoke, we try to be compassionate and giving, and have even gone through periods of time reading scriptures diligently or praying daily. I think that's why it's been so easy to just let things go for so long. I've become complacent, ignoring occasional bouts of sadness that my life lacks true spirituality and a closeness to God I used to have, preferring to focus my attentions on problems I felt were truly solvable, like sharing chores, starting a photography business, surviving unemployment, putting a spouse through college, and a whole bundle of good old regular marital issues like give-and take and sexual compatibility. It's easy to let everything else be the only problems you have to deal with. Why add something you don't need? See, when you're married, your lives become fused. You rely on each other for practically everything, even when you think you're independent. Even when one partner has a goal, it's nearly un-accomplish-able without the support of the other. We weren't ready to go back to church together, so I wasn't ready.

It's high time I say out loud I know that's not really true; it's not the right way to think about the whole situation.

Over the last few months, it's been harder and harder for me to ignore the hole in my life. It's more than just a conditioning I've had my whole life that now I'm without. I'm not the person I could be or want to be. And really, even though it seems like such a huge mountain to climb, I'm not that far away from where I'd like to be. And I can't keep pretending that my husband and I will one day be able to turn around "when we're ready."

I think only some of you will know what it means to actually admit that. It means I can't keep saying, "When we have kids, I'll go back," or "I'm not REALLY all that different than I used to be."

I knew I was further away from my last spiritual encounter than I thought, but last Sunday really proved it to me. Two weeks ago I decided I'd go. And some of you will know what it means to make a promise to yourself for which you have a week to think about before you act. As Sunday got closer, my resolve weakened, just as it has almost every other time I've determined to go. Everything was a reason not to go. All the hurting and loneliness I felt all those times sitting alone during Sacrament Meeting, or during Sunday School (or worse, sitting with a family who has perfect attendance) came back to me and reminded me why I don't go. The night before church was New Year's Eve, and I was up really late. The services started at 9:00 AM. I literally had to dust my scriptures before picking them up. And I really hate my church clothes.

I've gotten to this point several times over the last few years. I've even gone and survived a week or two in a row. But this time... I feel something different. I really feel that it won't be so hard to give up 3 hours every Sunday. I know there's more to it than that--there's the praying and the scriptures, and the tithing, the callings (Oh, gosh, the callings), the visiting teaching, and the being known only as the lady who plays the piano and sits alone. And let's face it, I really don't want to think about the possibility of giving up things like Dexter and super gory zombie movies.

I'm not worrying about those things right now though. I went to church last Sunday. And being the first of the new year, there was a lot of talk about goals, and what we'll be learning this year. We had the standard talk about The Book of Mormon being the keystone of our testimonies, and we read the Intro to the Book of Mormon. There were super annoying people in my class who wouldn't shut up about their off-topic tangents and cliche answers, and there were smelly-old-person-breath people and crying babies. And I almost WISHED that I wouldn't feel the spirit so I wouldn't have to be there. But my heart was open, and in contrast to the "remembered" feeling of church (that it's elitist, and driven by guilt, and not as potent as we think), I actually FELT church. I was reminded that the gospel is offered as hope, not as an exclusive club. And the root of that hope is Christ and The Book of Mormon. It doesn't matter what else I've forgotten, what else I'm confused about, or about what else I need reminding. I felt that hope again last week, and I can't deny it.

I've never led a life TOO far from what it should be, but it's been far enough that I've lacked daily and weekly reminders from the spirit that what I'm doing is right. I might have felt the spirit strongly on a monthly basis for various reasons--family get-togethers, conference, random bouts of praying or reading the Ensign, or joining in other family's prayers. But it just isn't the same as feeling it every week, and being reminded of my testimony on a daily basis.

I'm determined to make attending my weekly meetings a priority. I know I can't handle tackling all my faults at once, so I'm not going to stress out about everything at once. I need to get my mind and body in the routine of being there again. And I'm determined to not let my guilt and faults, or my responsibility to be an example to my spouse, consume my hope. I'm not ashamed of who I am. It's not about what I lack, it's about what I'm capable of.

I completely realize that to some people who read this, it's going to sound the same as all the other testimonies out there. I know exactly what you're thinking. But maybe my sharing this can give someone the courage to try again too. Courage... That's the word that stuck out to me during the sacrament hymn, and I've been thinking about it all week. Courage is what I need to ignore the easy route.

And silently we pray for courage to accept thy will, to listen and obey.

I'm thankful that we sing at church. It is the easiest way for me to feel the spirit of written words.

That's all for now, until next week, I suppose. I'm pushing "publish" and I promise I won't unpublish.

Chuck Wendig's Autumn Pasta

2011-12-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

I'm about to share with you a pretty amazing pasta. Trevor reads the blog Terrible Minds by Chuck Wendig, and on there he occasionally writes recipes in the most hilarious but completely inappropriate ways. We made his original recipe, which you can find here, a few months ago, and it really did Autumn our effing faces off (as Chuck promised it would). The thing is though, Mr. Wendig likes to swear and talk about male genitalia while cooking a little more than I do (or, really, doing anything at all). So, for your eating enjoyment, I'm translating!

Trevor and I have dubbed this "Autumn Pasta," but just you try not to recite Chuck's real title in your head every time you want to make it. We tried Chuck's buttery rendition the first time, and then added much more cream because we just like our pastas creamier instead of buttery.

Here's what you need:

1/2 white onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1 pound ground country sausage
salt and pepper
1-2 portabello caps, diced
1 finely grated carrot
2 jonathan apples, diced (or similarly tart apples)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 pound spiral pasta, like rotini
1 stick unsalted butter
salt
2 cups half and half
1/8 teaspoon ground sage (or dried equivalent)
2 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary
1-2 teaspoons thyme
crumbled walnuts (optional)

NOTE: Chuck's version uses 1/2 stick butter, and 2 tablespoons of cream. That's it. You can try it, but I think it's better this way :)

K. So.

Saute and soften the diced onion in olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. The salt helps to draw out the moisture in the onion, so do it! These babies should cook for at least 5 minutes.

While the onions are saute-ing, start chopping all your other stuff like apples, and mushrooms, and grate your carrot. I chop into little bite size pieces, but you could pretty much do any size you want. Grate the carrot super fine. Chuck says it's supposed to look like orange dirt. Yum.

A word on the apples: Make sure to choose something that will stand up to cooking and not totally lose it's firmness. I used Jonathan apples the first time and they were the best.

Add your sausage to the onions and cook away. Add salt and pepper.

Right about now is when you start boiling a huge pot of water for your pasta. Remember to salt the water so it tastes like sea water, so your noodlies get some flavor too.

Once all your sausage is brown, add all the chopped stuff and carrot to the sausage and combine.

Add the cider vinegar and get it all cooking for a couple minutes. The apples and mushrooms should start to get a little soft.

Okay, now just take a minute and smell that wonderful goodness you've created... Right here, you have two options: 1. Taste the sausage mixture and be amazed at the wonderful flavors you'e never tasted combined, OR 2. Just wait and taste it all together and be even more surprised and amazed at what is in your mouth :) You decide.

Keep an eye on your pasta so it doesn't over cook. It's okay to make it al dente so it can soak up some of the mind-blowing sauce you're about to make.

Belt the butter in a pan. Let it cook for like 5 minutes on medium until it gets browned and nutty. Don't burn it though.

Add your cream and spices. This is where my version differs from Chuck Wendig's. He says to add 2 tablespoons of some sort of cream, like sour cream, creme fraiche, or whatever. I say, add 2 CUPS of half-and-half (or any kind of cream, just as Chuck suggests). Chuck's version is buttery and delicious but makes not so delicious leftovers, and leaves a film in your mouth. My version is creamy and warm, and, let's just say it, perfect.

Drain noodles, combine with sauce once it's been thickening for a few minutes.

Mmm. If you're brave, add a crap ton of herbs. Go wild. It tastes best with strong rosemary and sage flavors. My recipe says 2 teaspoons of rosemary and 2 teaspoons of thyme, but you could go a full tablespoon if you want. Just use the amount you like. Also, you can pretty much use whatever spices you want. I think rosemary and sage taste like fall though.

Get some noodles in a bowl, top with the sausage mix, and possibly walnuts, and prepare yourself for the awesomest autumn pasta ever.

EAT while watching TV and drink milk. Well, really, you can eat it wherever you want and drink whatever beverage you prefer; you'll love it just the same :)

Holidays and Family 2011

2011-12-09T10:28:00.001-07:00

So, these two photos are pretty much the extent of my 2011 holiday photos, haha :) I've been ignoring photographs for a while. Not really on purpose; I've just been too busy.

For Thanksgiving, I made that brined roasted turkey, and it turned out pretty great. I used someone else's oven, and it ended up taking a lot longer than last year. But it was still tasty. It made a pretty awesome turkey pot pie too. We had a late dinner with Trevor's family that day.

My family all came over for a get-together last night. We weren't able to be together on Thanksgiving, and won't all be in town for Christmas, so this was basically just a Holiday thing :) Sometimes I seriously consider getting rid of my giant dining room table for something smaller for just the two of us. Then occasionally I have 15 people over for dinner and I fall in love with it again! I made spaghetti sauce and let it simmer in a crock pot for like, 10 hours. It was pretty delicious, and I have leftovers I'm about to go eat for lunch later. YUM.

Planning family get-togethers is seriously so stressful, but once everyone is actually there, I don't regret it. My grandma, mom, uncle, and my little brother came to Utah for a doctor visit, and my brother, his wife, and my niece came up from Cedar for something else. It was practically a miracle. There were still a couple people missing, but for the most part, it was practically the biggest reunion we've had all year.

After dinner, Trevor and I went downtown to check out the lights with my brother and sister-in-law, and of course, my niece. Every time I see her, she is so much bigger and smarter, and cuter. Her hair has grown out, and it's all curly :) AND she remembered by name! I thought for sure she would be too shy or not remember my name very well since we only see them like 2 or 3 times a year. After a couple hours though, she started talking to me about the fish in our tank. We had a late night snack at Village Inn after. I got a waffle. That's kind of amazing. I never get waffles. But there's nothing like breakfast food at 11:00 at night.

Here's us, being awesome.

Here's Bella, scoping out the floaty lights.

She's definitely on her parents' sleep schedule. She was still ready to go at midnight :)

Everyone might still be in town for a few days, so hopefully we get to see them all. I'll try to be more diligent about getting pictures. The new iPhone update makes it so easy since now you can just click the home button twice and use the volume button for the shutter.

Olives

2011-12-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

If you've never tried real olives, you totally should. Over the weekend I tried a bunch of different kinds at the Whole Foods olive bar, and they were fantastic! I've always been a fan of plain old regular black canned olives. Like, incredibly so. But every time I've tried jarred green olives with pimento or greek olives in salad, I've been unimpressed. So I thought I just didn't like "real olives" and never bothered to try anything else.

But on Friday I did, and my olive world exploded! I asked the olive and cheese expert at Whole Foods to help me find a few REGULAR olives from their buffet of like 20 different varieties. I didn't want to try any crazy weird things. She directed me to several mild kinds which have changed my life. I was encouraged to sample by using tongs and a cup; I sampled the crap out of them. They tasted like your regular olive, only times that by a thousand.

The first thing I'm going to do with my new-found knowledge is add some sort of fancy olive mix to my usual cheese and crackers in December. (Oh my! It's December NOW :) Guess I get to go get some.) Every year I love to have all sorts of cheeses, assorted meats, and crackers for Christmas, and olives are TOTALLY joining the party.

To my knowledge, Harmon's and Smith's Marketplace also have olive bars. I smell a new habit forming.

Moral of the story. If you've never tried REAL olives, please do. Oh my gosh! I want some right now!

2011-11-30T15:15:00.001-07:00

Heartburn is the bane of my existence.

Alton Brown's Roast Turkey

2011-11-18T10:42:00.001-07:00

I'm obsessed with food. We all know it. I love to cook it, and I love to eat it. That's pretty much why all my posts have nothing to do with my day-to-day life, or how Trevor and I are doing with school and work, and whatnot. And it's basically why I'd rather make meatloaf than go to the gym. It's because I really just care about what I'm having for dinner tonight. You should be glad though, because I share some of my favorite recipes with you! And your kitchens are happier for it, I hope :)

That being said, this is a two way street, you know. I like it when people share their recipes with me too! So, please do. Tell me what you like or hate about the recipes I post, or send me better ones, or post them on your blogs. I love me some new recipes.

In honor of Thanksgiving next week, I want to share my new favorite turkey recipe. We tried it last year, and it was seriously the best turkey I've ever had in my life. I'm not kidding. At all. My grandma makes a mean turkey, with basting, and slow cooking, and moist goodness, but Alton Brown's Roast Turkey kicks my grandma's turkey's trash (sorry Grandma). Everyone at our Thanksgiving dinner last year loved this turkey. PLUS, it is incredibly fun to make!

I'm in charge of turkey again this year, and as I'm heading out to the store tomorrow to begin preparations, I thought I'd give you a heads up so you could have time to make it too!

You can check out Alton's recipe on foodnetwork, and watch his videos for tips and stuff, but I'll explain everything here too, plus a bunch of stuff you might miss if you haven't watched the episode of Good Eats. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

This recipe starts 3 days before Thanksgiving, by thawing your bird in the fridge. So I'll be starting on Monday.

Here's what you'll need:

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen turkey

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock (8 16oz cans)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water
1 clean 5-gallon bucket

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Brine, you say? What the what? Don't worry, your turkey won't taste anything like the Great Salt Lake. A brine is actually a salt/sugar solution that you use to soak your meat in like a marinade. Brining is basically like osmosis--after a few hours sitting in the salt water, your turkey will begin to absorb the water, taking in all the flavor of the brine with it. The flavors in the water begin to flow between the water and the turkey. Thus, your turkey meat actually begins to taste like your brine. So make it good!

Here's what you do:

MONDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING: Start thawing your bird in the fridge. I'm doing a 14-16 pound bird, and 3 days should do it. Even if it's still a little frozen on the big day, it's okay. (When you're picking your bird, allow at least 1 pound of turkey per person. All your turkey will get eaten. Do 1.5 or 2 pounds per person for leftovers. Consider two birds instead of one giant bird if you're worried about size.)
WEDNESDAY DAY: Make your brine. Combine all your brine ingredients into a big pot, except the ice. Alton's recipe calls for candied ginger, but I didn't use it last year because I couldn't find it. You can use whatever ingredients you have. It's important to use kosher salt, as the measurements are made with kosher salt in mind. If you don't have it, you can use table salt, but remember to use less. A teaspoon of table salt contains more salt than a teaspoon of kosher salt because the grain is finer on table salt. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/kosher-vs-table-vs-sea-salts/index.html) Dissolve the solids and bring to a boil. Cool and refrigerate.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Begin brining your turkey. Combine the brine and 1 gallon of heavily iced water in your CLEAN food-safe 5-gallon bucket. Add your turkey (innards removed) breast-side down to your brine. Alton says to brine for 8-16 hours. I'd definitely go on the longer side. I start brining right before going to bed Wednesday night, and leave it in until I start the oven. So, more than 16 hours, but what the hey. Leave your sealed bucket somewhere cool, where the water will stay icy throughout the entire brine. I put mine on the porch, and I've heard garages are even better.
THURSDAY MORNING: Turn your turkey over in the brine, and continue to brine until you're ready to cook.
THURSDAY DAY: Consider how long your turkey needs to roast. My 14-16 pound bird will take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. For a 16-20 pound bird, add about 30 minutes, and so on. My family is eating at 6:00 PM, so I will preheat my oven at 3:00 PM to allow for resting time. PREHEAT your oven to 500 degrees. Yes, 500. REMOVE your turkey from the brine and rinse it off; pat dry with paper towels. Place your bird onto a cookie sheet topped with a wire rack. Tuck your birdy wings back or truss with string.
THURSDAY DAY: T-minus 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Start your aromatics. Microwave your cinnamon stick and cut up apple & onion in a cup or two of water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, get yourself a square of aluminum foil and fold it into a triangle. Brush a little bit of oil onto one side of the foil, and fit it onto your turkey. You're making a sort of turkey breast shield that you will later use to protect the white breast meat from overcooking. Set your foil shield aside. Stuff your turkey with aromatics--apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and herbs. Coat your turkey with canola oil.
THURSDAY: T-minus 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Roast your turkey at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Use the lowest oven rack level.
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees, cover your turkey with your foil shield, and put it back in. You can use a probe digital thermometer that stays in the turkey, alerting you when it reaches the right temperature-- or you can do what I do. LEAVE THE TURKEY ALONE FOR 2 HOURS or until it reaches 161 degrees. Check the turkey after two hours with your meat thermometer, and put it back in if it's not there yet. Be sure to check the thickest part of the turkey breast, and don't hit any bones with your thermometer. Don't trust the pop up thingy that comes in your turkey. It will over cook your white meat.
Your turkey is done when you hit 161 degrees.
Remove from the oven and rest, covered, while you do other stuff for 15 minutes or so.
CARVE :)

You're going to love this. The pepper/allspice brine adds a sweet/savory hint to the meat, and the aromatics lend their flavor throughout. The skin is crispy, the meat is juicy, and the white and dark meat are both properly cooked.

You can buy me a Christmas present to say thank you ;)

spiced up spaghetti from a jar. it's so good, you'll die.

2011-10-27T17:10:00.002-06:00

If you ever want to have the best friggin spaghetti of your life (maybe), you'll do what I say.

I LOVE spaghetti. I make it every week, and if my husband would let me, I'd make it twice a week (prob'ly).

I also love money. And expensive jars of yummy spaghetti sauce cost lots of money.

In addition, I love free time. So not waiting an hour for my sauce from scratch to simmer down to a thickness that won't leak water onto the bottom of my plate of noodles is important to me.

If you are plagued with these concerns, by all means, read on, dear student.

HERE'S HOW TO MAKE YOUR JAR OF SPAGHETTI SAUCE FRIGGIN TERRIFIC, as I said earlier:

First, make sure you have all these ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef ($3)
olive oil, some
kosher salt
pepper
1 teaspoon (or more) crushed garlic (spend 50 cents, get a freaking garlic bulb)
1/2 regular sized onion (you decide if you want white, yellow, sweet, whatever) (also, $1)
1 or 2 handfuls of bulk mushrooms ($1)
1 jar of generic spaghetti sauce--the cheapo kind ($1.50)
10 or so basil leaves (or dried if you don't have this)
oregano
parsley
red pepper flakes
whatever other spices you might like---try them out! :)
optional zucchini (50 cents)
1 regular sized bag spaghetti noodles (you know, the kind you think will never be enough but it really is) ($1)
1 regular sized can of petite diced tomatoes (75 cents)

So hopefully you already have all those spices, and if you do, you're looking at $8.25 for a giant pot of spaghetti that will feed a whole family, or 2 ravenous people for almost 3 meals.

Okay, you've gathered up all this stuff from your pantry and your fridge and from the store. Get to cookin':

Turn on the heat to medium with a big saute pan. Add like a tablespoon of oil after it's hot (add it before it's hot and your kitchen will fill with smoke, so if you like that...)
Start your noodle water. A ton of it.
Chop your onion. Go fast so it doesn't burn out your eyeballs. Add it to the oil and get it cookin.
Add garlic. You can add more or less depending on how much garlic you like. Seriously though, just try out going all in, I bet you'll like it.
Also add in your sliced or chopped mushrooms. And your chopped zucchini if you're game for that.
Season with salt and cook for a couple minutes so the onions get soft and your mushrooms aren't dry.
Add beef. Yum! Season with salt and pepper (pretty liberally). And brown.
Cooky, cooky, waity waity.
Your water should be boiling so go ahead with your noodles, and make sure your boiling water tastes like sea water with salt.
You may drain your meat if you so desire, but I don't really. Whatever. Unless I go way cheap and buy like 60/40 beef.
Add your jar of sauce along with the can of tomatoes. Oh, be sure to watch your heat and stir slowly so it doesn't volcano up onto your hand and burn your fingers off.
Add spices and basil leaves! You can cut up the basil or throw them in whole, both are good. Try starting out with a layer of spices that covers the top of the sauce, and stir it up. TASTE IT to see if you want to add more spices of any kind. I go for about a little less than a tablespoon of oregano, a tablespoon of parsley, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and sometimes a sprig of rosemary if I have it fresh and I'm feeling pine-treeish. Lots of people swear by bay leaves, but I hate fishing them out. Besides, we aren't simmering that long anyways.
I can't stress this enough--make sure you taste it and adjust all your spices, including salt and pepper. If you want it a little sweeter, add a teaspoon of honey.
Let it simmer while your noodles cook.
Drain your noodles, and combine. I love to combine. It's not required, but it reminds me of being a kid again where I never had to mix my own pasta on my plate :)
Top generously with parmesan.
Eat. And eat a second plate.
Come back to my blog and leave me lots of compliments for resurrecting your spaghetti night.

P.S. Your kids ages 1-15 might hate you for making this with mushrooms.

P.S.S. Your husbands will love you and kiss you all over for making this. The next day. They'll be too full to leave the table the night of.

P.S.S. You'll love you for making this because you'll have an amazing lunch to bring to work the next day, and all your co-workers will be jealous of the smells coming out of your microwave.

P.S.S.S. I don't pay attention to how many ounces are in cans and jars, and how many grams my noodles weigh. Use your brains. "Regular" means the most common size, the traditional size. Don't Biggie-Size your cans of tomato.

I'm selling my dear friend, Mr. 24" Imac

2011-10-20T09:19:00.000-06:00

I'm selling my 2009 24" iMac! $1000.00.

I recently upgraded to the newest model with some crazy awesome specs for my photography workload.

It's in perfect condition. We purchased it brand new 2 years ago and have been very happy with it. It has a crystal clear, vibrantly colored screen for gaming and photo editing, as well as every day computer use. We used it most for World of Warcraft, and as the main photo editor for my photography business. It has served me so well! No scratches or blemishes.

Here's some specs:
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
4GB RAM, upgradeable to 16 GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9400, 256 MB
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8

Significantly higher ram and video capability than the 2007 model.

Airport Wireless Internet Adaptor
Bluetooth
Firewire
USB 2.0
Wired Keyboard + Mouse that originally came in the box (barely used)
All the SnowLeopard default programs

Contact Becky at 801-558-7422 or beckygreenphotos@gmail.com; text, call or email.

5 year anniversary

2011-10-08T16:49:00.002-06:00

Trevor and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last weekend!

Here's some stuff we did:

Trevor went to Cafe Rio with me. This is like, a once in a lifetime experience. He even went in and sat at a table :) PLUS, I'd gotten enough stamps so we got a meal free. For the win.
We went grocery shopping and took our time; got Waffle Crisp and Chips Ahoy.
Ate at Quiznos. Possibly got food poisoning though, because I had a hard time eating for the rest of the weekend.
Watched a lot of Cheers, and Thor.
Had adequate time to prepare for my photography assignment.
Watched Conference here and there.
Took 2 days off work.
Trevor didn't go to school :) Missed some homework assignments :(
Had a fancy dinner at The Copper Onion downtown--I reviewed it on Yelp.
Picked up $20 worth of desserts at Gourmandise--also reviewed it on Yelp.
Played the "which actor stars in the most movies we own" game (turns out, it's Ian McKellan; who'd a thought)
Read some Lord of the Rings trivia out loud for like an hour before going to bed.
Watched Julie & Julia--WITH TREVOR. Holy moly.
Subsequently got a craving to make some French cuisine.
Ate at California Pizza Kitchen. Also on Yelp.
Did a lot of brainstorming with Trevor on his new book.
Made a pumpkin cheesecake.
Started an oven fire. But we didn't die.
Made a pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream.
Read some books.

Pretty good weekend. We love going out to eat and trying new places, so we were happy to just hang out at home mostly.

Can't believe it's been a whole 5 years, but at the same time, I can't believe 5 years has gone by so fast. I love Trevor, he loves me :)

Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream

2011-10-07T11:14:00.000-06:00

http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/2009/08/chicken-breasts-with-mushrooms-cream.html

Last night I tried making Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream. Mostly because we just watched Julie & Julia a couple days ago, and I've been hungry ever since ;)

some other girl's photo from sugar and spice

I've ALWAYS wanted her cookbook, but have never properly prioritized so I can afford the 10 pound bible of a book when I go to the book store. But I found a copy of this recipe online, see link above.

You can find the full recipe straight from her book below, but here's how I did it.

Take 2 pounds of chicken breasts (2 full size breasts) and cut them all up into really flat pieces. I like to do this so they don't take 45 minutes to bake. Sprinkle with lemon juice--I used the bottled kind and just put a little in my hand to sprinkle on each side of the breasts. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt because the sauce reduces and is SUPER flavorful already.

Melted 5 tablespoons of butter in a large cast-iron frying pan until it was frothy, like Julia says. Use all 5 tablespoons, since this is making the base for your sauce. Just go for it; it'll be delicious. To this I added about half of a white onion chopped fine, and half a carton of white mushrooms sliced, and a bit of seasoning, and let that saute for a couple minutes. Julia says to saute but not brown. Good idea.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan and turn them over a bit so they're all covered in the butter. Then cover with a piece of buttered wax paper and put in your oven at 400 degrees. Julia's recipe says for 6 minutes--she must have had uber thin breasts, or a really hot oven, because my breasts took about 15 minutes even cut thinly. Just bake until your chicken's done. The one thing I think I would prefer to be different about this recipe is that the chicken isn't seared or browned at all. I think I may try it one time where my chicken gets seared in the mushroom butter pan before I bake it all the way. I'm not exactly sure what the wax paper does... but I did it. Maybe if I didn't use it at all and didn't cover the chicken they'd get a little brown in the oven?

While it's baking, you get your other fixin's ready. I had asparagus handy, and a box of stuffing :) Who can ask for a better meal?

When your chicken's done, remove it from the pan and keep it warm. Return your pan to the stove on high, where you add the stock and wine. I used regular old chicken broth (hence, lenient salting) and Pompeien white cooking wine. You let that simmer on high for like 5 minutes while the alcohol cooks out and it reduces . If you're a stickler about even cooking with alcohol, which, sometimes I am, I just replace the wine or whatever with more broth or something else. More broth in this case would probably be fine, or a water broth mixture.

Add your cream, and boil again, reducing and stirring until it's thickened. Add more lemon juice and salt/pepper to your taste, add the chicken back in, top with parsley (I used about a tablespoon of dried), and serve!

Chicken was tender and juicy, sauce was jam packed with flavor, mushrooms were delicious! And it really only took like 30 minutes. Served more like 2-3 since we loved it so much :)

Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons

(Chicken Breasts with Mushroom and Cream)

Source: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck (Knopf, 1961)

Ingredients:

4 supremes (boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Big pinch white pepper

5 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced shallot or green onion

1/4 pound diced or sliced fresh mushrooms

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

1/4 cup white or brown stock or canned beef bouillon

1/4 cup port, Madeira or dry white vermouth

1 cup whipping cream

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

Directions:Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rub the chicken breasts with drops of lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a heavy, oven-proof casserole, about 10 inches in diameter until it is foaming. Stir in the minced shallots or green onion and saute a moment without browning. Then stir in the mushrooms and saute lightly for a minute or two without browning. Sprinkle with salt.

Quickly roll the chicken in the butter mixture and lay a piece of buttered wax paper over them, cover casserole and place in hot oven. After 6 minutes, press top of chicken with your finger. If still soft, return to oven for a moment or two. When the meat is springy to the touch it is done. (Please Note: Although Julia suggests to check the chicken after only 6 minutes, I (as well as several of my readers!) feel that this amount of time is inadequate to thoroughly cook the chicken. I cooked it for closer to 30-40 minutes. Please use a meat thermometer to ensure the correct temperature before serving!)

Remove the chicken to a warm platter (leave mushrooms in the pot) and cover while making the sauce (2 to 3 minutes).

To make sauce, pour the stock and wine in the casserole with the cooking butter and mushrooms. Boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Stir in the cream and boil down again over high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Busy

2011-09-29T11:54:00.001-06:00

I literally have nothing else to talk about except photography stuff this week. So I'm make it brief and send you on over to the photography blog for details on all that stuff: beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com

I'm smack dab in the middle of an online photography course that has SO MUCH information to give me. And it's taking up a lot of my time preparing for assignments, doing assignments, and then editing the assignments. Plus it's giving me so many ideas on how to make my business better, so I'm spending time implementing those changes as well. I'm already seeing improvements to my work, and we get feedback, so I expect even more :)

I've also agreed to have one of my sessions given away at the Utah Senior Expo in a drawing, and I've made some coupons up for all the people who enter. So I've been working away in that area, designing the materials and whatnot. I'm hoping I'll get some extra business from that, although I'm not exactly sure how I'll fit them in :)

And, we are in the middle of switching out our old (well, not really OLD, just the one we're upgrading from) iMac for a new one, and all my photography stuff is on an external hard drive, all my user settings are messed up, and I have no time to go and arrange everything again for a while.

Oh! Here's something completely unrelated to photography! Our 5 year wedding anniversary is on Tuesday! We're taking 2 days off of work, and hope to have a relaxing time. I promise myself I won't spend the whole time on the computer.

I have a cold. Or something like that. And it's making me uber tired and cranky because it's making me miss important events like Book Club, and Dinner Club, and making me not want to edit at night. And so I hope it goes away before the weekend!

Testing out the Blogpress app

2011-09-21T20:55:00.001-06:00

Hello.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trevor's Writing Blog

2011-09-12T15:39:00.000-06:00

Trevor has done something totally brave and, to me, uncharacteristic.

He's made a blog. A blog about his writing. That means he's telling EVERYONE that he's been writing.

That's a long ways away from where he used to be: silent, embarrassed, and never wanting to tell anyone what he does with his spare time. It's clever, interesting, and full of little tidbits about writing, and advice from one aspiring author to another. Go check it out; I think you'll like it. Plus, he talks about me sometimes :) I'm one step closer to being famous.

/http://beyonddragonsandwizards.blogspot.com

herbs, garlic, bread, books, school, draft, and fieldguide.

2011-08-25T14:08:00.000-06:00

I know all my posts have been about food lately... but I love it, so...

I took the advise from ... well, everybody... and bought me some of those fresh herbs in a cup of dirt from the grocery store. You know, the kind you put in your window sill to make it look like you've been growing them yourself the whole time? Yeah those. They've been wonderful! You also know how you can buy those little teeny tiny packs of fresh herbs in the produce section, and how they're like $4 for 8 basil leaves? Well, the cup of herbs is like a bagillion leaves for $3. Plus they last longer since you keep them growing. All you have to do is put water in them every day (which, I still sort of failed at, since apparently I'm a plant murderer).

I also FINALLY got around to picking up some of that minced garlic in a jar. I've been chopping and mincing and crushing my garlic for years, and I'm really just so tired of sticky, garlicy hands just to get a teenie weenie bit of garlic. I know. "It's not fresh." Bla bla. Opening a jar of garlic and using a spoon to get it out is seriously so convenient. My food has been a million times tastier the last 2 weeks because I finally gave in. I use the right amounts of garlic, and I don't dirty a cutting board just for garlic anymore. SO NICE.

I guess since I'm on the topic of food we've loved lately... We also tried those Rhodes frozen bread loaves a few weeks ago and have been hooked. They're just like the frozen dinner rolls only they're in loaf form. They come out to costing about $1.25 per loaf, and they are ridiculously good. We eat them constantly (and we're constantly running out and forgetting to let rise new loaves). We just weren't eating all our bread before. We'd get a loaf and half of it would go moldy before we'd get around to finishing it. But it's not like you can just NOT have a loaf of bread around the house; what if you want midnight toast, or an after work pb and j? And you know those times you're so disappointed after an attempt to recreate your favorite deli sandwich at home that you find yourself vowing to never buy deli meat again? These loaves have solved all those problems. It's deli sandwiches, pb&j, buttered bread with dinner, and toast at midnight for us all the time now. We just have to remember to give yourself 5 hours of rising time.

I DO have other things going on in my life right now besides food. Not much, but there's some stuff in between meals. Trevor started the next semester yesterday. We spent the "summer break" (that means the last 3 weeks) (and by "we" I mean "I") registering Trevor for his new classes and ordering his books while waiting for Trevor's loan money to show up at the last minute.

Somehow I also read 3 books last week. What the? I read the first two books in the Pretties series and The Help. All of which you can see how much I loved/liked over there ------> on my goodreads widget.

AND Trevor and I got through the second draft of his book. I read through and marked up a bunch of conceptual changes, inconsistencies, that sort of thing. And then he had to go through and write it all, be the mastermind, you know? He ended up writing like 35,000 extra words or something like that. Now he's taking a break while he gets used to school again, while his reading group (me and his family) read through what he's done so far.

I'm very close to being able to purchase this photography workshop/field guide I've been waiting for. It's almost $300, and I've been saving up. Now that the time has come, I'm really nervous about spending the money. I need so many things relating to photography... I almost just said, "I wish I had more money." But that would have just been so obvious and laughable! Don't we all. The hard thing about buying intangible items is that if you don't like them, you can't just return them. I guess I need to take a page out of my clients' books and trust that I'm going to get a good product.

AND here's the end of my 10th post in a row without any pictures of us doing anything spectacular. I took some photos at the Peter Orullian/Brandon Sanderson book signing... but they aren't really fantastic so...

Leftover Chicken

2011-08-17T10:44:00.000-06:00

Okay, for real. Last night I made a rice casserole from the leftover chicken from my Chicken in Milk recipe from last time. It was the best chicken and rice bake EVER.

And I've made a few rice bakes in my time. If you never follow any other advise but this, you'll always have amazing rice bakes: never use canned cream of mushroom soup. Homemade gravy/sauce is SO easy to make, and tastes so much more unique and fresh. Obviously, I still think canned cream of mushroom has it's uses, but if you're trying to make something that actually tastes different than every other casserole that was ever made? Yeah... And all you need to make your own mushroom sauce is regular milk, flour, butter, mushrooms, and broth. (Sometimes I use boullion and water instead of broth to save even more money.)

Here's what you gotta do:

Start your rice. I used chicken broth instead of water in the rice; it's the easiest way to get yummy rice without rice-a-roni. I used 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice, and 3 cups of broth (I used half broth and half water sometimes when I want to be frugal). Cook for like 20 minutes ish.
While the rice is cooking, saute up some chopped onion and mushrooms in a tablespoon on olive oil. Salt and pepper. I didn't add any other seasoning to this (like garlic or oregano) because the chicken was so flavorful.
After the vegetables are done cooking, make a roux. That means you add a few tablespoons of butter to the frying pan and melt it down, then add an equal amount of flour. Stirring briskly till it's all dissolved. If you want thicker sauce, add more flour to the butter.
You cook that for a minute or two until the floury taste is gone (chefs say it smells "nutty" but whatever).
Add a cup or two of broth and a cup or two of milk. I didn't really measure this. I just sort of added as much liquid as I wanted. Add more if you want more sauce.
Bring to a boil and stir until it thickens. Add the chicken and reseason to taste.
Combine the sauce and rice in a baking dish, and cover with cheese.
Bake at 375 for like 15-20 minutes.

I served it with fresh green beans and it was seriously delicious. The chicken had a leftover sage, lemon, and garlic flavor, that went perfectly with the creamy sauce and mushrooms.

I'm also eating some leftover chicken sandwiches--I had some yesterday and I'm having more today. This chicken is so good!

Jamie Oliver? Chicken in Milk?

2011-08-16T17:06:00.003-06:00

So I've been watching a little bit... actually A LOT of Jamie Oliver lately. Sometimes when you're watching Netflix, you pick something really fast, and just keep watching it when it turns out to not suck. Sometimes you have to hurry and just choose, otherwise you'll realize a half hour later that you've just wasted an entire episode's worth of time browsing all the options (and listened to the Apple TV's "bop" every time you click).

So I settled on "Oliver's Twist" one day about a week ago. It's a British cooking show, made in like 2002, and the host is Jamie Oliver. I guess he's sort of famous in England... Anyways, he's pretty eccentric, but not in an Emeril or even Ramsey kind of way. More like an almost too goofy to be comfortable kind of way, with several catch phrases that have no meaning to Americans, and sort of a lisp to go along with his partially cockney accent. I watched the entire season, and ended up really enjoying it, except for the theme song. Which makes me want to kill myself every time they play it (which is at least 3 times per episode).

Anywho, I was kind of blown away by the way he was cooking though. It must just be the British influence, or something, because I hadn't really seen anyone cooking like he does. He uses PILES of fresh herbs like no one I've seen! And his presentation is wacky, but that's probably the England thing. Going in, I was concerned I'd be seeing a lot of "Spotted Dick" and "Blood Pudding" and crap I would never want to eat because it's made of tongue or something. But it turns out, lots of English cooking looks pretty good. He uses tons of vegetables and fish, which is like inspiration in a bottle because I'm always feeling like I use the same old chicken and ground beef recipes.

Long story not so short, I decided to make one of the dishes that looked tasty, and it WAS!

I went for the chicken in Milk. Basically, you put a seared whole chicken in a roaster with milk, lemon, garlic, and fresh whole sage leaves, and out comes a juicy, flavorful chicken soaking in lemony broth and CHEESE! What the... ? Cheese? Yep.

So remember when you learned that one time when you were watching a documentary on cheese... (just go with me) that basic cheese is can be made by combining milk with an acid like lemon juice? Well, same concept applies. The lemon "splits" the milk and out comes cheese.

Seriously, have you guys ever used fresh sage? I sure hadn't. I smelled it at the store and I felt like I was in a forest. But it was definitely the perfect flavor for chicken. It's practically nothing like dried or ground sage. I highly recommend trying out this recipe.

And Oliver's Twist is still available on Netflix to watch instantly, so go check it out. You have to watch at least 4 before you start ignoring all the quirks.

Here's Jamie's recipe, and here's my version with the slight variations:

• One 4lb chicken
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 good handful of fresh sage, leaves picked • zest of 2 lemons (this needs to be peeled off in thick strips, not grated), plus juice from 1
• 10 cloves of garlic, skin left on (I used crushed because I just bought a jar of that super convenient stuff and wanted to use it)
• 2 cups milk (I used 2% but more whole means better cheese)

Preheat the oven to 375F (I used a roaster because I don't have roasting pan that will fit a chicken), and find a snug-fitting pot for the chicken (instead of a pot, I used my cast iron frying pan to sear the chicken). Season it generously all over, and fry it in the butter and a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even color all over, until golden. (On the show, Jamie used half the butter to sear one half of the chicken, then threw it away, then used the other half of the butter to sear the other half of the chicken. I guess it keeps the butter from going brown.) Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil and butter left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan, which will give you a lovely caramel flavor later on (because I used a separate pan for searing than for roasting, I just tried to scrape as much of the bits from the frying pan into the roaster).

Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce that is absolutely fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it onto your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato. (On the show, Jamie served it with plain polenta mixed with butter and parmesan. I made the mistake of buying the preseasoned Sun Dried Tomato kind when the store was out of plain. Don't do it. Gross.)

Win a session :)

2011-08-16T16:25:00.005-06:00

In an effort to increase followers on the bloggidy blog, we're doing a contest to win a free session!

All you have to do is share the link to the blog:

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com

You can use the picture or the link, as long as it links back to the blog! Then all you have to do is leave me a comment or send me a message letting me know where you shared the link, and you'll be entered to win a free 30 minute session. Your name can be entered more than once for sharing in multiple places, so get going! And don't forget to follow the blog, because the contest ends when it reaches 30 followers!

friend's engagement pictures

2011-08-08T13:57:00.000-06:00

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/engagements-in-american-fork.html

I took my friend's engagement pictures 2 weeks ago. I thought some of you might want to see since you might know her.

clubs

2011-08-02T10:48:00.000-06:00

I've been doing a lot of "clubs" lately. Dinner Club, which I think I've talked about before, and which has probably made me gain like 10 pounds, I haven't checked. And Book Club, which has made me read books I probably wouldn't have.

I was invited by an old co-worker to go to her Dinner Club. Basically it is a bunch of ladies from her neighborhood who get together once a month to eat a themed pot luck dinner. They all bring a dish (which is usually pretty darn fancy compared to normal people food), and eat it at someone's house (which is more house than I have), and talk about their houses, kids, husbands, and lives. At first, I was worried I'd be out of place... But after I went just one time, I knew these ladies weren't the snooty types I was judging them to be. Even visiting a giant house with a giant pool in their giant backyard, I couldn't help feeling welcome and wanted. We just talk. About life and family. And even though I don't have all the things they have yet, like a house and kids, and, well, money, in many cases, I have enjoyed the company of women (wow, that was a lot of commas). Plus, there's delicious food. I might suffer through a lot of things for delicious food.

Book club has been going on for a few months. It's probably a pretty typical book club. We decide on a book, read it, and meet about it once/month or so. We talk about the book for maybe 20 minutes, and then chat about important stuff for an hour and half. I'm sure once we all have nothing new to report on our lives, we might talk about books more. But honestly, 20 minutes seems pretty good to me. I've missed a few of the get-togethers but I've read all the books. It's kind of interesting to see which books people like, and which they don't. Also, it gives me a reason to read out of my comfort zone sometimes. It's weird sometimes to see the books that society as a whole values the most. Sometimes the books are complete trash, and the world is in love. And sometimes they're gems. The world is weird.

As you can see from my older posts, I've been doing a lot of photography stuff. Like, stuff for my business. I bought my own light kit, only to find it is SO not what I wanted. I have to return it and get a different one, which means spending more money on a better one. 5 steps forward, 1 step back. I guess I can't complain. But of course this all comes the week before I have a gig where I need a light kit. So I'm back to borrowing. I'm grateful I have that option though.

I would love to be a fancy cook. Random thought. But I've been watching a lot of random cooking shows on Netflix lately, and it's rekindled my desire to learn diverse foods and cook super fancy. I try, but I'm still really limited by my experience. I hate watching cooking shows and knowing that I have NO IDEA what a dish would taste like because I've only tried 1 ingredient they used.

Trevor's first semester back at school ends this week.

And that's pretty much all for now.

Photography Blog

2011-07-28T15:18:00.000-06:00

hello!

I've been working on SO much stuff for the business these last two weeks!

I updated my website: www.wix.com/photosbybecky/web

But most importantly to all your bloggers out there, I made myself a designated photography blog:

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com/

So go like it, and follow it, and read it :)

It's all integrated into my website now! It's pretty crazy. And I finally figured out how to do all the stuff on my website I've been wanting. So I made those changes I was talking about last week to my services, and I'm soooo looking forward to using the new system.

Hope everyone goes there and leaves me some love :) because I love YOU!

Lots of stuff I'm thinking about.

2011-07-18T17:11:00.000-06:00

uh... stuff going on:

Saw Harry Potter 7 part II twice last weekend. It was super. Cried most at Snape's memories.
Procrastinating Trevor's next semester registration.
Working on photography networking: cupcake photos, free wedding stuff to some people. Trying to open my eyes more. Doing a women in business photoshoot thing in a few weeks.
Working on my marketing. I bought some new labeling supplies for my photography discs, and came up with a new logo I can start using. I need to update my website, bad. It's been like 9 months.
Trying to make by brain stop thinking same-old-same-old. Thinking of things I currently have in place that are limiting my creative potential possibly? 1/2 hour sessions might be ruining my ability to be creative... but I like offering a cheap alternative to clients who need it.
Thinking about at-home studio possibilities and oggling over DropItModern
Thinking about all the things I need to buy for the business: an external hard drive or two for backing up, a freaking long zoom lens, a better flash, bulbs, backdrops, the world--why not?
Trying to stay positive and not getting caught up in small arguments--although I've pretty much failed at this lately. There's so many little things.
Reassessed our debt situation today. That's always fantastic.
Trying not to watch too much TV, although I'm probably failing at that too. Netflix is so amazing, but so annoying sometimes.
I need to eat more vegetables! And less cake. Too bad there's a fudge covered cake sitting on my counter at home right now, waiting and gooey-izing while I work. And too bad I found that cinnamon roll recipe by Alton Brown over the weekend. Something's gotta give.
I gave up a stupendous coupon over the weekend to Torrid. It was one of those "thanks for shopping with us, so here's a coupon for $25 off your next $50 purchase when you come back during these dates" coupons. That's 50% off! Ugh, but I couldn't justify another $25. Sad day. Gosh, we need to spend less.
Am loving Trevor. He's special to me. He makes me laugh, and he makes me frustrated--especially when he switches the mouse on the iMac to his freaking crazy insane 100 button WoW mouse that I can't edit with, or when he stressing me out every 10 minutes about something, or when he wants to watch Battlestar Galactica and I just want to watch Terminator Salvation dangit because it's been forever. I love him, and he makes my life better.

More pie

2011-07-12T12:12:00.000-06:00

I decided I needed a stress-relieving session of baking on Sunday. So I decided to try my hand solo at pie making. And I also wanted to test the difference between shortening-only pie crust as my grandma makes, and a shortening/butter combo as my pal Alton Brown makes. (Yes, he's my friend.)

The difference: Shortening-only pie crust is whiter, crisper, and more delicate. A pie crust with shortening AND butter is soft, flakey, tender, and golden. They're two different beasts, in my opinion. The butter/shortening combo was 10 times easier to handle though.

I got to use my great-grandma's sifter for the first time, and I felt super special.

I ended up making 3 pies in a matter of 4 hours. Berry, cherry, and key-lime pie, all completely from scratch. I spent the most time on the cherry, depitting and all. But the fresh cherries that were actually kind of amazing, turned in to that fated "cooked" cherry mess. Cherry-pie lovers would probably love it, but for some reason, I just can't handle cherries. The berry pie recipe called for a bit of blueberry jam, and it actually solved the sour problem. I might stick to that trick for the rest of my life. The key-lime pie is great. Although, I might just suffer the artificiality next time and add the green food coloring, because lime pie that isn't green is off-setting.

All in all, I had an informative and stress-eeking evening. Now we just need to eat all this pie.

Pie Crust and the 4th of July

2011-07-12T12:04:00.000-06:00

We spent the weekend in Idaho for the holiday, but mostly just to get away. Some of my family lives up there, and while it's stressful in its own way to be around family so much in a condensed amount of time, it's still relaxing no matter what to be away from normal life in a green, grassy, breezy, familiar place that is consistently 10 degrees cooler than Salt Lake.

We spent half a day in Lava Hot Springs--which was pretty much insane, given that it was July 4th weekend. We wanted to go to the hot springs, and were almost jumping for joy when we saw that they weren't very busy. But one toe in the water showed us why there were only 10 people lounging around with their feet in the water. It was freaking hot. Like, so hot we couldn't even keep our feet in. LAME. So we suffered the jam-packed public pool down the street for about an hour and a half, all the while with Trevor asking if we could go yet. Seriously, is it so bad for me to want to spend a little time away in the sun and chlorinated pool water away from any friends, family, or acquaintances I might run into that might happen to see me in my swimsuit? Society just won't let me. We knew it'd be busy, but we were hoping not quite THAT busy. The highlight of the outing was probably a toss-up between the Thai restaurant's yellow curry, or the geyser at Soda Springs.

I did get a sunburn on one side of my body though.

We ended up getting up at the crack of dawn on Monday to make it out to a chuck-wagon breakfast, but it didn't work out. You know how things go when family gets together; something always goes wrong. I'm sort of surprised we made it home alive since we were both practically napping at the wheel (not really, we aren't that dangerous, I may be exaggerating).

My grandma made pie with me on Sunday, and handed down to me my great-grandma's flour sifter. She showed me how she makes pie crust, and had me roll out my own dough after she showed me how she learned to do it from my great-grandma. Pie crust is freaking ridiculous. Mine kept cracking and breaking and getting dried out. Hmph. The only other thing I've sucked at right off the bat so much in the kitchen is frosting cakes. But, needless to say, I will cherish that pie-making afternoon for the rest of my life. My grandma is getting old. And she only has more stress in her life lately. I want to remember the different things she gave to me at different times in my life--whether it was a floor to sleep and feel safe on during a summer trip when I was 5, protection from my older brothers and their plans to shove me into the ditch or catch moths and put them on me pronto pups on the shop porch when I was 10, consistent compliments on my hair, eyes, height, or brains as grandmothers do from the time you are 1 day old, or crust-making when I'm 23.

Needless to say, this was my first Independence Day without a single firework, sparkler, or throwing snappy thing. We catnapped the afternoon away while doing laundry, and mustered up the energy (somehow) to make spaghetti and lay on the couch watching Stargate while the fireworks went off outside in the parking lot. I love America; America's the best. And this year I celebrated by listening to America the Beautiful by the MoTab on my phone.

RotK and Shtuff

2011-06-28T16:55:00.001-06:00

We are going to The Return of the King tonight. It's a bad night for it. I hope I get more in the mood before 7, because the extended version is like 5 hours long. And we already paid for our tickets, so... good mood go!
Editing is going well. I am currently working on 2 business headshot sessions, one small family of a mom and son, and 1 large family. I think I've finally mastered my editing time calendar. I used to overbook myself and not really know why--I figured out I have to leave adequate time between shoots to account for my editing time. Like, more time than I thought. I started to do less time in between, and rushed the editing, but I felt like I didn't have time or space to grow or explore new editing techniques. I've had to learn to say "no," or "I can help you, but not for 6 weeks." It's hard sometimes when I might lose business because I don't have enough time. But hopefully the time I spend learning and developing increasingly better editing skills will make up for that down the line.
I'll post some pictures from what I've been working on as I finish them.
House is messy because life is hard.
We're planning a trip to Idaho to visit family for the 4th. We'll also be spending a day at Lava Hot Springs, which I'm looking forward to, even though it will be busy.
Oh! I went to a Dinner Club with one of my friends from my old office last week, and it was such a good time! I'm glad I went. I made frog eye salad (my mom's recipe, of course). But it was just nice to eat and talk with some ladies--some I knew, some I didn't--who were genuinely nice and trying to do the best they can. I'm totally going next month. Each month is a different theme, and we all bring different dishes, like potluck.
I'm reading The Unremembered, by Peter Orullian. My book club chose it also, so that kind of works out--which is lucky because it's sort of long. I was excited about it at first because it's supposed to be an epic fantasy, and the cover is actually way cooler than a lot of fantasy covers. I can tell it's the author's first full novel though. It's a pretty neat story and I'm liking it. But I don't think I would've recommended it as my book club's first fantasy genre novel had I read it beforehand. Oh well. I get to host the get-together in July, and it's going to be awesome either way.
Trevor is doing a lot of homework and getting A's. I'm trying my best not to distract him or invite him to do fun things when he should be studying or doing homework. This Lord of the Rings business isn't helping the last couple weeks though. It's throwing us off.

Books

2011-06-22T09:40:00.005-06:00

Mmm, I love to read.

Just wanted to share that with you all today.

I was thinking about that last night as I was watching The Two Towers in a theater (yeah, that's right, it's 2011), and realizing I really just want to read the book again. And then I realized I have too many other books to read. I have too many books I want to know, too many subjects I want to learn about, too many adventures to go on to repeat that one again just yet.

I think I'd love it if my work paid me to read a novel from 8am to 12pm, then I could do normal work. I'd be okay with that.

This is sort of related more to mathematics than to literature, but yesterday I listened to that recording of a customer on the phone with Verizon disputing a charge on his bill. Long story short, nobody at Verizon understood the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. It made me stop and think about how grateful I am for my education (however long ago it was), and that I was taught by teachers who cared (for the most part) about my welfare. They taught me the basics, but also helped mold my brain into something that can understand beyond what I've been taught. I love to learn. I want more of it. I think that's why I crave reading so much, is because I really don't have the opportunity to learn scholastically at the moment.

Books are amazing.

What's happening

2011-06-10T10:40:00.002-06:00

Trevor started school on Monday at SLCC. He's taking math and english right now, and I'm jealous and relieved it's not me at the same time.

Trevor is working 3/4 time at At Home Heros as a dispatch person.

I started a new job on May 23rd at Wagstaff & Crawford downtown. This was a pretty awesome promotion that included a pay raise, my own office, benefits, and I'm not the lowest employee!

I have my first business headshot photo session booked for this month. It's with my old work.

I paid my first photography income taxes in March. That is a sucky concept.

We paid off some credit cards, and got a student loan. Nice trade. Not.

We now have use of our second bedroom, which we've turned into an office. We're totally taking advantage of it and using for pleasure, photography business, and Trevor's writing. I even sewed curtains with this fabric:

Trevor is delving more into writing as a hobby, and I'm super impressed.

In February and March I started a family cook book which I'm taking pictures for. It's been put on hold while my regular photography has picked up. But I think about it a lot :) That counts, right? I frequently feel the urge to photograph food and am trying to make it a higher priority and a part of my business model.

We bought an iPad this week! It won't come in the mail for another 2 weeks, but we are now officially iPad owners.

We went to CONduit a few weeks ago; it's a fantasy/science fiction writing convention. It was pretty enlightening and encouraging. We met a TON of authors, and got a lot of helpful info.

I've had a ton of photoshoots: www.facebook.com/photosbybecky

That's all for now.

2011-01-31T16:41:00.004-07:00

Day 3 Saturday – Your idea of the perfect first date.

Food and lots of time to talk. No sports. A movie is okay if you also have plenty of time to discuss it and other things. No awkward clothing, like prom dresses. Nature is good.

Day 4 Sunday– Your favorite photograph of your best friend.

Day 5 Monday – A photo of yourself from high school.

Days 4-5 are the same picture. It's actually on my blog right now, and I'm at work and can't access any other pictures. So... Look to the right and see the one from my graduation. That is one of my most favorite pictures of Trevor, who is my best friend. And it is one of me in high school, because technically, I wasn't graduated yet since this was taken BEFORE the ceremony. (If you aren't on my blog when reading this, go to http://beckygreen.blogspot.com to see.)

Day 6 Tuesday– A photo of an animal you’d love to keep as a pet.

more than anything, i want this dog.

just lookit his ears!

day 2: a picture of something i ate today

2011-01-28T22:23:00.003-07:00

choclate sheet cake

made by my brother-in-law brandon

it took no effort on my part, which makes it 100X better than normal sheet cake

i also ate an apple

and a tiny bit of leftover squash macaroni and cheese, and chicken

and tuna mac

and a hot dog with ketchup and relish with macaroni salad

wow. i had a lot of macaroni today. it's cause it was shopping day. and most of my meals came BEFORE we went shopping. which meant we only had leftovers and tuna and macaroni.

oh, and i had a delicious and satisfying peanut butter and banana sandwich on white bread. it had MOUNDS of peanut butter and the bananas were falling out all over the place. it was perfect.

food is the best.

30 Day Blog Challenge

2011-01-27T15:30:00.003-07:00

Um... hellow blog world. I feel we've grown apart. I've convinced myself I need to take a 10 minute break at work because I'm slowly freaking out inside with a project I've been working on for a couple weeks.

I think my last post was in Octoberish. We had Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Trevor lost his job (2 days before Christmas, actually). The latter is consuming our lives at the moment. Although, it's not really as bad as I thought it would be. Trevor's happy to be rid of has last job; I'm happy he's happy. Now we just need to fill the void. It's hard to go through, but I think things will turn out for the best. We wanted Trevor to start school, and as soon as he gets a job, we can start making that work. It changes our long-term plans a bit, but maybe this is how we were supposed to do it... I guess.

So if anyone knows of anything...

Moving on.

I miss my blogging. I've been focusing on my photography a lot, and December was pretty chaotic since I had a sale. But now that January is here with it's freezing temps (along with my normal rates), no one is scheduling anything. So I've been practicing my design skills. I offer announcement designs for weddings, graduations, births, etc. And I want to work on learning how to do different styles, or features that I like on other announcements I see. So I've been working on a few. And reading as much as I can.

But to keep up the blog, I want to do one of those blog challenge thingies I found. It's for 30 days and you do a post every day. You've all heard of them. Don't hate me.

30 Day Blog Challenge
Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.
Day 2 – A photo of something you ate today.
Day 3 – Your idea of the perfect first date.
Day 4 – Your favorite photograph of your best friend.
Day 5 – A photo of yourself from high school.
Day 6 – A photo of an animal you’d love to keep as a pet.
Day 7 – Your dream wedding.
Day 8 – A song to match your mood.
Day 9 – A photo of the item you last purchased.
Day 10 – A photo of your favorite place to eat.
Day 11 – What’s in your makeup bag?
Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.
Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?
Day 14 – A TV show you’re currently addicted to.
Day 15 – Something you don’t leave the house without.
Day 16 – Your celebrity crush.
Day 17 – A photo of you and your family.
Day 18 – Something you crave a lot.
Day 19 – Another picture of yourself.
Day 20 – The meaning behind your blog name.
Day 21 – A photo of something that makes you happy.
Day 22 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently.
Day 23 – 15 facts about you.
Day 24 – A photo of something that means a lot to you.
Day 25 – What’s in your purse?
Day 26 – A photo of somewhere you’ve been to.
Day 27 – A picture of you last year and now and how have you changed since then?
Day 28 – Your favorite movie.
Day 29 – Something you could never get tired of doing.
Day 30 – A photograph of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past

DAY 1: A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

This photo is the opposite of how I feel today. But I'm hoping it will help me change my mood just by looking. My hair is flat and not exactly straight in places. My eyes are puffy and tired because I stayed up too late and got up too early. And of course I'm not wearing makeup. I meant to put mascara on like 5 times throughout the day and just never got around to it. I'm wearing some of my least favorite clothes (pants that button too high and a long shirt to attempt to hide that fact) because all our laundry is dirty at the moment. I've spent the majority of my day at work sorting through hundreds of sheets of paper and removing paperclips and staples as part of a project that needs to be done by the end of the month. I've been eating lunch brought from home for weeks and my mood is mostly grumpy after lunch because of this; today is no exception, and the feeling seems to have lingered into the afternoon. I'm reading a book which is enjoyable, but one I'm not in the mood for 100%. My one highlight (Trevor coming in for a couple hours to work on the project with me) just decided he wouldn't come in today. And I'm having a hard time keeping myself from going home early so I can feel like the day I want is actually beginning.

I think the rest of my day will go better. I'll get to glean some happy vibes by posting some of my design work, read some stuff, maybe go to the library, and have a dinner that isn't chicken nuggets or Ramen. And since tomorrow is Friday (a short day for me), I can stay up late vegging out with a movie or a book in PJs if I so desire. Plus, Trevor has nothing going on, like, ever, anymore. So he'll be around the house if I feel like bothering him or cuddling... whichever I want more.

We will speak again tomorrow; I promise. It will be day #2.

ToM: midnight release

2010-11-03T14:47:00.002-06:00

On Monday night Trevor and I went to the midnight release of the next Wheel of Time book called Towers of Midnight, down at the BYU Bookstore. It was kind of insane. We didn't pre-order, which was a huge mistake. We got put at the end of the line HUMUNGO, after like 900 people who did pre-order. They started letting the rest of us losers in after all the numbered people got in the bookstore, but right as we got to the front door, they shut the doors! The people right in front of us got in, but not us :(

So we waited an extra 15-20 minutes or so, and some official word came out that they weren't sure they would have enough books, so they weren't letting us in yet. Which was totally lame, because Brandon Sanderson was doing a reading from the book, and a Q&A session before the release. By the time they decided to just let us in to wander and try our chances at getting a book after everyone else, we totally missed the reading, and barely caught the Q&A because it was packed. We literally only saw the author's head for like 1 second when he stood on his chair at the end.

Luckily he lives in Utah and favors our state for releases and signings, so we met him a few months ago for the release of The Way of Kings. And he's coming back in a month or two for some more regular signings. So we'll see him again.

While we were watching the pre-order people get their books after it hit midnight (seriously, there was a count down and everything, like on New Years... ), we ran into the artist who does all the map-work and symbol-work for a few of Brandon Sanderson's other books. We met him at the other signing we went to. His name is Isaac Stewart. Trevor recognized him, and he said he thought he recognized us... probably not, but it was nice :) We like the way he does maps and stuff. He talked to us for a few minutes, which was really cool! He had a pre-order #, but he was pretty sure he wasn't going to have to wait in the line. Sure wish I was a big author's friend :D

The security guy (who they call "tower guards" like from the books) spoke with the head-hancho ladies and they told us that because we were so patient and took the bad news so well when we were shut out of the store, he would get us in the front of the line when it was time to try our luck at getting a left-over book. So he took us clear across the store to the line, where the rest of the people had already started lining up. Maybe 100? The people at the front of the line were ALMOST going to have a heart attack when he stuck us in the front. Once they got their explanation though, they were somewhat appeased.

While we were waiting, we saw people open up their new books and READ THE END! What??! Lame. What a waste.

There were a LOT of people in costumes. And a lot of weirdos. Although, I have to hand it to out-of-step people; they aren't afraid to be who they really are and love something that is considered pretty nerdy by the public. I don't really see why it is considered that though. The covers suck, yes. But once you actually read fantasy/sci-fi books, they really don't feel that geeky. They're awesome! And just in case any of you were wondering--not all fantasy books have dragons ;)

So finally they said they had extra books and they let us go get ours, and about 900 goober-people, 4 hours, 3 lines, 1 WoT crossword, and 20 pieces of halloween candy later, we actually had our copy in hand! The books were pre-signed by the author earlier that day, but we had the option to wait in another line to have the author personalize it, and to talk to him. But we figured since it was already like 1am, we'd just go to another less-chaotic signing later.

Needless to say, we both went in to work late the next day. It was kind of fun to have something DIFFERENT to do. I like having something I'm interested in enough to go to at midnight :)

So right now I'm finishing my re-read of the previous book, then I'll start it. Really, we didn't need to go to the signing. We could have picked it up the next day at Barnes & Noble, and just gotten it signed later. We didn't even start reading it that night. But it was fun to just be a part of the scene, hear the author's Q&A, and support the cause.

photos since september

2010-10-29T21:04:00.015-06:00

and now for the cell phone pictures of my life:

waiting in line at the haunted corn maze at cornbelly's. it was fairly spooky. a good warm up for the halloween season. we went to castle of chaos earlier this week too, and i definitely feel brave after that. they make you get into a coffin and shut it! and then they drop you down into a room with a guy hacking at you with an axe. they also make you crawl through this dark spooky area all by yourself... eep

this is from august, actually. but i like it. trevor's brother got married--it was a luau reception.

this is from our anniversary on 10/4, 4 years married. we were waiting in the rain at the dino museum.

this is just sometime in october. trevor is playing with our niece lucy. she's super cute!

so now we are just planning our halloween party and more holidays and birthdays and photoshoots. oh, but i think i already said that last time.

2010-10-22T11:41:00.002-06:00

People have been pestering me to write again... Things have been super busy. I guess they always are though.

I've been taking tons of pictures. And working. And reading a lot of books.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/stats/1441799-becky

I can't seem to stop reading. I just love it too much.

Did a couple weddings: http://www.wix.com/photosbybecky/web/page-6

Trevor and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary and had another stay-cation. We stayed at the Little America and got room service and watched cable :) FoodNetwork is amazing.

We are soooo close to paying off our credit cards. January will be the last payment. Then we have our cursed TAXES from last year (which maybe will be paid off if we get a refund this year) GRR! And our cars, which will be the next thing we pay off, a year from January, a year early. Woohoo!

Seriously, we don't do much. We go to work, and come home, and read and edit and watch tv and have dinner. We hang out with family and sometimes there's the occational friend on the weekends. Photoshoots on weekends...

Oh, I guess this is noteworthy: Trevor's boss got fired! YES! Actually this is his second boss to get fired this year. He was a big fat jerk and now he has a new boss who he actually has worked with before. He's a nice dude. So hopefully Trevor's work-life will be a little happier soon. He hurt his back at work like 2 months ago and is finally almost back to normal.

Oh, and I guess it's also noteworthy that last month (as in September) I made a goal to go to the gym for 5 days a week for 4 weeks. I ended up going 4 days a week for 4 weeks, but I did it. And my muscles grew and it sucked but was good at the same time. I stopped after 4 weeks like a loser, but I'm pretty sure I'll do it again as soon as I'm not dying of pictures waiting to be edited. This time I should probably work harder on my actual diet so it makes a bigger difference, haha :)

Oh, and if you're in my family immediate, and you're reading this--I miss you guys and I think I might kill you if you back out on hanging out with me in a few weeks. My mom and little brother moved to Idaho in August, and the family that remains in Utah are sort of stinkers and we haven't hung out very much.

We are excited for HALLOWEEN!

June-August

2010-08-09T15:59:00.000-06:00

Things have been insane in the membrane. I haven’t really wanted to post for a while because 90% of what I do outside of work is photography stuff now. And it’s not really all that exciting for the most part. Lots of editing and scrolling through pictures. It’s exciting for me, but probably not for most people.

It looks like my last post was in June. It’s August now. So what has happened since June? I guess the biggest thing was that I got my new website up and running (www.wix.com/photosbybecky/web). I’m pretty sure it has been a huge help in getting clients. Even if it’s not though, I feel like such a big shot with my own fancy website :)

Last month I passed the test for two brides—they decided to try me out for their engagement sessions, and see if they liked me enough to book me for their wedding. It was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve done since high school! I was so nervous. Not because I felt like I didn’t have the ability SOMEWHERE inside me. But that I would screw something up. Like I’d forget to bring my memory card, or I’d leave the ISO up all the way … (um… not that I’ve done that…), or I’d do something like very Becky (and impossible) and leave my lens cap on or something. But things went well, and I’ve finally broken my way into the wedding industry! We’ll see how things go when the weddings come ‘round the mountain.

I’ve been so thankful for my friends—and even acquaintances—who have referred people to me. It makes me feel better about the mistakes I make when people actually like my work :)

I’ve been spending a lot of time researching other people’s styles, and messing around with my camera.

Work has been busy. I don’t really want to talk about it. :P

I’m re-reading The Lord of the Rings, and thoroughly enjoying it.

We spent some time in Idaho a couple weeks ago for a funeral. It was a sad experience, but I was grateful for my new hobby—to give me something to take my mind off of things, and to preserve some of the memories I have of my great aunt who passed. I took some pictures of her home, and little things around her house that I’d always cherished growing up. Like the knobs on her oven, her clock (it’s too bad I couldn’t capture the sound it makes too), the steep steps into the basement, the darkness that was the basement laundry-room, the latch to the screen door from the garage to the kitchen, the stairs on the entry, the wallpaper in the pink bathroom (that is ironically back in style), the fake fruit made of pins and beads we weren’t allowed to touch, the bottom cupboards in the hallways that I was allowed to search through, the dusty bar counter in the basement full of odds and ends like punch bowls and random vases that I used to use to play “party”, the “goody” brush in the bathroom I used to borrow when my hair was snarly, the crack down the middle of the cement patio out back that my chair used to get caught on when we’d play scrabble outside, the bushes along the back fence where I found my first caterpillar, the paper cup dispenser by the sink that holds those tiny cups with fish printed on them that are so perfect for 5 year-old hands, the spot on the shag carpet I threw up on in the basement one Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving Dinners all crammed in the basement with all the tables and chairs in the house lined up, the lava-rock garden in the front yard, the clown made of yarn hanging in the dining room; and things I didn’t recognize till I was older, like the old-fashioned mirror in the front entry way, the bird and flower wall decorations, the never-visited “side and rear of the house”, the laundry room with the lights ON, the guest bedroom with various heirlooms stored about—like the vanity set with matching brush, comb, and mirror, my aunt’s bedroom, the tv mounted into the wall and surrounding bookshelf covered in old books, that her street was named Circle Drive—how absurd, the stash of old photographs in the hidden cabinet under that tv, and so many other things. I couldn’t stop feeling like everything is changing, and nothing is ever going to be the same anymore. Her house will probably be sold, if not only taken apart and boxed up. The little things she did to make it her home, like the notes on top of the dishwasher in the corner of the dining room, the tiny boxes of cereal Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes mostly) she’d buy for when we visited and wanted snacks, the Christmas coloring books stashed away, and the magnetic pictures of her great-neices and nephews on the fridge, her deep blue Cougar in the garage, will be gone soon, as there’s no one to drive it. Even the way she meticulously preserved her own mother’s touch on the décor will be gone. Her health had been failing for a number of years, and things haven’t been the same with her as when I was little for quite a long time. But many things were preserved, including everything in her home. It was easy to put the time when things would be completely different out of mind. I wish there had been a way to take a picture of the rest of the things about her that I don’t want to forget. Like how she was one of two people who could tell my grandma what to do, that she HAD to wash the sheets and make the beds frequently, that she’d sit and listen to what we were interested in as kids, that she never forgot my birthday. That she always had Caffeine Free Diet Coke in the fridge. Her handwriting. I want to remember sitting in the back seat of her car by myself on the drive to Bear Lake, and the first time I realized she had temple clothes, had a career before she retired, wasn’t always old and wrinkly—but young and beautiful, and how she must have wanted children.

I can’t help but think forward in time to when the rest of my family passes. I really only have one set of grandparents who were a large part of my life. I include her in that set as a second grandma on my mom’s side. My grandpa passed a few years back, and adding her death to that list really made me stop and think about how much of what I care about won’t be around forever. Each time I visit them, I feel like I never realized how much I care about them and their little dot on the map. One day it will be MY mom who is old and wrinkly, and MY children looking at her and asking her if they can get M&Ms from the Maverick on the corner.

Strange to think about.

I know everyone on earth experiences death—their own death as well as the death of those they love. Most people, luckily, experience death the “normal” way, by old age. I know it’s nothing extra-ordinary to be experiencing the death of a great-aunt or grandparent. But it is important for each person who experiences it.

My family probably got really tired really fast of all the pictures I was taking. I’ve become “that aunt” with the camera. But I couldn’t bring myself to put it down. I kept seeing things around me that I wanted to preserve. Things are always changing, and they’ll never be the same. Change can be good. But I don’t want to forget the things that were important to me along the way.

One of my favorite shoots yet.

2010-06-24T23:50:00.002-06:00

Seriously, thank you Rachel! You are beautiful.

How things have been

2010-06-12T16:25:00.002-06:00

Wow, I stink at blogging lately. Here's why:

I've been at my new job for 4 weeks now. I'm still learning a lot of new things. I think it will be another month or two before I'm comfortable with the day-to-day things I have to do.

I'm working on the side for my old boss. I help him for $18/hour doing little things he needs from my home in the evenings. We knew my time would be in higher demand for the first couple of months... but it has been hard, even being prepared for it. I get home from work, and whip out my dinosaur laptop from my old job for an hour or two 2-3 times/week. I get my first paycheck from this next week, so we will see how worth it it has been :)

I'm also still doing photography. I am only 2 shoots behind on editing, amazingly. I need to just push myself to work extra hard for two weeks to get caught up, I just haven't seemed to want to yet.

I have only been scheduling 1 shoot/week now though. This is going to be much better for me. More time for relaxing. And more time to enjoy the shoots I'm working on. I want to be able to LEARN as I go, not just be forced to spit pictures out.

I did have my first really unfortunate misunderstanding with a client though. No details will be given, but it was embarrassing, and awkward, and I hope I've met the worst situation I will meet.

Trevor's been nice about me having less time. He's been picking up the laundry slack, and not complaining too much when I don't want to do anything but watch tv in my relaxation time.

After finishing The Wheel of Time series, I started reading some more Jane Austen books. Just finished Emma.

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hm... Emma. I dislike her. I grew to like the story. I expect that this is how it was supposed to be, but I immediately was fond of Mr. Knightley. And throughout the entire book was looking out for his welfare. Even though Emma admits she is self-centered, and Austen intends for her to be that way, I still have a hard time sympathizing with her. I'm happy that Mr. Knightley ends up happy, but to be honest, I don't think Emma deserves him. He must see a goodness in her that the book doesn't fully portray.

This book, more than the other two Austen books I've read so far, has a bigger statement on rank. Emma is overly concerned with each of her friends' rank and status in the society they keep. She ruins people's dreams and lives just because they have less money or less "elegance," as she puts it. Emma has a sense of propriety that is far stricter that everyone else's around her, she seems to just come off as a snob a lot of times. I'm glad that Mr. Knightley is there to continue to guide her in the right direction.

The first part of the book was a little dull, but it got more interesting as the chapters progressed. Secret engagements and uncouth men seem to be Austen's fallback. I guess what the end result is going to be simply because I can expect a certain storyline from Austen now. Although, making Mr. Churchill actually AGREEABLE was a change.

I believe I see the statement Austen was trying to make in writing Emma. Emma is a judgemental person. We see her faults and we see her strengths through her thoughts. We can see her misjudgement of others and wish for her to act more on the accepting feelings she also has.

This book was better than Sense and Sensibility to me. I enjoyed reading about respectable men for a change. It seemed the women were more deplorable than the men in Emma. Quite a change, it seems.

View all my reviews >>

Speaking of goodreads... I think you all should join :) And share your books and reviews with me. I like seeing what other people read and what they think of it.

I always feel guilty being on the computer and not editing, so I should probably either go clean the kitchen or edit some pictures.

pictures from the last 2 months

2010-05-16T00:33:00.006-06:00

Things have been really busy the last few months. I've had 2-3 photoshoots every week; which is A LOT. I'm having to learn how to pace myself, so that I can give each shoot the time and energy they deserve. Here are some shots from a few of the shoots I had in the last few months.

Some friends had a baby, and got some pregnancy pictures done 2 days before she was born :)

I took some pictures of the Salt Lake temple, and Temple Square for Mother's Day.

I took a family's pictures at Wheeler Farm. I really enjoyed this one :)

Met a girl from my mom's work, who was super pretty and REALLY good at modeling :)

I was able to take some promo pictures for my brother. He plays guitar and is being endorsed by Guitar Pro 6.

My friends graduated and I got to take their graduation/family photos. I LOOVED making their announcement. And their dog was way cute :)

I got a job!

2010-04-26T11:24:00.004-06:00

I got a job! I start in 3 weeks. At Intermountain Financial Group/MassMutual. I'll give you more details on what I'll be doing there when I start. For now, I'll be helping to close up at my old job. And taking more pictures on the weekends. I'm so super duper excited for Spring and all the sunshine to give me more time for pictures and more green.

Some other stuff I'm thinking about:

I only have 100 pages left of the last book that is out of the Wheel of Time :( Who would have thought (besides Trevor), that year and a half ago when I started this series, I would love it so much by the end? The 12th book comes out in the fall of this year, and then the last one comes out a year later! I should have waited to start the series in 2011 so I wouldn't have any waiting to do. It's all Trevor's fault.
Along that line, I have NO idea what I'm going to read next! I need to hurry and decide because the last 100 pages could only last me 1 more day, eep!
Trevor asked me to start a World of Warcraft character and play with him... ugh, why do I do so many geeky things?
We also got fish. And a cool tank. It looks like this:
And that's it.

Hymenoptera Giganticus

2010-04-20T08:59:00.005-06:00

While I'm waiting to edit a bunch of the pictures from our mini-trip to Cedar City last week (and while I'm letting my insides calm down about having to purchase new tires while we were there), I wanted to share the graduation announcement picture I did for my friends. It was a lot of fun :)

And good news! I'm an aunt again! I'm a big fan of people making babies for me to hold.

Job search continues. Have another interview this afternoon that I think is going to be really positive, but I don't want to jinx it.

On a side note: I am exhausted today! At 3:30 AM last night I woke up to some people shouting and I was so tired and disoriented, I couldn't even tell if they were speaking English, or where they were. Finally after 5 minutes of feeling confused, I realized they were outside in the parking lot yelling at each other, and since our window was open, it felt like they were inside. Grr! So mad! Like I don't lose enough sleep as it is. I still couldn't think straight enough to figure out if they were speaking English. I'm just remembering a bunch of gobbledeegook and feeling super irritated. Who has a yelling fight at 3AM in the parking lot?

Seeing as most of my paragraphs have been pretty much side notes: The bees are back :( The window by my desk must have a hole leading to the outside world or something because every spring we get bees inside! I HATE BEES! They are some of the MOST disgusting (and honestly, terrifying) creatures I encounter. Bleh. So I either have to crush them (and risk getting stung because I'm me and will probably just make them mad), or leave them be (and risk getting stung if they decide to find their way through the blinds). The other option is to capture them and set them free, but I discovered last year I don't have the guts for that. It takes me 10 minutes to do my breathing exercises to get up the nerve to put the cup over them, and then 10 more minutes to slide the paper underneath and feel brave enough to release them outside. (Most of the time I hurry and set the cup down outside and run back inside. Then 20 minutes later, go out and get the cup. But doing things the bee-ane (you know, like humane) way forces my hands to be way to close to their fuzzy buzzing bodies, wiggling antennas, and not to mention their giganticus stingers. This week, I've opted for leaving them alone so far. I'm not sure how long that's going to last though; every few minutes I hear a sudden burst of buzzing as the current bee tries to escape through our obviously too clean window, and I just KNOW, as my heart skips a beat and my eyes shoot up to the window, that he's going to figure things out and fly the other way one of these times. And when that happens, it's only a half a second to my typing hands or exposed blinking eyeballs. If I could talk to bees, I think I would be a happy camper. I would ask them to leave me alone, and to spread the word to the other hives because, really, I don't want to hurt them, I'm just terrified they're going to think the flowers on my shirt are real and get mad when they find out they aren't. If I could talk to bees, I would also give the bee in my window directions back to outside. I'd help him locate the hole he came in, and we could have peace between our two species. I could even consider giving up honey.

Break time is over :(

Looking for a job and more pictures

2010-04-08T14:03:00.003-06:00

The last 2 1/2 weeks have been very weird for me. I have to go to work every day, but that job is ending. It's really weird. I'm interviewing places, feeling out of my element, feeling tired. I love the weekends because I can try to forget that I need to find a new job. And by Sunday I seem to be able to, but then by 9pm on Sunday, it usually resurfaces.

All 4 of the places I interviewed in the last 2 weeks said no. How depressing is that? One I totally botched the second interview, one sent me a letter in the mail saying they hired someone else, another one said he needed to give his current assistant another chance, and another said I was too expensive. All of them said that they have been surprised how many people have been applying--that they've had more applicants than they can remember having ever. I've probably sent out close to 100 resumes and only heard back from 5 people. So discouraging.

I did interview with a university this morning though, and it looks positive. At least, to me, it does. They said it looks like I'd be a good fit, but that they have more people to interview too. And what's the deal with employers wanting the weekend to "think about it"? Don't they realize it's making me having horrible weekends full of stress??

Next week was supposed to be our vacation week. The one week every six months that Trevor and I get to be together all the time. The one time we get to have weekends off together. And I have to keep working for half of it :( Trevor is still taking the whole week off, effectively getting 10 consecutive days off. He definitely deserves a break--he's been working like crazy! But I have to work for 3 days in the middle of it. I'm lucky. I'm still taking 2 days off, and my boss isn't killing me. But it still sucks bigtime that this whole job mess fell right on our vacation. We decided we're going to go to Cedar and visit my brother and his family! We are super excited!

I did get to take some more pictures last weekend though :) And Conference was helpful because I got to listen AND edit. I took the pictures Friday, and got the editing done by Sunday! Fastest shoot EVER! Here's some of the pictures:

These were her senior pictures. It really made me love WORD OF MOUTH :) The got my name from someone who I'd already done pictures for. So everyone out there: don't be stingy with the referrals! :)

Kids Pictures

2010-03-26T10:02:00.004-06:00

I wanted to share the pictures from my last shoot a couple weeks ago. These were the first kids I've done besides my niece and nephew. Doing a session with a really young kid (he is 1) was a very new experience. He was cute and interested, but 1 year olds just don't do much. It was also good for me to do two at once. It's interesting trying to find balance during the session.

To see all the pictures, go to my website here. (Oh yeah! I made a website last week :) It's cool! You should go see. www.photosbybecky.webs.com)

Here's a few of my favorites:

Bleh

2010-03-26T09:58:00.002-06:00

Oh man :( This week has sucked. Lots of you know already, but my boss is retiring in 7 short weeks and I have to get a new job. I haven't been sleeping, I've been eating too much, and I've only had one person call me for an interview. Plus, on top of it all, the weather has been messing with my photos again :(

Two months is a pretty decent amount of notice to give someone who needs to get a new job. And I can also use time at work to search and interview. I'm just feeling really stressed out. It's already been a whole work-week! I've been working here for just short of 4 years. It's sort of scary to think about being somewhere else. My life could be drastically different in 2 months than it is right now.

Trevor and I have been doing so well paying down our cars and our credit cards and saving the last year, I don't want my job to be the thing that messes everything up. So I'm looking for jobs that will pay me the same amount I'm making now. I'm sure this happens to everyone who looks for new jobs, but my confidence in my experience and abilities is rollercoastering. Sometimes I feel so confident, I have no doubt I'll be able to find something excellent in the next 2 weeks. And sometimes I feel like there's no way I'll be able to find something in 2 months and that I'll have to take a low paying job just so we don't die.

Today I just feel like I need to relax. I want to be able to use the weekend to relax as much as I can, but it's not like I can only look for jobs during work hours. We'll see. I for sure need to sleep. A lot.

On a brighter note: I'm getting some pictures taken of ME this weekend. Crazy, I know. Travis, Trevor's brother, also does photography, and he has agreed to take some pictures of me so I can use them on my website and stuff. Hopefully I won't have bags under my eyes, and hopefully my body won't show the possible 5 pounds I've gained this week :) I sort of know how my clients feel now though: I have NO idea what to wear. It seems like such a huge choice! This will be good practice for me though. It's good to be in front of the camera sometimes so that I can remember how people are feeling about how much direction they need.

Dude Shoot

2010-03-15T09:53:00.002-06:00

It's a relief to have these done! I took some pictures of my friend downtown at the library a week or so ago. I haven't really been able to get that much practice taking pictures of men by themselves. It's different when they're with a woman. A man automatically looks more manly standing next to a girl. He's the rock. He's the thing that compliments the woman's beauty. He makes it okay for her to be as pretty as she can be. And when you're taking pictures of a couple, there's sort of a story going on. As the photographer, you're sort of telling the story of their love, or something like that. But when you're taking pictures of an individual--at least, when I take pictures of an individual--there's something else to it. You have to come up with the story all on your own. And I've done that with girls... but a guy? Ugh. It was hard. Let's be honest. I was nervous, and excited, and and worried that none of the pictures would turn out. And let's be even more honest--a lot of them didn't. But I think enough turned out :) And no one has to see the bad ones, right? That's what counts, haha.

Link to the album in case you can't view the slide show:

Elijah Finals

In the last two weeks, I've discovered some cool features on Photoshop that have really helped at depth to my pictures. I started adjusting the exposure and color levels on the person and the background together, and then on the background separately. I've always messed with the background on its own, but never the levels, and I've been very happy with my discovery :) I'm sure lots of people already know about that and LOTS more things that I DON'T know about. But I like that I found it. It has let me find the right skin color, and really make the person pop--and then make the background the colors that I want it to be. Most of the time.

Editing for me is interesting and engrossing. I always get caught up and spend way too much time. It sort of makes it so I actually don't want to get started a lot of times because I know I'll lose track of time. Two of my sessions I had scheduled for last weekend had to be rescheduled because of the rain and snow--which sucked, but is also probably good so I have more time to do normal things. I haven't been spending as much time with my family, and doing normal things around the house as I would want to. So this week it's probably a good thing I only have 1 session I'm editing. And I'm taking a break next weekend so I have lots of time to get ready for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's baby shower.

Lots of stuff happening.

2010-03-11T14:39:00.005-07:00

So I've been so incredibly busy! It looks like the last photo shoot I posted was Brandy's, and that was 4 shoots ago. Here's a slide show of 3 of the newest:

First there was Erin and Robert. They were my first shoot with my new camera :) Using my camera was intimidating, to be really honest. I was nervous. I was worried that I would have to relearn everything. That I would suck. I was really glad that I was practicing on my really good friend Erin. She and her husband are great friends and made it really easy for me though. I made a lot of lighting mistakes, but I also got some much needed time with my camera. We tried a new place for me--Exchange Place. It's downtown, and there is some really neat architecture and secluded urban spots for pictures. If anyone has ever looked into photography in Utah before, you've probably seen at least one picture taken there :) Great place. It was FREEZING though! And there was a LOT of shady areas--which makes for great pictures, but freezing subjects!

Next, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law let me take pictures of them! Travis and Robyn are expecting a baby in a month or so, and oh boy! It was a great experience working with Robyn's belly :) I actually felt a little weird taking their pictures. Travis is an aspiring photographer himself, and has taught me a bit of the editing skills I know. So on top of feeling weird because they're my family, I felt uber intimidated! But I got over that after a few minutes. A lot of my shots got ruined because of lens flares though. We ran out of time, so I didn't get to do all the stuff I wanted to do with Robyn's big belly, but we still got some really great family-to-be pictures. I think their daughter will really appreciate those pictures one day :) It's pictures like those that make me really LOVE modern photography. Old-fashioned studio photography would have NEVER gotten the kind of pictures Travis' and Robyn's shoot gave them. We were outside, at Wheeler Farm. Everything was very casual, less "posed" than a studio photo shoot would be, and more like just a family outing than a photo session. (Oh! And awesome side note: Travis and Robyn were my first paying customers, haha!)

I also did a shoot with some sort-of-friend/acquaintances--Rachael and Kris. I suppose they're more friends than acquaintances now. We went to Exchange Place again, because I thought it would go really well with their style :) They're sorta hip, haha :) Plus they only had pretty much exactly one hour, so I thought a familiar place would be best. I was right. I was able to go quickly to the places I'd already scoped out. And I didn't have to spend as much time messing with the exposure, or the angles because I already did that last time. I had more time to explore a few more places in the area with them. Rachael and Kris were so happy the whole time and really made it feel like we were just having a good time together. I think a photo session is actually a really great date idea for a couple. You just go and talk with your significant other, and are forced to be all lovey dovey and kissy the whole time! It's perfect!

Last weekend I did a session with my long-term friend from when I was little--Elijah. It was quite a different experience taking pictures of a man! Maybe he's more of a guy? Or young adult? But whatever. With girls, it's like, they're beautiful, and it's okay to make them look AMAZING and stunning. But with a guy... You have to be all subtle. And careful not to make them look silly! It was hard. I'm working on editing those right now though. So hopefully I'll have them up soon. We went to the downtown library--great location! I'll show you later :)

This weekend I have 3 more! I have some children this weekend too! I'm really looking forward to getting more practice with kids. I can feel the challenge looming... but I just want to get the hard part over with! I also am going to be doing some pretend bridals with some friends. So if anyone wants to dress up in their wedding clothes again, I would looooove to take some pictures :) I want practice with more brides, boys, kids, and families the most. I still love girls and couples, but I have the most experience with those already and I'm starting to charge for those.

I got a UV filter, a polarizing filter, and a florescent filter this week on amazon for like $12 total. Super sweet! I'm excited to use them this weekend. They should help with the lens flare problem. I also got a spare battery ($10) and car charger ($3) in case my battery decides to run out... It would definitely not be MY fault if it did... Everything for cameras come in little pouches or carrying cases. It makes you feel so cool, haha.

At home, Trevor and I did some spring cleaning last week. Trevor went 99% insane and cleaned a bunch of stuff on his day off, and bought a bunch of new stuff for organizing. We've kept things clean for 1 week and 2 days, as of today. We also got a new dresser and bedroom curtains because we hated ours. Mmm, IKEA...

Aaaaand the last thing I feel like commenting about is FOOD. I made a creamy potato cheese soup two nights ago, and it was SO good! I have always wanted to have Riley's potato cheese soup whenever I want, and thought it impossible. While this soup was NOT Riley's by any means, it was a welcome substitution during the famine. Here's what I did:

Peel, cube, and boil 8 (at least) medium potatoes along with 1/2 cup of diced white onion for 15 minutes. Drain.
Reserve 2 cups of the cooked potato and onion. Mash the remaining potato/onions with 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth.
Broil some bacon (I used 4 slices of Amber's leftover turkey bacon--thanks Amber! I'll pay you back!) for 3-4 minutes, turning over.
Melt 2-3 tablespoons butter in your pot you just used to boil the potatoes. Add 2-3 tablespoons of flour and simmer and whisk for a minute or so until it turns a nutty color.
Add spices, like tsp salt, tsp pepper, 1/2 or 1 tsp basil (depending on if you like it), 1/2 tsp paprika (yummy) or season salt, and 1 tablespoonish of parsley (I like the color mostly). You can flavor this puppy how ever you want.
Add 2 cups of half-and-half, and 1 cup-ish of cheese (whatever kind you like). Let it heat through and get thick and bubbly.
Add 2 more cups of chicken broth, the potato/chicken broth mixture, and 2-3 stalks of celery diced. Mix it all together and let heat through and get thick and bubbly again.
At the end, add the cut up bacon and your reserved potato/onions. You can add more cheese, salt and pepper, or half-and-half at this point too depending on your taste.
For the best results, serve it in a BREAD BOWL! K, seriously. This was amazing. I have no pictures, but just trust me.

Whew! I have been needing to get all that out for like a week! So I think I'm all caught up for a while.

Trevor was my Valentine

2010-02-19T17:08:00.004-07:00

Amidst all the excitement of the new camera, I almost forgot to post about our awesome Valentines Day and my birthday! Seriously, the things I do...

I wanted to surprise Trevor with something, so I thought I'd mess with his car while he was at work on Saturday. I got out there, 4 giant garbage bags of blown up balloons in my car, trying to be all sneaky, and he was SITTING IN HIS CAR! What?! So I had to hurry and drive away hoping he didn't see me. I sat in the parking lot across the street until he finally went inside. Yeesh, Trevor.

So I stuffed his car full of balloons and crumpled tissue papier (that's paper, but spelled fancier for fancier people), and taped cut out hearts all over inside. It was awesome :) I also included a giant box of miscellaneous candy that I knew he'd have to bring home to share with me. I found these super cute stuffed monkeys that I couldn't resist too, and other assorted valentiney items such as a giant lollypop, boxed chocolates, and roses.

Then when Trevor got off work (which was pretty late, grr), we grabbed the bags I'd packed and headed off to the Little America for a night of relaxation. We picked up some Chinese take-out from David's Kitchen on the way. GOOOOD stuff. I took pictures of the room, but they were after we'd already ruined it all so they aren't that pretty, haha. Just imagine a super rich classy room with a giant tub and king sized bed. We had sparkling cider and chocolates while wearing those fancy robes they lay out for you. We took a bath together in the enormo tub and used all these crazy scrubs and scrubby items I found at the store. We vegged out and watched Zombieland and ate Oreos and Baked Lays till 2AM. Checked out at noon, had the breakfast buffet at JB's, and $20 in tips and parking later we were heading back home. Aah, so nice :)

Sunday night we had a family dinner with Trevor's family for my birthday and it was so nice to have everyone together! We had spaghetti (made with Prego--of course, because it's the best), and salad and garlic bread. Yum :) And we had one of my favorite kinds of cake (that Trevor hates, so we never have), party cake with confetti frosting! UGH, so good :) Birthdays are awesome.

Like I said before, I wasn't expecting any of the stuff that people got for me :) Among the new camera stuff, I also got the "Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen" book and some much needed new kitchen brushes, and a bunch of other stuff. Wow, birthdays really ARE awesome!

Tomorrow night I'm going out to dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday and my brother's birthday at the same time. I always love being able to get together with everyone, and it's almost mandatory because it's someone's birthday. More people always show up when it's a birthday. And this one will be TWO birthdays.

Tomorrow I'm also starting the photography class and taking some good friends' pictures downtown. I get to use my new camera for the first time! I'm kind of nervous and super excited at the same time. I never really know how they're going to turn out until I get home after the shoot and take a look. And the new camera is so much more sensitive to movement and the particular settings, and I'm not going to have very much free time in the next 8 weeks because I've booked so many free sessions... ugh, I can feel the heartburn already.

...breathe...

It's going to be good. And I WILL get at least one good picture tomorrow. And I will have all week to edit them. And then I get to start taking pictures of lots of different kinds of people every Saturday. It's going to be a crazy crazy 2 months. But I'm SO excited :)

New Camera!

2010-02-17T10:06:00.004-07:00

Wow :) Trevor got me a brand new DSLR camera for my birthday! It's a Canon EOS Rebel XS, and it came with an 18-55mm zoom lens. I thought I was going to have to wait at least 6 more months to get one, but he totally jumped on board before I did and just GOT IT :) It used up 75% of our savings, but who really needs savings, right? Emergencies don't happen. Especially when you have a fancy new camera to sway the forces-that-be to your favor, right?

Oh but honestly, I wish I cared, but I really DON'T care that we'll have no savings for a while. I love my camera and all that it brings way too much!

Trevor also got me a camera bag and a new 8 GB high speed memory card. We went and picked out a fancier camera bag with more pockets and straps, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure I like it more. The first one is colored and kind of girly :) It's smaller but still sturdy. It has all the space I'll need for a while. The second one is NICE. It's professional and has compartments everywhere and it's big. AND I can strap my tripod onto it... Oh the hard choices I'm burdened with... ;)

Here's the big bag. Totally cool (although, perhaps a little overboard...). I don't have a picture of the other bag, but just imagine a totally cute smaller bag:

Now my timeline for everything has to be all re-thought. I can start getting more serious about photography way sooner than I thought! I'm still going to be taking another small photography course starting this weekend, which will be nice since I'll be able to re-learn everything with my new camera! But once I've familiarized myself with all the settings and whatnot, and gotten a few months of picture-taking under my belt, I can at least start breaking even on my costs for taking the photos, and maybe even make some money some time soon :) Whatever happens though, I'm just happy I can take pictures. I love the feeling! And I hope I can start giving more people pictures that make them happy.

I was mentioning to Trevor last night, that now my problems have just shifted to wanting more lenses and more kickin' accessories! Haha!

This weekend I'm going to be working on scheduling more groups, couples, and dude photos. And also editing some more older pictures to put up on the Facebook page.

P.S. I am wearing leggings today. It feels fitting to be trying something new with my clothes since I'm sort of exploring a new side of myself in other ways too!

Holy Canoli!

2010-02-16T17:13:00.002-07:00

So HO-LY. My photography stuff has exploded in front of my eyes in the last 2 days! I think I can still breathe though :)

Pretty much, I decided that I wanted to make a Facebook page for my pictures so it would seem a little more professional. I wasn't sure, since it's just me, and it's not like I'm making money or anything. But I did it. And I was pretty much bombarded with support :) I have 1 shoot scheduled for February, 5 shoots scheduled for March, and 3 more in the works for later. The majority of those are individuals, so I'll need to get in a few more families. But I think this is going to be SO helpful for me! I'm looking forward to different kinds of people, and different settings.

And Trevor's family got me some frickin' awesome photography accessories for my birthday! So now I'm pretty much doing it for real now. I got a tripod and some light reflectors. They are my first pieces of photography gear that are legitimately mine, haha :) And they mean that I am officially DOING THIS.

Lately I've just been thinking about how much I really enjoy the actual taking of the pictures. It just fits me :) I feel like it is challenging but I can find the groove pretty easily. It's neat to be able to focus in on how I see things.

Yay! I'm excited for the next few months! And hopefully I can fix my memory cards, haha!

Brandy's Pictures

2010-02-12T09:23:00.003-07:00

Wow, so my most recent photoshoot with Brandy was probably the best one yet. I had a major fiasco with my memory cards wigging out (that I still haven't solved yet...) but I was able to make my old-school 128MB memory card work eventually. I'm used to having at least a gig... that's like, 1/3 of the space!!! I felt really crammed for space because I could only take 75 pictures instead of the usual 150. I know that sounds like a lot of pictures, but I really try to exhaust the options so I can have as many photos as possible turn out good. When I get impatient or run out of space, I end up having to waste pictures because the one shot I took in a pose has their eyes closed or something.

Anywho, I really thought Brandy's style would work best in a rough environment, so I went back to the Sugar Factory area in West Jordan. We explored more of the back of the lot, so we got some way cool pictures. Brandy had this super cute little black dress, and a couple other outfits that had great colors. It was nice to have the variety :)

Brandy's pictures gave me the chance to improve some of the things I've been wanting to work on. I'm excited for some more so I can keep learning. The editing is getting easier and faster--even though I still have A TON to learn.

Brooks Family Photos

2010-02-02T17:23:00.003-07:00

My brother let me take pictures of him and his family a couple of weeks ago, and I totally spaced putting them on my blog! How could I?

I think my niece is the cutest thing :) She definitely knows she's getting her picture taken. I want to take some more pictures of them when the weather is better and it's not so freezing outside. It was hard to have a kid be cold. Plus she was just getting over having a cold, and had a runny runny nose. I definitely want to take some more when it's a little warmer!

Blood Oranges

2010-02-02T17:03:00.004-07:00

Hiya,

Last night I made up some cool sauce for our fish! I saw some blood oranges at the store last weekend and I immediately knew I could do something cool. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go fish, or go salad, or go chicken with it, but still... I knew.

Just in case you've never heard of a blood orange, I promise I didn't make that name up. They're oranges that are red inside. They're still really orangey tasting, but they're a tiny bit more sour, like a grapefruit--only not disgusting like a grapefruit. They're super pretty too :) I'm sad I didn't take any pictures. Next time.

We've been eating more fish lately because it's good AND good for you if you make it right. And so far I have really enjoyed all the different ways to prepare fish, even if we rarely branch out of salmon, cod, tuna, halibut, you know, the normals.

I squeezed the juice out of one orange, and added it to about 1/4 cup of water mixed with a tablespoon of corn starch, and added 1-2 tablespoons of honey to sweeten it up. (I didn't thicken the sauce before I started cooking, but next time I may try boiling the sauce first and then brushing it on. I think this will give it more of a sticky sauce rather than a sauce that cooks into the fish.) The way I did it last night, I just brushed the juice mixture onto some fresh salmon portions and grilled them in my grill pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Depending on how thick the fish is, just about 5-7 minutes/side. I added more juice mixture after they cooked part of the way. I served it with rice and salad, and topped the salmon with chunks of more segmented blood orange. I loved it! It felt really fresh.

Then for lunch today I fork-crumbled a leftover salmon portion with a few chunks of orange mixed in, with a tablespoon or 2 of light mayo, and voila! I had a salmon salad to have on Wheat Thins and Thin Crisps. Yum :)

I highly recommend experimenting with fish, AND blood oranges. I think next time I'll try a salad.

Taxes and Getting Older

2010-02-01T16:07:00.005-07:00

Bleh :( We have been sick at our house for over a week, and it sucks. I'm just sayin'.

And we found out we owe $2100 in taxes. That stinks too. Apparently that little number on your W4 (you know, that thing you fill out when you get a new job) stands for "exemptions" and not "people." You'd think they'd give you a little bit of layman's definitions or something. I mean, I was only 18 when I filled it out, what can you expect? I'd done a total of 2 tax returns my whole life.

Again: Bleh.

So now, on top of the money the IRS takes from my checks every month, they are taking an extra $55 every month to cover last year's, at a "small interest rate." What is going on?? I'm cool. Right? I'm not ugly. I work at a normal job and don't sell drugs. I'm not rushing into making the population of Utah any larger. I support the economy by going to movies on Fridays and eating out. Shouldn't I get a break or something?? I sure think so. A $2100 break. That's all I'm asking. Really, the only thing that stopped me from throwing a fit was seeing Trevor throw his fit. It wasn't pretty. And I try to be pretty, you know?

I decided to not let it stop us from paying off our credit cards by September though. It's going to suck. Even more than I was thinking. But, in the words of Kristen Humphrey: Whatev. It just means one less date-night or a couple less nights-where-I-get-home-from-work-and-don't-want-to-cook-so-we-eat-out's per month...yes, just. I really don't think the government knows what they're asking of me! Or maybe they DO?! Maybe the president has a secret vendetta...? Hm...that's something to consider. This never happened when Bush was president...

The IRS said they'd send me a bill, so until I get that, I think I'll just act like it doesn't exist.

February is going to be pretty awesome actually. We already have a couple of dinners scheduled with people who are as equally awesome as we are (that's always important, you know, when you're scheduling entire nights away from the comforts of your own home and WoW--that the people you're visiting can provide adequate lovin'). We've got some wedding shtuff. Some Girls Night shtuff. Some GroudHogDayin'. And for some reason my calendar has this day of Valentine's on it... ? Anybody know what that's about? I'm going to be taking a fun photography class with my friend (! yay, actually super excited for this). It's Washington's birthday on the 22nd; did you guys know that? As in George. He's the general. And I'm also foreseeing a few nights out with the newly reunited R&R.. yeah, you know who you are.

Oh yeah, and my birthday.

I'm going to be old. I'll be Trevor's age! Yeah, like I said--OLD. When I turned 18 I was free; when I turned 19, I was gloriously young. At 20, it was awesome because you're officially 2 decades old, but still young enough the government can still tell you what you can and can't drink. At 21, you're officially liberated in every possible way--except for candidacy to run for president, I suppose. But at 22... I'm just OLD. I have nothing to look forward to except 30. I've been graduated from high school for way too long to have my '06 tassel still hanging on my rear view mirror, but my life isn't anywhere super-fantastic enough to warrant replacing it with something else. 22 is gonna be weird.

At least I'm not gonna be 23 :) haha Trevor. I think Trevor should have to make me a huge castle cake this year--a pink one. Or one of these:

Yes, that's a cake.

Sitting doing nothing for the time being

2010-01-21T16:01:00.004-07:00

I'm feeling really blah today. I have all these goals but most of them are so far in the future and I feel like I'm moving SOOO slowly!

2010 Pay off credit cards by June (September at the latest).
2010-11 Save up for a nice DSLR camera (in the meantime, take crappy pictures of friends and family to try to get better)
2010-11 Take a couple night classes in photography basics and photoshop (surprisingly hard to find :( most people want to do this in the daytime) when I have my new camera and when I've saved up for the classes
2012 Pay off both cars by mid-2012 (that's approximately 1 1/2-2 years early). We have a plan, the forces willing. I HATE that since our payments are so high, even if we pay off a couple hundred dollars extra in one month, it only moves the timeline a TINY bit. GRRR.
2012-2015/16 Trevor quits his job and gets a part time job and goes to school for 3ish years (hopefully going to school full time??) studying...something. Get student loan so we don't die. Becky takes pictures and reads lots of books so she doesn't feel like she's doing nothing.
2016- Trevor gets a new job and makes millions so we can pay off student loan.
2016-2020 save up so we can have kids and buy house (this is the part I like). This is the time Trevor will be finding some sort of job he can do forever, haha. Who knows, maybe we'll have kids now. 6 years... that's not so bad. I'll be 28. Ugh, maybe that IS so bad.
2020. Hopefully by the time I'm 32 we'll have accomplished all of these things and will be well in the middle of making babies in a house and accruing more debt because our cars will be 15 years old. Life's great, right?
2010-2020. Live young so we don't feel like we're wasting away :)

The Plan.

(If you draw it, it becomes official.)

My NEW New Years Resolution

2010-01-13T10:32:00.003-07:00

Here’s what’s been happening the last week or so. On Monday I made some cliché weight loss goals like 90% of the rest of the world, and on Wednesday I totally biffed it going down some stairs at my work, of course (being my mother’s daughter), spraining my ankle. My doctor told me I have to wear a brace for a week with no crazy moving around; and to take it easy for a WHOLE MONTH. So pretty much, I borrowed my mom’s Twilight [Okay, I know that 50% of the population reading this right now probably tuned out at the mere mention of Twilight (oh no!), but just hear me out. I promise I won't give you a book review.] and got to work on the only thing I could. I spent my weekend with my ankle elevated, and my heart elevating itself along with it because Edward’s just so dang cute. It was a nice distraction from all the food in my house...Alright, yes, I may be trying to justify spending an entire weekend curled up on my bed reading about sparkly vampires, all the while feeling my emotional threshold creep closer and closer to the breaking point. But seriously… can you blame me?

Of course, on Sunday night Trevor got the brunt of my directionless tears, totally freaking him out. All it took was one little meaningless random thought from Trevor:

“What if we found out that this whole time, we really haven’t been legally married? What if there was some sort of error in the system? Wouldn’t that be WEIRD?”

Um…YES. In storms Becky’s mounting, uncontrollable wall of tears.

Poor Trevor.

To a man, women must seem crazy—COMPLETELY crazy. But in all seriousness, I feel extremely liberated. I want to tell Trevor I love him all the time. I’m being so much more reminiscent when I talk to old friends. I feel like my sense of community and friendship has been hoisted up. I know all my new-found sentiment is stemming from the raging, idealistic love story I was reading, but yeesh. Can you blame a girl for retaining a small portion of all that lovin’? I don’t think so.

I do feel liberated. I feel free to be happy when I’m happy; to let my happiness make my chest explode and make my eyeballs sting. I feel free to cry when I’m sad, or when I’m embarrassed. For an hour or so last night I actually felt depressed for maybe the first time in my life. Definitely the first time that the topic wasn’t marriage related. When all you do every day is go to work, go home, make dinner, load the dishwasher, start some laundry, maybe watch a movie or read a book, maybe do some project or something fun now and then, it’s so obvious that someone might start to feel desensitized. I know my new-found passion for the dreaded feelings is going to mostly wear off in few days, but dang it, I’m sucking it all in while I can. Maybe when I come out of the haze I will have some of it left over.

Doing all this crying lately has really made me love it as a reaction. I feel like lately my reaction to everything not specifically happy has been frustration. When I’m sad, I’m frustrated, not sad. When I’m mad, I’m extra frustrated. When I’m confused, I’m frustrated. When I’m bored, frustrated. Annoyed at Trevor? Becky is grumpy. There is so much in between that I know I’m capable of, and I don’t want to lose it. I know I’m capable of feeling differently, and this week has been proof of that. I’m capable of making my life what I want, and I can’t deny it. Even if I’m stuck where I’m at—in debt, married at 22 (in 4 weeks, eek), working full time—I can still react the way I want to. Becky on the inside can be having the time of her life right now if she wants to instead of just an okay time.

Any time I sit down at a piano and start to play a song about God, my mind and body seem to react the same way. My throat catches and I can’t sing anymore, and my eyes can’t see through the fluid gushing to read the notes so my hands have to stop playing. Each time this week when I’ve started to feel my emotions well up inside me for whatever reason, I’ve thought about that. Even though it puts me in a non-functioning state, it’s a comfortable place for me. I’m fairly certain any man who’s reading this is going, “What the…” But if you’re a girlie, just think about it for a minute. Even if you’re crying about something horrific—it feels incredible to let it out. To me, it’s proof that I’m human and alive.

So, I think I know what I want to do with my new year. Here’s to treating myself to all my emotions and the life they lead me to, and probably crying my guts out more in 2010.

the two-thousands? the tens?

2010-01-05T09:34:00.008-07:00

I've really liked reading about people's decades, so I wanted to be cool and do it too.

What has happened in the last decade? I have to put them into groups of years since when you're in school still, the years are different:

1999/2000: I was in 6th grade, as a lovely tween, and moved from Kearns to West Jordan with my family--probably the best move of my life. It was hard at the time, but since about a month after the move, I've always been so grateful for the change. I met better people, made real friends, and began to find out who I really was.

6th Grade

2000/2001: Ooo, Jr. High :) I'm glad I'm still young enough to say that within the last decade I was in Jr. High. This is where I found out I REALLY love school and that I was good at it. I fell in love with English and reading. Had my first REAL boyfriend (because 7th grade boys are SO much more mature than 6th grade boys); we "went out" while we were at school, and held hands and hugged. Met some of my friends who would be my friends for many years.

2001/2002: Moved up in the world to 8th grade, my "I hate boys" stage. I discovered my scriptures this year on a level that I'd never known before. And I took woodshop, where I learned I can create things in ways I never expected I would like. I learned some French, and did student government. This is the year that all my friends became OBSESSED (well, more so than the previous year) with boys and each had the one they were pining over. I'm sure I did too, but I don't remember anyone specific. We had many a good sleep over and movie night discussing their attributes.

8th Grade

2002/2003: I was in 9th grade, 15. I fell in love with Geography and History, and took my first Seminary class. I will always have fond memories of the changes that happened in me during this year. My testimony grew and gave me a foundation that I will always need. This is the year I discovered pink. Yes, as in the color. And dated Scott Oliverson. Whew, what a year. Pretty sure I was on the Joel P. basketball team too. Did we ever win a game? This is also the year I moved into the Heritage 2nd Ward and made new friends. I loved that ward. Click here.

9th Grade

2003/2004: Oh man, my first year in high school. I was so freaked out, haha! And so sad that I didn't have the guts the year before to try out for choir because all my friends were in choir. But I took debate and kicked BUTT there instead; got to go to Boston for nationals with my Patrick Henry speech. I'll always remember my PF partners Alex and finding Chelsea--we were magnificent! Went on my first REAL date, and felt adequately grossed out. Read and read and read and did homework. I miss it.

10th Grade

2004/2005: This is the year I met Trevor! I was so relieved to meet a boy who wasn't disgusting and who had some "depth." So I thought ;) I also totally immersed myself in AP History, and CHOIR!! Yay! It was great to be involved in SO many things that I loved more than anything. I really felt like I was finding out who I was. I also remember LOVING our grammar days in Tucker's class.

11th Grade

2005/2006: My senior year in high school... aw :) All my classes were the most difficult I'd ever taken, choir was insane with Madrigals taking up a lot of time, Trevor was graduated and working, and my family was crazy at the time, haha. My dad passed away right at the end of the madrigal season, which was a weird experience--one that made me really reflect on my goals and the relationship I had with my brothers and my mom and step-dad in a way I never had before. But I'm still sure it was one of the best years I've ever had :) Madrigals was such a blessing--I'll always be grateful for the opportunity to do what I love like that with people that I love! Crazy business, Trevor and I got engaged in the spring, and got married in the fall and got our first apartment together! Along with that, I went through the temple for my Endowment, and felt my closeness with God grow :) And my closeness to Trevor.

Madrigals

Graduation

Engaged

Married!

2007: Worked A LOT. Took 2 classes in college. Got poor. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Although, it was amazing being married to Trevor, and we were so happy to be together so often. Trevor started his first band, and we found out how to balance our lives. Trevor went through a few jobs, and we got a lot of credit card debt, and a NEW CAR PAYMENT, yippee. But we did find our current apartment, which we love :)

2007; Travis and Robyn's Endowment Day

2008: We'd been married for 2 years, and I think this was a great year for both of us to find more about who we are separately, and as a couple. Trevor was in the band, and did designs, and really just explored being as much of a man in his 20s he could be while being married. We're still working on this :) I found out how much I really love cooking and baking, and decorating our apartment, and making things. Late in the year, Trevor's brother moved in with us, and we started to find out how much we long hanging out with our families. They really can be your best friends.

2008; Sad for family moving away

2009: Trevor got promoted at Rent-A-Center, and we both got raises, which we were really grateful for. We worked on paying down some of the debt we accrued since we got married, and made great headway! This was one of the most financially stable years we'd both ever experienced, and it was such a relief. Trevor and I grew so much together as a tiny family. We gained new respect for each other and firmed up our long-term goals. Trevor ended his time with the band (still hoping for something band-ish in the future), and got a lot of experience with his designs doing fliers for work. I explored my interest in photography, and well, we'll see where that goes in 2010!

2009; Fire in the mountains

December 30, 2009

What's in store for 2010:

This year, we have a very specific plan to pay off ALL of our credit card debt. This will give us more room to pay off our cars a year or more early in 2011/2012ish. And then Trevor can very satisfactorily QUIT his job and go to school for graphic design and become a millionaire! bwahahahah!
2009 was a great year for us to get to know our living habits and eating habits, and during the last few months, we learned more about how we can each live healthier lives. We're going to continue to grow in this area in 2010.
I am saving up to buy a fancy camera so I can take better pictures. After I have the camera I want, I'm hoping to be able to take some classes and learn even more about the technicality of photography and editing. And maybe one day make a little money doing something I love!
I'm going to be more musical this year. One day I WILL have a piano of my own and I don't want to have forgotten everything I know, right?

We are way excited for this year! Mostly for our financial plans. I wish we could just hurry and make time go by just so we could get it done! But I know there will be plenty of other things going on this year that will be worth the time. I'll be 22, and Trevor will be 23. We're still young, and we have an amazing life to live!

The Holidays

2009-12-29T11:02:00.004-07:00

Here's us on Christmas! Trevor's wearing the sweater I got him.

We had a great Christmas weekend! Trevor had to work on Saturday, but we got a whole day and a half extra off WITH each other that we don't usually get.

We spent Christmas Eve with a family that we're friends with from Trevor's home ward, and we realized we've done it practically every year for a while now. So next year hopefully we can do it again. They have a tradition to read the Christmas story from the New Testament and the Book of Mormon before opening one present on Christmas Eve, and we really enjoy being there for it :) They have a bunch of kids, some in their teens and some smaller, so it's fun to see the excitement and be close to a family who you can tell loves each other. I like to make Christmas Eve a little special and remind myself why we even have the holiday, because Christmas Day can get a little hectic.

We got up super early on Christmas and got right into opening the presents Trevor and I got for each other. The highlights: I got an iPhone and a standing mixer and new serving utensils! and Trevor got a butt-load of stuff! It's all tech-y stuff for the Mac and/or iron-manish-action-figure-y. We were so grateful we were able to spend a little money on each other this year. I love getting stuff for Trevor :)

We had breakfast with my family--and holy cow! My grandma got us a roaster! Like, for hams and turkeys and such. I already used to to make ribs last night, and they were good. I like that the roasting pan comes out and you wash it separate. We draw names for gifts in my family, and my little brother had me. He's almost 13 and he picked out all my presents himself! They were actually really awesome. He got me shoes that are SO CUTE, and two scarves, and and iTunes giftcard. Perfect :)

We had lunch with Trevor's family, and exchanged gifts there too. I am the proud new owner of a sewing basket with all the fixin's! I totally lucked out this year! (it may or may not have been my use of a christmas wish list...) It was a huge relief that all of us had a little more money than years in the past. We love our families and we WANT to make them happy with cool things they like! We also spent some time singing some carols at the piano. I TOTALLY LOVED THAT PART, even if no one else did. Trevor's mom made us all matching scarves, and we all wore them pretty much the rest of the day.

The best part was spending time with our families throughout the day. Christmas is great :) No one fought, or argued, and we all just hung out.

On the day after Christmas, we saw Sherlock Holmes with Trevor's brothers and it was pretty good! I thought Jude Law was a perfect Watson--not to mention perfect to look at ;)

Now that it's all over, we're going to go exchange a few things, take down all the decorations, and celebrate New Years. It's weird another Christmas is over.

I'm excited for this weekend to start taking pictures again! And for January to get here. There are a lot of babies coming soon, and I'm SO looking forward to it.

Christmas is Coming

2009-12-21T14:46:00.002-07:00

It's kind of nice to have something to post about besides pictures :)

We had a madrigal reunion on Saturday and it was so nice to see everyone. I think we've been able to do SOMETHING every other year since we graduated. We even sang a couple of the old songs! I love that we sing! And I love that we love music, and that we are okay singing for no reason but just to sing! I've decreed that there is not enough singing in my house and that we're going to do it MORE. Got that Trevor?

I took some video but you can hear me A LOT because I was holding the camera, and I'm just not sure I want to do that to the world. Plus it's at my house and I'm at work, and I want to actually complete a post about something other than pictures. It doesn't count since I used the VIDEO camera on the camera, right?

Yesterday Trevor's family and I sang in church. But the cool part was actually the MEN of the ward. Whaaa? Yeah, the guys from the Elders Quorum sang a Christmas hymn, and HOLY cow! They were loud, they were in tune, they were energized! That was pretty much the highlight of all the Christmas music I've heard yet :) Surprisingly it really put me in the Christmas mood. I'm done with all my business (I'm pretty sure; but it's so like me to forget something important...we'll see), and now I'm really looking forward to just opening myself up to feel the spirit of Christmas.

I'm looking forward to making people I love happy with gifts that I've chosen for them. I love that the gifts will make their lives easier, and happier. I'm looking forward to seeing my whole family together (well, as much as possible), and to sharing in the spirit with them. I'm happy with the amount of Rudolph and Santa songs I've heard so far, and I'm ready for the good stuff about Jesus! I've loved seeing people I don't normally get to see any other time of year, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with more people I love!

I've even been saying "Merry Christmas" this year! I NEVER say that. It's kind of weird, and awkward, but I've just beel feelin' it, you know? So, Merry Christmas!

My First Couple--Lindbloms

2009-12-21T14:36:00.003-07:00

Oi. I can tell couples are going to be hard to take pictures of :\

My friend Megan and her husband Erik (who is probably my friend too) let me take pictures of them this weekend, and we had a really great time, but I was pretty anxious the whole time. It's kind of scary! I feel like I don't know if I'm going to be able to make the pictures work every time! But as long as I get ONE usable picture, I guess I should be okay, right? haha

I was so nervous to look at the pictures I'd taken, I waited a whole day to even look at them! But I think they turned out okay, and I'm excited to get some more practice in and find some new poses and angles and such to use. So KEEP LETTING ME KNOW IF I CAN TAKE YOUR PICTURES :) I'm hoping that after Christmas I can get some more in! I might call you.

Rhiannon

2009-12-13T22:04:00.003-07:00

My friends are awesome :) I have had so many people volunteer to help me practice taking pictures, that I don't even have any more time before Christmas! I would have never thought! I am definitely going to keep taking more, so please keep letting me know :) I enjoy it so much!

I did a shoot with my friend Rhiannon on Saturday, and I am so happy with the results! She's amazing and is so pretty; it was so easy to take her pictures! She even did an outfit change OUTSIDE in the WIND and FREEZING COLD! So, THANKS RHIANNON!

Here's a couple of my favorites:

From Rhiannon's Finals

And here's all of them:

Matthew's Shoot

2009-12-11T23:47:00.002-07:00

My little brother Matthew was my first test subject for taking portraits. Here's the result.

p.s.
If you read this post via email from me or view it on facebook, you'll have to go to the original post on my blog to view the slideshow. Sorry. http://beckygreen.blogspot.com

Christmas Vase

2009-12-08T14:13:00.002-07:00

Yesterday my boss's wife brought in some Christmas decorations, and it gave me some wonderful inspiration :) I love it when you get an idea you know you can accomplish quickly. Those are the projects I thrive with--not the ones that take a month to finish, haha :)

I found a 2 foot vase at TJ Maxx for $7, and got some cheapo ornaments for like $5. Then I went to Michael's and rummaged through their ribbon section and their fake plant area for some red and gold berries. I only found the kind I wanted on stems, so I took 5 minutes and cut them off.

mmm, Christmas :)

I also found these blocks for $10. I've been looking for something like this for a while, so it was worth it to me.

Then I filled up the vase with ornaments and the red berries and gold sparkly ones; I sort of just filled it up around a ribbon inside.

And arranged it with the blocks and some $2 tower candles! I used a couple of scrapbooking glue dots to hold the ribbon in place and to hold some of the ornaments together.

The pictures kind of don't show the whole thing, but I LOVE IT :) It totally transformed my dining room and I'm super happy. And once I got home, it only took me like 15 or 20 minutes!

Saying it out loud

2009-12-07T11:25:00.001-07:00

I am going to work out twice this week.

I want to take your picture :)

2009-12-07T10:10:00.004-07:00

I would love to try taking some pictures of some people I know to see if I can do it. If anyone wants to let me take some pictures of them, totally let me know. And we can laugh together if they turn out crappy :) I'm thinking someone might want to try on their wedding dress again, or have some pictures taken with their kids, or OF their kids, or just get some pictures taken of themselves or with their boyfriend or husband to help me out, FOR FREE :)

Most of my pictures so far aren't of people, so I'd love it if anyone would like to help me expand my portfolio!

Thanksgiving, CHECK. Christmas CHECKAROONI

2009-12-02T10:52:00.004-07:00

I can't believe it's already Christmas time! Thanksgiving is over, fall is over, it's officially December, and Christmas is knocking. We had an INSANE Thanksgiving week--probably the craziest we've ever had.

Trevor's boss called him Wednesday afternoon and asked him to put together a last minute sales flier by Friday. And since we were planning on leaving for Idaho WEDNESDAY night, he had to hurry and make it before we left.
We headed out the door on Wednesday at 5:30, just in time for the Northbound traffic, for our 4 hour drive to Idaho.
Got there at 9:30--but the drive was actually kind of fun. Trevor and I had some time to finally talk (he's been working SO MUCH overtime lately since they have a new manager) and complain about work. Trevor read to me while I was driving, and we playing this new game where I have to guess the genre of music that Trevor plays for me from his iPod. Seriously difficult... Even after 5 years, I STILL can't keep track of it all! Maybe I'll do another post about what genre is what...
Checked in to our hotel--which was another cool part--they upgraded all their furniture and bedding and stuff, so it was pretty nice :) AND they have the FoodNetwork. So we went to sleep to the sultry sounds of Dinner: Impossible.
I let Trevor sleep in on Thanksgiving and headed over to help with the dinner prep at 9. My Grandma pretty much did everything before we got there but I did the potato washing, haha. We hung out with my family and played The Game of Things until dinner at 2, promptly took a 15 minute nap and had pie at 4, just in time to head back to Salt Lake at 4:30 PM so Trevor could get 7 hours of sleep before he had to be at work at 5AM the next day for Black Friday. Ugh.
At 5:30 PM driving home from Idaho Trevor got a text from his boss saying not to come in until 1 PM instead of 5 AM. WHAT THE CRAP?! So we missed out on Thanksgiving evening with my family for no reason, AND it put a new crimp in our plans for a second Thanksgiving dinner with Trevor's family on Friday night.
Back home by 8:30 with no reason to go to bed so we had leftover turkey sandwiches and I read Harry Potter to Trevor. You know, I never get tired of reading, "I'm a WHAT?" "Yer a wizard, Harry."
We got up at 8 on Friday and hit Best Buy and Target for some SWEET deals. We saved probably $150 on stuff we were going to buy for ourselves and for Christmas gifts anyways! We got a new printer for $25, and I got a memory card adapter for $20. And Trevor got World of Warcraft for $5... so that means Trevor has been on the computer since Friday, haha :)
We had Thanksgiving dinner numero dos on Friday (after Trevor got off work) at Trevor's mom's and it was fantastic :) We shared the food making responsibility and took everything over in crock pots. I LIKED this and I think we should do it every year.
Saturday Trevor went back to work for another 12 hour shift, and I stayed home and finished Christmas shopping, cleaning up the house, and putting up the TREE and decorations while listening to Christmas music! It felt SO good to get the tree up so early! Thanksgiving was DONE, and Christmas was HERE! I also started on my Christmas cards that night too. Seriously, I'm feeling incredibly accomplished right now, haha (oh, but I accidentally got a mini-disc for the card adapter stuck in the iMac... I'm still trying to figure out how to get it out. The disc slot is on the side of the monitor and when you put in the disc, it just slides in and there's not tray or manual eject button. Apparently I'm not smart enough to realize the disc was too small and just dropped it in...)
Sunday we chillaxed and Trevor finally got to play WoW uninterrupted by work. I foresee a LOT of reading on my part for the next few weeks. I tried WoW and it was interesting. I'll let you know if I like it when (if) I play more.
So yesterday was Monday and it's officially December, like I said, and I'm READY for Christmas! Tomorrow we're going to see Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theater, Friday I'm making Christmas Toffee with a friend, and sometime this weekend we're going to the Festival of Trees! AND I'm 75% done with Christmas shopping, and we aren't poor, haha :) I'm hoping my head start on Christmas will give me more of a chance to spend time with friends and family this year. I'm excited to fit in as much Christmas as I can this year!

Halloween--Real Quick Catch Up

2009-11-17T13:43:00.002-07:00

So it's been 18 days since I last posted.
I'm over it; you can be too now :)

Here's the pictures from our AWESOME Halloween Party!

We also decorated our entry way with black walls and stobe lights and a fog machine! Sa-Weet! Trevor hid himself and used Brandon's axe to scare Travis and Robyn when they came in.

We watched Hocus Pocus and had way too much yummy food.

Halloween Weekend!!!

2009-10-30T11:04:00.003-06:00

This weekend is going to be HUGE!

Today I'm renewing my car's registration today-- ON TIME. Which is, frankly, amazing. I just HOPE the crack in my windshield is small enough that I won't have to buy a new one. CROSS YOUR FINGERS WITH ME.

I'm also going to get the oil changed, and possibly clean it out--spectacular Friday, right?

THEN, I'm making chicken for dinner with my old friends Megan and Danny--who I NEVER get to see but who I love :) It will be so awesome to hang out. I know it's kind of mean of us, but we're bringing our husbands and making them hang out with each other too. It's all part of growing up :) I'm excited to see Megan's house! YIP!

Then tomorrow is the big day for the amazingly awesome spectacular tremendously crazy Halloween party that Amber and I are throwing at my apartment! I have been into everything Halloween this year--except dressing up. For some reason I just can't find a good costume :( I'll tell you how it went later. But we have some AWESOME stuff planned!

Then to top off the weekend, we all get an extra hour due to Daylight Savings! Mmmm, my kind'o weekend.

Trevor and Me

2009-10-28T09:52:00.003-06:00

I've been reading a lot about friends who are in love and happy, who are making families, who are new to families, and old to families. And it made me stop and think about my tiny half-a-family with Trevor, and how much I love him. When you don't have kids, it's easy to focus on yourself. It's easy to focus on the two individuals who are married, and BE individuals who are married. That's good, a lot of times, because I think every married couple needs time to be individuals and spend time getting to know each other as well as spend time together alone AFTER you already know each other. I'm looking forward to when we can expand our family, but today I spent a lot of time thinking about the family we are NOW. On a day-to-day basis we can get distracted by the dishes all over the counters, the dinner that needs to be made--the dinner that needs to be cleaned up, the towels that are all wet, used up, and dirty on the bathroom floor, the new cute basket in the bathroom I picked out that Trevor thinks is going to get moldy (but wouldn't get moldy if he would just not get it wet when he washes his hands), family parties, new gadgets, or miscellaneous cords for the tv/computer that will make our lives 10 times better. It's easy to focus on the long road ahead of Trevor and me before we have the money and time to begin the "life" we want to begin. YEARS before our debts are paid, YEARS before Trevor can finally go to school for what he wants. WHAT are we doing with our life in the meantime? Just waiting? It wouldn't be worth it if there wasn't an upside. Today I've been thinking about that upside. That I get to spend time developing my hobbies into talents that I can use to help myself and Trevor, and later my family. I can turn preparing food because I'm hungry into making dinner for Trevor and I to enjoy and relax with after a long day at work. We can spend time sitting next to each other under a blanket watching a movie, only interrupted by the need for more pudding cups. We can stay up late in bed talking, diving into the dreams and pains we have. I can turn over at night and be close to Trevor, and feel his arms wrap around me, and feel his hand find my hand, even though he's half asleep, to warm me up when we left the window open and Mother Nature decides she wants it to snow. I can count on Trevor wanting to say goodbye to me before I leave every morning, so we can let each other know we care, even if he only has 5 minutes more to sleep before his alarm clock makes him wake up. I can count on Trevor listening when I've had a bad day, or when I have an opinion about something that is different from everyone else's. I can count on Trevor to nudge me towards a goal I've set for myself, even if he doesn't want it.

Yep, we've got it pretty good right now, I think. Even though we feel like we may have lame goals, or too much time before we can feel like we've become active human beings progressing in life. I have Trevor, and he has me, and we can really take advantage of that. Even though it can sometimes feel like compared to other people, we got married to early, or we blew our money more than other people, or we are more extravagant than other people--there is a reason we love each other, and there are reasons we decided we love only each other, and those reasons still exist.

I gave in to the girly reading thing again

2009-10-26T09:38:00.002-06:00

I want to be completely proud of my reading decisions lately, but in reality, I've been a little surprised at the books I've been into since I graduated high school. I have discovered that I really am a sap when it comes to romance and happy endings. I mean, holy crap, I read Twilight last year and didn't hate it! What has the world come to?

Last week I decided I needed to take a break from Trevor's Series Ginormo to read a little classic romance--specifically, Pride and Prejudice. You know, THE Jane Austen.

I know what you're thinking, "What? How can someone have never read Pride and Prejudice?" How can I have read Ivan Denisovich, or Voltaire, or the Inferno but never the obvious Pride and Prejudice? Really, I was confused myself. I wouldn't say I'm WELL-read, but geeze, it really was a little ridiculous.

Thus, I began. I little skeptical, a little excited. Skeptical of all the rave, excited to see if it could really live up to the "happily ever after" standard I was seeking. Mr. Darcy was enticing, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett began an interesting statement on class, and Elizabeth was not as annoying as I was expecting (given the Kierra Knightly disgrace of late--Oh Kierra, don't you know that just because her name is Elizabeth doesn't mean she's the same Elizabeth from Pirates?). Then the Bingleys came, and it was refreshing to read the subtle mockery of the upper class that Austen obviously felt. She was in the middle of it--she lived the class structure--she gossiped, dined and danced in the time. But she could see the hypocrisy, and the prejudice. I won't give you my whole "book report" but just know I appreciated the honesty.

All in all, I was pleased with the tension, and with the resolution equally. I will definitely be reading another Austen book soon to get my fix of happy endings. And I feel good about recommending it to everyone else :)

Stay-Cation

2009-10-14T17:36:00.004-06:00

I was planning on blogging about our vacation WHILE ON vacation but that didn't really work out. I was too busy doing nothing to worry about documenting. Now that I'm back at work, my time is in high demand and I'm feeling almost freak-out-ish because I can't get a break. So I'm basically forcing this break on myself right now during the last 20 minutes I'm at work. I don't feel too bad because I've been working my butt off for the past 3 days, and technically I'm still manning the phones in case someone calls, so...

I haven't blogged about my photo class too much (or at all) because I haven't really had time to take that many pictures using the stuff I've learned yet. At least, not very good ones. It's hard. I can't wait till the stuff I've learned is natural to me so I can get back to taking spontaneous pictures. I'll put in a couple in this post though just so you can see what I mean.

Mmm, stay-cation...

It was amazing. Really. Do you guys even know what the word amazing means? "Causing great surprise or sudden wonder." And yep, that was stay-cation. I was greatly surprised how easy it was to put work completely out of my mind and be "weekend Becky" for 9 days straight. And I felt wonder spending so much non-stop time with Trevor. We only fought for real, like, 1 time. And that wasn't even till the end of the week :)

Here's some of the stuff we did:

Friday and Saturday--Becky cleaned up and got the apartment ready for REAL vacation while Trevor worked. Friday night we went grocery shopping to stock up on all our vacation goodies, and bought Trevor new dress clothes for work (at the new Kohl's on 33rd--oh my, don't go there unless you want to spend money) since he's up for the Lead Assistant Manager position. He wears a tie every day now :) So hot.
Saturday--Watched Conference and cleaned. Did you know they play re-runs from 12-2? Becky visited Trevor's nephews while Trevor was at work. Got to play in the sandbox and make mermaid feet out of little boy feet. Went to Panda and had our first official meal out of the week. It was glorious and our stomachs were unadulterated by other fast food products from previous trips to eat out. Went to get us a spot in line at Leatherby's BEFORE 8 (when all the men are supposed to be in the priesthood session still) and the line was HUMONGO, so we got hot fudge and caramel to go, and had ice cream sundaes and banana splits at home with Brandon, Amber, Robyn, and Travis. We watched Justice League :)
Sunday--Our actual anniversary (yay! 3 years!). It really is so weird that we've been married for 3 years now. That means we've been together for 5 total. WHAT exactly have we done with the time?! Oh well, I love Trevor. Our relationship has grown so much in the last year; I'm really proud of us for our progress and our new goals. We let ourselves sleep in, caught a little conference, smelled candles at Kohl's (yes, we went there again), and had hot cocoa from Starbucks, where Trevor laughed at me because I didn't know to how to say "grande." Shopped for a new jacket for Becky that looks like this:

Went to Rodizio Grill. I can't believe we went there again. We were just going to go to Marie Calendars or something and then I said, "mmm steak sounds good" and magically Trevor wanted to go there. Surprisingly, I didn't gorge myself this time :)
Monday we went to the DI and found a really great pea coat for Trevor for only $8. We found snow boots for me for $10 at Plato's Closet too :)
I'm sure we did other stuff on Monday but there was a lot of lazing about, keeping things tidy, watching movies, DVDs, doing upkeep on my Farmville (which I've gotten Trevor so addicted to, that he has officially gone creeper on it and created fake friends so that he can expand his farm...), browsing Barnes and Noble, that sort of thing. No TV though, surprisingly.
Tuesday we were supposed to be at my boss's cabin but we had to wait because of the snow, so we saw The Invention of Lying--which was super good and I recommend it to anyone. I think Ricky Gervais is becoming one of my favorite actors. I hope I never see him in anything that bothers me so I can keep my impression of him intact. I wanted to go to the Ogden Dinosaur Park or the Museum of Natural History, but Trevor "wasn't in the mood", bah!
Wednesday we had breakfast with Trevor's brother and his girlfriend, which was really great and I'm glad we got to spend time with them. We never get to since we have opposite work schedules a lot. Then we packed practically our entire bedroom + food and drove 40 minutes up Big Cottonwood to my boss's house where he was letting us stay in his cabin. Besides the awkwardness of the giant bedroom window being 50 feet away from HIS bedroom/kitchen/dining room windows, it was super relaxing. We made a huge fire in the fireplace, went on a small hike-ish thing and took pictures, and lazed about in our pjs to read. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores, ate leftover lasagna for dinner, and had cereal for breakfast. You can see the pictures in the slideshow at the bottom.
Thursday we recuperated and had dinner with Trevor's other brother and his girlfriend.
Friday we... I have no idea. I think this is the day we saw Surrogates. Good movie. Slightly different than a normal robot movie. And we went to the mall (practically half the stores), and Burlington Coat Factory (but ended up only getting Trevor a new beard trimmer, weird). We did a TON of window shopping.
Saturday we helped cut limbs off of Trevor's mom's apple tree, and went on a walk through the Parkway with Trevor's other OTHER brother and his wife. I took a COUPLE good pictures before I realized I'd put used batteries in my camera and it crapped out. I still need a lot of practice with getting the exposure right on the fly, but some of them turned out. Some of them were just fun :)
Sunday was our last day and we spent it making apple pie, watching as many movies as we could, reading as much as we could, and relaxing as much as we could before going back to work on Monday.
We did a lot more stuff I just can't remember. WE LOVED relaxing and spending as much time with each other as possible! Can't wait till next time. About the only good part about going back to normal life is the NORMAL food. My stomach STILL isn't back to normal :(

New Pillows

2009-09-21T10:35:00.004-06:00

This is a really bad picture, but I need to post it now so I don't forget. They aren't really this yellow. Last week Trevor got some old pillows from work (there actually ARE benefits to working at Rent-A-Center!), so we decided we'd use the stuffing to make new pillows for our living room. We had these red and green plushy pillows that were loosing their shape, and were starting to seem really blah. So off to Ikea we trotted to pick out new fabric.

The next step was for Becky to learn how to use a sewing machine. I use one so rarely that I have to relearn every time I use one. So after a couple hours of the machine and myself malfunctioning together, I finally got it going smoothly. After that it was actually really easy.

You just sew to squares together with the insides out. You sew 3 sides completely. Like this:

l________l

(I took how-to pictures along the way, but they're on a different memory card, and I just don't feel like dealing with that mess on a Monday morning.)

And then you sew the top like this, leaving a hole to stuff the cotton into:

-----___----

l________l

Turn it right side out, stuff the cotton, and sew up the hole. SO easy (after my sister-in-law showed me how :) she's great).

I figured out another way to make pillows this week too. I've been trying to figure out how to make the pillow cases that you can stuff a pillow into, but for some reason my brain has been at maximum capacity every time I've tried to imagine it, or something. They had the example up at Ikea, so thank goodness.

You take a 20 inch by 60 inch piece of fabric (20 inches because that's how big my pillow is, and 60 inches because you double it and add 20 more inches). Basically, it's super confusing to explain, so I drew ya'll a picture. You can click on the picture to make the picture bigger if you're interested. I like this idea of having a cover because then you can change the cover whenever you want, depending on what kind of mood you're in.

More Food Projects This Month

2009-09-21T09:30:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd post a few pictures of a couple things I've been working on lately. I feel a little behind since I didn't post the pictures when I took them. My photography class starts this week, so I need to be up to date on all this stuff before it starts.

A few weeks or so ago I used red potatoes to make a cheesy potato bake thingy, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of the potatoes. The contrast between the red outside and the white inside was so satisfying.

I made a pork tenderloin roast last week with a chili orange glaze, and I also loved the contrast between the red crust and white inside. I liked the sauce but Trevor didn't. Sometimes it really drives me crazy that he's a simple food kinda guy. "Meat, potatoes, and cheese," he says. Pish posh. There's more to life than meat and potatoes! I love experiencing new flavors, and combining flavors I've never tried before--and I can like them even if it's weird. Trevor is kind of the opposite.

I made spinach lasagna a while ago too, and the spinach leaves were so beautiful! Trevor likes all kinds of lasagna, so I didn't have to worry about that this time :)

I also made homemade reduced sugar strawberry jam more than a month ago. I've only made jam one other time, and they didn't set up the way they were supposed to that time. This time, the jam jelled up and all the lids sealed :) AND I felt okay about spreading it on everything since it had half the sugar (as long as I didn't think about the 3 pounds of sugar that WERE in it).

This weekend I made a new cake. It wasn't as complicated as the last one (thank goodness!), but it was fun and really relaxing to make. Unfortunately for my waistline, cooking is very theraputic for me. And spending my Sunday afternoon cutting, layering, frosting, and making a cake look like a big fish was just the balance of "project" and relaxation that I wanted. Plus, since it was fun and silly, it was okay if it didn't look perfect, so I didn't have to stress out over anything.

I was able to find the balance I've been looking for in my frosting. I've made buttercream frostings with butter, which have great buttery flavor, but that's all you can taste, and they don't hold their shape very well at room temperature. I've made frostings with shortening, and they have great consistency; the flavor is good but very "store-bought." Trevor suggested that I do something about that last time, so I combined the two and I think we found the perfect frosting! The only thing I need to get right now making the frosting smoother. I'll figure it out one day.

If you're wondering what I did with all the extra red, green, orange, yellow, and brown M&Ms... yes, I ate them. Our fish couldn't have mismatching dots, after all.

9/11 on a Personal Note

2009-09-11T10:38:00.005-06:00

September 11th isn't about a terrorist attack to me. Yeah, I know that's what caused it. But for some reason I just have to focus on letting the fact sink in that it's possible in our world to kill 3,000 people at once just because. I know there have been many many other instances in the history of the world where more than 3,000 people died when something happened; 9/11 is kind of close to my heart though--probably because I was young when it happened, and it was the first time I'd really understood something awful and huge happening in the world on a personal level. To me, 9/11 is an example of the atrocities the world is capable of. Obviously, yes, historically it's important for us to know that on September 11, 2001 terrorist members of the Al Queda group were responsible for crashing 2 planes into the World Trade Center towers, another into the Pentagon, and another in Pennsylvania. And it's important for us to know why they apparently hate America and feel the need to "teach us a lesson." But to me, the most important part isn't the details of who caused it or when, but how American people and the people of the world responded emotionally. I'm glad that the majority of our human society was appalled by what happened. I'm glad that the world isn't so far gone that we can't connect over the horror of 3,000 people being murdered. I'm glad it's still wrong for something like that to happen--with all the crime and hate in the world, all the uncaring people, all the people who have no care what happens to others, or what happens to society as a whole, or how much we degrade ourselves-- I'm glad that we aren't desensitized so much that we can't come together and realize when we've lost something (the majority of us, anyway).

I always want to remember sitting in 8th grade Algebra, doing my morning worksheet, and having something so important come on the TV that my uncaring, basketball coaching, smelly math teacher knew a room of thirty 13-year-olds needed to see--needed to feel what was happening together. All of my teachers let the students talk with each other about what was happening and how we were feeling throughout the day. And I like to think they let us do that not just because we need to know what happened, but because we needed to internalize how it impacted us individually and as a group. We needed to know how we would respond as the younger generation of the world to harm and the psychological, emotional pain of losing something many of us had never seen before--of losing something that to many of us was intangible. I'd never been to New York City, or to Washington DC. I'd never met anyone who I knew may even be IN one of the towers, or even in the city at the time. I'm sure that was the case for the majority of my classmates. And yet, we still cried. I'm proud that we banded together to dive into the new feelings we were having--and to gain an appreciation for the beauty of our human race and complexity. I'm glad we could recognize the loss of life--the loss of a group of conscious people, who were breathing and thinking, and who had families and friendships--and the suffering they all must have been going through--that there are actual people on the other side of the country, living their lives, just like I am. That's what there is to learn from historical events, I think. And 9/11 was the first time I'd really had the chance to internalize that. It helped me open myself to feeling the personal experiences that other people must have gone through during other historical events. I hope experiences like 9/11 do the same for everyone else in the world, so we can be a more humane, sympathetic, and sensitive society as a whole, and that we can think about the people, not just the event.

I love finding pictures of people on historic dates.

September 11, 2001

D-Day: June 6, 1944

Oklahoma City Bombing: April 19, 1995

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941

Fall of the Berlin Wall: November 9, 1989

Robyn's Fondant Birthday Cake

2009-09-10T10:03:00.004-06:00

Made my first cake using fondant. It turned out okay. I don't really know why I thought it would be any different, but molding with fondant is pretty much like molding with clay. If you stink with clay, you stink with fondant. It was a really fun, challenging project for me though.

I did the cake for my sister-in-law's birthday (happy birthday!) and it tasted pretty good, which is the most important part :)

The cake itself was a marble cake made from 2 boxed cake mixes; dark chocolate and french vanilla. It's super easy. You just make the two mixes separately (or, if you're going all out, you just make two cake mixes from scratch), then pour part of one in the pan, part of the other in lines on top, then take a knife and criss-cross through the batter. Don't stir, just criss-cross to make a pattern. Sorry, no picture.

While your cakes are cooling (in the fridge, to make them hard), that's when you start making the fondant stuff. I tried making the candles completely edible by wrapping Pirouettes with fondant, but they weren't stable enough. So I wrapped wooden dowels and then cut strips for the lines on the candles. Fondant is pretty easy to roll out--you just need to have a bunch of powdered sugar and cornstarch to roll it out on to.

I didn't know this, but you use a little bit of water mixed with some dissolved fondant, and you use it as glue to hold stuff together--really neat :) You let the fondant decorations harden while you're getting the rest of your cake ready.

I made a homemade vanilla-flavored butter-cream frosting to build the cake with. Mix all the wet stuff, then add the meringue and sugar in increments.

4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 tablespoon meringue powder

I bought a frosting tip that is huge for putting a layer of frosting onto the cake so you don't tear it up trying to get it even. It looks like this, only the opening is about 2 inches long:
So you just frost the cake, then roll out your fondant and put it on top, smoothing out all the surfaces and trimming it up. Then I stuck in my candles, made curly-cues, stuck those in, and dotted on some royal icing to hold it all together. Royal icing is different than butter-cream. Royal icing starts out runny, and gets thicker as you beat it, then gets hard a few minutes after you use it. It consists of:

4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
1-2 tablespoons water

Then you finish by making a border to hide the trim-line of the fondant.

Then you eat it :) And it's yummy. I think next time I'll stick with making less intricate stuff out of fondant--Stuff I can use cookie cutters for and straight lines :) It took me a bit of time to get used to working with the fondant--especially when you wet it down to glue stuff together. So be sure to plan on your kitchen getting destroyed in the process, and your hands being sticky the whole time--then you should be good :) I think I cleaned my kitchen 3 times that day.

If you're looking for good cake ideas, Joann's website and Wilton's website have GREAT ideas and tips and places to start. That's where I got my ideas this time.

Cheese

2009-09-03T20:22:00.001-06:00

Before

After

Yay! I'm learning!

No Non-Pregnants Allowed

2009-09-03T10:41:00.004-06:00

I think the world is pregnant or something, because EVERYONE is getting pregnant. And frankly, I feel a little like I've been kicked out of a club or something.

sigh

Don't get me wrong. I'm content where we're at, and I'm happy with our goals. But yeesh; all this good news makes me feel like I fell off the bandwagon. I want to share in everyone's happiness and have a blogpost of my own saying "we're expecting!" I hope people start having showers and parties so I can start celebrating with them and get my fill!