MEMORIAL DAY!

Happy day off of school everyone! Guess what I'm doing?!?!?! HOMEWORK! WOOT! Okay, so not all day. I'm just finishing up a moving picture project and learning a few Chinese characters. Then off to the park to play, maybe throw a hike in, over to a friend's house for dinner. And back home for an early bed time. Got to get well rested for the week ahead. Can you believe it? Only 16 days until spring term is over! That I am very excited about. Summer is going by quickly and it has been fun, but I'm not looking forward to fall semester in September. Too much business. Good thing I love to dance! My "moving picture" project is a movie on how to dance the Charleston, 5th grade style (definitely no couples dancing). I'll have it posted on my blog tomorrow if you want to see it. Also, I typed up my recipe for the squash casserole. Once I put it on my flash drive so that I can bring it from home to a computer with internet, I'll post it. Clayton is sitting next to me in the computer lab typing up his own blog post. Also we both journal-ed yesterday. We're pretty much being awesome little goal keepers. (Not the soccer kind). And, well, I don't even know what else. But we're having a great day so far! Can't wait to go play!

Oh yeah, Clayton is writing about our Friday night date, so I'll write about our unexpected Saturday night date! I got off work 4 1/2 hours early (4:45 instead of 9:15). Long story short, all the stores but Subway were supposed to be closed because of Memorial Day weekend, but none (absolutely zero) of the employees were informed. When we, as managers, found out on Saturday morning, after Taco Bell and Cougar Express had already opened, we had to call everyone and tell them not to come in and we shut down Taco Bell and Cougar Express early. So once Subway closed up, I headed home. Clayton and I met some friends at the park and threw a frisbee around, then ran to the grocery store for a few things. We went home and made a homemade pizza. Made the whole-wheat crust from scratch, added pizza sauce and bbq sauce for some pizzaz, then mozzarella, pepperjack, bell peppers, tomato slices, ham and pineapple, and a little parmesan on top. YUM! We ate and watched planet 51, that we rented from a redbox at the grocery store.

Yesterday was Clayton's first plan and make dinner himself adventure. I helped him make rolls from scratch and we did a roast in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots. Then he made some broccoli. Also we made monkey bread from scratch. That takes forever but it was oh so very good! If you couldn't guess, it was a teach Clayton how to use yeast kind of weekend. What should be the theme for next weekend?



The broccoli and vegetables



The roast and rolls



My lovely husband

Forgetful me...

Can you believe it? I forgot a very important step in the pulled pork recipe! It is now revised below. :-)

Also, just so everyone knows, Clayton is now going to start blogging on a regular basis, (as in at least once a week...hopefully:-). So make sure to start checking out his blog again!

Life at 99 mph

Do you ever have those days where you wake up and then all the sudden it's time to go back to bed. And you don't even know what happened? That's been my life for all of spring term. Can you believe we are wrapping up the 5th week here! 2 more weeks to go, then finals, and it's over. WOOHOO! I just love spring and summer. Too bad classes that I really need to take aren't offered in spring/summer. Otherwise I would never go to school in winter. We'd just find a place to hibernate. Like Tennessee, or Florida, or the Grand Canyon. Somewhere warm. I am super dooper tired today. Too tired to do more studying for my quiz in an hour and a half. What if I've already spent 1 1/2 hours studying. Should I do more, or just be okay with that inevitable B+/A-? Do I even care if I get an A or A-? No, not really. It will barely effect my GPA either way. Maybe .001 of a point. That's what happens when you go to school for too long with too many credits to get scholarships anymore. No worries though, tuition is still more than paid through next April. Then I have to get to applying for different scholarships. BLAH!

I'm looking forward to my 2 o'clock nap. I scheduled it. I've just got to fit it in today. You know, having Clayton do all the housework lately has really been ever so nice. I have more time to do homework, sleep, play games, play outside, etc. Weird how curses can become blessings. I guess that's all folks. It's all my brain can process in English right now. Back to Chinese...

The Easiest Pulled Pork in the World

about 5 pound boston butt pork roast
about 1/2 c. of water
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce (I love local flavors from Memphis, but Sweet Baby Ray's rasberry chipotle is pretty good too).

Cut all the gross fat off the outside of the roast. Cook it in your crockpot with the water on low heat for 8-10 hours. I usually do at least 10 hours since I'll put it in right before I go to bed and we'll eat it after we come home from church. I've done up to 16 hours before. About 1 hour before you want to eat your delicious homemade pulled pork, pull the pork out of the crock pot and pour out most of the juices. Shred the pork with a fork and knife (it should basically fall apart), return it to the crock pot, turn the heat to high, and pour in the bottle of bbq sauce. You can add more or less depending on your preference. I will do a whole bottle and then have extra to add on my sandwich, nachos, salad, or anything else I make to go with the pork. But I love my bbq sauce.

And that is it! Sorry I am so very exact. I won't be posting my chicken salad recipe, because there is none. And that, as Clayton said, is my problem. I just make it up as I go. :-( But go ahead and ask. I'll type something up for you to try!

Guess What?!?!?!?

I figured out how to get an email every time someone posts a comment. That way I no longer have to check my blog all the time. I just check my email because I always am waiting for those comments! I'm addicted. Sorry. I just feel like I put so much effort into communicating with everyone, they should give me a little communication back. I love you all!

Personal Progress

Sometimes I go on blogging streaks and other times I hate blogging. Right now I'm on a blogging streak. Why? I wish I could answer that question. But unlike many of my posts that are so witty and sarcastic (all right just let me dream here), I was kind of contemplating last night and wanted to share my thoughts.

Yesterday I was putting my jewelry away in my jewelry box (weird, I know, but I'm trying to look nice when I go to school. Clayton's trying to make me look like a lady. Nice clothes that I don't work out in, jewelry, new haircut, who knows what's next.) and I came across my personal progress medallion that I got on 4/18/2004. I just took it out and though, wow, I made it! Last week I was in the Salt Lake temple with my awesome husband and had a great experience. We made it! I don't know if that really makes sense, but your whole life in church they tell you to prepare yourself to get married in the temple/go to the temple/etc. And I just thought, I spent all that time working on my personal progression and after all is said and done, I made it that far. Not to say I don't have a long way to go, but I am ridiculously happy right now, if stressed out. I know our life is kind of in limbo right now, but you know what? It will all work out, because we are doing our part and we are so happy together. The end. I am apparently not very good at saying what I want to say.

Oh yeah, last night was the season finale of Chuck, the first t.v. series I have ever followed vigilantly. Well, there was a ward young married couples fhe at the same time. :-( So, we decided to go to the fhe (good thing because only two couples came besides the ones that planned it) and watch old episodes I hadn't seen to get me caught up. And we had an awesome time at FHE and watching Chuck and I didn't feel guilty at all. Now we get to watch the finale on Hulu tomorrow. When I have an hour and a half to spend on it.

And last thing, Clayton made chicken tortilla soup last night (I handed him a recipe and gave hints while in the other room doing my homework) and he did a great job and added a few things to make it even awesomer! He loves food so much, one day he'll be an incredible cook.

Our date...

Well, last Friday Clayton and I decided to go on a date. Having planned it two weeks beforehand, we were ready to go! I got out of class at 1:50 and we were in the car at 2 pm, on our way up to Salt Lake! Five minutes into the trip, we realize we forgot the gift certificate to the restaurant we were headed to, (I hid it in a place that we wouldn't forget it...you all know how that goes). So, we went back home and were back on our way at 2:30 with snacks to help us last until dinnertime. We got up to Salt Lake and only had to circle the conference center once before figuring out how to enter the parking garage. We went in the Salt Lake Temple and did a session. It was fairly entertaining since we had no idea where we were going inside and were always asking for directions and hoping we could get back to the place we said we would meet back up. But we survived and enjoyed it and were VERY HUNGRY! So, we walked back to the car to grab the gift certificate. I changed into tennis shoes and we were on our way to the restaurant. We walked since it was only three blocks down. We arrived and, to our dismay, there was a sign on the door. Upon further inspection, we determined that we could not eat at that restaurant, as it was closed early for a private function! ARGH! So, we ran across the road to Gandolfo's deli and ate sandwiches. By the time we left it was RAINING! We walked the three blocks in the rain. No worries though, we were still on time for the play we were going to see! We got to the play, Clayton dropped me off so I could pick up the tickets at will call while he parked the car. The ticket agent proceeded to tell me that she had no tickets for "Cravath". I went to talk to a different lady, who looked it up and told me our tickets were for next Friday, the 28th! I went to tell Clayton who had just walked in, and once I told him I just started crying! It was so silly, and I wasn't upset. It was just us not paying attention to things likes dates of performances and having bad luck. But I just start crying and feel bad that I'm making Clayton feel bad, blah, blah, blah. So we get in the car and go home...

Don't worry, there is a happy ending to this story! I took a shower and calmed down,(I was mostly just stressed out in general, truly I didn't cry all evening over a play), and then my awesome husband played boggle with me! And guess what!?!?! He beat me twice! Out of probably five or six rounds. He's starting to like my favorite game, I just know it. All in all, we had an AWESOME Sunday yesterday (we just stayed home after church and made peanut butter cookies and had mahimahi and squash casserole for dinner), and now I get to laugh about how tragic our date was Friday. Plus, I have something to look forward to for this Friday!

Classroom Website

So I've been working on an imaginary classroom website for my technology class. It's actually kind of cool. Go take a look!

Mrs. Cravath's Classroom Website

5 minutes

I'm in the library about to leave internet for the day, so I decided I'd post for five minutes. What about though? My mind is swirling in Chinese. Wo bu shufu! I mean I'm uncomfortable. Argh. Make it stop! Okay fine, I guess thinking in Chinese isn't that bad. At least I can mostly express myself. Keshi, I mean, but, I want to speak English too. Aiya! Seriously guys, it just keeps coming. Wo you hen duo gongke. I have to do some much homework tonight. Haiyou yi ge shangwang project. I am making a website for a pretend fifth grade dance class. It's fun, but I have to go home and make a pretend syllabus and powerpoint presentation for a class. Hmm... what to teach, what to teach??? What would you teach fifth graders about dance? They are learning about WWII right now. Maybe we'll do a power point about the Charleston and I can link youtube movies and make an instructional video. Good, I've already taught that class. That'll be easy. Now for the second class lesson plan... They are learning about poetry and earthquake/volcanoes/and weather erosion. That could be fun. I'm not sure how I could tie genetics to dance... In math we've got algebraic symbols, area and volume of a 3D object, working with decimals/fractions, and probability. All righty I need ideas people! That are preferably not in Chinese. I do have two other classes I'm taking after all...

By the way, I only know how to write in chinese characters on a mac. :-( Someone should teach me how on a p.c. Then all my wildest dreams would come true.

pencils

I have mentioned before how electric pencil sharpeners and I don't get along. And I refuse to be so helpless as to make Clayton do it for me. Nor do I truly appreciate mechanical pencils. You have to refill the lead! WAAAAY to much work! BUT GUESS WHAT!?!?!?! I found a real deal, just like was on the wall in my elementary school classrooms, pencil sharpener in the library. I will be frequenting it from now on. You just can't write chinese characters in pen. I mess them up way to much! And I might just have gotten a 100 on my character quiz today! YAY! Also, my class has a bunch of returned missionaries who served in Taiwan in it. So it is very intimidating. I thought I was doing terribly, but I just checked my grades and it looks like I'm doing okay. And also, just to shout it from the rooftops one more time, I got straight A's last semester! Shall we look for a repeat performance? Maybe... just maybe.

In Translation

Well, you could copy and paste in google translator and mostly make sense out of my previous post. Or, I'll just translate. It really isn't exciting. It was just me rambling during class.

Look! I can write in characters on a computer!

I really like Chinese class, but we have a lot of homework. Today my Chinese class went to a Chinese restaurant to eat. Awesome!

I love you all! But I am very busy so I need to get back to class.

My Chinese name, Bai Qui Yuan

Sorry if I annoyed you. I just wanted to play with my new toy.

I got to teach Kindergarten and 4th grade today! It was lots of fun! I'm drowning in homework though, so I better get to it! have a wonderful day!

CHINESE!

Look I just got taught how to type characters on a computer!!! Here's my post for the day!

你們看吧！我可以寫在電鬧！

我很喜歡中文課。 可是我有很多功課。 今天我的中文課去中國飯館吃飯。 太幫了！

我愛你們！但是我很忙。 所以我得上課。

白秋媛

No more english for me!

It's my birthday!

Well, Clayton has required me to blog before we can go and get lunch and I am STARVING!!!! So, begrudgingly, I'll write this post. (I thought you got to do whatever you want on your birthday!)

Well, this morning Clayton woke me up at 3:30 in the morning to tell me what my birthday present was. (He might claim that he woke me up because I was having super crazy awful dreams where people were chasing me because they thought that I had murdered somebody and I was chasing the murderer because it wasn't my fault, but we all know that 21-year-olds don't have to be woken up to escape a nightmare).

In case you're wondering, he bought me tickets to go see a play "3 Musketeers" up in Salt Lake in a couple weeks. Yay! A real date! To be honest I don't mind our grab dinner out then watch psych or chuck at home dates, but I'm not complaining about this one either. Maybe I'll get to dress up in my new clothes... With sneakers of course -- no need to make my feet uncomfortable for the sake of matching my shirt.

After staying up for 10 minutes because I was too excited to fall asleep again (or because I wanted to make sure the dream would stay away -- take your pick), I fell back asleep until I had to get up at 6 am to get to my 6:30 meeting. They said they'd feed me a good breakfast -- and they fed us doughnuts. YUCK! I really don't like BYU's doughnuts. I like krispy kremes but byu's doughnuts leave this terrible taste in your mouth. Then I went home and pouted about the doughnuts that I didn't eat or bring home to Clayton because they're GROSS and got back in bed. :-) Got up at 9:15 (Happy birthday to me!)and ate a grape fruit and raisin bran. Then went and ran 3 miles (I did the first two miles in 16:07 -- my new record!) and did some weights, stretching, etc. Next, I went to Chinese and did a skit my group prepared. Everyone loved ours the best because it included a prince, princess, evil man, and magical cabbage. What is better than that?

Now I'm at the library typing a blog so that Clayton will feed me. The end!

P.S. As an addendum, I know I'm wacko for spending my day working out and eating grapefruit and raising bran, but I figured your birthday should be the day you feel the best on -- and I feel crappy when I eat crappy kinds of food. That's my goal lately -- to figure out what feels good. Still working on that one...

Can you believe it?

I have to make a new blog for my technology class. I just have blogs coming out my ears! Oh well. I will make the best of it. Now I have to learn how to do things like add pictures, links, and videos to my blog. Yuck! Is there an instruction pamphlet in the library for blogger.com?

Technology sometimes just boggles my mind. For instance, last Wednesday I tried to sharpen my pencils with our battery powered pencil sharpener. I pushed and pushed and it made sharpening noises, but the pencils weren't getting any sharper. Yesterday, I complain to Clayton and he picks up my pencils and the sharpener and sticks them each in, pulling them out sharp as can be. How come I can't do that? I've got to learn his technique.

Anyway, in summary, I am procrastinating learning how to blog because I don't like constructive exploration style learning. I like handbooks.