Graduation

My wonderful, obliging husband kindly let me convince him into doing a pre-graduation photo shoot so we don't have to compete with hordes of people on the big day. Between him and Andrew, we got 160 pictures in an hour. We definitely got some good ones! Now we just need some with everyone that comes for the big day(s)!

The one time I got a burn that looked like a handprint

I woke up during the middle of the night Sunday because my leg was really hot and uncomfortable. It seemed like a bad sunburn right behind my knee. I ignored it and went back to sleep.

Work on Monday was normal. I remember showing a co-worker my leg and saying how I didn't understand how it could be so burned in JUST THAT ONE AREA.

Monday night, I noticed a few blisters forming. Put some after-sun lotion on it, still thinking it was a sunburn. Went to dinner. Noticed TONS of blisters all over the back of my knee -- not the clear kind you get from new shoes. These were some clear, some yellowish.

Made a genius move and went and ran 5 miles. I didn't really notice the pain/anything while running. But, man, it hurt afterwards.

Tuesday morning, woke up. It is still SUPER red. And covered in blisters that make me want to cry every time I bend my leg. Needless to say, I didn't make it to work. David gave me benadryl and I think I slept for 6 or 7 hours? I don't know really.

Wednesday, it's better. Still really bad. All the girls at my work have NO idea what it is.
So I go see one of my doctors on Thursday. She says it looks like a chemical burn. What throws everyone off is that it looks almost like a handprint with fingermarks.
Seriously, I'm still confused. I can't think of anywhere that I sat, or things I might have touched that would cause this.
I'm on a course of steroids (oh, roid rage, you are a pain) and a crazy antibiotic but it is still going away so slowly.

Today, Monday, makes it a week since I noticed anything. And I just barely got all the scabs from blisters to start coming off.

Anyone else have a weird, creepy handprint on the back of their legs that burns?
I'm thinking of starting a club. Victims only, though I should probably stop playing that role. I can walk, I'm not dead..... Yet.

(Sorry for the gross pictures. The white-ish one is from Wednesday. The other one from Saturday.)

Easter

These are the only 2 pictures I have on my phone.

We had so much fun seeing family this past weekend. We had half of the siblings here, my parents, and all of my nephews and niece. It was so great.
I didn't have to work at all while they were here. (Now I'm spoiled and don't want to work anymore haha). We did so much that time went by so fast!

Bean museum
Dinosaur museum
Bowling at BYU
BYU bookstore
Dinner at Goodwood
Lots of playing
Shopping
Ice cream
Dinner at La Jolla
War Horse
Diegos
Playing at the park
Easter egg hunt
Lamb of God performance
Charlee's baby blessing
Little Gus!

It was sad to say goodbye and not know when I'm going to see them next. Hopefully soon!
And hopefully I post my other, way better pictures soon :)

The infamous cake.....

Story time:
I thought I would prove how awesome of a wife I am and surprise David with a red velvet golf ball cake.

I had two half sphere cake pans. And the directions said I would need 4 and 1/2 cups of batter. So of course I fill EACH half-sphere with that amount. Genius, I know.

Put them both in the oven, set the timer, walk away. Easy Peasy.

Until I walk through the kitchen and see a pillar of smoke coming up through the vent opening in the stove. Not a wisp, a full, Thick stream of smoke.

Next genius move: don't bother to close the bedroom door, and just open the oven instead. Let all the smoke in the house. See that the pans are over-flowing. LEAVE them there and just try to scrape up what spilled. I guess I just figured I filled it a little too full and the spilling was a one-time thing. WRONG.

Just repeat the above paragraph three or four times.

It was really bad. I finally gave up, turned off the oven, and went to pick David up. I reeked. Our house had a nice film of smoke by the ceiling despite.

After a grocery store run where we proceeded to buy $10 worth of odor eliminating sprays, and lots of open doors, and containers of baking soda, the smell was gone.

But the story will never be forgotten. Even if I want it to be, David won't let me. :)

Round two was a success though.

Grey/Yellow

Posting this from my phone, hope this works.

LOVED making this blanket. My days are boring now that I don't have this wonderful thing to occupy my time.

And who can resist a mini bear hat?
I submit that all girls will think anything mini is cute.

Cameras

So we are looking into getting a new camera - a DSLR one. Does anyone have a camera they LOVE or any advice on getting one?

All tips are welcomed :)

24

After searching for an appropriate "24th birthday picture" and not finding one I liked, I searched "24" to see what came up.

And this was one of the first images. 

via

This cracks me up because this definitely is not how I feel.

As intimidating as this next year wants to be with the changes coming up in our lives, (graduation, moving hundreds of miles away for the summer, not knowing where we will actually be in 6 months, etc) it is not how I feel I think about everything.

I am excited for our adventures, and yet still trying to savor these last 2 months we have in Provo.

It's hard to convince time to stand still, but there are wonderful things that happen day-to-day at our house that I want to remember before life changes too much.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be where I am right now.

 It's not anywhere close to where my naive, 16-year old self thought I would be. 

It's even better.

I'm happier now than I ever dreamed I would be.

I'm even more excited for what 24 will bring.

Sparks

via

Sometimes I get a glimmer of an idea that escapes me just as I'm reaching out to grasp it and let it grow.

Like a dress waiting to be created.

Some fabulous way to redecorate the apartment.

The blanket pattern waiting to be drawn out.

A design for a blog that needs a facelift.

And then the phone rings or the door opens and that glimmer is gone.

I wish I could have a lot of these sparks of ideas back.

And I need to figure out how to move them from my head to reality.

I have a feeling lots of good things could happen if I could just figure out how.

What I've Learned

So far in my attempt to train for this half-marathon, here's what I've figured out.

You make the time if you really want it.

It is still hard to get myself to do it every day - even when I know I'll be glad I did.

I don't love it yet. Maybe someday.

It's far from 7 or 8 minute miles. 

It's not even 10 minute miles. 

From Day ONE I felt healthier.

(I think this goes for any exercising.)

Days 2, 3, 4, and 5 - it was really hard to get going.

I want to run more - endorphins are teeny bit addicting.

I can run for longer periods of time now. 

I still have absolutely zero mental willpower.

 I sleep better.

 I eat better.

I'm happier.

I guess maybe I'll keep going.

tumbler...

Chinese Jiaozi --- aka Potstickers!

*After Will asked about making potstickers, I started craving them so badly. So I made them the next day!

 I tried to take pictures of every step (with my not-so-good iphone camera); this might be a long post.

 I had to run to the store to get ground pork, soy sauce, wrappers and cabbage (already had green onions).  [**This recipe makes a lot - more info at the bottom!]

round potsticker wrappers - found in the produce section by the tofu/salads (this one came with 60)

ground pork - you can do ground beef, but it is almost always pork; this is about 1 lb.

a head of cabbage

soy sauce

not pictured -- garlic (minced), salt, brown sugar

First, chop up the cabbage. You want it really, really finely chopped. I got smart and remembered I own a food processor, but using a knife works too. You just keep chopping until it is pretty small.

Put it in a bowl and pour salt over it until it is coated - this draws the water out of the cabbage. Mix it in well. If you think you didn't put enough, mix more in.. I probably ended up doing at least 1 tablespoon, probably more like 1.5 - 2. 

 Let it sit for at least 10 minutes (we try to do more like 30). Basically, the longer you wait, the more water comes out.

After you're done waiting, you start squeezing the water out of the cabbage - meaning you pick up a handful of cabbage and squeeze really hard. I usually have another bowl to put my squeezed cabbage in.   

You'll be surprised at how much water you can get out.

This is how much water I had left after I couldn't get anymore good handfuls of cabbage to squeeze.

That's what my squeezed cabbage looks like.

You squeeze the water out of the cabbage because you will just be adding more liquid to the cabbage later (ie. soy sauce). More liquid in the potsticker means more of a chance to break open when you cook it. Plus, it gets way more flavor this way.

Then you start adding all your other ingredients. 

Here's what I put in (you can customize it however you want!)

 2 cloves of garlic

2 green onions

1/2 c brown sugar (you add more later...)

ground pork

soy sauce (I started with a few shakes but you add more later too.)

This is the part where you stick your hands in the whole mixture and squish it together.

Then you add more brown sugar and soy sauce -- this picture doesn't  quite show it, but you want it to be a dark red/brown color. 

(I tried to keep an eye on how much I used and it was close to about 3/4-1 c of brown sugar, and  about1/3-1/2 c of soy sauce.)

Now comes the bao-ing part!
[Bao in chinese means to wrap - so you bao these, but you can also bao(hug) a person!]

You will need a bowl/cup of water to dip your fingers in, a spoon, and a plate.

First, you take one of your wraps and put a small almost-spoonful of the meat mixture on it.

(I actually like to do this all in my hand, not on the plate. But do whatever is comfortable!)

Here's a picture of my spoonful.

(The more you put in, the trickier it gets to bao it. Start small so you can get the hang of it at first.)

Next, dip your finger in the water and wet the rim of the whole circle.

This picture is without the meat, so you can see what I mean. 

(The meat would be right in the middle of the wrap.)

Don't soak it; you just want it wet.

Now you fold it up the middle and pinch it closed. 

This is the way to bow the sides and create that curved shape.

You already pinched the middle, so each side should look like this:

Now it looks like you can kind of push the middle up and closedthe sides to create almost a T or a Y shape fold.

You aren't going to do that, but you do fold one side closed.

Here is what it should look like:

Logically, you just close both sides and use the T/Y shape fold, but it doesn't create that nice arc/bowing shape.

Instead, push the little circle towards the rest of the wrap like this:

(Sometimes it is easier for me to use two fingers.)

This is what it looks like when you've pushed it down all the way:

Then you do the same thing on the other end of the potsticker - try to keep the folded-in parts on the same side.

It should look like this:

(the other side should be flat)

Does this make sense? PLEASE let me know if it doesn't. I can try to explain it better or take better pictures.

On to the cooking part!
This part might sound a little weird, but this is the way we've had the least amount of breakage during cooking.

Bring a pot of water to a boil (first time). Once boiling, add a good amount of the potstickers (one website says to add 1.5 times the bottom of the pan. We did about 10-15 each time in our pot.).

Let it come back to a boil (2nd time), then add 1 cup of cold water.

Once it comes back to a boil for the THIRD time, you can take them out (a slotted spoon works great!).

We put ours on a plate to cool -- try not to let them touch each other.
They tend to get sticky.

You can be done here if you want!

 Some restaurants have boiled OR fried potstickers. We like to do both. We found that boiling cooks them faster and it is easier, then we just fry the side to get it crispy. 

Enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. 

PUT IT ON MEDIUM - it cooks slower, but it won't burn as much.

Then put them in the pan with the flattest side down -- usually the side that does not have the folds.

Traditionally, restaurants only fry one side - we found that is easiest for us to do too.

Fry them until they are a golden-ish brown.

This one is maybe just  a little too golden, but you get the idea...

There are tons of options for dipping sauces kicking around the internet. If you made the tiny spicy chicken sauce, that is a good option too!

Or I'll just pop them in my mouth without dipping. 

There is enough flavor inside, you don't need to if you don't want to.

A little extra info:
1. This recipe makes A LOT! We only make about half of our mixture and we freeze the rest. Just put it in a ziploc. The wrappers freeze too. This is nice because the next time you want them, you just defrost it and bao them. None of the mixing/chopping/squeezing nonsense. :)

2. You really can put in whatever you want  -- some people just do ground pork and soy sauce and sugar. Or skip the garlic and onions if you want... It is really up to you!

3. It is better not to stuff the wrappers when you are bao-ing. They will be more likely to burst open while boiling. You want to be able to close them fairly easily.

Also, a random story: David said sometimes on his mission making these would be their P-day activity. They would go over to a member's house and make tons of these and then have them for dinner. He said sometimes they would end up eating like 45 each. That is A LOT. We made 30 last night and it took 5 of us to eat them.

But seriously, any questions? 

If you want to make them with me, let me know! I have all the stuff in my freezer!