B and Me

          My goodness, where do I even start when talking about B? She is such an example to me. I have learned so much from her. She is a light in my life. She is a testimony builder. She is so kind and sweet to EVERYONE. We had many late night pow-wows while sewing the guy's quilts together. As I had mentioned in another post, we walked to the temple. That day was so much fun. We laugh hard.
          We first hit it off when K and J left to go to a One Direction concert in Arizona. We listened to "I'd Eat it Anyway" from the Imagination Movers. We are crazy but it's okay because it's fun. Another time we really bonded was when we almost pulled an all-nighter and then at 4 am we realized that we forgot to check the mail that day. We were expecting a package (Z's Christmas present) We tracked it online and ran out to the mailbox, IT WAS THERE!! We were jumping up and down and we wanted to (and I think we did) wake up K to see them. We were so excited that we even wrapped them that night.
          She is a fantastic listener and she is patient. Most of the time I feel like I talk too much but when I talk to her, she genuinely cares. She cares about what's important to you and remembers them.
          She loves to sew. I just wanted someone who liked similar things and there she was. She also loves to bake. She loves making cupcakes and I love eating them, but she mainly makes them to give away because she is just that kind.
          She and I were the ones that Z took to the temple the most. She got me going to every fireside and she also got me going to Friday Forum every week.
          She is a very special person. I love her so much.

My Adventures with K

          I can't even express how much I love this girl! This is she and I when we went to "find snow" one weekend. We found a deer leg on the ground, maybe a little too much information. We laughed at the thought that we could take it back to the apartments and knock on people's door with it or when we put our arm around someone's shoulder, the leg would be on their shoulder too. Gosh, we are mental! She didn't want it anywhere near her truck. We also had fun finding trails.
          She is my sister from another mister. We do late night pow-wows (talks), series marathons (supernatural!), and we in turn groan when one of us says, "I've GOT to clean my side of the room today...". One of the first ice breakers that brought us closer was planning our roommate J's surprise One Direction party. It was real late and we were laying in our beds and all the sudden 5 minutes later we were jumping on the edge of our beds, excited to have plans.
          We tease her that she has a "goober-face", then a "sassy-face". She is sooo much fun. There was one time when we played the game "Curses" and one of the cards told her that..."You are a leprechan, whenever someone touches you, you must tell them 'You're always after me lucky charms'." Then another curse told her that in addition to doing that, she must now talk like Elmer Fudd! Now is sounded like, "Yo aways aftew me yucky chawms!" It was so much fun. She is a team player. I was really lucky to room with her.
          Another time we focused on learning more details of each other because J was planning a roommate game show. If you didn't get the answer right about your roommate, you'd get a cupcake in the face. (It didn't actually happen, but we practiced) "What's your favorite book?" (Shackles of Honor) "Who was your first crush?" (I won't say :) ) Ha Ha....I still remember the answers as if we just did this the other night.
          If that's not crazy enough, we also memorized the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. We played the air guitar, air piano, any other air instrument, spun around like ballerinas, and knew how to rock it. Anytime the song came on, we each knew our part. We were going to have a crew lip-sync competition but that unfortunately never happened. I was also very surprised that she liked oldies music. I didn't think anyone else knew the songs I listened to. It was especially fun when we would rock to oldies while cleaning our room together which just about happened daily.
        I love this girl to death! She is incredible.

Failed attempt to get to the "M"

In another post I mentioned that R, Z, B, and I hiked to the "S". We wanted to also hike to the "M". It was rough finding the right roads to get closest to it and even when we did, we would have had to cross through people's backyards. It was a no go. We finally ditched the idea and went up the canyon a little bit and hiked around. We found another really cool boulder but only R climbed it. We saw some pretty cool views and luckily we got a picture. (That's a Frisbee disk around my neck FYI)

(Z, me, R, and B)

Temple Trek

So like I had previously mentioned in another post, B and Z and I made it a priority to get to the temple at least once a week. We three were the original temple-goers. It was really fun when we went twice a week. There was a brief period when the Manti temple was closed for cleaning and so we had to figure another way to go. So Z was nice and offered to take B and I and whoever else wanted to come to drive up to the Provo temple so we could still make our goal. We had to go to Provo two or three times before we could come back to the Manti. Towards the end of school, R and J came with us more. This was a picture that Z and I took one of the times we went.

More pictures from the park

These pictures next are of another time at another park. We came back from Mt. Pleasant and driving by, there was a cool looking park. They had a fun jungle-gym.

Relief Society Bonfire

Our ward relief society put together a bonfire testimony meeting. It was pretty fun and the fire was really a bonfire but not a lot of girls showed up. We mingled mainly with the bishopric and had smores. Due to daylight savings, it wasn't dark when we started the fire and by the time it ended, it still wasn't dark. It ended up being only a mingle with no testimonies shared. It was still fun though. I got back from the bonfire and Z helped me make this "Ramen-Donut" that I saw the idea for on Facebook, it was a total fail.  It was a fun night though.

Temple Service Project

The institute was holding a temple service project and everyone car-pooled over to the temple. R and I went, the others had other obligations. It was snowing and so some people helped in the greenhouse while others like me and my next door neighbor M, helped clean the gutters outside. Such a beautiful day to be at the temple.

Quilts for the Men

During Christmas break, B and I decided that we wanted to do something super special for our guy friends. They mean the world to us. We wouldn't be the same without each one of them. They are our family, our older brothers and really great examples. They have all served LDS missions and they are gentleman. B and I love to sew and so we decided to make them quilts. We went to D.I. and I dove into my mom's stash and got a whole bunch of dress shirts. They are all made out of men's shirts and they have flannel backings because we wanted them to be really soft. We also decided to just tie them instead of quilt them. Each quilt reflects their personalities and they are their favorite colors. They were so neat to make because we got attached to them quickly and whenever you serve someone, you realize how much more you love that person. They took us a whole semester. I also embroidered labels to go on every one of them. This is a picture of them the night that we gave them away and the other is of the quilt label. I practically had the quote memorizes after having done it 3 times. It was VERY worth it. We are so happy that they liked them. They are holding them, with them being folded. They are folded twice. They aren't just that small.

(This is R's when we laid it out to figure out the pattern)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

At college I had a neighbor who ALWAYS made the best chocolate chip cookies. They were so soft and of course it's best when it's milk chocolate. I tried getting a hold of her the other day and she told me that the recipe was on her board on Pinterest. I couldn't find her on Pinterest. She said she just randomly found it and started making them that way ever since. Challenge accepted. Since I couldn't find her, I found a recipe instead. If you search for "chocolate chip cookies" there are millions of results. I now narrowed it down to the first 100 I saw and how good they looked based on the picture. I created a "Must do in 2015!" board and pinned it. I tried it for the first time yesterday and I want to make them again because they are already almost gone. I have to remember this recipe. My past cookie making hasn't been the best due to the fact that when they come out of the oven, the chocolate chips have turned into mountains while the rest of the cookie is either sunken in or still gooey all over the tray. No good. So here is the recipe I made. I also don't take credit in these pictures. They are from the website here. Now you can see why the pictures enticed me.

My Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. If your butter was still hot when you added it your dough may be really wet at this point. Let it rest at room temperature for a couple of minutes if this is the case and then it will be cool enough to scoop into cookies.
4. Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull apart into two equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet (Or just put a dang ball of dough on the cookie sheet and roll it taller than wider!). Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes). Do not overbake.
5. Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

My only note is that I just rolled them in balls and didn't try to attempt step #4. I also didn't turn the pan halfway through baking. 

Heber Railroad

The beginning of spring break was super fun. My family wanted to ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. The night we decided to go they were having a special Irish ride to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Nearly everyone was wearing green. Dad let me invite Z and he was able to make it. For dinner, Dad packed everyone a sack lunch. On the train we had dance off's and a sing along. They passed around a microphone and it got to Z and he wanted no part but was a good sport and sang along anyway. He was also a little camera shy as well. My Aunt, Uncle, and cousins also joined us for the ride. Z and I made fun of the speed of the train because they said that it only moved 5 mph. It sure felt like it. It was a great night.

Narnia

We decided to go find snow in the mountains. We had so much fun up there. We went multiple times. Once with R, once with Z, and once just K and I. We had a snowball fight with R. I scared Z by walking on a frozen pond. K and I found trails and a deer arm (another story for another time). It was so beautiful. We named it Narnia because it's like you stepped into a winter wonderland like Lucy did. Two other times we passed "Old Betty's house". We told scary stories one time and the scariest name Z could come up with was Betty and we all had a good long laugh. Then we found a small storage shack and said that it must be her house. We played Frisbee a couple times near "her house". As Z would always say, "good times were had". Hahaha. :)

Out to General Conference

Z invited me to see General Conference live. It was a week after the color fest. I got a new dress for Easter. We also walked around temple square and then we went to B's house and had her Mom's famous cinnamon rolls. They are really good. B and I sat at the table talking while Z and B's Mom talked about their mission in Columbia. Z was very happy to talk with someone who had experienced the same as he had. She brought out a big box of souvenirs and he was super excited.

Color Festival

Unfortunately this is the only picture I could find of the color fest. I really thought we had taken more. It was so much fun. We had B, her sister, her two new neighbors, Z, and me. We first met at Z's house and then we took back roads to get there. It was so much fun. Z loved the live band that was playing and knew the people in it. It was such a fun day. I think it was fun but I think that the people around you and the people that you bring really make the experience. Most of the time we looked for B's neighbors that we lost right from the beginning. That evening I attended the LDS women's broadcast. Luckily, all the color came off. Z also attended a mission reunion that night. I was so exhausted when I got home but well worth it.

The First of the Goodbyes

 

This day was hard. Z was the first one of the crew to leave. He decided to break off our relationship before he left. We mutually agreed that we probably won't see each other much (sadly, if at all) during the summer and then after the summer was over we still wouldn't see each other since we will be going to two different schools. It was my first relationship. I am so relieved though that we are still friends. It was hard. Sure it hurt for a little bit but I think that's normal. We had good times. He is a great guy. If he is happy then I am happy. He left and we played Frisbee on the practice field. He left us his Frisbee. It was weird to see him drive away in his car and wonder when the next time I'd see it again would be. I was really okay. With those that were still around, we went to dinner at the Malt Shop. We also drove to a reservoir to eat. I wasn't there for the first picture, I was exploring a nearby hill. 

Fun day at the Park

One Sunday we thought it would be fun to go have a picnic. We found a spot across from the temple grounds. We played Frisbee and football. Then we went over to the temple and walked around there a bit. We also went across the street to a park we'd never been to, but always passed driving by. It was really fun.

A's Institute Graduation

A graduated from institute and I went to support. She loved institute. It was a great program and we took some fun pictures afterwards.

Next year my friend R is on the institute council. We went to the Friday Forum that they announced the new council and I am so excited for him, plus a little jealous. They couldn't have picked a better person for the job though.

Out to Eat

One weekend we had some of Z and C's (Z's roommate) old college friends come and stay the weekend with us. It was really fun and they were super nice. This was also the weekend that R and I went to a swim meet. He did very well and won first place twice. It was fun to watch and he's very good. I didn't try because I am no good at swimming. He was super encouraging though but all I can do is a good dog paddle. We took this picture when we went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant. It was a fun weekend.

Group Pictures

These pictures were taken at the beginning of second semester. We tried to color coordinate but I really love the pictures we took later on better. I think that our personalities show more when we are wearing unplanned clothes.