{11-28-10}

It snowed today. Which, by the way, is very strange.

We usually don't get snow until February or March. WEIRD. I'm not a big fan of being cold. I like snow, I just don't like the cold. So I watch the snow fall from the warmth of my house.

IT'S SO COLD. Well, in my terms it's cold. I even had to get out my mukluks.

Mmm... warmth.

I feel another dessert making coming on.

BUT. Before that, I must say:

THIS SEASON OF MERLIN IS SO AWESOME.

Merlin is more mature, the plot thickens, and things become even more awesome. The only thing is, the next season won't come back until NEXT SEPTEMBER. That's what happened last year. I had to wait a painful almost 10 months. It's agony I tell you. But, I will wait patiently.

I am on book 9 of my 11 book series. Well, I just finished book 9, I am awaiting book 10. THEY ARE SO GOOD.

I am craving chocolate. Really bad.

May the force be with you.

I am thankful.

I am thankful for...

My family

 

Jesus Christ

Dancing

Learning,

Books

Nature

My faith

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Light

Cinnamon rolls

Warmth

School Spirit

Colors

Laughter

Smiles

Disney

Friends

Music

Chills caused by beautiful things

Love songs

Fabric

Socks

EVERYTHING!

Happy Thanksgiving!

When the light shines through my Sobe drink...

I was talking to my sister about pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin cinnamon rolls today. I was dead set on making the cinnamon rolls. The thing is, I didn't have the patience and some of the ingredients. So, I changed my course and decided to make Braided Bread (found on a blog called Made). I added my own little flair into it and it came out SO DELICIOUS I WAS SURPRISED THAT I HAD MADE SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CREATION.

So I made Braided Bread while guzzling down my strawberry banana Sobe drink.

I have never made bread before so this was all quite new to me. BUT, I did it all by my lonesome with no help at all. Yes, Dad, I can bake.

(In your face pictures because this is a beautiful creation and it deserves to be seen.)

I'm not one of those people that puts recipes on my blog. Takes too much time. So I'll just provide commentary.

I mashed, mixed, minced, whatever-ed all the ingredients together until I had some dough. Then I kneaded it in this machine (I happen to have a Kitchen Aid somewhere that actually belongs to mwah, I just have no idea where it is. So I'm using my mom's Bosch thingy).

I then slapped it onto this rustic looking pan. I waited an HOUR for it to rise. I don't like waiting for delicious food, so I passed the time by watching Oprah give away cars to her audience as a Christmas gift. I also read my book and neglected to clean my room.

Then I did this wonderful thing. I had the option of just having plain 'ol bread, or having cinnamon in it. Being the person I am, I added cinnamon AND raisins into it. Yes, I like raisins.

Then I rolled it up into a serpent looking coil.

SO DELICIOUS.

And then I braided it. I was considering trying out my french braiding skills, but unfortunately that is quite impossible when braiding dough. So I just stuck with the basic braid.  Then I let it raise for ANOTHER hour (*sigh*). This time I watched Dancing With the Stars and did my Drivers ED homework.

Then I smeared it with whisked egg and water. I added the leftover cinnamon for an artistic touch.

AND THEN I BAKED IT.

It filled the house with delicious and wondrous smells that I doubt anyone would capture in a perfume bottle. Ah...

Behold. 

My Masterpiece.

I have a tendency to go into lapses of making delicious foods.

One time I made calzones.

They were magnificent.

I have no idea what is going on with my face... or my hair. How 'bout you just look at the wondrous food and not my face.

Anyway, I like good desserts, and food.

Don't worry Dad, I won't let my future family starve.

 When I took my masterpiece out of the oven, Hattie followed me around, begging at my feet so she could have some. Just kidding, she just danced around.

By the way, the sister who I was talking to about delicious foods was MARIA.

MAYRIA

RIA

MARIA TORTILLA

IPSY (or were you the other one...)

MARIA.

Maria is pregnant. She has two weeks left and I am anxious to see her little baby! It is so weird to think that she will be a mom in a short while... so weird. It seems like just yesterday we were roaming around the Ross near Grandma Murset's house trying on weird shoes and taking pictures like this:

WHOA.

Now you're married and pregnant and crafty and gorgeous and married and pregnant, etc.

WEIRD.

Which now leaves me to be the last one in my family to not be married. This also means that I am the only one of Grandma Murset's grandkids who is not married. Jeez people, slow down and let me be a teenager!

A teenager who, by the way, is the best Auntie in the world.

Christmas music keeps getting stuck in my head.

So that must mean that Christmas is near! I have Maria and Shay (and their baby which will be here by Christmas!) this year, and I have absolutely no idea what to get them. NO IDEA. I guess I should ask them if I want to figure that stuff out.

It is freezing outside! Well, freezing in my perspective. I have a love/hate relationship with winter. I hate the cold, but it means Christmas and lovely warmth inside! I just realized that I have love/hate relationships with a lot of things.

Meanwhile, during fall, I have almost no flowers to take pictures of. Just leaves. And there are almost no pretty leaves here! 

*Sigh*

I did find one cool leaf.

I'm sure you will all be happy to know that I made yet ANOTHER thing in ceramics. 

So...

My latest creation

Pretty awesome, right? I think so. I took this over to my bishop's school (he teaches art there) and he glazed this and fired it for me. They call it a "raku" firing when it turns all metallic like that. When it was finished and I got to see it, I started singing hallelujahs in my head because it was so awesome.

 Hallelujah!

Look at my cool socks

My mom got them for me last year after the Nutcracker. Yup, they're pretty awesome.

The Nutcracker is going well. I'm sure you already knew that because I tell you in almost every one of my posts. Drivers ED is also going well. Although it's boring, I'm still learning stuff.

Nutcracker, Nutcracker, Nutcracker. I have a break from it this week! Thanksgiving and all.

Mmmm... I smell cookies.

Poo.

I hereby declare Juan Diego, a swear word.

(No disrespect intended, I just really don't like them. Losing the state championship three times in a row to the same team just SUCKS.)

We love you Hurricane Tigers!

Why the long face?

Because I can't seem to decide on a background for my blog. Have you noticed how it changes almost everyday? BLLAAAAAHHH. I don't think any background will be good enough.

Meanwhile...

Tomorrow our Hurricane Tiger Football team goes to state! For the third time. Third time's the charm! You see, the past two years that we've gone to state, we've played Juan Diego. And both times we have been winning until the last second and they make a winning point. It was heartbreaking for all of us the second time. So guess who we're playing this year! Yup, you guessed it, Juan Diego. We are all pretty confident that we will win this year, but if we don't, we will pick ourselves right back up and try again!

The video below inspired us to do the same thing as the football players came down the hallway to load onto the busses heading for state. It was quite awesome and exciting. We even released red and black balloons into the sky as they left!

WE BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!

GO TIGERS! TAKE STATE!

Hurricane (and myself) have a lot of school spirit if you can't tell. That's what happens when you live in a small town where EVERYONE goes to school football games.

Ugh.

For the past week and a half I have gone from having a stuffy nose, to coughing, to another bout of stuffy nose-ness, to, wait for it... strep throat. Sigh............ I've had strep throat before and I don't remember it being this bad. It was way bad yesterday. I had a fever of over 101 degrees, I ached all over, and my throat was swollen. GRR!

Ouch. I knew I was sick because of one thing that has never, in my life, happened when I have been sick. I HAD NO STRENGTH TO READ. Gasp! It's true. I have never felt so helpless in my life. Having no strength to read a book was like a real, hard core, freaking out sort of feeling. So we went down to Insta-care and sure enough, I have strep. I am quite relieved, because today, I have the strength to read! And my fever is gone.  So, at the moment, I am watching Chuck and drinking Cranberry Grapfruit Sobe. The fact is, I don't like either of those fruits. But I'm drinking it just to get rid of it.

Hurricane has such dry air. I want it to rain, right now!

It smells like popcorn. Not the rain, the house.

P.S. I only do big-in-your-face pictures on special occasions.

SO MANY POSTS.

I'm doing one post after another so quickly that it's making my head spin! Oh well, I'll just have to deal with it.

 I switched to the new and improved post editing thing; therefore, (hey look, I used a semicolon.) you now get to see all my pictures at a huge level. I can just imagine myself saying: BAHAHA! Now I get to  have my pictures all up in your faces!  Actually, that's what I was just thinking.

Anyway. Nutcracker rehearsals are getting more and more tiring. Now we are putting all the dances together into Act 1 and Act 2. It's chaos. So now, for the next 5 Fridays and Saturdays, we get to deal with THIS:

Little kids galore! Then, when they sit us down to have a big long discussion about how the smaller kids need to be quiet and stop running around. *Sigh*

BUT. I shall put on a cheesy grin and bear it.

Now you all know every detail of my face due to the extra large pictures! Mwahaha! I love it! But then again, you can see the circles under my eyes... on a larger scale! (I'm sure you are tired of hearing my enthusiasm for huge pictures.)

After Nutcracker, we will start working on our Défilé dances. I am so excited for this years pointe dance! My dance teacher said that it will hopefully be something like this:

The plan is that it's going to be more of a lyrical piece. I'm way excited.

I got new pointe shoes today. My old ones are getting worn out. I have found that Russian Pointes fit me very well. The pointe shoe lady at Dance Magic was dumbfounded when the first pair I tried on fit! That's what happened when I got my last pair of Russians. They are very nice, even though they take forever to break in! I also got some new flats. I am happy because they show off my arch quite nicely. I am going to use them in Arabian.

I let Veronica try on my pointe shoes last night. You can go see what she says about it at her new blog: Veronica

I think it would be so cool to have someone draw me dancing. These pictures are so well done and pretty.

People come to see beauty, and I dance to give it to

 

them.

 

-Judith Jamison-

{11-12-10}

This picture is amazing.

People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.  ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

I have an obsession with light... and with dark. I love both of them. If it's going to be dark, it has to be a warm kind of dark. If it's going to be light, it has to be a sparkling, clear sort of light.

Light, light, light.

Dark, dark, dark.

Both are my element, which I like.

I know this is sort of a random post, but I found this picture and just had to write about it.

I love the color and how there is light and darkness in it. She is looking forward to what seems to me to be a new day. Her hair is flowing all around her showing her free spirit. She has a strong look about her, making it seem like she's not afraid to be herself.

Although it doesn't look like me, it seems like me. At least it's what I hope to be and strive to be.

I'm reading an 11 book series. The books are all about overcoming evil and slavery and learning to live life. One of the main characters said something that really stuck out to me.

"Your life is yours and yours alone. Rise up and live it."

-Richard Rahl