The One with the Twilight Movie Poster

Chris usually studies for the DAT until 8pm but by then we're too tired to go out and do anything fun. Yesterday he had a bad headache (he's trying to stop drinking Mountain Dew except for on the weekends so I'm convinced it was a caffeine deficiency headache...) and he didn't feel well enough to study. We were both sitting on the couch bored to tears so we decided to be spontaneous and go see a movie. We haven't seen a movie in the theater on a weekday night since...I can't even remember. As we walked into the mall I saw the Twilight movie poster and let out a little scream of excitemet.
So of course I had to take a picture by it. "Only" 183 days to go!

We saw "What Happens In Vegas" and I loved it. I think Ashton Kutcher is hilarious and the chemistry between him and Cameron Diaz was great. We stayed until the very end after the credits were done and luckily there was an extra scene - totally worth it.

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The One with the Inspirational Website

I stumbled across this website the other day and I find it truly inspiring: Lilla Rogers Click on the "artists" tab at the top and you'll be directed to a page featuring 25 talented artists. My favorites are (* means super favorite):
*Elke Ehninger
*Greg Morgan
Jenn Ski
Jessica Allen
Jon Cannell
Lisa DeJohn
*Marco Marella
Matte Stephens
Mike Lowery
Rebecca Bradley
*Susan Farrington
Susy Pilgrim Waters

Some of the artists make collages which remind me of my own art:

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The One with the Cool Lighting

I was looking at Coveiter this morning and came across this super cool lighting unit.



I know we're living in a digital age and slides are pretty much history, but for those of you that do have slides and you want to look at them more frequently, here is an interesting and functional way to display them.

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The One with the 9th Grade Graduation Flashback

Times they are a changin'! It seems like only yesterday I graduated from Evergreen Junior High. I remember that evening well. We took a ferry on the Puget Sound and I remember how the Seattle skyline looked all lit up in the dark.
Eight years later yesterday, my sister graduated from the same school. Style-wise, we were all about the solids and bleach blond hair in 2000 while these girls are into striking patterns, layers and being natural brunettes in 2008.
I feel like I was so much older than Allison is now at the same age - does that make sense? I'm 15 in the picture, and Allie is 15 in her picture, but I still feel like I'm older - which I am, but I shouldn't feel like that when comparing pictures of us at the same age.

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The One with the Fire

As we were walking out of Wal-Mart we noticed this pillar of black smoke and heard a bunch of sirens. Fire! It looked like it was coming from all the apartments behind Wal-Mart. We tried to get closer so I could take pictures for my blog. There were a lot of people and a lot of police so we couldn't really stop, but I did see flames for a second and I think they were coming from a car. By the time we noticed the smoke to the time we drove past the scene, the smoke was almost gone. Way to go Orem Police/Fire Rescue.



We should have taken this fire as an omen because when we got home we realized we had left the oven on for over 6 hours! Is that gonna cost us a lot on our utility bill? Like really, I want to know so I can be prepared. Thank goodness our apartment didn't burn down. Our poor Rachel and Jadis and Chandler and Li'l Chinchilla and finches and fish!

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The One with the Dream House

I drive past this house every morning and I'm in love with it. I love the color, the type of windows and the shingled parts of the roof. It would make the cutest first home. It definitely sticks out compared to the neighboring houses though; it's too nice for Provo (minus the bright colored flags).


I think it belongs in Seaside, Oregon next to these other similar looking houses overlooking a beach:

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The One with the River

One time as I was flying from Denver to Salt Lake City, I took these pictures of a beautiful winding river. Is nature art or does art come from nature?

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The One with Our Niece

This morning our sweet little niece Avery (who is the cutest baby girl in the entire world and I'm so scared that our future kids won't be nearly as cute :) is getting an MRI. She's developed bumps on her back and the doctors are baffled. They've never seen anything like this. I believe the MRI took place early this morning so I will update as soon as I know the results. In the meantime, please say a little prayer in your heart for this cute little baby girl.

ETA: I guess the news is not so good. I don't know the details, but the lumps are one huge tumor and will have to be surgically removed. Poor little girl, she's not even 4 months old. We'll be thinking about and praying for you Avery Ann!

ETA: Andy and Cami have posted their story here.

ETA: Cami was able to go to the neurosurgeon Thursday morning and the tumor is not close to the spine and can "simply" be removed. Yay! That is very good news.

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The One with the DVD Marathon

Picking a movie to watch is so hard. There are too many options. Therefore, I have decided to watch (or rather listen as I work) every single DVD we own from A-Z. I can listen to about 2-4 per day so I've calculated it will take me about 25 weeks to watch them all. I haven't decided if I'll watch the Christmas/holiday related ones. I probably will. The best part about this whole ordeal is watching really old movies and seeing actors before they were big. For example, Rainn Wilson is in America's Sweethearts and Matthew McConaughey is in Angels in the Outfield. (I couldn't find a better picture than this of him in it.)
I'm in the middle of watching Anti Trust and it's my 5th day. Uber fun!

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The One with the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This is the original Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsel Cookies recipe and it's the best in the entire world:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) Land-O-Lakes butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups (11.5-oz. pkg.) Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and pure vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies

Pan cookie variation: Grease 15 x 10" jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes one huge cookie!

For high altitude baking (5200 feet or above, Provo is 4549 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 tsp. water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cups each. Back drop cookies for 8-10 minutes and pan cookie for 17-19 minutes.

Tips from Paige's Kitchen (which isn't saying much...)
- Use Land-O-Lakes or Tillamook butter - it's the best. I like my cookies on the salty side so I get salted butter. Also, let the butter sticks soften naturally, not in the microwave.
- Use pure vanilla extract - it's more expensive but you can taste the difference.
- I like my cookies undercooked so I only bake them for 7-8 minutes.
- Don't over stir. I haven't perfected this technique yet, but I know it changes the cookie formula if the batter is over or under stirred.
- Make sure all your ingredients are fresh.
- Place your cookies in the freezer and enjoy at your leisure. They taste best frozen, maybe with some ice cream sanwiched between two cookies like this:
I'm off to make some cookies as soon as the butter softens! Mmmm.

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The One with the Unnecessary Packaging

When people send their layouts into Scrapbook Trends to be published I used to be the one that opened all the boxes and organized all the layouts. It was like Christmas opening all the packages and admiring the awesomely creative layouts. One time a lady boxed up her layout in such an extremely unnecessary way that I had to write down exactly what she had done:

First, she put her layout in an 8.5 x 11 page protector and taped it shut. (Perfect.)
Then she taped a piece of cardboard to the back so it wouldn't get bent. (Good idea.)
Then she placed it inside a 12 x 12 page protector and taped it shut. (Not really necessary, but whatever.)
Then she wrapped it with bubble wrap and taped it shut real good. (Definitely not necessary.)
Then she slid it into a paper bag. (Why?)
Then she put it inside a FedEx box and taped it shut. (Good idea, but the taping job was a little much.)
Finally, she wrapped the FedEx box with brown paper and taped it shut. (Why did she wrap it?)

Needless to say, it took me about 20 minutes to remove the layout and I was covered with tape. Most people throw their layout in a page protector, shove it in a box and it arrives in mint condition so this made me laugh.

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The One with the Phone Call

I posted a story, but I felt bad so I deleted it.

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