Sticky Buns and Cupcakes

I made these Caramel-Sticky buns a few weeks back because we were having a few couples over one Sunday evening. They. Were. Delicious. When I was making the caramel, it looked so good that I tried to taste it while it was cooking, which led to a burn on my tongue for quite a while. So, I wouldn’t recommend doing that, if you try the recipe.

I think I might have already posted about this, but since I have the pictures now, I’m going to recap. One night I got the idea to make homemade cupcakes instead of buying one from the Cocoa Bean. I found two recipes on Martha Stewart’s website and thought I could do both at one time.

The first batch’s recipe was called Hi-Hat Cupcakes. They looked quite adorable but mine did NOT turn out like Martha’s. At all. First of all, we don’t have a mixer. I really really need one considering I bake all the time. But it’s one of those things where we don’t really need it, so it’s hard to justify to buy one. Anyway, the icing required stiff peaks (I practically made marshmallows by hand). You have to mix the dang sugar and egg whites for more than ten minutes over the stovetop. And since we don’t have a mixer, I used a whisk. I gave up around minute 12, and that’s why mine looked like this:

Instead of this:

Yeah, completely different. And the chocolate never hardened either. But they still tasted pretty good.

Next was a Chocolate-filled cupcake. They were okay. Nothing to brag about though.

The moral of the story is that we should leave the cupcake baking to the professionals. If you think you can make cupcakes better than Cocoa Bean, you’re wrong. If you actually try it, you’re wasting your time.

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Wildlife around the condo


Last weekend, I opened the blinds and saw this big guy right outside my window. It about scared the daylights of of me. (Sorry for such a poor picture.)

The picture doesn’t do justice, but when I moved in back in April, these quail were brand new baby birds. There must have been 15 or 20 of them. I saw them running around outside the condo together again a few weeks ago! How cute!

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D-Dawg and Carrie

I spent the day with my D-Dawg (Dana, my old roommate) and Carrie (Advertising buddy) a little while ago. We hit Ikea and the Rack, then came home and made sugar cookies with our new wild animal cookie cutters, which are probably the coolest thing I have ever bought.

Unfortunately, we only had neon color icing, and most of the animals like the squirrel and moose are supposed to be brown. So our cookies looked insane. And then, when one of the legs broke off our moose, Dana and Carrie thought it would be funny to make a massacre out of it. I promise I wasn’t a part of this disturbing photograph, however funny it may be.

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Heals

I’ve noticed that when I do my hair and when I wear a cute outfit, I feel better about myself and have a brighter day + attitude. I also have noticed that my heals have been sad and lonely in my closet because they only get to be worn on Sundays.

So, I put two and two together and am trying to dig up the courage and personal stamina to wear heals consecutively for one week. Not just with skirts. Also with my skinny jeans. That’s where the courage is needed. I see girls doing it and sometimes the look amazing. Sometimes they look horrible. I must plan out my outfits very carefully so I don’t fall with the latter.

I’ll let you know how it goes will put the pics on our Byu Style blog.

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Splendid

If you need something to help you procrastinate homework, take a look at this archive from the blog Just be spLendid. It makes my blog look like a joke.

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Skeleton Key pt. 2

Remember how I told you yesterday about the movie Skeleton Key? It has made me so paranoid that I can barely be alone.

I couldn’t take a shower this morning because I was so scared of being by myself. Showers don’t even have anything to do with that movie, that’s how crazy I am.

I may or may not be the biggest baby alive.

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My Mentee (This is a cool story, so you will want to read this one.)

Last year I was a mentor for a sixth grader in Provo. The program director pulled me aside the first day and told me a little bit about her story and how she felt like I should be with her because I had been in the program for a while. Anyway, the girl  came from a really broken home and was constantly getting into trouble. The only thing was, I couldn’t ever believe it because she was the sweetest girl when we spent time together each week. We had fun together and really got to be friends. But then I’d hear from her teachers that she had been in a fist fight or had skipped school. Well, the purpose of the program was just to keep the kid in school and to see what an education can do for you life. So I just tried to be an example for her and show her cool things about being in school.

The semester ended and I couldn’t mentor anymore, so we parted our ways and that was that.

Well, about a month ago I decided to grab some ingredients at Fresh Market late at night because I was having a craving for some italian sausage (weird) and I ran into the girl at the store. She was with two friends and were walking home with lots of groceries at about 11 pm. I said hi and we caught up for a minute. She told me she now does an online-schooling program because she was getting into so much trouble at school. That killed me. I told her to be good and then I left.

When I was in the car I had a really strong prompting to give her a ride home. But I didn’t think it was a good idea because her parents might not be okay with it or something might happen and I could be held accountable. I don’t know, my mind gave me a million reasons not to do it, but I had one reason why I should. I just felt like I needed to.

So I offered her and her friends a ride, they accepted, and when I dropped them off, I gave her my number and told her if she ever needed anything, give me a call.

I hadn’t heard from her. I figured she didn’t keep my number because she’s a middle schooler and probably couldn’t care less about her old mentor.

But last night, I got a call from her. She asked if I could take her to see her mom in the hospital. T.J. and I were watching a scary movie, so it kind of put us in a creepy mood and we weren’t sure if was the best idea, but we said a quick prayer and decided to at least go talk to the girl and hope that the Spirit would let us know somehow.

It seemed like a big inconvenience at the time because we couldn’t find her house. I almost gave up. But we finally found it and got out to talk to her.

Her mom had a stroke the night before and she had just found out. She has no one. Her parents are divorced, I’m not quite sure who she lives with, but her dad wouldn’t take her to see her mom, she’s not a member of the church so she couldn’t just call the Bishop or her Young Women’s leader. For her to call me in this critical time showed me that she literally has no one. She doesn’t have any support at home. She was scared about her mom and wasn’t sure if she was going to make it. It was horrible.

T.J. and I immediately felt that we needed to take her to the hospital because of the seriousness of the situation. I brought her inside the hospital because she looks like a rough kid with lots of piercings and messy clothing (which isn’t that common in Provo). The receptionist told us where it was and so I took her upstairs, through the hospital, and into her mom’s room.

Her mom was awake but was pretty out of it because she was on so much medicine. I introduced myself and then told the girl to meet me in a half an hour in the lobby.

When I picked her back up, she told me her mom would be fine and was getting released today. I asked when she would see her mom next, she didn’t know because she didn’t have anyone who would take her to the other side of town. I asked about her siblings. Her oldest brother doesn’t have anything to do with them and another one of her siblings passed away. So it wasn’t like she even had siblings who could help her out.

The situation was unbelievable to me. She cried as she told me a few stories of when her mom had been sick in the past. Once she found her mom unconsious in the bedroom and she had to call 911 for help. She watched as they took her away, unsure of what would happen. This little girl has gone through so much. No wonder she has so many problems.

There are so many things that make all of this interesting to me. 1-I was originally placed with this girl more than a year ago and the director told me she felt like we should be paired up. 2- I went to the grocery store late and ran into her. 3- I felt like I should give her a ride even though I didn’t think it was a good idea, but I still went through with it. 4- I gave her my number. 6-She literally has no one else in her life who is looking out for her right now, so she had to call me.

I am forever grateful for my life. I was born in a wonderful family with structure and order. Christ was the center of our home and family. I always had people to look up to or to talk to–parents, Bishops, teachers, leaders at church. I was blessed with motivation to be a good student and I learned how to work hard. I also am grateful for the church and the organization it provides. If she was a member of the church, her Bishop would have gotten involved, she could have had a blessing to ease her fears about her sick mother, and she would have had Young Women leaders to take her to visit her mom. The church provides so much comfort, not just through personal revelation but also through the service of the congregation.

I do believe if people aren’t born in such great circumstances, that they can overcome their environment. But I know it takes an extreme amount of personal dedication and direction from outside sources. I know that I am one of those outside sources who is giving this girl a little direction, or at least some hope for her life. Even if our story ends after today when I take her to see her mom again, I know that I was a part of a plan to help this girl in extreme need of love and care. Please say a prayer for her.

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Ice Castles

You better believe I will be visiting these amazing ice castles in Midway this winter. Pretty much the coolest thing I have ever seen. Click on the photograph for more information and more photos!

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Skeleton Key

I can’t handle scary movies. At all. But back up two years, and you might recall that I watched them all the time. In fact, two Octobers ago, I had a free Netflix month where I had 4 movies at a time and so I decided to get scary movie after scary movie. That must have put me over the edge because, ever since then, anything remotely scary haunts me for days and really messes with my head.

Well, The Skeleton Key was on TV the other night. I remember seeing it a while ago, but I couldn’t remember the plot, so I was interested in seeing what would happen. Plus I love Kate Hudson. Of course, T.J. was asleep, so I knew it was bad news to try and watch it myself. So I woke him up (he was just on the couch, so it wasn’t that big of a deal) and had him watch the movie with me.

That was about three days ago. I still cannot stop thinking about it. The ending is driving me crazy and I really can’t believe I didn’t remember it from the first time I saw it.

Last night I had to sing hymns in my head to fall asleep. It is ridiculous.

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Last Semester of Undergrad

Last night I registered for my last semester of classes. Needless to say, it was awesome.

Since I’m a Senior, I finally got to add my classes before everyone else, meaning I got into EVERY class I wanted without ANY struggle.

I’m taking my Advertising capstone class, a Media and Religion class, my advanced English class, SKIING, an Executive Lectures course where executives come in and speak to us, and also a course on the Prophets in our church. It’s going to be an amazing semester, but I still have room for one class… so let me know if you have any suggestions!

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