Sew Fun!

My wonderful family gave me a sewing machine for my graduation present, and I've been having a great time making a few things with it. I found out that I really like sewing, especially if I do it while watching some of my favorite movies. Anyway, I thought that I'd just post a few pictures of some of the things that I've made so far.

I made some curtains for our kitchen because the blinds were really gross and because we needed room for our herb garden. They're great because they give the plants enough room to grow and don't fall down every other day (like the blinds did).

This is what they look like at night.

This is what they look like during the day.

My ward has a "sewing club," where a lady in our ward teaches us all sorts of interesting things about sewing (she studied design in college, so she has a lot of helpful tips). I attend now that I have a sewing machine and can practice the things that we learn at home. For the months of November and December, we made advent calendars out of felt and canvas. This is how mine turned out:

The numbers are little pockets to store the advent characters in.

I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

A big thanks to Linnea Hall for designing the calendar, drawing the templates, teaching me how to make it, and helping me cut out the felt pieces.

I also made a tote at one of the sewing club meetings, but I unfortunately don't have a picture of that. Oh well. Next month we're learning how to make ties for little boys and for men, so watch for pictures of the ones I make for Zac.

We're Back!

Well, after a long time, we're back! We haven't actually been away, it's just been a long time since I've updated the blog. Since I get in trouble every Sunday from both sides of the family, I figured it was about time to dust off the ol' keyboard and get back on here. Apologies to everyone for the long absence.

February 2010

Zac and I have about a million different versions of Scrabble, so we have spent some time over the last few months playing the different versions. This particular game (pictured below) took us about two weeks to finish. Needless to say, we didn't play Scrabble again for a few months.

Zac finally got to enjoy his Christmas present this month when we went to the Jazz vs Kings game in Sacramento. Unfortunately, the Jazz lost (how could they?). We had a great time anyway, and we weren't the only Jazz fans there either. Go Jazz!

Later, I had a chance to enjoy my Christmas present when Zac did a class project on glow-in-the-dark roses. I used Photoshop to make some images for his presentation:

Wouldn't it be cool to get a dozen glow-in-the-dark flowers? You could enjoy your gift in the light as well as the dark.

April 2010

For Zac's spring break, we decided to make the long trek to Utah. We had a pretty great time there, and here are some pictures of the things we did:

We ate the top of our wedding cake a little early. The cake part still tasted pretty good, but the frosting didn't keep very well. 

We spent a day at the bowling alley with my sisters.

We're a little silly at times.

Ahhh! We were attacked by a dinosaur! Not really, this was just the entrance to the mini golf area. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't take pictures inside, especially because they had some pretty interesting statues. 

Zac and I hit a dust storm in Nevada. At least we didn't have to stare at the great expanse of nothingness that is Nevada ... instead, we just stared at nothingness.

Our car was attacked by tumbleweeds. They were trying to hitch a ride to California, and some of them actually made it the whole way.

I chopped off part of my hair.

To celebrate our first anniversary, Zac and I went to a PDQ Bach (Peter Schickele) concert. I know that some people have a whole blog post to commemorate their first anniversary, and I had intentions of doing that, but here's the best I could do:

Happy First Anniversary! It's been a great year!

"And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva"

May/June 2010

During the summer, my sisters came to visit me. Andrea came first, and we had a really great time together. I just felt bad that she had to sleep on our couch the whole time she was there. I put together a small slideshow of some of the things that we did for those who are interested. No, it does not include the many episodes of SpongeBob that she made me watch with her. (To watch the slideshow, don't click on the large green "play" button because that will take you to another web page. Instead, click near the bottom of the box and another "play" button will come up, or you can click through the pictures manually.)

Andrea recommended that I read the Hunger Games series, and I actually really enjoyed the first two. When it was my turn to choose the book for my book club, I had everyone read the first book. I wish I had a picture of all the amazing baked goods that everyone brought to the first group, but since I don't, I will just let you know that it all tasted very good. We piled all the food around the "cornucopia" that I made just for the book club (a cornucopia plays a big role in the book).

If you're looking for a good book to read, I would definitely recommend the series, only don't be scared by the plot summary, because the book does seem a little dismal.

July 2010

July was a rough month for our bikes. My bike was stolen, and Zac's bike literally fell apart while he was riding it. Because we use our bikes to get a lot of places, we had to find replacements. We were happy, however, because someone bought Zac's bike off of us for $10 to use for parts. 

My new bike

Zac's old bike; he was sad that he had to get rid of it.

The reason why Zac was sad to give up his bike - Zac was happy to ride a bio-tech bike to school, where he would then study bio-tech.

During the summer, I started volunteering for different studies at UC Davis. I am happy to inform you that I am now a trained cantaloupe taster. The study was testing different ways of ripening cantaloupe so companies could know how to better deliver fruit to stores (there were also similar studies with pears and other fruit). So, if you ever need someone to taste and describe your cantaloupe, I will be happy to do it for you. 

I also get paid to take showers, as I am a natural context expert body wash panelist. A body wash company gave some money to UC Davis to run a panel to test different products and rate them. I was fortunate enough to get a spot on that panel, and as a result, I have free body wash, some of which is pretty interesting, such as the Japanese version of Dove (which totally dries out my skin). I also have about 40 poufs that I have no idea what to do with. Anyway, those are just a few things that I did to fill up my days during the summer. Oh, and they also sent us some funny body wash-based jokes

August 2010

Well, the summer flew by way too fast, and it was finally time for Aimee and Amber to come visit me. Unfortunately, Zac couldn't spend as much time with us because he had to work, but we still had a lot of fun. I made another slideshow of pictures to show a few of the things that we ended up doing. 

Before Aimee and Amber could become sick of us, we drove them home to Utah to see my family and to celebrate my graduation! Yes, folks, I am finally a college graduate! Woohoo! We did some major celebrating while I was there. Here is yet another slideshow for your viewing pleasure:

If you were wondering why Zac looked a little tired in all the pictures, it was because he was sliced open the day after we arrived in Utah. Fortunately, the doctors removed his appendix before it did too much harm, and he was doing everything normally a few weeks later. He was a great sport about being dragged all around Utah, and he hardly ever complained. He's such a tough guy.

September 2010

Well, the Hunger Games was a big hit with my book club, so we read and discussed all three of the books. However, I was disappointed with the final installment, so I was more excited for the food than I was for the actual discussion of the third book. Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed. There are some very clever people in my book group, and we had some great refreshments. Here are the pictures (you may not understand some of the references if you haven't read the book, but you can still appreciate the great food):

Yum!

Since I was done with school, I had a little bit of extra time on my hands. One day, I decided that I wanted to grow an indoor herb garden, so I studied up on it, and a few weeks later, came up with this:

Parsley, cilantro, aloe, oregano, and basil

We've had some plants poking up through the soil, but we haven't been able to eat any of them yet. We'll see if they survive our three week absence in December ...

October 2010

One fine day in October, Zac and I found out that a small town just five minutes away from us housed the largest corn maze in the world (at least according to the Guinness World Records). So, we decided to go and check it out. 

On the top of one of the three bridges we had to cross.

I know it doesn't look very big in the pictures, but believe me, it was. Imagine 45 acres of pure corn, and it might seem a little bit bigger. It took us a decent amount of time to find our way out of the maze, and that was even after cheating a little when it got dark and started raining. We even had a map of the maze with us, and it still took us a long time. To see areal pictures and learn more, click here.

We also continued our tradition of decorating our trunk for the trunk-or-treat activity, and everyone was pleased to see our "clean" car there:

We decided to add something every year, and this year we added the "pouf skirt," courtesy of my body wash study. We also attended a ward FHE, where we made beautifully carved pumpkins (well, we'll let you decide about their aesthetic beauty).

Well, that's all for right now. Thanks for enduring the many pictures that I have failed to share with you for so long.

A little bit of drama. . .

Introducing:

"What Did You Expect?" 

a Davis 2nd Ward production

Starring:

All these people

A little background: To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the Woodland, CA stake, each ward created a 15-minute production that revolved around the theme "Celebrate the Beginning" (because, of course, we were celebrating a beginning). I was originally asked to write the script, so I thought that my part in the roadshow was going to be over early. However, I ended up directing it as well to help out a fellow ward member with a heavy school schedule. I enjoyed directing because I got to work some really great people and learned to appreciate all the little things that go into a production (because I had to spend a lot of time working with the Drama Specialist to work out little details). I also played the role of a "Stroller Mama" in a number choreographed by the former captain of the UC Irvine hip hop team (pretty cool, huh?). Zac lent his vocal talents by playing the role of "Wrubell," the sports announcer. Even though neither of us expected to spend so much time working on the show, we both had a really great experience. I especially enjoyed getting to know some awesome people in our ward and making some new friends.

Anyway, I managed to get a copy of our performance so everyone could see it. I had to split the video into two because YouTube only allows videos less than ten minutes long, so don't forget to watch the second one. I hope you enjoy!

Oh, and the recording started a little late, so here are the first few lines that don't appear in the video:

Jim: Honey! I'm home!
Emma: How did your game go?
Jim: Great! I got another two home runs and a couple of plays at first base. There were a lot of scouts there, but I don't know if they liked me.
Emma: What do you mean? Scouts have been calling ever since the game ended, asking to talk to you. [Start video]

Oh, and we had an "Oscar" party after our performance. I won the "You Are Funny" award (luckily, people understood my sense of humor). Zac won the "Mr. Mellow" award for being so optimistic and mellow when things got a little stressful.

Everyone worked hard and I think they all had a great time.

Picnic Day!

Have you ever been to a place where you could see dachshunds race, change liquid into ice cream, milk a cow, pass by giant monster bikes, race cockroaches, watch a helicopter take flight, and taste exotic fruits--all in one afternoon? As of last week, I have. Zac and I celebrated Picnic Day with hundreds of thousands of other UC Davis students, families, and alumni. I'm still not quite sure what we were celebrating, but I do know that the 100-year-old tradition is quite the event to attend. All of the departments on campus have booths or activities that let visitors see their research, which allows for a pretty interesting afternoon. Here are some of the things that we saw:

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble ... wait a second ... this isn't a witch boiling up a deadly potion. It's the chemistry department brewing up some tasty chocolate ice cream made from chocolate (of course), milk, and liquid nitrogen. My review? Delicious--tasted like a frosty.

"Got Milk?" or "Just do it"? Whatever the slogan, I bet that she was just happy that she wasn't one of the cows at the end of a loooong line of people wanting to try their hand at milking. We didn't want to wait in line, but we did see (and smell) a lot of other animals at the agricultural exhibit.

Living art--apparently a real form of art where blindfolded people slowly move into different statue-like positions.

It was pretty interesting to watch.

My favorite part of the day was probably the Doxie Derby, a derby for the cute and fast little creatures known as dachshunds. I don't know what was more interesting--watching the dogs, watching the owners trying to get their dog to win, or watching the people in the crowd trying to get everyone to do the wave (they finally succeeded). If I missed the dogs, though, I could always catch the end of the race on the instant replay screens--it was pretty funny to watch the dogs run in slow motion. For a small taste of this wonderful event, please watch the clip below.

We saw other interesting things but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of everything. We walked by a bike parade, which had bikes that ranged from a huge monster bike to a tri-andum bike (like a tandem but with three seats). We stood about twenty feet away from a helicopter as it was taking off. We saw people racing cockroaches (which I refused to do). We built a protein with one of Zac's professors. We tasted "exotic" fruit--the only one that was really "exotic" was probably the jackfruit (unlike pineapple and mango). I saw glow-in-the-dark bacteria for the first time at the microbiology exhibit. We walked all across campus and, surprisingly, ran into quite a few people from our ward. 

Not bad for a single afternoon.

Our New Couches

We finally got new couches! We bought them (a loveseat and a sofa) from a couple that lives on the other side of Davis and our home teacher helped us get them home (unfortunately, couches would not fit in little Rhonda, aka our car). Here are some pictures of our newest additions to our apartment:

The beautiful fabric.

 

The sofa with its original covering.

The loveseat with the blue covers that I got for them (the sofa has an identical cover). 

With these new additions, we had to rearrange our apartment a little bit. Our rocking chair is currently in our room next to our bed because there was no room for it in the living room. We also recently moved the piano where the desk was (see photo above), the desk where the bookshelf used to be, and the bookshelf where the piano used to be (refer to previous photos on the blog if you wish to see where they used to be). The changes make the apartment feel a little more comfortable, especially now that we don't have to sit in lawn chairs all the time or race for the rocking chair.

Some Important Terms to Know

I know that some of my family in the West was a little confused when I was talking about the things I did while visiting New Hampshire. Here is a small dictionary that may clear up some of the confusion, as well as let you know about some of the things that we did.

candlepin bowling \kan-dəl-pin bo-liŋ\ n (1880) : a fun, popular alternative to bowling found in New Hampshire. The main differences between this game and ten-pin bowling are found in the pins, the size of the ball, and the taking turn sequence. The pins are similar to . . . well . . . long, hard candles--candles that are slightly tapered at both ends.

 

A player has three tries in each turn to knock down all ten candlepins; however, the fallen pins aren't cleared off until the very end of a player's turn, coming in very handy when a player needs to knock out a stubborn split. 

The ball for candlestick bowling is a little bit heavier and a little bit larger than a softball--without any holes. 

Other than these few differences, the game is very similar to ten-pin bowling.

• Some example sentences:
• If you try to pitch a candlepin ball like a softball, a couple turns could end with embarrassing gutter balls or one-point turns.
• Candlepin bowling has gutter protectors just like regular bowling, but they won't stop a player from throwing a gutter ball.

*Special Lewis term:
Meh strategy n (2009) : a strategy used in candlepin bowling. The main idea: if you don't care too much about the number of pins that you knock over and don't try too hard, you will score more points.

• Example sentences:
• Trevor and Kierra, while employing the Meh strategy, became the champions of the evening, winning one game each.
• After Amanda stopped trying to throw the ball the fastest down the lane (the lanes had radar guns) and tried the Meh strategy, she scored a lot more points.

sliding \sli-diŋ\ vb : a recreational activity in which children or adults use sleds, tubes, or plastic disks to slide down a hill. This activity usually involves snow, but it may also involve ice or prickly branches. This word is also commonly known as sledding or tubing.

• Example sentences:
• The Lewis family went sliding on New Year's Eve Day on a hill of freshly fallen snow, which was near the sap house where Zac and Amanda became engaged last year.
• If you don't watch where you are going when you are sliding, you may end up in the prickly branches at the end of the hill.

The Freedom Trail \thə fre-dəm tral\ n (1630) : a trail of red bricks found in Boston that leads tourists around to the historic sites of Boston.

A sample tour:

"Follow the red brick road"

As we begin our tour of Boston, we will pass by the Granary Burying Ground. Let's take a peek inside. . .

 

"Listen my children and you shall hear

of the midnight ride of Paul Revere"

Actually, you won't really hear it, mainly because you're reading, not listening, and because I'm not going to tell it right now. This, however, is the grave of Paul Revere, who is hopefully resting peacefully despite the tourists. Paul Revere is in the company of more famous people than he would be if he were buried in any other small graveyard in America--including John Hancock (no relation that I know of), Elizabeth Goose (popularly known as "Mother Goose"), Samuel Adams, the victims of the Boston Massacre, Ben Franklin's parents, and other signers of the Declaration of Independence and governors of Massachusetts. It's fun to read the old(er) English carved into the stone: "ye body of . . ." (read: "the," y used to be used for the sound th and the small e is usually carved over the y to save space). 

After you've had your fill of all the famous people, we can continue down the trail . . .

"One if by land, two if by sea"

The Old North Church, the oldest church building in Boston, once briefly housed two lanterns in its steeple to warn that the British were coming by sea. The church is still used for worship, but you can still do a self-guided tour when it is not.

Let's take a quick stop at another burial ground . . .

 

As you take a look around the King's Chapel Burying Ground, you will find the grave of John Winthrop, passenger of the Mayflower and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His famous "City Upon a Hill" sermon was a closely-studied sermon in one of my history classes at BYU (incidentally, Zac and I had the class from the same teacher so we were able to talk about it while we were there). 

Continuing along the path will lead us to the Old State House. . .

Although this building is now a museum, it used to be the capital of the Massachusetts Colony, the site of the Boston Massacre, and one of the first places where the Declaration of Independence was read to the people. In short, it used to be a political building that housed both the British rulers stationed in America and the elected ruling body of Boston, a ideal situation for any group of enemies (it wasn't--it caused a lot of conflict). A stop at the museum will thaw out visitors during the winter and provide a shelter from the hot sun during the summer. 

Further along the trail is the New England Holocaust Memorial.

The six towers represent the six concentration camps; etched into the glass are six million numbers that represent the six million Jews who were killed in those camps.

Our last stop for the day will be across the Charlestown Bridge at the resting spot of the U.S.S Constitution.

 

This spot offers a nice view of the ship as well as the skyline of Boston. 

The U.S.S Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship (that is still floating) in the world; her fame comes from being invincible in war--not many can claim that for their career.

Well, that ends our tour of Boston for today, but join us again soon--there are still many more historical and interesting sites to see.