I'm Meaner than I Look . . . Apparantly

This morning Brent said, "You were mean to me last night."

I was so confused! I said, "What are you talking about? I was mean to you?"

Brent said, "You mean you don't remember? Last night I rolled over and put my arm around you, and you said, 'Don't touch me!'"

"Ha ha! I did? What time was it?"

"I think around midnight." 

"Well I guess you shouldn't touch me when I'm sleeping!"

If what we do in our sleep reveals our true character, then Brent is a lot nicer than me. On several occasions he has-- in the middle of the night-- rolled over towards me, smiled, and wanted to cuddle (and he never remembers in the morning!). Usually I wake up when this happens, but I guess last night, I didn't!

Home Sweet Home

Since we've moved into our apartment, it's gone through quite the transformation. I'm still not "done" decorating, but it sure feels a lot more homey than when we moved in. Here's what it looked like in the beginning:

This was after we had already cleared a TON of boxes from the living room. Luckily, we didn't have any couches at this point, so we had space to organize. We also didn't have a dining room table, so the kitchen counter, which is almost--but not quite-- a bar became our eating place. We did have 2 bar stools, so we ate dinner like this for about a month.

And we relaxed,  played games, and had family home evening around our stack of tubs. It was good motivation to get a couch and table!

 Finally, we got everything put away and chose some furniture we liked. (You can tell that Brent is an amazing husband-- always helping around the house!)

The couches finally got delivered!

And so did our dining room table!

But things didn't seem quite complete, so we got an ottoman.
Then later a side table and shelf / future TV stand (because we still don't have a TV),
and we rearranged everything. I still want to buy a lamp and hang some pictures, but now it feels like home!

 And here's a shot of our bedroom. I love our fluffy, blue comforter!

Cafe Pita

Brent and I love eating good food! And we love trying new things. So, when a friend recommended that we go to the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives website to see if there were any cool restaurants in Houston, we thought it was a great idea. To look for restaurants in your area click here.

This week, we tried Cafe Pita, and it was really good!! Brent ordered a cevap sandwhich (homemade sausage on freshly baked flat bread) and I got a gyro. SO GOOD! Here's the episode that features this restaurant. I know you'll want to come visit us after watching this video! The restaurant is just 10 minutes away from where we live!

46 Pounds of Groceries Up the Stairs

I have lived in 3rd floor apartments (without an elevator) for quite some time. When I first moved to Provo right after my mission, I moved into a 3rd floor condo on 800 East. I loved peeking through the tops of pine trees to our view of the southern end of Utah Valley.  And I loved the fact that we didn't have any upstairs neighbors. So, when Annelies and I found another 3rd floor apartment on 600 North, I knew we'd like it. And we did! Another spectacular view-- this time facing North-- of gorgeous Timpanogos.

Yes, that is an actual photograph from the balcony of that 3rd floor apartment. To me the view has always been more important than the color of the carpet or the condition of the cupboards. I know that's silly. But it's true.

I told Brent when he went apartment shopping for us in Houston to take note of the windows, the lighting, and the use of space. Those were the most important things to me. And so it's not surprising that he got a 3rd floor apartment with vaulted ceilings and large windows. And it's been great. Our windows face East, so we get lots of sunshine for most of the day.

To me the only bad part about living on the 3rd floor is getting up there. Moving in, moving out. . . . and carrying up groceries. Which brings me to this post's topic.

For three years I've carried my groceries up 2 flights of stairs. I quickly realized that I preferred one strenuous trip to two or three short trips. So I now hang all my grocery bags on each arm (no matter how many) and trek up the stairs. It can get your heart pumping!

This week I thought-- for fun-- I'd see how much weight I actually carried up. So after coming in the door, I went straight to the bathroom scale-- with all the bags still on my arms to weigh myself. Then I subtracted my weight. The answer: 46 lbs! And that load didn't feel as heavy as some I've managed.

Who needs to work out if you live on the 3rd floor, right?

The Best Banana Bread Ever!

Last week I found a banana bread recipe that is so good! And as a true banana lover (I've eaten a banana on more days of my life than not)-- I also love banana bread. But this surpasses any I've tasted. The werid thing is that this is a low fat banana recipe. Unfortunately for me, it is not low-fat because I ate almost an entire loaf in one day. Ah!!!

I got the recipe on joyofbaking.com, but I made just a few changes. I added more whole wheat flour, cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 cup, and added toasted pecans. So this is my revised version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup low fat yogurt (I used banana flavored, but I'm sure vanilla would work too.)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup toasted, chopped pecans

 Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Spray an 8 x 4 inch (20 x 10 cm) loaf pan with a nonstick vegetable cooking spray. 
• In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the baking soda and yogurt. Allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the batter. 
• Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla. 
• In another large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt. 
• Then combine the banana mixture with the oil mixture and then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until all the ingredients are moistened. Stir in pecans. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. 
• Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes one loaf (about 12 slices).

I really did follow the directions above. Except I didn't whisk the flours together. I just added them straight to the rest of the batter. 

This is how mine turned out: 

Life Without TV

Brent and I don't own a TV. I sometimes forget this is abnormal, until someone asks if I've seen such-and-such show and they act shocked that we don't have a TV. But for me, it feels very normal. Out of the past 9 years of my life, I've only lived with a TV for about 3 of them. And even then, I barely watched it. Kelli and I did go through an American Idol kick back in 2003/2004. And of course we would use it to watch movies. But mostly in my hectic schedule of school and social events, I never had time to watch TV.

The great thing is that Brent wasn't much of a TV-watcher either. In fact, when we were dating, he and his roommates were the ones without a TV (there was one in my apartment). So, TV was never part of our dating life or social interaction. When we got married, we figured we would buy one after we moved to Houston. But we still haven't. And I doubt we will for a while.

The thing is, we aren't against watching TV, per se (although there is enough junk on TV these days to justify that argument). It's just that we love they way our life is without TV. When Brent comes home, we have a sit-down dinner at the table, clean up together, and then spend the rest of the evening talking, relaxing, getting "stuff" done on our lap tops, reading, or chatting on the phone with family. Once in a while we'll go to RedBox and watch a movie on a lap top. But not enough to really warrant the time, money, and (most of all) effort it would take to buy a TV and DVD player.

So we continue to live our not-so-Amish, yet TV-less life. Maybe if we wait long enough, we can by-pass the whole TV thing and get whatever comes next...

A Lesson on Freedom and Rhetoric

I almost forgot it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today. Brent had to work, and my day is as usual: entertaining myself, helping other people, doing chores and running errands (usually in that order). But I but when I realized what day it was I couldn't help but share my strong feelings about this day and this man and, mostly, his famous speech.

I love the "I Have a Dream" speech. Most people remember the "I have a dream. . ." part, but there is so much more to it than that. If you have never heard the entire speech, you must. Here is your opportunity:

A year ago this week, I taught my students about rhetoric in order to find deeper meaning in this speech. Rhetoric is the art of using language to effectively persuade. Even though many people learn the term rhetoric and rhetorical tools (techniques used to persuade) in high school, I never learned about them until I worked at the BYU Writing Center. Since then, I sometimes find myself picking out rhetorical tools while reading a talk from General Conference or an op/ed article in the newspaper.

So here's your English lesson for the day. Watch Dr. King's speech and think about what rhetorical tools he uses and what effect they have on you. If you have trouble identifying the rhetorical tools, here are some to get you started:

• Repetition: What words or phrases does Dr. King repeat over and over again? What effect does this have? 
• Metaphor: What comparisons does he make to freedom and injustice? What added meaning does this bring to these ideas?
• Allusion: Dr. King references religion, sports, history and music. How does this add or detract from his message?

Let me know what you think/ how you felt about the speech. I feel moved every time.

Houston

In Houston--like any other place, I suppose--there are a few things that are different. . . 

The stop lights swing on wires. . . (probably so they don't snap when hurricanes blow through)

Not everyone speaks with a Texan accent--in fact, at my local Walmart it's more common to hear a foreign language . . .

There are so, so many trees. . .

 And the trees are tall!

You need a Britta pitcher-- unless you like the taste of overly-chlorinated water. . .

Gas is even cheaper than in Utah . . .

There are medians or center dividers on almost every road, which makes the neighborhoods so pretty . . .

Air conditioning runs 9 months of the year. . . even occasionally in December!

You can find food from any country. I live close to a Chinese grocery store, a Japanese market, and an Indian strip mall ...

The sunsets are beautiful!