28<-08:00>02/09

Gold Digger

11:45 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

Today I went up to Auburn, a cute mining town in the foothills, and took a class. It was a photo shoot of down town Auburn. About 20 of us gathered and we were assigned to shoot a certain color (I was in the red group) so we wandered around searching for different red subjects to capture. We couldn’t have two of the same subject AND we couldn’t have a subject we had already shot in the background of another picture (i.e. bricks, a stop sign, etc.)…so basically what that helped us do was to think of creative ways to capture ordinary things as well as keep in mind what objects are in the background of our photos. I thought it was a good exercise. try it if you’re bored one day.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the day was Gilbert.

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He is a bum who apparently knows our teacher and was all over getting his picture taken. He rode around town on his bike decorated with Mardi Gras beads and feathers with a coon-tail hat…minus the hat part, plus the coon tail…I’m not really sure how it was all connected…

I asked to take a picture of his amazing rings. He was game. And now that I look at it…I can’t recall if he had his entire pinky…yikes.
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And then he INSISTED I take a picture of his other hand too…

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Shaun thought these pictures were kind of nasty…but I kind of like them.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I would recommend it…and ANYONE can do this…there were old people there with their point and shoot cameras. If you’re interested ask me!

I have a few more fun photos from the day if you click HERE.

Other than that I don’t think there is all that much more to chat about. I’m tired…it’s WAY past my bed time. I hope you had a great Saturday!

25<-08:00>02/09

Black and White All Over the Place

1:25 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

Last night we had New Beginnings for our Young Women and my job was the desserts. The theme was “Is it black or is it white?” So, I used yet another cupcake idea from the amazing book “Hello Cupcake.” I searched around for different candies and decorations that were black and white (decorating sugars, gels, raspberry candies, licorice, white chocolate chips, Good ‘n Plenty, sprinkles…etc.) and decorated some cupcakes! Some of them were interesting looking…but all together I thought they looked fun…and the mini ones are always cute. You don’t feel guilty eating two (or six…..) I think it would be really fun to try doing this with different color schemes. This is an easy way to make cupcakes look like you spent lots and lots of time on them…one of the young men even asked if I bought them…oh, sweet boy.

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And here’s my handsome boy…taking after his mom…sorry Nana…I promise he didn’t break it…

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Before Preston had teeth I didn’t want them to come in because I thought he looked so cute with a gummy smile…but oh how I love those baby teeth!
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17<-08:00>02/09

Another Law School Update

2:07 pm by Janelle. Filed under: Janelle,News

We have been slowly receiving replies from all the different law schools Shaun applied to. Today he got a call from the dean of admissions at BYU’s law school to extend him an invitation to attend there!!! AWESOME! Now is the hard part…deciding what the best choice is for our family…we have a few options at this point…I don’t like making decisions. Will someone else just tell me what we should do? Wouldn’t that be so much easier? Oh, it would…

11<-08:00>02/09

Random Deliciousness

10:44 am by Janelle. Filed under: News

I have found a few recipes lately that I thought I’d share…This first one is easy, healthy, and surprisingly good.

Peanut Butter Vegetable Chicken Soup

Ingredients

  • 8 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups diced, cooked chicken meat
  • 1 cup peeled and cubed potatoes
  • 1 cup diced carrots
  • 1 cup broccoli florets
  • 1 cup canned whole tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • Dash of Soy sauce

Directions

    1. In a large stock pot, combine the broth, chicken, potatoes, and carrots. Bring the soup to a boil, and then reduce heat to medium. Cook for about 10 minutes, till vegetables are tender.
    2. Add zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, celery, onion, green pepper, and garlic. Simmer for about 8 minutes.
    3. Add peanut butter, parsley, salt, pepper and soy sauce; stir until peanut butter is fully blended. Simmer for 3 minutes longer.

And this next recipe is just amazing. SUPER easy and we couldn’t stop eating these suckers…though, you may want to revise it a little to use less butter because wow, it’s a heart stopper.

Caramel Brownies

Ingredients

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix with pudding (we used Devil’s Food mix…any chocolate will probably work)
  • 3/4 cup melted butter
  • 1/3 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
  • 13 ounces individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
  • 1/3 cup evaporated milk
  • 1 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray one 9×13 inch pan with non-stick coating .
  2. Combine the cake mix, butter and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Mix well and pour 2/3 of the batter into pan.
  3. Press pecans into batter and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
  4. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the caramel and 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Stir until melted and smooth; pour over cooled cake mix.
  5. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of caramel and top with spoonfuls of remaining cake mix. Bake for additional l5 to l8 minutes; cool and cut.

07<-08:00>02/09

Free Museum Day!

11:01 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

Today was Sacramento’s “Free Museum Day” where (obviously) all…or most…of the museums in the area are free. So we decided to take advantage of some free entertainment with some of our friends and their little girls. We went to the Discovery Museum. because of fire codes they could only have a certain amount of people in the building at a time and so we ended up waiting in line for about 2 hours! Then we got inside and the museum took about 15 minutes to walk through…I went there on a field trip a LONG time ago…when you’re little everything seems bigger. Anyway, it would be a great place to go back to when the building wasn’t at maximum capacity. Preston didn’t mind the whole waiting in line part…he didn’t really wait, just ran around with the other kids, so again he was out cold as we turned out of the parking lot.

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Waiting on a bench and watching the duck and turtle in a pond…

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He decided to go sit down by these trees to enjoy his pretzel…and once inside he got to see a real tiger…a real dead one…it looks pretty crazy.

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AND we got a free family photo.

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The end.

04<-08:00>02/09

My 25

10:44 am by Janelle. Filed under: News

My sister tagged me to do “My 25” which I am just guessing is 25 things about me? I’m not sure, so that’s what it is going to be!

  1. 1. I love run-run-running!
  2. If I only had one movie it would be The Legend of Baggar Vance
  3. But I also need my fix of the Lord of the Rings series every 6 months or so.
  4. I am certified to teach Pilates (but i don’t…only in relief society…)
  5. I’m a stay at home mom…and love love love it
  6. My favorite ice cream flavor is Swiss Milk Chocolate from Leatherby’s
  7. I don’t think I’ve had my natural hair color since my freshman year of high school…my poor hair.
  8. Some regular TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Charlie and Lola
  9. My favorite time of day is about an hour before sunset
  10. At church I am laurel advisor…however, I no longer have any laurels in my class, hmmm…
  11. I’m a fan of Chocolate covered cinnamon bears
  12. Shaun and I have now hit our 5 years-of-knowing-each-other anniversary…5 years since the LDSBC? Time flies.
  13. I love making soups
  14. I am definitely the artsy-fartsy crafty type…I could spend hours at Michael’s.
  15. I worked there, at Michael’s, for one day in Orem.
  16. I am a photo fanatic
  17. My husband proposed to me on top of a mountain, with a ring pop, with our friends in the bushes.
  18. I love him. (Shaun)
  19. I enjoy sitting down and reading a good COOKBOOK
  20. I’ve never broken a bone (knock on wood…)
  21. I dislike running with music.
  22. Shaun and I are aiming for 4 kids and taking it from there!
  23. A tradition we’ve started is visiting a cemetery on Memorial day…and sometimes Veterans day too
  24. I am a member of the LDS church and LOVE it.
  25. I would love to be considered a professional photographer someday!

And how about hearing from (if you haven’t already been tagged somewhere else…) Sarah Russell, Amy, and Cat…OH and my mom…Kerstin if you had a blog I’d tag you too…