Granola

So today I made granola...something because I decided that I need a 'healthy' snack(I'll go through a sleeve of saltines within an hour on my own). Turned out pretty good :) Warning though, it's not a cluster-y one, it turns out more fine, but it's still good!

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Granola

4 C old fashioned Oats
1 C shredded coconut
1/4C brown sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/3 C honey
1t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
3/2 t vanilla
1 C raisins


In a large bowl, combine oats and coconut; set aside. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, oil, honey, cloves, and cinnamon; bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over oat mixture; stir to coat. Spread in a large shallow baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool. Add raisins. Store in an airtight container. Yum!

Random thoughts of the day

• Crazy snow-may 24th...seriously? and I love the way BYU announces that breaking limbs may have killed your car(don't worry we were safe)
  "Due to the heavy, wet snow, tree branches are bending and breaking - some are falling on cars all over the Wymount Terrace area. Please check your parking stall and move your car if it is being threatened.
  
  We realize you may not receive this message in a timely fashion, but it is the only way we have to quickly contact residents." PS: this wasn't even an email...seems strange that someone on blackboard can spam me and the rest of the people in the class asking me to take their survey with the click of a button but the housing office can't...
  

• I have car envy every time I see an orange car...barring the money issue I'm too conservative to ever do it.
• I got season 1 of American Dreams...thank you swagbucks :)
• We had to order a new charger/cable for my laptop :(
• 4 weeks until home!
• new church calling...I'm excited
• independent study physics...I need to get on it...I'm not very good at self pacing.
• Birthdays up the wahzoo...but I'm staying on top of cards
• dishes and laundry never go away
• if a recipe calls for 10 cups of flour, you should probably half it, even if it is for cinnamon rolls...
• The doctor (wakefield) who did the later found to be false study in 1998 'linking' autism and vaccines(only 12 patients, hasn't be replicated in numerous studies since, the control group was children at his son's birthday party; he claimed they also had bowel disease: 8 of the patients were found to be healthy with no when biopsies were later performed) got his medical license revoked in the UK today!!! The number of children who have died is appalling from their parents not vaccinating because they believed the study and vaccination rates are still lower than before the study because of the persistent belief. Just vaccinate your kids, k?(HPV too, getting a shot...or 3 doesn't make them become a skank) It's totally worth it.
  

WinCo and Paintings

Today was a most excellent day! We woke up late, I quizzed P for his test, P went to go take said test(he thinks he did really well), I went to a java review for the next lab, and then we went grocery shopping. Orem just got a WinCo, and we've heard really good things about it, like their employees own the store through stock, cheap prices, and everyone I know who has one loves it. So off we went! We had so much fun there, ok that sounds really lame, but honestly, their bulk area is the coolest thing ever! You can get any amount of just about anything, if you want one Reese's Peanut butter Cup-no problem, same if you want 25lbs, all at the same rate and they have everything(including a huge produce section)!!! We bought a lot of stuff but resisted the urge to fill two shopping carts like more than a few people in the store. We stocked up cornmeal(sundays we like to make cornbread from scratch with chili) and popcorn and had fun wandering the store. I really get why people love it.
Things I liked
-the previously mentioned bulk aisles
-prices($55) for a full car-score!
-selection
-the smell of coffee beans: they have a huge bulk gourmet coffee area, I really miss that smell in grocery stores
The Not so good
-Don't ever bring your kids here-they have lots of candy and individually prices snack items all at low levels, thankfully the "pull the handle and watch it all pour out" things are up high but huge flats of loose lollipops 2 feet off the ground? Who are they kidding?
-It's kind of far for normal shopping(15 minutes)

Anyway, so afterward we went to go borrow a book for P's linguistics class and ran to the mall to look at some paintings by a local artist; we just realized that we had $100 left from our wedding in Deseret book/visa gift cards; which were getting money taken off them tomorrow(isn't that the stupidest thing that they do that?). Then we made french dip sandwiches for dinner with peanut butter rice krispy treats for desert. Yum!

So after dinner we decided which painting to buy and I went to Deseret Book to get it. P and I are big painting fans. When we were first married, we got a boat on the ocean painting from an estate sale and with some work(it had horrible nicotine stains-my anti-smoking lesson, not that I needed one) by my talented Mom(her paintings are all at the cabin now so probably none of you will ever see them), it's now pretty again. Anyway, so that started our obsession with owning paintings. Anyway, we got a reproduction of "Divine Redeemer" by Simon Dewey, which is one of our favorites. I really love the light and shadowing that he puts in his pictures.

Then we ended tonight with popcorn and strawberries before P got sucked into doing homework and sexist language and the precise differences between 'flaunted' and 'flauted' :) Anyway, I thought I'd share our happy day!

Oh and I realize that I haven't mentioned my face in a long, long time, so I'll just let you guys know that I'm doing better, no mindless, drawnout sessions, but I still pick a little most days, but it's much better and I'm not picking at P, somethings he's extremely grateful for. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm feeling happier, less overwhelmed and busier(in a good way).

system.out.println("CS 142");

I did it! This semester I'm taking what is for me, the scariest class I've taken yet, but it has the highest potential for reward. I'm taking CS 142: Entry to Computer Programming in Java. The first day of the class, I think I knew what the words "mouse," "keyboard," and "monitor" meant and that was it. So I definitely feel like the underdog in this class every day. The good thing is, the need to prove myself and the feelings of inadequacy are pushing me to work hard and put a lot of time into it. We've just finished the fourth lab out of 11 labs and I'm still alive...I actually have 115points out of 100 points(I can brag on my own blog right?). I keep pushing myself to get every extra point possible because I'm terrified that I'm going to hit a point were I get so lost and fail. So far I've made programs that convert base ten numbers to binary, mutate letters and count the number of characters in a string of words, convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, simulate playing a checkers game, and finally, guess a number that someone's thinking(0-31) of in 5 questions. I just finished the guessing game tonight and made a GUI(pretty, ok a not so pretty, picture) for it! It wouldn't work as of last night after spending all day on it and then I spent all day on it today, including over 2 hours on the phone with my dad bouncing ideas of how to fix my minor but yet major problem(it came down to a problem with global/local variable confusion). We finally figured it out and fixed that, but then realized, 40 minutes before it was due, that one of my algorithms was generating the wrong set of numbers to guess(freaking out majorly at this point). Thankfully we figured it out and P and I sped over to the CS building to check the lab in for 40/30. Talk about shear joy/relief/pride, yeah it felt good! This class is like an emotional rollercoaster, alternating between despair, having no clue what to do, and wanting to scream every bad word in my vocabulary, to pride and joy to the point that I was screaming and jumping around the apartment. Tonight involved both but happily I'm still riding on the high. Now on to the take home exam due tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Texas Isn't a Desert?

So P and I spent the week between winter and spring semesters in Texas visiting his family. I was most surprised to find out that Texas is not just a desert with cacti and snakes but actually quite pretty with wildflowers, trees, rivers, and architecture. Call me naive but somehow I'd never gotten beyond the stereotype. Anyway here are the highlights of our trips:

Window-less Window Seat: I think if you ask P, this was the worst part of the trip, actually, I'm sure of it. P loves window seats and made it abundantly clear that he wanted the window seat, which was fine by me, I'm more of an aisle person, less climbing over people to get to the bathroom, etc. So we were on a Canadair Regional Jet which is a 2x2 seating arrangement(you also have to gatecheck luggage because it's so small-I loved this!). Anyway, so we boarded and P's boarding pass said seat 20D: great, a window! So we walk to the back of the plane to find that P did get a window seat, only without a window! This was the one seat on the plane without a window and the window junkie got it! Needless to say, the 3 hour flight to San Antonio was did not make P's top ten for the trip!


Wildflowers: This is what the roads looked like going everywhere. We stopped and took pictures in them after church on Sunday.

Riverwalk in San Antonio: This was probably my favorite place. We were there on Texas Independence Day, and it was CRAZY. We listened to a guy talk about the battle at the Alamo and then took a tour on the riverboats with a guide from BYUI. We then had the best Tex-Mex EVER! P and I had Enchiladas Verde(and I don't like enchiladas) and it was amazing!

Awesome architecture/optical illusion: Dix Hospital on the Riverwalk. Looks like it's flat doesn't it? I made us walk completely around it; it's really a super angled trapezoid...looks cool though doesn't it?

Aquerena Springs We were about 14 years too late to watch Ralph the swimming pig(the place used to be an amusement park with mermaid shows and the pig), but I think the place being a nature preserve now suits it better. We rode the glass bottom boats and the water was so clear that we could look more than 30 feet down and see the water bubbling up out of the springs below the river. Kind of picture boiling pudding or stew. Anyway, it was really neat!

Floating Down the San Marcos River: We floated a few miles down the San Marcos River in intertubes. The river goes through the middle of UTSM campus and has a pretty good current. P dunked me and all I can say is that it was COLD(don't worry I got him back). I got burnt, of course, after wearing 55spf sunscreen and reapplying, but that's just me. P's family did think it was funny that I made him wear sunscreen since they're all a bunch of brown bears, but I figure if I have to, he's going to too and preventing cancer never hurt anyone :)

Cabela's I usually don't support weapon/hunting related businesses, but we went there to get bait so that P and his dad could go fishing and they have a shooting alley. P's mom and dad got us tokens and not to brag or anything but I nailed 19/20 shots...too bad I'm scared of/hate real guns.

San Antonio Temple Saturday morning we went to the San Antonio Temple with P's parents. It was really great to be there with family and I had never been to a smaller temple before so that was a neat experience. The local businesses aren't dumb either, there's a Great Harvest Bread right across the street :) We got loaves of Challah and Cinnamon Pecan bread. Yum! I picked the Challah and the entire loaf disappeared within a day :)

Wii P's family has a Wii and it was my first time spending time with it and yeah...I'm just not a video game person(sorry future children). I think they're fun for about 10 minutes and then I'm done. Also, personal opinion, but the rationale of getting a Wii because it will help you be healthy and fit, I'm filing that in the same file as people who buy video games for their kids because it will help them have great hand/eye coordination. Sure it's better than only giving your thumbs a workout but there are infinitely better ways.

San Marcos Outlet Malls Our last day in Texas, P and I and his little sister drove out to the San Marcos Outlet Malls. I think they're like the 3rd biggest in the country(maybe?). Anyway, there was a Tanger Outlet Mall next door to a Prime Outlet Mall. P and I got some excellent Chinese food, something we've really been missing(are you listening Provo?). Then we went shopping! We didn't break the bank but got some great deals on clothes from Gap, including my much desired Gap Hoodie, Banana Republic, and Victoria's Secret(get your mind out of the gutter, anyone knows they have the best bras). Anyway, we had a great time and it was cheap so we were stoked!

Lazy Days: Most of our time in Texas was spent just being lazy: jumping on the trampoline, watching movies, playing games, talking, sleeping in, and spending time with P's family. It was great getting to know them better. I'd never spent much time around them before, so while there were some awkward moments(like when homeschooling got brought up, anyone who knows me probably knows how I feel about it. This was a topic that P and I had decided was a good one for me not share my feelings on around his family), we had a great time! I hope they had a good time too. I always worry a lot what people will think of me; like we got 3 hours of sleep the night before we went there. We told everybody that we were up that late doing laundry and cleaning but the truth is that all of that was finished 2 hours before we went to bed. We were up because I was trying to figure out what to pack/wear because I was so worried I wouldn't look good enough. P's very patient with me and my insecurities, just putting that out there. Every night after we had gone to bed, I would lie there and run through the day with P listening, fretting about what hadn't gone perfectly and what I could do better. I hope things went well from their perspective because it did from mine and I had a good time. I hope they know how hard I tried. P is always telling me that I need to assume the best from people instead of the worst. It's my insecurities coming through and I'm working on it. Anyway there's our trip! My first time to Texas and our first airplane trip together!