Snow, Date and Pumpkin Pie!

This is what Logan looked like all day yesterday. It started to snow as I was walking to campus in the morning and did not stop until I came home from work that night. It is so beautiful! I love the snow. It just puts me into a good mood. When it snows, I find myself singing Christmas songs and dreaming of hot chocolate. It is such a magical thing.

Today Sage and I went on a date. We paid 26.89 (plus tax) for a movie, hot chocolate, and an oil change form the Walmart Tires and Lube center. The movie was Where the Red Fern Grows and the hot chocolate was piping hot. We did not finish out movie though. A little boy came in and wanted to change it to The Jungle Book 2. We let him. Then we went and looked at fabric for a shirt I am going to make. We were interrupted again as the intercom announced "Sage Boman, your car is ready to pick up." It was a nice date.

Now we will begin preparations for our Thanksgiving trip to Montana. We are very excited to see family and eat good food. My family does a silly things called a "sock swap" where we all draw names and buy a pair of socks for that person. We will be doing that during this visit which will be quite fun.

If you do not hear from me for the next week or so, it is because I will be extremely busy with school, Montana Prep, having fun with my family, and eating pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

So ready for a weekend.

It sure has been a busy week. And Fridays are always the busiest of them all. Want to know how I spent my day today?

6:00 am - wake up
6:10 am- study for Chemistry exam
8:00 am - say good bye to Sage as he head up to Campus
8:15 am -  get ready for the day
9:00 am - head up to campus
9:30 am - take Chemistry test, very hard,  not expecting a great grade
10:30 am - sewing class, working on a pair of dress pants
12:30 pm - leave sewing class a few minutes late
12:40 pm - arrive to work (the engineering computer lab on campus) a few minutes late
1:30 pm - leave work, eat lunch (cottage cheese with peaches, yummy)
2:00 pm - back in sewing room fixing a mistake on pants
2:30 pm - arrive at cooking lab (we made breakfast food today, also yummy. I can now flip a crepe, pretty neat.)
4:30 pm - leave lab, look for Sage(we have one phone, makes meeting up on campus kind of interesting)
4:40 pm - find Sage, walk to work. Talk with Sage outside of work (have not seen each other all day remember)
5:20 pm - someone from work saw me and asked me to cover them from 5:30-7 (my normal shift is from 7-10:30)
5:30 pm - come to work (study for my online Interior Design exam)
6:00 pm - take my Interior Design (online, and timed) exam, what I was planning on doing before I came to work I am now doing at work.
6:55 pm - finish exam with 5 minutes to spare
6:55 pm - bathroom/drinking fountain break (found Sage in Lab, gave a kiss)
7:00 pm - begin working on my Interior Design report
9:00 pm - finish and submit my report
9:10 pm - shut down half of the computers
9:20 pm - Sudoku break
9:30 pm - talk to Sage (I love Sage)
9:40 pm - begin writing blog post
10:00 pm - finish and publish blog post
10:00 pm - finish Sodoku
10:15 pm - begin shutting off more computers (reminding people of our closing time)
10:30 pm - close the lab (after I gently kick people out)
10:35 pm - drive home with Sage
10:40 pm - arrive at home
11:00 pm - find bed, pillow and soft blanket
11:05 pm - sound asleep.

Okay, so I just guessed what I will be doing from when I finished writing the post until I fall asleep, but I am pretty predictable. That was my busy day. (wondering how many people actually ready it to the end) Well to wrap it up, I have a headache, my consistent Friday night pal. And I could not be happier that tomorrow is Saturday. And then the next day is Sunday. Oh, how I love the weekend.

Hope you all had a great day and enjoy your weekend! I know I sure will!

Look Up

Photo found on Google Images. Source is: www.adventuroo.com

The General Conference edition of the Ensign came to our home today. I love being able to read and reread these wonderful talks.

I stayed awake through all of conference this year. But, I did miss most of one talk when I needed to slip out of the room for a moment. It was the talk given by Elder Carl B. Cook of the Seventy titled: "It Is Better to Look Up."

In this talk he tells of an experience he had shortly after being called as a general authority. On a day when he was feeling particularly overwhelmed by his new calling, he learned a great lesson from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Elder Cook had been looking down at the floor of the elevator he was in when President Monson joined him asking, "What are you looking at down there?" He replied, "Oh, nothing." Then smiling, President Monson said to him while pointing heavenward, "It is better to look up!"

I would continue paraphrasing his great talk but then you would have no need to read it yourself! So, go read it. It will be well worth your time. I have a testimony that by looking to the Savoir, Jesus Christ, our burdens will be made lighter and we will have more motivation to continue our journey in this life. I know He lives and I am grateful for his guiding hand in my life.

If ever you are feeling particularly overwhelmed, remember, it is better to look up!

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; 

And lean not unto thine own understanding. 

In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, 

And He will direct thy paths. "

~ Proverbs 3:5-6

I Love Christmas!

Sage brought me dinner while I was at work tonight, along with some early-Christmas presents. Among the presents was this darling nativity. He knew how much I have been wanting one and thought that I might want to use it to decorate before Christmas. He was right :) He also found a little silver saucer that matches my silver baby cup my grandparents gave me when I was born. And he got us a working can opener, and some darling Christmas tree cookie cutters. They were just little gifts but they meant so much coming from him. When I gave me the nativity he told me that there were so many to choose from and he had a hard time picking one. But when he saw the word "first" in this one he had made up his mind because this is our "first" Christmas together. Does it get any sweeter?? I love him.

And I love this idea for a Christmas treat! I stumbled upon it while looking for Thanksgiving treat ideas. I am definitely going to try it. It would make a great neighbor Christmas gift. Here is a brief description but be sure to take a look at the full tutorial here.

You take this:

And this:

Assemble it to look like this:

Add a some warm milk and you get this:

The tutorial has the recipes as well as some darling instruction tags that you can attach to the stick to give away as a gift. So cute! Had to share.

Skype and Waffles

Last night my honey and I enjoyed a wonderful double date with my sister Molly and her husband. They live in New Hampshire so we had out date over Skype! We played a very fun game of Pictionary. For those who have never played that before, it is a team played game of drawing pictures and guessing what they are. Pretty simple but very fun. After wards we made some yummy waffles for dinner. So yummy that i am going to share the recipe. :)   

Cornmeal Waffles with Peach Maple Syrup
This recipe was in the Statesman (the Utah State University newspaper)

For the waffles:

1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the syrup:

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 medium-sized, ripe peach, peeled and pit removed.

We did not try the syrup but I included it because it sounded yummy. Instead we had some runny peach jam that was just as yummy I am sure. Oh and don't forget the whipped cream on top!

Directions:

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and Salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, sour cream, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla, and beat until well blended. Note: If you want to make the recipe a little healthier, you can substitute applesauce for some or all of the sour cream. (we used sour cream)

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together just until they are combined. Be careful not to over mix the batter, because it will result in chewy, dense pancakes with no spring or fluff to them.

Heat your waffle iron to medium and lightly butter it. Make sure you wait until it is fully heated so that you do not have to wait too long for your first waffle to cook and then burn your second waffle. Patience pays off here.

 Once the iron is ready, scoop the batter on and cook until the waffles are golden brown. Serve with sliced peaches and peach maple syrup. Note: You can also just make pancakes with this batter. Just make the recipe according to the directions and cook the batter on a skillet or frying pan instead.

To make the syrup, puree the pealed peach - either using a blender or a food processor - until it is completely smooth.

Meanwhile, combine the maple syrup, brown sugar and butter in a sauce pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves and the resulting liquid comes to a boil. Boil for two minutes, then stir in the heavy cream and bring the mixture to a boil again.

Remove from the heat, stir in the peach puree and let sit for five minutes before serving. This allows the flavors to blend and the syrup to thicken. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Note: The best way to freeze these waffles is to lay them in a single row on a baking sheet and place in freezer for 1-2 hours until the waffles are totally frozen. Then you can just gather up all the waffles and put them in a Ziploc bag together, and store it in the freezer for up to three months. You can reheat then in the toaster, microwave or on a baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees.

-Jennelle Clark rights a food column in the Utah State University's Statesman and also runs an online food blog foodislikeart.blogspot.com. Check out her post of this recipe here.

 

My New Ring

The photo shown above was taken on our wedding day. There you can see two beautiful rings given to me by my sweet husband. The pearl is the ring Sage proposed to me with. The diamond band is my "wedding band", even though I wore it for most of our engagement. (The pearl is oh so fragile and is not worn all of the time.) These rings make me so happy. I remember before we were married, I would wake up, look at my hand and get so excited to see them there. But .... the cute little diamond band did not hold up and was replaced after 9 diamonds fell out. Let me tell how each of them were lost:

# 1- We were on our honeymoon in California visiting some family when the first diamond fell out. I am pretty sure it happened when I was helping dry off my niece after she had been swimming. As soon as we came home we took it straight into the jeweler who replaced it free of charge.

# 2- The second diamond fell out while on a visit to see my parents in Tooele. My mom noticed a small black speck on my ring and asked me what it was. What looked like a black speck was a small whole where a diamond should have been. Bummer. Back to the jeweler we went for another free replacement.

# 3- While on a walk home from class one day my hand brushed against Sage's backpack and I felt a little tug. I looked down at the ring and to my disappointment, another empty whole where the third diamond had fallen out. After searching the ground for quite a while we gave up and headed to the jeweler once again for a replacement. He then sent the ring in for a closer look. 

#'s 4-9- The ring was put into an ultra-sonic cleaner overnight to test its stability when six, yes six, more diamonds fell out. The ring which we had received a great deal on was discontinued, we were given the full amount we paid for it in credit and were told to pick another ring. 

What might be frustrating to some was so much fun for me! How many girls get to go ring shopping twice (with the same husband, no divorces)? After about a week, of shopping we finally picked a replacement. I had thought about choosing another style, maybe with a center stone, but I kept coming back to the dainty little diamond bands. (I wanted to be able to wear my pearl with it.)

Here is what we picked. And after three long weeks of waiting, I finally have it on my finger and oh how I just adore this little ring.

I hope you all have enjoyed your Saturday like I have. :)

http://www.blissweddingblog.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

*All of my rings were purchased at Jerrick's Fine Jewelry here in Logan. Sage and I highly recommend this place. Jerrick and his wife are so nice. They work very well with you and have a beautiful selection to pick from. If you happen to stop by, let them know we sent you! (They have a referral program :)  And be sure to check out their website here.

Photography and Design

I had a great time yesterday with my good friend Mirranda. I needed some help with an Interior Design assignment and she and her camera were so sweet to lend a hand. Above are some of the pictures I took for fun but I also wanted to share this assignment with you because I had so much fun with it!

To help us understand how designers do what they do, we took a closer look at inspiration. We were supposed to take a picture of something that inspired us to create a pattern and another picture to inspire the colors we would use in our pattern. And then we were to use those photos to design a textile (on the computer) and pick something to put this textile on (this picture could be taken form the internet). Here is what I did:

Pattern Inspiration (a part of the fence at the Logan Temple)

Color Inspiration (Snap Dragons by the Logan Temple)

Textile Design (created from the pattern of the fence and the colors of the flowers above)

End Use (if I were to actually make my design into a textile I would turn it into this raincoat)

And that is my assignment. Thanks for stopping by Boman Made today! Come again soon.

*All images int his post were taken by me (Emma Boman) except for the yellow raincoat which was borrowed from this website.