New House

Ok, so I may be stealing a line from Sarah, but we moved during the same weekend so what can I say. Lamoni and I just recently moved to another house. It is a duplex and although it is not as spacious as the house we were living in, it is pretty nice for a newly married couple. Thanks to Lamoni's brothers and a borrowed truck from a friend, we managed to get everything moved over the weekend. It was a LOT of work but we managed. My camera is not working so I don't have any pictures but Abby has been practicing her interior design skills and has helped a lot with decor and my husband is being a saint about all the fuss. We've also been harboring our cats underneath the house as we our in the process of finding them a good home. We would like to have house warming party soon but we'll make sure to schedule that on a different day from the Andersons' :)

New Movie Poll

Please check out the new polls. Also, please let me know if there are any movies you think should be on the list. I'm open to suggestions!

New Polls

There are two movie polls today so please vote in them both!

New Movie Poll

Thanks for voting in the last poll. Please check out the new ones!

Top Ten Best Summer Movies

Okay, I'm going to try something new on here. Now presenting...

Amy's Top Summer Movie List Tournament!

Here's how it works. I will post a poll every few days that gives the options between two movies. You must chose which movie you would rather watch during an awesome summertime movie bash. Then we will eliminate them one by one and see what the ultimate movie for summertime is.
Feel free to suggest any movies that you feel should be in the Tournament.
Let's get started!

Carter Beats the Devil

Suspense, mystery, historical accuracy, romance, character development, internal struggle: I recently finished this book and I must say, I loved it. It took me longer to finish than it should have because I've been super busy this last month but I absolutely loved this book. I loved Carter's character (based on a real person but I don't know how much is accurate on his persona). I won't go into too much detail because it was a complicated plot but for anyone that is a fan of historical fiction, mystery, magic and suspense, I highly recommend this book. The reason I thought about it today is that I had a dream last night that I was married to Carter (who looked like Lamoni) and he was putting on a professional magic show for my home ward in Boulder City. It was an amazing show and everyone kept saying how attractive Carter was and I kept thinking, yep - that's my husband:) Anyway, I hope my silly dreams do not detract from the awesomeness of this book. Carter Beats the Devil was one of the best reads for me this summer.

Happenings This Week...

Monday 7/26 - I was sick with a fever and had to stay home from work. My awesome husband stayed up all night with me making me soup at four in the morning and generally just being wonderful. In the afternoon I ran some errands and we house hunted.

Tuesday 7/27 - Went to work a little later in the day (still not feeling too well) and then house hunted like crazy.

Wednesday 7/28 - I felt substantially better and went to work. Lamoni picked me up and I took him to work. Afterwards I went to play tennis with Abby and we went to get Iceberg. It was delish. Then Abby and I house hunted for a while.

Thursday 7/29 - Lamoni received a raise in pay! We were so excited and decided to celebrate by going out to eat at a new restaurant called The Shabu Shabu House. It was very good. Then we went to the park to meet Abby and Anthony and did conditioning.

Friday 7/30 - After work, I met Lamoni on campus and we called a guy about a duplex we were interested in. He said to meet him there at 6:30. We did and made a deal to move in! However, we were too late to go turn on the electricity and the gas so we have been living in a cave all weekend. Then we went on a date and saw Shrek 4. It was ok but I haven't stopped thinking about the plot all weekend. This was a conversation from yesterday:
Amy: "Lamoni, am I your true love?"
Lamoni: "Yes."
Amy: "So, are you saying that if I hadn't come along to rescue you from the tower, someone else wouldn't have come? And you would have had to rescue yourself?"
Lamoni, after a pause: "....I believe that is correct."

Saturday 7/31 - We spent all day moving things from the old house. It took several truckloads (4 people's accumulated junk) and one trip to the dump ($17 to dump 2 TVs?? Ridiculous! Needless to say, we did not dump our TVs.) Then Abby and I went to Ikea and I bought a couch, a chair, a kitchen table, a desk, and an office chair for the new house. We then spent all weekend organizing our food storage. It took forever. Then we organized our things and set to work on putting together our furniture. Once that was taken care of we went to the old house to clean. While we were there I broke down and cried because of a sudden and overwhelming sense of nostalgia and homesickness.

Monday 8/2 - Woke up to discover that my bike has been stolen. I hate our neighborhood.

Books Read in July 2010

27. Jaws by Peter Benchley 7/2/10


28. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon 7/7/10


29. Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold 7/16/10


30. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 7/28/10

Yard Sale!

What better way to pass the summer days (and get ready to move) than a huge yard sale? It was a lot of work but fun.

We especially enjoyed David's stunt with the kitties:)

Princess Fashion

As I was browsing around I found these awesome articles on Disney princess inspired outfits. The outfits would need a little bit of tweaking, but isn't this the cutest ever?

From this...

...to this!

(so cute!)

Check out all the articles here:

Sleeping Beauty

Snow White

Little Mermaid

Toy Story 3

We went and saw this on a date. It was very good, quite funny, and surprisingly poignant and intense. Good ol' Pixar does it again.

Books Read in June 2010

25. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 6/3/10



26. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith 6/8/10

How To Train Your Dragon

We saw this with Maddie when she was in town. Even though we arrived late and had to sit in the very first row (argh) we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so good! Thanks Maddie for coming to hang out with us!

A Dream Come True!

When I saw this on Kelly's blog I thought this was something straight out of Willy Wonka. This great chocolatier is opening up in our very own Orem, UT. Amano Artisan Chocolate has won several national and international awards for their chocolate and I am so excited to go and check it out (Kelly, we will have to make a trip out of it).

However, the most exciting part is that with their opening, they are giving a chance for someone to win a year's supply of chocolate! That is 10 chocolate bars a month! All you have to do is go to their place and guess from which country their beans come from. Check it out here:

Amano's "Guess the Origin Contest"

Books Read in May 2010

22. The 5 Love Languages of Children by

Gary Chapman, Ph.D & Ross Campbell, M.D.

23. Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan 5/28/2010


24. The Lady of Palenque by Anna Kirwan 5/31/2010

Scandinavian Festival

We enjoyed going down to Manti for the Scandinavian Festival. I enjoyed seeing cousin Sarah at her booth, selling the most awesome crocheted viking hats! We also got some delicious food and met a real viking! Then we walked around the temple and saw the sites.

(Lamoni, David, Gabo, Moises)

200th Post!

Bring out the cake and party hats! It is my 200th blog post...well, more or less. It has only taken me 3 years to do it but 200 posts should get some sort of commemoration. To highlight the event I have gone through all the previous posts and chosen some of my favorites throughout the years.

• 2007
  
• Aug 24, 2007 "The Beach"
• 2008
  
• July 5, 2008 "Independence Day"
• July 17, 2008 "Funny Faces"
  
• July 27, 2008 "Pioneer Day Weekend"
• 2009
• February 23, 2009 "A Very Moo-ey Road Trip"
  
• November 3, 2009 "Some Old Pictures From May 2009"
• November 12, 2009 "Hee-Haws"
• November 12, 2009 "Sailing with Uncle Dave!"
• December 11, 2009 "Sydney's Birthday"
• 2010
• April 2, 2010 "Home For Easter"
  
• March 28, 2010 "Holi Festival of Colors"
• January 14, 2010 "A Much Belated Christmas Letter"
  

In conclusion I have decided that I need to take a lot more pictures. I have also noticed that I have turned someone boring and cynical these last few years. Time to make a turn around and get this blog kicked into gear!

Photoshoot with Jesús Rosas

Jesús Rosas is a friend I met while living in the Spanish house. He is from Mexico, received a degree at BYU in Middle Eastern Studies (or Arabic, I can't remember), speaks excellent English and Arabic, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East. He is also a great photographer. Please check out his photography here. I love to look at his photos and I think he has a natural talent and good eye for photography. That is why I agreed when he asked me to help him out with a project. He needed to take pictures of students reading and studying and he gave me all of the pictures as payment. So, on May 3rd we headed over to the Hinkley Alumni Center and started clicking. I haven't had a real photoshoot in years and he did a great job of making it fun and relaxing. Thanks, Jesús!

The Great Mexican Adventure

Food eaten:

• Flautas - a huge tortilla rolled and filled with shredded meat, crema (Mexican sour cream), lettuce and other stuff I don't even remember. It was seriously one of the best things ever.
• Grilled Elote - grilled corn on the cob smothered in mayonnaise, crumbled cheese, and chili powder. It was pretty tasty. (Lindy eating elote)

• Eskimo - possibly the best drink ever. It was milk blended with crushed ice and whatever flavor you wanted. The special way they blended it made it super creamy and delicious. They had mango, chocolate, papaya, strawberry, other fruits, vanilla, tres leches, and others. We got the tres leches and Lamoni got strawberry. (Lindy drinking eskimo)

• Gorditas - these were hand-made corn tortillas with chicharron (pork skin) in the masa then fried in oil, opened up like a pita, then stuffed with onion, cilantro and a special salsa. It was so messy but I think I ate like 5.

(A deliciously messy, half-eaten gordita)

• Torta de milanesa, DF style - A torta is a sandwich. We know that right? And milanesa is a thin fried steak. However, this torta was special; it was seriously as big as my head. So this guy sets down the bottom of a regular sized sandwich bun, then piles on milanesa until it's about a foot high (no joke), then puts the top on. It was delicious but I couldn't finish the whole thing. Luckily, Lamoni was there to eat the rest. PS - the DF is Mexico City.
  
• Cemitas - a sandwich with pork, lettuce, chiles, avocado, tomato, and some kind of sauce. Delicious.

(Lindy, Angelica, Don Celerino, & myself enjoying our "Mexican hamburgers")

• Cecina - this was a type of thinly sliced beef that was grilled with a special sauce and served on blue corn tortillas and with a mixture of onion, cilantro, and nopal. They were one of my favorite foods this trip!

(sister-in-law Lulu, Angelica, Lindy, me, & Lamoni eating cecina. Brother Luis was taking the picture)

• Pipian - a type of mole that is made with pumpkin or squash seeds. We ate this in a market and it was one of my favorite dishes. We talked to the woman who made it. She was an older woman from a small town that still speaks Nahuatl as a first language.
  
• Mole Poblano - one of the most famous dishes in the state of Puebla. I LOVE mole. It was so delicious. I tried 3 different kinds of mole poblano and I loved them all. After all...they do have chocolate in them.
  
• Mole Verde - This dish was made by a mother-in-law of the family and it was very good and very spicy. Lindy was there to help make it and she said it was simple to make. The main ingredients were chile verde, a kind of large bean called aba, and chicken. It was tasty but I would rather have dark rich mole poblano.
  
• Tortas de Camaron - Lindy and I were taught how to make this by a mother-in-law of the family. They were shrimp cakes and boiled nopal (cactus) in a dark chile/mole sauce served with Mexican-style white rice. It was pretty good and I took notes so I will definitely be making that rice and the sauce again. I don't think we have all the ingredients for the shrimp cakes.
  
• Tamales - I had 2 different types of tamales and I am kicking myself for not eating more. The first ones we had were bought in Veracruz. We were swimming in the Rio Bobos and a little girl came with a bucket full of chicken tamales and we each ate two. These tamales were unique because they were wrapped in what looked like banana leaves instead of corn husks. And they were delicious. The second tamale I ate was a mole tamale on a torta. Basically it was an unwrapped tamale with mole poblano in the center and placed on a sandwich bun. It was so tasty but I think next time I just stick with the tamale and get maybe two or three:)
• Chapulines - to be honest I only tried one of these. Here is a picture and you might get an idea as to why.
  
• Aguas - water was a scarcity so when someone asks if you if you would like agua, what they really mean is agua de something. What we call juice, they call agua. And jugo (juice) is just a more concentrated version of the agua. I tried agua de mango, melon (cantaloupe), and watermelon. They were all very delicious and the most common was mango.
  
• Tacos Arabes - This a special dish only found in the small area around the Limon ranch. It is some kind of meat, either lamb or pork, that is roasted on a spit and served on a flour "tortilla." I tried to explain to the Mexicans that it was more like a pita than a tortilla but they would hear none of it. But this dish was obviously influenced by Middle Eastern cuisine.
  

Mexico City!

I may or may not be posting for a few weeks, but that should not be out of the norm for a blog-slacker like me. This is because by this time tomorrow I will be landing in the Juarez International Airport of Mexico City! I have been pining for a Mexico trip for a few years now and it is finally happening. Look forward to lots of pictures in a few weeks!