Of burning, biting, and other things...

1. Of Burning...

So yesterday was interesting. I promised my sister-in-law that I'd make an apple pie for my father-in-law's birthday party last night. So Saturday morning comes around, I have all the apples, and no apple-peeler-corer from Pampered Chef. Danny ran to borrow that from my Mom. A couple of hours later, the apples were peeled, cored, sliced, and sugared up, the pie dough was awaiting formation, and the oven was on.

Pie one of two went in the oven.

Fifteen minutes into pie one's cook time, I realized I forgot the secret cube of butter that makes it boil over with sugary apple juices. Rolling my eyes, I just left it to go.

45 minutes later: Pie one has boiled over completely, the sugary stuffs is sticking and bubbling in the oven. We're all good to bake pie number two right?

WRONG! Being me, however, I decided turning the heat up again to start cooking pie two would be A-okay!

The oven started smoking. Furiously.

Cautiously, I opened the oven door. Flames. Yep, there were flames in the bottom of my oven, threatening to jump out the door!

Long story short, I called for Danny in what I thought at the time was a pretty panicky voice. It must not have been cuz he came pretty slowly lol. We threw open doors and windows and I took the five-minute cooked pie I was baking for my Dad for Father's Day out of the still-smoking oven.

Self-clean cycle should do the trick, right? Eh, kinda. It still smoked enough to make me nervous about burning down our house, but it burnt the sugary goodness to ash. Awesome right?

This is how it turned out-yummy I hope! 

2. Of Biting...

So you know how when you have little kids you're watching (whether your own or someone else's) and you just know if you turn your back for even the tiniest split second, that something bad will happen? Well, today in nursery, I had the most extreme reminder:

One little boy is super mellow, almost always willing to do what you ask and usually super nice to the other little kids. (You should know that today was a nursery of five VERY energetic boys). Another boy, who for the purpose of this post I'll nickname the 'Lil Biter, LOVES to give hugs. Big giant bear hugs that send whomever he hugs careening to the floor in a heap.

There's probably only five-ten minutes until all the kids mom's and dad's come to get them. And both of us nursery leaders made that teensie weensie mistake: we turned our back on the 'Lil Biter for just a split second.

It was just long enough for us to turn around and see him laying on top of the other little boy (the mellow one). He looked like he was just trying to give him a huge hug. But low and behold, he had latched onto his friend. Literally.

The poor little guy had teeth marks on his cheek from our 'Lil Biter! :(

Come to find out, the other leader's son got bit in primary. Small world huh? Despite this little escapade, I still have to say, I love being in nursery. :D

3. And Other Things...

I LOVE Pinterest, which is why I'll share a few little secrets. Today's secret is this:

-- The "Sock" Bun: This is one of my all-time favorite hair-dos. It's quick, easy, and looks pretty dang cute if I do say so myself. I prefer to use a "filler" scrunchie from Sally Beauty, about 4-5 bucks. It's more sanitary than an actual sock stolen from your husband, dad, or brother's drawer. Who knows where their feet have been...

               I pull my hair into a pony tail and shape it however I like best. For those of you who know me well, you know I tease my hair. I do so a little bit for this hair-do. Then I take my scrunchie and, starting and the end of my pony tail, I pull the hair through and under the scrunchie, forming this pretty "Cinderella" bun:

Tah-dah! Here's a link to the actual video I learned from. Enjoy!

http://aspottedpony.com/for-moms/how-to-use-a-sock-to-get-beautiful-curly-hair-without-heat/1517/

This link is where I learned it from, but they use it to make curly hair. I didn't like how my hair turned out with the curls, but I love, love, love the bun! Have fun!

A day with the little ones...

Recently, I accepted a calling to be a nursery coordinator in my ward. For those of you who aren't LDS (Mormon), it's basically a specific job I am asked to do by the leader in my ward. It is strictly service in the church--we aren't paid for what we do, but we love doing it anyway. Today was my first day in our new ward's nursery. Let me tell you, it was a blast!

I was thrilled to be called to be in nursery again because I have done it once before in my old ward. Playing and teaching the little kiddies in the church is such a blessing. No Debbie, I don't think it will produce the desire to have our own little guys quite yet. :P

Normally, I don't actually need to be in the nursery teaching and maintaining order. But today they needed help, so in I went. There were only five little kids in there with the other leader. Not too big of a handful. One little boy came up to me and asked to have a story read to him. Since he's 18 months old, one book was usually pretty boring after a while so he'd dash off to grab another five to try. At one point, he handed me a Christmas book that illustrated the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." I love singing. So I sang it to him. I don't think he knew the words, but he was bouncing around with me as I sang the song.

It would figure that as I'm writing this, the words pop into my head...Danny's gonna go nuts if I start singing Christmas songs too, too early. :D

Speaking of holidays, shortly after our personal marriage holiday (a.k.a. anniversary), we had a few pictures taken by my good friend Siri Baxter. Anyone looking for a phenomenal photographer, check out her blog! She's wonderful to work with and, well, I suppose I'm biased, but still--check out what she can do!

http://www.freckledlemonade.com/apps/blog/facebook-photoshoot-giveaway-winners-p-family-one

The photoshoot I'm linking too was done at 6:00AM on a Saturday morning. Danny was kinda grumpy to begin with, and I can't blame him, but I'm glad he was smiling and awake by the time we drove out to the picture location. My favorite is the one where I'm looking over his shoulder. If you check out the blog, it's close to the middle. I tried to post it here, but blogger is being silly.

Maybe the one on facebook that I like will work; sorry if the picture looks huge. I'm not that conceited, I promise.



Isn't he handsome? I'm seriously so blessed to have him as my loving husband, best friend, and eternal companion.

Hopefully I'll have time to blog later this week...wish me luck!

Walking down memory lane

In the last few weeks since my last post, not a whole lot has happened, which is why I decided I'd reminisce a bit.

So, mine and Danny's first actual date: It was the cutest thing ever. He picked me up and said we were going to go out to dinner, which we did, at a yummy Mexican place somewhere in Mesa. I ate too much and my tummy hurt a bit, but I was ready for more when he explained we had more to go do.

Next stop was a park he used to play frisbee golf at with friends and family. By the time we got there, it was actually a little dark and it was getting chilly. Of course, he gave me the jacket in the back of his car (this jacket has since been donated to D.I.--he'd had it since he was 15!). The frisbees? Coolest things ever! They GLOWED in the dark. I didn't know they made them like that. I know, I'm real caught up with the times. We got started on our game of frisbee golf, and being me, I managed to over-toss one of the frisbees into a dark abyss somewhere in the park. We looked everywhere, but the downside to glow in the dark frisbees is that they need to be recharged with light to glow well (at least I thought they did). Frisbee lost, game, continued. It was actually a ton of fun--I'd never played before, so I didn't know what to expect.

Danny was such a goof: he had paper in his backseat to make paper airplanes as soon as we got bored with frisbee golf. My airplane looked awesome! And... well...it didn't fly well. Danny's looked pretty simple and, as you might guess, it flew straight. It was super cool to alter the designs of the planes and try to make them fly in different ways. I think Danny got one to loop the loop. Yep, it was great.

Now, quick note: Our first date happend the week AFTER we went to Sunday dinner at his family's house. And thank goodness it did, because we both feel very strongly that without that Sunday dinner, we may not have begun dating as quickly as we did. Here's how it happened:

During sacrament meeting in early December/late November--don't remember which--Danny happened to overhear me telling a few other gals in the ward that I had a choir concert way out in Phoenix and was trying to figure out how I'd get to my home in Gilbert after I was finished. Being the gentleman that he is, he offered to pick me up from the lightrail station and then take me to Gilbert to have dinner with my family. It was in the direction he needed to go anyways.

Hours passed, my choir concert finished, and this handsome guy in a blue Honda shows up at the lightrail station to pick me up. A little while later, he had his brother Jimmy in the car and picked me up from my dorm to go to Gilbert. I had my laundry with me, which was a bit...weird feeling to say the least. He opened the door and almost hesitantly, asked if I would like to come to dinner with him at his family's house in Queen Creek. It was Fast Sunday, I was hungry, and hey, I wanted to get to know him a little better. What better way than around his family?

Now, he'd told me about all his siblings, but when he invited me to come with him to family dinner, I certainly wasn't expecting to drive up to a gigantic home with at least 5 other vehicles parked around the driveway. When he said family dinner, he literally meant the WHOLE family! Talk about a shocker!

Danny would say I took it all in a stride, and learned all the nieces' and nephews' names in a single sitting, and for the most part he's right. But I didn't feel like I had to try to fit in with them. Everyone was easy to talk to, funny, and best of all, I got to see how phenomenal Danny was as a brother, an uncle, and a son.

A little while later, Danny told me he felt prompted to ask me to come to dinner with his family. Thank goodness for the influence of the Spirit. It certainly helped us. I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband, and amazing family and friends. I know the gospel is true and I know that Danny and I are strengthened every day because of our testimonies.

Stay tuned for more!