Oh Beautiful for Cherry Pie!

Well, it is now the fourth of July, one of my all time favorite holidays. This day has always been such a huge celebration in my family. Growing up right across the street from BYU, we were always watching the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire and the neighborhood would get together and BBQ. After we moved to Orem, we didn't always go to the big Firework show, but we would always have lots of food, lots of family and friends and lots of fun! This was my Aunt Jill's favorite holiday (or one of them at least), and I can't go through this day without thinking of her and all the fun we had. She is missed terribly.
Of course, to me on the Fourth, I think to all the sacrifice that has been made for this country, and for the heroes that have fought, and died for it. My grandpa fought for this country and though I didn't know him well, I am proud that he did.
This Fourth, I am with Travis' family in California for a fun BBQ. Hopefully the weather will cool off a bit! But I did decide that this year, I really wanted to contribute something different and very homemade. Say....Cherry pie? Well, somehow it turned out fairly decent, even though the crust was a little more crumble than I expected. I have yet to see how it tastes, but at least it makes for pretty patriotic pictures! I hope that everyone has a very wonderful Fourth of July. Remember what it is about, enjoy the celebration and capture the memories so that you have them forever!

Beware of random acts of kidnapping.

You think you are safe sitting in your house at night, innocently watching the result show of So You Think You Can Dance, when suddenly, your dogs become alert and begin to bark. Of course you are curious, and you go to the door to check the peephole. To your horror, a young girl stands outside, her hands clasps suspiciously behind her back, a creepy smile plays across her lips, as she turns her head to the stairs to wait for her accomplices. One more young woman, slightly older joins the first, and finally a final woman joins the first two, this one holding a camera. You think that these women look harmless enough, you even suspect that you know them from somewhere, have possibly seen them at a BBQ, or a graduation party, or was it around Christmas? You take hold of the doorknob and swing open the door. Before you can get out so much of a "Hi, how are?" The first girl attacks. You find out quickly that it was a piece of cloth hidden behind her back, and in an instant it is being wrapped around your head as a blind fold. You can feel the three pushing their way into the house. Your dogs being such good watchdogs try to kiss your captors to death, but to no avail. As suddenly as you were blind folded, your hands are pulled behind your back and you feel the cold plastic of batman handcuffs encircle your wrists. Through the dark abyss before your eyes, you see random flashes of light from the one with the camera. It seems that these kidnappers like to document their crimes. Perhaps as trophies to look back on after they do heaven knows what to you. You know that there's no fighting, the one with the blind fold could surely over take you, so you timidly ask if they can put your dogs in their kennel, turn off your t.v. and get your purse so that you might be able to lock up your house. Strangely enough, your captors agree.
As you are pushed outside, you hear one of them lock your door for you. They lead you down a flight of steps and into a waiting car, all the while taking pictures of your horror. As you are put into a car, you wonder as to the reasoning for this? What is going on? You begin to ask questions. Every question asked is answered with a "no". No, it is not your birthday (again), no it is not your bachlorette party (again). You give up and sit back in your seat, now realizing that instead of asking questions you should have been counting how many turns and minutes you have been in the car so that you could find out where you were and make a break for it. They now tell you the reasoning for your kidnapping. It seems you had something to do with making the food at a graduation party.
Now, the car begins to slow. Your captors get out of the car and one comes to you and to get you out. You hear music slightly and many voices around you, but you know that you are still outside somewhere. Then, your blindfold is removed, and your handcuffs and you can see what is in store for you. You gasp...it seems they mean to make you sit in a Starbucks and order a drink and have conversation. You know that you can handle this. You bravely walk to the counter and order a venti hot chocolate. HA, take that captors! You will endure their torture! You are taken to a table where you sit for an hour or more discussing topics of interest and drinking hot chocolate. The manager has shut the place down, so there is no chance of someone rescuing you. It's just you and two of the captors, the last one in the getaway car. At the end of the night, it seems that you will be a lucky few that get to go home after a kidnapping. You are driven home and dropped off. As the kidnappers leave, you feel a slight longing to be back in the car with them. They weren't so bad, in fact they were pretty darn nice. They even seemed to have added some excitement to your life. Somewhere in the back of your mind Stockholm syndrome is ringing clear. You still reach into your purse and pull out your cell phone and compose a text "Thanks for that guys! It was a lot of fun! I love you." and then you press send.

Escape from the bedroom.

There was an intense 20 minutes in our apartment today. To set the stage, Travis get home from work early. He sleeps for a few hours during the day. I had church today, so when I left, I put our two dogs in the bedroom with him, I said goodbye and shut the bedroom door behind me.
I came home from church a couple hours later and immediately went to let the dogs out of the bedroom so Travis could continue to sleep without them. I turned the doorknob and went to push open the door, and it didn't budge. I knew it wasn't locked because I could turn the knob, but sometimes the knob sticks, so I turned it the other way which usually works. The door still didn't budge. Now, my dogs had heard me trying to get in and started whining which would wake up Travis. I continued turning the knob hoping to loosen it up and open the door. The door would not budge. Now I could feel Travis on the other end turning the knob. He tried to open the door and it wouldn't. I asked him if he wanted me to push on the door and he could pull from the other end. We tried that, the door would not open. At this point Travis was saying he had to go to the bathroom. I went and found a screwdriver to unscrew the doorknob. After I got the knob off, the door still remained sealed shut because the locking mechanism was in still in place inside the door and the knob on the other end needed to be taken off. I slid the screwdriver under the door to Travis who then unscrewed his door knob. Now we could see eachother through the hole, but part of the lock and the piece that goes into the door jam were still in place wedged in. I looked in the hole at Travis and looked back out at me. We couldn't unwedge the piece out of the door jam and momentarily stared at eachother hopelessly.
"I don't know what kind of food I can fit inside this hole," I said to him. He looked back at me and said, "I don't know either, but I really have to go to the bathroom." We realized then, that we had to figure out a way to get the door open. I asked him how good his door breaking down skills were. He told me they were good....but only if he was on my side of the door. I asked him to tell me how to kick in the door. He must of figured that to be a bad idea, and instead remembered a set of plyers in our drawer and a flashlight in his bag. I went to get them. I used the plyers for a while and managed to yank parts of the metal out of the door jam, and when I couldn't do anymore, I slid the players under the door, and the mini flashlight through the hole to Travis. After a few more minutes of him yanking at the metal and me trying to think of who could rescue him from the bedroom on a Sunday, Travis pulled out the final piece and the door swung open. The good news is that Travis and our dogs could leave the bedroom and I wouldn't have to sleep on the couch. The bad news, we no longer have a doorknob, just a hole where it should be.

The doorknobs and pieces of the inside parts.

The hole and part of the jammed piece still wedged inside.

The Graduation Party of Epic Proportions!

Last night ended very late so I didn't post anything. Samantha's grad party was last night and since there was so much going on, I will do a photo line up with captions.

Pictures of Sisi growing up

The center island arrangement

The front counter arrangement

Delicious chocolate cherries

Only one plate of strawberries..so far.

The outside candy table.

Sisi and Michelle by the pool.

Guest sign in and card hat.

The homemade candy cone candlelabra.

Patrick making virgin margaritas on the patio.

Samantha chatting with friends.

Hanging out on the patio. The candle lighter and fruit dipper. (Laura and Me)

Sisi and Mufasa entertaining the guests with opera.(You seriously need to hear this girl sing!)

More musical entertainment on the guitar from Richard.

Sisi all grown up...good job!! Congrats!

Decorations by Chateau Alida
Food by Casa de la Aubrey

Strawberries and Cherries everywhere, but not a bite to eat!

My fridge is jam packed with sweet goodness tonight! I was entrusted by my mother-in-law to dip all the fruit and pretzels for Samantha's graduation party tomorrow. I don't think I realized how much dipping that would be! Luckily, I had our friend Patrick helping me all day.
It started at the grocery store this morning with an enormous order of strawberries and cherries to fill. After the cart was filled with 15 boxes of berries and 3 big bags of cherries, we went to find our chocolate. We stocked up on both regular and white chocolate, added in some crushed walnuts and even some coconut shavings. The only thing on the shopping list that seemed to pose a problem was the giant pretzel sticks. We did in the end manage to find them (thank goodness!)
We began our chocolate dipping adventure probably around 11. I don't think we completed it until the last pretzel was coated in chocolatey goodness at around 3:30ish. I have never seen so much chocolate in my life! We somehow were able to get almost all the trays and platters into my fridge with some McGyver like skills from Patrick, however this is now the inside of my fridge.

Every container in there is filled with something covered in chocolate and yes, some are propped up on soup cans to avoid crushing. Thank you Patrick!
What we couldn't fit in there we got into my mother-in-laws totally awesome fridge that I think was designed for situations like this. In the end, my sink is filled as well with dishes, my hands and hair smell of chocolate and my fridge is full of yummy treats that I can't eat...until tomorrow.

Headaches and spilt salsa.

It's been one of those days, the kind that you just want to crawl into bed afterwards and wish that it would all go away! Well, maybe not that bad. I won't go into too much detail about what has frustrated me, only that it was one thing after another. It was a discouraging day at work, which sparked a fantastic headache. I found out that I have to work tomorrow which bummed me out because I had made an appointment with the bishop and was looking forward to it. So, I had to track down phone numbers to locate the ward clerk to reschedule which meant I had to call Travis at home to dig through my scripture bag and find the piece of paper with one of the women who befriended me to get the ward clerks phone number. He also informed me that the a.c. (which had finally been completely replaced) didn't seem to be working...again. This made me upset because I forgot to turn it to 75 before I left for work. TANGENT: It was only frozen over. Travis turned it off completely before he went to work, and I turned it back on when I got home and cool air seems to be blowing. BACK TO THE POST: So, after I tried placing the call a couple of times with no luck, I knew I would have to wait until I got home to find the Relief Society president's number. By the end of the day, my head seemed to be splitting. I still had to go to the store for some necessities and also find dinner. I grabbed what I needed at the store and decided on La Huerta Vejia for dinner. I was getting tired and irritable by the time my food came (which was quite quickly, I was just still frustrated by work) and I had to juggle my food bag and my grocery bag and walk home. In the process of walking home and juggling, there was a car of guys that drove by honking, whistling and waving at me. I looked up at them but didn't respond. This made them mad and they screamed out the window at me calling me names which didn't make me feel much better. Luckily I had Trav on the phone and he made me feel better. When I got home, I was happy to see the a.c. was working. I tried calling the Relief Society president with no luck, popped some tylenol and opened my dinner. The salsa had spilled EVERYWHERE. However, the quesadilla was pretty darn awesome.

The Reason for Pomp and Circumstance

Yesterday evening was a big night for the family. Travis' sister Samantha graduated from high school! It was the largest graduating class ever from her high school. Samantha looked beautiful and we are both so proud of her.
The day itself was beautiful weather. Even though it is June, I don't think it topped out above 85 degrees. As we all drove out to the ceremony, we noticed in the distance some dark clouds. We didn't really think too much of them, because the last couple days there have been a lot of dark clouds and no rain.
At the ceremony, Travis and I found a parking spot about a block and a half away. As we hoofed it I cursed the heels I was wearing. We met up with Samantha, Travis' dad and mom outside the front gates of the football field. The wind was starting to pick up, but it really just felt nice, rather than feeling ominous.
After a half hour of waiting for the rest of the extended family and a small issue with a ticket, we pushed our way through the crowd and hiked the bleachers. From the tip top where we were sitting, those same dark clouds looked rather close. However, the wind seemed to be blowing in the opposite direction.
At 7, the procession started. We watched 700 kids file into their seats on the football field. Now, when they filed in they did it to "Pomp and Circumstance", which traditionally is played at graduations.

Skip ahead to the actual diplomas. As the kids got up to file to the front and receive their diplomas, no music played. We all thought that was odd, because this was the time for the music. Samantha was near the middle of the group, so we all had time to reflect on the developement brewing in the sky to our left. It seemed those clouds had darkened nearly to black, and the wind had picked up much more and there was the smell of rain lingering in the air. There was a buzz that went through the crowd. It seemed everyone realized that we were going to get wet. And that's when it hit me. As I looked down at the kids walking a steady pace up front I figured out why you walk to "Pomp and Circumstance." Walking to music was specifically designed for situation such as this...there is a large storm coming up behind you, you speed up the music track, everyone sprints to the front while a Vegas card dealer flips out the diplomas, and you finish before it rains.
In the end, however, we did not get rained on. The storm seemed to know that there was a graduation going on and did nothing. The only rain that fell came down after the ceremony was over and everyone was home.
P.S. We would like to tell Sisi how much we love her and are proud of her. Good job and congrats!