Life of a wanna-be food photographer

Yes, it's true. I've always had this secret desire to become a food photographer. What a life they live. They cook (or watch the cooks), make food a work of art, and taste test after the photo shoot is over! Since the purchase of my new Canon iOS Rebel, I have began to fulfill my dream. Here's a peek into my imperfect attempts...

On our bucket list was the goal to learn how to grill. I know... a Texan who doesn't know how to grill?! I guess my dad was just always in charge of that part. John and I thought the 4th of July was a perfect opportunity to learn how. So we followed America's Test Kitchen's instructions on how to make hamburger patties (with an added twist of our own) and grilled them to perfection. I was amazed at how simple it really was!

Thanks to our friends Simon and Pam, we were gifted a juicer. Our first experiment with the juicer was of course, OJ. It was beyond delectable! Since then it was strawberry kiwi, apple, and watermelon juice. The next upgrade is adding veggies. Blackberry spinach? Maybe...

One Saturday morning, we had a hankering for muffins. John is quite the muffin man, so he did most of the cooking. Poppyseed seemed simple enough and we had a huge bag of poppyseeds that John's mom sent us. There's nothing like freshly baked opioids for breakfast!

This post has successfully made me salivate. Taking photos of food is one thing, eating is another :)

Inspired by quality blogs

As I was perusing through my daily facebook news, I found myself clicking on multiple blog links posted by my friends. What was planned to be a 15 minute facebook update turned into an hour blog creep session. I pretty much caught up on the past year of blog posts from all of my friends who own blogs. It was quite inspiring (as you may guess from my first blog post in 6 months). Blogs capture the essence of everyone's personality so much better than facebook does. I can hear my friends talking when I read their blogs. So why settle for summaries when I can read the whole book? (has been my ingenious epitomy of the century)
This epitomy has lead to the thought, why don't I do such a thing. Write my book for family, friends, loved ones for people to read. I'd like to make that more of a priority, to better record my life, because who's going to look back on the history of my FB statuses for the past year? No one. That would be silly.

At this page of my life, I would include these illustrations:

I don't remember the last time I wore non-scrubbish clothes. People may think scrubs are cool, but there comes a price with feeling like you're wearing oversized pajamas all day. You feel like you can eat those leftover brownies on the counter. You feel good until you try on those jeans that fit last week ;) On with the exercising!

Becoming a dental hygienist is harder than one may think. It's a science intensive curriculum filled with craning over people the majority of the day while trying to save lives. I've learned that I have not given my hygienist enough credit for what she had to go through to etch away at my teeth all day. I have become very familiar with the view of sitting on the couch with my laptop and books out on my lap. Till December!

The day that John and I became Costco cardholders is the day I think we entered into adulthood. It's the cool/savvy people club. Costco is an incredible place: quality, bulk items for a cheaper price. Ever since my personal finance teacher spent a few minutes of every lecture raving about Costco, I have coveted Costco members. Let's just say our past few date nights since the day we became members have been at Costco. Hot dogs, gelato, and a warehouse of goods is all any couple needs for a great date. Let's just hope it keeps us saving money, rather than spending more.

Running is a good metaphor for life. There are ups and down. Sometimes it hurts. Things are constantly changing. Slow and steady wins the race. That pretty much sums up my training as of late.

John's taking the summer off of school for the first time in awhile. He's working full time and he's got lots of projects going on at once. That keeps him late into the night, hence the facetime. I was spoiled going to BYU with him and seeing him constantly throughout the day. Now I miss seeing the husband of course. So life goes I suppose.

Going crazy is normal, right?

Rough relationship with blogger...

Blogger and I seem to be having issues lately... we just couldn't get on the same page. It wouldn't let me log in for awhile due to incompatible email addresses and forgotten passwords. But we have finally it worked out and now I can update you all on john and I's wonderful life!

John and I have been running around like mad trying to used to our new school schedules. He is currently at BYU studying Sound Recording Technology and I finally transferred to Dental Hygiene School from BYU! It's been exciting, but of course extremely busy. Only 17 months left... although right now that seems forever away.
I've come to realize the human nature truly is never satisfied. Why am I always looking forward to the next stage in life? For instance, right when I started school, I was too excited for getting a real job and moving out of Provo. I have realized that I need to enjoy life in the moment that I am in because I know I am just going to miss life as a student in the future. But have no fear, I have definitely been enjoying life at the moment. School is hard work, but it's a blast. Everyone in my class is so nice and we make sure to have fun. Besides, who wouldn't want to wear these rad scrubs everyday?

Malorie and I doing x-rays on eachother!

(Thanks to Malorie for the Photos, I need to be better at taking pictures so I don't have to keep stealing hers ;)

So everything is going well. John and I have certainly been having an eventful past couple of months. Kyra and I threw a French themed Bridal shower for one of my Best Friends. It turned out super cute:
(From left to right: Erin, Sara, Hannah, Ashley (bottom center)

The old Jerusalem roommates were reunited at Catherine's wedding. All four of us were there! Ashley Bradshaw, her husband Stephen, Brittany, and me and John drove up to see Catherine and Doug get married. It was a sweet reunion before Brittany left on her mission.

On the way home we drove through Yellowstone. It was my first time and it was so beautiful. Definitely want to return again someday...

John and I spent our Fourth of July with the Mammen's in Park City:

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but behind John is a store called J.Go Gallery, we thought it was ironic...It's been a fantastic summer. We're definitely enjoying life and we making the most of student life.

Californ I-A

More highlights from our trip:
Monterey Aquarium-








Do you see the Seahorse? haha

John and Arian spent some time playing together and recording some amazing songs. I got to join in with these wonderful musicians for a song playing violin. Fun? I think yes!




I was feeling like something exotic, so we got some delicious crepes at this little shop by the beach...




The car ride was long, especially after getting stuck in the snow storm in Utah. But at least John got some sleep...


(I have to admit, he drove most of the way, this picture is a little misleading)

Our first Thanksgiving together!

Thankful for Fall

November.
it never seemed to be particularly special month for me, but I'd have to say that this one certainly turned out to be :)


Butternut Squash Soup

Pepperoncini. THE most amazing hoagie sandwich ever

Monterey Bay, CA

us <3

Thanksgiving with the Johnsons!

We have been so blessed our first year of marriage.
Wonderful family, wonderful friends, a nice place to live, food on the table... what more could you ask for?

Narcoleptic?

This might seem strange to you.

It all started on my Study Abroad to Jerusalem. I did not realize my capacity to fall asleep absolutely anywhere. In class on the front row (with an extremely loud, snapping professor might I add), on a miserably bumpy bus, sitting on the ground in a desert, riding a camel... I literally started sleeping everywhere. My roommates would make fun of me for it. I would too, it IS quite hilarious.
Then I came home, started back to school at BYU. The sleeping spells continued. In class, church, movies... This semester, I fall asleep EVERYDAY at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon MST. This happens to be the same time as my Doctrine and Covenants class. I absolutely love the professor, he is an active lecturer and keeps you interested, but I can never seem to stay awake. I know you may be thinking, "oh, she's just not getting enough sleep.." I am! Averaging about 8 hours every night which is more sleep than I got when I was single. It seems like I've tried everything. Food, gum, wiggling toes, singing songs, holding my eyes wide open. No. No success! I don't know how to overcome these sleeping spells... Life's a hard one when you've got even a mild case of narcolepsy...

I sympathize with this poor poodle.

Aid in the Kitchen

After realizing that the Hytop bread loaf from WinCo was practically cotton candy, John and I decided we wanted to have homemade bread. We had the hardest time deciding between a bread maker and a kitchen aid. Both are absolutely wonderful, but which would benefit us most? After many consultations with experienced users, we opted for the Kitchen Aid. I think the more difficult decision though was deciding on the color. Once we arrived at the store and saw the many color options, we had to eliminate one by one... Oh dear. After all that, we came home with our Indigo Kitchen Aid, which we paid $20.76 for after all our giftcards, coupons, and such :)
And oh how it has blessed my life...







The first bread recipe I made was my Aunt Tricia's recipe that my Mom always made and of course we loved it. The second recipe we made was from the Kitchen Aid cookbook... not so good. I'm hoping to try out more recipes. So if you have any, please share! Also, any tips on shaping a bread loaf? Our last loaf resembled a butternut squash...

November is here! I can hardly believe it, yet I can't stand the anticipation for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Patience has never been an easy virtue of mine ;)
John and I signed up for Winter semester classes, and boy am I going to have a tough semester... Floral Design, Food Preparation, Violin, German, Writings of Isaiah, and Raquetball! Probably the most fun semester I've ever had, but that's what you gotta do for your last semester at BYU and right before Dental Hygiene School, right?