Cute x4!

You can't watch this and be grumpy! It's possibly the cutest thing ever! I saw it on the Today show. It is a youtube video.

Fireproof

I was expecting some kind of action thriller about fires and rescues and stuff like that, with maybe a little on the guys relationship to make it interesting.

This movie is not like any regular movie. It was a movie about marriage. I recommend anyone who is married, or is going to be married to see this movie. It is a reminder that marriage is a covenant to be there for better and for worse. It is a covenant between the married couple and God. And it shows how to learn to love your spouse, even if they might not deserve the love sometimes. It shows how to love like Christ loves us. And the roll He should play in our marriage. I am not very good at describing things. There's more to this movie than that. So just trust me, and see the movie! It teaches what true married love is, and it is so different than what most other media shows it as.

I am usually pretty good at not crying during movies. I don't think I even cried when I watched Titanic or any other tear-jerker movie. But this movie really hits home, at least it did for me. And I think it will for most people too.

Since I have watched this, I've learned that almost all of the actors were not actors, but members of the church organization that made this movie. I also learned that Kirk Cameron (remember him from Growing Pains many years ago) will not kiss any woman other than his real life wife in his acting career. I think that is so sweet. And it shows how important marriage is to him. There was a kiss scene in this movie, and I've read that his wife stepped into the scene for this. And I didn't even notice in the movie.

In the movie, there is something called the Love Dare. It is a 40 day process to protect and enrich your marriage. I've decided to get the book and do this. The Love Dare Book And there is also a Love Dare Journal online. But even if you get these, please watch the movie too. It's that good.

A Pretty Cool Perk

When I was at work I needed to drive one of the transmitter engineers to the helicopter so he could hitch a ride up to the top of Farnsworth Peak for his week long shift. The mountain is of course very snowy, so they take either snow cat or helicopter to the top of the mountain. Usually during a shift change they have 2 engineers that go up on the helicopter, and 2 more that come back. This time there was only one that was going up and none were coming back. So there was an empty seat both ways. I didn't really think they would let me take a ride up there just for the fun of it, but Whoo Hoo! They did!
This is a self portrait of me on the helicopter! I wish I had a real camera, but all I had was my cell phone camera. The helicopter is so loud you can't hear a thing. You have to wear the headphones for hearing protection, and the mic thing is so you can talk to people in the helicopter.


Here is 1-80 and the river. Look how tiny the big semis are.


Here is another shot of the freeway.


Look how icky the air in the valley was. I was above the icky air where the sun was shining.


Here is the mountain we were flying to. It's pretty. I texted this picture to my kids and husband while I was in the air! I'm now a texting pro.


Here are the Oquirrh Mountains, quite close! There were 2 tiny little elk. Well, I'm sure they were actually big like elk are. They just looked little from where I was. Sorry I missed their picture. They wouldn't have shown up in the picture anyway.


Here was when we were just coming over the top of the mountain. That was so cool flying up over the peak and then seeing the other side! I wish I could have gotten sompe pictures of the transmitters. But I was on the wrong side of the helicopter, then they took a slightly different angle back, so I didn't get a shot of them. They look really cool too.


Here is Salt Lake City. But you can't tell because of the thick yucky air. I'm sure looking forward to a storm to clean up our air.


This is the helicopter I rode on. Anyway. It was a very fun way to start the day!

Buttermilk Bread

A little while ago I ran out of yeast. I went to buy it, and had a hard time spending the money on the one I normally buy. I usually get Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast. I think it is a little expensive. I usually buy the big bag and store it in the freezer. If you store it in the freezer it will last for many years. But I noticed a different one than I that I normally use that was a few dollars cheaper. I figured yeast was yeast. And decided to get the cheaper one. I found out I was wrong when I tried to use this new yeast in my regular recipe for rolls. The rolls came out close to the same as normal, but the flavor just wasn't as good as it normally was. There was less of the good yeasty flavor that homemade bread usually has. That is when I noticed that I had bought Instant Yeast instead of Active Dry Yeast which is what I was used to. Since then I have done a little bit of research online to see the differences between all the different types of yeasts. If you are interested, read here to see the differences.

This last weekend I wanted to make bread to go with some soup I was making. I decided to try to find a recipe that would still have a good flavor even though I only had Instant Yeast. I found a fabulous recipe here on Fleischmann's Yeast Breadworld. They had a lot of wonderful recipes to choose from. But I thought the Buttermilk Bread sounded really good. I'm glad I tried it. My family really liked it. The bread was really soft and the flavor was yummy! And since it was using the instant yeast, it was pretty quick since I didn't need to proof my yeast. I added it directly to my dry ingredients like the recipe said. And I only had to let it raise once instead of twice like you do using Acitve Dry yeast.

Sorry I didn't get my own picture of the bread I made. My family ate it up too quickly.

Regina

I want and saw Regina last night. When I heard it was an American opera, I thought that I probably wouldn't like it. But I was so wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The story was very good. There were greedy, selfish family members who would steal from or blackmail anyone to get what they wanted. There was even a plot to force Regina's daughter to marry her first cousin to keep the wealth in the family. These people were really horrible. Especially Regina. She was a cold-hearted monster. But the lady who played her part did a fabulous job. Her Husband was very loveable. He tried to protect his daughter from the family, although he was on his death bed. He and his daughter also did a fabulous job. One of my favorite characters was Birdie, the sweet lady who turned into an alcoholic rather than deal with the horrible family she was married into. And one of my favorite musical numbers was a Blues style duet that Birdie sang with Addie the maid.

The music was so enjoyable. I was afraid that American music wouldn't really fit into an opera style. But it was almost like a musical rather than an opera. The conductor for this opera was Utah Symphony's Keith Lockheart. There was Jazz, Blues, Spiritualism, and I am sure other styles that were very American and beautiful.

How Joseph Smith "Wrote" the Book of Mormon

I found this on You Tube and really liked it. I thought I'd share it. It's only about 4 1/2 minutes long.

If you have never read the "Book of Mormon" I highly recommend that you do. It is a powerful testimony builder of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful that Joseph Smith did all he did so I can read the word of God.

Fave 5

My kids and I got a new cell phones and a new cell plan. This is my first experience with texting. I find I am pretty slow at it. But my kids really like it. It's really cute they will text me throughout the day and just say hi and stuff. They like to have full conversations by text, which so far drives me crazy. I take way too long to type my message. They will send me 3 or 4 messages in the time it takes me to type up my first reply.
The first day I tried texting I kept texting my husband too. I had him on my "Fave 5" so it was easy to pull him up to send him a message. I texted him a few times and he didn't reply back. I just figured he was busy since he was at work. I texted him asking him where my heartburn medication was. He didn't get back to me, but I found my medicine so I was alright. The next day I came to work and heard about a bunch of layoffs. I was upset that friends had lost jobs, but at the same time relieved that I still had one. So I texted my husband to tell him about it. A few minutes later he texted me back consoling me about the layoffs. A little later I texted him and asked him what my phone number was. He texted me back with it. I was starting to think I was getting good at this texting thing and thinking it was very convenient. Later that day I called him on the phone. I didn't get him; I got a very nice young lady named Heather instead. I was pretty confused for a little bit, until I realized I had entered her number into my phone instead of my husband's. So she was in my "Fave 5" and not my husband. A few minutes later I realized that I had been texting that lady for days! I was pretty embarrassed but did have a good laugh about it.
I can only make changes to my "Fave 5 once a month. So for now "Heather" is one of my "faves", although I won't harass the poor lady anymore or she might think I am a stocker. I'm just very glad I didn't text my husband a secret little sexy note meant only for my husband.