Bryan and Sara

Best. Hubby. Ever.

2012-01-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

Carrot Tree almond petit fours are the best welcome home.

Christmas Break 2011

2012-01-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

We had a bona fide California Christmas this year at 84 degrees! We got to visit my family and everyone was able to make it. It was a blast! Here are some highlights.

The Getty.

Setting up the Cabbage Patch nativity display. (And becoming celebrities on the local Spanish news station for it. Please request all autographs through my assistant.)

Sitting by the fire pit.

Black tie present giving/receiving as a result of the aforementioned celebrity status...or maybe because of church, who's to say?

Playing Killer Bunnies all night, every night.
Seeing Wicked at the Pantages Theater!
And of course, meeting the new nephew!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

A Gift to the World:

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas centered on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Colonial Williamsburg Wreaths 2011

2011-12-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

We love walking through Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime, looking at the wreath displays and drinking hot chocolate. The wreaths all have to be made of materials that would have been available during colonial times and they are very pretty. I thought they were a little more creative last year but they were still pretty this year. Click here to see the wreaths from last year. Here's a few of our favorites from this year:

My favorite: burlap flowers

Bryan's favorite: oranges and orange flowers

Shield's Tavern hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies

Lemony

(re)finished!

2011-12-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

I finished refinishing our dining room table and china hutch! It was hard work and lots of doing, undoing, and redoing, but it finally paid off! My dad walked me through how to do it at each step (including two wake-up calls...oops, sorry Dad!) Here are the before and after pictures and pictures of the process. I'm still deciding if I'm going to let anyone eat on it...or touch it...or look at it too hard.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Step 1: Sanding. This was after I got wise and bought an orbital sander. Best purchase ever.

Step 2: Staining. This is where in despair, I bowed my head because the stain didn't go on evenly. I hadn't sanded evenly enough and had to start from the beginning and totally re-sand and re-stain it. Unfortunately I repeated this pattern on the other 3 chairs and table top.

Chair after re-sanding and re-staining:

Table after staining, re-sanding, and staining again:

Step 3: Polyurethane. This is the protective gloss layer that makes it all shiny.

Step 4: Wet sand. This is like a buffer and makes it extra smooth. I wet-sanded between each of the 3 coats of polyurethane. It looks dull after the wet sand (below) but when you put on the poly layer it is shiny again. This is a scary step. It is unsettling to purposely make it look worse temporarily.

Step 5: Paint, paint, paint. I painted for 12 hours yesterday with two 30 minute breaks. My hand is stuck in the painting position, but I'm done!!!

Step 6: Sit on my couch and stare/admire my work! :)

Things Sara Did in the Past 24 Hours

2011-11-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

1. Made gingerbread cookies.
2. Made gingerbread ice cream.
3. Made awesome Sunday dinner featuring Lemon Chicken with Artichokes.
4. Refinished four chairs and a table (in progress, she's outside sanding our table for the third time.)

And those are just a few of the reasons I lucked out big time in marrying my wife.

Pacman Halloween

2011-10-31T18:39:00.000-07:00

This year was our 5th Halloween together and we had a lot of fun. Here are the pumpkins we carved.

"Teeth Smile" by Sara on the left and "Angry Bird" by Bryan on the right:
Last week at work we had our professional portraits taken. The photographer wanted to take some "teeth smiles" and some "closed mouth smiles." After a couple closed mouth smile photos of me he said, "Oh. You don't do closed mouth smiles well." Then I said, "Oh. You don't do closed mouth photography well." Ok, I didn't actually say that. Instead I just carved this awesome teeth smile jack-o-lantern because teeth smiles are better than closed mouth smiles anyway.

You may remember our Pacman pumpkins from last year. These inspired this year's costumes: 8-bit reversible, glow-in-the-dark, "Blinky" and "Pacman." I guess Halloween just always seems like a great time to celebrate the joy that is Pacman. You can't tell in the picture, but the outlines glow in the dark.

Reverse:

Happy Halloween!

Les Miserables

2011-10-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

We saw Les Misérables yesterday and it was absolutely beautiful. We have always talked about wanting to see the play so we were very excited to finally get to see it. My favorite musical number was "One Day More." I think it is one of the most beautiful stories of love, justice, and mercy ever written. I already want to go again!

At the Kennedy Center:

I was memorized by these lights at the Kennedy Center. They look like little dandelion explosions of light and jewels. I love them.

Happy Birthday Bryan!

2011-10-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today is Hubby's birthday and part 1 of the birthday festivities. It consisted of friends, dinner, presents, and...s'more cake! S'more cake is one monster cake, 14 layers consisting of 2 layers of chocolate brownie, 2 layers of cheesecake, 2 layers of chocolate chip cookie, 1 layer graham cracker, 4 layers marshmallow frosting, and 3 layers chocolate frosting. One piece is sure to put you and everyone within a 5 mile radius in a sugar coma. One. Delicious. Sugar coma. The recipe can be found here.

Bryan with his cake

Us ♥

The creation

The delicious monster

14 layers of deliciousness

Happy Birthday Hubby, I love you.

Personal Progress

2011-10-01T10:58:00.001-07:00

I volunteer at my church by working with the girls age 12-18. The organization is called "Young Women" and our basic goal is to grow closer to God and to develop into our best selves. Within the Young Women organization there is a program called "Personal Progress." It focuses on individual goal setting in the following areas: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue. I love this program. I love this program because it helps me feel closer to my Savior and it helps me develop new talents and skills. It feels good to set goals, learn new things, and improve.

Here are some of the things I have been working on as part of my Personal Progress.

Learning to refinish furniture
I have been learning about how to refinish furniture as I refinish my dining room table, chairs, and china hutch. I am still in the sanding/paint removing phase, but I will post before/after photos when I am done.
Preparing for emergencies
I started thinking about this after Hurricane Irene hit last month and we had no electricity for five days. I'm putting together emergency kits and I'm also putting together an emergency guidebook that has information about what to do in different emergencies, how to prepare, and delicious recipes to make when you have no electricity. The book cover is below.
Studying the Book of Mormon and the Bible
The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and is a companion to the Bible. I have been reading and studying the Book of Mormon and it has been helping me grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. If you want a copy, click on the button to the right, and I'll send you one for free.

Hurricane Irene

2011-10-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene visited us last month, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. Overall, the damage was not serious here but it was a bit messy and we had no electricity or hot water for 5 days. It was kind of fun though because we got to spend lots of time with friends having cookouts and people were very generous to help out others in any way possible. Here's a little picture summary of Irene's visit and our preparations for her.

We filled the washer and bathtub with water beforehand in case we didn't have water. Luckily, we did have water, just not hot water.

A lot of trees and branches broke or fell over. For the most part they landed around houses instead of on them, which was very fortunate.

Bryan by a broken tree on W&M campus:

Some trees fell on roads but the city was very good about cutting them up and clearing the roads quickly.
This is our pond normally. During the hurricane it filled so high that the benches (on the right) were submerged!

We had no electricity for 5 days. Here was our nightly set-up: flashlight pointing upwards and 3 candles. We're now going to invest in a lantern.

Overall, it was pretty fun. No work, no school, lots of creative cooking, and a lot of spending time with each other and with friends...and a lot of me beating Bryan at Scrabble :D

New York Anniversary

2011-05-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

This week we celebrated our 3 year anniversary by going to New York City! It was a fantastic trip and we loved every minute! Here were some of the highlights:

Statue of Liberty. It rained, but it was a good reminder of another wonderful rainy day 3 years ago.

Times Square:Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi's Pizzeria:

Grimaldi's Pizzeria. Ok, previously neither of us was a big fan of NY style pizza...but Grimaldi's was so good it changed our minds. There's a reason this is the #1 Zaggat rated pizzeria! Amazing.

We appreciated the honesty of the New York people:

Breaking news: "Will budget cuts leave us unprepared for zombie apocalypse?"

Part of the 9/11 Memorial:

Levain's Bakery Cookies. SO good! Thank you for the recommendation Kim! These were on Bobby Flay Throwdown (and beat Bobby Flay). They were HUGE and so delicious.

Wall Street:

Dylan's Candy Bar: 3 floors of pure candy awesomeness.

The city from the 102 floor of Empire State Building:

Happy 3 year anniversary to us!

Font Freak

2011-04-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

There is one thing I am a super snob about. Ok...actually I just remembered Beatles covers, Gimp, incorrect usage of "then" vs "than", and Hamburger Helper. I'll start over:

It appears I am a connoisseur of snobby things, and one of those things is fonts. I recognize that this is maybe an incredibly nerdy thing to have such strong feelings about...but at least I'm not the one eating Hamburger Helper, so there!

I first realized that my font obsession was not normal when I took MCOM 320 in college. The professor was putting up slides of good and bad examples of an assignment. She put up one and said, "I've never seen this font before. What font is that?" After I answered "Romance Fatal Serif" and everyone stared at me with mouths agape in painful you're-not-normal-silence...that tipped me off that I wasn't supposed to know random font names. For the rest of that class period I pretended not to know the names of the other fonts (I'm looking at you Curlz MT, Bradley Hand, and Riesling), but today my pretending is over. It's time to raise font awareness.

To my fellow closet font freaks, today we publicly celebrate the ubiquitous overuse of every amateur's (or Avatar's?) favorite font with a delightful Papyrus blog. I spy Papyrus...again. Enjoy:

http://papyruswatchers.blogspot.com/

Is One Still in the Mix?

2011-03-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

I'm probably the world's worst optometrist patient. Nothing makes me as indecisive as those stupid eye tests. I don't know if "one" or "three" is better and it's such a big committment to choose one! Just one wrong answer and bam! I'm stuck with 1 inch thick coke-bottle glasses. Also, when they tell me to read the line, do they mean to guess on the blurry ones? What if I'm just a great guesser, and then they'll think I've been faking and don't really need glasses? I always feel the need to assure them that I'm only guessing so please don't give me full credit if I'm right.

Then there is the element of shame. Due to my impulse to provide a disclaimer with each response, the test seems to drag on for a couple eternities. At some point I'm just too ashamed to keep asking "Can I see 'three' one more time?" so I just pick one because I have resigned myself to my coke-bottle glasses fate.

I can really relate to George Michael on this one:

Valentine's Day #4

2011-02-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our 4th Valentine's Day together! I love Valentine's day! It's such an awesome excuse for a holiday! Regardless of whether or not you are in a relationship, it's a great day full of pink, red, hearts, flowers, candies, and telling your family/friends/significant other how much you love and appreciate them. Since Valentine's day was on a Monday this year, we decided to spread out the festivities throughout the weekend. Any excuse for more festivities is a good excuse, right?
We started off by going to Flemmings (the restaurant Bryan took me the night he proposed to me). It was the most DELICIOUS food in the world, as usual. They have the best steak I've ever had. Seriously, after every single bite you say "woah that's so good!" with no diminishing marginal returns! It's fabulous. We also went to the Richmond Botanical Gardens...beautiful, and the Virginia Museum of Art.

Flowers!

Presents!

Heart-shaped ginger scones!

Then, on the real Valentine's Day, we had homemade chicken curry with naan. It was delicious and I'll definitely make it again. The only thing I changed was that I added roasted red peppers to the curry...which I would highly recommend.
I hope your Valentine's Day was as amazing as ours, and to all our friends and family, Happy Valentine's day--we love you!

A Mighty Fortress is Our Car

2011-02-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

Previously, we learned that one should not keep one's rental truck keys in a ziploc box when they are about to move across the country. Now we have learned lesson #2 in what-not-to-do with car keys. Observe:
Notice in the foreground the door lock--locked. Notice in the background the keys--inside the locked car. Also notice the rain drops all over the window--perfect.

Unlock the door Attempt #1 consisted of me trying out my telekinesis powers by staring and blinking at it hoping it would unlock itself...turns out I have no such powers. Next, a friendly policeman tried to slim-jim it open. He tried for about 30 minutes (in the rain) to no avail. Then came Tray, our AAA hero. It took 45 more minutes, but Tray saved the day. Both men were shocked at how hard it was given the ~~aged~~ seasoned nature of Marvin (that's the car's name).

The good news is, we learned that Marvin doubles as a super secure vault. Good work Marve.

DC Day: Natural History, American History, Archives

2011-01-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today was another exciting DC Day for us! This place is so cool! Today consisted of the Museum of Natural History (my current favorite), The Archives, and 1/3 of the American History Museum. (The other 2/3 will need to wait for a future DC day.)

The Museum of Natural History. So far, this is my favorite museum, I loved it:

The dinosaurs were our favorite part...and the Sea Creatures...and all of it.

I really liked the Rocks and Minerals exhibit too...especially the diamonds.

Smithsonian Castle:

American History Museum: Part of the Berlin Wall

Recovered sunken ship "Philadelphia"

We love our DC days!

Alarming Indeed

2011-01-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

I fear that the damage Sara has done may be irreversible. Even as we speak, people from California to New York are being deluded into thinking they're "enjoying" their sleep by irreverencing its sweet, sweet gift.

Setting a 3a.m. alarm is akin to going to Disneyland, then locking yourself in a maintenance closet to think about how nice it will be to get out of the maintenance closet.

1. You'll be more tired. Thinking about sleep doesn't make you well-rested, sleeping makes you well-rested. Waking up, only to shut off the alarm clock might seem like a sneaky way to get to "sleep in," but really you're just depriving yourself of 15 minutes of sleep.
2. High-risk. Setting a 3a.m. alarm is high risk move. Sure, you'd like to think you can just wake up, revel in your return to dreamland, then sink into slumber. However, there's always that chance that when you wake up you realize, "Oh no! I forgot to switch the laundry out of the wash!" Then, you doubt yourself, wondering if it was that recurring dream you have about being stuck in the ocean on a rinse-cycle with Great White Shark pajama pants that just turned into real sharks. Internally, you debate back and forth until you have no choice but to check the laundry. No 3a.m. alarm clock, you just wake up and find out you have mildew smelling towels. It's a lose-lose situation, but I'll take the mildew over thinking about Great White Shark pajama pants.
3. Losing a vivid, incredible dream. Speaking of dreams, what if that 3a.m. alarm clock just interrupted your dream where you can fly AND you sneeze money. There goes your trans-Atlantic flight to Italy to trade all your cold (see what I did there?) hard cash for Euros (at a great value) and a trip to Venice.

Alarming

2011-01-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

Bryan and I have different opinions about the joys that a well-set alarm clock can bring. I would like to reserve 2 minutes for rebuttal, your honor.

I believe in setting wake-up alarms at 3am just for the pure satisfaction of turning them off and not getting out of bed. This is a more excellent way of living for the following reasons:

It elongates your night. If you sleep straight through the night you're not conscious to appreciate the fact that you are sleeping. One minute you're getting into bed, the next minute it's time to go to work. Lame. However, when the happy 3am alarm goes off you think 'ah, I've been sleeping for __ hours and now I can continue to sleep for __hours. Oh how I love sleep.' Then you happily fall back asleep perfectly aware of the fact that you are sleeping. It's also easier to wake up later because you more fully appreciate the fact that you slept. It's all about gratitude my friends.
It manufactures satisfaction. When your alarm goes off, the real alarm that you actually have to get up for, what is the one thing you want more than anything? To turn it off and forget about it, and not just for the measly 10 minutes the superficial snooze button provides. Unfortunately, this is not the responsible thing to do...or is it? Oh wait, if only I had set my happy 3am alarm it WOULD be the responsible thing to do! My happy 3am alarm would have facilitated an opportunity to do what everyone always want to do when their alarm goes off...nothing. How everlastingly satisfying.
It creates a cozier bed. Have you ever realized how much more comfortable your bed is when your alarm goes off compared to when you first go to bed? The atoms that compose your bed figuratively reorganize themselves to form a more comfortable make-up upon hearing the sound of an alarm. Why not create the cozier bed when you can actually take advantage of it? The concept couldn't be more simple. Occam's Razor.

There you have it. Go ahead and more fully enjoy your sleep with the happy 3am alarm.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-01-06T17:26:00.001-08:00

This year for Christmas and New Years we visited Bryan's family in Idaho. We had a lot of fun! It was nice to have a break from school and work. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are some of the things we did:

We looked at lights at the Botanical Gardens:

We went to an art museum and saw Stephen Knapp's "lightpaintings." They were really cool. He uses only white lights, glass, and mirrors. He uses the glass and mirrors to reflect and split the white light into colors. It was very pretty. You can see more of his lightpaintings at http://www.lightpaintings.com/

We also went to the movies, the temple, and the Melting Pot...so delicious! Overall it was a fun break and we were happy to have so much time together and to see family.

In other news, Bryan and I decided this year to try foods and recipes from 12 different countries. One country per month. This month: India.

CW Wreath Display

2010-12-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we looked at the Colonial Williamsburg wreath display (about 100 wreaths) and got some delicious gingerbread cookies, hot chocolate, and pretzel roll at the Colonial Bake Shop. All the wreaths have to be made out of material that would have been around in colonial times. It was such a fun date! Here are some of the highlights.

Gingerbread cookies and pretzel roll:

Sunflower Wreath:

Citrus tree wreath:

My favorite. The flowers on top are made of burlap:

Antlers, pipes, shells, and wheat:

Baker's Wreath

Selling wreaths...$80/wreath is a little much for me though

Pomegranate wreath:

Fruit wreath:

Apple wreaths:

Shoemaker's wreath:

Bryan's favorite wreath: "Don't Tread on Me"

In God we Trust/Constitution wreath:

Hannukah wreath:

My other favorite:

Apple and pinecones

I thought this one was cute:

Yarn ball wreaths

Baker's Wreath:

Shell flower wreath:

Fabric ball wreath:

Oranges:

Card Wreath:

Berries and Apples wreath:

We love Colonial Williamsburg!

California Thanksgiving

2010-12-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for a wonderful husband, a loving and fun family, the law school for Bryan and job for me in Virginia, and all of the fabulous friends we have met. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break this year in California! It was nice to be back in California, and it was even nicer to get to spend time with family. We had a delicious turkey dinner, saw Harry Potter, and went to Disneyland and California Adventure! We had a blast! Here are some pictures from Disneyland:

The Hubby and I

It's a Small World-Christmas Style

Main Street

Bryan's favorite ride of the day: Tower of Terror! It was a little more terrifying than I remembered and I think I almost squeezed Bryan's arm off as we were falling! My favorite part of Disneyland/CA Adventure was "World of Color." It was a really cool music/lights/water show where we were peacefully planted on the ground with no plummeting or terror.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T15:27:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween from the Gividens (and Pac-Man).

(This was made by Sara for a church "Trunk-or-Treat" we went too.)

Picking Pumpkins at the Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

This was so fun! Today we went to the Surry pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins with our friends Cris and Karim. We had a blast plus we tried pumpkin ice cream which was delicious! We will be definitely be getting our pumpkins here from now on!

First, we rode the ferry over to Surry:

On the ferry:

Chris and Karim:

The pumpkin patch:

Bryan with our shears and pumpkin guide:

It's cute because it's small...my eyes are closed because it's bright:

Bryan's pick...literally:

My pick. It's going to be a ghost-o-lantern:

Our pumpkins:

In Defense of Being a Lakers Fan

2010-10-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last night we had some friends over and my (two year old) conversion to the Lakers got brought up. (You can tell when this is a post by Bryan when 1) it's about sports and 2) it doesn't include delicious pictures.) I admit it. Becoming a Lakers fan was a little bit lame of me. But I think there's much more to this than people want to give me credit for.

There's some things that are safe to be a fan of, no matter who you are. Liberty. Patriotism. Candy. That's why politicians love those things. You'd never hear a politician say, "Really, we need less cute puppies in the world. Cute puppies are what caused this recession." It's just not going to get you anywhere.

On the other hand, there's certain things you can like ONLY if you have some sort of legitimate claim to it. Any New York, Los Angeles, or Boston sports team fits in this category. If some guy grew up living next door to the Astrodome, and he is a Yankees fan, then even other Yankees fans are going to think this guy has no soul. So for me to pick the Lakers puts me in an automatically suspect category along with Ivan Drago and Allen Iverson - guys who just want to win, don't really want to put in any effort. I feel it's incumbent upon me to explain why it's completely okay that I'm a Lakers fan.

1) I don't have a home team. Growing up in a military family, we really weren't settled around a specific basketball team. I grew up in rural Arizona; Little Rock, Arkansas; and suburban Northern Virginia (whose team was the "Bullets," when I was there... so if you wanted me to end up a hitman, or later Merlin, then maybe I should have jumped on there.) I halfheartedly cheered for the Suns during high school, but I really came into sports fandom in college. By that time, I was in Provo, Utah, where everyone was a Jazz fan, but my total inability to spell or say Euro-Russian names prevented me from really picking up on them. Point is, I didn't grow up next door to the Astrodome.

2) I am a Phil Jackson fan. I've read two of his books and I think Phil Jackson is a managerial genius. In basketball terms, he was Abe Lincoln. (Shaq may or may not be the South in this very loose metaphor...) He managed huge egos who often had diametrically opposed goals (Kobe's Goal: score more than Shaq; Shaq's goal: come up with ridiculous new nickname every three weeks and then score more than Kobe). The triangle offense is really fun to watch when it's not dominated by a low-post scorer. So when it came time to jump on a team, why not go for the coach I admire?

3) Family relations. My wife is from Southern California. Now, she tells me all the time she's not a Lakers fan. But, that hasn't stopped her from saying how much she loves Southern California. My liking the Lakers is just a way for me to bring a little bit of Southern California with us wherever we end up deciding to live. And! My mother-in-law is a bona fide Lakers fan (by bona fide, I mean she'll bail me out when everyone else in my family is making fun of me for being a Lakers fan.)

4) I hate the Celtics. I am sure I could like another team and still hate the Celtics, but really, it's so much more fun hating the Celtics being a Lakers fan. Watching Game 7 of the NBA Finals, seeing everyone play like crap except for Ron Artest, having the Lakers win, then hearing Ron Artest thank his psychiatrist... I cannot think of a better way to hate the Celtics than to just totally revel in that. (I'm sure half of Beantown was plotting to have all of Ron Artest's doctors barred from their respective professions.) As a Lakers fan, Shaq going to the Celtics is just deliciously spiteful. Being a Lakers fan makes hating the Celtics that much more potent.

5) Who did you want me to pick? Was I supposed to look for the crappiest team in sports and decide, "Yup, I'm going to run with them." In international relations, you sometimes have people who are stateless citizens - they don't really belong to any country. If that person eventually has the choice to pick a country and he goes with the U.S., are we going to say, "Pffft. Frontrunner. You just picked us because we have great freedoms and relatively stable economy." No. We're going to think, "What's a stateless person? Oh... oh yeah, I'd pick the U.S. in that situation too." I wasn't going to pick to the Bucks or the Clippers just to be an outsider. I went with something that makes it even more fun for me to have conversations about what's going on. Now, when the Lakers hit another re-building spot, I'm in for the long haul. I've sworn my oath of allegiance. But you can't blame me for wanting to start out with the best shot at relevance in the sporting world.

Lemon-Rosemary Lamb Kabobs

2010-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

I made Lemon-Rosemary Lamb Kabobs over couscous with asparagus today and it was DELICIOUS! So, so tasty and I would definitely recommend it! I got the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens, but I made a couple small changes and my variation is below. If you make them, let me know what you think! Enjoy!

Lemon-Rosemary Lamb Kabobs Recipe

Prep: 15 Minutes
Marinate: 2-6 hours
Grill: 10-12 minutes

1 pound lamb stew meat (aka boneless lamb leg)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon's grated lemon peel
1 lemon's juice
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (the kind with long stems so you can use the stems as scewers)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
red pearl onions, pealed and cut in half

For marinade, combine oil, lemon peel, lemon juice, rosemary, cumin, pepper, garlic and salt. Coat meat and let it marinate in refrigerator for 2-6 hours, stirring occasionally.

Using the rosemary stems as skewers, alternately thread the meat and pearl onion halves. Brush with any remaining marinade. Grill for 10-16 minutes. Serve with couscous.

DC Day: The Holocaust Museum

2010-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our second "DC Day" since being here. We absolutely love DC! There is so much to take in with all of the American history, monuments, Smithsonian museums, art, architecture, entertainment, etc and it fascinates us. Our plan has been to digest DC in pieces so we can really get a deep look at everything. Consequently, yesterday was our second "DC Day" where we explored The Holocaust Museum which was incredible and very moving. (I forgot my camera for the first DC Day when we saw the mall, hence no blog post.)

Since cameras are not allowed inside the museum, I don't have any pictures of the exhibits. Here are some picture from the other sites we saw:

The Archives (We haven't gone inside yet, that will be on another DC day)

Art Gallery

Civil War Monument

The Capitol

The Botanical Garden Fountain

P.S. Does anyone have any must-see recommendations for us to see in our future DC Days?

Enough Said

2010-10-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

It was in this random ziploc box, of course. Don't ask-I have no idea.

Photoshopoholic

2010-10-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

I think this is me admitting I have a problem.

The problem (or at least the problem’s catalyst) was that I had a real-life thing that I wanted to be a different color. My first thought was to apply a color overlay layer style to it, maybe a hue/saturation layer adjustment…but then I remembered that those can only be done in my natural habitat of Photoshop and not in the real world. But that’s not the problem. In fact, I do that all the time. It is not uncommon for my first thought when I get a stain on my clothes to think- “clone stamp!” Or “dodge tool!” when I see my unblonde hairs growing in. However, my second thought is always a more tangible solution like “washing machine” or “hair salon.” I can live with that, but the real problem presented itself today when the reality-based second thoughts didn’t kick in.

The Problem: Back to this real-life thing that needs a new color. I thought and thought and thought of how this can be done since we are deprived of Photoshop tools in real life. For three days I thought. Then today I had an epiphany which simultaneously exposed my problem: “paint.” The real, old fashioned stuff and not the more memorable Photoshop kind. My name is Sara Gividen and I have a problem. I forgot about paint.

First Question to The World

2010-09-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Man, if I had known this was going to be my first question to "the world" I probably would have asked something a little more...consequential. Maybe "Dear World, What do you think is the cause of your warming temperature trends?" or "Dear World, Were you offended that everyone thought you were flat?" maybe "Dear World, Are you happy that annoying little Pluto is out of the planet club now?" Now I just feel shamed by the fact that I could have asked the world anything and all I asked about was hair salons.

In other news, World, when did you get a facebook? And why didn't I get a friend request?

Biscotti

2010-09-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

I love biscotti...a lot. I first discovered this love when Jet Blue cruelly stopped offering it as one of their many delicious free treats and I had to settle for peanuts like a loser. That's when I knew.

Today I got a hankering for this crispy and oh-so-divine delicacy, so after a quick google search I made some for the first time ever. The results...perfect! So tasty and so much cheaper than buying them at the store like a peanut-eating loser. I found the recipe here, but I have included it below too. Next time, I'm going to make an almond version by substituting the pecans for almonds and the vanilla extract for almond extract.

Biscotti

3 c unbleached white flour

1½ c sugar

½ c butter

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

4 large egg whites

¼ c milk

2 tsp vanilla

¾ chopped pecans

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment or lightly grease and flour. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and stir to combine well.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, make a meringue by whipping the egg whites until stiff and then gradually pouring in the sugar.

3. Add the sifted dry ingredients into the meringue and then add butter, milk, and vanilla to make dough. Stir in pecans.

4. Form the dough into 2-3 slightly flattened logs, no more than 1 inch thick. Bake 35-40 minutes until firm. Cool 10 minutes and then cut with a serrated knife into diagonal slices about ¾ inch thick.

5. Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the slices back on the baking sheet and bake another 10-15 minutes until dry.

6. (added by me) Melt semisweet chocolate chips with some butter. Dip the bottom of the biscotti in the chocolate and place on wax paper for chocolate to harden. For speedy chocolate hardening, put in the fridge for a couple minutes.

Virginia is For Lovers

2010-08-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hence, this is a lovey post. Before we moved to Virginia I was wondering about what this phrase means/where it came from*. Now I think I know, because this is what I think of here:

I LOVE our new home.
I LOVE all the people we have met.
I LOVE the trees and scenery.
I LOVE our church.
I LOVE our maintenance team.
I LOVE having the beach around again.
I LOVE The College of William and Mary.
I LOVE that Bryan is loving Law School.
I LOVE working at William and Mary.
I LOVE our daily lunch dates.
I LOVE that winter won't mean impending snow doom.
I LOVE how so many people have been so welcoming to us.
I LOVE how many fun things there are to do.
I lOVE all of the historic things around here.

And I love Bryan...but that isn't Virginia specific. I just thought I should put it in there.

*After some intensive research...aka a Wikipedia search, it turns out it was just a phrase coined as a travel slogan to attract more tourists. Lame. My definition is so much cooler.

Home Tour!

2010-08-21T08:46:00.001-07:00

We absolutely LOVE our new apartment! We're not completely unpacked/settled in, but our public is getting anxious, so here are the pictures of our new home, enjoy!

Outside, we're on the 2nd floor:

Front door:

Entryway:

Kitchen & bar:

Kitchen again:
And again...we're sooo excited to have a dishwasher and garbage disposal now!

Laundry Room, connected to kitchen:

Laundry room:

Other side of Laundry Room:

Guest Bathroom, still looking for a cute shower curtain.

Office, this is our least put-together room right now. That's Bryan doing his first law school reading:

My favorite part of the office: these double closets with mirrors:

Office:

Dining Room, I'm going to refinish and paint my table and chairs...but not today:

Living Room:

Our New Couches:

Living Room:

Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen:

Balcony, connected to living room:

Balcony, I'm going to put a grill and patio table out here...but not today:

Balcony view:

Master Bedroom:

Master Bedroom again:

Closet and bathroom:

Bathroom:

Walk-in Closet...yes, my stuff takes up 2/3. I'm not ashamed.

The Pool:

The Exercise Room:

The Duck Pond:

The Clubhouse:

Quesadilla?

2010-08-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

The winning overheard conversation from our road-trip-move:

The following takes place in a restaurant in Lexington, VA. Please read with the heavy accent of an old man from the south. Also, please read aloud just because the idea of you sitting in your living room speaking in the heavy accent of an old man from the south is entertaining to me.

Man: "What in the..QWA-SA-eh?"
Man's granddaughter: "looks like KWA-SA-DIL-A"
Man to waitress: "How do you say that?"
Waitress: "Quesadilla."
Man: "KAY-SA-what?!?!"
Waitress: "Quesadilla."
Man: "QWAY-SA-DIL-A...KAY-SAY-DIL-A...QWA-SA-DEE-A"
Waitress: "Quesadilla."
Man: "That is NOT how you spell quesadilla. Case is spelled C-A-S-E. *insert exasperated sigh*"

Virginia, aka Our New Home

2010-08-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the final installment of Sara's Snapshots of the States: Virginia, aka our new home. The pictures of the new apartment will be provided shortly...once it is more presentable, but until then here are some pictures of the gorgeous landscape that is Virginia. Definitely love at first sight. Enjoy!

Sooo many trees!

Virginia Beach. My first time ever seeing/feeling/smelling/hearing/tasting the Atlantic Ocean!

This week for date night we decided to explore the College of William and Mary main campus. It was absolutely stunning. Really, if "prettiness of campus" is any indication of how good a school is, then W&M must be one of the best schools in the world. Hopefully my camera phone pictures below will reflect how beautiful it is...of course you should probably come visit to get the full effect. :)

The Move: Day 4

2010-08-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Kentucky

This is not what you want to see on a one-way highway. Luckily for us, it was being towed by another truck so it was not really traveling towards us.

TONS of trees:

Bridge in Louisville:

Louisville: fun city to see, not fun city to drive a truck and trailer through.

Every inch of the hills was completely covered in trees. Amazing.

Kentucky River:

Walls of rock and trees on the highway:

West Virginia

Even more trees...and even more humidity:

The Bridge over the Kanawha River:

Kanawha River:

The shiny state capitol:

Only about 4 more hours until we reach our home sweet new home!

The Move: Day 3

2010-08-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

Missouri - part 2

Missouri was great...especially the part where we avoided (barely) being in the 3 car accident only seconds in front of us in St. Louis. We were very blessed to not have anyone in the lane on our left, and for Bryan's quick truck/trailer maneuvering. Other than that, our day was pleasantly uneventful, just a lot of pretty sights.

Missouri has a lot of signs like the one below. About half way through the day we realized they use letters instead of numbers for state highways...that or they are real promoters of minimalism:
Yes, we did plan our trip around a detour to hit my favorite restaurant since I had missed it so in Utah. I have such a sweet hubby:

The Missouri River Bridge:

The Missouri River:

The Mississippi River Bridge:
The Mississippi River. I was shocked by how brown it looked, but it was very, very big:

Illinois

Illinois was very pretty. It started too look a little more like the east coast because we started to see A LOT more trees:

Walls of trees:

And more trees:

And more trees again:

Wabash River:

Indiana

The Indiana border:

More corn fields:

Corn fields forever:

The Move: Day 2

2010-08-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

"Sara's Snapshots of The States" or "Pictures from the Passenger's Seat" Part 2:

Nebraska

From our trip through Nebraska it became very, very apparent why it is called the "cornhusker state." This is the 5,000th cornfield we saw today. They were very pretty.

More corn...

Again with the corn:
We also saw lots of hay fields:

Tractor in the gas station:

Tractor on the road...yes those are splattered bugs all over our windshield.
More corn, and a barn:

Tractors, tractors, and more tractors! Wow!

Ok, what's with the sideways stop lights? I've really been wondering all day.

Iowa

Flooding! Half of our road was closed due to this flood:

More corn:So much water!

Missouri

We saw so much green in Missouri. Here is one of many

green fields:

Missouri Sunset:

The Move: Day 1

2010-07-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

We finally began our move across the country today! To summarize our first day I can't think of a better word than "eventful." This is precisely the opposite of what I imagined for today but ultimately everything has worked out well and we could not be happier.

Last night Bryan mentioned to me that he hadn't seen the truck rental key in a while but he wasn't too worried about it because it was probably in the living room. To make a long story short(er), it wasn't in the living room.

It also wasn't in the bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, Bryan's office, our unpacked boxes, the bushes, Brick Oven, Smith's grocery store, Rachel and Bryce's house, Bryce's parent's house, BYU lost and found, the vacuum, and of course...the dumpster.

Two locksmiths, 3 failed keys, and one half hour of programing an electronic key later...we finally began the journey only 4 hours later than we had planned. Thank you Rachel, Bryce, Bryan's Mom, and Bilco.

I have never seen most of the states we will travel through in the next few days, so I decided that I want to take a few pictures of each state we pass through to compare the changes, if any, between the states.

Without further ado, welcome to "Sara's Snapshot of the States," or "Pictures from the Passenger's Seat." Take your pick. Here is installment #1: Utah and Wyoming.

Utah

Bilco coming to our rescue:

Our first house:

Wyoming

What we looked at for most of the day:

Out my window:

Again out my window:

Biggest impression of Wyoming: Wyomingians really, REALLY like their fireworks...or at least billboards about fireworks. As evidenced by this the 3,486th billboard:

Every physical belonging that we own:

Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment: Nebraska.

3rd 4th of July in Our 1st Home on 2nd St.

2010-07-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Sara and I celebrated Independence Day for the third year in a row. We love July 4th because it gives us an excuse to picnic and blow things up.

Last year, when walking around the booths set up on Center St., we saw a vendor selling frozen bananas. Obviously, they named the double-dipped banana with everything on it "The Gob." Sara and I vowed to hunt them down and support their business this year. (The fact that we wanted frozen bananas motivated us too.) Below is a picture of me with my Gob, in front of a guy on a Segway.

The previous two years we have watched the fireworks put on by the Stadium of Fire from the hospital field below:

View Larger Map

And since I am usually a little over-anxious to make sure we don't get sandwiched between a family of dog* lovers and ant hills, the field is usually as empty as the picture above when we show up. This year, we continued on the tradition and packed a great picnic and games. Right after we finished our picnic, a man walked up to us and said, "Do you want free tickets to the Stadium of Fire?" The word free generally catches my attention, but since the tickets would get us in right under the fireworks, we were especially interested. Turns out the tickets he wanted to give us were right on the 50 yard line, 11th row up. They were awesome seats! Thank you man in the UVU shirt who made our day!

The most important thing I can say in this post though is that I hope service men and women everywhere, present and past, know how much we appreciate their service and sacrifice. God be with you and your families. God bless this great nation and every other that upholds its citizens' rights and liberties.

And now, Sara's photo montage.

*(When I say dog lovers denigratingly, I only mean it to people who have yippy dogs which they don't keep on a leash. Not an uncommon sight at the hospital field on 4th of July.)

Table-Intuitive

2010-07-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

In four weeks Bryan and I are going to drive across the country to our new home in Virginia. Most people say it's good to sell a lot of your furniture before doing something like this and then just start anew once you get there. Most people say this is easier. Most people say this is smarter. Most people probably have more experience with this than I do...most people are probably right. Maybe in four weeks I will wish I had listened to most people, but that table was just so cute and so cheap and so purchasable! Until then here is a picture of my ~~living~~ table room.

The Unveiling

2010-06-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our 100th post*! In honor of this grand event, I introduce our much anticipated, brand-new, shiny, re-modeled blog!!!

Okay, okay. So the "much anticipated" bit was only from me because you didn't know about it until about .5 seconds ago, and no there is no literal "shininess," but the "brand-new remodeled blog" part was all true so here it is!

*Addendum: After hours of intense calculations and a review of my multivariate calculus class it turns out that 66+33=99 and 99 does not equal 100. So welcome to the grand event of the 99th post and now you can really anticipate the grand event for the 100th post!

World Cup

2010-06-22T12:45:00.001-07:00

I love it.

When I Grow Up

2010-06-10T16:52:00.000-07:00

When I grow up I want to be a "they." Part of the infamous, ever-credible "them." Instant credibility, just add water.

I'm not exactly sure how one goes about becoming a "they," afterall I've never met one, but I blame this mostly on their evidently busy schedules. Given the number of studies and sayings I've heard attributed to "them" I'd estimate that they are cranking out about 4,651,956 studies and sayings per minute...so I can understand why they don't want to waste their time with introductions.

With the exception of the too-busy-to-breathe schedule, there seem to be some pretty sweet perks to being part of the collective "them." Below are the top 5 benefits I have identified:

1. Everyone listens, believes, and memorizes everything you ever say...and you don't even need to buy any kool-aid.
2. You are your own citation.
3. For you, correlation does imply causation.
4. Think of all the arguments that are put to an end after someone references one of your oh so many "studies." You're the indirect peacemaker! It's like giving service.
5. You are the authority on everything from how long it takes gum to digest to what correlates with having a longer second toe.

I'm still trying to figure out where to apply. But I got a good start because I found out that "they" say my resume shouldn't be longer than one page.

It's Official - I'm That Guy

2010-05-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm the guy who writes a letter to the editor for his alma mater's daily newspaper. On Tuesday I read a letter from an individual who was calling for all liberals to be "put in their place." I responded in today's Reader's Forum. (The original letter and my response can be found on page 3 of each PDF respectively.)

Two Year Anniversary: Part Two

2010-05-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Two roses and tulips delivered to me at work :)

DELICIOUS fondue feast at The Melting Pot in Salt Lake City consisting of three courses: cheese fondue, oil fondue, and chocolate fondue. Each one came with a variety of fun things to cook/dip. Best thing was probably the teriyaki top sirloin, but I honestly could have stuck a straw in the cookies and cream chocolate fondue and guzzled it all...and then asked for more.

Trip to Hogle Zoo. Once we saw all the animals it started to rain but it was ok because we were ready to leave and it reminded me of another wonderful rainy day. ♥

Two Year Anniversary: Part 1

2010-05-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sunday is our two year anniversary, and today the festivities began with a surprise to Bryan from me! Here's how it went:

Last night: I give Bryan a sealed envelope that he was to open at 6:00pm today (right when he gets off work). He doesn't know what's inside it. I'm about to burst keeping in my little surprise! I successfully divert the conversation away from it because I know I will tell everything if pressed for information.
2:45pm (Today): I get off work a little later than expected and I rush around the provo/orem area in a ~~mad~~ happy frenzy, making all the preparations I've been planning in my mind for a month.
4:30pm: I get out every pot, pan, bowl, whisk, cheese grater, and slotted spoon in my kitchen out. I'm like a tornado as I cook up the most delicious fancy dinner...like a destructive, messy tornado.
5:50pm: I throw two chairs, a folding table, an ice chest, two platters covered in tin foil, and a giant overstuffed brown bag into my car an speed off to BYU campus.
5:51pm: Arrive on campus at the little shady nook on the hill that wraps around campus. This is where Bryan first kissed me, and later proposed to me. It is my favorite place on campus/provo. I will neither confirm nor deny how I got to campus this quick.
6:00pm: Bryan gets off work and opens my envelope. It says "Meet me at my favorite place on campus."
6:06pm: Bryan arrives at our nook where I have my folding table set up with a red table cloth, two place settings, pomegranate apple martinellis, and flowers I picked from the bush next to the table in a little vase.

Our fancy, celebratory dinner consisted of:
Appetizers: Sundried tomato polenta, asiago cheese, tomato, ham, things...I actually don't remember what they are called.
Main Course: Cajun chicken pasta. Delicious recipe courtesy of the Pioneer Woman HERE. Bread with oil and balsamic vinegar.
Dessert: Chocolate cake.

It was the very best way to start off the celebrations of the very best two years of my life.

More For The Record...

2010-05-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's true that my DreamBoat won by only a small margin, and that the original finish line was slightly extended. However, I have some compelling explanations:

First: The original finish line was when the boats got to the bridge. However, they were tied at this point, so we went into overtime extending the finish line so that whichever boat emerged from the other side of the bridge first would be the, much deserved, oh-so-glorious-victor. The Dreamboat's emergence as the first boat was the genesis of "The-Amazing-Technicolor-Oh-So-Glorious-Victor-DreamBoat."

Second: The size of the winning margin doesn't matter. Exhibit A: Lakers v. Jazz game 3

Third: The DreamBoat gets extra credit for not sinking to a watery grave at the bottom of the stream...like other liners do.

But, I guess there's nothing like a good ol' re-match to settle this once and for all... :)

For the Record...

2010-05-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

In Sara's post below, she claims victory in our first-ever Provo Paperboat Streamlet Sprint. It should be noted that the victory was narrow and only after my not-colored-hard-enough boat became a submarine and Sara extended the deadline.

Just sayin'.

Paper Boat Racing and a Picnic

2010-05-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today Bryan and I had a fun picnic and paper boat racing date! It was so fun and I would highly recommend it if you're looking for something fun to do. First, you waterproof the paper by coloring the front and back of an 8.5X11" paper with crayons (completely colored, no white spaces) and then fold it into a boat. If you don't know how to fold a paper boat ask the internet like I did, or just go here which is where the internet sent me.

Here are our boats! Mine is the "Amazing Technicolor DreamBoat" (left) and Bryan's is the "Liberty Liner" (right).

We went to Lion's Park to race them in the stream. But if you build a fancy invincible bullet-proof boat with rocket launchers you could probably put it somewhere in the main Provo River. However, the internet's explanation for how to make said fancy invincible boat was a little too long for my liking, so we stuck with Lion's Park.

The Amazing Techicolor DreamBoat ran into a couple of problems in the beginning...the problems being a rock and a rapid about the size of Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile the Liberty Liner sped off..
But in the end my DreamBoat was triumphant! Here I am, the proud owner of the winning boat!

Also we had a delicious picnic. Here's my hubby enjoying his wrap. Another A+ Date!