Confessions...

I have a serious confession to make....

I have not read HARRY POTTER!

Well not until recently that is.

Once upon a time I went to a Harry Potter themed dance my freshman year. And I felt like a loser. An impostor. One who knows who Daniel Radcliffe, but does not know the true Harry.

So I decided to change that. I started reading. And I'm hooked.

I just put down the 5th book. And let me tell you. It was a whirlwind of emotions. From Sirius Black's death. To the amazingness of Dumbledore. To Umbridge and her biotchiness. It's ridonkulous. I freaking love Harry. So much so I wanted to cry.

Then tonight I was watching The Voice and the trailer for part dos of the Deathly Hollows came on. I wanted to poop my pants. I've got until July 14th at midnight to finish all of book 6 and 7.

Bring it on.

It's Official.

Being from Montana is a wonderful thing.
I love the "Big Sky State"
I take pride in it.
I enjoy it's many wonders.
As well as it's lack of many other wonders.
But for a while I've felt like a fake Montanan...

Whenever anyone asks...
"Do you live on a farm?"
"Do you ride a horse to school?"
"Do you own cows and sheep?"
I have to answer NO to all these questions.

But now I can say YES to this one. "Do you own real cowboy boots?"

Look at these beauties.

Oh yeah. They're bona fide real leather boots from Wayne's Boot Barn. Be jealous and prepare to see me rockin' those on campus, at the grocery store, at the movies, etc. Trust me their cute. Plus I can be all Taylor Swift and wear em with a dress! haha. I'M A REAL MONTANAN.

Salsa and Mercedes!

This weekend besides having the pleasure of working at Old Navy a lot, I spent some good old fashion time with my best gal Emily Gates as well as some time with Chris, Mike and other singles ward friends. Friday night the YSA group was invited by a very nice member of our stake to come to his grand opening of his Mercedes Benz dealership. He had hired a Salsa Band called Poco Loco and wanted us to come dance the night away. I was stoked. I haven't had a good dance party in a while and especially not a salsa one! So I decided to go.

Chris said he would meet me at the dealership and apparently a few other kids from the ward were supposedly coming. As we were walking into the building I realized how fancy this party was. I mean come on it's for Mercedes Benz. I should've known. I was wearing jeans, a cardigan and my birkenstocks. Chris was also in jeans. Not only were we the youngest people in there but we looked like a bunch of hoodlums coming to crash it. All the fancy adults were sipping wine in their fancy apparel and we were walking around with our jaws open. As we went into the garage the band was playing and we ran into the owner. He greeted us warmly and told us he was so glad we could come! I laughed and said I felt bad about how underdressed I was and he said "Oh no. You look great!" then motioned for us to get the dancing started. Luckily 3 more kids from the ward showed up just then and the dancing commenced.

I felt like such a tard. I had no idea how to salsa and everyone was just staring at us. I thought hmm. Let me text some people to get this party really started. I went through my contact list and realized nearly all of them were in Utah. If this party had been in utah there is no doubt we could of had it bumpin. I texted like the 5 people I still talk to in MT and all of them were pansies. Except for Gates. She showed up all excited and we danced the night away. Even after most everyone else had left.  We just embraced our awkwardness and shabby apparel and shook what our mothers gave us.  Here are some great pics of the night.

(I have no idea who this girl in the white is. 

but she liked to dance!)

Haha. Anyways after everyone had left. Emily and I caught up on our lives. We went back to old school times in elementary. She and I have known each other since 4th grade and so much has happened to us throughout those years but we are still really great friends. It was so nice to just unload my brain and she's always been such a great listener. We stayed in my car until 3 am when my mom called and was freaking out and wondering where I was. haha. Anywhoo. I love this girl. 

Then Saturday night we had a little campfire! Emily, Chris and Mike and I headed up to Chris's house and made s'mores! It was yummy and so funny. Those two boys have such funny and different senses of humor. Mike is super sarcastic and you can practically believe the opposite of everything he says. Whereas Chris on the other hand is just dramatic and makes everything and every story so freaking hilarious. But anyways. Great weekend with great friends. 

And here are the latest cupcake concoctions I made today for the missionaries when they came over for dinner. The recipe can be found under "perfect lemon cupcakes" at Your Home Based Mom. They were a hit!

Tornadoes, Floods, Thrifting and Cupcakes Oh my!

So as some of you know. Today is Wednesday. And it's already been such a fun crazy week! And we're only half way through! So let me catch you up with my dealings in the wonderful Billings, MT. Warning this is long but very exciting.

So ever since I've been home the weather has been terrible. There have been maybe 5 days that have been nice and that I've wanted to play outside. All of the other days it's been raining. It's been raining so much that we are like 6 inches above the flood level. Luckily the metro part of Billings has been totally fine. Like me. Cause I live on a hill. But most of Montana especially the surrounding little areas near creeks and rivers are completely soaked! Here's a picture of Round Up MT which is like 20 min from where I live.

So that's been happening for like two weeks and then we finally get some beautiful warm sunny days and I went swimming and then the weather service is like "Screw You MT!" There is going to be tornadoes and crazy thunderstorms! I almost didn't believe them. But they were right. I went to FHE and the sun was shining and beautiful. Then as we played kickball it got cloudier. Then Sara and I went to Softies and as we were getting our ice cream cones lightning started and all the people in line were getting texts that said that tornadoes were approaching and Sara's Dad called and told her to come home immediately. So I drove her home on the other side of town and as I started to my house I could tell that they were right. I was freaking out. I was speeding home and I even passed a cop and didn't slow down. haha. It looked like the lightning was right over my house and the clouds were getting worse. I came home and my family had no idea. They were watching a movie downstairs and then we turned on the news and my dad started being serious. He went and grabbed all the important documents and his shoes and a coat and my mom grabbed her book and a change of clothes. My little sister went and grabbed a bunch of useless items and her scriptures (good kids) and I decided I'd better get my act together. So we popped some popcorn and watched the news. Then it got really annoying listening to the weathermen so my siblings and I watched Phineas and Ferb and it was a great family bonding night. Nothing happened to us and I was pretty much oblivious to what it looked like outside but apparently there were several tornadoes surrounding Billings. Only two touched down but luckily no serious damage was done. Only a farm and one small house was affected. But check out that crazy picture. It was taken in Lockwood which is another area very close by.

So that was all Monday night. Tuesday I got to have a lovely lunch date with Liza Smith. I thought that we went to high school together but it turns out I graduated when she was in 8th grade. But regardless of age she is way fun to hang out with and I can hardly tell she's only 16! We went to McCormick's Cafe downtown and had yummy food. There was no one there and we got to sit in the garden room all by ourselves. We stayed in there for like 2 hours just chatting. Look at the cute garden room!

So after lunch we decided to go thrifting downtown at this sketchy thrift store. I got a an awesome spirit animal shirt as well as some classy gifts for my brother. Liza found these beauties.

Gosh I love them. She is probably the only person I know who could wear little kids overalls and get away with it! You can't tell from this picture but they have a great stripe to them!

So today is Wednesday and after a wonderful day of work at Old Navy I decided to bake some cupcakes and go to Scheel's. I made these delicious oreo cupcakes that I found at my cupcake bible. They turned out pretty delicious. My brother Aaron loves them. But he is the kind of kid who will eat an entire box of oreos without realizing it. haha.

Then Ethan and I went to Scheel's to get my dad some "GU" for his marathon this weekend. While perusing the shoe department I found these beauties. I'm not quite sure what possessed me to buy them but I've always found them cool and I wanted to try them on. And then some inner force inside me told me to buy them. So I did. Plus they were on sale. So that made it more difficult to resist. They are purple and classy. And I can't wait to wear them to Old Navy and see the looks I get from customers. and on campus this fall.

But anywhoo. Sorry for this extremely lengthy blog with terrible grammar and spelling. I've just had so many exciting things to share!

...

Well I've decided I kind of suck at this whole blogging thing. I do enjoy it but I just never remember to do it! At first I didn't want to be one of those people glued to the computer posting constantly so I tried to space my posts. And now I've spaced them too far apart! haha. Oh wells. It's not like you can be good or bad at something as simple as a blog. It's not like I'm being graded on it. People may be judging what I say but they aren't gonna be like. Wow. This girl totally sucks at blogging. haha. Anyways...

Life is so good! I was having all these negative feelings toward this summer break and being back in Montana but so far it's been really good. I've been staying busy doing a million little jobs. As of right now I have 3 part time jobs! I'm working at Old Navy (love it and the discount) I've also been cooking for a family in my stake as a "personal chef/assistant" I do their grocery shopping, errand running, cooking, party planning. It's been so much fun. I absolutely love this family! Plus I get to drive their beautiful cars and she pays me so well! And as of this past week I've been hired to help out another family in our stake as a "mother's helper" This family is adorable and so sweet. I don't know them very well but I've heard about them. About a year and half ago their father died in a plane crash and so she has 6 kids ages 3-12 or something like that. So I will be visiting them this week and helping out once a week with cleaning and just giving her a break so she can go to the temple, run errands, and just relax! I'm so excited! I love life! haha.

So when I'm not at Old Navy I'm usually cooking or baking or having fun with my family. Or hanging out with some great people in the singles ward. I'll have to update you on that later. But this recipe is from a million years ago. They were the second batch of cupcakes I made this summer. I took a million pictures in hopes of posting them on my blog and being all crafty/artsy. But you know it's not too late! haha. These might be my favorite. They aren't too rich but they are very sweet. Plus who doesn't love raspberries? They are seriously my favorite fruit. So here they are.

They are lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting. I got the lemon cake recipe from Your Home Based Mom which is a fabulous blog. And I had a carton of raspberries and thought hmm. I should incorporate them. All the frosting recipes I came across suggested using jam for the frosting but I wanted to use the fresh berries. So I just googled! And I found a great recipe. So here you go!

Perfect Lemon Cupcakes

Cake:
1 package lemon cake mix
1 C sour cream
3/4 C water
3/4 C oil
4 eggs
1 small package lemon instant pudding

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Mix with electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. Use a strong mixer, this batter is thick. For cupcakes, bake them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (I was able to get 24 very full cupcakes from the recipe). For regular cake, pour into a greased 9×11 pan or two round pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Don’t over bake or the cake will be too dry! The toothpick test works to check to see if they’re done.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar.
• 1. Beat butter for about 3-4 minutes. Until light and fluffy. 
• 2. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Put the powdered sugar in different shifts. Add. Mix. Add. Mix. and so forth.

I think I put in too many raspberries. So the frosting was a bit wet. And as you can tell I struggled with the piping. But you should see my most recent cupcakes. I'm a pro at this frosting thing! lol. You have to get the right stiffness! But they were yummy. Regardless of the soupy frosting!. ENJOY! 

CUPCAKES!

There is so much to blog and not enough time to do it! haha. I've been baking like crazy and having fun. Still no job. Maybe someone should pay me to bake them cupcakes! lol. But in order to avoid getting fat from eating cupcakes I've been looking to my mother as an example. She's lost like 30 lbs and looks amazing. So we've been hitting the gym together and having fun. I have to brag about the fun classes we've been doing. Today we did Zumba!  It's hilarious to see all these ladies shake what their mother's have given them.
                                If you've never done Zumba here's a sneak peek

We've also been doing Cycling. Which hurts your butt. But it's intense. I've heard it burns like a million calories and is really great if you hate running but want some hardcore cardio.


Yesterday I did Les Mills Body Pump. And today I can barely move. I was surprised I could shake it at Zumba! I love this class because I always feel like a retard at the gym lifting weights. I don't know which machines to do and I get kinda ADD and want to get out ASAP. So this is great because you lift and lift and you really work every muscle group in your body!

Here's a hardcore picture. They make it look so intense! 


Anywhoo. So as to not feel incredibly guilty from baking and eating my creations that's what I've been up to.


So here is the first recipe I tried. It hails from Lizzy Early's Bible of Cupcakes and they were a hit! I freaking love nutella. Ever since I discovered it in French Class when we had crepe parties and my love doubled when I went to Vancouver and ate at The Crepe Place and had a ginormous nutella, banana, strawberry crepe! So what a great idea to put it into a cupcake! 

    

As you can tell I kinda suck at the whole piping concept. However I am getting tons better! You just have to practice! And you have to be really good at making the frosting the perfect consistency. Not too runny, not too stiff. Also make sure your butter is soft enough but don't melt it too much! Also note to the wise. They are extremely rich so make sure you pour yourself a large glass of milk to wash it down! So here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

Devil's Food Cake Mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour cream

24 teaspoons Nutella (1 per cupcake)

Nutella Buttercream:

3/4 cup Nutella

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2- 2 1/2 cups powered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin tins.

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, milk, water and vanilla.

3. Sift in cake miz and stir in sour cream. ( I didn't sift and they turned out fine.)

4. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and then place a teaspoon of Nutella on top of each one. Using a toothpick gently swirl the nutella into the batter.

5. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the sides spring bak. (the tops will stay gooey because of the nutella.) 6. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place directly into airtight containers to seal in moisture.

7. Buttercream: beat the nutella and butter for 5 minutes. Add vanilla, then alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Taste the buttercream until you reach your desired sweetness. You may need to refrigerate the buttercream before piping it onto cooled cupcakes.

Well there you go! They are very yummy! Have fun : )

Adventure #3

This week has been crazy! I've been running around applying for jobs and actually running like 2-3 miles a day! Hanging out with my mom, shopping and baking!

Friday was one of those days. A great one. But insane.

I woke up at 7:30 am and drove over to Shawna's. She needed help running errands and driving her cars to the shop! So being lucky me, I drove her new hot SAAB convertible. Top down and hair blowing! It felt awesome. The best part is she told me I could borrow it anytime!

Then 9:30 am. Babysitting time. I went over to the Graham's and babysat for them and the Nelsons. So a total of 7 children. Two 8 year olds. Two 6 year olds. A 4 year old. A 2 year old and a baby! We had a lot of fun! We played outside and I learned the game "mr. fox" which is basically kinda like mother may i. Then the children got into the candy. It was insane. There were jelly bellies and these very realistic gummy worms. They made me want to puke. They were brown and jiggly and just like real worms.

Then the Nelson kids left and I had the remaining 5 hours with the Graham's. We had a picnic in the living room eating mac & cheese while watching the jungle book. We cleaned the guinea pig cage. And we played outside. I've been babysitting these kids for 4 years now and they have never been as silly as Friday. They enjoyed jumping on top of me and saying "get the monster!" So I retaliated by tickling them. We spent literally an hour chasing each other around and tickling.

Then we decided to try to get the energy out by going on a walk. We never made it past the speed bump down the street because one child would say "I need to go potty!" or "I want to ride my bike instead of my scooter!" "My skates hurt my feet!" "I need a drink of water!" We went down the same stretch of road 4 times and turned around and came back and turned around. The most memorable time was when Ty said I gotta go potty! So he ran up the hill and then at the top of their yard pulled down his pants and peed on the tree. And of course at this exact time 6 cars drove by! Everyone was laughing. Including me. Although I was extremely embarrassed. But how can you be angry at those cute kids! I seriously love them!

Then after a long day of fun at the Graham's I ran home and hurried and changed for a night on the town with Chris! We went to Mackenzie River Pizza Co. (YUMM!) and then went to the Magic City Singers Concert at Alberta Bair. They were definitely a treat. They reminded me of the GLEE Club for 50 and 60 year olds from MT. They sang some show tunes and had sparkly gold tops and they even danced! It was adorable! There was a really old guy, he was probably 80, who would get so in to it! Then we went back to his house and roasted marshmallows for seis de mayo with some of his friends. All in all the day was a blast. I love those kids and I love pizza and marshmallows. So now it's on to more adventures!

p.s. watch this video. it just made my day. and if you want more check out double dream feet!