PIZZA AND STUF

HEYYY

So I’m not going to blab on in this post, cuz my brain is fried from doing stuff like
GETTING A HOUSE!

Mostly. And also finishing residency and stuff. And promoting the dress I designed! Click HERE to buy it!

STUFF!

Anyways our house is in Provo so if you’re out there you’ll let us know, right? We move on June 28th.

I have a bunch of recipes I need to share, but the latest one in our rotation is an overnight pizza dough recipe that makes the very best pizza we’ve ever made at home. Click HERE for the link to the recipe.


Don't worry! I will blog again....

A Summer Project

I don't post about every art project that I work on, but this one was significant enough that I thought I should document it here.

On May 27th of 2014 my sister gave birth to her son Henry Steven at 34 weeks. He passed away on that same day. In memory of this beautiful child I decided to paint a familiar mountain scene that would act as a reminder of how the scenery looked in my sister's city of Provo. I chose to depict Squaw Peak due to it's proximity to the Provo Temple and it's familiarity. I asked several friends and family living in Provo at the time of Henry's birth to photograph the mountains, sky and clouds to help me capture the conditions of Provo in springtime. The frame is oriented vertically so as to draw the eye heavenward.

This project was an important challenge for me since I am not a landscape artist and am not well practiced in acrylic painting, but was a necessary expression of sympathy for a loss that touched many people close to me. I was happy to give this as a gift to my sister and hope it will be a gateway toward healing for those who view it.

GREETINGS

So, we’ve had a busy summer.

 But I do not intend to glorify the state of being “busy” – I find people tend to congratulate that lifestyle a bit too readily. Since when is constantly being stressed and tired a cool thing?

And we have not been THAT busy, I just have been super lazy about blogging. I am deliberately lazy in lots of things. Because I am allergic to stress.

Anyways, to sum up our summer, (SUM UP THE SUM) I offer a list of completely truthful bullet points:

- Pippa turned 3. Congratulations to her for…aging.

- I TOTALLY HAD PURPLE HAIR and if you didn't see it in person then I pity you.

- We watched every available season of “Parks and Recreation” and absolutely loved it

-We saw Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" at the park! It was jolly fun.

- I started “Running” around Greenlake on an occasional basis. It is always rewarding, but only after the fact

- My doctor prescribed Flonase (a nasal spray) for my allergies and it has been AMAZING

- I went camping a total of THREE TIMES. Once at the base of Mt. Rainier, then at Ensign Ranch (Girls camp), and then at Cascade Park in Granite Falls, WA. Both Ensign Ranch and Cascade Park are church-owned properties. This is the most times I have ever gone camping, all in one year no less. Bully for me.

- I participated in a “polar bear plunge” at Girls Camp. It was cold.

- We bought an inflatable KAYAK and paddled around several of many bodies of water

- Pippa played with her cousins Caleb and Hyrum, who visited us, and Jane and Abby and Beatrice, who we visited in Utah

- Micah applied for a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo for an inpatient Psychiatrist position

- Utah was extremely dry

- UVRMC offered Micah a job

- Micah accepted the job at UVRMC. However, we will not be moving there until next summer, when Micah finishes his residency.

- I only have 18 credits left to finish my BA in Visual Arts at BYU. The plan is to NOT take my remaining 2 Art History classes online.

- I went to the top of the Space Needle. It is very tall.

- Pippa calls it the “Space noodle”

- We made french macarons, homemade nutella, cream cheese, farmers cheese, yogurt, horchata, ginger beer…and need to post some of the recipes because they were all delicious

- We bought many bouquets of fresh flowers from Pike Place Market

- Pippa hated “Frozen” and absolutely adores “The Lego Movie”

- We saw “X-men Days of Future Past” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” – both excellent movies



Things we will be doing this Fall:

- Cooking lots of things

- Pippa will start her Ballet class

- I will be re-applying to BYU and possibly taking an online Psychology class

- Micah will continue his Chief Resident duties (which is basically sending a million e-mails every day)



Thanks for reading! Hopefully I can post pictures and recipes soon.

The seasons, how swiftly they come and go

Well isn’t about time I post about our Halloween? Before Thanksgiving comes and I spiral down a slippery slope of procrastination?
I decided this year I would only visit a pumpkin farm if there were doughnuts provided. I asked friends for advice and they told us to go to Swan’s Trail in Snohomish. There were doughnuts. I was happy.
There were also chickens. Pippa was happy.

Oh, and I guess there were pumpkins too!


Our costumes were GNOMES.

Specifically, David and Lisa the Gnome, from the TV show, “David the Gnome.”
Hardly anyone remembers this show, so we had a fun time at the Trunk-or-Treat telling people we just really like Shrooms.

I meant to get a much better picture of Pippa’s cute little getup, but this was pretty much all I got. I made her apron with no pattern, the hour before our Residents-with-families party. Not bad.
Pippa was thrilled with the idea of Trick-or-Treating. She would eat candy all day if we let her. Too bad Micah enforces a strict tax on all earnings from Halloween.

September is the best month by FAR

Seriously though, I dare you to disagree.
Summer in Seattle is AMAZING but,
Right at the beginning of Fall is TOO GOOD.
We started it off with a bang by getting passes to the Pacific Science Center. Micah had a week off and we partied like animals.
I mean, Dinosaurs.



Pippa loved this car thing, out of everything else in the Museum.

We then went down to Portland and the Oregon Coast. Even though it was raining while we were there, we were nice and warm in our Yurt. What is a Yurt, you ask? Um, go google it.
All I will tell you is that they are AWESOME and I want to sleep in one again!


You know what else is awesome? THE OREGON COAST. Like, as in it deserves the word “awesome” awesome.
The biggest, most amazing beach I have ever been on. And I’ve been on a few beaches.


Look how it goes out FOREVER. It’s like being in heaven.

We got so wet but it didn’t matter.

My sand sculpture.

We stopped by Cannon Beach to check out Haystack Rock. This picture hardly captures the wonder of it.


We then went down to Portland, where the food is plentiful and the weirdness abounds!


Also, a Rose test garden.




On our way back to Seattle we visited Mount St. Helens! If you see pictures of it before 1980, it is amazing to see it with half of it just blown off! Very very neat.

Projects

We’ve all been working on projects here:
Micah just got this cool game called Mice and Mystics and decided to paint the miniature playing figures.


It is serious work.

I even painted one of them them myself! Lily is the cutest mouse!


I have been working on an embroidery project. I shall post pics when it is finished!

Miss Pippa has been working on growing twice as tall while sleeping,

being snuggly,

And being potty trained! HOORAY!!!!!!!!

This is the last picture I will post of you sitting on the potty. I promise.
Oh! And here is a video of the bottle band Micah and I performed in on the 4th of July!

Hardcore July the Four

What kind of a crazy person would take their toddler out camping, you ask.
WE DOOOO!!!!
After breakfast with all the Seattle Mormons…

We set up camp at Ensign Ranch.

Pippa LOVED IT!!!


What made it better was having our friends come along too.


The grill Master!


And she even slept in the tent. Didn’t see that coming.


I didn’t even get to say the “she was not a happy camper” phrase. Because she actually was a happy camper.

She does not get this from me.

WHAT THE BIRTHDAY

So…
I hesitated to write this post because…
I can’t stop time.
Not to alarm you,
or make you afraid,
but…

Pippa turned two.
And there’s nothing I can do about it.
She sure had fun getting presents…



…playing with friends..

…Going to park on a hot hot day…

…eating her delicious pizza dinner…


…and eating some fabulous Oreo cookie cream chocolate BIRTHDAY CAKE!



A Birthday done right, I say.