Sunday, October 23, 2011

Corn Mazes

Last night my friend Liz invited me and Chauncey to go with her and a group of people to go to a haunted house. We were going to go to one in Lehi, but her friend drove by and said it looked super lame (and it did, not worth the 16 bucks that we would've spent.) Anyways, so we met there anyways and decided to go to a corn maze. I had never been so I was really excited. We went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was SO fun! Loved every second of it. As some of you may know, I get scared so easily. I am very jumpy, which is why Chauncey sometimes calls me Jumpy Jenni. Anyways, we bought the "screaming'" package, which was for the regular corn maze, and the four haunted attractions (haunted corn maze, the monster, the cage maze and the castle of chaos maze.) We did the corn maze first, and saved the haunted stuff for last. We tried to do the 30 minutes or more one, but we ended up finishing it in less. Then we played on this hay maze for little kids, but afterwards I was super itchy. I grew up on a ranch and everything, but we never had that kind of hay (straw hay) we usually had green hay and alfalfa. So I was crazy itchy, but after a little while it went away. Then we did the haunted corn maze. BY FAR THE BEST OF ALL THE HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS. I was so scared! I haven't been to a haunted house in like two years so this was a good one to go to. They had the chainsaw guy, the girl from the ring (she didn't jump out, but she was still scary since that's one of the scariest movies i've ever seen.) and a bunch of other scary people. The one that got me the best was this creepy guy that came up behind me and made this creepy grudge/alien noise. I screamed so loud! There were some parts i didn't like though, like this weird inflatable squishy thing. It was basically two inflatable bouncy walls(?) and you had to walk through it, they squished you and you couldn't see anything. I get claustrophobic really easily so I was kind of freaking out on the inside, but I didn't want to seem weird so I held it in and told myself to breathe and calm down. It was a good thing Chauncey was there holding my hand because otherwise I would've had a small panic attack. So after the haunted corn maze we went to the haunted circus, and that wasn't so bad, except there was this super creepy clown kid that followed us around and got all up in my face a lot. (For those of you who don't know, I'm seriously afraid of clowns. probably my third biggest fear.) So then we went in the monster thing. (it was a big inflatable monster and we went inside it's stomach and stuff) we probably would've been scared more if we stayed on the right path, but chauncey kept taking us through the places that the scary people go through so we didn't get as many people scaring us. After that was the castle of chaos maze, that was scary just because it was so quiet, seriously. then we ran into this group that was lost and we thought they were scary people and they backed us into a corner but they were all just regular people. The last one was the chain maze, that one only had like two scary people and was just kinda lame. So my favorite of the night was the haunted corn maze. SO much fun!

Anyways, it was pretty good for my first corn maze experience!

P.S. Next weekend we get to do trunk or treat! I'm excited because it'll be the first time we are on the other side of trunk-or-treating (handing out the candy instead of taking it) So it'll be fun to see all of the kids in their costumes. :)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Surprise!

The other night, Chauncey had to go back to school after work. It was a long night, and he didn't come home until very late. After a while, I called him to see where he was at and he said he was packing up and about ready to come home. As we were talking, he said that he had a surprise for me, something that he didn't mean to happen. After that I couldn't wait for him to come home. I kept thinking about what it could be (especially since he was working on his welding project), was it something he accidentally made? I was so excited. So I finally hear him come down the stairs, and as he opened the door i got butterflies because i was so happy and so excited to see him after such a long and hard day. Usually I run up to him in joy after he's been gone for a while, but I didn't exactly do that...because this was my surprise:
He was so dirty! His beard accentuates it. Anyways, like I said, he had to work on his welding project at school and he was cutting sheet metal using an oxy-acetylene torch. He had to wash his hair five times to get it all out and his face even more. It was ridiculous. So yeah, that was a pretty funny surprise.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Cheers.

I'm buying a leather jacket. I've wanted one for a couple of years now, but i've been too scared of being different, but not anymore. I've finally found one i like. So i'm getting it.

And I'm going to take ceramics and Spanish next semester. and I'm going to rock. I miss art, i used to do ceramics in H.S. and i loved it, and i want to do it again. And Chauncey speaks to me in Spanish all the time, seriously, so I'm going to take more Spanish classes so i can actually respond in Spanish without sounding like a complete dork.

This feels good. Really good. I feel like I'm letting go of things that have been holding me back from doing what I want to do.

So, Cheers for changing, for being different, for being ME.




Thursday, October 6, 2011

Yummy Cinnamon Bread!

So lately I've been in a baking mood. Seriously. Last week I tried out my Kitchen Aide for the fourth time since we've been married (need to use it more), and I made pizza dough..........It was terrible. First, I killed the yeast (which made the pizza super crispy and too dense), then there was a TON of leftover dough, so I tried making Cinnamon bread with the leftovers..no. Just no. Anyways, we ate the pizza, crustiness and all...and threw away the cinnamon bread. Then because of that, this week I decided I REALLY wanted Cinnamon bread. So I found a really great recipe online (after looking in our many cookbooks.) And I started. Overall it took like 5 hours all together (because of rising time), but it was totally worth it. Because the bread was so delicious, I want to share the recipe with you. Keep in mind that besides the SAD attempt with leftover pizza dough, this was my first time making cinnamon bread. I made a few mistakes that I will share so you guys won't make the same mistakes, first I should've rolled the dough tighter (failed attempt at trying to pull the toast out of toaster, ended up with unraveled cinnamon bread, but it's all good). Second, I seriously underestimated how much cinnamon I needed to put on the bread...yeah should've put more on. And third...I almost burnt the bread (must remember, our oven is on steroids or something, which means shorter cooking time). Anyways, Besides all of that it turned out really well. I shared half of the loaf with Chauncey's grandparents since with all the baking I've been doing (brownies, brownies.....brownies (yes I said brownies three times, because I make brownies a lot), muffins, cookies, and now bread), we do not need to eat a whole loaf by ourselves. Anyways, here's the recipe. I seriously recommend trying it :)



Ingredients

  • 1 cup Milk
  • 6 Tablespoons Butter
  • 2-1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
  • 2 whole Eggs
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 3-1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1/3 cup Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
  • Egg And Milk, Mixed Together, For Brushing
  • Softened Butter, For Smearing And Greasing

Preparation Instructions

Melt butter with milk. Heat until very warm, but don't boil. Allow to cool until still warm to the touch, but not hot. Sprinkle yeast over the top, stir gently, and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
Combine flour and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix sugar and eggs with the paddle attachment until combined. Pour in milk/butter/yeast mixture and stir to combine. Add half the flour and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the other half and beat until combined.
Switch to the dough hook attachment and beat/knead dough on medium speed for ten minutes. If dough is overly sticky, add 1/4 cup flour and beat again for 5 minutes.
Heat a metal or glass mixing bowl so it's warm. Drizzle in a little canola oil, then toss the dough in the oil to coat. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and set it in a warm, hospitable place for at least 2 hours.
Turn dough out onto the work surface. Roll into a neat rectangle no wider than the loaf pan you're going to use, and about 18 to 24 inches long. Smear with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle evenly over the butter-smeared dough. Starting at the far end, roll dough toward you, keeping it tight and contained. Pinch seam to seal.
Smear loaf pan with softened butter. Place dough, seam down, in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix a little egg with milk, and smear over the top. Bake for 40 minutes on a middle/lower rack in the oven.
Remove from the pan and allow bread to cool.
(Recipe Source)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

One Year and General Conference


<--One of my favorite quotes from  conference. 

Anyways, what a wonderful weekend. 1 year ago on the first of October Chauncey asked me to be his wife, and I'm still so glad I said yes.<3 He is such a wonderful husband and he will be a great father. my love for him grows daily, and I am blessed to have him in my life. He's my best friend, he catches me when I fall, we are always there for each other. I am so happy I get to spend eternity with him <3

Anyways, how great was conference? it was so good, I gained a lot from it. Some of my favorite talks were:
-Sister Dalton's ("How do you raise a daughter? Love her mother." - Elaine S. Dalton)
-Ian Ardern (of the 70, He spoke about time, and how we need to be using it wisely.)
-D. Todd Christopherson (without repentance, there is no progress in life.) 
-L. Tom Perry (Spread the word of the Lord any way possible, we can all be missionaries.) 
-President Monson (Commandments are not suggestions, do not underestimate the power of prayer, even for small things.) 
-Matthew Richardson (Be a "real" member of the church.)
Those are just a few of my favorites, but I thought I would share. We are blessed to be able to hear the words of God through his mouthpieces, we just need to open our ears and apply those words to our lives.

If you missed conference, or just want to hear it again, click here :)