Saturday, March 27

silk ties dying on eggs!

Guess what happened last night.

I tie-dyed easter eggs!

But not like hippie craziness. Literally used a TIE to dye them. Turns out so beautiful and you get this big confidence boost like "wow. I am an artist."
borderline plagerism, but you get the idea.



HERE'S HOW!

Materials and Tools
Small- to medium-size raw eggs
Glass or enamel pot
Silk ties, blouses, or boxers, cut into pieces large enough to cover an egg
White sheets (or pillowcases or old tablecloths), cut into pieces to cover silk-wrapped eggs
Twist ties
3 tablespoons of white vinegar
Warm water
Vegetable oil
Paper towels
Tongs or spoon

Silk Tie Easter Eggs How-To
1. Cut silk into a square (or a piece) large enough to wrap around a raw egg.

2. Wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, making sure the printed side of the material is facing the egg. Silk can still be used if it doesn't fit perfectly around egg.

3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of white sheet, pillowcase, or old tablecloth and secure tightly with a twist-tie.

4. Place the egg(s) in an enamel or glass pot. Fill pot with water to cover eggs completely. Then, add three tablespoons of white vinegar.

5. Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 20 minutes (longer if you plan on eating the eggs).

6. Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon and let cool.

7. Remove silk from cooled egg.

8. For shiny eggs, wipe with vegetable oil after completing step 7.

Resources
Silk goods such as ties, blouses, and boxers can be purchased at rummage sales or thrift stores. Silk can be reused on eggs.

Friday, March 26

win a gift card already.

Just do this by midnight today.

My brother is the PR for the American Fork hospital so just go on the facebook page, become a fan, and post any basketball/byu related picture. You will then have the chance of winning a $25 gift card AND 2 movie tickets. There are only like 4 pictures so we have a good chance guys.

This is the picture I posted:



You can't even tell what is going on huh.

Tuesday, March 23

Current occupation...of my mind

Just this cruise my sister and I are going on. We got a steal of a deal steal so it just made sense. (cents?)



10 days away. And I feel like the past two days have gone by sooo slow. Sunday feels like a week ago. Can I just hibernate for 10 days do you think? Then the next time I open my eyes I will see:



magical things.

And my pops and I are going zip lining in the jungle! Of course my mom and sis are being wussies and won't go. "waahhh I can't handle adventures!" Those stinkers. Oh man I can't wait to have something else to think back on and just treasure.

Thursday, March 18

twelve

I was teaching a small group of 5th grade boys today and as I was drawing shapes and congruent lines they started laughing...like they had this inside joke about what I was drawing.
me: Will you stop acting like you're twelve?!
boy1: I am twelve!
we all start laughing
boy2: I'm going to wet my pants!

Yep. Sometimes I have to re-realize that they are twelve.

Wednesday, March 17

Happy St. Patricks!

Oh how I love our fam tradition of St. Patrick's day.
Ever since I can REMEMBER we've always had
  • corned beef (which daron referred to as "red cow" all night. "Hallie. Pass me the red cow.")
  • cabbage
  • carrots
  • onion
  • soda bread with raisins



Then we kind of just do these things out of the sake of greenness, not necessarily an irish thing:
lime italian soda...errr...lime IRISH soda
this cake junk...which I never love (no offense mom) but it's green! It's white cake with surprises of pistachio pudding and green whipped topping!

And of course beer on tap! JK got ya.

Some of the things that happened during dinner:
  1. chasing my nieces and nephews around, pinching them. They were wearing green but who made that rule anyway.
  2. My brother was disciplining my nephew: "That is why I have to be strong with you right now, Ty..." Ty: "But I'm stronger than you are!"
  3. Seth bringing a "wand" and casting three HP spells on everyone. I couldn't stand it anymore, the kid needed more to work off of! So I had him get my iTouch, we looked up wrote down 18 of our favorite spells. His favorite is the Imperious Curse, one of the three unforgivable. (IMPERIO!)

Hope you wore green. Either way, consider yourself digitally PINCHED!

Tuesday, March 16

Percy Jackson and the Olympians! (no spoilers :)

Percy Jackson is a son of a mythological god! And for all he knew he just had adhd and other behavioral disorders (see how easily we can relate.) But he gets introduced to other half-bloods and mythological peeps! It's a lot of fun. They go on these quests to defeat evil.

Just look at these characters! Don't they look so interesting? They really are.



I got hooked when I had to sub for fifth grade. They are reading it as a class and while they were doing an assignment I started to read it. I kind of skimmed at first because I didn't want to commit to what I knew would be a serious addiction.

But here I am, having read four of the five books! Can't wait to start the fifth. The fifth graders see me with a different book every day and we have so much fun being nerdy together. One student just bought The Ultimate Guide; a handbook to the Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Guess what we'll be doing at recess tomorrow?

Thursday, March 11

Loving this song right now

I let it sing me to sleep and when I woke up guess what?

It was playing in my head.

Sunday, March 7

moments

my family was gathered in the front room, having an enjoyable conversation. I come out from behind the couch and pretend to shoot everyone.
brother: what was THAT?
Gina: that was Hallie.

At costco:
On our way out, in the "receipt check" line, I find it irresistible to push every button of the vending machines lining the wall. So I do, as quickly as possible.
I happened to be wearing my red pants that day.
Gina: "I think what you wear affects the way you act"

Dropping by Gina's apartment, we pull up to an identical Honda civic. (Gina drives one) It is gray. Gina's is dark blue.
Gina, on her way out of the car: "One morning I tried to get into her car thinking it was mine. I was so confused."
Mom: "For such intelligent girls, you two are totally ditsy"

Tuesday, March 2

Substituting kindergarten on Dr. Seuss's bday.


their real teacher told them yesterday that they were going to have a birthday party for Dr. Seuss today. And they had great expectations.

She gave me a video to show them, of the still frame shots of a boring dr. seuss book, does that count for a birthday party?

Not according to the cute lil 5 year olds. All the live long day and as I finally put in the movie, I never heard the end of it:
"If it's a birthday party there must be a CAKE!"
"Teacher where is the cake?"
"Teacher I'm HUNGRY!"
"Teacher when is the party?"

So I stopped the movie, apologized, told them the movie was the party. Poor little chillens. I would've made them a cake if I knew that is what they expected :) a red and white stripped cake. with a cat face. and whiskers. edible whiskers.

Another dose of vid for ye

So in watching that vid I posted last, I thought how cute taylor swift music video clips were. so my friend nat and I looked it up and we love it. So will you. Just watch it ok? And don't be mad that I posted three videos.

Monday, March 1

So last year

but I found this to be very clever and entertaining! It's the top 25 songs of last year all mashed up.



And I like 2008's as well:



It's good besides the random "disturbia" clips. Ew, right?

Saturday, February 27

my gramma

has a key to the stake center.

Where's the nearest kinko's gramma?

"Oh, you don't need to go kinko's!" So she drove gina and i to the stake house this morning so gina could make copies of her resume and letters of recommendation.

kehehe sneaky gramma.

it's funny how you learn more about people after spending your whole life with them

that is how i feel on this trip with my sister. i have seen sides of her i haven't seen before and i love her more because of it.

I went on this trip knowing my needs and wishes would come second...for the first time in my life probably. the purpose of this trip was to make my sister's life as easy as possible. And after hours spent alone, waiting, while she was in interviews or visiting new sites that would be her life from now on, I realized these are the places that would tear us apart, move her away from me. And here I am, encouraging it all along.

roadtrips save my life

Friday, February 26

Hallie, what were you just doing?

Oh, nothing. I was actually just getting some lemons.

Lemons, huh. From the store?

Oh, no no no. Just outside! I picked them from my grandmother's tree and they are so ripe my hands smell like lemons and they are as big as a softballish! Now I'm going to see if her grapefruit, orange and tangerines trees are ripe.
...haha yeah. All ripe and I am eating them ALL!

Oh Hal I am so jealous of you right now! Anything else cool going on?


Well There is this bird that I woke up to...I thought it sounded like a car alarm. He's still chirping away! I found a video of his brother, looks like he's a clever little mockingbird!




well sounds like you're having fun in Arizona Hallie. Just out of curiousity, what temperature is it right now?


Let me see...oh, well it's only 9am but it's 56.3 degrees.

For favorite posts on Grandma/Arizona visits:
see here,
here,
and, my personal favorite: here

Sunday, February 21

The Rec!

It was snowing yesterday so I got ready to go to the indoor track at BYU.
Well I called beforehand just in case and it was closed till noon =(
So my mommy gave me $4 to go to the orem recreation center.

I love the rec! That's what we call it. It brings back fond memories of swim team, childhood swimming lessons, oh man here's a good one:
I was like five and I was in swimming lessons. two of my aunts and my mom were watching us from the balcony and there was a metal railing right in front of them. I didn't want my aunt to watch me so I would move in a place and align the railing between our eyes so it would make her blind and not see me.

Anyways so flash forward back to yesterday. $4 for ONE visit!?!? What a load of [insert word of choice]! I went to the Zumba class where there were like 100 ladies dancing crazy and it was fun to just dance crazy. Then I'm like. I want to listen to my own music and do my own thing. So I did the elliptical next to an old man. I look around. There is no one my age here. They are all old people. Oh well though right?

When I got home I realized. I DIDN'T GO IN THE SAUNA! I really wanted to go! And I paid $4 and didn't go to the sauna! I really wanted to detoxify my skin. So I turned the shower on blazing hot and filled up the tub that way instead of through the faucet. And the air in there was so thick. So I made my own sauna of sorts. It sufficed. Prolly better than being in an enclosed spaced with old people. Yeah I'm claustrophobic too. Oh good I'm glad it worked out that way now that I think of it =)

Friday, February 19

2 oz, Medium.

My parents and I were watching the weather together.
Gina had just left, announcing how she was angry, but for no apparent reason.
Dad looks at me and says: "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine"
"You're holding your hand up to your forehead, something's wrong"
Something was wrong. He just didn't know what it was and I wasn't going to tell him...because he would share his opinion and that would make the situation worse.
"Want me to make you some of that fish?"
This is weird...my dad never cooks, let alone for someone else!
"Nah, I don't want that"
"How about some chicken" Mom offered
"I don't want any of that"
Dad, walking over to the fridge. "Oh, here's some hamburger!"
"Yeah, I'll just make myself something in a minute"
Pulling out his steak that he brought home from going out Tuesday "Have this steak! There's gotta be 3 ounces in this piece."
Took out weigher, weighed it.
"OK, two ounces!"
"Are you sure dad? Don't you want it?"
"Of course I want it but I want you to have it because I love you"
I almost lost it right there. Over a two ounce piece of medium steak. My dad is a sweetheart.

Thursday, February 18

One of the best parts of being at elementary school

Is having an unlimited supply of Bill Nye available.



They have hundreds of episodes at my disposal.

Wednesday, February 17

What's wrong with you, Hallie?

I have yet to get into the olympics.

Is anyone really into them?

Tuesday, February 16

1:41



I'm not a fan of phone conversations.

I wondered what the average talking time on my phone was, so I averaged my last 50 calls. A minute and forty-one seconds! In that amount of time you can most definitely state why you called and/or what you want with me.