Bacon + Brown Sugar + Oven = you do the math!

I love watching the foodnetwork! (I know what you're thinking..."and you're doing Weight Watchers, Whitney?") Honestly, watching food programs doesn't bother me anymore(wow that sounds wierd saying it out-loud, doesn't it?). I simply came to terms with the fact that the fattening foods will always taste better and that's ok...it's just food. I've lost 11.4 lbs. so far and I've been doing it for a little over a month. Still going strong.
On that note, I found this absolutely delightful recipe from Paula Deen last September and made it for General Conference Sunday in October and decided to make it again for this Conference Sunday...Dan now says it is tradition. I don't endulge in bacon very often, but I felt that General Conference was a special occasion. Here is the recipe:
Oven to 400F.
1/2C brown sugar.
1/4 lb Lean sliced bacon (I do lean...Deen does not).
In a large plastic zip-top bag place brown sugar and bacon. Toss/Shake to coat.
Line a baking sheet with foil. And I mean LINE-IT, unless you want to be chipping molten brown sugar off of your baking sheet and gouging metal in the process!
Place a wire cooling rack on the lined baking sheet.
Put bacon on the rack and roast in oven for 20 min.
Let drain for a few minutes on the rack and serve. YUM!
We loved watching General Conference! The general authorities always know what we need to hear and when! I am so thankful for our prophet and all he does!

A day without chocolate is a day the sun forgot to shine!

So, I know that I'm a bit late on being "in-the-know" about blogs of note. My cousin, Diana, has introduced me to many blogs(which I am so grateful for! She always finds the best ones!) I've been trying to catch-up on all of them, now that I have way-too-much free-time while "patiently" waiting for a job. Don't get me wrong...I've been busy doing all the necessary steps on the job-hunt. Now, I'm in the waiting phase and I don't tend to be a 'waiter'! Well, I have finally caught-up on the NieNie Dialogues and I can't get enough! I know that Stephanie and her family are going through a down-right jerky trial right now, but she has brought me such hope for the future. She has inspired me, brought me to tears, and has painted a picture of the kind of mom I hope to be someday. I have also decided, through reading her blog, that I need to post more. I completely missed March and I DID things! Fun things! I should have posted them. So, I commit to posting on my blog, from here on out. AT LEAST once a week. (what's the point of having a blog if I never post anything?!? although Dan was the one that suggested I start in the first place...I wonder how he'd feel about posting each week? j/k).
Some of you may have heard that I've decided to go back to teaching and indulge my inner designer as a side job. I have missed working with kids since being away from the profession. I teach the Valiant 10 class at church and that has guided me to get back into teaching. California is not in the best shape for teachers right now, but I am faithful and hopeful that something will work out if that is the Lord's will.
I think the most difficult part of the "faith" concept is the "nothing-wavering" "nothing-doubting" parts. I have such a difficult time giving control over to the Lord (even though he's always in control in the first place). I have come across numerous scriptures that have truly driven home the reality that I need to leave it in the Lord's hands and he will guide me. The scriptural account in the following: Matthew 9:18-19, Luke 8:50, Matthew 9:23-25. This account is of the daughter of Jarius who was dying. He knew Christ could heal his daughter with just the touch of His hands. When Jarius found Christ, he explained the situation. Jesus started home with Jarius and found people to heal along the way.
A man found Jarius along the way and informed him that his daughter had died. Christ looked to Jarius and said, "Fear not: Believe only, and she shall be made whole." Christ makes it back to heal the daughter of Jarius from her brief passing. What hit me in the heart was the peaceful statement "Fear not: Believe only..." It reminded me of Alma 32:27 "...awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, EVEN IF YE CAN NO MORE THAN DESIRE TO BELIEVE, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."
What a promise! And I believe that it is not only for faith on his words scripturally, but his words in revelation we receive personally. We must have faith to trust our revelations will come to pass.
I know that this was long (the posts will most likely become shorter as I post more often) Hold to Christ's words of: "Fear not: Believe only..." and "...even if ye can no more than desire to believe..." They are true. I also found a poster that is a reproduction of a WWII propaganda poster from Great Britain at that time. You can purchase it on Etsy.com. I posted that along with a tribute to Stephanie Nielson. Her love of good chocolate cake is contagious and I've caught the cocoabug from reading her blog. So, in her honor, last night after our bbq'd pizza for dinner, I made chocolate cupcakes (they were a weight-watcher recipe, because that's what I'm doin' now...so not as satisfying, but tasty!).

I know it's past the date...but the cookies I made for Valentine's Day were so labor-intensive that I had to show them! Martha Stewart had some guests on her show last week...or the week before, that own a cookie shop in NY. They deomonstrated how to make their signature Valentine heart cookie and I was hooked! The cookies looked so cute and the cookie shop "The Jewels of New York" sells the cookies- 4 for $25! So, I thought I would take-on the challenge of baking these confectionary gold mines. The sugar cookie recipe was a bit different from your average recipe for the kind, HOWEVER, I am now hooked on this recipe for sugar cookies! I altered the jam topping a bit...instead of canned lychees (which, by the way, I have only seen at Trader Joe's one time and that was about a year ago) I used canned peaches and instead of prosecco, I substituted gingerale. I chose to frost the other sections of the cookie with cream-cheese frosting instead of royal icing (who likes the taste of that anyway?). I also baked some for my primary class that were the smaller cookies with just jam...and I think they are better than the sugar overdose of the larger size. All-in-all, it was fun baking them and they present well, but I don't think I'll ever be making the pinwheel hearts again....spreading frosting with a toothpick is not how I want to spend my evening!

As many of you know, Dan and I spent Christmas and New Years in Hawaii. We spent the first week at my Aunt and Uncle's home on the Big Island and then the second week with my father-in-law on Maui. I know there are a lot of pictures, but I hope it makes up for my lack of blog-posts. We have come to love Hawaii so much. Dan has loved it since his childhood and the three times we've been since we've been married has only solidified my desire to move there ASAP! Another bit of good news...I graduated from the Academy of Art! I am officially an Interior Designer now. We hope you enjoy the pics. I put captions on each photo so you have an idea of what you are looking at...

AAAAHHHHHH.....FINALS!!!!!!

So, I know....the slideshow of Disneyland pics hasn't gone up yet, nor have I posted pics of Thanksgiving (which was wonderful)and you may have noticed I haven't commented on any of your blogs recently or responded to your comments, HOWEVER, I HAVE REASONS.... I graduate in a week and a half and am going crazy from all of the requirements for finals! I hope and pray I survive. This is my second degree and it's what I've always wanted to do...graduate from art school! So, wish me luck and after next Thursday-Dec. 18 I am done and hoping a job comes along soon to pay off the student loans (art school's not cheap). All too soon our blog will be updated regularly, I will return to leaving comments on your blogs and getting in-touch with life again. I can't believe it's been 2.5yrs. since I started at the Academy of Art. I owe it all to my wonderful husband who encouraged me to follow my dreams. He supported me through my year of "what the heck kind of teaching job is this?" and through "I absolutely love art school, but I've stayed up for 3 days without sleep to complete this project or that project." Life is truly beautiful and I love being able to look back on experiences with 20/20, otherwise, how awful would it be if we couldn't look back on stressful situations to laugh, cry, and breath a sigh of relief that we made it through! The picture is of my AAU DIFFA Dining By Design team's table for the event this year at the SF Design Center. The chandelier is made out of the ends of plastic soda bottles.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Today is our anniversary!
3 years to the day and going strong! Being married has been the BEST blessing. We are truly eternal companions and best friends. We have grown so much in the time since we met, 8yrs ago in a math class at DVC. Our eyes locked and it was magic. Of course it took both of us a year of friendship to admit that we had huge crushes on each other, but we are both grateful that we developed a friendship first before dating. We cheer each other on everyday and spend most of our time laughing together! We are so grateful that we place Heavenly Father first and foremost in our lives and marriage. We don't know what we would do without our eternal marriage, sealed in the temple. The temple offers so many blessings, such peace, and understanding.
Happy Anniversary to us!

Back Home

We had a blast in Disneyland! The first day we spent entirely in Disneyland. We rode the Haunted Mansion ride numerous times. It was incredible how they decorated it for the "Nightmare Before Christmas". We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and we had to ride Peter Pan and Snow White (Dan had never been on those) then we rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. We had lunch at the Blue Bayou (the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean). We shared the Monte Cristo sandwich and it is amazing! Our waiter gave us "Happy Anniversary" buttons after we had mentioned that's why we came to Disneyland. He told us to wear them the rest of our time there, which proved a great thing- We were wished happy anniversary by every employee that we passed and we got front row seats to the "Soaring over California" ride at CA Adventureland. We then went on the Big Thunder Railroad, Winnie the Pooh, and Jungle Cruise. We went on the Matterhorn, Space Mountain (which was my first time on that ride) and Star Tours. We rode some other rides again and we were beat at about 7pm (hate to admit) but in our defense, we arrived at our hotel the previous night at 12:30am. The second day we went to Disneyland first (because CA Adventureland didn't open until 10am). We rode Indiana Jones twice and the Jungle Cruise again to restore Dan's faith in that ride (the first tour guide wasn't funny at all, however the second one was hilarious!). We then went over to CA Adventureland. Everything was decked-out with these huge oversized candy corns. Dan convinced me to ride the "Hollywood Tower of Terror" which was one of my biggest fears...rides like drop-zone at Great America....I didn't like the free falling thing. BUT I MADE IT! I rode the ride...thought I was going to die, but I loved it...after. Instead of just lifting you up and then dropping you, the ride disorients you by bringing you up and dropping you and dropping you again and then bringing you up again and dropping you and then the final drop from the top. Then we went back over to Disneyland to eat lunch at Cafe Orleans where they serve Mickey-shaped beignets (puff pastries). We started eating lunch and the entire restaurant had to be evacuated because the fire alarm was going off. After about 1/2hr. we were allowed back to our tables. After lunch, we got our picture taken with Jack and Sally -from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (we had tried twice before that to get in line before they closed it off). Then we went back over to CA Adventureland and rode "California Screamin'" It is probably the best rollercoaster we had ever been on! We went to the Bug's life 3D movie thing they have and it was hilarious! We then watched the Muppet 3D movie and it was great too. We finished off the day back at Disneyland riding more rides, eating dinner, and watching the fireworks. On the drive back, we went up 101 instead of 5, so we could stop in Solvang. Dan ate his first Aeblskivers! They are puff pastry that is from Denmark and they are soooooo good. I hadn't been to Solvang in almost 9yrs. We walked around for a little bit to stretch our legs from the drive and then continued on home. I wish I would have taken a picture of a "Yes on 8" sign we saw at the side of the road...It was huge and the base was completely surrounded with chain-link fence topped in barbed wire! It was awesome. We will post our pics on a slideshow, once I figure out how to do that.