A New Business Venture...

As many people know, I L-O-V-E love to knit. When I am knitting it is the only time that my mind is either completely calm and stress-free or fully able to think in a rational manner. The rest of the time I'm this psycho mess of whacky emotions.

I have been able to use this stress reliever not only for myself, but for others. I have made many baby blankets, baby hats, adult afghans, and scarves. It is purely seflish because not only do I receive the calming influence of knitting but I also experience the joy that comes from giving.

It's now time to branch out. I took a class and learned to make the new headwraps that are suddenly in style and I have decided to become a business woman. I have made 3 of these wraps already and sold 2. So, here's where my sales pitch comes in. If anyone is interested in purchasing one of my headwraps please let me know. I am selling them for $12 and I am willing to ship them if necessary for only $2 more. I will also take color requests. If you would like to buy a headwrap or if you have questions either comment on this post or e-mail me at swscarlett@gmail.com. Please pass the word along to all your friends and family. I am really excited about this! As new projects become available I will post pictures here.

Community Building at Valley???

Disclaimer: This blog is a lot more interesting with the video. However, I once again failed at uploading a video straight to my blog, so you'll have to click on the link.

Today during our usual Friday staff meeting one of the math teachers made a proposal. She showed us this clip from the Oprah Winfrey show and suggested we do something similar with the faculty AND our students at the end of the year. She also said she would check on some connections to see if we could get it on the news. The more I think about her idea the more I love it. The cheerleaders and student body officers will be recruited to go from Advisory to Advisory to teach it, which means the cheer advisor (that's still me) would have to learn it as well.
What do you think???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvljD0toJmU

Happy 2010!!

I got to spend New Years' Eve with some of the greatest friends a girl could ask for. Our evening was fairly low key, but the company and conversation was great.
We decided to just stay at Amber's this year. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at McGrath's Fish House at the Gateway and then headed to Amber's for the rest of the night. I had a lot of fun and I am very grateful for fantastic friends.

After dinner Heather got a little turned around on the drive home (which is potentially scary in downtown Salt Lake City). Sure enough we ended up in a shady area. We were feeling a little wild and crazy and made Heather pull over so we could take a picture to document our adventure trying to get home. This picture pretty much explains it...

Ringing in the New Year with Haylee, Heather, and Amber.

I have a couple days to ponder on the new year. I am feeling optimistic about 2010. I just have a great feeling about this year, and I am anxious to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me this year.

I have also spent time thinking about this last decade (it sure went fast!). A lot of things happened in my life and I can see how much I've grown and how much I've been blessed. Here's a brief summary of what I've thought about:

• I graduated from high school in 2001.
• I earned a Bachelor's degree.
• I earned a Master's degree.
• I spent a semester strengthening my testimony at the Joseph Smith Academy in Nauvoo, Illinois.
• I have nearly 200 college credits.
• I bought 2 cars.
• I was in 3 car accidents (none of which were my fault, and only one of which I was driving).
• I fell in love.
• I experienced grief like I never thought I would.
• I had 5 different jobs.
• I moved 3 times (all of which were in the last 2 years).
• I've held 4 different church callings.
• I waited for a missionary.
• I learned to knit.
• I made new friends who will forever have an impact on my life.
• I have attended 2 different wards.
• I have worked with over 700 students.
• I've traveled to Hawaii twice, Canada 5 times, Florida, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Washingon, Oregon, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, New York, Nevada.
• I questioned my testimony and what I believe.
• I found peace.
• I recieved my endowments in the Jordan River Temple December 28, 2008.
• I read the Book of Mormon several times.

For now, that's all I can think of. There were many more events over the last 10 years. I feel incredibly blessed and I am thankful for all that I have. I am looking forward to this year and I pray that all my friends and family will be safe, be healthy, and have peace for the decade to come.

Baking Day 2009

This year for Christmas I asked for a Kitchenaid mixer. I had 2 reasons for that request: 1. I L-O-V-E love to bake! 2. I am pretty much the messiest cook ever and I figured a stand mixer may be a little less messy than a handheld mixer (picture me with a handheld mixer and stuff flying all over the kitchen...) My parents delivered with an awesome RED Kitchenaid!! Pretty much totally excited.
Last year for Mothers' Day my mom asked for a wheat grinder. My dad got her one, but has she used it yet? No. Not until today that is.
Our goal for today was to use our new kitchen appliances. It was a lot of fun. I think we started about 12:30 and finished after dinner about 7 hours later. My back and feet ache, but my heart is happy. :)

Our first task was to figure out how to use the wheat grinder. This was our test run and it worked! As nerdy as it sounds, it was fun to watch the wheat be sucked into the grinder.

This is what the wheat started out as..

We used the whole wheat flour to make honey whole wheat bread. It took probably 3 more cups of flour than the recipe called for (I blame the fact that it was snowing), we forgot to put the salt in until the last minute (which cause a little panic that it wasn't mixed in well enough), and I had to convince my mom not to throw it out and start over. The dough rose (raised??) beautifully and we got 2 loaves out of it. Yummy!!!

This is me with my new red mixer and wearing my awesomely cute apron that my friend Amber made. So exciting!

While the other dough was rising we started on our banana bread. We got 8 smaller loaves of banana bread. Here's the problem, every time I make banana bread it is ALWAYS raw in the middle and overdone on the outside. Today was no different. I had one loaf turn out absolutely perfectly, and then one for sure (probably 2 or three, I didn't cut into all of them) that was still goo in the middle. We stuck it back in the oven and then it came out hollow. Any banana bread suggestions are welcomed! I chose not to make the normal loaf sizes because of that problem, apparently I can't handle small loaves either.

The whole wheat bread dough being prepared to go into the oven...

My gooey banana bread. Oh dear!

The finished products. I'm disappointed that I forgot to take a picture of dinner, homemade french onion soup (SO GOOD!!!). Here's the final count of all our projects: 2 loaves of Honey Whole Wheat Bread, 8 loaves of banana bread, a bazillion homemade Oreo cookies, a new recipe from one of my cooking magazines Chewy Brownie Cookies (with a Sarah White twist, cut up Snickers), and French Onion Soup. It was a yummy day. I'm glad my mom let me make a mess of her kitchen. It's much more fun to cook with someone else!

And I swear my diet resumes tomorrow!

Oh wait, tomorrow is New Years' Eve. My diet resumes Saturday after all the partying!

Happy 25th Birthday Tyler!

Today, December 28th, would have been Tyler Scott Elder's 25th birthday. I love him and I miss him every day. I believe that I will see him again and it will be a wonderful reunion. I look forward to that day.
To celebrate My Handsome's birthday I went to lunch and a movie with my dear friend Kjersti. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Tyler and I would have spent this day at a movie, so I thought it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon (although I highly doubt we would have seen "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" like Kjersti and I did).
My first official date with Tyler was to see "Bourne Identity" at Jordan Commons in June 2002. The last movie we saw at a theater was "Superman Returns" a couple days after he returned from his mission in July 2006.
Tyler had a passion for movies and video games and was able to drag me into loving those things as well. I often tell people with pride that I was an avid Halo player (albeit not a very good one) and it's fun to watch their reactions.
Tyler taught me to love things I never thought I would love, and he had an awesome and sometimes obsessive passion for anything he got involved with.
I love that boy forever!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2009...
Christmas Eve we spent the evening at Aunt Kathy's house with the White extended family. The hugging tradition was continued and spiced up when my cousin Cameron picked me up off the floor. It was completely unexpected and quite shocking. I was first off glad that I didn't break him, and then I was amazed at how different the world looks from his height.
I spent that night at my parents' house and then we opened presents with Mason, Taylor, Emma, and the parentals Christmas morning.
We spent the rest of the day with the Grovers at Grandma and Grandpa's house with the traditional sourdough pancakes, fried eggs, English Toffee, peanut brittle, pink popcorn, salmon cheeseballs, and clam chowder.
It was a good day. My new red Kitchenaid will be put to good use! :)

Santa Claus spends a lot of time unloading his bag at the White house!

I got Emma a bunch of picture frames for Christmas that were so cute!

Taylor enjoys aggravating all of us by cheering for BYU simply because she goes to school there. She could really care less about the rivalry, but likes to ruffle feathers. So, I helped fuel the fire...

My mom sewed the edging on the blanket and it was really nice. Don't worry, I bathed and scrubbed with strong soap after handling this fabric!

Couldn't leave Mason on his own with Taylor's new BYU gear....

Mason, Taylor, and I got our parents' tickets to the Michael Buble concert. I got scolded because I lied about the tickets' availability. :)

Grovers preparing for the madness to begin. The back of Josh, Sam, Lexi, and Callie.

Uncle Bruce, Ron, and Celeste

We're pretty talented to be able to fit that many people in that room. It didn't used to seem like such a small room...

Grandma Shirley was able to join us for breakfast and presents. It was fun to have her there.

Grandpa George

Funny Stuff at a Boring Training

I had a 3 hour training for a new computer program yesterday at our district offices. Part way through we got side-tracked and ended up talking Utah and BYU. Someone showed this video on YouTube. Hilarious!!!!! If I were smarter I'd be able to upload the video straight to my blog, but alas I am computer dumb, so you'll just have to click on the link to find it. SO FUNNY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6CROOR2QN8