A list of goodness:

Frozen Lemon Cake

1. I decided to make this, despite the complexities of stirring 3 different bowls of stuff to varying degrees of thickness/lumpy-ness/crumbly-ness/peaky-ness/shiny-ness/merrychristmas-ness as well as having to sit in the freezer for 3 whole hours. It looks simple, huh? Not fancy?Hurumph.

It was one of those times where something that should have taken 3 dishes takes 15. Where something that should have taken 3 eggs takes 10. Of course, I have learned some things. Like the personal necessity of googling "how to beat eggs."

Two hours later, I got out a fork to check my cake. Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believed I wasn't hungry, that I was too irritated at the dang cake to enjoy it, that I didn't feel like eating it until tomorrow. That quickly turned into me plopping down at the table for a full-blown helping of completely worth it lemon-y goodness. Oh gosh, so great.

2. Making graham cracker crust (i.e. using your hands to mix butter and graham cracker crumbs) is my new favorite thing.

3. My Dad did all my dishes for me, cause he is the best.

4. Moving away from the cake goodness, today I bought jeans. Levis. Skinny jeans. They fit. Miracle. They got me with their "common problems" sign about fit. It went something like: "If your jeans are always too tight in the waist when they fit everywhere else and you dislike jeweled embroidery on your bum, go here, Amy Thurber." Sold.

5. My grandparents are living with us now, and I love them. They have been heros of mine for most of my life. My grandma has always been a spunky, wise, vivacious woman who loves the gospel, doing things with my grandpa, writing in her journal every day, keeping up on her 10 children and 50-something, and going on missions. My Grandma has Alzheimers. She now has the capability and has to be taken care of the way someone would care for a 3 year old. She has lost all memory and most capability for any of those things. But take those things away and you get . . . my grandma. She's still her--spunky, cheerful, and sensitive. There is something to who we are that is more than our life history.

6. My grandpa is amazing. He is a high school music teacher, a composer, and a stone-cutter. He's this unassuming guy, who loves the gospel and my grandma. I mean that in the best, highest meaning of love. It is selfless, it is constant, it is obvious, and it makes him happy. He is in love with my grandma still. The way he has always treated her has been my model of how I should treat my spouse someday.

6. I like this website.

7. I thought fall in Virginia would be over by the time I got here, but it wasn't! Even the dregs of fall here are awesome. I should post a picture, but imagine something pretty darn perfect and there you go.

Spring Break, Day 2

Highlights:

1. These were eight dollars at the thrift store with the tags still on them.

Current retail price: 80.00

2. Mmmmmmmmm

from here

3.

Another great day.

What would you do if you had nothing to do?

As you know, I am a third grade teacher. I get up every day at the same time and go to school for 8+ hours, teaching 25 eight and nine year-olds. It has been a tough year. It has been more physically, emotionally, and intellectually demanding than just about anything I've ever done, especially for an extended period of time. And I love it more than I can express. But I've never been more ready for Spring Break.

Yes, Spring Break. One of the joys of working the public school system. It's already been great. Over the weekend, I had a ridiculously super amount of sleep, went out for ice cream, celebrated Passover BYU-style, had a delicious Easter Dinner, and learned (?) how to play Smash Brothers.

Today was my official no-work day. It ended up being the perfect lazy vacation day, and exactly what I needed.

My Day (originally I had times posted, but they were rather embarrassing):

Wake up

Get out of bed half an hour later

Make buttermilk syrup and french toast with my roommates

Shower, get ready for the day

Go grocery shopping for the ingredients for all the magical things I hope to make as Spring Break continues

On the drive home, play the "Whatever song comes on next is yours, and describes some aspect of your life" game

Visit our new friend Annie

Visit Kevin

Look at photography blogs

Make a big plate of garlic-y pasta with red peppers

Finish reading Anna Karenina (very, very, very good) and then fall asleep on the couch

Unintentionally sleep through Family Home Evening

Go see "The Morning Benders" at Velour

Finally do a weekend's worth of dishes

Guys, this is shaping up to be a beautiful week.

The Morning Bender's Excuses (the video is being funky and driving me mad. I'm not going to fix it, sorry).

Graphs are fashionable

My blogging history:

It's not even halfway through 2010!

A bit of joy for you. . .

Here it is

10 things I recently discovered should ALWAYS be in my cupboard

What do you expect to use all the time? If you look at my wardrobe, there are a lot of simple items that I bought with the intention of wearing with EVERYTHING (black cardigan). And then there's the other example of when rather unique pieces of clothing (green and white beaded flip flops, for example) somehow end up going with, and improving, almost everything. And you find excuses to wear them, no matter what.* Lately, I've been listing in my head all the ingredients I love, and am noticing a few similarities between my cardigans, flip-flops, and this list.

1. Cauliflower

2. Lime

3. Freshly ground black pepper

4. Real Parmesan

5. Spinach

6. Hummus

7. Garlic

8. Tim Tams

9. Chips

10. Salsa

The quality of life has drastically improved.

*Or the opposite situation, when you buy something that is supposed to be versatile (khaki pants) and never wear it/them, because it never looks quite right.

My dream

I am going to start this posts the same way I start my conversations--with one or two disclaimers. First, I think it is ridiculous to post about dreams. This one was just too hilarious, though. Second, I really don't think I am repressed.

Chapter 1: I dreamed last night that I was a repressed Victorian woman, who somehow got mixed up with a crew of goat herders in a basement who were protecting their goats from people shooting through the ceiling at them.

I emerged alive, but not the same.

Chapter 2: Fast forward one year (as is so easy to do in dreams and movies):

I had begun to break free of my mother's rule and had my own herd of mountain goats.

I saw this picture on a blog the day before. Goats=metaphor for "living on the edge?"

As I was out tending them, I ran into a gang of motocross nomads (yep). One guy managed to miraculously save one of my goats, thus winning my heart. I became best buddies with the nomads.

Chapter 3: One of the nomads had a younger sister. She loved motocross with all her heart, but there is just no room for women in the nomad motocross world. I was talking to her, and I had an epiphany: I would learn how, and then we could compete against each other! The world would have to take note of two woman competing. It was brilliant.

Then I woke up.

A Mighty Change

I had a moment last Friday. My roommates and I had just come back from a triple blind date, which, surprise, was awful. I was exhausted before the date even started, it was snowy, wet and cold, and then things went from bad to worse. When we got home I sat on the couch and steamed for half an hour, I was so mad. All I wanted to do was go to bed and slay the dating monster in my dreams. Hannabeth and I needed to go to Walmart, though.

I forced myself out the door into the miserable snowy cold and discovered instead the most beautiful world. It was still snowing, and the whole world was covered in snow, starlight and stillness. I was reminded of what Elder Hales said in the last conference, speaking of wanting to come to know and gain a testimony of God: "This desire leads us to ponder on the things of heaven—to let the evidence of God all around us touch our hearts." In my life, I have been negligent in observing the frequent and touching witnesses of the love of God for His children. I nearly missed that perfect experience because I thought I would rather be grumpy. It was beautiful.

Life Is Good

I am so excited by this. Isn't it amazing that those things that once seemed impossible, like finding out the color of a dinosaur, aren't?

The Grapes of Wrath has been my reading nemesis for the past ten years. I couldn't ever actually finish it. January 2010 goes down as the month I conquered it. Finished! But it was a completely worthy foe, and a new favorite. Other books I've read recently that made the mighty list: Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Jurassic Park, Catcher in the Rye, and The Hunger Games.

Quotes from the third grade:

"I didn't get any peace or love from that story, cause I was looking at the stars on the wall."

Me: "What slows objects down?" Smarty-Pants Anthony: "Fraction."

"Who is that? Is he a basketball player?"--when a black character showed up in a book we were reading.

"I was late fo school because my dad was in the bathwoom doing number two, and it took fo-eveh."

One girl, after doing a spastic dance where her legs were going all over the place: "And that's not fat. It's pure muscle. I got 'em from my dad."

I haven't lost my keys since Christmas.

Books

If I were stuck in my own brain, life, and way of thinking forever, I'm sure I would go crazy.

Making up for lost blogging time

Count this as a post.