Butter vs Margarine

Last week Erica and I ran out of butter. We didn't realize how much our lives revolved around that delicious dairy delight(I've been practicing my alliterations). We drove to the grocery store and were a little upset at the prices. The grocery stores in Rexburg provide butter at $3.49 a package, and offers margarine at $.79.

I turned to Erica and proposed the idea to purchase margarine. At that moment I knew that the word "margarine" would never be spoken of again in our home.



For the next couple of days whenever Erica wasn't looking I was secretly looking up the differences between butter and margarine. The general consensus on the internet and among blogging mothers is that when margarine is in a baked good, the difference would be miniscule if at all noticeable. If the items were cooked, adding margarine was taboo and result in a much inferior product.

I decided to put this to the test. If anyone could pick out margarine in a baked good, Erica could...or could she?

Today Erica had class at 2. I was home cooking an early dinner for us because we both work this evening. The table was set and dinner was ready by the time she got home. We sat down for dinner and saw that the timer on the stove was about to go off. She wondered what was baking. I opened the oven door and she was amazed as to how thoughtful and loving I had been for making her mothers molten lava cakes.
They were so good! Erica even thought so. Erica and I spent the next ten minutes around the dinner table devouring the molten lava cakes and discussing amongst ourselves how wonderful they were.

I asked her what she would think if I told her these were made with margarine as oppose to butter. Her whole countenance changed. I've never been that scared before. I proceeded to back peddle and tell her that I was just wondering what she would think and that nothing was different with these molten lava cakes. I then reminded her that she thought they were delicious. She then told me that they weren't delicious and that she just didn't want to hurt my feelings. I think she lied.

I did infact use margarine. I used blue bonnet, which isn't just margarine. It's the cheapest margarine at the grocery store. Instead of spending $1.75 on butter for this recipe, we spent $0.40 on margarine.As Erica was leaving for work I asked her to tell me the truth of what she thought of the molten lava cakes. She said they were good but she still hated margarine. I'm not sure if she's trying to be nice or if she really thought that they were good. I think this calls for another experiment in the near future. I will keep you all posted.

I personally could not tell a difference in the taste nor the texture.

We finally saw Twilight Eclipse!

Yesterday, Erica and I saw Twilight Eclipse. We had previously seen the first two movies and didn’t mind them at all. I could even go as far to say that we may have enjoyed watching the first two movies. Yesterday rolled around and Erica and I were looking for something to do. She anxiously suggested that we go and see Eclipse. The movie started at 10:10. We quickly ran to WINCO to purchase some snacks.

We sat down and were instantly drawn into the attraction of the previews. There are a lot of good movies coming out soon. The lights began to dim and eventually the whole theater was dark. The first scene came on and Edward and Bella were in the middle of a beautiful field of flowers immersed in themselves and how beautiful they were. I looked over at Erica and she was rolling her eyes just as much as I was. …Why wasn’t Edward shimmering while he was sitting romantically with his lover in the hot sun in the middle of a field?

Edward: Wow Bella, you’re beautiful
Bella: I know, want to get married?
Edward: I love you, but can’t be with you forever because I’m a vampire and don’t have a soul and there is still hope for you to go to heaven eventually if you live a life full of integrity so I’m going to keep showing you that I’m interested in you knowing full well that I’ll never change you into a vampire
Belle: Ok, I love you too!

My favorite part was when Jacob (teen wolf) and Bella were walking by a lake and Jacob was telling Bella how much she loved him.

Jacob: I love you Bella and I know you love me too
Bella: No I don’t
Jacob: yes, you do, you just don’t know it yet.
Bella: I’m pretty sure I don’t

Jacob then takes Bellas hand and puts it on his bare chest

Jacob: Feel this! This is my heart, flesh and bones, It’s warm because I have a soul.
Bella: You know, I may love you after all!

Jacob then kisses Bella and she punches him in the face and almost breaks her hand because his muscles are just that big!

This is just a peek into the mundane dialogue that encompassed this superficial teenage drama.

Why does Bella love Edward? Because he’s mysterious. Why does Edward love Bella? Because she too is mysterious. In other words, they don’t know why they love eachother, they just do. Or what they think is love (hormones, misguided passion, etc.) has taken over, and nothing else matters. Romantic, or just a lie?

If I had a dollar for every scene Jacob was half-naked in this movie, I would have enough money to buy another movie ticket and watch it again. But I know better. I’d take the money and run! It would be different if it was filmed at a beach or something, but they were in a snowy mountain half time-- once during a blizzard!

I love...

Man vs Food



It is honestly one of the greatest shows I have ever seen. Its about a guy who goes around attempting all of the food competitions around the world. He's eaten huge pizzas, huge burgers, he has eaten crazy hot buffalo wings and a bunch of other things. Most of the time there is a time limit. Yesterday he attempted to eat 180 oysters in under an hour. He did it in twenty minutes. This guy is good! Today he is attempting to eat a twelve egg omelet. Sometimes man wins, and sometimes the food wins. But no matter who wins, it is still one of my favorite shows.

My favorite part is when he's about half way through and he's making funny noises and faces because it's not sitting well. It is so funny. All of you should watch it sometime. Most evenings when Erica and I finish school we cuddle up on the couch and watch an episode before we say goodnight. It's great. Here are some pictures from the show and some things he has eaten.

I'm going home!

There is only three weeks left in the term and I am fed up! I am so ready for this term to be over. Erica and I were able to work things out with her sisters and we will be heading home soon for a short break! I am so excited to spend the fourth of July in the beautiful state of Oregon! :-)

Update on the second update!

There may have been some confusion as to why I didn't mention my Mom in the group that came to visit me. It was merely because my Mom is so sweet and beautiful that she needs a blog page all to herself. Mom and I have always had a great relationship and I love her very much. I love her so much, that I even wrote her a poem:

My mother Nancy

Caught the fancy

For my dad

When they were lads

After five kids came

Me they were able to claim

Ever since that March night

My mom and I’ve been real tight

I love my mom

She’s da bomb

She’d rather crochet

Than to waste the day

She makes me blankets

And cooks crispy bacon

I guess what I’m trying to say

Is there really is no way

That I can express in words

What’s sung by morning birds

Or seen in the vast sky blue

Simply put, Mom I love you.:-)

P.S. The cake looked nothing like the pictures but it was really good. We enjoyed it.

Update on my update!

The 4 hour exam wasn't as hard as they made it seem. I feel confident about it and finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes. I'll know my score once the exam closes. The teacher saw me today riding my bike and we talked for awhile. I have debunked the myth that he has no heart. He is only a nice man who grades tough.

I'm updating my blog!

Life has been insane lately. All of you may have noticed that I haven’t updated my blog in four weeks! Ikes!

Even though life has been hectic, Erica has been very patient and supportive. I really appreciate that about her. She’s leaving to do a yoga class in Idaho Falls so she wont see this blog until she gets home. I’m making her a cake that she mentioned earlier today. I had never heard of it before but she was describing it to me and it sounds really good. It’s called an earthquake cake. It’s in the oven right now.




I think it’s supposed to look like this…but I don’t have chocolate chips.

School is insane. I’ve already taken two exams and two quizzes this week. I have another Exam I have to take tomorrow. It’s in Managerial Accounting and our teacher told us that if we know our stuff and don’t really get hung up on any problems then we might be able to get it done in 3.5 hours. The rumor around campus is that this guy has no heart. I’ve been studying all week for it and I don’t feel prepared yet, but I have until tomorrow. I have a mandatory field trip this Saturday to Yellowstone national park in my natural disasters class. It is a tough class. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun but it’s a lot of work.

Erica and I are on an ultimate Frisbee team. Our name is “Da Lambs” We are undefeated right now, there is only one other team that’s undefeated. I love it. Yoga is another thing I do every week which keeps me healthy. It’s one of those things that I probably would of never tried on my own, but now that Erica has introduced me with it, I love it. I’m not that great at it, but I am definitely better than I was when I first started. Here is my favorite pose: It’s one that I was able to do this one even before I became a full fledged yogi.



Golf is going well also. We have tournaments every Friday and practices every 2 weeks. I have a lot of fun. I like how it’s competitive, but nobody takes it too serious. I got a new (new to me) driver a couple weeks ago. It matches my three wood and I’m able to hit it a lot better than I was able to hit my big bertha driver.
Erica and I paid the application fee and also the deposit on our new apartment. It’s really nice. I’ll post pictures when we’re actually moved in.

Life in Rexburg has been really stressful lately so Erica and I are thinking that we need to take a break from school and make an escape. We don’t have a plan yet, but it’s going to be good! :-)

Oh I forgot to mention. Dad, Laura, Landon and Lach came to visit Erica and me this weekend. It was a lot of fun. While Laura was here, she took our engagement pictures. They turned out way cute!

Interesting story

At the end of last term I had a dream. It was one of those dreams where you wake up and you know that you’re supposed to learn something from it. I kept thinking about it throughout the day, but I ended up forgetting what my dream was about except for a plague that I had hanging above my door.

The plague read, “I CAN DO HARD THINGS.” I first heard this phrase from Robert, Erica’s brother. He heard it on his mission and it became one of his mission motto's.

So I went home the next week and I decided to make this plague. With the help of LongBoardLarry and Ardith, I was able to make two. One for Robert and the other to put above my door just as it was in my dream.

I hung it in my room as soon as I got back to school. I would look at when I woke up and admire the workmanship of it, but I don’t think it’s message had as deep of an impact on me as I would of hoped.

The other day I was in my front room doing homework with Erica when my roommate comes out and asks me about my sign. He asks if he could purchase one from me. It obviously meant more to him than it did to me, so I just gave it to him.

He then tells me that something happened to his father and he is partially paralyzed. His motto for the past three years has been, “I CAN DO HARD THINGS.” My roommate described his father as the type of person who when he hears a joke, he’ll tell everyone the joke twice just to make sure everyone heard it and also because he was so excited about it. So for the past three years, my roommate would hear his dad tell him that he could do hard things frequently.

I’m not sure what exactly happened to his dad, I think it may have been a mini stroke, but it happened on April 17^th and it left him partially paralyzed. That was the Saturday before we came to school, that was also the day that I finished the last coat of clear on the plagues.

So we all sat around talking, and Erica and I think that I had my dream for my roommate's father. That I was supposed to make that plague for him. My roommate is home right now, but I’ll hear about his fathers reaction tomorrow night when he gets home.

So there's a cool story that happened to me recently. Love you all! :-)

Epidemics

An epidemic is defined as something affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent. (www.dictionary.com) Epidemics are usually associated with deadly diseases. The black plague was an epidemic, there have been many cases of influenza, and even HIV has been defined as a current epidemic.

I would like to add facebook to the list of current epidemics. It may not have killed people, but it has certainly caused a widespread numbness to reality. Rarely is someone on facebook real. We live in a society in which everyone is trying portray their perfect selves in an attempt to out do others. People have lost social skills: skills which will allow them to further themselves in their careers and also as their potential as a human being.

It is often said that whenever God creates something good, Satan then counters it with something bad. An example of this is the internet. God allows us to do research and to increase our knowledge through the numberless resources on the internet. Satan counters it with numberless sites of easily obtainable pornography. I personally feel that there is no good that comes from facebook. What good is there that comes solely from facebook that cannot be obtained in another way? What about evil? Erica was invited to become friends with someone she didn’t now. This person had an Islamic name with a profile picture of a gun. Has facebook helped in the exploitation of women and children? Just think about that. Has the drama of facebook ever caused friction in a marriage or relationship of someone that you know?

Check out this site of random facebook facts. It is unbiased but I think some of the facts on there will scare a lot of you.

BYU did a study and found a correlation between failing grades and addiction to electronic entertainment. Imagine how much more successful students would be if they weren’t constantly wondering who poked them or wrote on their wall. Imagine how much more efficient people would be in their jobs if they weren’t checking facebook on their cell phones.

This past week I gave facebook another chance. I found myself on it often. I enjoyed looking at people’s pictures, searching for past friends and seeing what is new in their lives, and feeling connected to my friends back in Salem. I also saw a decline in homework effort. I saw an increase in stress for upcoming quizes which I have yet to study for.

I have a vision of the man that I want to become. I feel that everyday I’m climbing up the mountain of success and of moral strength which will eventually help me be there. When I am on facebook; I not only to I take a step back, but I feel myself slipping and falling down that mountain. I become unmotivated. I start to worry about what everyone is thinking. I even become a jealous person.

I feel that people have lost the ability to communicate effectively in face to face scenarios. For over 2000 years we’ve lived without facebook, so why is there a need for it now? Some may argue that it keeps friends in contact. If someone is a real friend, wouldn’t they take the effort to pick up the phone and to call you?

So with all of that said, I am boycotting facebook.

Update on my life

So a lot has been going on lately.

There is no particular order to these events.

I made the golf team yesterday. There were tryouts. 7 people were cut. Then there was a draft. We all sat on one end of the room and as we'd get picked we'd move over to the other end of the room and sit with our team. I was the fourth to the last to get picked. It was a little awkward. I made it though! I am on Roberts' team. He's the coach. I'm going to get a cool shirt and get to play golf a couple times a week.

Go Titans! :-)

I decided that I'm going to stay in Rexburg year round. It has been a thought for sometime, but last week Erica and I fasted and prayed about it and I feel really good about staying. I'm a little nervous, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I've already started looking for work though and this would allow me to graduate faster.

I've already spoken with financial aid and my scholarship will apply to every term as long as I take 15 credits. It is also the first year that I wont be a dependent so I'm hoping I'll be elligable for some grants on top of my scholarship.

Yesterday I didn't eat very well. I didn't have the intention of eating a lot of sweets but it just happened that way.

Breakfast: i had 3 donuts and two cups of chocolate milk
Lunch: I had a slice of pizza
Dinner: I had taco bell.

Then our friend invited us over for cake and Erica and I couldn't say no. Then Jason was having a birthday party and he was having a waffle eating competition and a girl from monmouth said she could beat me. I was not going to let he beat me. We were making huge Belgium waffles. I ate three as fast as I could thinking that she wouldn't be able to compete. She ate slow, but steady. She ended up eating five. I lost the bet, and my body was not happy with me.

I'm thinking of giving up sugar for a little bit.

Luckily I have an amazing girlfriend. She is bringing me tums. She wasn't feeling all that great yesterday either. I called this morning and she's feeling a lot better though.

I want to go off on a tangent about Erica. She is super woman!


I made the picture above in photoshop. I am really proud of it.

Erica really is super woman though. She is tackling 14 credits of school. Four of which is Anatomy and Physiology. People change their majors so they don't have to take that class. Shes taking it head on and is doing great! She is always super busy with homework. She teaches three classes of yoga every week and every other week she teaches an additional class.

Despite all of her obligations she still finds time to spend with her sisters and with me. Only super woman would have the ability and capacity to take on the world and still find time to let her boyfriend and family knows how much she loves them.

The winner is...

First we'll do the second place prize. The second place winner, the person who gets to take me out to lunch while I'm home for spring break is... Stephanie! She's excited!


And now... The winner of the big letter give away is... Me!




A big thank you goes out to Laura and Stephanie for making all of this possible.

I'm doing a give away!

I'm doing a give away. Send me a comment if you want to be added into the drawing. Whomever wins will get a giant letter of their choice from my eldest sister.

The winner will be hand selected by me and the winner will be announced tomorrow at noon.

There can only be one winner, but there will be a second place winner. Second place wins a chance to buy me lunch when I go home over the spring break.

Stay tuned tomorrow at noon to see who the winners are.



Here is a picture which I borrowed from my sister in law. She just recieved one of these for her birthday.

I had an interesting experience yesterday...

Erica and I were working on our Statistical Analysis for our Business Stats class. We were working out the probability of certain events occurring. One problem came up where we had to multiply two fractions. We both looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. We didn't have access to the internet, so I did what every college student in need would do. I called my 12 year old nephew and asked him how to multiply fractions. Thank you Laird for helping Erica and me with our college level statistical analysis.

As for my other nephews and neices, I go to them for different things.

Larry J keeps me updated on all of the latest technology
Laird helps me with my math
Landon is the go to man for all my Super Mario Bro's needs
Lach is a great listener
Alivia helps me with my girl problems
Madison always have a joke on the tip of her tongue
Mike Jr gives great hugs.

I couldn't do college with all of you. :-)

The end.

I've had a rough day so far...

I've had a rough day so far. I'm still sick. I feel a lot better than I have the past few days though. I woke up a little after 8 to get ready for school. I took a shower and then I go to the kitchen to eat cereal. As I begin pouring my cereal I see that I only have ten minutes to get to class. I put my cereal back in the box, throw together a pb and j sandwich and rush to class.

I was one of the first people to class. I thought to myself, "self, this is odd" and then I remembered...

...Our power went out last week. I made the clocks five minutes fast to help me roommates who are always late to school. It didn't take them long to figure out that it was five minutes fast. As I spent the last two days in the house I thought I'd be nice and add an additional five minutes to the clock. This morning I forgot that. I probably deserved it. Needless to say, I'm going to change the clocks back tonight. That will probably mess my roommates up more than anything.

So there I was in class, runny nose, slight headache and I did not want to be in that class. I was about to get up and leave but something inside of me said "meh". So I stayed.

The teacher starts handing out a worksheet and I see the words extra credit written on it. I was glad that I stayed.

The worksheet was a game. It was covering the topic of "the rules of the game" which basically means in business people try to guess what their competitors are going to do and what intensives consumers will most likely be drawn to. There's a whole science on trying to figure out what other people will do. John Nash thought of it. Remember in the movie "Beautiful Mind" or something like that and they're in the bar and they all want the blond girl but he convinces them to go for the brunettes. Yea, he was an economist and that was when he had his epiphany.

So we could either raise our hand with a closed fist or an open fist. If the majority of the class did a close fist and we did an open fist we got 40 points. If we had a close fist as well we'd get 20 points. if the majority of the class had open fists and we didn't we'd get 10 points if we matched we'd get zero points. For every ten points we have above a hundred we'd get one extra credit point.

Confused? ... so was I.

So a guy in the middle of the class has a great idea of systematically having everyone raise their hands in different ways so everyone gets 6 extra credit points. There were some cheaters and the boxing gloves came off and the teacher asked us if we wanted to try again. So everyone does it and it's going great and then when we have three rounds left, I became the cheater. (It was anonymous no one knew and I didn't affect anyone else score) So I received ten extra credit points instead of six like everyone else. I felt great. So I did the math and on the final exam instead of needing a 91 to get an A in the class I need a 81. Instead of a 74 to get an A- in the class I need a 64. It was great.

K so Mario vs Donkey Kong on the bottom of my blog. I got up to 700 points. Still haven't reached the princess yet. I found out a trick though that I'm willing to share with all of you. If you jump while you're standing still it's easier to get over the barrels. Jump is space bar.

What other random things can I tell you about my day...

It snowed today. I'm still sick.

My FHE parents got a divorce. I'm now fatherless on Monday nights.

Eli my friend got married two days ago. that day was also Jackies, Jaclyns and Zack's birthday. Zack had two cakes made for him. I helped myself.

That concludes my life as of today. :-)

I'm the proud owner of

two plants. I first bought the zebra plant from the school and then I bought the the aloe vera plant from K- Mart.

I don't have pictures of my actual plants but here are some pictures from the web that I found.

Here is a zebra plant. Mine doesn't have a yellow flower yet though.




This is an aloe vera plant. There are a lot of medical benefits to it, but I just thought it looked cool.

that's my show and tell for today.

P.S. I put donkey kong on the bottom of my blog so everyone can play it. :-)

I'm sick :-(

My roommates haven't been feeling well the past few weeks. They've been sick close to two weeks. I've managed not to get sick thus far, but yesterday I wasn't feeling all that great. My throat was sore, my limphnodes(the things on your upper neck that the doctor always feels when you tell him you're sick) were aching and I was just not feeling up to par. I decided to try to get rid of the sickness before it gets bad. My roommates have been sick for about two weeks, and I can't afford to be sick that long. My roommate came home last night from the doctors with a medicine. It was a cough medicine on steroids. It had codin in it and it smelt like alcohol. So like a good roommate, he let me have some. I know this wasn't very smart, but I figured he's the one that got me sick and so I had the same thing he had. That codin made me sleep so well. I slept better last night than I have this whole term so far.

I woke up this morning feeling horrible though. My voice is all raspy. I feel a little light headed. My limphnoids are still sore. I went to Wal*Mart and bought gatorade, chicken noodle soup, and a thing of chocolate pudding. Gatorade is on sell by the way, 50 cents each. I've already drank a whole one, I have seven more I'm going to drink throughout the day.

I'm staying inside today, dressing warm. Harry Potter is having a marathon. I'm going to drink lots of fluids and maybe get some homework done.

Life is busy!

Life is busy. I had two tests so far this week. I got 100% on one and 80% on the other. I was rather distraught about that test. I have another one tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about it. I'm going to be spending all this evening in preparation for it. I need an A on it.

So far my grades are looking great though. I have A's in all of my classes except Business Stats, I have an A- but I'm working on it and hopefully it will end well.

Erica and I are preparing for our second half marathon. It's the Teton Dam Marathon. Sometimes I get really excited about it and other times I remember how I felt at mile 9 of my first half marathon and I get a knot in my stomach.

I'm going to try to train better this time. Tomorrow I'm going to have my first big run (big for me). I'm going to be running 5 miles. I've been consistently running three miles this week. It's going to be a big test for me. I'm running with Erica's brother Robert. He's going to run ten miles though and we'll stash my car so I can turn back after five. He's training for the full Marathon.

Running helps me manage my stress. It seems like I'm constantly stressed and I feel I don't have time to run but when I do I feel better.

Erica is going to be in Utah this weekend so I'm going to spend all weekend trying to catch up with school work. It's going to be nice having so much downtime where I can catch up, but I'm sure going to miss her. I feel lost and I don't know what to do when she's around. I've been making a list of things to do.

I'm going to...
call Kim and ask her if I can bring my adopted nieces brownies.
do a whole bunch of homework
give plasma
take a test
clean my room and apartment
go for a walk
play guitar
figure out how to do spin while playing ping pong
and nap.

That's about it. If you have any suggestions of things I can do, let me know :-)

Oh! we had a Salem party the other day. Sarah blogged about it here. And we only invited people from Salem, Keizer, or Monmouth. It was fun. I made meat balls though. Wal*Mart has a 5 dollar bag of 80 meat balls. So I put all those in a crock pot with BBQ sauce and a little salsa and they were amazing. Erica suggested doing sweat and sour and having it over rice. Her mom used to make that. I'm going to try that next.

:-) The End

Cool Random Fact

So today my Old Testament teacher told us how he was messing around on the new family search website and was able to trace his lineage back to Adam. I thought that was kinda cool so I pulled up my genealogy and started to see how far I could trace mine back.

I figured that royalty kept better records than anyone else, so I kept pressing the lineages of the kings and the queens that came off of my line. Before I knew it I was clicking on Enoch, Methuselah, Shem, Noah, Adam (they aren't in order, but they were all on my genealogy!) and a bunch of other famous Bible people.

I want to thank everyone for

wishing me a happy birthday. My birthday was great! Erica took care of me and it was amazing. I am a lucky man.

The day was full of surprises. First I was woken up with Erica already in my house(she called to wake me up) she had breakfast all ready. We went to our classes then we went to Craigos. I love that place. We went to green canyon. We saw the new Alice in Wonderland. I loved the movie. Erica got me some amazing presents. It was great.

My mom knit me a beanie and it has really come in handy. I got a haircut on my birthday and it turned out way bad. I've been wearing the beanie ever sense :-)

I just signed up for my classes for next term.

After summer term, the school will reevaluate my GPA to see if I'm still eligible for a full tuition scholarship.

Because of this, I'm trying to take some easier classes that go towards my associates degree instead of my Bachelors. I only have 5 more classes until I have my associates, I'm taking three of those this next term. Hopfully this will raise my GPA. Right now I have a 3.852 and after this term if I get the grades I'm hoping for I'll have a 3.88. After Summer Term I'll need to have above a 3.5.

I'm taking two classes that will go towards my Bachelors. I've been trying to work on both at the same time so I'm always taking a mixture of easier classes with my hard classes.

So this term I'm taking these classes:

Managerial Accounting MWF 9 am - 10 am
Natural Disasters MWF 1015 am - 1115 am
International Economics MWF 1130 am - 1230 pm
Family Foundations TR 1015 am-1115 am
Math in the Real World TR 1130am - 1 pm

All of them should be really easy except for Managerial Accounting and International Economics.