A Jerusalem Dinner

Last night we had our weekly dinner group...but this week with a twist! Our friend Vladi is going to the BYU Jerusalem Center next semester, and since my roommates Katie and Lindsey spent this past summer there, we decided to throw Vladi a going away Jerusalem dinner! We invited our other friend Michael, who is also planning to go to Jerusalem this coming summer, as well as some of our other friends who have also been to Jerusalem already.

Katie took over most of the cooking. She made falafels. Until yesterday, I had no idea what went into a falafel, but Katie and Lindsey always talked about how delicious they were. As you can tell from the picture, they are basically delicious greasy fried goodness.

Falafels are made with chickpeas, turmeric, cumin, onions, breadcrumbs, flour, and cilantro. Basically we mixed everything together and formed little balls and then deep fried them in a huge pot of oil. Probably not the healthiest option, but delicious nonetheless.

We also made couscous for a side dish and some french fries, which apparently they serve with the falafels in Jerusalem. More healthy goodness.

My roommate Jessi made homemade naan bread too! This is a picture of most of the dinner: pita and naan bread, hummus, tomatoes, falafels, and thousand island dressing. Basically we put the falafels onto the naan or pita bread, smooshed them up and spread them around, and threw everything else on top. It was way good!

My contribution to the dinner...home made cinnamon rolls! The recipe made 40 of these babies, and we still have several sitting in our kitchen, so friends and neighbors, feel free to come get one!

This picture just had to go up. Katie was cutting onions for like a half hour to put in the falafels, and it was doing horrible things to her eyes...so this was her solution. Isn't she totes adorbs? I love my special roommate.

Trim the tree

Today, Christmas made its way into the Gunner household. Decorating for Christmas is something we take very seriously in our house, and we have acquired quite a few trinkets over the years. We have two Christmas trees in our house: one in the living room and one in the family room. Because the living room tree is visible first thing when someone walks into our house, it has been deemed "the pretty ornament tree." The family room tree is hidden back in our house where mostly our family and some visitors hang out. As such, it holds mostly homemade (a.k.a. usually super ugly) ornaments. My sister, Savannah, and I put on some Christmas music (She & Him Christmas album is awesome!) and had quite a good time decorating the "ugly ornament tree" today.

Singing elf (maybe?) made out of a soda can. Super uggo.

Savannah made this one...Popsicle sticks for Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus and red pen to draw on their faces.

Only the really ugly ornaments make it to the back of the "ugly ornaments tree." Savannah handed me this one for the back. The picture in the middle is me in second or third grade. Should I be offended? Probably. But I'll admit, this one is REALLY ugly.

Polka dot rocking horse is a winner.

I'm pretty sure this one was given to me with love from either Courtney or Micah, my two best friends growing up. Love the hand painted I <3 MRG (Melissa Rae Gunner). How sweet!

I think this one is the VERY ugliest ornament we own. Why would we have a baby in a bunny costume for CHRISTMAS? I don't get it...

Christmas unicorn.

This was an ornament from my dad's childhood. It looks like the Pringles guy to me.

My older brother, Kellen, when he was little. This one is actually pretty cute.

My little brother, Austin's, head put on an angel. This one is just funny!

Popsicle stick reindeer. I also made this one... Apparently I'm the queen of making ugly ornaments.

Little Austin on a felt heart with green and red fingerpaints.

We gave Boon a jingle bell so he could join in the Christmas spirit. He hated it and would freak out every time he walked because it would make noise and he had no idea where it was coming from. My dog is intelligent.

Although all the individual ornaments may be pretty hideous, all together they make quite a beautiful Christmas tree.

Count your many blessings

This week I am home with my family in California for Thanksgiving. Thinking it would be nice and warm, I packed a lot of clothes that I've been unable to wear in Utah for the past month or so, but I've been sorely disappointed, as the weather is much colder than I expected. And our house in California doesn't warm up nearly as well as our tiny apartment does in Utah (we finally got the heater fixed about a week ago!)

Despite the coldish weather, I have been enjoying my time here with my family. We've been doing a lot of shopping, listening to a lot of Christmas music, and eating like there's no tomorrow. Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with our immediate family (minus Kellen and Olivia...miss you guys!), my Uncle Eric and Aunt Stephanie and their boys Max and Jude, as well as the missionaries from our ward and a friend of my dad's named Loren. We set up a big long table in the living room, and my talented mother made some beautiful flower centerpieces from a fall bouquet she purchased. We even whipped out my great grandmother's old china and some fancy glasses (which my cousin Max, age 4, said were only for wine...Our family doesn't drink alcohol, so I don't know where he learns these things).

Check out those flowers...Mom is so good at arrangements!

The place settings with Great Grandma's china and the "wine" glasses.

Dad carving the bird!

Possibly the best part of the whole dinner...homemade rolls and BUTTER.

Jello, sautéed vegetables, mashed potatoes

My absolute favorite salad: Romaine lettuce, strawberries, green onions, avocados, sugared almonds with homemade poppyseed dressing. Yum!

Stuffing and sweet potatoes with brown sugar and walnuts. Delicious.

The turkey!

My cute baby cousin Jude. We had to take turns holding him because everyone wanted to play with him!

Here is a close-up of those legs...I'm a sucker for chubby babies!

Max brandishing his butter knife. My favorite quotes of his from the day were:

"I don't have my swim trunks. I will have to go in the hot tub naked!" and

"I'm ticklish on my booty."

Everyone who shared this wonderful Thanksgiving with me!

After dinner, everyone went into a food coma, including Boon. We both took a nap by the fireplace.

Throughout this week I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and all the blessings I have in my life. I am grateful for a family who loves me and supports me in all that I do, and for friends who are my family away from home. I'm thankful for my health, and I'm thankful for the opportunities I have been afforded throughout my life. I'm grateful for a wonderful home both here in California, and a nice apartment in Utah with loving roommates. I am thankful for the opportunity I have to gain a college education. I'm thankful to have a knowledge of God and the love that He gives His children, and for the direction that this has brought to my life. I'm grateful for the beauty of nature. I'm thankful for the wonderful nation I live in, and for all the freedoms we enjoy here in the United States.

I could go on for hours listing the things I am grateful for, and it has become especially clear to me in recent years just how blessed my life is.

"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done!"

The Friendly Beasts

Tonight was the semi-annual musical fireside for the Provo YSA 172nd ward. I'm not usually much of a performer, but since I'm part of the music council for my ward, I decided to force my friends to participate with me. This wasn't really a problem for Ryan (in the middle) and Derek (with the guitar) who are both in the BYU Men's Chorus, but as for Ed (on the uke), Jessi (far left) and I, it was quite a terrifying experience. We all love to sing, but usually keep it to more casual settings, like the car, or the shower. Ed and Ryan picked the song "The Friendly Beasts" because it is on Sufjan Stevens' Christmas album, and they both really liked it. The rest of us had never heard of it, and thought they were crazy when they suggested we sing a song called "The Friendly Beasts" at a religious musical fireside. But, it turned out to be a pretty sweet song, and because the boys are so talented, they arranged everything and it was a way fun experience!

I was dubbed the "cute instruments girl," because the first time we practiced I grabbed a can of oatmeal and used it as a shaker to give the song a little something extra. It started as a joke, but then we kind of liked the sound of it, so I decided to use it in our actual performance. My roommate, Jessi, was nice enough to give me a scarf to disguise it so I wasn't just shaking a tacky oatmeal can in front of everyone. Although that probably would be super cool and hipster of me if I HAD done that... We had so much fun preparing this song that our practice sessions kind of led into jam sessions (so cool right?? haha) where we sang "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and "Young Folks" and some other great hits. Basically we want to start a band for realzzz and the boys came up with the name Indian Paintbrush. Apparently the Indian Paintbrush is the state flower in Wyoming (where Ryan and Derek are from), but I'm pretty sure if you have the word Indian or the word Paintbrush in your band name, it makes it immediately cool, so I think we're set. Keep an eye out for our upcoming EP! Oh wait, just kidding. Mostly I think we will just keep it to casual apartment jam seshes, but if anything changes, I will most definitely let you guys know. Enjoy the video.

It's Christmas...oh wait...it's still November.

It snowed last night. I was pretty upset about it, as I was unprepared and wore old black flats that did nothing to protect my feet from the slush. Although I did just go for a run up in the foothills this morning and the snow added to the already beautiful view of Provo from up in that neighborhood.

To add to the Christmas spirit that the snow brought us last night, my roommates and I went on a triple date and we made gingerbread houses! Might I add this was the very first time that I've made a gingerbread house.

Katie and Vladi hard at work on their tropical gingerbread house. See the sea turtle on the roof?

Jessi and Mike working on their train. Kudos to them for actually putting it together...the rest of us had pre-assembled gingerbread houses!

Mark working on the landscaping for our house. Like the green turf?

Pretty impressive eh? We even made a crushed peppermint rock bed and path leading to the door!

The crew and the village we created!

We braved the snow to end the evening with some hot cocoa. How festive!

"It's the human body"

This semester I had the wonderful opportunity to be a TA for the anatomy class at BYU. Just what does this entail you might ask? I teach a lab section of about 20 students once a week for two hours and spend four hours in the open lab helping students study throughout the week. The BYU anatomy program is awesome enough to have several cadavers as well as specimens (various limbs, organs, etc.) to use as study tools! A friend of mine nicknamed me "the cadaver lady" when he found out that all I do is teach off of those bad boys. Anyway, it's the coolest thing ever and I will hopefully be doing it for many more semesters to come!

At BYU, most of the lab portions of classes end earlier than the actual class, so our last lab section was last night. My students had to take their final, where they were quizzed on 946 terms that they had learned to identify on the body throughout the semester. Who knew that the femur itself has over 15 identifiable terms on it? Plus the forearm has about 20 different muscles, with long complicated names such as the "extensor carpi radialis longus." And these were just terms in beginning human anatomy. Basically, anatomy students are legit. So out of those 946 terms, the students were tested on 50 of them, which were pinned on the cadavers, specimens, and models. I'm pretty sure they all dominated it (since my teaching partner, Steven, and I are both such fabulous TAs...). And now I have 8 extra hours to play every week until the semester ends!

These are all the students in my anatomy lab section right before they went in to take the final. Aren't they so great? Anyway, I should maybe explain the title of this post. Basically in our apartment if we ever discuss any gross bodily functions (such as a colostomy bag), we end it by saying, "It's the human body, guys. Perfectly natural," or something of the sort.

Here is an update on our heater situation: It is still broken. I woke up to a 55 degree apartment this morning. No big deal. I just talked to the maintenance guy on the phone, and he said he will be here between 2 and 3pm today, so hopefully I will be able to feel my toes again in a few hours.

First Post

Recently, two of my roommates have started blogs. Plus I've been blog-stalking a lot lately, and there are tons of great blogs out there. I really thought it was time I started one myself.

I'm not nearly as creative as the people who write most of the cute blogs I read are, but I'm going to give this a shot. I figure if no one else reads it, I will get a kick out of it in years to come. Plus, as my roommate Katie put it, "We usually do pretty fun stuff, so at least we could put up pictures of that!"

"Hibernation is over," I read on posters across campus throughout the entire day yesterday. Just what were they referring to? BYU BASKETBALL. The first game was last night, and like a true cougar fan, I was there an hour early with a few friends. Because we are such loyal fans, we were rewarded with free t-shirts and pom poms to wave during the game. I may have snagged a few extra t-shirts...get excited for Christmas, family! We played BYU-Hawaii and smoked them. It was strange to root against another BYU school (I remember my friend Ed yelling, "You're LDS, we like you too!" at one of the Hawaii players when other people were booing him).

Here we are sporting our free t-shirts in the Marriott Center. We finished up the night by getting Yogurtland,which came to Provo last year and has been the highlight of the city ever since, and then heading back to the apartment, where we had a bomb massage train going for a while. Basically, this group is my family away from home, and we're all a little too comfortable around each other. Enough said.

Life is going well here in Provo. My only complaints at the moment are the broken heater in both our apartment and my car, and the fact that Thanksgiving just won't come soon enough. That's all for now. Peace and blessings, peace and blessings.