Watching plants grow

Today has been kinda BLAH!!! I woke up late for school and I've had a headache all day and to top it all off... it's been snowing for the past 2 days! POO! I wanted to drive out to Heber this week and get some photos of my 4xgreat grandfather's homestead.

But some good news, my plants are growing quite nicely! I planted my lillies and my grape hyacenths on March 7th and they are doing SO well! Yea! Okay, I'm going to go take something for my head. Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Coconut Soup is SO yummy!

Oh my... I have found a new delight! When I was in New York, I ate at a Thai restraunt called Pongsri. I was absolutely enthralled with the coconut soup so the other day I got online and found a recipie for it. Naturally, I didn't follow the instructions. But I ended up with a delicious dinner.

Ingredients:

26 oz canned coconut milk

1 chicken breast (cut into bite size pieces)

3 green onions, chopped up

a couple of handfuls of yellow onion sliced into rings or chunks (your choice)

a few handfuls of bean sprouts

about 1/8 cup of fresh cilantro leaves, coarsley chopped

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice (I like lime so I put in 4)

2 cups of beef or chicken broth (I didn't have chicken broth so I used beef)

1 little serano pepper, seeded and sliced into thin strips (the recipie called for like 7 of these)

A couple slices of fresh ginger root

The recipe also called for lemongrass stalk or root or something that I couldn't find at the grocery store so I added an extra tsp of lemon juice to the mix. It also called for 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, which, when I found it in the grocery store and discovered that it is squished up anchovies, I decided to omit it from my brew. :D

Directions:

In a medium saucepan cook your bite size chicken bits. Season with lemon pepper if desired. Remove from pan and set aside.

Pour in beef/chicken broth.

Add bean sprouts, green and yellow onion, serano pepper and whatever other vegetables you feel like. I was thinking, some chopped celery would go real well in it.

Oh...don't forget the ginger and lemon and lime juice. (pretty much everything but the coconut milk and the chicken)

simmer for about 10 minutes.

Now pour in the coconut milk and add the chicken. Simmer but do not boil for another 5 to 10 minutes. Add a little accent of fresh cilantro to the top if you feel all fancy and stuff.

Now it's ready to do fabulous things to your mouth! Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! I claim NO responsibility for any injuries resulting from following my unconventional recipes and/or cooking methods!!!!

Today's better :D

This week has gone by incredibly fast!!! I feel like I just barely got off the plane home from NYC. I worked really hard on a snowboarding catalog for my Design class this week and they say I need to completely re-design it. They gave excellent tips on how to do it. So I'm a little stressed with that. Its due on Tuesday.

Off to it.

Cold Feet about school

Today I got a bit discouraged with myself. Sometimes it just feels like no matter how hard I try, I am not good enough. I'm trying my hardest, but that's just not good enough. I even thought to myself that I should give up. That way I wouldn't be dissapointing so many people on a regular basis. They'd get the initial dissapointment of me giving in to failure but then they'd know what to expect from me. Instead of always hoping that I've finally got it together and being repeatedly disappointed.

Thankfully, I was with some close friends and they talked to me and reminded me that I'm okay and I should keep trying and they're proud of me for sticking it out. I feel a bit better.

For the last few days I've also been feeling pretty good about planning my life around just me and a career. I don't seem to be meeting mister-meant-for-me and for the past 8 years or so I've been torturing myself with that. I want a family. It's always been my dream.

But right now I feel strong enough to let that go for a minute so I can shift my focus to the present. It's a fragile emotion and hanging onto it is like trying to hold a cloud. I just hope it stays with me a while.

The guy I've been going out with the most sure is fun. I like him a bunch. But he holds me at arm's length and I don't know if that'll change. I enjoy spending time with him though. So I leave it at that with few expectations. If something does change it'll be all the better.

This is a sad little blog isn't it. Don't worry, I'll feel better tomorrow or the next day.

Signing off from wonderland,

Heidi

Vacation Wonders

My trip to New York was SO much fun! I am back now and I have some pictures for everyone.

Our first night we got there around 6 in the evening and went for a walk around town. We then had the most delicious Taiwanese food. By the end of the evening I was totally jet lagged and ready to sleep. Quite a few of my classmates went out to clubs and to the Empire State Building... Not me. I was TOO tired and so was the girl sharing a room with me. So we just went back to bed around 11pm.

On Our second day we took the Staten Island Ferry out and back so that we could see the Statue of Liberty and the city from the water. It was pretty neat. I wish I could have actually seen the Statue up close, but hopefully I will be able to go back and visit NYC again someday.

After we got back from the ferry we took a whirlwind tour around the big tourist areas of New York. I was taking pictures as fast as I could. I thought it was funny that in the financial district, there was a statue of a bull (market) and the most polished part of the statue was its genitalia. LOL. Eeeew! I chose not to touch the bull balls. :)

Here are a few more pictures. Theres one with the statue of Washington in front of the building where he took the oath of office for the presidency. Then there is one of me with a fake statue of liberty. Then there's one of the Brooklyn bridge and of course in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

After our incredibly fast tour of the city we marched up to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern art. I loved it madly!! I could have spent 2 days in there! I didn't see nearly as much of it as I wanted to. It closed before we could see it all.

Well alright... That's probably enough for now eh? More later! Love you!

New York, New York

I am going to New York in about 4 hours!!! I am so excited that I couldn't sleep. I sure hope I can sleep on the plane or I am going to be one tired duck tonight!!!

Our first day we are scheduled to all arrive by 4:30 in the afternoon and then we're going on a walking tour of part of downtown and then off to Chinatown and a great Tai restraunt that my teacher loves.

I hope to find an internet cafe while I am there so I can keep you updated on all the awesome stuff I see, but if not, I will post a massive and cool post when I return.

Maytag, Keep it clean while I'm gone. To the Rents, Don't throw my stuff out just yet... I AM coming back! And the rest of you, have a fantastic week!!

All RIGHT Here I am!!!

Good Friday morning to you all!
I can't sleep, partly cuz I had a long nap today (heaven bless my days of no responsibility!!!) AND it's technically the first unofficial day of spring break and my neighbors are living it up tonight. Man! He is SO loud. They're drunk and playing X-box and I can tell you exactly who is winning and everything they say! Our walls are so thin! Oh well, At least his girlfriend isn't over tonight! lol.

Anyway, I have exciting news.
...
....
.....
!!!!!!!

Okay... Out with it!!!

I have been secretly planning a trip to NYC for 3 months now. Why is it a secret? That's a good question. I think first of all it was a secret because it is going to cost me over a thousand dollars and I didn't want my parents to say I shouldn't do it. lol. Then it turned into this pride thing about how I can never keep a secret for too long so I'm so proud of myself that for 3 whole months I haven't let my parents know. I had to tell Aunt Julie and she didn't know it was a secret and she told Andrea. But those are the only family members who knew until today. :D
I'm so proud of myself! K- I am a geek.

I'm going to tell my parents either later today or on Saturday. Tee Hee. I'm going with the University's Art program and it's earning me 3 credits of upper division art history. A class that I was dreading taking because regardless of how interesting it is, I can't regurgitate that info on a test. In this class all I have to do is go to NYC, look at all the awesome art and architecture and write a little journal about it. AWESOME!!!

Amazing how one can wax so long winded in a blog at nearly 4 in the morning! Okay. I guess I better go take a nap so I can get to class on time! Love you all!