Murder at the Deadwood Saloon

Last night Jared and I attended our first murder mystery party, wild west style, as a business man and saloon dancer, respectively. My cousin Aubrey organized and hosted the party: Murder at the Deadwood Saloon. I really won't give any details about the murder, but I will tell you that after Jared's character paid $10 to dance with me, promised to take me out east and support me financially, he was shot and killed. I wasn't too upset because I found his mustache repelling and I knew I wasn't the only girl he had been sweet-talking in Deadwood.

Celebrating the winner of the Deadwood poker tournament

We were each given a list of tasks to accomplish and people to talk to. At one point I had to approach another girl and tell her to stop talking to so many of the gentlemen, as she was taking away many of my dance partners. I later had to confront her and insist that I had seen her spending lots of time with Jared's character, and she admitted to dating him.

My uncle played the role of the federal marshal and was very good at keeping information from me. I thought I could get him to talk during a dance, but when I invited him to join me he stated that he "could not afford me" and did not participate in "sultry activities". Well! saloon girls are very respected in their towns so I told him that if he continued to speak to me like that, I would have him thrown out of the saloon.

"Well ma'am, then I will come back here with a warrant and shut this saloon down!"

"Oh marshal, I do apologize for what I said. You enjoy yourself." I was trying very hard to keep my job.

Federal marshal and Saloon girl Taffy

As the night went on, we found that no one could be trusted as we worked to solve the mystery. Jared became a ghost, haunting the saloon while also trying to uncover his killer, and in the end he was one of three people to correctly guess the murderer.

Presenting the evidence

Aubrey did a great job with this party. The food, music, decorations, costumes, and accents were all fantastic, but I'm glad my days of soliciting dances is over. Ten dollars a night isn't much to live on.

Two Months in Review

About a week after the family reunion, I drove to visit my sister for her big birthday. I brought along the recipe book Your Cup of Cake, and let Ami choose the cupcakes I would make: Reeses Peanut Butter (click here for the recipe).

Because Ami and I both have August birthdays, we cashed in on several free meals and ate out somewhere every day. We also went to a Safari park for free, where we fed a giraffe and a tiger.

On my last day we tried to take family photos, but Little L didn't agree with that....

On August 11th Jared and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I left Ami's house in the morning and met Jared at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and dessert.

In mid-August I had a two day, hands-on training for work. I only mention this because in the training I learned how to block kicks and punches, and escape from biting and grabbing children. Yes, I need to know this for my job.

As an end to Summer and a hurrah for me before starting a new job, Jared and I went on a four day cruise to Catalina Island and Mexico.

We celebrated my birthday on the cruise with room service breakfast, a walk around Ensenada, and a two hour nap. Here's 26 year old me with my birthday sombrero. I'm just now noticing all the bird poop on the rock in the picture. Ew.

Although I now work and come home exhausted each day, we have still been able to squeeze in some fun. In September we went to our first Angel's game,

saw Ami (again!), and went with her to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.

We also joined a book club and spent a day in San Diego with family.

Wow, that really sounds like a lot now that I've written it all down. But the last two days have been relaxing as we've watched our worldwide Church conference - eight hours of spiritual music, talks, and guidance, which I will later re-visit here. I hope you will too.

Now on to October!

Peterson Reunion 2014

Who: Peterson Family

What: Reunion

Where: Brian Head, Utah

When: July 19-24

Why: Because families should get together.

How: My aunt and uncle who live in San Diego pretty much planned everything and made it a fun week. Per tradition, we rented a big lodge for the entire family, and stocked the three refrigerators with food to last us the week.We were in a small town/resort that had no grocery store and only one gas pump.

What We Did: Each night someone new was in charge of dinner, and we would all gather to feast. That was always followed by a short spiritual devotional, and family games. We played charades, pictionary, movie trivia, bingo, and Bunko. Everyone walked away with a prize after Bunko. I got two cans of chopped olives...I still don't know who brought that nastiness as a prize. We also attempted to guess how many pieces of candy were in eight different containers, and I actually won the bottle full of twizzler bites. Jared brought home two trophies from our vacation - one for movie trivia, and one for being on the winning golf team. We attended church in the town hall, rented ATVs one afternoon, hiked part of Bryce Canyon, and just spent time together in our lodge. I posted a lot of pictures on facebook so I don't think I'll do that here. But we had good times, and I'm so glad my family organizes a reunion every two years. I hope this tradition continues for many years to come.

My grandparents, Gordon & Julie Peterson. 

I Have a Camera, and I'm not Afraid to Use It

I like photography. 

Yeah, well so do a lot of people. It's good to have likes and interests, and so I'm fine sharing this interest with others. But the thing I hesitate to share is that I want to be a photographer, because, well, so do a lot of people! 

Take a look at this quote:

This "being afraid to fail" has been the biggest obstacle in the way of what I want to do. I've been told that every Mormon woman has a photography business "on the side". I've heard professional photographers scoff and say that there are too many people out there who think they can use a camera and charge people for it. I've also been discouraged by the number of photographers on Jared's side of the family. There are a lot of them. All of this has led me to wonder if I should return to school so I can have the confidence I need to go further with this. As of right now, I'm not doing that, but this is seriously how afraid I have been to admit what I really like to do!

I think I've always liked looking through photo albums and taking pictures of other people. I remember when digital cameras became available and affordable, and being jealous when my younger sister got one for her birthday. I had this camera

and later, this one

even one of these

until I eventually got one of these

Actually I think that was my third digital camera. Bad things happened to the other two. But I didn't take a photography class in school because I couldn't, or wouldn't, spend hundreds on a camera and realize that my hobby could turn into something more. In other words, I didn't have enough confidence to financially invest in myself. A few years ago I entered a Hershey's contest because the grand prize was a beautiful Canon DSLR. This was my entry, which won me a blanket, t-shirt, set of skewers, and s'mores ingredients, but no camera.

And then, after my college graduation last year, I suddenly had lots of free time (and some gift money) to pursue photography. I bought a used DSLR (from Jared's cousin!), took a couple of community classes that taught me how to use that camera, and took lots of pictures of Jared. I now feel like I know my camera well, I know how to navigate Photoshop a bit, but I just need practice. Lots and lots of practice. And in order to get that practice I need to let others know about it! So here I am, asking if I can take your picture? Can I come over to your house or meet you at the park to take pictures of your family? The results might not look fantastic, but you'll be helping me learn some things I can't without you. 

Last night someone read this quote to me, and I will believe it because it makes me feel good. I look at it and see, "Every photographer starts off with their worst. You get better." I will get better.

Messenger Bag

A few weeks ago I decided to try out this messenger bag tutorial, and found that it was pretty easy. It took a while to pick out the fabric (this won't surprise anyone who has been shopping with me), but in the end I think I got a great combination. I guess I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but it's a nice textured beige. I added a giant bow because I made this for Kyra, who is on a mission, and who is also a fashionista. I could tell she was a little apprehensive when I said I wanted to make a messenger bag, but the bow jazzed things up nicely, wouldn't you say?

Kyra has the bag - she laughed that I used bird fabric, but what can I say? It's cute fabric! She knows she loves it.

By the way, here is Kyra's mission blog, where you can read her weekly emails
http://kyraintherockies.blogspot.com/

Disneyland Pictures

My parents came to visit last week, along with Crystal, Ami, Matt, and Leah. They didn't come to see me, but we still got to hang out, go to Disneyland, attend a family baptism, eat out a few times, and have sleepovers. Jared and I bought a new couch with a pull out bed for our guests. Matt claims it was more comfortable than the couch at the Marriott! 

I only have pictures from our day at Disneyland...and they are all pretty much of baby Leah...and you can't really tell we are at Disneyland because they're all closeups...but they're really cute.

Waiting outside the gate for my family

Watching logs full of people fall on Splash Mountain.

Crystal trying to win Leah's heart

Leah took an interest in this big ball that rolls on water just outside of Space Mountain. At first she cautiously touched it with one finger, but soon was putting both hands on it and laughing. She loved it! 

Each family member with sunglasses

Ami at Cafe Orleans, where we ate $18 deep fried sandwiches

In line for Mr. Toad's ride

Leah got excited when she saw Dumbo, but she didn't seem to like being on the ride as much as she liked standing back and watching the elephants fly.

In line for Dumbo

On Dumbo

Mom, dad, baby, Crystal

And one bonus picture of the teeth:

Easter Bunnies

Yesterday I gave these to the children in our nursery class. Don't worry, I handed them out as each child was leaving and had already heard the Easter story and another testimony about Jesus Christ.

Inside each egg was a (not candy!) gift. I thought the parents would appreciate that, but I'm not so sure that the kids did.

I found this tutorial for the bunny finger puppets and thought it looked easy enough. The woman who created the tutorial actually hints about these being tricky to sew but obviously she didn't do a very good job at that because I was not prepared.  I cut out all of the pieces and sewed on the eyes, nose, and tail a couple of weeks ago, and saved the body stitching for later. Each bunny was supposed to have white-on-color ears, which if you'll notice in the picture below, did not happen. The blue bunny is even missing part of his white ear (and his nose fell off several times).

Before I began sewing the bunnies' bodies, I told Jared, "Get ready, 'cause if this doesn't go well, you'll be holding me and rocking me to sleep tonight as I cry." Well, the ears kept getting sucked down into the machine, the machine jammed several times, and I couldn't seem to move around the bunnies' curves fast enough, so at one point Jared really did come over and hug me until I was calm. Nasty little bunnies!

After taking a break, I sat down and finished all twelve puppets. Some have crooked stitching, and others have gimp eyes, but in the end they turned out cute enough. But never again....

New Curtains

We live in an apartment complex where our front windows face the pool/courtyard area, as well as other apartments' windows. Needless to say, I have never actually raised the blinds. Don't get me wrong, I do like the sun, but I also like my privacy and to feel comfortable in my home. I'd like to eventually have curtains in each room, and since I'll have family staying with us later this month, I decided to start with the front room...because that will be their bedroom. You're welcome mom.

I followed this tutorial from "View Along the Way" to make blackout curtains. I would have made them longer if it weren't for the AC unit getting in the way, but I'm happy with the added color to our white walls.

Aghhhh, the sun!

Special thanks to thank Jared for helping me pick out the fabric, paying for it, and hanging up the finished curtains.

Goodbye Dress, Hello Skirt!

There are too many dresses and skirts in my closet that I rarely or never wear, for various reasons. I could give a few for this maxi dress, and for why I'm turning it into a skirt.

I bought this dress from Target four years ago for $13 and have only worn it a handful of times. For one, it's a tube top, so I always have to wear a cardigan with it...not exactly a Summer dress. It's also a bit short on me (it hits my ankles) and this makes matching shoes with it difficult. Heaven forbid I ever wear this around children because one tug and it'll fall right down.

My dress has also begun falling apart. See the ruffle at the top of the dress? So I figure that by turning my dress into a skirt, I will be able to match more tops with it, and make it so the skirt covers my ankles.

I followed this tutorial on "Make It & Love It". All I needed to buy was elastic for the waistband ($5), and it really didn't take long at all. Ta da! It hits the floor and is much more comfortable than before.

Cinnamon Banana Muffins

(scroll down for full recipe; makes 12 muffins)

Ever have bananas turn brown before you have the chance to eat them? Well, I have never liked bananas, but I have always heard that overripe ones are great for baking into bread. So after Jared's giant Costco bunch literally fell apart, I decided to make cinnamon sugar banana muffins. I can tolerate banana bread, but I knew it would be even better with extra sugar on top.

First, take four bananas, peel, and mash them. I had to cut off a couple of small brown spots and then I mashed the bananas with my knuckles. Don't worry, they were clean!

Next, add butter, sugar, an egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and flour. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar for the topping. Now you're ready to go!

Fill muffin cups about 1/3 of the way with muffin batter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, top with more muffin batter and more cinnamon sugar. Your muffins will have four layers. And your muffin pan will have lots of sugar sprinkled all over it.

Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for 25 minutes, and let cool. You now have twelve very moist muffins to share or throw in the freezer for later when you need a snack. Just kidding, who actually does that?!

Muffin Mixture

4 overripe bananas, smashed

1/3 C. butter, melted

3/4 C. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 C. flour

Cinnamon Sugar

1/3 C. sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare muffin pan with paper liners

2. Mix bananas, melted butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl

3. Add baking soda, salt, and flour, and gently stir

4. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon 

5. Fill the muffin liners 1/3 of the way with muffin mixture

6. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar onto the muffins, then top with remaining muffin mixture and cinnamon sugar

7. Bake for 25 minutes, cool, and enjoy!

Nutrition

I attempted to calculate calories per muffin, and each one has about 220. To decrease this, use one less banana and less cinnamon sugar. You can also substitute some or all of the butter with applesauce.