The Time Traveler's Wife

I just finished the The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. I was quite excited about this book, because I had heard that the movie was pretty good. The book was on sale so I bought it to read before I watched the movie. We'll probably watch the movie sometime soon. I sure hope the movie is better than the book though. I was not very impressed by it. The story line was interesting and kept me wanting to read more. I like love stories (not the gross ones; more like Nicholas Sparks) but I was not very impressed by the way the book was written. The language in this book was disgusting and inappropriate. I don't get offended easily by things, but scenes that she described in this book made me uncomfortable. They were so not necessary. The book would have been one million times better without them and the words that accompanied them. Has anyone else out there read this book? I would love to hear what you thought about it.

Cupcakes

I had my third cake decorating class this Thursday. We decorated cupcakes this week. Before decorating the cake, we learned how to make shell and dot borders, how to make drop flowers and we practiced making the bud of the Wilton rose. We had much more time to decorate this week and Kirsten, Lisa and I had fun creating some cute cupcakes. We all copied each others ideas. I was more impressed by my cake last week I must say though. My cupcakes were alright, but I think decorating a whole cake was more fun. Good thing we get to do it again next week. Here are my cupcakes.

BYU Basketball

On Saturday I was able to go to my first basketball game this season. I didn't get an all sports pass this year so I haven't gone to many sporting events. However, Eric can sometimes get me tickets through his internship. Well, he was able to get me 2 tickets to Saturday's game, so I invited my friend Lisa to the game. Since her husband has a student pass, he was already there, and so she brought her boy Carter along. It was his first BYU Basketball game and he did so well! He just kinda hung out and looked at everything around him. He's such a cute little guy. BYU beat CSU. I should actually say they creamed them. Poor CSU! Eric had to work the game too, and it was fun to see him sitting with all of the press doing his thing. I'm so proud of him for all of the things that he has been able to do. Oh I should also mention that the seats were pretty good too. They were 14 rows up in actual seats. No more bench sitting for me. I prefer to sit during the games, not stand with tons of sweaty students! Oh, and one more thing. The half time show was this dance studio for ladies 50 and up. I can't remember the song they danced too, but it was great. They got out there and did their thing. This halftime show is quite popular with the students. The best part was the end when the oldest lady, 93, was out on the floor by herself dancing. Then she got down and did the splits! I can't even do the splits. She was awesome! I hope Eric can get me some more tickets. I had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming with me Lisa and Carter!

Lisa and Carter at his first game:


The ladies dancing:


Eric working. He is the third from the right on the second row:


Me, Lisa and Carter at the game:

2010 Auto Show

Last year we went to the 2009 Auto Show with our good friends Kirsten and Aaron. Since we had so much fun last year, we decided to go again. This year we invited some more people. It was kinda hard to stay together because everyone wants to look at different things and some people are faster than others but it was still a lot of fun. So pretty much what this is, is all of the different car companies bring in their 2010 models for everyone to see and look at. You can get in the cars to see how they feel and to see what everything looks like inside. Besides your everyday cars, they have some exotic cars (Bentley, Maserati, Ferrari) and some classic cars. I'm a little more interested in the everyday cars because they are a little more realistic for Eric and I. Pretty much Eric and I already have our future cars picked out. Anyone who knows Eric knows that he is a Toyota guy. Well since marrying him, I have become a Toyota girl. We currently have a Camry and hope to someday soon have a Highlander and then a Sequoia once we have more kids. That's a long time in the future though. We have a lot of money to save before that is going to happen! Eric and I also decided that we really like the Tundra too. It's a big truck! We sat in the Tacoma after the Tundra and felt so small! It was fun to sit in all of the cars and dream! It's a good date to go on. It costs $5 per person to get in and I think it is totally worth it! All in all, we had a great time and would go again.

Eric and I in a Lexus:


Craig and Sean being silly in a minivan:


Ryan, Sean, Craig, Eric, Aaron and Lincoln all being cool in a VW Bug convertible:


Lincoln playing in the back of a truck:


Me in the Tundra:


Our Highlander:


Ryan in the Dodge Ram he wants:


Kirsten and Lincoln by the Lincoln sign:


A Ferrari:

I love cake!

Every Thursday for the month of January me and my two friends Kirsten and Lisa are taking a Wilton cake decorating class at the BYU Campus Craft and Floral. We are in the first course. Our first class was on the 7th. It was just an introductory class where we learned the basic things we needed to know to fill a cake and frost it. Well on the 14th was our second class where we had to bring a cake pre-frosted and then we got to decorate it. We learned how to do write, do stars, do the base of a rose, and do pattern transfers. What that means is that you can take any picture or pattern and transfer that image to the cake. After we learned all of this, we got to decorate our own cakes. By the end of the class we didn't have a lot of time to decorate so I took my cake home and finished it. I must say that for my first cake I am pretty happy with it. It didn't even take as long as I thought it would. Once I was done with it, I made Eric wait until the next day to eat it so that I could take the cake to work to let my co-workers see it. He's a patient guy. I'm excited for the next two classes and then for the fondant and gum paste class I'm taking in April. My kids are going to have great cakes! Anyways, here are the pictures:

Top view:


Side view. I put little paw prints to match with the dog:


Another view showing the top and the side together:

Avatar

Last week-end Eric and I went with our friends Ryan, Amber and Sean to see Avatar. I really wasn't all that excited to see the movie because I had heard mixed reviews about it. I was excited to see a movie in 3-D though. I hadn't done that before. I really am not into science fiction stories of any type, and that's what this seemed like to me. Well, I have to admit that I actually liked the movie. It's not my favorite, but I was definitely entertained. I will admit that they story was quite predictable. You knew there was going to be a love story, and I won't say more for those of you who haven't seen it. The graphics, however, were AMAZING. It's crazy what people can do with technology. Last night there was a special on FX talking about how they made the movie. All I'm going to say is that James Cameron is one talented man who makes a lot of money. Moral of the story is: I did like Avatar.

Here we are in our glasses before the movie:

Christmas!

I don't even know where to start here. We did a lot for Christmas that I should have blogged about when it happened. I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog sometimes. Oh well. Well to start it off, Eric and I went to Virginia to visit with Eric's family. We got there on 12/23.

On Christmas Eve we went to a Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center. There was a choir there and a youth group who played bells. They were amazing. The audience also got to sing along to bring the Christmas spirit. After that we went back to their house and Eric's Aunt and Uncle came over for dinner and then to play games. It was fun. I sure did miss my family but was glad to be there seeing how the Zeugschmidts celebrate Christmas. We woke up the next morning pretty late and then opened presents. Both Eric and I got some pretty nice things. Thank you so much everyone!! The most exciting thing was the Wii that we got. We are playing it a lot. We got the Mario Kart game that we played pretty much every night with his family. We are going to be experts! We had a delicious steak dinner for Christmas dinner. It was a great day!

The day after Christmas we went down to DC to see the Terra Cotta warriors at the National Geographic Museum. It was a lot of fun to see all of these statues that were created to protect the emperor. They were pretty amazing. No cameras were allowed inside the exhibit. However, when you walked out, there was one you could take pictures of. As I was getting out my camera, the statue moved! It scared me. Turns out it was a real person who looked like a statue. The guy was amazing. After that we went and ate at Potbelly's (YUM) and then went to the national mall to go to the American History Museum. This museum has been closed every time I had been to DC, so I really wanted to see it. I was most excited about seeing the ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz. There was a lot of fun stuff to see there and we didn't even see it all. The Star Spangled Banner is also there, but you can't take pictures of it because it is so old and fragile. The flag is really big though and a lot of it is missing because people cut pieces from it a long time ago. After we left there we went to Eric's favorite restaurant, Carlos O'Kelly's. It is pretty good.

Sunday we went to Church with his parents and Eric got to see a lot of his old friends. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, visiting with the missionaries and playing games.

Monday we relaxed a little. Patty, Carly and I all painted our fingernails. I hadn't done that in such a long time. Eric and I went to visit Carly at work and exchange some things at the mall. We also couldn't resist buying some cheesecake at the cheesecake factory. It was a nice family treat!

Tuesday we went to the Kennedy Center again to see the musical Young Frankenstein. It was really funny. We all liked it, but wouldn't recommend it for little kids. It has some risque parts! That was great fun!

Wednesday we went and visited with Eric's former Young Men's President and friend Vit Miska. He really helped Eric out a lot. They invited us over for dinner, which was delicious. We played with their three cute kids and then caught up with them a little bit. It was great to see them. I'm glad Eric keeps in touch with them.

Thursday was New Year's Eve. We relaxed most of the night, then went to Chevy's for dinner. It was very good! We spent the night playing Mexican Train and eating Root Beer floats. Eric won the game of course, which really made me mad! Haha, I like to win! It was a fun night.

Friday we went and played laser tag with Eric's cousins. We played two games and I am happy to say that I didn't lose. I did alright. Eric won one of the games. It was fun to run around and get people. I hadn't done that in such a long time! After the game we went home, ate dinner, and then went to see Sherlock Holmes. It was a great movie that I would definitely recommend.

Saturday we went to a George Mason basketball game. Eric's parents have season tickets. They are big fans. It was a pretty good game which they won. After the game Carly and I made sugar cookies while everyone else took Christmas decoration down. Carly had never made them before so I taught her how to do it. The cookies turned out great! Later that night Eric and I went over to see my friend Tasia. We were best friends when we were young. We would spend all day everyday together during the summers. I hadn't seen her since they had gotten married a few years ago. It was great to see her and catch up. After visiting with Tasia and Doug, we met up with Eric's family to eat at Sweet Water. It's this delicious restaurant that Eric loves! Eric' parents took Eric there to celebrate him passing Calculus! We are all pretty proud of him. Calculus is not Eric' forte, so it was great that he did well in the class! When we got home we had to pack because we were leaving the next morning. Neither of us wanted to get back to Utah and go back to school or work. However, we had to, and are thankful that we were able to spend so much time with Eric's family and can't wait to see them again. We had a great Christmas! I was terrible at taking pictures, but here are a few:

The fake Terra Cotta Warrior:


The ruby red slippers:


Lincoln's top hat: