I Will Buy You a Bouquet of Freshly Sharpened Pencils

I was watching You've Got Mail today and I love the lines at the beginning by Tom Hanks: "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I will buy you a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." I love the fall and although the beginning of fall semester is not exactly as exciting at 21 as it is at 7 I am still jazzed for fall leaves, football, Halloween, and bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils!
Some of my best memories are from the autumn season. I remember going school shopping and getting to pick out new folders and pencils and such. On some years I would get a new lunchbox or backpack too. I have a secret love for lunchboxes--the oldschool plastic kind with a thermos and sandwich box inside. Even now I've considered buying one for myself, but they don't seem to sell them anymore. I can only find the new kind that are boring mesh with insulation and come in block colors.
After the new school year feeling started to fade Halloween would come. As a kid my mom made all of our Halloween costumes and every year they were different--until I was about 7 or 8 I think. Every year after that I was a witch with my best friend Elexia. It is probably still my favorite costume and I keep looking at patterns and fabric to see if I can make myself a witch costume some year.
And (as mentioned before) the only good thing about living in Utah County is that the leaves change color which makes fall the best (and probably only) season to live here. September and October are filled with walks in the park and hikes in the canyon, pressed leaves in books, pumpkin carving, and the smell of cinnamon and cloves and apple cider. Definitely the best season.
To leave my reminiscing before I finish typing, last night I went fishing with my father- and brother-in-law and my husband. I caught two catfish and we caught 7 in all. The biggest one I got weighed 6 pounds, which is bigger than I've ever caught before! It was flopping around and was difficult to hold so Jim held it for me in the picture. The other one I got was 4 pounds. I was very excited. He is very nice to take us--I'm a difficult person to teach sometimes. :)

Bitterness for BYU

So anyone who loves Brigham Young University should probably not read this post. This is basically going to be me venting about BYU and why I hate it.
To me, BYU is like this cloak and dagger collection agency, waiting to plunge me into financial ruin. I am a good student, I fill out the forms I need for financial aid, and then I am so foolish as to assume that everything will be just fine and processed correctly. And then one day I get on my financial center and all of a sudden I own 2,000 dollars. Every time I get on its a new surprise--oh, you now owe $500, oh suprise, you now owe $1,000, oh look, watch us drop all your classes for you! Its gotten to the point where I hate checking my financial center because I know something is going to be wrong. "Even though you did everything we told you to do, somewhere something wasn't processed right so now you get to pay us money for our mistakes regarding your account, and as an extra bonus we are not going to tell you until its too late for you to get any kind of help and our phone line is going to be busy all day so you can't call us--oops." Convenient.
Another thing to hate about BYU is its location. Who honestly wants to live in Provo, Utah? The two best seasons of the year last for about 3 weeks. So for the other 46. 18 weeks of the year you are either dying of heat (because your apartment has no AC--apparently after you get married its ok to live in a hole as long as you're together) or trudging in the snow to school. Sounds fun right? No. The weather is awful, there is nothing to do, and housing (at least for married students) is expensive, scarce, and dilapidated.
The last thing I hate about BYU (that I'm going to take the time to write about) is that they won't accept my brother as a student. This is bias of me, I know, but why on earth would you accept a student every year for the spring and summer, let him build up university credit with you through those semesters, independent study, and language tests, and then refuse to accept him permanently? Four times. After he's excelled at everything. So then he chooses to go somewhere else (big shocker) and BYU fails to mail his transcripts like he requested, making it impossible for his new school to accept him either. So there he is, all of his classes dropped, screwed over and over again.
Basically I want to graduate so I no longer have to deal with BYU. I want to move away from Provo--far, far away where there is more to life besides manicures and blonde hair and there are things to do and weather you can actually do them in.
Well this has been Danielle Fraser for your afternoon update on why BYU stinks. Thanks for watching.

Apricot Day!

So Monday was Apricot Day (hence my font is orange!). The first councilor in our bishopric has fruit trees and wanted someone to come pick apricots. Monday morning around 8 my mother-in-law Julie and I were in the orchard. Unfortunately, the fruit were the size of quarters instead of the larger size I was envisioning and they were covered in hornets who eat the juice. For about an hour we braved the infested orchard and came out with one box full. Disappointed (thinking the small fruit was not going to make very much) but undaunted, we returned to her kitchen and began. To our surprise we cooked from 10:00 to 5:00 and made two batches of cooked jam, four batches of freezer jam, and four batches of fruit leather. I personally prefer freezer jam because it is easy to make, but the cooked jam has a beautiful red color and tastes good too. We made a raspberry, pineapple, and apricot jam; a blackberry and apricot jam; and a plain apricot.
Freezer Jam:
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
one packet of pectin
4 cups mashed fruit
There are directions on all packets of pectin, but the basic recipe is mix sugar and pectin in a bowl. Add the mashed fruit and mix. When mixed stir and extra 3 minutes. Fill jars and put in fridge until set, then freeze. This jam doesn't set as well as cooked jam, but it is much easier to make.
Cooked Jam:
2 cups pineapple
5 cups crushed apricots
7 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 large package of raspberry jello
Boil the fruit and lemon juice together, Then add the jello and stir until dissolved. Bottle and seal. To seal the jars:
Hot jam needs hot jars and hot lids. Boil lids in water and either run jars through the dishwasher or soak them in hot water as well. Pour the jam in the hot jars and quickly apply and tighten the hot lids. You must use new lids to seal jars but the jars and rings can be old. When the jam cools a popping noise will tell you the bottles are sealed.
Fruit Leather:
2 cups apricots
1/2 cups pineapple
1 Tbl. lemon juice
2 Tbls. honey
Blend together. Dry at 135 degrees for 4-8 hours.

New Addition

So we have a new addition to our family! Her name is Chloe (although of course we are not really sure she is a girl) and she is a pearlscale fish. As you can see from the picture, she looks like she is either pregnant or choking on a large rock. Neither is actually true, and if I knew more about fish I could tell you why she looks that way. Anyway, our original intention was to put her in Jonathan's tank (he is the Black Moor we've had for a few months). We treat our fish mostly like people so we assumed he was lonely and would enjoy a friend. Although technically they should get along (the two species can live together) like a first child Jonathan was not thrilled about sharing his bedroom with our little newcomer. He repeatedly chased her around the tank and once got her caught between the wall and the filter. Even after we spanked him with a spoon he would not tolerate her company. So we decided to put her out of her misery and we moved her to a different tank. She is now living in much happier circumstances and I'm sure her stress levels are lower. Some people's kids!
In other news I now live in Spanish Fork. It is actually quite beautiful here and the air is a bit cleaner than in Provo. I enjoy having a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, and a working air conditioner. The house I live in is bigger than any house my parents have ever owned, although of course I only live in half of it. I feel like so many people take what they have for granted. I lived in two houses between the ages of 8 and 18--the rest of my life we lived in apartments. Even now, my parents live in an apartment and proabably will until they die. My mom has worked steadily full-time from her teenage years until now and has still managed to be an amazing mother who taught me how to be domestic. And I was a spoiled brat who knew families worse off than we ever were. I feel like some people buy a house right off, barely have to work, and then complain that they don't have enough. Anyway, sorry--back to Spanish Fork.
I was pleasantly surprised that I like it here. There are of course some draw backs. The commute for one. I haven't had to make it since school ended last week but I sort of dread it for the future. And theres my in-laws. I love my mother-in-law to death, she is a wonderful and giving person, but sometimes I find myself purposefully opposing her. Like when we moved, she was telling everyone where to put all the boxes, so I purposefully told them the opposite of what she said, and for some odd reason I enjoyed it. I know its only my own pride. Maybe its a rebellious streak left over from teen years. Who knows. Then there's being cut off from friends, although I usually feel that way anyway so maybe its not that different. Somewhere between the dating, engagement, and marriage I feel that I lost my ability to connect with members of my own gender. Its probably just a matter of practice. :)
But overall I really like it here and I hope we can stay a long while. And now its late so I am going to bed. Good night all!