Domesticity

I've been away from blogging for a bit, partially because I've been so busy doing things that are perhaps perceived as out of my character. Well, I don't know about that, but it might be shocking the things that I've created. I've taken pictures for the proof.
For Mother's Day, I decided to make a cape for my mom. She had quipped something about a super-hero cape hidden in her closet, lilac colored, a few Sundays before Mom's Day, so I decided to make one for her. I had to enlist Newt's sewing knowledge and her sewing machine, but I made quite the cape for my mom, who went by Crae (see-ray) as a kid and still does sometimes to this day:



















Then, for Mother's Day dinner, I decided to make a recipe that I'd briefly seen on the Food Network: Couscous Stuffed Chicken Breast with Feta, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives. Truth be told, I didn't use the wine, but freshly-squeezed tangelo juice, orange juice and lemon juice, and I got rid of the olives (blech). But it was darn tasty. I actually like to cook and would do it more if I had the time and the patience. I never cooked before my mission, but realized while down there that I'd better learn how so that I could make all of the things that I'd miss. My mom was so shocked by my cooking after my mission, that in the Christmas letter that she sent out to everyone after I'd returned from Brazil said only about me: "Vanessa's home from her mission. It's great to have her back. She cooks now."
That's all that it said about me after serving my mission. I guess that's how big of deal my cooking was.
Anyway, here's the picture of what I made my mom for dinner:

*Notice the sautéed zucchini and tomato at the right. That's was Emily's idea.
**Shout-out to Scottie for his help in making the dinner.
***Laurel, don't you wish you'd been there for this meal?

Then, in the middle of this fit of domesticity, I made a quilt for Megan Snoderly Jackson's baby shower. It was cute and pink:

Sorry that I don't have a better picture, but you get the idea.

So there you have it. Sometimes I surprise myself with my endeavors. I think my 15-year-old self simply wouldn't believe what I've been up to lately, claiming that I'd staged a nutty. It's funny how things change, eh?

license plate

the people that owned my car last left the rusted old screws in the license plate, making it impossible to switch out the plate. in fact Andy had to dremel off the tops of the screws just to remove the old license plate. since half of the screws are still stuck in place, my license plate has been hanging out in my rear view mirror.
the officer who pulled my over tonight reminded me that this wasn't an optimum solution. he tried his best to get the screws out, but to no avail. he offered me some ideas on what i could do to fix the situation, reminding me that i should probably deal with it ASAP. then he wished me a good night and told me to get home safe.

i'm thinking i should get this done before going to wyoming this friday.

mitt is so hawt

Religion, Politics and why I'm grateful for my religious leaders

I've always been so grateful that the Brethren have told us to be active citizens but have never told us what to think politically or who to vote for. We have a great tradition of our religious leaders being active as citizens, and I think Brigham Young would probably be very sympathetic to the Green Party, but never do I remember their throwing it in our faces, never do they tell us who to vote for, only to approach this decisions informed and with prayer. I think this is amazing because not only does it show their great leadership, but it also shows their restraint and how they don't strive to influence us unfairly. Honestly, in today's world and political climate, this fact is amazing.

The reason why I find all of this so important is because for the last 30 or so years religion has crept into politics in a weird way. Republican nominees now feel that they have to shore up the conservative front by getting pastors and preachers to endorse them. But now with that we get endorsements from people that don't really represent the values of the politicians. I really have a hard time believing that John McCain thinks that one of the main reasons the U.S. was founded was so that we could destroy the "satanic religion of Islam" because its first prophet received revelation from demons (the clip's a little melodramatic, sorry). For that matter I doubt that the Senator believes that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for a multitude of sins--or Pastor Hagee's crazy ideas about Israel--or that the Catholic Church is like Hitler. But because of people with religious power meddling into politics, telling their followers who to vote for, Republican leaders have had to pander to these people and even be supposedly thankful for their endorsement.
Barack Obama was eviscerated for someone else's beliefs, (Jeremiah Wright), having to finally, for the millionth time, repudiate Wright' statements and the man himself. It's interesting that John McCain defended Barack Obama on this issue, "I think that when people support you, it doesn't mean that you support everything that they say." I'd wager that it's because McCain doesn't like the fact that pastors and preachers have infiltrated politics.
Even Mike Huckabee said that the Wright issue was bunk, saying that Wright wasn't the issue and that the presidential race "should be about Senator Barack Obama."

--An aside: It's funny that Sean Hannity was pushing McCain so hard on the issue that Jeremiah Wright d---ed America after September 11, but somehow it's okay to let Hagee and Parsley off the hook for similar statements about different disasters.--

This is why I'm grateful that our LDS leaders don't meddle, that they don't ask for political pandering, that they tell us to live the Gospel, trust our conscience and vote based on our beliefs. If these pastors and preachers would get themselves out of politics and not teach crazy, hateful things, allowing their parishioners to vote based on what they feel is best for their family and country, can you imagine how much better off we'd be?

This religious meddling is a large part of why Mitt Romney lost out because he's a demon Mormon wanting the presidency so that he can woo a whole lot of lost souls to the LDS faith from the presidential bully pulpit (coupled with really bad advice from his staff about how to campaign). This is why the last however many weeks were spent on the really minor Jeremiah Wright issue instead of the important problems facing America. This is why McCain--who is so much more conservative and Red, Red, Red Republican than we ever hear--felt that he had to go after an extreme wing of U.S. society.

Religion isn't destroying America, it's the people using religion as a red herring to push crazy ideas.

Sneak Peek: Harry Potter 6

Some clips I stumbled onto. Making of, etc.:

More Sesame Street

Remember that last entry that I posted with a clip from Sesame Street? Tweeeeeeeeeeee...lve

Anyway, here's Sesame Street getting a little bit high falutin' with these Monsterpiece Theater clips:












But really, you should just watch all of these.


You know that they did that for the moms who were home watching as a shout out.

Misspellings of my Name

My name is intriguingly hard for people to spell correctly. More often than not it's spelled wrong. Every single letter of my name has been written wrong, save for the final a--well until this last week. Yes, someone got the final a in Vanessa incorrect. "How?" you might ask. Well, I'll tell ya, with 2 of them. Vanessaa. ???What the????Huh?? So there you go.
In honor of this momentous occasion, I've decided to do an acrostic poem of sorts, celeb(r)ating the variations of my name. (The double SS only gets one spot for logistical reasons):

V ..... b w
A ..... e i u
N ..... nn ns
E ..... i a
SS ... s z
A ..... aa

To be honest, some of them I don't get, like the ns for the n: Vansessa? Some of these variations are by non-native English speakers: b, w, z. Ooh, I can't stand Wanessa. Blech. One of the funniest ways I ever saw my name (inexplicably) spelt was Venison. No, I'm not kidding. But that's such an aberration that I didn't include it in the acrostic poem. I also get Venice a lot. But it's just because they think my name is Venice even though I say [vænɛsǝ], stress on the vanEssa. vEnice?
Anyway, it's fun to play mix and match with the letter possibilities:
wennizaa or binsasa or vunnissaa
The creations are multitudinous and all are pronounced singularly as Vanessa. Have fun playing!! And if you come up with any fun ones, or perhaps can think of letter misspellings that I left out, do comment!


**Here is where my father would vehemently interject say that my name is to be pronounced solely as [vænɛsǝ], with that first a pronounce as the a from or dad or apple and not the a from about. I'm fine with that, but it completely goes against the majority of American English speech patterns, to say nothing of being bizarre to our phonotactic registry (or what sounds the American English accent allows to be strung together). I try to explain this to him, that it's abnormal to say that a like apple sound there for Americans, but does he ever flip a wig and say that they should easily be able to and I should demand so much...that it is my name after all... But really, I don't care how people say my name and don't often bring up the characteristic save for anecdotally. To be honest, it's when I pronounce my name "correctly" that it causes the most spelling and comprehension problems, thereby bolstering my argument that this antiquated pronunciation falls outside the bounds of normality.
Wow, that was totally more than you bargained for or even needed to know, I bet.
But for those of you who read this long addendum, you all get a sucker!!!