Jumping up and down and squealing with delight!

Hi friends!  I am so excited!  I am so, so, so, so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friends got engaged recently!

we grappled with the complexities of ppov's together

We met freshman year of college.  I met the lovely lady through another friend; we were friends of a friend for awhile, but now she is one of my good friends!  I met the great guy in Calculus, but I don't think we really talked to each other.  Senior year we were all in a group project together (that lasted a whole semester).

do not pay attention to the titles of the books

I am so excited. (did I say that already?)  I am so happy for them!
I just wanted to share my happiness with ya'll.  Blessings on your engagement and marriage!

Book Review

image courtesy Google Images

I finished one of my favorite 4th grade books last night.  If you have a 4th grade, go to the library and find this book for him or her.  Or if you are an adult and like children's literature, go to the library and find this book to read.  My 4th grade teacher was so great!  She would read books aloud to us (usually after lunch).  We read some of the Red Wall series (by Brian Jacques) and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

When we were in America this summer, I went through some of my books.  I have three children at my school that are from America but living in Korea for a year to learn English.  I wanted to bring some books back for them.  I knew that From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler would be a good one to bring back with me.  I decided to read it again - just for kicks.  It is delightful.  Now that I am an adult, I read it pretty quickly.  The basic plot line is siblings run away from home to an art museum in New York.  They have quite the adventure.  If you ever come across this book, read it.  

White Pizza

While we were vacationing in America this summer, I had a looonnngg list of meals that I wanted to make (with an oven!).  One of these meals was White Pizza.  I discovered this recipe while I was in college (and saved it because it is delicious!)  I tweaked it just a bit.

Getting ready to put the pizza in the oven!

It comes together pretty quickly, since you are using a premade pizza crust (you are free to make your own from scratch though).

Yum-o!

Just in case you see that the recipe calls for pesto and you are thinking to yourself, "Self, what will I do with leftover pesto?"  Go here and see 15 ideas for leftover pesto.

Do you see that fetta cheese?  God bless America for its fetta

Ingredients:

1 unbaked pizza crust
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 Tablespoons minced garlic (it is pretty garlic-y, so if you do not love garlic, I would do less)
2 Tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 tomato, sliced
1 bunch fresh spinach, torn
1 sweet onion, sliced
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped  (We used mushrooms instead of a jalapeno, or you could use sweet pepper if you prefer)
1 (6 ounce) package feta cheese, crumbled
We added some mozzarella or cheddar (I don't remember) too, I love cheese!  It is so cheap in America!

Directions:
1. Preheat oven according to pizza crust package directions.
2. In a small bowl combine butter, olive oil, garlic, pesto, basil, oregano and Parmesan cheese.
3. Spread mixture evenly on pizza crust.
4. Arrange tomato, spinach, onion and jalapeno on pizza.
5. Top with crumbled feta cheese.
6. Bake according to pizza crust package directions.

Enjoy!  Or as Koreans would say before a meal "잘 먹겠습니다" (jal meokkesseumnida)

Walk to School

I like my morning walk to school.  It takes me about 30 minutes to get to school.  I was walking today and thought, "oooo, I wish I had my camera with me...it's so pretty out"  Then I realized that I did have my camera with me.  So I paused my walk and took some pictures (while Koreans stared at me).

I am definitely a cornfields girl.  There is nothing more beautiful to me than fields of corn or beans.  Mountains are beautiful too in a different way.

Hello Mountians

Do you walk to work?  What is your favorite part of your commute to work?

New Apartment Tour

I mentioned back here that we had moved.  Would you like to see our new apartment? Yes?  Well come on in!

I will admit this was our first take (hence the weird hand movements on my part) but we thought you would enjoy it anyway!  I have been having some issues with youtube/google accounts/blogger so I have pretty much had to restart/reupload everything to these accounts (boo!)

Anyhoo

I am working on getting all of our videos up again for you to see (because you definitely do not have anything better to do with your time :)  )

Happy Labor Day Weekend to those of you in America!

Super Easy Smoothie!

I have a super easy and healthy smoothie recipe for you!

1 cup milk kefir
1 frozen banana
some other fruit from your fridge
some vanilla extract if that flips your pancake

I have a baby blender (maybe some day it will grow up to be a big blender) thus I make my smoothie in two parts.  But if you have regular sized blender than just put everything in together and blend!

I would not say that this smoothie is delicious, but it is fast and super healthy!  It tastes way better than milk kefir straight up.

I had to put my smoothie on the windowsill to get "natural lighting" not the best background though...

I have been eating a smoothie everyday for breakfast.  If you want do not care so much about the healthy part of this smoothie and you do care about the deliciousness part, then add in some honey or other sweetener.

In case you want to make your own kefir, I bought my kefir grains from Cultures for Health.  If you can pour milk in a jar, then you can make kefir.

Check back tomorrow, we should have our apartment video upload for ya'll!

1 week down, 16 more to go :)

Woohoo! First week of second semester is done! I just have to sit at my desk for three more hours and then it is the weekend. This week has kicked my butt. I feel like I could sleep for 12 hours tonight.

I have 3 blog posts in the works...just need to add in some photos and then they will be ready for you!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a gold nugget that I found. If you go here, you can pick a book & chapter of the Bible. Then look for the little icon that looks like a volume control. If you scroll your mouse over it, it will say, "listen to {whatever book and chapter you choose}" Click it.

Yes, you can listen to the Bible for free! How good is God! I listened to the whole book of John while packing up our apartment before we moved. I like to listen to Psalms while I am cooking. (yes, I know the book is called Psalm, but it sounds better if you say Psalms). Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

p.s. This does not take place of daily Bible study (in my life at least)