Ikea Hacker

My dad found this website

http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/

People buy stuff from Ikea and change it into something else. Some of the stuff is really ugly, but I have found some cool things I want to do when we FINALLY get a house. I'm hoping I can find some of the furniture I would need to use at D.I or unfinished so it would be less expensive. I'm way excited to get started on a project now that Erick is going back to school in a week.

Hope

Today we got some of my favorite weather.

It was rainy. Dark gray clouds covered the sky. Big drops of rain fell on my car. It smelled wonderfully clean. And every once in a while the sun would poke out through the dark clouds.

First, I love the smell of rain. Smelling that clean, woody smell makes me happy. I wish Johnson and Johnson could capture that fragrance and put it in bathroom cleaner. The rain smell that is around does NOT smell like that.

But most of all, this weather gives me hope.

It's dark and dreary. Rain comes down making everything wet. And when it is almost too much, the sun shows itself. Just for a split second. For just long enough for you to remember that it won't always be dark and dreary. That's the hope.

Not "I hope you get well soon," or "I hope you have a good day at work." It's the hope that is faith. It fills your heart. It makes you believe you can continue trudging through all the muck and crap you have to put up with in life because sooner or later you will see the sun. Things will get better.

Website

Two days ago I launched my new website. It's not the most fanciest thing in the world, but my dad and I made it. I'm really proud of myself (since I have NO CLUE about HTML).

Check it out!

www.lookatyourpics.com

Surprise Party

Erick's Aunt Carol and I planned a surprise party for Erick's grandma's 90th birthday! It was so great! Brenda, Erick's grandma, had a brother come up from St. George. Randy, Erick's grandpa, had a brother come up from Provo. All of Erick's aunts and uncles from out-of-state were able to come! It was fantastic! And, best of all, Erick's grandma was SURPRISED!

I cooked all the meat... 23 pounds of sweet pork pull-apart (aka Pork Barbacoa). I had 6 crockpots in my kitchen, and I enlisted Erick and my dad for help. Erick cleaned every single crockpot (bless him!) and my dad helped me pull all the pork apart. I was pleased with how everything turned out.

Here's the sweet pork recipe for anyone who is interested:
3 lbs boneless pork roast
6 oz salsa
1 can coke (or diet coke, dr. pepper, pepsi... anything brown works great)
1 c. brown sugar

Fill crockpot about 1/2 full of water. Put in roast. Cook 6 - 8 hours.
Drain.
Shred with fork.
Put back in crockpot.
Mix in a bowl salsa, brown sugar, and coke. Pour over pork. Cook until heated through.

Serve with tortillas or buns.

Feel Good Music

I play the piano. I'm not as good as I want to be, but I get by. I have my own piano that I bought when I was a senior in high school.

My favorite composer is Jon Schmidt. I was playing on the internet today and I found this video. This song is not available as sheet music yet, but once it is I am going to learn how to play this... even if it takes me 3 years!



It is a mashup with "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and "Viva la Vida" by ColdPlay. It makes me smile!