Fun with Photoshop

I installed Photoshop Elements on my computer tonight. I then started tinkering around with it, trying to learn the basics.

Just for fun, Ryan gave me a challenge.

The challenge: Turn him green and give him antennas like an alien.

Me being the overachiever I am, took it one step further.

Yes, that is Ryan's eyes on my face. I think it is safe to say that with our features combined, our children will look lovely.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not an Infomercial

Tonight Ryan and I decided to try out the One-ingredient icecream: Bananas. We were a bit skeptical, magically turn bananas into icecream? We should turn straw into gold while we're at it!

So we bravely froze our sliced, nearly brown bananas, stuck them in the food processor,


and whirrrrrrr!

And...it actually worked!



My creation



Ryan's masterpiece

To tell you the truth, it really did taste like icecream, the consistency and all! I was surprised!

Okay, I know what all of you are thinking, banana icecream? Blech! But actually, this icecream is different than the sickly sweet, sugary store bought icecream. It is just like...well, a banana. No extra sugar, nothing. I liked it. And the chocolate syrup helped too.

Ryan even liked it. He said and I quote, "Besides the chocolate syrup, this icecream probably isn't that bad for you. It's pretty good!"

That's the thing, it's not bad, its just banana! Yum. So if you are looking for a healthy, sweet snack, this one works great!

I dare all you skeptics out there to try this out.
(And if you don't have a food processor, I heard you can use a blender.)

One-Ingredient Ice Cream

I was skeptical too. Until I saw this:

  Ice cream




I am going to try this recipe out...with chocolate syrup. I'll let you know how it goes!

And for those of you who don't like bananas. I found THIS, just for you.
Enjoy.

A Bad Case of Insomnia

I am sitting on my bed with a sleeping Ryan next to me and a sleeping kitty on the floor. I am exhausted, but I can't seem to fall asleep!

Maybe it's because I have invited 5 strangers to my home today. Before you start thinking about how hospitable I am, I will tell you that it is for my own benefit. Yesterday I posted a KSL and Craigslist ad to sell our housing contract. Not even 5 minutes after I posted the first one, I got a call from a girl asking if she could see it. I never knew I had such good persuasive ad-writing skills! She asked if she could come see the apartment right at that moment. I had worked a graveyard the night before and my husband had stayed up two days straight. I looked down at my pajamas and messed up hair. I then looked around at my pretty messy house.

"Umm...how about in an hour?"

Ryan, who had just walked into the front door and didn't know I was posting ads for our home, raised one eyebrow.

I hung up and went into a frenzy! "Pick up everything you can and throw it in white trash bags. We'll hide them in the car!"

Ryan then very intelligently stated, "Even if we lit a match and burned everything, it would take longer than an hour."

That's when I knew he was right. We called and rescheduled for the next day. After that, we got a call or text every hour for the next 7 hours.

All I have to say is hopefully one of these 5 visitors will work out. If not, at least we have a very clean house and a very tired Julie.

The True Easter Egg Hunt

Easter has come and gone, but our candy remains. Taunting me actually. It's quite hard to cook a nutritious meal when you have candy to eat instead. (Especially since Ryan bought a chocolate bunny about the size of my head.)

Easter weekend was fun! I worked a lot, but got to spend some time with both mine and Ryan's family. And it was conference weekend!

Well, I learned an important Easter lesson this year. I have been eyeballing the Easter candy for a good month. I kept telling myself that I shouldn't buy any Easter candy yet because I knew it would be gone before Easter, especially the Cadbury Mini Eggs. Yum! My favorite. I ran into them at multiple stores (Smiths, Walmart, Buy Low, etc) and I had to use self control not to buy it just yet.

Well, the day before Easter came and Ryan and I buckled up to go buy our cherished Easter candy. We even braved the nasty snowstorm that made it hard to see the lines on the road. We decided to go to Smiths. Have you ever seen the Easter aisle the day before Easter? Well, we hadn't either before then. It wasn't pretty. Empty boxes thrown every which way. Crazed Easter shoppers trying to get the last good candy. We found ourselves trying to make the decision between Smoothie flavored jolly ranchers and chocolate malt peeps. There wasn't much left. I even heard one guy say, "I give up on the cadbury eggs!"

No! Not my little yummy mini eggs! I looked everywhere. Even little crevices that people could've hidden some. None. I wasn't discouraged though. It wasn't until after we went to Macey's, Walgreen's, Walmart, Shopko, and Buy Low, that we finally gave up. I tried not to think about my Cadburys. Poor Ryan didn't even know what I was talking about. "What's the difference between Cadbury eggs and regular chocolate eggs?" The poor boy.

I was pretty sad. All those previous opportunities turned down and now this! I should've just bought them weeks ago. In my sadness, I googled Cadbury mini eggs and read countless sites where sad shoppers could not locate their Easter yumminess.

That was when I learned a valuable Easter lesson. Do not procrastinate the day you buy your Easter candy. Or you will be stuck with the Chocolate Malt flavored peeps.

The next day, we went over to Ryan's Aunt Debbie's house for Easter lunch. And lo and behold, in a small bowl, sat some Cadbury Mini Eggs. I think I teared up a little.

Bored? Want to write a Sister Missionary?

My best friend, Jennifer Mack, went into the MTC yesterday. She arrived Tuesday morning, so we got to spend a little over 24 hours together before she reported. We had a lot of fun running around getting her last minute sister missionary things, hanging out, and dancing to the Spirit of God, one of the catchiest hymns out there.

Well, the day she went into the MTC, the weather decided to play a cruel joke on us. It snowed...the day before April. Isn't it supposed to be springtime? Sister Mack was not happy. She didn't think to bring anything warm in April. Being the good friend that I am, I took her to the mall. We headed to Macy's and found her a nice, sister missionary approved sweater jacket. It was difficult to find since just about everything was short sleeved and spring-y. Luckily, I have eagle eyes.

When Jennifer purchased her jacket, the lady, like every other sales woman, asked if we were interested in a Macys reward card.

Jennifer responded, "Actually, I am reporting to the MTC in a couple hours, so I probably wouldn't put it to good use."

Sales lady: "How nice. Are you a missionary?" (This is when Jennifer and I looked at eachother, both thinking the same thing. Maybe this lady was a bit slow...)

Jennifer: Yes actually I am.

Sales lady: "Well you get the missionary discount!"

**Jennifer does her happy missionary dance**

Jennifer: Wow, I should have bought all my clothes here in Utah instead of Georgia!"

Sales lady (astonished): "You mean...they don't have discounts for missionaries in Georgia?"

No. We probably would have been charged more. LDS missionaries are not the most loved people where we're from. We had a good laugh about that.

All in all, it was fun to have the opportunity to spend a little time with Sister Mack before she left. I know she'll be a good missionary!

Isn't that jacket snazzy?

If you're interested in writing Sister Mack while she's gone, her addresses are as follows:

MTC address for 3 weeks:
Sister Jennifer Marene Mack
MTC Mailbox # 168
NV-LVW 0419
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


Mission home address in Nevada:

Sister Jennifer M. Mack
Nevada Las Vegas West Mission
4455 Allen Ln Ste 140
North Las Vegas, NV 89021-2229

Candy, cookies, letters, and pictures are much appreciated.
As is missionary discounts.