Geekfest

We had a fun and interesting weekend. BYU holds an annual sci-fi and fantasy symposium called "Life, the Universe, and Everything."
It's a three-day event with classes from morning until evening about every topic under the sun: creating realistic monsters, how to write a strong female character in a medieval setting, incorporating romance into your plot, how to build a culture, etc.
Some of the past presenters have been Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson (author of the final book in the Wheel of Time series). So it's pretty much every sci-fi/fantasy fan's dream: three days of swapping ideas and learning ways to improve your writing from people who really know what they are talking about.

For the past four years, Nathan has taught a class entitled "How to create a realistic fictional language." This year he taught two one-hour classes with a linguistics professor, Dirk Elzinga.

Caption: "How many of you have ever wanted to kiss Galadriel or Arwen?"

Every year we go, I feel a little out-of-place for two reasons: (1) I have never read a sci-fi or fantasy book (let's be honest—I've never even seen Star Wars), and (2) I don't wear capes. There were lots of ... interesting (that's the most diplomatic word I can think of) people attending, as there have been every year we've gone.

When we broke up into groups during Nathan's class to fill out a worksheet together, I got a pic of the group I worked with. The guy wearing the hat in the picture below had memorized the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), filled our the worksheet in the characters of the IPA, and had already made up most of his own language. He said it sounded like Tolkein's elvish. Wow.

What does the International Phonetic Alphabet look like? Glad you asked. I wasn't sure myself, so I had to Google it. It's basically a way of writing every sound your mouth can make. Each distinctive sound has its own character. Here's a sample of what it looks like (click on it to see it in its full glory):


We asked Avery what she thought of of all the people dressed in their costumes (heck, maybe they're not costumes; maybe they wear it every day). Here was her non-verbal reply:


Speaking of Avery, for a couple weeks she did this funny thing with her leg. When she was in her car seat, her leg would inevitably lift up. And stay there ... for the entire time she would be in the car seat!! It was so funny, so of course we couldn't resist taking a pic.
Important update: I never did win the Valentine's Day drawing. Bummer. I really thought I felt some good chi, or karma, or whatever. :) Oh well, that won't stop me from entering more drawings! Our next project is getting Nathan's website finished so we can go man a booth at the St. George Family History Expo in a couple of weeks!

Oh, and Nathan just reminded me that I have read two sci-fi/fantasy books: Twilight and Ender's Game. Oops. *Blush*

I learned so much at the symposium this past weekend that I've decided that my next post will be written in my new fictional language. I was thinking of writing about spincy wouncers, but I might not because snorgle glakket chumble spuzz.

Poo

Dear Huggies,
We really, really, REALLY appreciate you. You make parenting much less gross than it sometimes already is.
Much admiration,
Nathan and Jelaire

This made us laugh, so I had to post it and share it with the world.

I picked Avery up and she felt strangely warm. Here's what I saw when I laid her down on her changing table:

I have no idea how she did it. What a talented girl!
As I was washing her pants off in the toilet, I was counting my blessings that our generation has access to disposable diapers. And that they work...most of the time. Thank you, Huggies.

Prophetic Counsel Rough Draft

My Recipe-Sharing Experiment

I enjoy making yummy dinners, but the part that I don't enjoy as much is the finding! All I have are recipes that aren't too healthy, so my New Year's resolution was to cook healthier. I want to try a little experiment that will help out not just me, but everyone who reads my blog!

Go ahead and paste one of your tried and true dinner recipes in the comments below. The only requirement is that it be a healthy one! (If you can't find one, that's ok, too!) Let's see if we can share enough recipes with each other on this particular post to have us set for the rest of February! I'll add them to this post when I get enough!

To start us off, I'll offer two recipes. One quick breakfast-for-dinner idea, and one not-so-quick, not very healthy, but reallly delicious dinner recipe.

Scarce Eggs

• 6 eggs

• 2 cups milk

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 2 cups flour

• 1 tsp. salt

• 2 T. oil

Put eggs, milk, sugar, and salt in blender. Blend well. Add flour. Blend. Add oil and bake on hot griddle. (Batter will be thin.) This serves about 4 adults.

I got this recipe from a site called myinnerchef.com. I tried it and absolutely love it! It's a cross between pancakes and crepes, but more eggs; thus more protein. You can serve it with fruit, yogurt, peanut butter, syrup, or anything else you normally put on crepes or pancakes. I love it because it's super easy, quick, and I always have the ingredients on hand!

Chiang Mai Curry Noodle Soup
I got this recipe from cooking.com, but I have simplified it and added ginger.

• Peanut or corn oil (I used vegetable oil)

• 1 lb. thin/regular Chinese egg noodles

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  

• 2 Tbs +/- freshly grated ginger
  

• 2 cans coconut milk, unashaken

• 2 Tbs. red curry paste, or to taste

• 1 1/2 tsp. curry powder

• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
  

• 1 grated carrot

• 3/4 lb. chopped chicken meat

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 3 Tbs Thai fish sauce (I used regular fish sauce, and it tasted fine)

• 1 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar

• 1/4 cup shredded green cabbage

• Juice of 1 lemon (I just used about a Tbs of lemon juice and it worked fine)

Garnishes:
Fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, sliced

Directions:
Boil noodles following the directions on package. Set aside.

Measure out 2 tablespoons of oil and place in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until browned, about 1 minute. Do not shake the cans of coconut milk before opening. There should be a thick layer of cream on top of each. Spoon off 1/2 cup of the thick cream from the top of each can and add it to the garlic. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until the cream boils gently. Add the red curry paste, curry powder and turmeric and stir until smooth. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the mixture is thick and the oil begins to separate around the edges and rises to the surface, about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken, breaking it up into small pieces. (I actually just cooked my chicken beforehand in my crockpot, and then shredded it for the soup.) Cook until the chicken becomes white, about 2 minutes. Raise the heat to high. Add the remaining coconut milk, the chicken stock, fish sauce, palm or brown sugar and cabbage and stir well. When the mixture begins to boil, adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil and continue cooking for 8 minutes longer.

Add lemon juice and cooked noodles. Garnish with the cilantro and green onions.

Thank you for your help -- I can't wait to try your recipes!
Let the cooking begin!

Pinchy Cheeks

A friend of ours from our ward is a photographer. He came over and snapped a few pictures of Avery while he was here and told us he'd email what he did. It turned out AMAZING! This pic really makes me want to pinch the heck out of those cheeks!

If you want to check out more of his stuff, his site is michaelririe.com and his blog is at michaelririe.com/mrblog

Thanks SO much for sharing your talent with us, Mike!

In other news, happy Valentine's Day! I actually entered a drawing in a local store to win a free V-Day getaway to a Salt Lake City hotel for two. We'll see if crossing my fingers worked! I usually don't win these types of things, but heck, part of the fun is just the imagining! :)

Interfaith Dialogues

This past weekend a group of students from Biola University (a private evangelical Christian university) took a trip from southern California to Utah to brave the cold and learn more about Mormons. They toured Temple Square, and they even got to meet with a leader in the Church (a member of the Quorum of the Seventy) and ask him questions. We were so jealous!

While they were here, they participated in several dialogues with members of the LDS church. The goal of the dialogues is to understand the others' doctrines and personal beliefs. Last year Nathan and I participated in other dialogues with evangelical university students from Biola University (California), North Central University (Minnesota!), Wheaton College (Illinois), and others. It's nice to be in a comfortable, relaxed setting where you can just ask about whatever's on your mind.


On Friday night Nathan, Avery, and I went to a local evangelical church to hear a short sermon, listen to some popular Christian songs played by a really good band, and then have some really fun conversations with some evangelicals. We had so much fun! It was good to be with a group of people who were very honest and open, and yet were not critical of our beliefs.

There was also a really yummy potluck beforehand with some delicious chili (you can kinda see it in the background below). My favorite was the white bean and chicken chili. Yummy! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. They even gave us leftovers to take home! Everyone was nice enough to be willing to hold Avery. She basically got passed around from person to person the whole time! They were very accommodating to say the least! Avery seemed to love it! :) She's been drooling buckets lately. She drooled all over Kate (holding her below), but Kate was so patient and didn't seem to mind too much. Thank goodness for bibs!


Below is the Communion, which is an evangelical practice we'd never seen before. During the singing, any believer could take it as a recommitment to follow Christ. Their idea of Communion is very similar to our sacrament. The pic is a little blurry, but it was unleavened bread and grape juice.


After the singing, we broke up into groups and took turns asking each other questions. We sat with two girls and talked about several different topics that we wanted to understand better, like their concept of the Trinity, or our understanding of prophets. We also shared personal experiences of at what point(s) in our lives we developed our own convictions and what difference that has made in our lives.


The two girls that we dialogued with, Vanessa and Sarah were sooo nice! It was probably the best experience I've had dialoguing so far, actually. There wasn't any discomfort; just honest talking and trying to come understand each other, and patience and humor whenever someone had trouble putting into words what they believed. We stayed until about 11:45 pm—for about 4 hours! Above are Nathan and I with Vanessa (middle) and Sarah (far left). They were so kind and I loved hearing their experiences and getting to know them better. They are truly remarkable ladies!

The Biola students come out every year, so we're looking forward to hopefully meeting up with them again!

When Life Gives You a Lemmon, Make an Avery

My maiden name is Lemmon. The other day, we were talking about learning lessons from life, and I said, "When life gives you a Lemmon, make an Avery." We laughed so much we wondered if we ought to post this saying on a cute little plaque in Avery's room, but in the end we decided against it. Instead, we have it as a title to a post. I guess that's almost as good.

You can decide who she looks most like.

I'm on my mom's lap

Here's Avery

Nathan

You, the reader, can decide.

Since I'm on the topic of comparing people, here are a couple more comparisons. Here's me feeding Avery when she was 6 months.

My favorite pastime

I had to pin her arms down with my feet because she would inevitably stick her hands in her face and wipe it EVERYWHERE. Pinning her on the ground meant that not only was gravity on my side when she decided to spit, but that she couldn't wipe her hands everywhere. :) We have since purchased a high chair.


One last comparison. I saw a picture of my niece, and for some strange reason, the first thing I thought of was Tori Amos.

Leah

Tori Amos

I guess I'm ok with Leah looking like Tori Amos, but I hope she doesn't grow up to be like Tori.