What's a Pummelo? (And Other Strange Fruits)

I asked myself this very question last week as I perused the aisles of Broulims grocery store.  A large, green-yellow fruit caught my eye.  No one knew the answer.  Since they were only $0.99 per pound, I decided to buy one and give it a shot!  It kind of reminded me of Peru.  We would buy all sorts of fruits we'd never seen before and then try them.  We had hits and misses.  Sadly, some fruits I still never learned the name of.

Me and my pummelo...my pummelo and I???

Pummelos have very thick skin!

And it's pink inside!  The perfect fruit for any real girl.  It kind of tastes like a sweeter grapefruit and a hint of pomegranate...yeahhhhhh whatever it tastes like, it's good!

Peru fruit memories...on film. (Please don't judge our appearance...I apologize to Noelle and Breet for posting these without their consent.  I figured after a year we can just laugh about what we looked like....)

 What we learned to be passion fruit...but we called it the booger fruit.

Tuna...yes, it's a fruit.

The forever nameless fruit...  And even though Noelle says at the end that she really likes it, she didn't.  I don't think she ever ate it again but Breet and I would always buy them. 

This is mostly a tour of our kitchen...I find it appropriate for now.  Also, it is our first Peruvian mango.  The mangoes were DELICIOUS.  I hated mangoes before Peru and still don't love the ones that are in the states, but Peruvians know how to eat a good mango.  PLUS, we could get like 5 good size mangoes for an American dollar.  It's a steal!

I love watching these all together because twice we describe them as mushy apples and pomegranates.  Also, I just cracked up laughing at how funny we are.  Funny looking, funny sounding, funny everything.  It was all so new to us and I'm so glad it's all captured on film!

A Feast for Fatties

Sunday dinners are the best.  Seriously.  After an entire week of eating sandwiches and cheese and crackers for meals, it's nice to have real food.  The meal tonight was provided by the roommates who left for the summer and subsequently left food in the refrigerator or freezer.  We basically just fried everything we could get our hands on.  I've never tried deep-frying different foods, so it was quite the experience.  We did chicken, carrots, cheese sticks, and Reese's and cookie dough wrapped in biscuits.  It was a fatty feast.  The boys did crockpot some chicken as well that was perfect with rice.  The combination of everything made for an excellent Sunday dinner!

Mmmmmmmmm!

The Reeses-biscuit combo.

Egin Lake Activity

Why have I recently been posting multiple blogs on one day?  This will not become a habit, I promise.

Yesterday we went to Egin Lakes for our ward closing social.  I've never been there before and neither had Brittany so it was perfect since it's her last semester.  Basically, you drive out into the middle of nowhere for half and hour until you stumble upon these sand dunes with a rather large, shallow lake.  Now, I'm not really sure who decided it was a good idea to go swim in warm, standing water, but it's quite popular here.  You even have to pay to get in!

Well the ward fed us dinner (fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon and root beer floats) and we just chilled on the "beach".  They set up volleyball in the water near the end but none of us played.  They had people playing that could actually play volleyball and that was way too competitive for us :P  But we enjoyed making sandcastles and walking through the water.  I think I may have even gotten some sun!

Tenile made a sand hat...

An Arizona Adventure

 (This is going to be a lengthy post...just warning you.  I have separated the narration of the trip with a few funny stories so you can just read the funny moments if you wish :)

Narration
If you remember any posts from about a year ago you will remember my roommate, Whitney.  I think I mentioned her in every single post....   Whitney graduated last December and moved to Arizona to do her student teaching.  She ended up staying there, falling in love and getting married!  Alexis and I were lucky enough to drive down to AZ last Friday to spend some time with her before the big day and actually meet her Prince Charming.

I don't know when beef jerky became my travel food but before every trip I buy a bag of it.  Jack Links Peppered is my preference but I'll eat other stuff too.  Along with the jerky I also get some sort of nut mix.  I guess they just go together in my mind.  Oh, and chocolate.  Every road trip needs a good bag of chocolate.

We did the first nine hours of the trip on Friday, ending in Moapa, NV where we spent the night at Blake's house...he lives in the middle of nowhere.  Quite literally.

Saturday we did the last six hours of the trip and arrived in Mesa around four.  Whitney wasn't at her house when we got there so we drove to her school and met her there.  I may or may not have cried when giving her a hug for the first time in almost a year.  I miss her so so much!  I wish we could have gone to school with her but seeing her classroom was fun too.

Saturday night, Alexis and I went to dinner with another friend, Kevin Bird, who graduated Spring 2010 and is teaching first grade in Mesa.

Sunday we went to the singles ward with Whitney for her last time ever!  She and her fiance tried getting us to go to the dating class but it was full haha  We had dinner at the Buckley's home (her fiance's family) and it was DELICIOUS.  His mom made tamales and this taco soup that's the best I've ever had (I got the recipe before leaving).

Funny Story
Our old roommate, Kadi, is serving a mission in Mesa and we couldn't possible go to Mesa and not see her.  We got her address from her mother before leaving and decided to go Sunday night to see if we could find her.  We figured she had to be in around 9 or 9:30 so we got there a little before 9:00.  The address we had took us to a very nice neighborhood, nothing like the apartments we were expecting her to live in.  We had no idea what to do!  There were a bunch of cars out front and it looked like some sort of party going on so we didn't want to go knock on the door and ask if Sister missionaries lived there.

We waited in the car for 30 minutes when some people walked out of the house.  As one was going to his car I got out of ours and went to ask him if the Sisters lived there.  He said yes but he wasn't sure if they were home or not because they usually keep to themselves so we would have to go knock on the door and ask the family.  We did, and the dad invited us right in and took us to the back.  Apparently they live in a little house out back.  The mom ended up taking us back there although she was very hesitant to do so (quite understandably).

Alexis poked her head in first.  Honestly, I was expecting Kadi to scream at the sight of us but there was absolute SILENCE.  So I poked my head in and she was just staring at us in utter disbelief.  He face was priceless.  When she recovered from the shock she ran over to us, gave us each a massive hug and asked a million questions about what we were doing in AZ and how we found her.  We obviously couldn't stay long but it was good to surprise her and talk to her for a few minutes.

Alexis, Sister Baggett and I

Narration
Monday was a lot of errands and preparations for the wedding and reception the next day.  All the girls went to get their nails done, we packed up Whitney's room and took her stuff to their new apartment and Whitney had pictures taken.  That night we all went out to eat at Rustlers Rooste, where Whitney and Jared had their first date.  I tried rattlesnake!

Funny Story
I ran a stoplight in Mesa.  Twice.



The first time was not my fault!  I was following Whitney back to her apartment and had no idea where I was going.  She sped through the yellow and I had no choice but to speed through the red....

The second time was completely, totally, embarrassingly my fault.  Alexis and I were leaving the Buckley's and the exit from their neighborhood is onto a vary large five lane street.  I was in the lane to turn left and looked both ways.  One car was approaching from the left and a whole line from the right.  I was thinking this would be my chance to get out because if I missed this window I would have to wait for all the cars on the right to pass by.  I gunned it out of the neighborhood and halfway through the turn Alexis yells "YOU HAVE A RED LIGHT!!!!" but I was obviously in the middle of the street and could only keep going so I started yelling too.

I was mortified!  I don't know how I missed that I was at a light and not a stop sign.  It's not even like I ran a little stoplight in a one stoplight town.  I ran a stoplight across four lanes of traffic!!  I don't think I've ever run a light before and in a few days I ran two.

Narration
Tuesday was the big day!!  I woke up early with Whitney though she was off at 7:45 to get her hair done.  She came back after that for a few minutes and I snagged a picture with her.  Her last picture being a Nebeker....

We did a serious one too, don't worry.

The sealing was at 11:15 and we walked around the grounds some before they came out.

One of my goals for the trip was to take my picture with a palm tree.  They make me happy :)

I can't believe she's a married woman now!!!  I'm so unbelievably excited for her.  She's one of my best friends and deserves to be loved by someone for the rest of her life.

After the sealing we went back to Buckley Manor (Jared's grandparent's house which was AMAZING) to finish setting up for the reception at 6:00.  The reception was beautiful, as were the bride and groom.  Some of Whitney's students came and I enjoyed hearing stories from them about her as a teacher (she teaches 6th grade).

Here are a few pictures from the reception...

Alexis hiding the electrical equipment.

awwwwwwww

The bride and bridesmaids

All lit up at night.

It was sad to see her run out to the car and drive off.  I made sure to go through the line multiple times to give her a hug before that though!  We probably won't see each other again until either Alexis or I gets married...I miss her so I better get on that! ;)

Story
I guess it's not really a story, but my other goal for the trip was to get a picture with a cactus.  I'd never seen one in real life before so I was pretty excited.  This one was just in a random person's yard across from the reception.

Narration
We left Mesa at 6:30 Wednesday morning and didn't get back to Rexburg until 12:00 that night.  What a long car trip!!

Two Funny Stories
This was the only billboard we saw for miles in the middle of the desert...it about sums the surroundings up!

As we were driving I happened to look out the window and see signs for the Hoover Dam and got really excited.  The sad part is that we drove the exact same way down there AND I drove through that part and had NO IDEA I drove right over the Hoover Dam.  How in the world did I miss that?!?!?!  I remember telling Alexis it was funny they had signs saying "No Parking" along the bridge since who stops on the middle of a bridge.  Sure, I thought the view was neat but I didn't figure it would warrant stopping on a bridge.  Little did I know, I was driving over an American landmark.  I don't know why Alexis didn't say anything but she probably thought I was an idiot.

I convinced her to let us stop and walk around since I doubted I would ever go back again.

 Okay, just look at that bridge.  How in the world did they build that?!  This trip has caused me to really reflect on the genius of our ancestors who did not have computers and the technology we had, and yet they built great things.  Also, telephone lines.  Have you ever looked at them?  They go on forever in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  That must have been the most tedious job.  Thank you to the men who constructed them.  I greatly appreciate it.

Squatting at the Nevada- Arizona state line...I was in two time zones at once. Excuse my appearance.  It's what happens when you're in a car all day.

Narration
On the way back we also made stops at Blake's house (to pick him back up), the St. George temple, and a Chick-fil-A. 

All-in-all I would say it was a successful trip!  The countless hours of driving were definitely worth it.  It is a little ironic that I traveled 16 hours back to Rexburg the day that most students traveled away for Thanksgiving.  I spent the holiday with two roommates and an old fhe brother at Alexis's house so I wasn't totally without family.

Life is good :)

Newspaper Nails

I learned a super fun new nail art trick today!  You can put newspaper designs on your nails...who knew?!  First you paint a light solid color and let it totally dry.  Next, dip your nail into rubbing alcohol and press the piece of newspaper you like onto it.  Hold for a few seconds and peel off.  After a few minutes, put another layer of clear polish on top.  Ta-Da!!!

Clockwise from top: Stars and stripes, B"loo"mingdales, crossword answer, random words, "LOVE"

Salvation Army logo, random words, QR code, random words, Ohio

Papas Locas

Prepare to be disgusted...but I figured since I'm going to a foreign country I need to learn how to try foods that completely gross me out.

This concoction is from Mexico.

 First, take a bag of chips and crush them up.  I used Baked Lays but I hear Doritos and Fritos are the best kind.

 Add worcestershire sauce.

 Add soy sauce.

 Add lime juice.

 Mush together.

Eat like a push pop.

Enjoy??

A Homemade Pile of Leaves

I've already blogged about fall being my favorite season.  I actually really like to rake leaves and it's one thing I miss a lot being in Idaho.  The other night we had some visitors come to the apartment and bring a bag full of shredded newspaper to play with.  It was surprisingly fun!  I had never met these boys before and them coming over was completely unplanned.  I was beyond confused when they said they had a present in the bag for us and this is not at all what I expected.  If I'm ever forced to live somewhere where leaves don't fall in the fall, I am going to remember this.