one step closer to the celestial kingdom...

so guess what grace is mysteriously hiding inside that green towel:


it's...BREAD! homemade bread! made in our home by...


...a breadmaker! provided by...


mrs. megan robinson. i love married people. they get all kinds of cool stuff when they get married which means they can give me all sorts of cool stuff they don't need. isn't she pretty? i like her. but not just because she gives me breadmakers. there are lots of other reasons too.


let's not forget blender, the other newest edition to the amy hansen kitchen. isn't he cute?


i'm so domestic.

provo ponderings.

disclaimer: this post contains rantings which may or may not be interpreted as "bitter." but please know that i am far too young to be legitimately bitter about anything in life, so rantings are permissible in moderation.

so one of my most favoritest things that has been introduced to me this summer in provo is the farmer's market every saturday. some of the booths are dumb and (in the words of grace) "kitschy," selling things like really ugly lawn decorations or snow cones (which is fine if you have a 5 year old with you). but there are other booths that are just legitimately cool. like two weeks ago, i ate some hungarian food homemade right in front of me by an actual hungarian woman who spoke with an accent and was missing some important teeth. and it was ridiculously good, not like "hey let's go to cafe rio" kind of good, but more like "wow this is an explosion of exotic flavors on my tongue and I LIKE IT." and today i ate some middle eastern food prepared by people from egypt and i tried out the 4 or 5 words i learned on my one day of arabic 101, and there were little girls running around speaking arabic and i got a free cup of hibiscus juice. yeah, hibiscus like the flower. they made juice out of it and it was probably one of the most beautiful colors i've ever seen. and as i was sitting on the grass eating and watching a really old man play the guitar and sing, i thought, "wow, i never would have thought this kind of thing existed in provo." somewhere in this little town i thought solely revolved around BYU there is an iranian woman who speaks farsi and who has a bunch of egyptian friends who make some killer pepper dip. and there's also a hungarian woman who never uses canned food but makes everything from scratch. these people are genuinely interesting. and i like that.

contrast this with the vapid conversations and social interactions encountered pretty much everywhere at BYU, but more specifically today sitting by the pool. let me start with another disclaimer: i love BYU. i'm glad i'm here. i think it is an excellent university and a fun place to make friends and have good experiences. BUT. sometimes i can't help but sigh in boredom over the constant see-and-be-seen culture here. and don't get me wrong. i'm just as guilty of it as everyone else. but i'm bored of listening to conversational patterns as boys try to get girls' numbers and girls giggle and pretend like they don't know exactly what's going on (and i'm even more bored of having to go through it myself). "hey, (insert girl's name here), text me later if you still want to play." seriously? first of all, if you want to "play" with (girl's name), how about you use your words like a big boy and ASK her. and second of all, if (girl's name) wanted to "play" with you, she probably would have already found a gigglingly manipulative way to get you to ask her in the first place 23 minutes ago.

so i'm ranting a little bit. but it's ok. and i decided today that i'd like to live in oregon. the end.

exceeds expectations.

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? The ones I have read are in bold:

THE ALCHEMIST
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND • Lewis Carroll
ANIMAL FARM • George Orwell
ANNA KARENINA • Leo Tolstoy
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES • L M Montgomery
ARTEMIS FOWL • Eoin Colfer
THE BFG • Roald Dahl
BIRDSONG • Sebastian Faulks
BLACK BEAUTY • Anna Sewell
BLEAK HOUSE • Charles Dickens
BRAVE NEW WORLD • Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED • Evelyn Waugh
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY • Helen Fielding
CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN • Louis de Bernières
CATCH 22 • Joseph Heller
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE • J D Salinger
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY • Roald Dahl
A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Charles Dickens
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR • Jean M Auel
COLD COMFORT FARM • Stella Gibbons
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC • Terry Pratchett
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO • Alexandre Dumas
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
DAVID COPPERFIELD • Charles Dickens
DOUBLE ACT • Jacqueline Wilson
DUNE • Frank Herbert
EMMA • Jane Austen
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD • Thomas Hardy
GIRLS IN LOVE • Jacqueline Wilson
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS • Arundhati Roy
THE GODFATHER • Mario Puzo
GONE WITH THE WIND • Margaret Mitchell
GOOD OMENS • Terry Pratchett
GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM • Michelle Magorian
GORMENGHAST • Mervyn Peake
THE GRAPES OF WRATH • John Steinbeck
GREAT EXPECTATIONS • Charles Dickens
THE GREAT GATSBY • F Scott Fitzgerald
GUARDS! GUARDS! • Terry Pratchett
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN • J K Rowling
HIS DARK MATERIALS • Philip Pullman
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY • Douglas Adams
THE HOBBIT • J R R Tolkien
HOLES • Louis Sachar
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE • Dodie Smith
JANE EYRE • Charlotte Brontë (SO MANY TIMES. favorite.)
KANE AND ABEL • Jeffrey Archer
KATHERINE • Anya Seton
THE LION,THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE • C S Lewis
LITTLE WOMEN • Louisa May Alcott
LORD OF THE FLIES • William Golding
THE LORD OF THE RINGS • J R R Tolkien
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA • Gabriel García Márquez
THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE • Enid Blyton
MAGICIAN • Raymond E Feist
THE MAGUS • John Fowles
MATILDA • Roald Dahl
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA • Arthur Golden
MIDDLEMARCH • George Eliot
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN • Salman Rushdie
MORT • Terry Pratchett
NIGHT WATCH • Terry Pratchett
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR • George Orwell
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES • Malorie Blackman
OF MICE AND MEN • John Steinbeck
ON THE ROAD • Jack Kerouac
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE • Gabriel García Márquez
PERFUME • Patrick Suskind
PERSUASION • Jane Austen
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH • Ken Follett
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY • John Irving
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE • Jane Austen
THE PRINCESS DIARIES • Meg Cabot
THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS • Robert Tressell
REBECCA • Daphne du Maurier
THE SECRET GARDEN • Frances Hodgson Burnett
THE SECRET HISTORY • Donna Tartt
THE SHELL SEEKERS • Rosamunde Pilcher
THE STAND • Stephen King
THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER • Jacqueline Wilson
A SUITABLE BOY • Vikram Seth
SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS • Arthur Ransome
A TALE OF TWO CITIES • Charles Dickens (i believe i was supposed to read that one in high school...)
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES • Thomas Hardy (definitely made me want to DIE)
THE THORN BIRDS • Colleen McCullough
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD • Harper Lee
A TOWN LIKE ALICE • Nevil Shute
TREASURE ISLAND • Robert Louis Stevenson (
THE TWITS • Roald Dahl
ULYSSES • James Joyce
VICKY ANGEL • Jacqueline Wilson
WAR AND PEACE • Leo Tolstoy
WATERSHIP DOWN • Richard Adams
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS • Kenneth Grahame
WINNIE THE POOH • A A Milne
THE WOMAN IN WHITE • Wilkie Collins
WUTHERING HEIGHTS • Emily Brontë

so...22. i may not be the most well-read person in the world, but at least i more than tripled BBC's expectations. and now i've got some good ideas for my reading list in between summer and fall terms.

the grand canyon state welcomes YOU!

so this past weekend, in honor of pioneer day, i got the heck out of utah. grace, russell, and i all took a little voyage down to the motherland (actually grace's motherland is kansas but we'll just pretend here) for some good times in the searing sun.


this is where we got really lost after missing the turn-off for the 20 (cough, russ, cough). and then grace went to get directions from the lady at the gas station which we misinterpreted in thinking that the left turn coming out of the gas station counted...but it didn't. thus this picture was born where we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere developing theories about how the lady at the gas station was probably trying to kill us.


lucky for us though, the detour afforded us some very spectacular scenery.


"oh the glories of nature! what are men compared to rocks and trees!"


hello arizona.



grace also was shocked and horrified to find out that scorpions live in arizona. here's a direct quote: "there are scorpions here?! this is a civilized country! if you can eradicate malaria you can definitely eradicate scorpions!!" ooh kansans...

missions are cool...

but it's even COOLER when your friends get back!

here are two of the reasons freshman year at BYU was one of the most hilarious years of my life. i'm so glad they're back.

funny.

no clever title. i just love harry potter.

so harry potter 6=best one yet. seriously, it was really good. normally the movies are dumb and you only get excited because it's fun to go at midnight and it reminds you of how much you love the books. but this one was actually quite satisfying! witty dialogue, over-acting not quite as prevalent as in the others, generally accurate plotline, and great special effects! i want to go see it again and again! (ok maybe minus the second again. that might be pushing it.)

oh and don't worry. we dressed up and waited in line for 4 hours. because we're just that cool.

tri-wizard tournament at BYU. because everyone loves harry potter.


hermione, sexy ron, draco malfoy, and harry.


susannah casting an unforgivable curse. shame on her.


we thought it was appropriate to read harry potter while waiting for harry potter.


sweet victory and an aisle seat for the handicapable!