Popcorn.

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE popcorn. During the summer I eat it almost every day. I eat it as a study snack quite a bit as well. Popcorn takes me back to days at Grandma's house after she picked us up from school. The love for popcorn really runs in my family. 

I was at a lunch recently and the ladies at my table mentioned how nobody makes popcorn on the stove anymore. (I have no idea how this subject came up. ha) I sat there trying to decide if I should awkwardly say that I always make it on the stove or just ignore it and go on eating. I eventually said something and surprised them. I'm 23 and they are older ladies so you would think the conversation would be opposite.

I make popcorn on the stove. Actually everyone in my family does. I can't think of one Fisher gathering that hasn't had popcorn. We all season it a little differently but I thought I would share how we make our popcorn because it is a little different. It is so easy though! If I can do it, anyone can! 

Put a thin layer of oil in the bottom of a pot.

 I have a whirly pop thing but I couldn't find it when I made popcorn this afternoon. This works out better anyway. You can see how to do it in an everyday pot. Also, you can use whatever size pot that you have. Just depends on how much popcorn you are planning on eating. :)

Add a layer of popcorn kernels. Again, add how ever much you like. Usually, one layer is about how much the pot will hold. 

We only use Mr. Redenbacher's popping corn. It just seems to pop better and leave a lot less old maids. Does everyone else call the unpopped kernels old maids? Maybe we are just weird. 

Put the lid on and swirl the pot around a little then let it sit until you hear it start poppin'. Once it starts popping it is best to shake the pot until it stops popping. I tend to just shake it a few times but to make sure it doesn't burn just shake it. 

As soon as you don't hear anymore popping, put the popcorn in a bowl and melt some butter. However much you want. We usually add 1-2 tablespoons depending on the amount of popcorn. But if like it buttery add more. 

You can also use any kind of baking spray if you want to be a bit healthier.

Here is the different part. We season our popcorn with Nutritional Yeast Flakes. You can buy them at most health food stores. Somewhere like Whole Foods has them. Some people say that it has a little bit of a cheesy flavor but I haven't met one person who didn't like it. 

Sprinkle some on the popcorn and add some salt. You could also use garlic salt or any other seasoning you want to try! 

We are kind of stuck in a rut around here and stick to the basics. 

And it's done! It really is very easy and so yummy!

The dogs love it too!

beggers.

Seriously, try it! You will never go back to microwave popcorn. Even if you don't use the nutritional yeast flakes! 

Okay... you might but still it is our favorite snack! 

I get asked a lot about what I eat (my whole family is vegetarian) so I plan on sharing some recipes a lot more this summer. 

Happy Friday everyone and thank you for all the encouragement you have been sending my way! I am to the point of "as long as I pass, it doesn't matter." Grades aren't as big a deal now. As long as you pass the board exam. Have a happy weekend!

Sanity.

Stress level: MAX?? Near mental breakdown (for real people)?? Ready to give a teacher some "words of wisdom"?? Annoyed with half my classmates??

Yep, that pretty much sums up my attitude right now. I have been studying all stinkin' day so I'm taking a 5 minute break to share a lovely photo from my Uncle Mark's yard. I took it this weekend and it just reminds me of happy things. 

I can't wait to be done with this semester. I'm ready to have time to read a normal book, not think about grades, do a little upgrading on this here blog, actually blog about fun things, exercise, and the list goes on. 

But for 1 more week I will study and try to maintain my sanity.

Jake.

I don't share about Jake often. It's not because I don't love him as much as the other two or anything like that. Let's face it, these two goobers are just more entertaining... 

Saturday afternoon I laid out on a blanket in the yard and soaked up the sunshine. The dogs, of course, joined me, while my parents laid in the hammock. 

I was playing with different settings on my camera, just trying to figure out things. I have had it for a year now and still don't know how to use it to its capacity. 

Jake was the perfect subject. He just laid there and let me take approximately 100 pictures of him. (maybe not quite a hundred. ha.)

Gus and Cooper ran around and dug up bones. 

 Jake is one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet. He may look a little scary when you first pull up the driveway but he really is a softy. He weighs over a hundred pounds and is just a big boy. I can see how he is intimidating. 

He is super scared of storms! He lays on the mat by the back door all curled up and won't move. He rarely sleeps in the garage unless there is a storm. He is our weatherman. ha 

He is starting to get a few grey hairs, and has arthritis pretty bad in his right back leg but that doesn't slow him down. 

He has deciding that he doesn't want to ride in the car anymore so every time I take the dogs with me, he just runs beside the car. No amount of coaxing can convince him to ride. 

Jake's only downfall is that he loves skunks. He knows he is in trouble if he gets sprayed and stays way out in the yard, but that doesn't matter. We can still smell it. It is almost like an addiction or something. He just keeps finding them. Oh, and we have to keep an eye on him because he loves to lay in the flower bed. 

You can read more about how I got Jake here. (he is toward the bottom)

P.S. I only have 6 finals left and 1 quiz! 

We Meet at Last.

I'm finally getting around to revealing the surprise adventure I went on with some girlfriends on Friday afternoon.

We drove 45 min North. It was really a nice drive. The wheat is just beautiful right now and that area of the country has a lot of wheat.

Here some pictures for your first hint...

Statue of the Pioneer Woman. It represents all the pioneer women that braved the plains. I love it. 

This picture cracks me up. Bahaha

 We had a hard time getting the pioneer woman in our photo. 

Trying to hold his hand.

 So, have you guessed it yet?! 

Okay... I will just tell ya! We went to see the blogger pioneer woman. I was so excited! I'm slightly obsessed and convinced we would be fast friends. I'm not quite as obsessed with food as she is but I love bassets, cows, and photography. 

Creeper shot.

She was just like any other person and exactly like I thought she would be. I got shy and didn't ask her about cowboy Josh though... We will meet again though! I'm emailing her this picture and asking her about Josh. She probably won't respond but oh well. Elisa had her sign an apron so maybe she will remember us! 

If you don't know who she is, go check out her blog, especially if you need a good laugh or just want to see some pretty pictures of Oklahoma.

I really enjoyed myself and am determined to meet again.

Time flies.

I just finished my last regular test of the semester! Next week is "dead week." I'm not sure why they call it dead week. I have two lab finals but I guess maybe if you aren't science major and don't have classes with a lab than you really do get a week to just study for finals. Finals week I have a test everyday. My birthday is smack dab in the middle of all those finals so I will be celebrating the weekend after. It is going to be one big celebration. Done with my first year of vet school and my birthday! I can not wait!! 

This week we got our schedule for next semester. Guess how many hours I will be taking?! Just take a stab at it...

If you guessed 20 then you would be CORRECT!! That's right 20 hours of science classes. I need to start mentally preparing. This semester I had 19 so it really isn't going to be that much different. Plus, 4 of those hours are electives that I actually got to choose. I'm pretty excited about that! 

I am going to enjoy every minute of summer break though! 

I have a heard time realizing that I'm actually almost done with my first year of vet school. I feel like I have learned so much and the time has just flew by! 

Today though, I'm actually not headed straight home. I am going on a slight detour with some of my girlfriends and Elisa. I can't wait to share how it goes! But, for now I will keep the suspense up. I know that you will be on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what we are doing. :) 

Protection.

 This weekend was uneventful, and for that I am very thankful. The weathermen were predicting really bad storms. Some of Oklahoma did get hit pretty bad but we were spared the worst and it was truly an answer to prayer. 

Now, you are probably saying, "well everyone is thankful when they don't get hit by a tornado!" Well, duh! But you have to understand that we are farmers and our livelihood depends on the weather. Therefore, we have to have a lot of faith that God is going to provide for us. And let me tell you, my faith has been put to the test in the past year or so. Last summer was so incredibly hot and dry! Not conducive conditions for things to grow.

This year on the other hand has been a great year for wheat. We have gotten rain when we need it and the wheat is looking really good. If we would have gotten bad weather this weekend it would have been pretty devastating. If the wheat gets hailed on, it knocks kernels onto the ground (can't be harvested) and knocks the whole plant over which makes it harder to harvest. (I'm sure my dad could add to this, but that's the gist)

When we heard there was bad weather we all started praying and hoping for the best. Friday night we got a little rain but the storms went just north of us. Saturday night there was a storm that I was sure was going to hit us, but we just got rain. I watched the weather all Saturday evening while I studied (I know, what an exciting Saturday night. ha) and watched the storm pop up and go around us. God takes care of us! 

Friday afternoon, after picking asparagus in the rain, I ran around and took some pictures of everything in case it stormed. Luke has some really pretty veggies in the garden right now, the wheat is gorgeous, and there are flowers everywhere. There is something about this spring that the flowers are really loving! I think God is showing us that He is still around after such a hard summer last year. 

Wheat is heading out.

Lots of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and other veggies! All with weird names that I'm not even going to try to remember. ha

Tomatoes already! 

Radishes sprouting. 

A lot of tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Kansas that destroyed a lot of homes and took lives but we are so thankful for God's protective hand! 

P.S. I have about a bazillion tests in the next two and a half weeks! So happy to be finishing things up though! 

"Studying"

I have about 3 and half weeks of school and so I pretty much will be studying non stop for the next weeks. I have a problem though, my mind tends to wonder when I'm studying. I guess you could call it daydreaming. I was thinking about it the other day and the list of things I think about is very random. 

I want...

... to go Fishing!! 

... to go to the lake!!

... 10 pounds to just fall off my body. ha

... to just read a book for the enjoyment of reading a book.

... to go to a baseball game.

... to be done with school.

... to know what I'm talking about when people ask me questions about there animals.

... to go back to Africa.

... to sleep. (This one actually happens all the time... when I'm supposed to be studying)

... to give some of my professors some words of wisdom. 

... to go on a date.

... to be an online student. I'm convinced it would be better for me. I HATE going to class!
... a baby goat.

The list goes on...

Oh, and every guy whoever calls women moody, unpredictable, etc. should be required to take a female reproductive physiology class. Seriously, it is crazy how up and down our hormones are. And that's when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing! I'm studying it right now and it is amazing me! I ponder this one quite often... 

As you can probably tell, my mind has pretty much checked out already! And my thought are very random and unorganized!

Easter Weekend.

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. Honestly, I just don't have much to say. This weekend I picked more asparagus. I'm pretty sure I have eaten asparagus for every meal, besides breakfast, lately. I only picked Friday and for about an hour Sunday though.

 I planted my garden on Friday as well. Everyone always asks why I have a garden if I work in a big garden all summer. "Aren't you tired of it?!" Well not really... my garden is small enough that I don't really have to do a whole lot but watch things grow and then I can have as many tomatoes as I want. ;)  

I planted 11 tomato plants, 2 jalapeno plants, 2 sweet banana pepper plants (we love them on sandwiches), basil and some kind of weird spicy basil that I'm testing out. I also planted sunflower seeds and am planning on planting some green beans in the empty spot in the middle. Oh, and I planted a blueberry and raspberry bush this year. We will see how that turns out. :) The lavender and rosemary have been growing for a few years and they smell quite lovely. Now I'm just waiting for things to grow.

I also went to the Chiropractor on Friday and he was pretty amazed at how out of align my neck was. He fixed me up but my neck was so sore on Saturday that I was pretty much down for the count. It is soooo much better now though! My mom bought me the movie "We Bought A Zoo" so I watched that. Loved it!! I need a zoo now... 

My little cousins, Aunt and grandparents were at our house this weekend for Easter. Sunday we colored and hunted eggs! 

Adam

Some of the finished product!

We started to hide the eggs for the kids and I quickly realized we had a problem. Gus was going to eat them all if he could reach them. I spent the rest of the time trying to distract him and I feel like I said "Gus, NO!!" about 100 times. It was kinda humorous though.

He was determined! Yes, Brett is wearing Macy's Muck boots. He only face dived twice. ha

They were having a blast.

 I took pictures of some of the flowers in the yard while I was distracting Gus. 

Snowball bush in full bloom. I don't know what it is technically called...

Someday I will get a picture of him that is not blurry, but they are entertaining through the blur. 

See that egg?! Yep, he ate at least half a dozen. Even though I was trying to keep an eye on him. 

He also led the kids to many eggs. They just had to get them before he did. 

Worn out from all the hunting.

 Gus doesn't hold still very often... no typical basset.

Seriously, they had a blast playing. See that white blur? That's Cooper, he never stopped and Gus likes to take breaks and roll around on the grass.

 Cooper was a mess and he isn't supposed to have a bath for a week because of his surgery. He got his feet washed though. He was feeling back to normal!

Jake didn't want to hang out with us. He got bored and went and laid out in the sun so I don't have many pictures of him. 

I know there are more pictures of the dogs than people but I spent my time entertaining the dogs and, after all, they are my kids. 

I also spent a small amount of time trying to study but wasn't very productive so I should go do that now. 

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter and remembered the real reason for the holiday, that Christ died and rose again so that we may be saved!