Tourists

                  

One of our first views of Scotland

We're playing tourists right now in our new city. Edinburgh is amazing. It's so old and full of history and you can find beauty in just about everything here. We are adjusting to the time difference, a little homesick, but overall really loving this place. It's gorgeous. 

Waters of Leith Walkway

On the corner, almost home

Deaun loves the new park

A peek of Arthur's seat

Dal and Deaun- Holyrood Park

Fiona- Posing at Holyrood

Sabrina- Holyrood

A view of Edinburgh Castle at Sunset

Portobello Beach

At Portobello

At Portobello

Looking over the George IV Bridge

At the National Museum of Scotland

Pollock Hall

What would you like to see here as we dig in to the city? Have any questions? Recommendations of places to visit?

Made from Scratch: Brownies

Our flat here in Scotland came furnished. Much more furnished that we were planning on it being. It ended up being a huge blessing because so many things that we would want or need from day to day came with the flat and therefore didn't have to be purchased by us. (Beds, dressers, tables and chairs, curtains, new pillows and bedding, desks, pots/pans, and dishes, etc.)

However, two things that didn't come with the flat were baking dishes and food. Can you believe that? They wouldn't stock our flat with food?! The nerve.... Haha, just kidding.

Anyway, the point of all of this being that Dal and I started absolutely from zero when we moved here. No food, no spices, no herbs, etc. So we've slowly over the past few weeks been building back up or staples here. We usually don't realize we need something until we want to make something and we don't have the things we need make that particular item. Do you know what you can bake without baking soda? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Apparently it's in like every recipe in the world. Go figure.

So as we need something, we put it on the Tesco order (We order our groceries online. BEST thing ever. Period.) and it comes a few days later when we want it delivered. I'm not a big baker in general, I cook a lot, but don't bake much. But guess how much I've been wanting to bake something since I don't have the things to do it? TONS.

Well, we finally built up enough of a pantry stock and have one (singular) baking dish (a gorgeous terracotta square pan) that I felt like I could look up something to make with the girls. They've been begging for chocolate cupcakes. (Guess who doesn't have a muffin tin yet? I bet you can't...) So Friday morning, I looked up a recipe for brownies and had all of the stuff to make them (Shout Hallelujah!), and just for kicks I looked to see if you could make frosting for them even if you didn't have powdered sugar. You totally can. Mind blown. I was skeptical about this frosting, but I shouldn't have been. It was so soft and creamy and since it doesn't have white sugar in it, it's totally healthy right? Right.
They were DELICIOUS. I don't know if were just delicious because we hadn't had dessert in weeks or if they were really that good. Just kidding. I know. They were totally that good. Dal hid them from the girls so we could eat them by ourselves ;)

This recipe is for a nice dense brownie, and it works really well with the light creamy frosting. So here you go.

BEST BROWNIES
(source)

1/2 cup butter (margarine will work)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt (unless you are using salted butter)
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
Melt butter in microwave proof mixing bowl. Mix in all re
maining ingredients and spread batter in pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes and remove when when fork comes out clean.
Cool and then top with frosting (see recipe below).

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
(source)

1 stick room temperature butter
1/3 cup honey (I used whipped)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and whisk on high until creamy and fluffy. Or if you just have a hand wisk, until your arms hurt. Haha. This will make enough frosting to frost your brownies and use the leftovers for some graham cracker/frosting sandwiches. Yum!

Deep Conversations- Vol. Dos

Well, let's be real here. Three year old don't really have deep conversations very often. But they certainly do have interesting ones...

Sabrina: Mom, I love you.
Becki: I love you too.
Fiona: Mom, I love you.
Becki: And I love you. Why don't you tell your dad now, too?
Sabrina: Daddy, I LOVE mommy!

Fiona (standing in her underwear by the toilet)
Dallin: What are you doing Fiona?
Fiona: Dad! There was a bug in the toilet! But I had to go bathroom! So I flushed it. And I wasn't scared. But I WASN'T calm either...

Becki: Can I nibble your tummy a tiny bit?
Fiona: Humans don't eat tummies, they only walk and sit down.

Dallin goes into the bedroom to tell the girls its time to go to sleep and stop talking.
Sabrina: Dad?
Dallin: Yeah?
Sabrina: I can make big bubbles with my mouth and I want to sleep on the bottom of my bed.
Dallin: Go to sleep.

Fiona: I can't talk!
Sabrina: But I can hear you. Maybe you're an elf. Elfs don't talk...

Fiona: Pooping makes my bum strong!

Sabrina sneezes near Deaun.
Fiona: Don't "Bless You" on her!

Sabrina: If you're stuck in a hole, say, "Mom, Dad, I'm stuck in a hole!"

Me: Fiona, please don't hit me with the frisbee.
Fiona: GRRRRR! I just want to talk about this. I'm MAD!
Me: Okay, let's talk. But it's still not okay to hit.
Fiona: Mom! You're just being crazy! And I'm being silly!
(Yes, you are.)

At Capitol Reef, looking at the red cliffs.
Sabrina: We have to take care of the country because it's so beautiful, so no painting on it. Okay?

Sabrina: (Playing make believe, after watching frozen) Father? Father? Oh no! He's dead!
Fiona: No wait! He's alive! Yay! Oh no! He's gone again cuz he's dead again.
Sabrina: (Pretend sobs)

Dallin: Fiona, you need to eat your lunch.
Fiona: (Puts her hands behind her head) I just can't! I don't have hands!

Oh, and for good measure, I'll include my other child. She doesn't like to be upstaged.

Deaun: Baba baba (Bottle)

Deaun: Daw daw daw (Dog)

Deaun: Dada, Dada (Dad, Mom)

Deaun: Mama mama (This is nonsense. It's just the word she uses when she's jabbering away.)



For Vol. Uno, click HERE.

Church

So yesterday was our first Sunday in Edinburgh. It didn't go as well as I had hoped.
We have church at 10:30 in the morning which doesn't allow for Deaun to take a nap before (like she always has been able to in the past), but we figured she would probably sleep on the way to church in her stroller. Church is a walk, then a bus ride, and another walk away. Maybe 3/4 of a mile of walking one way. I picked out a normal outfit for church, which unfortunately for me included heels. Heels that I have always claimed to be "really comfortable!" Ha. Not so comfortable after walking 3/4 of a mile to church. The girls were so excited to wear their new tights to church, which we then ended up adjusting  approximately 75 times because they kept slipping down and pulling their underwear with it. We didn't bring a blanket to cover Deaun with, so she couldn't sleep, so I limped around the halls with Deaun for a lot of the meeting because she was too tired to hold still, but not comfortable enough to fall asleep. I couldn't understand what some of the church members said. And while church in Edinburgh was pretty much the same as church in Utah, it was just different enough for me to feel off kilter. After church, we missed the bus back home by about a minute, so we had to wait 30 more minutes for the bus to come again. We were all tired and hungry and my feet hurt too much to want to walk the 3/4 mile back home.
I was in tears and frustrated and angry by the time we got home, feeling that if this was how hard church was going to be every week, then I wasn't even sure I wanted to go anymore. I took a nap for a little while since I was too frustrated to really do anything else.
But when I woke up I felt much better, and the more I thought about it yesterday evening and today, the better I felt about all that had happened that day. Let me try to explain.

Church attendance is very important to Dallin and I, especially since we are now in a new country where we aren't surrounded by members of the LDS church like we have been in the past. Church is a chance for us to meet with people who believe what we believe, to take the sacrament. It's a break from the world, a recharge for the coming week. So of course, we would experience opposition in trying to do something important for the first time in a new place. Of course Satan would try to make the day as negative as possible for us! Negative experiences, negative attitudes, the whole lot. I'm sure his objective was to make it so difficult to get there and back that we wouldn't even try to go the next week.

But once I realized this, I realized how important it really is for us to GO every week. No matter where we are. No matter what country. It is important to get to church, to meet with friends, to take the sacrament, to start over for the week. So now that I know what Satan was trying to do, how he was trying to break our resolve, I am determined that next week will go better.
I will wear flat shoes.
We will leave earlier so we don't have to run for the first bus.
I will bring blankets and possibly a stuffed animal (for Deaun, not me) to snuggle with.
We will bring snacks and lunch to eat after church.
We will take the later bus back from church on purpose- there's just no way that first bus is going to happen.
We won't wear tights that pull down our underpants!
We will be prepared. And we're going to go. And it's going to be great.



P.S. The twins loved primary! LOVED it! There are two other Sunbeams in their class, and the two of them have doubled the Jr. Primary. They had tons of attention and made new friends without being overwhelmed by all the new kids. It was perfect for them.

P.P.S. To learn more about what we believe, please visit mormon.org or click the "I Believe" button to your left to see some of my personal beliefs.

throwback thursday- a love story part dos

Well, he moved to Salt Lake, and we didn't stay in touch much. I've never been good at that.  He would text me every once in a while, but usually Katy or Kati got the same text (I assumed), so I didn't put much stock in it.  Around the end of October, Dal took a trip to New York with his family.  He texted me while he was there and said that he wished that I was there with him, but I figured he'd sent that text to everyone (he didn’t), so I sent back some lame response. 

I didn't think much about it until the next week, when we were talking online and he said that he thought we should date and give each other a chance at something more. Thanks to Google chat’s archives, I know that the exact words he used were this: “Um, I was thinking we could get together for real because I think it would work out with us.”  I remember being pretty floored that he wanted to date me, but I was at work and he was at class so I told him to give me a bit of time to think about it and I’d call him later that night.

So we talked about it a little more once the shock that this SUPER CUTE guy wanted to date me! wore off and we decided to go out that Friday, November 14th.  I think we talked a few times before then. I surprisingly wasn't super nervous about the date because I already knew him so well, but I did stress out about what I would wear.  I ended up wearing a flannel plaid puffy vest (Hahaha, and I promise, it was way more stylish than its sounds!) and Dal wore a black short-sleeved button down shirt. We went to Ottavio’s for dinner, an Italian restaurant on Center Street in Provo (which has since closed down) and then we went and saw Quantum of Solace, and then we went back to my apartment and just talked. It was really nice to not be nervous and to just be comfortable.

Dal had made it pretty clear that he was interested in dating, and since I had had a good time, I called him up the next day (Saturday) after work to see if I could come up and see him and said that would be great. So I drove up to Salt Lake to his house. His mom was gone, but his dad and Kira were there. His dad had on these tomato print pajama pants, and Kira was eating colored marshmallows. The four of us watched Hot Rod together and laughed our heads off.

And then the rest is history! From the very beginning he was very clear that he wanted to date exclusively and I always appreciated how upfront he was about things. I never had to guess how he felt. There were no games involved.

On our next date, he kissed me for the first time at Mill Hollow Park (which is where he ended up proposing to me, incidentally), and after that, we hung out as much as we could. On the day after Thanksgiving that year, I went on a hike with him, his mom, and his dad. It was great to get to know his parents more that day.

 

from our Thanksgiving hike

Dallin lived in Cottonwood Heights and going to school in downtown Salt Lake, and I was  in school, working, and living in Provo, so we only saw each other 2 or 3 times a week. But we talked on the phone and texted a lot and things progressed pretty quickly. In early December when we went to see the lights at Temple Square, he told me he loved me for the first time. When we went to see Bryan Stokes Mitchell perform at the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas Concert, we talked about getting married. January 2nd, when Steve and Alana got married, we decided on a date and Dallin called the temple the next day. He officially proposed with a ring on February 21st.
On May 1st, we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. 

Marrying Dallin Floyd Barker was, hands down, the best decision I ever made. I love him so much and I am grateful for him every day.

i love him

throwback thursday- a love story part uno

I thought it would be fun to share the story of how Dallin and I met, fell in love, and got married. Dear readers, get your tissues ready. You are sure to cry at this story of everlasting love. (Don't roll your eyes at me, I can see you from here.)

Pictures from our dating days

The first time I saw Dal was in June 2008-  He doesn't remember seeing me at all, but I remember him.  Probably because he was the one new guy and I was one of several new faces to him.  Me and a bunch of friends were having a dance party in one of our apartments. Most of the lights were out and the music was loud. One of our guy friends came over with a new guy in tow.  He was cute.   

The first time we talked-  This was probably a few nights later.  I went over to his apartment.  His roommate, Dustin was famous for his smoothies, and he was making them that night. So I went over and the new guy was there, talking to Ash.  I had her introduce me and there was a little small talk.  Dustin brought me a smoothie and I drank that as we all talked.  Don't worry, at some point, a big chunk of smoothie came out of my glass a little too fast and landed all over my face and shirt!  Everyone laughed, and I ran for a towel to clean myself off.  I was, of course, super embarrassed! Our conversation didn't progress much that night, obviously, but I was intrigued and desperate to have a real conversation with him.

The first time we laughed and had a real conversation- I was over at his apartment again, probably a few days after that, probably drinking smoothies again.  There were two couches scooted right up against each other, facing each other, and I was sitting on one side facing him.  This time we talked and laughed and had a real conversation.  Dal said something about how we should hang out again. 

The next few parts of our story- The 4th of July was coming up in a few days, and I was planning on having some friends over to my parent’s house so I invited him to come with. We all drove a few cars over, and we ate, played volleyball and then Dal left. As it turns out, he had a girlfriend and went to hang out with her. I still thought he was cute, of course, didn’t want to get in the way of anything.

But over the course of the summer, we became good friends. We did a lot of things in a group setting and spent a lot of time just laughing and hanging out with friends. I found out from a friend that Dal wanted to break up with his girlfriend, but figured he still wasn’t interested in me.

One night for FHE, he invited me to go with his group up to Sundance, to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. We laughed the whole time. On our way down the mountain, Dal took his blanket and put it around both of our shoulders and just kept his arm around me.  I fit perfectly under his arm, and he kept me nice and warm. 

In August, we went for a scooter ride, you can read more about it HERE. (It's pretty hilarious if I do say so myself.)

One day, at the end of summer, I had taken the day off of work so that I could get ready for school.  My plan that day was to clean my room out really well, buy all of my books for my classes and get the notebooks and things I needed. I had a few other errands to run also. Well, midway through the morning, Dal gives me a call and says that he is in Provo for the day and wants to know if he can stop by.  Of course, I say yes, and he comes over a few minutes later.  Dal hadn't been able to find a contract to stay in the ward for Fall Semester, so he had moved home, back up to Salt Lake to take classes at the Salt Lake Center.  He'd come to Provo to get his scooter and help someone move. 

When he got there, he told me that he'd finally broken up with his girlfriend and that he felt great about it.  We proceeded to hang out all day.  We went to J-Dawgs for some polish dogs, we played guitar hero, we watched a movie, we talked for hours, and I think we even fell asleep on the couch at one point.  He left around 4:00 pm or so to go back to Salt Lake. 

I remember that being one of the best days I ever had.  I was convinced that we would never be more than friends, but I loved how he made me feel. When I said my prayers that night, I prayed that I would be able to find someone like him one day. I wanted to find someone who made me laugh like he did, and someone that I could talk to for hours, just like I could with him. 

To be continued...

being in a different country

being in a different country than your spouse is not all sunshine and daisies. (i know, you're shocked.) and luckily for Dallin and I, this separation is only temporary. i totally feel for those couples who have to do this regularly, whether it be for military service or jobs, or what not. it is not easy.

google hangout-ing

here are some of the things that are hard for me:

- there is a 7 hour time difference between salt lake city and edinburgh, scotland. that means that the only overlapping hours that we are both awake (unless someone wants to stay up really late- hint: not me) is from 7 am-3 pm for me (or about 2 pm-10 pm for him)

- when you are used to sleeping next to someone every night, it's hard to sleep when they aren't there!

- the girls and i just miss him terribly. when we talked to Dal on the computer today, deaun just clapped her hands and said his name over and over and over again because she was so excited to see him, but then she got sad because she couldn't walk over to him and grab his face.

- i'm lacking in the motivation department. it's hard to get through my list of things to do when he's not here to remind me or help me get them done.

- we have been so spoiled this last month, because Dal wasn't working anymore, so we got a whole month to just hang out together all the time, and now that he's gone i'm having serious withdrawals! i just miss hanging out with him!

talking with Daddy and eating

here's what he said about what is hard for him:

not having you around. not being able to call whenever i want to make sure you're okay. also i miss not having you here to share these experiences with. you help me out a lot. more than just helping me get things done, but also help me emotionally.

luckily for us, this is a pretty temporary situation. the girls and i fly out to meet him in 5 days, and i have a lot i need to get done before then. and since we are living with my parents, we still have them around to help out with cooking and watching the girls.

however, that said, i can't wait til these 5 days are up so that i can see him again!