Katie Phelps

I told a few people last night that I would post the recipe that I use to make chocolate chip cookies (because it is the BEST recipe) so here it is:

Chocolate Chip Cookies — by Liz Bean (of one of the Highland Stake Wards - hooray for ward cook books)

makes A LOT of cookies

2 & 2/3 c. shortning

2 c. brown sugar

2 c. white sugar

6 eggs

4 tsp. vanilla

7 c. flour

4 tsp. soda

2 tsp. salt

12 oz. pkg of chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together and drop spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min. (in my oven, I have a quick bake setting that makes it kind of like a convection oven, (with the fan inside blowing around the hot air) if I don’t use that setting, the cookies sometimes turn out flat, but using that setting cooking them for 9 min. makes them perfect.)

Good luck and enjoy the cookies!

This evening I was planning on writing a post about my trip to Chicago that I took earlier this week. I got out my computer and turned it on and was reading my google reader before writing my blog and just as I was getting ready to come here and write my blog, Bryan was flipping through channels and just as we reached channel 5, (KSL) they cut from the program for breaking news. Having journalism in my background, I was curious what their news was and I looked up. As the news announcer began into the news I read the headline at the bottom of my screen and instantly my jaw dropped and an audible gasp left my mouth, “President Gordon B. Hinckley dies at 97.”

As I listened to the rest of the news about the circumstances of President Hinckley’s death so many emotions went through my mind. I was shocked, confused, sad, and finally, peace. Tears filled my eyes as I thought about the many things I have learned from our loving prophet and the Spirit and peace I felt as he spoke.

President Hinckley was ordained and set apart as the prophet in 1995 when I was in the 5th grade and is the prophet I remember the most. I am so thankful for the wonderful example he set for me through my teenage years. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to live in a place where I could hear the voice of this wonderful man so often and even had the opportunity to attend conference and be so near to him and his Spirit. I have been blessed to hear his words from the pulpit at BYU-Idaho and read his council in the Ensign each month. I know that President Hinckley was a true living prophet of the Lord. He was called of God and was here to carry out the Lord’s plan for us.

This evening as I think about what will come next for The Church, I find peace in knowing that the keys that President Hinckley held are not lost. I know that the Lord has set in place a perfect system that will bring forth the new President of the Church from the 14 men that lead our Church. (Also, a thanks to my “Teachings of the Latter-day Prophets” class at BYU-I for explaining the process and what happens.) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God and the Lord will continue to lead and guide it on this earth.

I will never forget the things I have learned from President Hinckley and never forget his Spirit.

Check out my new page: games.

Here I am compiling some fun short games I’ve  found and love.  So if you have a few spare minutes and need something to do. Look there.

Enjoy!

I changed the name of my blog. I have thought about it for a while and decided today on my way home from work that it was time.

Peace, Love and Rock ‘n Roll –Here’s the thought behind it:

Almost every night, when I leave work I say to my friends, “Peace out, YO!” Tonight while I was walking down the stairs after saying it, I began to wonder why I said that. My mind wandered to peace and what peace can bring to our lives and how having peace in our lives makes us happier and better people.

After that thought crossed through my mind, I thought to myself, “You could be a hippie.” (yes, the inner monologue happened and is fun)

So I began saying, “Peace, Love and Rock ‘n Roll — Man” and laughed to myself. Then I began to think about how I kind of had a bad day at work and was excited to go home and spend a little bit of time with Bryan before he went to school. It’s good to come home to someone who loves you.

Then I got in the car and as another form of relieving stress of a bad day, I turned up the radio! I LOVE MUSIC and I love listening to music. After a long day at work, I especially love to listen to music that is loud, has a great beat and could be classified as rock ‘n roll.

I got onto the freeway and the thought came back to me of “Peace, Love and Rock ‘n Roll” and I began to laugh to myself again. In the three minutes between walking out of the doors at work and getting onto the freeway to go home I found all three of those things in life and having them in my life and thinking about them in my life, instantly made my day better than it had been since 11:30 that morning.

So I hope each of you has Peace, Love and Rock ‘n Roll in your life too!

I am loving the Jazz lately. Bryan got me totally addicted. He almost never misses watching a game on tv and so by default, I watch with him. So, for Christmas I decided to surprise him with tickets to a game. I bought tickets to the Jazz vs. Suns game, last Thursday. After talking with some of the guys at work, they told me it would be completely worth it to spend a little extra money and get tickets in the lower bowl. So I splurged and bought tickets for him — center court, 13 rows up. He agreed to take me with him so Thursday night we set off.

As we set off, we were going to meet Bryan’s dad at Crown Burger for dinner. Bryan said it was one of their family traditions, when they went to Jazz games, they always go to Crown Burger before. I was so excited to be a part of their fun traditions. So we were excited and didn’t want to make Bryan’s dad wait for us too long, so of course, just as we were going to get on I-15, a train was crossing Geneva — and it wasn’t moving at all. We should have turned around, but we waiting and waited. This is Bryan driving and waiting for the train.

Finally, the train passed and we were on our way!

We made it to Salt Lake and parked across from the Energy Solutions Arena and walked up to Crown Burger. It was packed! There were so many Jazz fans there, but way too many Sun’s jerseys. All of them were Steve Nash jerseys, too!

Bryan’s brother, Steve, came with us too.

Then it was off to the game. I was so excited, because I had never been to a Jazz game before — I hadn’t even been inside the Energy Solutions Arena! So everything was new and exciting. For Christmas I also got Bryan a new Jazz shirt so he could wear it to the game. I didn’t have anything to wear so I was feeling not so in the spirit. So once there, we found a Fanzz store and got me a shirt and foam finger!

We got into the arena and walked to our seats and they were so close! While we were watching the game, I was surprised at how different it looked because of how close we were. It was better than watching it on TV at home.

We cheered, yelled, did the wave, jumped up and down and had so much fun. The Jazz bear came right over near us so many times. He was great entertainment to watch.

As the game began, we realized that Steve Nash wasn’t playing and found out later that he had the stomach flu. He’s a great player, so I’m kind of sad he didn’t play, but kind of glad he didn’t play (I think the Suns might have beaten the Jazz had Nash been playing at the top of his game). In the end, WE WON! It was so exciting and so much fun. I think I’ll get tickets again. We had a great time.

(picture is a little blurry. Opps!)

— and the cold just keeps getting colder.

Last night, Bryan and I had quite an adventure. We went to my parents house to play games.  We left around 9:45 p.m. to go home and while driving hear some really strange noises.  We pulled over to investigate out left back tire and only found ice around the wheel.  We removed the ice and continued driving. We then continued driving and heard more strange noises.  We pulled over into a local grocery store parking lot under a light post and got out of the car to investigate more.

We found the problem.

Our left rear tire was completely flat.  So in 16 degree F weather, we pulled out the jack and changed the tire.

We were successful in making sure we wouldn’t defrost for three days, making strange noises with the jack and finally after a really long time in the frosty weather changing the tire.

There were positive messages to be learned, however. 1st: signing up for Triple A isn’t a bad idea. 2nd: there is always a positive side to every situation (ours was that it wasn’t raining, snowing and we found the problem before we got to the freeway) 3rd: I never want to change a tire again.