The Impressive Love of My Valentine

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

    Valentine's Day was great. My Valentine was chosen months ago for the first time ever, and she knew it. I didn't have to ask. Will you be my Valentine? I was planning to go to Oregon to visit Jessica, but we decided that it was a waste of money to fly there for only slightly over one day. I don't like the idea of flying on Sunday either. The pilots and flight attendants should rest on the Sabbath. Jessica is so loving, and it was expressed wonderfully by her, creating a Valentine. She started working on it about a week and a half before the special day, and she worked on it so diligently even until the very last minute. She probably worked on it for more than forty hours. She called it her project. That effort makes my Valentine's Day glorious because of her pure display of love; although, it will arrive next week. My package was a gift. At first I only purchased a present from Etsy called a 'smitten', we need one of these badly in the fall semester because we have a habit of holding hands wherever we walk even though our hands are freezing. Smittens have a mitten fit for two hands. I also heard that Fifa started drooping on Valentine's Day morning. My heart sunk when Jessica said that she had something bad to tell me, but it was the flower, dying. Flowers are replaceable, so I had an Antonium send to her. She was surprised how I could have flowers delivered in the same day. I just called a local florist, having them deliver it. It's too bad that Fifa is going to die from a disease that we had control over. The pot that she was planted in astonished me, for it was glued to a plate, and only a few pin holes were given for ventilation of water and air. I told her that the ventilation might not be enough, but I let her learn for herself because Jessica was confident that it was fine. We Skyped late last night because her family went out to dinner, and she waited to open her gift to do so in front of me. I ran out of service for making a WiFi hot-spot with my phone last month, so this is the first time in a few weeks that we Skyped.

My More Practical Dating Commitment

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

Jessica and I made some steps to be more practical, deciding to unite our finances and language. The practice of finances is personal, but this knowledge should be applied early in a courtship to have greater unity and respect to each other. We decided to make Spanish our main language to speak to each other. Both of my brothers will most likely have Spanish speaking families, so I should be right with everyone and the language. I am grateful that Jessica is patient with our preparation.

My Contribution to Building the Provo City Center Temple

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

     The work in the small shop of Delta Stone Products is hard, but it is more chill than the previous station that I worked at. I like the small shop because it is where custom pieces are prepared for the customer. Since I sat in the Provo City Center Temple seminar a couple weeks ago, I thought that it was complete, but I was wrong with to assume that. Aaron Hicken said that they will be producing product for the temple until the fall comes. I was able to sand pieces of the stone which is going to be placed in the construction of the temple. I identified where the stone for the temple is placed, and I looked at them, thinking that God must have prepared the stone and the company to provide it for his house. One artisan was having a hard time sanding a product for the temple because there was not enough water on the stone, so I took the hose and followed his lead. He greatly appreciated my help.

Science Fictional Book Reviews: Stranger in a Strange Land; Robbie, the first short story of the Foundation Series, and The Book of Jer3miah: Premonition

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

The Stranger in a Strange Land book became a disappointment quickly. Why would a Martian ever create a nudist church? Jessica and I decided to read the Foundation series upon the advice of Jessica's father. We are starting from the very beginning of Isaac Asimov's compositions. Robbie is one of the cutest stories ever imagined. Jessica and I are still reading the Book of Jer3miah: Premonition, and the ninth chapter finally moves on with the development of the story; however, it feels like it is coming from all angles too quickly.

How I Cooked Thai Curry with my Mother's Advice

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

   On Wednesday, I cooked curry for the first time. I think that curry is intimidating to make because the paste looks toxic. I have been cooking for my grandparents for the past couple Wednesdays. Since they have a can of curry paste, I decided to cook curry. My mother probably gave it to my grandparents about ten years ago because it was expired almost for eight years, but it looked and smelt fine. I asked my father about it, and he said that if it was not bulging that it should be fine.

The can had a simple recipe on it, which made shopping easy. It just called for two cups of coconut milk, 300 grams of potatoes and onion, and 600 grams of chicken. I chose to purchase some red potatoes and purple onions because the curry seemed to have yellow color, and purple and yellow are opposite colors, which will make it look nice. The directions to cook it were just to boil until the chicken was cooked. I called my mother as I walked to the store, but she was not available. She called me as I cooked through, which was good, because she gave me some tips on making it taste good. She said to put about 5/6th of a cup or half of the can of the coconut milk instead of half a cup, the recipe recommendation. The broth is too thick otherwise in my mother's highly respected opinion. I just put everything in the pot, letting it boil. Tasting the broth, I thought that it was a little bland, so I added a little sugar and salt until the broth's taste became what I desired. This was according to my mother's advisement to. It turned out well. The only thing that I forgot to double check was the potatoes, but they were fine. One thing that made me happy when I cooked for grandma and grandpa is that grandma said that she should invite her friends over for a nice dinner, so I can cook for them.

 

Growing an Amaryllis with Jessica

 This article is a segment of the journal blog of Alexander Hicken from http://mormonysa.blogspot.com/2015/02/february-8-2015.html. 

 Jessica's amaryllis is finally blooming. I bought it for her for Christmas. My grandmother's amaryllis bloomed with four flowers one at a time seemingly over the time period of a week a couple weeks ago. I got a picture of each blossom. I named our amaryllis Fifa because it is Thai for the plant, yet it means light bulb. I don't really understand the word. Here is the growth of the flowers in pictures.

Fifa has gotten a disease, having red spots on it, because her soil was too moist, and I think that there is not enough ventilation of water and air. I believe that Fifa is growing slowly because she doesn't get natural sunlight. She depends on man made light from electricity.

February 8, 2015

Not that much happened this week. At work I was sent to work in the small shop of Delta Stone Products. This location is impressive. I got to witness the custom pieces of the Provo City Center Temple be cut and sanded. The Stranger in a Strange Land book became a disappointment quickly. Why would a Martian ever create a nudist church? Jessica and I decided to read the Foundation series upon the advice of Jessica's father. We are starting from the very beginning of Isaac Asimov's compositions. Robbie is one of the cutest stories ever imagined. Jessica and I are still reading the Book of Jer3miah: Premonition, and the ninth chapter finally moves on with the development of the story; however, it feels like it is coming from all angles too quickly. Jessica and I are developing a higher level of commitment and practicality to each other. Eve and Ezra are still as great as ever. We went to a dinner hosted by the Boy Scouts of America. This past week I have a curry dinner and my Valentine's Day to write about.
     The work in the small shop is hard, but it is more chill than the previous station that I worked at. I like the small shop because it is where custom pieces are prepared for the customer. Since I sat in the Provo City Center Temple seminar a couple weeks ago, I thought that it was complete, but I was wrong with to assume that. Aaron Hicken said that they will be producing product for the temple until the fall comes. I was able to sand pieces of the stone which is going to be placed in the construction of the temple. I identified where the stone for the temple is placed, and I looked at them, thinking that God must have prepared the stone and the company to provide it for his house. One artisan was having a hard time sanding a product for the temple because there was not enough water on the stone, so I took the hose and followed his lead. He greatly appreciated my help.
     Jessica and I made some steps to be more practical, deciding to unite our finances and language. The practice of finances is personal, but this knowledge should be applied early in a courtship to have greater unity and respect to each other. We decided to make Spanish our main language to speak to each other. Both of my brothers will most likely have Spanish speaking families, so I should be right with everyone and the language. I am grateful that Jessica is patient with our preparation.
     A Boy Scouts of America fund raising spaghetti dinner was Saturday night, and I was exhausted. Eve wanted to play, but I wasn't feeling it. I felt bad. Parents consecrate their lives to blessing their children's lives; therefore, I should not let feeling exhausted effect my playtime. At dinner, Eve was very sloppy, so I thought her some dining skills. I told her to try to not get sauce all over her face, and she was receptive. She took it to an extreme though, going to great lengths to not get a drop of sauce on her face. It did not look natural. I told her that she needs to do it gracefully. She asked what that means, and I said that it means to make it look natural. She thanked me for my advice.
     On Sunday, I met a cool sister at choir practice. Her name is Beth Ward. I hung out with her during Sunday School and the linger longer. At the linger longer two people that sat with us coincidentally worked with me at Delta Stone Products. It was nice to be led to make new good friends. I am trying to find good friends that I can hang out with, but it's not coming easy.

 Jessica's amaryllis is finally blooming. I bought it for her for Christmas. My grandmother's amaryllis bloomed with four flowers one at a time seemingly over the time period of a week a couple weeks ago. I got a picture of each blossom. I named our amaryllis Fifa because it is Thai for the plant, yet it means light bulb. I don't really understand the word. Here is the growth of the flowers in pictures.

Fifa has gotten a disease, having red spots on it, because her soil was too moist, and I think that there is not enough ventilation of water and air. I believe that Fifa is growing slowly because she doesn't get natural sunlight. She depends on man made light from electricity.

     On Wednesday, I cooked curry for the first time. I think that curry is intimidating to make because the paste looks toxic. I have been cooking for my grandparents for the past couple Wednesdays. Since they have a can of curry paste, I decided to cook curry. My mother probably gave it to my grandparents about ten years ago because it was expired almost for eight years, but it looked and smelt fine. I asked my father about it, and he said that if it was not bulging that it should be fine.

The can had a simple recipe on it, which made shopping easy. It just called for two cups of coconut milk, 300 grams of potatoes and onion, and 600 grams of chicken. I chose to purchase some red potatoes and purple onions because the curry seemed to have yellow color, and purple and yellow are opposite colors, which will make it look nice. The directions to cook it were just to boil until the chicken was cooked. I called my mother as I walked to the store, but she was not available. She called me as I cooked through, which was good, because she gave me some tips on making it taste good. She said to put about 5/6th of a cup or half of the can of the coconut milk instead of half a cup, the recipe recommendation. The broth is too thick otherwise in my mother's highly respected opinion. I just put everything in the pot, letting it boil. Tasting the broth, I thought that it was a little bland, so I added a little sugar and salt until the broth's taste became what I desired. This was according to my mother's advisement to. It turned out well. The only thing that I forgot to double check was the potatoes, but they were fine. One thing that made me happy when I cooked for grandma and grandpa is that grandma said that she should invite her friends over for a nice dinner, so I can cook for them.

 

     Valentine's Day was great. My Valentine was chosen months ago for the first time ever, and she knew it. I didn't have to ask. Will you be my Valentine? I was planning to go to Oregon to visit Jessica, but we decided that it was a waste of money to fly there for only slightly over one day. I don't like the idea of flying on Sunday either. The pilots and flight attendants should rest on the Sabbath. Jessica is so loving, and it was expressed wonderfully by her, creating a Valentine. She started working on it about a week and a half before the special day, and she worked on it so diligently even until the very last minute. She probably worked on it for more than forty hours. She called it her project. That effort makes my Valentine's Day glorious because of her pure display of love; although, it will arrive next week. My package was a gift. At first I only purchased a present from Etsy called a 'smitten', we need one of these badly in the fall semester because we have a habit of holding hands wherever we walk even though our hands are freezing. Smittens have a mitten fit for two hands. I also heard that Fifa started drooping on Valentine's Day morning. My heart sunk when Jessica said that she had something bad to tell me, but it was the flower, dying. Flowers are replaceable, so I had an Antonium send to her. She was surprised how I could have flowers delivered in the same day. I just called a local florist, having them deliver it. It's too bad that Fifa is going to die from a disease that we had control over. The pot that she was planted in astonished me, for it was glued to a plate, and only a few pin holes were given for ventilation of water and air. I told her that the ventilation might not be enough, but I let her learn for herself because Jessica was confident that it was fine. We Skyped late last night because her family went out to dinner, and she waited to open her gift to do so in front of me. I ran out of service for making a WiFi hot-spot with my phone last month, so this is the first time in a few weeks that we Skyped.