unfaithful

Guys, right now I am Rihanna, singing out to my blog that I don't want to cheat, but I just can't help it!

The time is coming. Wednesday I go into the MTC. We are so close that I even got an e-mail today with my new address in great detail.

I still love you blog I promise, and I still want to tell the world that I am grateful for an evening of class and refinement where the bush clan will be feasting on sushi and going to the symphony, as soon as I throw on my dress, but I can no longer be exclusive; sorellabush.blogspot.com is real and is part of my life, I hope you understand.

See I have pretty tech savvy parents, especially ye olde XY, so they'll be posting my family e-mails to the previously mentioned blog. Follow it! Follow my adventures! Love me! Write me letters! You wont regret it. I promise to throw in some good italian jokes now and then.

xoxo,
sorella whitney sara bush

indoor plumbing, it's gonna be big

I am grateful for the many modern conveniences that fill by days. A few examples:
-washing machine
-dishwasher
-head lamp
-online banking
-hot water heater
-invisible fence
-blu ray player that streams the internet


(I was hoping for one of Maggie Smith's nice quips about electricity or the telephone, but youtube failed me, and I settled with the swivel chair)

home is where the hearth is

I am grateful for fireplaces all aflame. Especially when you get a sneak snow attack.

Nothing really makes a place feel lived in and friendly and warm and perfect like a fire in the fireplace. Since my days spent in a real home are winding down, it's nice to spend them as homey as they can be.

Also, I just started Wildwood and the sketches in it are fabulous and I'm pretty sure if I were to ever get a tattoo I'm pretty positive it would have to be this:

Just a colander helmeted rabbit with a pitchfork and a pipe smoking fox in overalls. What a cliche.  

shorties

Title refers to the post, not the subjects, for right now I am grateful for Alice and Lauren. Both of whom are actually quite tall.

Oh man, Alice as totally grown since this late July snapshot. 

For those uninformed, Alice is my fluffy puppy. We spend a lot of time together sitting and reading in the front yard or chasing each other around our house. She is hilarious and now quite clean since I bathed her last week. It's just so lovely having an affectionate pup around again. She waggles her butt enthusiastically when you come home and wants to be wherever her people are. I'm really going to miss her something fierce.

Also for the benefit of the uninformed, Lauren is just my bff, nbd. She's been really great at calling me lately and she's always a delight on the phone as we talk about adventures from our roommate days or adventures that will be picked up again in 2013. We still don't talk about how I'm missing her wedding this December, although we have decided a cardboard cutout will need to make an appearance. I'm really going to miss her something fierce.

I could go on in much greater depth, especially in the case of LAT, soon to be LAB, but I promised a shorty and I'm nearing my slumbers.

Here's to loyal and true friends, of any species.

hibernation

Judge me if you truly feel the need, but I am grateful for mindless television. Just finished the first three (and only) episodes of Once Upon a Time.
My brain, as well as every last bit of me, is preparing to be overused in the coming months by lying low. Very low. In the basement.

what a fool

Guys, I have a serious question for you. Why have I ever made frosting that wasn't actually chocolate ganache? I feel my life has had little to no meaning up until this birthday cake. (Happy Birthday Momma B.)

Also, who wants to buy me this? 2 day shipping should do I would say, if you act promptly. I just finished season one on Netflix and I need closure! Seriously. I may have to settle with finishing Firefly and count that as good. But I don't want to! I'm a child!

In other news it was a good Sunday. It was nearly derailed by a splitting headache, but the good news is, we live in the 21st century. Hip hip for modern medicine!

I'm grateful for Excedrin.
I'm grateful for British television.
I'm grateful for letters in the post. (here's looking at you RG, BK, RG, CAL/SS and ER featured in my mailbox this past week)
I'm grateful for toe nail polish. (I'm currently rocking the mint apple, which if you think about too much, may make you want to vomit)
I'm grateful for Neil Young's album Harvest Moon.
I'm grateful for my Madison peeps. In this moment especially SS, EF and JN.
I'm grateful for my testimony of the gospel.
I'm grateful for those times when you ask someone how they're doing and they don't say "good."
I'm grateful I'm finally going to learn to really speak Italian.

And in conclusion, maybe if we all wish real hard, this guy will be transferred to Milan and become my bff.

pretty much why I'm going to Italy for the next 18 months

Excluding the fact that I'm not a Jamaican man.

federal standard of identity

Right now I am wearing two very opposite shades of gray. I just feel like I should let the world know, and then you can feel like you've made an informed decision on whether you decide to keep reading. (The pants are light gray, and by pants I mean cut off sweats, classy no, and the shirt is dark gray, if that helps.)

Today I took notes on a power point print out for the first time in ages. Jotted down things like why we dye cheeses, why calf stomach is the most popular rennet used in Switzerland, that Parmesan must be aged at least 10 months before it can legally be called and sold as Parmesan, and the name of the amino acid that causes the crystals that form in really good Parmesan. I not only left the Monona Terrace with superior dinner party conversation topics, I also received a book entitled Creating Dairyland, and 8 cheese samples in my belly. Luckily at my cheese maker dinner a few weeks ago I learned the proper way to taste cheese.

This morning momma b and I hit up the last outdoor farmer's market of the year. Let's have a moment of silence. Luckily I only have one Saturday left in this place so my mourning is limited, and I'm distracted by the three kinds of apples we came home with, two from an antique apple orchard. Isn't it amazing those two words aren't paired up more often? They sound great together.

I am grateful for local food. For good food. For food that makes my body happy/healthy.
I am grateful for the people that grow my food. (Including a group of "Gentleman Farmers" as a scrawled piece of card board labeled their booth today.)
I am grateful for broccoli.
I am grateful for my built in book shelf in my room.

I am grateful that my life has always been filed with such excellent people. The cream of the crop, if you will. These ladies were the most recent to hit up out four star accommodations at Chateau Bush. I love them like whoa.

INTERJECTION:
I feel I should paint a picture for you here. Besides the all gray, this moment is comprised of a puppy lying in the middle of my bed, rolling onto her back, and Ian walking by my room to say "good night whit: you are the worst POW ever!!" The mtc is going to be a little boring/take some getting used to after my months at the Chateau.

Similar tangent: Ian and Mom and I can't help but laugh at this ad EVERY time this pops up in the middle of our Bones watching on Hulu.


And with that I'm off to enjoy my extra hour of sleep tonight. Boo yeah sons!

epic birthday squirrel

Who doesn't love Friday? I mean, I know they don't show Sabrina the Teenage Witch anymore, biggest tv mistake, but it's still one of the more popular days I would say. I personally get the joy of babysitting the cutest triplets Friday mornings. I live just houses away from George, Isaac and Noah who are honestly the cutest things I've ever seen. They'll be two in January and they love books, trucks and me. This particular babysitting gig is not for all three of them together. Usually there are two, but because one of them went to a wedding in Utah with their dad, it was just me and Isaac.

We crashed into the bean bag for awhile, played with a few different trucks and an elephant and then found our selves in the rocking chair with a stack of cardboard books. One of our favorites featured a blue truck who had a crew of barn yard friends, including a winking toad. Anyway, another book featured a mirror in the cover which I sneakily used to watch the progression of Isaac's droopy eyes. It wasn't long before I had a sleepy baby in my arms. I was definitely not mad about it. Isaac loves to be held and is a cuddle pro, but being a triplet he doesn't get many chances to sleep in someones lap. I decided to help a brother out, for almost an hour.

It was pretty much the best morning. Then I came home, ate a scone and watched the new Bones. Can I just say I am going to seriously miss that show. I love it.

TRANSITION

I am grateful for Isaac and his brothers and how much joy they get out of everything.
I am grateful for my new dino pencil case.
I'm grateful for flannel.
I'm grateful for prayer.
I'm grateful for pictures and the way the preserve memories.
I'm grateful for bon iver.

Happy Friday err'body.

I've always liked Thursdays

Today is off to a pretty great start. 

I slept in. (Ian and I stayed up too late watching Firefly) I feel asleep last night with a white dog on my bed, but woke up with a black dog. Old black dog has things pretty figured out though and had her head on a pillow. She may be neurotic but she is still pretty cute. Ian and I have a batch of whole wheat lemon cranberry scones in the oven. (Life is pretty great when you have an in with the fresh cranberry biz) Netflix has just shipped the last disc from season two of glee and 127 hours. This book is on it's way to me. (It's been too long since I lost myself in a bit of teen fantasy) And I'm wearing the previously mentioned leggings that I never want to take off my body.

In the world of gratitude, I just have to say, I am grateful for my super awesome new sharpie pens. In a couple weeks you can even write me a letter and I will write you one back with said pens and prove to you just how cool they are.

Also grateful that smitten kitchen seems to have collected any recipe I could ever want and put it on one great website.

Also also grateful for my futon and for all things down, enabling me to sleep like a baby.

puppy baths and first snows

Today's been a lazy rainy fall day.

I am grateful for my health. I had my clean bill of he;ath handed to me in June, giving me the ok to go on a mission, but felt the need to follow up on a mystery this week. But once again, I have been told all shall be well. Being healthy is the best. The nurse was playing 20 questions with me, and when I told her I wasn't on any daily medications, she was shocked and pleased "there aren't very many people like that anymore." Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty great at swallowing pills, I just don't exercise that right daily.

Also grateful I have a few more days to be a bad influence on lil big bro. He's actually trying to pay attention to the institute class we're in right now. He is also wearing real pants.

Also, also grateful for trader joe's pb cups. Yum.

welcome to november (sung to the tune of welcome to miami)

Hey guys and gals. For those of you who have been around whitney's blog world for a year (or maybs even two) you know what November is all about. No I'm not growing a mustache. I just talk the chance to be overly sentimental and talk about either singular or multiple things I am grateful for everyday. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I hate that it kind of gets the shaft (since there are already Christmas decorations and commercials scattered around our daily existence, I don't feel the need to prove that point in any depth.) The thing is that this November is going to be different than any other because the Missionary Training Center will be my life in a mere 15 days. But I'm going to get in what I can in the next two weeks.

Today was a pretty good day, so I'm going to give you a gratitude list. I like lists.

• I'm grateful for Jenn. When I moved home and was all "woe is me! my friends live in utah, I live with my parents, I have no purpose!" Jenn made me feel like I had friends again. And, among other things, we talked about good food and good music. Today we had a Milwaukee adventure that included many good things including art and a pistachio rosewater cupcake. Yes, you read that right. It needs to be recreated asap.
• I'm grateful for ups and usps. For letters and postcards from friends and for patagonia raincoat and leggings that came in the mail today and I never want to take off my body.
• I'm grateful for good books and the ability to read and the love of reading. 
• I'm grateful for wool socks.
• I'm grateful for sonicare toothbrushes.
• I'm grateful for hulu.
• I'm grateful for old school kanye.
• I'm grateful for sufjan's come on and feel the illionoise.
• I'm grateful for homemade sweaters.
• I'm grateful for Wisconsin fall colors and weather.
• I'm grateful for gchat and friends that are far away but still like to talk to me. 
• I'm grateful for art museums and how they always have wood floors, tall ceilings and great colored walls.
• I'm grateful for my dino robot shirt I made last week.

I think that's a good jump start on the month. (But I am still BAFFLED that it is already November. Sheeoot.)

a little boo radley is good for the soul

I'm not one for rereading books. It's not that I don't love to read or that I am often disappointed by the books I read, it's just that there are so many books that I haven't read once that I feel have a right to be looked at first. 


That being said I just reread To Kill A Mockingbird, and I am beyond glad that I did. 


I don't want this to turn into a book report. I just have loved the past few days that I've been sucked into Maycomb, Alabama. I was severely attached to Scout, Jem, Dill, Atticus and Tom and found myself on the edge of crying several times. But I also decided that Scout and I have  remarkably similar brains. (Or maybe this is just an example of how people always try and over identify with characters they love.) But I really don't know how I could/would have lived my life in the south back in then. I felt the same way reading The Help this summer (a book you probably weren't assigned to read in high school so I say to you now, go and read!) 


Towards the end of the book Scout talks about how confused she is that her teacher can hate Hitler so much for what he is doing to the Jews, yet she heard that same teacher upon leaving the trial of Tom Robinson that it was time the blacks were put back in their place and Scout asks Jem "how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly to folks right at home?" and I wonder that still. How, or maybe why, do we find reasons to separate ourselves from each other? To decide who is deserving of good? At Stake Conference Saturday night someone said that we can never know or understand someone's complete situation, so giving people the benefit of the doubt is a kindness we can and should do for everyone. Assuming we are trying to do our best, why can't the same be said for those around us.


This reminds me of when Charles Dickens explains that Christmas is the time of the year when "men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-travelers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." And I think I would say that we were fellow travelers to life. 


I think that sometimes we get to know people just enough that we suddenly feel we have enough information to judge them, to decide if they're being wise or foolish and to see all the places they could improve. I know I can be guilty of that. But in the spirit of Halloween, I think we should get over ourselves, lest people like the Ewells try and accuse good people like Tom and no one but Atticus and a handful of kids are willing to look past convention and see truth and justice as they should be. 


Now stepping off my (maybe slightly incoherent) soap box.


Go eat some candy corn.

happy day before the great pumpkin comes

17 daze

I think about things to blog every day.

I could write about how perfect fall is as a season, siting a combination of the way it looks, smells and feels and the food you eat. (cue pumpkin bars with maple cream cheese frosting, or chicken corn chowder with butternut squash)

I could write about the old man that has been sitting on midvale blv a block from my grandparents old house in his wheelchair for years just watching cars drive by. (Yesterday he was sporting a hunter safety orange winter cap with ear flaps and only in recent years has he made the jump from lawn chair to wheelchair)

I could write about how I keep forgetting halloween is happening because for me, it sort of isn't and I cope by dancing in my kitchen by myself to glee's mash up of head's will roll and thriller.

I could write about my 7000th trip to milwaukee this tuesday to get my visa squared away and how I got to see my two long lost cousins and their children (both born and in utero) and then went to the most beautiful old house on the lake and talked to the classiest middle ages italian woman and drooled over the old windows and violins on her walls.

I could write about the shirt I screen printed myself that was supposed to be a dino but the head didn't show so I added a robot head from another screen, thus creating my new motto: when life gives you a headless dino, make it a robot head, or something like that.

I could write about my dear friends that drove across the country to see me. (insert cute pics of us at an apple orchard or short anecdote about how much curry we ate in those short hours)

But instead I go to movies with little bro and get shots in my arms and talk my dog on walks and call old friends and make the previously mentioned pumpkin bars and reread to kill a mocking bird and start packing my suitcases for ye olde mission.

I've got a lot to fit in the next 17 days.

slowpig!

old news: I love food, I love good food, I love local food, I love slow food.
news flash: I love slow pig, mostly because of this graphic (not the 100 bucks entrance fee)

too cute!
also, yesterday I was a lucky winner (who? me?) and got two free tix to see seth meyers stand up comedy. omg. too funny. later I will be on a quest to find the funniest punch in the face story ever on youtube so you can all also laugh so hard you literally cry and can't breathe.

rubbing elbows with some cheese masters

The Dining Room 

at

209 Main

Wisconsin Cheese Originals

October 13th, 2011

Raw cheeses with herbed crackers:

Edelweiss Town Hall Creamery Grass Fed Goudas

(two varieties)

&

Emmi Roth USA Grand Cru Gruyere Reserve

&

Chalet Cheese Co-op aged Brick

~~~

First course featuring 

Edelweiss Town Hall Creamery Grass Fed Gouda

Gouda, crab & potato croquette

over mixed greens with prosciutto

and a creamy truffle dressing

~~~

Second course featuring 

Emmi Roth USA Grand Cru Gruyere Reserve

Grilled swordfish

with Gruyere risotto, olive & caper relish

and smoked tomato vinaigrette

~~~

Third course featuring Chalet Cheese Co-op aged Brick

Poached pear crepes

with a savory Brick cheese rosemary sauce

with toasted walnuts

Last night Papa Bush and I dawned some semi formal attire and headed out on a 45 minute country drive to the small town of Monticello, population 1,133, to attend our first official Wisconsin Cheese Originals member event. We settled into this incredible restaurant and joined about 40 other people that basically just really love cheese. (To be more specific, who enjoy really good artisan world champion cheese. Included in the mix were the families of three of the master cheesemakers of the county we were in. Wisconsin is the only state that offers the title of Master Cheesemaker. Despite it being a rather rigorous process, Wisconsin is not lacking in the masters. Maybe someday I'll be a padawan. Plus I sat next to an adorable retired math professor who is an Italian Opera lover. 

All in all, it was a successful daddy daughter date. 

living on the edge of besties without a cause

(What would we do without cell phones??)

illusions

A friend gave me a book for my birthday.

A quick/good read, and at this instant, the most sitcky line to me is this:

In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.

followed by:

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments of lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.


Happy Wednesday.

I spend a lot of time with myself

which you know, is pretty ok. It only gets lonely when I'm in the mood for a larger party.

It's kind of funny/egotistical that the human race decided to start blogging and share everything that we think with everyone that has a connection to the internet. Why do I/we assume that people want to know all those things I think about when I spend my days puttering along with limited human contact. I guess I like to assume/hope that the things I think to myself are any of the following:
-original or insightful
-funny in a sort of dumb way
-funny in an incredibly witty way
-similar to things someone else has been mulling over in their head
-something someone hasn't mulled over at all but all of a sudden feels inspired to
-pretty (and not in a vapid new nail polish color sort of way (which you know, sometimes has its place, I mean ski teal we drop? that's a funny color name!) but rather in a the way maple leaves often go from a green reminiscent of spring to dried out daisy yellow to inside of a squash yellow to a baby tiger of orange and sometimes even on to a baked apple red)

or maybe I just love talking about myself kind of how I like talking into microphones.

in other news, less than 6 weeks til the missionary training center in provo is my home.
alice is doing so well and while I don't mind playing nurse and changing her bandages, I do mind being the one to walk her around the yard and introduce her to the invisible fence.
smitten kitchen has done me right several times in the last few weeks, even though tonight I'll be branching out.
I have a new running partner and it's the virtual coach on my treadmill at the gym.
I got to have ice cream with these super cute kids yesterday and was promised drawings when I'm in italy. And if I'm lucky maybe some rhyming stories or classic knock knock jokes where timing is key and sometimes forgotten.

I'm starting to make mental lists of things to do before I leave. Mostly it involves things I want to cook before I leave and the books that I don't want to wait 18 months to read.

Which reminds me of another jumble of thoughts. As I was nesting into my freshly laundered and assembled bed the other night, with my hair tied up on top of my head and my glasses slipping down my nose and I grabbed the top book off the pile on the right side of my bed, which I was going to finally finished if it killed me, and I couldn't help but think about the times junior year where I would read Baking with Julia Child in bed, or this summer as I started to browse books on both the tasting and the making of cheeses. In conversations I've had with other XX's I hear it's not weird to think about the XY you will someday tie the knot with (I hope not because sometimes I even talk to me dad about the kinds of pie I want at my farm wedding reception..anyway...) and I found myself thinking about the kind of guy (hopefully with a beard) that will find it endearing as I read up on liquid vs tablet rennet in cheese making or the glutton cloak hopefully created in the production of the perfect bagel. 

wrong, and wrong again..

Facebook keeps asking me if I'm pregnant and scared. Mark Zuckerberg is being super persistent on the matter actually. I'm not sure why the internet is suddenly so concerned.
Maybe they think dry suit = conception. They couldn't be more wrong.
I'm really quite baffled here.
With that I am off to curl up in my bed with a book and a puppy, neither of which are in my womb, sorry fb.

there is a place that I love, and it is called northern wisconsin

I already miss it like whoa. Everything is better when you're camping in the north woods. Eating, reading, hanging, paddling, telling jokes, making fires, hammocks, light houses, bear poop, pesto, wearing nothing but long underwear. Now that I've had some time with my plethora of pillows and full size oven and leather couch and lady fluff, I'm ready to go back. 

gc&m

Guys, I freaking love graham crackers and milk. I feel like I'm four and it's snack time whenever I bust them out, but I don't even care. They're delicious, even when I somehow manage to get them in my hair, nbd. Based on this fact alone, I'm pretty sure this kid and I could/should/would be bff.

Lying in bed I still feel like I'm rocking with the waves on Lake Superior. But I know I'm not in the Apostles because I am surrounded by normal size pillows.

off the grid

Peace out civilization.
Hello wilderness.

Off to spend some quality time with my boat and lake superior. Hiphip!

ps new blogger photo layout/uploader. i kind of hate you.