Birds, Bears, Bread, Bags, and 108 Stairs of Pain

Birds:
On tuesday I heard birds singing!  Some of their tunes sounded familiar.  One of them didn't.

The one that sounded...squeaky...for the lack of a better description...I don't think I've ever heard that kind of bird before.  It's not a loud squeaking, but I keep wanting to go find it and spray it with WD-40.

There.  That should help!

Bears:
The bears are getting out and about.  This picture was in the paper yesterday-

Image found here

Looks like he's reading about the history of fighter planes...  (Great.  Bears with fighter pilot skills?  Watch out!)

Bread:
I made bread for the first time ever.  And it was really easy.  And it was whole wheat bread.  And it was delicious!

There's a provident living class held every month at our church building.  This month we learned how to make bread from a famous bread maker in our ward (Stephanie Bacon).

Yesterday I went over to my friend Lindsay's and we made bread.  I watched her make one batch (I couldn't stay to the whole class, so I told Lindsay she would have to teach me what I missed...and she did!)

After she made a batch, she said "now it's your turn!"

(Gulp...) "Ok!"

Measuring stuff is easy and the mixer did all the hard work...so it really wasn't a problem...

I made my batch into 3 tiny loaves, and 1 ham and cheese roll-up.

If you are wondering what a ham and cheese roll-up is...let me show you:

You roll out the bread dough, fill it with various toppings, roll it up, let it rise, and then bake it.

(I think those would be great to have around...then you don't have to make sandwiches.  You just slice a piece of bread and take it with you!)

Here are all my bread creations:

Bags:
Lindsay taught me some other things while I was at her house.  Like how to make reusable shopping bags out of old grocery bags.

You cut the handles off and cut the bags open so they lay flat.  Get about 5 shopping bags and put them between 2 pieces of parchment paper.  And then....iron them!  (And then you iron more.  And then you iron them together!)

Pretty crazy.  (She said she learned how to make them on ehow.com...)

Here is the bag I made...

108 Stairs of Pain:
There are some stairs at the elementary near our house.  This week Luke and I have gone on walks in the evenings (since it's light until 9 p.m!).  These walks include walking over to the elementary, going up and down these stairs six times, and then walking home.  (Our initial goal was 10 sets...but we changed our minds.  We'll have to work up to that!)

Happy weekend to you!