White House

Brady & Kellie White

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Mar 5

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | No Comments

Dance with Dad at my Wedding, 2009

(This is an old pic…obviously.)

I love my dad. He’s one of the greatest men I know. Ever since I was little, I would ask him questions about things and he always seemed to know the answers. Everything from math, to health, to spiritual…he knows it all. He always listens, and he has this way of making you feel like you’re the most important person in the world. And whenever he was around, I always knew I was safe.

Last weekend was his birthday. My mom came up with the brilliant idea to fly me home for the weekend and surprise him. Plus, she needed a flute player to perform a violin, harp, and flute trio for a Relief Society conference in my home ward. Of course I couldn’t say no. So I packed my bags and flew to Utah.

When I got home, I had a few hours before Dad got home. When he arrived, I hid in my room, my mom stuck a big bow on me, and then took me downstairs.

“Dad, close your eyes, I’m bringing down one of your birthday presents!” she said.

Most of my siblings had already found out I was home. They were sitting in the family room with Dad, getting ready to go out for dinner. I snuck down and stood in front of him as he opened his eyes.

“Happy Birthday!” we all said.

The surprise worked. He was very excited. My sisters, Lauren and Kendra, hadn’t known I was coming home either, so they were surprised too. It was so fun to go home and see them all.

We went out to dinner as a family that night, and the next night we had a big birthday party for Dad and my grandpa (their birthdays are only a few days apart). Most of my Dad’s side of the family was there.

My dad and his dad…we ran out of room for all the candles on the cake!

My family is seriously fun. Really. They’re all party animals. If the counter full of food in this picture is any indication, we know how to have a good time. It was great to see my cousins and aunts and uncles.

Another thing I love about my family…playing music. My mom and youngest sister both play the harp, Lauren plays the piano, and Kendra plays the violin. I love being able to perform with them, especially at church. While I was home, I got to play at a Relief Society conference with my mom and Kendra in a flute-violin-harp arrangement of two primary songs: “Families can be together forever” and “I love to see the temple.” Mom’s harp teacher arranged the medley, and it was beautiful.

That’s Kendra showing off our “special music” designation…

It was such a great weekend. I love my family, and I’m so blessed to have them in my life. They’re all amazing.

 

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Love Means Nothing

Mar 2

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | No Comments

At least in tennis.

Brady and I celebrated Valentine’s day this year by going to the SAP Open in San Jose. We got super-awesome seats to watch Andy Roddick.

That’s us before the first match started.

Yes, that’s Andy Roddick. I was like less than 100 feet away from him.

But this was actually the day after Valentine’s day, so before I get to that, let’s talk about our super-romantic “love day.”

Don’t worry, it’s actually pretty funny.

Brady and I exchanged Valentines in the morning, when I got home from work (yeah, still working nights…) He gave me a pastry blender, and I gave him a new frying pan. And we were both thrilled. I guess sometimes practicality can be just as exciting as romance.

That night I made a nice home-cooked meal of barbecue beef sandwiches and salad…and lit some candles for ambience.

And, my pride and joy of the evening…hand-dipped chocolate-covered strawberries (one of Brady’s favorites.)

 

Pretty impressive, right?

Well after dinner I got all dressed up…and rushed out the door to a Relief Society activity. So romantic. Now before you scold me for ditching my husband on Valentine’s day, let me explain. I’m the first counselor in the Relief Society presidency. No, I did not pick the date for the activity nor did I push to have one for the month, but I felt obligated to be there so as to magnify my calling. Plus, the activity was about healthy eating, which I’m a big fan of (ignore the giant photo of chocolate covered strawberries above). And, Brady and I decided to postpone our Valentine’s date to the next night, which was when we had tickets to the tennis match. So it works out. Our relationship remains stable.

So, back to tennis.

Brady’s friend Nik came with us. He’s a big tennis fan. He’s cool.

We watched Andy Roddick play Denis Kudla. Roddick lost the first set, but came back to win the last two, despite spraining his ankle at the end of the second set. Crazy. When I sprained my ankle playing tennis, I was out for a week. Props to Andy for finishing the match…and winning. The whole match lasted about three hours.

Then there was the second match.

Milos Raonic (front) vs. Tobias Kamke (back). Also a really good match. We switched seats to get right behind the baseline. If you ever go to a pro tennis match, I would highly recommend seats behind the baseline. Otherwise you get dizzy from watching the ball go side-to-side.

Anyway, Raonic won. By the time he was finished, it was almost midnight. We were watching tennis for five hours, and I loved it! Brady and I both played tennis in high school, and we love watching the pros play. This was our first time actually watching it live.

Fast-forward to the weekend…we’re back for more tennis!

Not as good of seats this time, but hey, it’s the semifinals! Some of our friends had some tickets they couldn’t use, and we were more than happy to take them off their hands.

We watched Raonic again. This time he was playing Ryan Harrison, an American. Raonic won that match (he went on to win the tournament).

This match was in the afternoon, so by the time it was over, we were getting hungry for dinner. Pizza, anyone?

We decided to check out this little place called Pizz’a Chicago in downtown San Jose (our tickets to the tennis match also got us ten dollars off our meal, so that made the decision easier).

Wow, A-mazing pizza! I’ve never had such a fantastic deep-dish. Ours had teriyaki chicken, feta, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto. Seriously. Best Chicago-style pizza EVER.

Funny story: Brady called ahead to place our order so that our pizza would be ready by the time we got there. After we were seated, we told our waiter that we had already ordered, and the name was Brady White. He said there was no order listed for a Brady. So we tried a different approach. See, people seem to have a hard time understanding the name “Brady” when it’s spoken over the telephone. We’ve gotten everything from “Brad” to “Brittany”…but this is one I had never seen before:

BERNADINE?! Seriously? Who even HAS that name anymore? Anyway, once we got that confusion cleared up, we were able to get our pizza.

After dinner we took a little stroll through downtown, and came across this dessert shop called Bijan. It was one of those places where the pastries and cakes are so immaculately decorated, you feel bad eating it.

This was our decadent dessert. Chocolate-raspberry marquis. I guess I got over my fear of eating the creation, because it was gone pretty quick! But every bite was amazing.

All told, Valentine’s week was an eventful one. It was fun to stretch our V-day festivities over several days, and to get out of our “dinner and a movie” routine to see what this city has to offer. I’m pretty lucky that I get to do so many cool things with my best friend.

So yes, in tennis, love means nothing. But in life, love means everything.

 

 

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Checking in…

Feb 7

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 4 Comments

Since it’s been a few months since we checked in here, I’ll give you a quick photo rundown of what we’ve been up to.

September: Brady’s parents came to visit. We took them to see the highlights of San Francisco, then up to the North Bay to check out Muir Woods (Redwood Forest.) This is them next to a 1,000-year-old tree.

We also took Brady’s parents down to 17-Mile Drive on the Monterey Peninsula. It covers a lot of beautiful coastline scenery…and it’s where all the ritzy golf courses are. Brady’s dad is an avid golfer, so this was a must see.

October: My family came to visit for UEA weekend. Brady and I took them to see a lot of the same sights. Here’s my youngest sister by the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sadly, I didn’t get many pictures on this trip because my brother was so busy snapping photos with his amazing camera. I figured I’d just swipe the photos from him afterward. That has yet to happen…

For Halloween, Brady and I dressed up as Occupy protesters. Since I work in the media and these guys were all over the news (not to mention my growing annoyance with them) it seemed only fitting. I also wore my costume to work that night…it gave everyone a good laugh.

November: I don’t really have any pictures to sum up November. I’ll just say that while the weather started getting frigid in Utah, we were enjoying 60′s in California.

We decided to stay close by for Thanksgiving so we could take more time off for Christmas break, so our friends Andrew and Carrie invited us up to their family Thanksgiving dinner (with Andrew’s parents and siblings.) We had a blast and felt right at home with lots of good food and good company.

December:

                                     

The return of the “Hanukkah” Christmas tree. We love our blue and gold decorations, AND our friends Sam and Amber have the same color scheme for their Christmas tree. See? You don’t have to be Jewish to have blue ornaments. Thank you very much.

Brady was in charge of decorations for our ward Christmas party. This is one of the murals he helped create. The theme was “When Joseph went to Bethlehem.” The requested attire? Your favorite shepherd’s clothing. We had a difficult time choosing what outfits to wear (since we have such an abundance of shepherd’s clothing around our house…or not.) Fortunately we were able to find something decent.

Sidenote about the mural: it was traced using a projector and some butcher paper. But apparently, not many people in the ward know that and they just think Brady is a really good artist. He’s already gotten requests for artwork.

So, our Christmas vacation finally arrived…and off to Utah we went for a fabulous 11 days. It was so fun to spend Christmas with families and see so many friends.

     

We went tubing at Soldier Hollow with some of Brady’s siblings and their families (even though there was NO snow…see how the ground is BROWN behind Brady? That’s all manmade snow we were tubing on.)

January:

Happy 2012! We spent the New Year in Utah, playing games and eating lots of food with my family, including our cousins, Jessica and Adam, and Jaren and Amberly.

When we got back to California, it was tough to get back into the swing of things. After so much time off, I forgot what it was like to work nights! Thankfully we’re back in the groove now, and enjoying life.

     

A couple weeks ago we decided to explore Castle Rock State Park in the South Bay. It’s up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and when you get to the top you can see clear out to the ocean. Beautiful scenery, and fun hiking. I’d definitely recommend it.

                                    

So, that’s a quick update on the major goings-on in the White House. We’re looking forward to a lot more adventures (and hopefully a few more blog posts) in 2012.

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Cougar Blue…

Sep 17

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 1 Comment

In the spirit of tonight’s rivalry game, I thought I’d post this clip we ran on KSL last year. This was my first BYU rivalry prank…courtesy of Brady and his brothers Jeremy and Jason. They’re all Cougar fans. Their brother Weston is the black sheep in the family…he’s a Ute.

So when the fun was over…I thought it would be fun to run this little story on the morning show.

If you think that was funny…check out what they did to each other this year.

Go Cougs!

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Healthy Cookies?

Aug 20

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | No Comments

Oxymoron? Not anymore.

Brady and I have been doing a little workout program lately. It’s called P90X. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Or maybe you’re familiar with this guy:

Yeah, we hang out with Tony Horton every day now…on our TV or in the gym on a computer screen. And aside from learning how to “Bring It”… we’ve also had to learn how to put ourselves on a diet. We’ve been eating a lot more fresh veggies, a lot fewer processed foods, and a LOT less sugar. To paraphrase Tony himself: a good body is like a sports car, and sports cars have to run on good fuel. This “sports car fuel” approach has actually turned out to be quite rewarding. We’ve been forced to try new recipes and different methods of cooking that don’t involve oil or butter (yes, it is possible, and quite tasty). We’ve weaned ourselves from creamy, cheesy sauces, and opted for lighter, but equally flavorful choices (like pesto with chicken broth and lemon juice rather than olive oil). We’ve also been bypassing dessert more often. This one has bothered me.

You see, something in my culinary life has been missing over the past seven weeks. With our new, wholesome, no-sugar-added diet, I’ve been feeling trapped in a world of savory dishes. No desserts in the house. I haven’t been able to make cakes, cookies…not even so much as a pan of brownies! My poor oven has been feeling somewhat neglected, and I’ve been itching to BAKE something for WEEKS!

Today I finally snapped. I needed to bake something (what a strange urge to have…I’m sure Brady wishes I had it more often). I had enough restraint to prevent myself from making a chocolate cake. But I did find an amazing cookie recipe online. And get this: NO SUGAR ADDED! I even used applesauce instead of oil, so these little drops of heaven are fat-free too! Am I good or what? (Okay, I didn’t invent the recipe, but hey, I’m still new to this “baking healthy” thing.)

Here it is (I made some adaptations, the original one can be found here):

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies (with Honey)

Ingredients (this yields about 2 dozen cookies):

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup applesauce
  • 1 Tablespoon Molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed or diced

Preparation:

  1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together. (Hint: when measuring out the honey, spray the measuring cup with oil or baking spray–your honey won’t stick…genius!).
  3. Mix the wet stuff with the dry stuff. If the mixture seems too wet (mine was for some reason), add a Tablespoon or so of flour.
  4. COOL the mix for 20 minutes in the fridge.
  5. Preheat the oven to 335 degrees (odd temperature, I know, but apparently honey burns more easily than sugar, so you have to cook it at a lower temperature).
  6. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto your baking sheet (I used a silicon baking mat to line mine…parchment paper works too).
  7. Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes or until golden on the bottom.

Ta-daaa!

As you can see, mine turned out very round and fluffy. The original recipe suggests pressing the dough balls down with a fork before they go in the oven, so they’re flatter. I think I might try that next time, but these are still A-mazing! Thanks to the folks at wholegraingourmet.com for posting something that gives hope to us newly reformed health-conscious bakers.

 

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Product of the Week

Aug 19

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | No Comments

I work in the news…and I see some funny things. Dogs on snowboards, ducks living in a penthouse suite on top of a luxury hotel, the world’s largest whoopie pie…

(You may not know this…but there are actually several states in the U.S. that lay claim to the world’s largest whoopie pie. This one was made earlier this year in Maine.)

So this week, I hopped on one of the newsroom computers to work on a story and found these.

They’re called “Anti-theft lunch bags,” and they can instantly turn your freshly-made sandwich into a moldy, undesireable mess. At least on the outside. The baggies have green “mold” splotches printed on both sides. I can see these coming in really handy if you have trouble protecting your food from your roommates or coworkers. Just stick your lunch in one of these little beauties, throw it in the break room fridge, and it’s instantly “theft proof.” Of course, your coworkers (or roommates) might get suspicious when they see the same mold pattern on every lunch you pack.

Of course, the manufacturers didn’t forget about the outer packaging. The moldy lunch bags come in an equally moldy box…

The lunch-packing world is certainly much more sophisticated than when I was a kid. Plain old brown bags and Ziploc baggies ain’t good enough no mo’.

Personally, I’m not sure I’d want to gag everytime I pulled out my sandwich.

But I must say…props to the inventors.

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Yo-sem-i-tee

Aug 12

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 1 Comment

One thing we love about the Bay Area is that there’s so much stuff to do! (It’s also one of the reasons I haven’t updated this in a while…*cough*) A few weeks ago, Brady and I drove out to the Central Valley to visit one of his college buddies and go to Yosemite national park. His friend lives about halfway between our house and the park, so we drove to his house, spent the night, then drove into the park the next day. It was great, because we had our own personal tour guide to teach us the ins and outs of getting through a VERY heavily traveled national park.

Brady and Jared at El Capitan

While we were driving through the park we saw a bunch of cars pulled off to the side of the road…when Jared suddenly yelled, “BEAR!” So we pulled over too a saw a mama bear and two cubs climbing trees and playing in the grass. Too bad the zoom on our camera wasn’t better. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Brady in front of Yosemite falls. It was a beautiful day…couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Us at the top of Sentinel Dome. That’s Yosemite Falls on the other side of the canyon. I think the elevation there was more than 8,000 feet. Pretty normal if we had been hiking in Utah…but now that we’ve been living just a couple hundred feet above sea level…8,000 feet is quite an adjustment for the lungs!

Tree pose…in front of a tree

The whole gang…Brady, me and Jared on top of Sentinel Dome. Half dome is behind us.

Brady at Glacier Point, in front of Half Dome.

This was my best “Titanic” impression from the “point” at Glacier Point. The view was incredible.

Something about National Parks is so awe-inspiring for me. We barely scratched the surface in Yosemite (we were only there for a day) so I can’t wait to go back and get deeper into the park.

 

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Moving Mountains [of cardboard]

Jun 14

Posted by Kellie White in Major Events | 2 Comments

Moving stresses me out. Especially when everything is in boxes…and you know you’ll have to unpack it all.

(That’s only the kitchen…but you get the idea.)

A couple weeks ago we moved into our official home here in Silicon Valley. And since Apple is totally awesome, they paid for movers to pack up our stuff and drive it out here. Of course, they hired the best of the best, so everything was packed VERY thoroughly. Everything was wrapped in paper. EVERYTHING. It’s great for keeping things safe in transit, but it’s a pain to go through.

I’m pretty sure that’s like two trees’ worth of paper…and that’s only a quarter of it.

Unpacking was fun. The boxes were labeled according to room, but we never knew what we’d find inside. Unwrapping all that paper was like Christmas morning…except that after we unwrapped things, we had to figure out where to put them and fold the paper in neat stacks to be carried to the recycle bin. That part was less exciting.

One thing I learned about unpacking…it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If you open too many boxes at once, you’re bound to get confused. It’s also easy to get distracted. I caught myself several times wandering off to a different room, or looking through a photo album I’d just unpacked, or rearranging the glasses in the cupboard because I couldn’t figure out the most usable location for them. Unpacking takes focus. Brady hooked up his iPod to the computer speakers he had just unpacked, so that we could listen to music as we worked. That helped. We found the best thing to do is just go one room at a time, one box at a time.

Three days later, we finally had everything out of boxes. We purged our home of cardboard and paper, and single-handedly filled two dumpsters TO THE BRIM with recyclable material. Good thing there are recycling bins at our place, otherwise I would have felt really bad about killing all those trees.

And, check out our new digs…(well, the living room, anyway)

Phew…with how much work it was to unpack everything, I think we’d better stay here a while.

It’s really amazing how quickly you can make a place feel like home. Throughout the month of May I felt lonely and uprooted, like I didn’t live in Utah anymore but I wasn’t really living in California, either. But now that we’re actually in our new home, with all our stuff unpacked and put away…Brady and I are finally starting to feel settled.

Now everyone just needs to come visit!

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This is how I work it out.

May 16

Posted by Kellie White in Weekly Life | 3 Comments

I found this recently…

Back in January I got to have a little more fun with my dear anchors. We did a fitness segment, and the trainer was supposed to bring one of her students to demonstrate the exercises. That didn’t happen, so the fearless producer stepped in to help.

(Okay, secretly, I sometimes wish I was a fitness model…)

 

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

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On the Hunt

May 11

Posted by Kellie White in Major Events | 2 Comments

It’s Saturday afternoon…a pleasant 70 degrees in San Jose, California. We’re parked outside an apartment complex, waiting for our 2 o’clock viewing appointment, applications in hand.

I feel like a vulture circling over my next meal.

Brady and I spent all day Friday prowling around Santa Clara, San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino, searching for an apartment to rent. We had some help from a relocation specialist, which certainly made things a lot less stressful. But let’s face it, apartment hunting is still exhausting.

Apartment hunting in the Bay Area has turned out to be somewhat of an experiment in the “survival of the fittest.” Be there fast, be there first. Do your research and ask the right questions. It’s best to shop on a weekday, because everyone else shops on the weekends. Take a completed rental application, along with a credit report and letters of recommendation from your landlords. That way, if you see a place that you like, you can apply for it right there on the spot. You have to beat the competition.

Then there’s the landlords’ and apartment managers’ side of the dance. They have to be able to sell you on the unit. Are they shy? Confident? Quiet? Talkative? Easy to work with? They know all the right things to say to give you a sense of urgency, without being too pushy. “We’re hitting our busy season, so these units probably won’t be available after the weekend.” We heard that a lot.

After visiting several apartment complexes, and a few condos, Brady and I decided we’d prefer a condo. (Note: Condo = privately owned, Apartment = management company). Condo owners generally take better care of their unit, since they only own one (or maybe two). It’s also easier to work with a private owner, rather than a faceless management company.

Okay, back to the vulture…

On Friday, we went to 11 different complexes, toured nine of the units, and gathered dozens of applications, brochures, and business cards. We felt like we came away with some pretty good options, but we still weren’t 100% satisfied.

There was one condo our relocation specialist found that was only open for touring on Saturday. The pictures looked nice. The location was better than most of the others we had seen. The complex was new, and it wasn’t sprawled out over dozens of buildings. Brady and I were intrigued, so we decided to go check it out on our own.

The condo opened for tours at 2 p.m. We arrived ten minutes early, and started eyeing the other cars pulling into the parking lot. I was convinced that every one of them were coming to tour the same apartment, and I don’t take kindly to competition.

1:56 p.m.: I couldn’t wait any longer. I called the landlord and asked if we could come up and see the unit. We had to be the first people in, so we could be the first ones to apply, and hopefully, get approved and sign a lease on the spot.

After six hours of apartment hunting the day before, we figured we’d know a good thing when we saw it. And this condo was definitely it. We walked inside and instantly I knew I had to live here. Full-size washer and dryer, two bedrooms, plenty of storage space, HUGE kitchen (especially compared to our previous one)…oh, and within walking distance to the best shopping in San Jose. Yes, I was home.

But there was a problem. Just as we were about to swoop in and lay claim to our find…the landlord got a phone call. Someone else wanted to see the place. He went downstairs to let them in, while Brady and I paced around, making sure we had done everything we could to let him know we really wanted to rent from him. I started mulling over possible scenarios. He might show the apartment to 20 different people, and find someone he liked better. Maybe because we were the first, we had set a high standard and left a good impression. Or maybe because we were the first, he’d forget all about us by the time the day was over. We left the condo just as the landlord was bringing the the next prospective tenants down the hall. A man and woman, middle-aged…certainly we had to be better than them. Brady and I paused to thank the landlord and tell him we were looking forward to a phone call from him, while I sized up the other potential renters. We said goodbye…and left.

The next 24 hours were a mix of anxiety and agony. I had already convinced myself we weren’t going to get the place, so I was gearing up for bitter disappointment, and not looking forward to jumping back into the hunt. But I still kept a faint glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, we’d be accepted.

Then, Sunday afternoon, my phone rang.

It was the landlord. He asked if we were still interested in renting the condo. I tried not to sound like an over-caffeinated cheerleader as I said, “Absolutely!” and started doing a little victory dance with myself. We agreed on a move-in date, he emailed us the rental agreement…and WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!!

*Sigh* What an eventful weekend.

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