She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain

Well, for Christmas we are here in California. But, the interesting thing is how we got here! How, you may ask, did you get to California? By the train of course!

Over the summer I took the train so I could go to a friend's wedding for a weekend. While it gave us some problems (it was delayed about 12 hours because of flooding of tracks out east), the fact that it is so much cheaper (about half the price of plane tickets), so much more comfier than the plane or car, and safer than driving made it totally worth it to come out on for our little Christmas vacation.

So our train left Tuesday night, supposedly at 9:30 (we expected at least a little delay). Well, our train was stuck somewhere (we later found out due to rock slides), so a bus picked up the stops in Colorado and Utah and we were to get on at Salt Lake on an alternate train... So Amtrak told us the bus was about an hour late, so we left at 10:00 thinking that we would be early for the bus which should arrive at 10:30. Not so! The bus was in fact pulling way from the train station as we pulled up. My mother honked and drove next to it and the bus driver (thank GOODNESS he was nice) stopped for us.

So, we were safely on the bus and made our way up to Salt Lake. Once there, we waited until about 12:30 for the train to get there, and by 1:30 everyone was on and the train was moving! Yay!

After a night of tossing and turning, but still a lot of sleep, we woke up and Jed went into the Lounge Car. As you may or may not know, there are the sleeper cars (which you pay extra for), the coach cars, which have seats just like buses/airplanes but sooo much roomier, the lounge car, which has tables and booths and chairs, all facing huge windows, and last there is the dining car. Here is the lounge car:



So the day was uneventful, all except for an hour waiting outside of Truckee because of a traffic jam. But here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful Sierra Mountains and Donner Lake:





So, Jed and I both agree, the train is a great way to travel! Great, that is, if you have the time and flexibility if it's late.

But, the important thing is we are here safe and sound and happy to be in California with our family!

P.S. I will still miss my family on Christmas :( But yay for my new family!

The Lights at Temple Square

On Saturday, we went on a double date with my high school friend Bailey and her husband Jason up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. We were lucky in that while it was a little wet, it was pretty warm! Here are some pictures and hope you enjoy looking at the lights!



We really liked this tree because there were SO MANY lights!







We really liked this tree because the orange mixed with yellow lights were so pretty.

Venting Session

Recently, a position opened up at the Bookstore in the Text department, which as you may or may not know, is where Jed works. So I applied and had an interview, which I think went GREAT! I should mention, there were two men interviewing me.

Later that day, one of the men, one of Jed's bosses, told him he liked all four of the people he interviewed and would hire all of them if possible. So good, he liked me.

A few days later, I check up on the job, and I didn't get it. Sad day, but since I have a job, not the end of the world. Still sad though.

Today, a week or so later, Jed talks with his boss again. Boss starts talking to Jed about me. Apparently, I was his number one pick for the job! So what happened? The other man thought I wasn't friendly enough.

Let me ask you, am I friendly? I believe so. I think I can be, at times a little more friendly than some people may like. But personally, I think I was the perfect bit of friendly in my interview.

So, I just wanted to talk about how RIDICULOUS it was that I wasn't hired because I wasn't friendly enough! Crazy people. I should mention that the one boss wanted to hire me and tried to convince the other guy, but boss number two said he wouldn't budge.

On a happier note, I only have one more semester of working custodial (which I'm thankful I do have) and possibly any salary per hour job, and then I will be student teaching, and then perhaps a teacher with a salary per year! Yay!

Hope you have a good day!

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating!

Hey hey hey! So I have two things to tell you about. First, I never posted these cute, cute little turkeys we made at our Primary activity this month. So they're pretty self explanatory, but just so you know, the head is an extra large malt ball.



So for family home evening last night, Jed and I decorated for Christmas! My mom got new garlands this year, so she kindly is letting us have her old garlands. So we thought we'd hang them all around the room, and then I thought we could hang Christmas ornaments on them! Jed has gotten an ornament every Christmas from his parents every year, so he has a lot, and our tree, as you can see, is little...



So I measured, hung up hooks (thank you 3M for your Command strips), hung the garland, then Jed hung the Christmas ornaments, and then we plugged it in. Yeah, we didn't even think to plug it in before all the hanging and decorating. So you could probably guess what happened. It didn't light. It was funny, really, how we really should have thought of plugging them in to make sure they worked BEFORE doing all the decorating. But oh well. Better luck next year.




(P.S.... FHE was last night, and today I turned them on, and half of them work! Now to just figure out the other half...)

Old Testament Class

I just wanted to share a funny thing that happened in my Old Testament class today.  My professor is Jared Ludlow, I know mom and dad know him, I don't know if anyone else does.  He has lived in Israel three times throughout his life, so he knows what's going on.  Anyway, so he was teaching about some article of clothing that priests used to wear, I don't know.  Then, the guy behind me raises his hand, and asks "Can you please write the Hebrew word for it on the board?" My thought: "Really?" So he starts writing it on the board, in Hebrew script, and can't remember the last letter, and is trying to remember.  This is when five, perhaps six people start chiming in on how to write this last letter.  In Hebrew.  I look around the room, and nobody else seems to be bothered by this.  This is when I think: "Am I in the right class? This is the class on the first half of the Old Testament, that fills a GE, right? Did I accidentally walk into a majors-only class?"  Then, this is when I have a second thought: "I have a feeling I'm not going to get a very good grade in this class..." Then, one guy says, "oh, you write in script? I prefer block myself." I just stare at him.  I thought maybe I had missed a prerequisite for the class: Must know Hebrew, fluently.
Anyway, that was my strange experience of today.

How to stop being a worry wart.

I know. Two posts in one day. I just had to, though.

Today in church a sister shared a great scripture, Philippians 4:6: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." She pointed out that the Joseph Smith Translation changed careful to afflicted a.k.a. worried. So basically, in order to stop worrying, start thanking Heavenly Father for your blessings.

Now, I can be a worrier. I try not to be, but sometimes, I just get a little overwhelmed. However, when I heard her testimony about that scripture, I realized something: I can't remember feeling worried for the past couple of weeks. Why, I asked myself. Then it hit me. A few weeks ago in a Relief Society we made gratitude journals and I have been fairly diligent in writing five things I am grateful for every night. I have never, ever made that connection before, that being thankful will help you stop worrying. I always thought, you count your blessings so that you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Well here's another benefit to counting your blessings and thanking God for all He has given you.

Hope this can help you like it's helped me! Especially seeing as this is November, the month where most people remember to be thankful, I think it's a great time to strengthen your testimony about gratitude.

Happy Sunday!

London Broil + Marinade = AMAZING and EASY = happy housewife because dinner was a sinch but still delicious

Hey.

Yesterday, I went to Smith's because they were having a great sale on meat. It really was wonderful. I got lots of kinds of meat for under $2/lb. While there, I bought some meat: the London Broil. I have heard of this, but most definitely have not cooked it before. Meat has always scared me. I'm really not sure why. I think it may be that there are just so many different cuts that I have no idea what to do with them all, so it's just easiest to stick to chicken breasts and ground beef. It has taken a while for me to get adventurous with my meat cooking, and so making this london broil was a good step for me. (Next thing I hope to try: a whole chicken, or even better, a game hen!)

Last night, I started to marinate the meat so that we could have it for dinner today. My favorite part was the fact that I had to score the meat so there were pretty diamonds all over it. Loved it.

Today, I cooked the meat. Thank goodness for the two sided griddle we got from some good soul for our wedding. My sister-in-law and her husband both mentioned to me this summer how much they love their griddle, and I could not agree more. While we don't quite use it every week, I used it twice last week and several times before that. It is just so handy! You should get one. I used the grill side and seared both sides so that we had a deliciously cooked, but still pink in the middle, piece of meat.

Just a few hours ago, Jed and I ate our london broil. It was sooooo good! I will attribute part of this fact to it being Fast Sunday, but I mostly just want to write this post to share the marinade because it was delicious. It had two of my favorite things to use in cooking: soy sauce and garlic. So here's the recipe, which I highly recommend trying out sometime, and for those of you who are scared of meat just like I am (was), london broil was easy!

London Broil

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 pounds flank steak

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, salt, soy sauce, ketchup, vegetable oil, black pepper and oregano.

2. Score both sides of the meat, diamond cut, about 1/8 inch deep. Rub garlic mixture into both sides of the meat. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 5 to 6 hours, or overnight. Flip meat every few hours.

3. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate.

4. Place meat on the prepared grill. Cook for 3 to 7 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

"It's time to bring back the true meaning of Halloween..."

Our Halloween weekend was a lovely little weekend.

Saturday, Jed and I shopped for winter clothes. I should actually say I shopped for winter clothes. Jed got a jacket. I got 5 shirts. Jed also got soda, because I felt guilty getting so many things, and him just getting a jacket.

Then, that evening, we went to my sister Brittany's Halloween party! For the majority of the month, Jed and I weren't sure if we'd need costumes because we had no idea if we had plans for Halloween, so our last minute costumes were characters from The Office. Jed was Jim, and more specifically, Jim in one of his Halloween costumes (which was simply a name tag for Dave, whoever that is). I was Angela (quite simply because she has blond hair like I do. The little thing I'm holding is a cat because as you may or may not know, Angela is a cat lady.



I would also like to post, for those of you who are not followers of my sister's blog, a picture of her costume. She was the white queen from the newest Alice in Wonderland, and her roommate was the red queen. She (my sister) made her entire costume and has been working at it for months. It turned out amazing!



Sunday, actually Halloween, we had our Primary Program in Sacrament meeting. I was so proud of my little Primary and Nursery kids! Two highlights come from the same family. First, the three-year-old, whom I will call Jojo (because that's his name), went up. His mom would whisper something like "The Holy Ghost..." and he would repeat it and then have this little giggle, and then they would say the next line and he'd giggle. He just loved the microphone. So after the 5 lines he said, he ran down off the stage and up to his dad on the front row and I saw him jump in the air with little fists up in the air as he said, "I did it!" Ha ha it was so adorable. Then Stephen, Jojo's five-year-old brother got up. He said his lines and said them in quite funny ways, so of course the congregation thought he was just so funny and cute and so we laughed at every line. Unfortunately, this did not go over well with Stephen. He said to his dad (who was helping him), "They keep laughing! Why?" and then when we laughed at that, he started to cry! We felt so bad, but the trooper still finished his talk and the congregation quieted up.

So the kids were amazing and I made cupcakes to reward them. I must mention two things: First, they had buttermilk in them and were pumpkin flavored. Amazing. Second, my little cupcake book had the greatest idea where you microwave chocolate Tootsie Rolls and roll them flat, then lemon flavored and do the same, then cut out eyes and noses and mouths and put them on cupcakes to make them look like jack-o-lanterns. Great idea! Or so I thought. Here is what it looked like:



So after I had cut out about six sets of eyes and started trying to do the circle noses, I realized this was going to take a looooong time and a heck of a lot of patience. Luckily, I still had black frosting from when I did those sunflower cupcakes (I used it for the lady bugs). So I cheated and just use that to make the jack-o-lantern face. I think they still turned out pretty cute though!



So there you have it! Our Halloween weekend was great fun, and now we can start looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Primary Days

As you may or may not have heard, I was called to be the second counselor in my ward's Primary presidency. Crazy, right?

Now, I was excited. We have two kids and seven (?) nursery kids. I know. Pretty funny. We have six adults in the room and two kids. Today only one! So like I said, I was excited. I had heard from so many women the things that they learned from children, both fun things and insightful things. However, I was nervous, too. I LOVE Relief Society. I love to talk with the women, I love hearing what they have to say, I love the lessons and the teachers, I love it all! So I was a little nervous because I didn't think I would learn like I could in Relief Society.

Today changed my perspective. I realized that I may not learn life changing concepts almost every week, but I can certainly learn how to be a good mom every week. First of all, with only two kids in for singing time and sharing time, they have all the liberty to act out and they get a TON of attention from us. So every week I get to practice strategies for keeping kids focused... and I think it will take a long time to find things that work ha ha. The biggest experience, however, was when I taught sharing time for the first time today. I taught the second verse of "I Love to See the Temple" and we had to talk about words like "sealing" and "covenant." It was difficult! I was teaching one little five year old and it was a stretch to describe these concepts in such simple terms. This made me realize that being in Primary will be a WONDERFUL preparation before Jed and I start having kids. I think I'll feel just a tad less overwhelmed once our kids start coming, and for that I am sooo grateful for the opportunity to teach in Primary. I think when I look back on these months I will have in Primary, I will be incredibly grateful for what I can learn from the experience and from the wonderful children.

My least favorite thing

So it's been a while since writing, and so I thought about what I could write for your reading/entertainment. So I thought, what is something that's going on in my life? And then I remembered:

DISHES

Every. single. day.

While I love Wymount and our little apartment, I cannot WAIT to move out to an apartment with a dishwasher!

And so that's all. I know you all probably have the same feelings as I do, so here's a post to all of us who have the never ending job of doing that dishes. I guess at least we can be grateful that the reason for the dirty dishes is good food and full stomachs!

Scooter

For a couple of weeks now I've been thinking of getting a scooter to get around faster, and to act as a second car.  I've been looking on KSL and Craigslist for something that actually works, but isn't too expensive.  Finally I found one from a guy in Provo.  Yesterday I went to look at it, and bought it from him.  I'm so excited.  It's 150cc, gets about 50 miles to the gallon, has 1400 miles on it, and works great.  The guy I bought it from just replaced the battery and the muffler, so I'm pretty happy with the state it's in.  The registration ran out in June though, so I have to go tomorrow to renew it.  Until then, I just ride it around Wymount.  Heather decided to face her fears and sat passenger on it while I drove her around today.  It was a lot of fun.  Heather was less scared by the end.  I love my new scooter.  I'm trying to think of a name for it.  My initial thought was Doris, but I'm not sure yet.

My New Hog

Bread, Bowling, and Sunflowers

This was a busy Labor Day weekend!

Saturday my wonderful friend Natalie helped me get started with my bread making! I'm hoping to make bread every couple of weeks so that we can save money instead of buying bread from the store! Also, it's whole wheat bread so it's healthier. Basically, I make two loafs and then about a dozen rolls. Here's how it turned out!





That afternoon I made some cupcakes from my book "Hello, Cupcake" for a woman I visit teach (it was her birthday) and then also for dessert on Sunday with Kyli (see previous post for that story...). I had SO much fun making these! I think I made a little noise of excitement after every single one. I seriously can't wait for the next birthday to come up so I can try out another one from the book! So here are my sunflowers:







They're cute, right?

So Monday unfortunately I had to work, but that evening Jed and I went with my family to dinner at the One Man Band diner and then bowling. My family is not exactly talented at bowling, so I think Jed was the only person to get over 100.

We were gone for five minutes...

So today was a great Sunday! We were having a grand ole time at dinner at Kyli and Brad Bishop's house (it's super cute), including the sunflower cupcakes I made. Pictures will follow about those, but for now I will just speak of the eating of the cupcakes. We ate, and then all went over to my old roommates' apartment, Amy and Natalie to give them some of the cupakes. We were there for literally five minutes when Kyli came in saying, "Isn't your car the blue Santa Fe? The mid-size SUV? Out on the side of Gold's Gym? It's getting towed." Yes, today was Sunday, and the tow man I suppose was making his rounds. So I ran out there and told the guy, "Whoa, stop, that's my car!" You know what he tells me? "70 bucks for me to drop it, $140 if I tow it." No other words, just to the point, I suppose. This man obviously meant business so I ran to get Jed and his wallet, but as I went I just thought, Really??? Needless to say we were unhappy. I mostly found it ironic that it took longer for him to copy down our credit card information than to press the two buttons to get our car off the towing mechanisms. So there goes $70 down the drain for a 10 minutes operation...

One thing that we found rather... silly? Stupid? Ironic? These two guys drove past us staring, you know when you're on the side of the road and people drive past you slowly staring the whole time, their heads turning as their car advances and they can't see you quite so easily, so there they were staring at us getting towed, and then they park in the Gold's Gym parking lot too! Let me tell you, (and they were long gone or else we would have told them, too) but that man, as soon as he left our car went immediately to their car, and unfortunately they weren't quite so lucky as us to have someone tell us to get out there to stop the towing.

So it wasn't the best ending to our Sunday, but we were cheered up by watching this week's Psych episode when we got home. Shawn and Gus never fail to make us happy.

Life and what it brings

Today in class I met a great girl with whom I hope to become good friends, and she just amazed me. She told me about her life story and I just can't even imagine. She became a widow at 22. She had been married to her husband for one month and two days, and one day he was killed in a car accident. That alone just sounds like such a trial. I had heard of stories like this and mentioned to Jed jokingly he better not do that to me, but now I actually know someone personally who had this tragedy happen to her.

So not only did that amaze me, but the very brief time we talked she summarized a lot of the problems she had to go through as she has been blessed to find a second husband, whom she married almost a year ago. She told me of the troubles it was for her to adjust, to trust that this man was the right man for her, the troubles for her husband to understand and accept how important her first husband was to her and how important he himself is to her now. It makes me wonder first of all the trials my poor mother went through getting married again, things we've never talked about, but also the faith one must have to have a tragedy like this happen.

I know I have a testimony of God and of the Plan he has for us, and that was strengthened when my dad died, but for some reason something like this, something where you don't feel like you had a chance with a person, it's crazy. It takes a lot of faith to trust in God's plan because we just don't understand. I thought all the way on my walk home from school about this, and I still can't conclude what I think about it, but what my conclusion is to this post is that this is why having a testimony, having the church, having church leaders to council you, having prayer and knowing that the person on the other end hears you, this is why it is so important because life will bring you hard things, but when you can rely on God through it all, it may not be easy, but you'll be able to make it! I feel like I have a mini talk, and so to conclude my mini talk I suppose I'll bear my testimony that I know that the Savior understands us and it is through Him and the Atonement that we can move past the hardships in life and learn from them. Amen and hope you have a good day!

Adjusting to being a housewife

So I must admit, the first week moving into our apartment, I avoided at all costs having to start planning meals. I knew the day it started, it would never end. Until I die. It just sounds so awful! I most definitely have enjoyed relying on my mother to feed me and then doing meal plans with my roommies. (Thank you by the way Mom for your cooking over the years!)

I finally succumbed as Jed wasn't about to make dinner (he...lacks skills in the kitchen...), and it actually has not been bad! I've never eaten so healthy in my life. My mother is just such a good cook and such a good baker and so she's constantly making new things, especially new desserts, all of which are good. Then living with roommates, at least once a week some roommate is making a delicious dessert, and you can't pass up free food! (I'm trying to learn that yes, you can pass up free food when you're trying to eat healthy. It may be painful at first, but I guess I'll learn.) So now I do all the shopping for my apartment and I can buy lots of fruits and veggies and avoid the fattening stuff.

So in the past several weeks, I have been very pleased with what I have made and the easiness of planning meals. First dinner I made was chimichangas! I know, not very healthy, but I was super excited they worked! Here's a picture:



I'm also rather proud of the other things I've made. I made Sopapilla Cheesecake (delicious and easy mixture of a Mexican doughnut and cheesecake) and cream puffs! I never realized how simple cream puffs were.

So, all in all, I'm quite enjoying cooking everyday! I just love spending time making a nice dinner because for one thing, I enjoy eating it, but for another thing, I just feel so happy when Jed can't contain how delicious he thinks it is. I also love having an apartment where there are only two people to mess it up after I clean, and Jed is a pretty neat person, so I just love it!

My one wish: a dishwasher.

Our New Apartment!

August 4th we drove a wonderful 11 hours from California to Provo, UT, and that night we moved all of our stuff into our apartment! It was great because I think 4 men (and one woman) helped us move all of our stuff, and so the Uhaul was unpacked in no time! Then we had to unpack and organize.... My goal was to have it done by the next Friday, which thankfully it was (a goal I actually succeeded in doing!) and so now, another week later, I finally have gotten around to taking pictures so that those of you that frequent our blog every so often can see what it looks like!

So, here is the front of our apartment, and since the top of the door is rather boring, I thought I'd show you the welcome mat we chose out (because I think I love it):



Then you walk in and see our cute and very cozy living room/family room:



And here is the wall decoration I'm rather proud of (made it with scrapbook paper!) and our cute little rug:



And then of course our entertainment center. Just about everything you see in this picture was a wedding gift (excluding the tissue box, greenery, and electronics. TV was provided by gift cards):



Alright now we move on to the kitchen...



As you may notice, our oven is a cute little thing that I'm still trying to figure out (it seems to cook the outsides quite nicely and ignore the middles of my dishes. Am I supposed to leave it in longer or crank up the heat? I just don't know.)



So you may not care to see this, but one of the best parts of this apartment is all the storage! You'll see later more storage, but off of the kitchen is the water heater closet and it has shelves and shelves of storage! It was such a relief not to have to fit all of my kitchen things and my food in the few cupboards in the kitchen. So here's my blessed pantry:



To the hallway! We have a bookshelf and a few of Jed's pictures... (he has a ton!)



So here is the hallway. On the left side of the hall, to the right of the bookshelf is the door to our bathroom, straight ahead is the door to our bedroom, and then on the right is the door to our second bedroom and also a little closet.



Here's the bathroom.



Our bedroom (dresser is to the right, huge closet is to the left)



Then here is our second bedroom which may also be called our office:





We have a big closet just like the one in our bedroom on one wall, but then on the same wall as the piano we have our storage closet/garage. We are sooo happy we have it because without it, guess what we'd do with all the stuff you see in it? Really we have no idea:



And last, just for fun, here's our balcony. (The door to get to it is right by the front door and the recliner.)The big mass you see is our couch that won't fit in our apartment which we covered so as to protect it (obviously but thought I'd mention it).



So there's our apartment! So far, we love it. I think we both would agree our one problem with it is the fact that we don't have more seating for having people over. But other than that, it is perfect and we plan to be here probably until we graduate!

Our Excursion to San Francisco

To start, I must explain that last December, Jed and I went to San Francisco, but barely made a dent into what we wanted to do. So, on Friday, we went back! This time we went with another couple, Jordan and Kelsey.

After a morning of trying to buy a used car, we finally made it to San Francisco, no thanks to a GPS that seems to be frazzled every time it gets near San Francisco. Our first stop was lunch at Catch Isle, a restaurant in the San Francisco Center mall, where we ate delicious fish and chips.



(A seagull attacked us as we were taking a picture)



Next we went to Pier 39. First stop: Lefty's, the store that sells left-handed things for ridiculous prices. While we didn't buy anything, we certainly enjoyed seeing the odd pens that were supposedly for left handed people.



After that we went to the aquarium! Super fun. The jelly fish were probably my favorite, and Jed's were the bat rays and skate rays. It was a neat experience to walk through the tunnels and have the fish over your head or the shark swim right next to you. It was also neat when we got to the tide pools where you could touch the animals. After gearing myself up, I touched a skate ray, a tiger shark, a sea cucumber, and a star fish. Way cool. We also enjoyed seeing the random animals, like the chinchillas and the hedge hog.







Our next excursion (after a fiasco of someone stealing our already paid for parking ticket) was to the Golden Gate bridge where the temperature seemed 10 degrees cooler and the wind had picked up. We took some pictures of the cloud covered bridge and headed for dinner.



Ike's Place was the perfect end to our day. They had the most delicious sandwiches I have ever tasted in my entire life. No joke. I got a sandwich that had chicken, honey mustard, honey, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, BBQ, pepper jack cheese, Swiss cheese, and Gouda cheese. Heaven in a sandwich. The goodness didn't end there, though. Happy hour is from 6-9 and during those hours you get a free drink and a free bag of chips. Add onto that a free caramel apple sucker, and it was complete. Wow wow wow. Sorry, I just simply loved it. I highly recommend you to go there next time you're in this city.






So that was our day in San Francisco. Besides the adventure of driving, it is a really cool city with great places to visit. Our next visit for sure will involve Golden Gate Park, Nob Hill, and some museums. But now, our next adventure is coming this week: Moving to our first apartment!

To see all the photos click here