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!