I wish I lived in a fantasy world

Lately I just haven't felt like there's been anything exciting to write about. We are just going on with our same boring lives. In reality, maybe that's a little sad. We should do something exciting so I have something exciting to blog about! Ben's been working, I've been working ... that's pretty much what I do. I have been doing a lot more reading lately. When I was subbing, I would always have a book with me to read during those down times (few as they were). And, I managed to get through several 1,000 page fantasy novels in a relatively short amount of time. Ben got me hooked on the "Wheel of Time" series. It's by far the best fantasy series that I have ever read. I think fantasy has really become my favorite genre. I've always enjoyed fiction, and while have enjoyed a murder mystery or two in the past, fantasy has really become the bulk of my reading. I guess that's partly because of who I married! But mainly I think for me the appeal of fantasy is this: in a world where the dividing line between good and evil has become so marred, in the land of fantasy it is much more clear cut. In the end, the good guys usually win because they are right and good, and not because they have more money or more connections. Frankly I'm disturbed by the direction our country and our society are headed. Well, for that matter, the way is HAS been heading for a very long time. Only now things appear to be escalating because the government is taking unprecedented control in this country. The thing that saddens me the most is the destruction of agency. People seem to forget that there are two parts to agency: the ability to choose, AND, the application of consequences. There was once another person who wanted to destroy agency. His name was Satan, and he got kicked out of heaven for it. I'm beginning to see how his argument could convince so many people. I'm still holding out hope that we can somehow reverse these unfortunate trends. Well, I'm holding out a very little hope ...

Beyond behind ....

It has been so long since I have posted that I am beyond behind! Usually I get up in the morning and putter around the house, then go swimming at they gym, come home, shower, get ready for work, eat lunch and leave. By the time I get home at night it's about 7pm, and sometimes I'll check my email. When I'm done with that, I really have very little energy to sit and type anything that's even remotely well-thought out. Tonight, however, is the series finale of Battlestar Gallactica, which I don't watch, but Ben does--religiously. I was going to read a book but instead I decided to finally update my blog! I know you are all so thrilled. Actually, you've probably given up even checking my blog since the last ice age, but that's okay. The post is here when you get around to it.

This month has been so crazy. I've been working at my job for about 6 weeks now and while I really enjoy it, I miss my housewifing days. There is something so much more fulfilling and relaxing about managing a household instead of managing a business. Not that I'm managing a business, but I have been given the responsibility managing employees for the first time in my life which is very challanging, to say the least. Sometimes I think I'd rather just be a peon! It's helping me to grow in so many ways though. I used to get quite nervous when I had to get serious with someone about their behavior or talk to an unhappy customer. Well, when I say "used to", what I mean is that I still do. I'm just learning more how to deal with people. I always thought I was a people person but ... anyways ...

Earlier in the month Ben and I went with his parents and his sister up to Tennessee for his niece's wedding. We left on a Friday afternoon and arrived early Saturday morning. We stayed at a really dumpy Day's Inn which had a "hot breakfast" consisting of biscuits and gravy that you had to warm up in the microwave, and Eggo waffles. Yum! It had been a long time since I'd eaten Eggo waffles. I forgot how tasty they were! The wedding was beautiful and altogether we had such a fun time just getting away for the weekend. It was the first time we'd gone away since we got married.

The hightlight of the month has been getting my ring back! After a lot of consideration and talking with Scott Kay (the ring designer) the jeweler opted to simply cut off the prongs and install a completely new head with 6 single prongs made of white gold. (My ring is palladium). I am SOOOOO happy with the result. To be honest, I like this ring better than the first one! AND ... there is NO way that diamond is going to fall out of that setting! Even so, we have purchased renter's insurance and added a jewelry rider to the policy so we are all set. When we got the ring back, the jeweler gave us an appraisal and we were shocked to see that the diamond is apparently worth about 25% more than we actually paid for it, from that same jeweler. We were obviously very pleased with that!

I'm looking forward to the summer, although I've had the worst time adjusting to Daylight Savings this year. I'm still not adjusted, and I had a pretty good schedule before! Oh well. Working until 7 every night, I'm glad there will be a little light so that I can do outside things, even after work.

Well, I guess that just about covers it. Ya'll have a great weekend!

Milton Friedman on Greed and Capitalism vs. Socialism

Snowshoes in Georgia

It's snowing here in Georgia. We're supposed to have 1-3 inches by nightfall. It's just one more reason why you can never trust the weather from one day to the next. It's been so warm this last week and a half that the daffodils have bloomed and the fruit trees have also started. We've actually had a pretty wet weekend. It started raining on Friday and it was still raining when we left for church this morning! It stopped several time in between, but I haven't seen this much rain since I moved to Georgia. It's great because we really need it!

Loose diamond ... Lose diamond

Life has been so crazy since I started my job! This is the first time in a while that I've been able to sit down and put together a blog post. I'm working from 1-6:45, so I don't get home until around 7pm. By the time I get home, it's cook dinner, do dishes, and hang out with my hubby until bedtime, if there's not something else going on! And while it seems like I'd have a lot of time in the morning, it just disappears so fast! Between doing laundry, cleaning my house, constant decluttering, and going to the gym, life is flying by. However, I have to say, I LOVE my job. I also feel so lucky to have a job in this time when so many people are out of work. I feel so blessed!

Last week was a crazy week. It was our 7-month anniversary on Thursday, and of course Valentine's Day on Saturday. I decided that I would do my Valentine's surprise for Ben on Thursday since I wanted to do something while he was at work. I blew up a whole bunch of balloons (as many as I could fit in my tiny car), wrapped Ben's Valentine's present and drove over to his work. I was grateful that his car was parked a few spaces away from the front door, but it was well within the view of the front of the office. So, of course, while I was busy stuffing his car full of balloons, he came up to check the fax machine and caught me! I waved him off but it was too late! He'd seen the balloons. Oh well. I came home and did some cleaning, washed the dishes, took out the recyclables, sat down at my computer to check my email and noticed the diamond from my engagement ring was MISSING! I don't know if that's ever happened to anyone but I freaked out! The worst part was, I couldn't remember when I had last seen it! I went to the curb and picked through the recycling bin ... not there ... I took the traps out from under both sinks ... not there ... I looked through the trash ... not there ... I scoured the ground outside ... didn't find anything. By this point Ben had come home to try and console me (I was very upset). How do you find such a small thing?? We looked together inside and outside, then we drove back to his work and looked in the parking lot there. I was so sad. It had been one of my biggest fears to lose my diamond. Of course, I hadn't gotten around to getting insurance on it! I took the ring to the jeweler and told them what happened. They took the ring and said they would look at the setting and see if they could do something. I came home with every intention of continuing to look for my diamond, but I had a horrible headache from crying and the stress, so instead I feel asleep on my bed. When Ben came home from work we spend some more time outside with flashlights looking for sparkles in the grass. It's amazing how many things actually sparkle on the ground! But, we didn't find it. I was devastated, but by this point I has kind-of come to terms with the fact that it might have washed down the drain or otherwise might never be found, and I was ok with that. I simply felt grateful that I had lost a diamond instead of something that was irreplaceable, like my husband. We continued to pray and look for it over the course of the next few days, but didn't have anything to show for it. Yesterday I had some laundry to do, so I gathered it all together, shaking each article as I placed it in the laundry basket. Still no diamond. When I opened the lid of the washing machine, I felt impressed to run my fingers around under the agitator in the center of the drum. I had gotten nearly all the way around, when I felt and heard something small and hard slide out from under the agitator. I looked down in the drum and saw something white-looking nestled in one of the holes in the drum. I held my breath as reached in to pluck it out. Was that my diamond? Was it stuck in the hole? Would it come out? As my nimble fingers closed securely around the object, I exhaled, pulled the object out, and put it in my hand. Then I stared at my diamond in my palm and I was overcome with gratitude and relief. I had found it! With all the credit going to God, of course. I believe it was one of His tender mercies. Certainly I did not need that diamond, but it was meaningful to me for more reasons than one, and I'm grateful that God let me have it back. As for the ring, neither I nor the jeweler feel comfortable with putting the diamond back in that ring so we're going to see if the ringmaker will re-do the ring in a different metal or something of that nature. I'll have to keep ya'll posted. I'm just so grateful to have my diamond back, and of course, I'm shopping for renter's insurance.

Life, jobs, cars ...

I started my new job on Tuesday, hooray! It's kind-of a new job, kind-of old job, which is nice because I already mostly know what I'm doing. I'm working at Legacy Academy, the same company I worked for over the summer, but at a different location. I'm really enjoying it so far-- admittedly much more than I enjoyed substitute teaching. Plus, I'm working part-time, from 1:00-6:45 every day, so I can still have time in the morning to run errands and take care of my house. Since we've been working out every day, the laundry has begun multiplying exponentially and I feel like I just barely stay on top of it as it is!

In other news, Ben's car decided it didn't want to start on Wednesday morning. He jumped it with my car so he could get to work, but then in the afternoon it didn't want to start either. There was one guy left at work but after trying and failing to jump it, Ben called me to come pick him up! Now, a few years back while I was still living in Provo, I took a community education class in Auto Mechanics. I will forever be grateful for some of the basics that I learned in that class. Those skills have proved invaluable. (It helps that I have mechanical brain.) SO I knew that it would be helpful to diagnose the problem in case we couldn't get the car started. I left work a few minutes early, ran home to get my volt-meter (thanks, Dad!) and drove over to Ben's work. After attempting and failing to get a read from the battery on the voltmeter, I discovered that the battery terminals must have a cap on top or something. At any rate, they don't conduct electricity on the very top. I couldn't even get a good reading on the rings. I had to use the screws on the side to get any sort of voltage reading. When I finally got a reading it was around 11 volts. A good car battery should read around 12.5, or at least 12.0. So we got the jumper cables hooked up to the battery making sure to catch those screws on the side, and we got his car started in no time. Once the car was started, the voltage on the battery was over 14 volts, which was a pretty good indication that the alternator was working. So--we'll replace the battery and hopefully that'll do the trick! But we don't have the time or the light to do it together until Saturday so Ben's been driving one of his parents' cars while they are out of town. Hopefully it is just the battery. I can't think what else it would be. I guess it's my car's turn next. So far we've done the brakes and now the battery in Ben's car ... knock on wood ...

My new favorite book

I found this book at the library last week and since then have decided I need to get a copy for myself! Now, I love cooking and sometimes I like getting creative and exotic. But on our budget, we can't afford to buy fancy food most of the time. Not to mention, I'm always looking for cheap, healthy recipes that use ingredients I already have in my pantry and freezer. I've already made two recipes from this cookbook and I'm impressed with how simple and yummy they turned out to be! I highly recommend at least checking this cookbook out from the library.

Wrapping up January

It's nearly February! Ben has decided that he wants to celebrate Valentine's Day on February 12th (our 7-month anniversary) instead of February 14th. I'm not so convinced. Stay tuned.

I went to the doctor on Monday and he gave me a steroid pack to try and help my feet. I must say, so far it's helping! Staying off my feet has also been helping. I haven't really been working since before Christmas and that's helped a lot. I'm currently on the hunt for a new DESK job and I have a few leads so maybe I'll have some good news soon.

I'm also pleased to announce that my clothes are feeling looser! Hooray for working out! Even Ben is enjoying working out. Last week he said to me, "if I'd known working out was so easy, I would have done it a lot sooner!" He's losing weight too. We're thrilled to have made exercise a habit in our lives. We're working on eating more healthily--one itty bitty baby step at a time!

Happy Inauseation Day!

It's all going down in Washington today. I'm just waiting for Congress to change our national motto to: "In Government We Trust". The libs have done a great job of eradicating personal responsibility (unless you're rich), and destroying our faith in God. Oh what a great nation we've become ...

Boring boring boring ... did I mention that I'm bored?

My life is very boring lately. My plantar fascitis has gotten the better of me for the time being and so I have not been able to substitute teach. I'm actually in the process of searching for a new job, but I gotta say, there's not a whole lot out there right now. This I'm actually subbing for the school nurse. The pay is less, but it's a sit-down job and it will keep me busy.

Last night we went over to another couple's house for dinner and some games. They have a little 3-month old baby, so it was fun to play with him and chat with them. She called me around lunchtime to say they had decided to fire up the grill so we could bring whatever we wanted for that. Initially I was going to try and do spiedes (the grand Triple-cities tradition), but I didn't have any thawed chicken and they were out of chicken breasts at Sam's Club (go figure!) so I did shish-kabobs instead. I bought some low-fat kielbasa and skewered that with green peppers, tomato chunks, onions and fresh pineapple. If it's been a while since you've barbecued then you have probably forgotten how much better everything tastes when it's barbecued. Maybe our cave-men ancestors knew what they were doing when they cooked everything outside on the fire. Man those kabobs were tasty!! And pretty inexpensive too. I'm going to be using our landlord's grill a lot more--I can tell you. After dinner we played "Pirate's Cove" which I had never won in my life. I actually won last night, but it was purely because my husband chose me as the winner. When it came down to the final play, it was going to be me or the other gal, and my husband, smart man that he is, picked me. I don't know if I would have forgiven him otherwise!

New haircut!

I got my hair cut today and it looks fantastic! I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I have had so many bad haircuts in the last two years. I actually did a little research before making this appointment. It's so hard to find someone to cut hair that you can trust, so I went online and found this girl who had been given a really good review. I called and she had an appointment available for today so I said, "sign me up!" Here's a pic of my hot new do. You can see how layered the back of it is. I LOVE that because my hair is naturally so thick and layering took off a lot of that bulk. Now I will actually be able to style it.

Happy 6 Months!

Ben and I celebrated our 6-month anniversary yesterday. I can hardly believe it's been six months! I'm so grateful that I married the man that I did. He is so wonderful! AND, yesterday for dinner he made me chicken cordon bleu. I told him he's allowed to cook any time he likes!

How NOT to make a chimichanga

Step 1: Make your own special blend of meat and spices to go inside the chimichanga

Step 2: Warm a tortilla in the microwave for 20 seconds

Step 3: Place a generous portion of seasoned meat in tortilla and wrap securely

Step 4: Ignore husband's idea to secure chimichanga with toothpicks (as per Emeril, he says). Tell him, definitively, that you do not like to mess with toothpicks.

Step 5: Gently and lovingly place chimichanga on basket in deep fryer, seam-side down

Step 6: Carefully lower basket into 375 degree oil

Step 7: Watch in horror as the chimichanga floats to the surface of the boiling hot oil, flips over, and unravels with a flourish, exposing your once protected and very tasty meat blend to a fryer full of hot oil.

Step 8: Lift basket from oil

Step 9: Sadly discard the very greasy remains of a once-promising chimichanga


(And the moral of the story is ... listen to your husband when he's making sense!!)

Who needs a personal trainer?

I've come to the conclusion that personal trainers are overrated. Last Friday night at the gym we got cornered by the sales manager for the personal training program at LA Fitness and he signed us up for a free "consultation" on Saturday morning. After going through all the questions, "what is your fitness goal," "what is your biggest obstacle," he ran us through a couple of straining arm exercises. Ouch!! Then we sat down again and got the sales pitch. My favorite part of the conversation was:

Manager: (drawing two numbers on a piece of paper, 149 and 160) So, which price would you choose? (referring to the initial fee for getting started with a personal trainer)

Tabitha: Well, really neither. It doesn't fit into our budget.

Manager: Are you telling me that there's a price on your fitness?

Ben: I majored in economics in college. EVERYTHING has a price.

Manager: (Dumfounded) Okay, don't think about budget right now. Let's say you're going to buy clothes ...

Tabitha: (laughing) Yeah, clothes aren't in the budget right now.

Manger: Okay okay, so let's say you're going to buy gas. Which price would you choose, the lower one, right? You don't have a budget for gas, right? You need it!

Tabitha: Actually, we do have a limit for gas in our budget.

Manager: Ok food. You gotta buy food.

Ben: We have a budget for that too.

The guy just could not get over the fact that we couldn't pay $150 initiation fee and THEN $40 per session on top of that. Go figure!! Who DOES pay that is what I want to know. If you go 3 times a week, that's nearly $500 a month! However, we decided that we definitely needed to hit the weight machines, me to tone muscle and Ben to build muscle, so we started doing research on training and muscle groups. Then we figured, hey, we can do this ourselves! Both of us have come up with a schedule for training that we thing is going to work pretty well for us. So, who needs a personal trainer when I can do it myself?

More info on food storage

So just a couple of hours after blogging about food storage, I realized that my best friend out in Washington had been spending a lot of time recently researching food storage. She has found a brand new website that launched today, which is a collaboration between several food storage gurus. They are having some really neat givaways this week, and in general it looks to be a fantastic resource no matter what stage you are at with your food storage. At the very least, you should enter the drawing for the cool prizes!

Food Storage For Thought

Lately I've been thinking a lot about food storage and making sure our house is in order. Getting started with food storage is very intimidating, especially when you have next to no space to keep anything. When I first moved in, about 2 weeks before we got married, I managed to keep all the food in the kitchen, along with all of my pots, pans, bowls and other kitchen gadgets. If you know me, you know that's no small feat considering I used to sell Pampered Chef and I just LOVE to cook. So, I have a lot of kitchen "stuff".



Then when we got married we got more kitchen stuff of course, and I had to struggle to find places to put the new kitchen stuff and still have room for the food. At this point I decided to start keeping some of the extra cans of food in the 3x4 closet in our second bedroom/TV room. There were a few very small shelves in there, but with the other regular storage stuff it soon got too crowded in there. Finally we found a black steel shelving unit at Aldi for $60. Woohoo!! We got that set up in our kitchen/main room and BAM! Food storage became so much easier.



A couple of weeks later we noticed the same shelving unit at Aldi had gone on clearance for $30 so we bought another one and with permission, put it in our landlord's food storage room which happens to be just off our apartment.



I have 2 food storage goals for this new year:
1. Get our 3-month supply of everyday food in order
2. Implement a plan for water storage

In order to accomplish the 3-month supply, I've been compiling recipes with only a few "problematic" ingredients. Normally I like to cook with a lot of fresh ingredients, but in an emergency situation, there is the possibility of no fresh food available, so I've decided that I'll build the pantry ingredients into my pantry supply, and then find freeze-dried versions of the "problematic" ingredients. I've found that my most common problematic ingredients tend to be: celery, onions, eggs, and butter. All of those can be purchased freeze-dried. My mother-in-law gave us a bunch of wheat and other food storage for Christmas. Now it's just a matter of testing these recipes I've compiled to make sure that we can palate them once a week for 3 months.

Water storage is not proving as difficult as I thought it might. I'm planning on purchasing six to eight 5-gallon stackable containers for a start. These cost $8-$12 a piece, depending on the kind you get. I think 30 gallons of water would last the two of us 15-20 days, with minimal water for washing. A 55-gallon drum would be ideal, but we have nowhere to put one so we're sticking with the stackable 5-gallon.

I'd love to hear what your ideas are about food storage and any recipes you have found or creative ways to implement both short and long-term food storage!

What do you do on New Year's Day?

If you're me, you teach your husband how to change the brakes on your car. It's times like this that I realize I'm not your typical girl! For some reason something always goes wrong when I change the brakes. This time, after changing the front brake pads we pulled the rear tire off only to realize that they had given us the wrong brake pads. We went back to the store and exchanged the wrong ones for the right ones, only to end up putting the driver's side pads on the passenger side. I didn't realize they were side-specific! Actually, we put them on and took them off again about 3 times before finally figuring out how they went. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

Other than new brake pads, New Year's was pretty quiet this year. We spend a little time with some friends on New Year's Eve and that was fun.

Yesterday I bought some orthotics to put on my shoes. After trimming the edge I threw the sliver of foam at my cat and she went nuts with it. What a crazy cat!

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was really busy, but very wonderful. For the first time in nearly 2 1/2 years, all my siblings were together. We didn't have a lot of plain down-time, but we did get to spend time together and that was the important thing. My sister Samantha and her husband Kris brought their new baby and stayed for the entire week leading up to Christmas. We went to the park, we hung out at my house, we played Rock Band, we ate good food ... does it get much better than that? My parents arrived 4 days after my sister's family, so we had 3 very busy days all together as a family. We decided that taking a family portrait was a priority, and after much discussion and disagreement over how, when and where to do it, we all met at the Target photo studio. Considering there are only 13 people total with all my brothers and sisters and their children, our family is not as big as some families. But trying to fit 10 big people and 3 wiggly children into that small studio space was a challenge! Nevertheless, I think the picture we chose was pretty good. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to take another family portrait and that it kind of saddening to me. It's an end, I guess, but it's also a beginning. New lives, new families.

The other main activity that we did while everyone was together was a pizza "throwdown" (cookoff). I wouldn't mind if the pizza throwdown becomes a Christmas tradition! We ended up with 6 different pizzas which were all very good in their own right, except mine which was a veggie pizza and was cold by the time everyone got there! (Oh well!) Everyone got three votes, 5 points, 3 points, and 1 point and the pizza with the most votes won. Bet you can't guess who won ... well it wasn't me, I already said my pizza was cold. My sister-in-law gave me 1 point out of pity I think. Actually, my dear husband Ben won the pizza throwdown this year! He made a "Bodocious Barbecue Pie" the secret to which is our own exclusive technique of mixing regular tomato spaghetti sauce with a little bit of barbecue sauce. So it's neither plain tomato sauce nor plain barbecue sauce. If you like barbecue pizza and you've never tried it, you really should try the mixture! Of course he put bacon and chicken on it and who doesn't like a little bacon? I think a lot of times bacon on pizza is like having a trump card. Jim Gaffigan would agree with me. "Bibbity, bobbety, BACON!"

After Samantha, Kris, and Marin left on Christmas Eve, we made gingerbread houses which was so much fun to do with the kids. Actually we made one gingerbread house, and one gingerbread train. Austin and Jacob worked on the house, Scott and I worked on the train. Emily went back and forth between the two, picking off the candy we had just carefully placed. It was so funny!

Christmas day we went to visit my late grandmother's cousin David, who lives with his wife Phyllis up near Canton, GA. It was a long drive but I had not been up there before, even though they have been down here several times! It was good to see them and to see where the live. We ate Christmas dinner there and hung out for a bit before heading home.

Altogether, Christmas this year was wonderful. I'm so grateful for the family that I have living close to me and I'm sad that the rest of my family lives so far away. At this time of year you truly realize that it's not the gifts or the decorations that make Christmas so special, it's savoring precious moments with beloved family members.

Christmas pictures first, details later

Sick Ramblings

For nearly 2 weeks I've had a scratchy throat and slight sinus discharge. (I know you all really wanted to know that.) For several mornings in a row, I've actually woken up with a slightly sore throat. I don't like this very much because it has severly cut down on my exercise time. I've been trying to mostly go swimming every time I go to the gym (because my feet are usually killing me by the end of the day), but I'm paranoid about swimming with a scratchy throat and extra mucous in my sinuses! My mom always used to tell me that would make me more sick. Or maybe it really has made me more sick in the past ... I can't remember. Perhaps it's one of those things that's more psychological than physiological. I've decided that sometimes paranoia can in fact make you sick. Well yesterday I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to be sick anymore, so I went to Sam's Club on my way home from work and bought a gallon of orange juice. I'm not so sure that orange juice has been medically proven to help you when you're sick, but for me I've noticed that chugging orange juice really does help me get better. So I drank a tall glass of orange juice, texted my hubby at 5:15, told him I was laying down for a nap, and asked him to bring something home for dinner because I just couldn't cook. I put my earplugs in a zonked out, dreaming about very strange people. I had just gotten to this part in my dream where some random guy was hitting on me and then I thought he put his arm around me but then I woke up and realized it was Ben who had just gotten home and came in to wake me up. I was glad I hadn't slapped the guy! Then he told me it was already 7:30! I had slept for a long and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep that night because that's what usually happens if I nap at all during the day. Nevertheless, I was sleepy again at midnight and so I went to bed and slept again! I'm pleased to say that I woke up this morning with no soreness in my throat which is a promising sign as my family all starts getting into town this week and I sure don't want to be even the least bit sick for that!! I'll just keep drinking my orange juice and sleeping for 10 hours a day and I should have this thing knocked out soon ... I hope ...

So busy!

Life has been a little crazy lately, I admit. Last week it seemed like we had something going on every night. On top of that I've been doing a little stint of long-term subbing. Altogether I'll have been in the same classroom for a week and a half. And believe me--that's PLENTY. I'm not sure I want to do any more long-term subbing. It's really stressful and I really hate that feeling of dread when I get up in the morning, not wanting to go to work!

Our choir sang at Stake Conference this past Sunday. I was really impressed with how the songs came together. One song we had already sung a couple of months ago and it was super easy. The other song was a medley of "The First Noel" and "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth". It is such a beautiful song. If you have never heard it you should really look it up. It has become my favorite Christmas song. We ended up with nearly 35 people singing in the choir and I think we had some angels too! I thought that is sounded beautiful and several people commented on how good it sounded too. I'm really having a lot of fun with this calling as ward choir director.

After gaining 15 pounds in the last (ahem) 4 months, (what about that newleywed 19???) I decided to finally join a gym a week and a half ago. I decided working out at the gym was no longer a budget luxury, it was a budget necessity! We have an LA Fitness just down the street from us but when I went there a month ago, I wasn't ready to pay $45/month plus the registration fee. But after going around to some other places and finding myself less than impressed, I went back to the LA Fitness and discovered they were running a deal for $30/month plus a registration fee. "Sign me up," I said!! So I've been going pretty regularly for the last week and a half and I'm really enjoying it. It's a kind-of "me" time when I get to take time just for myself. As much as I can, I try to get some treadmill/bike/elliptical and also get some swimming in. Then if I have a couple of extra minutes I get in the hot tub! It's really relaxing most days and I like the feeling that at least I'm not getting any fatter!

I'm getting veeeerrrry excited for Christmas, not for presents, but for seeing my family! My sister and her husband are flying in from Las Vegas with their little munchkin next week and they're staying until Christmas Eve. My parents and brothers from NY come in a week from Saturday and so we'll have the whole family together for the first time in over 2 years. My sister and her husband have not met Ben yet so that will be fun! I still don't really have Christmas decorations up in our apartment--not because I don't have time or desire, but we really don't have a budget for extra Christmas decorations this year. Oh well. I plug in my tree as much as I can and enjoy that!

We went to Ben's holiday work party last Friday. Ben works for a member of the church and it's a really great working environment with great people, both members and non-members. We had a catered dinner from one of my favorite Tex-Mex restaurants out here. I ended up saving the secretary's life with the Heimlich maneuver. She was choking on a chip and as inadequate as I felt, I was the closest person around and she was looking at me for help so I just set my plate down and grabbed her around the middle! After only 2 thrusts she could breathe again. I am grateful for the first aid training that I had a year and a half ago, and I'm also grateful that the chip probably wasn't stuck very far down!

They gave all the employees generous gift cards, and we got one for Best Buy so we went and bought another guitar for our Rock Band so we can have 4 people playing it. We figured with Christmas coming up and things that we could have some fun with that. And we're hoping to make some closer friendships with some of the other young couples in the ward. For some reason people's busy lives always seem to get in the way of get-togethers, but we'll figure it out somehow. Well, I've got bread in the oven and dishes to do. A woman's work is never done ... A revoir (or however that goes)!!

What a lovely time we had

I fell more in love with my husband over Thanksgiving. He was off work Thursday through Sunday so instead of the normal 2 weekend days we get to spend together, we got to spend 4 glorious days together! It's the most time we've spent together since our honeymoon I think. It is so fun to wake up each morning knowing that you are married to your best friend, FOREVER!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We spent the actual Thanksgiving Day at a friend's house--well, they're kind-of family. It's Ben's sister's husband's family who live just minutes away from where we live now. We've done a couple of things with them already, mostly related to watching Auburn football games, so we had already met everyone who would be there. Ben's brother-in-law's step-father is an awesome cook and so he had made such a variety of dishes and enough to feed an army! It was crazy! We had deep-fried turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with mascarpone, baked beans, candied sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, salad, amish noodles, asparagus with tomatoes, cornbread dressing, regular dressing, and the list went on and on. And the desserts ... it was a dessert lover's paradise. It was all so good! I have to say though, I was not a huge fan of the deep-fried turkey. I thought it was rather tough. I think that's probably because it cooks so fast. About 3 1/2 minutes per pound apparently.

After dinner we played the Rock Band on the Wii. We actually have Rock Band at our house, although it's for X-Box but for some reason we haven't played it in since we got married. We decided we need to bust it out a little more often. Altogether we had a great time.

The desserts!

The spread

Drowning in hot oil

Grandpa Phil frying the turkey

Rock Band

Us on Thanksgiving--so thankful for each other!

Have you been to the temple lately?

Just a friendly reminder. If you don't recognize either of these guys, chances are it's been a while for you. Go soon; go often! You need the blessings of being in the temple.

Prop 8: Some final comments

In response to my last post on Prop 8, I am offering a few links that may be of interest to people who wish to understand the position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with respect to same-sex marriage and the passage of Proposition 8 in California.

This link from the Church's newsroom provides and extensive commentary on why we support the protection of traditional marriage.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage

The next link is also from the Church newsroom and is a response to the passage of Proposition 8 in California.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-responds-to-same-sex-marriage-votes

This last link is also from the Church newsroom and provides some comments from other organizations regarding the backlash aimed at our church following the passage of Proposition 8.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/measured-voices-provide-reason-support-amidst-proposition-8-reaction

The information from these links is quite comprehensive and conveys the message in far more eloquence and depth than I with my limited capacities could. But, I add my testimony to that of others before me, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a newlywed, that marriage is ordained of God and is sacred. The marriage relationship as defined by God has the capacity to bring the greatest joy of any possible earthly relationship. We need to protect marriage as the fundamental unit of our society.

Quick post

I'm on my way to work in a few short minutes. I am subbing for half a day today. I'm so excited for Thanksgiving week, other than the fact that there's almost no work this week which means less income, but I guess I'll just have to enjoy my days off! We're going to Ben's brother-in-law's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. For the last two years I have made Thanksgiving dinner, or at least a big portion of it, so it will be nice to have a year off. I am however going to make jello-pretzel salad to share with everyone. I haven't had it for a long time and I'm really excited about it. I'll post the recipe later if I have time. It's a mixture of cream cheese, whipped cream, and strawberry-jello goodness, all on a baked pretzel crust. How good does that sound? I still can't believe that it's already time for Thanksgiving and that one month from tomorrow is Christmas! Unreal how fast time flies. Saturday we got to spend some time cleaning our house. I got everything picked up, and the kitchen cabinets rearranged so I could get some stuff off the counter, and Ben even cleaned the dust off the fans! But it seems like no matter how frequently I clean, by the end of the day there's papers and other things all over my newly dusted and once clutter-free surfaces. I know what you're thinking, Austin, "just wait till you have kids!!". Yeah--we are enjoying our kid-free days at the moment, thank you very much! We actually had my sister-in-law, niece and nephew over on Saturday for lunch and it was very fun. I made some fantastic ice cream cookie sandwiches that are oh so yummy! We had fun playing with the kids, as always. Well, gotta go--time to leave for work! Catch ya'll later!

Proposition 8: A Mormon’s Perspective

I admit I am saddened by the negative and hateful response toward my church following last week’s passage of Proposition 8 in California. I can understand why people are upset. For some, their lifestyle has been rejected by a majority of voters, for others, they may have friends or relatives who are gay. Still others have simply come to accept the gay lifestyle as acceptable and feel that to deny homosexuals the right to be married is to deny them their civil rights. Trying to put myself into other people’s shoes, I can understand why they feel that way. I cannot, however, change my mind about my position, but I do hope that some who now see Mormons as bigots and an enemy to progress can perhaps take a second to understand why we supported Proposition 8.

Firstly, I hope people will understand that the traditional family is the most important thing to a Mormon besides his faith in God. We believe that families can be together forever, and we do everything we can to strengthen our own families, and help teach others how to strengthen their family relationships so that they can enjoy the blessings of a strong and happy family. When God created the earth, he also created Adam and Eve, and married them for eternity if they would be faithful to each other and to God’s commandments. Then, instead of creating all of us individually and placing us one-by-one into the Garden of Eden, he gave Adam and Eve a commandment—to have a family. Thus the family became the fundamental unit of our human society. God is the one that set up the concept of the family, not the Mormons. We believe this principle and commandment remains in force today, and that God intends for His children to continue to be born into families. In 1995 in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” a Prophet of God declared, “Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.” This is an enormous part of God’s great plan—that His beloved children should be born into homes with a father and a mother who have committed themselves to each other through the marriage covenant and who love and rear their children in righteousness. Same-sex marriage has no part in that plan.

Feeling as strongly as we do about the history and eternal nature of families, we simply cannot ever support same-sex marriage and in fact, we must strongly oppose it. It is not because we hate gay people or wish to impose our religious views on the world. (Although, if the world of its own accord would accept Christ’s gospel, it would indeed be a much happier place). We do our best to be accepting of all people as we are all God’s children and deserve to be treated as such. But that does not mean that we must support or even simply allow same-sex marriage in the name of tolerance. Acceptance of people and acceptance of behavior are two separate issues, and something that many people have trouble differentiating.

I know that my words will convince very few if any who are passionately devoted to their cause. Only the Spirit of God can truly convert a person. But if I can shed a little light on a very touchy subject, and soften a few hearts, then my mission will have been achieved. I do not wish for there to be violent disagreements between the sides. Let us hope that when anger subsides, we will be able to find peace and understanding.

(For more details on the official stance of the LDS church on same-gender attraction, please refer to: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/public-issues/same-gender-attraction)

Good Saturday

Today was a good Saturday. I feel like I got a lot accomplished. I made pancakes for breakfast, tutored for an hour, we ran some errands, picked up a bookcase at Ben's parents' house, moved some of Ben's books, went grocery shopping, baked a cake, cleaned the house, and watched some football. That's a lot for one day! This week has been pretty productive also. I worked 4 days, which was also every day that the schools were open. (They were closed on Tuesday because some schools in the county we used as polling locations.)

I found out last Saturday that our choir is supposed to sing in Stake Conference 4 weeks from tomorrow. Yikes. Let's hope that more folks decide to show up for practice tomorrow!

Well, it's late and I'm going brain-dead so, let's call it an evening!

I'm back!

I know I know, I took a very long hiatus from blogging. Somehow it seems like when I don't blog for a couple of days in a row, I don't feel like I can really sit down without blogging ALL of what's been going on. This keeps going for a couple of weeks until I basically forget everything that's been going on and figure I'll start afresh.

Yesterday was decision day in our country. I couldn't wait until too late to vote, so I showed up at the polls around 9:30. I was there for an hour and 20 minutes, and as I stood in line with over 100 other American citizens waiting to cast their vote, I felt a huge sense of pride for our country. Despite the pessimism I had felt about the future of this country, (especially if it was to be put into the hands of a certain Senator from Illinois), it was inspiring to see so many people waiting in line, feeling the immense responsibility and importance of choosing the next leader of the greatest country on earth. To be honest, I'm not sure why so many people were able to place their faith in a man we as a nation hardly know. The impression that I get is that so many are simply dissatisfied with the way things are, and they saw John McCain as "more of the same". In fact, I think Obama ran his campaign very well. All the platform he really needed was: "change ... change ... change ..." and "we need change", and 6 million Americans fell in lock step. But the problem is that promises of change are just that--promises. Does anyone really know what Obama will do in the White House?

Despite my previous pessimism, I am feeling strangly optimistic today. Although Barack Obama was not my chosen candidate, good things have and will come out of this election. While I dislike every platform he ran on, I hope Mr. Obama can be successful and do good things for this country. Only time will tell. If nothing else, there's only 2 years until we can return conservatism to Washington.

Super Sunday

Why is it Super Sunday? I don't know--I just liked the alliteration. We ate both meals in bed today. I told Ben he shouldn't move too much and he didn't argue with me on that point. He's been in bed nearly all day. It smells like pancake syrup in the bedroom now but oh well.

I got the baking bug tonight. I'm just addicted to baking--I can't stop! Despite the fact that we're trying to keep Ben on low-fat foods, I just really wanted to make cookies tonight. But I decided to get creative and I made up a new cookie recipe. I used whole wheat AND oatmeal for these cookies so if you want some more whole grains in your cookies, try this recipe. VERY tasty, by the way.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Whole Wheat

Sift together:
1 C. whole wheat flour
1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream well:
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. canola oil
1 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. white sugar

Add and mix well:
2 eggs, 1 at a time
1 tsp. almond extract

Add:
1 C. oatmeal

Mix until blended well

Slowly add previously sifted dry ingredients until just blended. Don't overmix.

Add 1 1/2-2 cups mixed chocolate chips. I used a combination of white and semi-sweet.

Bake at 375 until just brown around the edges--about 8 or 9 minutes.

I could hardly believe there was whole wheat flour in this recipe. You could probably even mess with the ratio of whole wheat to all-purpose flour and have more whole wheat than all-purpose. Well, that's all she wrote! Enjoy!

A Long Thursday

We've had a bit of excitement in our house this week. At 4:45 Thursday morning Ben woke me up with a horrible pain in his upper right abdomen. He just couldn't get comfortable, and after doing some research on the internet I thought he was probably looking at kidney stones or gallstones. We got dressed and headed over to the emergency room via his parents' house, where his dad and uncle Larry were able to give him a blessing. The emergency room was completely empty so we were seen almost immediately. Not that it made the whole process much faster. The ER doctor came in and after a bunch of poking and prodding decided that It was probably gallstones, but that they needed to do an ultrasound to be sure. After that the nurse came in and said that Ben couldn't have any pain medication until after the ultrasound and that someone was coming in a few minutes to take him to ultrasound. An hour later, they finally did come and take him to ultrasound. When he came back, Ben said that the technician found gallstones, and the doctor came back a few minutes later and said that it was gallstones and Ben would need surgery to get his gallbladder out. We asked if he could have some pain medication and an hour later someone finally came to give him some meds. To make a long story short, they admitted him into the observation unit of the hospital and he finally got into surgery at about 5:30 that evening. When he got back from surgery he was coherent and feeling much more comfortable. They did the surgery laproscopically, making only 3 small incisions. Apparently his gallbladder was completely blocked with a stone about 1 centimeter in diameter. No wonder he was in so much pain! He spent the night in the hospital and came home yesterday morning. He's really doing very well. He's a little more sore today than he was yesterday. We had to go to the grocery store yesterday to buy some more low-fat ingredients. With the removal of his gallbladder (which stores bile--the stuff that breaks down the fats in the food you eat) we're not sure how he'll tolerate fatty stuff. So at least for the next two weeks he's on a low-fat diet. Although he didn't feel too much discomfort from all the walking around yesterday, I think he's feeling it a little more today. He'll probably go back to work Monday since all he has to do is sit at a desk and work. Altogether, we feel very blessed. It could have been much worse. Ben had a very skilled surgeon and he's recovering very well. We're so grateful for all the prayers in our behalf. Trust me, we've felt them.

Making decisions

So this whole subbing thing isn't working out as well as I thought it would. Instead of working 20 days a month like I thought I would, I'm working about half of that. When I went one week subbing 1 1/2 days, the next week subbing 4 days and the next week subbing 2 days, I decided enough was enough. The main reason why I wanted to sub was to open the doors to potential teaching jobs. For better or for worse, the doors just aren't opening right now, so I've decided to move on from that, for now. I'm still planning on getting my teaching credentials and possibly start teaching later on down the road, but for right now, I'm going to explore other avenues. Initially I thought I would just go ahead and get another full-time job. I just couldn't bear the thought of leaving home at 6:30am and not getting home until 6:30pm, so I began looking for full-time administrative jobs here in the area. I didn't find a whole lot and I wasn't feeling really motivated either. Last week I went for a walk in the park and I realized that getting a full-time, hum-drum job wasn't really what I wanted to do. I realized that I wanted desperately to explore my talents and passions: teaching, creativity and music. I have an opportunity (through networking) to teach science lessons at a couple of local preschools. I also have a piano, and with a little brushing up I could teach piano lessons. In addition I happen to be quite smart and there's got to be some people out there looking for math/science tutoring. It took me about a week of going back and forth, weighing the pros and cons, discussing my options with friends, but I've finally decided to follow my passions. I think my mom summed it up best when she said, "what do you have to lose?" Well, I realized, absolutely nothing. So, yesterday I put an ad on Craigslist for tutoring, I sent out a proposal for the science lessons, and I'm planning to make up some little flyers for piano lessons. I've already had one response about the tutoring. It's all coming together and I'm very excited and happy. I'm especially grateful for my wonderful and supportive husband without whom I would not be able to do this so easily. Despite the fact that I was initially very depressed and angry that teaching has not working out, I think the Lord has blessed my life and given me an opportunity to bless others with the talents and gifts which He has blessed ME with.

More food experiments

Sometimes I think I should just turn this into a cooking blog. I end up talking about food half the time anyway!! Last night we had my in-laws over for dinner and I decided to make the cheesecake I've been drooling over for weeks; ever since I saw it on a Food Network Show. The cheesecake is called The Ultimate Cheesecake for very good reason--it's the best homemade cheesecake I've ever had. You can get the recipe HERE. You absolutely have to use room temperature cream cheese or it will be lumpy. Here's how it turned out. And yes--I made that, from SCRATCH.





I also decided to get a little creative when I tried to find something to serve the grapes in. I didn't have a medium sized serving bowl so I found this vase and made a grape arrangement.

The Bread Drug

I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't get much better than a slice of freshly baked bread. Very rarely do I ever close my eyes and sigh with satisfaction while eating anything, but this week I made some bread that generated such a reaction. Ben LOVES bread, and his mom spoiled him by making homemade bread nearly his whole life. I don't have the patience to make bread unless I can use my stand mixer to knead it or else the breadmaker. I actually started this bread in the breadmaker with the intent of shaping it into loaves once the dough was made, but it was just too much flour for the breadmaker to handle, so I ended up having to take it out and finish it in my mixer. I also modified the recipe slightly, but the base recipe comes from The Basics and More Cookbook. It was so good that I want to share it with you.

Light Wheat Bread
2 T. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. honey
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 tsp. salt
1/3 C. potato flakes (this keeps the bread soft like a dough enhancer would)
5 C. white flour
1 C. wheat flour

Combine warm water, sugar, honey, oil and yeast. Combine flour, salt and potato flakes in mixer. Add wet ingredients, stirring with paddle attachment until thoroughly blended and dough doesn't stick to the side of the bowl. If needed add a little more water or flour to get the right consistency. Switch to dough-hook and knead dough on low speed for 7-8 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can knead it by hand but you have to knead it for the full 7-8 minutes or it just won't be the same. Let rise twice in warm place until double. The first time punch the dough down. The second time, gently place the dough on a cutting board and divide equally into 3 parts. Grease 3 bread pans and gently shape dough into the loaf pans. If you do this right, the dough will retain quite a bit of the air once it is in the pan. Let the dough rise in the pans until it peeks over the top and then bake at 325 for 10 minutes and 300 for 25 minutes. Of course, you should have a piece the second it comes out of the oven!

Enjoy!

It's been a boring couple of weeks. Last week I subbed four out of five days, this week I haven't been called in yet. I've actually been feeling like I should start looking for other full-time employment so I've updated my resume and I'm putting out some feelers to see what's available.

I've realized (with a little help from my spare tire) that since I got married, I've been very very sedentary. I think partially it's because I'm still in newlywed phase and just wanting to be together with my husband all of the time. The other reason is that my husband's goal in life is to exert as little physical effort as possible so I indulge him sometimes and we just stay home. Last night though, I decided that we needed to get OUT of the house. It took a lot of convincing and a little actual physical pulling, but I got my dear husband out the door and we went to a nearby park where we sat on a bench swing for an hour or so and just talked. When we're at home we read books or watch TV so it was so nice to put that all aside and just talk. I'm not looking forward to the end of daylight savings time when it will be dark at 6:00 or 7:00!

I worked on another sewing project this weekend. As the Ward Choir Director, I always have to carry my hymnbook and other music. I've been getting really tired of lugging it around by hand, however, so I decided I needed to make myself a little tote bag. I used 2 placemats for the main bag part and an old leather braided belt for the handles. After having a huge war with invisible thread (the thread won), and one broken needle, I finally got the handles attached. Sewing the placemats together to form the bag was a much easier process. Here's the final product:

An Ode to My Best Friend

My best friend Kylene recently graduated with her Master's Degree and having just passed her boards, is now a certified Physician's Assistant! I'm so excited for her that I can hardly contain myself. More than excited, however, I am incredibly proud. Kylene has always been a "go-getter". When she wants something done, she devises a plan and brings it to fruition. Being a bit of a flake myself sometimes, I am so impressed with people who seem to know what they want and how to get it!

Kylene and I met during our freshman year out at BYU. In fact we were roommates, along with 4 other girls. It was apparent right away that we would be very good friends and after just a few months we were practically inseparable. She left me after freshman year and moved to Hawaii where she attended BYU Hawaii, and I stayed in Utah. She came back to Provo for one summer and moved into my apartment and we had so much fun being together again--it was like we'd never spent any time apart at all. (It's still like that). A year later, she decided to go on a mission, and she left before I got to see her. While she was on her mission she kept writing me letters encouraging me to go. Although I had been waffling back and forth for some time, I finally decided to go on a mission. I turned in my papers without telling her, and when I got my call I photocopied it and sent it along with a letter to Taiwan, where she was serving. I wish I could have seen her reaction to my surprise, but even though I wasn't there, her next letter said it all. She was so excited for me! I left for Ukraine just a few months before Kylene returned from her mission. By the time I got back from my mission she had moved back to Provo and was working as a CNA, trying to decide what to do with herself and her education. I moved in with her and we got to be roommates again! We had an absolute blast this year, especially since most of our other roommates were so cool. Kylene told me how she wanted to become a Physician's Assistant but she wasn't sure she could get into a program anywhere and so she was ready to settle for a nursing degree. I knew she could do PA school, because Kylene is one of the smartest and most dedicated people I know. But my confidence alone wasn't enough. In the midst of filling out nursing school applications, however, Kylene realized she couldn't settle for anything less than what she really wanted, and decided that whatever the outcome, she would apply to PA school. I remember when she told me she would pursue being a Physician's Assistant, I was so excited! I had always known she could do it, I was just waiting for her to realize it! After working in Provo as a CNA for a year, she moved down to Las Vegas to live with her brother, and continued working as a CNA. She completed the application process and soon was receiving phone calls from several schools wanting to interview her. She stopped in Provo once on her way to a couple of the interviews so I got to see my dear friend again. When all was said and done, she had several acceptance letters, but finally decided to go to school in Philadelphia. It turned out to be quite fortuitous, as she met her husband while she was at grad school. Now, after two years of tears and laughter, dilligence and disappointment, she has graduated from PA school and passed her boards.

I am so proud of Kylene and all that she has accomplished. Her graduation is truly a victory not only for her but for those of us, her friends, who know and love her. Her journey to this moment has inspired me in ways that she may never even know. In a society that struggles to understand the value of education, I am so proud to call this accomplished and wonderful woman my best friend.

Putting my creative talents to some use ...

My computer decided to die on me last Saturday.  Luckily, only $15 and one power cord later, we are back online.  It could have been so much worse.

I've been spending a lot of time lately watching the cooking channel and HGTV.  In fact, they're the only channels I really watch on TV.  (They're even kind-of addicting).  I've been getting so many good ideas that I just can't stop rearranging furniture or artwork or trying new food dishes.  Creativity both in cooking and decorating is a real passion of mine.  Recently I rearranged the TV room by moving the loveseat to the wall directly across from where it was sitting.  It wasn't so much that I thought it looked better there, but it was more functional for me and my optimal television viewing distance.  Plus it hides the drum-set from Rock Band that didn't have anywhere else to go.  Moving the loveseat opened up a space and so I decided to put a medium-height dresser there to help with the lack of storage space in the apartment.  This particular dresser belongs to the apartment, but when I got it in place I simply couldn't bear to look at it.  It was such and awful slate-blue color and it was dull and chipped in places, so I asked my landlord's permission to paint it.  They said it was fine as long as I didn't paint it a strange color, so I painted it a dark royal semi-glossy blue and I must say, I am quite pleased with the results.

Before: (with the drawers already removed)

When all was said and done:

Good old fashioned Southern barbecue

Very soon after moving to Georgia from Utah, I was invited to a gathering where I was told there would be "barbecue" for dinner.  Like anyone who comes from the northern side of the Mason-Dixon line, I assumed there would be hot dogs and hamburgers or something of that nature, and I was sure it was going to be barbecued on the grill.  I could not have been more wrong.  In the South, pulled pork on a bun and slathered with your favorite barbecue sauce (a.k.a. "barbecue") is not only a classic dish, but a staple.  My husband has had barbecue on the brain for several weeks now and after watching "Throwdown With Bobby Flay" where Flay was scorched by a lady barbecue champion, we were decided.  Barbecue would be on the menu!  We decided to make it in the crock-pot, as we don't have a smoker and it seemed to be the best way, and so we bought a 10 lb. bone-in Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder) and last Friday night at about 11pm I put a spice rub on it and set it in the crock-pot (fat side up) all by it's lonesome self.  It cooked all night and I think I woke up about 6:45 and the whole house smelled like meat.  I couldn't get back to sleep after that.  When I took it out of the crock pot it just fell apart.  It was so tender and juicy (and fatty).  It didn't take very long to pull it!  At around 11:30 my brother and his family came over for lunch.  Man did we have a lot of pork!  Ben likes a mustard-based (South Carolina) barbecue sauce, but I like the traditional tomato-based barbecue sauce, so we had some of each.  I had made some coleslaw the night before, and traditionally you put the coleslaw right on top of the pork and sauce.  I like it with the coleslaw on the sandwich, Ben does not.  (Go figure.)  I wish I had taken a picture of the sandwich once I got it made.  It was beautiful!  And it tasted even better.  Everyone ate well, with 10 lbs. of meat, and we still had half of it left.

We had a fabulous time chatting with each other and after lunch, I decided to make some cookies.  Of course my neice and nephew wanted to help, so here we are making some cookies which turned out AWESOME!

So the verdict is, we need to make pulled pork more often.  In fact, I was watching a cooking show online and the gal said that pork shoulder is actually a really good bargain--it's only about $1 per lb.  Considering how far that goes ...  So, here's to pulled pork and some good ol' fashioned Southern barbecue!

Sewing Projects

For our wedding, my mother-in-law bought us a sewing machine. I like to joke with Ben about how his parents like me better than they like him. For the record, he agrees with me. Case in point--sewing machine. Ben, I'm sure, will never use the sewing maching, so essentially, OUR wedding present was for me. I was so excited to get a sewing machine, as I've always wanted to have one for my home. It is a Singer Confidence, but since I don't have anywhere to put it, it sits on the broken chair at the foot of our kitchen table when I am not using it.

(I love Kisya in the corner of this picture--she cracks me up because
she is always right in the middle of whatever I am doing!)

The first thing I did when I got the sewing machine was to try to figure out how to use it. There were some quick-start directions and then there was the whole manual. Well, I don't have the patience for the full manual, so I read the quick-start manual and wound a bobbin with black thread. I should probably say that I did have an idea of the basics of sewing because my mom had a sewing machine, and, after all, even if they don't teach Home and Careers in schools any more, back in the 90s, they still did. I always begged my mom to teach me more interesting and complicated aspects of sewing but she would never let us touch her sewing machine because she didn't want us to break it. Understandable, but I always give her flack about it whenenver the topic moves to sewing machines. And then I like to remind her that when it comes to stories about breaking sewing machines, she takes the cake. But, that is a story for another day. So, I had an idea of what I was doing, but I didn't really have anything to practice on except for an old tablecloth so I sewed about 4 inches of a straight line on the tablecloth, called it good, and decided to hem some slacks. Well, it didn't go too badly. On the first pantleg, I ended up only about half and inch lower than where I started when I got all the way around. Who's going to be looking at my ankles anyway? And even if you were looking, unless you knew there was a flaw on the inside of the cuff, you wouldn't notice it. I did much better on the second pantleg, ending up only a milimeter or so below the start.

For my next sewing project, I decided to make my cat a bed. I got really ambitious on this project though because I decided to cut the letters of her name out of that old tablecloth and sew them on to the fleece top of the bed. Well suffice it to say, I haven't figured out how to do that very well. The lines around the letters are ... uhm ... pretty crooked, but you can't really tell unless you examine it and Kisya doesn't really care. I made the outside like a pillowcase and then I put two layers of batting inside. I still have yet to sew it closed. I was going to put some cellophane inside the bed so that it would make a cool sound. I thought she would like that but when I got it all together and stuffed the cellophane inside she didn't like it after all. So out came the cellophane. Kisya had been sleeping underneath the kitchen table. (I know this because of my midnight trips to the bathroom.) So I figured that was as good a place as any for this little bed. The second I put it under there she was all over it. She LOVES it, and that makes me feel good. The cool thing too is that even when we have to move the bed (like when we have guests over and we want to eat at the table), she still seeks it out and lays on it. :-) Maybe one day I'll decide how I want to sew it closed. It's not like it's falling apart because it's just 4 layers of thin batting, and I want to be able to wash it ... Well, while I'm deciding, here's some pictures.

Aching Feet

My feet hurt so bad every day when I come home from work now.  It would probably help me to exercise, but I haven't quite figured out how to come up with the motivation to exercise when my feet hurt.  Maybe I need to find an exercise where I actually don't need to use my feet.  Good luck with that one.

The reason why my feet are hurting is that subbing is really picking up.   One school in particular has been calling me in nearly every day.  Actually they admitted that they were spying on me yesterday and that I was doing a good job so they know they can call me back.  That made me feel good that I get a good report.  I don't know what the prospects are for getting a job this year, or even next year.  The economy has slowed so much that people aren't moving in.  In fact, enrollment is down at nearly every school.  The county is probably going to have to move some teachers around once the final counts are in sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I guess there could always be a miracle ... (Let's pray for a miracle.)  I do enjoy subbing, although I enjoy teaching a lot more.  When you're subbing your paycheck is a lot smaller, first of all, but secondly, a lot of times the kids are doing independent work such as a worksheet or answering questions from their textbook.  This is great if I want to catch up on my reading, but I don't get to exercise my true passion, which is teaching.  I'm going to start doing another job too, just some contract work; teaching small science lessons at a couple of preschools.  It'll be fun to actually teach some science and also bring in a little more income.

Well, I guess I'd better get back to doing something productive ... No rest for the weary!