Is it a Sinus Infection or Not?

Over a month ago I went to the doctor because I thought I had a sinus infect and an ear infection. I had neither, although my sinuses were full of junk and my ear was full of fluid. I got a steroid shot that got me all better in about 24 hours. About 2 weeks later I went back to the doctor for the same thing and she determined it must be allergies which is why it came back.  Today I really want to go back to the doctor (or to a different one?) to find out if it really is just allergies or if I do have some sort of sinus infection. I hate being all congested and the sinus pressure is INSANE. The cough and sore throat aren't too great either. If it really is just allergies then I would love medicine that actually helps, but maybe I just haven't been on my Singulair long enough to help it get better? I'd rather not be sick still when we head away for Christmas!

On a much happier note... Since we are traveling for Christmas there were a few gifts we wanted to open early and not take. The other day Chris had me open one of those gifts... one that is a solid 6 pounds and would've made keeping within the weight limit for our baggage tricky. It is an item I have been wanting for a while now. The Complete Americas Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2012. I've been flipping through it since Friday and am so excited to come back from our trip so I can try some of the recipes. I would've made something this week before we go, but we've got some perishable items that need to be eaten first. I love the tips they give, the pictures, the recommendations for kitchen appliances and tools, as well as some brand recommendations for food items. The things I have had out of that cookbook have been incredible, and I'm excited for even more successes!

They Came!

Mom, Dad & Brad came to visit last week. It was rad to have them here! We got to do some touristy stuff that I hadn't done (ok, so the Alamo was the only one I had seen). I didn't take a TON of pictures, but here are some of the pictures I did take! They didn't get added in the proper order, but oh well!

The last full day they were here we went bowling! 

We went down to The Riverwalk, went on a riverboat tour to see the lights! The orange hood is Brad's head, sorry :)

One of the very first things we did was take them to Rudys, which is our favorite (also the only one I've been to) BBQ here in Texas! I didn't take a picture of the food, but here is the trash... all the brisket, sausage, ribs, creamed corn and coleslaw is gone!

I didn't have pictures from The Alamo, or us watching the BYU v. Hawaii game, or going to church, or the other food we ate... I know Mom had a bunch more pictures that she took--of the steakhouse we went to, of us celebrating her bowling score at Dairy Queen (had to get some "medicine"), and possibly other stuff? I just don't remember!

It was a blast to have them here, and we hope to see them again soon!

Now I Think of Something...

Of course, now that I blogged like an hour (or was it longer?) ago I think of something legit to blog about. Something that if I don't put out there in the public, I may not end up accomplishing.

My goal for 2012 (aside from making more great progress on my 101 in 1001 list) is to read the entire Standard Works.

Book of Mormon. Doctrine and Covenants. Pearl of Great Price. New Testament. Old Testament. All 2468 pages or 1581 chapters/sections of it. All of it. By the end of 2012.

I know that this is insane. I decided I'm going to start in the Old testament, simply because it is the first book in my Quad. I'll read them in the order that they are in the Quad.

In July of this year my Stake Relief Society President issued a challenge to start July 3rd, read 9 chapters a week, and we would finish The Book of Mormon on either Christmas Day or New Years Eve (I honestly don't remember which it is right now). I started, got behind, caught up, kept right on track, got behind, caught back up... it's been insane. Right now I think I'm about 3 weeks ahead. I'm in Ether right now, Ether 11 to be exact. That means I'm super close to finishing, probably sometime in the next week or week and a half.

I think that once I finish, I'm going to start the whole Standard Works challenge. I'm giving myself an extra 20-30 days (depending on when I do end up starting) because I know it's going to be a challenge. I used this scripture calculator that breaks down each of the books into pages and chapters and does the calculating for you. If I go by pages, I need to read 7 (well, 6.76) pages a day to finish in 365 days. If I go by chapters I need to read 5 (well, 4.33) chapters a day to finish in 365 days. I think I'm going to go the chapter route. I think I would get frustrated to get to the end of my 7th page and be in the middle of a chapter.

I have the podcasts of the complete standard works downloaded on iTunes and I like to listen to the chapters. I am forced to focus more when I am listening, that's just the way that works for me.

I think I am completely nuts for attempting to do this, but it will be a great opportunity to read through everything.

Broken down, it should take:

186 days to read the Old Testament
52 days to read the New Testament
48 days to read The Book of Mormon
28 days to read The Doctrine and Covenants
3 days to read The Pearl of Great Price

That ends up only being 317 days. That would be pretty rad. Highly unlikely that I will finish the entire thing on November 12th (that is the 317th day of next year) or October 23rd (if I start 20 days early that would be the 317 day mark).  But how cool would that be? Later this week I'll make my reading calendar so that I know where I need to be each week. And I'll have to commit to posting about my progress. That will probably be the thing that keeps me going, knowing that I have someone to report to. Even if nobody reads my blog I like to pretend that someone does. Well, I know that Sarah, Megan, Sandy, and Joanne read my blog, so I suppose that is who I am holding myself accountable to.

I think I'm crazy.

To recap. By December 31st, 2012, I will finish the ENTIRE Standard Works. It's on.

a peek into my brain right now

I was really in the mood to blog, but when I sat down to blog I could not come up with anything to blog about. Doesn't seem like a whole lot has happened recently that is blog worthy. So instead of getting a post about something in particular, you get one of my posts that is just full of random Marci thoughts.

1. Thanksgiving is over. That means it is now fine for me to listen to Christmas music. Or at least to admit that I've been listening to it since Halloween. Yes. On Halloween I was listening to The Forgotten Carols. I love The Forgotten Carols. I waited til after Thanksgiving to whip the piano book out and start playing it myself. Chris didn't know The Forgotten Carols before. He certainly is going to be getting to know them. It hurt to just listen to it last year, it feels so much better to be able to sit at my piano, and play and sing. I love it. If you don't know The Forgotten Carols you need to get to know it.

2. Today I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as I was working on a Christmas gift. The family receiving the home makeover had kids that were deaf, kids that were blind, a dad that was blind, and their grandma who was blind. Their home makeover included a device that would make it possible for the blind dad, and deaf son to be able to communicate. I had never thought of it before. That would be a really hard circumstance to be in, to not be able to communicate with your dad because he can't see you sign and you can't hear him speak. What a blessing to this family. I may or may not have cried during this episode. Also, I regret not taking more ASL classes at BYU.

3. My parents and brother are coming to visit on Saturday. We're excited to see them and to show them around town! We've got some plans to go to The Riverwalk, The Alamo, take them for some classic Texas BBQ at Rudy's. We'll also watch The First Presidency Christmas Devotional at home, and probably watch the BYU vs. Hawaii football game. I went to clean the bathtub in the guest bathroom (which has never been used) and the water wouldn't turn on. We called our landlord and he knew exactly what the problem was, so he's coming over tomorrow to fix it.

4. It is colder here at night. Like, it actually goes into the 30s. May not sound bad to y'all, but down here in Texas that is mighty cold! We bought flannel sheets a few weeks ago and that helps. It also presents a problem. With regular sheets, I can wear my sweatpants and be able to move/adjust myself just fine. With flannel sheets I could hardly roll over to my side from my back. I keep thinking that someone has to have designed pajamas that are warm, but allow you to move on flannel sheets. If you know of a place I can find those, without making my own pajamas with cotton/fleece inside and silk on the outside, let me know.

5. I love Amazon. A lot. Over the next week I will get to interact with the UPS and USPS man several, several times. I think Chris and I did almost all of our Christmas shopping in the last week, and just about all from Amazon. Some of the items we bought we could have gotten for the same price at a local store, but at the store we would've had to pay tax and we would've spent time going there, finding it, waiting in line, and it would've used gas. With Amazon we could sit on our couch, we don't have to pay tax, and we got free shipping. The other thing I love about Amazon is the ease of Amazon Wishlists. We've always had Wishlists, and links to each others wishlists which makes shopping so simple. Whenever I see anything online that I want (on Amazon or elsewhere) I just click a button at the top of my web browser and it adds the item to my wishlist. I can then go to my wishlist, add a comment, rank things by priority (highest, high, medium, low) so that Chris knows that while I would like a particular movie, I would absolutely LOVE a certain cookbook, or other movie, or wii game, or kitchen utensil. It is a beautiful thing.

6. Related to Amazon, I love www.camelcamelcamel.com . I can go there, paste the url from a specific amazon item, and I can see how the current price compares to past prices. I can see if something is the lowest it has ever been. I can also set it up so that they send me an email if it gets below a price that I can set. This helped me find some good deals. For example: I decided there was a movie I wanted to get Chris, but I didn't want to pay over $12 for it. I set up for camelcamelcamel to send me an email when/if the item went below $11.99. I got an email one day when the price went down to $8.49, bought the movie, and then by the next day it was back up to $14.99. This has allowed me to take my chunk of Christmas spending money and make it go further.

7. A few months ago (I don't remember the occasion, was there even a specific reason?) two of my friends and I went to The Gourmet Cupcake Shop and bought cupcakes. Now that I think about it, I think it was someones wedding anniversary and they wanted cupcakes for dessert. I bought a Red Velvet one. Ever since I have been obsessed with Red Velvet. I have the stuff to make these Red Velvet Cake Balls but have been putting it off a little. I think I'm making them Thursday or Friday so that maybe my parents will eat some. I've been thinking about these cake balls for a while now.

8. My favorite tv show right now is The Next Iron Chef: Super Stars. Some of my favorite chefs from The Food Network and The Cooking Channel are competing against each other. So far my two favorite chefs are still in, and I love it. Chris and I watch it each week. It is on at like 8:00 on Sundays. We record it and watch it later so we don't have to watch commercials. It is the perfect ending for Sundays. I'm routing for Chef Geoffrey Zakarian and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. They both are judges on my other favorite tv show, Chopped. It's really fun to watch these chefs cook incredible things with really strange ingredients.

I think 8 is a good amount of my random thoughts. There you go. Random thoughts from Marci.

well, just one more now. When I order something from Amazon I have them send me a text message the day that it is being delivered so that I know to watch for the FedEx/UPS/USPS man. I had a package delivered yesterday morning. Just 2 minutes ago I got a text message saying that my package was delivered the day before. That totally defeats the whole point of them texting me. I don't think USPS is really equipped to track packages that well. It normally works a whole lot better with the FedEx man, since they scan the package when they hand it to me.

Things

I've tried writing a few different posts for Thanksgiving. I have deleted them all. I just don't know what to say. There is so much that I am grateful for.

I have a fantastic husband. who has a great job. and he works really hard.

I have the greatest friends, who always make me laugh.

My family, although so spread out and far away, is freakin rad. Last month I got to see one of my sisters, and next week I get to see my parents and one brother. Next month I also get to go visit my husbands family-his parents, brother and sister.

I've got a pretty decent immune system (even though I was suffering from an almost ear infection and almost sinus infection a few days ago... a shot to the bum and I got better way fast).

I have the San Antonio Public Library System with 24 libraries that have pretty much any book I could ever want to read, well except they don't have a very good collection of biographies of LDS Prophets/Apostles. This year I have read almost 70 books.

I have a great collection of food blogs that I stalk that make dinner time so much more exciting.

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and belong to a wonderful ward, with an awesome calling that allows me to work with the girls that are 8-11 years old.

I have an air conditioner that works.

I have overcome my fear of yeast this year and now make pizza, rolls, and breadsticks on a regular basis.

This year has been pretty great. I think I could go on for hours with all of the things I am grateful for, but I need to go make rolls now to go along with the rest of our Thanksgiving Feast. Then we'll watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (It's a tradition in Chris's family to watch that movie on Thanksgiving day).  And I've got to get some Black Friday shopping done. Love that the sales have been happening all week!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

101 in 1001 Project Update

On November 9th last year I made a goal list called a Day Zero Project. I set 101 goals that I want to accomplish in 1001 days. As of today, with 629 days left, I am 66% of the way done! I've finished 67/101 goals. By the end of December I will likely have 5 more of my goals done-- I'll have finished ISYS 100, ISYS 101, My Stake RS Book of Mormon Challenge, have written in my gratitude journal daily for a month, and have watched a movie that starts with each letter of the alphabet--I only have 2 movies left, and I know exactly what I'm going to watch for both X and Z!

Some of my other goals are in good progress as well-- I've read 59 of 101 books and have started creating my next list.

A few of my goals involve doing something once a month for the duration of the project. My hope is that by next November 9th I will have every goal done except those once a month, and then I'll start my next project early!

It's been great to have this list to work off. I'm grateful for Sarah for introducing me to the concept!

In case your curious, the link to my project is here.

doctors and shots

today i am grateful for doctors. shots. and new nasal sprays.

since wednesday i haven't been feeling too great. bad pressure in my sinuses. pressure in my ears. a slight fever. a sore throat. sick enough to the point that i have watched all of season one of boy meets world, and read three richard paul evans books. i've slept countless hours, and gone through a package of dayquil. i missed our super saturday activity, and church. today i finally went to the doctor.

it wasn't a sinus infection, although my sinuses were pretty bad and the doctor was surprised that i had been able to breath through my nose.

my ears aren't infected, although they definitely have some fluid in them.

she did a strep test. i don't have strep.

so... instead of going home with antibiotics, i got to get a shot of something in my bum, and a sample of some new nasal spray.

in three days if i don't feel better, or if i feel worse before then, i go back and get some other prescription. hooray for dr thomas, even if she did make me get a shot in my bum!

as a side note, i forgot how much i love minkus from boy meets world. some of his sweater vests were pretty freaking rad!

Grateful.

I go through phases when I read. Today I went to the library and checked out 8 books by one author. Richard Paul Evans. Once I finish these 8 books I'll have read 10 of his books within just a few weeks. Possibly even within 2 weeks, if I neglect all the other things in my life.

Today I am grateful for libraries. Right now I have 10 things checked out, and 5 more on hold. There is a library practically across the street from my house, but I go to a bigger one that is about 3 miles away. I love that library. I think I'm going to actually go get a library card at the one across the street from me. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not until I've returned the 10 items I have from the other library. I don't really need more than 9 books and one dvd at a time from the library. Oh yeah... I also have Seasons One of Boy Meets World. I love getting DVDs from the library!

Gratitude

I need to write a post about our trip to Dallas for the BYU v. TCU game that we went to last weekend, but all the pictures I want to use are on Chris's phone not mine, so it will have to wait til later when I can get all of those pictures from him. Instead... I'll blog a few of my thoughts on something else.

Gratitude.

It seems like every year in November I think a lot about gratitude. I think it was one November when I started a gratitude blog, that lasted exactly 10 posts.

Last week for Activity Days we read excerpts from this talk by President Monson about gratitude. As we read it we talked about reasons why we should be grateful for the six specific things/people that President Monson says we should be sure to show gratitude for. It was AWESOME to hear some of the girls talk about why they were grateful for their moms/dads/friends/teachers/our Savior. I was even more excited when they said "could we write thank you letters to people sometime". Little did they know, that is already our plan for our next activity. I LOVE when they suggest ideas that I've already scheduled, makes me feel good knowing I'm planning stuff they want.

Then we made gratitude journals. Which really just means that they raided my stack of 12x12 scrapbook paper (i wish they had taken more, I need to get rid of some of this stuff, and it is perfect designs for them...) and we folded it over the front cover of a composition journal that I bought after back to school sales for 40 cents a piece (love it!). After helping them spell gratitude about 20 times, they all had finished projects. I didn't get pictures of any of their journals, but here is mine:

On the first page we glued in part of Alma 34:38, the part that says we should live in Thanksgiving daily. I challenged them to write at least one thing every day that they were grateful for, or the equivalent of 7 things each week if they forgot a day. They each started writing things that they were grateful for as well. It was a pretty good activity. These really are sweet girls, and I am so grateful that I have the chance to spend time with them each month!

Meals

This is more for me so I remember the links for what we're eating this week, but in case you're wondering... we'll be having:

Monday: French Bread Pizza

Tuesday: Southwest Pasta Salad

Wednesday: Indian Butter Chicken

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Going out to eat for MY BIRTHDAY!

That's right... this week for dinner all three meals I am cooking are things we haven't tried before. I decided I'm going to be more serious about working through my list of recipes I want to try, and because of Pinterest I have a TON of recipes I want to try! Each week we will make at least one thing from pinterest, whether it be an entree, side, dessert, or drink. At that rate, and only with my current collection of recipes to try, we could be done with that list in about 3 years. Oh boy. Guess it's time to do more serious cooking. :)


**Okay, so the french bread pizza was delicious! We ended up making the pizza sauce recipe from OBB, and loved our little pizzas.

The Southwest Pasta Salad- AMAZING! My only complaint was that I should've chopped my cherry tomatoes into quarters not halves, they were just a little too big and I couldn't fit them on my fork with anything else. Oh, and I think next time I'll add a second bell pepper, partially just to add more color (I'll go with orange) and because I love bell peppers. I could eat this all the time, seriously.

Body Builder

I like to do wii fit after I go running. I like it even more when it tells me I am a bodybuilder. This particular time it told me that after I did lunges... 

Puzzle

I finished my puzzle. Finally. I did the top quarter of it super quickly, it was the rows of red tulips that was really hard... I loved this puzzle, even though it took me a couple more days than I had originally anticipated, it reminded me of home a little!

Toes!

Chris had to work late the other night so as I did my grocery shopping I picked up a totally different shade of nail polish than I had ever used (well, maybe I used something similar when I was a Beehive). I normally stick with the same shade of burgundy, but over the last few months I've seen friends with really pretty light blue and light purple toes and decided I HAD to change my toes up too! This is what I went with:

The brand is Orchid, and the color is Totally Teal. Sorry that my feet look nasty... I was just so excited to show you the color of my toe nails that I don't care that my feet look so bad. Chris came hoe and he quickly noticed the new shade and said that it looked cool. I was pretty excited, I wasn't sure how he'd feel about it.

That night I also started working on a new puzzle... one from the Tulip Festival up in Washington... wherever that tulip festival is. It's proving to be a bit of a challenge, but I'll post a picture when I get it done, which will definitely be before our trip to Dallas on Thursday!

Pumpkin

This is my pumpkin. When I first got called to Activity Days Leader I started looking around online for craft ideas for all the holidays that are coming up. I found this pumpkin and knew I had to make it. It's super simple, which makes it even better for a group of youngish girls. A square of fabric - mine is a 19 inch square; a roll of toilet paper (I used a double roll of toilet paper, just the cheapest brand at the grocery store for activity days, mine is a good costco roll), and a little brown paper (i used a grocery bag we had gotten). This is kind of a crummy picture, I just used my phone, but here is my pumpkin! I was pretty excited about the fabric that I found. I wanted something that worked for Halloween, but also could stay out during the rest of fall, and I found this. I also have a little left over, so now I get to come up with something else fun to do!

Sometimes...

... I do silly things. Like offer pieces of information that I will quickly regret. Yeah, I play the piano. I know how to play the flute and the oboe too! Sounds harmless... but when speaking to the ward music chair person, it is an invitation to ask you to play sometime soon in Sacrament Meeting and become part of the Christmas program. Unfortunately for her (and most definitely fortunately for me) my flute and oboe don't live with me, they live in a closet at my parents house, so I won't be able to whip those bad boys out anytime soon to play something. And that piano solo I played when I was 15 or 16, and then played again at two different wards at BYU, yeah, I can still play it pretty well. I'd be willing to play a piano solo in Sacrament Meeting. But after that piece, I don't have anything else anywhere NEAR ready to perform.

... I see silly things. Like this hippo.

I went to the zoo once (or a few times) recently and this hippo came right up next to the glass and just stared (or is it starred?) at us. I love hippos and couldn't wait to take a few pictures of it. I think this one is kind of really hilarious. Really this hippo is why I wanted to blog today, but then I read a blog post from someone else and it reminded me of the paragraph that I started with.

... I read. A lot actually. This year I've read something like 60 books. My favorites have probably been all of The Ranger's Apprentice books by John Flanagan. I thought of my oldest nephews when I started reading them and then later found out that they had read them and liked them as well! They're really good books. Other cool books I've read recently:
-Daughters in my Kingdom (The new book about Relief Society)
-Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon (it doesn't come out til November, and it is a TOTALLY different version of Cinderella. and I loved it.)
-The Help. (I don't think it needs much to explain it, but if you haven't read it, do.)
-Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evan. so different than anything I'd read by him, but I thought it was way cool
-Look Again by Lisa Scottoline. I loved it, but some of the reviews I read said that it's better if you don't have kids, otherwise it could make you pretty darn sad
-The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. LOVED it.
-Matched by Ally Condie. I don't even know what to say about this one. I loved it. It's sequel comes out in November, and I can't wait for it.

That's a pretty decent list of what I've been reading.

Sometimes I eat delicious dinners, and that's what I need to go do right now. I've got  Southwest Stuffed Bell Peppers waiting for me. YUM!

Brrrrrrr

It's only like 74 degrees outside right now, and it's 76 inside my house. Even with sweats on I am FREEZING! What has happened to me? I grew up in the northwest where it hardly ever got near 76 degrees and I don't feel like i was freezing all the time up there! Right now I don't know what I would do without my Chris's sweats, a blanket and some hot chocolate! If this is a sign that our winter may actually get kind of cold... then I'm concerned.

Sometimes... I ramble.

Sometimes I have to set rules for myself. Like this kind of rule:

Don't even think about using any electronics before you have exercised and read your scriptures. The exception is... if someone texts me I can respond. Really this rule is me telling myself not to get on facebook, pinterest, the byu 100 hour board, blogs, or my email until I've exercised and read my scriptures.

In a couple of days I'll have all of the materials for my two classes that I'm starting. Right now I have the textbooks, but not the actual classes. Once those come, I add another rule... No reading (except scriptures and textbooks) until I've done that days work for my classes. Once I have the materials and can see how much work each lesson will take I will draw out a plan so that I can finish the classes with plenty of time, and then I'll stick to that plan. This will be a challenge. Ever since I finished my last class I've probably read like 15 books. It's kind of a beautiful thing. I love books. This past week I've read two complete books. I'm also pretty close to finishing two others. And I have two more books from the library that I haven't started. I also have two books that are in transit to my library for me that I put on hold a while back. And then I have a stack of books that I've won over the last few months that I should read before I donate some of them to my library. These books should provide good motivation to keep up with my schoolwork.

Also: I still haven't seen any ants alive in our house since the bug guy came. I am still finding more and more dead ants in my bathroom. I'd rather they be in the bathroom and dead than in my kitchen cupboards very much alive.

And... I'm kind of in love with pumpkin right now. Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin muffins (more like cupcakes though). Pumpkin bread. I found a recipe for pumpkin soup that is screaming my name. It just feels like pumpkin time.

And those are my thoughts. Just in case you were wondering. And I know some of you were. :)

Rain

It rained. The best rain I have experienced in Texas. It started raining around the time I went to bed last night, and it was still raining when I woke up. It was raining when we left for church, and sprinkling as we left church. In the past when it has rained here it has lasted 10-15 minutes tops. We got some freaking awesome rain. We've needed rain, so it was nice to get it... but I was more excited about the rain because it reminded me of home.

a thought on simplifying. and a predicament. and other thoughts.

This is one of my blog posts that I kind of just ramble about the thoughts I've been having recently. The first paragraph wasn't like that, but everything after that is. If you don't want to read it, you don't have to. I just need to type it all up to help me make up my mind. Also, I will accept the thoughts of others on the matter.

Is it silly that I already LOVE that I am only following blogs that I really care about? I used to get like 1000 posts a day to wade through and it meant that I always missed the posts that were really important. Now I follow the blogs of my family (although none of them blog anymore), some friends, and just a few people that I haven't met in person but really feel like I know. I also follow a few book blogs because I've got to know when the next big giveaway hops are happening, I like to win free books! It literally took me 10 seconds to wade through the posts that I had and then like 5 minutes to read the new posts, and that left time for me to comment. This never would've happened before. I would've been scrolling through posts with every coupon or decent deal available to mankind, and most of those being area specific, and not to the area that I live... This whole simplifying thing is turning out to be amazing. I'm also trying to figure out how much to simplify.

I've got this one situation that I'm not sure how to deal with, although I think I know what I need to do. Every morning M-F I drive 3.5 miles to go walking with friends. It takes about 15 minutes to get there, we walk for about an hour, then I turn around and drive that 3.5 miles back home. 7 miles doesn't seem like a ton, but if I walk out my back door, hop the fence and cross the street I am right at another walking trail. I could cut out 30 minutes of driving time and reduce the frequency I need to fill my car with gas. The walking trail we go on is 2.2 miles long. The one in my backyard is .75, but I could run it a few times and it wouldn't be a big deal. I could leave to go running right after Chris leaves for work, and be back home before I normally would've even been at the other walking trail. The problem is... I absolutely LOVE the company when we go walking. I LOVE walking with Marissa, Vanessa, Michelle and their kids. We talk about food, and other good things (we all really like food). It's fun to see them. And I don't want to stop seeing them. But at the same time, I also feel like I need to start adding a little more to my workout, either go running or increase the distance. Right now what I'm contemplating is walking with them 3 days a week and running at the park in my backyard the other 2 days of the week or maybe doing it the other way around, walking with them twice a week and running the other three. Either way, it saves me either 14 or 21 miles of driving, and an hour or an hour and a half in my car each week. It also would make it so that I could go visiting teaching and go running on the same days (my visiting teaching companion can only go in the mornings, so those days I've had to skip walking).

If I don't walk each morning with them, it seems (at least on paper and in my head) that it opens up more time in the afternoon that I would be able to do things with them still (like cook, watch movies, and bake) and I wouldn't feel as guilty because I have that extra time in the mornings to get the things done that I know I need to get done each morning. Technically I should be able to get back from running and shower before they get home from walking, and then I can read my scriptures and by the time they're ready to do anything, I'm ready as well. That would make it so I only drive 7.5 miles to go do something with them rather than the 7 miles to walk in addition to the 7.5 miles to do something later that day. But then the thought is... what difference does that 7 miles really make? It does add up to 35 miles per week of driving, just to exercise, and 2.5 hours a week in my car to exercise. Would I really get as much done as I think I should be able to? Would it really increase my ability to get my laundry all done, my scripture study done, and other cleaning like I think it would? Would I really have more time to get ready so I actually look decent? Or would it flop and give me an excuse to sleep in some mornings because I don't have anywhere to be?

This is what I've been thinking about all day. And yesterday. The thought that keeps coming in my mind is something that President Uchtdorf said in his talk on Saturday which was that sometimes we have to give up something good to do something better. There are lots of good things we can do, but there isn't time to do everything that is good. We have to decide good, better and best.  Exercising with my friends is good, but exercising earlier and creating that new routine to read my scriptures might be better.

On the topic of simplifying and doing the things that are better... I have a crazy list of books that I want to read, and then a separate list of books that I feel like I should read. I need to focus on the second list, which probably means I need to go to the library less often, since the library doesn't have any of those books. There's nothing quite like having 7 books from the library that I want to read but a huge ole stack of books that should be read. Again, the whole good, better, best concept. Reading is good, great and wonderful, but there are some books that are better to read, and it is best to read the books that you feel inspired to read. I also need to find a person in my ward that has a church library that rivals my moms. I'm pretty sure she has all of the books that I should read, or at least a pretty good chunk of them, and it seems like there are always a few people in wards that have that extensive library. I've just got to figure out who that is. Wish me luck!

PS

I never mentioned this, but the bug guy came out to our place, and ever since I haven't noticed any bugs!

My Red Journal

This is my red journal:

I received it as a gift the Christmas of my senior year of high school. I had just started a new regular journal, so it was left empty for several months until I headed to college. It quickly came off the shelf and lived in my purse. It became my BYU Devotional/CES Fireside/every other fireside that happens at BYU/General Conference Journal. I simply call it "my church journal". The first thing I used it for was General Conference in October 2007. 

This past Saturday I was looking at my bookshelf and noticed it sitting there. I rarely touch it anymore-- no weekly devotionals or monthly firesides to attend. I pulled it off the shelf and shoved it into my purse before I headed to the General Relief Society Broadcast. Before the meeting started I flipped through the book, remembering specific conference talks, BYU devotionals (Holland's "Remember Lot's Wife anyone?), the devotional when President Hinckley came to speak, and when President Monson came to BYU. 

When I take notes at these sorts of things I do a few things. I always rip a piece out of the back and have that become my "list of things to do". If a speaker encourages us to pray for something specific (charity, for example) I put that on my list. If they mention a book and I decided I want to read it, that goes on my list. Sometimes it's a quote that I want to do something with and put it up in my home. Sometimes it's "go do your visiting teaching so you don't feel guilty anymore".  Then I also take notes in my journal about specific things that the speakers say. 

This week for part of my personal study I decided I wanted to go through all of my old notes and find my "to do lists". I'm sort of creating one monstrous list... and a lot of it is books that I want to read. It's funny how many things are on multiple lists... apparently for the last four years I have felt like I should read Jesus the Christ but haven't gotten around to it yet. 

Several times I have also heard the importance of simplifying our lives and putting the most important things first. I decided this week that I was going to start doing just that, simplify my life. One aspect of my life that I knew needed simplifying was parts of my online life. I followed close to 185 blogs of all sorts-- book blogs, couponing blogs, blogs that often things away, crafty blogs, diy project blogs, food blogs, blogs of strangers, and blogs of people I actually know. I now only follow 37 blogs. I was a "fan" of I don't even know how many pages on Facebook. I'm not such a fan anymore, I even deleted some of my Facebook friends. I found that by deleting several of those things, I have less of a reason to sit in front of my computer. I don't need to scroll through blog posts from 180 blogs to find the few posts that are actually interesting to me. I don't have a bajillion couponing tips popping up on my Facebook newsfeed. I have the time to put the most important things first.

Something else that I found in several of my lists was starting a gratitude journal or blog. I started a gratitude blog a way long time ago, and I think I only posted about 6 or 7 times. Since I am in charge of Activity Days in my ward for the girls aged 8-11, I decided that in November our first activity will be making Gratitude Journals. I decided this week that I was going to make mine now, and try to write in it regularly so that when November comes I have something that I can show my girls. 

Chris and I read a chapter from The Book of Mormon together each night, so in our personal study we tend to focus on other things--conference talks, Ensign articles, watch a few Mormon Messages, whatever floats our boats. After Saturday's meeting I decided I really wanted to study from Daughters in my Kingdom and it is AMAZING the things I have learned just studying a few pages a day. Who knew that in the Nauvoo days you weren't automatically a part of the Relief Society though you were a member of the church? I definitely didn't know that and thought it was interesting. 

I'm working on making good sacrifices to do better things. Although I love going walking with my friends in the mornings, this morning I passed up on that so I could go Visiting Teaching. I think the sister we visited really needed the company. I think she probably doesn't get a ton of company, especially with her only child living in Florida. Not to mention, I don't feel so guilty now that I've done my visiting teaching.

Something else I want to work on... is my blog. I never feel like I have a lot to post. We don't take many pictures, and what is a blog post with a picture? I want to work on that. Maybe I'll have to take a picture of the stack of books I've read over the last month or two as Chris has been working on an extra project for work at night. Or maybe I'll start taking pictures of my food more often and show you what we've been eating. Cooking/baking is one of my favorite things to do right now, as is finding new recipes online (thank you, pinterest for making it even easier!). 

I love my little red journal. I love all the memories that are contained in it. I'm a little sad, it looks like it might only last for one or two more general conferences, and then i'll need to find a new journal to replace it. I love the words in my little red journal that help inspire me to be a better person. Words that invite me to simplify, to create, to remember, and to prioritize. But more than that, I love that I have the opportunity to fill many pages of my little red journal this weekend as I watch and listen to General Conference. I'm excited to hear the messages that our prophet and other church leaders have to share with us.  And I'm excited to be able to relisten and reread these talks for the next six months (I've already watched President Uchtdorf's talk from the General Relief Society Broadcast twice)

Activity Days

My new calling at church is being the Activity Days leader. In a nutshell that means I plan 2 activities a month for the girls between the ages of 8-11. Tonight was our first activity. And let me tell you... there is a big difference between 8 and 11 year olds. I've got six girls who will be regularly coming, and two more who can only come occasionally, but out of all of the girls, most are 8, turning 9 soon. Third grade and fifth grade are way different. And now... I wonder if the activities that I've planned for the rest of the year are going to work well or not. If we had just a few more older girls I would recommend that they split it into two groups, just because they are all so different.

I loved our activity tonight, it gave me a good chance to get to know them and understand them and their personalities. I learned that I don't want them eating two cupcakes at our activities, it's just a little too much sugar; so now I'm worried about Christmas time because they want to decorate sugar cookies... maybe I'll have them decorate cookies and we'll take them to people. Then they can each eat like one and we can give the rest away. Now I wonder if I want an assistant or not. They said I could have one if I asked for it... but I'm not sure. It would be nice to have another adult, but at the same time I kind of like just being in charge and getting to pick whatever I want for the activities. It's a difficult decision. Maybe some of their excitement will wear off as time goes on-- this was the first time in several months that they've had Activity Days and none of them had any idea who I was before I went and announced activity days in Primary on Sunday, and didn't really meet me til today. Then there is the girl who walked in and just started wandering around my house wanting a tour, and during our activity got up and opened the fridge, freezer and oven just so curious. Eventually she found my broom and started sweeping... but I will give her some credit, there were sprinkles and cupcake crumbs on the floor and she had bare feet.

Gotta figure out what I'm gonna do...

Stuff.

I started blogging about how awful August was, but I didn't like it so I deleted everything I said. To sum up: Our air conditioner broke and we weren't at home for an entire week as we waited for the needed part to come in so that Mike could come fix our ac. We stayed with friends; sleepovers for couples are kinda fun! We played a Harry Potter Scene it game, a bunch of Just Dance 2, and ate some good food. Then we got to come back home and I got sick.  I'm glad August is over. Things are getting back to normal.

We have some exciting meals planned for next week that I wanted to share, because I think they will be delicious:

Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple
Mexican Rice Bowl (we're adding cheese and marinated chicken)
Beef with Snow Peas

and this one:
Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting for breakfast on Labor Day!

and I wish I could share the other recipe with you, but it's out of a cookbook that I don't own and can't access online so I can't, but it's a Zucchini & Red Pepper Chicken Stirfry with a ginger sauce (it's from America's Test Kitchen, and was something we were introduced to during our sleepover)

We like food. And we like trying new food that is tasty (although the Beef with Snow Peas isn't new, we had it a while ago).

Our Place!

Welcome to our new place! In case you missed that memo, we moved at the end of July. I promised pictures of our home, and here ya go! Hopefully these 22 pictures help you get a sense of where we live. This is mostly for mom, but others were interested in well, so enjoy!

From the street this is what you see! This is a random comment, but on the right you see our trash can. Our trash is picked up twice a week and we have a legit trash can. Pretty sure we don't produce enough trash to fill it once a week, but it has been nice to get all our moving trash picked up so often! Sorry about the gray blobs, gotta protect our privacy a little on a public blog...

Here's our front door. I need to make some sort of wreath or something. We also need to get a Welcome mat still.

When you open the front door, this closet is the first thing you see.

Turn to the right, and this is your view:

I'm standing behind the love seat for this one:

My keyboard! It's here! I put it together mostly all by myself (Chris had to hold something up so that I could get the screws in the stand, and he had to help me lift the actually keyboard up so I could screw it into the stand). The crate under is all my music. It works for now :)

In that last picture you can see some of the chairs and the kitchen table; here is our dining/laundry area.

This door is just to the left of the washing machine and takes you to our backyard!

Our backyard! The grass is awful, but Texas grass in general isn't too great and our drought doesn't help the color at all.

Come back inside and the kitchen is on your right! 

More kitchen

Chris got a desk when we moved, which meant that the kitchen table no longer is a desk!

Between the couch and the desk is the hallway that takes you to the bathrooms and bedrooms. The door straight ahead is just a closet (you'll see a picture later) and the door on the left is just our AC.

To the right you have these three doors. The one on the left is the bathroom. Straight ahead is the second bedroom, and the one on the right is a closet. The closet only has our vacuum in it, and because of bad lighting you don't get to see the inside of it.

The second bedroom. When we moved in we put a ton of boxes and bins in there, especially the boxes with books and movies and things that were waiting to go onto a bookcase, into the desk, and things that didn't have an obvious home. If you come visit us this is where you can sleep! 

 The closet in the second room

 The bathroom. This is where you can go to the bathroom if you come visit us. We don't use it much (right now it has some mosquitoes in it) but I did use it on Sunday to straighten my hair while Chris was shaving in our bathroom.

 This is that closet I told you you'd get to see later. It has all of our extra stuff-extra toothbrush heads, towels, sheets, as well as our first aid stuff. It pretty much holds anything that needs a home.

 Our bedroom, from the doorway. 

 Ignore the shorts that are on the bed-they need to be ironed. They always get so wrinkly in the dryer, it is obnoxious. Also please ignore our nightstands... we haven't found any that we really like so we use these 18 gallon bins instead... it works.

 Our bathroom. It's pretty small, but it works!

 We get our own closets!

And that's pretty much it. I can't think of anything that you really missed. We're loving our new place and will love it even more once it gets fumigated next week and the ants and mosquitoes disappear. We love the increased space (our previous place was a 1 bed, 1 bath apartment roughly 750 sq feet) and the decrease in rent. Now I have to think of something else to blog about...

Moved!

We are all moved in to our new place! I LOVE IT! We were sick of apartments (we had awful management for the bulk of the time we lived at our last place) but not ready to buy a house (although a lot of our friends tried to convince us to buy one anyway), so we found this duplex rental that a buddy of Chris owns. He's already a much better landlord than our previous ones. The night after we got the keys he came over to fix the caulking in the tub, and when our oven wouldn't go off the "clean" cycle he told us exactly what to do to fix it- lock it, then force the lock to open, and be extra forceful. Apparently that's a problem the last tenants had as well, but now it works just fine and we can use our oven!

I would post pictures, but I'm waiting a few more days before I post any. Why you ask? Because I'm waiting for this:

to be delivered next week. Then, after it is set up and any furniture is rearranged that will need to be, I will take pictures. I've been waiting to order this for about a year. When we were coming down to Texas, Chris promised me that I could get a keyboard, but once we moved into our last place it was pretty obvious to me that there really just wasn't space for one, and I didn't want to get a keyboard that would need to be stored under a bed or in a closet and pulled out each time I wanted to play it. We had a specific amount in our savings account that was my keyboard money, but this one was a little more than that so I wasn't pushing it. Last night Chris ordered this lovely Casio PX130 Privia Keyboard for me and told me that I had worked so hard on our move, that he didn't care that it went over the amount that we had specifically saved up for it.

I'm still recovering from our move. Our new place had to be majorly cleaned. The kitchen was kind of nasty, but now it is clean and smells clean too! The floors all needed to be swept and mopped and the bathrooms needed a little love. Then I moved a ton of stuff over to our new place while we were still living at our old place. Then came the actual moving day; the day that a couple guys were coming to help Chris load up the Budget truck we had rented with all of our big stuff. The day that my visiting teachers were coming to help me clean so I wouldn't spend my entire anniversary cleaning an apartment and unpacking at our new place. The guys came and were a big help, but my visiting teachers ended up both cancelling on me. I cleaned our entire apartment top to bottom in 3.5 hours. That includes the time that I was cleaning while the guys were moving stuff, which limited me a bit because I didn't want to get in their way and I needed to wait until they were gone to clean a lot of the stuff just because they were in the way.

In the middle of all of this moving business I also took my final for the Independent Study class that I was taking from BYU. I got my grade yesterday and I got a 91 on my final. I'm so excited to have that class done, even if it means that it is just about time to order my next class.

My one complaint about our new place: it seems like every morning I wake up with a new bug bite or two on my legs/arms. Well, really there are just more bugs in general. I guess I'm not surprised, but still, it's my one complaint (at least so far)!

A need to get creative...

So occasionally Chris has to work these funky hours when a big project is occurring and the work can't be done during business hours. Those days he goes in at 10am and often doesn't come home until somewhere between 3-6am. In our current place we have this problem called french doors that lead from our room to the great outdoors. They have blinds, but the blinds are awful and let a ton of light in anyway. When Chris gets home in the wee hours of the morning he likes to be able to sleep in, but he can't if there is a lot of light.

Here comes my need to become creative. We're moving this week, and with the move we'll have two windows into our room. I need to come up with either something to keep up always to help the light stay out, or something that I can put up just on those days that it will be needed.

I'm limited in the following ways: I don't own a sewing machine so making curtains isn't going to be the easiest task, although I may have a friend or two who are looking for excuses to spend more time with me after we move and won't be in the same ward anymore. Also, I haven't sewn anything in who knows how long, and the last thing I sewed was probably a pillow case that I made in YW.

I am however really good at using tape. Would light come through a dark piece of felt? Could it be as simple as getting a piece of felt and taping it to our window?

One problem I have right now is that I also don't know the dimensions of the windows. I couldn't tell ya if they are teeny little things or if they're pretty decent sized, I just remember that there is a window or two. Once we get the keys on Tuesday I'll know that for sure, and since this is important it will need to be done right away.

Suggestions? Anyone?

This is for you, Marissa

You asked when I was going to share the recipe for Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here it is. I'll have to make you some soon, since Michelle said they taste better when I make them :) So far I don't have any big plans for next week, so perhaps we'll have to get together to enjoy some Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. :)

THIS IS THE RECIPE

p.s.

have i mentioned lately that my toe doesn't hurt anymore? I wore some closed-toe flats to church on Sunday and they didn't even hurt! I didn't have to wear a band-aid, and I didn't have a cotton round taped to my toe (I did that the week before) and I didn't even have to take my shoe off at all. The half of my toenail that didn't immediately fall off after the bookcase was dropped on it never did fall off, and my toenail is starting to grow back in rather nicely. I can definitely tell because my toenails were painted when this whole mess happened, and they desperately need to be painted again. I'm holding off for when the toenail looks totally normal again, and then I'm going to get a pedicure. I'm going to celebrate having fully functional feet again!

Also, since my toe is better I can put socks on without it hurting. And I can put my tennis shoes on again too, which means that I can go walking again in the mornings. Which would be awesome, because I need to be more active. Swimming once a week just doesn't cut it!

getting my thoughts out on paper... or at least on blogger

This month is turning out to be kind of a crazy one. So many exciting things happening, this week I have something every day which is exciting. This weekend is Harry Potter, and a Bastille Day celebration at my bff Parker's house (okay, so maybe Parker's mom is the one really hosting the party, but my 8 month old bff will be there too); next weekend we have tickets to the WNBA All-Star game that Chris won from work. The weekend after that we're moving. Have I mentioned we're moving? I don't think I have, at least not explicitly. Oh, also the weekend we're moving is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Holy cow I cannot believe it has been an entire year just about! Life sure does go by pretty quick!

A few weeks ago I made a comment that we didn't have to deal with the stupid trash pick up for much longer, but that was back when we weren't really telling people that we are moving. We aren't moving far, just about 2.5  miles, but it's far enough that we are changing wards, which is ridiculous because by moving we end up being 2.5 miles closer to more than half of our ward, silly boundaries. We're giving up apartments, and renting a duplex instead. Instead of a teeny-tiny 1 bedroom apartment we'll be in a 2 bed/2 bath duplex with a lot more storage and some better living space. One thing I'm way excited for is to not have a carpeted dining room, that's been really obnoxious. Also I'm excited because I get to pick out a keyboard (not a computer keyboard, but ya know, one that's like a piano but smaller and not as expensive :P ). I was supposed to get one when we moved down to San Antonio but after we got our furniture all in here we realized there was no way that a keyboard would fit, and since it is something that I will use often I didn't want to get one and store it under the bed and pull it out when I wanted to play.

We can get our key as early as next week (the guys that live there now are moving out this weekend) but if we wait a little longer we won't have to pay rent. Our new landlord is super cool and chill. Chris rented a room from him when he was down here for an internship. The current tenants are all in the singles ward, and one is getting married this month and was already planning on moving out. The other two guys were on month-to-month contracts and with the one roommate moving out for sure the other two couldn't decide if they were going to stay/go/find a new roommate/whatever so when we showed interest in the place the landlord pretty much just told them they had to be out at the middle of July so the place can get cleaned before we have to move in. Originally we were going to be moving in the 29th and 30th, but with them moving out earlier he said he'd give us the keys a few days early and if I wanted to clean the place he wouldn't charge us any rent for the month because he'd save money not having professional cleaners come out. If the place had carpet I would insist that he at least get the carpet cleaned, but it has 0 carpet, so that's not too much of a problem. I'm kind of obsessed with cleaning, so it should be pretty sweet. I think we'll get the keys the 25th and during the days I'll fill the car up with things to move over, go clean, and put things away in the new place. It's gonna be pretty sweet.

Also, before we move I want to get my final taken for my class. I requested the exam last week, it shipped on Friday, and it should be arriving any day now. My hope was to be able to take the exam on Friday (like in 2 days from now) but if she hasn't gotten it yet then maybe it will be too late to schedule my exam to be this quick. Next week it will be instead. I was kind of hoping to take it this Friday because we're going out to eat before we go see Harry Potter and then we could celebrate me being done with my class and celebrate Harry Potter at once. Now maybe we'll just have to hit up Happy Hour at Sonic when my test is over--nothing like 1/2 price Cranberry Limeades! Oh I love Cranberry Limeade, thanks Marissa for getting me addicted to the stuff!

Halfway Point

2011 is halfway over. Well, or it will be tomorrow, or the day after, depending on how you calculate it. Seriously, I read a website where people were debating which day was the halfway point and I didn't feel like doing the math, or anything, so I'll just say that at some point this weekend the year will be half over.

As such, I wanted to revisit my goals for 2011, which I posted at the end of December. They were:

My goals for this year aren't quite so crazy as last years goal, but I do want to continue to make some good progress on my 101 in 1001 list. I would love to be a little over halfway done at the end of 2011 (at least with the goals that aren't the "do this every month for the whole 1001 days"). 

I want to do better at doing the dishes every night before I go to bed because I HATE waking up to a sink full of dishes. Sure there are the nights that I can't get all the dishes done because the dishwasher is running, but that isn't every night. 

I want to do better at taking the trash out on MWF mornings. I hate getting stuck with boxes that just take up space because I forgot to get the trash out on time. And I hate walking to the dumpster, it isn't very close to our building. 

I want to do better at eating breakfast AND lunch instead of a lunch-ish food in between when those two meals should be. egg rolls for brunch probably isn't the greatest. also, that could decrease the amount of other crap i snack on.

Maybe I'll even give sushi/fish a shot in 2011. Maybe.



Well... halfway through the year and I have accomplished 56/101 goals from my 101 list. That puts me at 55%. I'd say I'm definitely doing well on that goal.


The other three goals: dishes, trash, and eating distinct breakfast & lunch meals... not so hot. As I blogged a few days ago, I haven't been doing very well at doing my dishes at night. I need to start doing that again. I really prefer cleaning pots and pans when there isn't hard/crusty stuff in them. The whole trash situation, well I only have to deal with it for another few weeks, so I'll try really hard over the next few weeks to get my trash out before the guys come to pick it up. As for breakfast AND lunch... that will take a little more work. I need to buckle down on my nighttime routine so that I can fall asleep quicker and easier, so that I actually get a good nights sleep and don't end up going back to bed when Chris leaves for work. Then I'd be more likely to eat both breakfast and lunch instead of a funky combo of the two. Maybe forcing myself to not go back to sleep will also help me to fall asleep better at night, yeah... probably. I definitely need to work on those sleeping habits. 


As for the sushi/fish goal. haha, what a joke. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Although I have been eating more tuna sandwiches than just about any other time in my life, so maybe that counts?

Woohoo!

My cookbook got delivered this morning and I'm stoked! I used looking through it as a reward for studying. A few weeks ago I submitted my last lesson for the Independent Study course I've been taking for the last 10 months and now I'm really starting to study for the final, which I hope to request either tomorrow or Tuesday. I told myself that I could open the package when it came but that I couldn't really flip through it until I had reviewed two lessons worth of material. I pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon thumbing through the cookbook, looking at all the pictures and thinking about which recipes to try first. This coming week we'll be trying Beef with Snow Peas (which isn't from Our Best Bites, but still should be delicious) and we are super excited for it. I think we also may try Thai Peanut Noodles which I found in the cookbook! I'm way excited to go grocery shopping this weekend to buy some tasty things. I think I'll also buy the ingredients that I need for Strawberry Chocolate Nachos. I also think I'm going to try to remember to take pictures of some of the tasty food that I make. I feel like I've been blogging about food a lot, and not able to put pictures up that I've taken myself. So sorry if you don't like reading about food... that's kind of the fun/exciting thing going on here right now. That and my toe, but I'm not posting pictures of it (the bruising looks kinda cool though, I'll tell you that much).

Exciting!

A few days ago I blogged about the bajillion book review blogs that I found and the giveaways they were all doing. I just got an email telling me I won a $15 Amazon gift card and I am so super duper excited!  The giveaways are super easy to enter and now totally worth the time since I will end up only have to pay $1.30 out of my own pocket to get the Our Best Bites cookbook. I'm just a little excited right now and had to tell someone but Chris is driving home from work right now so he isn't really available to talk. Woohoo!

Clothes

When I was in school I didn't buy a ton of clothes, and now the ones that I did buy are starting to get pretty worn out. I moved to Texas owning one pair of shorts that weren't basketball shorts. I have since acquired 2 new pairs of shorts, but haven't added too many shirts to my wardrobe. I realized I should've stocked up on shirts when I was still in Provo and had really easy access to tons of cute, modest clothes. I was smart and bought a couple of skirts, which is excellent since I haven't seen too many skirts down here that I liked and that weren't either disgustingly long (like, dragging on the floor long) or super short.

Right now I am obsessed with about half of the tops, most of the skirts and a few of the dresses from Down East and this is one of those times that I wish I lived in Provo still so that I could just go to the mall and try a bunch of things on and then buy them without having to wait for it to get shipped. I can look at their website and say "oh, I like that and that and that and that, and oh man this top is great!" With them the problem is more along the line of "do I like it better in taupe or aqua?"Compare this to shopping just about anywhere else. First I have to wade through all the strapless/sleeveless tops (which is hard during the summer in San Antonio where it is currently 99 degrees)

And that is my rant on needing to buy new clothes. Also, it is really disappointing when you find something you LOVE and they only have it left in an xxsmall. In case you were wondering, I don't wear an xx-small.

Messes

Recently we've been on a "try lots of new recipes" kick. Which is awesome, btw. I am falling in love with Our Best Bites for sure. They are where I got my Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, our new favorite stuffed pepper recipe, and the delicious mango quinoa salad recipe. Today they posted a recipe for strawberries & chocolate nachos that I REALLY want to try. I have loved everything that I have ever tried from them and really really want to get their cookbook that came out earlier this year (or was it late last year, I don't remember).

I stumbled upon something called a blog-hop giveaway from a bunch of blogs that write book reviews. The whole deal is that there are like 276 blogs that partnered up and each blog is doing a giveaway- either a book (or a few books) or amazon/borders/barnes & noble gift cards. I went through a TON of the websites and entered probably 70 or 80 (or maybe it was closer to 120, I don't know...) of the giveaways and really hope that tomorrow morning I get an email or several saying that I won something! I would absolutely love to win a few of the Amazon gift cards--I would definitely start using them to buy the Our Best Bites cookbook.

I just remembered that the whole reason I sat down to blog wasn't to blog about the giveaways I've entered or how much I love Our Best Bites and want their cookbook. The point was that as we've been trying new recipes I find myself making more of a mess in the kitchen. Turns out that a lot of our recipes before this new part of my life were one pot dinners or maybe two pots and a cutting board... but now it seems like I've always got a cutting board, a knife or two, several pots, mixing bowls, serving bowls (used to just serve things straight out of the pans, but now that the food looks prettier I want to serve it prettier), and then the dishes that we eat out of/with. Not to mention the overwhelming amount of either brownies or ice cream or brownies AND ice cream that we've been eating recently that just adds more dishes. Then.. I find myself not doing the dishes until the next morning. This morning I woke up to find my 12" skillet, my large and medium saucepans, the colander, my huge cutting board and about a bajillion other dishes just sitting on my counter, exactly where I left them last night.

I think I have to start forcing myself to clean up before I go to sleep, it makes me really tired just looking at the mess that I get to clean up today. But it helps knowing that Chris has to work all night and I'm eating leftovers for dinner, so I don't need anything to be cleaned up right away and I also won't make a big mess making my dinner tonight. It's always nice when the kitchen can stay clean for a while.

And those are my feelings about Our Best Bites (which in case you can't tell, I LOVE!), trying new recipes, eating tastier food, and my hatred of doing the dishes.