Angels Among Us

I have been having a hard time at work lately. There have been complaints from certain individuals, (whom I have no idea who) who have been complaining that I do not answer the phones quickly enough and that I am not doing my job adaquetly. Not to mention many fingers being pointed at me lately outside of work. Well I know that I am doing my best, the best that I can when there are up to 4 calls coming in at a time to answer as many as I can. And doing my best at going above and beyond of what is asked of me. Its sad that there are some people in this world that just have to complain about something to fulfill there day, and end up taking it out on someone that doesnt deserve it. Well, there is a sweet young gentlemen with Down Syndrome that works here that helps out with cleaning around the building, and well lets just say he made my day. There were multiple calls coming in at once, and I was making sure they got where they needed to go, and upon finally getting off the phone, he walks by and simply says, "Your doing a good job" with a smile on his face. He has been my little angel for the day.

Ok, I lied...

...so I said I was going to take a break. I get in these moods where I feel compelled to distance myself from the world. I feel its better for me to just maintain my distance in hopes not to implode on everyone around me. But as it turns out, I just cant stay away, theres just too much to write about! Plus, Im over my moodiness. Im done being female, as James would put it.

Ok, so what is it that I have to write about so badly to go against my word of staying away? Her name is Ree Drumond. Ive written about her several times, as far as her recipes go. But what I havent shared is that she is a remarkable writer who radiates joy and happiness. She shares her everyday life in her blog/website which you can find located in the top right hand corner of my blog, titled The Pioneer Woman. Even reading her recipes you cant help but laugh at the way she shares them, theres a story in everything she writes about!

Well the one thing that I have enjoyed the most reading on her website is her story about how her and Marlboro Man (her nickname for her husband) met, fell in love and eventually marry. It has been quite the journey, reading it has really been such a joy. I have been so looking forward to knowing exactly how it ends, cause we all know they obviously got hitched, its the journey on how they got there thats so interesting. Well I finally read the final contribution to her "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" today, and I cant help but feel touched, truly affected but what she wrote. I cant really explain why or how, but it moved me. We all have stuggles in our life, and for me, they just keep on piling up and I have a hard time of sorting through them and figuring out the best way of managing them to not "stink" up my life. And then you come upon certain readings that help lighten the load, put some perspective on your life, and make you realize that your not alone. Make you remember what brought you to where you are and that it is a good thing. I just love those moments. So thank you Ree Drumond, the Pioneer Woman. From the bottom of my heart. I encourage you to go read it here.

Excuse Me

I need another break. Excuse me for a bit. Sorry.

I need a minute...

My poor little pup is sick with puppy diarrhea. I woke up at 3 to let him out, and then woke me up again at 5, but ignored the poor little thing to fulfill my selfish desire to sleep. Well upon waking up at my regular scheduled time, I realize why he needed up again: the reason was on my living room floor. I immediately felt horrible for ignoring him earlier that morning, poor thing was just sick! Well, I, emphasis on the I, clean up the mess before I have to head to work. Then I come home for lunch and as soon as I walk in I smell what I thought was the remains of what I cleaned up that morning, to find out upon letting Doc out of his crate that he had made a mess in it and was completely covered in his new remains. UGH. But before I could feel grossed out I immediately felt sorry for him, poor thing had to go and couldn't wait! It wasnt until giving him a bath and washing it off that the grossness settled in. But still felt bad. So I bathe and dry him, take care of the mess and when James gets home do I get a "thanks for taking care of that"? No. Instead I get a "your going to be late getting back to work" instead. Thanks. Thats just what I needed to hear. I don't now if this is what I get to look forward to when having kids or if this is something I have a right to be upset about, but either way, Im gonna need a minute...

Who'll Stop the Rain...

"Long as I remember the rain been comin down.

Clouds of mystry pourin confusion on the ground.

Good men through the ages, tryin to find the sun;

And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain."

-CCR

Oh the truth to those words...when is it going to end?!! It has been raining here for 2 1/2 weeks straight! I don't understand, I thought we moved to the desert? So much for that, it's turning into the wettest of marshlands here. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: weather.com says we are in the clear starting Monday! 70 degree weather with clear skies and 0% chance of rain!! I can hardly wait!! I can see it now: sandals, shorts, riding my new bike, walks again with Doc, rides on the motorcycle. Ahhh...I can hardly wait. So heres to the sun! We love you sun, please come back out play soon, we really do miss you:)

Finally, some recipes...and more!

Once again, I have no good excuse for disappearing other than I'm lazy and forgetful. I get home from work and all I wanna do is cook, eat, clean and relax. Enough of my excuses, lets get on with some of the recipes I promised!

Island Pitas (a.k.a. Grilled Chicken Teriyaki Pineapple Pitas...better, huh?)
2 boneless chicken breasts
Lawrys Teriyaki marinade
1/4 C. Mayo
Pineapple slices
Lettuce
Pitas

1. Marinade chicken for desired length of time. Mix mayo with 1 tsp. marinade, or to desired taste. Grill chicken and pineapple slices while basting pineapple with marinade. Cut chicken into strips, then slather on some of the mayo mixture on pitas then stuff with chicken, pineapple and lettuce. Enjoy!!


Next, Pioneer Woman, Ree Drumond's: Mexican Lasagna

Just follow the link and I promise you will love what you find! James and I both loved it, though I will warn you it makes a ton! Those of you with big families will appreciate it, while those of you with smaller families, I would definitely cut it in half. We were eating leftovers for quite some time. It was really okay though, I savored every bite of it:)
(My pictures aren't as pretty as hers, but I enjoy myself capturing photos of my creations!)


As for James and I, we are loving Idaho, James is doing good in school and I am enjoying my job.
James on his first day of school:)
We love our ward and I am loving being back in Relief Society. Having been in Young Women's for the past two years, I have grown to miss the Relief Society, so I am enjoying it while it lasts before we get callings. We especially are enjoying having friends. James has become good friends with my friend Nicole's husband Chad. He is a car guy like James, so they have bonded quite well while I have very much enjoyed Nicoles company! Speaking of cars, James has found himself a new project. He is bringing back to life a 91 Acura Integra. I was more willing to go along with it since he bought the car for a mere $300. He is having fun stripping it apart and making it almost new again. I will have to post pictures as it comes along.

And as for Doc, well he is still my baby and we enjoy him every day! He is so much fun and love to play with him every minute we can. He actually is a year old this month! We dont know the exact day in June he was born, so I am making June 30th is Birthday, that way he is a "full" year old. Im a little OCD like that:)
Well, I think that is it for now. TTFN.Oh yeah, I cut my hair:)

Doc and I take walks along the green belt in Idaho Falls. Its so pretty, we both love it.

How cute is this?! He loves the wind blosing in his face, had to capture it:)

Addendum to "It comes down to dignity"...

I hereby take back the crown I formerly gave to Miss California Carrie Prejean. Anybody who poses nude as a teenager and lies about it on a contract to enter the Miss USA pageant clearly has little to no dignity. So much for that one!

Coming soon...an update to my Mexican Lasagna and a new recipe: Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Pineapple Pitas! Try and say that ten times fast:) Yeah, I should work on a new name...

Mexican-Italian tonight!

I haven't cooked at ALL this week and figured I better get my act together and put my wife cap back on. So, tonight I am making one of Pioneer Woman's finest, or so it looks at least. Mexican Lasagna. I can't WAIT! I'm sure James cant either. Poor guy. If it wasn't for the fact he burns noodles, I'm sure he would help out in the kitchen. But for fear of burning the house to the ground, we both agree the kitchen is my domain. He does help with dishes so for that I am INCREDIBLY grateful. He deserves a pat on the back! So, here's looking forward to some good cookin' tonight!! Or so we hope.

Pandemics and Preparedness

As many of you have probably heard, there is a possible pandemic on our hands with this swine flu among us. It has me on my toes since there are three people here at my work that just returned from Mexico, where the outbreak is most prevelant...EEEK! Needless to say, Ive got my Clorox dissenfecting wipes at my side alongside some hand sanitizer. I might even go get me a surgical mask, but we'll see. Im not taking any chances here people!

What this whole situation really comes down to is being prepared. Before we left from Missouri, James' Dad was telling us how the church has hired a special pandemic person for situations like these. You know when the church is taking action in hiring someone for a pandemic, it's not going to be that far away. He told us to start preparing now with a 3 month food storage supply, in case of one. Of course this would be on top of what we already had in food storage, which Im not going to lie was next to nothing. But we do have a Sam's Club membership and since we moved I have been picking up extra things here and there when I go, so I can proudly say I am starting and have enough for maybe 2 months. James' Mom also gave us a whole bunch of cannery from the Bishops storehouse so that indeed helps.

But the thing is, after reading about how our country is very vulnerable when it comes to our dependence on other countries for most things, it has made me realize just how important it is to be prepared. If you read THIS article, it talks about how places like Wal-Mart keep there inventories low to prevent waste, so if we were to cut off air travel there goes our stock for necessities for things such as generic medicines to surgical gloves. When it comes to our new President and our failing government, they will leave you to believe there will always be someone to be there to bail you out in time of need. We all know though this isnt true. We NEED to be prepared for whatever comes our way.
So, even though I have been preached to for years now to begin my food storage, and have a little here and there, I hereby declare April 27th the day I dedicate myself to FULLY preparing my food storage and simply just being PREPARED.

Off to Sam's Club I go.

It comes down to--Dignity

If you haven't heard all the hoopla about the Miss USA pageant, then you are missing out on the most outrageous contraversy ever. Really, Im boiling under my skin right now just thinking about it!

Her crown winning came down to one question, the most political and moral question that could ever be asked: Do you believe in same sex marriage. Not in those exact words, here is is verbatim: "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?" Her answer: "Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. Um, we live in a land that you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and in, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised and that's how I think that it should be between a man and a woman." She took a high moral ground, and for that I couldn't be more proud of a beauty contestent, knowing it wouldn't be the most popular answer. The sad thing about all of this, was the reaction. She lost the crown because of her morals, and now everyone is saying she should have given a more "pleasing" answer in order to win. Really? I thought the whole Q&A part of the competition was saying what you believe in, not what everyone else believes in. I thought the entire competition was about being who you are, not trying to be someone else. But through it all, Miss California Carrie Prejean stood by her answer and states, "I wouldn't change a thing." I watched an interview with her and Matt Lauer on the Today Show, and was very impressed by how well she is handling the whole situation. She was the first runner up, and knows that if she had given a different answer she very well could have won, but still stands by her response and her beliefs. GOOD FOR HER!

In my book, she deserves the most sparkly-studded crown ever.

Though she could have worn just a little bit more of a modest dress:)

Look who it is!!

Well I have found out that there are actually people who enjoy reading this thing, so I thought I better not let them down and get with the program!

So, James and I are in Idaho, wahoo! We absolutely love it here, so much in fact James is pretty set on staying here the rest of our lives! Im totally down. When you break it down, why not? We've got the mountains for boarding, dunes for four-wheeling, friends and family, and a race-track for James' speed demon needs! What more could you ask for?! I could use some more trees and water, but what are you gonna do about that? I guess we'll just have to visit out east more:)

As a stated in my last post I was going to share some pictures from our vaca in Utah in February, so here we go!

Here we have James newly bought truck stuck in a snow mound. Just the way I wanted to start our vacation:) Dont worry though, we got it out.

Next we have James trying on some ski gear which he later returned. That's right, I brought him over to the dark side, he's a boarder now!

James the first day with his skiis

Me loving the mountain

We loved Snow Bird, deffinitely going back next winter!

Me tearing up the mountain...

Thats James catching some air when he was first on his skiis, tricky stuff!

Us Three Musketeers at California Pizza Kitchen...good times, good food!

I love this picture of James playing the piano with the kids, melts my heart:)

Another melt my heart one:)

Gotta love these kids!!!

Oh you gotta love our classic pictures:) Super Bowl get together at Tinas place, so much fun!

All in all, two thumbs up for goofy helmets and for awesome vacations!

So there you go, good times in Utah. Im bummed I didnt get any pictures with Ben & Joy though. In due time.

Well, I suppose that does it for that. Hope you enjoyed! I know I did:)

Coming soon: Pictures of Doc in all his glory!! (Thats my dog if you dont remember:)

Hello World!

Between packing up our house, going on vacation for a week and half, working on the in-laws house, and moving accross the mid-west, its needless to say we've been a little busy and thus absent from the world for a while! But no worries, we are here and well. The move was great, we couldnt have asked for better weather for the drive, and I somehow got by without needing any of the energy drinks we bought for the 21 hour drive! Were now moved in and loving our townhouse. Were 2 minutes away from Walmart and Im 5 minutes away from my new job. I start my job tomorrow as a receptionist for an international company that makes food processing equipment. James is still on the hunt for a job and is still waiting on his school application status, so heres hoping!
I think that will have to be it for now, Im pretty tired and dont know how much longer I will make it this evening without passing out on my lap-top!
I will make sure to update more on our wonderful vaca in Utah and post some much needed pictures. Love to all!