Being Pampered

I've been fighting an on-coming cold these past few weeks and it looks like it has overcome me. I'm still trying hard to stay energetic and moving instead of being in the house all day mopey in bed. Disinfecting everything, wearing my little Japanese face masks all around the house (too embarrassed to wear it out...). It hurts when I sneeze and kills my throat every time I cough. I've been trying to take some medicine for it, but I'm scared to take sleepy pills because I have to wake up early in the mornings. :( I hope that maybe tonight or Saturday night I can take some and sleep in.

Through all this, Boy has been helping as much as he can between school work, finals and the stress/drama of the area right now. *rolls eyes about the drama* Anywhoz, I absolutely love it when he pampers me and does things for me knowing that I am sick. I mean who doesn't like to get pampered? Even just his hugs and a kiss on the forehead after I finish a round of sneezes or painful coughing makes me feel better. I guess that's where the whole "kiss it better" came from too. Knowing someone loves you, when they "kiss it better" as a kid, you know is the best medicine ever. I love it when he makes me drink water, knowing that I don't drink enough as I should... All the little things he does letting me know he cares about me and wants me to get better.

Now if it would just warm up again... but I guess now that it is December and it started snowing, that won't happen for a long time. =/ At least I'll be at home soon, where there may be ice and threats of "end of the world" cold, but it definitely won't be anywhere near the negatives.... maybe not even the 20s.... And the wind won't be as crazy piercing as it is here.

Baking

I've been saving this one, debating on if it really does brighten my day to bake and how I should write about this... Needless to say, I really do love to bake. Cookies, bread, even just cooking dinner. I love it. It's become something that is really important for me to do (maybe because I'm a newly-wed and that "house wife mode" is starting to kick in) and something that I have come to enjoy. I've found I love finding recipes to try and making them to see if Boy likes them or not.

In all honesty, before I went to Japan (2010), my cooking and baking skills were at a minimum. (No lie, I totally made the fire alarm go off at college while cooking macaroni and cheese...) It was boxed mixes all the time. Sure! I could cook! Little did I know that I would be going somewhere that did NOT have box mixes and did NOT have convection ovens. Uhm, so I guess you could say Japan taught me how to cook for reals and not just from a Macaroni and Cheese box. When I came home however, I had to re-teach myself again how to cook because of the different measurement systems and other things. But! Through trial and error, I did it!!! Last night, I finally made bread!

And doesn't it look yummy?!!

Ok ok ok, so I did have help. The first time I made this, it was with my friend Joanna who is minoring in culinary arts and wants to open her own bakery... So, she taught me what to do and what not to do and a few tips, because everytime I have ever made bread before, it's never risen, it's burnt, exploded in the oven, it's hard as a rock.... BUT this time I did it myself!!!

I've been on a baking/cooking spree while I've been out here. It started with desserts and sweet stuff, but now I'm learning how to really cook dinner and bake all sorts of things! It sometimes is frustrating, but it's so exciting when things turn out right and delicious! Right now I'm working on some English Muffins. Mmmm. Also, this week I had a whole bushel of apples and so I finally got the courage to use my crockpot for the first time and I made some Applesauce and Applebutter! (Which tastes delicious on the bread...)

(Isn't he cute? *twitter-patted*)

With this whole new baking spree, I decided to start up a new blog and got Joanna in on it too! It's a recipe blog! I know there are a TON of recipe's out there and a MILLION blogs on cooking, but it would be nice to have all my recipes that I'm gathering in one spot. Maybe one day I can make a cookbook! :D That would be exciting to have my very own cookbook. Maybe.

Halloween

It's over, but I love to dress up. I love carving Pumpkins and baking pumpkin goodies. I love the little kids dressing up and all going Trick or Treating. I love watching the traditional movies like, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Coraline. It is fun! I don't understand those people who are so against the holiday as to say that it is "evil" and a "dark tradition that has no meaning"...research people... I mean, if you really dumb it down to what it's really become, all you have to do is dress up and go tell your neighbors "Trick or Treat!" and they give you free candy!! And don't forget to hit up the rich neighborhoods where they actually give away the HUGE candy bars and the good treats. :)

 

Good Friends

Sunday, it started to get cold...

Monday was miserable. It was dark, cloudy, cold and then it snowed/slushed/rained thing....

Today and the rest of this week will be the same; No higher than the 40's and chance of more snow all week along with piercing winds, no sunlight and cloudy skies. It's so cold, I'm wearing a coat inside the house even though the heat is on.... I haven't gotten much sleep either, but that's another story/rant for another time.

I've tried to find something positive to say. I've tried to find something positive to think about, but whenever I do, it either makes me hate this place even more or gets me even more depressed. I'm tired a lot more than usual and I'm starting to lack motivation to do anything again. No motivation for art, cooking, archery, music or even working out. I think I'm burnt out.

The only thing I can really say I'm looking forward to this week is leaving Thursday to go to Utah. I have responsibilities to church and so I'm stressed out trying to finish things before Sunday, but then again another half of me just wants to say "who cares, they can deal with it"... I know...

I can't wait to see my friends who are in Utah. Especially if I can visit with "Alasse". I miss her a lot. I miss being able to talk to her a lot too. I miss going to the Jones' Clan every so often and going hiking about 2-3 times a month. I miss their parties and their camp outs, jeeping and the obnoxiousness of their fun family. I can't wait to see them again and be able to party this weekend with them and to go there for Thanksgiving too. I'll get to see my old Japan Mission companions this weekend too, which will be nice because I so miss speaking Japanese more than anything. 

Color

Things have been busy since I started taking a class at school and now I've found my way into being a teacher's assistant for Boy's archery class. I haven't forgotten about this though! I'm still trying to find new things to love and do here in this small small town of no where. 

In fact, it's getting colder and colder everyday and it makes me sad that soon, I will not be able to ride my bike as often as I could be due to the weather, but as I walk around campus, to and from my classes, I've noticed the leaves start to change and the beautiful leaves springing up here and there, falling all over the ground, etc. It's beautiful. I love the colors fall (and spring!) bring to the world. (Not to mention the delicious flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon and apples!!) I think that they both equally have amazing color splashes everywhere and it just makes the earth a more pretty place. 

It's VERY cold and SUPER windy here, but if the sun is out, I love to ride or walk to wherever I am going because I can see more of the town, more of nature and I get to hear/feel the crunch of leaves as I go places. As I walked to school today, the tree outside the church building was finally ALL bright red! So pretty. 

I guess that's it for today. :) Enjoy your lemon-aide!

Learning

I feel like I haven't written for weeks, but it's only been one...

I've been having a very difficult time with the environment around me. Mostly the people honestly. It's just all apart of the culture shock and it just amazes me how people can be so inconsiderate, ignorant and unbelievably hypocritical. I've been so upset with people not keeping their word, having respect for authoritative figures and not following the commandments/dress code of the school/prophets council, that I've just have had a total crash on even having hope for humanity.

FOR THE RECORD (before someone else goes off on me) I am NOT saying that I'm perfect. In fact I am far from it! Everyone has issues, but I DO keep the church standards and the dress code at this school (which I signed and agreed to follow), even though I do not agree with many of the silly rules here that have no real relation to the standards of the church. I will try to end my rant here before I go on for an hour.....

So, after heckling the school, gathering funds, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I finally got back into school. I'm a non-matriculated student (meaning I am not a degree-seeking student) and am taking less than 9 credit hours. I got into a sewing class and have already made my first pillowcase. I actually made two it was "sew" easy. (ha ha...) And although this next project of making pajama pants is a little harder, requiring that we alter the pattern we have (ugh! suugaku ga meccha nigate desu!) I am learning! which is what I need. I miss learning. I want to learn so many different things; gardening, sewing, watercolors, photoshop, etc.

For now, I am a student here, but when Bryan is done, I will just continue my "education" from craftsy.com so that we don't have to stay in this state any longer than we have to. (yeah yeah) So I'm excited to learn what I can while I am here regardless of the annoying hipster girl with an attitude in front of me in class and others around me who clearly do not follow the school dress code. (Why the heck you would want to wear that anyways when it's freaking snowing/sleeting/hailing/raining all at once outside beats me... crazies)

I'll try to keep my other posts less..... rant....
I probably have already said too much and have my foot way deep in my mouth. I tend to do that a lot.... Until next time, LOOK WHAT I DID!!!! It has foxes on it.... Squee~!

Reipes

So, I loved to cook and bake before I left for Japan. Then I got to Japan and realized that they use the metric system and didn't have ANYTHING box mixed or anything I really needed to bake or cook anything American... Go figure. So it took me a while to learn to cook, but I finally got around the Japanese kitchen after a few months and enjoyed cooking again. I fly back to America after 18 months and forget how to cook again... Oi. Not to mention I didn't know any of the correct English terms for any vegetables or other cooking items anymore.... "Oh! It's a bellpepper!!! That's what you call it!"

Well, I'm married now and I've had to learn how to cook pretty fast again because heaven help us, I don't think I could eat pizza, ramen, hamburger helper and macaroni and cheese for the rest of my life.... Not to mention the boy almost set the place on fire by not watching a pot of boiling water and butter.... Bless his heart....

I've been searching EVERYWHERE I can for recipes. The majority coming from Pintrest. I did find a website/blog that I have taken quite a liking to! Not only does she make delicious and amazingly easy desserts, but dinners, appetizers, lunch and breakfasts!! They're all super easy to read and even printable unlike a lot of the websites I end up at after following Pintrest around....

I wish I had more of an elaborate way to display her website other than the URL, but I am not as keen on the ways of HTML as my husband... I just wish to share her amazing talent with everyone:

 http://www.chef-in-training.com/

Thank you Chef-In-Training. You have saved me from kitchen disaster.

Not to mention this weeks post was all about apples... I can't tell you how many apples I have from our Bishop's house to somehow get rid of before they rot. Oi.

Rain

Now normally, I am not a fan of the rain. I don't like this whole.... partially getting wet thing. I either wanna be in a pool or dry as a bone, but not this in between madness that ruins my hair and make up unexpectedly. I like to know when it is going to rain, so then I don't plan on wearing anything white either. That could be hazardous to everyone.

So, I woke up this morning to rain, I knew it was going to be a rainy day and upon looking at my iPhone it's supposed to be a rainy 2 days. Being this is the desert, I knew that the rain would probably be on and off and nothing really alarming like it does back home where it will rain for like.... 4 months straight. Okay maybe that is exaggerating, but it does rain a LOT. Also when it rains it is humid and sticky and muggy afterwards.  Which, despite the majority of the population, I love humidity. (Lotion? What's that?)

Anywhoz, I went to see Bryan at school today for lunch and it started to rain. Big. Fat. Drops. Everyone of course, started to run for cover and towards the buildings, but Bryan and I were quite content slowly walking to where he needed to go next. It was nice to walk in the rain. It reminded me of old times and Oshkosh when we splashed around the in puddles while everyone was huddled in the buildings. Psh. It's just water. It'll dry. It was nice to feel the storm breeze coming through. Though it's not hot and humid, it's still nice to have rain like that. It's been raining like such on and off all day after lunch. I think this is the longest it's rained ever out here! (another dramatic exaggeration) We enjoyed ourselves.

Temples

Sorry I haven't written in a while, things have been busy with traveling down to Salt Lake City to visit some friends, go hiking and explore the Salt Lake Comic Convention. As we drove home, I've tried to think about something pleasant to write about this place because I really was having a hard time wanting to come back. I really dreaded going to work and getting my schedule, getting involved in my church calling again and having Boy start school and shaving his goatee. I was not coming back to a happy place in my opinion. Not to mention, Boy and I are both a little sick with the "con funk" from being around so many people. Bleh.

Going back to work, I had a typical day. By the time I got home I didn't want to do anything except sit and nap. However, I had written on the calendar that we were going to go to the temple that night. Ugh. How easy would it be for me to tell Boy, "We're both sick and don't feel well, not to mention I don't have time to shower and I smell like Nacho's, let's just stay home." I thought about it all night as I was getting ready, but I held my tongue and we went.

I almost forgot what to do, it had been so long since I have been to the temple. It was my first time doing a session at the temple in this area, the temple had been closed due to cleaning and we haven't gotten around to going because of our vacation. Still thinking I smelled of Nacho's, by the end of the session, I am glad we went. It was so relaxing and nice to be able to sit and forget everything outside the temple for moment and remember the big picture. The latest update they have done to the session was really interesting too. There were changes they made that helped me understand things a lot better. It was calm and peaceful as we dwelt in the house of the Lord and as we left, Boy and I both felt better not only spiritually and mentally, but our throats were a lot less sore. (Might have been the cinnamon peppermint we ate too...hehehe)

We went out to ice cream after at The Cocoa Bean, which might be my new favorite place, and Boy had commented at least twice that I looked so happy. I was. I am! Because I know that I can have a family that will be together forever. I know that I am loved and I am so grateful for the Gospel in my life. You can't find joy like this anywhere else in the world.

Flowers

So yesterday was a little hard. I was sore from my first day (the day before yesterday) of a heavy strength workout, tired, seemed like I made everyone unhappy at work, etc. So I'm up late playing phone games until like 1am... which I haven't done since high school... So, I slept in today, but I eventually got up because someone had texted and called me and forced myself to start my workout again. (No pain, no gain right?!) As I'm working out, Boy gets out of bed (before 9:00!! MIRACLE!) And he rushes out the door saying he forgot something in the laundry room. I just kinda think to myself... oooookay.... and keep working out. For helpers, we live right behind the laundry facilities... he was gone for a while. He eventually came back about 15 minutes later saying "I FOUND IT! 2 for 2 months." handing me two wild flowers.

I love flowers... Silly I know, but these are especially my favorite. He went out to the nearby field and picked them, but I don't care. They're cute and it made my day because he's never bought me flowers (besides last time I got roses from a boy, they went to target practice with my archery friends).

I really wish I could grow things. I'm not very good at it, but I'm trying. I try all the time. The only thing I've been able to successfully grow are black tulips, which I have never personally seen... Mom has only sent me pictures. lol Either way, I hope that I can grow something this next spring/summer. I better start now! Right? Or do I wait until the dead of winter? Oi....

Anime

I love anime.

Even before I went to Japan, I've loved reading and watching Anime. It lets me escape the world and my imagination and artistic mind just go. I love the art style and the stories that go along with them. I just recently watched an anime that I had been meaning to see, but completely forgot about. Boy brought it up on Netflix and though it was kinda creepy/spooky and the art was very different, I truly enjoyed this story. It's apparently based off of a true Irish folk tale which made it all the better. Always wanted to go to Ireland for their faerie tales.

There's a particular character whom I loved in this story, Aisling (almost sounds like they're saying Ashley in the movie). Either way, she's a faerie. A true faerie of the forest. Last of her kind. I absolutely loved the way she is portrayed in the movie. Mischievous, fun, a forest dweller, mysterious and cute. She doesn't have wings, but she doesn't have to. All in all, I fell in love with her. And you'll just have to watch to find out why.

Here's the movie to the trailer of the movie. The art is so different and fantastic! I love the Celtic knots and the way that they depict things so close, but then as soon as the character goes behind a tree, they are far away. Just so clever. Comparable to the great anime artist Miyazaki? I think so. 

Kids

(ugh... it's so hard to write something positive when everything you think is negative...)

So I've been thinking about what to write next and I've finally come to this.

Kids.

Not my own! (Not to say I don't eventually want kids, but right now is NOT the time...)

1. Our friend whom we will call Trace has a 2 1/2 year old little boy who we will call Jay. I had the opportunity yesterday to babysit him. Mind you, I have not babysat any kids in a very VERY long time... like over 3 or 4 years? (A little background: As a missionary, as to avoid legal issues, we aren't allowed to really get involved with kids. Soooo, coming back home to a job where kids come and paint and are all around, was kinda a kick in the face.) ANYWHOZ, it had been a long day at work, being only my second day of training, and I was completely exhausted. I had just enough time to go home and change clothes before going to babysit. When I got to Jay's house, it's as if my exhausting day was made a whole lot better. We watched Toy Story, played cars, made a fort and bridge for the cars, we played outside and Jay wouldn't stop asking me to tickle him! Every other care in the world went away as Jay kept asking me to play with him on the playground slides. Too stinkin' cute.

2. The reason I am posting this today, is because I had the opportunity at work today to speak to some kids. There were 4 girls and 1 boy and they were all gathered around the register waiting for their food. I started talking to them and asking them if they were hungry and it was a nice little chat. I like to talk to kids. They aren't crazy dramatic when they're little, easy to talk to and very easily amused. They will always be your friend if you'll be theirs and just plain fun. Not only do the kids get their little sweet tortilla treat in their meal, but they also have all the fun! I realized all this while talking to the kids at the register who totally made my night as they talked about the farm work that they do at home. (I also realized even more how much of a city girl I am...)

All in all, maybe I enjoy being around kids because I can't be one anymore. So being with them makes me forget the responsibilities in life. We always get so caught up in the drama, stress and responsibility of the world, we sometimes forget as adults to stop, smell the flowers, dance, color on the sidewalk or take some time on the swings at the park and feel the wind in our hair, close our eyes and pretend we are flying. It's as if everything will be ok. Because it will.

I did have a cute collage that I made of a few kids whom have made me smile, but it got corrupted somehow and I'm too tired to try making it again in Photoshop. So.... maybe I'll edit this page later with a real picture. For now, have a cute little anime girl who is proud of her two lost front teeth.... her name is Kaga, Rin. She makes me smile too.

EDIT: Boy fixed the pictures... So now you get a picture of Rin, AND some real kids!! 

More organization

So, yesterday and today were really hard for me to find the little enjoyable things in life...
But instead of dwelling on that, I'm going to name off my thing for today...

I've found myself taking a hobby into decorating the house and getting involved in how to better situate things and organize messes. So after making the calendar for the kitchen, I decided to make a "command center". For just the two of us, I guess we don't really need it, but it's nice to have it for meal planning and groceries and other things. Not to mention I needed somewhere to put my purse. So, I found this old dry-erase/cork board at the local 2nd hand shop. It looked ugly with the white worn and torn border, so I hot clued black fabric onto the edges and in the middle to split up the cork and dry-erase.

Then, I remembered, I HAVE A LAMINATOR! Yeah!!! So I cut out little ribbons for the day of the week and made the menu for the week. Also, Boy had been talking about helping out with chores, but really wasn't sure what needed to be done. So I drew out some little cards with things to do and each day he can choose one to do for the week. Then on the left on the cork, are monthly chores which we do every Saturday! It's the basic heavy duty cleaning. So far it's worked, being you see all the cleaning magnets are under "finished".

After putting up the cork board, I glued some little clips to the bottom for my coupons, cut off the lid to the cork pins and made that a little box to keep them in up there. Underneath the board, I got a little mail file thing and nailed it to the wall. And guess what the tube is! A toilet paper roll covered in blue duct tape for a pencil holder. If you notice next to that I have a hook to hang my purse on and hooks for our keys under that. Yay! I think it works out great. I'm never looking for my keys or have to walk across the room for a pen. It makes me feel better having organization. Yay.

Well, I'm going to dwell on how Boy likes that I make the house clean and pretty as I go to bed. Goodnight.

Organization

I've always been a rather organized person. Having endless "To Do Lists" and a planner almost as long as I can remember. What more, is when you go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, every 6 weeks, they give you a planner. You use it for 18 months to 2 years. I loved it. Being I was already using planners, this was fabulous in my opinion. Others didn't quite think so, but they didn't do much either. Just sayin'.

Welp, after my mission I have struggled to find the perfect planner. Moving out here, I got a 4 month planner and have kept it up to date as well as I could. What's even better is that I found this thing on Pintrest where I could create my own calendar! FABULOUS! (I love Pintrest.) So I did!

I went to the local Wal-Mart and gathered together some pretty different colored paint cards in the "Home" area. (I'm pretty sure the man working thought I was crazy laying out 35 cards on the table there taking up his space as I made a rainbow...) I then got some white poster and glue sticks. When I got home, I laid them out and measured them and cut them to create a 20"x30" square. Glued them all to the poster! Yay!

After which, I needed a frame. I bought a cheap plastic plexi-glass frame at Wal-Mart, but when I went to write on it with Dry Erase marker, it didn't come off so well. So I went to the local craft store, Porters? I think it's called? And I was browsing through their frames.... $40-$80... OUCH! Well, the guy working saw me and said, "All frames are 50% off today!"

So excited. So I went back with Bryan that day and bought a nice plain frame for $20. Glass and everything. Yay! Now we have a beautiful wipe-dry calendar in our kitchen which I love. Not only because I made it, but because it makes me feel more organized knowing what is going on and it looks pretty. 

It helps to have it in the kitchen being that is where everyone flocks to. lol I even wrote the days in Japanese for Boy to learn. Yay! Rainbow prettiness!

The Obvious

Right now, I'm finding things about this place to love a little scarce. So, I'm going to start with the obvious about what I am grateful for here in our new little apartment.

My husband. 

He has loved me since we were 14. Although things have been hard over the years and we haven't always talked to each other, he has never once judged me. He has never once said a nasty thing to me and always wanted nothing, but my happiness. He does all he can to help me in everything I do and upon moving here, he has been so supportive and by my side as I completely brake down and cry in the local grocery store because I have no idea where anything is. As the Japanese would say, hazukashii. He's been killing the biggest spiders all week and we've finally unpacked everything from boxes. I can't even begin to say how happy I am that I have married my best friend and how much he means to me. Well, so you don't have to hear about the mushy gushy, I'll just leave with a picture.