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!