bloggity blog?

My mama calls this my "bloggity blog". Sadly, I've been neglecting it, and so I have a LOT of catch up to do. Let me just post some highlights here:

I've been to a couple concerts in the past few months:

Iyaz/Jason Derulo/ Auburn/ B.o.B.- I went with my friends Kyle and Heidi.

I also went and saw Sarah Bareilles (see my Facebook for videos) and she was INCREDIBLE! It was so amazing. I love music! :)

Let's see. I've just been crazy busy with school and work and just everything. Oh yeah! I ended up driving home and surprising my mom for Thanksgiving! My friend Jess came with me and we had SO much fun! Plus I was able to be here for my friend Jackie's baptism, and it was just a really great trip.

me and jess :)

with jackie at her baptism!

It was seriously so much fun! When I got back to Provo, I was part of the BYU A Cappella Jam, which featured several a cappella groups on campus, including the club choir of which I am a part! It was really cool cause we just totally rocked it and it felt great! (See Facebook for video! :) )

And now I'm back at home for the Christmas break. Finals went well, and I'm so relieved to have a break!

And now, a little exploration into the subject of Disney Channel Movies.

Now, I will unabashedly admit that I am a Disney Channel fan, despite the fact that more and more of their stars turn into slutty drug addicts... but that's another story. I will tell you up front that I do, in fact, enjoy Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverley Place, not to mention the old school ones, like Lizzie McGuire and That's So Raven. I love these shows.

But lately, thanks to my handy-dandy Netflix account (courtesy of my grandparents), I've been able to watch more and more of the Disney Channel movies. Oh, I've watched them in the past, and yes, there was always a bit of cheese (HELLO, High School Musical??!) but for some reason, I still find myself watching them! And for some reason, I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Literally, (and I counted), the movie that I just finished watching (give you one hint: whiny boy band and dyed-her-hair-so-ugly-it-matches-her-whiny-voice star meet up for another summer of fun! oh boy!) was almost unbearable. I think that I must have slapped my  hand to my head and rolled my eyes at least 15 times... and that is not in any way, shape or form an exaggeration. Seriously. I had so many moments where I was just like, "Really? They really just used that line?" Or in some cases, "They really couldn't afford a screen writer?" 

Not only are the lines bad, but the acting itself-- oh my goodness! I mean, come on. Last night I watched Avalon High, cause I've always kind of been a fan of King Arthur. I kept watching, waiting for it to get better but it never did! I guess for Avalon High, I have no excuse. I should have just turned it off, but they had a super weak romance line going through and I wanted to see if they ended up together (not that I ever doubted, but the romantic in me made me hold out...)

But as for Camp Rock 2-- oops, did I ruin the surprise for you?-- well, I think I figured it out. Because for as many times I slapped my head and rolled my eyes and asked myself for the millionth time, "WHY ARE YOU STILL WATCHING THIS??!" there was that one song where I couldn't stop smiling, and I had that classic Disney moment. In this case, I think there were actually two songs that I really liked! Because cheesy though these movies may be, they're like thrift stores. You kind of have to endure/sort through the bad stuff to find those little gems that are hidden. And maybe you have to put hand sanitizer on your hands afterwards and maybe you feel like you've wasted an hour and a half of your life, and hey- maybe you have. But somehow those little moments make up for it, and you feel somewhat vindicated. 

Plus, when they've got eyes and voices like this-- I mean, you can't really complain THAT much :) And since it won't let me embed it, you're just going to have to follow the link to see what I'm talking about. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UILg-PIt_l0&feature=related 

And then there's this one, which kind of infuriated me, but I liked the lyrics so much that it kind of made up for it. I mean really, who just goes and picks up the guitar like that? And the song counteracts how they're treating each other. It's just a little bit ridiculous. But here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cL5Df8FX10

I guess my point is that sometimes it's worth it to put up with the crap acting and cheesy lines if sometimes you can hear songs like that... although I'd rather someone had just showed them to me. And even though their voices annoy me (except for Nick... he could sing to me ANY day, and that'd be just fine), I am a musician and I appreciate good melodies and lyrics and the romantic in me eats up the cute moments, and of course I'd die if any boy ever wrote me a song so cute as the one Nick did. I'm just sayin'.

Anyways, I kind of felt like I needed to get this out there if only so I would feel vindicated in my own mind for completely wasting a good chunk of my day today on the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato... 

That said, MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Recipe For Fun

Well, hello there! Yet another week of my life has gone by, and I must say I have been thoroughly exhausted through and through. It's the third week in the row that I have been waking up consistently early, and it's starting to take a toll. I'm just way tired all the time! Silver lining: I'm entertaining the people in my class with my lack of awakeness. Apparently I'm funny when I'm tired.

Side note: Did anyone else know that there were Rudy's BBQ restaurants outside of Texas?? I tried calling one of my teachers out on it and he totally turned it around on me because i didn't do my research. Oh, the life lessons I am learning in college.

Yet again, this has been another successful and not-so-successful cooking week. (I'm thinking I should just give up and make this into a cooking blog- but I won't. I like writing about the other things in my life too, you know!)

So first: baked ziti. I called my Grandma Helena who is a FABULOUS cook, and she talked me through it, gave me a recipe that I almost followed exactly, and it was very successful. I made a whole 9x13 pan though, so I had LOTS of leftovers when I was done. I invited one of my friends over and we talked and ate and it was great!  I was very happy with how it turned out.

A couple nights later, I decided to try my hand at TEXAS SHEET CAKE! I called Heather from back home because I remembered that hers was amazing, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I took these ingredients:

And turned them into....

which I then turned into....

ta-da!!

Haha. So a few quick notes about the Texas Sheet Cake. The cake part tured out marvelously. I got a little creative with the topping. I'm not a huge fan of pecans, so I decided not to do those. Instead, I bought chocolate and vanilla Charleston Chew and put them in the freezer (a trick I learned this summer @ Aspen Grove) because it makes them brittle and really easy to crack and break. So I ended up smashing those and sprinkling it on top. I felt pretty creative.

However, I definitely struggled with the icing. It was a combination of mistakes- me not taking it off the heat, me putting too much powdered sugar in, me probably whipping it too much. In any case, the icing turned out to be a thicker, almost fudgy substance, and it was very rich. It covered most of the cake, but not all of it. I was really disappointed when I first tried it, just because I knew that I'd messed up the icing and that I'd had better. But then my roommates tried it and they absolutely LOVED it! So, with that boost of confidence, a roommate and I brought some over to some boys in our ward and guess what? They loved it too! So I guess in the end, it did turn out quite well.

Now for the strawberry cake adventure. I found this recipe that looked absolutely DIVINE online for a strawberry cake. I wanted to try it so bad. So my friend Jess came over and we made it! But we ran into some difficulties along the way. So here's what happened. We started with the cake batter. We mixed the batter:

(that's supposed to be "light and fluffy"

and we pureed the strawberries using my roommate's magic bullet. it really is MAGIC!

then we mixed some more!

(these are my artistic mixing bowl pictures.)

and we peeled the strawberries!

We also made icing, but we forgot to take pictures of that. You get the gist of it anyways. And here's a picture of the finished product:

It looks impressive, right? Well let me tell you a little secret. About 5 seconds after we took these pictures, everything started melting off! It was horrible! The strawberries on the side kept falling off, and it looked like everything was sliding off the plate. Then when we tried to cut it, it turned into a jumbled mess!

But.. that's not to say that it wasn't PLATE-LICKIN' GOOD! :) 

:)

And it was very scrumptious. Although it made a HUGE mess of dishes. Oops. But it was definitely a fun night, and another fun cooking adventure. I think I'm going to make a goal to try at least one new recipe a week. (I know I have to say only one a week because anything else would be very unrealistic.) 

OH WAIT. I have to mention a story that happened to me this week really quick.

So I was walking home from school, totally zoning out, in my own little world, and all of a sudden, this guy JUMPS out of a cardboard box and SCREAMS at me! Well of course I scream like the little girl that I am, and he just starts laughing hysterically. As I'm walking away, he points across the street and tells me that his friend is filming it. Gee, that's just really great, buddy. Yikes. Anyways. That would happen to me, right? I know.

Got a big week ahead: my first big paper and my first big test are due this week. So hopefully those go well! Fingers crossed. AND I'm going to try to get more sleep. I'm gonna. :)

Toodles!

Wake Me Up When September Ends

So every time that September rolls around, particularly near the end of September, I always think of that song by Yellow Card. (I think it's Yellow Card at least?) It kind of encompasses how I've felt about the last two weeks- it'st just been so crazy, I just needed to make it to the end.

Of course, that in no way solves my busy life, but that's okay. Why, might you ask, has my life been so busy? Well, let me tell you! I got a job! :) FINALLY. I'd been trying for at least a month to find a job and I finally got lucky! I now work at the Wheatley Institution, which is supported by BYU and located in the Hinckley Center. I am working as a secretary, and my hours are 8-12, M-F. I'm SO grateful for this job. Seriously. If you wanna learn more about what the Wheatley Institution is, you can go to this link: http://wheatley.byu.edu/.

I'd like to once again emphasize HOW MUCH I LOVE MY CLASSES!! Well, my English ones at least. I am seriously loving both of them. Now it might just be that I have awesome professors in both classes, or it could be that I love the subjects we're learning about. Probably it's a combination of both. But we always have great discussions, and I love learning new things. It was so amazing, the other day one of my teachers gave us a poem, talked to us a little bit about the author and told us that we were going to have an appreciation of art day instead of focusing on the technical. So he gave us the poem and told us to find our favorite spot on campus and read it, and then we were dismissed. Cool, huh? The same teacher also gave us the day off of class on Friday so that we could get our homework done for Monday so that we could appreciate General Conference weekend! I love BYU. So much.

I have to say, I've really been missing my freshman guy friends lately. Like a ton. I don't know why- probably because I used to hang out with them all the time and now they're pretty much all gone. It's just sad that I can't call them or hug them or talk to them. Of course, I'm so proud of them and I know that they are all where they're supposed to be, but it's still hard.

Cooking update, anyone? I swear, lately I have been so inspired to cook. I find inspiration in all shapes in sizes, whether it be Julie and Julia (such a great movie), or MasterChef, or even my roommate Cristy who cooks/bakes lots of yummy goodies all the time. There are just some days that I want to create a masterpiece. Of course, that's somewhere in the very distant future. I'm just at the beginning level right now. But, let me tell you about two dishes that I made and loved this last 2 weeks or so.

First: orange chicken! I bought a packet of frozen chicken that came with the orange sauce from the grocery store. While I was cooking that, I made some rice and I cooked some veggies and then I combined them all together and it tasted divine.

Second: Last night I made monkey bread! This was a classic from my childhood. I always used to love making it with my dad. I decided to make it for myself last night and it turned out PERFECTLY! I was so happy, cause it was my first time making it on my own and I was quite nervous, to be honest. But it was all good :)

So yeah! Those were just a couple of my cooking adventures recently. I also made Shepherd's Pie, but I didn't take a picture of it because it doesn't look as good as it tastes. 

I went to dinner with Haley and Alison today! It was so nice to get together and catch up. It actually made me kind of homesick. Well, that and the fact that I booked my ticket to Austin for Christmas this week! I'm way excited to go home, but it seems like it's a lifetime away. 

Let's see... I got new glasses! I don't have to wear glasses all the time, I just wear them when I need to focus or concentrate, but the ones that I had were old and scratched and I figured that it was about time to get new ones! So I picked out some way cute frames, and I'm really happy with them!

Oh yeah! I totally forgot! Last week, Haley and I went to a TEXAS PARTY! That's right. It was hosted by the BYU Alumni chapters from San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas. They brought BLUEBELL ice cream! They gave out door prizes and had a costume contest and it was just awesome. I was really anxious because I wanted to get a Texas door prize SO badly, but they just weren't calling my number. Slowly, I watched the prizes dwindle until there was only one left. Then, they called the very last number... and it was MINE! That like never ever ever happens to me so I was super psyched. Like hard core. It was a Texas plate, and it is my favorite.

Also, with September has arrived the FALL PREMIERES! My favorite shows are back! Community, the Office, Merlin, Grey's Anatomy, GLEE!! Ah. It's been a great month.

So I guess nothing too incredibly exciting to report. I'll try to be better on posting more regularly, but there are a lot of things I'm going to try to be better at- cooking, exercising, cleaning my room, doing my homework..... etc. etc. etc.

Oh, college life. You are turning me into a grown up. Yikes.

Separating the Boys from the Men

We live in the 21st century. We pride ourselves on our new, modern ways of thinking, and our abandonment of old, dated stereotypes, and the unfairness and prejudice that accompanies them. Or do we?

Sure, we may say that it's what's on the inside that counts, or that it's more acceptable nowadays for a woman to marry a man smaller than herself. Or we say that the physical doesn't matter when it comes to true love.

Well, to that I say: Yeah, right.

This is a subject that has been on my mind for the past couple of days. We started talking about it in my class about the Literature and Culture of the American West. Naturally, we were talking about cowboys and Indians, and in particular, the novel "Hondo" by Louis L'Amour. My teacher pointed out that there was just sheer manliness that was displayed by Hondo Lane, and that in this day and age, we find that more appealing than we would usually care to admit.

After contemplating this for quite a while, I've come to the sadly shallow realization that this is, indeed true. And I can prove my point. (Accepting, of course, that there are ALWAYS exceptions to every rule. I'm just talking in general here.)

Let's take a look at who we idolize, romantically at least, in this country.

First, let's start with the obvious: cowboys.

Here's a picture of John Wayne, actually in his role as "Hondo", the book I was talking about. John Wayne is one of those classic "real men"- the kind that are independent, and great with a gun. He's the kind of man that you know would definitely protect you.

Every girl loves a cowboy, right? Why is that? Well, he can handle a horse. He looks great in a cowboy hat. He's got that southern hospitality, and he knows how a woman should be treated. He's not afraid to take control, and his whole self is defined by his manhood.

Next, we've got the lethal men.

James Bond. Probably one of the most idolized "real men" that we have. He's smooth with the ladies, but besides that, he can kill just about anybody. He's strong, muscular, and once again- he can and will protect you.

Let's not forget Wesley, aka "The Man In Black" from 'the Princess Bride'. He's swift with his sword, can climb a thousand foot steep cliff, can defeat a giant, plus he's smart to boot. He exudes manliness, in my opinion.

There are so many more. Take a look:

Batman- no explanation needed. Okay, maybe one word: Hot.

 Han Solo... the rough, bad boy that... surprise, surprise, eventually wins the princess' heart.

Even pirates, who plunder and steal and murder in such a crude way- we romanticize them! Because there's something rugged and desperate and completely manly that cries for our attention.

Um, Duh. Helloooo Jason Bourne.

Indiana Jones

And let's not forget our lovely community volunteers:

and let's not forget...

See what I mean? There's something about all of these men, this roughness, brawniness, that attracts us to them. Are we drawn to the wimpy men? No, we are not. We like the ones that we feel can protect us! The ones that we can rely upon to kill the spiders and fight the bad guys. We want men who will be able to carry us across the threshold, plain and simple.

But what is a "real man"? Despite my unabashed shallowness at admitting that I find all of these men insanely attractive, there's a big part of me that recognizes that there's got to be more to it than that. I mean, cause let's face it, I do idolize some men that are not the manliest.

Look at Mr. Darcy. He was a gentleman. He did nothing to earn a living, was not super physically built (despite what the pond scene might indicate), and he just wasn't the manliest of men. And yet, he could dance. And he showed a certain emotional strength, and a strength of character, strength that I think is essential in any man.

And what about Gilbert Blythe? Surely, he wasn't what anyone would call "manly". He was smart, though, and his personality made him more attractive than anything.

And let's not exclude Mr. "Her Love is Like the Wind". I mean, heck- he was a skinny, not very built guy, but his gestures proved him to be quite the man. 

See what I mean? No, you probably don't. That's probably because I'm having a bit of a problem with it myself. 

What is the ideal man? For that matter, what's the ideal woman? I guess I have to say that it's just different for different people. 

I want to make this very clear: I like guys of all different heights, weights, hair color, eye color- you name it. I even like guys with crazily different personalities. But if I'm being honest with myself, I will admit that I, like the rest of the chick flick, hopelessly romantic community of women, do find a certain attractiveness about that ruggedly handsome, intensely strong and protective man. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't! In the past, I've even gone for the guys that were bigger and stronger, more "teddy-bearish" if you will. But yet, I am completely enamored of those men that can dance and sing and write- the intellectuals- despite their different body types. I will swoon and get completely twitterpated at a guy who can play an instrument or dance. Period. He could be the scrawniest thing, but if his voice sounds like butter, he has the potential to make me melt. 

Yes, I realize that ALL of the men that I have used as examples are fictional. Trust me, I know that real life is never this black and white, and no man can be everything. Thank goodness for that, because no woman coud be either. I definitely know that I couldn't. 

I guess what I'm saying is that it's interesting to see how the stereotypes of what defines a "real man " have persisted through the years, even though they are portrayed in different types of characters (the cowboys, the pirates, the firemen, the hit men, the space rangers, etc). 

I guess my final conclusion is that "manliness" or however you want to define it, is in the eye of the beholder. Make no doubt about it- I want a guy who can carry me over the threshold, and who will kill the spiders for me. But I also want a guy who's not afraid to dance with me or sing. 

Because let's face it, these so-called "manly" men? They had definite, big flaws. John Wayne? He pushed women around! Yes, he took control, but come on- try to find some kind of a balance without having to yank the woman to kiss. Try using words instead! :) And Jason Bourne? Well he probably has nightmares and would strangle you in your sleep. Han Solo was moody and Zorro was never home and wasn't the best father half the time. 

No romance or story is ever going to perfect, because perfection doesn't exist in mere mortals. 

If you couldn't tell, this was my desperate attempt to figure out how I actually feel about what we're talking about in class. I don't know if I've succeeded or not. I guess it's just the expressive in me coming out.

And yes, I realize that this blog post may make me seem shallow. But if you know me, you know that this is not the case. I'm merely trying to explore the different stereotypes that we idolize, and I include myself in that because I am that hopeless romantic. I'm that girl that cries at the end of chick flicks because I'm so happy they got together. Because in the end what really matters is that you find someone that you love, and whom you find to be attractive, and whom you find is the "real man" for you. It's about finding the balance. 

Strength manifests itself in many different forms, may it be through muscles, personality, intelligence, humor, emotionally- whatever. 

So yes, I want a strong man. But I guess you could say that "strong" is in the eye of the beholder. And this beholder happens to find strengths in many different shapes and sizes. :D

Thrifting Heaven

I'm just gonna say it. I love thrift shopping.

I know, some of you might be appalled, but I make no apologies.

There's something wonderfully fulfilling about going to a garage sale or a thrift store and seeing a bunch of junk, and after searching (which, let me tell you, takes some serious persistence and talent), find some AWESOME stuff. It's so rewarding! You put in the time and the effort, and your reward = CHEAP stuff that most of the time, no one will ever know is secondhand. Of course, you all will know that my stuff is secondhand now, but I don't care! That's how freaking happy I am about the stuff I found this last week.

First, on like Thursday or Wednesday of this last week, I went to the DI in American Fork, which turned out to be a stupendous idea, because I went to the one in Provo last week and it was wiped out because everybody and their brother are going to DI trying to find stuff to decorate their apartment with as well.

Some of the highlights of my DI trip were:

• shower caddys (metal w/ suction cups, looked almost new), $1 each
• adorable red braided belt, $1.50
• practically new 'Battle of the Sexes' game, $2
• so cute black metal napkin holders, candle holders, and plate hangy thingy (I'll post pictures once I've put them on display, it'll look cuter that way! , $1 each

then i got some awesome picture/ inspirational quote type things:

"the best things in life are not things"

welcome sign for the door

So that were some of my finds at DI. I also hit up the dollar store and got some awesome stuff there, including a rubber ducky keychain that has a light in it and quacks... yeah. :) Plus I got one of those apple cutter thingies, and some fake flowers for the room.

THEN, this morning, I went garage sale-ing with one of my roommates, Amanda. Oh my goodness did we find good deals. I almost peed my pants I was so excited. Here are some of the things I found:

...this was free. yeah. (it's big, too!)

snoopy PJs: $1

so this is one of those scent/wax burning things (I know it works good cause my aunt and Grandma both have one)- you plug it in to the wall and burn the different scented waxes and it smells SO good.

did i mention that it was still in the WRAPPING and that i got it for $3?!?!
here's what it says: "friends are the family you choose for yourself" 

I also found some of those "wonder hangers" that hang down vertically and make for more effective closet space/ hanger hanging. It's pretty sweet.

so it retails at like $9.95- I got mine for $0.75. yep :)

And now for the best deal of all. Drumroll, please...

huge rug for our living room...

...and a matching one for our hallway

Any guesses for the price of both? Whatever you guessed, you'd be wrong, because it was such a STEAL! This is how much I paid for BOTH:

$5!!

Yep, you read that right. They were each priced individually as $5, and I thought that was a good deal. I probably would have payed full price for it, but I talked to the lady and out of nowhere, she was all, "You know, you could have both of them for $5." My jaw dropped to the floor, and I whipped out my money faster than *insert the fastest thing you can think of here*.  Can you see why I'm so excited? Who knows how much they'd be worth if I bought it new from the store?? Yes, there are maybe like 2 minor stains, but hello... Oxyclean?! Both my mom and I swear by that stuff, so all I have to do is put a little elbow grease and Oxyclean on there and we'll be good to go.

See, we went out trying to find a coffee table for our living room, but we haven't been able to find one. However, I think that this rug totally opens up the room and makes it feel homey and spacious. So all in all, today was a GREAT day for garage sale-ing. I Craigslist-ed the night before to find all the good ones, and it totally paid off. :)

So all that's left now is to figure out where I want to hang everything! It'll be a struggle, but hopefully I'll put everything in a good place.

Speaking of interior design, I have a confession to make: I have a new Hulu obsession. I've discovered the design challenge. It's like trading spaces but BETTER because there are a ton of different shows and it's so cool. I even found the "Project Runway" of interior design- it's called DesignStar and I just think it's so cool. It'd have to be pretty cool to keep me from reading Mockingjay when I finally got a copy of it! Haha. 

Let's see. What else? Last night I went and got  a piece of pizza from Slab Pizza, just around the corner, and they had this live Dixieland band playing! It was really sweet. And I'm going swing dancing tonight with one of my roommates! I'm so excited, it's supposed to be a good one.

Also, I think I'm going to join the BYU a capella club. I think it would be fun, like Jazz Choir all over again!

Anyways, today is a great day. I'm so happy about the things that I found! And I'm SO glad that it's Saturday. It's so nice to actually have weekends again after Aspen Grove :). Church tomorrow! :)

Epically Productive Day!

Yesterday was probably the busiest, most productive day I have ever had. Let's start at the beginning, which funnily enough, is the night before.

So it's Sunday night. About 7 o'clock. I've got a ward activity at 9, so I figure I'll just take a little power nap, right?

Fast forward to 9. AM. Wake up. :)

After 14 hours of sleep, I'm feeling as fresh as a daisy and I am ready to go! I had been planning on doing a deep clean of my apartment because it really needed it. Everything was unorganized, and there was just crap everywhere. I knew that I had to tackle it, because it was driving me crazy. I wanted to be able to invite people over without being embarrassed!

So I clean. And I clean and I clean and I clean. I re-organize all of the cabinets. I clean off the oven and the dishwasher and all of the cabinets. I clean the inside and outside of the fridge. I scrub. I move out the kitchen table and chairs, and I get on my hands and knees on the floor and scrub with BLEACH. (Trust me, it needed it.) Let me just show you a picture so you can get an idea. This is when I was halfway done:

I know it doesn't seem like much, but it felt like a HUGE accomplishment. Then we had to go to our storage unit/closet downstairs and take everything out of that and reorganize it because it was crazy. Once that was done, we were FINALLY able to move all of the crap out of the living room!

Then we started moving furniture. For example, we have this little TV-holder thingy, but we don't have a TV, nor are we planning on getting one, so it looks a tad awkward. So... we moved it! :) then we played around with the curtains- We pinned them back so that the room would look more open, and we put up some curtains in the kitchen.

(this is our kitchen), or part of it at least! I originally had the curtains on the table cause I thought they were a table runner, but it turns out they were curtains, so we decided to put them to good use!

Here's our living room- I know it looks kind of empty, and it is, but the space is marvelous compared to the cramped crowded mess it was before! I'm going to garage sale-ing soon to try to find a coffee table and wall decor for cheap.

Also, one of my roommates and I are toying with the idea of painting our hideous red wall a light green. Then we could make curtains to match, cause we think that the red is a little overbearing.

However, for now- it works!

Haha! I bet you thought that I was done with my productive day. (And why wouldn't you? It was a crazy awesome productive day!) But oh no. I am not done. Nope.

I, Kelly Rogers, successfully cooked my first (super [okay semi] healthy) meal all by myself!

I know. It sounds like a dorky statement. But for me, it was a really big deal. Especially because this meal required me to multi task. And I think I did it quite successfully, I must say.

So. I started out making instant brown rice (followed the instructions, made on the stove). Then I put some oil in a pan and put some frozen vegetables in there and started cooking them. I poured some seasoning salt and some regular salt on there too. (Btw, here's where I think I accidentally turned my meal into semi- healthy... I think I put too much oil in the pan, and that's why it tasted so good. Oops.) Here's the tricky part: I used my new George Foreman grill for the first time to cook my chicken. I put it in the microwave to defrost first, and then I put some seasoning salt on the chicken and stuck it on the grill. However, I couldn't find my packet thingy that told me how long it was supposed to be on the grill and at what temperature, so I might have accidentally overcooked it. Just a little. But it still tasted fine! It was just a bit crunchy on the outside. :) Then I cut up some strawberries, and poured myself some water and enjoyed my meal!

It tasted SO good! I was so proud of myself! I mean, it took about 15/20 minutes to prepare, but the feeling of sitting down and knowing that I had cooked the entire thing all by myself made it taste better, I think. I mean, I could taste the effort that I put into making it!

With all the cooking shows that I watch (Master Chef, Hell's Kitchen, etc.), I always thought that cooking was kind of an unattainable skill for me. Mostly because I've had lots of failures with cooking in the past (see Hard Boiled Eggs blog). But this one success has given me a tiny boost of confidence! I'm not going to starve at college! I am going to be healthy, and I am going to like it! :)

After I made my meal, I went to FHE, which was fun, then came back and finished cleaning the living room and my room.

See what I mean? It was a TOTALLY productive day!

(Now I just have to do my homework today that I was supposed to do yesterday!) Haha. :)

Hard Not-So-Boiled Eggs

I have successfully completed my first week of my sophomore year of college, thank you very much. It's actually been a pretty awesome week! Lemme do a quick lil' recap hur. :)

Monday: Wake up. Make egg sandwich for breakfast. Attempt to organize my mess of a room, mostly unsuccessfully. Oh well. Go shopping with Grandma, frantically trying to get it done in time for me to be at class at 1. Go to the wrong building for first class. Oops. It's okay, I make it to my other class on time. Get labeled "Texas Girl" by professor on day 1. Met and talked to someone I didn't know. :) Frozen yogurt with Jess after classes. Leftovers from Sunday night at Grandma's for dinner. Family night with my new ward. Meet new, nice people. Go home, put up more decorations in my room. Go to sleep.

Tuesday: Wake up. Make egg sandwich for breakfast, with some fruit. Tackle (successfully) the taming of my room... finally, it is clean and organized. (Although still lacking a desk... I'm still working on that.) Go to classes, including my first choir class that I've taken in over a year! :) Met/talked to someone I didn't know before. Went running at Smith Fieldhouse with Brittany. Come home, go to bed.

Wednesday: Wake up. (I know, it's a crazy bad habit, this waking up of mine.) French toast for breakfast and for dinner. (There's only so much you can do with bread, eggs and milk- aka, the bare necessities that I had to eat, since grocery shopping had not yet occurred). Go to the wrong class (it was only one classroom over from my other one!) Awkward moment. Met someone new. I'm sure something else fun happened, I just can't remember.

Thursday: REALLY tired by eggs at this point, but what can you do? Go to classes, meet new people. Fun day. Go to Institute at night. Free food, met 2 new people! :)

Friday: classes, then my roommate Cristy was nice enough to take me grocery shopping! Yay! Bonfire at night, met lots of new people, had lots of fun, and got tons of smoke stuck in my lungs. Still recovering.

Saturday: shopping for cleaning supplies and such in the morning. BYU FOOTBALL BABY!!! (we won... and my voice suffered the consequences). Went to a game night at my friend Jess's place and had SO much fun there. Came home at like 2:30 in the morning. Yeah.

Which brings us to... today! Where I will be having church, then go to a couple ward functions and what not.

So here are a few things that I didn't mention in my recap: I'm taking ASL 101 (sign language) and I actually really like it! I was afraid that I was going to be bad at it, but it's becoming easier every day, and I feel like I'm learning a lot! Also, I really like my roommates. I totally lucked out, because all of them are normal, awesome, super nice people! As you may have noticed, I've met a lot of new people this week. It's one of my goals. I've been trying to make an effort to be more open to new experiences and new people, and so far it's worked out really great! I'm really loving this new social aspect of life :)

I'm also embarking on a quest. It's a quest to beautify my apartment. It's not super clean, and the walls are very bare. So, true to my Aspen Grove mode that I cannot escape, I made a "deep clean" list. It's like a page and a half long, and it's very specific and detailed and when I'm done with it, my apartment is going to look like a completely different place. Once it's clean, I'm going to find a way to decorate it, and THEN I'll be able to invite people over.

And last but not least, I have discovered a fatal flaw in myself: I do not possess the ability to hard boil eggs. (In my defense, I hear that it's more difficult in Utah because of the altitude, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't be that much different if I did it in Texas.) So, I bought a carton of eggs to hard boil. I talked to several people and asked them how to do it, and I looked it up on a website. So I followed the instructions, and then... DISASTER STRUCK. :( I went to peel the shells off, and much to my dismay, I was not rewarded for my efforts. It wasn't runny, but it definitely wasn't hard. Sadly, I was forced to throw all of them away, along with my hopes and dreams of ever being a good cook. (I've been watching Master Chef lately, it's been putting crazy ideas into my head).

Anyways. Maybe someday I'll be able to do it right. But until that day comes, I guess I'm just stuck with my feelings of failure as a egg-boiler.

 But, let's end the blog on a high note, shall we?

GOOOO COUGS!!!!!!!! :)