Mings

Okay, so this might be lame...but here's the truth. Mings eatery is like the best chinese I've ever had in my entire life. I've had quite a bit of chinese for the average american woman I think...and like for real. NO other place can beat the fried rice. And in my opinion, all chinese food can be judged based on their fried rice.

Anywho, Mings really saved us through a lot of our sick days. We got Mings maybe once a week for a long time cause we couldn't really get any other fast food like pizza or burgers or whatever. We now probably get Mings once a month, or once every two months.

  My favorite is the fried rice. Usually I get chicken fried rice, but today I got pork. A little spicy.

Clay's favorite is the combo meal of sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and chow mein. Chinese style. Medium spicy.

So on today when I am not feeling that well physically, Mings makes me happy. And on that note I have to say that I could probably eat chinese food everyday the rest of my life and be happy.

OH- and this was such a crying shame. For the longest time we just LOVED reading our fortunes from Mings. They had ACTUAL fortunes. Things like, "Three months time from now you will receive good news." Yeah, I got that one which TOTALLY predicted that I would pass the CPA exam. Or, "A great adventure is coming for you soon". Or like, you know- lots of things like that. And I'm telling you, they were just always so great and applicable. Well probably two months ago or something? They must've changed vendors cause now they are LAMO fortunes like, "You have knowledge" or "Wise men find the light in the day". You know? Like- they don't give you any insight. They just state facts. Major bummer...but there is hope my friends! Tonight Clay and I BOTH got some majorly awesome fortunes, just like old times.


Although I must admit, my fortune (the top one) makes me a little nervous. What if I'm the center of attention for like...accidentally tucking my skirt in my undies?! You never know. Hopefully it just means I'll be on the Ellen DeGeneres show or something. 

So today I am happy because I have a place like Mings in my life. And I got a new book from the library. OH! And I got bangs.



More pictures to come. I LOVE THEM!

Tea, winter, and resolutions

These days I am pounding down this tea.

It's full of yummy ingredients like Cinnamon, roasted chicory, roasted carob, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg! Incase you're wondering, the perfect combination is a cup of water in the microwave for 1:30 minutes, seep the tea for 6 minutes, and add a glob of raw local honey. It's pretty much perfection. Especially at this time of year. Oh, and it's from Walmart. 

Even though our ENORMOUS amount of leaves are still on the ground under that snow, it's really really pretty outside this morning. Secret? I really want it to snow today. I dunno. I know it goes against everything I ever felt towards winter but don't you think it'd just look nice and make today cozier? I do. Since I don't have to go anywhere, it would be nice.

Yesterday I read Elder Uchtdorf's talk "Of Regrets and Resolutions". Find the talk HERE. I highly recommend every person read that talk! Even if you aren't a mormon, it applies to everyone and I PROMISE you, it will uplift you. In the talk he mentions three resolutions we should strive for:

1. Resolve to spend more time with those we love.
2. Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be.
3. Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances.

That's what I'm trying to work on.

Well, I hope you have a good weekend.

A cold cold day

Well, today was cold and lousy.

I woke up and I saw the brightness shining through our drapes, a brightness which I easily recognized as, "it snowed". So I double checked and sure enough, the ground was covered in white! Honestly? It looked pretty and seemed cozy and I wasn't at all sad about it!

Then I went to work and spent half of my day trying to figure out a dang printer and honestly? It just drove me nuts. Then everytime I go outside it's freezing cold. Then I realize I'm starting to get sick because my throat feels tense and my body feels heavy and I am so so tired and just feel sick. Then I go to this Young Women's training meeting for church and I kid you not, I FELT COLD AIR COMING FROM SOMEWHERE. It was so cold! I am going to sound like an oldie here for a second, but really. If we can put a man on the moon, can't our church figure out how to keep the thermostat at a temperature that doesn't have everyone shivering in their coats? I guess not. And ontop of all this I just was having some real emotional struggles probably because lets face it, it's about that time of month.

And seriously? I just had the worst attitude all day. But I was thinking all day, "I'm supposed to be looking for happiness, remember?" So...all day I planned on making hot chocolate. So...that's what I did tonight. It was basically honey, vanilla, chocolate, and milk. The "recipe" I used didn't have NEARLY enough honey...it was like really not sweet at all. So I added tons more honey and it's not too shabby. Not the best hot chocolate I've ever made, but it'll do.

I got one of the Photography books I ordered at the library today. It's called, "Digital Photography Book". Hopefully it's a good one. And then maybe I can figure out how to use my dang camera. Holy smokes, my pictures are awful without automatic settings! It's basically cause all I do is just hit buttons hoping they do something.

So, what am I happy about today?

Hot chocolate that warms my bones.


Long johns and soft socks that keeps me comfy and warm.



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P.S. I don't work tomorrow- hallelujah! Plans?

-Sleep
-Relax

Honey Honey

My son, eat thou ^ahoney, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste -Proverbs 24:13

What makes me happy today? 

 
Honey!

Clay was making fun of me for HOW EXCITED I was when I got this honey. I don't know, it just makes me happy. This is healthy, inexpensive, raw honey. 

Did you know that Elder Ballard, an apostle of Jesus Christ, spoke about the benefits of honey?! Yes, I admit, it wasn't the purpose of his talk...but he said this, 

"Father loved his gentle honeybees and marveled at the way thousands of them working together transformed the nectar gathered from his peach blossoms into sweet, golden honey—one of nature’s most beneficial foods. In fact, nutritionists tell us it is one of the foods that includes all the substances—enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water—necessary to sustain life."

So...you know, honey is good. I use it in a lot of baking, I put it on top of peanut butter on toast, I sometimes eat a spoonful for allergies or indigestion, and I put it in tea. 

The truth is, honey has SO many health benefits. Which is why it ticks me off when people say, "Well it just ends up being the same as sugar." NO- NOT TRUE. Does sugar contain antioxidants that help prevent cancer and heart disease? Does sugar boost your immune system?  Is sugar a probiotic? Yeah, all these answers are no. I suppose I must clarify that most honey you buy at the store that is highly processed and pasteurized is much like sugar. I'm talking about RAW honey. 

So anyway, I am happy today for my honey. 

If you live in the area, I got the honey from Hoopers Honey Farm in Rigby, ID. They sell their honey for about $2/pound and you can just drop off jars, containers, whatever you want, and they fill it and will even drop it off at your house for you! It's great. And they are so nice. 

As much as I DESPISE bee's buzzing around my house where they aren't suppose to, I sure am grateful for honey bees! 

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PS. I seriously took like a billion blurry HORRID pictures. And I feel like that picture above is pretty craptastic. Shooting on manual type settings is really confusing so I'm really hoping my DSLR Photography for Dummies book becomes available at the library soon. I'm not even joking. I'm actually going to use one of those "for dummies" books. Oy. 

PPS. Clay just came up to me and said, "Well, gonna go save the world...actually I'm gonna be saving the UNIVERSE". He's off to play video games in the basement :)

Two Goals

I have wanted basically for years to learn how to use my camera manually. I have only ever used it on two settings, A) Flash, or B) No Flash.

Pretty technical stuff!

So anyway...I just love pretty pictures, just like everyone. So it's time to start learning my camera better. Which is why Goal ONE- learn to use my camera manually...I suspect some library books will be on order!

Next, oh man. You know how like I go through phases of blogging where I'll blog everyday for a week and then none at all for a week? Well it's cause I suck at moderation. Just like this weekend- I got SO MUCH DONE! This happens all the time. I'll just have a SUPER few days, and then I'll crash and do nothing but watch tv and sulk and hate life for a few days. I think it's not the best habit. I mean, yeah it's not awful. At least I'm balanced. But I'd rather be consistently balanced. Make sense? So along with my new goal to learn my camera, I am going to try and capture some sort of happiness in my life every day...WITH my camera, and then blog it. I know, not that original. But I think it just might help me keep moving and keeping a sort of happiness with me each day.

I don't think of myself as a depressed person, but I definitely am a goal oriented person. An acheivement person. If I'm not like...doing something awesome then I feel like I'm so lazy and awful. So in a small way, I am resolving to achieve something each and every day. I am going to capture some sort of happiness in my day. Which I think will probably cause me to try and SEEK OUT or CREATE a sort of happiness each day. Sometimes, I'm just not motivated to even try. Maybe this little project will help me be more motivated.

A while ago when I was reading the happiness project (again, LOVED this book and highly recommend it) I was talking to my mom about it and how I think it'd be nice to just own the book (I had checked it out from the library) so I could go back and refresh myself when I needed it...but then I was like, "Well...I know it's not scriptures or anything...so..." and my mom was like, "Well we are taught to seek after all good things." and kind of ever since that conversation the thirteenth article of faith (in our church we have 13 articles of faith. They are kind of like 13 things that our church holds true to) has been strongly planted in my mind. And here it is

 13 ^aWe believe in being ^bhonest, true, ^cchaste, ^dbenevolent, virtuous, and in doing ^egood to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we ^fhope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to^gendure all things. If there is anything ^hvirtuous, ⁱlovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

It's kind of a huge part of my belief system that we are supposed to seek after good things and happy things. Our life is about finding joy in the journey. If we just sulk by through our whole life and don't enjoy the huge blessings all around us, what's the point? I don't want to JUST endure. I want to endure with joy. 

So obviously I wont be perfect. I'll probably have many breakdowns and think my life is awful. But I am hopeful that these days will be less and less and I will soon see happiness all around me! Anyone want to join me? A picture a day of something happy in life? 

PS. This little project is perfect timing since it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Eeeeeeeek! I shall endure with joy! I hope!

Weekend of Cooking

So I had a great weekend. I had that 40 pounds of chicken and got busy! First I canned chicken. Now...I don't quite understand what the confusion is here...but every time I tell someone about canning chicken they get all confused. I am sure most people have used or eaten canned chicken in their life. They sell it at the store. You use it for soups, sandwiches, salads, anything. It's basically just like canned tuna. 

The other pot on the stove is for chicken pot pie! The most delicious chicken pot pie you'll ever eat in your entire LIFE is this recipe. No joke.

So anyway the whole time the chicken was in the canner I was praying, "Please let this work! Please let this work!" I'd never canned before and I seriously was not sure. I mean...I read tons of instructions, but it turns out it was really simple! Once I was able to open the canner up and look in and test the seals, I was SO HAPPY! Seriously I was like dancing around the house kind of happy. I ended up with 19 or 20 half pints I think.

What I don't have pictured is I put a bunch of chicken in the crock pot to make that Sweet BBQ Chicken I mentioned earlier this month. Shredded it up and froze it. Yum.

I woke up to do all this around 8 or so...and around 11 Clay came strolling out of bed requesting cinnamon rolls! Once he realized this was my big cook day he said, "Oh you don't have to- I forgot you were doing this" but of course...once I got cinnamon rolls in my head they sounded DELICIOUS. So I was a crazy girl and decided to add that to the list.

They were so so good.

This is me being all homemakey. 

Then I made a new gluten free crust that turned out GREAT! You can find the recipe here. I made it for the chicken pot pie, which we had for dinner! Then we ate leftovers of that for a couple days. It was great.

Sunday I don't really know what came over us but we decided to play scrabble. I LOVE scrabble. This is what I had at like the 3rd turn or something. 

No fun. But don't worry, I still won. 

Monday I made a bunch of creamy chicken taquitos! I froze a ton so it'll be great. 

I plan on making some more chicken pot pie filling and then freezing the rest of the chicken as individual breasts. Woohoo! Then I'll finally be done with the chicken. 

It was such a good weekend! I seriously just loved canning, cooking, freezing, it was all wonderful. I felt so domestic and happy. I decided I'm going to try to start making double batches of lots of stuff when I make dinners and freezing them so that I don't have to cook too much. Cause really? I don't cook that much as it is and so we eat a lot of PB&J/Grilled Cheese. It's not good. 

Weekend plans

Well, it will be a busy weekend. 

Today's list:

Pickup Chicken

Grocery Shop

Clean Kitchen

Make Chicken Pot pie (but only one cause I'm not positive on the crust yet!)

Start prepping chicken

Tomorrow's list:

Make chicken stuff (sweet bbq shredded chicken to go ontop of pizzas, creamy chicken taquitos, possibly more pot pies, canned chicken, and packs of 2 breasts)

I plan on finishing the book Insurgent (sequel to divergent), playing the piano, and relaxing. I will have a lot of working which means I must have a lot of relaxing too. That's basically how it works in my life. We shall see. 

PS. I got a chair from the DI for $15 bucks. Clay was a bit irritated, but it's all good. He thinks that I need to get rid of a chair now...but I'm pretty positive I don't. One of them will go in my sewing room- which doesn't have a ton of room for a chair, but the truth is, it's nice to have a chair in a sewing room for visitors, and yourself when you want to rest and watch tv after a frustrating bit of seam-ripping or other hard things. Anywho, the chair is fabulous. I will need to reupholster it, which will probably have to wait until Christmas...we'll see. 

5 happy things

Thanks for all the nice thoughts on my last post. I've kinda decided here on the blog I kinda just write whatever I'm feeling that day, and it usually passes! Whether that be good or bad. Today I'm excited for a number of reasons.

1. It's definitely fall here. It's crispy cold and it's raining leaves. It's nice. And I am trying to soak it all in before the snow hits, which is bound to happen here in a few weeks. 

2. As a lot of you know, I grew up playing the piano. Basically I'm not gonna lie, I was purty good back in the good old days. Then I stopped taking lessons and stopped practicing and anyway, I'm pretty rusty! One thing that is just the truth is I am TERRIFIED of playing in public, ESPECIALLY accompanying people when they sing. I have now accompanied the young women in public TWICE! Twice people! And guess what? I was less terrified the second time. So I have decided this: the more I do it the better I'll get and the less scared I'll be! So I'm pretty much going to jump at any chance to do this because I'm deciding life is about diving in, growing your talents, and of course serving, and a whole bunch of other stuff...but the point is, I am trying to grow this talent of mine back to where it once was, and even further than it was. I really do love to play the piano, and I LOVE my piano, cause it's beautiful and I made it that way. I mean, obviously the original creators made it beautiful, but then some idiot painted it poop brown, and then I made it beautiful again! All this being said, basically all I'm saying is I've been playing more lately and trying to overcome fears more and it's been great. 

3. I made pumpkin bread again this week and the truth is...Clay and I essentially ate two loaves in 3 days. We are okay with that. Cause A)It's delicious and B)It's got a boatload of almonds in it, which gives me permission to say its healthy for us! 

4. It's decided. I'm getting bangs. Shaggy long bangs. Cause the last time I got bangs the person cut "little girl bangs" (Clay's words). It was a horrid experience, so I'm gonna make sure they are extra long. I can always trim them you know? Besides, I dig that look. Hopefully they don't drive me too crazy! 

5. Good music. At this very moment I'm listening to The Civil Wars. I was reading the little red house blog and she mentioned them and so far I've liked all her recommendations for music, and what do you know? They are awesome. And okay. I have a confession. The other day when I was making pumpkin bread...GAH! I caved. I listened to some Christmas music! Can you believe it?! My big plan to get more into halloween in order to ward off the Christmas cravings FAILED. But don't worry, I only listened to maybe 3 songs. And I'll try my best to hold off till Thanksgiving to listen to any more. They were so good though! 

Well, that's pretty much it. This weekend I am getting 40 pounds of chicken. Remember when I got 20 a while ago? Well we went through that faster than I expected, so I decided to get the full 40 this time. So I will be cooking, bagging, labeling, and maybe canning? Wish me luck. 

Honestly, honest

Well, my life is wonderful. I have a home. I have food. I have a family. My life is sooo much more full than so many people on this earth.

But there's this looming rain cloud that doesn't seem to want to go away. It stays above my head and just pours down on me continually. Right when I think it's clearing up, it shows up...again.

I hate Lyme Disease so much. And yes, it's taught me so much. So much patience, understanding, compassion...it's given me strength, endurance, and many other things. But it's also torn me down, worn me down, and basically ripped me to pieces.

Sunday's are real hard. I look at the babies and they are the cutest thing I've ever seen. And then I find myself crying. Right there in the dang chapel. So I go to the bathroom and wipe my eyes. Come back out and force my emotions DOWN and away so that hopefully they don't rise to my eyes.

Then there's these wonderful people who are friends but not quite good friends yet that will ask me if we ever want to have children?

I have days where I think I have no symptoms and I think, oh dear, I am about done! And then suddenly my joints are stiff, my chest is heavy, and I think...really? Is this my life forever? Thinking I'm done and then Lyme creeping back into my life whenever it wants? Am I expecting too much? Why did this have to happen to me? Why couldn't I have had the life where people get married, go to school, graduate, have babies, and be so tired from a lack of sleep, and ache for time to yourself because all you do is nurse and change diapers and take care of this perfect being that was trusted to you? Why couldn't that be my life?

Of course I know that everyone has trials that I don't see. No one has it that simple, and even if some people's trials look more preferable than my own...I know that this was the trial that I was meant to have. There is something I am supposed to do with this trial, people I am supposed to help, growth that needs to happen. I suppose I am just always trying to figure out what that is.

I have strong times...where I just KNOW my purpose and I KNOW Heavenly Father knows me and loves me and is aware and there are even times where I am grateful! Seriously grateful for this opportunity to grow and serve in this life. But I also have hard times where I don't know anymore and I have to reach for that knowledge I once had...that this is all but a small moment. All will be well. I must trust the Lord's timing, and endure. I will be blessed for my efforts and my trusting in the Lord.

He is real, He knows, He cares. The truth is, I know I've helped people already. I remember my sweet niece who has Lyme, who probably would suffer much more than she has to if I hadn't experienced it myself. This knowledge alone makes it worth it for me to suffer a bit with this disease in order to help others suffer a little less hopefully.

This much I know. When I am feeling lost, confused, alone, and like nobody in the entire world could possibly understand how I'm feeling...there is at least one who knows. My Savior knows. He suffered for me. He knows. And when I most need it, He is there, comforting and calming, and I know all will be well. He has taught me that this life is not all. In fact it's just barely starting, this life I am living. This life on earth is hard and a lot have it so much harder than me. It's such a comfort to know that there is so much more to look forward to after this life and it will all be worth it.

And I am so grateful to have an outlet to express myself, and hopefully, just maybe, this will comfort someone in need today. Because just talking this out made my chest feel a little lighter, and my head a little clearer.

Life is good. Life is hard. And the thing that is hard to remember, but is important, is that both can be true at the same time. Life is hard, AND life is good. I can have a bad day, but that doesn't mean my life is horrible or bad. And the truth is, this rain cloud I'm talking about...does go away. I have sunny days. I have sunny weeks even. And I need to remember that.

Life is hard. Life is good.

Almond Flour Pumpkin Bread

Want to know something that is a great Saturday morning/afternoon treat? Pumpkin bread. It goes really nicely with afternoon general conference too.

Pumpkin Bread

Recipe from Comfy Belly

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of honey
2
eggs
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon of ginger
2 cups of almond flour

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, blend well, and then add the wet ingredients and blend well. Bake for 45 minutes or until the outside is brown. When it’s done, a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.

Isn't this so cute?! I got this pan from my sis Rebecca when she moved (she got rid of a ton of kitchen stuff to save space...poor her...yay me!). It makes a pumpkin! So how fantastic is it to make pumpkin shaped pumpkin bread?! Pretty dang fantastic. I also made a frosting out of cream cheese and pure maple syrup to taste. I'm going to tell you something, this was heaven. I mean, I really really enjoyed it. I make my almond flour by blending almonds in my blender, and sifting them into a bowl. It works great, and talk about healthy. 

Are you watching conference? If not, you should. Even if you aren't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a mormon) it's still really inspirational and awesome!

Sweet BBQ Pork/Chicken

So I've done this a couple times now and it's so delicious and easy I had to share! First I made it with pork, then I made it with chicken. Both were good, but I do prefer the pork.

Sweet BBQ Pork/Chicken

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork shoulder or 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 cups red salsa

1 1/2 cups agave

Directions:

Put all ingredients into crock pot. Cook on low for 8ish hours, or high for 4ish hours. I always take it out a half hour or so before and shred the meat, then put it back in to let the meat soak up more goodness.

This is good on pizza (mine is gluten free), salad, burrito, all sorts of stuff. YUM! So so so easy and something both Clay and I really loved!

In other news...I have finished "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. And I HIGHLY recommend it! Oh my goodness, I loved it and I really do think it's helped me in my life.

This was a sunset the other day. Oh my gosh it was so beautiful I had to try and capture it! My dad has mentioned a few times the sunsets of Idaho and how they're just amazing. Well living on the coast, seeing sunsets on the ocean, I thought he was crazy. But I have to admit, there are some REALLY stunning sunsets in southeast Idaho. YET- I have to say...having a sunset above the ocean is a bit better for me:) But seriously- the world is beautiful. 

I have been completely addicted to these two pandora stations: "Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra" and "Ella Fitzgerald". Oh my gosh! I was born in the wrong time. Clay is getting sick of it...but this music makes me so happy! I seriously just dance around my house while I listen to it. It makes dishes and cooking a lot more enjoyable. Like...the romantic songs are SO romantic, and the sad songs are SO sad. I love it! Makes me just roll my eyes at today's music. Not really though, I love me some beibs.

Conference was AMAZING today! Especially the morning session. For records sake, today the church announced that men may now go on missions at the age of 18, and women may go at the age of 19. This is VERY exciting to me. No longer women will go on missions just "cause I haven't gotten married yet"...they will go because they want to serve the Lord. Also, I just love that the gospel is spreading so quickly that obviously we need more missionaries! The gospel of Christ is such a beautiful, hopeful message and life to live. I'm happy more people are being exposed to it! I read that Elder Holland, when asked if they thought about allowing women to serve two years, said, "one miracle at a time...nothing is off the table". I love that the church has continual revelation, and I am happy to say that I feel so right about this decision. I feel like the gospel will spread even more quickly!

I particularly LOVED Elder Uchtdorf's talk. He basically put in words what I've been trying to figure out in my life lately. The road to happiness. Enjoying the journey. Not waiting until something is achieved to be happy. I've been trying really hard to live this way lately, and it really has made my life happier! I have a feeling I will go back and read his talk over and over to remind myself and keep myself in check.

Can't wait for tomorrow's messages!

Creativity, growth, and a little political gem at the end :)

One of the many crafts I made for Halloween this year. I used striped fabric, cut strips and sewed together to make the chevron look. I love it! And incase you can't tell it's a table runner. And doesn't it look fantastic with a pumpkin ontop?! It's exactly what I envisioned when I decided to make it. 

I'm so surprised cause I really have never had so many Halloween decorations before, and I am LOVING it! They are so fun! It just makes sitting around a bit more enjoyable cause I'm surrounded by fun things...that I CREATED! I love it.

I've decided something important. And I think I have probably realized this before in my life, but I just relearned it. I need to be creating in order to be happy. It's just like Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf says, 

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.  No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.  We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.”

So perfect. But really, I think if I'm not creating, I'm not too happy. Whether it's decorating, sewing, crafting, organizing, baking, blogging, really anything...its exactly what he said, "We have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before". 

I kind of think it goes hand in hand with growth. We are constantly moving in our lives whether it be in a downward slope, or an upwards slope. So I truly believe that we are either growing or getting worse. So anyway...I am trying to grow more! It's hard, but worth it I think. 

Well, this weekend will be a good one! The General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I'm so excited! I will grow a lot this weekend :) At least I'll be motivated to. 

PS. I watched the debate and I have to say, as someone who does taxes for a living...Romney's tax plan sounds a whole lot more logical than Obama's. I don't know much about certain political agendas...but I know this much...Romney clearly knows economics, and Obama doesn't. Romney's plan allows businesses some breathing room to hire more people, causing more people to be paying taxes, causing more people to make money and spend money, causing businesses to grow, causing the economy to grow...Obama's plan will suffocate the business owner causing them to lay off workers because they will no longer be able to afford to keep them since that money is now going to taxes. Taxes which then go to food stamps and welfare, to the people who got laid off because of the tax hike. All of this destroying the economy. Which confirmed for me that I am so so soooo TEAM MITT! Another thing that confirmed it was...Obama was kinda pretending he was running for the first time, making promises as if he hasn't been in office 4 years to do anything. Mitt has a solid record of success, whereas the only record I see of Obama is suckville America. By the way, my insurance just went up $20 a MONTH. Which sucks.

And incase anyone is wondering what these guys would look like if they switched hair, this would be it. 

Whoever made this is a genius. (it wasn't me- I just saw it online, have no idea where it came from)

PS- I have another post below with a pilgrim apron I made!

Pilgrim Apron

So I already have my Santa and Skeleton Aprons so I decided I needed one for Thanksgiving! That's when I thought, hmmmm how about a pilgrim! So, here it is.

 

I'm not really angry, like I look in the picture. I think this was like the 5th self-timed photo I took of myself and anyway...this was seriously the best I got!

I used the same pattern as the santa and skeleton ones (which can be found under my tutorials), and just added the collar basically. I'm really pleased with how it turned out! Pretty cute! Clay wants me to make an Indian one now :) But I think this will do for my Thanksgiving cooking.

Halloween Decor Video

I thought it'd be fun to do a little video tour of my halloween decor this year! You know...a bit of a changeup. 

Anyway, I have so much more halloween decor this year and I LOVE IT! The headless lady is quite new for me...I'm not used to such creepy decor, but it's kinda fun...haha. Here she is at night...

Our Early $100 Christmas Present

 All the pics on this post are such crappy pictures! Poor Clay, he'll be so irritated. But seriously it's HARD to take pictures in a basement...

 Woohoo!!

Clay's dreams came true, we finally got a huge 60" plasma tv in our basement! 

Here's how the story goes...

Me: "I want to host Thanksgiving this year."

Clay: "Why?"

Me: "It'd be fun..."

Clay: "Why?"

Me: "I think it'd help distract me from not being around my family for the holidays"

Clay: "Um...well I don't really want to do that because little kids will be all over the place and I don't trust them around my electronics"

Me: "You realize we will have kids one day right?"

Clay: "I trust our kids. I don't trust other people's kids."

Story of my life. Clay is stressed about his electronics. Are you AWARE of how obsessed Clay is with electronics? When I say electronics I mean TV's, bluray/dvd players, video game consoles, surround sound, all sorts of wires and such, and computers and basically all sorts of technology. It's basically his number one hobby and I would trust him over basically anyone in the universe when it comes to this stuff. 

So anyway...the convo went much longer than this but the jist of it is...he gets stressed when his electronics are out and easily accessible for children and wanted a mounted tv with electronics hidden away under our stairs. I thought about it and I was like...HEY- we have a ton of crap around this house. Why not sell it? So I pose the idea to Clay and he LAUGHS IN MY FACE (not really) saying how there's no way we could raise enough cash for his tv! Then I made a spreadsheet and showed him all the things I thought of to sell, and after he thought of more...we realized...hey! We could actually do this! So after selling the following things:


side table
patio furniture
zune
ipod nano
paintball guns
broke tv (only part of it was broke)
motorcycle (old junky one we got for free)
subs x 3
roller blades (found brand new in our house when we moved in)
portable DVD player
long table
360 HD
AV Switch
rocking chair
camera strap cover
aquarium

And a few more things...like...for instance- we had a jar that had a bunch of change in it. I counted it and guess what- 35 bucks! Also we had $150 worth of credit card points that could go towards walmart. So I told Clay the TV had to come from Sam's club or walmart, and he said okay! I was really surprised cause Clay does NOT like being limited to where he can buy things.

So anywho...after a few weeks of having people come over, meeting people in the back of the walmart parking lot, texting, calling, emailing interested buyers...we seriously raised enough money! I only had to chip in $100 of our own dollars which will be our Christmas presents this year for each other!

You guys will probably say like, "Oh you're such a nice wifey" or something...but seriously? I love tv, like I've said before...and I love it! It's way fun and it makes Clay REALLY happy and so I am a happy camper.

Here are some more pictures, get ready to be impressed!

Clay built BY HIMSELF these shelves and put them up! He put all our electronics on here so they are away from tiny hands and he got this device that makes it able for remotes to reach through the walls.







This wall only has the tv, and the center speaker, and the kinect! NO CORDS anywhere along the wall. It's so fantastic.

And we put the tv high enough so that our big pooch doesn't get in our way. We had that problem with our old tv. He would walk infront of us and obstruct our view! He's just so dang big. So now we don't have that problem :)

And now! I'm hosting thanksgiving! Hoorah!

Clay is still confused why I even want to host thanksgiving...but the truth is...I am not going to see any of my family for holidays this year (unless someone decides to visit me) and its kind of depressing...so it would be nice to have something to distract me from it. You know? I mean...doesn't that make sense to you guys? Somehow it wasn't quite computing with Clay...but he is a man. I'm guessing for Clay, me talking about hosting thanksgiving is kinda like him talking to me about how cool it was when this football player reached behind him in some cool way and caught the football. It just doesn't compute in my mind why it's that big of a deal. But you know, whatev.

So far we've watched part of Avatar, we watched Avengers, I watched Revenge, Clay watched some football...and it's just awesome! We love it. We are so blessed! Things just went really smoothly and we were able to get everything we needed. And we have such a great space for it.

Anyone up for a movie marathon?! :)