A Chalenge

As I sit thinking, it randomly dawns on me that moving back to Ogden means I have to go back to the 49th Ward. I'm not exactly thrilled. In the two, two and a half, years that I was a part of that ward I had three people in that ward that I would call friends, and then a grand total of about 5 people that knew my name. For the first 6 months of living here I went home from church every Sunday and cried. I felt so completely alone in this ward. They were all very stuck in the who is a part of the ward and who is just kind of there. And I felt like they have tagged me as a "just there" sister.

So now. I'm getting my self ready to go back. I'm hoping that this go in this ward won't be so bad, if I can meet people. I'm hoping that they'll actually try to get me this time. And I know that it's not just my fault, I could've done more to get people to take me for-realzies. And as such I'm challenging myself. My challenge is to talk/get to know a new sister every week. To MAKE myself apart of this ward. I'm hoping it works for me.

And as part of my challenge I'm challenging all those that read this blog. try to meet new sisters in your ward! You don't have to be their boosom friend and know what they do at 3 on the second tuesday of every week. Just help make people feel welcome. You never know if the sister that sits down the row from you every week in church goes home and cries just because no one says "Hi" to her in church. Make friends.

"Every good friend was once a stranger."

Americanized Fried Rice

FOOD!!!
So, the story :
We had a whole package of Little Smokies from super bowl. I had NO IDEA what to do with them! 'Cause ya' know, BBQ Smokies are great, but thats a lot of BBQ Smokies for one week. So I found a recipe that used the wee things and it turned out AMAZING! So I'm sharing my success with all of you (yeah, all 5 of you that actually read this...)!!

Americanized Fried Rice

2-3 C. Steamed long grain rice, cooked (DO NOT use instant rice)
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 C. Diced white onion
1 Lb. Bacon
3 Eggs, Scrambled
1/4 C. Soy Sauce
2 C. Frozen Peas
1 Lb. Little Smokies Sausage, sliced diagonally

Scramble eggs with no spices; set aside. Fry bacon until extra crispy, drain on paper towel. Use bacon grease to cook with, but no more than 1/2-3/4 cup is needed, so discard the rest.

Saute chopped garlic on medium-high heat. Add sliced sausage. Cook for about 3 minuts. Stir in peas. Cook for another 3 minutes. Add chopped onion.

With a fork, carefully add steamed rice into pan. Stir mixture over ;medium heat. Rice may stick, so watch heat carefully. Very carefully, pour soy sauce over rice evenly. Mix well until everything is heated through.

Crumble bacon and eggs. Add to rest of mixture. Serve rice with meat dish, or just eat as is.

For variations : diced chicken, pork sausage or ham can be used. Or delete meat, for those who are vegetarian, and add more veggies.

TA' DA'!!!
The only thing I really changed was I only did one heaping cup of peas and that was still toooooo many peas for me, but I don't like peas, Joshua prolly thought it was fine:)

OH! Variation for toddler (incase anyone else cares) : Take some of the eggs, and peas, and rice before you mix everything together and mix that together for a wee bitty fried rice:)

Taking Care of Buisness

So in these trying times I've been trying (haha...trying times...trying...haha) to come up with a EASY way to earn an extra tiny bit of money every month.... So here's what I got.

Starting a web site where/blog where I can sell crafty stuff. I love doing crafty stuff! And why not do a bunch of it and sell it for cheaperish... Could do picture frames... "home sweet home"-like plaques... all sorts of stuff:)

So now the trick is I need to figure out how to get started, and if it would be worth it....well ok it would prolly be with it if nothing else because it will give me an excuse to be crafty:)

LET ME HAVE INPUT!!! For reals let me know what you think!

The Fourth Kind

Josh and I went and saw THE FOURTH KIND this weekend and thought it was worthy of a post.

As a background to why it is called The Fourth Kind :

The First Kind : Seeing a UFO
The Second Kind : One sees evidence of a UFO (scorch marks, crop circles, etc.)
The Third Kind : Contact
The Fourth Kind : ABDUCTION.
(as a side note, apparently the Fifth Kind is direct communication between humans and aliens)

The storyline:

The story is about Dr. Abigail Tyler (phychologist)and her findings. Everything in the movie is directly based on her audio or video recordings, and the story as she tells it. Dr. Tyler begins videotaping sessions with her patients, who all are having the same "delusions". In these videotaped sessions she captures some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented. Throughout the movie you see not only the dramatization of what happened, but the actual videos (or hear the recordings) of what happened.

I'm not one to believe in this stuff (mostly because it scares the poop out of me) but this movie is very convincing and leaves you going "huh...".

This movie is definatley made for "UFO chasers". But still very...hmm...enlightening to those of us who aren't. But now seeing this movie I will NEVER live in Alaska. I think I do recommend this one...if nothing else it would be fun to watch at a movie night with a bunch of friends.

Actors :
Milla Jovovich
Elias Koteas


Rating :
PG-13


My Rating :
B -

Bliggity-Blog

I FINALLY changed my layout! I kinda like it :) truethfully it's not the one I wanted but the one I wanted didnt' have a matching header so we get this instead:)

AN UPDATE :

I'm sick. Mleck. I've been sick-ish since saturday night (today being Thursday), and it's finally gotten bad. And you see, you have to understand this Jessica a bit more to understand what I mean. Lucky me, I don't ever really get sick. So when I do I get "sick-ish". This happens...I dunno...once every one or two months. I get tight and uncomfortable in my neck and back and it makes me tired and slow in the head. But it doesn't usually last for more than two days...until this time. So, sick Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday I felt better kinda, but then Wednesday I woke up with a fever:( and I still have it today and I'm suppose to go dancing tomorrow!!! and on top of that icing, Maeby is getting sick I think too. Not to mention that I think she's been having night terrors so sleep hasn't really been happening, and that's DEFINITELY not helping the sick thing.

A...different update... might be sad for some but I dunno yet.
First let me state that if family reads this I don't mean to be mean! I swear! It's just me, and my awesome skills at not handling certain situations well. Any way :

I think we might go back to Ogden while waiting for the house to sell. I'm not handling living here very well. I feel...like I'm the little girl that grew up here, and the teenager that lived here, the teenager that cleaned a lot. And now it upsets me that I feel that I have to clean up after everyone...when it's not my responsibility. It's hard for me...being me:) to let Hal and sometimes Ellen get away with things. I'm trying to teach myself that it's not my place, and unless it has to do with my family specifically, I just don't touch it but it's hard. I feel like the oldest kid who has to watch everything again, I feel the need to play referee every time the sibs fight.

I miss being my own adult. I like having my own house, and taking care of everything. I liked doing things when I wanted, how I wanted and not having to listen to anyone. Now, I (once again, these are not angry words) have to hear how "maybe the baby is hungry Jess""maybe she sick""maybe she's tired" and I know she's not but the thought is there so I listen to it and it throws off every schedule I've tried so hard to make. And i know she's just trying to help, but, being me, it frustrates me.

Another sad (NOT meant to be a guilt trip to ANYONE I SWEAR) I moved down here because I missed all my friends SO much! And I thought if we moved I would see them all more...but I don't. And I know it's my own lazy fault. But...I ...I dunno. I just think I could keep up the same relationships up in Ogden. Let alone that it's my house and I can invite people over.

Maeby hasn't been doing well with sleeping AT ALL since we moved here and I think it's because we share a room. She gets put down and curtains get pulled around her bed and it's dark and she knows mommy and daddy are still there but they aren't holding or playing with her. She slept GREAT up in Ogden. GREAT. But I think since we've moved in I've gotten 5 maybe 6 good nights of sleep. Let alone that that usually means I wake Josh up so i don't have a break down and he loses sleep too. Maeby needs to sleep so I can sleep, so I can be a better mom and wife. Not to mention that the sharing a room thing isn't fun on me. I can't get on our computer while she's sleeping, I can't scrapbook, I can't be in there AT ALL while she sleeps. To get up in the morning I have to be 5 kinds of stealthy not to wake her up, just so I can take a shower and have that 15 minutes of ME TIME.

And this all started when we had to go back to the house to put up our new for sale sign (we has no realtor now). Walking through my house. Remembering how great it was to take pride in my house, to make my own food. I imagined chasing maeby around the rooms. I wouldn't have to worry if she's getting into anything because I'd know where it all was. Having our own rooms again. I miss it. I loved my house. I had forgotten how much. I've said it once and I'll say it again, if my house was in West Valley, I wouldn't EVER move! Not kindding. I love my house.

Any way...kinda strayed from the original purpose of the blog but it felt good to finally get that out. But as I said nothing is set in stone! One BIG reason we're staying here is that we're finally getting ourselves out of our little hole...wasn't big...but it's still nice to have the savings. But nothing is set it stone.

Anywho....new blog layout...YAY!

Good Times and Music

Last night we got to go to a concert! It was great!

Josh (because he's got mad skill) called into K-bull 93 and won four free tickets to the Low Dough Christmas Show!! So we called Taryn and Rob and convinced Robin that it wouldn't be the worse night of his life :)

So naturally the day of the concert I woke up sickly, because my life is amazing like that:) But I sucked it up, took some medicine and went anyway!

So we drove downtown and got to walk through the freezing cold to the ENERGY SOLUTIONS ARENA (really, whoever named it that deserves a kick in the shin). I kid. (tee-hee). We got to listen to three, that's right THREE different groups slash people! The first was Bombshell! They were amazing! They're songs are so fun and upbeat that if we had had the money I soooooo would've bought it right then and there! Then there was Buckey Covington. He was HILARIOUS!! He has awesome stage presents and he was so energetic. At one point he actually picked one girl up and took on stage with him, it was so cute! Then last, but definitely not least was Phil Vasser! Good night! He is great! He had a big ol' piano on stage that was ZEBRA SRIPED!!! Taryn and I just about jumped the body guards to get on the stage to play it!! I kid. (tee-hee).

But it was all great fun! I haven't been able to play with Taryn in a very long time and Joshua hasn't seen his Rob in so long! It was so great!

The Dark Threads

I was reading in my Semenary scriptures last night and I found two quotes glued in that I love! I had completely forgotten that they were there.

As a side note I found them in Mosiah 24 if the whole 5 people that read this would like to do some scriptural studying.

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me:
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride,
Forget that He seeth the upper,
And I the under side.

Not till the loom in silent
and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
in the Weavers skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.


"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you c an understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts and does not seem to make sense. What on earth in he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house that the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made in to a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Pg. 160

I hope this helps someone. It is nice to be reminded at times that no matter what is going wrong, Heavenly Father knows, and that you do not know all of what is planned for you; that the dark threads are just as important as the threads of silver and gold.