Busywork

Despite life not going quite the way I planned with getting a job and making lots of money, I have been keeping myself busy. The young women presidency was released but I was re-called to be the 2nd counselor again. I was pretty happy about that as I have really enjoyed my Beehives. They are so much fun to be with and they say the funniest things. Here are some of the things we have been doing recently:

Making Babysitting Kits: Actually, I feel like I may have taken too much on with this idea. I spent a lot of time typing up different forms and info sheets. I also painted the girls' names on their bags and created some foam stick puppets as an example of the craft we were doing to include in their kit. That night was a lot of fun and I relived a lot of my own babysitting memories that had been stashed away since I was a teenager.

(The stuff on the bags that looks like dust, is actually silver glitter.)






Tomorrow night we are painting simple pictures with acrylics. This is the example painting that I made to help fuel their ideas and to make sure the girls could do it in less than an hour:



Along with all the church calling stuff, I have also decided to bring a piece of the wedding business out here and see how it does. I am starting a chocolate fountain catering business and I have found some awesome kitchen space to rent. I am really excited about it, as I don't have that much competition. I just made the website live last week and am working on marketing strategies right now. You can check it out at: Elegantly Edible.

I have also been cooking a ton. Mostly to save money, but also because I have the time to do it. I've been working on some of our favorites and perfecting the recipes. I have created the most awesome chicken enchiladas ever and am working on some other new recipes. For Valentine's Day I decided to surprise Alexander by making his favorite German food. I made homemade spaetzle(cute little noodles) which he adores and costs a lot to buy at the store. The noodles were perfect! I was so proud of myself. I also made bratwurst and German potato salad. Here is a pic of Alexander's plate:



I also resurrected my Asian cooking and made my famous Thai red curry and some chicken tikka masala,served with basmati rice:



Last but not least, this juicy pot roast, complete with steamed carrots, roasted red potatoes, and divine white asparagus, served with a homemade gravy. I have to admit, I was in Sunday dinner heaven ;).


I've made a lot of other things, but I won't bore you to death with a play-by-play of our eating habits. Tonight I am making a green chili chicken salad that is an attempt to copy Bajio's salad (which we don't have out here). It's not exactly the same, but it does help quell my cravings.

I'm still applying for lots of jobs, and crossing my fingers that by some miracle one is offered to me. There is some potential with someone in the ward who is pushing the prestigious Nelson Atkins Museum to hire me, so hopefully that pans out. I would love working there! In the meantime, we welcome any prayers and extra cash you can give. Just kidding about the cash, the prayers would be nice though.

Alexander is doing an amazing job in school and is constantly impressing his professors. He is becoming known as an excellent scholar and has been excelling in all his classes, despite people saying that he has too heavy a load. I keep telling him that he has to get all A's so that he can get a high paying job and take me to Europe. I think he owes me ;).

My New Addiction, Part Two

Okay, here is the post I promised with the pictures of my paintings. My camera was a little retarded, so the angles are not quite perfect, but that's okay, you still get the general idea. You can also click on the picture to see it bigger.

This one is the first one I painted. It's of the Delicate Arch at Arches National Park.


This is my second one. I have decided I like things that are not your typical pictures, so this is looking through an old castle window in Cornwall overlooking a little island. It is sideways, so you will have to tilt your head a little.


This picture is a close up of a very small part of a stained glass window in a medieval English church. I call it "An Excerpt of Peace" because the song is Dona Nobis Pacem, which means 'grant us peace'. I liked the old school look of the music so I painted it.


Next I did a series lilies. Like I said earlier, I don't like to be boring so I painted close-ups of the flowers.






They are not perfect, but I am still learning. Hopefully if I keep practicing I will get better. :)

My New Addiction

Okay, I admit that I have been a total slacker. But I can defend myself: I have been busy. Work is wearing me out and I come home every night feeling like someone has beaten me up. I have started to worry about the possibility of my blood pressure rising or something as equally old-person sounding. To help alleviate any potential stress-related health problems I have picked up a new hobby. Painting. Yup, you read it right, I have been spending most of my evenings painting.

I have been learning a lot and last week alone I painted 5 pictures. I can paint one from start to finish in about 4 hours and I have realized that I go into a sort of creative trance. I just sit for hours focused on what I am painting. The really amazing thing is that they actually look like what I am trying to paint (usually). I am shocked, so is my family, they didn't believe I actually painted them, they thought I bought them.

I think it would be neat to be able to sell my paintings for like $1,000 each. Then I could really be making money ;)

For your enjoyment, or perhaps to quench your curiosity, I will post pictures of my paintings as soon as I get my act together. :)

Feeling Frayed

I went to The Fray concert last night (they are the one's who sing "Save a Life") with my siblings. My 23 year old, super cool, and highly popular (the younger kids idolize her) sister decided to make it a family event and bought tickets for all the kids except the youngest (poor kid got to stay home with Alexander).

Anyway, the concert was held at the USANA Amphitheatre and I have decided that they have the worst traffic situation of any concert venue I have been to. By the time we got to our seats it was already 8:30 and some crap band dressed in what my 16 year old brother called "girl pants" was playing crap music and the lead singer was dancing like he had to go to the bathroom really bad. At 8:3o I was already exhausted.

This crap band played until 9:00 and then FINALLY left the stage (my brother yelled, "Yay they're done!" and clapped really loud, I thought I was going to split my sides laughing). I got my hopes up thinking that the "real" band would be starting soon, but alas, I still had a half hour to wait in my seat and twiddle my thumbs. By the time The Fray finally got on stage I was ready for bed. I was shocked at myself. Never before had I been such a party-pooper at a concert. I usually get all excited and pumped up, dancing and stuff, but I was just too old. I could only bob my head in rhythm and wonder how long this was going to take. When the encore came, however, I was psyched! I was all my young college self again with tons of energy. Do you know why? It was because I knew they were only going to sing 3 more songs. Yup, it was only 10 more minutes and so I decided that I could have fun for the last 10 minutes. It's like when you are hiking up a tall mountain but you can finally see the end in sight so you keep going even though you feel like you might die. Well, the last song seemed to last FOREVER with the audience sing alongs, but I could handle it because it was the last song.

I made it through traffic (it was a miracle!) and got home at almost 1:00 a.m. My great husband was waiting up for me (okay, we all know he doesn't go to bed until 2:30, but I can pretend it was a sweet gesture).

After not quite 5 hours of sleep, I am trying to make it though the day, but feeling rather manhandled and frayed. Who knew you could grow old so quickly? Only 2 years ago I would have been the super cool, highly popular, and crazily energetic one. Oh well, here's to those times when we try in vain to feel young and cool and fall slightly short.