Theatrical week

This past week Taresa and I were able to go and see a play put on in American Falls. It is considered the BIG town with 4,000 people. It is 20 minutes east from us. The play was called Dracula, A rock musical. We went with our church group for Family Home Evening. I told Taresa this could be really good, or I could just get a really good laugh. I got a really good laugh. Most of the actors were good, some were decent and some were just flat out terrible. At one point I had to put my head down because I couldn't stop laughing. Since it was a musical I thought that they were going to sing, but they just played rock music while they tried to dance to the music. It was all entertaining at best., and we didn't even have to pay for it.

Wednesday night we went to an even bigger down Pocatello (30,000 people) and saw the movie "Life as we know it". It was your typical chick flick with predictability written all over it.  I enjoyed it for it's pure entertainment value nothing more nothing less.

Pizza Night.

Every Sunday for some reason or another it has ended up being pizza night. Both Taresa and I are HUGE fans of pizza. Since there is no place close by we have been forced to make it ourselves. I have found a great dough recipe that is part white and part whole wheat. The dough is a little bit more dry than other pizza doughs I have made but with the right amount of TLC it works just great.

In the spirit of Pizza Sunday and us trying to faithfully use up our leftovers I came up with a recipe for a sweet pork pizza. Don't turn your lip up at the idea, it was inspired by CPK's Jamaican Jerk Pizza which Nathan Clonts introduced me to. I took the leftover sweet pork juice and pored into a saucepan along with caramelized onions and garlic. I let it boil down and thickened it with a little flour. This was our sauce fore the pizza. I spread that onto the dough along with pork, bell peppers and cheese. It turned out just the way I had imagined it would. It was really quite delicious. Taresa made a traditional pizza with red sauce, turkey pepperoni (4 grams of fat vs. 18 grams of fat in regular pepperoni) cheese, onions and green bells peppers. It was a perfect pizza night.

Taresa making her pizza. 

The finished product of my sweet pork pizza.

Taresa's finished pizza. It got a little messed up when I moved it from the pan to the brick. But it still tasted delicious.

A little piece of Cali

Last night for dinner I made Cafe Rio style pork. Instead of wrapping it up burrito style we placed ontop of salad, rice, black beans, salsa and then topped it off with Grandma's buttermilk ranch. It was delicious. It gave us a little taste of home.

The recipe was really simple and easy to follow.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

2 1/2 lbs pork

1/3 c. water

1/8 tsp garlic salt

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup green Chile sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 can Dr. Pepper (we used caffine free)

Put pork, water, garlic salt, salt, pepper in crock pot. Cover and cook on high 4 hours. Drain, shred pork, stir in chili sauce, brown sugar, and Dr. Pepper. Cook for additional 1-2 hrs.

I got this recipe off of a blog called chemistrycooking.blogspot.com It also has the recipe on how the make the their rice, chicken and salad dressing. Or at least something similar to it. I hope you all enjoy.

I passed!!

I woke up this morning to find my last paper for a class had finally been graded and it had PASSED. I passed the class. Such exciting news. I would be celebrating but I have one more BIG test on Saturday before the term is over for me. With having passed two classes in the past two days it has really given me the confidence I feel to past this last class.
Well I have continued by dillegence in working out everyday. This makes 4 days in a row for this week. I almost have 2 weeks of straight excercising under my belt (weekends aside). Eating healthy is coming along. I try to cook with healthier food and always make sure to have a vegtable on my plate.
We hear it all the time that our Nation is overweight. Well living here in a small town I can see exactly why our nation is overweight. Yes there may not be any fast food resturants to drive through and all the restuarnts close at 6pm but it is not what we are eating out, it's what we are making at home. I found a great low fat low cal reciepe for Naviho tacos. They looked delicious. The reciepe called for low-fat biscuits. I could not find them anywhere at the store. I also decided to get some lowfat icecream. Once again no such thing. With the cold weather slowly moving in I thought it would be a great idea to get some no sugar hot choclate. (it's lower in calories) no such luck. They do have skim milk though and  it is constantly on clearance because I think Taresa and I are most likely the only ones that buy it. Fat-free, low-fat foods just don't exist here. It made me realize how truly fortunante I was to live in California where I had so much of that available to me. Yet I still would not trade here for there fatty foods and all! It just means I get to get a little bit more creative or eat a lot less.

Tender Mercies

Last night I was reading in my scriptures (yes mom I am reading) and I came across a beautiful phrase "tender mercies". It made me think of a talk that addressed the "tender mercies of the lord". As I thought about this talk it brought into my mind the "tender mercies of the lord" that I have seen recently in my life. I have been working very hard on trying to get school finished up for the semster. Yet there is this one math problem that no matter how hard I looked at it, I could not figure it out. I studied and I studied and it still did not seem to help. I was on the right path but I was not able to ge the complete answer. I became very upset. I then spoke with someone at my school who was able to get me in touch with someone that could help me solve this problem. Finally today I was able to work with them and they helped me see what I was missing and finish up the problem. And the problem passed the grade!!! I was so excited and in that moment I thought "tender mercy of the lord". I feel so blessed an I know that when I put in the work and effort that he will try and meet me hafl way. I have attached the problem for all of you to see. For some reason the triangle did not show up, but imagine a triangle between all of those points.

                              A

B                            D                         C

Given:

Prove: ABC is isosceles

An isosceles triangle is defined by a triangle with two congruent sides.

STATEMENTS	REASONS
Angle BAD is congruent to Angle CAD	Given
Line AD is perpendicular to line BC	Given
Line AD is congruent to line AD	Reflexive property
Angle BDA and Angle CDA are right angles	Definition of Perpendicular lines: two lines that intersect to form a right angles.
Angle ADB is congruent to Angle ADC	Right angle congruent theorem
Triangle BAD is congruent to Triangle CAD	ASA Theorem
AB is congruent to AC	CPCTC theorem
Triangle ABC is an isosceles	Definition of an Isosceles: A triangle with two congruent sides.

Driving Slowly.

When driving through town (a 2 mile strip) the top speed is 25mph. It is amazing the things one begins to notice when you are actually going slow enough to really begin to look around. Yesterday while driving through town we noticed a "steak house" literally a house that serves steak. We also noticed a pizzeria that is tucked away. Taresa claims that since she has not heard about it, it is probably best not to eat there. We also discovered an auto parts store, a drug store (it is suppose to be a happening place) and a little flower shop. The town seems to grow every time we venture out into it. Its a cute little town and I am very much growing accustom to the way of life here. The other day I had on a plaid shirt and jeans with my hair pulled back and Taresa said I looked like a native Idahoan. I wasn't sure if I were to take it as a compliment or not. I have posted pictures of the winter hats that Taresa and I ventured to Target to buy. Luckily we don't have to wear them just yet!!

Taresa claims that she cannot take me seriously in this hat when the ear flaps are pulled up. I don't see how she could not take me seriously.

My New Life

 This is where I live. It is small and humble. This is the back of the house. It hasn't been painted yet. The front door doesn't work so we always the back door.

 This is our one chair that we currently have in the living room. We are currenlty waiting for a couch to come down from MT from my younger brother. Right now the chair is currently being occupied with buckets. So we sit in our computer chairs and we also have a medicine ball that we rotate sitting on.

                                                   We have lots and lots of sitting room.

                                      This is a fun sign that we saw on the way home from MT.

This was Saturday nights dinner. Taresa claimed it was some of the best pizza she has ever had!!! She is trying to use her flattery to get me to make it again tonight.

Oh Friday, where have you been hiding?

This week has seemed ENDLESS. I feel like I have lived here and worked here for an entire month. When it really has only been one long week. This morning I was awoken by my sister saying the phone was for me. I answered it to hear my head teacher on the other end telling me that I needed to come in at 8:00am to fill in for another aide. I ripped out of my bed and did my workout. (I really did not want to break my 5 day streak) I then quickly got ready and headed to school. Once at school, I gave the kids their spelling test, gave the science lesson and did all of the kids different reading assignments. It was a whirlwind of a day, yet I loved every minute of it. I love my new job and it continually reminds me of how much I love this profession. I feel truly blessed.
Taresa and I then took an adventure to Idaho Falls. We were in search of a Target store. My heart will forever belong to Target. We drove 60miles to find a target and on the way we found Big Lots. Taresa was exctied to be able to get some games for her classroom. We also found a nice table there, but we (meaning Taresa) need to think about it for a awhile=)
 After our lovely shopping spree we stopped and had a night out on the town at Red Robin. It was a great night and we decided that we were celebrating our first week back from harvest and me making it through my first week at the Middle school.
Even though this week has been endless I still feel extremely blessed everyday. Taresa and I continue to grow closer and closer each day. There is a new song out by Sugarland called "stuck on you" we swear it is our song. We are stuck together. We also continually kid how we are slowing morfing into eachother. Soon we will not be able to tell ourselves apart.

Sorry it has been so long

I am finally moved in and starting to feel somewhat settled. My sister and I were able to take a 6 day trip to Montana first stopping in Bozeman to see family and friends. We then headed off to Missoula making a quick stop in Butte to visit another cousin and her family. In Missoula we were able to visit with family and friends. We had a great time but by the end where ready to be home. We made a day trip to Rexburg to see another cousin and some of Taresa’s old college roommates. Taresa introduced me to some of her favorite eating spots. Especially G’s dairy. I had Gorilla Munch Icecream which consisted of Banana ice cream with oreo’s and peanut butter served in a homemade waffle cone. It was extremely delicious but really rich.  We also made a stop and Brolims grocery store.  They were having a case lot sale.  For all of my Cali friends, a case lot sale are where they sell cans of food in increments of 12-24 cans. We are trying to stock up for winter. We bought a lot of food and on our way out someone offered to help us but me being to proud said “no thanks” because I could do it on my own. As we walked out of the store I hit a bump and tipped over the whole cart. Cans went everywhere!! Taresa was so mortified and I told her someday we will look back on this and laugh. Sure enough after the embarrassment had worn off we laughed about it.

                We arrived home on Thursday night with the car packed and our eye’s exhausted.  We went straight to bed leaving the work for the next morning. We were planning on sleeping in but our neighbors kindly sounded there music at 7:30am. We awoke to our house shaking with low rumbles from the bass outside. We soon got up, got the car unloaded and started cleaning and putting away stuff as best we could. We bought buckets to store our flour and sugar in, (we bought 25lbs) but we were unable to figure them out. GO FIGURE. My mom told us to put our knee into it, and well she was right. Mother always knows best.

                After all the unpacking we headed into town which is 40 minutes East from us. We had to go out and get more food before we start to settle into our long winter naps. I enjoy shopping at Costco here because it is never busy. When walking into Costco I realized I needed an eye appointment to get new contacts and they got me in right away. It was amazing. We were able to stalk up on all the food we need for the next 2-3months and the lines to check were no longer than 1 person. I just maybe able to get used to this small town living.

                Taresa and I are doing great.  We seem to really balance each other out at times. Some of my strengths are her weaknesses and some of my weaknesses are her strengths.  She helps to keep me in line and even though she doesn’t really know it, she helps to motivate me in small ways and reminds me of the way I should be living my life. She has been such a great blessing to me and none of this would have been possible if she hadn’t taken the leap of faith first.  We feel truly blessed at this time in our lives. We will see how blessed I feel when the snow and ice hits=).

                Tomorrow is Sunday and I am looking forward to finally meeting the people in her branch. It is going to be a good change of pace. Taresa says she is the most stylish person there, and I dress her half of the time.  Work starts on Monday.  I need to call the head person to find out where and when I am suppose to report to. The secretary at the school gave me his home phone number. It feels a little invasive but I guess that is the small town way.

                Tonight for dinner we will begin to use our 20lb bag of potatoes that we bought. We will most likely be eating potatoes every night of the week for the next little while. Tonight I am going to make potato fries to go along with our grilled cheese sandwiches. I need to start to look at more recipes for potatoes because we have a lot of them to eat up.

Saturday,

We decided that Saturday was going to be a day at home for us. We were just going to stay home and focus on things around the house. Well as we started to focus on things around the house we realized how much more we really needed. So ANOTHER trip into town had to be made. We headed off at 2pm and didn’t arrive back home until close to 7pm. The whole “going into to town” concept is defiantly something that I am going to have to get used to. It’s funny how after everytime we go we swear that there is nothing else that we need and won’t need to go in for at least a couple of weeks. Sure enough as soon as we walk through the front door something else will pop into our minds that we seem to not be able to live without. Our weekends will be fun adventures of going into town.

Sunday

Sunday was a good day. Church started at 11:00am. It takes us about 30min to get there. Everything is done backwards. Sunday school is first, followed by Relief Society and then Sacrament. I am so used to Relief Society being last I was excited for when it ended but was bummed when I realized we still had a whole other hour. The branch is small, but it will do.

Monday
My first day of work was exciting and stressful. The teachers have placed a lot of trust in me and within being their for 20 min I taught the math lesson, and managed the class while the teacher was at lunch for 1 1/2. I love the class that I am working with. Each one of the children is so sweet in their own unique way. They have embraced me so quickly. I feel as though I couldn't ask for a better class.  Tonight I made Turkey meatloaf and mashed potatos for dinner.

Tuesday
Getting back into the swing of things is harder than I thought. I am exhausted after working only part day, but feel truly blessed to be able to work on my homework during the morning. I have successfully gotten up and worked out 2 days in a row. I am currently doing the Biggest Loser 30 Day Jump start. The first week is great. You only have to worry about working out 10min a day for 6 days. I feel like that is something that I can manage and it will help to slowly develop it into a habit. We also made it to Institute that night. It is about a 45 minute drive, but was well worth the sacrifice. We learned about the builiding up of zion and how it really begins within us. Taresa and I both really enjoyed the class and our both looking forward to going back next week.

Wednesday
Well Taresa and I feel old. Last night I made eggplant parmisian for dinner. It was really quite good. I dipped the eggplant in an egg and then in bread crumbs and baked it in the oven for 15 min. (The slices were extremely thin) I then placed them in a baking dish and covered in sauce and mozzeralla cheese. Taresa said she felt so spoiled. The feeling old part is because we ate dinner at 5:30pm and were in bed by 8:30pm. I am trying to get back on track with taking my daily vitamins especailly my B vitamins so I can have that extra boost of energy that I need.

Thursday
Thanks Heavens we finally have wireless internet up and running, and cable television. We don't have a remote yet so I have to sit next to the tv on my medicine ball (we don't have a couch either) and press the buttons until I find the station that I like. Taresa and I both get a kick out of the commercials here. They are ones that you woul never see in California. We saw one today about a hankey that goes in your shirt to reveal as little or as much cleavage as you want. Taresa and I both looked at eachother and started laughing. We have an Aberdeen Channel here, but for some reason it doesn't seem to come up.
Tonight for dinner we had shephards pie. It was really good but we have a lot of leftovers to eat. Bless Taresa's heart she has eaten meatloaf for the past three days for lunch. That is the difficult thing with only feeding a family of 2 we always seem to have an abundance of leftovers.

Moving is Exhausting!

After 3 stops, 3 diet cokes, 2 packages of nutterbutters, 1 water bottle, a handful of pistachio's, a package of beef jerkey and 11 hours of driving I arrived safely in Aberdeen, ID at 9pm. Thus begins my journey in Idaho; I was sad to leave California and all the wonderful people I had become so close with over the years. Yet, I am looking forward to my new life that lies ahead of me here. I have decided to start a blog to keep my friends and family posted on my happenings, and the new life I am creating for myself. I have 4 objectives for being here in Idaho.
1) Finish up school and get a job with my degree. (special eduacation)
2) Get myself fit and healthy both physically, emotionally and spiritually.
3) Start to date.
4) Keep recorded of all of it.
It's going to be an amazing ride. I am looking forward to my growth over this next year and am excited to have all of you join in and be apart of it.