May

May was a very interesting month for me. I had a lot of time to reflect and remember on things that have happened to me, and people I've known. So here are some of my thoughts from May.

First off, I kind of lost my faith in mankind a little bit after some experiences with some dishonest and very prideful people. But recently, I've had a few experiences that rekindled that faith. There are good people in the world, people whose motivations are pure and not evil. So thank you to those people.

Second off, I'm moving to Hawaii. It's beautiful. After a family vacation there, I think I'll just move there and live on the beach. Would anyone like to finance this endeavor?

Here are some more pictures from that trip.
This is the beach a block from our hotel.Hawaii Temple. Beautiful.
(We also saw Mark Eubank there, very exciting)

My cute niece sporting her hawaiian wear.
This guy was at the PCC in Tonga. He was hilarious.
He sounded similar to the guy at Wendys on Bulldog. Anyone know who I'm talking about?

Okay, posting lots of pictures takes too long, so if you'd like to see or know more about my trip, just ask.

Third, this is probably the biggest one. I've been interviewing for jobs for the past 3 weeks. And this has gotten me thinking a lot. As I have had to answer questions about "do you recall a time when....?" It has got me thinking about my past and all the people who have given me "my experiences". So here are a few.
When I was a student I worked at the library, and I had not only an awesome boss, but fantastic coworkers. Kimball was one of the best bosses ever. I learned tons and had so many great experiences. One coworker in particular that was a great friend and an awesome person Kirsten. Just lots of good memories there.
While thinking about school, I had some fantastic friends who got me through some of the more difficult classes and times. Heather was always willing to spend hours teaching me physics (she's a genius). Natalie who single handed got me through Calculus.

Also all of my roommates I've had, I calculated one day, and wow I had a ton. Some of my favorites Tarin, Lorette, Jen, Katie, Liisa, Sarah, Natalie, Heather, Lisa, Kyla, Emily, Ashlee, Mer, Mel, Carie, Amber, Nicole, Scarlett, Emily, Melissa.

That's only naming a few. I've been very fortunate to have some amazing roommates and other friends and I'm very grateful for all of them. To name a few friends Maren, Hillary, Rachel, Marybeth, Bryan, Broderick, Steve, Sharla, Jac, Nathan, Ryan, Brian, Daniel. I'm lucky.

Well I can't add any more pictures right now, so I'm going to have to stop. But I've got a few more things I'm going to write about, maybe later today or tomorrow.

Recipe of the day/week/month...

Anyone who knows me knows of my love for cooking, baking, etc. My most recent goal is to eat much healthier, so I'm going to be cooking healthier, so I thought I'd share some of my new recipes in case anyone wants them. They'll all be delicious.

So here is one I made earlier this week, it turned out very well I think. Very delicious.

Healthier version of the classic Shepherd's Pie.

• 2 lg potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 in cubes
• 1/4 c fat-free sour cream
• 1 T light margarine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 t oil oil
• 1 c onion, chopped
• 2 md carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 lb ground turkey breast
• 2 T flour
• 1 t dried rosemary
• 1 t dried thyme
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper
• 2 c chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400º F

Place potatoes in saucepan and cover with water. Set pan over high heat, bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium, simmer ~10 min, or until fork tender. Drain potatoes, add sour cream and margarine, mast until smooth (i use a hand blender) add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet. Add onion, carrot and celery, cook until soft 3-5 mins. Add turkey and cook until browned (break up as it cooks). Add flour, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to coat. Add broth and bring to a simmer, simmer until mixture thickens, about 4 mins.

Transfer turkey mixture to a 9-in deep dish pie plate. (Make sure it's deep enough, or it may boil over in the oven). Spread mashed potatoes over the top. Using back of spoon, create some swirls.

Bake until the potatoes are golden, about 30 min.
(If dish is filled to top, I recommend putting a cookie sheet underneath so if it boils over it doesn't make a mess of your oven.)

Serves 6

Serve this with a salad or a different veggie.
Enjoy!

My Immune System

I've always boasted of my exceptional immune system. I rarely get sick. Even when everyone around me is sick, I stay healthy. It's been nice. But every once and a while, something gets me. And for some reason it isn't a cold or something minor, it's usually puts me out of commission for a week. Which is super lame, considering I work with kids, and can't go to work sick.
The other lame thing, I hate sitting/laying around. Especially when I only feel sick about half the time I am actually sick.
Take this week, I picked up some sort of cough/sore throat/fever crap from one of my co-workers. So I have taken a few days off work to try and get better. So I thought this would be great chance to get some sleep. Well Provo City has decided that sleep is not important for anyone living on my road. They are replacing a pipe in the road (take into mind they replaced this same pipe about 4 months ago). So they start every morning at 7. They are pounding these massive metal h looking support things (I'm not exactly sure what they are or why they are putting them in the ground), so the massive Caterpillar pounds on this metal brace thing, for about 45 min straight. Then they move onto the next one. Most would think, why is this such a big deal, well every time it hits the metal, not only is it loud, it actually shakes my entire apartment. Enough that I've taken pictures off the wall, because they were about to fall off.
Do you think it would be easy to sleep with this right outside your window? Like literally 10 ft from your bedroom window. It makes sleeping hard, which makes getting better hard.
So this is my venting session about my immune system deciding to take a break, and about Provo City and their annoying habits of replacing the same pipe in my road multiple times at 7 am. Argh.
Hopefully my immune system is ready to go back to work tomorrow, cause I can't take the pounding anymore.

Long Over do

So I am obviously not a great blogger, as you can tell it's been about a year since my last post.
A lot has happened, and I've learned a lot in the last year, so my goal is to share some of those things in the next week or two. So check back soon...

Update

So it's been 4 months, and I have not much to show for it. I am still just working away and trying to stay active. I did get accepted by the Utah Board of Education to teach PE or health. However finding a job teaching that is not an easy task. I hope to find one, and to coach. And take night classes so I can teach biology also. But, I would have to find a job first, so we'll see. My cousin gets back from her mission on wednesday and it made me start thinking about the past year and a half and all the people i've come into contact with and who have had an effect on my life whether it be positive or negative. And I am really grateful for having so many good friends. I'm going to start the next step up of p90x possibly this week. Not sure yet, I'll be playing a ton of sports this summer, and I'm supposedly supposed to be training for another half marathon so we'll see if I have enough energy to do all that.

One exciting thing, which may not be exciting to anyone but me, I beat my boss on "the beeper" and got $100 for it. Its a pretty awesome feeling to say I've got the highest score :)

New Life, New Challenges (or old ones i'm still working on)

So It's a new year, and I've made some pretty lofty goals for this year.

~Write on my blog at least once a month.
~Start and finish p90x-I'm doing good so far, but man is it hard.
~Finally figure everything out so I can start my teaching certification program.
~Keep my room clean for more than a week at a time.
~Eat healthier for dinner and take the leftovers for lunch.
~Skydive
~Carve at least 3 pumpkins

Just to name a few. If you have anymore suggestions, please feel free to let me know.

Shirt #2!!!!

I've done it again! Another Intramural championship under my belt! This time in flag football!

I'm still in soccer for this semester, and I'm way excited. I've wanted soccer for the past 6 years, and I really think we have a good chance this team Go 69th ward!