Making Things Up

Maybe it's because I'm not working right now so I have a lot more free time. Maybe it's because the weather is getting colder and so I've been staying in more. (Here's how it looks outside my window right now)

Whatever the reason is I'm making all sorts of things.

 Last night I made this soup.
It's a different take on chicken noodle soup. Both Thomas and I thought it was quite delicous. He even gave me permission to keep it in the rotation, which isn't anything new, he almost always says he wouldn't mind if I made something again but his eyes never lie. It's the eyes that tell me if I can really keep something in the rotation and when I asked him about this soup his eyes gave me a definitive YES. I wish I could say I came up with the soup on my own but I must give credit to Dinners On Me. You can find this recipe and many other great ones here. (I did stray slightly from the recipe. Instead of making my own meatballs I bought chicken links. I took them out of the case, cut them into small pieces and fried them up. Also, I cut out the celery and carrots since I'm not a fan of either of those items being cooked).

This weekend I'm missing out on a family baby shower. Thomas' cousin Brett & his wife Kim are having a baby. We're so excited for them but not so excited for ourselves because our recent move has made it impossible for us to attend the baby shower. As gifts they were asking for books and it just so happens that one of Thomas' favorite books as a kid is part of set that comes with one of my favorite books as a kid. To make it extra special I decided to make a little book bag for them. Congratulations Brett & Kim.

Triple Best

As I recently posted, I've been dealing with some nasty symptoms related to the swine flu. However, my BEST friend came to Spokane and so I had to get out of the house for a little bit. (hands off.....she's already got a best friend)

We decided to hit up lunch at PF Chang's. Now, I must admit that I was really sick, my throat was sore, I had no voice, I was running a slight fever, so chinese food didn't sound very appealing. As I perused the menu my eyes quickly settled in on the most appealing thing on the menu for someone in my condition, Chang's Chicken Noodle Soup. When they brought it to the table I almost suffered shock just seeing how much they give you. They don't just bring you a bowl of soup they bring you a pot of soup.(Thier bowl may be slightly smaller than this but it's pretty close to the actual size)

                                                                                                            

Then I tasted it, and it was the BEST soup I have ever had. Now maybe that's a biased statement because any kind of chicken noodle soup is going to be the best soup ever when you're sick but honestly this was the best soup I've ever had. I've been looking for a recipe of it all over the internet but have come up empty handed. I think I see many more trips to PF Chang's in my future. The BEST part......it's only $7.25.

I went to conference and came home with the swine flu

Through an unfortunate series of events I have contracted the swine flu. When I lived in Portland my cable package was paid through my employer. This being the case I opted for the largest cable package my employer would allow. I got all sorts of great channels including a wide variety of movie channels and sport packages. I also got the BYU channel, which I admit was seldom watched except on two weekends a year when the leaders of my church spoke to me on this channel. Now, had I not had the cable package I did, I still would have been able to watch on PBS. Well, as most of you know I have recently moved to Spokane, Washington while my husband is attending law school. Since our cable is no longer being paid by my employer, because I have no employer, we have had to settle for a much reduced (both financially as well as in the number of channels) cable package. This package does not allow for us to watch any given movie at any given time, nor does it allow for us to watch whatever sporting event we want to. In addition, this package does not allow for me to listen to the words of my spiritual leaders from the comfort of my own home while still in my pajamas. In addition, Spokane PBS does not take pity on me and it does not play these semi-annual conferences. As a result I had to do something that I hadn't done in years. I had to leave the comfort of my home and attend the conference at a church meetinghouse. Since my Stake Center is in Cheney (about 20 minutes away) I opted to drive to a different Stake Center here in Spokane. I'm not sure when it happened but on Sunday I began to have an annoying dry cough. On Monday I woke up and raked some of the pine needles that were covering both our front & back yards. And sure enough by monday afternoon it hit me full on. My throat has been so sore, I won't tell you about the stuff that I've been coughing up, and I haven't had much of a voice for about a week now. Also, by the time I decided to see the doctor it was too late for me to get on the Tamiflu, so I've been forced to ride it out. Well, I did get some cough medicine that's supposed to help me sleep at night unfortunately all it did was make my stomach sick. The one fortunate part is that I'm not working so I've been able to stay in bed and rest up. So now I'm trying to figure out who to blame. Do I blame it on conference? Do I blame it on PBS? Maybe I should blame it on the pine needles.  Or maybe I should just blame it on this kid.

Don't mess with Texas

I'm in Texas now, and it feels good to be here. I don't mind the 100 degree weather, as a matter of fact I have been looking forward to a week of 100+ weather. Now, maybe if I was staying longer than a week I wouldn't feel that way but as of day 2 I'm still enjoying it. Besides, how could you not enjoy Texas......






And today I'll be enjoying this......




And some of this....





but mostly I'll be enjoying this...

Birthday Girl

This is my sister Joelle.

She is one of the best sisters a girl could ask for. These are just a few of the reasons why I love her:

1. She's very sassy and she's got a quick wit.

2. She plays the cello and almost every other instrument she picks up. In fact she was the orchestra teacher at her local junior high and is currently the choir director.

3. Her students love her. I even looked her up on ratemyteacher.com and this is how one of her students rates her:

http://www.ratemyteachers.com/schools/new_mexico/alamogordo/chaparral_middle_school/joelle__jaskolowski

4. Thomas thinks she's great because "she's real."

5. She's always willing to try something new even when that something new is hummus.

6. She's provided me with some of the cutest nephews & niece around. She's a really great mom. (sorry Ronnie, I couldn't find a pic of you but you are definitely one of my cutest nephews)

7. Mostly she's great because she is always there to offer support, provide encouragement and she's an all around great friend.

Thanks for being my sister! Happy Birthday!

Turtle Soup

When I was growing up, every summer we would get in our car and we would drive from Southern New Mexico through Colorado or Arizona (depending on the route we would take) and then 16 hours later we would end up at my Aunt's house in Richfield, Utah. These trips were grueling especially since the majority of our day was spent driving through the hot New Mexico desert and often without air conditioning. Most moms try to play games with their kids during trips such as these. There's the license plate game, I spy, write notes to other drivers, etc. However, my mom had us play the turtle game, which there were only two rules to the game:

1. Keep your eyes peeled for any turtles

2. When you see a turtle yell it out as fast as you can.

It seemed like we would always see some desert tortoise walking as slow as he could across the freeway just begging to get run over. My mom couldn't take it. If we saw a turtle we would pull over to the side of the road and go get it. Usually we would let it loose on the other side but occasionally it would join us on the journey. It seemed like we always had a turtle or two hanging out in our backyard. I even very distinctly remember a time I convinced my brother to hold his finger in front of the turtles mouth and see what it would do. Sure enough it bit him and wouldn't let go. I remember him screaming and running around the backyard with a turtle attached to his finger. Ahhh, the good old days. Since that time my parents have opened somewhat of a turtle refuge in their backyard. They even landscaped their backyard around the turtles. Apparently, it's very important that male and female turtles hibernate seperately. For this reason it's very important to distinguish the males from the females, so my parents have a letter/number system they use. The males are given letters, the females have numbers, or vice versa.

In the new backyard they have many rocks to hide under and leafy, camoflauge retreats, they even have a couple of turtle waterparks. They have a few secret passageways and they have free reign of the garden. In short, I'm utterly and completely jealous of the turtles. I want to hate them and sabotage them somehow and let them know that my parents still love me more than they love them. The problem: how can you hate this!

Thomas is like a kick in the solar plexus

I found my new favorite thing to do on the internet when I'm bored. Some people google themselves, but that can get kind of boring unless you have a common name or have lived an interesting life. Sometimes I like to google the names of my friends and family and on occasion I have even learned something new about them. But my new trick is better than all of that. If you google "[your name] is like". You must include the quotation marks or it won't work. It is so funny and has kept me pretty well entertained. Here are some of my favorites.



Thomas is like.....


-Thomas is like having the SS investigate Hitler and his crew for war crimes.
-Thomas is like a kick in the solar plexus.
-Thomas' is like walking into a doll house, but when you get inside, it's like being in one of the great Cathedrals of Europe.
-Thomas is like a cat that moves with silken paws among the sentences that make up a paragraph.
-Thomas is like a pocket battleship. His strength lies in his determination

Here are some of mine:
-Caitlyn is like a jigsaw puzzle
-Caitlyn is like my little sister and if you dont end up lovin her your crazy!
-Caitlyn is like a ninja

And my personal favorite is

-Caitlyn is like a balm for his troubled soul and spirit.







Go ahead, you know you want to do it! I've probably already done it for some of you.