Gratitude/Ungratitude

Yo Yo Yo!

What up!?

This is the annual Thanksgiving post that I actually really enjoy writing and it just comes way easier than any other post I do, mainly because I'm good at being thankful, but also because I'm good at complaining as well.  :)  What an astute observation.  For a previous list, see here.  It strikes me that I must have not done one last year because I was so FREAKING excited about DisneyLand.

It was the best.

Now for the lists.

Let's start this one by being thankful.

Thankful list:

Aren't they so dang cute?

1. My nieces.  They are the most prized of anything I have anything to do with.  They are ones who can make me laugh when no one else can, they can make me cry with pride, they can make me angry when they aren't nice or helpful to their mothers, they can make me feel like everything will be alright.  Sometimes, a phone call is all I need from them as the push to keep going.  One of the best things as of late is when my youngest niece, Charlee, is in my arms and she turns and looks at my face and smiles really big.  It is the best when someone looks at you with love.  I love my girls.  I hope of all the things they doubt, my love will never be one of them.  I truly thank Heaven for little girls.  Sap.  Sap.  Sap.
2. Food.  I love food.  I love making it.  I love eating it.  I love looking at it.  I just love it.  And you know how sometimes people hate the food pictures people post?  I get why they are posted and I actually like the pictures.  Sure, it might be silly, but life could use a tad more silly, in my opinion.
3. Instagram.  It is so fun to see the posts on Instagram, mainly because the things people post are actually the things that really matter in life.  It makes me happy.
4. Work.  I am incredibly blessed to work in the job I do.  Some days, I don't love it.  Some days, I want to stay in bed forever and not go anywhere.  However, I'm really lucky to work with people I care about who I know want to help people and want to make the community safer.  With all the stuff being said on the news about how awful police officers are, I will say that the ones I work with aren't perfect, but they are hardworking, honest people.  I love them.  I'm thankful that they are willing to work in a job that you are required to wear bullet proof gear.  I am proud to work with them.
5. BENEFITS.  This year was a HUGE change for me in that I actually get benefits for working full time.  I am incredibly happy about this portion of my life.  I love that if I'm sick, I will be able to afford healthcare.  That is so nice.  And if I want to take a personal day, now I can!  Its wonderful.  I'm so so so so so thankful for this.
6. Books.  I don't get people who hate reading.  It calms me in ways nothing else can.  It helps my creativity and imagination.  There is nothing better for me than a really good book.
7. Kit, the Night Rider.  My car.  I love her.  I am so glad she has survived this year.  It was rough for us.  It was either the last part of April or beginning of May that a stupid deer suddenly ran in to my car and flew up on the roof (must have been a reindeer) and totaled her. :( :( :(  It was such a sad day.  So after being held hostage for months and months, and having paid ahead of time, which I'll never do again, she was back in my possession.  She's had a radiator leak and a dead battery, but as of right now, she's doing very, very well and she is happy in her little garage.  I love my lil car.
8. Friends.  Life can be super hard.  I'm really lucky that I have good friends.  I'm thankful I can watch Project Runway and talk about this with friends and share opinions and have the conversations go all over the place before we are done.  It seems like your friendships either grow or perish and I can definitely say that I want mine to be growing.  Sometimes it's hard and you feel like you are the only one who cares.  Sometimes that is true and you either can keep working by yourself, or move on.  Sometimes, however, things will get better.  I'm really, really glad that I have friendships that have weathered storms and made it through.  I'm really, really grateful that relationships that have been really bad for me are over.  Life is all about learning and I think the more true you are to yourself, the better a friend you can be to others.  Blah blah blah.  
9. Movies/tv/entertainment.  I'm very thankful there are creative minds in the world who choose to make films and other forms of fun things to make life less boring.
10. Capabilities.  I'm so very delighted that we all have different capabilities.  I'm thankful that I can make things that others enjoy.  I love when others do the same.  It never ceases to amaze me the beauty in each work and life.  Creating is one of the best parts of my life.

Unthankful list:

1. Feelings.  Sometimes there are too many for my liking.  And I don't know how to deal with them sometimes. 
2. Mold.  Oregon taught me well.
3. Unreliability.  Do what you say you are going to or just don't say you are going to do it.
4. Whiners.  Now, this is irony, if I've ever read it.  But seriously, some things just are what they are and whining about them doesn't make much of a difference.  Isn't this a hilarious addition to my unthankful list?  I'm funny.  And not just look wise.
5. Cold weather.  Some people just love it.  It makes me sad on the inside.  It can't be changed,    thus, it does no good to say this, but it is not my thang.  And it makes my skin SUPER dry.
6. Germs.  Well, not all of them.  Just some.  I don't like touching carts at stores like Wal-mart, or even going to Wal-mart for that matter.  I hate when you leave a place and you feel like if you don't wash your hands, you might freak out.  Do I sound too OCD?  I'm feeling more and more that way all the time.
7. Drugs.  I never thought drugs were such a prevalent thing in our area.  Well guess what?  THEY ARE.  They are disgusting and they cause a lot of heartache for people.  They are dangerous.  Even prescription drugs.  It is so sad to see the effects of drug use.  Don't do drugs.
8. The word rectory.  
9. The bear toilet paper commercials on tv.
10. Kayne West.  And his wife.  And his daughter's name.  :(
    
    
    
    So, there are my lists for 2014.  Please feel free to share your unthankful/thankfulness with me.  I hope you all eat Stove Top Stuffing and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Cheers!
    janalee

Halloween!!!!

Monica,

Since I'm nearly certain you are the only one that will see this, this is dedicated to you.

As you know, Monica, I work with police officers.  Every year, I have dressed up as something that was related to cops.  One year I was a Junior Trooper.  One year I was a bumble bee (but nobody came in at all, so I might do that one next time I work on Halloween....)  So this year, I thought it would be funny to go as something the cops would really enjoy..... a Donut.

:)

Happy Halloween everyone!

janalee

Food. Food. Food.

So...one of my best friends went to Argentina on an LDS mission.  She taught me something wonderful that she learned there.  It has been fantastic.  Absolutely fantastic.  So, last night, I thought I would make it and take pictures and share with you wonderful people this amazing recipe.


Argentine Pasta

1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 yellow onion
1 lb ground beef
garlic salt
pepper
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
basil
oregano


Dice all of the peppers and onion.

Aren't they pretty?

Saute them in a little big of olive oil.  This smells REALLY good.

Then after a couple minutes, add ground beef.  Sprinkle garlic salt (you can use fresh garlic if you want, but lately I've used garlic salt on it and it tastes just as good) and pepper over the beef.

Let the beef brown.  Make sure its all cooked.  It looks amazingly colorful.  Once all beef is cooked, pour the two cans of tomato sauce and stir real good.

Now,  this is my favorite part.  You pour however much basil you desire into your palm.  Then add the basil by rubbing your palms together.  It will bring out the flavor and smells absolutely wonderful.  Do the same with the oregano.  Stir it all together. 

Serve over linguine noodles.

And enjoy the crap out of it.


Thank you and good night.


janalee

Food

So, I am doing this bucket list thing and most of it is new recipes....is that weird?

So I made Tuscan Garlic Chicken.  And it was de-freakin-licious.

I mean, look at it. 

The chicken was so good.  I would say you can do it without the pasta (Shocking, I know) and just do the chicken and sauce with a side of green beans (fresh, not canned) or asparagus.  It was totally worth it, and hey....One more item off the list.  :D

If you want the recipe, here it is.

Also, I didn't add the spinach and I used linguine instead of fettuccine because I like it better. 

Anyway, bucket list 2014 is going well.


janalee

Food!

Dude.  I make good food.  My resolution this year was to cook more.  This one was an item from the bucket list, and my! my! my! it is so good.

My friend ate it a couple days later at my house while we watched Downton Abbey.  She said it was perfect.

My niece and I had it and she asked, "Where did you buy this food?"  I said, "I made it."  She said, "NO WAY!  I thought it was from a restaurant!"  HAHA.  Awesome.  I love that.  Best compliment.  Also, Julia Child was right, "The best way to execute french cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken!"  I love that.

Anyway, the recipe is right here if you wanna try it.  

Happy Cooking!

janalee

Christmas Presents!

Yo.

So this post is about the Christmas presents we made for the Young Women in my ward.  I'm over Personal Progress.  Awesome.  Individual Worth Value Experience #7 says:

Heavenly Father has given you special gifts. Read 1 Corinthians 12:4–12; 13; Moroni 7:12–13; 10:8–18; and Doctrine and Covenants 46:11–26. Ask a family member, a Young Women leader, and a friend to write down positive qualities the Lord has given you. List your gifts in your journal, and write how you can continue to develop these gifts and use them to serve your family and others.

So, for Christmas, we got the parents, a friend, and all of the Young Women leaders to write letters to the Young Women in the ward.  It took a LOT of time.  Seriously.  I sent emails and letters to the parents in August.  (If you plan on doing this for your Young Women, don't tell them it is for Christmas.  Just tell them you need it for an upcoming activity or you won't get them until the day before you give them to the girls.)  When the letters starting coming in, it was awesome.  I can tell you - I cried reading each letter.  To see how much the girls were loved and admired for a lot of different reasons was really cool.  And it made me love them even more.  I could not have been more excited for them to get their gifts.  It was a mountain load of work to make sure all 22 girls had letters.  I felt like a nag sometimes, but then came to the conclusion that it is okay to remind people about something that they really will want to be a part of.

My kitchen looked like this for quite a while:

And though it might not look organized, it was as good as it could get.  I typed and printed each scripture they needed to read onto pretty paper and embellished them.  Here is a really simple example:

So I did my best to make sure the pages were in an order that was pretty and not all the same colors together.  Took a long time, but they were really pretty.  I found this website and she had the values done really cute.  For this present, we only used the Individual Worth one:

So then we wrote a letter to the girls and matted it on to the pretty paper:

And made a cover, which turned out really simple, but nice:

Those are a couple of the colors we did.

The binding part was really good.  Just be sure to be vigilant about the lines being straight and all that jazz.  We had all the Young Women leaders get together on a Saturday in November to bind them and make sure everything was set for them.  Then our awesome President got ribbon, Reese's Trees, and candy canes, so the finished product looked like this:

Then came the Sunday before Christmas when we had such a great lesson by the YW President.  After her lesson, I read the girls the letter written in the front of each book and explained while each of them were books, they were each unique to the girls who were receiving them.  I quoted from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas:  "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store.  Maybe Christmas, perhaps, mean a little bit more."  We talked about the birth and life a of Savior, who gave the greatest gift.  Then we talked of this book, and how this was worth a lot, even though it was just letters. 

We handed out the letters and watched the girls open them.  I can tell you that is and will forever be a favorite Christmas memory.  Their faces!  Oh my gosh.  Some of them beamed with smiles.  Others cried.  Some said, "This took a lot of work!"  And others came and hugged us.  I remember one that said, "I love it.  I just think it is my favorite gift."  I had parents text and call and email about the books.  It is one of the best things I did in 2013.  Hands down.

If you want to do something your Young Women can keep forever, this is it.  Even after all that work, it was so worth it.  I would do it over and over again for them.  Very cost effective as well.  And something that, to the Young Women, will be worth more than money can buy.  

And coolest of all, it gets them to enjoy Personal Progress.  I hope this makes sense.  If you have any questions about the books, please let me know. 

janalee