Best Weekend Ever!

I just had the BEST WEEKEND EVER, in a long time.  If I could describe my weekend in three words I would say, "Laughed sa hard!"

This picture describes my weekend!

Three friends (Kyle or Karl - whatever he chooses to be called, Auntie Cami, and Lisa Lou) and I just road tripped it to Flagstaff to view the last SUU Football game of the season.  We all hopped in the car Friday afternoon and "drove all night" to get to the folksy town of Flagstaff.  We stayed in a cozy little hotel right off the historic route 66, ate an immaculate continental breakfast, went shopping in the historic downtown, watched as the SUU football team won their final game under a covered dome, ate at some fun/different restaurants (one being Brandy's from Dinners, Drive Inns, and Dives) the other an Italian restaurant called Stromboli's, got lost numerous times even when using three different GPS systems, ventured out to more shopping at a Goodwill store - hit the jackpot in the book section, Auntie Cami saw the Grand Canyon for the first time, I joined a prestigious club known as the "sock club" (which if you would like to learn more you can email me and I will give you the FULL details), and lastly we learned a great deal about one another.

Lessons Learned on this wild weekend 
1.  Always make sure that there is lots of good music present!  Wilson Phillips, Spice Girls, Marie Osmond, and of course the song, "Let's Hear it for the Boy!"
2.  Bathroom breaks are only mandatory when it's time to gas up.  However, it may be okay to stop at a gas station so I can talk to random people, possibly use the bathroom, buy a sandwich that will wait until the next day to be eaten, and basically stop just so I can lengthen the time on the road. ;)
3.  Always remember your camera, but be grateful for an iPod (yes I finally replaced mine) that has a camera - doesn't produce the best pictures, but I'm still grateful I had something to document this road trip.
4.  Only eat at restaurants that are unfamiliar, or that only exist in the town you are visiting.  (We ate at some drive inn at Kanab, Brandy's, Stromboli's, and a deserted steakhouse/bar in Vermilion cliffs)

Made Sweet Love to the best buttermilk
 pancake EVER!!! (At Brandy's, Flagstaff, AZ.)

5.  When stopping for the bathroom, be it on the side of the road, on top of a mountain, in the freezing cold, and darkest woods EVER make sure you have some sort of paper product available...if not, two white socks will work wonders!!!
6.  Sharing an adjoining room with four people in toe lends to some funny antics, and childish acts.  Playing games known as "Girl Talk," which makes you talk about your dream wedding - gag, and developing a bad case of acne!
7.  Don't complain about the group of people at the restaurant who are completely loud, obnoxious, and drunk.  It will only backfire when you then become the loud, obnoxious, not drunk - but people start to wonder, table at the restaurant.  
8.  When attending a football game make sure you have a roster of all the football players, and a smart phone so that people, like myself, can continually look for a future boyfriend and let the others enjoy the game.

9.  Shopping should consist of hitting up a Goodwill store, finding books outside of Utah becomes more fun then finding the typical used LDS romance novels.  I still wish I would've bought that book about people who suffer with IBS - could possibly have done a world of good on top of that darkened mountain.

10.  Lastly, laughing so hard your head, stomach, and butt (pops out a fart - wasn't me, just saying) hurts is definitely a prerequisite for any type of road trip.  Thinking you are funny by sharing thoughts on marriage and how my future husband actually already died in the Civil War makes for some head hurting laughing.  Oh, and be sure to share stories about past boyfriends and how cheap they are...always a sure fire way to make people laugh!

The Kibby (Kyle+Libby)

Let's Hear it for OUR Boy - The Man!

The Posse, minus Auntie Cami, who graciously took all of our pictures!

Lisa Lou and I.  Need to point out our old lady ways of
mending and crocheting in the back seat!
All the way there, and all the way back!

The magnificent Grand Canyon!

No More Facebook, and No More Netflix

I've spent some time, recently, in the decision of whether or not I should cancel Netflix....AND Facebook!  Well, the decision has been made and I am no longer a member of Facebook, and I canceled my instant queue on Netflix.  Wow - amazing huh?  That's what I think.  Why did I do this - well, there are several reasons.  Let's start with Netflix first shall we.

During the summer, most of you Netflix users like myself, received an email explaining a price increase.  Boy oh boy, did this shoot me over the edge.  Yes, most of you saw/heard my outrage on this matter.  A few months later they sent another email stating that they would be changing the way they are doing things on Netflix.  This was the final straw that broke the camels back.  BUT, I still decided to stay with them.  Although, I should be super busy with school this last semester, I have found that having both the DVD, and instant viewing were ending up being too much money, and a waste of my time.  I was using the instant queue a lot more then the DVDs.  All of my time was going to stupid shows, like the TV shows Felicity (which I sadly sat through all four seasons - good thing they canceled because I was about to cancel) and My So Called Life which I still can't seem to get through and it's ONLY one season.  It took some time and thought in the matter, but after my Sis took the plunge and canceled her instant queue I decided I should follow her footsteps and do the same.  She canceled due to wasting too much time also.  It feels good to cut that out of my life, for the time being.  The great thing about Netflix is that any time I want to go back to my old ways I can, and they are willing to always take me back with open arms.  Seven more months till graduation, and my gift to myself is adding back my instant queue on Netflix.

Facebook and I have had a love hate relationship for some time.  It took me some time to join, and it was late one night around 1:00am when I took the plunge.  I knew what I was getting myself into at the very beginning.  I joined and loved it.  I thought, this is great, I am able to keep in touch with those people I have met in Alaska, and with those from my years of serving a mission in Kentucky and Ohio.  Recently, I have found myself on this website all the time.  I am not doing anything productive when I am on the website, I spend hours looking, and looking, and looking.  I rarely comment, and when I do my email is flooded with notifications.  However, the notifications stopped suddenly when Facebook made some new changes to their website.  It was a breath of fresh air for me, but not receiving those emails was making it hard for me to know what was going on in Facebook land.  As I was not knowing via email notifications, it made me hop on to Facebook more frequently, and thus I would spend more hours just looking.  I guess what it comes down to is I have no self control?

As I was perusing Facebook a few weeks back (when I should've been doing homework), I found that my cousins wife Shellie wasn't on Facebook anymore.  I was shocked and concerned.  It was late, so I decided that the next day I would contact her and ask her what was going on.  She informed me that it had become too much for her.  Her constant Facebook perusing was getting out of hand, so she canceled her Facebook.  Way to go Shellie, for setting the stage for me.  After much thought and serious consideration I have done the same.  It wasn't like I made the decision over night.  I thought about all the pro's and con's Facebook causes me, and then decided to cancel.  No more offending other people by comments I leave (which I had done recently), no more tagging pictures of people who don't want pictures tagged, and no more wasting my time spending countless hours looking into the lives of people I care and don't care about.  Now that sounds rude, but most the people I'm friends with on Facebook already are people I have contact with by other means. The other people are just those who haven't seen me in years and wanted a quick look into my life right now, and by so doing they had to "add me as their friend."  All along I should've listened to my Bro, "Facebook is stupid, haven't you heard of a phone?"  Yes little Bro, you are right, I have the ones I love dearly right at my phone, or email.  What else do I need?

There it is - I canceled Netflix (just instant queue) and Facebook.  Now I'm loving life even more...or finding more to do that doesn't involve me wasting my time!

I Did What?

WHAT THE....

This past semester I have been observing students at one of the local High School's trying to gear up to student teach, (UGH) and today I got a chance at teaching.  I didn't mind teaching, it was not terrible.  I was lucky enough to be in an advanced nutrition class with mostly seniors.  The "super seniors" were very well behaved and there was only once that I stopped and looked at two girls chatting.  I stopped talking, gave them a look that said, "Ladies, I'm in charge now zip it!" Nicely, YES NICELY glared them down until they stopped talking.  Fair enough, right?

Okay, let's get to the "WHAT THE..."  My teacher, whom I have been observing, asked that I teach for about 20 minutes on the introduction into Lipids - FATS, and other chemistry related junk.  I got completely honest with her a few weeks back, and told her straight up that I don't care to be a teacher anymore...(wondering now if I ever wanted to teach in the first place....I'm digressing here....)  She assured me that I would do a great job teaching, and from what she has already observed from my being in the classroom she said I would be good at it???  What does she know, but whatever?  I told her I am happy to be here and do whatever is asked of me, and when I student teach (at this same school - totally happy about that) I will keep a positive attitude and do my best.  But, come graduation I am heading to the skies to be a flight attendant, if the Lord be will'n of course.  If that's not the case, then what the heck, I'll put my teaching degree and license to work.  Somewhere, hopefully???  Still, I am hoping for the skies baby, the deep blue skies baby!  Again, I'm digressing!!!!!

So, my practicum teacher asked me to teach on lipids.  I studied up to find that lipids - what I am studying now in food science actually goes really well with this nutrition teaching lesson.  I decided to be all cutesy and make a fun little toddler game - "Memory" out of all the lipid terms.  I made color copies of lipid based pictures, put them on red and yellow paper (to match their school colors), and then when the student would make a match with one of the lipid terms we would then discuss that picture/term.  I had pictures of Cheerios to represent cholesterol, a girl throwing up to represent bile which is made from cholesterol, a jar of Mayonnaise to represent phospholipids that create emulsions, and so forth.  Of course I made several other pictures/terms, but this is boring stuff, that involves chemistry and we all know how much I love chemistry....  Speaking of chemistry....as the pictures in the game got turned over, and the matches were made we came to a term known as Triglyceride.  Oh no, this is where I suddenly got all chemical on my students and started talking about saturated fats and unsaturated fats, WHAT THE!!!  Saturated and unsaturated fats always gave me such a headache I could never understand what they are and how they work.  Now all of a sudden I'm spouting out these terms like it's my favorite subject in the world.  I thought for sure that once my chemistry hootenannies were over and done with I would be completely rid of that terrible subject.  Just ain't so ya'll.  I was pouring out chemistry terms like soda pop from a fountain.  Again, WHAT THE?!?!?  Here's to saying I guess this battle of chemistry is actually doing some good in my life, for whatever reason.

Yeppers, I had to teach today, and I did the unthinkable by talking about chemistry, which I never in a million years thought it would be of any use.  I was proven wrong with that hypotenuse???  Seriously, more chemistry crap coming out of my mouth!  Stop the madness!  To end my little teaching stint we ended with a clip from the good o'l John Candy era, and watched a short clip from The Great Outdoors to finish my lesson off with another lipid term known as satiety.  Which is how fats make you have that feeling of being full - you might feel that here in a few weeks after Thanksgiving...just saying.

When all was said and done I actually enjoyed teaching today, and maybe this teaching thing won't be so bad after all?  However, I still need to get through next semester with student teaching and all it has to offer.  In fact, I just found out who I'm student teaching with, and where I'm student teaching at.  I will have two foods classes (cooking classes), an adult roles class, and my most exciting class interior design. I will be observing/helping out in a pro start cooking class, and an advanced sewing class.  Sadly though, when I got the high school calendar I immediately sat down and counted/marked all 60 days I have to be in the classroom.  I start January 9, 2012 and will end April 3, 2012 - happy day!!!  Won't it be interesting to see how many more "WHAT THE's" I end up having....

Chaco's and Chocolate

I have been a fan of Chaco shoes for almost four years now.  I say four years because four years ago I purchased my first pair.  I wasn't really sure what these sandals were all about, but I had a great coupon to use at a store that sold them, and they just happened to be on sale at the time.  I spent (if I can remember) around $45.00 for my first pair.  Each summer for the last three and a half years I have wore my Chaco's faithfully.  Sadly enough, this summer on a grand hike up the canyon from my Bro's back yard my Chaco sandals broke.  They were still wearable on the hike, and I safely made it back home all in once piece.  However, I was completely distraught to now have no more Chaco's.  I had heard through the grapevine that Chaco's had a life time warranty on their shoes, and if anything happened they would fix the sandals.

My foot and sandal is the middle foot.  Don't mind the other two feet...
The Sis is to the left (weird looking aren't they) and my
friend Steph to the right.

That evening after returning from the hike I got on the trusty Internet and looked up the Chaco's website.  Sure enough I found that Chaco's will repair your broken sandals.  I cleaned up my sandals and boxed them so I could send them to the ReChaco team, but before sealing my box I had one last very important thing to do.  I needed to buy some chocolate to throw into my package of broken sandals.  Why chocolate?  Well, among the fine print of the ReChaco mailing instructions I read this, "Our ReChaco team works faster if you include some tasty chocolate in the box with your CLEAN + DRY sandals."  I went and picked up a few bars of the Utah Mint Truffles - threw them in the box, sealed it up, paid the shipping, and waited patiently for my Chaco's to get fixed and sent home.

Within a few days I received an email from the ReChaco group asking that I give them a call.  I happened to be at work, on the computer, and next to a phone.  I called them right up, and received a sweet lady on the other end of the phone.  She informed me that my shoes would not be able to be fixed, however, she asked if I could hop online and choose a different pair. Really? They would send me a new pair at no charge?  I was floored, yet ecstatic.  At that very moment I went online, and I picked me a new pair.  I then thanked her dearly.  Before the call was over she personally thanked me for the chocolate I had sent, and told me how much they enjoyed it.  I told her I was just doing what the instructions had told me to do.

New and improved - don't mind the feet...yes I need to paint my toes!

Days later my new Chaco's had arrived.  Life was grand once again.  I have shared this testimony with others about Chaco's, the comfortable sandals, the great company they are, and the very personable nice service I received via email and phone call.  I will forever be a true Chaco wearer, as long as I shall live.  I have converted the Sis, and now my Mommy.  I love Chaco's - and you should too!    

Why I love my Chaco's:
1.  Make some totally cool tan lines - people always complement me on mine. ;)
2.  SUPER supportive and super comfortable - wear them hiking all the time, and just around.
3.  They clean up really nice, and each time I power wash them it's like I have a new pair of sandals.
4.  Last forever - life time warranty baby!
5.  The ReChaco team is fabulous!

That's all, now go buy some Chaco's!  

Fall Is In The Air...With The Year Shortly Coming to a Close

Fall is in the air, here in little o'l Cedar City.  I have very much enjoyed this past month of October as I have watched the leaves change their colors, and participated in many fall activities.  What does fall remind me of?  Well, it reminds me of school starting, football games, leaves changing colors, my mission (because at a pivotal point I was transferred to a rural area where the leaves changing color was magnificent, so I always think of Kentucky this time of year - plus I got to spend two fall seasons in Kentucky), apples/pumpkins/squash, soups/comfort food, and lastly, that this year is coming to a close.

School

School started up once again.  Imagine that!  I am currently enrolled in my last set of classes.  I am in Food Science - which is kicking my butt some, but don't worry, I contacted my miracle working tutor and things are seeming okay.  Also, I am in what is called "the block" and I am gearing up to student teach (next semester - AHHHH).  I have been spending time at Cedar High with the block, and have actually enjoyed my time observing and teaching some.  However, I am at the point (burned out) where I don't even care to teach once I graduate.  Teaching is at the bottom of my list when I start applying for jobs this summer.  I am still holding out for, and want to apply for, flight attendant positions.  My friend Stephanie has been keeping me posted on all upcoming flight attendant positions.  As of this moment, my first priority is to graduate with my bachelors, then worry about flight attendant applications.  Stephanie did mention that Alaska Airlines would be hiring 200 people this spring.  That is what I'm looking forward to do, until then I'm just focusing on school and getting that diploma, or what we're calling it these days - getting that piece of paper! 

Along with school comes Football...

Football

I finally, after too many years, attended my first SUU football game.  I showed up after halftime, so I didn't really attend the whole thing.  SUU won their homecoming game, so it was kind of monumental for me to be there.  Especially since this is my last round of football as a bona fide college student.  I am also attending one of SUU's football games next month, which is out of state - looking forward to that little road trip with friends.

School and football lead to leaves changing colors...

Leaves Changing Colors

I have now officially worked three summers for SUU Grounds as a flower girl.  As soon as school starts I am finished working for the grounds department and head back to the Testing Center.  Although, I am always in need of extra cash I sign up to work the weekends through the end of October.  It is actually quite nice, and I get to really truly enjoy the color changes on campus.  I have to say, even though SUU has sent me through the ringer on my schooling journey, I have thoroughly been blessed by a beautiful campus.  I have said this before, and I will say it again, SUU has the most beautiful college campus here in Utah.  Yes, I know, because I have actually visited all the campuses here in Utah.  So there -- SUU is truly a beautiful campus to be studying at, and I have TRULY enjoyed watching the leaves change color each year.

Doesn't this time of year make you want to eat fallish foods?  Apples, Pumpkins, and Squash....

Apples, Pumpkins, and Squash, oh my!

Growing up here in Southern Utah my Granny had a sister who lived not to far from her in the small town of New Harmony.  New Harmony is nestled at the bottom of Pine Valley mountain, and is a quaint, beautiful town.  I haven't spent much time out there since my Granny passed away, but just recently my cousin Anisa rounded a bunch of us up to go out to a Apple Festival.  Before we went to the apple festival we started in Cedar City at a pumpkin festival.

The Pumpkin Festival was more for the kiddos, but I actually enjoyed myself as I stood in lines so the parents and kids could go do stuff then come back.  I was so helpful. ;)

After the Pumpkin Festival we headed south to New Harmony and attended the Apple Festival.  My Granny had a sister that lived there long ago, some of her kids are still living there (my second cousins).  We were able to see several of our family members and have some great visits.  Granny's sister (my great Aunt Marva and Uncle Vivian) had beautiful apple orchards nestled in New Harmony.  I remember as a child going out there and helping pick apples on a few occasions.  It was fun to visit with my cousins and even pick some apples right off of the tree, and eat them up, right on the spot!  We even boxed up some apples to take home, Summer and I even made an apple crisp.

Apples and pumpkins make great desserts, but does squash....

Soups, and Other Comfort Foods

This time of year allows for me to make a lot of soups.  I LOVE SOUPS!  Soups are so easy and delicious to make.  Since I'm a single gal who only cooks for myself, soups are a great way for me to make a lot, and then eat up my delicious soups during the week.  I have made several batches of homemade tomato soup (tomatoes fresh from my Auntie's garden), corn chowder with fresh corn from my garden, and cream of broccoli soup - fresh from Bountiful Basket's.  I loved my corn chowder recipe that I found online - I of course spruced it up some since I didn't have potatoes I used sweet potatoes, and I threw in some imitation crab as well - it was so colorful and pretty to look at!  However, my greatest cooking adventure this fall lead me to some Spiced Zucchini cupcakes.  My garden produced a "butt load" of squash, and until the first snow fall a FEW WEEKS AGO I was at the point of throwing away my squash.  When the first snow arrived I decided to make the best of what I had left - no more throwing away my beloved squash!  I perused the Internet looking for zucchini recipes.  Finally, one night I came across this recipe, and my life has been changed.  I will forever be planting zucchini each summer just so I can make these Spiced Zucchini Cupcakes - oh MY! 

This year is shortly coming to a close, and fall always symbolizes to me that the year is over and it's time to start over.  Just as the leaves fall and the winter months storm ahead, so does my life.  I have a few life changing things coming upon me in the next several months, and I have slowly began to prepare for what's in my future (teaching, flight attendant, or maybe more school...). The ending of seasons, especially fall, gives me a new perspective and a new motivation for life, and the path's it leads me on.  I came home from my mission at this time of year - another reason why fall is so special and sentimental.  After arriving home, I had to start from scratch with everything.  Since that time 8 years ago I have always felt that Fall is when I get my stuff together and move forward.  Fall is a time to make changes, start over, start something new, and work towards those different life changing events.  May the fall leaves, festivals, and yummy foods ring in a new perspective on what comes next in this coming year.  

Three Cheers for, "The Help"

Last year at this time my book club was reading the book, The Help.  I hadn't really heard very much about it.  I started reading this book and immediatley fell in love with it.  After one chapter into the book I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and kept it with me through out the rest of the book just so I could write down quotes from the story.

Here are some of my favorite:

• "You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important."
• "Every morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision.  You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?"
• "All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries."
• "Ugly live up on this inside.  Ugly be a hurtful, mean person."
• "No one tells us, girls who don't go on dates, that remembering can be almost as good as what actually happens."
• "The day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach."
• "It seems like at some point you'd run out of awful."
• "Frying chicken always makes me feel a little better about life."
• "I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant."
• "Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven.  You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked."
• "I give in and light another cigarette even though last night the surgeon general came on the televeision set and shook his finger at everybody, trying to convince us that smoking will kill us.  But Mother once told me tongue kissing would turn me blind and I'm starting to think it's all just a big plot between the surgeon general and Mother to make sure no one ever has any fun."

The story is set in the 1960's, in Jackson, Mississippi.  It's about white women and their hired "help."  One of the white ladies, Skeeter is in her early 20's, and a college graduate.  As the rest of her friends are in their early 20's, and popping out babies, using their hired help to take care of them and their babies.  The story mainly focuses on Skeeter, a white girl, and two black maides, Abileen, and Minny.  The three of these women come together and write a book called "The Help" sharing stories about how the white ladies treat the black ladies in the town of Jackson, Mississippi.

I won't say much more to this story except that if you have not read this book THEN YOU NEED TO READ IT!  As soon as we finished reading and meeting at our book club I called up my Mom, and said, "We just read the best book ever!  It's called The Help and you need to check it out immediately!"  My Mommy did what I said, and she immediatley fell in love with it and then told all her friends to go read it.  After telling my Mom I then told my Boss at work.  Within a few days she had checked out the book and was loving each page.  Then between my Mom and I, we got my Sis to read The Help, and she soon fell in love with the story as well.

Well, as some of you may already know this book has recently been made into a movie.  I was not there opening night as I hoped I could be, but I recently found some time in my busy schedule to go see the movie.  Some of you may think that books should not be made into movies, but this book made the perfect movie.  It was brought to life on the big screen in such a way that it did not ruin the book, or make an awful movie adaptation.  I was so pleased with the outcome, and how closely Hollywood followed the book.  I found myself yelling at the characters, crying along with them, and laughing at their antics, that came to life even more in the movie.  There is one incident in the book that was very big, yet the detail was saved for the very end, and was only just a small part (trying not to ruin the book/movie).  However, the movie took this very big incident and glamorized it, if I can use that word, bringing it full force throughout the movie.  I was clapping at times because the movie had "glamorized" this major incident, yet small part of the book.  So, I want to say, well done Hollywood, well done.
Can I just give three cheers to this book, and three more grand cheers to a movie that follows this book so well.  Also, three cheers to first time author, Kathryn Stockett, who didn't give up on writing this book.  This was her first book, and she was actually turned down 60 times before anyone would pick up her book and read it.  What a great example of preserving.  Three cheers for sure!

Next book or movie on your list - The Help, I promise you will not be disappointed!  Now quit reading my blog, and go read the book or go see the movie!!!