all hallows eve and other ghostly things

i've been in one of those "thinking moods" lately. you know, the real deep: "do i want peanut butter and bananas on my toast?" kind of questions. and the all-consuming "do i wear bother wearing a coat today?" apparently i'm not in rexburg anymore. this means no snow... and we'll probably have yellow leaves on the trees until february. be jealous. but who bothers worrying about questions like "what am i going to do with my life?" they are highly overrated. i just plan on going with the flow and being a bum for the rest of my life. anyone who cares to come and join me, i'm going to start camping on the boise river and fishing for my food come march. ;)

besides that, nothin occupies my mind more than deciding what i'm going to carve into my halloween pumpkin. this was a decision of epic proportions. you better believe it! 
so this is what i came up with.

now before you go thinking i'm all creative and junk... i have to admit i did steal the idea. i am a mighty good copier, but my original thoughts are limited to things that i write down... here.
more on the halloween costume later. (they aren't quite done yet. yes. i did procrastinate. no. i did not decide what i wanted to be today. i've had this one in the works for a few months! i blame biochem.)

but i've been in a munchie mood lately. 
this is going into my tummy tonight. 

it makes me oh so happy.

find the goodness here.

swirling tides

you know that feeling you get when life is changing? 
it's like standing in the middle of a river. 
you can feel the current pushing you forward... or you can fight it and try and walk upstream. 
(i don't usually recommend the latter)
i have this theory:
life is going to work out.


i get so caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle... that i forget to stop and smell the roses that are blooming all around my house...

i keep thinking that everything has to be done NOW!
there is no time to breathe. to think. to do anything other than stress about life.
but you know what?
it's all going to be ok.
so sit back. 
breathe.








i have a slight obsession with this song.
:)

the garden. 
my mom didn't get the memo that slavery was abolished...
at least it gives me something to do while i am looking for a job. (any takers?) my dad says that i have "slave labor" written on my forehead. 


speaking of change, my mom talked me into doing a diet... (shhh! you can't tell anyone...)
being an exercise physiology major, i personally find all of these things fascinating... so i am considering this more "research". 
it's all about becoming "leptin sensitive"
so what is leptin you ask?
it is a protein hormone that plays a "key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism." thank you wikipedia for that flash of inspiration...
basically. if you are "leptin sensitive", you don't get hungry. it's a natural appetite suppressant. 

basically... the mouse on the left is you without leptin.

i'm kidding.

there are 5 basic rules to this "leptin reset"

(the foodie in me died a little when i read this.)

rule 1:  never eat after dinner.  

rule 2:  eat three meals a day.  

rule 3:  do not eat large meals.  

rule 4:  eat a breakfast containing protein. 

rule 5:  reduce the amount of carbohydrates eaten.

if you want to read more in-depth about these rules see here.

what i've learned is that WHEN you eat is much more important than WHAT you eat. (this is only partially true... but you will need to do a little research on your own from here on out.)

suffice it to say, when i get munchy around 9:00 every night, the rest of the family packs up and leaves the room. ;)

the basic way of eating follows the paleo-diet. if you've never heard about it, just think caveman. if you didn't have a wal-mart down the street, and instead lived a million years ago, what would you be eating?

and then you eat it. 

and ONLY that.

which is all fine and dandy until you drive past the chinese buffet... 

self control might need to undergo an overhaul as well...

so we're still in the intial stages of this "experiment".

i'll keep you updated.

only 4 more weeks to go...

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if you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. 

for where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained.

keep adding, 

keep walking, 

keep advancing.

saint augustine

set a new goal and dream a new dream

day 13.


i am most definitely a "list person"
if you look through any of my stuff... my backpack, purse, even pockets - and you are going to find lists.

• shopping lists
• christmas present lists
• goal lists
• fun-things-to-do-lists
• to-do lists
• to-be lists (This quote from from Lynn G. Robbins is my favorite - probably because it speaks directly to the list-maker in me): Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. I can take my wife out for a lovely evening this Friday, which is a to do. But being a good husband is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am.
• lists of places to go
• lists of things to cook
• lists of things to make
• lists of things i want to buy when i have money, when i graduate from college, buy a house of my own...

i basically make a list for everything. (seeing the lists my mom makes, i think i know where i got it from...)

so you would think that coming up with a "goal list" would be easy right?

wrong.

i have so many, it is almost impossible (finding) and condensing them all into a single list.

so here's the short, and highly incomplete goals list:

• go on a road trip
• bike down the oregon coast
• graduate from college
• get accepted to grad school (which implies that i have to apply... sometime soon...)
• cut my own hair. 
• do something that scares me every day. 
• get down to 155
• run a 10k. then a half marathon.
• when i graduate, be able to fit all of my belongings into my civic. (i'm gonna dieeeee!)
• buy a car of my own
• get a job
• purge my recipes. get rid of all of the unhealthy temptations that i will make and then regret ever looking at. 

i was reading about "effective goal setting" and it says that in order to be the most effective, a goal has to be time sensitive. i mean, how often do i set goals and then forget about them because i'm in no hurry to get them finished? a lot. pretty much. so this is a list that i want to finish before december 31, 2012.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

Bruce Lee

facial hair is not one of my goals.

this pic is just too epic not to share with y'all.

and if i've never told you all about the awesome-ness of being an amazon woman, you are missing out.

this might redeem myself.

my favorite???

does it take longer for you to shave your legs?

taking liberties in the kitchen.

i keep hearing this sound lately.
it sounds a lot like a woooooooosh...! 
and then i realize that it is life. as it goes rushing by. 
i remember when i was a kid, and the school year seemed to go by. soooooo slowly. what happened???
we're already a month into school, and i barely feel like i've even gotten settled in.
it's times like these that i realize that if i don't start DOING something, the whole semester is going to go by and i won't have done any of the things that i wanted to! 
so my list of pre-planned adventures for the rest of the semester:
     go on a hike
     watch a sunrise
     have brunch before church (since it starts at 2!)
     have a very merry unbirthday tea-party! 
     have a pie social, potluck, waffle party... basically any party with food involved. especially fall foods.
     go to the dunes and have a bonfire
     train for a half marathon. (this will be tricky since i barely have time to do my homework... let alone run!)
     keep my room clean. ha.
     read a book a week. (or maybe every other...)
     stop procrastinating. 
that being said... i'll make this short. :)


my sister and i wanted to make these:

and we kinda did. but not really.

i have this problem with following recipes. if i don't have something, i will either leave it out or stick something else in. sometimes this is good... other times not so much. (honey and sugar don't make an adequate brown sugar substitute in cookies. just sayin.) 

we didn't have any brown rice.

did that stop us?

nope.

this ended up being more of a throw-whatever-we-have-available-in-the-fridge type of recipe... but we were both HUGE fans. definitely gonna make it again. 

here's the real recipe. 

this is what we did. 

2 large green bell peppers, bottom trimmed, cap end cut off and diced, and seeds removed
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 leftover yellow bell pepper in the fridge

2 jalapeno peppers

1 eggplant (it was headed downhill and needed to be used!)

1 tomato

1-2 cups shredded cabbage

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

(i'm pretty sure we threw in some chili powder and red pepper flakes in there somewhere...)
1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

preheat oven to 375F. trim bottom of bell peppers so they have a flat surface to stand on. cut off a fairly generous amount of the stem end of peppers, then remove seeds. (our bell peppers were monsters!) place hollowed-out peppers in a baking dish that you've sprayed with non-stick spray or olive oil.

remove stem part from the pepper caps and trim off any white membrane, then dice pepper caps and the onion into fairly small dice. cook hamburger until done, add whatever spices you suit your fancy, then add in onions (and in our case eggplant) and cook until tender. then add in peppers (i made sure to dice the jalapenos up reallllllllllly tiny... i hate getting a bite of pepper that is a little too big. because my tolerance for heat is basically non-existent.) last of all, add in cabbage - it doesn't take long to cook. remove from heat and add tomatoes. i didn't want them really cooked, and i knew that they would get cooked more in the oven. 

stuff the filling mixture into the hollowed-out peppers, using a spoon to press the mixture down so it's tightly packed into the pepper shell. the recipe we found didn't say that we needed to pre-cook the peppers... i was hungry anyway. and when i'm hungry, the lazy, speedy way is the ONLY way. (we actually saved the extra "stuffing" and had in the next day in an omlette... also a BIG success.) 

bake peppers for 30(ish) minutes, then remove from oven and put a generous pinch of grated mozzarella on top of each pepper. put peppers back into the oven and bake about 10-15 minutes more, until cheese is melted and lightly browned. serve hot.

believe me... this was good. and super healthy! 

:)

a random side-note:

one of my roommates is our cousin - who is currently taking a culinary fundamentals class... i'm sure she comes home every day and is mentally making notes on how not to cook. just take a look at jess, and don't do any of these things. but oh, what fun we have in the kitchen!!!

and just for kicks and giggles.

how i feel today. 
(minus a few of the less-than-honor-code-approved behaviors.) 

--------------------------

i haven't been thankful in a while.

today i am thankful for sweat pants.

after running around in a skirt all day, i love the feeling that you get when you can just sit down in the sweats and not have to sit all prim-and-proper anymore! 

hellllllo unladylike behavior!

(just kidding...)

and belts.

that come to the rescue when:

pants are too big.

shirts are too baggy.

you lose your backpack.

don't tell me you never fantasized about carrying your books to school with a belt.

maybe it was just me...

the (im)proper way to do things.

"life is pain highness!"
can you guess what movie that's from???


this last week was "one of those weeks" that i probably would care never to think of again. 
like ever.
after 6 tests, 2 projects, trying to find time to squeeze in donating at the plasma center (yeah. i do that.), going to the temple, and trying to stay dry (even though rexburg decides that it is funny to rain for 3 days straight. and then throw a little snow in there for kicks and giggles. i don't appreciate it thanks!) this week was... tough. but, you know what? i feel so good now that it's over! 
and i aced 3 of my tests. (we'll see how the other ones turn out next week...)
so not too shabby for taking every day not just a day at a time... sometimes it really was hour by hour. just to make sure that i would survive until the weekend. 
now enough of that! 


"you gotta put your behind in your past." 
or something like that. (said by a very wise meerkat)


as i was leaving the library late last night, finally being finished with the week-from-you-know-where, i saw a girl with a backpack. and i wanted it. luckily i restrained myself and she lives to wear it another day. 
you wanna know what it looks like?

super cute right?

but i'm too poor to buy them right now. 

maybe i'll get lucky at d.i. one of these days...

i'm one of those people that likes change. 
at home, the layout of my bedroom changes about every 6 months... i move my bed, the desk, and i have to go through and "de-junk". (that's a common term in our household... whether or not it is actually an effective practice has yet to be seen.)
but having a bed on cinderblocks doesn't leave a whole lot of room for change. 
so i have to change other things. 
i'm also a list person.
i have so many goal lists that i sometimes forget what goals i am actually trying to accomplish! then i find them like a year later and go oh yeahhhhhhhhhh. oops. 
so i am making a goal list. but this one has an end date. the end of the semester. 
which is like... december 17. 
this list might be considered a "de-junk-ing" of my life. because i can't move my bed. i guess i could move it into the closet (like harry potter!), but i don't know how roommate allison would take that...

da list:
train for a 10k. run 6.1 miles by the end of the semester.
go to a dance class
do something to my hair. maybe this?
spend less time on the computer. sorry there guys.
meet one new person every day.
read the entire book of mormon. (i'm in 2 nephi right now...)
try a new, healthy recipe every week (that i've never ever tried before!)
have an unbirthday tea party. and here. and here. and here. and here. 
go to bed earlier (so that i don't sleep through class...)
write more often. and share it with someone.
read a book a week. currently: a single voice
memorize the family: a proclamation to the world


ok. i think that's enough for now...
have an awesome (and hopefully less-rainy!) weekend

and just feel good. 

me want fooooooood!

here we are, two days into the semester.
so far we haven't died! so i guess this is a good thing...

as with every semester, there are always the new (school) year resolutions, the awkward times that you are talking to your new roommates and there is that prolonged silence when neither of you can think of what to say............... and as always, a bit of soul-searching.
who am i?
why am i here?
is this really what i want to be doing for the rest of my life?

or better yet...
am i going to be able to handle this all without going completely crazy?
and finally:
why aren't there any cute guys in my classes? (ha ha ha... but seriously!)

life is finally starting to settle down again. i'm moved in, but unpacking will probably be occurring in stages over the next few days... in the meantime, i am excited that i only have two more semesters until i graduate! are you sure that i am ready to be thrown out into the real world? there are some days when i really feel like i just got out of high school. i mean, i'm actually in college??? weird.

i know that you really missed all of my cooking escapades this summer.
i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
and with a vengence. muahahaha!

i haven't tried these yet, but they are the next on my list of cooking to-dos.

indian summer stew

flourless peach yogurt tart

(going to that class a few weeks ago really opened my eyes to all of the things that you can make without flour... i sense a new obsession coming on.)

panzanella

cucumber and tomato salad with cubed foccacia bread.

yum. 

i actually just think that i am super hungry right now, cuz everything i'm looking at is sounding especially delicious. i guess i could go on posting pictures, but that might end up getting a little ridiculous. 

but it is definitely time for bed. 

nite all!

time's a-wastin'!

we were given a list of items that we had to see in jerusalem before the end of the semester.

i think that we are an experimental group... but it really has made me get out and go see things, so i really can't hold it against brother chadwick at all... (chadwick is my ancient near eastern studies teacher and pretty much the bomb.)

yesterday we went and stormed the ramparts of jerusalem.

well... technically only half of them. but we were bushed by the time we got done, so we decided to call it a day and head on home. 

aren't the green pants amazing though?
they are pretty much my new fav.

this is a view of dormition abbey (between the palm fronds there...)

i still find it surprising to look out over the city and see satellite dishes all over the place... call me weird, but it doesn't exactly fit into the paradigm that i had always had about the Holy City... ;)


other adventures of the day:
i had schwarma.
this is definitely happening when i get home. 
and falafel was for lunch!
i thought before i came that i was going to miss being able to cook all the time. as it turns out, i don't really have enough free time to miss it. any time that i have extra is spent playing volleyball, basketball, doing homework (hahaha that's a funny one...) or running all over the city. nope... i don't really miss it.


i have decided one thing though: i waste too much time. 
this experience (if it has taught me one thing... and of course i can't say that because it has taught me SO much!) has taught me that i suck at managing my time. and that i can be so much more productive if i were to just push myself and plan a little bit better.
then again... thinking about my classes next semester is beginning to scare me. i don't think that i'm going to have much time anyway. so i guess we'll see!

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i love exploring!

i want a fedora, whip, and a cool explorer-friendly name so that i can really get into the spirit of climbing into tombs!

(yes, we did visit some tombs today, 

and yes,

it was amazing.)

i need direction

i refuse to think that today is saturday.
because i forgot to post my music.
so, my excuse is that because i haven't gone to bed yet, that it is still technically friday. take that saturday morning!



this was going to be a list of music that had inspired me over the course of this semester... but it seems like the end of the semester has sapped all motivation that i had. (having said that, i can also contradict myself and say that i have so much energy i think i might explode!!!) i can't stop thinking about jerusalem.
not for a minute.
unless i am missing my weather-bipolar, former home.
it's amazing to me that i actually find myself missing it.

i've decided something (and it is your job as my reader to hold me to this...)
i need some goals for the summer.
otherwise i am going to just sit and watch the whole world pass me by for the entire summer, and i will come out of it, and not have made the most of it!
da list:

• do push ups every night. (i stink at push-ups... so the number is going to start very low. but i am going to eventually build it up... hopefully i can be doing 50 push-ups every night in a little bit. don't judge.)
• write something every day.
• spend a half hour every day in quiet. no music, no tv, no distractions. just me, just thinking.
• greet every cashier by their first name. (it seems like a really random goal, but my uncle made me promise i would...)
• train for a sprint triathalon. i don't know how possible this is going to be in jerusalem... but if not, i'm going to be able to run a 10k/half marathon when i get back!
• keep up my blog!
• wake up earlier - i really really realllllllly want to be a morning person. which seems really weird if you have seen me in all my glory in the morning. yes, i am going to make this happen.
• go to be earlier - again, me = night owl. (as you can see by the time of this post...)
• get to know everyone on the trip
• simplify my life - i think i need to start with #9
• do yoga. meditate. breathe.
• be on facebook less.
• spend less time on the computer in general
• be more patient with people that annoy me. (this is mostly because i am really snippy at my younger brothers. i want to be the "cool" older sister... not the grumpy one that comes home from college that they don't like to hang out with. you get my drift?)

i could really make that list inexhaustible... but for your sake, i will stop!

i saw this today, and i thought it was super cute.

i have a new project now... 

with a white t and skinny jeans??? i am sensing a fashion uprising here.

and most definitely in a good way.

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i tried on my old prom dress from senior year

and the first thing i said was - "that used to fit???"