Today.

Today

Today is here. I will start with a smile, and resolve to be agreeable. I will not criticize. I refuse to waste my valuable time.

Today has one thing in which I know I am equal with others—Time. All of us draw the same salary in seconds, minutes, hours—24 Golden Hours each day.

Today I will not waste my time, because the minutes I wasted yesterday are as lost as a vanished thought.

Today I refuse to spend time worrying about what might happen. I am going to spend my time making things happen.

Today I am determined to study to improve myself, for tomorrow I may be wanted, and I must not be found lacking.

Today I am determined to do things I should do. I firmly resolve to stop doing the things I should not do.

Today I begin by doing and not wasting my time. In one week I will be miles beyond the person I am today.

Today I will not imagine what I would do if things were different. They are not different. I will make a success with what material I have.

Today I will stop saying, "If I had time," for I never will "find time" for anything—if I want time I must take it.

Today I will act toward other people as though this might be my last day on earth. I will not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes.

Elder John Longden (Assistant to the 12 Apostles) Conference Report, Apr. 1966, 39; or Improvement Era, June 1966, 512

Best 24 Hours Ever.

So yesterday me and Cassie decided it was time for another "best 24 hours ever" day. We started at about 2 yesterday.

1st- We went to costco! (you have no idea how much i needed to go shopping!) We basically ate 500 samples. It was great. I bought some delicious things and i'm excited to have at least a little food for now. I'll have to go to a grocery store to buy other things next week some time.

2nd- Cassie's brothers were playing at a place called Sammy's that night so we went to go sing back ups for them. We practiced for a bit :)

3rd- Went to cassies and had chips/salsa/guacamole and chicken burgers for lunch. SO good! Ate while watching an Oprah episode about people with multiple personalities! this lady had 20 different personalities...very interesting.

4th- Went to Sammy's and sang. It was pretty fun/funny because we had only practiced with them for like 15 minutes.

5th- Went to a soft serve ice cream place. It was probably the best soft serve ice cream i've ever had. It actually tasted like ice cream...not yogurt. mmmmmm (I got vanilla with graham crackers, nilla wafers, strawberries, and dark chocolate pieces.)

6th- Went and saw a movie called "Life as we know it". I would highly recommend it. It was SO CUTE!! your typical chick flick, but i enjoyed it.

That was our day yesterday, and today to finish it off we are driving up to Rexburg because her brothers are playing at the Sammy's there tonight. Which is exciting because I get to see Savannah!! YAY! i haven't seen her since summer. She came up for conference but we missed eachother....sad. Anyway we are staying there tonight so that should be fun. :)

Life is beautiful.

Cheese...from scratch

MMM Cheese. I love it. And today i learned how to make it from scratch in my family meal planning class. Cooking is nice therapy, and if you are looking for a good meal this is definitely it! :) and then you can say you've made cheese from scratch! it's pretty fun actually. I'd do it again. My mom wanted the recipe so I'm just going to put it up here.

This is to make the cheese, then make it into a filling for noodles you also make from scratch!

then there's a spaghetti sauce you can make from scratch as well as some bread sticks :)

Ricotta Cheese:

4C whole milk

1 C heavy cream

3/4 C buttermilk

½ t. sea salt

Cheesecloth

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a 2 qt saucepan. Slowly bring to a boil over medium to medium high heat, until curds begin to form (190-200 degree F)

2. Remove from heat and pour into a cheesecloth-lined mesh sieve set over a large bowl. Let drain for 15 minutes gather cloth around the ricotta and gently squeeze out a little more liquid. Don't squeeze it dry or you will end up with dry ricotta. Leave some moisture in there.

3. Place fresh ricotta in an airtight container and refrigerate= for up to 2 days. (don't have to refrigerate)

4. Yield: about 1/1/2-­‐2C or 300 grams.

Manicotti:

2 eggs

¾ C flour

½ C water

½ T butter or margarine

Directions:

Beat eggs and water with an electric beater. Add flour slowly. (Batter will be thin). In a small skillet, place butter, add 2

T of batter making a thin round pancake. Turn cake once. Pancakes should be small.

Filling:

1 lb ricotta cheese (just use as much as you just made :) )

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

½ C Parmesan or Romano Cheese

¼ t parsley flakes.

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together. More cheese can be added according to taste. The mixture will be

the Filling for the manicotti noodles.

Sauce for Manicotti

□ 1 sm. onion, chopped

□ 2 cloves garlic, minced

□ 1 1/2 c. water

□ 1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

□ 1 tsp. sugar

□ 1/2 tsp. basil

□ 1/4 tsp. salt

□ 1/8 tsp. oregano

□ Pinch of pepper

1 C Grated Mozzarella Cheese for topping

Combine onion and garlic in a medium sauce-pan-saute 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in all remaining

ingredients. Cover pan; simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes.

Serves 4, makes 2 cups.

Combining:

Add 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce to the bottom of an oblong baking dish. take one pancake and put 1-2 T of filling in it, and roll it up tightly, and fit it in the bottom of the baking dish. Spoon sauce on top of the rolls, and sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Garlic Bread Sticks:

1 Cup warm water

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

3 cups bread flour

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients to make dough using your favorite method-bread machine, mixer, hands

2. Roll out into a 10/12 inch rectangle.

3. Cut into strips about 3/4 inch wide.

4 Give each strip a twist and place on a greased cookie sheet.

5. Let rise for at least 20 minutes or more if you have time.

6. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

7.Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt and Parmesan cheese.

I worry too much.

Do you ever find yourself alone for a little too long? And you start thinking about life and where it is or isn't going? I find myself in that situation a little too often.

I'm in this place right now where life seems to be hitting me in the face.

I'm potentially really close to being done with school in a major that really will only help me to become a mother (and that probably won't occur for quite some time) meaning i'll need a job when i finish school most likely, and my major won't help with that.

I'm wanting to go on a mission...but I can't seem to find a sure answer of whether or not I really should go. I am never good at decision making. Well that's not true. I know i really want to go, and really should go, but i still keep feeling doubts. My mission prep professor said today that "God does not answer questions with feelings of doubt or fear". Meaning these doubts and fears i am feeling are coming from one person: Satan. I know that a mission would be so great and that I could help so many people, but still i can't get these doubts out of my head!

I just hate these in betweens. I have so many decisions to make that will ultimately affect my entire life. It's scary when you think about it, and really exciting at the same time. I'm so excited for the future, i'm just ready for some of those decisions to be made...and Satan stop trying to stop me from making good ones by giving me all these doubts! Thanks.

Haha. That is all about that subject.

Anyway, last weekend was great.

Friends were here.

Conference was great.

I got to go to one session.

Tucanos on saturday.

New book about sister missionaries.

Cassie's birthday party.

Hulu.

More Conference.

More friends.

Life is beautiful.

Don't let your worries consume you...Everything will be okay. Patience!!

General Conference weekend.

Well general conference starts in about 20 minutes and i am SO excited. This weekend has been great so far and i'm so excited to watch. This blog is going to be a little short/lame but i just thought you should know how excited i am. :)

Happier post :)

Haha okay so now like I knew i would i just feel dumb for writing a post that wasn't so happy. Life is great. It always is...no matter what. People are great. And this week will be great, even though i have TONS to do. Wish me luck with that.

But great news friends are coming to visit this weekend for conference. I feel like it's going to be one big party here in Provo. Samantha Busath is staying with me so that should be fun and Savannah will be here too!! ah so excited!

Life is Beautiful. Just thought you should know :)

Moose Meat...

Well, today was a pretty good day. I only have one class thursdays but it's a cooking class so it lasts from 11 till about 3 or 4 usually. There's a lecture and then we cook something. Instead of cooking today though we went on a field trip. First to Macey's (grocery store) then to Macy's (Department store). At Macey's they basically just showed us the layout of grocery stores - i pretty much already knew it all because i worked at Raley's for a summer- but it was pretty cool. I was starving at the time because all i'd eaten was a granola bar, so everything looked especially delicious. Then after the tour we went to Macy's department store to look at their kitchenware and appliances. Oh man...i can tell you already that once i get married i'm going to have to steer clear of any store with kitchen appliances. I easily could've spent thousands of dollars buying fun gadgets for my kitchen not to mention all new dinnerware. AH! There are so many fun things to buy these days and i want it all haha :) (but mostly just a kitchenaid)Anyway i came home at about 3 oclock and realized i would have 5 hours before rehearsal, so what do i do? Reorganize my closet of course!! haha don't ask. I'm a little OCD when it comes to my closet. I reorganized it about 5 times before finishing. But it looks nice and neat now so that's good. I'm definitely going to need to do laundry in the next few days...the basket is full. I also took some time to organize the rest of my room too. It feels so nice when things are neat. :)

So i'm sure you'll all wondering about the title of my blog (i say all - as if that many people actually read my blog). Well you see, one of my roommates, Tisa, is from Alaska (cool i know). She made us dinner tonight and guess what was in it?! MOOSE

MEAT! so yes...i can now say that i have eaten moose meat. It was pretty good. Just tasted like a cow for the most part. But it was yummy. :)

And that was my day...

P.S. My mom is coming into town tomorrow. YAY!!!!! :)