Technology

I was looking online for the best way to connect to my tv and I came along an outlet at best buy. This is definitely the coolest so far.

These outlets can be added to the media center. And there can be USB and Ethernet all inside too.

Family Ward

Sitting in Church.
Pink Tutu, Black Tutu, Zebra TUTU.
Goldfish crunch, Cheerios must have got away from someone, Stomach Grumbles.

Sacred emblems passed.

Singing Children file in.
Waves, Fingers in Noses, One Loud singer.
 Mom are we supposed to be singing?

One tall missionary.
Shortest in the House.
El comparte su esperanza y la fe.

Sabbath Day

When I was a young child I was convinced that Sunday was called Sunday because the Sun was out the most on Sunday. Growing up in Orange County, California, this self-made myth was kept up for a long while until one Sunday I the Sky opened up and it poured.

I love Sundays, the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is my day of rest; the day where my job or studies in school take the back burner. I recently had a calling, in my Singles Ward, to the Family Home evening co chair. A great friend and I led a committee to plan, and carry out, Family Home Evenings for a group of Singles ages 18 to 30. Because of this calling I left for church at 10:30 or 11:00 am, went to planning meetings, council meetings, and Church meetings, and a few social get-togethers until 4:30 or 5:00 pm. If I went to church in the Ward that my family attended, my day would start at 9:00 am. 

It seems weird even to me, but I love church. There is no better thing than to come home from a long day of meetings and fireside speakers, feeling totally refreshed and "on fire." Wearing one's self out in the service of god leaves me happy. 

Every Sunday for the last fem months I have had a very sweet experience: I go to my Sunday meetings and Sunday school, and every time that I listen, I find some new principle that stands out to me. I feel the Spirit tell me what I need to do. Or I am taught a new truth that I did not fully understand before. This is something, which I enjoy every time that I have prepared and humbled myself.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

I love Sundays.

SHould be studying

SO I am supposed to be studying right now but there is so much that is easier to do.... ha Physiology. Later.

New

I think you may already know but I live and work and attend school in Provo, UT. This is one funny town. I love the possibilities and potential for me. I do however have very little time left in my week. I work to eat and sleep it seems. My work has just asked me to take on more responsibility and to take table now. I would call it one thing ...Easy. I did not know that taking tables would be so nice and run so smoothly. I was told about how hard it is  and the stress. I figure that this will come but so far the ease of it all is so nice.

I work at Chef's Table. It is one of the nicest restaurants in Utah county. It is very high stress and very classy. But I really love the people that I work with.

 I am excited for this Summer. I have been in Provo UT for what seems like forever. This summer I plan to work  at EFY, Especially for Youth is going to be so cool. Because I am a late applicant I am not sure if I will get in but I am hoping that I will. This also means a break from working at the Chef's Table. I am looking forward to California and Moose's Wedding and more family time.

Dogmatic

I love the word Dogmatic. I recently have come to find that everyone has very strong opinions. It is a little ridiculous how many I hear everyday. Everytime I comment on a current happening I seem to get thrashed or have someone shake their head at me and tell me I am wrong.

My view is that I don't want to see your views; my opinion is that your opinions should stay in your head sometimes. My dogmatic belief is that yours should step off.

Do not misunderstand what I am saying: Opinions are Great. But all to often the Subject is Blown out of proportion. The party speaking is misinformed and those taking action do not bother to ask, 'Who am I following?' or 'Why are we protesting again?' Some make a small thing to be a great offence. Don't make a bonfire in the canyon to be a malicious act of arson. Don't let a student at a Private College be the reason you leave your values at the door. Be Proactive.

We all have opinions. One of mine is that I don't have to be heard on everyone of my opinions. Most of them I will live, not broadcast. Those are the ones that mean the most to me. Those are the ones that enrich my life and make me the person that everyone will see.

Finish Strong

I am not always very good at finishing what I start. I get something up and running and seem to lose that spark that started it all in my head. Now i am feeling a little sheepish. Time to hit the grindstone.

Friends

Someone once told me about there blog post concerning friendship and their criteria for a friend. I read it and I agreed. Other people didn't like it as much; they did not meet the standards set. Facebook friends are not my good friends. My best friends are the ones I see as often as we can. To the ones who poke me when they sign, I don't know what that means, but if I were a balloon I would be deflated by now. Facebook takes to much of my time. It has it's place, I have mine. I like to keep it that way. My best friend in the whole world doesn't have a facebook. I like that. All of my best friends don't need facebook cause I see them a lot. And if I do not then it is time to change that.

Growing up one of my really good friends was alway told before he went to bed the family motto: "Taylors always choose good friends." I have always tried to be his good friend. If he chooses me and I choose him we would both be good friends, right? I have the same motto, but for myself. I choose good.... Good friends, Good food. Good things. The people around me are good. So that means I am good too. I have always thought of others as better at loving me than I was at loving them. Or that others knew what they were supposed to do early in life so they must be better. I have realized over the last few months that I am good, because I like to do good things, be around good people and be good at what I do. I am good. And that feels good.

Go Green

Halloween is this next weekend. This will be crazy cool. I narrowed my costume choices. Ethan helped me out with the specifics and google got me the templates. Michaels got me the materials. If all else fails I will be the Green Lantern.

Chef's Table

I am very lucky. I have a job. I am very grateful and happy to have bread winning taken care of in the near future. I work at the Chef's Table. It is one of the most demanding and rewarding jobs i have ever had. I worked today form 3:30 to 10:50, and my legs are thrashed cause I rush the whole time that I am on my feet.

The food is great, but really I don't even get a discount, so sadly I can only make sure you get everything hot and  fast. Come in, if you are up to the prices. It will be worth it.

Later, ty.

New Cookbook

I have the best Mom ever. She is the coolest and most talented person I know.

I love cooking and music because of my mom. She always helps me to know how to get everything just right as I make cookies, or mac and cheese. Or how to fix it when I really mess them up really bad. It only took me three very sad batches or chocolate cookies. She definitely helped me get my cookies right after that.

Well I just received a copy of the coolest cookbook. And it is by my mom. She took all of her favorite recipes and put them all together. Many of them are not her own but she has put some of my favorites in there and they are the best cause she made them her own. (and now mine too!)

The most different part of it... it is all digital, and my mom just gave me a web address  to get all of her
recipes.

So now all of my free time over the last 2 days has been spent printing my favorite recipes and putting them into sheet covers. I am putting together a cookbook for two of the coolest people ever. So this is for you Whitney and Mo.

So I was not having a good week last weekend. It seems that when I have a lot of good things coming my way, or at the end of a great day, things seem to go downhill.

That was last Saturday. It was not the best. It turned very quickly. How, you may ask? Invite friends over and have fun...With the best breakfast ever: Pumpkin pancakes and Maple whipped cream.

I love pumpkin pancakes, but this time we omitted the ginger butter and substituted a very sweet whipped cream, using a cup of heavy cream and adding maple syrup to taste. The best part was the animal shaped pumpkin pancakes!!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Ginger Butter

If I had to, I could go without my computer for a month

There is way to many sites, email lists, groups, followings... I like seeing someone and being there friend. It works to pick up a phone and call. Skip the message on facebook skip the that button to share and come over and share it with me already. Start by not turning it on. People can get a hold of me by phone, if they didn't get my number then I didn't want to talk to them.

Squishiest Carpet I've ever had

I had a wonderful experience this morning. I awoke to the beautiful sound of rushing water. This was so refreshing until I found that my defective apartment had once again led to major disaster.

The soothing sound was none other than that of the small, yet strong fresh water hose leading into the back of the toilet reserve tank in the empty room opposite mine. I quickly sloshed through the living room ad bedroom to the bathroom to get sprayed with water (thankfully clean), in the face. I reattached the hose and went to get clean laundry from my laundry bag in my closet.

Sidenote: this next occurrence is very typical of my stay at Coventry apartments... it gets worse.

I go into my closet to find that atrociously familiar "squish, squish." My toilet had leaked under the wall of the bathroom into my closet. Not the clean water either. I quickly washed my feet threw on sandals and squished back in to save my newly washed clothes. The clean untouched clothes on the bed, the tainted clothes back to the laundry. I then pulled my paper missionary planners from 2/3's of my mission from the floor to find them soaked completely through. (They had been stacked nicely in the corner to stay safe.)

I call my apartment manager, who is out of town. He calls maintenence who is going to get there in 7 or 8 hours. I leave to take care of my things. 10 hours later i get a text saying that the maintenance is held up they won't come till tomorrow. They come and say there is a leaky seal, and that they will be back later. I stay out of my closet and wait for maintenance to clean or replace the carpet; they never do. I call the manager tell him about the very pungent mildew smell and ask he get it clean or replaced. He called me, from the inside of my apartment, and said he smelled nothing and that I needed to just buy a fan and blow air on it till it dried. As he left my apartment he informed me that my apartment was filthy (rememberme throwing my clothes everywhere) and he would be coming back to inspect my apartment this week.

Nightmare Weekend

So this weekend was a total nightmare. I had this great date planned for Ryan, an old roommate, and his birthday.

I was over at Ryan's the Sunday before his birthday and we were talking about this and that when it occurred to me that Dani has never seen Nightmare Before Christmas, the best. I asked Ryan what he thought I should make for Dinner to go along with the Movie. We discussed dark Grape juice, savory food... all to fit into the dark, but classy, feel of the movie. We could have also had Christmas themed cookies and food too, but that was just too much for the roommates that will not listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving!!

Ryan mentioned that his Birthday was coming up, and that we should go dancing for a date too. Then I realized that making a bunch of 'Nightmare' food and then eating it would be a great birthday bash for Ryan. So Ryan and I planned his birthday dinner to be the Night after his birthday! We had Boyd, Joyd Bohnson come too.

I found a great theme night from a Rachel Ray and changed a couple recipes to fit the people that were eating and Ryan and I got to work. I made Ryan read all the recipes and take charge of most of the cooking, as I did a lot of busy work. My goal whenever I cook with Ryan is to make him cook most of it and convince him that he really is a good cook! We had Curried Carrot Cobweb Soup, Bloody Steak Fingers and Anti-Vampire Shrimp Scampi, really good if you do not want to sit close to your date, so we called it anti-date shrimp scampi too! We had amazing grape juice to go with the meal, and for dessert/movie candy Ryan and i popped popcorn and drizzled it with melted chocolate and mixed in skittles. New favorite, for sure.

We did have one setback... one of the roommates had moved out for the summer term and accidentally taken all of the bowls and dishes from the whole apartment, so I had to call Dani to bring some. But they looked awesome with all the bright food. And the food was really good; Ryan gets all the credit on this one.

Well as Ryan and I were talking to our date and cooking at the same time we found out that Dani had seen 'Nightmare before Christmas' and it was one of her favorite movies, so it all worked out in the end.

The fridge that really just messes up your food.

I am sitting on my couch listening to the hum of my new fridge and a very full mini-fridge. The old fridge will never be missed. It was about the size of 2 mini-fridges stacked one on top of the other. We never got along and could never be friends.

Upon first arriving in my new apartment, my fridge, who I do not miss, was defrosted and luke-warm on the inside. (The last tenants had not cleaned the fridge out and the apartment manager had come before me and cleaned a little.) I had just arrived from San Diego with my best friend Moose, 6'3", 320 lbs. with food in tow.

While I was in San Diego with Moose, Moose's father, Mark, gave me a gift. Moose and his Dad the day before had come back home from Yuma, Arizona. They drove there to buy 20 half gallons of a very exclusive ice cream called Blue Bell Ice Cream. It is rarely sold outside of Texas and neighboring states. Oh and Yes, I had one! I love Blue Bell; I was introduced on my mission to Texas. It is like homemade ice cream on steroids.

You may see where this is all leading to. My fridge, which would have a nickname, but that would involve acknowledging the darn thing, was not cold, but it was cool enough. I informed management that the fridge struggled and was not cold enough. I wanted to suprise a favorite mission companion a few weeks later, and I checked the ice cream... but, to my suprize the ICE cream, was NO-ICE cream. I was crushed.

Told management about it. The rest of the fridge had gone out too, losing a bunch of food. Management came by and 'fixed' the fridge. I was still dissatisfied with the coldness. But it would have to work for now. Well a couple weeks later I made Moose a birthday dinner. I had bought tons of food to make Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos and salads. It was a huge meal. Frozen drinks, Brazilian lemonade. 8 lbs. of pork alone. Tons of Romaine lettuce and rice. Salsas, dressing, and even tortilla strips. Moose had at least 5 burritos, and half the meat. Everyone else ate their fill too.There were left overs to feed me and all of my friends for weeks.

2 days later, the fridge went out. This time melting a Kroger half gallon of ice cream and a half bag of ice on the contents of the fridge, thus trashing every carton and container. Management was called, and last night, finally replaced the fridge. This fridge is bigger, better, colder but still empty, losing a full fridge of food is hard to come back from. Well now that all is cold or will soon be now I can get management to get me working appliances and bathroom too.


Recipe For Pulled Pork Burritos and Salads