Inspiration

Today a coworker and I were talking about a facebook post about some verses in Proverbs. It was paraphrased and she wondered aloud what the exact wording of the verse was. Of course I then went to LDS.org to look it up. I can't say how much I love the scriptures being online. I started just reading the verses in question but the rest were so good, I finished out the chapter. In the verses is described a virtuous woman. Reading about her, I felt a bit like Elizabeth Bennett thinking to myself "I never saw such a woman." At the same time though, I feel inspired to become at least as much like her as I can.

Proverbs 31:10-31
10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her ahands.
14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She ariseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Wouldn't it be just lovely to have someone say such things about you? I think so. :)

When Zombies Attack...

Play Music. According to my nephews, when zombies hear music they HAVE to start dancing. Sunday when Cory and the boys were in the car waiting for me to get out of an after church meeting they started a discussion about zombies. I'm guessing this somehow stemmed from the banshees and aliens from the day before. Of course Hampton then decides that he is a Zombie and starts biting Pearce. Pearce then starts yelling at Cory "Turn on the music! Turn on the music!" Cory does and Hamp starts doing a combination of the robot and raising the roof. This naturally repeated several times and by the time I got to the car they were all laughing hysterically. Even though I missed it, I can't help but laugh even now just imagining it. So there you go. You may have thought you needed a machete, food storage, giganic flashlights, ect. to defend against the zombies but it turns out all you really need is a boombox.
You can find the most famous example of this here:

At the Gym...

There is a lot of pop type music. When I hear music, I naturally want to dance. When we were taking our warm up walk around the track last night, that is exactly what I start doing (semi-discreetly, of course). I look over at Cory as he is shaking his head and ask "Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?" He laughs and says "No...I don't know why, but no."

Ha ha. I guess he is getting used to having a very silly, dance-loving wife! :)

Boys Boys Boys

This weekend three of our nephews stayed with us while their mom and dad (plus baby Carson) went to Hilton Head to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. We started off Saturday morning doing my work out video which was too funny! They kept asking me if they were doing it right and "Will this make me strong?" They are too much! I could hardly keep a straight face because they were so serious. They like to play wrestle a lot but as always, someone really gets hurt (Hampton) and starts throwing things (Hampton again) so they had their own spots in the living room for when things got too rowdy. I felt a little mean telling them to "go to their spots" but I would rather do that than go to the hospital!

Cory and Hampton went missing for a little while and when I went to find them, I discovered this:

I wonder where they get their love of fighting from???

Saturday night I had to go to the YW Ice Cream Social and broadcast, which was AWESOME. I left Cory and the boys watching Area 51, a movie about aliens. When I got home they were watching a movie about banshees on Syfy. Poor Pearce was hiding under a blanket and Hamp made me check the bathroom for banshees before he would go in it. I was worried they wouldn't be able to sleep but they seemed to be over it by bedtime.

On Sunday it was a bit like playing musical chairs in Sacrament meeting. I love that they are so entertained by each other but it sure makes things hard when you try to get them to be reverent! Despite their craziness, I was too proud of myself for getting them all ready and to church before the opening hymn started to be too upset about it. After church we went home and made lunch (spaghetti is a huge hit with them) and chilled out waiting on their parents to come home. Overall, I would say it was pretty successful!

The Pot Roast Episode: Parts 1 & 2

Part 1
Last Friday night Cory and I bought a pot roast from BiLo I planned to make for Sunday lunch. Saturday as I was cleaning out the car, I found the spoiled pot roast in the back seat. It had fallen down into the foot and Cory didn't see it when he brought the other groceries inside. I was a little frustrated as I dumped the roast into the trash can but rallied and ended up throwing things together and creating my own recipe for Crock Pot Chicken and Rice that turned out well. That is a sort of miracle itself. The last time I tried to "throw something together" Cory ended up throwing it up on the way to the ER, which wasn't the poor recipes fault however badly it came out, but it still left me a little scarred. This is the first thing I have "thrown together" since and that was at least 3 years ago! Everyone has assured me this one was a sucess though, so I could be cured. Whether or not that is a good thing, time will tell. :)

Part 2
We signed up to feed the missionaries on Tuesday night and since I already had everything to go with Pot Roast, I decided to buy another and make that. On Tuesday morning I woke up early to get everything in the crock pot and turned it on low so it would be ready when I got home from work and the missionaries arrived at 5:30. I didn't think about it again until I was driving home and talking with Cory. I hear him walk in the house and turn off the alarm before he says "What are we having for dinner?" I respond, "Pot roast, it's cooking in the slow cooker" to which he says "You do know that it's not pugged in, right?" I literally gasped and could not believe I had managed to ruin not one, but TWO pot roasts in less than a week. Luckily I was right in front of Publix and managed to get the last roast chicken they had and some vegetables to steam. The missionaries were still happy and my dogs are very grateful for their treat of pot roast and carrots!


The one good thing that came out of all this, my new chicken and rice recipe, I will share.


Emily's Creamy Chicken and Rice


Ingredients
4 Chicken Breast
1 1/4 cups rice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans cream of chicken soup
10 3/4 oz. water (I just filled an empty can)
1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 tsp. garlic powder


Directions
1. Cut the chicken into cubes and cook in a skillet until the outsides are white. They can still be raw in the center.
2. Place the chicken in the bottom of the crock pot.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over the chicken.
4. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 4 hours.


It was super easy and I just used things I had on hand. It turns out pretty rich so if you want it to be less creamy, you can leave off one can of cream soup.

It's Elementary, My Dear

I have started using Photoshop Elements. So far it has taken me a couple of days to figure out how to use the layers and I still have no clue what most of the buttons mean (We all know how I feel about buttons...) but I am making progress. I have discovered several helpful YouTube video tutorials and am well on my way to becoming a novice. :) I used my newly acquired skills to create this invitation to send to our Young Women and their mom's for an upcoming stake activity.

Not bad for a first timer, huh?

This Week I'm Loving...

Pride and Prejudice. I seriously can't stop watching this movie. I have it on my ipod that I watch/listen to while I'm working and watched it 3 times last week. Who does that?!? I remind myself of my little brother when he was about 3 and would refuse to watch any movie other than the Aristocats for months at a time. Oh well, what can I say? I'm a sucker for Victorian romance.

Aveeno Lotion. This winter my face has been seriously dry. I have tried everything to try and make it better: using my moisturiser more often, using exfoliating scrub and nothing. My skin felt terrible. My make up looked terrible. It was just terrible. This week Aveeno lotion was on sale at Target and I remembered that in high school I moisturized my face with Aveeno hand lotion. I'm not sure why I started doing it or why I stopped. Probably it started to seem weird that I was putting hand lotion on my face. Weird or not, I decided to try it again and it is awesome. In less than a week all my dry skin is gone and I feel so much better! I was a little worried it would clog my pores because it is sort of thick but it has been fine. I put it on at night and wash my face in the morning and my skin has been just the same except no more dryness. That definitely makes me a happy girl!

Happy Birthday to My Mr.!

This silly guy turned 24 yesterday! He was kind of upset about it because it is the first time he has felt like he was turning "old." I have to admit that I didn't feel too much sympathy for him since I have been "old" for over four months! :) We had a lot of fun playing Donkey Kong for the Wii, which is awesome and I would definitely recommend and dancing around to the Judds Greatest Hits. The second one was mostly me while he laughed. He loved getting Donkey Kong but the verdict is still out on the Judds. He likes them, but apparently they are a bit girly. All I knew was that they are classic country and he likes that. I guess I should stick to things he has actually said he wants next time. :) We went to dinner which was good; although, if you ever think about getting the Mahi at Outback, I would not suggest it! That is the last time I go away from my tried and true favorites. We finished off the night with a little snuggling and some basketball, one of our favorite things to do together. A pretty typical day for us basically, but we are having a party next weekend which should be very exciting. I really want to do a theme and decorate, but so far I've got nothing. Oh well, maybe something will inspire me between now and then!

A Crafter is Born

Here I am on Christmas morning with my brand new Silhouette cutting machine. Here is the first project I made with it yesterday.

Why the over 2 month gap, you ask? Well, I happened to be terrified of not bears, snakes, or the dark but buttons. Lots and lots of buttons. A couple of weeks after I opened up my Silhouette, I finally took it out of the box and installed the software. Thats when things get scary. I expecting something like Paint and instead got buttons on every side of my screen, none of them recognizable. I tried clicking around a little, had no clue what I was doing and decided to leave it for a little while. I left the program up to keep up the pretense of actually working on it but the truth was, I felt like I was never going to figure it out. Needless to say, it was still up yesterday when I started my project and not a thing had changed. Except me, that is. Our big family birthday party was coming up and I was determined to make a project for my aunt. So I sat down with the instructions and Viola! it was SOOO easy. I finished the entire project without a hitch. Now don't I feel silly! Anyway, I guess I have learned my lesson not to be intimidated by buttons, or anything else for that matter. Now I can't wait to get started on more projects I have seen on Uvinyl where I got the idea for the cute plate and think up some projects of my own!

This is our life.

I don't know if you can tell, but that is Cory under there holding up these two crazy monsters masquerading as our nephews. We have a lot of crazy fun times with people a quarter of our age. I know everyone is jealous. :)