Favs of the Day

I decided that I want to get something recorded every day so that I have some sort of journal. I write in my journal maybe once a week...MAYBE. I really want to remember my highlights of a day though. So I'll start today, but I'm going to start today with 25 things in my life and about me.

1. Absolutely #1 is that I am dating a wonderful man, who makes me super happy and causes a permagrin. We've been dating about a month and it just keeps getting better.

2. Sweets. I love sweets and can really pack in the sugar. Brownies, cupcakes (One Sweet Slice in particular), cookies, jelly bellys, raisinets... yum!

3. Actually, I just love eating in general. Top foods:

Corndogs (the 1st Tuesday of the month at school)
Sweet potato fries
Chips and salsa
Taco truck tacos
Raspberries
Licorice caramels
Jelly Bellys


4. Running & Ultimate Frisbee

5. Sara Bareilles (good music in general)

6. General Conference

7. Kids

8. Laughing. Recently, I was told by someone that I laugh too much. Although they took it back later, it made me a little self conscious about my laughter. I do laugh a lot and I love that I laugh a lot. Life is meant to be enjoyed and sometimes its between crying and laughing. I choose laughing.
   My friend's 8 year old boy overheard me lamenting to his mom about the worry I had about my laughing and he promptly replied "Kellie, you do laugh too much, and I love it every time I hear you laugh." How precious is that?! It made me overcome any fears that I had of letting myself laugh and joke. If he thought so much of me then I didn't care what anyone else thought.

9. Books. Books that I can't put down. The smell of the pages and the feel in your hands. Isn't it the best when you just love a book so much all you want to do is read. And then it ends and there is that bittersweet moment where you just want to keep living in the characters world and see where their lives continue, but a sigh escapes because you feel so pleased at where it ended. Mmmm! Joy!

10. My family - especially my nephew Avram and my 2 new twin neices Clara and Ivy. I adore these little ones! I can't even explain how much I love them and the excitement I get when I talk about them or know I will get to see them soon. I think my friends would get sick of my talking about Avram constantly for at least a week after I would return from a visit to Portland.

11. Traveling. I LOVE to travel and see new places, return to places I've been and visit family and friends in different towns. I am a hyper-planner and create my own maps and lists of places we might want to visit and tour, but then when we are there we can leisurely traverse the city and see where we end up using the crazy Kellie maps. In October I am going to Washington, D.C. to visit Laura Dawn (my best friend) and then the two of us are going to New York, NY for a few days then Boston, MA to visit Nate Justis who is at Harvard (I'm friends with a Harvard masters student! What?!)
    In the future, I am dying to go to Italy, Ireland, Alaska again, and to tour all of the United States. The future looks bright :-)

12. Learning. This may sound general, but I really do love learning so many different things. I'm very much a DIYer and I've tried many a random past time:

Woodworking
Furniture Refinishing
Wreath Making
Party Planning- New Years Eve!

I'm sure I will continue to DIY but I have also done enough that I am glad to find someone else who will do things for me. Thank goodness for electricians.

13. My home. I've been in my home 3 1/2 years and slowly but surely, I have added details to it that have made it more homey. It is cozy and comfortable, though not always tidy and clean, but that is exactly the way I want it. I want people to feel welcome and at ease in my home.

14. My chiropractor.

15. To Do lists (which goes right along with organizing too)

Whether or not I have a running "To Do" list is also indicative of how good I am feeling. I have recently been diagnosed with hypothyroidism & have had ZERO motivation to do anything. I didn't even realize it over this summer, but I wasn't exercising as much and I didn't really plan very many projects to do, which is not like me at all. Today though I made a to do list again. Maybe I'll overcome this hypothyroidism thing. 

16. Freshly laundered sheets under soft, clean feet.

17. Sleep

18. If I could meet anyone, I think it might be Mr. Rogers.

   "Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like 'struggle.' To love someone is to strive to accept that person the way he or she is, right here and now."

                                                     -Fred Rogers

"There are three ways to ultimate success:
        The first is to be kind.
        The second is to be kind.
        The third is to be kind.
                        -Fred Rogers

"Because deep down we know that what matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then."        - Fred Rogers




Ok, I only got 18 for now, but I am going to try to do this on a monthly or weekly basis. We'll see how that goes. :-)

One of my dreams is to someday adopt. I really want to have my own, biological children, but it seems so important to help other children as well who are in need of a loving family who can provide support and care. I loved this story I saw on KSL. Check it out.

Internet photo saves child, enhances Utah family's life

I love Hapari.

Step 1 : 3 month food supply

The first things that I want to get together are the ingredients for enough meals for 3 months. On the blog All Things Simple, Kim gives a great idea for beginning. Choose 7 meals that you make regularly. Pick one of these to start with and gather all the ingredients for this meal to cover making it once a week for 3 months. She suggests keeping all the ingredients for the meal in the same place so that they are easy to locate. Another blog suggested keeping all the ingredients together in a gallon freezer bag so that they are easy to label and locate.

This seems easy enough. Here are the 7 recipes I eat regularly (although I mostly make new things from pinterest lately):

1. Haystacks
2. Chicken Curry Divan
3. Beef Stroganoff
4. Tortilla Soup
5. Taco Soup
6. Chicken Enchiladas
7. Chinese Chicken Salad

  I want to add some fish recipes as well to give some lighter meat dinners. I need to adjust some of these recipes so that they are more food storage friendly, but they will all work. I am trying not to use "cream of..." soups and I found a substitution that seems like it would be good.

   There is also a super cute recipe book over at All Things Simple. It is so cute and the perfect size to keep all the recipes I have food storage for. Once I make the book, I will add some pictures. Sorry these posts are so dull so far. Ha, ha.

Along with these ingredients, I am going to be gathering items for my 72 hour kit, my emergency car kit, and my first aid kit. I have many items that will go in these but there is still much to do. I love the idea of having a tackle box first aid kit over at I Did This And You Can Too.

I'm also learning about flour and wheat. There is SO much to learn. See this information on following posts. Have a joyful day!

Tax refund, please come!

    I have a weakness for shopping and my current lust is for a Blendtec blender. Oh how I love it. Just look at what it can do. 

Will it blend?

Seriously?!

    I love smoothies, ice cream and homemade almond butter. Plus, I really think it will be handy to have for grinding wheat (thinking food storage).

I'm sure there are other awesome things that you can do with it and I can't wait to find out.

Prepare for Zombie Apocalypse

     I have been thinking a lot about emergency preparedness and food storage lately. A stake president in Draper, gave a talk with regards to the nearing of the Second Coming, the state our world is in currently and how it will continue to deteriorate. I've been thinking about food storage and emergency preparedness for awhile now, but this talk (along with discussions I've had with friends) really brought it home.

  There is SO much information out there and all of this information has been overwhelming. When I am interested in something, I have a tendency to read and learn EVERYTHING I can on the subject so that I am well informed and can be efficient in making decisions and moving forward.  There are numerous websites, books and talks the supply information but I struggled to find just a simple list to help me. Even the information that was simple for one family didn't seem right for me or it was broken up into different blog posts. I needed one place to go with all the information in a succinct document, so of course I have to create my own. Luckily, with the help of Pinterest and the LDS food storage website, I have gathered some wonderful sources to get me going. I figure that since I am interested in getting prepared, my friends and family might be as well, so I'm going to post all the information I've gathered on here. Basically, it will be a compilation of links to other bloggers who are amazing in food storage and emergency preparation.


Current state of my home:

 Garage & Water Storage - notice the water containers on the shelf in the upper left corner. 

Yep, they're empty. 

 

Upstairs Closet

Storage Room

Kitchen Pantry

First Aid Kit / Medicines

My plan. I have a binder that includes the following sections:

     3 month food storage

     72 hour kit / Grab & Go kit

     Food Storage Recipe Book

     Emergency Plan

     Eliminating excess - see garage pictures above :-)

Sometimes you just need a good laugh. That's why I have a few stockpiled on youtube.

Donna the deer lady

Ellen's scare montage

Kristen Bell & the sloth meltdown

People of Walmart

The First Grader

This was a wonderful film about an 84 year old man in Kenya who finally has the chance to attend school and learn to read. A new law comes into action that allows anyone in Kenya to go to school, so he is determined to take advantage of it. He was a freedom fighter in his younger days and fought that all might be free... to live and to learn. Even though the law declares it, obstacles continue to present making his pathway difficult.

   This is based on a true story and it is inspiring to see a man fight for his rights. There is no age where you can't continue to learn and progress and he shows that. His fight for his education encourages others who have it readily available to value it as an amazing blessing.

Call Me Maybe

This really cracks me up...

Junk in our Trunk

       Ewww! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about my car... and garage selling, not my booty!! The past 2 summers I have become an addict to garage sales, DI, ksl.com, and anywhere that I can get awesome "junk" for super cheap. My haggling abilities have grown exponentially and I am pretty amazing at getting the price down.
   Today, I spent $60 and here is what I got:

Mini Trampoline - $5

 Unopened puzzle - %1

tv trays - $5

Baskets - $1

2 stacks of wood (2"x2") - $4 for all of it

Large pot - $2

Ceiling Fan - $10

Stackable shelves - $3 for 3

Thread/Floss & Container - $1

lots and lots of yarn - $1

2 Sewing hoops - $1

4 drawer dresser    -     $20

Coat hanger -$3

Bird music box - $1

Wreath - $1

     I know I had some other stuff but I don't have pictures of it and can't remember what it is, but I know I got a ton of stuff for not much.
     I have been going garage selling with my friend Laura a few times. We take her car and she generally buys 2 or 3 things... and then I fill up the rest of the car. Literally, I fill it up. See...

     My roommates call me the garage sale queen. Now we'll see what I do with it all. I'll refinish, decorate, jump, and create.

Watched

Youtube.com is a resource for finding crazy good music and cleverly created videos. Its so fun to find artists who are actually interesting, instead of just one of the herd, following the popularity. Granted, I love a lot of pop, rock, trendy music and there is value in each type, but take Kimbra for example. She is herself, not conforming to the norm and creates amazing music in a different way. Especially, musicians who others might not know about or are different from the norm. Here's what I've been watching this week:

Kimbra "Settle Down"

tUnE-yArDs "Bizness" (Matt introduced me to this one)

Zelda Medley - Lindsey Stirling

But I do love a lot of popular songs as well:

Jason Mraz "
       - So romantic!!

"Shake It Out" Katherine McPhee (SMASH)

"Call Me, Maybe"
       - And funny enough, I love that Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, & Ashley Tisdale are in this. Ha, ha.

If you take the comma out of that song it reminds me of "Arrested Development."
       Maeby is 2nd from the right:

Last night, I watched a documentary called "Forks Over Knives." It discussed how a change in nutritional intake can have an impact of such magnitude that it can assist in recovering from disease, preventing illness (which of course we already know), but its even more than that. It talks a lot about plant based vs. animal based proteins and how our diet has changed over history. Of course, I don't have a lot of knowledge on the subject but it really did make me want to change my habits, limiting my sugar and meat intake and making healthier meals, because a lot can be adjusted in recipes to make them better for you.

Attempting to Blog

It has been quite some time since I posted anything, but a new goal is born today. I am going to write SOMETHING at least once a week on here. Mostly I'll try to keep an update of what I've been doing whether it be awesome, crappy or just boring :-) Wait, my life isn't boring! I'm pretty sure that I'm manic therefore it's definitely not boring. Definitely entertaining. I mean Hello! I'm single. Dating is pretty much torture we keep letting ourselves into, in the search for love. Does love really exist? I sure hope so. All I know is that Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor. Hee, hee.

Phoebe in Wonderland

 
    I found this movie to be amazing in its ability to depict a family struggling with a child who has a disorder. Elle Fanning (little sister to Dakota) is already such a wonderful little actress. The plot follows a girl named Phoebe who has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Her parents are in denial even though they know that something is wrong and don't know how to help her. She is slowly going deeper into her own "Wonderland," obsessed with Lewis Carroll's tale of Alice and is losing grip on reality.
       In working with kids with special needs, I am often drawn to films and books on disorders.  This film portrayed the difficulties of having a disorder from the insiders view, from both the family and the girl herself.
      Even more than seeing a family work through this trial, the movie shows how teacher through caring can be effective in influencing children and teaching to the individual. Seeing the differences in each child and allowing them to learn through those.
       If you decide to watch it, enjoy!

Why can't Mormon's send flowers?

Seriously men! :-)

My future is looking bight. Celestial brightness!

How can you not be stoked when you open up your fortune cookie...

and get this...