Conquering Chipotle Peppers

When it comes to baking and cooking, my family may tell you I’m the “domestic one” but that does not mean that I am the successful one. I have had some bad experiences in the kitchen and more than one recipe go horribly wrong. Of course, when this happens i regale everyone I know with my disastrous stories. In fact, the other week when a co-worker added WAY too much salt to her recipe, she said she was “pulling a Laura”.

But I am trying to move past the chipotle pepper disasters and branch out in my cooking and baking. I am not one to make New Year’s Resolutions, but if I did, one of them might have been to learn more new recipes… both in the world of baking and the world of cooking.

Here are a couple of my latest accomplishments… I will add more in the coming days…

I made these cute little rice krispie balls for New Year's. Simple, yet addictive.

My main lesson I learned here was that there is a reason the recipe told me to let the marshmallows and cereal mixture cool in a pan and THEN form it into balls.  I thought to myself… “that seems like so much time wasted.  I will just form it into balls straight from the bowl after I mix it all together.”

Ok… Does anyone know how HOT and STICKY marshmallows can be?

I made these delicious Sesame Noodles – I got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs…

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/simple-sesame-noodles/

The lesson I learned from THIS cooking adventure is that I prefer udon noodles (I was SO excited to cook with one of my favorite foods from Japan!) AND that rice noodles might not be done when you think they are.  If possible, try to avoid feeding rubbery weird rice noodles to your sister, roommate, and the boy that just fixed your roommate’s car.  hmm…  but this recipe was DELICIOUS when the noodles were properly cooked.  Just sayin…

For Better or For Worse

I guess I am not married to my job, but on a scale of better to worse I would rate the week I have had somewhere near “really truly awful”. Let’s review some highlights, (lowlights?) shall we?

– My EA quit (for REALLY good cause -she has an amazing job opportunity from the Lord that in my heart I am really excited for her. However, right now I just feel sad and stressed and overwhelmed for myself at the thought of finding, interviewing, hiring, and training in someone new.
– After telling the music teacher that she and her class suck, a particular student ran away from me – I spent 20 minutes getting him (chasing him) to in school suspension and then working with another teacher to corner him and carrying him BACK to in school suspension after he ran away from there. awesome.
– huge boxes filled with all sorts of non-important things fell from about 10 foot tall cupboards, nearly crushing my EA. Fortunately she was not hit. but it was very close.
– Parent/teacher conferences. It is great to talk with parents about their child’s progress. It is a lot of stressful work to prepare for them.

I will stop now – I don’t want to bring your spirits down too much.
Didn’t I promise this blog would be about happy things in life?

Fortunately for you, I do have a couple cute anecdotes to share as well.
1) A student walks in holding something in his little fist. He tells me “I brought you some batteries for your computer!” And he dropped 3 AAA batteries into my hand.
2) Mid conference a student gets up. I say “don’t go yet! This is the part we need you for!” she replies “I was just going to give you a hug!” and she comes over, hugs me, and exclaims adoringly “You’re the best teacher in the whole wide world!!”
3) The parent that asks me if I sing a lot. Apparently when her child heard Miley Cyrus “Party in the USA” on the radio he said “ooh, turn it up! my teacher LOVES this song.” wow – thanks buddy.

Kindergarten Quotes

“I’m trying to think in my brain, but nothing is coming in!”

“I like your face.”

“When you get fired from all your jobs you can just sit at home and watch Mr. Rogers. I’ve learned a lot from him.”

“My first grade teacher gives us chocolate bars. But I still want to come back to kindergarten. I don’t want you to be lonely.”

“I pray every night I can go back to kindergarten. But everyday I go to first grade.”

scrambled, poached, or sunny side up?

I don’t even know what all those things mean… I just know they revolve around my question for today: How do you like your eggs?

Last night I was hanging out at my friend’s house in honor of our friend being in town. Things may or may not have turned a bit ridiculous (strange that should happen with my group of friends)

Two friends, who we will call Tim and James, decided that the best idea for our evening would be to try out the laundry shoot.

The Plan:
– Tim will stand in the bathroom with a container of no-longer-fresh-eggs.
– James will lay on the floor in the basement, with a cup in his mouth, right below the laundry shoot opening.
– Tim will crack the eggs, and individually drop them down the shoot
– James will hope and pray they neatly land in the cup

The Results:
– Hilarity
– A slight mess
– Really impressive aim on Tim’s part.
– Did I mention hilarity?

Lessons Learned

Today was a day of life lessons.
1) I learned that if your car lights are really dim – to the point you aren’t convinced they are on even though you have checked multiple times to make sure they are on, perhaps you don’t need to have your vision checked – instead, try stopping at the gas station and have your awesome brother clean off your headlights – maybe there is just slushy-dirt caked on an inch thick.
2) If you are at Target getting a 12 pack of pop and you kind of drop it, but not quite and you are awkwardly trying to pick it up again, be prepared for an employee to rush up to you and tell you to leave it because in fact the bottom broke when you dropped it and now cans are rolled out all over the display as you try to pick it up. If you are really lucky he may even lean over and whisper that the guy you are with should just carry it for you. I thought about whispering back that little brothers are not always good for carrying things for you, but I refrained.

Hello world!

So… I really love finding joy in the little things in life (well, in big things too…) and I also love sharing stories of the random adventures I have.  And word on the street is that some people enjoy hearing my randomness as well.  I guess you could say I am back by popular demand after not blogging once since return from my summer missions trip to Japan a couple summers ago.  (or that my Grandma wishes I would write again.  but that is basically the same as being back by popular demand, right?)  So I will use this blog to share with you a few of my favorite things… little things in life that bring me joy, experiences that make me laugh, smile, or smirk a little, and probably some hilarious quotes from the little people in my life (and I do mean little, as in small children.  not unimportant or just really short friends)