Gee I need to help myself

I may NOT eat like I did tonight... I will not be ashamed but take this as a learning experience.

Breakfast: Omelet w/cheese, onions & spinach on rice

Snack: Pretzels & raisins

Lunch: Mexican Casserole w/ green beans

Snack: Carrots & Cheese

Dinner: Broccoli & Pasta w/butter and parmesan cheese

I will not eat sweets. If I'm hungry, I will make myself a small, simple, healthy snack and take it to my room to eat. I will not hang out in the kitchen, if I am tempted, I will go to my room. I will eat slow and savor everything I eat.

A Deliciously Destroying Wonderful Weekend

I did okay on Friday, only had aLOT of frozen yogurt. Saturday....not so much. Today... HAHA! And this is the delicious recipe that we made together, Amy's idea and ingredients and skills!

Spinach and Artichoke Dip, HOT and Delicious!

Thanks to Knorr's recipe on the back of their "Vegetable Recipe Mix"

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup Mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (6 oz.)
1 package Knorr Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
2 gloves garlic, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup of cheese. Spoon into a 2-quart casserole, then top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake for 35 minutes or until dip is hot.

We ate SOOOO much of it!!! Luckily, we had some leftovers, but we filled ourselves up.

NOTE: Delicious with tortilla chips, BUT, we bought this small long loaf of presliced wheat sourdough bread and cooked it in the oven at 350 until crisp, and this was DIVINE with the dip!!!

I actually just posted it so I could pin it on pinterest. :)

Small Changes

I'm going to improve this week, and I am now going to set a Spiritual, Physical, Educational and Emotional goal for myself.

Spiritual Goal:

Study scriptures for 30 minutes daily

- Preferably 30 minutes in morning, or may do 15 mins in morning and 15 mins later in the day


Educational Goal:

Do 30 minutes of homework in the library everyday

-Even if I just go and sit for 30 minutes, that's okay. I want to get into a habit of it, and learn to enjoy the library.


Physical Goal:

Don't eat after 8pm

May eat sugar Friday night thru Sunday

-Brush teeth before 8pm
-Ask roommates to honestly help me
-Decide now to turn down any sweets offered
-Be happy about it!!! :)


Emotional Goal:

Go to bed at 10:00pm or 11:30pm at latest if have homework

-If homework can be completed the next day, go to bed now
-If have homework to finish, go to bed at 11:30pm

Weekend Review

So church was good today. This weekend has been good so far. Friday evening I took a Chem test, and am pretty sure I got a high 70 or low 80, rather disappointing. I want to go talk to my chemistry teacher about a certain part that I was really miffed about, because I didn't realize that it would be on the test in such great detail. We sorta talked about it, but in my test review the things he told us to go over did NOT have that specific part written down. Myra, Shea and I were taken by Maria Laguna ( I visit teach her, she lives above us) and her friend Jeff who is blind, to Coldstone!! Myra and I used this coupon to get one free, so instead of being smart, we got the BIGGEST size and STUFFED ourselves. But it was the only food we had eaten that dinner time. Afterwards I went and watched a soccer movie with Maria's apartment.

Yesterday, I got up and went to the grocery store and talked to Mom the entire time I was there, shopping and such. Afterwards, I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and then did homework for 2 1/2 hours, then I fooled around on a RPG site, then I did my Anat & Phys homework and then, Myra, Shea and I went to the gym and played basketball! We just played around, running around, shooting baskets. Myra is so good at basketball (she's played forever) so she was trying to help us. I think I might've improved slightly.

We then watched X-men 2, and then I went to bed kinda... I ended up watching Lost in Austen for a little bit on my bed and then I realized I had to teach this morning!!! I had completely forgotten and I was so distracted by the movie that I didn't read it but planned to wake up early and do it. So... I thought "Oh, I'll go to bed at 1am" because it was like 12:15. Then, near to 1am, I was not wanting to go to sleep, but RIGHT at 1am, Netflix somehow just shut off! I believe it was a sign to get off! Thank you Heavenly Father.

I woke up way early like 6:23am I rolled out of bed, showered and was reading my lesson and eating an egg with cheese at 7am. Then, Shea got up and I walked with her to the church because it's like a 20 minute walk away and she has to go early before everyone else (and all our other roommates get a ride closer to the start time from a guy in our ward) to print off the program for that Sunday.

So I was super tired and falling asleep in sacrament meeting, and I wasn't really prepared for my lesson but it turned out to be very spiritual. Almost everyone shared a very spiritual experience of their conversion to this gospel and its truthfulness, and the Spirit was so strong. And I thought, it's probably a good thing I wasn't so prepared, because it opened the way for the Spirit to really enter and touch each of the girls. I was so grateful to the Lord for that.

And then we came home and snacked on my chicken wings/back that had been cooking for 24 hours, I had been cooking it down to get the broth. So now I have like a pint and a half of chicken broth! Homemade! It's SO cool! And Heather, my other roommate made some divine chicken, couscous and banana bread for us for dinner, invited her boyfriend Peter and a girl in an apartment upstairs who is the ONLY one home in her apartment this weekend.

It's a 3-day weekend, by the way. We don't have school tomorrow (YAY!!! I can get HOMEWORK DONE!!!) and so TONS of people went home or somewhere else.

Rant or Vent

I feel the need so MUCH to rant, vent and rave!!! I have an Anatomy and Physiology test that opened Monday and closes tomorrow, and yes, I'm going to take it tomorrow. Well, I'm being kicked in the butt by the fact that even though I did quite a bit of homework last Saturday, I didn't do enough. I feel like I am ALWAYS making mistakes, or finding out, "How NOT to do something" and it's always kicking me in the butt. Yes, I have A's in Anatomy, Child Development and Family Foundations right now, but I only have a B in Chemistry and life is just so hard!!!!

And my roommate has her boyfriend over. I don't WANT a boyfriend, but sometimes I am envious because she has someone to spend time with and serve as an excuse to NOT do homework. Bad excuse, I know, and it would kick me in the butt later. I need to become a better student and LIVE at the library, but I get so hungry and SO BORED at the library!!!!

I want to cry, scream and vent to someone who will just LISTEN to me and be there for me and let me sob and cry about everything. But I don't have anyone currently who will do that, or maybe I just feel weird doing that. I only really do that with my mom, and I'm not sure why. Sometimes if it gets too much, I will vent to whoever is near me, and only once have I vented to Taleea, my best friend! Well, maybe more than once, but only once was I SO frustrated and felt like I had no one, so I called her up and vented. She was wonderful and supportive, but I felt so awkward and I'm not sure why.

So now I'm going to watch a movie on netflix whilst doing Chemistry Homework.

AND I am going to change! I'm going to set easy to reach goals next week about going to the library.

I have to study at the library for 30 minutes everyday.

Oh Sundays

Oh Sundays... I'm sitting here, listening to Libera, a music group of young boys from the UK singing "Be Still My Soul" they are AMAZING!!! I made some valentines for my roommates for Valentine's Day and I also have candy to give them with it, yay! Church was really good, all the lessons were wonderful and the speakers were amazing. One thing I really liked was a quote that Emily shared in her talk: "When we worry about the future, we become discontent in the present." Or something to that effect. I really liked it. I'm also getting a group together today at about 3:30pm to go visit the old folks up the road at the Care and Rehab place. Should be fun! :-P

Yesterday, I got SOME homework done, but not enough. I shall suffer the effects tomorrow morning as I desperately try to finish some homework before class. That's okay though, I deserve it and I actually have alot more time tomorrow than I thought I would. So, that is a BLESSING!!!

Last night Amy, Myra, Shea and I went out to get custard. Well, we decided that we wanted some fries too, so I thought the $2.50 fries were probably rather small, so I asked for other options and there was a "Bottomless" fry for $6.40 that came with a "Concrete" and she would point to this cup on the counter. I thought, "What on EARTH is a CONCRETE?!" But I decided it was probably the container they went in or something, so I just told her that and then told her I wanted a small custard. "It comes with a concrete" she told me, not writing down my small custard, "Okay," I said, "I want a small custard." It comes with a CONCRETE, she said, pointing again to the cup... "OH!!!!" I realized she meant a concrete was the name for the LARGEST SIZE CUSTARD they had! BARF! I got it anyways, vanilla custard with cheesecake bits. I made sure everyone had some of mine since it was huge and I didn't finish it all, thank goodness! At least now I know what a concrete is, and I'm never purchasing that again unless I get it to share with someone else.

I have an Anatomy and Physiology test that opens on Monday and closes on Wednesday (I'll probably take it Tuesday night), then an Anat & Phys Lab test on Thursday, and a Chemistry test that probably opens Thursday and closes Friday (I will take it on Friday). YAY! I will get an A on all of these tests. I am determined and I will do everything possible to GET an A.

Peachy Artichoke

I've had a good day so far. I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to going to the gym. The endorphins were AMAZING today, because last Saturday I went to a Zumba class with my friend Lindsey from Anatomy and Physiology. She's like an exercise guru so I asked her how to increase/improve my stamina. She told me, "If you feel your body can go farther, then go farther! Push yourself!" and I did it tonight! I realized that when I'm on the elliptical, I don't really push myself at all and am barely sweating when I get off. So I upped the resistence, increased my pace and pushed pushed PUSHED. I was sweating and breathing hard the whole time and felt SO good! It was hard for awhile but after about 7 minutes it just got easier like I stepped into a rhythm. And then I lifted weights for awhile, which is my favorite! ;)

I had some canned peaches and am currently steaming/boiling two artichokes. I have lots of homework but I had a great day at Chemistry! I understood everything and then went to a tutor afterwards and solidified it. At the tutor, I met a new guy named James from my Chemistry class, invited him to come to the Pre-P.A. Society meeting.

Oh, I am an officer in the Pre-Physician's Assistant society. My FHE brother Garrett is the president... I think I already said that.

I actually was able to get up early this morning and now I just need to finish my Anat and Phys homework, my information for my "Teaching Toddlers Sign Language" presentation, cook a cake for Rebecca Deloatch's Birthday tomorrow, do my chemistry homework, start on my "study guides" for my Anat and Phys test this Friday. Well, I need to finish my chemistry reading. Right now I'm sitting on the couch with Shea (on her computer), Morgan is on the love seat (on her computer), Heather is sitting on the love seat's arm and Myra is on the floor talking about her sore boob that her coach accidentally hit during basketball practice. Life is always exciting in Apartment 201!!!!

Procrastination and a little glee

Magtatagalog ako dito para walang makakaintindi, haha, pero hindi talaga kailangan pero... kanina nabalitaan ako ni Sister Villapando na namiss daw ako ni Ninong Witt!!! Yay! Hindi ako pasaway, pero, masaya lang ako dyan. Wala akong ginawa noong nasa Philippines ako, pero masaya lang, type ko talaga siya. Malaki!

I am procrastinating doing my studying and homework a bit and it feels good. Well, only half good. I blame it on the cookie dough brownies I made. I PURPOSELY brushed my teeth before FHE, but then I ate a sliver... a little nibble, and then an entire piece and a bite of another. DAGGONIT! Next time, I will simply not TOUCH the stuff (I served it today) and I should be okay. One of our FHE brothers, Garrett, is tall as a church steeple and he has a scar on the back of his head that looks like the Michael Jordan basketball symbol. It's cool, Myra and I sat together on the couch and he sat against the couch in between Myra and I, and we talked about how we wanted to touch the thing... it looks so cool. Our FHE sisters are so nice and cool, so are our FHE brothers.

So... I will go do homework now... maybe. :) Haha Joke only!

Crispy Bread

I just overcooked my homemade bread to the point that I had to chisel it out of the pan. :( But other than that, it turned out great!

This past week has been really deliciously good, in flavor, temperature, happiness, friends and family. Some highlights are:

-Got an A on my chemistry test (well, I didn't get my grade yet, but I felt awesome about it and I'm dead positive I have an A on it)
-Shin splints slightly healed enough that I was able to DANCE!!!
-Finally "got" our hard clogging move at the first part of our dance
-Learned a brazilian stick dance in World Dance class
-Talked to many attractive men
-Made new friends or new acquaintances
-Finished FINISHED my chemistry homework!!!!
-Watched Prince of Persia last night and loved it
-My sister Sabina got a dog named Neville!!!
-I saw "Celtic Nights" Friday night after Acing my chemistry test

Best Friend Weekend

I just got back from going to Taleea's house this weekend! I was supposed to get lots of homework done before going, but I ended up doing homework on the way and I did the MINIMAL AMOUNT possible while I was there. I rode down by getting a ride through the ride board at school, and ended up riding with this guy named Alex (from Mexico), Melissa (from Chile) and Julia (from U.S.A.). I took dramamine and read my Anat & Phys book the entire way down. We stayed up until like Midnight Friday night and I got some stuff submitted for schoolwork.

Saturday, Taleea got up and went to the store and got us donuts and bananas for Sunday morning breakfast and she made us pancakes, eggs and hashbrowns! Oh, Taleea and I slept in their bed and Nathan, her husband, had his 17 year old brother Kaleb over too the whole time, so they slept on the floor. Their apartment is tiny but SO cute! They surprised me with us going ice skating, and it didn't hurt my shin splints (Which is good) but it did make my right arch ache and my ankles a little sore. I kept falling, but Taleea and Nathan and Kaleb just looked SO comfortable on the ice! I got better though. Then it started raining, and then snowing HUGE snow flakes! We bought two pizzas at Papa Murphy's and cooked them at their house, pepperoni and chicken artichoke! MASARAP! The boys went to go see a movie and then Taleea and I walked to their library and checked out all three Anne of Green Gables movies to watch. We ended up only watching one because it was three hours long! The boys came back in the middle of that and Taleea made a birthday cake for me (Jan 12) and Nathan's brother (Jan 16), yellow cake with chocolate frosting and reese pieces on top spelling "Happy B-day!" That was our dinner b/c the pizza was so filling. Then I worked on my chemistry lab and we watched Deja Vu that was REALLY good!

This morning we got up, showered, ate our donuts and bananas and went to church. Afterwards, I washed dishes while Taleea cooked "Baked Ziti" some salad and texas toast from Walmart that was SO delicious! The house smelled heavenly, and I ate more cake. Then we played this fun card game called "Guillotine" and my ride texted me and said he was on his way, so I left!

I have redone my entire homework schedule because I am WAY behind and need to spend more time doing homework and schoolwork. Especially if I want to get an A in this class! I probably wasted a little TOO much time here at our apartment today (and ate way too much cake! my roommate made a devil's food cake with TONS of icing which is always a bad thing for me whose weakness is icing!) but oh well! Tomorrow is a new day and RIGHT NOW is a new minute!

Sore Shin Splints

Try saying that ten times fast!

I got some serious shin splints today from A) Clogging class for an hour, and then... B) World Dance class for an hour - Tai Chi, Bulgarian and Irish, and then... C) Country Dancing and lots of triple step and only on the balls of my feet. My legs are dying, but my shins are both wrapped and covered in icy-hot to reduce the pain.

Also the top of my left foot feets bruised... I probably need to get some sort of special socks or something for that.

But I danced with this asian guy that I met named Jeffrey. I met him last Friday night walking home from Latin Dancing, but he didn't remember me although he seemed like he remembered my face... vaguely. He asked me to dance and it was a waltz-ish country song, so we waltzed and WOW He sure can DANCE! It's a good thing I was consciously thinking about my following and good frame because I think I did about a 75% job on following and keeping up. He had me do all KINDS of stuff, it was absolutely amazing! But he's asian! They are just so talented at almost everything, or from what I've seen anyways.... I went with my friend Shawn who is somewhat learning to dance or at least improve his country dance skills. I'm afraid I messed him up though because I have discovered...

Country dancing is not my thing. I can hardly do the basic step, and ballroom, swing, and latin are SO much more fun! Time to go to bed, it's 11pm and an hour past my bedtime.

College ulit

I just arrived at my old apartment that I used to live in over 2 years ago here at college. Some others warned me that I had no idea who my roommates would be; I was running a risk just going and not knowing who my roommates are, etc. But I was determined to make the best of it and expect wonderful, sweet, kind and friendly roommates. So far so good! They are super nice and funny! Shay is hilarious and Myra is a vet major and her family has a ranch of 3,000 acres!!! The three of us really bonded this evening; they're both really laid back and we all three have the same interest -- Books! And the same kinds of books too. How fun! My room roommate, it's rather ironic, has red hair! Just like my beautiful Taleea! She's funny and loves to talk, but I find her amusing and entertaining. She's got so much energy!

Bonnie and I flew on the airplane together to Salt Lake, and then Taleea and her husband Nathan met me at the airport. First time I'd seen Taleea in over 2 years, I was SO happy! I didn't think she'd ever let me go out of that vice-grip hug! Haha, and being Taleea and having all the cute ideas, they'd fixed pb &j sandwiches for our lunch all complete with chips, moon pie, reese cups and candy canes! And then we hung out until the big shuttle bus came, and even after checking in with the driver we just stood outside and chatted. Nathan is a saint and so wonderful for Taleea, they look so cute and happy! I told Taleea that she looks like a married woman and she thought that was funny. She tickles me to death.

I met a couple girls on the bus, and after arriving curbside on campus, I started on the LONG journey to my apartment complex. It technically isn't that long, quite quick when I'm not carrying a heavy backpack, big full purse, two coats, a plastic bag with a pot in it and two very heavy suitcases! My right arm HURT from pulling my swiss suitcase. No doubt it'll be sore as anything tomorrow. I'm so happy to be at college again!