A Little Neurotic

Warning: This post is slightly gross.  So...yesterday I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.  After I finished I realized there was a little bit of peanut butter stuck in the very back of my mouth between my gums and cheek.  I tried and tried to get it out with my tongue but to no avail.  SO... I stuck my finger back there and guess what I found!?  A SCAR!  It totally freaked me out so I felt the other side...then the bottom sides and guess what?  I have 4 scars in my mouth from getting my wisdom teeth out.  Now I guess I should have realized that having someone cut you open and break four teeth from your skull would leave a scar...but I didn't.  Anyway, for the last 24 hours I have been able to think of little else.  Seriously.  It freaks me out so bad and I'm not sure why.  Even now as I think about it I want to throw up.  So...hopefully I can get my mind off of it.  Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight!  GROSS!

Panzanella

I have a new love.  My "Our Best Bites" cookbook.  Seriously, I love it so much!  Last night I had 20 minutes to cook John dinner and very VERY few ingredients in my apartment.  I whipped out my new cookbook and turned to one of the 30 something pages I'd marked when I got it.  I chose a recipe for a salad called "Panzanella".  If you read my blog you know that I love to cook.  I love to cook more than John likes to eat my cooking.  One thing I can guarantee he will eat is bruschetta.  If you don't know what that is it's an Italian dish made of Italian bread topped with tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Panzanella seemed so similar to bruschetta that I decided to try it.  Basically it is a bruschetta salad.  You cut the bread into cubes, toss it with olive oil and bake it in the oven for a few minutes.  While it bakes you chop tomatoes, basil, yellow or orange peppers, cucumbers, red onion, and fresh mozzarella and throw them in a bowl.  Then you throw in the bread and toss it with a balsamic vinegar dressing (recipe in the book, basically oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic).  I had to make a few adjustments because I didn't have the required ingredients.  I didn't have fresh basil so I threw some dried basil flakes in with the dressing.  I didn't have cucumbers or onions so I left them out.  I didn't have fresh mozzarella so I chopped up some string cheese and threw it in.  It was seriously SO good.  John didn't even know I had used string cheese because it tasted so fancy.  Anyway...I love food.

P.s. I'm sitting in my Children's Lit class and I haven't eaten all day...so...I guess that explains this post.

The Little Things

I feel like such a bad person and terrible wife.  I have been so frustrated with John lately for not helping me out, listening to me or paying enough attention to me.  I'm ornery every day because I spend every waking moment studying, cooking and cleaning and I just can't keep up with it all.  When I came home from class today I found a copy of the new Our Best Bites cookbook that I have been excited about for months but we haven't had money for me to buy it, a sweet card AND our apartment was cleaned.  I need to be better at looking for the little things that John does for me so he doesn't have to do big things like that to show me he cares.  I love him.  He loves me.  That's the most important thing.  Not that he takes out the garbage the first time I ask.  I need to be happy when he takes it out after the 15th time.  I have him to come home to at night so I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Food For Thought

This weekend John and I spent some time with his family while his sister Bridget is visiting from Japan.  We had fun eating and visiting on Saturday and then again on Sunday.  While we were there John's mom said something interesting to me.  She said "No one will ever love your family as much as you do."  I guess I needed to hear that because I've been a little irritated with John lately for not being friendly enough with my family.  I guess after almost 6 years together I figured he'd finally feel comfortable around them, though I'm MUCH worse with his family since I've spent a lot less time with them.  Anyway, it just got me thinking.  No matter how much I wish John liked ketchup on his taco salad, and no matter how much he wishes I'd put ranch on mine... it's just the way we were brought up and we need to learn to love each other FOR, and not in spite of our differences.  I am going to work on that.

Update

Ok I was hoping to have some exciting, romantic thing to post about on here after Valentine's Day but I have nothing of the sort (unless you consider lying on the couch in sweats watching "The Bachelor" with your dog romantic).


So...I thought I'd share some REAL exciting news with the blogger community!  So... remember this situation in my math class?  Well... a miracle happened in that same class on Valentine's Day.  (In a way this slightly makes up from the lack of flowers, chocolates and romance in my life).  Anyway...I have kept my mouth shut in this class since the "incident" so as not to hurt my already crushed pride.  However, since it was an especially dead day in our class and people were answering her ridiculous questions even less than usual I decided to give it one more shot.  I'm always asking my drama students to take risks so I figured I'd take my own advice.  So she asked for an explanation about some crazy thing and I raised my hand and answered the question.  Before she even responded to my explanation a girl behind me raised her hand and said "So... how would you state that in words?" and the teacher replied "Olivia just did.  Were you not listening?  She gave a better explanation than I even would have".  BOOM!  Though I probably won't answer many more questions in that class, it made me feel a little bit better about the roasting I received before.


Anyway...that is as exciting as things get around here.  Now I'm off to write my second essay of the night and start on my math assignment!  YIPPEE!


P.S. Today at my doctor's appointment I was told that my HDL cholesterol is "award worthy".  Go me!

Wedding Time!

Today was a beautiful day.  My cousin Taylor married my good friend Megan in the Logan temple.  It was the first sealing I've been to since I received my endowment so it was really neat for me.  I'm a little emotional at weddings and got a little teary at the beautiful ceremony.  They had a nice luncheon at Accolade, where John and I had ours.  It was fun to be back there and see Meg's beautiful decorations!  So elegant!  Their reception was equally beautiful and I was excited to see they had the same doughnut holes we had at our wedding that were SO good!  They were the only thing I was able to eat at our reception and I have been dreaming of them ever since.  :) It was so neat to share their special day.  I remember when John left on his mission, then my cousin Nate and then Taylor and all of us girls were so upset thinking the day would never come when we would have them back.  But it did and now we're all family!  Wahoo!  (Not that I would recommend a "waiting" relationship to anyone.  Not easy)  The only thing missing was my favorite cousin Jordan.  I have missed him so much but today was especially hard.  Luckily my brother in law stood in for him at the reception and I enjoyed spending time with him ;)  Such a great day!

Sad Day

Today is a sad day.  My brother sent me a text this morning saying that Jerry Sloan was resigning as head coach of the Jazz.  I couldn't believe it.  Now, as I sit here watching the press conference announcing that it is true I feel so much respect for Sloan.  He has been the head coach for the Jazz since before I was born.  Isn't that crazy?  I am lucky to be in a family that is close with the Larry Miller family so the Jazz have always been near and dear to my heart.  I have seen a lot of negative comments on facebook etc about Sloan, the Millers, D-Will etc and I just  can't believe that some people have the nerve to disrespect one of the most respected NBA coaches of all time. It makes me bubble up inside with anger but instead of commenting back to those idiots, I will write this blog.  And pay tribute to a wonderful man and coach.  Though he is leaving the team in the middle of the season he has his reasons and I hope people will eventually respect that.  Let's be grateful for what he has done the last 26 years and  place our trust in Ty Corbin to coach our team the way he feels is best.  Respect Big J.  Respect.

P.S. You should read my little brother's blog.  I think I'm the only one who knows about it right now  http://theharrypotterfanatic.blogspot.com/2011/02/lhs-basketball.html

Still Looking

I wrote a post about my math teacher last week and how I have been practicing "finding the good" on her.  I have found that it is easier for me to go to her class when I am not focusing on how much she irritates me and more on how amazing her handwriting is.  Anyway, this weekend I had another one of those moments.  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond on Saturday looking for a baby shower gift for my cousin.  I had 5 people ask me if I needed help with anything before I finally picked out a cute frame.  When I took it to the checkout the lady working there said "How cute!" then she looked at me and said "When is your baby due?"  I wanted to die.  I know she probably asked me because I was buying a baby frame, but of course I can't get the thought of having a pregnant belly out of my mind.  John thought it was funny and told me to relax so I started thinking about finding the good in that lady.  And here is what I came up with...She had really nice hair.  You know the hair you see on Spanish soap operas?  Long, black and super shiny?  That's the type.  So...beautiful hair lady, I am not pregnant, but thank you for helping me to find the good in someone once again.  :)

Tech Support

I just read this on my friend Niki Sealy's blog (shoutout!) and couldn't resist posting it on mine! (Though I am making a couple of changes that apply to my husband 1.0 in the "undesirable programs" section) Thanks Niki!

Husband 1.0

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as
Romance 9.5 and
Personal Attention 6.5,
and then installed undesirable programs such as
XBOX 6.0,
NFL 5.1 and
Sports Center 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind,

Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while
Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applicationsJewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default toGrumpy Silence 2.5

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources..)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0-program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.

We recommend
Cooking 3.0 and
Hot Lingerie 7.7

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

Finding the Good

What a day.  I just wanted to write about a "situation" I had at school today.  I am currently in a math methods class that isn't exactly my favorite.  It's not terrible but I feel like any time my teacher asks a question no one answers.  And to make matters worse she refuses to EVER give us the right answers flat out.  If no one knows she just waits until someone eventually guesses.  So anyway, she asked a question today that was a little vague and no one raised their hand.  After an awkward 90 seconds I decided I would answer.  So I raised my hand and gave my answer and this is how my teacher responded.  "That is not even close!  Where did you even come up with that answer?!  You aren't even on the right track" and then she proceeded to do the problem step by step and at each step say "Did you even do this step Olivia?".

Anyway...my face was red and I was about to walk out of class when I remembered something my grandma Ballam always told me.  She said if there was ever someone she really didn't like she would try to find something that she liked about them, even if it was the back of their head or their ears.  So I spent the next half an hour looking for something that I liked about my math teacher and this is what I came up with...  She is AMAZING at erasing the board. Seriously.  You know how some teachers erase most of their writing but leave one little line and you can't focus on the lesson because you keep looking at that spot and wishing they'd erase it?  Well...she is very thorough with her erasing.  She pushes really hard with the eraser and not only that, she double, and sometimes triple erases everything.  It is wonderful.  I never have to worry that she will leave a stray marker line on the board to distract me from my learning.  So...that is what I came up with.  And  everyday when she insults me or puts down my thought processes I will remember her erasing and how AWESOME it is!

That is all.

Finding the Good

What a day.  I just wanted to write about a "situation" I had at school today.  I am currently in a math methods class that isn't exactly my favorite.  It's not terrible but I feel like any time my teacher asks a question no one answers.  And to make matters worse she refuses to EVER give us the right answers flat out.  If no one knows she just waits until someone eventually guesses.  So anyway, she asked a question today that was a little vague and no one raised their hand.  After an awkward 90 seconds I decided I would answer.  So I raised my hand and gave my answer and this is how my teacher responded.  "That is not even close!  Where did you even come up with that answer?!  You aren't even on the right track" and then she proceeded to do the problem step by step and at each step say "Did you even do this step Olivia?".

Anyway...my face was red and I was about to walk out of class when I remembered something my grandma Ballam always told me.  She said if there was ever someone she really didn't like she would try to find something that she liked about them, even if it was the back of their head or their ears.  So I spent the next half an hour looking for something that I liked about my math teacher and this is what I came up with...  She is AMAZING at erasing the board. Seriously.  You know how some teachers erase most of their writing but leave one little line and you can't focus on the lesson because you keep looking at that spot and wishing they'd erase it?  Well...she is very thorough with her erasing.  She pushes really hard with the eraser and not only that, she double, and sometimes triple erases everything.  It is wonderful.  I never have to worry that she will leave a stray marker line on the board to distract me from my learning.  So...that is what I came up with.  And  everyday when she insults me or puts down my thought processes I will remember her erasing and how AWESOME it is!

That is all.